Jan Chipchase, Principal Engineer at Nokia Research Center, studies people around the world—how they behave, communicate, and interact with each other and the things around them. He shares his observations and insights with Nokia designers, who often accompany him on field trips, helping them to create new ideas for how mobile devices will look, work, and be used in the future.

Most of his time is spent in the field conducting research. This takes him out onto the streets and into people's homes to observe, document, and analyze the rich tapestry of everyday life. Recent projects include visiting Uganda to look at shared phone use, India to look at how design can make mobile devices more accessible to people with low or non-existent levels of literacy, and South Korea to look at how early adopters were reacting to mobile TV.

His research focuses on the future three to fifteen years from now—understanding today's base human motivations, detecting early signals of new trends and combining this knowledge with an understanding of where technology is heading. The research is used by the design team together with a suite of other tools to help inform and inspire the design of future products, features, applications, services, and platforms. In 2006 alone this took him to fifteen different countries, helping Nokia understand both the similarities and differences among cultures.

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Architect Stefan Behnisch founded Behnisch Architekten in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1989, becoming renowned for innovative sustainable buildings, such as the Institute for Forestry and Nature Research in Wageningen, The Netherlands. As the firm expanded, further offices were founded in Los Angeles, CA (1999), Boston, MA (2007), and Munich, Germany (2008). Stefan Behnisch has been an advocate of sustainable design since he started working as an architect. Many of his buildings have received prestigious awards, and the Genzyme Center in Cambridge, MA, was rated LEED Platinum. Projects on the firm's drawing boards include Harvard's Allston Science Complex in Allston, Boston, and residential buildings in the USA and Germany, as well as office buildings, laboratories, and health care buildings in various countries.

Stefan Behnisch was the Eero Saarinen Chair visiting professor at Yale School of Architecture from 2005 to 2008. In 2007 he was nominated for the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (one of five) and in 2008 named Honorary Fellow of the AIA - American Institute of Architects. Born 1957, he studied philosophy, economics and architecture in Munich and Karlsruhe, Germany.

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Charlie Cannon is a Professor of Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design. For 11 years, he has taught the Innovation Studio, which has collaborated across disciplines of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Industrial Design to create proposals dedicated to rethinking our fundamental assumptions about energy production, manufacturing, waste management, and water, including potential solutions for a municipal landfill in Phoenix and for the mounting garbage issues in New York City. In 2005, Cannon co-founded LOCAL Architecture Research Design in Providence, where he is director of research and design.

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Teddy Cruz was born in Guatemala City. He obtained a Master in Design Studies at Harvard University in 1997 and established his research-based architecture practice in San Diego, California in 2000. He has been recognized internationally for his urban research of the Tijuana-San Diego border, and in collaboration with community-based nonprofit organizations such as Casa Familiar, for his work on housing and its relationship to an urban policy more inclusive of social and cultural programs for the city. In 1991 he received the prestigious Rome Prize in Architecture and in 2005 he was the first recipient of the James Stirling Memorial Lecture On The City Prize, by the Canadian Center of Architecture and the London School of Economics. In 2008 he was selected to represent the US in the Venice Architecture Biennial and he is currently an associate professor in public culture and urbanism in the Visual Arts Department at University of California, San Diego.

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William Drenttel is a graphic designer, editor, and currently a Partner in Winterhouse Studios and President Emeritus of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). He has enjoyed many major commissions and positions in the graphic design community. From 1985 to 1997 he was a partner in the New York design firm Drenttel Doyle Partners. He is a Partner with Jessica Helfand of Winterhouse Studios, Winterhouse Editions, and Winterhouse Institute.

Bill is the Co-Founder of Design Observer, the widely-read blog about design and visual culture. He is also Co-Editor of Below the Fold:, a new journal of visual culture published by Winterhouse, and the Founder of the Polling Place Photo Project, an online election documentation project.

In 2006, Drenttel co-founded the Winterhouse Writing Awards: this $5000 prize for innovation in design writing seeks to develop new writers interested in design and cultural criticism. In 2008, Drenttel became a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Yale School of Management. Drenttel received a BA in European Cultural Studies from Princeton University.

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Dr. Stuart Harshbarger is the program manager and system integrator for the Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. His primary research focuses on collaborative transdisciplinary challenges at the intersection of engineering, science, and medicine. Stuart and his project teams have been recognized with several awards and sponsor commendations for their efforts, including a 2007 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award and nomination for the DARPATech 2007 award for Significant Technical Achievement.

