Teaching staff
 
Massimo Banzi
Teaching Field: Physical Computing 
Massimo Banzi is the co-founder of the Arduino project and has worked for clients such as: Prada, Artemide, Persol, Whirlpool, V&A Museum and Adidas.
He spent 4 years at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea as Associate Professor. Massimo has taught workshops and has been a guest speaker at institutions like: Architectural Association - London, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel, Hochschule für Gestaltung Schw bisch Gm nd, FH Potsdam, Domus Academy, Medialab Madrid, Escola Superior de Disseny Barcelona, ARS Electronica Linz, Mediamatic Amsterdam, Doors of Perception Amsterdam.
Before joining IDII he was CTO for the Seat Ventures incubator. He spent many years working as a software architect,both in Milan and London, on projects for clients like Italia Online, Sapient, Labour Party, BT, MCI WorldCom, SmithKlineBeecham, Storagetek, BSkyB and boo.com.
 
Massimo Botta
Teaching Field: Design Theory and Interaction Design Research
PhD cum laude in Industrial Design and Multimedia Communication, he worked at Domus Academy Research Centre and at Philips Design as Senior Design Consultant, working on the integration between the technological development and the design of new products, services and systems. He carries on a theoretical and research activity in the field of interaction design, graphical users interfaces, dynamic interfaces and interaction techniques, knowledge organization and information visualization, writing and representation systems.
He is the author of the theoretical book on computer-based systems “Design dell’informazione. Tassonomie per la progettazione di sistemi grafici auto-nomatici” with forewords by Gillian Crampton Smith and Giovanni Anceschi, and the editor of the multi-author book on knowledge and theories of web design “L’ambiente dell’apprendimento. Web design e processi cognitivi” with G. Anceschi and M. A. Garito. He is the Head of the Master of Advanced Studies in Interaction Design at SUPSI.
 
Thomas Brooks
Teaching Field: Interactive Media and Theatrical Design
After a completing his BA in English Literature from the University of Chicago, Brooks traveled widely in Asia working as an editor and press officer for the Tibetan Exile Government in India and organizing an international traveling exhibition of Tibetan artwork from the Buriatian Region of the Soviet Union. From 1991 to 2000 Brooks was involved in a number of interactive media companies as a designer programmer and founded Emsitù with his wife was awarded several international prizes, including the Möbius award for interactive media in education. From 2000 to 2005 Brooks was Director of Development for the Fantastic Corporation, a broadband telecommunications software company. In this role Brooks lead an international team of software developers and creative media artists in prototyping future oriented media applications for customers and partners. From 2005 to 2008 Brooks was responsible for the new media modules in the Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication at the SUPSI. In that capacity he strengthened ties with the Conservatory of Music and the Dimitri Theatre School (both associated institutes of the SUPSI) and organized collaborative concerts and events as a playground for new ideas. Brooks is a founding member of Bashiba, a cooperative dedicated to good ideas and innovative technologies. From 2005 as the Director of Communication and Development of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona and as Managing Director of Biopolo Ticino he continue to apply interactive design to communications challenges.
 
Gianluca Brugnoli
Teaching Field: User Experience Analysis and Design 
(Associate Creative Director Frog Design Milan) Gianluca Brugnoli holds a Master Degree in Architecture and a Ph.D. in Industrial Design from the Politecnico di Milano (Italy). He is Associate Creative Director in the frog Milan studio. Throughout the
years he designed digital services and applications for some of the most important international companies. His research and approach to design is focused on untangling the complexity of systems and processes, seen as frameworks and platforms which enable different user experiences and behaviors.
From 1996 he is Professor and Researcher at the Faculty of Design of the Politecnico di Milano, where he explored the connections (and alsothe necessary disconnections) between design and business, starting a strategic design research team and developing the “product system” concept. He was member of the founding team and of the direction of the Master in Strategic Design. Lecturer in many postgraduate courses, among which MIP/Politecnico of Milano, Polidesign, Publitalia, Domus Academy, Sole24Ore, and others.
 
