Dimitris Papanikolaou

Dimitris Papanikolaou, DDes, is an Assistant Professor at UNC Charlotte, jointly between the School of Architecture and the Department of Software and Information Systems in the College of Computing and Informatics. His research investigates how the study of system dynamics, social behavior, and information technology can inform new design strategies for intelligent urban, building, and mobility systems. His interests include human-building interaction, urban modeling, ubiquitous computing, data visualization, urban operations research, and design research. Learn more about his research at his website.

Dr. Papanikolaou has worked at Microsoft Research on applications of the internet of things and at the MIT Media Lab co-developing Mobility on Demand, an intelligent sharing system of electric foldable cars, named by TIME magazine as the best automotive invention of 2007. His research has received many distinctions, including the Buckminster Fuller Challenge; the Harvard Deans’ Design Challenge; the MIT Transportation showcase award in Economics, Finance, Policy and Land Use; the Harvard Fellowship on Energy and Environment; the Harvard Meyer Transportation Research award; and a Fulbright Fellowship. He has taught at New York University Interactive Telecommunications Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Harvard University and has been an invited speaker in universities, research labs, and design studios such as the University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, CMU, Microsoft Research, Pennsylvania State University, NOKIA Research, University of California Berkeley, UN Studio, and OMA.

Recently, Dr. Papanikolaou received a grant from the Knight Foundation in support of the project, "Charlotte Breaths," developed through his Urban Synergistics Lab, a research initiative to design, study, and develop enabling systems that connect humans, objects and places cooperatively across scales, physically or virtually.

Dr. Papanikolaou holds a Doctor of Design (DDes) from Harvard Graduate School of Design, a Master of Science from MIT Media Lab (MIT School of Architecture + Planning), a Master of Science in Architecture Studies in Design Computation from MIT School of Architecture + Planning, and a Diploma in Architectural Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.

Companies

• Assistant Professor University of North Carolina at Charlotte (2017)
• Visiting Faculty New York University Interactive Telecommunications Program (2014)
• Postdoctoral Researcher Harvard University Graduate School of Design (2016 — 2017)
• Doctoral Candidate Harvard University (2011 — 2016)
• Research Intern Microsoft Research (2014 — 2014)
• Instructor MIT Media Lab (2008 — 2011)
• Researcher MIT Media Lab, Smart Cities & Changing Places groups (2008 — 2011)
• Researcher Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2006 — 2006)

Education

• Diploma National Technical University of Athens (1996 — 2004)
• Exchange scholar Technische Universiteit Delft (2000 — 2001)
• National Technical University of Athens (1995 — 1996)