Magazine of e.t.s.v. Thor and the department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology

Magazine of e.t.s.v. Thor and the department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology

28 December 2014

Afscheid Corona

Einde hoogspanningshal Corona in zicht door Flux

Ralph Otten blikt terug | Stella goes USA | Tech United at Robocup |

Excursions AME & Thales

IEditorial Connecthor Volume 7, issue 4 - December 2014 Connecthor is published by e.t.s.v. Thor and the department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. Connecthor is published quarterly with a circulation of 1200 copies and is free for all members of e.t.s.v. Thor and employees of the department of Electrical Engineering.

Editors in chief: Femke Verheggen Martijn van Beurden Layout editors: Edgar van Megen Jeroen van Oorschot Anjo Peeters Editors: Manon Eijsvogel Georgios Exarchakos Pauline van Gelder Birgit van Huijgevoort Esmee Huismans Suzanne Kuijlaars Mark Legters Fer Radstake Rianne Sanders Bart Smolders Harold Vervoort Cover: Hoogspanningshal Corona Printer: Jafra drukwerkservice Editorial correspondence: Connecthor Eindhoven University of Technology Potentiaal 13.35 Den Dolech 2, P.O. Box 513 5600 MB Eindhoven (040) 247 3223, [email protected] Web: http://www.thor.edu http://www.tue.nl/ee Advertisers: Page22 Thales Back cover: AME Deadline copy next issue: 9 January 2015

Copyright © Connecthor 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without prior written permission of the editorial board. Disclaimer The editor reserves the right to shorten and otherwise edit the articles. The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of e.t.s.v. Thor or the department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology.

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t the moment of writing this editorial, everyone in the department is busy with the upcoming move to our new Building Flux. The move is a huge operation. Once we get the key of Flux, the first research group, SPS-VCA, will move on Monday 8 December. December 18th and 19th, the departmental staff of both departments will move to Flux. In the new year, the other groups will move and this process will take until the end of March. In this edition we pay attention to the move by saying goodbye to the Corona building and the Hoogspanningshal with a nice article from prof. Kling.

If you’re looking for inspiration for an internship abroad, have a look at the article by Tom Geelen about his internship in Chile. Of course we also inform you about the challenge that the new automotive team Storm will take up; in 80 days around the world on an electric motorcycle. And let’s not forget one of the highlights of the past period was that Tech United became World Champion Robot Soccer for the second time at Robocup 2014. Bob van Ninhuijs writes about his personal experience of this exciting event in Brazil. The editorial board is currently looking for new members. Are you up for a new challenge and would you like to contribute to our magazine? We are especially inviting employees of the EE department to respond. As always, we will be glad to receive your suggestions and ideas for upcoming editions and you can contact us via [email protected]. We hope you will enjoy reading this new edition of the Connecthor and we wish everyone Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year! The Connecthor editorial board

Content I 2 Editorial

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4

Board Issues

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Wanted: Connecthor board members

6 In memoriam 7 From the President 8 Introducing... 10 News 11 ThEW, an unforgettable weekend! 11 Social outing of the Buro 12 Afscheid Corona en hoogspanningshal 13 Ralph Otten blikt terug 16 Photo page 18 Mid-size league of Tech United at Robocup 20 In 80 days around the world on motorcycles 21 AME excursion 21 Thales excursion 22 Werkervaring bij Thales 24 Cleanroom visit NXP Nijmegen 24 IEEE Day 25 Desert, earthquakes, snow and pisco

Ralph Otten blikt terug

Vanaf pagina 13 blikt Ralph Otten terug op zijn carrière.

26 Stella goes USA 28 Mythology: Hildebrandslied 30 Puzzle

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31 Column

Mid-size league of Tech United

Tech United won the Robocup in Brazil. Read more about this on pages 18 and 19.

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12 Afscheid Corona

Op pagina 12 wordt de geschiedenis van de hoogspanningshal in Corona beschreven.

Stella goes USA

Stella discovered yet another part of the world, with a trip from Los Angeles to San Fransisco. Read more about this journey on pages 26 and 27.

December 2014| 03

IDepartment

Board Issues

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oing research is a key part of an academic job, next to teaching, managing (in a smaller or larger circle of influence), and valorization. In a university, and certainly in a technical university, these four ingredients cannot exist just on their own. We would like to bring our students up to the present state of the art, so up to the level of the most recent insights and achievements. It is therefore most useful when we ourselves are working at these front levels too. And doing research is nowa-

By: Ton Koonen

not least, in engineering sciences one would like to achieve results which serve a higher purpose, i.e. are valuable for our society, in industry, economy, health-care organizations, or in the professional and private parts of our life. The bridge from research results to actual value-adding applications needs therefore to be crossed as well. Doing research in an academic setting is in several ways quite different from doing research in an industrial setting. In industry,

anymore, at least not before the best market opportunities have already been consumed. It often also requires a patent filing first. On the academic side, however, we want to publish as soon as we have achieved the results. If somebody is ahead of us and publishes the idea first, the window of opportunity is closed. Our PhD students are therefore energetically and enthousiastically busy with their research, and have a large drive to publish at conferences and in journals. Differently from industry, we want to bring

We want to bring out our research results as soon as possible, to avoid losing the leading edge

days not an activity of isolated individuals. It is often done in teams, in larger projects where each researcher works on a part of the puzzle. That is where management aspects arise, in order to have efficient and smooth interaction, and together work towards the overarching goal of the project. And last but

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the goal typically is to develop a new product ahead of the competition, so that the market can be entered first and benefits can be reaped at the best prices. Typically, industrial research is only published after some time, when the results obtained are so far ahead of the competition that they cannot catch up

out our research results as soon as possible, to avoid losing the leading edge. Obviously, many research groups are working on similar topics and are competing to get their papers published. The papers have to go through a review process to select the best ones. That is

