Category: Delegate

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kira Kastell, born in Rotenburg an der Fulda, studied electrical engineering at the Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main and at the Distant Learning University in Hagen and earned her PhD on the topic of “Secure, fast, location-based handovers in hybrid networks” at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Before that, she also graduated in business administration and economics from the Distance Learning University in Hagen.

As part of her professional career, she was first involved in setting up the GSM-R digital radio network for Deutsche Bahn at Arcor AG & Co. After completing her doctorate, she moved into university teaching, from 2007 to 2009 as a professor of mobile communications in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Precision Engineering at the Technische Fachhochschule Berlin and then as a professor of transmission technology in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main (now Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences). During this time, she was intermittently head of the degree program and, from 2013 to 2019, vice-president for studies and teaching at the University of Applied Sciences. In this role, she dedicated herself to, among other things, the reorganization of her area of responsibility and the successful acquisition of public funding for teaching. She also initiated the development of strategy papers for the areas of teaching, e-learning, internationalization and diversity, among others. On 1 May 2021, she assumed the office of President at Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences.

She was also chair of the VDI Network Women in Engineering for six years (2015-2020) and a member of the Broadcasting Council of the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation from 2017 to 2020. Since 2019, she has been Chair of the Departmental Council for Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and, since January 2021, she has been a board member at ASIIN, the accreditation agency for degree programs in engineering, computer science, natural sciences and mathematics.

Since January 2023 she has taken the role as the CEO of the HAfM – the university alliance for medium-sized companies. In October 2023, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger appointed her to the founding committee of the German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI), where she was elected deputy chairwoman.