Title
Tenured Professor
Academic Services
Director of the Beijing Industrial Design Promotion Organization
Director of the Beijing Design Society
Director of the China Fashion & Color Association
Member of the Design Management Institute
Senior Member of the China Industrial Design Association
Research Interests
Research and Application of Design Morphology
Research on Design Innovation and Brand Strategy
Academic Claims
The essence of design lies in serving humanity. It started by addressing the challenges and needs people encountered in their daily lives, and has gradually evolved to focus on how to coordinate the relationships between people and objects (creations), people and people (society), people and the environment (ecology), and even between people and the future (trends) ... As the problems involved become more complex, an increasingly wide range of knowledge is required. Consequently, the focus of design has gradually shifted from “innovation” to “collaboration.” The research now no longer solely focuses on the clever application of “skills” (the ability to solve practical problems), but has gradually elevated to the study and planning of “principles” (theoretical methods that guide practice). Although positioned between art and science, design is able to find a harmonious balance. It can leverage the perceptive and spiritual aspects of art to resolve conflicts in human cognition, while also applying the logic and rigor of science to tackle complex problems. This is precisely what other disciplines often struggle to address.
Design is conveyed through “modeling,” and the core of modeling is “form,” while the “origin” of form is the key focus of the study of “design morphology.” Design thinking and methods based on design morphology not only continue the foundational principles of design studies but also integrate the essence of scientific and engineering thinking and methods. They complement traditional design approaches and provide a theoretical foundation, thinking methods, and innovative models for collaborative innovation design. The research outcomes in design morphology have not only provided inspiration for design, driving breakthroughs and improvements in prototype innovation, but also established an academic platform for future-oriented “collaborative innovation design,” and laid a foundation and set up a model for the overlapping and integration of disciplines.
Guided by design morphology, the focus of design research has shifted from studying “known forms” to exploring “unknown forms.” Similarly, design applications have shifted from an emphasis on “current design” to a focus on “future design.” According to the trend of future technological development, it is of significant and far-reaching importance to take the lead in proposing the concept of “Third Nature” centered on “intelligent forms,” building upon “First Nature” focused on “natural forms” and “Second Nature” focused on “man-made forms.” “Third Nature” not only outlines the future research field for “design morphology,” but also clarifies its future development direction.
Design innovation and brand strategy are complementary, as design innovation can build or enhance a brand, while brand strategy can manage and guide design innovation. A brand is not just a logo. For a company, it is akin to the Constitution of a nation which defines the nature, scope, and fundamental principles of the company and its products/services. At a higher level, a brand represents a company’s values. Only when the values a company upholds align with those of its customers, can the brand earn the loyalty of its users.
Academic Achievements
1. Relying on national-level high-quality course resources, he led and fully promoted the foundational teaching reform at the school, initiating a comprehensive teaching model (wining the Second Prize of National Teaching Achievement Award and First Prize of Beijing Teaching Achievement Award) of the “Course Cluster” for form design fundamentals, dominated by both thinking and practice, and achieving a shift of focus from “knowledge and skill learning” to “comprehensive ability enhancement.” Through dedicated teaching research and practice, he creatively proposed a “Tanghulu” course structure led by “thinking and methods,” cleverly resolving the conflict between foundational and specialized courses, and ensuring a smooth integration across different teaching links.
2. He embedded the philosophy of “research-oriented” teaching into foundational courses and delivered it to students in an engaging and effective way. He emphasized interdisciplinary integration and the continuous renewal of cutting-edge knowledge, keeping approximately 20% of the course content up to date. He strengthened the development of course materials, and has published several textbooks, including Form Design Fundamentals, Three-Dimensional Composition, and Plane Composition. Among them, the Basic Form Design (first edition) was awarded the “Beijing Higher Education Quality Textbook” and won the “Tsinghua University Excellent Textbook Award.” He published a monograph titled Research and Application of Design Morphology for graduate students. His course Comprehensive Form Design Fundamentals was recognized as a “National Quality Resource Sharing Course,” and Three-Dimensional Form Fundamentals was awarded “Quality Course of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University” and received the “Tsinghua University Teaching Excellence Award.”
