Ibrahim Rahinah

Ibrahim is a senior professor and former dean of the Faculty of Design and Architecture, at Universiti Putra Malaysia. A Stanford University alumna, she is a design scientist and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. She leads the Built Environment and Life (BE-Life) informatics research group, which focuses on innovating products and processes that preserve and enhance the human cultural behavior. Her research expands her doctoral work on discontinuity in organizations beyond property development, applying it to broader societal and environmental challenges. A strong advocate for integrating local traditional knowledge into modern technology and product development, she emphasizes the value of cultural context in innovation. Her transdisciplinary and translational research approaches have led to numerous award-winning inventions that serve vulnerable communities. Notably, the United Nations recognized her work on the ISTP wastewater treatment system as an SDG Good Practice project. Ibrahim is currently a distinguished professor at the Purple Pottery College (formerly the Faculty of Arts), Honghe University, Yunnan Province, China.