Carlota Serrano Receives the Outstanding MS Mechanical Engineering Student Award
We are excited to announce that Carlota Serrano, a master’s student in Mechanical Engineering and a dedicated member of the Burleson Global Design Group, has been awarded the Spring 2025 Outstanding MS Mechanical Engineering Student Award!
Carlota has made exceptional contributions to research and community throughout her time at CU Boulder. As an MS Thesis student and our lab's first research assistant, she developed the Contextual Product Testing (CPT) Protocol— a structured tool for designers to improve product usability and contextual fit. Her work involved integrating Human-Centered Design principles and AGILE methods, conducting user clinics for stakeholder engagement, and completing data analysis to identify design recommendations and reduce product failure. She is the first author on a paper accepted to the International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED) and is preparing a journal manuscript to further share her insights on context-aware design.
Beyond her research, Carlota is an outstanding community leader. As the MS student representative on the department’s Graduate Committee, she co-led this semester’s Graduate Student Town Hall to gather student feedback and helped coordinate outreach and visit day events. She’s also been a guest lecturer for Advanced Product Design and a mentor to fellow lab members, playing a key role in shaping our lab’s collaborative, supportive environment.
Her academic path reflects her curiosity and interdisciplinary mindset: blending technical knowledge in Mechanical Design and Aerospace engineering with studies in qualitative research focused on social and environmental impact. As a TA for Dr. Burleson’s new Design Research Theory and Methods course, Carlota has supported students thoughtfully, responsively, and with a commitment to inclusivity.
Carlota exemplifies what it means to be an outstanding scholar, leader, and person. We are so proud of all she’s accomplished and can’t wait to see where she goes next. Congratulations, Carlota!