Prof. Francesca Valsecchi (PhD) is Associate Professor at College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University. As researcher and practitioner in the disciplines of design and sustainability, she has been living in China for more than a decade. Her curriculum and research projects cover the areas of Design and Ecosystems, Rural-Urban Innovation, Sustainable Food Systems, and more recently in the direction of Design for Urban Regeneration.  She is expert in the tools and methods of ethnography, design anthropology, and data visualisation, and she is currently studying the role of social innovation within the Chinese context of urban innovation.