Asli Demir

Aslı Demir is a Ph.D. student in the Interdisciplinary Design and Media Program at Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media and Design. She works with advisors Sara Hendren and Laura Forlano. Her research examines technology mediated interactions with everyday products, and their impact on human wellbeing, ideas of future and material culture. Drawing from feminist science and technology studies, design research and experiential futures, Asli develops frameworks to help design teams integrate emerging technologies into products that serve daily human flourishing.

Aslı’s research centers physical technologies and strategy, focusing on identifying the key questions that define the emerging landscape around nascent technologies, which have not yet developed meanings, users or applications. She builds immersive narratives for design teams to engage deeply and critically with their technology of choice to navigate the open-ended capabilities into viable and desirable product concepts.

Aslı holds a Master’s in Integrated Product Design at TU Delft, where she specialized in research and strategy for physical products and a B.S in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Her Master’s thesis on a psychology-driven design approach for children was featured in a column written by Pieter Desmet in the Dutch Journal of Positive Psychology. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the thermal management of an electric racecar battery, recognized with the DeFlorez Award for Outstanding Ingenuity and Creative Judgment.

Aslı’s work bridges theories in humanities with the practical approach of design methodology to build critical approaches to technology development. Her engineering experience includes internships at Apple, Tesla and NASA JPL, where she worked on battery systems for high performance electric vehicles, wireless changing products, and robotic systems for Mars. Her work on contextualizing technologies in experiential futures has been exhibited in Milan Design Week 2026.