CV

SUMMARY

Qualitative Research + Writing
10 years experience. Designed, created, and administered attitudinal and behavioral surveys. Created guides for and conducting interviews and focus groups. Used cognitive walkthrough and contextual inquiry. Used grounded analysis and axial coding. Analyzed data using NVivo and MAXQDA software. Published in peer-reviewed academic journals, reports, and blogs.

Design + Art
10+ years experience. Conducted user research for environmental designs. Creating concepts and applying to physical form through prototyping and model making along with wireframing and storyboarding. Used drawing/sketching and illustrations to communicate design ideas. and Adobe CS/CC. Some experience with AR using Unity and 3D modeling using Sketch-up, and Rhino.

Cartography + GIS
5+ years experience. Created spatial datasets for land use models and conducted policy scenario analysis. Used ArcGIS for analysis and designed in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Some experience using QGIS.

Presentation + Communication
5+ years experience. Presented at academic and non-academic conferences as single presenter and panel participant. Used Keynote, Powerpoint, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Managed and organized design thinking workshops for students.

Teaching
5+ years experience. Taught courses in Environmental Design, Visual Communication, Art, and Japanese. Created course curriculum, lesson plans, assignments, and organized final design jury events.

SKILLS
User research, Wireframing, High and low fidelity prototyping, Illustration, Storyboarding, Cognitive, Walkthrough, Contextual inquiry, Focus Groups/Interviews, Survey design, Survey analysis, Drawing/Sketching, Project Management

TOOLS
ArcGIS, Adobe CC, Figma, Balsamiq, NVivo, MAXQDA, Sketchup, AutoCAD

EXPERIENCE

RESEARCH

BEBO, the Conversational AI chatbot (2020)
Lead researcher for a conversational AI chatbot to help women with obtaining unemployment benefits at the Palo Alto Research Center. This started from the winning project of the ExPat Woman Hack the Crisis – A Global, Virtual All-Women Hackathon (https://www.theexpatwoman.com/hackathon/). Our project was the winner of all the Audience Choice for all three categories: Best use of code, Best design and user experience, and Best solution to a COVID-19 challenge faced by women. Project prototype available here: https://whowteam.github.io/bebo/

Van Alen Institute Climate Council Research Fellow (2018 - 19)
Served as a research fellow for national group of designers exploring the role of design in the future of food in the age of climate change in California. Provided referential material on causes and impacts of climate change, interviewed 20+ experts regarding food and food related issues, gathered experts from California to discuss the key environmental, social, and economic issues, gave presentation on food waste issues, and wrote in-depth blog posts about the Climate Council’s workshops and meetings. Read the posts here: https://www.vanalen.org/stories/.

Wealth and Waste: Bay Area food polemic (2018 - 19)
Gathered data, literature review on waste/wealth dichotomy in bay area, and created a map. This was a collaborative project with Professor Leonard Yui. Poster of the research was presented at National CELA conference in Sacramento, CA (2019).

Why we waste: looking beyond consumer responsibility (2015 - 19)
Administer survey to students that dine at dining commons, lead focus groups, gather on site data of food waste behaviors, survey data analysis. Lead researcher of behavioral analysis of institutional food waste. Created attitudinal and behavioral surveys using psychologist Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory. Administered 5,000+ surveys, conducted 20+ focus groups and 20+ one-on-one interviews. Analyzed 700+ surveys and focus groups and interviews. Lead researcher. Co-authored article with Dr. Charlotte Biltekoff submitted to Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education (2019).

Women’s Work: Eco-feminist perspectives on sustainable environmental design (2016 - 17)
Research Assistant for project on eco-feminism and environmental design, wrote a litera-ture review. Produced Womens Work article, can be read here: http://averyreview.com/issues/27/womens-work

Mottainai! a modern solution for a modern problem (2015-2017)
Applying Tanaka Shozo’s fundamental river law of “nagare” and “doku” to current food waste systems in the US and Japan. Co-lead research with Dr. Kevin Smith. Submit article to Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning (2019).

