Wiebke Toussaint
TU Delft PhD candidate
Cape Town, South Africa
I am a thrill-seeker. Risk, responsibility and complexity draw me to problems. Diversity keeps me interested. People are my motivation. After graduating with a Mechanical Engineering degree from UCT I started my career in engineering consulting, moved into e-commerce (fashion!) and will soon be a data scientist in energy research.
My passion lies where technology meets people and engineering touches society. Since 2013 I have been leading Engineers Without Borders South Africa, a non-profit company that empowers engineers to empower communities. I love our dynamic community of 1500 problem solvers that are using their skills to benefit people .
Seems a given that makerspaces fascinate me and present an opportunity to plug my engineering communities into street reality. I see huge potential for makerspaces sparking the manufacturing spirit and providing a fertile ground for interdisciplinary, intercultural and intergenerational cocreation.