Update you browser

For the best experience, we recommend you update your browser. Visit our accessibility page for a list of supported browsers. Alternatively, you can continue using your current browser by closing this message.

Close
Menu Search
Programme finder
Research projects
Start-up companies
Aine Petrulaityte

Dr Aine Petrulaityte

Aine is a user experience researcher, educator, and design practitioner committed to sustainable development, with cross-sector experience from academia, industry, and international development.

As part of the MDes Design Futures programme, Aine teaches the Design Ethics unit. She holds a PhD in Design for Sustainable Product-Service Systems from Brunel University of London.

During her doctoral studies and subsequent work, Aine developed two idea-generation design toolkits, which have been implemented by students and industry professionals in Brazil, China, India, Kenya, Mexico, and the UK.

In addition to her teaching, Aine works as a Research Associate with the MECS programme at Loughborough University, where she oversees research projects focused on clean, modern cooking solutions in the Global South.

Key details

School, Centre or Area

Expertise

More information

Aine’s research is primarily qualitative, with a strong focus on advancing sustainable development. Her work has explored a wide range of areas such as sustainable business model innovation, decentralised production systems, material circularity, participatory approaches to address gender equality, user experience research, and interventions for sustainable behaviour change.

She is particularly interested in applying design-led approaches to address challenges faced by disadvantaged communities in the Global South.

Previously, Aine worked as a Senior User Experience Researcher at a car-sharing company in Lithuania, where she applied insights from her PhD on product-service systems and her interest in analysing user behaviour. She also held a Research Fellow position on the GENS project at Brunel University of London, focusing on the intersection of gender, energy, and informal settlements.

Currently, Aine collaborates with NGOs, private research organisations, and consultants around the world to better understand user needs related to electric cooking appliances.

Journal articles

Pollesel, A., Pollesel, G. and Petrulaityte, A. (2025) ‘Osteoevidence: A user-centric database for advancing osteopathic manipulative medicine’, Medical Reference Services Quarterly, pp. 1–19.

Ceschin, F., Petrulaityte, A., Musango, J.K. and Mwiti, B.K. (2023) ‘Mainstreaming gender in energy design practice: Insights from companies operating in sub-Saharan Africa’s energy sector’, Energy Research & Social Science, 96, 103053.

Petrulaityte, A., Ceschin, F., Musango, J.K., Mwiti, B.K., Anditi, C. and Njoroge, P. (2022) ‘Supporting the development of gendered energy innovations for informal urban settlements: GENS co-design toolkit for multi-stakeholder collaboration’, Sustainability, 14(10), 6234.

Mukama, M., Musango, J.K., Smit, S., Ceschin, F. and Petrulaityte, A. (2022) ‘Development of living labs to support gendered energy technology innovation in poor urban environments’, Technology in Society, 68, 101895.

Batingue, B., Musango, J.K., Ceschin, F., Ambole, A., Smit, S. and Petrulaityte, A. (2021) ‘Modelling gendered innovation for the security of energy services in poor urban environments’, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 39(2), pp. 276–289.

Musango, J.K., Smit, S., Ceschin, F., Ambole, A., Batingue, B., Anditi, C., Petrulaityte, A. and Mukama, M. (2020) ‘Mainstreaming gender to achieve security of energy services in poor urban environments’, Energy Research & Social Science, 70, 101734.

Petrulaityte, A., Ceschin, F., Harrison, D. and Pei, E. (2020) ‘Applying distributed manufacturing to product-service system development: A set of near-future scenarios and a design tool’, Sustainability, 12(12), 5037.

Thesis

Petrulaityte, A. (2019) Distributed manufacturing applied to product-service systems: A scenario-based design toolkit. PhD thesis. Brunel University London.

Book chapters

dos Santos, A., Vezzoli, C., Garcia Parra, B., Molina Mata, S., Banerjee, S., Kohtala, C., Ceschin, F., Petrulaityte, A., Garcez Duarte, G., Burmeister Dickie, I., Balasubramanian, R. and Xia, N. (2021) ‘Distributed economies’, in Vezzoli, C., Garcia Parra, B. and Kohtala, C. (eds.) Designing sustainability for all: The design of sustainable product-service systems applied to distributed economies. London: Springer.

Conference papers, abstracts and posters

Petrulaityte, A. and Khalid, R. (2025) ‘Navigating affordability and behavioural barriers to eCooking in the Global South: A socio-technical perspective’, 7th conference on Societal responses to environmental crises and energy transitions, 24–25 September, Kaunas, Lithuania.

Petrulaityte, A. (2025) ‘Zero-emission kitchens in the Global South: implementing behaviour change in national clean cooking strategies’, World Design Congress, 9–10 September, London, UK.

Petrulaityte, A., Ceschin, F., Pei, E. and Harrison, D. (2019) ‘Distributed manufacturing applied to product-service systems: A set of near-future scenarios’, 3rd LeNS World Distributed Conference: Designing Sustainability for All, 3–5 April, multiple locations (e.g. Milan, Mexico City, Beijing, Bangalore, Curitiba, Cape Town). Edizioni POLI.design.

Petrulaityte, A., Ceschin, F., Pei, E. and Harrison, D. (2019) ‘A design toolkit to integrate distributed manufacturing into product-service systems development’, 3rd LeNS World Distributed Conference: Designing Sustainability for All, 3–5 April, multiple locations. Edizioni POLI.design.

Petrulaityte, A., Ceschin, F., Pei, E. and Harrison, D. (2018) ‘A design tool to apply distributed manufacturing principles to sustainable product-service system development’, Design Research Society (DRS) 2018 Conference, 25–28 July, Limerick, Ireland.

Petrulaityte, A., Ceschin, F., Pei, E. and Harrison, D. (2017) ‘Supporting sustainable product-service system implementation through distributed manufacturing’, The 9th CIRP Industrial Product-Service Systems Conference: Circular Perspectives on Product/Service-Systems, 19–21 June, Copenhagen, Denmark. Elsevier.