I follow the Masters of Engineering and Policy Analysis program of the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at TU Delft. During my bachelor degree in electronic engineering, I realised how there is a growing disconnect between people and technology. This interface sparks a lot of passion in me, and I want to use that passion to explore how we, as people, can make use of technology on urban and societal levels to help us in the way technology has always helped us – to make life better. This particularly in disadvantaged and less privileged communities, where many traditional policies have fallen short.

Within CUSP, I form part of the Citizen Voice team – where we will work towards giving a city and its inhabitants a voice. While traditional fora for such communication exists, the barrier of entry is extremely high, meaning that we miss out on a lot of feedback. With better communication, and more data, decision makers will be better positioned to help their communities. Within the team, I will be working as a developer. While this might seem solely a technical role, I believe that there is a lack of social-aware engineers and developers. These type of issues should be considered on all levels: from development to strategy.