Welcome!
I am Francesca Toso, PhD, currently Assistant Professor in the Human-centred Design group at the Faculty of Engineering Technology of the University of Twente.
I work with feminist design methods for involving patients, caregivers and marginalized communities in the design of services and technologies for health and well-being, specifically regarding dementia, hormonal health besides reproductive health and stroke rehabilitation.
My research activity primarily focuses on participatory research and design methods, involving people living with chronic conditions in designing technologies to support quality of life. As this is strongly connected to the sense of identity that each of us creates and experiences in relation to others through personal and interpersonal relationships, in private and public environment, I focus on relational aspects, qualitative data and intersectionality to understand and value the different perspectives.
Born and raised in Friuli Venezia-Giulia, I studied in Venice at the Iuav University of Venice (IT). During my master studies in Product Design, I spent six months at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (DE) under the Erasmus+ programme. There, I had the opportunity to expand my international experience learning German and getting to know fellows colleagues from all over the world, plus extend my design knowledge through the exploration of a mix of design methods rooted in history with applied arts and technological infrastructures.
In the course of my doctoral studies, I worked in close contact with the Neurological Clinic of the Cattinara Hospital in Trieste (IT) and conducted an internship at the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Hsinchu, Taiwan (R.O.C.).
My postdoctoral academic career continued as a Lecturer for the San Raffaele Telematic University and, after the outbreak of Covid-19, as a postdoctoral researcher at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
You can follow my professional journey through LinkedIn, Orcid-ID and Pure.
Francesca Toso 