Position Description

Open-rank, Tenure-track Faculty Position

Department of Human Centered Design, Cornell University

The Department of Human Centered Design (HCD) integrates analog and digital knowledge, tools, methods, and creative processes from design, humanities, social sciences, engineering, and physical sciences to address real-world challenges and enrich people and their environments (https://www.human.cornell.edu/hcd). We are seeking to appoint an exceptional design-research scholar at Assistant, Associate or Full Professor rank in any of the following or related foci:

• Emerging Technologies for Design—developing, testing, and understanding the place of interactive, adaptive, and sustainable technologies and methods in creative processes, practices, and design outputs (materials, systems, tools, and digital fabrication & manufacturing).
• Smart Interfaces: developing and testing smart interfaces manifested as near-body environments, objects, and spaces that enhance human-agent-materials relations.
• Design of Interactive Systems across Scales, from materials, to wearables, to objects, to indoor environments, to the outdoors (and beyond).   
• Design with Embedded Artificial Intelligence supporting and augmenting human activity, collaboration, and behavior in ethical and inclusive ways.
• Hybrid Design: bio-design and bio-digital hybrids that enhance human-agent-materials relations.

The new faculty member will be expected to develop an externally-funded research program of international distinction with a deep, impactful record of research publications, teaching excellence, and design distinctions. Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, advising B.S., M.A., M.S., and Ph.D. students, and providing service to the department and university community. Prior to the appointment start-date, applicants must have earned a Ph.D. in an area of design, architecture, media arts, human computer interaction, robotics, computer science, materials science & engineering, biological systems, or another area suggested by the foci listed above.

Housed in state-of-the-art teaching and laboratory facilities, HCD has strong connections to several other units on campus, including Computer and Information Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Human Development and Psychology. These connections support the department’s aims to design for real-world challenges and opportunities and advance understanding of how people and their environments interact and are enabled, supported, and augmented by design. Cornell has a historical commitment to educating “any person…in any study” and strives to offer a high quality of life, providing a collegial and supportive atmosphere on campus. Beyond campus, Ithaca is in the heart of the Finger Lakes region, and both Cornell and Ithaca offer a vibrant cultural life and a wide range of sporting and outdoor activities close at hand. Cornell also seeks to meet the needs of dual career couples, with both its own Dual Career program and membership in the Upstate New York Higher Education Recruitment Consortium to assist in dual career searches. 

To Apply: Please submit, via  https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/24117

• a cover letter.
• a CV.
• three selected publications.
• a research statement demonstrating interest in the intersection of design, technology, and people.
• a teaching statement.
• a statement of diversity, equity and inclusion that speaks to research, teaching and service.
• a portfolio (as a pdf file of less than 20MB or as a link to an online site) that includes evidence of teaching excellence and creative, scholarly research.
• three letters of reference

In the case where any of these materials are posted on the Internet, please submit a Word document describing each electronic posting and include a link (a URL) to it. Candidates advancing to later review stages will be asked to provide names of references.

The starting date for the new hire may be as early as July 1, 2023, but applications will be accepted and reviewed until the position is filled.  

For more information, please contact Sienna Torbitt, slt86@cornell.edu.