Faculteitsblad Electrical Engineering. News. Internships. BachelorCollegeLive. PhotoImpressionGLOW. December

Faculteitsblad Electrical Engineering

News Internships BachelorCollegeLive PhotoImpressionGLOW

December 2012

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I Colofon J aa rg a n g 5 n u m m e r 4 Dec e mb e r 2 012 De Connecthor is een uitgave van de elektrotechnische studievereniging Thor en de Faculteit Electrical Engineering aan de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. De Connecthor verschijnt 4 keer per jaar in een oplage van 1100 stuks en is gratis voor alle leden van Thor en medewerkers van de faculteit Electrical Engineering.

I H o o fd r e d a c tie Martijn van Beurden

Femke Verheggen

I Ein d r e d a c tie Lulu Chan Anjo Peeters

I Re d a ctie Manon Eijsvogel Pauline van Gelder Esmee Huismans Fer Radstake Bart Smolders Harold Vervoort

Edgar van Megen

Georgios Exarchakos Jerom de Haan Suzanne Kuijlaars Elles Raaijmakers John Snoeijs

I On tw e r p L a y- o u t Pieter Weterings

I Fo to O msl a g Pie reception Lustrum Thor

I Dru k

I Redactioneel

D

ecember 2012, voor sommige de laatste loodjes, anderen kijken stiekem al terug op het afgelopen jaar. Het bruist in onze faculteit van de activiteiten en dingen die iedereen nog dit jaar nog wil afronden. Ook bij Thor is is er op dit moment een drukte van belang. Zij vieren uitgebreid het 11e lustrum van Thor met allerlei activiteiten en verschillende excursies.

I Re d a ctie a d r e s

Onze studenten kiezen steeds vaker voor een stage in het buitenland. Natuurlijk willen wij weten hoe het hun vergaat en daarom schrijft Leon van Barschot over zijn ervaringen met afstuderen aan het Florida Institute of Technology en Willem Burger vertelt over zijn stage bij het National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

I Co n ta ct:

Ook in het bestuur van de faculteit is de afgelopen maanden iets veranderd. Sinds september is er een nieuw bestuurslid, Prof. Koonen, en Thor heeft sinds oktober een nieuwe President, namelijk Harold Vervoort. Zij stellen zich uitgebreid aan u voor. En ook de Connecthor redactie stelt graag twee nieuwe leden, Edgar van Megen en Esmee Huismans, aan u voor. We zijn dan ook blij dat ze beiden de Connecthor redactie komen versterken. Wij wensen Prof. Koonen, Harold Vervoort en natuurlijk ook Edgar en Esmee, heel veel succes toe.

Jafra drukwerkservice

Connecthor Technische Universiteit Eindhoven Potentiaal 13.35 Den Dolech 2 Postbus 513 5600 MB Eindhoven

Telefoon: (040) 247 3221 of (040) 247 3223 E-mail: [email protected]

I Vo l ge n d e e d itie :

Natuurlijk kijkt de Connecthor ook vooruit naar 2013. We bruisen al van de ideeën voor komend jaar, maar suggesties voor artikelen blijven natuurlijk van harte welkom via [email protected]. We wensen iedereen fijne feestdagen, het allerbeste voor 2013 en natuurlijk veel plezier met het lezen van deze nieuwe Connecthor.

I We b :

De redactie

Deadline kopij:

11 januari 2013

http://www.thor.edu http://www.tue.nl/ee

I A d ve r te e r d e r s : Binnenkant kaft: Brunel Pagina 16: TenneT

Buitenkant kaft: IHC Merwede Pagina 32: VanDerLande.

© Connecthor 2012 Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden verveelvoudigd en/of openbaar gemaakt door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm of welke andere wijze dan ook zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de redactie. De redactie houdt zich het recht voor om artikelen in te korten dan wel te wijzigen. Een in een artikel verwoorde mening is niet noodzakelijk de mening van de e.t.s.v. Thor of de faculteit Electrical Engineering aan de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven.

December 2012  | 01

IINHOUDSOPGAVE [01] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [10] [15] [17] [18] [20] [22] [23] [26]

R e d a c ti o n e e l

[27] [28] [30] [31] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37]

N o o r s e mytho lo g i e

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Bo a r d I s s u e s Fr o m t h e P r e s i d e nt I n M e mo r i a m: L e o r i e t j e ns I n M e mo r i a m: th e o s ch a r t e n Introducing... N e ws Ba c he lo r c o lle ge 2 0 1 2 : w e z i j n l i v e ! P o te n t i a a l b i jn a a f g e br a nd? P h o to P a ge S tu d y t r i p t o CE RN ASML : Bla s t f o r m t h e p a s t

Bachelorcollege 2012

M y i n te r n s h i p i n f l o r i da

Het Bachelorcollege is intussen in werking, op pagina 15 lees je hier meer over.

M y DISC /NWO P h D Re s e a r ch Gra nt I n a u gu r a l le c tu r e S j e f C o bbe n: qu a li t y o f p o we r U n i v e r s i t y R a c i n g E i ndh o v e n ( U RE ) M a n a n i n g t h e “ S t u de nt ch a l l e ng e ” I n t e r n s hi p a t n IST E xc u r s i e CCM

News

This time we have a lot of news for you, so make sure you’re up to date and start reading on page 10.

P h o to i mpre s s i o n GLOW P u zzle

10

Up c o mi n g a c t i v i t i e s

Facult

02 |  connecthor 

eitsbla

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trical

Engin

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INHOUDSOPGAVE I

35 Study trip CERN

ODIN, Waldur and IEEE SBE organized a study trip to Geneva and visited CERN. Read more on page 20.

Photo impression GLOW

From 10 till 17 November, the seventh edition of GLOW took place. For those who weren’t able to visit this themselves, we have a impression on page 35.

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20

Inaugural lecture Sjef Cobben

Prof. Cobben held his inaugural lecture about quality of power. Read more about his lecture on pages 28 and 29.

December 2012  | 03

IFaculteit

Board issues By: Ton Koonen

S

ince September 1, 2012, I have succeeded prof. Arthur van Roermund in the Board of EE, to look after the research activities in our faculty and facilitate these as much as possible. Next to education, research is an equally important part of our core activities. After all, academic education should foster creative people, who are prepared to address new challenges, and to come up with innovative solutions for the benefit of our society. It therefore should foster curiosity among our students and give them the opportunity to get involved in research. Our Electrical Engineering research activities have been recently reviewed by external experts in the “Onderzoekvisitatie Elektrotechniek 2005-2010”, together with those in University of Twente and Delft University of Technology. Although the results still have to be released publicly, the first impressions of the final report are that we did very well, notably in the cooperation with and relevance for industry. The reviewers appreciated our focusing on the three themes ‘Connected World’, ‘Care and Cure’, and ‘Smart and Sustainable Society’, which together with the technology centers and the linkage between the individual capacity groups makes our relevance more clear to the outside world. And the latter becomes ever more important! The fixed money stream (‘1G money’) from our government on which one could count in the past for running the operations is shrinking year by year. We can partly counteract this by attracting more students; we do achieve successes in that as shown lately by the influx of students for the new Automotive studies. But we clearly need to get more and more of our money from other sources, notably from industry in doing research for them in bilateral projects, and from national and European research

04 |  connecthor 

programs. In some aspects the economic crisis is helping us in that…; industry needs to focus more and more on short-term results, and has less and less room left to work on longer-term research themselves. On the other hand, they are aware that research is needed to safeguard their future, even their near future. By building partnerships with university researchers, industry can get access to innovative ideas, without committing sizable parts of their own staff and making large investments. By doing research together with multiple partners in a joint R&D project, the multiplication factor, which leverages their own contributions, can be even larger. This also holds on our side: joint R&D projects increase our visibility, provide the opportunity to disseminate our knowledge and acquire new information, and lastbut-not-least to acquire new money for our activities! Hence both on a national level and on European level there are many research funding programs we have to pursue, wherein we have to build project proposals together with external partners and have to chase for additional money (‘2G and 3G money’) to run our operations. The Dutch government has defined its Topsectoren policy, aiming to direct and focus research into the so-called main domains of economic activity in the Netherlands. The importance attributed to this policy unfortunately does not keep pace with the amount of funding money made available by our government. In particular the national funding coming from our ‘aardgasbaten’ is rapidly diminishing. Moreover, industry is requested to bring in a sizable part of the money themselves, and that is not easy in these difficult economic times. Luckily, our Eindhoven region is one of the top-high-tech regions in Europe, and is doing very well; e.g.

ASML has become the world leader in chipmaking machines, and is investing heavily in research to maintain and extend that position. They need hundreds of top-level engineers for that, so they offer excellent career perspectives for our students. On a European funding level, research seems to be higher on the priority list than in the Netherlands; the European Commission gives it due attention in a wide range of funding programs; e.g. the current 7th Framework Program (FP7) has sizable funding amounts for joint R&D in the Cooperation program, for long-term research opportunities with personal grants for individuals in the Ideas program, and for projects supporting mobility (such as Erasmus exchanges) in the People program. The upcoming Horizon 2020 program promises even larger funding budgets: more than 79 billion € in2014-2020; the FP7 was about 53 billion € in 2007-2013. The Horizon 2020 program intends to give stronger support to science (about 25 billion €), to innovation in key technologies (about 18 billion €), and to solving general European concerns like climate change (about 36 billion €). At a national level, not only in the Netherlands, but also in other European countries the research funding budgets decrease, and the fixed money streams for the universities too. So we are in the midst of a heavy competition to win, getting more and more international… It asks much effort from our side to maintain and where possible enlarge our operations, but it also offers the enchanting prospects of funding for nice new research projects in which we can unleash our curiosity! Ton Koonen

Vereniging I

From the President By: Harold Vervoort

I

n doubt about what to tell you in this column, I decided to start by introducing myself. My name is Harold Vervoort, thirdyear Electrical Engineering student and since the third of October President of Electrotechnische Studievereniging Thor. I grew up in Schijndel, a large town in NoordBrabant. I never thought I would ever live in a big city and study at the University of Technology. After primary school I did not have a clue what I wanted to do, so I decided to aim for the highest. My teacher told me to go to the HAVO and my father told me to go to MBO car technics, because he thought that would be adequate to start working as soon as possible and take over the family company one day. Stubborn as I was, I went to the ‘Gymnasium’ and dropped out after one year because of the dyslexia and ADD I turned out to have, but I continued at the Atheneum and proved them all wrong. I can do something if I put my mind to it. At the end of secondary school it was time to choose a subsequent study, once again my father told me to take it easy and do

something easy and fun. I did not know what to choose and found everything interesting. My dream of becoming an F-16 pilot was not an option because they do not employ people with dyslexia for the American training program. I was still very stubborn, so I decided to choose one of the most difficult, but interesting educational topics: Electrical Engineering. Lots of people told me I underestimated how hard it would be. However, I did realize what I was doing and knew I would have to fight and study hard to finish it. In my first year I had a bad start but I knew I could do it if I did not try to do everything at the same time. Because I am interested in so many things, I did too much every day, so I was fighting against time. I still hope that someday there will be 30 hours in a day. I started to learn to manage my time better and got rid of my procrastination. I finally got my education back on track. Maybe I should have continued studying full-time, but once again I decided otherwise. I want to develop as many skills as possible. I have always been interested in management and I hope to develop some skills in that area this year.

