Design@Large: Design to Action

Design@Large: Design to Action is a six-part public series from the UC San Diego Design Lab exploring how design moves ideas into real-world impact. Through conversations and hands-on sessions, the series examines how teams set direction, build momentum, and sustain meaningful work across sectors. Each session highlights the practical decisions, relationships, and practices that help innovation take root and endure.

On February 18, join us for a panel conversation with Zach Johnson, Dr. Jennifer Rochlis and Kurling Robinson as part of the Design@Large: Design to Action series at the UC San Diego Design Lab. There will also be an AI Demo by PhD student Jeongeon Park.

This session examines how continuity in design ensures that systems, technologies, and decisions remain accountable to people and place over time. Drawing from experience across artificial intelligence, human-systems integration, and complex sociotechnical systems, the panel explores how design becomes embedded within institutions—and how it continues to shape outcomes long after implementation.

Kurling Robinson is a nationally recognized entrepreneur, mentor, and ecosystem builder with more than 30 years of experience at the intersection of technology, design, and the common good. With a background in computer science and a career spanning companies such as Getty, Toyota, NetZero, Nissan, and Sempra, Kurling has led initiatives that translate complex systems into accessible, human-centered solutions. His work consistently focuses on designing pathways that turn insight into action and ideas into durable impact.

Kurling is the founder of Fōkcus, a mentoring-driven platform that blends technology, community, and place-based design to support founders, opportunity youth, and workforce development. He serves on multiple civic and nonprofit boards, including the San Diego Workforce Partnership, where he previously served as Chair, and Startup San Diego, a leading startup ecosystem organization. Through these roles, he helps shape strategies that embed equity, resilience, and long-term sustainability into institutional systems. On the Design@Large panel, Kurling brings a practitioner’s perspective on how intentional design can build collective momentum, align stakeholders, and create innovation that endures beyond pilot projects and programs.

Zach Johnson is the AI Engagement Director at the UC San Diego Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) and an AI industry veteran serving as a Design Lab Designer in Residence. He leads campus-wide efforts to accelerate awareness, engagement, and adoption of AI tools and technologies across UC San Diego.

In this role, Zach develops and executes a comprehensive AI adoption and engagement strategy aligned with university-wide priorities. As a primary ambassador for AI engagement, he builds cross-sector relationships across the UC system and throughout UCSD’s academic and administrative units, fostering collaboration and responsible innovation.

With experience spanning design, technology, policy, government, business, and industry, Zach integrates deep technical expertise, human-centered design training, and global industry experience to design, develop, and deliver solutions with meaningful impact.

His work reflects a full-lifecycle approach to innovation — from strategic ideation and design inception to solution development, stakeholder engagement, implementation, and continuous improvement.

Dr. Jennifer Rochlis is President and CEO of Advancing Frontiers and a former NASA senior leader with over 20 years of experience in human-systems integration. She works at the intersection of human performance, artificial intelligence, and complex sociotechnical systems, focusing on how advanced technologies and human capabilities co-evolve within high-stakes environments.

As the founder of Advancing Frontiers, a spaceflight integration consulting firm, Dr. Rochlis supports U.S. and international organizations in the design, integration, and governance of complex aerospace systems. Her career spans senior leadership roles at NASA and executive positions in the commercial aerospace and defense sectors, where she contributed to the development and oversight of mission-critical, real-world systems.

Dr. Rochlis holds a PhD from MIT, co-founded the Organization for Space Medicine Engineering and Design, and is a member of the American Society for Artificial Intelligence. In parallel with her technical leadership, she maintains a coaching and advisory practice focused on decision-making, leadership, and organizational coherence for individuals and teams operating in complex environments.

Her work spans design, technology, policy, government, research, academia, business, and industry. She approaches systems design by treating human roles across the full lifecycle as core system elements — on par with hardware and software. Dr. Rochlis focuses on how design decisions embed assumptions about people, technology, and context, shaping system performance long after implementation, with an emphasis on long-term resiliency and sustainability.

Jeongeon Park is a second-year PhD student in UC San Diego Cognitive Science, working with Steven Dow as part of the Design Lab and ProtoLab. Her research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), where she aims to help people better express and understand complex knowledge and perspectives through designing new tools, interactions, and experiences. Recently, her work has focused on participatory urban design—exploring how generative AI can be leveraged to meaningfully engage citizens in the process.

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