September 2021: Interim Director for MHCI+D Program

Axel Roesler Steps in as Interim Faculty Director

The UW School of Art + Art History + Design and the UW Graduate School have announced the appointment of the Interim Director of the MHCI+D program, Axel Roesler, who will serve through the coming academic year. Roesler is a Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed University Professor, Associate Professor and Program Chair of the Interaction Design in the School of Art + Art History + Design. Roesler served as Interim Director in 2019. He has taught the core course Designing Interactive Systems for the past three years and will do so again this year. He worked with numerous MHCI+D students in his Interaction Design Studios in the Division of Design and also co-taught the program’s very first course, the Ideation Studio, in the Fall of 2013. Roesler has worked on design projects in aviation and mixed reality with industry and research partners that include Microsoft, Google, Honeywell Aerospace, Boeing, and NASA.

Roesler’s focus during this interim year will be to carry forward momentum created by previous directors, Amanda Menking, Michael Smith, and Linda Wagner, along with building a bridge for the successful start-up of the program’s fourth faculty director. Roesler says:

“I have been involved in shaping this program since the founding faculty group first formed in 2009. I am excited to offer my leadership during this transition year, keeping alive the vision we have of an energizing, challenging, and rewarding interdisciplinary program that is really one of its kind at the intersection of HCI and design.”

The search will resume this fall for the next MHCI+D Faculty Director.