Professional Practice Hall of Fame Inductee: Ping Bu Loke
Ping Bu Loke was already interested in the Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education (GEARE).
It was learning about an exchange of students from Purdue and Karlsruhe, Germany, building a roller coaster in 2006 put studying abroad at the top of Loke’s Purdue to-do list. And GEARE — which had begun in 2003 — with it.
“I saw that you get to do exciting projects also with top students from another education system. Seeing the demonstration of the senior design project told me that, ‘OK, I have to go to Germany one day as well.’” said Loke (BSME ’08, MSME ’08), at Purdue from Singapore at the time.
Loke’s “one day” came in 2007. He traveled to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as part of a GEARE cohort, participating in a one-year exchange program.
Loke’s career has been connected to Germany ever since, thanks to GEARE and the Office of Professional Practice (OPP).
He is one of eight inductees into the 2026 Professional Practice Hall of Fame. Hosted by OPP, the Hall of Fame honors Purdue alums who have enriched their field or an OPP program.
From Day 1 at Purdue, Loke made diving into the unknown a habit. He pursued a German minor and frequently rotated teams in class projects to work with everyone at least once.
By the time he went to Karlsruhe, connecting with new people was second nature.
“It was the whole culture at Purdue,” said Loke. “The quality of the students and the degree of interactions with the professors, the way the professors choose very clear ways to explain advanced engineering concepts and how they are patient, to graduates and undergraduates, it just rubs off on you. It is really a strong community effect for me.”
After Purdue, Loke returned home to serve on the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), which sponsored Loke’s degrees. As a senior officer, Loke encouraged engineering businesses globally to invest in Singapore’s economy. And he was convincing; Loke had the engineering background to relate and the cultural experiences to adapt to any situation.
Adaptability has been crucial to Loke’s intercultural bridge-building.
“You have to be clear and adaptable at the same time,” Loke said. “If I am in a big room with many people from different parts of the world, I will adopt my style and tone to address people from very diverse backgrounds. What I do not change is my accent, because it is still important to give people a sense of my identity.”
Loke’s cultural and linguistic experiences in Germany was the deciding factor that brought him to Frankfurt in 2012, when he was promoted to the EDB centre director of Europe.
After eight years working on behalf of Singapore, Loke decided to stay in Germany. He took a brief sabbatical and toured the U.S., Western China, Kazakhstan and Georgia. Then he dove into a new unknown: working for a family and privately owned test and measurement instrumentation company, Rohde & Schwarz.
During Loke’s seven years at Rohde & Schwarz, its annual revenues grew by 1 billion Euros. He held three different vice president roles — first in strategy, then engineering and technology, and finally executive vice president of corporate research and development — taking ownership across global teams in Germany, Singapore and the United States. Part of the journey included initiating a research and development location in Rwanda.
Every role at Rohde & Schwarz fed into Loke’s enthusiasm for both engineering and diverse cultures — and how he could give back to Purdue in gratitude for the GEARE program. Loke’s time at Rohde & Schwarz led to a reliable exchange of hired GEARE students and German students working at research assistants at Purdue.
Loke transitioned to ZwickRoell Materials Manufacturing in 2016. As chief technology offer and executive board member, Loke influences the future of the materials testing and software development company with forward-thinking decisions in the present.
He continues to nurture the future workforce by acting as a one-on-one mentor for GEARE students when they’re in Germany. He contributes to GEARE research and outreach regularly and aided in covering expenses for the GEARE 20-year anniversary reunion in Karlsruhe.
For Loke, it only makes sense to share what he has learned and the benefits he has received.
“The GEARE program gave me more benefits than I can quantify,” he said. “If not for this beautiful mix of professor sponsorship in Purdue — exciting engineering projects from the program and my accidental venture into learning German — I would probably not be where I am today. I think it's a very valuable program. So if there's a chance to help out, support or just do something small for the same program, I'm of course happy to happy to contribute.”