Professor Wei Liu is a Professor of Design Engineering and Innovation at King’s College London and holds one of the three senior leadership roles in the department as Lead for Enterprise and Engagement, alongside the Leads for Research and Education (equivalent to Deputy Head). She has extensive experience in teaching, research, and leadership across design, engineering, and management.

She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge and was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, where she explored interdisciplinary education. Before joining King’s, she held academic and leadership roles across the UK, US, and China, including faculty positions at Cambridge Judge Business School, Assistant Dean at Tongji University, and Director of the Design Research Group and Programme Director at Aston University.

Wei is the founding director of several interdisciplinary degree programmes, including the MSci Design, Enterprise, and Innovation—the UK’s first degree integrating Engineering, Design, and Business to foster creativity and entrepreneurship in solving real-world challenges. She also led the design and development of King’s Quad Engineering makerspaces and project spaces. Her contributions to education have earned her multiple awards for Teaching Excellence and recognition awards, and she is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). In 2021, she was elected Director and Executive Board Member of the Design in Engineering Education Division at the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). In 2022, she was the sole nominee from her faculty for the ‘Innovation in Teaching’ Excellence Award, and in 2024, she won the University-wide King’s Education Award. Under her supervision, students have achieved global recognition, including the Overall Winner of the DMI Essay Competition, Grand Prize Winner of an International Tech Entrepreneurship Competition, NYJ’s Top 30 Women Leaders, and Schwarzman Scholars.

Wei’s interdisciplinary research has secured over £6.3 million in grants from funding bodies such as EPSRC, NIHR, and NSFC. Her work has led to two patented inventions and publications in leading journals, including The Design Journal, Design Science, Rapid Prototyping Journal, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, California Management Review, and R&D Management. Her paper was recognised as Top Cited and Most Downloaded Paper of the Year by Wiley. She has won Best Paper Awards from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) Conference and the British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference, as well as the N.E.J. Stevenson Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research from the Design and Technology Association.

Beyond academia, Wei has extensive industry experience, having worked with leading global business and design consultancies such as BCG, IBM, and TEAMS Design, where she led the design and development of consumer goods, industrial products, and digital solutions for top global brands. Many of her designs have been successfully produced and marketed. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA).

Wei plays key editorial roles in high-impact journals, serving as Co-Editor of The Design Journal (the official journal of the European Academy of Design), Associate Editor of

Gerontechnology, Editorial Board Member of Nature - Humanities & Social Sciences Communication, and Editorial Advisory Board Member of International Journal of Engineering Education (IJEE). She is a full member of the EPSRC Review College and an international reviewer for the Austrian Science Fund. Additionally, she has served as an external examiner and judge for international design competitions, degree programme reviews, and academic promotions. She is frequently invited as a session chair, keynote speaker, and conference committee member for major international events.

 

Professor Liu is currently accepting PhDs and visiting Scholars, please send your CV via email to wei.liu@kcl.ac.uk  

Research interests

• Design Thinking, User-Centred Design, Human-Computer Interaction
• Design for Healthcare, Design for Aging Society
• Design for Sustainability, Circular Economy
• Design for Advanced Manufacturing, Mechanical Design, Design Engineering
• Design and Innovation Management, Innovation Ecosystems
• Product Design, New Product Development Management
• Design Education, Engineering Education, Innovation Education