Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)



TUA BJÖRKLUND
Assistant Professor, Creative Practices in Engineering, Aalto University, Finland

Tua is one of the co-founders of the Aalto Design Factory and appointed as an assistant professor in creative practices in engineering. Currently she manages three research projects investigating innovation efforts and design thinking, strategic change and sustainability in companies. Her own research focuses on design and development expertise, learning, and idea advancement. Tua is a Senior Associate Editor at the Journal of Engineering Education, the leading research publication in the field.
Dr.ir. Peter Joore is a professor in the field of Open Innovation at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, Leeuwarden. In 2015, he co-founded the Frisian Design Factory, now called Future Design Factory, located in the former Blokhuispoort prison in Leeuwarden. This has served as an inspiration for the university, which since 2018 has officially adopted a Design-Based Education approach for all of its more than 75 studies. Peter has a background as an industrial design engineer from the Delft University of Technology, where he also got his Ph.D. and still is active as a visiting researcher at the Design for Sustainability group. His research is focused on the relationship between designing new products and services on the one hand, and long-term societal change processes on the other. In all of his work, his aim is the realization of a smart, sustainable, inclusive society. To achieve this goal, he is investigating how Living Labs, Field Labs, Urban Labs, and Festival Labs may serve as niche experiments or prototypes of the sustainable society of the future.
PETER JOORE
Professor Open Innovation,
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences,
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

SAKU MÄKINEN
Professor, Industrial Management,
Tampere University, Finland

Professor Saku Mäkinen works in the intersection of technology and innovation management (TIM) and strategic management. His areas of interest are value creation in business ecosystems, designing product strategies and competitive advantage. In his latest research he has been studying e.g. companies’ decision-making regarding innovation portfolio, science-based start-ups, and technology-based competition in business ecosystems. His research has appeared in e.g. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Technovation, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and Advances in Strategic Management.
Prof. Mäkinen, (born 1967) has been Professor of Industrial Management at the Tampere University (formerly Tampere University of Technology) since 2003. He has previously been visitor at the Columbia University, New York (2011-12) and National University of Singapore (2000-2002). Prof. Mäkinen received his Doctorate in 1999 (Industrial Management/technology strategy) and has previously also been working in leadership roles in industry.
Prof. Christine Thong is Academic Director of Design Factory Melbourne and leads an Applied Innovation Lab for the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics. She is a highly experienced Educator, Researcher, and Facilitator for design innovation methods and interdisciplinary collaboration applicable to complex challenges and various industry sectors. With a background in industrial design, Christine’s specific research interests are the role design can play in knowledge transfer for science and technology, and is proud to be a Principal Innovation Fellow at ANSTO. Christine founded a global student program, CBI A3 in conjunction with IdeaSquare, CERN, that uses human-centered design and future thinking to explore uses of deep technology to address United Nation Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Christine is also a Leader in Career Development programs with Swinburne’s Women’s Academic Network and loves yoga, natural wine, baking, chocolate, and ceramics
CHRISTINE THONG
Academic Director at Design Factory Melbourne,
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Eduardo de Senzi Zancul
Professor of Engineering,
the University of São Paulo, Brazil

Eduardo is a Professor of Engineering in the Polytechnic School at the University of São Paulo (Poli-USP), where he teaches design methods and processes subjects. At Poli-USP, Eduardo created, implemented, and currently coordinates teaching and research laboratories to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, namely InovaLab@Poli, Ocean USP-Samsung, and Fábrica do Futuro. Eduardo has extensively established R&D cooperation agreements with the industry in these initiatives. Eduardo has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers and co-authored five patents. His main research interests include Design Processes, Advanced Manufacturing, and Engineering Education, focusing on Design Education.