Connecting the Tech Industry and Academia

Episode 10: Connecting the Tech Industry and Academia

As a follow up to Episode 9: Design Thinking in IT, Lou Lenzi returns to discuss Indiana University‘s School of Informatics and Computing and the department of Human Centered computing, where, as Lou states, “It’s really about humanizing data.” As a Professor of Practice, Lou leads students on a semester long course tackling real business challenges and initiatives using IoT solutions. The students in the program are working with a variety of industries; coffee, agriculture, smart cities and household fixtures, providing incredibly innovative, creative and useful solutions.

As technology advances, the nature of business changes and entire industries transform, it is absolutely necessary for academia to evolve as well. The pragmatic, hands on nature of the Interface Design and Business Innovation course provides invaluable experience to the students, additionally, industry sponsors gain valuable insights, if not applicable solutions, for creating better user experiences and new business models..

Prior to retiring as Design Director at GE’s Major Appliances business in 2016, Lou‘s entire 36-year career has centered on design and innovation leadership in large corporations, including IBM, Thomson/RCA, GE Healthcare, and GE Appliances. He’s led multi-disciplinary, global design teams consisting of Industrial Designers, UX Designers, UI Designer and Human Factors Engineers in the fields of IT, Consumer Electronics, Home Appliances, and Medical Systems.

Lou was recently honored to be named one of the Top 50 Industrial Designers over the last 50 years by the Industrial Designers Society of America.

Lou is currently working as a part-time Professor of Practice at IUPUI‘s School of Informatics and Computing in the Department of Human-Centered Computing. His work is focused on aligning HCC’s graduate level curriculum with the need for strategic design leadership skills in the burgeoning Internet-of-Things (IoT) field. His coursework relies heavily on Industry-centered relationships through sponsored projects, lectures and seminars.