Bilge Kösem İlhan

Bilge Kösem İlhan is a Ph.D. student in Computational Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research examines how designers think through making, representation and computation, with particular interest in how implicit aspects of design processes can be represented, interpreted and studied. 

Trained first in architecture, she is interested in how computational thinking emerges through design — not only in digital systems, but also through embodied and culturally situated forms of making. She draws on psychological research to examine how designers perceive, develop, and communicate ideas through interaction with materials and representations. These questions also shape her growing interest in design education, particularly in how computational ways of thinking are taught and understood across different contexts. 

Bilge is a Fulbright grantee and was selected as one of The American Turkish Society's Promising Turks in 2025. At Carnegie Mellon, she works as both a teaching and research assistant, contributing to the Situated Computation + Design Lab (Sit.Co.De) and The Arts and AI Observatory, an NEA Research Lab. Her broader work seeks to connect computational logic with human ways of thinking, making and learning.

Research Interests

• Computational design
• Design cognition
• Shape grammars
• Design education
• Embodied approaches to design thinking

Affiliations

• Situated Computation + Design Lab (Sit.Co.De) 
• The Arts and AI Observatory (NEA Research Lab)