Amin Mojtahedi Named to Upstart 50 Honorees List of 2018
HGA News
09.07.2018
Amin Mojtahedi, PhD, Associate AIA, has been named to the Upstart 50 honorees list of 2018 for his innovative approaches to user-centered design and research. Sponsored by the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal, the second annual Upstart 50 recognizes “the most dynamic, disruptive, and innovative people” in the Bay-area business community.
Mojtahedi is a Design Researcher and User Experience Architect at HGA in San Jose, where he uses architectural design process to design organizational change and strategic social interactions in workplace, higher education, and healthcare environments. His research and design strategy draws from people-space analytics, action research, ethnographic research, and Design Thinking to shape the architectural planning and design process.
“Amin’s role within HGA’s firm-wide research collaborative group affords him the freedom to innovate and educate, to grow and to help his team grow,” said HGA Principal Scott Colson, AIA, who nominated Mojtahedi for the award. “Since joining the firm in 2016, he has added important insight to our existing research expertise in evidence-based design, lean process improvement, workplace studies, virtual reality/augmented reality, and other initiatives—providing clear data on how people use space and thrive within the built environment.”
In addition to his work at HGA, Mojtahedi is a Teaching Assistant at IDEO U; a University Innovation Fellow (UIF) at the Stanford d.school; and a co-founder of People-Space Analytics, an architectural technology startup.
He frequently presents at national conferences, including “Design Thinking for Creating Places That Foster Students’ Creative Confidence” at SCUP 2018 Annual Conference this June. He also has published his research findings in industry journals, including “Design Thinking: Reimagining the Healthcare Design Process” co-authored with Kurt Spiering in the May/June 2018 issue of Medical Construction & Design.
He is the recipient of multiple research awards, including the 2018 EDRA Certificate of Research Excellence for a joint workplace participatory design research project on HGA’s Milwaukee office, in collaboration with researchers from Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Mojtahedi joins a distinguished group of startup founders, venture capitalists, creative minds, and influencers across diverse industries.
For more information, visit Upstart 50.
