天美传媒

Dr. Deana McDonagh is a professor of industrial design in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is also a Health Innovation Professor at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine at UIUC, a , and the founder of the  at the Beckman Institute, which supports interdisciplinary design research centered around the lived experiences of people with disabilities. In 2022, McDonagh won the  for exemplifying excellence and interdisciplinary research collaboration.
As an empathic design research strategist, she focuses on enhancing the quality of life for all through more intuitive and meaningful products, leading to emotional sustainability. Her research concentrates on emotional user-product relationships and how empathy can bring the designer closer to users’ authentic needs, ensuring both functional and emotional needs are met the material landscape.
She is the Designer Entrepreneur-in-Residence (start-up incubator) at the University of Illinois Research Park and the Designer in Residence at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, where she provides design guidance.

 is a research affiliate at the  and the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services, or DRES, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
He has served as the head coach of the University of Illinois wheelchair track and road racing team since 2005. In that time, his athletes have won 55 medals across four paralympic games while setting 14 world records on the track, and have won the Boston Marathon, London Marathon, Chicago Marathon, and New York City Marathon. In recognition of such performances, he has been named the USOC U.S. Paralympic Coach of the Year on three occasions.
Bleakney conducts research related to assistive technology and devices for individuals with disabilities as well as research related to human performance, specifically for athletes with disabilities. In 2017, he established the UIUC Human Performance and Mobility Maker Lab, an interdisciplinary lab where students with and without disabilities collaborate to design and develop assistive technology. As director of the HPML, Bleakney is faculty in the School of Art + Design at UIUC. He also co-directs the  at the Beckman Institute, which supports interdisciplinary design research centered around the lived experiences of people with disabilities.
He has also consulted with BMW, Toyota, Bridgestone Americas, and several Champaign-based start-ups in advancing racing wheelchair and other accessible technology research and development initiatives.
Education

M.S., print journalism, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2002
B.A., English literature, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000

Honors

2019: Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence Award
2016: USPOC U.S. Paralympic Coach of the Year
2015: USOPC Doc Counsilman Science Award
2015: USPOC U.S. Paralympic Coach of the Year
2009: Alexis Wernsing Innovation Award
2007: USPOC U.S. Paralympic Coach of the Year