Department I a tough time-consuming task for reviewers, who typically have to do that on top of their normal work, often in their spare time. Peer reviews (i.e. the review of your work by colleagues in your field) are highly important for maintaining and further improving the high quality level of research. This holds for the review of publications, of the progress made in research activities in general, and also for the review of project proposals. The reviewers should judge carefully whether the research you are reporting or proposing is genuine and original, and whether it gives due references to related work done previously by others. The latter is one of the obligations we have according to the Code of Scientific Conduct, recently distributed by the Board of our university. The Code lists the obligations we have in doing and publishing research. We should present results that are truly achieved, and be clear about any uncertainties and limiting boundary conditions. We should duly acknowledge contributions from others by citing their work; plagiarism cannot be accepted. We should also be open about how the results were obtained, and basically make it possible for other people knowledgeable in the field to replicate our

research results and test them. We should work in academic freedom, so not be biased by interests of political, economic or personal nature. And we should do our research with a sound responsibility towards society, so abstain from activities causing harm to our society and adhere to ethical norms. Every six years, the research activities in our EE department are undergoing a peer review, jointly with our EE colleagues of TU Delft and University of Twente. Such a review is important to expose our research activities in a wider context, amongst others for influencing funding bodies and politicians, and to promote Electrical Engineering in general. The previous one was held in 2011, and covered the period 2005 – 2010. Like with the peer review of publications, the peer review of research activities gives an impartial assessment of the quality and relevance of our research, and is of high value to direct our research efforts into the direction with the highest recognition, value added and best position to attract funding. Our EE department came out very well from this 20052010 review, with marks per group which were in the front lines of the overall ones in the EE departments of the 3 TUs. We are now

to prepare for the next review, covering the period 2011-2016. There is a new Standard Evaluation Protocol (SEP) for the Dutch universities that has to be followed; one of the differences with the previous review is that the entities to be reviewed have to be large, i.e. of at least 10 fte research effort each, and exist in that form for at least 3 years. And, in order to have a joint peer review with the EE activities in TU Delft and University of Twente again, there should be comparable entities at the three universities. Hence the upcoming review will be organized at the level of the EE faculties as a whole, not per individual group anymore. To get prepared for this review, there will be a ‘light’ review in 2015, in which we will practice with the new SEP. This so-called midterm review concerns the period 2011-2014, and activities to collect the inputs for the self-evaluation report have been started. Given the excellent outcome from the previous review, and the encouraging research results and external recognition we got since then, we can confidently look forward to this upcoming midterm review! Ton Koonen

Wanted: Connecthor board members! Do you like a new challenge? We have positions open for creative, enthusiastic employees and students of de Department of Electrical Engineering interested in joining us to make the Connecthor magazine. We are especially looking for:

Editors Editors ensure the written quality of print and online publications. Their duties include developing ideas for new articles, approaching people to write or write articles themselves, making sure that a writer’s formatting fits house-style guidelines, correcting grammatical or factual errors and making suggestions for improvement.

Layout editors Layout editors are primarily responsible for designing the format of publications. They utilize layout software to assemble text, photographs and other content in an aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-read arrangement. Within the Connecthor board we work with a small team of layout editors working with InDesign software.

Editors in Chief The editor-in-chief manages all the day-to-day operations of a publication. He/she oversees all the work of the editors of a publication and ensures that each issue is released in time. The editor-in-chief reviews all articles and photographs for accuracy as well as potential libel or slander, and provides suggestions, if needed, about any changes to make before the publication goes to press or is released digitally. If you’re interested in any of the positions listed above, please send an email to [email protected].

December 2014| 05

In memoriam Prof. ir. Karel H. Wesseling

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t is with great sadness that the Managing Board of the Department of Electrical Engineering announces the death of Prof.ir. Karel H. Wesseling Emeritus Professor in Biomedical Instrumentation.

From 1 November 1990 until 4 January 2000, Professor Wesseling was affiliated with the Medical Electrical Engineering research group, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology. During this time he supervised many MSc. students with great dedication. He was an expert in combining his extensive technical knowledge and his insight into human physiology and presenting it with great enthusiasm. We offer our sincere condolences to his wife, children and other family members on the loss of this exceptional person.

Prof. dr. ir. Ton Backx, Dean Prof. ir. Ton Koonen, Board Member Ir. Alfons Bruekers, Managing Director Prof. dr. ir. Bart Smolders, Director of Education

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et faculteitsbestuur heeft er bedroefd kennis van genomen dat op 4 September 2014 is overleden Prof. ir. Karel H. Wesseling Emeritus Hoogleraar Biomedische Instrumentatie.

Prof. Wesseling is van 1 november 1990 tot 4 januari 2000 verbonden geweest aan de vakgroep Medische Elektrotechniek van de Faculteit Elektrotechniek van de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. In die tijd heeft hij met grote toewijding veel studenten begeleid bij hun afstuderen. Hij wist zijn technische kennis en zijn inzicht in de humane fysiologie goed met elkaar in verband te brengen en dit geheel boeiend te presenteren. Wij wensen zijn vrouw, kinderen en verdere familie veel sterkte bij het verwerken van het verlies van deze markante persoon.

Prof. dr. ir. Ton Backx, Decaan Prof. ir. Ton Koonen, Bestuurlid Onderzoek Ir. Alfons Bruekers, Directeur Bedrijfsvoering Prof. dr. ir. Bart Smolders, Opleidingsdirecteur

Association I

From the President

By: Birgit van Huijgevoort

I

t was September 24th; we officially became the Board of Thor. It feels almost like it happened yesterday. The feeling of happiness to finally wear a red choker (or tie for the boys) is something I will never forget. Actually it is pretty strange to feel so pleased about this, because basically it is a small item. As you might have noticed, I like writing. When I was a child, I was a big fan of Roald Dahl. I wanted to become as good in writing as he. This was one of my dreams, even the biggest one when I was young. My other dream was to become an inventor, like the one you see in animation movies. More specifically, I wanted to be able to turn a vacuum cleaner into an independent robot. The funny thing is that this might seem an odd combination and it might seem hard to accomplish both dreams, but the opposite is true. I am writing this column, which is different than writing a children’s book, but it is the same concept. The inventor dream is even more likely to come true, because as a matter of fact I am studying to become an engineer. So basically my dreams can still come true, both of them! Maybe not the way I expected, but this way might even be better.

