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dr.ir. W. Eggink (Wouter)

Assistant Professor

About Me

As a design professional and design researcher I am especially interested in the relationships between design, technology and society. I am already teaching this subject at the University for a couple of years, at this moment mostly at the Master programme of Industrial Design Engineering. I am also coordinator of the Mastertrack Human Technology Relations, (part of the Master Industrial Design Engineering) and expert in course and curriculum development for the Design disciplines.

My research activities are about the shaping of human-technology relations. My research approach is concentrating on both Design History and insights from Design for the Future, supported by Scenario Planning. The results of this history-future methodology are beneficial for both addressing societal challenges and the design of innovative technologies.

Since several years I work on a project about the benefits of Philosophy of Technology tools and methods for Industrial Design practice (and vice versa). For this I coined the term "The Practical Turn in Philosophy of Technology". Two of the remarkable results of this research strand are the contribution to Responsible Design and the web-portal about the Product Impact Tool.

I also published extensively on Design Education, and on enhancing Creativity in Innovation and Design through application of Visual Essays.

Expertise

Arts & Humanities
Design Education
Design History
Designer
Industrial Design
Innovation
Philosophy
Philosophy Of Technology
Engineering & Materials Science
Teaching

Research

My research activities are about the shaping of human-technology relations.
My recent work is focussing on the use of Philosophical Tools in Design and Design Research, together with Steven Dorrestijn.

My research approach concentrates on both Design History and insights from Design for the Future, supported by Scenario Planning. I also published extensively on Design Education, and on enhancing Creativity in Innovation and Design through application of Visual Essays.  Besides that, I use the same research approach to shed light on the aesthetics of Innovative Technologies, enhancing the adaptation and diffusion of innovations.

I obtained my PhD with the history of "unruly design", concentrating on the development of the relationship between meaning and functionality. On 23 September 2011, I defended my PhD thesis Regels ter Ontregeling, lessen uit de geschiedenis van het tegendraads ontwerp (in Dutch). Unfortunately it is no longer available via the publisher (boom|lemma), however if you want to acquire a copy you can send me an email with your address details. In 2016, I have made an English translation which you can find here.

The research of our group is concentrated in the Universities' DesignLab, a collaborative space for 'doing design'. Together with the initiators of this wonderful place (Vanessa Evers, Peter-Paul Verbeek and Mascha van der Voort) and our students, I developed the interior design concept for the lab. See also the publication I wrote about the idea behind this design: Eggink, W. [2015]. DesignLab, making space for doing design as a process

Publications

Recent
Wildeboer, T., Kousi, N. , & Eggink, W. (2023). Beyond Design and Play: Gaging a Responsible path for Designing the Future. In L. Buck, H. Grierson, & E. Bohemia (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2023) The Design Society. https://doi.org/10.35199/EPDE.2023.22
Eggink, W., Dorrestijn, S., & van der Heijden, K. (2023). Ethics in Design Education, but completely different: Teaching through Interactive Installations. In L. Buck, H. Grierson, & E. Bohemia (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2023) (Vol. 25, pp. 001-006). The Design Society. https://doi.org/10.35199/EPDE.2023.16
Kousi, N., Wildeboer, T. , & Eggink, W. (2023). Connecting to the Future: Using Serious games and Scenario development for Responsible Design. In Connectivity and creativity in times of conflict: Cumulus Conference Proceedings Antwerp 2023 (pp. 191-195)
van der Heijden, K. , Eggink, W., Ouwens, I., & Dorrestijn, S. (2023). Wijs met techniek: Met praktische werkvormen ethisch reflecteren over de impact van techniek. Tech Your Future.
Shirazi, E. , Eggink, W., Zhu, X. , & Reinders, A. (2022). Design with Integrated PV Technologies in Various Products and Environments. In 2022 IEEE 49th Photovoltaics Specialists Conference (PVSC) (pp. 731-731). Article 9938809 IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC48317.2022.9938809
Eggink, W., van der Heijden, K., Dorrestijn, S., & Ouwens, I. (2022). Tool-Based Ethics Education for Engineers: wonderberries and wisdom tiles. In E. Bohemia, L. Buck, & H. Grierson (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2022), London South Bank University in London, UK, 8th-9th September 2022: Disrupt, Innovate, Regenerate & Transform The Design Society. https://doi.org/10.35199/EPDE.2022.5
Dorrestijn, S. , & Eggink, W. (2022). Human-technology relations down to earth. 29-29 (E.18). Paper presented at 3rd Philosophy of Human-Technology relations conference pHTR2022, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Eggink, W. , & Dorrestijn, S. (2022). Editorial: Ethics as Creativity in Design. In D. Lockton, P. Lloyd, & S. Lenzi (Eds.), DRS2022: EDITORIALS (pp. 1-3). Design Research Society. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.1067
Eggink, W. , Dorrestijn, S., van der Heijden, K., & Ouwens, I. (2022). Ethics, design, and creativity: A fruitful combination. 1-15. Paper presented at DRS 2022, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.158
Eggink, W. (2022). Re-engaging with Design History through the Practical Turn. 268. Paper presented at Design History Society annual Conference 2021, Basel, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.26254/med/6331
van der Heijden, K., Ouwens, I., Dorrestijn, S. , & Eggink, W. (2021). Teaching Track For Ethics of Technology in Engineering Education: Workshop. In H.-U. Heiss, H.-M. Järvinen, A. Mayer, & A. Schulz (Eds.), Blended Learning in Engineering Education: challenging, enlightening – and lasting? (pp. 1561-1570). Societe Europeenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs (SEFI).

UT Research Information System

Google Scholar Link

Education

I am coordinator of the Industrial Design Engineering master track Human Technology Relations which is aimed at raising "People oriented Designers", in order to make technology available for users. I am teaching Design Histories in the master and also the course Create the Future, where student groups develop design concepts for within 25 years based on scenario development.

Design Histories is deliberately plural, as there is no single "right" perspective on historic developments. I especially use all the different views on design from historic precedents to make the students better prepared for the future.

I am also member of the Examination Board of Industrial Design Engineering and the combined Examination board of Creative Technology and iTECH (Interactive Technology Master).

I have always been interested in developing design education, right from my involvement in the start of Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Twente in 2001. After that I was also involved in the design of the new Creative Technology Bachelor in 2009, the setup of the DesignLab in 2014, the Design master Honours Programme in 2015, and the Transdisciplinary Master Insert Shaping Responsible Futures in 2019.

Affiliated Study Programmes

Bachelor

Courses Academic Year  2023/2024

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.
 

Courses Academic Year  2022/2023

Contact Details

Visiting Address

University of Twente
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W258
De Horst 2
7522LW  Enschede
The Netherlands

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Mailing Address

University of Twente
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Horst Complex  W258
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
The Netherlands

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