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personalia

Rob Tieben
04-09-1986
Irenestraat 31
5502 TL Veldhoven
the Netherlands
robtieben@robtieben.com
www.robtieben.com

profile

I am an interactor: I create interaction, I study interaction, and I interact between design and science. Integrating design, technology, user focus and business results in inspiring creations that elicit the user to interact with the system, other people, the environment and themselves. I am skilled in combining new (and old) technologies into novel interactive systems, using knowledge varying from electronics and software design to user-centred research and social psychology. I work best in fast iterations of design, implementation and evaluation, in order to create and share a justified proof of concept.

education

2004, September – 2008, April: Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology
1998, September – 2004, July: VWO, Christiaan Huygens College, Eindhoven
1990, September – 1998, July: Primary school, Zeelsterhof, Veldhoven

relevant employment history

2006 – : student assistant PR Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology
During my study I have worked at the communication department, as a student co-responsible for the PR of the faculty. The planning and creation of a permanent exhibition and giving tours and presentations to press and business visitors were my most important tasks.
2009, October – December: internship at Mobile Life Centre in Stockholm
In this internship, I focused on a design-research exploration of end-user programming and robots: designing and evaluating new ways for users to program and control complex systems, such as robots. The actDresses principle was used: by changing the physical appearance of a robot (e.g. adding decoration to a hovering robot), the robot would change it’s behaviour.
2009, June – July: study on intergeneration play, Industrial Design department, Eindhoven University of Technology
In this study, I designed several concepts for stimulating intergenerational play between elderly and their
grand-children. An evaluation on design, user and business level resulted in a first foundation for projects on physical and social play.
2008, September – 2009, September: chairman board of Stichting Activiteiten Lucid, organisation of SIDeR09 conference
As chairman of the board, I organised the fifth Student Interaction Design and Research conference. With 80+ participants from across the world, this student conference on design research was a great success. Managing all the business relations, planning the entire organisation of the event and leading our enthusiastic team were my main tasks in this position.
2006, September – December: internship at /d.search-labs, Eindhoven University of Technology
In this internship, I setup and ran a large study on motivating enjoyable meetings. Focusing on the setup and execution of this study, my tasks merely involved the selection and creation of applicable methods, solid documenting and justification, and the writing of scientific papers for publishing. Alongside this, a product for the Lowlands festival was developed. Practical issues such as vandalism proofness and safety were covered, in addition to marketing and logistical tasks.
2007, January – August: freelance work for TNO
As a freelancer, I participated in several projects for TNO, a dutch innovation and research company. One of the projects involved the setup and execution of an observational study for an interactive playground in Eindhoven, and the creation of design recommendations based on the study’s results.

languages

Fluent written and spoken dutch
Fluent written and spoken english
Basic written and spoken german
Basic written and spoken french

skills

Proficient with Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver
Basic experience with Illustrator, Indesign, MAX MSP, Solidworks
Proficient in HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, JAVA
Proficient in microcontroller programming & debugging (PIC, Arduino, ATmega) in C
Proficient with analog and digital electronics
Proficient with sensors and actuators, wireless technologies
Basic experience with PCB design in Eagle
Proficient with ‘hands-on’ electronics: soldering, debugging, etc
Proficient with modeling techniques and tools (e.g. foam, wood, paper modeling)
Basic knowledge of manufacturing technologies
Proficient with user-centred design, in all phases of the design process
Proficient with setting up and executing user evaluation studies
Proficient in the setup and execution of iterative, user-centred design-research processes

exhibitions (selection)

DesignUnited 2006
Sport & Technology congress 2006
Nederland Innovatief 2006
DeSForM conference 2006
Opening /d.search-labs, 2006
DesignUnited 2007
Lowlands festival, 2007

publications

Various short articles about projects in press and television.
Boerdonk, K. van, Tieben, R., Klooster, S., Hoven, E.A.W.H. van den (2009). Contact through canvas : an entertaining
encounter. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 13(8), 551-567.
Tieben, R., Boerdonk, K. van, Klooster, S., Hoven, E.A.W.H. van den (2007). Meeting by moving, mediated through music.
IEEE Pervasive Computing, 6(3), 55-56.
Boerdonk, K., Deckers, E., Nagtzaam, H., Schwachöfer, J., Tieben, R. and Klooster, S. (2006). Meeting Duet: challenging
people into a body language of meeting, in Proceedings of DeSForM 2006.