Peter J.F. Peters

“However small or big the result, engineers and designers should create products, services and systems that improve the quality of life. All life.”

Peter Peters is a lecturer and researcher in the Future Everyday cluster. He leads the TU/e part of the European Horizon 2020 project DoCHANGE and is a member of the ICT committee, the Program Committee, the Joint Program Committee and the teacher’s team for the basic courses. Peters is interested in computer science and electronics, and how these fields can be applied in design. He has deep expertise and extensive practical experience with electronics and software, which he applies throughout the design process. His main areas of interest are medical simulation and improving the quality of life of elderly people, with a focus on the elderly.

Peter Peters obtained his BSc in Electrical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Applied Sciences in 1980, and then worked as software designer at Philips Communication Industries. He took a position as software designer at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in 1988, and worked there for 11 years. He started studying towards his MSc in Computer Science part-time in 1992 and graduated in 1997. After 3 years of working at the Eindhoven Embedded Systems Institute as a researcher, he returned to TU/e as researcher and lecturer at the Industrial Design department in 2002. This is also where Peters got his PhD in 2014, doing his research into designing a premature baby simulator while continuing to do his other tasks. 

Squad: Health

Examples of exemplary graduation projects I coached:
Carlijn Valk: Eli
B2 project Miguel Cabral Guerra et all:  Hugsy
FBP Ananya Mehrotra: Bonding in the Artificial Womb Baby Talk

Research focus, project topics I’d like to coach:
“The projects I am coaching should be health related. I am not a designer by education, and although my fields of expertise are electrical engineering and computer science, I try to coach all-round, of course. I am interested in a combination of health and IoT.  I am involved in the STRAP research project (Self TRAcking for Prevention and diagnosis of heart disease). I am also involved in the MyBeaker project, aiming to register the fluid intake of patients in hospitals or nursing homes. In general, I am interested in the use of technology within healthcare. Not so much the invasive things, but more what it could mean for health care if IoT can be used on a wider scale or if designs like the “My Beaker” project” are created.

Coaching style
“I am not a very directive coach. Students need to determine the direction of their project themselves. I will give them solicited and unsolicited advice during the process. Students are expected to be self-directed, if needed we can plan meetings every 1, 2 or 3 weeks, or students can contact me when they need me. If I do not hear from a student for a long time, I will contact them, but it is their responsibility to make progress, and to make their own choices. I will be there to given them advice, and refer them to the right experts, if necessary.”