The University of Twente appointed Prof Ian Gibson as Professor of Design Engineering. He will also be the scientific director of the Fraunhofer Project Center on the UT campus.
Until recently, Ian Gibson (55) was Professor of Industrial Design at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia. Here, he initiated the university’s ‘flagship’ Centre for Advanced Design and Engineering Training (CADET). Gibson also worked at the National University of Singapore and the University of Hong Kong. He started his academic career at the University of Hull (UK), where he obtained his PhD in 1988.
Prof Gibson is an internationally renowned expert in fields like mechatronic design, robotics and additive manufacturing. For the latter, in 2017 he received a ‘life time achievement award’, the Freeform and Additive Manufacturing (FAME) Award.
The new UT Professor looks forward to cooperating with groups he considers as the best in the world: “I am eager to learn how researchers and practitioners apply additive manufacturing here. For many years I have watched with envy about the development of AM applications in Europe. Many other parts of the world still don’t understand the real potential of it. Particularly for high-end applications, it has the potential to be combined with other advanced manufacturing techniques to create truly innovative solutions. In Twente, true ground-breaking work is going on.”
As a Professor of Design Engineering, Ian Gibson will also be the new scientific director of the Fraunhofer Project Center, based on the campus of the University of Twente. “One of the reasons for coming to Twente is that I have always liked to do applications research. Being part of the Fraunhofer Center allows me to collaborate more closely with industry to identify challenges and solutions that can make significant impact.”
The Fraunhofer Project Center, opened in 2017, is a collaboration of the University of Twente and Saxion University of Applied Sciences with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology in Aachen, Germany. The Center helps industry develop innovative solutions for the entire production chain.
The appointment of Prof Gibson strengthens the UT research theme 'creating intelligent manufacturing systems'.
Apart from the appointment of the scientific director, the Fraunhofer Project Center also installed a scientific board recently, existing of Prof. Ton van den Boogaard, Dr Eric Lutters and Prof Boudewijn Haverkort.
