Laura Ferrarello

Dr Laura Ferrarello is a Senior Design Researcher at the EPFL AI Centre and Research Associate at the HERUS Lab. She collaborates with multiple EPFL labs to explore design research and thinking to foster dialogue between technology and society. Laura teaches The Practice of Ethics in Engineering Research, a PhD-level course that uses a system thinking approach to address and act upon ethical dilemmas.

Prior to joining EPFL, Laura led for six years the Master in Design Research at the Royal College of Art in London, where she still holds an external PhD supervisor position. Her research interest include ethical and participated forms of governance, design for ethics, design for dialogue and design for complexity.

In Laura’s work, the tangibility of design – as an object or experience – is what makes impact for making change at a system level. Design is a means for enabling dialogue, understanding of complex situations, literacy and knowledge exchange across sectors and disciplines.

Her practice, at the intersection of society, technology and the environment, is aimed at using design strategies to develop innovative processes and outputs that are ethical by design. To promote this objective, Laura created the online course on the Future Learn Platform – Ethical Practices to Guide Creativity and Innovation – guiding an innovation thinking that understands ethics as opportunities for innovation.

She exhibited and curated events in world-leading venues, such as the Saatchi Gallery (UK), the Design Museum (UK), The Barbican (UK), The V&A (UK), The Pacific Design Centre (USA), the Venice Biennale (IT), and the West Bund Artistic Centre (CH). Exhibited and curated work includes topics like AI and privacy, the future of flying experience, the future of work, curating as a method to engage in museums, amongst others.

Laura led and contributed as co–investigator to a range of interdisciplinary research projects with the industry, including British Airways, Fujitsu, Huawei, amongst others. She also collaborated with organisations like UNESCO, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and The Royal National Lifeboat Institution for developing design–led methods to increase safety in the maritime sector.

Laura presented her research papers and work in leading institutions, including Harvard GSD, Imperial London, King’s College, Fudan University, Tongji University, amongst others.

She is completing her first book “Engaging Design: Tools for design practices urging new forms of citizenships”, co-authored with Dr Robert Phillips (2025).