Stuart is also a part-time instructor at the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering graduate program for engineering professionals. There, he teaches neural prosthetics and digital telephony for the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Applied Biomedical Engineering programs. In prior positions and in recent assignments, he led a range of multi-disciplinary system integration efforts, including avionics subsystem developments, autonomous remote sensing and distributed networking applications, and medical monitoring systems.

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Kigge Hvid is the founding CEO of INDEX:, an organization created by Denmark to promote Design to Improve Life. INDEX: collects, advocates, and discusses Design to Improve Life through the world's largest monetary design award, a world-touring exhibition, a summer camp, conferences, and publications. In leading the government's mandate to advance the humanist tenets of Danish design, Kigge is a frequent panelist and theme-setter at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos and is a member of the Forum's Global Agenda Council on Design.

The recipient of an honorary doctorate in 2006 by the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Kigge brings to her direction of INDEX: a fluency in the related languages of designers and of social entrepreneurs. This is reflected in her frequent international appearances as one of the main proponents today of Design to Improve Life.

Kigge is a visual artist by profession. Prior to founding INDEX:, she was the first Director of Øksnehallen, an exhibition centre for the arts, commerce and culture in the heart of Copenhagen.

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Jaime Lerner is a world renowned architect and urban planner from Curitiba, Brazil. As mayor of Curitiba and later as governor of the state of Parana, he transformed the city and region from a polluted flood plain to one of the world's shining examples of the success of creative social programs.

Considered the father of the innovative and cost-effective Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT), Jaime's vision and creativity toward urban planning start with his own dictum that "creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget." Today Jaime works as an visiting professor of Urban and Regional Planning at numerous international universities while continuing to work to rethink the modern city as a consultant to civic leaders around the world

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Vivian Loftness is a researcher, author, and educator with over thirty years of focus on environmental design and sustainability, advanced building systems, and climate and regionalism in architecture. Supported by a university-industry-government partnership, the Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium, she developed the Intelligent Workplace—a living laboratory of building innovations for performance in the workplace of the future.

Vivian has served on seven National Academy of Science panels, as well as the Academy's Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment. She has given three Congressional testimonies on sustainable design. Her work has influenced both national policy and building projects, including the Adaptable Workplace Lab at the US General Services Administration and the Laboratory for Cognition at Electricity de France.

Vivian has received numerous accolades as a result of her research, teaching, and professional consulting, including a 2003 Sacred Tree Award from the US Green Building Council. Vivian holds a BS and MArch from MIT. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a registered architect.

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Emeka Okafor promotes the development of technology and enterprise in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is Principal of the Makeda Fund, a private equity fund focused on African women-owned enterprises; Co-Founder of the International Private Enterprise Group, which promotes private enterprise in emerging markets; and Senior Advisor to the X-Prize Foundation's Global Development prize.

In 2007, he directed the TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, Tanzania, and continues his role as TED Africa Director. In 2009, he directed the Maker Faire Africa in Accra, Ghana, to bring together grass-roots innovators throughout sub-Saharan Africa and discuss the role of technology in development. Passionately committed to sharing the issues and ideas guiding Africa's future, Emeka is the author Timbuktu Chronicles, a blog on African entrepreneurship, science, and technology, and Africa Unchained, a blog on African policy, education, culture and governance.

Emeka was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in Canada and Nigeria, earning a degree in Architecture from the University of Nigeria.

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Emily Pilloton is the Founder and Executive Director of Project H Design, a nonprofit that enables product design initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and Happiness. Trained in architecture and product design, she started Project H to provide a conduit and catalyst for need-based product design that empowers individuals, communities, and economies globally and locally. Current Project H initiatives include water transport and filtration systems, a grid-based math playground for active elementary education, and concepts for foster care therapy. She is the author of a forthcoming book entitled Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People, which will be published by Metropolis Books in September 2009.

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Dr. Anna Rubbo has worked in architectural practice and academia in Australia, the UK, the USA, and South America. She is the founder of Global Studio, developed with Columbia University and the University of Rome as an international, interdisciplinary, multi-institutional "think and do-tank," where theory, design, advocacy, and practical action come together as a vehicle for change in disadvantaged communities. Global Studio is informed by the principle that people must be the agents of their own development and aims to facilitate and feed a national and international network of city building students, academics, and professionals. Since its inception in 2005 Global Studio has involved over 450 city building professionals and students from more than 30 countries and 50 universities in projects with disadvantaged communities, bringing together equal numbers from the Global North and South in a community of learners and doers. Anna is the recipient of the 2009 Skandalaris Award and has been recognized with various awards in Australia for her contributions to architectural education.

