Why Federico? 

Federico Casalegno is the chief design innovation officer of Samsung Design Innovation Center (SDIC), Samsung Electronics, in San Francisco, CA, where he leads multidisciplinary teams to create disruptive user experiences and envision future products, and launch them to market.

Casalegno founded and directed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Design Lab , and MIT Mobile Experience Lab, SHASS, program in Comparative Media Studies. He has been awarded honorary professorships by the Glasgow School of Art, University of Glasgow and the Jiangnan University School of Design in Wuxi, China.

As designer and social scientist with an interest in the impact of networked digital technologies on human behavior and society, Prof. Casalegno both taught and lead advanced research at MIT, where he designed technologically enhanced systems and environments to foster connections between people, information and physical places, using cutting-edge technologies.

Prof. Casalegno holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Culture and Communication from the Sorbonne University, Paris V, with a focus on mediated communication and social interaction in networked communities and smart cities.

He has published several scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, books and articles. For the Living Memory connected community project he was awarded the Best Concept prize by the American Leading Industrial Designers I.D. Magazine, and the Silver Prize Design Concept by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).