My name is Cesar. I am driven by a passion for understanding and creating technology. Technology continues to have a tremendous impact on all aspects of society, and I want to help create the next big thing. I fulfill many roles, but at the core I consider myself a design technologist. I help others go from a simple sketch on a piece of paper to a working proof-of-concept prototype. In my work, I have a special focus on technical design, manufacturability and user interaction aspects. My broad knowledge foundation allows me to communicate with all the stakeholders in an interdisciplinary environment, and with my deep expertise, I can offer unexpected solutions to the product design conversation. As a product designer, I firmly believe in the value of hands-on, iterative prototyping. Even though I recently finished my PhD, my skills are not limited to the theoretical domain. I have a strong affinity for tinkering and making, as is evidenced by the broad scope of prototypes I developed during my doctorate. There you go, that's me in a nutshell. If you wish to learn more, I invite you to see below for an overview of my background, my interests, and my work.
Ono is one of the the social robots I developed during my PhD. He can communicate with people through speech and a wide range of facial expressions. The Ono robot was created for human-robot interaction research with children, where he offers a low-cost and hackable alternative for existing robots. The design of Ono pushed the boundaries of my design skills and technical know-how. As such, it offers an excellent overview of my profile as a design technologist.
The gallery below gives an overview of projects I have worked on in the past. Click an item to find out more, or use the filter tools to find out more about a specific topic.
R&D department — Designed and prototyped outdoor lighting products.
R&D department — Created fully-parametric CAD models of fencing products. Reverse engineered and created production drawings of legacy products.
I am proficient in operating digital manufacturing machines and I know how to design for each specific technique.
I can build working electronics prototypes and one-off designs using off-the-shelf components.
I can turn a prototype circuit into a compact printed circuit board designs and I have experience with PCB manufacture.
I have experience with ideation, conceptual design and product innovation techniques.
I am familiar with a wide range of manual prototyping techniques.
I am a skilled programmer with experience in a wide range of programming languages.
I have an eye for aesthetics and visual design. I have experience with different mediums, including print, digital, and product design.
I am a trained engineer. I have a broad background in engineering principles, tools, and techniques.
I am specialized in designing interactive products, a discipline that combines aspects of the physical and the digital world.
C. Vandevelde (2017). “Study on the Design of DIY Social Robots”. Ghent University. download pdf
C. Vandevelde, F. wyffels, B. Vanderborght, and J. Saldien (2017). “DIY Design for Social Robots”. In: IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine 24.1, pp. 86–94. download pdf
P. D. Conradie, C. Vandevelde, J. De Ville, and J. Saldien (2016). “Prototyping Tangible User Interfaces: Case Study of the Collaboration between Academia and Industry”. In: International Journal of Engineering Education 32.2, pp. 1–12. download pdf
C. Vandevelde, F. wyffels, C. Ciocci, B. Vanderborght, and J. Saldien (2015). “Design and evaluation of a DIY construction system for educational robot kits”. In: International Journal of Technology and Design Education 26.4, pp. 521–540. download pdf
C. Vandevelde, J. Saldien, M.C. Ciocci, and B. Vanderborght (2013). “Systems overview of Ono: a DIY reproducible open source social robot”. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8239, pp. 311-320. download pdf
T. Vervisch, N. Doms, S. Descamps, C. Vandevelde, F. wyffels, S. Verstockt, and J. Saldien (2017). “OTO - A DIY Platform for Mobile Social Robots in Education”. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Robotics in Education. Sofia, Bulgaria. download pdf
J. Saldien, S. Notebaert, C. Vandevelde, and D. Bovijn (2017). “Demonstration of OPSORO's Grid System”. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. Vienna, Austria. pp. 46-47. download pdf
C. Vandevelde and J. Saldien (2016). “An Open Platform for the Design of Social Robot Embodiments for Face-to-Face Communication”. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. Christchurch, New Zealand, pp. 287–294. download pdf
C. Vandevelde and J. Saldien (2016). “Demonstration of OPSORO – an Open Platform for Social Robots”. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. Christchurch, New Zealand. download pdf
C. Vandevelde, M. Vanhoucke, and J. Saldien (2015). “Prototyping social interactions with DIY animatronic creatures”. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction. Stanford, USA. download pdf
C. Vandevelde, P. Conradie, J. De Ville, and J. Saldien (2014). “Playful interaction: designing and evaluating a tangible rhythmic musical interface”. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Live Interfaces. Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 132–141. download pdf
C. Vandevelde, J. Saldien, C. Ciocci, and B. Vanderborght (2014). “Ono, a DIY open source platform for social robotics”. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction.. Munich, Germany. download pdf
M. Vanhoucke, C. Vandevelde, J. Ingels, G. Hamon, and J. Saldien (2014). “Serious game as educational tool for safety and prevention”. In: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play – Workshop Participatory Design for Serious Game Design. Toronto, Canada. download pdf
C. Vandevelde, J. Saldien, C. Ciocci, and B. Vanderborght (2013). “The use of social robot ono in robot assisted therapy”. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Social Robotics. Bristol, UK. download pdf
C. Vandevelde, J. Saldien, C. Ciocci, and B. Vanderborght (2013). “Overview of technologies for building robots in the classroom”. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Robotics in Education. Lodz, Poland. download pdf