Lucca Geurts

Scholar in residence August – December 2024

Lucca Geurts is an Associate Professor at KU Leuven (Belgium), at the Faculty of Engineering Technology and the Department of Computer Science, division of Human-Computer Interaction. Currently, Lucca is also the Program Director of the Advanced Master in Innovative Health Technology and Director of the Leuven Centre for Affordable Health Technology. Lucca holds a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and obtained a PhD at KU Leuven on the topic of coding temporal information in signal processing for cochlear implants and hearing instruments for deaf people.

Lucca’s research focuses on designing, implementing and evaluating interactive sensor-actuator systems with tangible components and playful elements. The application domains are Health, Learning, Arts and Entertainment, so collaborations are made with healthcare professionals and artists. We often work with vulnerable target groups such as children with developmental disabilities, people with chronic conditions, or patients in remote areas in developing countries.

Lucca will spend four months in the Media Technology and Interaction Design Department of the Human Centered Technology Department of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The Digital Futures faculty member acting as a host is Professor Madeline Balaam, who also works on interactive systems for health and wellness. Lucca will be involved in ongoing research activities, interact with local researchers, and participate actively in the group’s weekly research seminars. More concretely, we will collaborate on the design of technologies that touch the body in ways which are responsive to the movements of the bodies they are touching. One example is the pelvic chair that uses soft robotics to gently touch the outer pelvic floor to create awareness of its anatomy and function.

Contact: luc.geurts@kuleuven.be