Visual Note Taking: teaching and learning in a visual world (2015 - 16)
Analysis of visual note taking assignments and seminar and the potential for visual note taking as a teaching and research tool. Co-lead research with Professor Elizabeth Boults. Presented at Council of Educators of Landscape Architecture (2016).

Bokashi: community participatory composting (2015 - 16)
Design waste bins, collect food waste, data cleaning and analysis, manage student volunteers, and introduce new approach to composting. Lead researcher. Conducted user research, designed waste bins, collected food waste, conducted and analyzed surveys and focus groups, managed student volunteers, provided design thinking workshops. Project as part of campus Vertical Integration Program (2016).

Oil palm on deforested lands: Too good to be true? (2011 - 13)
Scenario analysis of levels of enforcement of the Brazilian oil palm policy approving expansion of oil palm plantations on previously deforested lands. Lead researcher; Advisor: Dr. Sonia Yeh. Produced Yui and Yeh (2013) cited above.

Mapping global carbon: new estimates of carbon stocks for economic models (2010 - 14)
Synthesize a range of forest, grassland, and cropland biomass and soil carbon data and use a GIS to create new biomass and soil carbon estimates. Graduate Student Researcher; Advisor Dr. Holly K. Gibbs. Produced Gibbs et al. (2014) and Plevin et al. (2014) cited above. Produced California Air Resources Board Report (2011) cited above.

ART + DESIGN

Artist in Residence: Blake Garden (2018 - 19)
A year long artist residency at UC Berkeley’s Blake Garden in Kensington, California. The project is an exploration of colors through creating colors from plants in the garden. Exhibition of work will take place in August 2019.

Map stories: 31 maps of 2018 (2018)
Drawing one map a day for the month of October exploring one timely issue of 2018 per day.

Resilient By Design: Team Public Sediment (2018)
A year long design competition in the bay area to address the looming threat of climate change. As part of the UC Davis team, I helped create models used for community engagement events.

How to reduce food waste: Why less is more (2016)
Using design thinking approaches to propose a design to reduce food waste in the UC Davis dining commons. My team came up with the Les Tray, a tray inspired by the bento box that allows for customization and flexible portion sizes.

ABX Design Competition: Common Ground (2016)
ABX | Architecture Boston Expo is an annual gathering for practitioners in the design to gather. There is an annual competition to design a temporary installation for the expo. This was a collaborative project with Professor Leonard Yui. This project won 2nd place.

ON/OFF Design Competition: The Mobile CO.MPOSTER (2016)
Co-machines: Mobile Disruptive Architecture’ takes as its premise the recent tendency among architects and designers to opt out of traditional office work in favour of creating self-initiated interventions in public space. This was a collaborative project with Professor Leonard Yui.

Eco-district: India Street sustainable neighborhood plan (2013)
In 2013 the City of Portland initiated a process to prepare an India Street Sustainable Neighborhood Plan. This was a collaborative project led by Professor Steven Wheeler and consisted of a team with myself and two undergraduate landscape architecture students.

Sculpture Objects Furniture Arts (SOFA) Design: Reframe (2013)
The Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design (SOFA) Fair in Chicago is the premier gallery-presented art fair dedicated to three-dimensional art and design.

EDUCATION

PhD Geography University of California Davis (2018)
Dissertation: Why we waste: Looking beyond consumer responsibility
Focus: Environmental Behavior, Waste and Food Systems, Systemic and structural Visual Communication

MS Transportation Technology and Policy University of California Davis (2013)
Thesis: Oil palm expansion on deforested lands in Para, Brazil - too good to be true? (Outstanding Thesis Award)
Focus: Deforestation, Biofuels, Transportation and Energy Policy

Bachelors of Landscape Architecture California State University San Luis Obispo (2008)
Thesis: How to design a Transit Oriented District of Heritage Fields as part of the Great Park in Irvine, CA
Focus: Environmental Engineering, Art

TEACHING

University of California Berkeley (2014-2020)
LA 1 - Drawing a Green Future Lecturer (2016-2019): This introductory studio course investigates the process of drawing as a method to learn how to perceive, observe and represent the environment. This studio encourages visual thinking as a formative tool for problem solving that provides a means to envision a sustainable future. The focus is on the critical coordination between hand and mind.

