Dr. Robert Chien-Chung Chen

Robert has a first honour BSc degree in Industrial Design Engineering Studies from the National Cheng-Kung University (Taiwan, 1980); a postgraduate diploma in Product and Ergonomics Design Studies from National Tsukuba University (Japan, 1984); an MPhil research degree in Design and Manufacture (Product/Footwear) Studies from Leicester Polytechnic (UK, 1991); and PhD research degree in Orthopaedic Footwear and Medi-care Product Design Studies from Department of Medical Engineering and Physics, King’s College, University of London (UK, 1993).

Work Experiences

He has worked as Associate Professor at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (1999-2001), visiting Professor at National Cheng-Kung University, National United University, Hua-Fan University and De Montfort University (1994-2001). He had also worked as senior manager of both Product Design Promotion and Footwear Design/Technology Divisions at China Productivity Centre (CPC, 1987-1997); and was Vice-President of the Footwear and Recreation Technology Research Institute (FRT, 1997-1999) in Taiwan.

And now is Principal Lecturer of MA/MSc Design Innovation and Group Leader of User Centred Design Research Studio in the Postgraduate Centre of the Faculty of Art and Design at De Montfort University, UK.

Research Area

His research encompasses

(1) Design Innovation (e.g. Product and Footwear design, etc);

(2) Comfort factors of Ergonomics and Medi/Health-care (e.g. Fitting, Comfort and Assistive technology for special needs, etc) and;

(3) Design research (e.g. Design and Research methods and User-centred design, etc). These have been funded by organisations such as the National Science Council (NSC, Taiwan), Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs (IDB, MoEA, Taiwan), Footwear Industrial Promotion Centre (Busan, Korea), and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI, UK).

As senior research supervisor, Robert has successfully supervised 10 research students to the completion of their PhD degree, he has also been invited as reviewer from International Journals and Conference, e.g. the International Journal of Computer Application Technology (IJCAT); International Journal of Design (IJDesign); Advanced Engineering Informatics (AEI) and the Chinese Journal of Design (JoDesign), etc.

He is the author of three books for China Productivity Centre; the editor of 2004 and 2005 Design and Manufacture Seminar proceedings for De Montfort University; more than 150 refereed research papers; and is a frequent keynote speaker in Europe, China, Korea and Taiwan.

He received the Small and Medium Enterprise Innovation Research Award from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan in 2000, as well as awarded the Dean’s Award for Good Teaching at the De Montfort University in 2008.

In addition to English, Robert speaks Taiwanese, Mandarin, and Japanese