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Nathan Shedroff is the Chair of the ground-breaking MBA in Design Strategy at California College of the Arts, which melds the unique principles that design offers business strategy with a vision of the future of business as sustainable, meaningful, and truly innovative—as well as profitable. He is one of the pioneers in Experience Design, an approach to design that explores common characteristics in all media that make experiences successful.

In latest book, Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable, Nathan examines how the endemic culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how designers can bake sustainability into their design processes in order to produce more sustainable solutions. It has been called "the definitive guidebook to the future of design practice" by Core77.

Nathan holds a BS in Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design and an MBA in Sustainable Business from the Presidio School of Management.

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Ken Banks, founder of kiwanja.net, specializes in the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world. He combines over 22 years in I.T. with over 14 years experience living and working throughout Africa in countries including Kenya, Nigeria (where he ran a primate sanctuary), South Africa, Mozambique, Cameroon, Zambia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. In 1999 he graduated from Sussex University with honors in Social Anthropology with Development Studies.

His vision is to empower others to create social change, and he does this by developing and providing tools to mostly grassroots organizations who seek to better use technology in their work. In 2007 he hit headline news on the BBC when his text messaging application, FrontlineSMS, was used to help monitor the Nigerian Presidential elections. Since launch the software has been successfully implemented in over forty countries including Afghanistan, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Pakistan.

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Niti Bhan has been developing and implementing new market strategies for both the developed and developing world for almost two decades. Her experience spans advertising and marketing communications during the heyday of India's market liberalization to new product and service launches in the United States. Niti's key skill is her ability to take the long view when identifying opportunity spaces and new revenue generation strategies based on a big picture perspective. An established author and speaker, her research interests include the challenge of designing effective business and transaction models intended for those with irregular and unpredictable incomes.

The Emerging Futures Lab is a small multidisciplinary team that aims to increase the understanding the people at the base of the pyramid across the developing world in order to improve the success rate of new ventures, products and services intended to serve this market in a holistically beneficial manner. A significant proportion of their primary and original research is published under the Creative Commons license. Recent clients include a global consumer electronics manufacturer, an energy giant and a leading mobile service provider.

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Beto Lopez is a systems designer at IDEO Boston, leading IDEO's east coast sustainability initiative working to integrate tenets of considered design across IDEO's project work.

Internally, Beto serves as a regional content guide, contributing to the way IDEO values design alternatives in the development of products and services by looking at the broader environmental and social context of their realization. Externally, he helps IDEO clients advance their social and environmental responsibility through design thinking that promotes positive impact in the made world. He regularly speaks and teaches on topics related to the intersection of design and sustainable development.

Beto came to IDEO in 2004 as an engineer, bringing experience from automotive design and research, architectural engineering and construction, and research in sustainable development. His portfolio spans work in both products and services ranging from the technical design of drug delivery devices to strategic thinking around the future of transportation.

Beto earned a BSME and an MS in Dynamic Systems and Control from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Joe Haskett is an architect and founder of distill studio, whose goal is to approach architecture from a new and innovative perspective through integrated design. Through a collaboration of stakeholders at a project's inception, distill streamlines the design process by focusing on central issues. The collective knowledge of the group helps the project realize its maximum potential, minimizes costs, and increases energy efficiency.

Currently, Joe is working on a series of projects in Providence, RI, using new architectural media and innovative pre-fabrication techniques to redefine previously under-utilized urban sites. One such project, the Box Office, utilizes 32 recycled shipping containers to form multi-level, 12 unit office building—the first of its kind in the US. Other projects include Abode21, an affordable housing project researching the latest building technologies and techniques and the Hydro-Turbine Refurbishment Project at Slater Mill, the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution in Pawtucket, RI.

Joe teaches in the Department of Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design, is a member of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP).

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John Maeda is a graphic designer, artist, and computer scientist and is a founding voice for simplicity in the digital age. He has pioneered the use of the computer to create art, redefining the use of electronic media as a tool for expression by combining skilled computer programming with a sensitivity to traditional artistic concerns. This work helped to develop the interactive motion graphics that are prevalent on the Internet today.

He has displayed his work at numerous exhibitions, lectured extensively worldwide, and has published several books featuring his graphic designs. Previously Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Laboratory, where he managed relationships for a $32M laboratory, he is now the sixteenth president of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), the preeminent college of art and design in the United States.

He is the recipient of the highest career honors for design in the USA, Japan, and Germany, including the 2001 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award. He received both his BS and MS from MIT and earned his PhD in design from Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in Japan. He also holds an MBA from Arizona State University.

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