[IN]LAND - Studio Lecturer (2014-2018): The [IN]LAND program introduces participants to the practice of landscape architecture as an active inquiry. Students are introduced to the fundamentals of landscape architectural practice through the process of making and experimentation as research into site potentials. Initial ideas are developed and transformed through rigorous investigation in a collaborative studio environment.  Students develop a landscape vocabulary that engages with the concepts of ecology, public space, sustainability and multiple scales of design.

University of California Davis (2015 - 2020)
LDA 171 - Urban Design and Planning Studio Lecturer (2019): Application of place-making and problem-solving skills to local landscape sites. Analysis of social and environmental conditions in the field. Lectures link design projects to contemporary theories and practices. Includes workshops in computer-aided drafting.

LDA 170 - Urban Design and Planning Studio Lecturer (2015/2018): Application of place-making and problem-solving skills to local landscape sites. Analysis of social and environmental conditions in the field. Lectures link design projects to contemporary theories and practices. Includes workshops in computer-aided drafting.

LDA 70 - Introduction to Spacemaking Lecturer (2018): Introduction to basic principles of design towards the creation of space. Introduction to design methodologies and skills necessary to define, manipulate, and represent the built environment. Workshops in 2D computer graphic techniques and 3D physical modeling making will reinforce design principles.

LDA 21 - Environmental Design Visualization Lecturer (2017): Idea expression through graphic media and drawing techniques for visual representation of the built environment, including conventional drafting and expressive techniques. Introduction to computerized graphics techniques.

Vertically Integrated Project Program Lecturer (2016): The Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program integrates undergraduate education and faculty research in a team-based environment.  It provides an immersive, collaborative, and flexible learning environment in which undergraduate students earn academic credits by participating in a research project for up to three years (typically from sophomore through senior years).  The students have the opportunity to learn and practice professional skills, experience different roles, and make substantial contributions to research projects.

Freshman Seminar - Visual Note Taking Lecturer (2016):First-Year Seminars are designed to promote intellectual exchange, critical thinking, and community.

Sakura Gakuen Japanese Language School (2014)
Elementary Japanese (2014)

Teaching Assistant (2012-2017)
LDA 142 - Sustainable Environmental Design Research, Environmental Design Visualization, LDA 70 - Introduction to Spacemaking, ESP 171 - California Planning, LDA 3 - Sustainable Development: Theory and Practice

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed articles
Yui, S. and Biltekoff, C. (2020) How Food Becomes Waste: Students as “Carriers of Practice” in the UC Davis Dining Commons. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition.

Napawan, C., Burke, E., and Yui, S. (2017) Women’s Work: An Eco-Feminist Approach to Environmental Design. Avery Review 27, http:averyreview. com/issues/27/womens-work

Gibbs, HK., Yui, S., & Plevin, R. (2014) New estimates of soil and biomass carbon stocks for global economic models. Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Technical Paper No. 33, 1-31. Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

Plevin, R., Gibbs HK., Duffy, J., Yui S., and Yeh, S. (2014) Agro-ecological zone emission factor (AEZ-EF) model (v47). Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Technical Paper No. 32, 1-48. Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

Yui, S. & Yeh, S. (2013) Land use change emissions from oil palm expansion in Pará, Brazil depend on proper policy enforcement on deforested land. Environmental Research Letters, 8 (4) 044031, 1-9. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/044031 Selected as part of the Environmental Research Letters monthly highlights collection and Institute of Physics select collection (2014)
Video abstract available here

Reports
Yui, S. & Wheeler, S. Faculty Climate Education Resources and Materials Guide - a report with climate education websites, books, institutions, groups, and readings.

