prof.dr.ir. M.C. van der Voort (Mascha)

Mascha van der Voort (1974) is Vice-Dean Education at the Faculty of Engineering Technology of the University of Twente. Moreover, she is a full professor in Human Centred Design and scientific co-director of the DesignLab of the University of Twente. She is board member of Design United, the 4TU Research Centre for Design. 

Mascha’s passion and ambition is to address the challenges we face as society in impactful and meaningful ways by working across the borders of disciplines and actively and equally involving the diversity of stakeholders. This is reflected in her research profile, the educational initiatives she started as well as in her own ways of working. Mascha is convinced that true innovation can only arise from a transdisciplinary approach and co-creation. With a background in both civil engineering and human-centred product design, Mascha works across disciplines ranging from automotive, policy making, smart city design to healthcare.

Her research focuses on the development of design approaches that enable diverse stakeholders to actively engage and participate in collaboratively exploring and defining potential futures. Overall aim is to elicit actual stakeholder needs, create commitment and understanding, and design products, services & systems that meet these needs and expectations. Acknowledgement of the use and context related expertise each stakeholder has is key herein. The approaches she develops are transdisciplinary, participatory and scenario-based. They facilitate and enable active stakeholder participation regardless of discipline, experience or role as well as contextualise the design challenge.

Concurrently, Mascha teaches subjects related to human-centred and scenario-based design. She was one of the founders of the Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) educational programs at the University of Twente in 2001. In 2014 she co-established the DesignLab, of which she is currently scientific co-director. Moreover, she is founder the cross-faculty educational programme, the Transdisciplinary Master-insert programme 'Shaping Responsible Futures', which won the Dutch Higher Education Award 2022.

Expertise

• Computer Science

  • Design
  • User
  • Automation
  • Control
  • Models
  • Product Design
  • Stakeholders
  • Roles

Organisations

Ancillary activities

• De PostenLid Raad van Toezicht

Research profiles

Founder Transdisciplinary Master-insert 'Shaping Responsible Futures'

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses academic year 2023/2024

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W237
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

Navigate to location

Organisations