Pier Luigi Capucci
Teaching Field: New Media Theory
Since the early ‘80 Pier Luigi Capucci has been concerned with the communication’s studies, the new media and the new art forms, and with the relations among arts, sciences and technologies. He has been professor at the Universities of Rome “La Sapienza”, Bologna and Florence. Currently he is professor at the University of Urbino (New Media), at the NABA – Milan (Theories of Multimedia Arts), and in other institutions.
He published the books Realtà del virtuale. Rappresentazioni tecnologiche, comunicazione, arte (Reality of the virtual. Technological representations, communication, art), 1993, on virtual technologies and the relations between culture and sensorial representations; Il corpo tecnologico. L’influenza delle tecnologie sul corpo e sulle sue facoltà (The technological body. Technologies’ influence on the body and its faculties), 1994, on the impact of technologies on the human body; and Arte e tecnologie. Comunicazione estetica e tecnoscienze (Art and technologies. Aesthetic communication and technosciences), 1996, about art, sciences and technologies [in 2007 freely distributed under a Creative Common License].
He extensively published in books and magazines, organized exhibitions, managed projects and participated to conferences in Italy and abroad. He has been working in european projects on technological communications.
In 1994 he founded and directed the first italian online magazine, NetMagazine, later MagNet, a research project on the relations between culture and technologies made in conjunction with the universities of Bologna and Rome “La Sapienza”.
He is the founder and director of Noema (www.noemalab.org), a website devoted to culture-new technologies interrelations and influences (since 2000). He is the founder and director of (www.mediaversi.it, since 2004), a book series focused on new media and society, with an international Scientific Committee.
His theoretical activity is concerned with idioms, techniques and technologies of representation and communication in the communication and art realms, and with the technoscience-based art forms. In the field of applied research he works on the opportunities of social relationships raised by online communications and new media.
 
Bill Keays
Teaching Field: Interactive Media and Environments
Bill Keays holds a Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), USA, as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts Summa Cum Laude and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Ottawa, Canada.
He is an interactive media artist whose work attempts to dissolve the boundary between real and virtual realms. His installations accomplish this by presenting innovative body-centric interfaces that share a high affinity with conceptual basis of the work.
His early professional experience in the IT industry was fused with his artistic practice in sculpture and photography into a career as an interactive media artist-technologist. At the Fantastic Corporation, a multimedia start-up based in Switzerland, he founded and managed a new media Research and Prototyping unit.
He is currently Creative Director of Virtango, an interactive design consultancy based in Lugano, Switzerland, focused on interactive productions for museums, special events and entertainment facilities. He also gives lectures and participates to international academic conferences and exhibitions.
His work has been exhibited at SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica and numerous galleries and exhibitions in Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Spain, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the United States.
 
Marco Mancuso
Teaching Field: Spatial Audiovisual Performance & Design
Marco Mancuso is a critic, curator and journalist about digital art and culture. Founder and director at Digicult (and the magazine Digimag), project about digital technologies crossing art, design, science, culture and society, Marco Mancuso works specifically on contemporary audiovisual art & design, with a focus on live cinema & live media projects, generative & open source technologies, interactive & immersive installations, art & science practices. He worked as curator for festivals in Italy (Piemonte Share, Dissonanze, MixedMedia, Screen Music, Sincronie among others) and as guest curator for some international events (Cimatics, Strp, Sonic Acts, Nemo, Strp, Elektra) presenting Italian audiovisual artists and designers with the curatorial project +39:Call for Italy. He curate also the first Italian G.R.L. Laser Tag urban performance, some solo exhibitions (op7_Otolab, Thorsten Fleisch, The Arts Catalyst) and cross media events. His interviews can be read on Digicult archive, while his writings were published in some festival and exhibition catalogues (Piemonte Share, MixedMedia, 0006_Limiteazero, op7_Otolab, Direct Digital, Struttura) and written for some lectures and presentations he joined (Bruce Sterling’s workshop, Art&Science conference, The Open Source meeting, Pixxelpoint, Politecnico Design, Laba Academy). Marco Mancuso teaches at Naba Academy and Ied Institute in Milan.
 
