This challenge-based approach is the main focus of the Global Development Hub, GDH, which began in 2017 in association with four African universities: University of Rwanda, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Strathmore University (Kenya) and Botho University (Botswana). Together, we have run several courses, held student exchanges and also teacher training. This also makes the GDH a focal point for our presence on the African continent.

In addition, last week we were able to extend our collaboration with the University of Rwanda by signing a Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU. The MoU also includes other parties in Rwanda and a broader portfolio of activities than before, including participation in research and innovation.

Rwanda is a small country in East Africa that has developed rapidly over the past 20 years, and is in different ways a fulcrum for innovation activities, enterprise and societal development in its region. The university has also received ever-better resources for its activities in recent decades, so extending our partnership with it is the right move strategically.

The challenge-driven education model is, as mentioned, pivotal to work within the GDH, but it can of course also be used for activities on campus in Stockholm.

The basic idea is the same: to find potential solutions to societal challenges by combining the challenge in education with innovative solutions. One example is OpenLab, which is run by KTH alongside several higher education institutions in the region, the City of Stockholm and Region Stockholm. It presents an opportunity for our partners to place their concrete challenges in the course and project environment provided by OpenLab.

But the images also prompt questions. How can this happen? Again?  Is this as far as we have come with all the knowledge, research results and technical solutions we have today, in everything from materials, construction, solidity, urban planning, safety and security?

Following the 2011 earthquake in Japan, for instance, the country has focused heavily on securing structures with, as far as I am aware, successful results, and on preparing its people and buildings against future tremors.

There is a great deal of knowledge and competence at KTH regarding different aspects of earthquakes. This includes research into being able to better predict when an earthquake might happen.

And that is a source of hope.

It can engender feelings of unease, incomprehension and suspicion. A sense of fear in the pit of the stomach.

The other day, the ever-escalating violence even hit KTH’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science after a building in Kista was bombed. No one was physically injured, but the entrance and some of the offices in the building need to be repaired and restored.

But I would also like to focus for a moment on how powerfully and skilfully the situation was handled in terms of crisis management, communication, and consideration for those who were directly affected. KTH acted swiftly and efficiently to ensure that as many people as possible knew about what had happened, what action to take, and could then get back to work. Once the police had given the all-clear, scheduled teaching and lab work at our Electrum Laboratory could resume.

Security has been tightened up, some areas are still cordoned off, and it is certainly something that will remain on many people’s minds – for a while at least.

For me personally, though, I will also remember our ability to meet devastating violence with a caring and professional response.