RPM (Remco) Pieters

I work as an education and research technician at the Experimental Zoology group of Wageningen University. In the Functional Zoology course, I teach MSc students about basic computer programming skills using Matlab. Furthermore, I assist during various practical trainings where the students learn research skills in biomechanics. In the BSc course, Invertebrates and lower plants, I assist during a field trip at the coast of Wimereux, France. During this field trip, I instruct the students about local invertebrates and their adaptations to their environment.

As a research technician, I am challenged by scientific questions and realising practical solutions in the lab to answer these questions. Together with MSc and BSc thesis-students, Phd-students and staff members, we address scientific questions and I develop measurement setups. During this process I work together with the researcher/student and a technician from the university’s workshop to design (using SolidWorks) and to build a setup.

An example of my research technician experience, is the work I did together with Phd-student, Sebastian Henrion on the development and design of measurement setups to study the locomotion of seahorses and cuttlefish which are both masters in maneuvering in tight spaces. For this research we developed an automated calibration method with refraction correction, in this part of research I was particularly involved in the development of a camera setup to verify the accuracy of the calibration method.

I am experienced in working with:

• high-speed video, like Basler, Mikrotron, Photron, PCO, Vision Research.

• data-acquisition and system control development boards, like Arduino, BeagleBone Black and Raspberry PI.  

• advanced measurement techniques, like micro-CT and Particle Image Velocimetry.