I believe I have talked enough about myself, so I will dedicate the remainder of this column to stuff more related to Thor. Fortunately, a lot has happened lately, so there is enough to talk about; we had the ThEW, the candidates drink, the annual general members meeting, the constitutional drink and so on. For me, the most special happening was the change of the Board. On the 22nd of September, the annual general members meeting (GMM) started. We, the candidates at that time, had to be present, but did not really have an important task. On the third day this was different, because then we had to present ourselves and our policy. The whole day I was nervous and to make it even worse, I had a cold, so my voice was terrible. Strangely, during the GMM my nerves were calmed and the presentation went well and we were chosen to be the next Board of Thor! On this day, the change of the Board was finally happening. The funny thing is that I had to lead the GMM without having a strong voice, I was almost whispering, so therefore I had to use Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer) a lot. Using this tool really made me feel to be the President of Thor. Leading the general members’ meeting really was a challenge for me. I like to be prominent, but I hate making mistakes. Therefore, staying

in the background is an easy way out for me. I especially hate making a mistake when lots of people see me making it, which could happen at a GMM, because everybody is (or should be) listening to you. Fortunately, I believe I did not make any (big) mistakes and everything went well. Another special activity for me was the constitutional drink. It really felt amazing to stand there as the Board and have all the other associations coming over to congratulate you. Just like the GMM, this was a moment that I felt very proud to be a Board member of Thor. The dinner and party afterwards were really nice as well; we got to know our sister associations even better than we already did. As you might have noticed I am very excited to be part of the Board and I am absolutely sure that this will be a great year! Not just for me, because I hopefully will acquire lots of new skills, but also for Thor. ‘Veel gedonder!’ Birgit van Huijgevoort President of Thor

December 2014| 07

IDepartment

Introducing... H i everybody! I am very pleased that I can introduce myself as the new secretary of the SPS Group. My name is Marieke van Riet and I started my new position on October 1st. I have worked as an office manager for almost 10 years at a consultant agency and nearly 3 years at the International Relations Office of University College Maastricht. I love working in an environment where education and innovation are important, so it feels great to be part of the TU/e staff. I live with my husband Peter and our two cats (it took me 12 years to convince him we should have pets, so I figured they are worth mentioning) in Weert, where I was born and raised. I have not lived in Weert my entire life; I did spent one year in the US as an exchange student,

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allo iedereen! My name is Garbi Singla, I’m almost 27 years old (end of November) and I’m from Spain, but maybe more importantly...I’m from a little town of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands! I know,

which was a great experience and I am very glad I had this opportunity. It really helped broaden my horizon. In my spare time I love to visit the theatre or the movies, go for nice walks, tour around in our Alfa Spider and I am very involved in “Vastelaovundj vereiniging De Schäöpkes” (not only during the carnival season). Family and friends are very important to me and since I am a caring person by nature, I enjoy having them over for dinner or just spend time together. This is just a short introduction so you will have an idea who is behind that new face, wandering through the hallways and who knows, we might actually meet in person!

I know…you could ask “Why did you come to the Netherlands?”, and a possible answer could be “Not to enjoy the beach and the weather!”.

I studied Electrical Engineering, receiving my MSc Degree in Telecommunications Engineering in 2012 and an MSc degree in Electronics Engineering in 2013, both of them from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain). During the past years I collaborated with the Integrated Systems Design Division, as member of the Institute for Applied Microelectronic (IUMA), working in the fields of SoC and NoC design for hardware implementation of multimedia algorithms. Now, I’m starting the PDEng ICT program as a member of the Electronic Systems group, of course here at Electrical Engineering. This program is an opportunity to get to know the company, and a good stepping stone for my career. I believe this period here is going to be very challenging and during the next two years I will have to get used to the Dutch way of life! (Goodbye “siesta”, hallo sandwiches for lunch! :-P). In my spare time I like to go to the sportcentrum, meet new people and enjoy a nice beer, and, as a good Spaniard, have good parties. I’m going to be around TU/e for a few years so maybe I have a chance to meet you, so, please, feel free to say Hello!

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Department I

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i! My name is Maria Puentes, I am 22 years old and I come from Colombia, a beautiful place I hope all of you go some day. Specifically I am from Bogotá, a majestic city located at 2600 m above the level of the sea, surrounded by mountains. I did my Master in Electrical Engineering, at Universidad de los Andes, and finished it on December 2013. I was working on MV substations in Bogotá, and I had this wonderful opportunity to come to the Netherlands, and well here I am, pretty excited and discovering the life in Europe. My work has been focused on Renewable Energy, EVs and Power Electronics. Now I have the opportunity to work in an European Project, with a lot of people with vastly different backgrounds. In my free time I like to run, swim, or bike. I used to run in the early morning (around 5am which is pretty normal in Colombia), but here I have shifted my schedule a little bit, hoping that I can get used to the evening exercise. Now I have more spare time since the commute time is almost negligible, which is I think what I have loved the most of my new life; I have the time to work, exercise and actually sleep. Kind Regards, Maria

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i everyone! My name is Perry van Schaijk, I’m 25 years old and I was born in Heesch (a village approximately 40 km to the north of Eindhoven). I obtained both my BSc and MSc degrees at the TU/e. My interests are fairly broad, but since my graduation project I have been focusing on the properties of light. That is also part of the reason I am now joining the Photonic Integration group by looking into ways to stabilize an on-chip laser.

several years. Also, I did several student jobs in this department, such as teaching a master class and helping freshmen figure out best practices for studying. Besides working, I tend to spend a lot of time playing the saxophone. For quite some years already, I have been playing in an orchestra

in Heesch. Last year, I thought it was time for some variation and I joined a big band in Eindhoven. It is indeed a lot different and as such it is a real challenge. I do however enjoy it, just as my new position.

As a part of my studies, I was given the opportunity to do an internship abroad. I took this chance and Peter Baltus helped me to secure a place at the University of California, Los Angeles, to do research on cognitive radio in the lab of Danijela Cabric. For my graduation project, Erwin Bente helped me find a position at Philips Research where I thoroughly enjoyed looking into the polarization properties of light under the guidance of Gert ’t Hooft. During my studies, I have been a member of the study association of Electrical Engineering and as such I helped organize a number of activities. Among others, I was in the board for a year, helped organize the study tour to Japan, and have been tending the bar for

December 2014| 09

INews Afscheid Rein van Asten

Op donderdag 30 oktober heb ik afscheid genomen van de faculteit Electrical Engineering en van de universiteit. Ik wil mede namens mijn vrouw graag alle familieleden, vrienden, collegae en ex collegae bedanken voor de overweldigende belangstelling. Dank voor jullie aanwezigheid, hartelijk wensen, toespraken en cadeaus. Ik kijk samen met Enne met voldoening terug op deze memorabele dag en kijk met genoegen vooruit. Rein van Asten

Cum Laude Promotie

Electrical Engineering popular

Emil Kleijn van de faculteit Electrical Engineering is cum laude gepromoveerd. Hij verdedigde op 11 september 2014 in het Auditorium zijn proefschrift getiteld “Passive components in indium phosphide generic integration Technologies”. De eerste promotor is prof.dr.ir. Arthur van Roermund, hoogleraar Elektronische Schakelingen. Cum laude promoties zijn relatief zeldzaam. Zo’n vijf procent van de promovendi krijgt dit erepredikaat. Om ervoor in aanmerking te komen moet het verrichte onderzoek van een uitzonderlijk hoge kwaliteit zijn en moet de promovendus met uitzonderlijke zelfstandigheid gewerkt hebben.

