Since 2010, Stanko Škec has been employed at the Chair of Design and Product Development at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb (FSB). He received his PhD in 2015 under the supervision of Professor Dorian Marjanović, defending the dissertation “Intangible Indicators in the Development of Technical Systems”. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 2017 and Associate Professor in 2022.
Throughout his academic career, he has completed research stays at several international institutions, including École Centrale Paris, University of Bristol, University of British Columbia, Luleå University of Technology, and Stevens Institute of Technology. From 2018 to 2019, he served as Visiting Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
He has participated in numerous national and international research projects, including CSF (MInMED, TAIDE, DATA-MATION), HORIZON2020 (EURITO), Erasmus+ (DETAILLS, PROHACKIN, ELPID, CASPROD, CreSDET, NARIP), NPOO (GENKON, NeoDens LAB), and Interreg IPA ADRION (MISSION4WATER). He has served as principal investigator of the GENKON and NeoDens LAB projects and led the Erasmus+ project ELPID.
His research findings have been published in leading international journals such as Design Studies, Research in Engineering Design, Journal of Engineering Design, Scientific Reports, Advanced Engineering Informatics, among others. He has also contributed as editor of book chapters and conference proceedings. He is an active participant at major international scientific conferences (ICED, DESIGN, ICORD, NordDesign), receiving multiple best paper awards (ICED, DESIGN).
He regularly serves as reviewer for leading journals (Design Studies, Research in Engineering Design, Journal of Engineering Design, AI EDAM, Computers in Industry, among others) and as evaluator for international research projects. He has been a member of The Design Society since 2012.
In his scientific work, he collaborates continuously with numerous European academic partners, including Politecnico di Milano, DTU, University of Strathclyde, TU Wien, and University of Ljubljana, as well as with industry partners such as NeoDens, B&O, Končar, and others.
Since 2012, he has actively participated in organizing the biennial DESIGN conference (Cavtat, Croatia) and has been appointed Conference Co-Chair since 2022. He also served on the program committee of the ICED17 conference, held at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
In teaching, he delivers several undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral courses in the fields of design and product development, CAD, and innovation management. He is the author of textbooks and teaching materials and has supervised numerous thesis projects (>15 bachelor, >20 master, 3 completed doctoral dissertations, and 3 ongoing PhD theses). Additionally, he has taught as adjunct faculty at the Faculty of Information Technology at the Polytechnic of Zagreb, the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Novo Mesto (Slovenia).
