Indian-American engineers hold Design Summit

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The American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) convened a Design Summit October 9, 2021, with a number of academics, authors, speakers and practitioners covering innovation in Design from multiple perspectives.

The ASEI is a not-for-profit organization that provides a platform for networking, career advancement, community service, mentoring and technology exchange for professionals, students and businesses in the United States and abroad.

Executive council member Vatsala Upadhyay jump-started the meeting with a tribute to the world renowned designer, late Steve Jobs, to mark the 10th anniversary of his death, a press release from ASEI said recounting the proceedings of the online Zoom gathering.

The ASEI President Piyush Malik shared his thinking on Design based on his field experiences and learnings working with nimble Silicon Valley startups as well as fortune 500 corporations.

He focused on the importance of Design as a discipline and ‘Design Thinking’ methodologies adapted from top institutions.

The keynote speaker Prof. Sanjay Gupta, founder and Vice Chancellor of World University of Design (WUD), shared his vision illustrating the difference between User Interface (UI) and User Experience Design (UXD). He also spoke about applications of emerging concepts such as AR/VR (augmented reality /virtual reality) and innovation in design in his talk titled “Importance of design for engineers.”

Malik also shared some industry trends based on analyst reports and they discussed the impact of design on creator economy with NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens), Blockchain, AR/VR, etc.

Dolly Parikh, founder and CEO of Aloki Labs, a boutique design studio in California, traced her inspiration to the 1977 film “Power Of 10” and shared learnings from her UX Strategy and Design career across companies such as Apple, Verisign, Expedia, Intuit, Medallia, Aviso, Automation Anywhere, InfoStretch, ARM and MindTickle.

Other speakers included UX Architect Noah Iliinsky; Sabira Gupta, software engineer turned Principal UX Designer at Informatica, who shared her tips for those transitioning into Design careers; veteran designer Ches Wadja who spoke on “Intuition, humility and collaboration in service of design innovation” and shared personal stories from his time at Expedia, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google;

Newly- minted designer Shrinal Patel showcased her portfolio and sought feedback from experienced professionals.

Surbhi Kaul, a Vice President at Juniper Networks, an ASEI Life Member who serves on the Silicon Valley chapter board, thanked volunteers and called for nominations for next year’s board.

A Q&A session followed.

The year 2021 has been a busy one for ASEI, the organization said, with a large number of educational and networking opportunities  and new programs such as MentorConnect, UniversityConnect and Youth Programs to serve its members’ interests and inspire the next generation of engineers and technologists amongst the diaspora.