What some people may not know is that I have been working part-time at Prodrive for almost two and a half years now. I have learned a lot about the production process of the PCBs we use daily. That is not the only job I have right now. Also, I manage the logistics and drink supply for a festival, which had about 51,.000 visitors last year, since I was 18 years old. As you can see, I have a lot on my mind, maybe sometimes too much, but sitting still is not an option for me. After a hard day of work, I like to have a drink or two with my friends. So I have the complete spectrum of learning: education, personal development, and relaxation. I hope that we, the Board of Thor, can offer that to all the students of Electrical Engineering and Automotive, to help them make the most of their time at TU/e. Veel Gedonder! Harold Vervoort President of e.t.s.v. Thor

December 2012  | 05

In Memoriam

Professor Leo Rietjens O

p 9 september jl. overleed op 83-jarige leeftijd emeritus hoogleraar Leo Rietjens. Professor Rietjens was van 1965 tot 1994 verbonden aan de faculteit Elektrotechniek.

Leo Rietjens had, toen niemand zich nog druk maakte over energie-efficiency, de visie dat het belangrijk zou zijn om energie uit elektriciteitscentrales met een hoog rendement om te kunnen zetten in elektrische energie. Dit zou moeten gebeuren door de warmte uit het hete gas van de vlam of kernreactor rechtstreeks om te zetten in elektrische energie. Dat concept heet een Magnetohydrodynamische generator. Toen Leo Rietjens in 1965 zijn leerstoel bij de faculteit Elektrotechniek: “Directe omzetting van warmte in elektrische energie” ging bekleden was dit vakgebied in Nederland onbekend. Vervolgens initieerde hij, gebaseerd op zijn ervaring bij het fusie-onderzoek in het Instituut Rijnhuizen waar hij vandaan kwam, een onderzoekslijn in Eindhoven die internationaal aan de top kwam te staan. Het resultaat was dat onderzoekers uit de Verenigde Staten, Rusland, Polen, Italië en Japan in Eindhoven kwamen werken om te leren hoe het vak moest worden bedreven. Het beste bewijs van zijn kwaliteiten is dat hij werd onderscheiden als doctor honoris causa van de Russische Academie van Wetenschappen.Het resultaat was ook dat Leo Rietjens voorzitter werd van de International Liaison Group of MHD. In Nederland werd Leo Rietjens benoemd als voorzitter van de Raad voor Energie-onderzoek die rechtstreeks adviseerde aan de regering. Daarnaast bekleedde hij natuurlijk vele andere functies waaronder decaan van de faculteit elektrotechniek. Toen in 1974 na de energiecrisis het voorstel voor het MHD blow-down experiment werd ingediend kende het ministerie van EZ aan Leo Rietjens een subsidie van 16 miljoen gulden toe. Dat was waarschijnlijk de eerste derde geldstroom die de TU/e mocht ontvangen. Vervolgens werd deze installatie gebouwd en in bedrijf gesteld. Hierbij was een team van vijfentwintig medewerkers en vele promovendi en afstudeerders betrokken. Alles onder de inspirerende leiding van Leo Rietjens. Bewezen werd dat via magnetohydrodynamische conversie warmte rechtstreeks in elektrische energie kan worden omgezet op megawatt schaal. Het beste bewijs van de waarde van deze installatie is wellicht dat hij minutieus is gekopieerd bij het Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. Tegenwoordig is innovatie het modewoord. Leo Rietjens was een hoogleraar die een geheel nieuwe richting binnen de elektrotechniek en de elektrotechnische energietechniek creëerde! Leo Rietjens was een innovator avant la lettre! Jan H. Blom

06 |  connecthor 

In Memoriam Ir. Theo Scharten O

p 2 oktober jl. overleed oud-medewerker ir. Theo Scharten op 78-jarige leeftijd aan de gevolgen van een ongeneeslijke ziekte. Na het behalen van het ir-diploma in Elektrotechniek aan de Technische Hogeschool Delft in 1963 trad Theo in dienst van de Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven bij de Faculteit Elektrotechniek als wetenschappelijk medewerker. Hij was in diverse functies actief binnen de universiteit; onder andere in het faculteitsbestuur van de faculteit Elektrotechniek. Vanaf oktober 1992 tot aan zijn pensioen in 1995, en ook tijdens de periode februari t/m juni 1998, was hij voorzitter van de universiteitsraad. In 1995 werd Theo benoemd tot Officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau vanwege zijn afscheid als wetenschappelijk medewerker en als voorzitter van de universiteitsraad. Via de colleges Elektromagnetisme had Theo een uitstekend contact met de studenten. Theo was een zeer inspirerend docent en vele studenten besloten bij hem te gaan afstuderen. Vanwege zijn diepgaande kennis, uitgebreide ervaring en prettige luchthartige omgang met mensen was hij geliefd bij zijn studenten en medewerkers. Theo bekleedde naast zijn werk allerlei maatschappelijke functies. Zo was hij van 1966 tot 1974 lid van de Bestse gemeenteraad en van 1977 tot 1985 voorzitter van de stichting Mobest (Maatschappelijk Opbouwwerk Best). Na zijn pensionering bleef hij actief als voorzitter van de Maxwell Stichting ter bevordering van onderwijs en onderzoek op het gebied van elektromagnetisme. Wij gedenken Theo als een prominent docent, onderzoeker en bestuurder. Wij wensen zijn echtgenote Vera, (klein)kinderen en naaste familie en vrienden heel veel sterkte toe. Peter Smulders EM-groep

December 2012  | 07

IFaculteit

Introducing... H

ello everyone!!

My name is Edwin Insuasty, I’m 26 and I come from Pasto, Colombia, a small city located in the south-western mountains of the country. I lived there my first 16 years, then I moved to Medellin to study my B.Sc. and M.Eng. degrees in Industrial Automation the National University of Colombia. In 2010, I was awarded the Henk Bodt scholarship from ASML and then I moved to the Netherlands and I received the M.Sc. Systems and Control degree (cum laude) from the TU/e in August 2012. Here, I became an expert in numerical mathematics for large scale dynamical systems and I developed novel model-order reduction techniques for partial differential equations and an advanced simulation framework for nanometric thermal deformations in reticle stages for the next generation of ASML lithography machines. In 2012, I was awarded the DISC-NWO grant for the top 4 students in programs under the scope of the Dutch Institute for Systems and Control in the Netherlands to perform doctoral research in control theory, but unfortunately I rejected the grant looking for a more suitable position according to my professional interests. Starting from September 2012, I will be a PhD candidate in the Control Systems Group in the field of system theory for petroleum production optimization and reservoir management.

The project is funded by Shell and my research will focus on the identification of structured models for life-cycle optimization with varying well configurations.

I’m an avid swimmer and I practice it on a daily basis at the university. Dancing is another passion for me, and I’m very proficient with Latin moves and still learning tango, so I would be very happy if you join the dance floor with me some day!

I

would like to introduce myself as a new editor of the Connecthor. My name is Esmee Huismans and I am in my second year of the study Electrical Engineering. I was born in ’s-Hertogenbosch and lived most of my life in Oss. In the fifth year of secondary school I made up my mind and knew that I was going to study Electrical Engineering in Eindhoven. Ever since I started this study, I liked to do something beside the course material. Therefore I joined the Ivaldi, the first-year committee, in my first year. Nowadays I am part of the ACCI, the activities committee. When I heard that they were searching for new members for the editorial board of Connecthor, I was immediately excited. I decided to join them and I hope to have a positive contribution to the four Connecthors that appear every year.

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Faculteit I

H

ello! My name is Marko Merdzan and I am 27 years old. I come from Serbia, where I received my Master degree from the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad in 2009. Since the graduation I have worked in two companies and since the beginning of August, I have started my PhD project in the Electromechanics and Power Electronics group. The project is about electromechanical aspects of micro-CHP (combined heat and power) systems and the main goal is to achieve very efficient mechanical to electrical conversion. In my spare time, I like reading and watching movies, especially documentaries. An area that I am really interested in is history. Beside that, from time to time, I like to see good football or basketball match. I am glad that I became part of a big and prosperous team such as TU/e and I am looking forward to the coming period. I hope I will enjoy my stay in the Netherlands, especially if I get used to the weather. Regards, Marko

H

ello, my name is Edgar van Megen. I’m 19 years old and I’m from Baarlo. That’s a small village just south of Venlo. During my time at secondary school, I was always very active in the organization committee. One of the returning annual events was a day for the first-year bilingual students to write newspaper articles. For many years it was my job to organize this day and edit the articles into a complete newspaper. Therefore, it is only a logical step to join the Connecthor editorial board. Another annual event was the Culturele Avonden: a theatre show organized by an active group of teachers and students. In my first few years, I made 3D animations which were beamed behind acts. Later, I became head of filming and lights. This led me to my job at the local music venue where I work as a light and sound engineer.

December 2012  | 09

INieuws Best paper award ICEM At the XXth International Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM’2012) in Marseille, France, Aleksandar Borisavljevic, Maikel Brands, and Elena Lomonova received the best paper award for their presentation of the paper “Vector control of very high speed PM machines”.

Elsevier-enquête: Electrical Engineering Eindhoven nr. 1

Uitreiking Masterbeurzen NXP

De beste universiteit is volgens studenten de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. Dat blijkt uit De beste universiteiten, het jaarlijkse onderzoek van weekblad Elsevier en onderzoeksinstituut ResearchNed naar de kwaliteit van het hoger onderwijs. Onder andere de studenten van de masteropleidingen Automotive, Electrical Engineering en Sustainable Energy Technology plaatsen de TU/e op de eerste plaats, voor Delft en Twente.

Op maandag 8 oktober 2012 ontvingen een achttal Nederlandse studenten van de opleiding Electrical Engineering aan de Universiteit in Eindhoven ieder een masterbeurs van 5000 Euro.

Zowel bij studenten als hoogleraren en universitair hoofddocenten kwam de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven als beste technische universiteit uit de bus. Bij de TU/e zijn de studenten aan 55% procent van de opleidingen bovengemiddeld tevreden, de hoogste score van alle universiteiten.

De prijzen werden uitgereikt door Vice-President Gerard Beenker van NXP.

De beurzen worden verstrekt door NXP Semiconductors. Het bedrijf wil hiermee benadrukken dat er een grote behoefte is aan academisch opgeleide ingenieurs in de regio Eindhoven.

