The Department of Industrial Design (ID) is one of the nine departments of TU/e and has an internationally leading position because of its core commitment to research through design (RtD) and its strikingly original conceptual work. ID's ambition is to be recognized as one of the top departments in the world that conduct exciting research in the intersection of Design, Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, and Social Sciences and Humanities. In particular, the department aims to inspire and educate a new generation of design engineers who can contribute with their novel designs, their fluency in AI/ML algorithms and data, and their academic critical questioning, to the imminent and complex societal challenges our world is facing nowadays.
The ID education program is competence-centered, self-directed and challenged-based. ID focuses on educating students to design through five different perspectives (called Expertise Areas), through core courses and electives:
- Math, data and computing.
- User and society.
- Technology and realization.
- Business and entrepreneurship.
- Creativity and aesthetics.
Students also learn to make connections between the different perspectives within project groups called squads. In addition, the ID education curriculum encourages and empowers students to take the ownership of their personal and professional development. Supported by their academic coaches, through ID curriculum and their personal, industrial and research projects, students develop a unique competence of designing and related design approaches individually. Next to self-directed learning and competence development, the educational model of ID is challenge-based. ID students work together on challenging and authentic projects in which multiple perspectives or disciplines are incorporated to solve the challenge (for example by working within interdisciplinary groups) using an entrepreneurial mindset.
At the Industrial Design department we have two research groups: Systemic Change and Future Everyday.
Job description We are looking for an assistant professor who will contribute to novel research in the design of Ubiquitous Computing, Physical Computing, and Internet of Things (IoT). Candidates are expected to develop a research program focusing on computational tools to support the design of technical prototypes that help demonstrate and evaluate novel interactive experiences, with systems that embed sensor technologies, machine perception and edge AI to support context awareness and multi-modal interaction. Candidates should have experience with developing and evaluating applications in a field-setting. This profile will contribute to developing further the department's track record in design research, that relies on prototyping and deployment of advanced novel functional prototypes with emerging technologies in real-world contexts. The research will be expected to contribute to empirical studies and the development of computational platforms to support interaction design. Candidates should have a strong technical background, an interest in design research and relish working in multi-disciplinary teams that address societal challenges through design. Familiarity with quantitative evaluation methods will be appreciated.
Education: The candidate will contribute to teaching at bachelor's and master's level in topics related math data computing and human-computer interaction. A major part of the educational activities includes defining and supervising student design projects (bachelor and master's level) in areas related to the above topics, and addressing some of the application domains most relevant to the department, e.g., healthcare, smart mobility, inclusive design, etc.