Carnegie Mellon University
Integrated Innovation Institute

Engineering + Design + Business

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Integrated Innovation Institute  ›  People  ›  Faculty & Staff  ›  Francine Gemperle

Francine Gemperle

Francine Gemperle

Adjunct Professor

Address
Pittsburgh, PA

Bio

As a design strategist, Francine gathers insights about people and brings their needs to the forefront of technology development and design efforts. She applies a variety of proven research methods with a focus on crafting the research inquiry to gain actionable insights to inform design. Francine is experienced at sketching new product ideas, teaching, facilitation, project management, planning, and design.

During her over 20 year career, Francine has led design teams with dozens of companies. With nine patents and more than 15 publications to her credit, Francine has exhibited and lectured about her work at schools and institutions around the world.

Francine is a faculty member in both the residential MIIPS program and in the Institute's newly-launched online programs, teaching two courses in the Methods & Tools for Product Innovation certificate. During her time teaching with the III she wrote the Handbook of People Research to be used as a guide for students taking her classes.

In addition to her role at the Integrated Innovation Institute, Francine is a User Experience Researcher at Aurora Innovation. Previously, she worked at Seegrid, Uber, MAYA Design, and led the team that founded LUMA Institute.

  • User experience research
  • Information architecture
  • Human-centered design
  • User Experience Research: Theory, Methods, Practice
  • Master of Design in Interaction Design, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design, Carnegie Mellon University
  • 2010 - 2014 Design Strategy and Implementation for Health Insurance Company - View Project
  • 2007 - 2009 Development of a System of Methods and Instructional Model for Human Centered Design, now LUMA Institute - View Project
  • Gemperle, F and David Bishop, Navigating Data Soup in the Aerospace Industry. CIO Review, 2015
  • Navigating Data Soup in the Aerospace Industry
  • Bill Lucas, F. Gemperle and R. Tribone, Setting a New Course: Teaching Professional Engineers the Merit and Methods of Human-Centered Design. Second International Conference on Design Principles and Practices. Miami, Florida January 9, 2008.
  • Jodi Forlizzi, Carl DiSalvo, and Francine Gemperle, Assistive Robotics and an Ecology of Elders Living Independently in Their Homes. HCI Special Issue on Human Robot Interaction, eds.S. Kiesler and P. Hinds Volume 19 no. 1 Lawrence Earlbaum and Associates. 2004.
  • DiSalvo, C., F. Gemperle and J. Forlizzi. Imitating the Human Form: Four Kinds of Anthropomorphic Form. Design Research Society International Conference Futureground, Monash University, Melbourne Australia 2004.
  • DiSalvo, C. et al. The Hug: An Exploration of Robotic Form for Intimate Communication. RO-MAN proceedings of the 12th International IEEE workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2003.
  • DiSalvo, C and F. Gemperle. From Seduction to Fulfillment: the uses of Anthropomorphic Form in Design. Proceedings of DPPI ’03 : Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces, Pittsburgh, PA. ACM press, 2003.
  • Gemperle, F. et al., The Hug: a new form for communication, Proceedings of DUX 2003: Designing the User Experience. San Francisco, CA. ACM press, 2003.
  • Forlizzi, J., F. Gemperle, and C. DiSalvo, Perceptive Sorting: A Method for Understanding Responses to Products. Proceedings of DPPI '03 : Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces, Pittsburgh, PA. ACM press, 2003.
  • DiSalvo, C and F. Gemperle. All heads are not created equal: The Design and Perception of Humanoid Robot Heads. Designing Interactive Systems Conference. London. ACM Press, 2002.
  • Baltus, G. et al., Toward Personal Service Robots for the Elderly. Workshop on Interactive Robotics and Entertainment, in cooperation with AAAi. The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 2000.
  • Bodine, K., and F. Gemperle, Effects of Functionality on Perceived Comfort of Wearables, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wearable Computers, NY. IEEE Press, 2003.
  • Thornton, C. et. al. Audio-centric Interface Design: A building blocks approach. Proceedings of the 2003 International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston MA.
  • Hirsch, T., C. Thornton, and F. Gemperle. Spatial Audio Interfaces. ICES Research Report Series # 04-05-03 http://panopticon.ices.cmu.edu/papers.html
  • Gemperle, F., Wearable Vibro-Tactile Display. ICES Research Report Series # 04-04-03 http://panopticon.ices.cmu.edu/papers.html
  • Gemperle, F. et al., Design of a Wearable Tactile Display, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wearable Computers, San Francisco, CA IEEE press, 2001.
  • Anhalt et. al., Toward Context Aware Computing: Experiences and Lessons. IEEE Intelligent Systems Journal. Vol 16 #3. pp. 38-48. June 2001.
  • Gemperle et al., Design for Wearability, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wearable Computers, Pittsburgh PA, IEEE press, 1998.
  • Kasabach et al. Digital Ink: A Familiar Idea with Technological Might!, Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI Summary, Los Angeles, CA ACM Press, 1998.
  • Kasabach et al., Digital Ink, Innovations Yearbook, Industrial Designers Society of America, 1997.
  • Chris D. Kasabach, John M. Stivoric, Francine D. Gemperle, Christopher Pacione, and Eric Teller. Method and apparatus for recognition of writing, for remote communication, and for user defined input templates U.S. Patent #6,628,847 September 30, 2003 and related patents #6,456,749 September 24, 2002, #7,068,860 June 27, 2006, #7,349,586 March 25, 2008, #8,036,498 October 11, 2011, #8,818,140 August 26, 2014.
  • John Stivoric, Francine Gemperle, and Christopher Kasabach. Wearable human physiological data sensors and reporting system therefore U.S. Patent #6,527,711 March 4, 2003 and #7,153,262 December 26, 2006
  • Wearable human physiological and environmental data sensors and reporting system therefor U.S.Patent #8,403,845 March 26, 2013.