About me

Becoming a mechatronic system architect

When I was a young girl I dreamed of becoming an inventor like Leonarda da Vinci. I know, ambitious, but dreaming big is where things start. My associations with Leonarda da Vinci were inventions that were intricate and technically sophisticated, as well as beautiful and elegant. His designs appealed to both my technical interest as my creative side. This dream led me to the Technical University of Eindhoven where I started to study Applied Physics.

During my years of studying physics the people I admired were the people that made complex theories accessible and understandable. The teachers that showed the elegance and simplicity of the underlying mechanism inspired me, and made me want to be like them. Apart from physics, that was what I wanted to learn. From that moment I started to practice in finding the essence of a complex theory or mechanism, in order to make life simpler and easier to understand. I believe that this is where the basis was formed for my development as a system architect. The skill of discovering the nature of a system, what drives its behaviour, and making analogies and connections to other systems helps me to be a good system architect to this day.

After finishing the Applied Physics program in 1997 I still didn’t think I was close enough to being Leonarda da Vinci, and I entered the Mechatronic Design program at the Stan Ackermans Institute, also part of the Technical University of Eindhoven. This was a really nice extension to my education, with the focus on practical design rather than analysis. I also learned to be part of a team, and I discovered that I enjoy figuring out people as much as understanding technology. Discovering where people shine, and bringing out the best of a team as a whole is something that has had my interest as much as developing pure technology.

Am I Leonarda da Vinci today? I don’t think so, but I believe that the combination of the analytical skills I developed during my physics education, and the practical skills I have as a mechatronic designer, make me a unique system architect. I believe I add value to the system design by understanding the technical behaviour of a system, and I add value to the process by being a good team player.

Aukje