I’m a design engineer and entrepreneur developing products
by the principles of human-centered design.
[Last update: 2018]
Bridging engineering and people
I’m Jesper Alkestrup an engineering honours student from the Technical University of Denmark. I work with people to develop products and services that make sense – both in terms of technological feasibility and in the context of a business but more than anything from the perspective of the end user. I strongly believe in involving users as well as clients in the development process through the use of prototypes. Utilizing the knowledge gained from prototypes to design and construct robust products with superior UX is the core of my skillset.
Due to my burning desire to explore new ideas I have founded several startups over the past years. Working within startups has trained my ability to take action, thrive in multidisciplinary teams and to cope under changing demands.
Some of my work
I have selected a series of my projects that showcase anything from a participatory design project at a hospital to the development and production of a digital luggage tag that our team sucesfully funded on Kickstarter.
Only work in which I have had a central role in the development process is included.
Academic background
With a B.Sc. within Design and Innovation, a crossover of mechanical/electrical engineering, project management and human centered design, I take a very holistic approach to product development. I’m currently enrolled in an honours master programme, a programme in which less than 10% of students are accepted, focusing upon the application of prototyping in the conceptualization phase.
For the fall of 2017 I’m studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a part of the Advanced Study Program , where I’m taking on a broad range of courses within in everything from AI to the future of tangible interfaces.
A solid understanding and hands on practice with material selection, mechanism design, rapid prototyping and manufacturing coupled with extensive experience within user research, co-creation workshops and usability testing is the profesional foundation for my work.
Feel free to browse through my LinkedIn
- Mechanical engineering
Robust Design, Six Sigma
DFMA (Manufacturing & assembly)
- Rapid prototyping
3D printing
Laser cutting
CNC milling (wood & metal)
- Electronic prototyping
Arduino, Raspberry Pi etc.
Basic PCB design
- Digital prototyping
Python, java & C++
AI & Machine learning
Data visualization
- 3D modelling & rendering
Creo Parametric
Solidworks
Fusion 360
- Service Design
User Journeys, blueprints
Storytelling & sketching
- User involvement
Participatory design
Pretotyping
Co-creation through workshops
Usability testing
Engineering at the fuzzy front end
There are many models for illustrating a product development process, but in general they all describe the three overall steps of understanding ones users, exploring solutions and implementing the chosen concept. Many organisations work in silos: Anthropologists function as user researchers, industrial designers do ideation and engineers implement the concept. In order to succesfully apply agile engineering I believe these barriers needs to be broken down.
As a T-shaped engineer my involvement in the very front-end of product development ensure that ideas can be prototyped within hours and that design decisions can also be evaluated on the basis of manufacturing possibilites. This greatly reduces the risk of unpleasant surprises in the process of implementation and ensure that proper experience prototyping can be done to verify the goodness of the concept before it is put into production.
