Helena Kent is an award-winning innovator at the intersection of design, engineering, and business. She develops projects guided by a commitment to the regenerative advancement of our world and worlds beyond our own.
She is the founder of SEOE, a company focusing on design for space, Earth, and ocean exploration. In addition, she is a researcher at MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics working with NASA. Previously, she was a researcher at MIT Media Lab in the Space Exploration Initiative working with NASA on space-enabled technology for Earth, while concurrently working on a Presidential Innovation Fellows project at NASA.
As a Master of Design graduate student at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering and College of Environmental Design she conducted research in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department focusing on Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Centered AI, Computational Design, Spatial Computing and XR. Alongside research and development, her work extended to creative projects in filmmaking and photography. In addition, she co-founded an award-winning semiconductor startup at Berkeley SkyDeck, and founded the Space Earth and Ocean Exploration Design Lab at the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation which was the first and only organization at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering dedicated to design for exploration.
Prior to her graduate studies, she established an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science in Design Engineering at The New School in New York City where she integrated the fields of design, computer science, mathematics, and cognitive science. During this time she worked as a student researcher at NASA focusing on Design Engineering, Human–Computer Interaction and XR for planetary exploration. Additionally, she was a founding technical and business member of a startup partnered with the United Nations working on advancing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Her work also included working as a Design Engineer at Parsons School of Design's 3D Lab, an editorial intern at Vogue France while attending Parsons Paris, and a student researcher sailing through the South Pacific Ocean with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
She has built a career that spans across research and development, creative work, and multiple ventures, establishing her as a dynamic force in her fields. As an interdisciplinary innovator she endeavors to evolve our understanding of life as we know it.
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