In September 2014, we have seen a further increase of the influx of new students. We started this academic year with a total of 180 first-year students (130 EE and 50 AU). Next to this, 56 international Master students and 50 pre-Master (HBO) students started in Electrical Engineering. Altogether we have welcomed almost 300 new students this academic year! In the upcoming years we are going to expand our efforts in attracting more international students, both Bachelor and Master. Combined with the growing interest at recent open-day events and our excellent score in the yearly Elsevier ratings (best Bachelor EE in the Netherlands), we expect to expand our intake further in the upcoming years.

Ludieke uitdeelactie omtrent het uitdelen van de eerste Focus on Flux krant

Op dinsdagmorgen 23 september jl. werd de eerste Focus on Flux krant, samen met een loep, persoonlijk aan de medewerkers en studenten van de faculteit uitgedeeld. In totaal zullen verspreid over dit collegejaar 6 kranten verschijnen.

Afscheid Harold Vervoort

De redactie bedankt Harold voor zijn bijdragen en enthousiasme voor de Connecthor.

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Association & Department I

ThEW, an unforgettable weekend! By: Robin Steenbakkers

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n Friday afternoon the ThEW 2014 started with a delicious dinner at Potentiaal, after which we received the route to the address we were staying at that weekend. We had to go there ourselves (without any help). Luckily someone knew the address and led the way, although we lost a couple of people (but it stayed within the 10% range so it was acceptable) and they arrived a couple of minutes later. At the beginning, we had to hand in our mobile phones. We received an egg and a cup in return (not a great deal, I know). We had a great first night with many fun activities. First the board arrived and then many other Thor members joined us as well. We had a great evening together and were told to go to bed early because we needed every minute of sleep we could get. But not everyone listened. They woke us, or at least the people who were asleep, at ten o’clock. Everyone had a nice breakfast with the much needed coffee. After that we had to do morning exercises. This isn’t a very good idea after just 1.5 hours of sleep.

In the afternoon, we went to Sint-Oedenrode (a place not far from Eindhoven) there we went on two missions. One: to get really cool stuff for a fuse, and two: to get as many names and phone numbers on a shirt (which were called later on that day). After that we went back and wrote a song about the candidate board, which was sung to them after dinner, at the bon fire. It was really nice to talk to everyone at the bon fire, the board, the candidate board, the participants and the Oude Bokken. All were enjoying themselves, laughing a lot and just having a good time. Everyone stayed awake until they thought they needed some sleep, which some people thought they didn’t, but then again they drank some coffee made by Bram, so it contained more coffee than water.

ended up in the middle of nowhere because they missed the stop. After that we drove back to Eindhoven where we gave the board our presents that included some liquorice (which someone got for his birthday but didn’t really like), a Thor film and 1100 cans tomato puree. And with that the awesome weekend ended. It was an amazing weekend that I will never forget. Everyone who helped organizing this, THANK YOU SO MUCH! And I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say: “It truly was an unforgettable weekend!”

On Sunday morning, everyone packed their bags so they were ready to go back to Eindhoven. On our way back we went canoeing. A couple of people ended up in the water, some even more than once. Others

Social outing of the Buro By: Lies Termeer

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eptember 18th provided us with the most beautiful weather possible. The outing, considered from a weather’s perspective, was already a big success. We walked to the center of Eindhoven where we were all tested on relevant and also very irrelevant knowledge present among us. This all happened in a pub “’t Mulderke” and it was not even noon yet. The groups were very enthusiastic and competitive, even though the team “Zonder Bart” was missing a prominent member. Two teams were quite close all the

time, but then unexpectedly a third team had a lucky shot at the number of “Albert Heijn” supermarkets and ended up winning the quiz by surprise. Some said it was because the phrasing of the questions was questionable……of course TU/e people remain critical as always. Time to move on to the lunch, as we were getting hungry, by setting out on foot to Strijp S. André Amaro’s “Ketelhuis” had a marvelous lunch for us and we even had the unique opportunity to eat outside. They had some surprising new food combinations and it was all very pure and fresh. The afternoon offered all of us the opportunity to exhibit our dance, drama, and acting talents as we were told that we were going to make a lipdup. Quite a few among us had never heard about a lipdup before and were moderately in shock after having been shown an example of what we were about to do that afternoon. To make things a little easier we got access to sunglasses, hats, dresses, boas to cover up ourselves and make us look

unrecognizable. Alfons did his utmost best but somehow never really succeeded. The professionals showed us our stage spot and off we went to create and rehearse an original sketch on the assigned lyrics. Quite hilarious to see each other dressed up and dance on the tune of “I got a feeling” of Black Eyed Peas. For most us it was absolutely out of our comfort zone but as we were all in it together we developed a liking for it and enjoyed doing it. The lipdup was taped in one continuous shot and we already managed to satisfy the professionals in the 2nd take. In the final version, that we received a few days later, you can clearly pick out the talented actors who may already have received their first invitation as guest actors in commercial television. It’s not on YouTube yet, but you may enjoy it on our local Wall of Fame. Still under a clear blue sky, we returned on foot to the city center and enjoyed an Italian dinner at Happy Italy, a lively new restaurant with a waiting-line that we were lucky to be allowed to bypass.

