Caseysimone Ballestas
I study how design decisions encode and divide judgment between people and intelligent systems. I’m particularly interested in the difference between delegation and abdication, i.e., when people hand a system the work but keep the decision, and when they hand over the decision too.
I first studied this in ambient intelligent environments (2020–2024). My current work focuses on generative AI interfaces (2024–).
I’m a fifth-year PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, advised by Dr. Kosa Goucher-Lambert in the Co-Design Lab. Before the PhD, I spent eight years as a design strategy consultant for companies including Wells Fargo, Airbus, DHL, Intuit, and Nike.
Studio OS for coherence engineering
In my own research workflow, Studio OS is how I keep delegation from becoming abdication. I call this coherence engineering. More at studio.caseysimone.com.
Publications
Ballestas, C., & Goucher-Lambert, K. (2026). Towards an Atlas of Engineering Design. ASME IDETC/CIE 2026.
Ballestas, C., Kang, S., Huff, A., Dong, A., & Goucher-Lambert, K. (2025). Is Innovation Shaped by Masculine Norms? A Longitudinal Case Study of a Consumer Product. ACM DIS 2025, 959–981.
Ballestas, C., Singh, M., Vu, D., Fillingim, B., & Goucher-Lambert, K. (2024). Designing Remote Monitoring for Smart Manufacturing Facilities: Hazard Identification and Classification. ASME IDETC/CIE 2024.
Ballestas, C., Kim, E., Chandrasegaran, S., Rao, V., & Goucher-Lambert, K. (2023). Applying Minor Theory to Engineering Design. ASME IDETC/CIE 2023.
Ballestas, C., Janssens, J., Lanoy, J., & Kim, E. (2022). Design-Engineers’ Selection of Agency: Harm Mitigation in Ambient Intelligent Environments. ASME IDETC/CIE 2022.
Ballestas, C., Chandrasegaran, S., & Kim, E. (2021). A Framework for Centralizing Ethics in the Design Engineering of Spatial Computing Artifacts. ASME IDETC/CIE 2021.
All publications on Google Scholar.
Teaching and mentoring
Instructor, MDes Thesis Seminar, UC Berkeley, Summer 2025, 2026
TA, MDes Thesis Studio, UC Berkeley, Fall 2024, 2025, 2026
TA, MDes Debates in Design, UC Berkeley, Spring 2025, 2026
Project Leader, Data Science Project, UC Berkeley, Fall 2023, 2024
Guest Lecturer, Reimagining Mobility, TU Delft, Spring 2022, 2023
Teaching Assistant, Reimagining Mobility, TU Delft, Fall 2021
Students I’ve mentored have gone on to industry and graduate school: Mansidak Singh (re:collect), Vivian Ye (UC Berkeley, MS), Duy Vu (TikTok), Sheila Mercado, Saakchi Thapa, Neha Suresh, and Timothy Zhou (UC Berkeley, BA), and Gustavo Flores (Albany High School, now UCLA). Berkeley undergraduates interested in joining my research can write to me.
Honors
Long-Term Research Grant, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), 2025
Cal Cybersecurity Research Fellowship, Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC), 2024
Graduate Research Grant to Advance Humanity, Hearts to Humanity Eternal (H2H8), 2023–2024
Digital Transformation of Development (DToD) Fellow, National Science Foundation (NSF), 2022–2024
Chancellor’s Fellowship, UC Berkeley, 2022
Presidential Merit Scholarship, Bennington College, 2010–2014
Elsewhere
Practice: Studio OS, Github
Research: Co-Design Lab, Google Scholar
Education: B.A. in Design & Social Psychology, Bennington College; M.Sc. in Strategic Product Design (cum laude), TU Delft
