Faculty

Yihyun Lim is a designer, researcher, and strategist developing her expertise in the design technology field. Her research interests lies in creating value-driven experiences with various forms of interactions, from adaptive materials to ambient intelligences. Lim brings together behavioral research and human-centered design methods to situate emerging networked technologies in speculative futures. 

Prior to joining USC, Lim led MIT Civic Design Initiative and MIT Design Lab. As the director of MIT Design Lab, she led a multidisciplinary group of researchers, engineers, and designers to drive design innovation across various industry sectors from consumer products to sportswear and banking. Prior to serving the director role, she was the associate director and research associate at MIT Design Lab, leading research projects with global companies for a number of years. 

She has co-chaired the eleventh edition of DeSForM Conference, an international design conference on ‘Design and Semantics of Form and Movement’. Titled 'Beyond Intelligence', the conference explored implications and challenges of emerging technologies and complex intelligence systems in the practice of design. 

Her collaborative design research work has been exhibited at Milan Design Week 2018-2019 (Puma Biodesign), Ars Electronica (Art of Time Killing) and Design Museum London (Sneakers Unboxed). 

An architect by training, Lim practiced architecture in San Francisco, Seoul and New York. She received her Master of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture/city and regional planning from University of California, Berkeley. 

She is a co-founder of D.Fluence, a design research practice that explores the impact of design across disciplines.