About — Carlos E. Tejada

A little context

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Computer Science, in Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark. I hold a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Copenhagen. My research sits at the intersection of personal fabrication and interactive devices. My PhD thesis explores what I call Print-and-Play Fabrication: a fabrication paradigm where interactive devices are printed instead of assembled. In my dissertation, I researched different techniques to fabricate interactive devices (i.e., devices that can sense, process and/or provide output to user interactions) using 3D-printers. The techniques I developed enable non-experts to create custom, on-demand interactive devices without the use on any electronics and minimal physical assembly.

For a more detailed look on my background, academic and industrial, check out my academic cv, or my industry resume.

A little history

I was born and raised in the sunny Dominican Republic, and after an interesting turn of events ended up living in rainy Denmark.

I got my bachelors degree in Systems Engineering (now rebranded as Software Engineering) in PUCMM, Santiago, Dominican Republic. After working for two years as a senior software engineer at a telecommunications company, I got a scholarship to study at the Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, New York. There, I obtained a Master of Science degree in Information Science and Technology, but most importantly got my first exposure to Human-Computer Interaction technical research, by working as a graduate research assistant at the FETLab supervised by Dan Ashbrook. It didn’t take long until I was enrolled in the PhD program at RIT and after four-and-a-half years, one transatlantic move, and a pandemic I was awarded a PhD degree from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen.

Staying in Copenhagen after getting my PhD was never part of the plan, but as you can see from the pictures below and my Instagram, it is not very hard to love this city. After completing my PhD dissertation, I got a job as an IT consultant at Netcompany, where I am currently employed.

Personal stuff

My idea of a happy life is being with family and friends, travelling, learning, and pursuing creative projects. Still being a software developer at heart, during my free time I like to pick up cool and interesting projects to entertain myself, which you can find on my Github page. Also, I am an avid pool player, and love spending most afternoons at the local pool hall. Last, I have recently picked up photography as a hobby (although I refuse to buy a proper, dedicated camera: the best camera is the one you have with you). Below you can find a selection of my favorite shots.

Note: All these pictures were taken with the latest iPhone at the time.

It’s been a recent goal of mine to read more, so for this year I am aiming to read two books per month for a total of 24; see below for a selection of the books I’ve read (and the books I wish I have read)