Ron Bronson

Studies how technologychanges markets,institutions, andpublic life.

Ron Bronson is an assistant professor of practice in Urban Technology at the University of Michigan and founder of Vloora, where his work on AI agents extends a wider interest in who makes decisions, who bears their consequences, and how systems can be changed.

Ron speaking at a lectern beside a projected slide during Portland Design Month

Ron Bronson studies how technology changes markets, organizations, and public power. His research draws on economic sociology and critical urbanism, along with more than two decades of experience directing how digital systems get built.

Watch

Beyond Civic Tech: Public Mechanics Starts at Home

Cascadia Open Source Conference, keynote, Nov. 2025

Listen

The Sound Bulletin on KFFP-FM90.3 KFFP Portland
Interview with Ron BronsonDid I Do That? Design podcast, Ep. 72, Oct. 2025

A group of students standing under a Taubman College, University of Michigan screen

Teaching

I’ve taught Urban Technology at Michigan’s Taubman College since 2024. All three courses come back to public mechanics: how a service behaves for the person on the receiving end.

UT 402 Public Mechanics, F26, W26 · UT 330 Interaction Design, F26 · UT 360 Service Design and Urban Needs, W’26, W’24 · ART 230 Business of Visual Art, Community College of Aurora, Sp/Su/Fa ’09

A full room of attendees cheering at Design For The Public

Community

I build the institutions I want to exist, most recently Portland Digital Corps, which put a hundred volunteers on six nonprofit rebuilds in 2025. Before that came two design weeks and an unconference.