Xiao Ge

Bio

Researcher (Design, Learning and Culture) + Educator

I see myself as a bridge between engineering and social sciences.

In my research, I study engineering design through lenses of social sciences theories and methods.
In my teaching, I bring social sciences to engineering graduate students.
Most recently, I also start bringing design into behavioral science, e.g., leading design workshops at Stanford SPARQ

As of May, 2024, I'm working on a research initiative to build learning frameworks of culturally inclusive, ecologically responsible technology design.

For more, visit: https://web.stanford.edu/~xiaog/

Xiao Ge’s design research focuses on understanding creative work theory and practice to improve practices of creativity, interdisciplinary teamwork, and engineering education. Ge’s research at Stanford spans across disciplines in both the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Psychology Department. Her research on culture and AI is also sponsored by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). Ge has received Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship (2018-2021), Best Paper Award from the prestigious design research journal Design Studies (2021), Rising Stars for Women in Mechanical Engineering (2021, MIT), and Poster Award at Stanford Data Science Conference (2023), to name a few.

Ge has taught design thinking and held innovation-learning workshops across industry and academia in various cultural contexts. She previously worked on an human-centered innovation project for Lockheed Martin spacecraft (2010-11) that led to successful implementation resulting in an estimated cost savings of $20 million per satellite. Ge worked as an innovation specialist and consultant to develop, launch and run systematic human-centered innovation program at Siemens China (2012-2014), where she taught design innovation to research project teams across sectors incl. healthcare, energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure & cities. Over the years, Ge taught design innovation workshops across universities in Tokyo, Beijing, China and at Stanford. Ge consulted Deutsche Bahn Systel to build high-performance self-organizing teamwork (2017-18), corporate participants through Stanford Center for Professional Development Project Management Advanced Certificate program (2016), and served as corporate coach to Stanford ME310: Global Engineering Design Innovation (2019-). She has also hands-on consulted and launched a Makerspace in Beijing for kids to imagine, make and empathize (2015) and a postdoc program Stanford SPARQ center (2023-2024). Starting in 2024, Ge teaches two graduate-level research courses at Stanford on (Engineering) Design Theory and Methodology.