If you mention a useful web tool within earshot of Nicolaas, he’ll probably have it working within CamTools 2009 in an hour or so. Unless, of course, he had already built it in!
Nicolaas has been involved with learning environments for some time, and first came to CARET as a summer student. Our director, John Norman, asked him to do some “cool stuff” – like a FaceBook application for CamTools – and since then Nicolaas has been at the forefront of CARET’s innovative user interface work, developing new things at a prodigious rate, and sharing what he has built with the wider community. He is now the lead developer at CARET for CamTools and Sakai user interfaces.
Nicolaas co-developed the new user interface for CamTools 2008, and after presenting his work at the Paris Sakai conference in July 2008 has been leading development on the next generation interfaces for CamTools 2009 and Sakai 3. As well as developing himself, Nicolaas has been working on the vision for Sakai 3 and leading 5 developers around the world in front end development for this exciting new system.
He particularly appreciates the freedom to try out new things which CARET provides. Unlike many other universities and departments, CARET has a strong vision of the future which inspires and drives Nicolaas’s work.
Nicolaas has always been interested in language and speech processing, and tries to keep up his tennis and football when he’s not at work. He also relaxes by watching cycling on television, which has a pleasantly hypnotic effect when watched whilst working.
I like working at CARET because it creates an exciting mix of “new things” and “things that are directly useful to people”, sometimes even in one and the same project.
Working with Sakai is hugely rewarding for Nicolaas, and he enjoys engaging with such a bright community of people, who are open to changes and improvements.
Contact Details
nicolaas.matthijs @ caret.cam.ac.uk
01223 765 500
CARET
1st Floor, 16 Mill Lane
Cambridge
CB2 1SB
