Kristi Bartlett is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering and Computing Education at the University of Cincinnati (starting August 2026). She was an Assistant Professor of Product Design at the University of Kentucky from 2023 - 2026. Kristi holds a PhD in Technology from Purdue University, an MS in Industrial Design from the University of Houston, and a BA in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Rice University. Kristi’s research focuses on design education, specifically on critical approaches to spatial skills research, broader questions of who gets to be a ‘designer’? and design visualization technologies. Kristi has also provided in-house design and consulting for multiple healthcare startup companies and has ongoing research in healthcare design.
Recent News
June 2026: I am exctied to share that I am moving to the University of Cincinnati to join the Department of Engineering and Computing Education, starting August 2026.
Feb 2026: Excited to have my CAREER award research featured by UK.
Feb 2026: Welcome to Conner Sinewe, Ainsley Couch, and Shivani Kaushal who are joining to work on research projects in AI for veterinary medicine and computer-aided design education.
Aug 2025: I am excited to announce that my spatial skills work has been supported by two NSF grants, the CAREER award (CAREER: Improved Models for Spatial Skills Learning through a Multi-Case Study of Computer-Aided Design Education), and a collaborative award with Dr. Grace Panther at University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Collaborative Research: Discipline-Specific Methods to Build Foundational Knowledge About Spatial Skills that are Relevant to Contemporary Engineering Practice).
Aug 2025: Congratulations to undergraduate research assistant KayDee Pratt for a successful paper presentation at the International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED). Picture below:
June 2025: Honored to share that our paper, How faculty-student interactions affect the BIPOC design student experience, was a best paper nominee at ASEE 2025 in the Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED).
June 2025: Welcome to Alexander Diakov who is joining for summer research.
May 2025: Congratulations to Gabriel Portugal for winning the Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Scholarship for his Fall 2024 studio project “Design of a Hands Free Jar Opener.”
April 2025: Excited to share that I have been nominated for the Excellent Undergraduate Research Mentor Award at UK.
Jan 2025: Excited to share that Claudia Krogmeier and I had our paper accepted at IEEEVR 2025.
Nov 2024: Excited to share that our abstract for the Experiences of Design Students project has been accepted for presentation at IDEC 2025
Nov 2024: Congratulations to Anna Quarles for winning 2nd place in the design category of the 2024 Oswald Research & Creativity Competition with her summer research project!
Sept 2024: Congratulations to KayDee Pratt for having her summer research project featured by UK!
Aug 2024: Welcome to Sadie Aaron, Kiefer Howland, and Anna Quarles who join me as undergraduate researchers for Fall 2024
Aug 2024: Congratulations to to Anna Quarles, Joshua Hocker, and KayDee Pratt for completing their summer undergraduate research fellowships!