Introduction
“As a gymnast, I’ve always had a strong interest in promoting movement and active living, particularly among children.”
Building on her passion for exercise and health, Cathrine Damsbo Madsen previously completed her Master’s degree in Engineering, Health Informatics and Technology. During her master’s project, she gained valuable experience in product development and co-founded a medical-tech start-up.
Now, driven by her curiosity about movement and the intersection of people and technology, Cathrine has begun her PhD at the World Playground Research Institute. She is particularly interested in the potential of technology, making it accessible and appealing to a diverse range of users.
Current Work
Under the title How to Measure Play, Cathrine’s PhD research aims to create a comprehensive overview of existing quantitative methods for measuring playground use. Specifically, she will explore whether technology, such as camera-based user detection and observation, can address current method development needs.
Cathrine: “At the moment, we know little about the return on investment (ROI) for new outdoor facilities. A cost-effective and GDPR-compliant* monitoring tool that provides reliable data over extended periods (months and years) could potentially help design these facilities more efficiently, based on data showing how much and when they are actually being used.”
Interested in learning more about the topic?
Check out Cathrine’s previous opinion post:
*Being GDPR-compliant means meeting the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR),
which aim to protect personal data and privacy within the European Union.
Future Research Plans
Generally, Cathrine is driven by a strong desire to conduct research that has practical applications. Based on the future findings of her PhD project, she aims to support the development of a product that benefits not only researchers but also public institutions (like municipalities), and other stakeholders interested in monitoring outdoor play and activity areas.
Cathrine explains, “What makes this PhD project unique isn’t the technology itself or the creation of a functional detection algorithm, but the development of a user-friendly product that can be used by different stakeholders once the project ends.
My goal isn’t to build the product myself, but to use my interdisciplinary understanding of technology and behavior to translate researchers’ and stakeholders’ needs into product requirement specifications. Then, I hope that technical experts, such as those from the Technical Faculty at SDU, can develop a prototype.”
With such a collaborative goal in mind, Cathrine hopes to bridge the gap between research and practical implementation. She aims to gather valuable insights that will lead to more effective and engaging play environments and encourage playground investments.