Het onderzoek is gebaseerd op de oordelen van 170.000 studenten. Deze oordelen komen uit de omvangrijke Nationale Studentenenquête. Studenten gaven aan hoe tevreden zij zijn over het onderwijs, de organisatie, communicatie, faciliteiten, docenten en inrichting van hun opleiding. Op basis van het onderzoek studie en werk 2012 van Elsevier en SEO komt de opleiding Electrical Engineering op het gebied van arbeidsmarktperspectief ook sterk uit de bus. Elektrotechnici hebben een sterke uitgangspositie. Zij komen zeer snel aan een baan en hebben een zeer goede kans op een vaste baan (in de top 10 van alle opleidingen). Ook het salaris, anderhalf jaar na afstuderen, is bovengemiddeld. Nog een reden om trots te zijn op onze opleiding! groei

studentenaantallen

buitenlandse studenten %

Engelstalig

totaal %

organisatie/communicatie %

toetsing %

docenten %

inrichting opleiding %

onderwijs %

faciliteiten %

WO Master Electrical Engineering

72

66

75

77

79

72

74

ja

8

414

-

Embedded Systems

63

50

53

62

56

58

57

ja

5

226

-

Sustainable Energy

73

60

59

68

67

64

65

ja

10

299

>

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Nieuws I NWO Grant for Alina Doban On Thursday, 18 October, DISC (Dutch Institute of Systems and Control) awarded PhD Research grants to four highly talented recently graduated MSc students. Each grant is part of the NWO Graduate Programme for which the Graduate School in Systems and Control has been selected in 2010. The aim is to strengthen the development of MSc/PhD graduate schools and to stimulate young people to develop their own research skills and profile. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) developed the program at the request of former minister Ronald Plasterk. Ten of the best national students within the MSc programs in the area of Systems and Control have been selected to enroll in a pre-PhD track as an honours class in their MSc programme. During this track, students were offered traineeships and research visits to various research groups, and were more particularly prepared to continue as a PhD researcher after completing their MSc program. Research proposals written by students themselves were evaluated by a jury that selected four grant winners. The PhD research grants include the full budget for a four-year PhD research project to be performed in a research group chosen by the candidate.

Best Poster Award With the poster “feature comparison for Real-time detection of nocturnal seizures using accelerometry” Constantin Ungureanu, Johan Arends, and Ronald Aarts from the SPS group, and Martin van Bussel and Francis Tan from Hobo Heeze and Kempenhaeghe, won the BEST POSTER AWARD at the 10th European Congress of Epileptology (London 30th Oct- 4th Nov 2012).

Alina Doban (Eindhoven University of Technology) who recently has completed her MSc in Electrical Engineering cum laude. The grant allows Alina to perform a PhD research projected that she has formulated herself, entitled: “Stabilization of Set-Dynamics“, and that she will perform under supervision of Dr. Mircea Lazar (Eindhoven University of Technology) and Prof. Jan van Schuppen (Delft University of Technology). The jury thinks Alina is a top student, very dedicated, with a strong theoretical background in the area of the proposal. Her project aims at developing a stability theory and control synthesis for set dynamics. Besides the four awards, DISC certificates were awarded to the other students that completed the DISC pre-PhD track, including Mohsin Siraj and Edwin Insuasty Moreno (Eindhoven University of Technology) and Mark van Logtestijn (University of Groningen).

Groot aantal P- en B-diploma’s uitgereikt Propedeuse en Bachelor-diploma-uitreiking op dinsdag 6 november 201: onder grote belangstelling van familie en vrienden reikte prof. Baltus aan 80 studenten hun P- of B-diploma uit.

Fotografie: Photodette

December 2012  | 11

INieuws IEEEXtreme You take twenty-four well-rested students, ingredients for about five hundred grilled cheese sandwiches, seven trays of energy drink, one proctor who may or may not have left early from his wife’s birthday party, and there you have the recipe for the IEEEXtreme 6.0. The IEEEXtreme 6.0 is a worldwide 24-hour programming competition with over 1900 teams, over 5000 competitors from over sixty countries. This competition was held on October 20th starting at 00:00 UTC (02:00 local time) and ending at 23:59 UTC (01:59 local time), eight teams (each consisting of three members) represented the IEEE Student Branch Eindhoven in this competition. One of the teams even reached place 254. Not bad at all, considering over the large number of participating teams. During the evening a proctor, dr. ir. Frans MJ Willems, supervised the participating students and made sure they followed the rules. The first programming problem was released at the start of the IEEEXtreme and after that roughly every hour a new problem was released, making sure the students always had something to do. After hours of programming, the exhaustion didn’t demotivate the students, they kept on programming. Only after the full 24 hours, the last teams called it a day and went home to get some well-deserved rest. However, they would have probably been haunted in their sleep by reproducing bunnies, hexagons and Rubik’s cubes. In the end we can all look back to an exhausting but very awesome Saturday and we are already looking forward to the next edition of the IEEEXtreme.

BKO certificaat voor Opleidingsdirecteur EE Prof.dr.ir. Bart Smolders ontvangt uit handen van de decaan zijn BKO certificaat (Basiskwalificatie Onderwijs). Het portfolio van prof. Smolders is door BKO commissie TN beoordeeld om daarmee de onafhankelijkheid van de beoordeling van prof. Smolders als opleidingsdirecteur te garanderen. Van Harte gefeliciteerd!

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De vlaai Deze editie gaat de vlaai naar Jos Dortmans. Dit omdat Jos de laatste tijd veel pech heeft gehad. Het begon allemaal op 13 september: de dag van de kandiborrel. Met goede moed ging hij op weg naar de hurk om een giletje te halen. Na het kopen van het gilletje stapte Jos op de fiets en bleek zijn band lek te zijn. Na een lange terugreis en het plakken van zijn band leken alle problemen verholpen te zijn. Totdat hij na de borrel op de fiets stapte en weg reed. Met een harde knal klapte zijn band weer kapot en uit frustratie heeft het achterlicht het niet overleeft. Na een reparatie bij de fietsenmaker leek zijn fiets weer een tijd mee te kunnen. Alleen niet is minder waar. De band is alweer twee keer lek gegaan. Zelfs zijn andere fiets in Helmond is niet ongedeerd gebleven.

Nieuws I Metaforum is geopend, maar hoe vind je daar je weg?

Open Dagen – 19 en 20 oktober 2012 De Open Dagen van vrijdag 19 en zaterdag 20 oktober jl. zijn zeer succesvol verlopen. We hebben een recordaantal bezoekers mogen ontvangen in het Auditorium. In totaal hebben we bijna 3.800 bezoekers, waarvan 1.883 scholieren, op twee dagen verwelkomd. Een kleine 500 scholieren hebben de presentaties van Electrical Engineering en Automotive bijgewoond en ruim 265 scholieren hebben de demo’s en de workshops gevolgd op de faculteit.

Koen Meessen cum laude gepromoveerd Koen Meessen is dinsdag 25 september cum laude gepromoveerd op zijn onderzoek naar elektromagnetische actuatoren. Hij ontwikkelde een nieuwe driedimensionale modelleringstechniek voor de elektromagnetische velden ervan. Met dit model maakte hij een nieuw soort actuator, voor een ‘pick and place’ machine die onderdelen op printplaten zet. De snelheid en accuratesse ervan zijn ongekend, aldus zijn promotor prof.dr. Elena Lomonova.

December 2012  | 13

INieuws Freshmen EE visit High Tech Campus

NRG Battle

As closure of the first week of classes the Electrical Engineering freshmen students made their acquaintance with industry and paid a visit to the High Tech Campus. (HTC) HTC is an international community that shares a common drive for creating innovative solutions that make human life healthier, more pleasant, easier, more interesting and which contribute to a sustainable world. That Friday afternoon September 3rd we were welcomed by mr. Ad van den Berg of NXP, Following the word of welcome we started with presentations of HTC and the three companies involved: NXP, Philips Research and Holst Centre. The mission of open innovation and attainable goals were presented by Ms. Hilde de Vocht of the HTC. After that each of companies presented the current developments of the market and their newest research. Richard Kempkers presented on behalf of Philips Research, Mrs. Clara Otera Perez for NXP and Maarten Lont (PhD alumnus of Electrical Engineering TU/e) informed us about the developments at Holst Centre. Following the presentations the students were divided into three groups to visit one of the labs to see all the applications and products by themselves. I myself went with one group to the experience lab of NXP where we were shown all kinds of applications for different kinds of situations that will be realized in the near future. For example when your car is broken down you can push a button in your car. The central ANWB will be called automatically where they will immediately see your coordinates plus an indication of what is wrong with your car. They can activate the Wegenwacht (road service) to visit you or have a nearby garage tow you away or guide you through some simple actions depending on what is the matter with your car. This indeed sounded to me like an innovative solution that will make my life easier. Students asked questions and were eager to learn about the applications. Especially the applications in gaming were very appealing to them. After the demo’s we returned to the Grand-Café at the Strip where we joined for a drink and exchanged our experiences. For some students the drink was accompanied by playing a relaxing card game. All in all a nice closure of the first week of studies at Eindhoven University of Technology. Lies Termeer

Op 12 oktober was het zover. We gingen met 4 studenten vanuit Eindhoven naar de NRG Battle in Groningen. Na eerst even gezellig in Het Walhalla geborreld te hebben was het tijd om de lange reis te maken naar Groningen. Daar hadden we 2 overnachtingen, van donderdag tot zaterdag. Na snel ingecheckt te hebben gingen we allemaal naar bed om ons op te maken voor de Battle de volgende dag. De volgende dag moesten we al vroeg ons bed uit om ons klaar te maken, zodat we op tijd zouden zijn voor de bus. Eenmaal aangekomen op de campus werden we ontvangen en kregen we algemene informatie. Na een korte meeting met de verschillende teams van in mijn geval Alliander was het tijd om na een korte introductie te beginnen aan de case. Na eerst ’s morgens gebrainstormd te hebben was het ’s middags tijd om te gaan werken aan de pitch – een presentatie van 3 minuten waarin de groep moest presenteren welk idee ze hadden en waarom dat het beste idee was. Een jury met verschillende CEO’s uit het bedrijfsleven beoordeelde de ideeën en de presentaties en kozen daaruit de 5 beste teams. De 5 beste teams mochten met hun idee door naar de finale op 20 november en kregen een fles champagne. Na de pitches was het even wachten op het oordeel van de jury. Uiteindelijk is mijn team, met 2 leden uit Eindhoven – mezelf en Arno Stamps - doorgegaan naar de finale. We gaan er hard aan werken om daar weer een goede presentatie neer te zetten. Na de prijsuitreiking was het tijd om even gezellig samen te gaan borrelen in het centrum van Groningen. Club Inc. was afgehuurd voor de deelnemers van de NRG Battle. Tot in de late uurtjes is het nachtleven van Groningen weer verkend, maar de volgende morgen moesten we toch weer naar huis. Ondanks de nodige omleidingen van de NS – Groningen, dat is toch via Amsterdam? – zijn we uiteindelijk wel thuis weten te komen, al was dat wel wat later dan dat we zelf verwacht hadden.

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Faculteit I

Bachelorcollege 2012: We zijn live! Door: Sjoerd Hulshof

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a een hectisch jaar van veel voorbereiding en bijbehorende projectgroepen is in september dan echt het Bachelorcollege van start gegaan. Voor wie net terug is van een jaartje verlof of te druk was met publicaties schrijven: Alle bachelorprogramma’s (majors genoemd) zijn ondergebracht in het Bachelorcollege, een nieuwe structuur waarbij de nadruk ligt op keuze. Keuze door studenten, reeds in het tweede kwartiel. Verder kenmerkt het Bachelorcollege zich door general courses die voor alle studenten gelijk zijn (alhoewel enkele van deze vakken in meerdere varianten worden aangeboden) en door de USE-component (User, Society & Enterprise) waarbij onder andere de impact van technologie op de maatschappij belicht wordt. Met de opzet van het Bachelorcollege doelt de universiteit op een hogere instroom, en dan met name van de breder geïnteresseerde student (heel kort door de bocht: de concrete bèta’s - bèta’s in hart en nieren - krijgen we toch al wel binnen en komen overigens nog steeds genoeg aan hun trekken). Onze opleidingsdirecteur Bart Smolders heeft in een eerdere Connecthor (juni 2012) uitvoerig geschreven over het Bachelorcollege, dus de geïnteresseerde lezer verwijs ik graag naar het betreffende artikel.

