Inst. Dr. Itır Güngör Boncukçu
Biography
Itır Güngör Boncukcu completed her B.I.D., M.Sc., and PhD degrees at the Department of Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University. She worked as a research assistant in the department from 2015 to 2022, during which she primarily supported the third-year industrial design studio and gained extensive teaching experience across a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses. Throughout her doctoral studies, she researched ways to improve the efficiency of team-based learning in studio education using online tools. She joined the department as a part-time instructor in Spring 2023, contributing to the fourth-year design studio, and has been working as a full-time instructor since Fall 2025. Her main research interests include design education, design research, and service design.
Research Interests
Service design, Product Service System (PSS), Design education, Teamwork in design education, Generative design research
Education
2015 - 2022: Doctorate of Philosophy, METU Department of Industrial Design
Empowering Teamwork Experience and Skills in Industrial Design Studio Education through Collaborative Tools for Task Management and Shared Leadership (2022) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Çağla Doğan
2012 - 2015: Master of Science, METU Department of Industrial Design
3D Virtual Worlds as New Learning Environments: a Study on Industrial Design Education Supervisor: Dr. Canan E. Ünlü
2008 - 2012: Bachelor of Industrial Design, METU Department of Industrial Design
Educational Practice
ID 401 Industrial Design V (with studio team) (fall semesters)
ID 402 Graduation Project (with studio team) (spring semesters)
ID 442 Service Design (fall/spring semesters)
Employment
October 2025 – present, Instructor Dr., METU Department of Industrial Design
February 2023 – June 2025, Part-time Instructor Dr., METU Department of Industrial Design
February 2015 - June 2022, Research & Teaching Assistant, METU Department of Industrial Design
Publications
Kulaksız, M., Güngör-Boncukçu, I., Oğur, D., Paksoy, Y., Turhan, S., & Doğan, Ç. (2017). Generative Design Research for Sustainability: Exemplary Cases for the Adaptation of the EC Guide Tool and the ERM Method. IASDR 2017, Re: Research Conference, 31 October-3 November, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kaygan, H., Demir, Ö., Korkut, F., & Güngör-Boncukçu, I. Encounters and Shifting Identities: Students' Experiences of Multi-Stakeholder Participatory Design. Conference Proceedings of the DesignManagement Academy: Research Perspectives on Creative Intersections,vol. 5, edited by E. Bohemia, C.de Bont and L. S. Holm, 1685-1702. Hong Kong, 2017.