PhD student Diana Bolaños was awarded the prestigous NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellowship and PhD student Juliana Covarrubias was awarded the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. These awards will fund three years of graduate study. Congratulations!

Our group is excited to present several papers at the ASME IDETC ‘26 conference! We plan to see everyone in person in Houston!

Tunable Kinematic Smoothness for Generative Mechanism Synthesis
Authors: Diana Bolaños, Mohammadmehdi Ataei, and Kosa Goucher-Lambert

Capturing Tacit Design for Manufacturing Knowledge from Unstructured Discourse
Authors: Douglas McGowan and Kosa Goucher-Lambert

Reflective Resistance: Probing Behavioral Responses to the Environmental Impacts of Generative AI through Physical and Digital Interventions
Authors: Nicole Goridkov, Allison Yuh, Diana Bolaños, and Kosa Goucher-Lambert

Towards an Atlas of Engineering Design
Authors: Caseysimone Ballestas and Kosa Goucher-Lambert

Members (and alum!) of the Co-Design Lab attended the 2026 International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition in Paris, France this past week!

We’re excited to host Dr. Faez Ahmed, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he directs the Design Computation and Digital Engineering Lab. His research interests lie at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and engineering design, focusing particularly on first‑principle generative AI and optimization algorithms, multi‑modal representation learning, and engineering design methodology with human–AI design co‑pilots.

Abstract: Generative AI is transforming how we create, customize, and accelerate digital content. Yet applying these tools to engineering design introduces unique challenges, from maintaining precision under evolving requirements to working effectively in data-scarce environments and interpreting designer intent. In this talk, I will discuss these challenges and show how emerging engineering-focused foundation models are beginning to address them, reshaping workflows in areas such as vehicle design, CAD automation, and design optimization. I will highlight new opportunities enabled by generative AI that integrates multimodal data with engineering simulations and optimization, and present examples of AI-driven design co-pilots for engineering tasks. The talk will conclude with a perspective on how AI enables us to broaden design democratization, accelerate innovation cycles, and fundamentally reshape the role of engineers.

I am incredibly happy to share that I have been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley!

This would never have been possible without such an incredible group of students, postdoctoral researchers, visiting scholars, and collaborators who I was so fortunate to work alongside. It has been such a joy to interact with so many brilliant people and to bring our crazy ideas to life across 80+ publications and countless projects in our “intellectual lab compost.” I am deeply grateful to all of you for your trust, creativity, hard work, and partnership.

Onwards!

The new Berkeley Intelligent Robot Design (BIRD) Center brings together research on robotic machinery and intelligent system co-design. Diana presented ongoing research on data-driven kinematic linkage design, and Kosa shared about the lab’s expertise developing AI-supported design tools, computational and cognitive design, and the importance of academic-industry partnerships.

Check out more information about the center here.