General introduction 

Eindhoven University of Technology
Where innovation starts and people matter

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is a research university specializing in engineering science & technology. Our education, research and knowledge valorization contribute to:

Science for society: solving the major societal issues and boosting prosperity and welfare by focusing on the Strategic Areas of Energy, Health and Smart Mobility

Science for industry: the development of technological innovation in cooperation with industry

Science for science: progress in engineering sciences through excellence in key research cores and innovation in education  

We see it as our duty to train engineers to possess a sound scientific basis and scientific depth. They also have the necessary skills to successfully flourish in social sectors and functions. With a view to the future, TU/e has begun a major educational reform. The Bachelor's and Master's programs remain but are being incorporated in a Bachelor College and Graduate School respectively. Students will be given more freedom and can even choose to follow a broad-based program with society-oriented subjects or opt for a very specialized science program. With advanced quality research, the university contributes to the progress of technical sciences and thus the development of technological innovations.

We focus on areas in which we participate in the international scientific community. This can play an important role. The TU/e wants to give significant impetus to the knowledge-intensive industries and other social sectors with a high or rapidly evolving technology-intensity. 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.

With this profile, the TU/e profiles itself as a leading, international, in engineering science & technology specialized university. We offer excellent teaching and research and thereby contribute to the advancement of technical sciences and research to the developing of technological innovations and the growth of wealth and prosperity both in its own region (technology & innovation hotspot Eindhoven) and beyond. In short, the TU/e profiles itself as the university where innovation starts.  

The department of Industrial Design is one of the nine departments of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Research at the department is focused on two areas or thematic clusters: Systemic Change and Future Everyday. 

The Systemic Change cluster focuses on designing innovations that have impact on systemic structures and groups of people, ultimately aiming to address large-scale issues such as urban health, future mobility and sustainability. Field data is used in novel iterative and circular research-through-design processes involving strategic alliances of stakeholders. 

The Future Everyday cluster investigates the everyday interactions between individual people and the highly interconnected technology that surrounds them. We measure, model and design for the user experience when individuals interact with social-technological networks in their homes, at work, in transit, while doing sport or going out.  

Research and education at the department are highly interconnected. In particular, Bachelor, Master and PhD students intensively collaborate with research staff in so-called squads dedicated to specific research topics. 

 

Systemic Change 

'Systemic Change uses Design and Technology to study socio-technical systems at the level of a community, by designing interventions addressing societal challenges and analyzing their effect on the eco-system'.  

The Systemic Change cluster focuses on the co-creation of socio-technical systems operating in semi-open real-life ecosystems or field labs, with the aim to address clearly defined societal challenges and study the nature, drivers and opportunities for sustainable change induced by these systems on an ecosystem level. Main focus is the usage of emerging technology (e.g. sensors and actuators, visualization of data, application of AI methods or datamining crowd platforms) to envision, design and evaluate these systems and their longitudinal effects. To enable these long-term studies we develop the necessary methods, tools, platforms, spaces and field labs to support the co-creation and analyses of these socio-technological systems in cross-disciplinary stakeholder teams.  

Research Areas 

One of the central aspects of Systemic Change is the design and development of methods, tools, systems and field labs that enable to evaluate long-term changes.  

Currently traditional evaluation methods from the domain of human-computer interaction focus often on the short term evaluation with a limited amount of stakeholders, but fail to provide methods that enable insights on how to best apply technologies to foster change on a long-term perspective.  

Goal of the systemic change evaluation research area is to design and develop (novel) methods that enable insights on data (eg visualization of user activities), understanding of user activities (eg combining modern task-modeling approaches with AI methods) or the combination of design and evaluation methods from different disciplines (eg combining sensors with in-situ user-experience oriented data gathering). A major goal will be not only to develop individual concepts, tools or systems, but to investigate the overall processes to ensure that the outcome of the introduction of technology will be a desired one or to enable the mitigation of possible negative aspects of new technologies. 

Prospects 

For the next decade the department of Industrial Design would want to become internationally visible as a key player in the area of systemic change. The research on systemic change evaluation will be fundamental to fulfill this goal. The successful candidate will work closely together with the recently appointed Chair for Measuring and Analyzing Quality of Dynamic Real Life Systems to define the research agenda for Systemic Change Evaluation. 

Embedding 

Methods enabling real-life interventional field research as well as understanding longitudinal effects are the cornerstone of the systemic change cluster and central for the area of research and design on intelligent systems (the mission of the Industrial Design department). At the same time, Systemic Change Evaluation Methods are an essential subdomain for almost all focus areas of TU/e including Health, Energy and Smart Mobility. 

Education 

The assistant professor will actively contribute to education in ID. Education shall address all levels in this department: at Ba, Ma and PhD levels. The vision will be translated into educational activities and design projects with industrial clients. He/she will contribute to further develop integration between education and research, which is also in line with the expertise in a design research approach.</p

Candidates can apply to (tenure-track) assistant or associate professor and are expected to have the following qualifications:

The candidate should have a PhD degree, building on a background in Computer Science, an Engineering program or Industrial Design with a strong affinity on visualization or development of cross-platform, cross-device systems.  

The candidate has an outstanding international reputation as evident from a range of high standing publications, proving that the candidate is contributing to the development of the area;

The candidate should have shown to be able to create bridges between education and research, and collaborate with colleagues in a multi-disciplinary context;

Documented ability to attract external funding, as the candidate is expected to secure substantial additional funding through national or international grants;

Have published in good international scientific journals;

Have an excellent command of English;

A network in the industry is an advantage, as the candidate will be expected to strengthen contacts with industry to enhance education and research activities.

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We offer:

a challenging job in a dynamic and ambitious university;

a full-time (development track) appointment for a period of five years; a tenure evaluation will be conducted after three to four years.

a gross monthly salary between €  3.475,- and € 5.405,- (based on a full-time appointment), depending on experience and knowledge;

a yearly holiday allowance of 8% of the yearly salary;

a yearly end year allowance of 8.3% of the yearly salary;

a broad package of fringe benefits (including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, savings schemes and excellent sports facilities).

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