Special guests

Aina Nilsson Ström is one of Sweden’s most influential industrial designers, with a distinguished career spanning leading positions across the automotive sector. She has served as an industrial designer at Saab Scania, Chief Designer for Saab Automobile at General Motors and Vice President of Product Design at AB Volvo. Today she works as an independent advisor, supporting organisations and institutions in advancing design practice.

Throughout her career, Aina has played a central role in strengthening the relationship between industry, education and research. She has been instrumental in shaping the field of industrial design in Sweden, and her long‑standing engagement with UID has included supervision, advisory roles, committee work and active participation in collaborative projects. Her contributions were recognised in 2016 when she was appointed Honorary Doctor at the Faculty of Science and Technology at Umeå University.

Aina has also explored new methods within design research, contributing significantly to the programme “Safe and effective transport”, a collaboration between UID and Volvo. Her board assignments have included Electrolux, Ballingslöv, SWECO and Beckmans College of Design.

Jorge Furuya joined Volvo Cars in early 2021, where he is now Head of Car UX. He leads a team shaping the future of personal transportation with a focus on safety, sustainability and user delight.

After graduating from Umeå Institute of Design, Jorge joined IDEO, working on user centred innovation across the financial, transportation and technology sectors. He later moved into in‑house design at Sony Ericsson and HTC during a period when mobile computing was evolving at high speed.

Before joining Volvo Cars, Jorge held design leadership roles at Amazon on the Alexa team and at Samsung Research America. He was part of the Android design team that pioneered Material Design and contributed to early work on Android Automotive. His career has also included roles at Google, HTC, Sony Ericsson and IDEO, giving him a strong foundation in both hardware and software design.

Jorge is an advocate for technology that fits naturally into everyday life and enables experiences that feel meaningful, intuitive and human.