Heewon Lee

Heewon Lee is an industrial designer and educator deeply committed to utilizing design education for humanitarian and developmental purposes. As a member of the MIT D-Lab Humanitarian Innovation team, Heewon focuses on designing and managing projects aimed at enhancing creative capacity among youth in low-resource settings.

Currently, Heewon is dedicated to exploring the potential applications of repurposed electronic devices in various developmental sectors, including agriculture, education, health, and energy. Through collaborative efforts with community innovators in northern Uganda's refugee camps and rural areas of Tanzania, he strives to co-design solutions that improve local technologies and positively impact businesses and lives.

Originally from South Korea, Heewon completed a master's degree in Interaction Design at the Umeå Institute of Design and later engaged in PhD coursework at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST). Throughout his career, he has been involved in diverse projects encompassing product design, interaction design, and graphic design.

Heewon shares his expertise as a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), teaching courses such as Mobiles for Development (MIT D-Lab), Product Design and Development (MIT Sloan School of Management), Humanitarian Innovation Design (RISD), and MIT Studio (RISD). Outside of his professional endeavors, Heewon enjoys rock climbing and restoring automobiles in his leisure time.