Masters in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship

Louise holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and a B.Des. in product design from the University of Leeds, U.K. Prior to joining Brown, Manfredi was an assistant professor of industrial and interaction design and adjunct associate professor of engineering management at Syracuse University. Manfredi was named Educator of the Year by the Industrial Design Society of America in 2020 for her commitment to interdisciplinary design education, and is  currently serving as the IDSA northeast education council chair. In 2022 Manfredi became a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. 

Before joining Syracuse, she was an assistant professor at Millersville University of Pennsylvania in applied engineering. Prior to becoming a professor, Manfredi was a postdoctoral scholar in the Bensmaia Somatosensory Lab at the University of Chicago, where she researched the influence of finger skin biomechanics on somatosensory processing. At the University of Chicago, she was also an entrepreneurship fellow in a joint program between Booth School of Business and Illinois Institute of Technology’s Design School. Manfredi has also served as a grant manager at the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom.

At Brown, Manfredi will continue her work in sustainable design implementation. She is currently examining the adoption of circular design methodologies and healthier material choices in the product development process in both educational and industrial settings. She is also leading a program of collaborative research that explores what it means to be a sustainable practitioner and to what extent this professional identity can be adopted across discipline boundaries for green economy-focused education and careers.