paula te

• paula.m.te@gmail.com
• github.com/paulate
• linkedin.com/in/paulate
• last.fm/user/paulate
• @itshunkydory

• Seattle, WA 98115
  
• +1.727.437.2852

Paula is a design technologist whose work lies at the intersection of learning, crafting, and community. she/her

Skills

• Interaction design, human-centered design, tangible UI, graphical UI, UX, UI engineering, design engineering prototyping, design education & teaching

• Digital fabrication (2D/3D), physical computing, Arduino, welding, sewing, machine & wood shop, sketching

• Figma, Svelte, Framer, Realtalk, Fusion 360, Unity 3D, Leap Motion, Adobe CS, Processing/P5js, Python, HTML, CSS, PHP, JS/jQuery, SolidWorks, SketchUp, Blender, 123D

Experience

• San Francsico Opera

  • Instigator Fellow

  • Creating tools for the future of opera.

• Design Technologist, UX/UI Consulting

  • Worked with clients like Google Jacquard, Off the Grid Food Trucks, to prototype interactive experiences. Worked with education technology startups to design UI/UX for their learning platforms. Currently a member of Interstitial Co-operative, a worker-owned technology for good consulting group.

• Digital Naturalism Conference at Dreamspace Academy

  • Node Leader

  • Upcycling acrylics by building an acrylic recycling machine and teaching digital fabrication techniques with the Dreamspace team.

• Calbright College

  • Senior UX Designer

• Digital Fabrication Consulting

  • Co-created product strategy roadmaps for seed-stage digital fabrication startup.

    Experimented with 2d digital fabrication methods and techniques.

• CDG, HARC/YCR, and Dynamicland

  • Researcher

  • dynamicland.org

    Worked on a new computer that isn't a screen but a space. Mixed reality, immersive & interactive space meets accessible programming and radically transparent operating system.

    Co-created community space at Dynamicland, creating events and tours for the public. Lead design workshops for groups of students, parents, families, design companies. Built interfaces, robotic, 3D, and 2D, as a part of the interactive immersive system. Designed immersive learning experiences around music, coding, and visual art. Contributed to the programming language of the system.

• Xerox PARC

  • Interaction Designer

  • Built prototypes to demonstrate how new technologies could be adapted to consumer or business products. Conducted and reviewed research to facilitate UI/UX of various projects.

• CIID Thesis: TADCAD

  • Interaction Design Student

  • In 10 weeks, I designed and developed TADCAD, a playful tangible and gestural 3d modeling platform. I researched gestures through bodystorming and observing how people use existing CAD software. I observed kids age 8-12 using TADCAD to understand how they learn and interact.

• Karkhana

  • Design Resident

  • I worked on teaching design to engineers! I created and ran design workshops, and trained future design educators in the company on creating and developing their own workshops.

• MIT

  • Design Educator and Researcher

  • I worked on integrating design education into engineering schools! I created lectures, activities, and print materials in a collaboration with MIT and King Fahd University in Saudi Arabia.

• Siegel+Gale

  • Associate Information Architect, Customer Experience

  • I design information in websites and services to improve the user experience, making content simple, understandable, and accessible. I created designs, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and code for websites. I conducted user interviews and analyzed and developed social media strategies for clients.

    Selected clients: Hewlett-Packard, General Services Administration, Bank of America, American Express

• MIT Product Design: Rensa

  • Student Designer

  • With a team of 20 students, I created Rensa, a bottle washing and filling station designed to make it easy to reuse water bottles. I led the team responsible for the industrial design, user experience, and superstructure of the product.

• American Innovative, LLC.

  • Product Designer

  • I worked on the detail design and refinement of two products for parents, creating solutions to interface design issues. I also assisted with testing, debugging, manufacturing, and packaging design.

• 5 Wits Productions, Inc.

  • Designer and Engineer

  • I brainstormed, ideated, and prototyped games for a puzzle-based adventure park. I created SolidWorks models of the parts, integrating aesthetics and functionality into the designs.

Education

• Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design

  • Masters in Interaction Design Programme, Honours

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • BS in Mechanical Engineering with concentration in Industrial Design

• Laney College

  • Tiny House Carpentry Class

• CCSF Extension

  • Metalsmithing and Jewelry-Making

• School of Visual Arts

  • Information Design, a continuing education course

• Massachusetts College of Art and Design

  • Industrial Design, a continuing education course

• Coursera

  • Online classes in sustainability, HCI, and internet history

Teaching and Publications

• The inequities of our remote gathering tools

  • Self-published Medium article. Link here.

• Design Fellow

  • Jacobs Hall of Design at UC: Berkeley

• Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

  • Te, Paula

  • "TADCAD: a tangible and gestural 3D modeling & printing platform for building creativity"
    Pages 406-409
    http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2771839.2771865

• MIT

  • Spring 2010: Toy Design mentor. Fall 2012: Product Design mentor

• Publication: Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing

  • Kudrowitz, Barry; Te, Paula; and Wallace, David.

  • "The Influence of Sketch Quality on Perception of Product-Idea Creativity." AI EDAM, volume 26, issue 03, pp. 267-279.

    The same research was accepted to and presented at the IASDR2011, the 4th World Conference on Design Research. Delft, the Netherlands. October 31 - November 4, 2011

• City University of Hong Kong

  • Workshop facilitator, "Ideating Discovery-Enriched Curriculum."

• Plastic-Punk Animal Games Workshop

  • Digital Naturalism Labs and Paula Te

  • Creating games to learn about the natural world in a future world where the only materials we have to work with are the plastics trash around us.

Other fun

• Counseling at Berkeley Free Clinic
• Understanding the Indonesian-Chinese Diaspora with May-Li Khoe
• Collaboratively creating and freely sharing and being playfully serious