Ada Hurst

I am a design educator and researcher. I regularly teach engineering design courses in the Management Engineering program, including capstone design (since 2011) and design methods (since 2024). I also teach courses in organizational behavior, theory, and technology. Combining my research training in human and organizational behaviour and my practical experience as an engineering design educator, I have built a research program in the discipline of design. My research lies in the areas of (engineering) design cognition, design management, and design learning/education. I am also interested in the impact of AI on design cognition, management, and education, both as a tool to assist with design practice, and to facilitate conducting research on design. Ultimately, my research looks at how people design, how they learn to design, and how we can make the teaching and management of design better. Recent research projects have been funded by SSHRC and various Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) grants. I am also the co-founder of the Canadian Design Workshop (https://uwaterloo.ca/canadian-design-workshop/), a biennial conference series to promote design and design education research in Canada.

• engineering design

• design cognition

• design management and innovation management

• large language models for design research

• design education, including design learning in extracurricular settings (hackathons, work-integrated learning, student design teams)

• Doctorate, Management Sciences, University of Waterloo, Canada

• Master of Applied Science, Management Sciences, University of Waterloo, Canada

• Bachelor of Applied Science, Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 2025 "Most Influential Paper" award, IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (co-author)

• 2023 Distinguished Performance Award, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo

• 2023 "Reviewers' Favourite" award in 24th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED'23)

• 2021 “Best Research Paper” award in Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, Decision Sciences Institute

• 2021 "Reviewers' Favourite" award in 23rd International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED'21)

• 2016 Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo

• 2024 - present: Co-chair, Cognitive Design Science Special Interest Group, The Design Society

• 2023 - present: Associate Chair Undergraduate Studies, Department of Management Science and Engineering

• 2023 - present: Associate Editor, Studies in Engineering Education (https://seejournal.org/)

• 2020 - present: Co-founder and Co-chair, Canadian Design Workshop series of conferences (https://uwaterloo.ca/canadian-design-workshop/)

• 2020 - 2024: Vice-Chair, Governance (previously Vice-Chair, Operations), Sandford Fleming Foundation (https://uwaterloo.ca/sandford-fleming-foundation)

• Professional Licencee Engineering (P.L.Eng), British Columbia

• Member, Design Society

• Member, Canadian Engineering Education Association

• MSCI 200A - Seminar
  • Taught in 2023
• MSCI 200B - Seminar
  • Taught in 2024
• MSCI 311 - Organizational Design and Technology
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
• MSCI 401 - Management Engineering Design Project 1
  • Taught in 2021
• MSCI 597 - Complementary Studies Topics in Management Sciences
  • Taught in 2023
• MSE 200A - Seminar
  • Taught in 2024, 2025
• MSE 200B - Seminar
  • Taught in 2025
• MSE 302 - Engineering Design Methods
  • Taught in 2024, 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Graham, J., Drewery, D., Fannon, A.-M., Hurst, A., Rennick, C. & McKay, K. (Accepted) Location matters: Differences in students’ self-reported social interactions and graduate capital between in-person and remote placement-based work-integrated learning experiences. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning

• Litster, G., Cardoso, C. & Hurst, A. (2024) Analyzing problem framing in design teams: A systems mapping approach. Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing. https://doi.org/10.1017/S089006042400012X

• Nickel, J., Hurst, A. & Duimering, P. R., (2024) Contextual influences on trade-offs in engineering design: A qualitative study. Design Science. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2024.34

• Rennick, C., Litster, G., Hulls, C. & Hurst, A. (2023) Curricular hackathons for engineering design learning: The case of Engineering Design Days, IEEE Transactions on Education, https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2023.3295754

• Nickel, J., Duimering, P. R. & Hurst, A. (2022) Manipulating the design space to resolve trade-offs: Theory and evidence, Design Studies, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2022.101095

• Nespoli, O.G., Hurst, A. & Gero J.S. (2021) Exploring tutor-student interactions in a novel virtual design studio, Design Studies, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2021.101019

• Flus, M. & Hurst, A. (2021) Design at hackathons: New opportunities for design research, Design Science, https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2021.1

• Litster, G. & Hurst, A. (2021) Protocol analysis in engineering design education research: Observations, limitations, and opportunities, Studies in Engineering Education, http://doi.org/10.21061/see.27

• Navigating the complex landscape of sustainable engineering design: Skills and mindsets over methods and tools
• STEM to the Sky: Meet Dr. Ada Hurst, Management Engineer