Departmental Fellow

Rens Brankaert

RESEARCH PROFILE

Rens Brankaert is Assistant Professor of Active and Healthy Ageing with a specific interest in dementia in the systemic change group at Industrial Design. He set up and leads the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) expertise center for Dementia & Technology. He approaches technology design from a person-centered perspective, and is interested in the impact of design on the various stakeholders and organization in healthcare. To investigate this, he applies Living Lab methodology. Brankaert also works on vitality for office environments and elderly communities.

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Rens Brankaert studied Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). After obtaining his MSc in 2012, he went on to do his PhD research here as well, working on radical design approaches for people living with dementia. During his time as a PhD student, Brankaert also served as project lead in several health innovation projects for Optistaff BV, in close collaboration with Slimmer Leven 2020 and Brainport Development. In 2016, he was offered the Assistant Professor position he still holds today, where he focuses on embedding the Living Lab approach to support health innovation.