IDSA Announces 2025 Graduate Student Merit Award Winners

HERNDON, VA – The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) proudly announces the 2025 Graduate Student Merit Award recipients, recognizing emerging leaders in industrial design whose research, creativity, and innovation are shaping the future of the profession.

For decades, the Student Merit Awards have honored exceptional undergraduate and graduate design students from IDSA’s five North American Districts. This prestigious program celebrates the next generation of designers advancing human-centered innovation, sustainability, and social impact through design.

2025 Graduate Student Merit Award Winners

Midwest District: Abolfazl Ghaderi, Purdue University
An award-winning designer, researcher, and educator working at the intersection of industrial design, emerging technology, and education. Abolfazl’s work combines curiosity and purpose to create human-centered solutions with measurable impact.

South District: JoJo Brauer, Georgia Institute of Technology
With a background spanning literature, video production, and marketing, JoJo merges physical, digital, and virtual experiences to create meaningful design interactions that spark wonder and emotion.

West District: Jacob Kauff, University of Oregon
An avid outdoorsman and former philosophy and pre-med student, Jacob brings a unique lens to design through anatomy, aesthetics, and empathy—blending disciplines to craft thoughtful, human-centered innovations.

Northeast District: Liam Monaghan, Pratt Institute
A multidisciplinary designer whose work spans furniture, lighting, installation, and sound, exploring emotion, material, and space in ways that challenge perception and expand the language of design. 

“This year’s graduate honorees embody the future of industrial design,” said Donte Shannon, CEO, IDSA. “Their interdisciplinary approaches and commitment to innovation reflect the best of what design education and research can achieve.”