We
The Design Research Lab is a network of people, organisations, and non-human agents engaged at the intersection of technologies, materials, and social practices. Our aim is to design socially and ecologically sustainable tools, spaces, and knowledge that support people’s participation in a digital society – based on common principles of inclusiveness and respect for the planet. This puts the basic democratic right to take part in the digital sphere into practice. We start our research from individual lifeworlds and the needs of minoritized groups, beyond consumer majorities.
We are an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, tech-enthusiasts and critical thinkers from Berlin University of the Arts, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, as well as Einsteincenter Digital Future (ECDF).
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Jelena Zach
Alumni
In 2009, after graduating in architecture at Technische Universität München, Jelena decided to pursue an education in industrial design at the same university. During her studies she was working as a freelance designer and researcher for Johnson&Johnson Medical on a tissue regeneration project.
In 2011, she completed a degree in industrial design with great distinction, gaining a M. Sc. She won universal design and consumer favourite award for the product she developed during her master’s thesis on the topic “Design for an Aging Society – Participatory Design Methods for Developing Products with and for People with Dementia”.
In 2012, Jelena joined the Design Research Lab to work on a project that aims to support people with dementia, by helping them navigate through their day. She is currently working on various projects related to health and social innovation.