Maarten Houben is an Assistant Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Department of Industrial Design and the TU/e Expertise Center for Dementia & Technology (ECDT). Maarten is passionate about designing and researching multisensory and tangible technologies that positively impact the well-being of vulnerable users or communities by providing social, sensory, and aesthetic enrichment in sensitive settings. Maarten adopts an inclusive co-design approach by closely involving end-users and stakeholders such as vulnerable people, their social context, care practitioners, and policymakers in the design process of emerging technologies that address quality of life. 

Maarten holds a master’s degree in engineering sciences: architecture and gained research experience in Human-Computer Interaction and interactive media architecture at the Research[x]Design group at KU Leuven as a research assistant. In 2018, he started his PhD at the Eindhoven University of Technology at the Department of Industrial Design and worked as a guest researcher at the TRANZO Scientific Center for Care and Wellbeing, Tilburg University. In 2022, he obtained his PhD cum laude by investigating the beneficial effects of everyday sounds and soundscapes in technologies for people with dementia. He has published in peer-reviewed conferences and international journals such as ACM CHI, DIS, TEI, DRS and has received two Best Paper Awards. He served on the program committee of CHI Late-Breaking Work (2021&2022), is Co-Chair of the Late Breaking Work track at CHI’24. He is currently on the steering committee of the Dementia Lab Conference.

With a background in architecture, engineering sciences, and design, he strives to research in transdisciplinary contexts by designing and evaluating tangible design artefacts that provide rich multisensory experiences in care environments and sensitive settings.