Alfrink, C.P., MA

Kars Alfrink is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. Kars' main research interest is how to ensure AI systems respects the human rights to autonomy by making them contestable by design.

Academic Background

Kars Alfrink (MA, Utrecht School of the Arts, 2002) is a designer, researcher and educator focused on the intersection of emerging technologies, social progress and the built environment.

Currently, Kars is a PhD candidate at the Delft University of Technology faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. His research focuses on how to ensure that AI systems are contestable by design.

Before coming to Delft, Kars was active as a design consultant, design entrepreneur and design community organiser for 15+ years.

In 2017 Kars co-founded and coordinated Tech Solidarity NL, a grassroots community of tech workers in the Netherlands advancing the design and development of more just and egalitarian technology.

From 2009-2016 Kars was partner at Hubbub, a boutique playful design agency. He also initiated and co-curated the Dutch offshoot of This Happened, a series of events about the stories behind interaction design.

Kars has worked as an educator and researcher at the Utrecht School of the Arts, and before that as an interaction designer at a couple of web agencies.