Resume
Contact me by mail (raf.ramakers@gmail.com) for a detailed resume.
Employment
- July 2022-present: Associate Professor Computer Science
Hasselt University, Belgium
Expertise Centre for Digital Media - July 2017-July 2022: Assistant Professor Computer Science
Hasselt University, Belgium
Expertise Centre for Digital Media - 2012-2016: Ph.D. Researcher in Human Computer Interaction, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium
- Jun-Sept 2015: Research stay at Autodesk User Interface Research group, Toronto, Canada
with Tovi Grossman and George Fitzmaurice, project: RetroFab - Aug-Nov 2012: Research stay at Hasso Plattner Institute, Berlin, Germany
with Patrick Baudisch, project: Kickables - Feb-Jun 2012: Research stay at Expertise Centre for Digital Media (EDM), Hasselt, Belgium
with Kris Luyten, project: Carpus - July 2011: Developer at TinkerTouch, Hasselt, Belgium (summer job)
- July 2010: Developer at Expertise Centre for Digital Media (EDM), Hasselt, Belgium (summer job)
- July-Sept 2008: Web developer at Lithium ICT, Hasselt, Belgium (summer job)
Education
- 2012-2016: Ph.D. in Human Computer Interaction
Hasselt University, Belgium
Advisors: Prof. dr. Kris Luyten, Prof. dr. Johannes Schöning
Dissertation: End-User Control over Physical User-Interfaces: From Digital Fabrication to Real-Time Adaptability
* With special congratulations from the examination committee (top 5%).
** FWO IBM Innovation Award 2017 (Belgian Dissertation Award in Computer Science).
*** FWO Nokia Bell Scientific Prize 2017 (Belgian Dissertation Award in Information and Communication Technology). - 2010-2012: Master in Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction (Magna Cum Laude)
Hasselt University, Belgium
Advisor: Prof. dr. Kris Luyten
Thesis: Enriching Touch - 2007-2010: Bachelor in Computer Science (Cum Laude)
Hasselt University, Belgium
Thesis: Magic Lenses for Visualizing Multimedia Data
Scientific Publications
My most important peer-reviewed publications can be found here.
Patents
- 15/01/2016: Raf Ramakers, Fraser Anderson, Tovi Grossman, George Fitzmaurice. Automated Techniques for Generating Enclosures for Devices. (pending)
- 15/01/2016: Raf Ramakers, Fraser Anderson, Tovi Grossman, George Fitzmaurice. Automated Techniques for Retrofitting Devices. (pending)
- 18/03/2015: Raf Ramakers, Kashyap Todi, Kris Luyten. Automated Design and Generation of Paper Electronic Systems on Flexible Substrates. (pending)
Teaching
- 2019-present: Human and social aspects of computer science
- 2019-present: Computational Fabrication
- 2014-present: Technology and Tools of User Interfaces
- 2012-2019: Programming in C (co-lectured with dr. Davy Vanacken)
- 2013-2015: Information Visualization
- 2011-2012: Tutored Bachelor Students
Academic Experience
PhD Students Advised
- Sept 2019-present: Mannu Lambrichts
- Sept 2019-present: Tom Veuskens
- May 2018-present: Jose Maria Tijerina
Embedding electronics in Materials - Sept 2018 - present: Yerandy Manso Guerra (joint PhD with University of Informatics Sciences in Cuba)
End-User Programming for sensor Systems
PhD Students Co-Advised
- 2019-present: Bram Van Deurzen, Hasselt University (advisor: Prof. dr. Kris Luyten)
PhD Committees
- 2015-present: Danny Leen, Luca School of Arts (Advisor: dr. Veerle Van der Sluys)
Unit-less Fabrication (StrutModeling UIST'17, JigFab CHI'19) - 2018-present: Dimitri Vargemidis, KUL (Advisor: Prof. dr. Kathrin Gerling)
- 2019-present: Iremnur Tokac, KUL (Advisor: Prof. dr. Andrew Vande Moere)
PhD Jury
- Sven Coppers, Hasselt University (advisor: Prof. dr. Kris Luyten)
- Steven Nagels, UHasselt IMOIMEC (Advisor: Prof. dr. Wim Deferme)
Interns Advised (Mostly 1 month summer jobs)
- Summer 2019: Tom Veuskens
- Summer 2018: Mannu Lambrichts, Tom Veuskens
- Summer 2017: Tom Veuskens & Bram van Deurzen (UIST Student Innovation Contest)
- Winter 2017: Yerandy Manso Guerra (University of Informatics Sciences, Cuba)
- Summer 2015: Brent Berghmans, Axel Faes
Master and Bachelor theses advised:
- 2020-2021: Brent Gerets (Bach Thesis), Michiel Hamaekers (Bach Thesis), Niels de Cat (Bach Thesis), Wouter Pardon (Bach Thesis)
- 2019-2020: Jorrit Gerets (Master Thesis), Maarten Vrijens (Bachelor thesis)
- 2018-2019: Mannu Lambrichts (Master Thesis), Tom Veuskens (Master Thesis), Tom Valkeneers (Master Thesis), Steven Peeters (Master Thesis), Lennard Snoeks (Master Thesis), Lennert Daniels (Bach Thesis), Niels Desair (Bach Thesis), Bram Annaarts (Bach Thesis)
- 2017-2018: Niels Uytdenhouwen (Master Thesis), Tim Mesotten (Bach. thesis)
- 2016-2017: Dries Wielockx (Bach. Thesis)
- 2015-2016: Brent Berghmans (Bach. Thesis), Niels Uytdenhouwen (Bach. Thesis)
- 2014-2015: Ben Clerix (Master Thesis), Brecht Loos (Bach. Thesis)
- 2013-2014: Ben Jorissen (Master Thesis)
- 2012-2013: Laurens Bolle (Bach. Thesis), Ben Clerix (Bach. Thesis)
Program Committees and conference organization
- Program Chair MUM 2021
- Program Committee member ACM UIST 2021
- Program Committee member ACM CHI 2021
- Program Committee member ACM UIST 2020
- Program Committee member ACM CHI 2019
- Program Committee member ACM TEI 2019
- Program Committee member ACM CHI 2018
External reviewer:
- CHI: 2014-2020
- UIST: 2014-2019
- TEI: 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
- MobileHCI: 2013-2017
- SIGGRAPH Asia: 2016, 2017
- SIGGRAPH: 2020
- TOCHI: 2020
- DIS: 2016, 2017
- IEEE Pervasive Computing: 2017
- Interacting with Computers: 2014, 2015
- UbiComp/IMWUT: 2013, 2020
- EICS: 2013, 2015
- MUM: 2015
- Augmented Human: 2015
- IUI: 2015
- ITS/ISS: 2013
External Presentations
- 18/05/2021: Invited research talk at HCI MIT CSAIL.