Luca Mascaro
Teaching Field: User Experience Design
Luca Mascaro, user experience architect, works on user experience design for products and digital services. He also works on training and publication in the same field.
Luca is interested in processes and agile design, user experience and services’ ecosystem (web, mobile, Iphone, etc…). He regularly writes a blog about it.
He belongs to the Netwo founders’ group, the first italian discussion group about web 2.0. Moreover, he is a member in Skill Profile Working Group, a team working to define professional skills for web profiles.
In 2006 he founded Sketchin, a swiss design study internationally working in user experience design and strategic consultancy. Here, he introduced and is testing the agile design approach. He is board member in Phiware Engineering, software house based in Lugano that works in the bank and insurance field.
Luca is a usability and accessibility teacher in the High School for Applied Arts (SSS_AA) in Lugano. He collaborates with some swiss and italian universities in Master about User Experience Strategy & Design.
He organises workshops and take part in conferences as relator speaking about information architecture and user interface.
He took part in some international associations like W3C and ISO, in groups working on usability and human-machine interaction.
Since october 2008 he has been organizing meetups about design, technology and entertainment every month. He regurarly attends italian technology meetings and he is the responsible for ExperienceCamp and AgileCamp organization.
 
Alvise Mattozzi
Teaching Field: Semiotics for Technical Fields
Alvise Mattozzi is a semiotician whose main research focus concerns the semiotics of objects and the semiotics of design. Interested in developing a semiotics as a methodology for social sciences, he fosters the dialogue between semiotics and social sciences and, in particular, the dialogue between semiotics and Science and Technology Studies.
At present, he is a post-doc researcher carrying-out a research about Basic Design at the Iuav University of Venice, where he also teaches Semiotics of Industrial Design.
Beyond objects and technology, he is also interested in comics, about which he carried out researches in Italy and in the United States.
He is one of the founding members of the LISaV (International Semiotic Laboratory in Venice – www.iuav.it/lisav).
He has edited: Il senso degli oggetti tecnici [The Meaning of Techical Objects] (Meltemi 2006), with D.Mangano, Il discorso del design [Design Discourse] (E|C special issue 3/4), with Angelika Burtscher, Daniele Lupo e Paolo Volonté, Biografie di oggetti | Storie di cose [Biographies of Objects | Stories of Things] (Bruno Mondadori 2009).
 
Riccardo Mazza
Teaching Field: Information visualization
Riccardo Mazza graduated in Computer Sciences at the university of Pisa in Italy. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences from the University of Lugano, with a dissertation on the visual representation of students’ tracking data in Web-based distance education.
Since November 1997 he has been a teaching assistant at the Institute of Communication Technologies of the University of Lugano. Since September 1999 he has also been a researcher and teacher in the Department of Innovative Technologies at the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland. He has been involved (and is currently working on) research projects founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the European Union. His main research interests are Information Visualization and eLearning. He is author of the book “Introduction to Information Visualization” edited by Springer in 2009.