Coaching 25% van de major is keuzeruimte. Dit houdt in dat studenten de meest uiteenlopende vakkenpakketten gaan krijgen. Om het keuzeproces van de studenten in goede banen te leiden zijn er coaches aangesteld. Rob Mestrom heeft in de vorige Connecthor (september 2012) een stukje geschreven over de ‘kick-off’ van het coaching-gebeuren, namelijk de Startgesprekken in juni en augustus. De coaches bespreken op verschillende momenten gedurende het eerste jaar de (on)mogelijkheden van de diverse keuzes met hun groep studenten en zetten de studenten aan tot het maken van bewuste keuzes. De coach zal dus nooit aan een student vertellen welk vak een studente wel of niet moet kiezen, maar hem of haar juist stimuleren om zelf na te denken over het te volgen pad. Inmiddels heeft het eerste gesprek tussen coach en studenten plaatsgevonden, waarbij de keuzes voor de keuzevakken in zowel kwartiel twee als vier zijn vastgesteld. Maar wat kunnen studenten nu zoal kiezen?

Populaire vakken bij onze studenten in kwartiel twee blijken het OGO Automotive (faculteit EE), Creative Programming (ID), Computer Graphics (INF) en The Effectiveness of Mathematics (WSK) te zijn. In kwartiel vier doet met name het OGO Venus Exploration het heel goed bij EE-studenten, terwijl de AU-studenten vaak kiezen voor Leadership & Self-Management in Organizations (IE&IS).

Volgende jaren De keuzevakken beperken zich vanzelfsprekend niet tot het eerste jaar. Sterker nog: het aandeel keuzevakken neemt in het tweede en derde jaar alleen maar toe. Volgend jaar (en het jaar erop) zullen er dus méér coaches nodig zijn, voor zowel de ouderejaars studenten als voor de nieuwe lichting eerstejaars studenten. Om een idee te geven van de benodigde bemensing: Dit jaar zijn 120 eerstejaars studenten EE en AU verdeeld over vijf coaches. Ongeveer 10% van deze studenten bestaat uit internationale studenten. De verwachting is dat de instroom van internationale studenten de komende jaren alleen maar groeit. Ook verwachten we nog steeds een toename van Nederlandse studenten, met name in de richting Automotive. Oftewel: De titel van dit stukje had ook ‘Wanted: Coaches!’ kunnen heten. Maar deze titel bewaren we wel voor het stukje in de Connecthor van april 2013… Indien je vast wat meer wilt weten over coaching in de praktijk, spreek gerust één van de huidige coaches (Tjalling Tjalkens, Rob Mestrom, Bart Smolders, Jan Vleeshouwers of Sjoerd Hulshof ) aan. Zij zullen je graag bijpraten.

December 2012  | 15

Link yourself to the power of TenneT Netwerken: daar gaat het om bij TenneT. Letterlijk en fi guurlijk. We zijn de eerste grensover schrijdende elektriciteitstransporteur van Europa met 20.000 kilometer aan hoogspanningsnetwerken in Nederland en Duitsland. Onze focus is gericht op de ontwikkeling van een Noordwest-Europese energie markt en de integratie van duurzame energie. Tegelijkertijd staat de continuïteit

van de elektriciteitsvoorziening voorop. 24 uur per dag, 7 dagen per week. We zoeken de samenwerking met professionals die interesse hebben in een unieke uitdaging. Wil jij op hoog niveau aan de slag in je vak? Bij een bedrijf dat in meerdere opzichten netwerken verbindt? Link yourself en ga vandaag nog naar

www.werkenbijTenneT.nl

TenneT zoekt: Ambitieuze technici en andere professionals

Varia I

Potentiaal bijna afgebrand? Door: Pasquale van Heumen

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lechts één week stond hij daar dan, gestationeerd in het gezelligheidshok op vloer 2, een nieuw tosti-ijzer. Een nieuwtje op zich dat menig student in Potentiaal ontgaan zal zijn. Wat echter nog veel meer mensen niet weten, is dat dit tosti-ijzer een levensechte brandweeroefening heeft georganiseerd. Zo echt dat onze eigen bedrijfsbrandweer er niet eens van op de hoogte was. Het begon allemaal zo: Het kersverse bestuur was zoals elk bestuur weer naarstig op zoek naar sponsors die de vereniging van geld en gratis spullen konden voorzien. Zo was onder andere de “Wervingsdagen” bereid een degelijk tostiijzer te sponsoren. Want ja, welke student houdt nou niet van een goede tosti? Een prima deal dus. Zo gezegd zo gedaan en het tosti-ijzer ijzer kwam er. Het ijzer in kwestie vroeg maar liefst 2,5 kilowatt aan vermogen van ons altijd trouwe elektriciteitsnet. Dat leek op zich al problemen te geven, maar het bleek al snel dat het gezelligheidshok zwaar genoeg was uitgerust om dit vermogen te kunnen leveren, naast al het vermogen dat het al moest leveren aan de combimagnetron en het koffiezetapparaat. Maar wat verwacht je dan? Potentiaal is tenslotte wel speciaal gebouwd als een faculteit elektrotechniek en daar mogen we toch wel een overvloed aan stroom verwachten. Tosti’s maken kon dit ijzer als de beste heb ik zelf mogen ervaren. Maar na een week tosti’s en ander willekeurig voedsel warm stoken

had een hoop vet zich genesteld op de grillplaten. Deze ophoping van vet besloot de bewuste dinsdagochtend 29 oktober te gaan verdampen tot een stinkende witte rookwolk met een lichte blauwe gloed.

groot mierennest dat ontruimd werd. Met 6 man sterk kwam de brandweer dan en snelde naar binnen. Het heeft hoogstens 5 minuten geduurd voordat ze weer buiten waren, in de auto stapten en vertrokken.

Op diezelfde dinsdagmorgen had ik mijzelf vanaf 9 uur geïnstalleerd in het commissiehok om me voor te bereiden op de tentamens die nog komen zouden. Tot ongeveer half 10 ging dit goed. Toen werd mijn concentratie abrupt afgebroken door de welbekende “slowwhoop” die in heel Nederland hetzelfde klinkt. “Wie verzint het nou tijdens de tentamenweek een brandweeroefening te houden?” was mijn eerste gedachte. Ik besloot toch naar buiten te gaan en pakte eerst rustig mijn tas in, iets dat je beslist nooit moet doen in geval van brand. Wandelend door de gang van vloer 2 rook ik een aardig aangebrande lucht en zag het gezelligheidshok vol met witte rook staan. Het was mij als snel duidelijk dat “ons” nieuwe tosti-ijzer hier de schuldige van was.

Vervolgens trok iedereen weer de hoge mierenhoop in die net nog bezig was te ontruimen. Het duurde niet lang voordat de gebouwbeheerder, beroemd en berucht bij bestuur en oud-besturen, op vloer 2 langskwam. Op zijn zachtst gezegd was de faculteit niet bepaald blij. Het tosti-ijzer moest verdwijnen en het scheelde niet veel of alle apparaten in het gezelligheidshok hok zouden eindbestemming container krijgen. Echter zo ver kwam het gelukkig niet.

Eenmaal buiten was het slechts nog wachten op de brandweer die de zogenaamde brand wel even zou komen blussen. Het gebouw was nog steeds aan het leeglopen en met zicht op het trappenhuis leek het wel een

Probeerde de “Wervingsdagen” ons gebouw plat te krijgen? Was het bestuur niet slim genoeg om te bedenken dat dit fout moest gaan? Of was het gewoon domme pech? Een ding is zeker. Wij zijn weer aangewezen op ons oude tostiapparaat en het krediet dat we hadden bij de faculteit is voorlopig tot in de rode cijfers gezakt. Nu zoeken we een ander apparaat om te laten sponsoren door “Wervingsdagen”. Voor goede ideeën, loop even langs het bestuur.

December 2012  | 17

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1. 203th GMM (kandiALV) 2. Constitutional drink ODIN 3. t/m 5. ThEW 6. en 7. kandiborrel 8. 204th GMM

9. en 10. 205th GMM (wisselingsALV) 11. Passing of DE vis 12. Bartenders’ test Sjoerd

15. en 16. OkTHORberfest 17. Excursion CCM 18. Visit cleanroom P&O

13. TV deco

19. Generation 2007 could have been graduated party

14. ACCI Drink-o-lympics

20. Exam training Calculus

IVereniging

Study trip CERN By: Matthijs Zwemer

\\ Eu ro t ri p 2 0 1 2 by O D IN, Wa l dur a nd IEEE SBE

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n the 10th of September the Eurotrip 2012, organized by the two Master-student branches Communicatiedispuut ODIN and Draaistroomdispuut Waldur and the IEEE Student Branch Eindhoven, started. During this week, the 22 attendees visited a university and various companies. The cities Stuttgart and Geneva were the places where the group slept and enjoyed themselves overnight. Monday morning at 7:00h the VIP touring car departed from Potentiaal. After a journey of 6 hours we arrived at our hostel in Stuttgart. After dropping off our luggage and refreshing ourselves we went to visit the Technical University of Stuttgart. IEEE Student Branch Stuttgart organized a tour around the department of Engineering Design, Production Engineering and Automotive Engineering. First we visited the microelectronics lab where students

20 |  connecthor 

research and develop high-speed digitalto-analog converters and analog-to-digital converters. The next stop was at an anechoic chamber for EMC experiments. After this we got a demonstration of a tesla coil in the high-voltage lab of the department and we saw the generator lab, where a lot of highpower generators were available for testing and experiments. Finally, we visited the automotive lab, where students worked on an electric race kart and were experimenting with a new kind of linear motor. The tour gave us a good impression of the research area on which the department focuses. After the visit and the long journey, we went back to our hostel. We had a nice view on the city center and could enjoy the sunset during our dinner at the restaurant of the hostel. In the evening the whole group went to the city center to visit a ‘Biergarten’, where we drank various well tasting beers while discussing our first day of the trip.

On the second day we already had to leave Stuttgart to travel further to our final destination: Geneva. Before driving to Geneva we had one stop in Lenzburg to have lunch and visit ABB semiconductors. ABB is the only company in the world that fabricates high-power semiconductors. High-power semiconductors have to be able to resist a minimum voltage of 1200V and a minimum current of 300A. ABB is able to make semiconductors up to 10GW! These semiconductors are used in power electronic circuits, useful for generation, transmission and consumption of energy. One of their last projects was the Xiangijaba transmission-line project, a high-voltage line in China with a length of 2071km. For this project, they developed a transistor with a diameter of 6 inches, which is really huge for this kind of device. The company produces the complete device from wafer up to a packaged product. During the visit, we had a tour through the building.

