Graduation opportunities

You will investigate the intricacies of the substance safety issues throughout the lifecycles of several office chairs. Crucially, the findings must be addressed through a redesign of (parts of) the circular solution, to improve safety and sustainability of the office chair. Additionally, you will contribute to the development of design tools created by the researchers by applying preliminary versions of the tools to perform the analysis. We’re looking for an IPD master student who is excited to contribute to a safe and circular society. You are excited to work on embodiment design and have experience with SolidWorks. Both the analysis of the current situation and the solutions are equally important. You will be supervised by the researchers involved and npk design will be the client, providing expert knowledge, network access, and guidance during research and design. Starting date in consultation with the researchers.

You will design a prototype using smart materials capable of shape morphing and shape retention. The key objectives are: developing a biocompatible smart material system, ensuring the prototype that can be customized for patient-specific or post-surgical cavity applications, demonstrating shape morphing capabilities and shape memory properties.

By choosing this assignment you are contributing to our efforts to make our grid ready for the transition towards renewable energy and thus to a better planet. The assignment covers the following: - Mapping the critical knowledge required to operate our grid and to capture. - Detecting the questions asked most frequently to our WR (and thus the specific WR knowledge to be captured) and select the top use cases to cover within this assignment. - Develop a solution to capture and expose this knowledge in a user friendly and safe* way on the job.* hands free and compatible with our personal protective equipment. The provided information needs to be 100% accurate. In case this cannot be guaranteed, this needs to be communicated clearly and explicitly to the user as well as the source of information. - Successfully test the digital coach in a real situation on the job. - Advise for the next steps towards maturity and successful companywide implementation.

After someone’s last breath until someone’s farewell ceremony, many moments of transport of the human body are involved: transport from the location of dying to the funeral home, transportation from the funeral home to the location for the ceremony, and so on. Also, within these different locations, the body is often transported from one room to another. The journey of the human body from the location of dying until the final destination, involves different devices designed to support a smooth transition between the different settings. These devices are not all well adapted to the needs of the different stakeholders.

The Improving Improvement Toolkit was developed by the Healthcare Design group at the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre. This toolkit aims to provide practical guidance and resources to facilitate the application of a rigorous systems approach to health and care improvement. It offers diverse resources usable across all stages of the health and care improvement process, ranging from introductory guides to comprehensive questions, frameworks, activities, and tools, such as journey maps and personas. The current version of the toolkit is freely accessible online at https://www.iitoolkit.com. It is available both as downloadable PDFs and as a physical box containing supplementary resources. While the toolkit has been impactful and has been utilized in research guidance, course teaching, and short-term workshop training, it still faces some challenges in further implementation and dissemination.

To tackle the urgent housing shortage in the Netherlands, with the goal of building 100,000 homes each year, the current permitting process for residential construction presents a significant bottleneck, leading to delays and inefficiencies. We are seeking a Master’s student in Design for Interaction (DfI) to address this challenge as part of their graduation project. Your task will be to design an innovative system, tool, or interface that streamlines the permitting process, making it more efficient, transparent, and user-friendly for all stakeholders, including municipalities, developers, and private applicants. By applying various design methodologies, you will identify pain points, prototype solutions, and test them in practical, real-world scenarios. Through this, you will contribute to a faster and more effective housing development process. This project offers a unique opportunity to make a tangible impact on one of the Netherlands’ most pressing societal issues, while collaborating with professionals in the field.

Dit afstudeerproject begint met het in kaart brengen van de huidige “leefstijlreis” voor individuen die zorg ontvangen op de afdeling Cardiologie van het LUMC. Vervolgens onderzoek je de ideale patiëntenreis inclusief leefstijlgeneeskunde, geschikt voor implementatie. Uiteindelijk wordt een proces/strategie ontwikkeld voor de implementatie van leefstijlgeneeskunde die de uitkomsten voor zowel patiënten als zorgverleners verbetert.

What we eat has a significant impact on our well-being, influencing public health, climate change, biodiversity, and social inclusion. Flevo Campus is a knowledge and action lab that connects science, education, entrepreneurship, and policy to tackle complex (urban) food challenges. Through innovative projects, we explore solutions that shape a sustainable and inclusive food system. Below are flexible project briefs for potential graduation assignments. These explore the overarching theme of “The Grain of the Future,” part of Flevo Campus’ research initiative (www.flevocampus.nl/programmas/het-graan-van-de-toekomst/) We’re open to combining or adjusting project briefs.

When has an electric appliance truly made its money’s worth? Over time and repeated use, consumers mentally depreciate appliance’s book value until these have made their money’s worth – even if still functional. This project challenges you to explore design intervention(s) that slow down this mental depreciation. For example, you might create a washing machine speedometer to track completed cycles and show remaining ones, helping owners see both delivered and owed value. This project involves four stages: 1) define your design objective inspired by behavioural processes from literature, 2) generate initial intervention designs, 3) select and refine the most promising concepts, and 4) test your intervention experimentally. This is a great fit for students interested in exploring the intersection of design and consumer behaviour to make an environmental impact.

Repurpose is a circular design strategy that is being picked up in practice. Designers, makers and commercial companies are increasingly upcycling waste streams into new products that make use of the unique properties of the waste stream. However, there is a lack of knowledge about an effective strategy to increase buying interest amongst a mainstream audience. Research into factors like appealing sales points, presentation methods, and other marketing tools can enhance market acceptance within a group that is not yet familiar with or convinced about repurposed products. Also, these insights can guide makers in the repurpose design strategies that they apply.