In Short

I believe in having some principles underlying one's career, and in my case I have tried bellow to define the philosophy that motivates and drives me.

Research philosophy

My research philosophy can be resumed as: think, design, build, demonstrate, evaluate and then publish. My research methodology is therefore empirical, based mostly on the development of new tools/devices and on comparative studies. Thanks to my mixed background, I am also keen to further multidisciplinary research interests, and widen my network of research collaboration. I believe in cooperation and in teamwork. I have a track record of collaboration at various levels with industry notably: Gielissen (NL), Sony (JP), Microsoft (JP, NL), NEC (JP) and P&G (UK), Biscuit Factory (UK).?

Recently, I have been involved in research with a combined focus on interaction and product design. I did so by investigating three research directions: active forms, responsive environments, and modular robots (see current research document for further details).?

You can find out more about my research in the Projects section.

Teaching philosophy

The opportunities to teach, coach, work and engage with students and to develop innovative educational materials and practices are some of my reasons to be in academia. My career, teaching experience and mixed background make me well-prepared to do so.?
Since the early days of my teaching career I have been enthusiastically involved in studio and project supervisions, as well as delivering modules and formal lectures. I have always taken the opportunity to ensure students do use the knowledge acquired in taught courses as the foundation knowledge for the final year projects. I also thrive to ensure there is some synchronisation about what is taught during the year with my colleagues, to make it easy for students to grasp the whole picture, and cross-feed what they learn in one module course into their project work.?

I consider creating new courses and teaching material motivating and rewarding, I thrive to ensure the integration in the teaching material of the latest knowledge, results and prevailing trends as well as my own research results when applicable. It is also important to consider teaching not as introducing students to the latest issues, but as preparing them to address the challenges of tomorrow. One of the most important aspect we need to teach students, is that design is a multi-faceted discipline, that encourages curiosity, a variety of interests, creativity and open mindedness and at the same time rigour and thoroughness. It also makes sense to engage with the students and guide them, by letting them make mistakes, respect their individualism and setting realistic and clear goals. Engaging is also about giving them freedom to discover themselves and challenge and question my teaching. I believe it is also constructive to share with them my research interests and projects, and to provide opportunities that can be tailored to individuals. I have found a good way of doing that is by inviting my students to work with me, during their summer vacations, (e.g. currently during the summer recess I have two 1st year, three 2nd year students and 1 master students who are helping me on a voluntary basis).

More details about my Teaching philosophy are in the Teaching section.