 
Fabio Sergio
Creative Director Frog Design Milano

Fabio Sergio is the Creative Director in the frog Milan studio, bringing over a decade of hands-on experience in wrapping business scenarios around people’s needs, desires and dreams.
As a design and user experience strategist, he is happiest where design, technology and (social) connectivity intersect. He believes that questions are often longer-lasting than answers, and that empathy and curiosity are essential ingredients to create innovative and meaningful solutions that foster change. Fabio’s passion for anything mobile stems from his experience at 3 Italy, where he was responsible for the user interface and industrial design of mobile handsets and accessories, and where he worked extensively on value-added mobile services. His previous responsibilities as a User Experience Lead at Razorfish and Interaction Designer at Whirlpool helped establish his deep expertise across several product and service domains.
During his tenure at frog, Fabio has played a key role in leading both tactical and strategic innovation programs for clients such as Vodafone, HP, BBC, Telecom Italia and J&J’s Lifescan.
He is a visiting professor at the Politecnico di Milano and Domus Academy and was an Associate Professor of Interaction Design at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. An experienced lecturer, he has had the pleasure of speaking at such venues as LIFT, PMN’s Mobile User Experience, Business to Buttons, Design Engaged, Media Futures and Frontiers of Interaction.
 
Lorenzo Sommaruga
Teaching Field: Semantic and Multimedia systems
He graduates in Computer Science at the University of Milano (Italy, 1989) and receives a PhD in Psychology from Nottingham University (UK, 1993) on studies about Distributed Artificial Intelligence. He works four years as lecturer and researcher at Univ. Carlos III of Madrid (Spain) and then in an Italian Government funded research project on e-learning. He is currently a lecturer and researcher within the Innovation Technologies Department at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), where he is co-director of the e-learning Lab. (eLab), and he is heading the Semantic and Multimedia Lab. within the Information Systems and Networking Institute of the Innovative Technologies Dept. He is teaching and disseminating XML technology since 1998 and is actively applying it to different domains from elearning to intelligent web. He works as responsible in various research and applied research projects. His main interests and research areas concern the XML technology and new web standards, the Semantic Web, elearning systems and standards, knowledge representation, AI and agents, and innovative information and communication technologies. He is author of more than 40 international publications on journals, conferences and books in these areas.
 
Roberto Vitalini
Teaching Field: Natural Interactions / Future Products and Visions
Roberto Vitalini’s work focuses on synergies between Art and Science, where the boundaries between interactive architecture, pure aesthetics, gaming technologies and business information evaporate. Lateral thinker by nature (media artist) and a vertical thinker by education (executive MBA in Media and Communication from the University of St.Gallen) he enjoys envisioning futuristic environments where technology blends in the landscape. In 2006 he filed the patent “Instinctive Communication Channel for the perception of Multivariate Data Changes” and the same year he founded BASHIBA (www.bashiba.com), a company developing innovative software solutions designed to visually communicate data changes via real‐time data atmospheres. BASHIBA’s video installations empower the users to be constantly informed without cognitive effort. In March 2008 Roberto was granted the “Venture Leaders 2008″ award and in June 2008 he offered a Tech Talk at the Google Headquarters in California about Real‐Time Data Metaphors. In 2009 Roberto designed the videos for the Opera “l’Amour de loin” (première at the English National Opera, July 2009, London) and for the Theatrical Show “Donka” (première at the Mossovet Theatre, January 2010, Moscow). Before founding BASHIBA, Roberto led the Research and Prototyping Competence Centre within the Fantastic Corporation. There, he explored future media experiences and their enabling technologies, such as the real‐time integration of live sport events with broadband‐enabled gaming consoles.

 
Fred Voorhorst
Teaching Field: Human Factors / User Centred product development
Fred Voorhorst holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and a PhD in Industrial Design Engineering, both from the Delft University of Technology and completed a Post Doc at the ETH Zurich in the field of man-machine interaction. His academic research focuses on intuitive interaction in the tradition of Gibsons’s Ecological approach to visual perception, which he applies to a wide field, ranging from medical tools & devices to consumer products, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality systems. He is teaching interaction design at BSc course of Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Arts and Design Zurich as part of the human factors module he is coordinating.
In his professional career he has worked in various companies (mainly) in the IT sector, and occasionally in the field of high-end fashion. Positions are diverse but always within the area of process, product development and/or business development, bringing in a strong customer focus. Currently he holds a part time position at the SUPSI/ICIMSI, and the remaining time he is working as independent on innovation and project management for various companies.

 
 
Other bios will be available soon.