In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design was folded into Illinois Tech's School of Design & Society.
This website is an archive of the impactful and inspirational work produced by the ID community before that transition.

László Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, treating design as a discipline that was teachable, testable, and consequential. Nine decades on, its scope had widened from the things people use to the systems they depend on: hospitals, government agencies, classrooms, supply chains, digital platforms. Along the way, ID community members developed the published research, methods, and frameworks that designers rely on every day.

Chief among them is human-centered design: close attention to how people actually live, and advocacy for what that research reveals. It shaped designers who are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity: curious, rigorous, inclusive, and stubbornly optimistic about design's ability to change the systems that shape our lives.

To every one of them, who taught, studied, built, critiqued, and stayed late in the studio: thank you, and keep designing.

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Cecilia Ambros

ML/AI Product Design Leader, JP Morgan Chase

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An executive technology leader and a proud IIT Institute of Design alumna, Ambros passionately advocates for the power of design and the importance of workforce inclusion. Her journey, rooted in her fine arts background, has taken her through diverse roles in digital advertising, enterprise software, consumer products, and strategic research. She currently serves as Executive Director at JP Morgan Chase, leading Digital Design and Customer Experience for CCB ML/AI Operations. Ambros previously held senior leadership positions at Amazon (including Head of UX Design for Grocery, Design Research & Data Science for Devices and Global Executive UX Director for Advertising). She also served as Global Studio Director at Nike for NFL, Global Football, and Men’s Training.

With a Master’s Degree in Design Planning, Research and Strategy from IIT Institute of Design, a Bachelor of Technology from Farmingdale College, and further certifications from Portland State, MIT, Cornell and Harvard, Ambros is committed to empowering the next generation. Her contributions to STEM have been recognized with the 2022 Luminaria Award by Latinas in Tech. As a global keynote speaker, Ambros is excited to connect with the IIT community and share insights from her career.