Expertise Areas

Business & Entrepreneurship

From superficial impressions, I wasn’t interested much in anything business related. I always thought it was mainly about making money. I discovered the contrary through my encounters with business and entrepreneurship throughout my bachelor’s.

I picked the USE trajectory Technology Entrepreneurship to learn more about it. I was introduced to venture entrepreneurship/capitalism through the course Introduction to Technology Entrepreneurship. The second course, Organizing Entrepreneurship, dives deeper into the topic, introduces how corporate structures might function, and dives deeper into setting up business models by analyzing existing company strategies. The final course, Entrepreneurship in Action, takes everything from the previous courses and tasks you with proposing your business concept through a group project.

I learned much about setting up a business and how to achieve that. However, what I have learned about trade and entrepreneurship confirmed some of my prejudices about marketing and entrepreneurship. A successful corporation is primarily defined by monetary profit, but I’ve discovered that profit can mean so much more.

Of course, you shouldn’t lose any money and stay afloat, which is the initial goal of any company. But once net profit is achieved, new opportunities arise.
I can provide my skills and expertise in many ways as a designer. Think of 3D design, software design, etc. But also give back knowledge to the community, through workshops for example. As an open-source evangelist, I ensure my tools and methods are openly available. I can make a profit by teaching others with those tools or through design commissions.

COURSES
Introduction to Technology Entrepreneurship, Organizing Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship in Action, Design Innovation Methods

Creativity & Aesthetics

At the beginning of my bachelor’s, I thought I had a pretty solid background in creativity and crafting, but during the first year, I discovered I had a lot to learn. The major courses of my bachelor's helped me to get a foundation in creativity and aesthetics within the framing of Industrial Design.

I gained hard skills in using various software tools during the creative process. I like to use these tools to explore and shape a concept. Usually, I start making it right away. That way, I can begin to iterate on ideas. I demonstrated my primary expertise in computational design with my final bachelor project.

Regarding aesthetics and design language, I like my ideas to serve as inspiration. The design language needs to be universally attractive so no one becomes excluded. Mainly through the use of black, white, transparent and silver colours, I create an aesthetics which can be appreciated by all people and serve as a somewhat blank slate for others to experiment with. With my design approach through programming, I create parametric and modular designs to inspire and be used by anyone.

With current shapes mostly inspired by mathematical equations, I would like to explore generated geometry, rather than directly calculated, to form more organic shapes. With the recent addition of Full Control to my toolkit, I feel like it provides the perfect opportunity to do just that.

COURSES
From Idea to Design, Creative Programming, Creative Electronics, Creative Mechanical Engineering, Exploratory Sketching, Aesthetics of Interaction, Design for Games & Play I, Computer Graphics

Math, Data & Computing

My first direct contact with computation since starting my bachelor's was through the courses Calculus and Physics.

Within the area of physics, I already had a pre-existing interest in electrical engineering in high school. In Applied Physics, I was taught basic electronics theory, which sparked my interest in learning more about electronics in general. I briefly tried a couple of courses from the Electrical Engineering faculty, as I thought they were interesting but ultimately did not complete them. I was more interested in realizing than the computation of electronics.

I pursued a set of courses from the Computer Science faculty. The first is Programming to deepen and reinforce my knowledge of Java. It was also a prerequisite for the next course, Computer Graphics. Its knowledge would help me later during my final bachelor project when I had to program 3D geometry for 3D printing, along with what I learned during Creative Programming at my faculty. Programming would become my primary means of realizing my designs, both for aesthetics and functionality.

During various courses, like Data Analytics and Intelligent Interactive Products, I learned how to organize and analyze different kinds of datasets and how to visualize those. Data-driven design opens up a lot of new possibilities. One of the possibilities is using machine learning to guide design decisions. Another is to use machine learning for “interpreting“sensor data and provide intelligent interaction to users.

The next step in my computing journey is mainly about aesthetics and realization. Exploring what new shapes math and generative algorithms have to offer for my newfound interest, Full Control. With it being very new, the design space has yet to be explored, which is exactly what I am going to do. I will, among other things, pursue the loose ends of my final bachelor project.

