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Caseysimone Ballestas

I am a third-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, advised by Dr. Kosa Goucher-Lambert in his Co-Design Lab. I hold an M.Sc. in Strategic Product Design (cum laude) from the Technical University of Delft, where I was advised by Dr. Euiyoung Kim. I also hold a B.A. in Design & Social Psychology from Bennington College, where I was advised by Donald Sherefkin and Ronald Cohen.

I’m always eager to connect with undergrads interested in design engineering and cybersecurity research. I am passionate about mentoring emerging scholars and have supported students like Mansidak Singh (re:collect); Vivian Ye (UC Berkeley, MS); Duy Vu, Sheila Mercado, Saakchi Thapa, Neha Suresh, Timothy Zhou (UC Berkeley, BA); and Gustavo Flores (Albany High School) in their academic and industry pursuits. If you’d like to join my research, please reach out!

Research Interests

My research explores the intersection of design, engineering, and cybersecurity. I am particularly focused on the design of ambient intelligent environments and the security challenges posed by these cyber-physical systems. I aim to understand how design decisions in the early stages influence the vulnerabilities and attack surfaces in these environments.

Publications

• 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.

Honors and Awards

• Long-Term Research Grant, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), 2025

• Cal Cybersecurity Research Fellowship, Center for Longeterm 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

Industry and Teaching

Outside of academia, I consult on design and cybersecurity globally. As a design strategy consultant, I have worked with startups and Fortune 500 companies, helping them navigate the challenges of product and service innovation. My clients include Airbus, DHL, Intuit, and Nike, among others.

I give talks, conduct interviews, host panels, write articles, and guest edit periodicals on the topics of: XR, Architectural Psychology, Spatial Web, Physical XD, Spatial Computing,  AmI, (A)IoT.

📰 READ MORE ABOUT MY WORK IN FRAME

Teaching Experience

• GSI, MDes Debates in Design, UC Berkeley, Spring 2025

• GSI, MDes Thesis Studio, UC Berkeley, Fall 2024

• Project Leader, Data Science Project, UC Berkeley, Fall 2023 and Fall 2024

• Guest Lecturer, Reimagining Mobility, TU Delft, Spring 2023

• Teaching Assistant, Reimagining Mobility, TU Delft, Fall 2021