Judges

Melanie Sarantou is Professor in Social Design at the Kyushu University in Japan and Adjunct Professor at the University of Lapland, Finland. Her PhD holistically mapped Namibian craft and design through a postcolonial lens. Sarantou has worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the artistic research project ‘Margin to Margin’ (2016-2019) funded by Koneen Säätiö and Profi 2 Strategic Funding from the University of Lapland, investigating how arts and narrative practices impact on marginalised women in communities in various global locations, for example in Namibia, Finland, Russia and Australia. Between 2020 and 2022 her research focused on the role of arts in societies that exist on the margin of Europe in the European Commission-funded Horizon 2020 project titled ‘Action on the Margin: Arts as Social Sculpture’ (AMASS, grant number 870621), as well as the role of social design and arts-based methods in generating more holistic understanding and workable solutions for how to navigate cultural tensions existing with the processes of digitising Indigenous CH in an ethical way.

Juyoung Chang’s main area of research is in ‘design in cultural context’ with a particular focus on Korean and Asian culture. Agreeing with Agenda 21’s motto of “think global, act local,” which is similar to what the ADCF is aiming for, she decided to join the UN-led SDGs activities, and ADCF become a member institution of the SDSN(Sustainable Development Solutions Network). She also founded the ‘DSU-DESIS(Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) Lab’ in 2019.

ADCF was awarded the national research grant from the Korean National Research Foundation from 2019 to 2025, and the research topic is “developing creative design curriculums based on Korean culture and a gamification approach.” As a principal investigator of the research project, her passion is to contribute to the sustainable development of local communities through design education.

Hongtao ZHOU is a Shanghai Oriental Scholar Distinguished Professor, Professor of College of Design and Innovation (D&I) and Vice Dean of Shanghai International College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University. He is a recipient of China National Art Fund，National Social Science Fund and National Teaching Achievement Award. Dr. ZHOU has exhibited at the 40th anniversary opening exhibition Printing the World at Centre Pompidou, the Venice Biennale and the Milan Triennial. His work has been acquired into the permanent collections of Centre Pompidou, UC-Berkeley Art Museum, the University of Virginia and many other institutions and private collections.

Toshimitsu Sadamura’s areas of expertise include information design, environmental design, and universal design.

He received the SDA(Japan Sign Design Association) Grand Prize and the Good Design Award, among many others, for the "Total Design of the Fukuoka City Subway Nanakuma Line (2005)." He also won the SDA Grand Prize for "Signs That Grow with Children, Kiyama Elementary School (2009)" and "Signage Plan for JR West Hakata Station (2011)." In 2014, he established Social Design Networks Co., Ltd. He serves as the company's CEO, an executive director of the Japan Sign Design Association, an advisor to the NPO Fukuoka Design League, a lecturer at Yamaguchi University and Fukuoka Design College, and a board member of the Fukuoka City Foundation for Arts and Cultural Promotion, among other positions.

Yoonchung Han is an interactive media artist, award-winning interaction designer, researcher, and educator. Over the past fifteen years, she has created a wide range of interactive 2D/3D audiovisual art installations, including biologic art, data visualization and sonification, generative art, and audiovisual interface design. Her recent research focus was on multimodal interactions and data visualizations/sonification using biometric data and environmental data. Her works have been presented in many international exhibitions, conferences, and academic journals, such as ACM SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, Japan Media Arts Festival, London Science Museum, Media City Seoul, ZKM, NIME, ISEA, ACM Multimedia, ACM SIGCHI, IEEE Vis, Ulsan Art Museum, and Leonardo Journal. She had solo exhibitions at OCI Museum and Pier Contemporary Art Gallery in Korea. She was an Art Gallery chair at SIGGRAPH 2023 Art Gallery and was a committee member for the IEEE VIS Arts Program (VISAP), and PacificVis Storytelling Contest. She was selected as a San Jose Creative Ambassador 2023. She earned her bachelor's and the first Master's degree at the Seoul National University and her second Master's degree at Design | Media Arts, University of California, Los Angeles. She holds Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Design at San José State University.