Ate graduated from the Architecture Master at the University of Delft. In the graduation project, under mentorship of prof. ir. Rob Nijsse, he devloped a series of shell structures with glass as the primary loadbearing material. 

Currently, Ate works at chair of Structural Design and Mechanics within the faculty of Architecture. As researcher he is part of the Glass Research Group where his focus is on the structural behavior of glass load bearing components of bridges and buildings. Within the research group he specializes in FEM modeling of stress distribution in glass, detailing of glass connections and structural design with glass. 

Ate also teaches the structural design component of the BSc course BK1TE2, the minor Bend & Break and mentors a small number of BT graduate students with a specific interest in structural glass design.