Vereniging I

We saw the manufacturing process, which we could observe from behind windows. Unfortunately, we could not visit the clean rooms themselves to see the processes at short range. After the interesting tour, we continued our trip to the city of Geneva. At 8 o’clock we arrived and checked in at our hostel in Geneva and had dinner there. In the evening the whole group when out to discover Geneva by night.

First we got a presentation about the ITU. The ITU is an agency of the United Nations that is specialized in information and communication technologies. The organization allocates the global radio spectrum, develops technical standards that ensure networks to interconnect and strives to improve access to these networks by underserved communities to support their fundamental right to communicate. The ITU was founded in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union to develop international standards for telegraph communication. Their area of expertise grew and now covers the whole ICT sector. Nowadays the ITU offers their members a neutral, global platform to come together to share ideas and knowledge, develop new standards and establish partnerships. After the presentation we had a tour in their visitors center ICT Discovery. The exhibition gave an impression of all major developments in the history of telecommunications, ranging from the first radiotelegraph messages send to the Titanic to the latest developments in internet security. Another part of the exhibition showed some impressive statistics of mobile telephone traffic in and around Geneva. The tour ended at 17:00h, so after that we went to take a look at the old center of Geneva.

of Switzerland and France where we could see some globe-like building dooming on the horizon. It was on the opposite side of the road where our visit started with a general presentation about CERN given by two Dutch professors. CERN is a French abbreviation for ‘Conseil Européen pour la Recherce Nucléair‘, but as time passed they started to focus more on the research of fundamental particles. It started as cooperation between 12 European countries, but nowadays there are already 20 active (European) members, while other countries are also invited to propose new projects. After the presentation, we were led into a building which stands on top of ATLAS, a big detector connected to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). They presented us a 3D movie about the construction and operation of the ATLAS and LHC and gave a quick tour through the ATLAS control room. After our lunch was finished, we had some time to visit the globe exhibition center, where an exhibition called ‘the Universe of Particles’ was situated. It was an amazing journey through our universe in which they explained the concepts like anti-matter, dark energy and the Big Bang. To finish our trip we had a luxury dinner in the evening at an Italian restaurant in the center of Geneva. Overall a great trip to remember.

Thursday morning we had to get up early to visit CERN! It was a short drive to the border

A report will be available at ODIN, Waldur and IEEE SBE.

Wednesday morning we took the tram to go to the United Nations Office in Geneva. When we arrived, a huge gate took our attention with flags on high poles from all the states connected to the UN. Entering the UN took some time; the whole group had to go through the metal detector and we all had to identify ourselves at the entrance. Once inside, our tour guide welcomed us. During the tour we went to a lot of different conference rooms and halls. In one of them a meeting of the human rights council was taking place. Many countries where represented and everybody could tell their story in one of the 6 official languages used by the UN. The “Hall of the lost footsteps” was an enormous hall with only marble, where all the states had brought a little piece that was incorporated in the floor. Its name is thanks to the fact that employees like to walk in this hall during the break and lose lots of footsteps in there. The last room we visited was the “Assembly Hall” with the big UN symbol on the wall. A globe seen from above so no country is in the middle, embraced by olive branches which symbolize peace. When the tour ended we had lunch at the United Nations and traveled on foot to visit the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

December 2012  | 21

IAdvertorial

Blast from the past \\ Wh at h a s M a ai ke be e n ge tti ng up to at A SML?

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t’s been a year since Maaike van’t Westeinde finished her Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at TU/e and joined ASML. So we thought it was about time to ask her what it’s like after university. Although ASML is completely different from university, it is a very exciting place. The technology is cutting-edge and everyone is full of ideas. The whole environment is dynamic and inspiring. I work in the Customer Support department as an Application Engineer on overlay, Overlay is the system’s ability to print IC layers accurately on top of each other. Since overlay can be affected by almost any component in the machine, my job involves interacting with many groups and departments throughout the entire organization of ASML. Also, because my work domain is Customer Support, I am frequently involved in the complex troubleshooting of ASML machines at customer sites. This further adds to the diversity of my work and no two days are ever the same.

What are the people like? ASML is a very international and multicultural environment: there are more than 70 different nationalities here. Because everyone is basically working on the same product, we have a really intense culture of teamwork and we all strive for the same goals. That’s partly why everyone is eager to help – even though we are all very busy people, we still seem to find time to assist each other. Which is extremely useful when you need expertise from a particular technology specialist.

We have a really intense culture of teamwork and we all strive for the same goals.

What’s the work like? My job incorporates different roles. For example, I support ASML’s service engineers working at customer sites and help them to crack the challenging trouble-shooting assignments which customers face. I also liaise with the marketing department, in case customers ask me when certain products and systems will be ready. But some parts of the work are more research-oriented, for example breaking down the overlay in all its machine and process contributions or working on the new EUV machines.

Travel? One of the reasons I joined ASML was the opportunity to travel. And even though it’s been just a year, I have already spent five weeks in Taiwan, working with one of the world’s biggest chip makers: TSMC. It was fascinating to meet ASML customers, you really get a sense of urgency and drive. Everything is focused on speed and productivity.

Is ASML what you expected?

My job incorporates different roles, some parts are more research-oriented.

22 |  connecthor 

Before I joined, I knew ASML was large and successful. And I knew that it was working at the frontiers of technology. You might think then that it is a very structured organization, with everything planned out and working like clockwork. But it’s actually quite the reverse

– it’s almost ‘organized chaos’. People get things done and ideas are realized on a very informal basis. Networking and people interaction is essential here. Obviously, there are formal lines of reporting, but the real network is the people you personally know, or know of. People are encouraged to be entrepreneurial and show initiative. And this really breeds creative thinking.

Knowing what you know now, would you have changed anything while you were studying? Definitely not. I enjoyed my student life to the fullest, with activities such as study trips, educational committees and, of course, the many fun social events. I was always looking for challenges and dynamics in my student life. The good thing about my working life now is that I can continue doing all these things at ASML.

What would you say to someone thinking about applying to join ASML? If you like challenging yourself, with lots of other young people, all eager to bring technology to the next level, then ASML is a great place to be. It certainly has everything I want in a job: pioneering technology, dynamic environment, travel, people-interaction, and plenty of opportunity to develop new skills. What more could you want?

Faculteit I

My intership in Florida By: Leon van Barschot

\\ Exp eri en ci n g N ASA, O ba ma a nd S noo p Dog g

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hen you start as freshman at Eindhoven University of Technology you’re put in a wellthought, demanding schedule, which takes you on a tour past skills and knowledge. The further you’ll go along, the more you’ll be able to influence this path. However, when you change from passenger to navigator you will have to answer some additional questions: Where do I want to go? Why do I want to go there? And how on earth am I going to get there? Last January, I started thinking about these questions as part of my internship. I wanted to broaden my horizon and work in another innovative area as well as improve my English vocabulary. Moreover, I would gain experience in research as close as possible to application. During the ‘bedrijvendagen’ at the TU/e, I contacted several interesting companies and I applied at a company in the USA. In parallel, I obtained information about the required paperwork for the United States by contacting PhD student Rob Gielen. In turn, he contacted a former classmate in Florida for information.

Bartel van der Veek, PhD student at Florida Institute of Technology, is working on controlling vibrations of flexible rockets. He was just starting to implement his control strategies on an experimental set-up and could use some help to benchmark his control-strategy’s performance. Therefore, within a few emails, the location of my internship was set: Melbourne, Florida! With two months between confirmation and the start-date of my internship, I started my race against time to organize housing and visa. I arranged an interview at the US embassy in Amsterdam and convinced them that I’m not a terrorist, not going to marry in the US, and that I would return to the Netherlands afterwards. I found myself a room close to the university only 48 hours before my flight and then I was fully prepared to start my new adventure.

Research Project

Figure 1: NASA

I will tell you something about the project I worked on at the Florida Institute of Technology for NASA. Due to the recent

economic downturn, United States’ budgets for space exploration have been reduced. For example, NASA’s budget for 2012 is $648 million below last year’s appropriation. In order to reduce the cost of space exploration, design of modern launch vehicles has trended more towards slender and lightweight designs. Keeping in mind that the costs to get a kilogram into space are approximately 20 k$, reducing the weight of rockets is beneficial. This project focused on making it possible to use thinner materials for rockets in order to reduce weight. A downside to slender and lightweight launch vehicles is that they become more flexible, which means they suffer from undesired vibrational loads. These vibrational loads can cause damage to the rocket, either in the form of vibrational fatigue from long time vibration, or excitation of the structure’s resonant frequencies, which can lead to major damage to the structure. This means that if you send just a thin and lightweight rocket into space, it will deflect or even break during the flight instead of going up in a straight line.

December 2012  | 23

IFaculteit We tried to prevent damage and instability to the rocket by means of real-time control of the bending effects during the flight. This required the bending modes of the vehicle to be characterized. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the rocket change during the flight which makes it hard to calculate them. Therefore, real-time characterization of the bending modes is required. With these dynamics, a controller can be designed to reduce mechanical vibration. In the next paragraph I will describe the experimental set-up that we used for the real-time control of the bending effects.

Experimental set-up To represent the flexible rocket, a slender aluminum beam is used as presented on the left of Figure 1. The bottom of this beam is mounted on a linear motor that induces disturbance to the beam, which leads to the realistic (but unwanted) bending of the rocket body. In order to determine deformation, strain is measured at several points along the beam. Traditional gauges require electrical connections with a large number of sensors, which cause a lot of weight to the body of the rocket. Therefore optical sensors are used to measure strain along the beam. These so called, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors

Figure 2: the principle of FBG sensors are located inside an optical fiber and are glued on the beam. Based on the strain of the sensor, the reflecting wavelength of the sensor changes and can be measured. In Figure 2, the principle of FBG sensors is presented. Because a single fiber can contain arbitrary many sensors, the weight of sensors is negligible. If the deflection of the beam is known, air thrusters at the top and middle of the beam are used to compensate this displacement. Since different modes of deflections can occur, as can be seen in Figure 3, the control strategy is not straightforward and has to take into account these different situations. The goal is to achieve 90%, 90% and 50% attenuation in the first, second and third mode, respectively.

Control Theories & Results To compare results, we implemented various control strategies. My supervisor focused on H∞ control, while I developed several classical control techniques. First, I’ve developed a Single-Input Single Output (SISO) PID strategy. With this strategy we aimed to control the top actuator, based on the displacement measured at the top. Hereafter, another SISO controller was used for controlling the middle actuator, based on the displacement measured in the middle. Due to second-mode characteristics, situations where both actuators ‘fight’ each other lead to inefficient or even unstable systems. This urges the need for a decoupled system, which I’ve implemented using a MIMO PID controller. To increase the robustness of the controller, we investigated the use of L1 adaptive control. As an introduction to this type of controller, I implemented the Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) strategy. This strategy adjusts its internal model every timestamp, based on the difference between prediction and measurement. Therefore, this approach adapts for measurement noise or the actuators’ precision. With this controller we achieved the simulation results of Figure 4 for an initial deflection of the beam. The blue line indicates the displacement at the top of the beam without any control (open loop) and the red line when the MRAC approach is used. In Figure 5, the experimental results of the same controller are presented. Despite the fact that, for now, the MRAC controller only controls the top thruster, the performance is significantly better than a MIMO PID controller using both thrusters.

