Dr. Jiayu (Zoe) Wu is the Reader in Intelligent Mobility Design and Humanising Technology Studio Lead at the Intelligent Mobility Design Centre (IMDC) of the Royal College of Art (RCA). She leads and works on collaborative innovation research projects bringing together academics, industrial partners and students to design and deliver research and knowledge transfer projects for emerging mobility experiences.

Jiayu is an innovation methods educator for technology and business integration, and a professional user experience designer for the intelligent mobility and automobile industries. Jiayu lectures on the impact of design innovation approaches in business development and social engagement and works with businesses of all sizes on concept design generation and production. Her research interests include exploring how people’s experiences influence cutting edge technology such as smart, integrated, personalised and demand responsive transport services and vice versa. Her research is leveraging creative human centred design methodologies to develop inclusive and easily adopted solutions for user journeys and service operators.

Jiayu was previously head of Tsinghua x-lab’s Design Innovation Centre, specialising in incorporating design thinking in business development, industry joint projects and nurturing China’s most academically talented students’ spinout projects. She has also worked at Volkswagen New Mobility Services where her focus was car-sharing service design, new mobility solutions and urban transportation trends.

Her projects at the IMDC include AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Design Fellows ‘Challenges of the Future: Mobility’, Hyundai Kia Innovation Laboratory projects ‘Future Luxury’, ‘Emotional Tech’ and ‘MORPH’, London Arts & Humanities Partnership funded ‘Inclusive Design for Shared Autonomous Vehicles’ and the Greenwich Automated Transport Environment (GATEway).

Jiayu is a speaker at industry and academic events including the ACM’s Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutoUI) Conference, FISITA (International Federation of Automotive Engineering), and the Mobility Innovators Forum (MIF), and gives invited short courses, seminars and talks at universities including Hanyang University (Korea), The University of Tokyo (Japan), and Tsinghua University (China).