With three new full-time faculty this academic year, the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design is deepening its expertise in historic preservation, design and urbanism, and user experience and user interaction design (UX/UI), advancing its mission to lead and innovate in these pivotal areas.

Take a seat — the winners of the annual SIT Furniture Design Awards include four industrial design students from the Hines College! Camila Campos, Mary Leath, and Diya Suresh Nair were part of associate professor and industrial design co-director Jeff Feng’s INDS 3500 studio. Rachel Feine (M.S. ’25) entered the competition independently, wanting to explore playful, modular design in furniture to foster imaginative play.

What began as a classroom exploration in advanced UX design has quickly evolved into an internationally recognized achievement for the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. Last week, Red Dot announced that NOMAD, a groundbreaking AI-powered, screen-free hiking system by recent industrial design graduate Varshini Chouthri, has been awarded the prestigious recognition of Red Dot’s “Best of the Best,” placing it among the top design innovations worldwide.