Work Experience
2024 – present PhD candidate – Eindhoven University of Technology and AMOLF
Topic: Towards Human Interaction in Soft Robotics.
2022 – 2023 Intern – AMOLF, Soft Robotic Matter group
Master’s graduation project designing and fabricating a soft robotics toolkit to teach children and students about (fluidic) circuitry and soft robotics. The toolkit was awarded a 9.5/10 at TU/e.
2019 – 2024 Co-founder – De Taalkamer
General leadership of the company, hiring and managing new language teachers, and developing course materials and online learning environments.
2019 – 2023 Teaching Assistant – Industrial Design department (TU/e)
Helping students during lectures and seminars, and occasionally independently teaching seminars for the following courses:
· Creative Programming (20/21 and 22/23)
· Exploratory Making (21/22 and 22/23)
2015 – 2019 Founder – Lightbulb Moments
Freelance English and Dutch teaching for groups and individual students. Primary teaching focus: academic writing for PhD students.
2012 – 2015 English Teacher – Babel
Teaching courses in general, academic, and business English, both for groups and individual students of all levels. As project manager, overseeing the implementation of the first online learning environment at Babel.
2010 – 2014 Editor-in-Chief – Frame: Journal of Literary Studies, Volunteer
Motivating and developing editorial staff, setting out a vision and themes for the journal, reviewing submissions, writing the foreword.
Education
2021 – 2023 Eindhoven University of Technology
MSc Industrial Design – cum laude
2019 – 2021 Eindhoven University of Technology
BSc Industrial Design – 4.0 GPA
Admittance to the master’s after 1.5 years based on grades and portfolio.
2019 – 2021 The British Council Amsterdam
CELTA (Pass A result) – top 5% result
Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults
2010 – 2012 Utrecht University
MA (research) Comparative Literature – cum laude
2007 – 2010 Utrecht University
BA English Language and Culture – cum laude
Publications
2025 Nash, J., Sauvé, K., van Riet, C. M., van Oosterhout, A., Sharma, A., Clarke, C., & Alexander, J. (2025). HydroHaptics: High-Fidelity Force-Feedback on Soft Deformable Interfaces using Hydrostatic Transmission. In Proceedings of the 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (pp. 1-20).
2024 Picella, S., Riet, C. M. van, & Overvelde, J. T. B. (2024). Pneumatic coding blocks enable programmability of electronics-free fluidic soft robots. Science Advances, 10(51), eadr2433.
2024 van Haren, J. S., Verschueren, K., Delbressine, F. L. M., Beijes, M., & van Riet, C. M. (2024). Development and assessment of a cyanosis simulator in a fetal manikin for extra-uterine life support innovation. Proceedings of the 2023 10th International Conference on Biomedical and Bioinformatics Engineering, 252–261.
2024 van Riet, C. M., Zou, S., Delbressine, F. L. M., & Overvelde, J. T. B. Soft circuits toolkit. Driving Design Vol II. Barcelona, Spain. Distributed Design Platform. 31/03/2024.
2023 van Riet, C. M., Khalandi, G., & Wijers, J. A. Landscape metaphors for bachelor design students’ identity and vision development. In DS 123: Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education.
Patents
2024 van Haren, J. S., van Willigen, B. G., van Riet, C. M., Loor, W. J., van den Broek, J., Sterk, J., Amendola, C., Verschueren, K., Thielen, M. W. H., van der Hout-van der Jagt, M. B., & Delbressine, F. L. M. Development of a hybrid manikin for extra-uterine life support technology innovation.
2021 de Jongh, M., van Riet, C. M., & Eisma, E. M. Computer mouse arranged for changing its physical shape for combatting musculoskeletal disorders, MSD, and especially Repetitive Strain Injury, RSI. (Octrooicentrum Nederland Patent NL2028201B1).
Contributed Talks
2025 Towards Integrated Pneumatic Logic Circuits in Soft Robotics. Contributed Talk. RoboSoft 2025. Lausanne. Switzerland.
Poster Presentations / Demos
2025 Pneumatic Haptic Fabric Buttons. Poster Presentation. Unconventional Robotics Symposium. Delft. Netherlands.
2025 Soft Robotic Music. Art Demo. RoboSoft 2025. Lausanne. Switzerland.
2024 Soft Circuits Toolkit: A Teaching Kit for Soft Fluidic Circuits to Control Soft Devices. Poster Presentation. Soft Robotics PhD Conference 2024. Leuven.
2024 Soft Circuits Toolkit. Demonstration. Dutch Soft Robotics Symposium 2024.
2023 van Riet, C. M. (2023, April 21). Soft circuits toolkit: teaching analog soft circuits to control soft robotic devices [Poster presentation]. Autonomous Matter Symposium. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2023 Demonstration of the Soft Circuits Toolkit at the Dutch Soft Robotics Symposium organised by the University of Twente, Netherlands.
Media & Public Engagement
2025 “Zachte robots.” Het Klokhuis. The Dutch children’s tv programme Het Klokhuis created an episode about soft robotics, which featured the Soft Circuits Toolkit. Aired on 2/1/2025.Contact.vwo Conference (talk)
2023 van Riet, C. M. (2023, November 15). Soft circuits toolkit [Presentation]. Docentenbijeenkomst contact.vwo, Leiden, Netherlands.
2023 van Riet, C. M. Recitation Soft Mod Bot [Online lecture]. Fabricademy. FabLab Barcelona. https://vimeo.com/885252626/1183a7b771.
2023 van Riet, C. M. (2023, April 21). Soft circuits toolkit: teaching analog soft circuits to control soft robotic devices [Poster presentation]. Autonomous Matter Symposium. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2023 Dutch Soft Robotics Symposium (demo)
Demonstration of the Soft Circuits Toolkit at the Dutch Soft Robotics Symposium organised by the University of Twente, Netherlands.
2023 Interactive demonstration of the Soft Circuits Toolkit for children of all ages. We were nominated for the Innovation Award. Eindhoven Maker Faire (exhibit)
2021 – 2023 Exhibition of two individual projects and one group project at the Drivers of Change exposition at the Dutch Design Week.
Awards / Honours
2025 Best Paper Award, honourable mention for “Non-Rigid Haptics: Rending Detailed Force Feedback On Deformable Interfaces.” UIST 2025.
2025 Outstanding Arts Exhibit, 3rd place. “Soft Robotics Symphony.” RoboSoft 2025. Lausanne, Switzerland.
2025 “Soft Circuits Toolkit” selected for Industrial Design Portfolio Book, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
2024 Best demo award, Soft Circuits Toolkit, Dutch Soft Robotics Symposium 2024, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. 17/5/2024.
2024 Best MSc thesis Industrial Design 2024, Soft Circuits Toolkit, TU/e Academic Awards 2024, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. 27/9/2024.
2021 TU/e Contest – Eindhoven University of Technology. Winner of the Prototyping category and Wildcard with our project Mouscle, a shape-changing mouse to combat RSI.