Living outside the lab

Figure 3: modes of deflection

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On weekdays I worked on this project, but during the weekends I spent time discovering Florida. I received a warm welcome to Melbourne by Bartel, who showed me

Faculteit I heavily to convince Floridians for their party, which on one hand isn’t different from elections in the Netherlands. On the other hand, it’s strange to see the enthusiasm and perseverance of the voters themselves. I’ve seen people waiting with their sleeping bag outside the sports hall almost 24 hours in advance. The speech they were waiting for was impressive and powerful and took about 45 minutes. Not the words itself, but the president’s charisma astonished me the most.

Figure 4: Open vs. Closed Loop Direct MRAC - Calibrated Simulation

After completing my internship I returned home with a four-day layover in New York. With recent graduate Giel, I visited New York’s great sights, such as Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, and the 9/11 memorial. We even got to meet Snoop Dogg on Times Square and former president Jimmy Carter on our plane!

My experience

Figure 5: Open vs. Closed Loop Direct MRAC - Experimental Setup around town and invited me to many American parties with the distinctive red drinking cups and beer pong games. We visited cities like Orlando where we met other students and went out. One of the highlights of my stay in America is our trip to Miami during the extended labor-day weekend. In Miami we stayed at Intercontinental, which is a large, fancy hotel right on the coast. We had a great sea view with the typical Miami yachts. Miami’s beach is about seeing and being seen with beautiful people and extravagant characters. At night the luxurious clubs are the place to be and a lot of fun, even when you have to pay $20 for a drink.

Another unforgettable memory of my visit is president Barack Obama’s speech at the university. With the elections in full swing, both democrats and republicans tried

During my internship at Florida Institute of Technology I have gained much knowledge about the implementation of (new) control techniques. Moreover, I got to meet great people, who were all very warm and friendly. Besides working and learning, I have made awesome trips and done fun activities. If you doubt to do your internship abroad, I would definitely recommend the US. You will see another continent while, owing to the English language, only your own English proficiency is a limiting factor. Therefore, you can easily adapt to the American lifestyle and get into some interesting discussions between American and European insights. But, if you go there... Don’t forget to bring your own coffee!

Because Florida is known for its large theme parks, such as Disney World and Universal Studio, I definitely wanted to visit one of these. Together with a friend I chose Busch Gardens in Tampa, because of its large number of fancy rollercoasters. We were lucky that there were almost no queues during our visit. Therefore, money was well spent.

December 2012  | 25

IFaculteit

My DISC/NWO PhD Research Grant By: Alina Doban

\\ The set - d y n a m i cs a pproa ch

I

n May 2010 the DISC pre-PhD track for MSc students had started. One year later, four students, including myself, were selected to be offered a DISC-NWO funded PhD research project. It started with 10 students following a Control-Systems related master program at universities from Twente, Groningen, Delft, and Eindhoven. We were offered a special track, additional to the regular master program, with research activities in various CS groups in the Netherlands, which had the purpose of providing us with a high-level preparation for a PhD project. This meant that we all had research visits and internships at other universities than our own. This way I got to visit CS research groups from Delft and Groningen, and I got the chance to meet and work with young, enthusiastic people. When I started my master program at TU/e, aiming to graduate in the CS group from Electrical Engineering, I already knew that I wanted to continue with a PhD. During my Bachelor in Romania, at Technical University “Gh. Asachi” of Lasi I had the chance to be supervised by Prof. Octavian Pastravanu. He introduced me to the topic of set-theoretical methods for control, which is very much related to the topic of my research proposal for the DISC-NWO grant. During the EE master program I had the opportunity to be supervised by Dr. Mircea Lazar, who has provided me with the best research environment I could ever ask for, in topics including Lyapunov stability theory, polyhedral Lyapunov functions and set-theoretic methods in control.

of Dr. Mircea Lazar, we decided to write the proposal on stabilization of set-dynamics. For this purpose, we contacted Prof. Jan van Schuppen (CWI Amsterdam, TU Delft), to be the second adviser. Fortunately he accepted and I had a lot to benefit from his experience and advice. Set dynamics play a major role in several relevant problems in systems theory (e.g., stabilization with a set of assigned initial conditions, constrained and robust stabilization, obstacle avoidance) as well as in emerging problems in systems biology (e.g., modeling of disease dynamics, gene regulatory networks). The aim of this project is to provide a theoretical fundament for stabilization of set-dynamics,

Constraint set-dynamics trajectory The final phase of the DISC re-PhD track consisted of writing a research proposal. While working on my master thesis work, which was on finite-time contractive invariant sets for homogeneous dynamics, under the supervision

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Invariant set induced by a polyhedral Lyapunov function for a linear system and its trajectories initiated in the 26 vertices of the set

which through methods based on algebraicgeometry, will provide new, effective tools for solving the above-mentioned relevant problems. The focus on the space of (compact) set-points and its relation with fundamental topology results in mathematics is not new in general, but it is new for control theory of systems in Banach spaces. Novel in the research topic is the focus on set-dynamics and set-to-set control problems, rather than on classical set-topoint control problems. Furthermore, it has the potential to enable important breakthroughs in relevant, unsolved theoretical problems in control system theory and arising challenging problems in systems biology. Finally, in June I had to defend my proposal with a presentation and interview in front of an independent international jury. This was quite an adventure, as I prepared my presentation in a forest in the north of Finland, fighting mosquitoes and getting lost in the forest in the middle of the night. Luckily, the summer nights there are as bright as the days. All in all this was quite an exciting and challenging experience, as I didn’t make it easy for myself and had to travel back and forth from Finland for the presentation day. I have learned a lot during this whole process, related to the research, but also on a personal level. Being selected to be offered a DISC-NWO grant is a big opportunity for which I will always be grateful.

Varia I

Een beetje Noorse mythologie Door: Ralph Stassen

V

ele namen die de ronde doen binnen de faculteit Electrical Engineering zijn ontleend aan de Noorse mythologie. De Gjallar is een hoorn die wordt bewaard door Heimdal, de wachter der goden. Via deze hoorn geeft Heimdal boodschappen van de goden uit Asgard door aan de stervelingen in Midgard. Het Walhalla betekent letterlijk de hal der gevallenen. Hier werden de helden die op het slagveld stierven naartoe gebracht om onder leiding van Odin, de oppergod, een sterke legermacht te vormen. Deze legermacht was nodig om de

goden op Ragnarok, de dag des oordeels, te beschermen. De helden werden door zogenaamde Walkuren naar het Walhalla geleid. Deze Walkuren waren vrouwen die te paard de slagvelden afgingen om de helden uit te zoeken. Aangezien het een eer was om in dit leger opgenomen te worden, zorgden de Scandinavische krijgers ervoor dat ze een heldendood stierven. Het vooruitzicht van het Walhalla zorgde voor grote kracht en moed bij de krijgers, die vanwege hun onbevreesde gedrag Berserkers genoemd werden.

Thor was de god van het weer en kon het laten donderen en bliksemen met zijn hamer Mjöllnir. Hij was de sterkste van alle goden. Baldur, waar Waldur van afgeleid is, is net als Odin een Asengod. Hij was de god van al het schone en goede. Baldur, die de zoon was van Odin en Freya, woonde in het paleis Breidablik samen met zijn vrouw Nanna. Zolang hij leefde zou het paleis waarin hij woonde licht over de aarde verspreiden. Daarom werd Baldur ook geëerd als god van het licht en de lente, van de wijsheid en de welsprekendheid. Zijn rechtvaardigheid en goede humeur deden iedereen de sombere tijden vergeten. In een droom werd voorspeld dat iemand Baldur zou vermoorden. Daarom liet Freya iedereen een belofte afleggen om hem geen kwaad te berokkenen. Alles en iedereen moest die eed afleggen, niets of niemand werd vergeten. Door deze maatregel vergat iedereen al snel de doodsbedreiging en keerde de rust weer terug. Loki, de onruststoker, was echter niet tevreden. Hij kwam te weten dat de maretak de belofte om Baldur geen kwaad te berokkenen niet had afgelegd en dus was het mogelijk met maretak Baldur te doden. Loki maakte een pijl van maretak en liet die door Hodur, een blinde broer van Baldur, afvuren op Baldur. Zo doodde de nietsvermoedende Hodur zijn eigen broer. Baldur kon niet naar het Walhalla omdat hij niet eervol op het strijdperk gestorven was en moest dus naar Niflheim http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Hel_(godin), de ‘gewone’ onderwereld. Freya smeekte alles ter wereld om Baldur weer naar de wereld terug te laten komen, zodat hij daarna naar het Walhalla kon gaan. Dit kon op de voorwaarde van Hel, de godin van de onderwereld, dat iedereen op aarde zonder uitzondering moest treuren. Er was echter één reus, opgestookt door Loki, die weigerde te treuren en dus moest Baldur in Niflheim blijven. Bij Baldurs verbranding sprong zijn vrouw Nanna op het vuur, waarbij zij ook omkwam en samen met Baldur naar Niflheim ging. Wanneer de nieuwe wereld zal ontstaan na de Ragnarok, zal Baldur het hoofdwezen zijn.

December 2012  | 27

IFaculteit

Quality of Power By: Prof. dr. ir. J.F.G. Cobben

\\ S m ar t C i t i es- El e c tr i c Ene rgy w i th hi gh Reliab ilit y an d Q u alit y n eed ed

Facing future electricity needs Smart Cities will be the most important development in future built environment. A Smart City requires high-capacity networks in buildings and in the public electricity grid to support future demand. These networks contain the power cables but also the IT-network terminated on each floor of every building so that whenever and wherever services are needed they can be simply and quickly activated. In Smart Cities we will find Smart Homes. The Smart City extends all of the home automation capabilities and your energy profile can be followed and controlled on any terminal within the Smart City. Dispersed generation as PV or μCHP, loads like electric cars or heat pumps can be activated and matched with the available storage. The Smart home will be a zero-energy building. In Smart buildings (offices, hotels, shopping malls) there will be automated control of all services. Intelligent buildings with wireless sensors, automatic control of heating, lighting, and ventilation, will reduce energy bills with energy-saving equipment and control of energy flows so that these buildings have a reduced carbon footprint. Services can include access, security, fire alarms, lifts or escalators, parking systems, and digital signage, all remotely controlled. This will not be the near future. Existing cities has to be transformed into these Smart Cities, which will be a big challenge, and this will be achieved step by step. In this concept, energy saving concepts including

Power Quality estimated costs renewable power and quality of power will be an important denominator for the success of this development. Power Quality is a common denominator for a wide range of developments within the Smart Cities and is an important aspect of all developments within customers’ installations and grid operators’ networks. In for example the developments of more flexible and intelligent grids (smart grid), the introduction of electric cars, the growth of dispersed generation, smart metering, new types of lightning, power-quality aspects are a major challenge. The main motive for Power-Quality initiatives is that they are needed to improve reliability and quality of supply as well as support the trend towards a more sustainable and controlled energy supply without disturbances and with compatibility of all components, installations, and grids.

•

Defining responsibilities of several parties (customers, grid operator, manufacturer) at the point of connection of customers to the grid operators’ network, including regulation schemes.

•

Finding appropriate planning and compatibility levels for all powerquality phenomena for all networks with different voltage levels and for future smart grids.

