Owen Chen, EDI '28Design Engineering, Product Management, Service Design
About
Owen is a designer and technologist who works at the intersection of human-centered design and emerging technology, and he is constantly drawn to the spaces between disciplines and cultures. Having grown up across Japan, China, and the United States, he believes good design should bridge those gaps rather than widen them. His work starts with people — the small frictions, overlooked needs, and quiet moments of disconnect that technology can either deepen or resolve. Above all, he believes design should restore a sense of dignity and clarity to the people who use it.
Why EDI?
Owen's interest in human-centered design grew out of moments where the people he designed for taught him what the work itself couldn't. At a parametric design institute, he helped fabricate 3D-printed cat shelters with industrial robotic arms — structurally optimized and weatherproof, the kind of object that feels finished the moment it leaves the printer. Installation day reframed that: watching volunteers struggle with components engineered for robotic precision and residents weigh whether a shelter was worth the tools it asked of them, he understood that a design only truly exists in the hands of the people who live with it. The conviction deepened during a robotics rehabilitation internship, where he designed a rehabilitation exoskeleton interface for stroke patients. When an elderly patient moved hesitantly over controls Owen had built to be "intuitive," he learned to read intuition from the patient's side of the screen — and saw that the real problem lay beyond the interface, in a fragmented system whose touchpoints no single team owned.
That is what draws Owen to EDI. Its studio sequence across product, interaction, and service design teaches the move he most wants to master — designing not just objects but the connective tissue between them — while its position across engineering, business, and design, paired with a commitment to equity as a working method, lets him design with the people he serves rather than on their behalf. Having grown up across Japan, China, and the U.S., Owen has long understood that good design bends to context and culture; through EDI he hopes to gain the rigor to turn that intuition into systems that meet a person with clarity, coherence, and dignity from the very first moment they encounter them.
Experience before EDI
BFA, Design & Technology, Parson School Of Design.
