Catharina Maria (Katrien) van Riet, MA, MSc, is a PhD candidate (joint) in the Industrial Design department at Eindhoven University of Technology and the Soft Robotic Matter group at AMOLF.

She holds a master’s degree in Industrial Design from Eindhoven University of Technology, and a master’s degree (research) in Literary studies and bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from Utrecht University. She is a licensed teacher (CELTA) and has 10 years experience in English language teaching.

Her work focuses on creating design tools and workflows that help designers and engineers to implement soft robotics principles in their designs. Coming from an educational background, she excels at teaching and developing materials that lower the barrier to entry to the soft robotics field. As a designer, she favours an interdisciplinary approach with a strong basis in engineering. She is passionate about the open source movement and sharing her designs with other makers and the general public. In her spare time she loves making and sometimes arranging music.

Latest update:
In January 2026, she was invited to design and teach a soft robotics course in Johannesburg, South Africa. This course was a collaboration by two universities: the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand. For more information, see this article: https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2026/2026-02/biomedical-soft-robotics-debuts-in-joburg.html