August 7th Lunch Event with Bill Burnett from The Stanford Life Design Lab

Wednesday, 7 August 2024, 12:30PM Hong Kong Time
The China Club, Hong Kong

Bill Burnett is an Adjunct Professor in the Mechanical Engineer Department in the Design Group, and the Executive Director of Stanford’s innovative Product Design program at Stanford University. One of the earliest interdepartmental majors, this undergraduate and graduate degree program combine curriculum from the Mechanical Engineering department and the Art department to produce human-centered, values-driven designers. A graduate of the program, Bill has designed a wide range of products, from award-winning Apple PowerBooks to the original Star Wars action figures. He holds a number of mechanical and design patents and design awards for a variety of products including the first slate computer. He teaches the senior capstone project class, a class called Designing Your Life, and the graduate Thesis project class called Design Impact with Professor David Kelley, the founder of IDEO and the d.school. Bill’s teaching is focused on enhancing human creativity, entrepreneurship, and technology innovation. In addition to his duties at Stanford, he advises several Internet start-up companies.

Mark Wee is an artist, architect, and educator.   He is a design thinking and experience design pioneer in Singapore.   From 2018-2022, he was the Executive Director of the DesignSingapore Council where he led the Council in driving and implementing national policies on design to make Singapore an innovation-driven economy and a more loveable city.   Mark co-founded with Professor Bill Burnett of Stanford’s Life Design Lab and is a co-author of the international best selling book Designing Your Life.   Mark is also the Managing Director SEA of MINIWIZ, a global pioneer in transforming single use consumer trash into high quality sustainable building solutions, to enable the low embodied carbon cities of the future.   Mark has designed landmark experiences for clients such as Singapore Airlines, the Housing Development Board, and OCBC. His book, Let’s Experience Design!, co-authored with Ken Yuktasevi, shares the design process of their projects.  An award-winning architect and practicing artist, Mark was one of URA’s 20 Under 45 list of Singapore architects to represent the next generation, whilst some of his artworks can be purchased at the National Gallery Store.   Mark studied architecture at Cornell University.