Claudia R. Winegarden, PhD

Assistant Professor, Industrial Design Program, Georgia Tech

Claudia Rébola Winegarden completed her Ph.D. degree in Information Design at North Carolina State University, College of Design, with her dissertation titled “Visualizing Communication Structures of NonVerbal Information for Online Learning Environments.” Her focus is on a wide scope of expertise in the broad areas including industrial/product design, human-computer interaction (HCI), information visualization and learning environments. Dr. Winegarden’s passion is applying a holistic, innovative and multidisciplinary approach towards design practices that yield the integration of human-centered, seamless non-invasive technologies and the physicality of the product into one unified experience. Her goal is to humanize technology through design with an interest in enriching and augmenting the human experience with the environment. Her philosophical outlook on design aims to be a change agent for the future well-being of humankind and to improve the physical, social and cultural dimensions of society. Dr. Winegarden’s work has been published in numerous books and magazines, including Becoming a Product Designer.

Dr. Winegarden recently formed Elemento, an experience design consultancy, where she serves as director.  She was a lead designer at Presentation Strategies, a Research Triangle Park, NC. based corporation, dedicated to bring about a variety of both design and technological products and services for the bio/pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Winegarden was also a director of Nexo Diseños, a graphic and industrial consulting design firm based in Argentina. She worked for Lowe’s as one of the first industrial designers for setting-up the in-house design department. During her career, she has done successful design work for international companies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DaimlerChrysler, Medicab, Motorola, The Chapel Hill Historical Society (CHHS), Emergencia Medica Integral S.A., Coviplan, North Carolina State University, Junior Achievement, Vietri Inc., Presentation Strategies Inc., and Touch360.

A native of Córdoba, Argentina, Dr. Winegarden received her Bachelor’s of Industrial Design degree from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. She received a Master’s in Industrial Design and her Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, College of Design. During her academic career, Dr. Winegarden was the recipient of numerous awards, among them the Fulbright-Hays Grant, Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Sigma Delta, North Carolina State University Graduate Support Plan, and an Argentinean presidential recognition for outstanding academic achievements in the design discipline and competition awards. She has also been involved in teaching activities at both universities. She served as a teaching assistant for industrial design courses including Ideation, History and sophomore studios. She has helped the departments with administrative council issues such as being the PhD student representative, committee member for faculty search, and guest juror for final studio reviews.

Dr. Winegarden has worked with several laboratories and professors at NCSU, including Professor Robin Moore and the Natural Learning Initiative on developing information design concepts for research in childhood development, Dr. Michael Young and the Liquid Narrative Laboratory with research in 3D worlds, and as a designer with Dr. Michael Rappa, head of the Open Courseware Laboratory and director of the Initiative for Advanced Analytics.