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The technological challenge of incorporating end-user technologies (including distributed generation, controllable loads and electricity storage) within the given newly developed bandwidth of all power-quality levels.

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The data requirements, data processing, and data applications including the characteristics of the supporting ICT to control the quality of the voltage and current in customers installations and grid operators network.

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Technical standards and regulation about power quality with mismatch between, in general, the emission and immunity rules, coping with a lot of

Fundamental scientific research on a number of topics must be carried out to support the developments described above: • PV-systems and wind turbines will be connected to the network

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Compatibility levels (and also immunity and emission levels) of systems including the devices, installations, grids, and control and measuring equipment.

Faculteit I new developments in equipment, mitigation devices, and the sensitivity of network and installation components. An important part of the research is also the interaction between the voltage and the current. The functioning of devices will depend on the quality of the voltage. The quality of the voltage, however, will depend on the current of (these and a lot of other) devices, connected to the network. Also the “strength” of the network plays an important role in this interaction. At this moment, the costs of poor quality are already estimated at a level of 150 billion euro every year, for the European industry. That fact alone shows the need for research in the field of Power Quality, where the focus should be given on compatibility between all components and installations used within the smart buildings and smart grids. From the above, it can be concluded that the topic of Power Quality is characterized by a strong interaction between theory and practice and requires an interdisciplinary approach. Therefore, this research needs to play an important role by tightly linking the academic results and the network operators’, manufacturers’, regulators’ and installers’ practice. Another important part of the research is to model the characteristics of devices, installations and networks to be able to predict possible problems with voltage or current, which could result in malfunctioning of devices or installations. In the Power Quality lab of the University (in building Corona) we have the possibility to measure all characteristics of devices or “parts of the smart grid” and in this way validate models and gather input for research. The Power Quality lab is also used by several companies for pre-design of devices, education of installers, or other commercial activities.

Power Quality lab, situated in Corona building

Interaction between voltage and current is an important part of the research This lab consists of a source for the supply voltage where this voltage could be programmed with voltage harmonics, voltage dips, voltage variations or all other voltage disturbances. Further, a bus bar system has been installed with the possibility to connect loads, other sources (PV-systems, wind turbine), impedances or other applications. A programmable load is available that can also be programmed to have different characteristics as also the load type in practice can differ depending on the type of device connected. Furthermore, a PV-simulator is available to simulate the production of PV-systems and the behavior of PV-systems during shadowing, voltage variations and other different operating states. Also six “household” installations are connected to a typical low voltage cable buried in the ground before the lab. The main switchboard of these households is equipped with smart meters, residual current devices, and various other applications, which also can be used for research purposes.

Increasing “high tech solutions” will also increase the risk of high costs related to poor Power Quality

This lab supports the master projects of students, the research of the PhDs, and is also used for several practical assessments for students in electrical engineering. The enthusiastic responses on the lab are not only showing the practical use but also the wish and need for students to also do some practical work. Power Quality will be one of the most important issues in future electricity needs and it is necessary for a lot of institutes and industry that research in this area is done. There are many challenges within the industry to design installations in a way that they are less sensitive for voltage variations. But also in the network increasing flexibility is needed to comply with power-quality standards. Increasing loads (heat pumps, electric vehicles) and the implementation of dispersed generation will result in more variations in the voltage level. Also, all other power-quality phenomena will be influenced. A complete set of standards still has to be made to define the responsibilities of the different parties involved (manufacturer of devices, network operator, customer). Further, the regulator and the European board of regulators become more active in this field. In the coming years, we will see an extensive power-quality monitoring program in Europe with a resulting deeper insight in the quality of European networks and an increasing role of regulation. To conclude: there is an increasing interest in Power Quality and it will be a challenge for the University to become a major player in this field of research.

December 2012  | 29

IVaria

University Racing Eindhoven O

nce started as a committee of study association “Simon Stevin” in the year 2005, University Racing Eindhoven (URE) has grown to a stand-alone team counting fifty team members. The first car was petrol powered and since 2010 URE has gone electric. Each year a new car is designed, developed, built and tested by students with one goal: win races. These races are organized by the Formula Student Competition. This is a competition for student racing teams from countries all over the world. The races are held throughout the year in different countries and consist of several events; four racing events and three static events. URE usually joins three of these races; Formula Student Germany, Formula Student Austria and Formula Student England. All of these take place in the summer holidays. By using the knowledge of previous years the racecars are getting more and more advanced and faster. Team members are from several disciplines across Eindhoven University of Technology. Most of them study Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Automotive Technology. Good teamwork between all these disciplines together with, of course, a lot of motivation results in a great racecar. The latest racecar is called the URE 07. With its 1200 Nm motor in a car weighting less than 250 kilograms it accelerates in 3.2 seconds to 100 kilometers per hour! Most of the parts in the car are designed by students. A few samples of parts designed by students are the monocoque, the inverter, and the drivetrain. Also the board computer,

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launch control, and traction control have to be programmed. When the races in the summer holidays are coming to an end, the team immediately starts working on a new car. Somewhere around September concept sketches are made. Till January nearly every team member is busy with the concept and designing the parts. Once all materials and components have been purchased, the car is completely assembled. After the building phase the testing phase starts. The designed parts are now going to face the real forces when the racecar travels its first kilometers on the tarmac and the test team is tuning the racecar to optimize its performance. Yet the car is ready to race at the Formula Student Competitions during the summer holidays. That’s in a nut shell what a year at University Racing Eindhoven looks like.

Because it’s an electrically powered racecar, the car is filled with electronics, which are again designed, installed, and tested by students. A lot of companies are interested in students who are able of not only using the theoretical analysis learned in the study, but also designing, installing, and testing real parts. At URE, skills can be learned such as PCB design, soldering, and more practical skills, which aren’t or are not enough taught during the regular study Electrical Engineering. Since more and more car companies are going electric (BMW, Audi, Porsche, Toyota) Electrical Engineering students with practical experience are highly in demand in the automotive industry. So at University Racing Eindhoven you can learn new skills and gain practical experience to improve your future career! Of course it’s not all about hard work. A lot of fun activities like team weekends or go-kart events are scheduled throughout the year, which causes the team spirit to increase to an even higher level. Maybe the most important activity is the weekly team evening on Tuesday in URE’s Motorhome, the so called UREvening, which is used to let the team members work on their parts and afterwards a few beers can be drunk. Everyone is welcome to check out this evening and get in touch with the team!

Varia I

Managing the “Student Challenge” By: Ulf Johannsen

D

o you want some work for the European Microwave Week this year? – I did imagine it to be a lot of work when my boss, Prof. Anton Tijhuis, asked me whether I would like to organize the fifth Student Challenge as part of the European Microwave Week 2012 in Amsterdam. I did not imagine, however, that the title just as well indicates that the challenged students would be me and my co-organizers rather than the participating students of the event. But even in this case I would most certainly have not refused this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the organizing committee of Europe’s largest conference event in my field of research. Hence, freshly appointed as chairman of the Student Challenge, I encountered my first task: Completing my organizing team with Ph.D. students from the universities in Leuven, Delft, and Twente. Fairly easy still, thanks to the close connections between the universities. Quite far, however, are the universities in spatial terms with the closest distance of about 100 km to Leuven and the largest of about 170 km to Twente. Therefore, frequent meetings would have been difficult. But this is what skype and dropbox were invented for,

I suppose. More importantly, we first had to figure out something else: What actually is the Student Challenge? ‘The Student Challenge is a special event at every European Microwave Week. At this event, teams of two to four M.Sc. and/or Ph.D. students compete against each other by developing a fresh, application-oriented concept. The teams present their ideas in a dedicated poster session. Based on the poster presentations, the best concept is determined by a jury of eminent members of the microwave engineering society.’ Right, so we had to organize a poster session and a jury. Since the concept had to be developed during the conference, however, a quiet room for group work was one essential planning task and, eventually, the posters had to be printed somewhere close to or at the conference venue. Some advertisement had to be done for this event as well of course, a website had to be set up, and a nice evening event to entertain the participants had to be organized. Luckily, we were provided with a solid budget. This is at least what we

thought until, amongst other things, a room rent of 1500 € was brought up for discussion and lunch arrangements for the jury had to be organized. The resulting sudden budget uncertainties forced us to be even more careful with our expenses and, as a result, we managed to pay a flyer design with a crate of beer. Besides the financial challenges and quite a few other yet smaller issues, our advertisement e-mails got stuck somewhere in the official European Microwave Week communication pipeline and, eventually, were sent out to all authors of the conference as a notification e-mail regarding their paper. This caused a bit of confusion, but there is no such thing as bad advertisement! Hence, 23 Ph.D. and M.Sc. students from all over the world finally decided to participate in the Student Challenge. They formed eight teams and presented excellent concepts to a visibly impressed jury. Even our budget worries eventually dissolved. As a personal remark I would like to add that I highly enjoyed working with a great team and organizing this event for other Ph.D. and M.Sc. students! So, would I do something like this again? – Yes, of course!

December 2012  | 31

5 000 METER TRACK 150 000 KOFFERS PER DAG 1 BAS BIJKERK

Inderdaad, het zijn imposante systemen die Vanderlande Industries realiseert. Material handling systemen voor tal van nationale en internationale distributiecentra, luchthavens en sorteercentra. De ene keer betrekkelijk compact en overzichtelijk. De andere keer zeer uitgebreid, behorend tot ‘s werelds grootste installaties. Complex en opgebouwd uit de meest innovatieve en creatieve oplossingen op het gebied van elektronica, mechanica en besturingstechnologie.

Unieke systemen, die altijd weer anders zijn. Gerealiseerd door bijzondere mensen. Bas Bijkerk bijvoorbeeld. Een van onze collega’s die niet uitgesproken raakt over de projecten waarbij hij van begin tot einde betrokken is. Internationale miljoenenprojecten, waar hij in multidisciplinair teamverband aan werkt. En waar hij trots op is! Net als zijn 2 000 collega’s op onze verschillende kantoren in de wereld.

