From an early age, I've found buildings and the way in which they are designed fascinating. At age 18 I was first introduced to the field of structural engineering and I decided that's what I wanted my career to be in. During my studies I noticed that a piece was missing and it turned out that I have a strong desire to automatate the means by which structural engineers create their designs. By the time I left university I was determined to use computational design and design automation to design much more sustainably and economically, while keeping the structural engineer at the helm of the design process and allowing them to do the fun stuff. My mission became to improve our projects' outcome by means of digitalization and to create better value for our clients. Over the past twelve years we have seen a great productivity increase through use of digital technologies. We have also seen digitalization technology become democratized, meaning anyone can use it. However, access to technology and knowledge alone is not a guarantee for success. The difficulty of creating great automations lies in the understanding of the context of the problem. It's never only about the structural challenge and the software, but rather about the people involved. How do they perceive the challenge and what should, and what shouldn’t we do to solve it? Putting the people at the center of the solution is therefore crucial.In my current role I am a Product Owner and Design Automation specialist within Arcadis. I spend most of my time guiding my team and other colleagues in their automation challenges, researching new technologies and opportunities, and creating development roadmaps for the coming years. When I have time, I help with coding parts of our teams’ products.Key experience:• Product Owner (certified A-CSPO)• Leading projects/lead teams• Structural designing, 12 years experience in concrete and steel• Software development in C# (12 years) and Python (2 years)• Git and GitHub• VIKTOR app development• Basic solution architecture and software architecture• Extensive experience with EEM software (Femap, RFEM)• Innovating, finding out what is needed and build it• Writing, including blogs and articles• Organizing and presenting workshops