Bas Baccarne

Prof. dr. Bas(tiaan) Baccarne is a professor at the design.nexus research group, within the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design at Ghent University. His expertise lies in design for empowerment, inclusive design, design for futures, and design for impact. As a socio-technologist and professor of design methodology at imec-MICT-UGent & design.nexus, Bas shapes the technology of tomorrow through a unique combination of social science research, innovation management, and product design. His work involves design ethnography, co-creation, prototyping, and experimentation, often employing a research-through-design methodology. His approach prioritises inclusion and empowerment, with a strong focus on participatory design and participatory action research.

In the Design for Empowerment research unit, Bas coordinates three central objectives. Inclusive design: exploring emerging technologies for human augmentation, with a focus on developing toolkits for user innovation (design by humans), collaborative design (transdisciplinary, in co-creation), and advanced human-product interactions. In other words, he aims for design for inclusiveness, with technology as a tool. Design for futures: investigating how futures thinking and design can mutually reinforce each other, by using design practices to understand and shape future contexts. Design for impact: exploring how technology can contribute to solving complex societal challenges, such as through living lab research.

Bas graduated as a Communication Scientist (New Media & Society) in 2012, but quickly explored transdisciplinary paths. His doctoral research (2019) focused on the intersection of democracy, design, policy, innovation management, and web technology, covering topics such as co-creation, participation inequalities, urban living labs, hackathons, and crowdsourcing. Following his PhD, he transitioned to industrial engineering: industrial design (UGent, Campus Kortrijk) and was appointed professor of design methodology, interactive prototyping, interaction design, and inclusive design in 2024. Now, Bas represents the human aspect in the engineering discipline, covering topics such as human-centred design, ergonomics, design methodology, usability and user experience research, and design of experiments. He has a strong interest in educational innovation, contributing to initiatives such as ENLIGHT BIP AI for Everyone, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, and the User Innovation Toolbox. He is also actively seeking partnerships for challenge-based education and supports various initiatives around student entrepreneurship.

Bas is affiliated with both research group imec-MICT-UGent and research group design.nexus and is a member of IDC GRAY and IDC Delta. He also serves as the methodological architect of Comon.