Royal decoration for departing professor Loe Feijs

October 8, 2021

Feijs has played an important role in the industrial design of smart products.

Loe Feijs (photo: Bart van Overbeeke)

On the day of his departure from the TU/e, professor Loe Feijs has been appointed Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. The former vice dean of the faculty of Industrial Design was presented with the royal insignia by the mayor of Sittard-Geleen, where he lives.

Feijs (1954) received the award for, among other things, his scientific achievements in the fields of mathematics and computer science, innovative technology and his commitment to collaboration between the various disciplines of science, engineering and the creative industry.

Nationally and internationally, Feijs is lauded for his achievements in building bridges between science and society. In his speech, Mayor Verheijen praised the many successes and initiatives with which Feijs has served both science and society.

The departing professor received the royal insignia during a festive farewell meeting at TU/e on 8 October. On that occasion, Feijs held a valedictory lecture with the theme From Mathematics to Aesthetics: Towards the design of smart products, systems and services.

Career

After a career in industry (including Philips' Natlab), Feijs received his PhD in computer science from TU/e in 1990. Four years later he was appointed parttime professor at the department of Mathematics and Computer Science. In 2001, he became full-time professor and vice dean of the newly founded faculty of Industrial Design, where he was responsible for setting up the research program. From 2006 he devoted himself again full time to his research and teaching.

During his career, Feijs supervised 26 PhD students and he was the (co-)author of more than 300 scientific publications.

In his work, Feijs has been mainly concerned with research into the industrial design of so-called Embedded Systems, in which the designed product is increasingly controlled by computer chips. He saw it as his task to mediate between the language of the computer and the language of design. "Design is no longer about materials or body ergonomics. Algorithms are our new materials".