Bernie Roth
d.school Academic Director
Rodney H. Adams Professor of Engineering
Bernie Roth is the Rodney H. Adams Professor of Engineering. A longtime veteran of the Stanford design scene, he first came to the Stanford Design Division faculty in 1962. He arrived from New York City, his birthplace, with a wife, two children, a proper haircut, a sports jacket and a very traditional background in Mechanical Engineering and liberal New York politics. The experience of the Vietnam-War protest movement, the Human Potential Movement, and the other social upheavals centered around San Francisco, totally changed his life as an educator. It added a missing dimension, the explicit concern for his students’ education and growth beyond simply developing their technical expertise. The only things that he seems to have lost in the transition are the clean haircut and sports jacket. His most recent activities have moved him more strongly into experiences that enhance peoples’ creative potential through the educational process. His primary intention as an educator and person is to empower his students, colleagues and friends to have fulfilling lives.
Bernie brings to the d.school a wealth of experience in teaching design, an intimate knowledge of the functioning of Stanford University, and a worldwide reputation as a researcher in kinematics and robotics. Together with Doug Wilde and the late Rolf Faste, Bernie has developed the concept of a Creativity Workshop. This has been offered to students, faculty and professionals around the world. These same techniques will be available to d.school students. It is fervently hoped that these learning experiences will enhance students’ ability to make meaningful positive difference in their own lives. He is especially interested in the d.school as an opportunity for him to renew his commitment to create an environment where students can get the tools and values for realizing the enduring satisfactions that come from assisting others in the human community.
