meet the team

Louise Rosanna Manfredi, Ph.D FRSA

Principal Investigator
associate professor of the practice & director, Brown Design Workshop
PhD mechanical engineering | University of Leeds
MSc engineering management | University of Leeds
BDes product design | University of Leeds
Louise joined the faculty in the School of Engineering at Brown University in 2023 and serves as an associate professor of the practice and director of the Brown Design Workshop. She is a design engineering educator, climate change mitigation strategist and academic researcher. With expertise spanning design, mechanical engineering, neuroscience and management, Louise has dedicated her career to interdisciplinary research-driven solutions to human factors and environmental impacts of manufactured products.
Manfredi was an assistant professor of industrial and interaction design and adjunct associate professor of engineering management at Syracuse University. Manfredi was named Educator of the Year by the Industrial Design Society of America in 2020 for her commitment to interdisciplinary design education, and served as the IDSA northeast education council chair. In 2022 Manfredi became a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.
Before joining Syracuse, she was an assistant professor at Millersville University of Pennsylvania in applied engineering. Prior to becoming a professor, Manfredi was a postdoctoral scholar in the Bensmaia Somatosensory Lab at the University of Chicago, where she researched the influence of finger skin biomechanics on somatosensory processing. At the University of Chicago, she was also an entrepreneurship fellow in a joint program between Booth School of Business and Illinois Institute of Technology’s Design School. Manfredi has also served as a grant manager at the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom.
Resume