Paolo Tanedo

Paolo Tanedo is a maker by nature and a technologist by trade. A former mechanical engineer in the automotive industry, he now bridges the often-found gaps between design and engineering. He brings technology to the forefront to enable, bolster, and animate what might otherwise remain theory and speculation.

Paolo has a master’s degree in design from the Institute of Design at Illinois Tech. He has a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University where he studied automotive technology and focused on improving hydrogen fuel cell electrochemistry.

Industry Experience

Paolo is an Innovation Engineer at Navistar, where he and the rest of the innovation team lead efforts to solve systematic technical challenges. He assists in HMI and UX designs, as well as enables research by designing and building the team’s first fully-interactive driving simulator.

He pivoted from engineering in 2017 when he gained admission into ID’s Foundation program, where he leveraged his technical skills to breathe life into his designs. Graduating in 2019, he found a position shortly thereafter as a Digital Product Designer at Magic+Might, a Chicago-based design consultancy. During his time there, Paolo built and rebuilt driving simulators for automotive clients as well as helped design the HMI within them, furthering research and gathering insights on how to improve them along the way.

Previously he worked at General Motors’ Powertrain HQ in Pontiac, MI where he fed his passions for technology and energy sustainability.