A report to the California Air Resources Board: Carbon Emission Factor Subworkgroup, Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Indirect Land Use Change Expert Workgroup. (2010) Chapter 3 (lead author): Soil Carbon Stock, Chapter 4 (co-author): Peatland Emissions

Blogs
Yui, S. (2019) Part II of Designing the Future of Food. Van Alen Institute Stories. March 13, 2019.
Yui, S. (2018) Designing for the Future of Food. Van Alen Institute Stories. October 5, 2018.

AWARDS

XR Studio by Mozilla Firefox: Machine Learning Studio
UC Davis Feminist Research Institute
Environmental Policy and Planning commission Research Grant
Professors for the Future Fellowship
Graduate Studies Travel Award
Freshman Seminar Teaching Grant
JASTRO Travel Grant Funding
UC Davis Dining Services Go Green Grant
UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies Outstanding Thesis Award
Geography Graduate Group Block Grant
American Automobile Association Greenlight Initiative Fellowship
Landscape Architecture Foundation Council of Fellows Scholarship

PRESENTATIONS

Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) - Sacramento (03.19.2019)
Wealth and Waste: Bay Area polemic

Food Waste in the US - Van Alen Institute Climate Council Visit (07.17.2018)
Invited Panelist to discuss food and climate change issues

UC Davis: Maptime - Cartography Panel & Clinic (11.06.2017)
Invited Panelist to discuss cartography

UC Davis: Human Ecology of Social Inequality Conference (05.25.2017)
Roundtable Discussion: Constructing an Evidence Based Research Agenda to Examine the Human Ecology of Social Inequality

IDEO San Francisco: How to reduce food waste in the UC Davis Dining Commons (05.11.2017)
Les Tray - why less is more

UC Davis: AMS 55 - Food in American Culture (05.19.2016)
Food waste in UC Davis - what's the big deal?

UC Davis Faculty Climate Change Education Workshop  (05.05.2016)
UCOP Faculty Climate Education Website presentation

American Association of Geographers (AAG) Conference - San Francisco (03.29.2016)
Food waste + Design: bridging the gap between design and food waste research

Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) - Salt Lake City (03.26.2016)
Drawn to Learn: Strategies for Visual Note Taking in LDA education

UC Davis: LDA 1 - Introduction to Environmental Design (10.05.2014, 10.06.2015)
Visual Note Taking: the sketchbook revolution

Roger Williams University, Rhode Island: ARCH 321 - Site and Environment (11.18.2014)
A social cognitive approach to understand food waste behaviors

UC Davis: Department of Landscape Architecture seminar series (2.19.2013)
Visual Note Taking workshop

California Geographical Society (CGS) Conference - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (4.27.2013)
Poster: Oil palm expansion on degraded land -- too good to be true?

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting (2.16.2012)
Poster: Global spatially explicit soil carbon map

Graduate Climate Conference (GCC): MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (10.31.2011)
Poster: Global spatially explicit forest biomass and soil carbon map

AAA Sustainable Transportation - Fellowship presentation (6.28.2011)
Presentation: Estimation of global soil carbon for forests and cropland

CITED WORKS AND REVIEWS

Ismail, Mohd N. “Oil-Palm fuel could be more carbon intensive than diesel.” Economics and Industry Development Division Malaysian Palm Oil Board. 15 November 2013. http://bepi.mpob.gov.my/news/detail.php?id=15008

Institute of Physics. “Researchers warn against high emissions from oil palm expansion in Brazil.” Institute of Physics. 13 November 2013. http://phys.org/news/2013-11-high-emissions-oil-palm-expansion.html

Snyder, Brett. “ReFrame” CODA WORX. 11 November 2013. https://www. codaworx.com/project/reframe-sofa-connect

Koenig, Seth. “Which Portland neighborhood did a California research team envision as a green tourism hotspot?” Bangor Daily News. 16 December

2013. http://bangordailynews.com/2013/12/16/news/portland/which-portland-neighborhood-did-a-california-research-team-envisionas-a-green-tourism-hotspot/

Anderson, Stacey K. “Coachella 2009, By the Numbers” The Village Voice: Music. Photo credit. 20 April 2009. http://www.villagevoice.com/music/coachella-2009-by-the-numbers-6617891