4/28/2026 Taylor Parks
Written by Taylor Parks
The Human-Centered Engineering Symposium hosted at the Siebel Center for Design (SCD) this past March welcomed all disciplines of engineering to participate in a discussion surrounding human-centered engineering practices—and MechSE showed up. The event was the first of its kind to take place at the University of Illinois.
SCD’s team planned the symposium with support from The Grainger College of Engineering and in conjunction with the Human-Centered Engineering Consortium (HCEC), a national community seeking to advance engineering practices that are equitable, sustainable, and responsive to human needs.
“Human-centered engineering can help us better identify needs and effectively address them in our engineering development,” said Assistant Professor Justin Yim, who attended the symposium. Yim recognizes HCE as an important component for MechSE’s MEX70 course sequence, for which he is an instructor.
Fellow MechSE professor Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler participated in the symposium’s poster session to discuss the design and usability of her team’s personalized, unique rolling experience (PURE) ball-based mobility robot that can be used in place of a traditional wheelchair (for more information about the PURE ballbot, read our 2025 robotics feature).
“In the last 10 to 15 years, my research has definitely focused more and more on thinking about human-centered design,” Hsiao-Wecksler said. “I thought it was really interesting to learn more about the larger human-centered community [at the symposium].”
Two members of Hsiao-Wecksler’s research lab, mechanical engineering master’s candidate Diane Gonzalez and ME PhD student Evelyn Ochoa Arias, also presented on similar work, with Gonzalez discussing the development of an active wheelchair cushion to address pressure injuries and Ochoa focusing on the simulation tool used for designing air bladder cushions. Bioengineering PhD student Natalie Taylor, advised by teaching associate professor and SCD affiliate Holly Golecki, also collaborates on the wheelchair project and presented a poster on understanding clinical decision-making and perspectives on wheelchair seating.
“Attending the symposium was an exciting experience because it brought together different perspectives on human-centered engineering,” Ochoa Arias said. “I shared how I use a simulation to design more personalized wheelchair cushions, but what stood out most was seeing how others approached research problems in different ways. It was inspiring to be in a space focused on designing with real people in mind.”
“Human-centered design has resonated with me since my introduction to it as an undergraduate student, and I wanted to learn about different ways that people integrate it into their research and teaching,” Yim said. “I loved the breadth of tools people shared for teaching human-centered design [at the symposium].”