Design Fellows

Design Fellows bring unique perspectives to the Jacobs community. Fellows participate in design events and activities, act as student mentors, and make themselves available to the Institute’s student and teaching community. Each fellow contributes to the Institute in a different way, from open office hours to creative workshops.

Students and instructors: we invite you to get to know the Jacobs Design Fellows by checking out their bios and setting up a time to talk with them; learn more below.

If you are a design professional and are interested in serving as a Jacobs Design Fellow, please reach out to Sabrina Merlo.

Current Design Fellows

Zahin Ali
Senior Interaction Design Lead at IDEO

Zahin Ali (IEOR ’11) is an Interaction Design Lead at IDEO where he leads interdisciplinary project teams to solve ambiguous problems with human-centered design thinking practices. He engages in all stages of the innovation process: defining strategy, user research, identifying key insights, building and testing prototypes, product/vision storytelling, and bringing products and services to market. As a design consultant, he works with a growing portfolio of global clients in a range of industries such as mobility, healthcare, education, and financial services. In a prior career, he leveraged his Berkeley IEOR degree to design manufacturing systems at Tesla. He then made his way to design in an unconventional path via startups, a stint with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and with graduate work from Art Center College of Design and the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design where he earned a Masters in Interaction Design. He currently teaches a graduate course in Visual Design at the DePaul University School of Computing and Digital Media. Schedule a meeting with Zahin during his office hours.

Darius Allen
Senior Product Manager, Growth and ML, Tubi

Darius Allen is a product manager specializing in web growth, machine learning, and consumer product strategy. He blends design, engineering, and data to build digital experiences that reach millions of users.

At Tubi, Darius leads product for the entire web platform and drives web growth strategy, with a focus on applying AI and ML to improve discovery, personalization, and engagement. He led the development of Tubi’s ChatGPT app, making Tubi the first streamer to launch a native app within ChatGPT. He also led the product strategy for delivering FIFA World Cup games on web, a major driver of traffic and engagement during the tournament. His work spans the full web experience, from acquisition and onboarding to content discovery and engagement, with a focus on growing Tubi’s reach through new surfaces and platforms.

Darius previously worked at Adobe as a Product Manager, managing the online events platform for Adobe MAX and Adobe Summit, and as a Web Production Lead shaping personalized experiences on Adobe.com including the Adobe All Apps Recommender. He also worked in design and marketing at Dreamville Records and in growth at Uber. He studied computing and data science at NYU Stern.

Schedule a time to meet with Darius during his office hours.

John Cain
Co-founder, ZeroWidth.ai

John Cain is founder of ZeroWidth, where he and his colleagues build tools and methods for designing with AI, treating models, data, and agents as design materials rather than black boxes. He is best known as a co-founder of E-Lab (1994), the Chicago research-and-design consultancy that helped establish the practices now known as design ethnography and human-centered design; Fast Company called its approach “simple but subversive.” E-Lab was acquired by Sapient in 1999, where its methods became the firm’s “experience modeling” discipline. Earlier, John was design practice lead at Doblin Group, where a landmark collaboration with Xerox PARC and Steelcase, helped bring ethnographic fieldwork into product design. He later co-founded Iota Partners, an instrumented-research and analytics firm acquired by SapientNitro in 2012.

John studied engineering and earned a BS in industrial design at the IIT Institute of Design, where he now serves as adjunct faculty, teaching courses on designing computational systems and computational tools for interpretive research. He serves on the External Advisory Board of the Colorado School of Mines’ Design Engineering program, and his recent writing includes “Navigating Design, Data & Decision” (She Ji, 2023). At Jacobs, he collaborates with Hugh Dubberly on Design Frameworks (DES INV 200), advising on the course reading canon and also leading the development of Loom, a tool for reading, note-taking, and concept mapping. He’s glad to talk with students about design research, AI as a design medium, and building a practice across design and technology. Reach him at john@zerowidth.ai.

Mason Friedberg
Group Manager of Design & Development at the Exploratorium

Mason Friedberg (MEng ’19) is an engineer and designer working at the crossroads of functionality and aesthetic. With a background in mechanical engineering and product design from Texas A&M and UC Berkeley, his experience in prototyping research and development, automotive, food robotics, and client product design gives him a diverse portfolio of many different aspects of industry. Designing for emotional connection to create engaging experiences that draw users in is something he strives for in all his work. He is currently working at the forefront of exhibit engineering and design at San Francisco’s well known interactive science museum, the Exploratorium, as a Manager of the Design and Development team. He is also a huge hands-on tinkerer and appreciator of all things craft. Mason has previously given guest lectures at Jacobs in DES INV 15: Design Methodology, DES INV 10: Discovering Design, and DES INV 190: Human Centered Design Methods. He is excited to talk with students about exhibit and experience design, product development, mechanical design, and give general career advice. You can book a time to speak with him on his Calendly page.

Purin Phanichphant
Freelance Designer & Artist

Purin Phanichphant is an artist, designer, and educator with a deep interest in the intersection between creativity and mindfulness. Purin combines his roots in Northern Thailand, where he spent part of his life as a Buddhist monk, with his background in designing innovative products and experiences in the San Francisco Bay Area. He holds a BFA in Industrial Design and Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MFA in Product Design from Stanford University. He previously worked as a principal product designer at IDEO San Francisco, and taught design courses at Stanford University and General Assembly. Over the past several years at the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, he has taught DES INV 21: Visual Communication and Sketching, DES INV 181: Reimagining Mobility, and held multiple workshops on Visual Design Hacking and Designing Your First Portfolio. As a Design Fellow, he hopes to help students realize their full potential not only as design practitioners, but also as designers of their own lives and the world we all live in. Contact Purin via email or book an office hour appointment with him.

Dana Yichye Shwachman
Director, MakeGood West

Dana is a senior industrial designer, educator, and social innovator specializing in inclusive design and the intersection of disability and technology. With 17 years of experience, she develops products and experiences that empower parents, children, and individuals with diverse abilities, bridging independence through human-centered solutions.

Her work includes open-source assistive technologies, mobility devices, and the application of inclusive design approaches across various industries. Dana combines industry and academia, teaching courses such as FIXPERTS and mentoring young designers to create socially meaningful products.

She holds a Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from Reichman University and a Bachelor’s in Industrial Design, majoring in Social Design, from HIT, Israel.

Dana believes that people are not inherently disabled.

Reach out to Dana via email (danayicsh@gmail.com) to set up a time to meet with her.