The Future of Design: Five Key Snapshots

This editorial is the first in a series of editorials exploring the future of engineering design from the perspective of thought-leaders within the engineering design community. Five early and mid-career researchers were invited to present their perspectives at a meeting of the Design Society in March 2025 on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Jessica Menold focused on teaming and collaboration in the context of AI; Kosa Goucher-Lambert on design cognition; Astrid Layton on sustainable and resilient design; Mohsen Moghaddam on VR/AR/XR in engineering design; and Zhenghui Sha on the design of complex socio-technical systems. Each presentation was followed by roundtable discussions of the challenges and opportunities posed by the speaker. The presentations and audience discussions are summarized in this editorial, along with a brief overview of some of the opportunities for further work. The goal of this editorial series is to inform the broader community of the progress, challenges, and opportunities associated with important themes within our research community and to offer a starting point for those who seek to investigate these topics and continue to advance the state-of-the-art in our field.