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| Professor Harm-Jan Steenhuis, Ph.D., who has a research interest in 3D printing, and items produced with his home 3D printer. |
Harm-Jan
Steenhuis, Ph.D., professor of international business and MBA program
chair, is originally from The Netherlands. He has lived in a host of places
including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Washington, and other countries around
the world, before relocating to Hawai‘i this past summer.
There were several factors drawing Steenhuis to Hawai‘i. He
and his family wanted to be somewhere warmer and closer to the ocean. As for
the appeal of Hawai‘i Pacific University and the College of Business (COB), Steenhuis
first noted the diversity of the student population.
“It’s attractive to be teaching international business when
you have a lot of international students in your classes…because they can come
in with examples from their own countries,” he said.
Likewise, Steenhuis has much to offer international
business students. His global research and business experiences include
developing an export plan for an Indian company producing transformers; studying
the transfer of production technology to an aircraft manufacturing company in
Romania; and looking at innovation and commercialization of carbon dioxide as an
environmentally friendly replacement for water in manufacturing processes at a Science
and Technology Center sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
On the COB faculty delivering education with an emphasis on
project-based learning, Steenhuis points to its value as it “forces students to
work in teams, which happens in the workplace.”
He also notes the intentional design of the new COB headquarters
at Pioneer Plaza — with its many conference rooms to accommodate frequent
meetings of student teams — supporting project-based learning.
“The feedback I give to one group of students (on their project) is not the
feedback I give to another group of students,” he said. “In my course for
example, I require students to meet with me once a week so that they can check
the progress they are making and where they are struggling.”
Looking at education holistically, Steenhuis stresses the
importance of developing critical thinking skills. In his MBA course, he gives
students a business card that has a definition of critical thinking and
requires the students to think about the definition throughout the semester.
“In my view…the value of education is in learning a way of
thinking,” he said. “For example, when you get presented with evidence what
kind of conclusions can you draw.”
Beyond teaching, his latest research interest is 3D
printing, which he became intrigued by last year while visiting an aerospace
manufacturing company in South Africa developing the technology. Steenhuis now has
a home 3D printer and a collection of items produced from it including a comb,
a whistle and the shark from the Katy Perry Super Bowl half-time show.
“I think it’s going to change the way we have manufacturing
industries,” said Steenhuis.
In his capacity as Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of
Manufacturing Technology Management, Steenhuis and colleagues are working on a
special issue focused on 3D printing research, covering different angles
including industry, consumers and commercialization. The issue is planned for
release at the end of 2016 or early 2017.
When Steenhuis is not working, he finds time to enjoy his
passion of competitive swimming. He is a certified USMS coach, has served as a
USA Swimming official and has competed in the FINA World Master Championships,
LEN European Masters Championships and many U.S. national championships.
