Emma Hoffman

Michael Niamehr

Michael Niamehr is an electrical engineering undergrad at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. Michael’s interests in social impact and outreach have led him to latch strongly onto Human Centered Deisgn after his first DFA workshop. As an advocate of multidisciplinary teamwork and learning beyond one’s major, Michael is passionate about overcoming the obstacles associated with leading DFA’s cross-functional teams.

Kathleen Chao

Kathleen is a Design Strategist who is passionate about improving the quality of life through human-centered design. Currently, she is pursuing her master’s degree in Integrated Digital Media at Tandon School of Engineering. Prior to graduate school, she has worked across 3 continents where she managed multi-disciplinary teams in fast-paced consumer product industries. Her unique cultural and professional background has guided her to place empathy as the quintessence of life and the focus of her design. Her work now drives both strategic and tactical decision-making as she collaborates with designers, engineers, and often the business. Lastly, her involvement with DFA includes leading the winning team of OpenIDEO’s financial longevity challenge as well as serving as DFA NYU Chapter’s President.

Tuba Naziruddin

Tuba  Naziruddin is an advocate of altruism, strongly believing in helping and giving back to the community. With her techno-management background, MBA, Mechanical Engineering and Masters in Technology she is actively engaged in research, pro-bono consulting and projects aimed towards community building. She is part of the DFA team combating food insecurity-The NYU Freedge. She is a polyglot speaking five languages and enjoys learning about diverse cultures. Her mantra is “Be as open as you can to learning, the rest will follow on its own”. Inspired by the Human Centered Design process, she is currently working on a start-up idea.

Amira Dhanoa

Amira is a junior concentrating on Integrated Digital Media and Business Studies at NYU’s School of Engineering. As a full-time student exploring the intersection of engineering, technology, and art through design in and outside of the classroom, Amira loves to collaborate on projects that embrace the symbiosis between the technical and the artistic. She is especially passionate about utilizing human-centered design for social impact and teaming up with design-thinkers who have diverse backgrounds and interests in order to design more innovative solutions to real-world problems, and expand her perspective along the way.

Ashley Tang

Ashley Siyu Tang is an undergraduate student in NYU studying Media, Communication and Culture. She’s passionate about social changes, human rights, animal rights, media and film. She believes the power of human design thinking in making positive changes in our community and in the world. She’s also currently the project leader of Do Tank Border, Immigration & Emigration and working on how to close the gaps between people from different cultures.

Faculty Advisor

Anne-Laure Fayard is Associate Professor  in the Department of Technology Management and Innovation at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and affiliate faculty in the Department of Management and Organizations at NYU Stern School of Business. She is passionate about human-centered design and design thinking (which she researches, teaches and practices) and social innovation. Her other research interests include:collaboration, communication, culture, space and open innovation.