December 2014| 11

IDepartment

Afscheid Corona gebouw en hoogspanningshal Door: Wil Kling

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n het juninummer van de Connector is een tijdslijn gegeven van de groepen die we door de jaren heen gehad hebben binnen de faculteit. De groene groepen hebben het Corona gebouw bewoond, het markante zijgebouw van Potentiaal (E-hoog). Met weemoed zullen we het gebouw verlaten. De bijgevoegde foto laat zien hoe mooi onze hoogspanningshal er van binnen uitziet. Veel medewerkers wilden graag deze herinnering vastleggen en poseerden braaf voor deze groepsfoto. Helaas was een aantal collega’s afwezig maar het zal nooit lukken iedereen bij elkaar te hebben. Corona was een van de eerste gebouwen op het terrein. Nadat een belangrijke commissie ter voorbereiding van een tweede instituut voor technisch hoger onderwijs, onder leiding van Mr. H. L. s’Jacob, in 1955 een positief advies had uitgebracht en de regering daarna koos voor Eindhoven als stad voor de 2e Technische Hogeschool werd al snel gestart met de bouw van de campus. Er werd gekozen voor één architect voor het totale complex, Ir. S.J. Van Embden. Hij bedacht de structuur met alle hoge gebouwen in een bepaalde richting en de lage gebouwen daar loodrecht op. Dat zien we dus ook bij Impuls en Corona die haaks op Potentiaal aansluiten. Impuls werd als eerste gebouwd en Prof. J.G. Niesten werd eind 1956 benoemd als hoogleraar elektromechanica. Enige tijd daarna verrees Corona en Prof. D.Th.J. ter Horst werd aangesteld als hoogleraar hoge spanningen en hoge stromen. Corona is gebouwd door HVL dat sinds kort onderdeel is van Croon. HVL bouwde alles, eerst het karakteristieke deel met de prachtige koepel in het dak (het eerste hoge spanningen lab, later hoge stromen lab, dat in 1962 in bedrijf ging) en enkele jaren later ook het deel met de imposante kooi van Faraday (het hoge spanningen lab dat in 1970 in gebruik werd genomen). In 1966 vond de eerste promotie plaats door Ir. W.M.C. van den Heuvel, die later tot lector en vervolgens tot hoogleraar in de groep werd benoemd en dat ook bleef tot 1990. Prof. Ter Horst werd in 1977 opgevolgd door Prof. P.C.T. van der Laan die de nodige aanpassingen liet verrichten aan het hoge spanningen lab waardoor nieuw onderzoek kon worden opgestart. Alhoewel hij al sinds 2000 met emeritaat is, zien we hem nog regelmatig in Corona.

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Naast hoge stromen en hoge spanningen hebben ook EMC en Elektriciteitsvoorziening in zijn algemeenheid hun onderzoeksporen in het Coronagebouw nagelaten. Van het analoge netwerk simulatie lab is niets meer terug te vinden maar we hebben nu een uiterst modern Smart Grid lab en ook voor EMC hebben we een mooi lab met een specialistische testfaciliteit (reverberating chamber). Beide labs gaan mee naar Flux. Dat geldt niet voor het hoge stromen lab, want dat hebben we al in 2008 gesloten, en ook van de indrukwekkende hoogspanningshal moeten we afscheid nemen. Daarvoor krijgen we wel een geschikte nieuwe faciliteit terug: ook een kooi van Faraday, maar lang niet zo hoog als de vorige, namelijk slechts acht meter. Echt hoge spanningen van miljoenen Volts kunnen we dus nooit meer maken. Velen zullen zich nog herinneren dat er in ons gebouw ook een andere bijzondere opstelling aanwezig was, namelijk een zogenaamde schokbuisopstelling voor een magnetohydrodynamische energieconversie. Deze hing hoog in het gebouw in het verlengde van de hoogspanningshal en werd af en toe voor experimenten ingeschakeld waardoor het hele gebouw ging trillen. Het was een enorm verschil met het houten geraamte dat er nu staat en waarvan niemand weet wat er

in gebeurt. Dat hoort dus voor de duidelijkheid niet tot ons onderzoek. Het directe energieomzettingsonderzoek van Prof. L Rietjens is lange tijd wel onderdeel geweest van onze groep, maar na het emeritaat van Prof. Rietjens en de korte tussenperiode van Prof. H. Rijanto is het onderzoek verder voortgezet bij Natuurkunde. Eén van de promovendi in deze richting was Ir. J.H. Blom en dat was in 1973. In 2000 kwam hij als Prof. Blom terug naar de groep om als enige leerstoelhouder te gaan fungeren voor alle activiteiten in Corona, zich op dat moment nog niet realiserende hoe sterk de groei van de EPS-activiteiten zou worden, met name op het gebied intelligente netten. Ook hij is nog vaak in Corona aan te treffen, maar ook in Impuls, Potentiaal en het Auditorium. In 2008 heb ik hem mogen opvolgen en ik zal de overgang naar Flux in goede banen proberen te leiden. We zullen de ruimte, de vrijheid, het eigene allemaal missen, maar het nieuwe gebouw heeft ook zijn charmes. Wil Kling Met dank aan Prof. M. Antal voor zijn hulp bij het ophalen van oude herinneringen.

Department I

Ralph Otten blikt terug Door: Ralph Otten

M

ijn keuze voor een studie elektrotechniek kwam laat en niet met enthousiasme. Vanuit mijn middelbare school in Tilburg zag men voor mij vooral een studie Franse taal- en letterkunde wel zitten. Het was misschien wel juist daarom de eerste afvaller. Dat wegstrepen ging door tot alleen wiskunde, natuurkunde en elektrotechniek over waren. Ten slotte heb ik voor de laatste gekozen en daarmee begint in 1966 de band met wat toen nog de Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven heette.

Technische hogeschool Eindhoven

Ik hoorde bij de eerste generatie die onderwijs in het auditorium ontving. Veel colleges deelden we met de andere technische opleidingen, wat vooral de tentamens tot massale gebeurtenissen maakte. Ook het gebouw voor elektrotechniek was nog maar net klaar, maar had toen al speciale voorzieningen om een IBM360 computer te huisvesten. De rudimenten daarvan zijn nog steeds goed zichtbaar op wat nu vloer 10 heet. Onze generatie zou ik die van de seksuele voorlichting willen noemen. Op de middelbare school waren in tal van onderdelen lessen met die naam geïntroduceerd. Biologie, godsdienst, geschiedenis en avondvoorlichtingen (na de ouders) pretendeerden iets nuttigs over seks te brengen. Tot overmaat werd ook het onderwerp in onze eerste hogeschoolmaanden niet vergeten, al was het niet verplicht. Het werd een vermakelijke avond met een enorme opkomst en sprekers met landelijke roem. Ook een enkele lokale grootheid nam het woord, waaronder mijn latere afstudeerhoogleraar. Het onderwijs van de faculteit in die jaren was erg goed in de practica en beneden alle peil in de colleges. Vaak was het laatste letterlijk een professorale voorlezing uit een door anderen opgesteld dictaat, dat mondjesmaat ter beschikking van de studenten kwam. Desalniettemin waren het mooie jaren waarin de universiteiten een ware revolutie meemaakten. Ook wij vonden dat we niet achter konden blijven met onder andere de bezetting van het hoofdgebouw en diverse boude uitspraken (“die hoogleraren moeten ook maar eens eerst een vak gaan leren”). Hoogtepunten van het vijfjarige curriculum waren, denk ik, de twee externe stages die op de fabriekswerkvloer zouden moeten plaatsvinden.

