steyn knollema.

I grew up taking things apart. Clocks, radios, old laptops. If it had screws, I wanted to know what was inside. When I was eleven I read the Steve Jobs biography and one idea stuck: that caring about how something works and how it feels to use could be the same job.

At fifteen I left the Netherlands for an extended exchange, moving in with an American family I'd never met. Then university in Twente, a year in Seoul, and now an MSE in Integrated Product Design at Penn across Wharton, Engineering, and Design. I do triathlons. Not because I'm good at any one discipline, but because doing hard things consistently is a skill worth practicing on its own.

I co-founded a robotics company, built AI tools for Dutch businesses, and spent two years reviewing hundreds of startups on a student investment fund. The common thread is simple: figure out what the actual problem is, then build the simplest thing that solves it properly.

Currently doing an MSE in Integrated Product Design at Penn, spanning Wharton, Engineering, and Weitzman. Co-founded Serpent Robotics during the program. Before Penn, I ran an AI consultancy in the Netherlands and published a peer-reviewed paper on AR safety systems that started as my bachelor's thesis.