3. He emphasized the transformation from knowledge to abilities. Using the teaching experimental platform at the school, he guided and inspired students to think, experience, and explore through extensive practice where they could gain valuable experience, which was then transformed into their own abilities. He focused on personalized teaching, striving to create favorable conditions for students’ individual development. He encouraged them to boldly explore and innovate, guiding them to expand and refine their knowledge structure and skills - tailored to their personal growth - through the university’s elective courses, SRT programs, and maker projects. He fully leveraged available teaching resources and online platforms to implement a hybrid teaching model that integrates both online and offline modes. He emphasized a combination of lectures, discussions, and tutorials, and used various interactive tools to enrich the content and streamline the teaching process.
4. The project “Research on Design Morphology” he led was approved as a “Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China” in 2017. The project made significant progress not only in the theoretical framework and methodology of "design morphology” but also in the design applications. Additionally, leveraging the academic platform of design morphology, he focused on the research of “forms”, and took it as an interdisciplinary “crosspoint” to engage in productive research and exchanges with teachers and students from fields such as life science, materials science, mathematics and computer science, artificial intelligence, engineering physics, and humanities and social sciences. With the aid of design thinking, he helped students broaden their horizons and unveiled the mysteries of academic frontiers through project collaborations, academic forums, micro salons and other academic activities.
5. The research team he led at Tsinghua University established a long-term academic collaboration with the team at the University of Southampton in the UK. As the Chinese project leader for the UK ESRC-funded project Silver Shoppers: Designing a Better Supermarket Service for the Older Consumer, he was fully involved in the entire research process. The project was completed in 2017. The research results were fully presented at the “London Design Week,” receiving high praise from international experts and media. Based on the research, he completed several academic papers, which were presented at international academic conferences. His project, an extended product design called “Smart Shopping Cart,” received a design patent in the UK. His research findings have been included in the UK Data Service.
6. From 2016 to 2020, he led and participated in 12 research projects (3 ongoing, 8 completed), published 2 books, authored 15 papers, obtained 7 patents, and won 2 international design awards. He also participated in 2 international design exhibitions and 4 major domestic design exhibitions. He hosted or participated in 22 interdisciplinary academic seminars, 5 thematic academic workshops, and delivered over 40 academic lectures for domestic universities, enterprises, and international academic conferences, receiving widespread praise among the faculty, students, and experts.
7. Through the integration of scientific research and teaching, he distilled his long-term research achievements, experience, and methods into classic case studies and design projects, integrated the related knowledge, skills, and thinking approaches for comprehensive training and practice, and then kept exploring during the practice. He led his students in exploring, researching, and boldly innovating around cutting-edge technologies, hot spots of society, and future development trends. The research projects included Artificial Intelligence and Future Lifestyles, “Time” Design in Future Life, “Cloud Restaurant” Design Based on 5G Technology, and Magical Plant Seeds and Innovative Design. These projects sparked the students’ creativity, ignited their passion for learning cutting-edge technologies, enhanced their learning and innovation capabilities, and further promoted the interdisciplinary integration of knowledge.
8. He led the basic teaching reform at the school multiple times. Viewed from the teaching achievements over the past decade, the reform has achieved remarkable results, successfully realizing the established goals. On this basis, he successfully organized academic events such as the “Tsinghua Art Education & Teaching Forum and Basic Teaching Achievements Exhibition of Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University” and the “Art Foundation Education Sketching Teaching Forum.” He attended over 30 academic forums hosted by various institutions on behalf of the school, where he delivered an academic lecture on “The Basic Teaching Reform and Innovation Model at Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University.” He also published academic papers, which received strong responses and high praise. He also helped relatively underdeveloped sister institutions build “benchmark courses” through the delivery of classic courses, shared his teaching methods and experience, and assisted in the training of young teachers.
Honors
Top Ten Industrial Design Educators in China
Teaching
As of 2020, his undergraduate courses included Three-Dimensional Form Fundamentals 1, 2, Comprehensive Form Fundamentals 1, 2, Design Strategy (dual degree programme), and Graduation Thesis and Creation. His graduate courses included Comprehensive Morphology Studies, Innovation Design Series 1, 2, and Design Thinking (elective). Over the past five years, he has supervised 1 postdoctoral researcher, 6 doctoral students, and 21 graduate students, of whom 12 have graduated.
