Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)

Established in the 1950’s, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is a research university specializing in engineering science & technology. Based on TU/e strong values – optimism, collaboration and a dedication to society, the Brainport Region Eindhoven has flourished, and resulted in our university being ranked number 1 by Times Higher Education Ranking for collaboration with industry. 15% of our scientific publications are created in collaboration with industry, and we have the highest number of part-time professors from industry in the Netherlands of a total of almost 2000 research staff (33 % international). Our publications have high citation scores, consortia we are part of have won prestigious grants and our researchers receive scientific accolades on a regular basis. TU/e managed to attract about 125M€ through its 250 participations in FP7, and 96.5 M€ through its 184 participations in H2020. Currently there are still 218 H2020 participations under negotiation which would eventually bring 125M€ to our university. At the moment around 11.000 students are enrolled in our study programs, of which 16% are internationals. The TU/e puts emphasis on knowledge valorisation: research results are translated into successful innovations and serve as a basis for creating new products, processes and enterprises. We encourage students and staff to opt for entrepreneurship.

TU/e Industrial Design (ID) is a department that develops design engineering and design research expertise. We contribute in the field as scholars, engaging in design and technology development. Making is key to our research. We have intensely and consistently led and shaped the RtD paradigm both nationally and internationally, and in many respects more than other design research programs. We explore interactivity, focusing on aspects such as physicality, playfulness, user experience, etc. We address design research challenges where the main objective is to create value and opportunities in systems with emerging technologies and materials. Moreover, we research how design can support systemic change and transformation in response to our societal challenges. We leverage new forms of interaction where the main objective is to realize and study networks of systems in a societal context and to design and analyze the emerging interaction patterns using recent developments in data acquisition and data analysis technology. Our efforts aim to develop a more fundamental and general understanding of how to design for such interactivity, how to evaluate it, and how we learn from these experiments to generate knowledge by designing and thus contribute to the developing epistemological discourse in our field. We priorities this fundamental understanding of design over topics that are typically researched in design departments, such as innovation management, manufacturing processes and material sciences, unless they relate to research endeavors described above.

To sum up, we are multidisciplinary, design researchers, creative technologists, people-centered designers, who contribute to defining and exploring physicality in interaction and its embedding in a societal context.