Prof.dr.ir. R.H.M. Goossens (Richard)

Professor of Physical Ergonomics 
Coordinator Healthcare Program

Biography

I am a full professor of Physical Ergonomics at the department of Industrial Design Engineering within the section of Applied Ergonomics and Design at the Delft University of Technology. Beside this I am a part time professor of Physical Ergonomics at Erasmus MC, department of Neuroscience and an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Salford. In 1994 my PhD thesis was on Biomechanics of body support. Since then I am supervising research for the development of the ‘Surgeons Cockpit’ and coordinating education of Medisign students, supervising them in serious design projects for medical specialists and companies.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, February 1994, Biomedical Engineering, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  - Dissertation: Biomechanics of body support.
  - Research Director: Professor Chris J. Snijders
• Master of Science, May 1989, Mechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
  - Area of Emphasis: Robotics

Experience

• Full Professor Physical Ergonomics (May 2009-present). Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering
• Part-time Professor Physical Ergonomics (Februari 2010-present)Erasmus Medical Center, Department of Neuroscience.
• Associate Professor (May 2001-May 2009).Delft University of Technology, 
  Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering
• Honorary Lecturer in The School of Health Care Professions (14th June 2004 – present),The University of Salford, Manchester, United Kingdom
• Assistant Professor (October 1996-May 2001).Delft University of Technology, 
  Faculty of Design, Engineering and Production, Subfaculty of Industrial Design Engineering
• Scientific Researcher (June 1989- October 1996). Erasmus University Rotterdam, 
• Robotic Engineer Specialist (September 1988 – May 1989).Holec Instruments, Hengelo 

Specialisation / field of research

The focus of the research is on the physical human factors during professional product use. The emphasis is on research of ergonomics in relation to product development in order to establish safe, comfortable and error-free task fulfilment in complex multi-user situations in a medical setting. The goal is to generate design requirements, methods and products. The requirements should anticipate the implementation of these products on a large scale and daily use.
This is done by obtaining insight in physical user aspects, such as anatomy, biomechanics, anthropometry and physiology in order to understand the underlying medical aspects of user complaints. These insights form the basis for biomechanical modelling and verification experiments on various user groups. Once scientifically validated, the acquired knowledge is transformed in engineering recommendations and products, which themselves can be evaluated as well.
An ongoing project on safety is the design of a set of products that provide an optimal human-product interaction necessary to guarantee high quality in surgical performance; this is realized in the project: Surgeon’s Cockpit (SC).
To develop the Surgeon’s Cockpit seven PhD-projects are defined. Six of these projects already started in 2002 (Albayrak), 2005 (Buzink, Jalote and Wauben), 2006 (Westebring-van de Putten) 2007 (Vonck).
An example of a project on physical ergonomics can be found in the cooperation with the REPAIR group (REsearch Projects for Abdominal surgery Innovation Rotterdam) with the department of Surgery of Erasmus MC. In this project the focus is on understanding the biomechanical behaviour of sutured of the abdomen.

Lectures and/or coaches students on:

• Ergonomics 1st year, teaching
• Biomechanics, coordinator
• Capita Selecta Medisign, coordinator
• Anatomy for Engineers, coordinator
• Design of Products in Healthcare, coordinator
• Graduation projects of MSc-students Industrial Design Engineering, 20 students a year