COURSES
Creative Programming, Calculus, Applied Physics, Creative Electronics, Data Analytics for Engineers, Making Sense of Sensors, Design for Games & Play I, Technologies for Connectivity, Interactive Intelligent Products, Programming, Computer Graphics

Technology & Realization

Throughout my bachelor, I have worked on realizing so many different projects, from video games to IoT-enabled devices and more.

These many projects helped me form the foundation of my skillset, programming. Besides that, I also had a lot of practice with crafting electronic circuits. I am always happy to help others realize their wildest dreams regarding electronics. I teach them how to use the different tools available so they can wield the soldering iron as their weapon. Many people view electronics as a colossal demon to slay in their projects. I want to show people that it doesn't have to be as complicated as it might seem.

Another big part of my skillset is 3D modelling and 3D printing. Until recently, I had primarily used CAD programs and, on occasion, surface modellers (like Blender), but now also through programming, I can create 3D geometry for printing. I built a 3D printer from separate parts, which helps to inform my design decisions better.

Although it will be a while before I get tired of 3D printing, I am looking forward to incorporating more traditional craftsmanship into my future work. My designs will be created using a computational approach, but the realization will involve more manual steps. Ultimately, I see the physical crafting of products as a possibility for symbiosis between designers and machines.

COURSES
From Idea to Design, Creative Programming, Creative Electronics, Creative Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Design, Design for Games & Play I, Technologies for Connectivity, Interactive Intelligent Products, Programming, Computer Graphics

User & Society

I was unaware of the various facets of user and society when I started my bachelor’s.

Initially, my view of user-friendly design was very simplistic. Then I was introduced to research through design and user evaluation methods through project IRIS and Upside Dawn. I learned that intelligent behaviour and interaction could be achieved between product and user through clever use and processing of sensor data. This opened my eyes to different approaches for user testing and how to adopt and adapt those methods and methodologies.

As discussed in the creativity and aesthetics section, I want my designs to serve as modular puzzle pieces or starting points for most, no matter who they are. My designs should communicate a sense of ambiguity or androgyny to be relatable to everyone. This makes them more open-ended, serving as starting points for others. This allows users to truly make the design their own, making it more valuable.

I also noticed a shift in my view of who a potential target user can be within societal scoping. Of course, it can be someone young or old, cultural background or (mental) health status. They can serve as interesting design cases and studies, but my preferred target user is other designers, makers or artists alike.
My struggle to find the appropriate software and hardware tools for design is the primary inspiration for this. The go-to is usually open-source or freeware of some kind. However, they do not always meet the requirements set by the designer. I found them either lacking in functionality and performance or hard to understand and implement (usually due to a lack of documentation). Ultimately, as described in my PDP and my Vision, documentation is critical, but so is a lively community. The ultimate goal is to have community-driven projects where the community is a result of the project’s success and where the project (be it hardware, software or something else) is a direct result of the community. This makes for a future proof full-circle self-sustaining design.

I can contribute to many openly available projects with my skills and knowledge. In the past, this was mainly for electronics (like Arduino) to make programming and circuit design a lot easier for me and other students.
I have recently been more involved in the Full Control project. As a contributor on GitHub, I added support for a printer and will soon merge the functions for generating ellipses from the Fabulous Feathers project. I will continue to involve myself with this project and the community, which is still growing. During the demo day, many visitors were particularly interested in my showcase of Full Control. I showed them that much more is possible with a 3D printer than conventionally thought.

I look forward to potentially working with those people and helping them push their perception of what is possible and what is not.
But in the meantime, I am primarily looking forward to returning to the TU/e after the summer break for the Industrial Design master’s programme and applying my design philosophy to new projects.

COURSES
User-centred Design, Socio-cultural Sensitivity, USE Basics, Engineering Design, Aesthetics of Interaction, Design for Debate, Design < > Research, Intelligent Interactive Products