Playful Route to Serious High-Tech Applications

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Games that turn physiotherapy exercises into an interactive and playful experience. Or games that activitate elderly suffering from dementia, putting a smile on their face again. Creative Technology (CreaTe) gives high-tech a creative twist, improving user interaction and applicability. Students of University of Twente’s CreaTe program already founded companies introducing surprising products to the market. During the symposium ‘Engineering our Future’, on March 29, CreaTe unfolds its vision of the future, presenting show cases and student pitches.

Since Creative Technology started as a pioneering bachelor programme of the University of Twente, six years ago, a new discipline developed, having a clear position in technology development nowadays. The focus is not on hard core technology development, but on finding creative solutions and combinations.

For this, a broad approach is needed: the creative technologist starts playing with the possibilities of new technology, combines it with other techniques and looks at the way users can benefit from it. As an example, CreaTe students developed the Homey, a speech controlled remote controller for household devices. Homey is a commercial product now. Another example is Printr, a company that improves the accessibility of 3D printing via a web based tool. In pitches during the symposium, students will show examples like a LED floor for fysiotherapy, a wrist band capturing your personal memories of a festival, and a smart T-shirt improving your posture.

But what does this playful and creative way of thinking mean for teaching and research? Scientific and teaching staff will illustrate this. Edwin Dertien will elaborate on the process of ‘tinkering’, exploring new technology for finding surprising applications. His colleague Dennis Reidsma tells the audience about the role of gaming and interactive playgrounds. Key note speaker is Professor Ben Kröze, who teaches Ambient Robotics and Digital Life in Amsterdam (UvA/HvA).

The symposium ‘Engineering our future’ takes place March 29 (12h30-17h30) at UT’s DesignLab. Joining in is free, but registration via the website is mandatory. On this website, the full program can be found as well.