Het was toen nog totaal ongebruikelijk om kort na een ingenieursexamen te gaan promoveren. Professor Jess, wiens benoeming vrijwel samenviel met mijn afstuderen, dacht daar duidelijk anders over toen hij mij overhaalde de functie van medewerker in “langdurig tijdelijk dienstverband” te aanvaarden. Bij een bezoek van een professor uit Hawaï werd mij gevraagd of ik een “PhD-candidate” was. Ik zei “neen”, maar professor Jess corrigeerde: “dat is ie wel, maar dat weet ie nog niet”.

Na enkele maanden ervaring met elektromotoren bij Brown-Boveri in Oostenrijk was ik overtuigd van het nut van computers bij ontwerpen en aanvaardde de aangeboden functie in ontwerpautomatisering. Een beetje geïsoleerd in de afdeling manifesteerden de “promovendi” van Jess zich vooral in het pas geopende Walhalla. Daar kwamen toen veel personeelsleden en werden af en toe ook afdelingszaken besproken door alle niveaus. Zo heb ik mij daar tot een afdelingscolloquium laten verleiden.

December 2014| 13

IDepartment In mei 1973 heb ik voor een afgeladen volle collegezaal die presentatie gegeven met de titel “algebra voor E” waarin ik probeerde over te brengen dat de nadruk op vooral wiskundige vaardigheden zich in de praktijk niet uitbetaalde. Het bood op zich een goede academische test, maar begrip bleef eigenlijk volledig buiten beschouwing. En dat is nog zo: de vaardigheden worden door een enkeling in de praktijk gebruikt, zijn snel verwaterd en nemen nog steeds de plaats in van heel wat belangrijkere lessen. De enkele verschillen met destijds zitten in een verder verdunde inhoud en in plaats van tabellen gebruiken we nu vooral computers. In die jaren deden de “vertalingen” van de opstanden van 68-69 zich voelen in de inrichting van diverse inspraakorganen en de oprichting van vakgroepen. De elektronicalaboratoria (EEA,EEB en EEC) samen met het natuurkunde-derivaat elektrotechnische materialen (EV) zouden samen één vakgroep moeten vormen die de werknaam “EF in oprichting” kreeg. Talrijke koddige en vooral emotionele besprekingen moesten helpen deze in de zin van de wet bedachte constructie vorm te geven. Dat werd niks natuurlijk, maar had een belangrijk nevenproduct: op voorstel van professor Jess werden de mogelijkheden van een ic-faciliteit (een ruimte om chips te maken) bestudeerd. Die faciliteit, EFFIC, kwam er, onder luid protest van een aantal kroondocenten, dat vergat dat ze in de nieuwe structuren niet apart vertegenwoordigd was. Dat laatste, meer dan alle rapporten en enthousiaste betogen, deed de afdelingsraad tot inrichting besluiten. Een zeer complexe ontwikkeling heeft daarna tot één van de paradepaardjes van onze campus geleid : het technologiegebouw Spectrum. Het bleef al die jaren onrustig en het intrigeren, waarbij de persoon vaak niet buiten beschouwing bleef, leidde tot veel onrust en stress. Zo werden eind jaren zeventig twee opeenvolgende portefeuillehouders onderwijs zo ernstig ziek dat niemand die functie nog wilde invullen. De raad kwam toen met het besluit dat elke vakgroep twee namen moest noemen en uit het totaal zou dan een nieuwe portefeuillehouder aangewezen worden. In ES was weinig keus en in afwezigheid van de voorzitter zijn de enige twee kandidaten (een derde was al overspannen) genoemd. Ik werd unaniem gekozen en werd tevens plaatsvervangend decaan. In ruil mocht ik daarna een jaar naar het buitenland.

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Een “leuke” klus die in dat jaar geklaard moest worden was de invoering van de tweefasenstructuur. In feite een condensering van een vijfjarig curriculum in vier jaar. Volgens Toon Verlijsdonk werd het het meest met alcohol overgoten onderwijsprogramma aller tijden. Die alcohol werd daarbij vooral door Thor geleverd dat inmiddels het Walhalla stevig in handen had. Iedereen is dat curriculum wel vergeten en het enige dat bij sommigen is blijven hangen is mijn gedetailleerde relatieschema voor onderwijsonderdelen en een nieuwe opzet voor het kroondocentenplan (de “schietschijf”). Voor een en ander zijn beslag kreeg, was ik vertrokken naar het “Department of Mathematics” van IBM Research in Yorktown Heights (NY).

Intermezzo Nederlanders naar IBM Research voor een jaar of zo was een initiatief van IBM Nederland, die daar ook aan mee betaalde. Echter na enkele maanden kreeg ik van het onderzoekslaboratorium een aanbod om met een vast contract verder te gaan terwijl ik een trimester per jaar college en begeleiding kon blijven geven. In Eindhoven vond men dat omslachtig omdat dan steeds een onderwijsopdracht geregeld moest worden. Men vroeg mij daarom om onbezoldigd in dienst te blijven. Achteraf voor mij een dure constructie, omdat ik na terugkomst de Nederlandse premie voor sociale verzekeringen moest betalen ondanks dat mijn belastbaar inkomen hier 0 gulden bedroeg. Die terugkomst kwam na 7 keer “een jaartje langer” bij IBM. Toen vond mijn vrouw het welletjes. Ik werd gevraagd hoogleraar te worden in Delft dat toen nog een volwaardige E-opleiding had. De hogescholen waren inmiddels universiteiten gaan heten.

Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

De tweede periode Eindhoven begon in 2000 met als eerste werkdag een onderwijsdag in Rolduc. Daar werd het nieuwe curriculum, met TIO’s en OGO’s gepresenteerd. Na een introductie waren discussies in kleinere groepen gepland, waarna elke groep een woordvoerder koos die het antwoord op drie vragen moest presenteren: is het duidelijk, wat zijn de sterke punten en wat zijn de zwakke punten. De antwoorden die ik presenteerde waren dat niet duidelijk was welke progressie over de drie jaren beoogd werd (wat kan ik in OGO 4 wat ik niet in OGO1 mag vragen), dat een sterk punt was dat wie daar doorheen kwam zeker de titel verdiende, maar dat niet veel kandidaten door dat curriculum zouden komen en vrijwel niemand in de nominale tijd. De faculteit mocht al heel snel opnieuw kennismaken met mijn pragmatisme toen gevraagd werd om samen met professor Groote van Technische Informatica een master “embedded systems” binnen twee maanden aan het CvB aan te bieden. Het ongelooflijke zat hem vooral in hoe twee zo van elkaar verschillende faculteiten zo snel tot een consensus over een programma konden komen. Die tevredenheid werd voor mij wel danig verzuurd toen bleek dat het resultaat vooral als handelswaar gebruikt werd in een 3TU-overleg. Maar de master was nog voor de invoering van echte masters een groot succes, en is dat nog! Amper twee jaar later werd mij gevraagd of een binnenkort arriverende hoogleraar niet opleidingsdirecteur kon worden. Mijn antwoord was dat ie dan op z’n hakken zou omkeren. Toch was het redelijk dat ES, de enige vakgroep die toen die twee

Department I voltijdshoogleraren zou hebben, de directeur moest leveren. Dus dat moest ik dan maar zijn. Er waren stemmen dat ik eerst zou moeten tekenen dat ik het nieuwe curriculum, waar ik al vroeg mijn bezwaren tegen geuit had, getrouw zou invoeren. Ik heb niks getekend, maar het wel volgens ontwerp ingevoerd. De faculteit stond er wat onderwijs betreft toen slecht voor. Bij de laatste visitatie was er zelfs sprake van een rode kaart. Er stonden twee visitaties voor de deur en ik had sterk de indruk dat bij het CvB de messen al geslepen werden. Er was in 1998 hevige kritiek op met name de laatste twee jaar, het deel dat spoedig de master-opleiding moest worden. Zorgwekkend was dat de kritiek terecht was en dat er in de jaren daarna niets gebeurd was. Noodzaak was een master te ontwerpen die aantoonbaar alle kritiek van de vorige commissie verwerkte en die in zeer korte tijd door alle organen binnen de faculteit geaccepteerd kom worden. Hierbij moest aan de ene kant aangetoond worden dat diepte afgedwongen werd, beoordelingen objectief en met een gemeenschappelijke standaard gegeven konden worden en dat een verplichte oriëntering op de aanstaande praktijk in het programma opgenomen was. Aan de andere kant was een uitleg naar de faculteit nodig die weinig verandering suggereerde. Daarbij was

het feit dat de invoering pas na het bezoek van de commissie zou plaatsvinden een voordeel. Na de inlevering van het rapport tot het alleruiterste vertraagd te hebben en de indeling ervan in ons voordeel aangepast te hebben, werden de visitaties succesvol afgewerkt. We waren zelfs de eerste faculteit die volgens de nieuwe Europese norm werden geaccrediteerd! Met de master nauwelijks op de rails kwam van hogerhand de wens (eis) van een verplichte minor in het baccalaureaatsprogramma. Zelf was ik niet zo’n voorstander van proliferatie als het kernprogramma nog niet naar behoren uitgevoerd kon worden, maar toen de invoering onafwendbaar leek ben ik toch maar met prof. Van den Bosch om de tafel gaan zitten om ieder een minor te ontwerpen die onze studenten binnen de faculteit zou houden. In de inmiddels bekende sneltreinvaart werden “automotive systems” en “connecting intelligence” voor presentatie klaar gemaakt. Mijn standpunt omtrent minoren werd via de presentatie “minoren, een doorn in het oog” campusbreed verspreid en mijn inschatting dat het niet langer dan 10 jaar zou overleven ook.

Tot slot Tot op de dag van vandaag zijn er mensen die denken dat ik een grote stem gehad in de bachelor-opleiding van de laatste 15 jaar.

Het moge nu duidelijk zijn dat ik zo’n curriculum nooit voorgesteld zou hebben. Een accent op oplossen van praktijkproblemen, het ontwerpen met een gegeven doel en ruimte voor vindingrijkheid en het leren beheersen van complexiteit zou ik in een elektrotechniekprogramma zekerstellen. Ik zou dat laten volgen op een propedeuse die voor iedere technische opleiding voor 80 percent identiek zou zijn en de geschiktheid voor zo’n opleiding op academisch niveau moet vaststellen. Een keuze voor welke tak van techniek komt daarna. Eigenlijk is in een halve eeuw de gedoceerde inhoud niet wezenlijk veranderd. Hoogstens zijn het naslagwerk en de tabellenboeken vervangen door draagbare elektronica. Maar ik ben er nog altijd van overtuigd dat zo’n opleiding een goede student niet kan verpesten. Dat gold in de jaren 60, toen er meer gestudeerd werd naast weinig contacturen, omdat er weinig andere tijdsbesteding mogelijk was. En dat geldt nu nog, al is het veel moeilijker om prioriteit aan zelf studeren te geven tussen de vele opties. Dat vraagt om een andere motivering en stimulering. Ondanks alles kan ik zeggen dat ik nooit spijt van mijn keuzes heb gehad. Als ik nu na de middelbare school een studie zou moeten kiezen, zou het weer elektrotechniek, of misschien biologie, geworden zijn.

December 2014| 15

1

5

13 8

20

19

18 7 4 6

10 11

3

15

12

17

2

14

21

16

0 9

1. Intro

12. & 13. Constitutional drink

2. & 3. After intro party

14. & 15. FFF

4. & 5. ThEW

16. & 17. CenThorion

6. & 7. Candidate drink

18. & 19. Roof Potentiaal

8. & 9. Excursion Thales

20. & 21. Open days

10. & 11. AME Excursion

IDepartment

Mid-size league of Tech United at Robocup 2014 Text: Bob van Ninhuijs, Photos: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie

