Rens Brankaert is a lector in Warm Technology and Design and is associated with the profiling team Technology in Healthcare at Fontys Paramedical. Additionally, he is a part-time assistant professor in Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), focusing on ‘Active and Healthy Ageing’.
His passion is designing ‘warm technology’ for vulnerable people. Warm Technology offers a human and inclusive perspective on technology in a world driven by information and efficiency. This represents a new direction within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Design Research, where he conducts research and designs new technologies. Since 2012, he has specifically worked on designing for and with people with dementia, which was also the focus of his dissertation titled ‘Design for Dementia’ at TU/e’s Industrial Design department.
Expertise
Rens trained as a designer at the faculty of Industrial Design, and this discipline is interwoven into his work. He uses design skills in research and education to create innovative solutions for various societal challenges. He has a particular affinity for tangible interaction design. The methodologies Rens applies in his work include participatory research methods such as co-design, Living Lab research in realistic (healthcare) environments, and multi-stakeholder management. Rens works in a highly transdisciplinary manner, drawing on different perspectives and expertise, and is therefore also connected to the TU/e cluster Transdisciplinary Research & Design.
Ongoing Research Projects
Within Fontys, Rens is the initiator and actively involved in a diabetes program. This includes the projects Technology Support for Diabetes, in collaboration with TU/e and Rondom Podotherapeuten. Beginning in 2024, the MEDIS project will start, in collaboration with RondOm Lopen Group, HAN, Je Leefstijl als Medicijn, and Fitcoin communities. In this project, we work on lifestyle interventions to support people with dementia in improving their quality of life using warm technology.
Rens is the contact person within Fontys for the development of the Professional Doctorate in the field of Healthcare and Health. Together with colleague Prof. Eveline Wouters, he supervises the first PD candidate at Fontys, Frank Antonissen, in researching suitable and supportive activities for people with dementia who still live at home. In this, we collaborate with Impacteck/Aumens and Catharina Hospital.
He is also a co-founder of the lector platform PRODEM, which unites lecturers in the Netherlands around the topic of dementia.
Additionally, he is the initiator and director of the Expertise Center Dementia and Technology (www.ecdt.nl) at TU Eindhoven, a Key Technology Partner (KTP) fellow at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia, and an advisor to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) on the National Dementia Strategy 2030. He is actively involved in the international technology and dementia community, including HCIxDementia, Dementia Lab (chair of the conference in 2019, and now scientific chair), and during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.
