Malena Agyemang earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2013 from Norfolk State University (Virginia), and her master’s degree in civil, environmental and sustainable engineering in 2016 from Arizona State University. In 2020, she received her PhD in mechanical engineering from Clemson University, where she served as a graduate research assistant, graduate lab teaching assistant, and member of the Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Group and Design Innovation and Computational Engineering Laboratory (DICE). Notable honors include being selected as a GEM Associate Fellow, IGERT-SUJ Scholar, NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholar, and DNIMAS Scholar. She was a postdoctoral research scholar at Penn State University before assuming her current post as a postdoctoral research associate at Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research is three-tiered: agent-based modeling of bystander intervention in design team collaboration; bias in engineering design; and decision making strategies used in critical events. Her future research will include understanding human behaviors during disruptive events, the results of which will be used to develop technology and models that optimize resilient outcomes as well as minimize negative socio-cultural outcomes. As a professor, Malena looks forward to teaching core courses as well as offering undergraduate and graduate-level courses that intersect design theory and methodology, humanitarian engineering, human-centered design, and social sciences. 

Research Interests

Investigate Engineering Design Theory and Methodology