Who I am
I have been passionate about the future of engineering education, especially about what students should learn to be prepared for a career in tomorrow's volatile uncertain complex and ambiguous world.
In my role of Director of Education at TU Delft Faculty of Aerospace Engineering (2007-2020), my core activities were strategic thinking and scenario development of educational policies, programmes and organisation. My interest in today's rapidly changing world and its impact on engineering education was piqued in 2013. More than twenty years of industrial experience in space systems engineering, 18 years of academic teaching, educational management and leadership, and an in-depth study of trends in science and technology and society and its impact on higher engineering education, made me an international thought-leader in the future of engineering education. The range of experience convinced me that higher engineering education is not keeping up with the rapid changes in the world, and many universities decide not to think about it.
I was involved in university-level education vision and strategy development, reconstruction of engineering curricula and audits of Dutch and international engineering degree programmes. Since 2011 I contributed to the global CDIO Initiative (the innovative education framework for producing the next generation of engineers), in the period 2017- 2022 in the role of the Co-director. Since its launch in 2014, I was a Co-leader of the Dutch 4TU Centre of Engineering Education that experiments and innovates in higher engineering education. I was a member of the CESAER Task Force “S&T Education for 21st Century” and Chair of the Programme Board and trainer of the module “Curricular Change is not Rocket Science” in the Educational Leadership Course, produced by the Erasmus University Rotterdam, TU Delft and University Leiden.
In 2016 I wrote the influential report “Engineering Education in a Rapidly Changing World”. Taking a horizon-scanning approach, the report articulates vision statements for the attributes that engineering students will have to acquire for a successful career. The report is being used by many universities for inspiring educational leaders and teaching staff to rethink their programmes. In 2020 I published the book "Navigating the Landscape of Higher Engineering Education". It offers a forward-thinking perspective on higher engineering education and concludes with concrete recommendations for the development of educational vision and strategy and their implementation in the organisation and curricula.
Prior to my academic career I had a worked 21 years in space engineering business. I had been a Systems Engineer for the design and development of extremely complex space instruments, working in interdisciplinary teams of international industrial expert engineers, finance and project controllers, government space agency customers and scientific end-users. In earlier projects I was responsible for the engineering management of the design, development and environmental testing of satellite systems, collaborating in multidisciplinary teams of international expert engineers.