A strategic educational development program at KTH

Anna Burvall, Carlos Casanueva Perez, Roy Skjelnes and Martin Viklund were selected to participate in a development-oriented and meritorious program for skilled teachers at KTH ( learn more about the Program here ). As the team had their first meeting in February, we talked with Martin Viklund about his participation in the program.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am a professor at the Department of Applied Physics, working with acoustofluidics applied to lab-on-a-chip systems for life-sciences-related research. I recently moved from the division Biomedical and X-Ray Physics (Albanova) to the division Biophysics (Scilifelab).

What are your principles when it comes to teaching or performing other pedagogical activities?

I have been teaching various courses at KTH for more than 15 years. In my teaching I like to demonstrate physics in reality, as a complement to theory, principles and derivations. I have also taught courses during sabbatical leaves in the USA and Japan.

What drove you to apply to the program?

Since I am Program Director of the 5-year degree program in Engineering Physics, I realize time is limited for longer-term strategic development. I thought this program might help pushing such plans forward a little faster and more effectively.

What are you planning to do through your participation in the program?

I plan to investigate how various education programs (Bachelor level) at KTH and other technical universities have implemented general engineering skills in their curricula, and evaluate the needs for such elements in the Engineering Physics program. The goal is to gently revise the program curriculum by designing and developing a tailed course and/or course modules addressing general engineering skills, including sustainability, equality and diversity. While such content is included in almost all the other degree programs at KTH, it is still missing in the Engineering Physics program.

Text: Danai Deligeorgaki