UNIEKE SYSTEMEN, BIJZONDERE MENSEN

De boeiendste technische en logistieke uitdagingen. Een creatieve omgeving met gedreven collega’s die van aanpakken weten. De afwisseling van projectenwerk. Met internationale carrièremogelijkheden. Unieke systemen. Bijzondere mensen. Je vindt het bij Vanderlande Industries. Kijk op www.vanderlande.com. WWW.VANDERLANDE.COM

Varia I

Internship at NIST By: Willem Burger

A

n internship abroad always seemed like a thing I would like to do, and when the opportunity knocked for me to work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in beautiful Colorado, U.S.A., I of course grabbed it with both hands. The subject was to be in electromagnetism, not really my specialty but interesting none the less and I couldn’t wait to go, especially since Nick Janssen, a good friend was going as well. So, what is NIST? Let me start off with a little anecdote, to give you an idea. The National Bureau of Standards, which would later be renamed to NIST, was set up, in part due to a fire in Philadelphia. The blaze was apparently so huge that that multiple fire departments needed to be called to combat it, but were unable to because they all used differently sized connectors and hoses and were thus unable to link their gear together. This got the ball rolling, and the NBS was signed into law in 1901 to oversee the standardization of weights, measures, industrial procedures, various safety and efficiency tests and so on. This is still the mission to this day: NIST looks at current and future technology and helps create standards to facilitate development of the technology in industry. The laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where I’m at, was established after the Second World War proved that radio communications and electromagnetism in general were of vital importance to the U.S. and that a lot of research into the phenomenon was needed. While the original NBS is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, close to Washington D.C., the proposed “Radio Lab” was to be built far away in Colorado, so that it could survive in case the U.S.S.R. decided to nuke the capital. My work here revolves around so called Reverberation Chambers (RC). The idea behind an RC is to create an environment which has a homogenous electromagnetic

?

field in which to test all kinds of devices. In essence, an RC is the opposite of the more well-known Anechoic Chamber (AC). An AC attempts to eliminate all reflections of signals sent from an antenna so that only the direct transmission from one antenna to the other is measured, while an RC is meant to allow as much reflection as possible, so that whatever device you are testing is in an as homogenous EM field as possible. This type of setup allows one to do all sorts of testing concerning the robustness of the device with respect to interference. RCs are also useful for recreating typical environments that certain devices will be used in. This can be done by purposely introducing RF-absorbing material into the chamber. For example, one experiment I did concerned building a two meter tall tower out of RF-absorbers and studying the effect of this

NIST in Boulder, Colorado is looking for guest researchers! Anyone with an interest in electromagnetism, wireless communication, or who is just looking for an opportunity to have a great time and learn something as well can apply. Experience the great weather, natural beauty, easygoing life style and the pleasure of working in a modern and inspiring lab! Money is no object: a good salary is guaranteed, courtesy of the U.S. Government! In short: A lot to learn, even more to experience! Interested? Contact the Board of e.t.s.v Thor, or mail them at [email protected]

large, RF blocking, structure on how well a nearby antenna could receive various signals. The information gained from this experiment will later be used by companies who create wireless devices in order to allow them to properly test and certify their products. Like I said, NIST’s purpose is purely to facilitate innovation, so everything is published openly and almost no patents are taken out by NIST. The only reason NIST ever applies for a patent is when something so revolutionary is discovered that they don’t want to run the risk of one company getting a monopoly in it. In that case, NIST applies for the patent, and then publishes whatever it is anyway, so that no one else can patent it. The town of Boulder itself is really great, with a vibrant, young and educated demographic. There are 44,000 students at the university here, to a population of just under 100,000, so life here is pretty cool. Also, the Rocky Mountains are just next door, literally, so you can go hiking and climbing and mountain biking and all that good outdoorsy stuff. So, in closing I can say that I can really recommend people coming here, it’s a great atmosphere, a really nice lab to work in, and you get paid too! What are you waiting for?

December 2012  | 33

IVereniging

Excursie CCM Door: Mark Legters

O

p de ochtend van vrijdag 19 oktober verzamelden we ons met pakweg 25 studenten bij het station en namen we de bus die ons naar Nuenen bracht. Doordat er direct naar de achterste banken van de bus gesneld werd en wij de enige passagiers waren, had het wel wat weg van een typisch schoolreisje. Na een klein half uurtje kwamen we aan op onze bestemming: CCM. Het Centre for Concepts in Mechatronics, oftewel CCM, is een ontwikkelingsbedrijf, gelegen in Nuenen. Sinds 1969 biedt het haar diensten aan waarbij mechatronica centraal staat. CCM ontwikkelt producten of productiemiddelen voor uiteenlopende marktsectoren zoals de ruimtevaart, de farmaceutische industrie en halfgeleiderindustrie. Ook ontwikkelt ze eigen producten, waarvan er enkelen verderop aan bod komen. Na een inleidend praatje was het tijd voor een rondleiding langs wat CCM-projecten. We werden verzocht geen foto’s te maken gedurende de rondleiding. In verschillende groepjes gingen we samen met een CCM-medewerker op pad door het gebouw. Allereerst was het de beurt aan de μScan. Dit apparaat maakt een snelle en eenvoudige detectie van bacteriën en dergelijke

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mogelijk. De scanner heeft een paar minuten werk terwijl je, als je bijvoorbeeld bacteriën moet kweken, dagen kwijt bent. Vervolgens was het de beurt aan de Whistler. Dit is een handheld instrument waarmee de longfunctie gemeten kan worden. Het vervangt onder andere de huidige spirometer, die vaak bij de huisarts wordt gebruikt voor diagnose. Normaal moet je bijvoorbeeld hard uitblazen terwijl je bij dit apparaat gewoon rustig in en uit kunt ademen. Dit apparaat vergemakkelijkt dus de diagnostiek. Verder hebben we ook een Generic Substrate Carrier bewonderd, een module die toegepast kan worden bij printers. Met deze module brengt CCM de printnauwkeurigheid, die normaal zo’n 20μm is, naar 5μm. Het laatste project van CCM dat we bezochten was de Pathology Scanner. Dit apparaat, dat samen met Philips gerealiseerd is, digitaliseert het proces dat pathologen uitvoeren. Het scant slices met weefsel met de vergroting van een microscoop, dus zo’n 40x. Daarna kan de foto digitaal bekeken worden, wat veel voordelen biedt. Na de lunch stond de case study op het programma, die te maken had met het laatst-

genoemde apparaat: de Pathology Scanner. De case was het volgende: ‘Stel je voor dat je de opdracht krijgt dit apparaat te maken. Hoe realiseer je dat, in het bijzonder wat betreft het scannen?’ Er werd wat extra informatie gegeven en vervolgens bogen wij ons in 4 gelijke groepen over de case. Hierna presenteerde ieder groepje zijn bevindingen. Het was opvallend hoe ieder groepje zich weer anders over de case had gebogen. De één was meer in detail op een specifiek onderdeel gegaan, terwijl de ander zich weer meer over het proces had gebogen. Tenslotte vertelde CCM hoe zij het hadden gedaan. Interessant, omdat we het apparaat zelf gezien hadden, maar interessanter omdat we er zelf in detail over hadden nagedacht bij de case study. Een aantal punten dat in de groepspresentaties naar voren kwam bleek uiteindelijk ook in het CCM-ontwerp te zitten. De CCM-medewerkers die aanwezig waren waren zeer onder de indruk. De excursie werd afgesloten met een drankje en wat napraten. Het was een geslaagde excursie waarbij we een kijkje hebben kunnen nemen binnen het bedrijf CCM. De excursie is nog zinvoller en tastbaarder geworden doordat we via de case study actief hebben nagedacht over hoe een apparaat zou kunnen werken, en vervolgens ook de uiteindelijke werking hebben gezien.

Varia I

Photo impression GLOW Door: Giel Op ‘t Veld

December 2012  | 35

IPuzzle

Puzzle Winner previous puzzle

Solution puzzle Connecthor 19

The previous puzzle seemed to be less favored by our readers, or was maybe too hard to solve, because we only received 3 answers, which were all correct. The winners of the puzzle are Thomas Zijlmans, Robert Mientki, and Yuk Hang, congratulations!

The previous seemed to be a tough one, so here’s the solution:

Rules / Objectives new puzzle •

Complete the grid such that every row and column contains the numbers 1 to 7;

•

The arrows on the grid are less-than and greater-than signs, and always point to a smaller number. i.e. 1 < 4, 3 < 5, 2 > 1, etc.

Please send your answer to [email protected] before 11 January 2013 if you would like to win the next ‘vlaai‘.

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Agenda I

Upcoming activities December Thor – 13 December Christmas drink

Thor – 20 December Excursion Prodrive

Chistmas has to be celebrated, so Thor organizes a party at the entrance of Potentiaal. Decorations will be there: Christmas trees, mood lighting, Christmas music and even snow. Come and celebrate Christmas while enjoying our Lustrum beer, glühwein, and other refreshments.

Take this opportunity to take a look behind the scenes at Prodrive. Prodrive makes electronics for low prices and still has constant quality and high flexibility. After a presentation, the guided tour will start. The excursion ends with a lunch.

Thor – 17 December Specialty beer drink

Thor – 21 December Lustrum Gala

The Lustrum month is almost over. After all the parties, it is time for a nice evening of chatting. Have a nice chat while you enjoy drinking several specialty beers. Some very special beers will be available at The Walhalla, so be sure to check it out. Be on time, beers are only available while supplies last.

TU/e – 24 December until 6 January Christmas recess

January Thor – 18 January Excursion Van der Lande

Faculty – 21 January Robotics day

TU/e – 18 & 19 January Open Days

The Faculties of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering organize a Robotics day for pupils.

During the program of the Open Days, pupils in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade of VWO get informed about the content of our Bachelor curriculum and the professional opportunities.

TU/e – 21 January until 3 February Exam weeks

February Faculty – 4 February Master class Enjoy Engineering

Thor – 10 February until 17 Februay BuEx

This year, the studies Electrical Engineering and Automotive organize the Master classes Enjoy Engineering. Pupils in the 5th grade of VWO come to the faculty for 5 days to work on fascinating and tough topics.

During the first quarter of 2013, 30 students will get the opportunity to venture into the United Kingdom for 7 days. Here they will discover the future of “The Connected World” through various excursions at interesting companies and research facilities.

Thor – 7 February Carnival in the Walhalla

March & April

Thor – 22 February Ivaldi Parents-day Thor – 28 February ACCI campus pub-crawl

Faculty – 22 March Valediction lecture of prof.dr.ir. P.P.J. van den Bosch

Thor – 27 April Batavierenrace

TU/e – 5 & 6 April Open Days

On the 27th of April 2013, the launching shot of the 41th edition of the Batavierenrace will sound. The Batavierenrace is a relay race over 175 km from Nijmegen to Enschede, divided into 25 stages (17 men’s stages and 8 women’s stages), varying from 3.3 km to 11.2 km. 350 teams, which means more than 8,500 students, participate in this race. Thor will participate in this race with one team.

During the program of the Open Days, pupils in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade of VWO get informed about the content of our Bachelor curriculum and the professional opportunities.

December 2012  | 37

GEZOCHT: HORIZONVERBREDERS M/V

“Iedere zes maanden een nieuwe wereld ontdekken” Steven de Geus, Trainee

Wij zijn IHC Merwede. Wereldmarktleider in de bouw van gespecialiseerde schepen voor natte mijnbouw- en baggeractiviteiten en een belangrijke speler op het gebied van complexe custom-built offshore schepen. Maar we gaan nog een stapje verder. Voor alle schepen die we bouwen, ontwikkelen we ook geavanceerd equipment dat we direct integreren. Technologische innovatie zit in het DNA van al onze bedrijfsonderdelen. Bij ons bestaat je werkdag uit bouwen aan innovatieve oplossingen en grootse projecten. Vele tonnen staal zullen mede door jouw kennis en kunde tot leven komen. Werken bij IHC Merwede betekent dat je de kans krijgt om alles uit jezelf te halen en groter te worden in je vak. Uitstekende arbeidsvoorwaarden zijn bij ons standaard. Net als ruimte om jezelf te ontwikkelen en de kans op doorstroming naar hogere functies, in Nederland of bij een van onze vele buitenlandse vestigingen. Bij ons ga je het maximale uit jezelf halen. En dat is een garantie! Kijk voor meer informatie over jouw carrièremogelijkheden op www.ihcjobs.nl.

The technology innovator.

INNOVATE YOURSELF@ ihcjobs.nl