Jason O. Germany is an Associate Professor and current Chair of the Industrial Design program.  Prior to his appoint at UW in the autumn of 2015, he was a faculty member in the Product Design program at the University of Oregon for five years.  Professor Germany teaches across a range of courses in the undergraduate and graduate program within the Division of Design including studios in softgoods, ID foundations, medical / health, digital product experiences, transportation, and digital fabrications as well as industry collaborative classes.  This course work has been complimented by his research investigations over the years which take a systems based approach and cover several overlapping fields of interests including design entrepreneurship, urban computing, digital product semantics and rescue / medical device design.  As an investigator on several funded research projects, he actively collaborates with departments and researchers from across campus in addition to outside organizations. 

Prior to his academic appointments, Professor Germany worked as a senior industrial designer and project lead before before his career in academics. During that time, his work experience ranged from design firms and action sports to housewares and mobile devices; in each case, creating and executing within interdisciplinary groups. As a result, his designs have received numerous patents as well as regional, national, and international awards, including an ID Magazine’s Best in Category and IDEA Golds for consumer products and medical & health categories.