CCS Names Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs

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DETROIT — The College for Creative Studies has appointed Sooshin Choi as provost and vice president of academic affairs and professor of design. Choi joins CCS from the University of Cincinnati where he has been director of the school of design since 2010 and professor of industrial design since 2003.

Choi will be the chief academic officer of the College, responsible for providing leadership in academic operations, including oversight of faculty and curricula. As provost Choi will be involved in the college’s strategic planning, budgeting, enrollment management, technology planning, and resource development.  He will also serve as a spokesperson and advocate for the value of art and design to society for the college.

Choi’s design experience includes automotive designer for Korean manufacturers GM: Daewoo Motors, and Kia Motors where he designed passenger cars, vans, trucks, buses and minivans including the Kia Sportage.has led teams of designers and engineers at Fursys and Iloom developing furniture for offices and public spaces. He worked as first director of industrial design at DEKA Research and Development, overseeing the iBOT Mobility System, a powered wheelchair.

Choi’s received the iF Hannover Product Design and Ecology Design Awards, Japanese G-Mark, and the Grand Prize of Korean Industrial Design Award. He holds 47 design patents and three utility patents for his automotive and furniture designs.

Choi taught industrial and universal design seminars at the University of Cincinnati’s highly School of Design and established Designnovation Studio, allowing students to work on innovative projects with industry partners, conducting design research with major corporations, such as P&G, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors, Boeing, GE Appliances, Crown Equipment and Mead Westvaco.

Choi holds a bachelor’s industrial design from Seoul National University of Science and Technology and a master’s in industrial design from Hong-Ik University. He also holds a diploma in vehicle design from the Royal College of Art in London and
 studied at The Ohio State University.

Choi is a member of the Korea Industrial Designers Association (KIDA), US director of Korea Society of Design Sciences (KSDS), and founder and moderator of Korean Designers in America. In 2001 he was elected as vice president for Education of the Industrial Designers Society of America.