Mark Yoss

Mark Yoss, B.A., is the Lockheed Martin endowed director for the Advanced Manufacturing Sciences Institute at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Yoss assists students with acquiring skills needed for rewarding careers in advanced manufacturing industries including both technical and soft skills. From 2015 to 2020, he served as the Lockheed Martin Focus School Advisor to MSU Denver, where he was instrumental in creating the curriculum for the advanced manufacturing sciences bachelor’s degree.

Yoss also helped to establish the Lockheed Martin co-op program, which has converted 75% of MSU Denver student participants into full-time employees at Lockheed Martin upon their graduation. In 2020, Yoss received the Cooperative Education and Internship Association Charles F. Kettering Award, which recognizes an employer from industry, business or government who provides outstanding resources and service to the cooperative education and internship field.

Prior to his current role at MSU Denver, Yoss was a production principal at Lockheed Martin and retired in 2021. He was responsible for the design, development, manufacturing, inspection and testing of space flight hardware/software for launch vehicles, communications satellites and interplanetary spacecraft products used by the United States Airforce, NASA and the National Reconnaissance Office. He also served as a manufacturing senior manager and strategically lead a 90-person operation to design, develop and produce critical electronics products.

Yoss is an advocate for STEM education, and in conjunction with Lockheed Martin he has helped organize events for K-12 schools throughout Colorado, including hosting an annual space day for elementary school children as well as a manufacturing day that provided a facility tour of Lockheed Martin to high school and college students.

Yoss received his bachelor’s degree in industry technology in 1983 from the Illinois State University.

John Wanberg

John Wanberg, M.A., is a professor in the Industrial Design Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He has been teaching university-level coursework in industrial design for over 18 years. Wanberg has a knack for training prospective industrial designers and believes constant professional skill development is critical to prepare students for their design careers.

Among the many ventures he has been involved in as a professional designer, Wanberg has designed many products for the medical field and transportation. He has a strong interest in ergonomic and human factors research and has assisted in the development of several products that other aesthetics-based designers have avoided. Wanberg has collaborated in the design of robotic prosthetics (for stroke victims and amputees) as well as dynamic, alternative vehicle architectures that have been serviceable and comfortable over a wide range of user sizes. Additionally, while working as a contract research assistant, he developed a prototype footbed for a training device that is adjustability to fit the length and width of multiple users’ feet. His expertise includes technology-based conceptualization, “mechano-aesthetic” design, prototype fabrication as well as composites manufacturing and applications.

Wanberg received a master’s in industrial design from Arizona State University in 2005 and a bachelor’s in industrial design with a minor in Japanese from Brigham Young University in 2000.

Jinseup (Ted) Shin

Jinseup “Ted” Shin, MFA, is a professor the Department of Industrial Design at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include technology, product design, and future trends. Shin teaches Introduction to Industrial Design, Technical Drawing, and Digital Visual Techniques in ID and oversees student internships.

Before teaching at MSU Denver, he taught as an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, for five years. Shin also worked for Samsung Electronics in South Korea for seven years, where he designed various products including Samsung’s first clamshell-type cellphone. He was one of 12 from over 700 Samsung designers to be placed in a special design program at the company, which allowed him to travel to many countries and study how different cultures impact design solutions.

Shin is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America and co-authored an IDSA publication titled “Design Like a Chef,” in which he compares the complex roles of chefs and designers. Additionally, he is actively working with companies as a professional design consultant.

Shin received his master’s in Industrial and Product Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001 and a bachelor’s in Industrial and Product Design from the Yeungnam University in South Korea in 1993.

Amy Kern

Amy Kern, MID, is an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise include industrial design, human-centered design, design thinking and design research. Kern currently teaches Introduction to Industrial Design.

Prior to joining MSU Denver in 2014, her work included being a senior product designer, furniture and lighting designer and director of product design. In 2012, Kern launched her design consultancy, AK Magma Design, where she still works as the founder and director of design. Her extensive experience, specializing in furniture and spatial and lighting design, includes work with factories around the world and major corporate retailers and custom designs for restaurants, lounges, hotels and casinos.

Kern’s research areas include globalization, ethnography, humanitarian design and universal design. Her current projects are being completed at her consultancy, focusing on balancing humanitarian and universal design projects with projects using expertise in the business of product design and manufacturing. She is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America.

Kern received her Master of Industrial Design degree from Pratt Institute in New York in 2002 and her bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1994. She also holds a special certification in Design Thinking.

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