- 02/12/2020: Remote guest lecture at UAntwerp.
- 24/04/2019: Invited research talk at E-Media lab (Groep T, KUL), Leuven, Belgium.
- 05/05/2018: Invited research talk at X-Festival, Genk, Belgium.
- 23/11/2017: Invited research talk at Nokia Bell Labs, Antwerp, Belgium.
- 20/11/2017: Invited research talk at IBM Belgium, Brussels, Belgium.
- 14/09/2017: Invited research talk at the Functional Materials Engineering summerschool at Hasselt University
- 07/05/2017: Workshop paper presentation Mixed-Initiative Visual Programming Paradigms for Authoring Sensor-Based Systems at CHI 2017, Denver, USA
- 22/07/2016: Invited research talk at the HCI group at Saarland University, Saarbrucken, Germany
- 09/05/2016: Full paper presentation (RetroFab) at CHI 2016, San Jose, California, USA
- 24/02/2016: Research talk at The Future of Interaction Symposium, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium
- 08/11/2015: Research talk at the UIST 2015 Doctoral Symposium, Charlotte, USA
- 09/08/2015: Talk on PaperPulse at Siggraph 2015, Los angeles, USA
- 15/07/2015: Research talk at Autodesk, Toronto, Canada
- 18/06/2015: Invited research talk at DGP lab at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
- 22/04/2015: Full paper presentation (PaperPulse) at CHI 2015, Seoul, South-Korea
- 19/04/2015: Workshop paper presentation An End-User Development Approach for Designing and Fabricating Interactive Paper at CHI 2015, Seoul, South-Korea
- 03/06/2014: Invited talk (Paddle) at Internet of Things event, Eindhoven, Netherlands
- 23/05/2014: Invited talk (Paddle) at VRT Onderzoek & Innovatie, Brussels, Belgium
- 13/05/2014: Invited talk (Paddle) at Tactile and Gestural Interaction Forum, Lille, France
- 30/04/2014: Full paper presentation (Paddle) at CHI 2014, Toronto, Canada
- 28/04/2013: Workshop paper presentation Learning from 3D puzzles to inform future interactions with deformable mobile interfaces at CHI 2013, Paris, France
- 08/10/2012: Full paper presentation (Carpus) at UIST 2012, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Prices & Awards
- 2017: FWO Nokia Bell Scientific Prize (Belgian Dissertation Award in Information and Communication Technology) for my PhD dissertation
- 2017: FWO IBM Innovation Award (Belgian Dissertation Award in Computer Science) for my PhD dissertation
- 2016: CHI2016 Best Paper Honorable Mention Award for RetroFab
- 2016: CHI2016 Special recognition for writing exceptional expert reviews
- 2014: Nominated for the German Design Awards with Paddle
- 2013: 2nd place UIST student Innovation Contest with XboxH20
- 2012: Master award Hasselt University
Selected Popular Press
- 22/04/2019: HackADay article on JigFab
- 21/05/2016: HackADay article on RetroFab
- 10/05/2016: The Verge article on RetroFab
- 01/05/2016: Digital Trends article on RetroFab
- 18/04/2016: NewScientist article on RetroFab
- 01/04/2016: Printed edition of EOS Wetenschap (Dutch science magazine) featuring Paddle and PaperPulse
- 23/04/2015: Heise (German) article on PaperPulse
- 21/04/2015: Fast Co.Design article on PaperPulse
- 01/03/2014: Discovery News article on Paddle
- 26/02/2014: Fast Co.Design article on Paddle
- 26/02/2014: Design Boom article on Paddle
- 04/02/2014: Discovery Channel Canada (Daily Planet, Digit@l) coverage on Paddle
- 28/01/2014: Phys.org article on Paddle
