Mitch Heinrich’s two-decade career as a professional designer has been anything but predictable. His projects have ranged from empowering micro-entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa to developing stratospheric internet balloons and glucose-sensing contact lenses. He co-developed the bone conduction transducer for Google Glass, explored AI-driven aquaculture, and led a team of designers at the forefront of synthetic biology creating new sustainable materials.

While the subject matter has constantly evolved, a consistent thread has been his ability to shape new ideas through his focus on holistic design and sustainability.

Mitch's design and development work has garnered numerous awards and has been exhibited at the NYMOMA and Cooper Hewitt museums. He is a named inventor on dozens of granted and pending patents. He founded the Design Kitchen at Google [x] which to this day is a critical part of the moonshot division, and once famously caught his daughter's falling ice cream cone before it hit the ground.

Currently, Mitch leads Design at Copper, an innovative home electrification company that creates beautiful, battery-equipped induction stoves powered by clean, cheap renewable energy, eliminating the need for dirty, old gas. He also has a boutique design studio called What For which advises and consults for companies pushing the bounds in sustainable material development.

Dierdre Shea (she/her) is an industrial designer with a specialty in novel materials and the craft of manufacturing. She uses her discipline to understand and develop meaningful, sustainable relationships between humans and products to reform and replace systems of mass production and material consumption. This focus has led her to widely varying design projects, seeking field-agnostic and radically compassionate approaches to the human experience.

She is a co-founder and principal designer at Fun Stuff Design, an award-winning industrial design studio based in Troy, NY specializing in novel sustainable material development and sustainable product design.

Pushan Panda is a designer and engineer based in San Francisco, originally from Pondicherry, India. With a background in theater set design, Pushan spent five years in India during his early career visualizing the works of Sri Aurobindo. During this time, he also co-founded a water purification initiative for rural communities, which earned the #WhatDesignCanDo award.

Since moving to the U.S., he has worked with startups and leading companies such as CopperHome, Otherlab, Autodesk, and IKEA. At Autodesk as a resident artist, he developed algorithms for creating large-scale metal origami sculptures. At Otherlab, he led rapid prototyping efforts, generating intellectual property and contributing to several hardware technology spinouts including solar-powered scooters, medical isolation tents, desalination systems, accesible HVAC and battery-integrated appliances.

Pushan also developed Bruk, a recyclable beverage carton that won the MetsäBoard Packaging Award. Currently, as a founding engineer at CopperHome, he is focused on scaling sustainably to replace all gas-powered appliances and to reimagine the future of cooking and home for a cleaner, healthier planet.

Gamal Prather is an entrepreneur, artist and designer with expertise in 3D form development, 3D printing, interactive visualization, and emergent technology.

After earning degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design, Gamal's enigmatic career has spanned nearly two decades involving projects in various industries including collectibles & toys, eyewear, fine art, food & beverage, furniture, footwear, interior design & architecture, kitchen & office tools, luxury accessories, and sporting goods.