Meet our team
Research Team
Gianluca Carella
Research fellow
PhD candidate at Politecnico, Milano – Design Department (Creative Industries Lab). He has a background in Product Service System Design and Management Engineering. Gianluca is focusing his research on how design can be adopted in SMEs and how it can be a competitive lever for companies. At the same time, he is working in projects that deal with entrepreneurship, supporting startups in combining the design and the business binomial. Actually, he is collaborating with the Department of Design of Politenico di Milano where he is working as designer and researcher involved in European research projects. Gianluca in the last years took part also in the faculty of both the School of Design - Politecnico di Milano and POLI.Design Consortium.
Helder Ferreira
Research fellow
Helder Barbosa Ferreira is a PhD candidate in Business and Management studies of a doctoral program from FEP - Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto investigating areas as strategic alignment, middle management and gamification. He has a Master’s in Marketing from FEP-Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto and a degree in Business Management from Isla - Polytechnic Institute of Management and Technology. Helder also has a postgraduate in Management studies from AESE. Professionally, he has more than 20 years of experience in retail management (DIA). Since 2016, he has been invited as an invited professor in polytechnic institute of management and technology. Currently, Helder is a researcher at UNIDCOM-IADE and Strategic Design and Innovation Lab research fellow.
Stuart Medley
Research fellow
Stuart Medley is a post-doctoral researcher at UNIDCOM exploring the application of comics for legal contracts and in the health sector. He is associate professor of design at Edith Cowan University in Australia. He authored The Picture in Design, and other publications, including for Wiley’s Companion to Illustration. He makes comics to improve employment and housing services, and has worked as an illustrator for 25 years with clients including Anglicare and Austal Ships, and in the UK, the Imperial War Museums. He is art director for Hidden Shoal, a record label with a roster of international artists, with the BBC, Canadian Broadcasting, and Showtime as clients. He is a co-founder, and was first Chair, of the Perth Comic Arts Festival.
Michele Melazzini
Research fellow
Michele Melazzini is a PhD candidate and designer at Politecnico, Milano – Design Department (Creative Industries Lab) where he works as didactic assistant and researcher on strategic design and design management. PhD research activity focuses on the role of design in the organization, the possible design interventions in affecting the organizational culture. With a background on product and strategic design, Michele builds his experience in applying and developing design practices that can support change management and innovation process. He works in international research projects (Horizon 2020, Interreg, Erasmus+) that deal with topics as Creative Industries, design thinking process applied to SMEs and Entrepreneurship. Michele in the last years teaches at the Politecnico Design School and POLI.Design Consortium. He has been working as consultant and designer for Panasonic, Berkel S.p.a., Fantoni Group S.p.a, and Veneta Cucine S.p.a. Michele has started to learn and discover the “soul” of the design during a long collaboration with Fondazione Achille Castiglioni.
Pedro Gomide
Research fellow
Pedro Gomide is a Ph.D. Candidate in Design at IADE. His Ph.D. research activity focuses on enhancing manufacturing management through design and human-centered approaches. His background counts with specialization on Leading Digital Transformation at MIT and MBA in Digital Transformation and Business Future at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, degrees in Electrical Engineer at Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte and Industrial Business Management at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais. Currently, he’s a Design Leader on the Innovation team at Vallourec SA and is working on Digital and Cultural transformation.
Rodolpho Tsvetcoff
Research Fellow
Rodolpho Tsvetcoff holds a masters degree in Marketing and Innovation and is a researcher at UNIDCOM/IADE in areas such as education, game-based approaches, future of work and territorial marketing. Additionally, he is a professional with experience in design, desktop publishing, photography and book editing, having worked on projects for various institutions, such as Alliance Francaise and the Education Ministery of Brasil.
Yannara Negre
Research Fellow
Yannara Negre Marques holds a Bachelor's Degree in Cinema and Video from UNESPAR (Curitiba-PR/Brazil) since 2014, post-graduated in Art Direction from UNIARA since 2016. Also completed two courses at CFP del SICA (Buenos Aires/Argentina) and received training in the Arts, Media and Multimedia sector at the Library of Alexandria (Egypt). In Brazil she worked as a graphic designer, advertising and marketing assistant, social media and video maker, and presented studies at the National Symposium on Cyberculture (ABCiber) and was a congresswoman and member of INTERCOM – Brazilian Congress of Communication Sciences. She is currently attending the Master in Audiovisual and Multimedia Communication at IADE (Lisbon, Portugal) since 2021 and working as a researcher on the project “Design andGame-Approaches for Entrepreneurship” at the Research Unit in Design and Communication, UNIDCOM / IADE.
Scientific Board Members
Cabirio Cautela
Scientific Board Member
Cabirio Cautela is Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano in Strategic Design and Innovation Management. Phd in Business Management. He was Visiting Scholar at Stanford University – CDR (Center for Design Research) in 2012. His research topics deal with the strategic role of design, design management processes and how design generates new business models and new ventures. He is currently Director of the Master in Strategic Design and Co-Director of the Design Thinking for Business Observatory. Yearly he teaches at the Politecnico di Milano Design School, at POLI.Design Consortium, at MIP-Politecnico Business School and in other international schools as Visiting Professor (Universidad de Valparaiso, International University of Monaco, EDC, Creative Academy, Tongji University, Unisinos- University of Porto Alegre). His last articles were published by journals as Creativity and Innovation Management, Technovation, Industry and Innovation, International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Design Issues,International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Design Management Review.
Francesco Zurlo
Scientific Board Member
Francesco Zurlo is Phd in industrial design and Full Professor of Industrial Design at Politecnico di Milano, in the course of Integrated Product Design. Chairman of POLI.design. he is Deputy Dean of the Design School and Head of the Courses in Product Design (BA+MAs). Founder and Director of CI.lab (a Politecnico’s research lab focused in Creative Industries), he is in the board of ADI Index (the most prestigious Italian award for design innovation) . He is director of the Executive Master in Design Strategy and System Innovation, and co-director of the Master in Strategic Design and the Master in Furniture Design of Politecnico di Milano. Scientific director of the Observatory of Design Thinking for Business of Politecnico, he is author of numerous international publications about strategic design, design driven innovation, design for organization.
Rui Patrício
Coordinator and Scientific Board Member
Rui Patrício holds a PhD degree - European Doctorate - in Marketing and Strategy by University of Aveiro with research mobility at the Design School of the Politecnico di Milano. He is currently the Coordinator of the Strategic Design and Innovation Lab and an Assistant Professor and at IADE - Universidade Europeia, Lisbon. His research interests lie at the intersection between innovation management, gamification, and design thinking. He carried out applied research on design approaches to innovation in global firms, which has resulted in publications in journals like Creativity and Innovation Management and European Journal of Innovation Management. He is also a creator of gamification tools for innovation (e.g., ideaChef®), which has been applied by many firms and universities. Before moving to the academic community, he held management roles in marketing/innovation at startups and leading companies.
Sara Gancho
Scientific Board Member
Sara Gancho has a PhD in Design Management from Lancaster University, UK. She is a Professor and Coordinator for the MA in Design Management at IADE, Faculdade de Design, Tecnologia e Comunicação - Universidade Europeia. She holds a MA in Design and Visual Culture and a Licenciate Degree in Graphic Design. Experienced Design Manager and Consultant, Professor and Senior Researcher at UNIDCOM/IADE since 2009 with a demonstrated history of working in the design, marketing and advertising industry as well as academia.
