Ada Hurst 

Engineering design educator and researcher

👋I am an associate professor, teaching stream  in  Management Science and Engineering at the University of Waterloo, currently serving in the role of associate chair, undergraduate studies. I am pleased to promote the Management Engineering program any chance I get.  

I have taught the capstone design project courses for the Management Engineering program since 2011. I have previously taught courses in organizational behaviour and theory. Occasionally, I offer special directed readings courses on design-related topics, at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

My research interests  are in the areas of (engineering) design cognition, design management, and design learning/education. Simply put, I'm interested in learning about how people design, how they learn to design, and how we can make the teaching and management of design better. Recently, I have become especially interested in the impact of AI on design, both as a tool to assist with design practice, and to facilitate conducting research on design. See Publications for a list of recent representative projects. 

I am co-founder and co-chair of the Canadian Design Workshop, a biennial conference that supports a network of design educators and researchers in Canada. I also serve as co-chair of the Design Society's special interest group on Cognitive Design Science and as associate editor for Studies in Engineering Education.