TEDI-London appoints third visiting professor

Both current and future students of TEDI-London will benefit from their Visiting Professors’ mentorship, workshop sessions and industry networking opportunities.

Each joining TEDI-London’s team from a different industry, Professors Kara, Straughan and Steensma will be able to offer valuable networking prospects to facilitate collaboration between TEDI-London’s staff and students and key players from their industries. They will also bring a varied pool of knowledge and the ability to educate and support students in different ways. This supports TEDI-London’s mission to provide its students with the ‘soft’ skills required – in addition to engineering-specific knowledge – to thrive in the workplace. Interdisciplinary collaboration and communication skills, as well as the ability to be aware of the social and environmental impact of their work, are just a few of the skills that graduates tend to lack as they embark on their engineering careers. Helping to close this skills gap is very important for TEDI-London, and part of the reason it was launched by its Founding Partners, Arizona State University, King’s College London and UNSW Sydney.

Professor Hanif Kara, Design Director & Co-founder of AKT II and Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard, possesses a wealth of knowledge in structural engineering and design, and an extensive project portfolio spanning multiple countries. Speaking of his involvement with TEDI-London, Kara said: “it is exciting to work with an education provider that offers a truly interdisciplinary teaching approach. After having specialised within my own career, I have experienced the challenges that can occur when a group of experts within different fields try to collaborate. Having a broader foundational knowledge is very beneficial for engineers and I reflect this in my own teaching by bringing together architecture, engineering, science and art. I am pleased to work with TEDI-London which shares this same understanding.”

Beginning his career in pure physics, Professor Keith Straughan has since explored several avenues, including working in the medical field, founding multiple tech start-ups, and holding senior roles in academia. Referencing his interest in combining innovation and education, he commented: “I have long felt that innovation has been encouraged except for when it comes to shaping education, so I was keen to be part of a project which aims to transform the way that engineering is taught. I helped to run TEDI-London’s 2021 summer school and enjoyed mentoring students with their projects; I hope to provide similar support to the full-time students as well.”

TEDI-London’s most recently appointed Visiting Professor, Professor Joe Steensma, brings vast amounts of business development, environmental science and teaching expertise to the role. He has more than 25 years of experience in transforming organisations by improving operations whilst reducing their carbon footprint. Speaking of his recent appointment, Steensma said: “I am very pleased to be supporting TEDI-London with their mission. For me, problem solving should always come first, regardless of the discipline being taught. A key part of this skill is the ability to understand the potential social and environmental impact of a solution, as well as the various forms of capital its development would require – financial, intellectual, infrastructural – and where to obtain these. TEDI-London is already starting to instil these thought processes into its students, and I hope to deliver entrepreneurship workshops to them and further support this component of their education.”

Professor Judy Raper, Dean & CEO at TEDI-London concluded: “we are thrilled to have the support from our three Visiting Professors, each of whom have forged such successful careers in their respective industries and have so much to offer when it comes to mentoring and inspiring our students. Placing student experience is at the heart of everything we do, and I look forward to working with Professor Joe Steensma alongside our existing Visiting Professors, Professor Hanif Kara and Professor Keith Straughan, to deliver the best possible education to TEDI-London students.”