Andrew Witt named inaugural Kavita and Krishna Bharat Professor

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis has named Andrew Witt the inaugural Kavita and Krishna Bharat Professor, a role that focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) with art, architecture and design, effective January 1. The professorship includes a joint appointment in the McKelvey School of Engineering.

Witt will lead university efforts in AI and design, integrating emerging technologies into both academic and studio experiences and developing new courses and research frameworks that shape the future of design education and practice. He will teach interdisciplinary studio and seminar courses in AI, computational design and geometry in both schools and will serve as core faculty for the Sam Fox School’s new Master of Design for Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Technology.

“Andrew’s teaching experience, practice, and research interests—rooted in architecture, design and mathematics—are perfectly aligned with our goals for this unique position,” said Carmon Colangelo, the school’s Ralph J. Nagel Dean and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts. “His work operates at the cutting edge and at the intersections of architecture, art, design and engineering, with a focus on the relationship between geometry, data, AI, design, construction and culture.”

A co-founder of the creative studio Certain Measures, Witt is internationally known for his scholarship on design and technology. He has been on the faculty of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design since 2010, most recently as associate professor in practice in architecture. He is co-director of Harvard’s Master in Design Engineering and the founder and director of the school’s Geometry Lab, which explores the intersection of design and the science of shape and form.

“All of the projects I’m engaged with try to imagine an impact at multiple scales, then try to propose something in the world that has a cascading effect,” Witt said. A common thread in his work is an exploration of our spatial environment and the ways in which we represent that environment to our senses. “Through physical and digital media, my work tries to show the vast complexities of those spaces, but also some of the intuitive logics and the ways that we might begin to embrace the material, ecological, legal, formal, and cultural systems that surround us, and change them for the better,” he said.

Witt shared that he is looking forward to beginning his work at the university. “WashU’s emphasis on interdisciplinary, collaborative research and the Sam Fox School’s work in digital transformation make the university an ideal place to continue this work at many scales,” he said. “I believe that how designers use AI to see, imagine, and act within systems is fundamental to how we’re going to tackle some of today’s biggest societal challenges.”

Read more on the WashU Sam Fox School website.