Ulrich Barnhöfer

Appointed professor in the Digital Product Design and Development – Design of Networked Systems program in 2018. Ulrich Barnhöfer received his doctorate from Stanford University in the USA, studied at the Stanford d.school and in the Learning, Design and Technology program at Stanford University. Previously, he graduated in Engineering Physics at the Technical University of Munich and studied Spanish culture and language at the University of Seville.

Seven and a half year industry experience at Apple Inc. in California in product design and innovation management. He registered 38 patents and implemented them in products that have been sold in over 900 million devices to date. He has also worked at Siemens, Infineon and Kodak in the areas of product innovation, product design and technology transfer. He developed strategy concepts for start-ups and medium-sized companies. During his time in California, he led the Design Thinking Team in the Systems Engineering Transformation Chapter of Incose.

He has taught at three universities and two adult education institutions in various roles (Istanbul Institute of Design, Stanford University, TU Munich; VHS, Deutsches Museum München). Most recently, he held a professorship for industrial design at an English-speaking, international university (OzU University – Istanbul Institute of Design, ranked 4th in the country) in the Faculty of Architecture and Design. At the same time, he was one of three founders of a combined design studio and co-working space.