Rate My Professor Katja Holtta-Otto

Katja Holtta-Otto is Professor of Engineering Design and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne. She earned her M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 2000 and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 from Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University), with her dissertation titled Modular Product Platform Design. As a doctoral student, she worked as a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Innovation in Product Development. Her distinguished career spans multiple institutions: she served as Assistant Professor and subsequently Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Professor in Engineering Product Development at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and Professor of Product Development at Aalto University prior to her appointment at the University of Melbourne in 2021.

Professor Holtta-Otto's research specializes in design theory and methodology, with a focus on interdisciplinary engineering design topics such as user-centered design—including empathy, creativity, and need finding—modular product platform development, design for circular economy, and interdisciplinary engineering education. She teaches project-based design courses and courses on design theory and methodology. Key publications include "An experimental investigation of the innovation capabilities of undergraduate engineering students" (Journal of Engineering Education, 2012, with N. Genco and C.C. Seepersad), "Comparative analysis of coupling modularity metrics" (Journal of Engineering Design, 2012, with N.A. Chiriac, D. Lysy, and E.S. Suh), and "Conceptualization and operationalization of empathy in design research" (Design Studies, 2022, with A. Surma-aho). She is a recipient of the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award, multiple best paper awards, and was elected an ASME Fellow in 2023. Professor Holtta-Otto serves as an associate editor for the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design and the Design Science journal, and she led the development of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology's core subject Interdisciplinary Design for Engineers, which incorporates interactive oral assessment.