Ricardo Sosa has had a hybrid career in both academia and industry as an interaction designer, PhD researcher, lecturer, professor, and now independent researcher and consultant. He has experience working on projects with companies and communities in Mexico, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. Sosa believes that university-industry partnerships can provide opportunities for both sides through activities like student projects, internships, co-authored research, and spin-off companies. However, such partnerships also face challenges in terms of different goals, timeframes, and structural differences between academia and industry. Sosa advocates for an agile and questioning approach when bridging research and design work between these sectors.

1. Design research
in industry and
academia Prof. Ricardo Sosa
Independent Researcher + Monash University
linkedin.com/in/creativeprototyping

2. Experiences,
principles, and
examples to
inform a hybrid
career

3. Ricardo Sosa:
- 1995, Industrial Design (MX)
- 1995 – 2000, Interaction Designer (MX, SG)
- 2000 – 2005, PhD University of Sydney (AU)
- 2005 – 2011, Lecturer ITESM (MX)
- 2012 – 2015, Assist. Professor SUTD (SG)
- 2015 – 2022, Professor AUT (NZ)
- 2017 – 2024, Adjunct Prof Monash (AU)
- 2022 – , Independent Researcher & Consultant

4. University-Industry experiences:
- Handcraft communities: Zacoalpan, Sevina, Tzintzuntzan
- Learning technologies, National University Hospital (NUH)
- 100+ studio and capstone (CADI) at Tec de Monterrey
- Opportunity Lab, SUTD: Philippines, India, Singapore
- Manurewa, South Auckland
- Healthy Families + Southern Initiative, NZ
- TenX

5. University – Industry:
- Student proj (capstone, studio)
- Internships, WIL
- Graduate, Hons theses
- Co-authorships, IP
- Study participants, case studies
- Professional development
- R&D grants
- Spin-offs
- “Alt-Ac”

7. Opportunities:
- Increased options
- Rapid pace
- Tangible outputs
- Short-term impact
- New skills
- Synergies
- Variety of topics, challenges

8. Challenges:
- Different goals, timeframes
- Validity of studies
- Applicability of new knowledge
- Transfer can take years
- Structural differences
- Diversity in both sides

9. Challenges:
- Hierarchies & ownership
- Extractivist approaches
- Research fatigue
- Relevance of topics/results
- NIMBY, NIH, “Uber of”…
- From projects to partnerships

11. Data
Information
Knowledge
Theory informs
Phenomena Present situation Possible futures
Bridging from
research to
design
Big concepts
Insights
A
B
C
Theory building

13. “Some companies do not really
engage their customers to get
their feedback. Instead, there
may be the certainty mindset
occurring, either pretend or
arrogant. This prevents the
opportunity of gaining the
valuable customer feedback.”

16. Record Reveal Refine Realise Release Reflect
6R Customer Value 

18. An agile mindset:
• “Quick & dirty” tasks
• POs: research literacy
• Learning culture
• Rigour + intuition
• “Questionologist”
• Actionable results
• X-Disciplinary: connect the
dots

19. Action principles:
• Be open to adapt practices
• Bathwater vs Baby
• Build vocabulary, tools
• Challenge academic dogmas
• Ask powerful questions
• Organise, task sizing
• Slack time

20. Creative Ikigai
Projects that you
LOVE
Projects that
PAY WELL
Projects that you
ARE GOOD AT
Projects that
DO GOOD
PRIDE
JOY
EFFECTIVE
EFFICIENT
Ikigai
Some community projects
Most industry projects
Future projects & clients
Some clients & partners

21. fun!
Prof. Ricardo Sosa
Independent Researcher + Monash University
linkedin.com/in/creativeprototyping