Dr Velvet Spors, from the Horizon CDT 2016 cohort, has recently started a tenure-track Assistant Professor role in “Human-Centered Digital Design” at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. Based in Munich, home to the famous Oktoberfest, they are now part of the Department of Computer Science at the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology, where they are beginning to build their own research group.
At TUM, they teach and research with diverse cohorts entering IT, the games industry and business. As a creative technologist working “between the chairs,” (as it is said in German),they navigate the space between technical engineering, creative design and the humanities, translating across disciplines in their teaching and research.
This interdisciplinary approach builds on their PhD work at the Horizon CDT, where they explored the intersections of computer science, play and games, and humanistic psychology. This experience shaped their ability to move between fields and perspectives — an approach they now bring into their academic work and share with their students.
Their goal is to encourage the next generation of designers and developers to approach technology with critical curiosity, asking what is being built, for whom and why. Rather than focusing on fast-moving hype cycles, they advocate for slower, more reflective ways of thinking, making, and working with technology.
This trajectory highlights the CDT’s impact in shaping researchers who bridge academia, industry and creative practice.
Congratulations to Dr Velvet Spors on this new role!
