Bart Dirkx graduated in 1997 at the Eindhoven University of Technology and has worked in industry for companies and institutes like Philips Machinefrabrieken, Philips CFT, TNO and NTS, but also several start-ups. In 2011 Bart founded his own company developing consumer robots. Together with his co-founder he developed ixi-Play, a robot buddy for young kids. After 3 years of development this activity has put to rest, but the experience has proven to be valuable for new start-ups and projects.