T

hursday, 17th of July, it is 5:45 AM and we are gathering at the Tech United Arena of the TU/e. Everyone who still has some room in his suitcase is asked to take some extra equipment along such as laptops and adapters. And then, at 6:00 AM, the team of Tech United starts the journey, with destination Robocup 2014 in João Pessoa, Brazil. We first go by bus to Schiphol from which we fly to Sao Paulo. As there is no connecting flight to João Pessoa, we need to spend the night near the airport of Sao Paulo and continue the journey the next day. On Friday, 18th of July, we arrive at the small airport of João Pessoa and after a one hour bus drive, we arrive at the hotel. The hotel is almost directly situated on a beautiful beach. Unfortunately, we have a load of preparing to do before we can enjoy the beach. After a quick breakfast the next day, the first day at Robocup 2014, we leave the hotel at 8:00 AM to the venue. We enter the enormous building where all the teams playing in different leagues will present their accomplishments of the past year. We are guided by the organization to our league area, the

mid-size robot soccer league, where a bunch of empty tables and chairs are standing that will soon be filled by us and our opponents. Our soccer robots, or as we call them TURTLEs (Tech United RoboCup Team Limited Edition), have not yet arrived. They traveled by cargo ship and should also have arrived at the time we entered the venue. Fortunately, it does not take long before we get the good news, that the TURTLEs have arrived. As the team is now complete, the tournament can begin. The tournament always starts with two setup days, during these days we calibrate and tune the TURTLEs on the new field. We developed the software such that we have the TURTLEs running within an hour on a new field. However, as this is the world championship, we want a perfect calibration and tuning. Therefore, we take full advantage of the two setup days. The late afternoon and evening of the second setup day are always reserved for the technical and scientific challenge. The

technical challenge is a specific assignment and the scientific challenge is a presentation and demonstration of each team of their scientific accomplishments achieved in the previous year. For the technical challenge each team needs to perform a pass and a shot on goal on artificial grass. During practice we nailed the assignment, however, during the actual test it does not work out as the practice and we come in third. For the scientific challenge, our team presents coaching software that lets the TURTLEs come to the sideline when blowing on a whistle and by means of a QR code, instructions can be provided. This innovation brings us the second place. Monday, 21st of July, the first game day of Robocup 2014. There are two round-robins scheduled over three days. The first roundrobin is to eliminate the weakest teams, however, due to the limited number of teams, namely six, the first round-robin is mainly used for practice. Nevertheless, the first game day is very exciting, especially, because during the setup days the team has made a lot of software improvements. It shows in the first match that the TURTLEs have some difficulty playing soccer with the latest version of the software. Luckily, the opponent was not very strong and also suffered from difficulties. We manage to win this game, however, it becomes clear that we still have a long road ahead of us. From one game to the other, there are not many software implementations, mostly bug fixing and adding small features. There are only five opponents and it will not take long before we need to play again. After each game we have a small meeting were we discuss what went wrong and decide what needs to be

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Department I done to improve the software. Fortunately, we manage to improve the software and win all the games of the first day. In the evenings there are no soccer games, which makes it ideal for recalibration, extra tuning, new implementations and testing of the software. When the venue closes at 23:00h, we go back to the hotel where the team usually splits up into three groups; one group gets something to drink, one group goes to sleep and usually one or two guys want to finish something in the software. Usually everyone is to bed within an hour because the next day we will leave the hotel again at 8:00h sharp. During the second round-robin, we manage to win from every team with exception of Water from China, the team we lost from in the previous world championship finals. The resulting semi-finals is also exactly the same as the previous year. Again this year the semi-finals existed of Water vs. MRL and CAMBADA vs. Tech United. On the eve of the semi-finals and finals everyone is tired and, therefore, it is dangerous to introduce

It is such a relief and a rewarding moment that all the effort of the team pays off

anything new that is bug-free. Therefore, only the more advanced programmers do some bug fixes and the others are all checking the calibrations and tuning.

The day of the finals, we are at the venue again at 8:30h and checking some last stuff. There is not much time and, therefore, most of the guys of the team are helping to get the TURTLEs ready for the semi-finals. It is a game against CAMBADA from Portugal, a strong opponent. Luckily, we manage to win from them, but not by much. As no-one dares to take the risk and make some adjustments in the software, we prepare the TURTLEs for the finals. With the experience of last year, everyone was very nervous. The game consisted of two times 15 minutes and 10 minutes in between. The robots of Water are able to look up the free spaces because their robots are very fast. The keeper is one the star players this game, as it keeps almost all the goal shot of Water out. Finally, we hear the referee ending the soccer game with 3-2 for Tech United. It is such a relief and a rewarding moment that all the effort of the team pays off. Shortly after our victory we hear that AMIGO from the care robot team of Tech United has won the second place, which is also a great achievement.

The award ceremony is amazing, to stand on that stage with all the contesters of Robocop 2014 applauding for your results. After the award ceremony we have a true Brazilian steak dinner to celebrate our world championship victory. After the dinner we are finally able to enjoy the beautiful beach of João Pessoa. The temperature stays at about 27 degrees 24 hours a day. This makes it possible for us to fully enjoy the beach on which we play beach volley for hours deep into the night. These results would not have been possible without the TU/e students who did their BEP, internship or graduation project within the team. Do you want to contribute, just contact [email protected].

December 2014| 19

IDepartment

In 80 days around the world on electric motorcycles By: Tim Gerth

O

n Thursday 2 October STORM Eindhoven introduced itself as the new automotive student team of the Eindhoven University of Technology. STORM is based at the Multimedia Paviljoen where it works on an innovative electric motorcycle. From 3 April 2016, STORM will participate in the 80 Day Race. In this race, which is only meant for vehicles without internal combustion engines, STORM Eindhoven will travel further than any other electric motorcycle has done in the past.

Electric motorcycles Building a zero-emission vehicle without compromising on design, safety and pleasure. This is what STORM Eindhoven means to realize with an electric motorcycle, to show the world that e-mobility can be attractive. In addition to this, the motorcycle gives STORM Eindhoven a strategic edge over its competition in the 80DR, because traffic jams will slow you down less. By being the first to drive an electric series motorcycle around the world in 80 days, the team wants to show that attractive sustainable mobility is possible right now.

STORM Eindhoven team STORM Eindhoven consists of 29 passionate and devoted students, who will give up two years of work in order to complete the project. There are four Electrical Engineering students and three Automotive students in the team. Besides the technical aspects, strategy is also a major factor of success in this race. The 80 Day Race takes place between eight major

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cities spread around the globe. Eight locations are set, the route between them has to be drawn by the teams themselves.

Innovations The technical team of STORM Eindhoven has six major focus points by which it means to reinvent the motorcycle. First, it will focus on safety. Modern cars are equipped with numerous active safety systems that have made the car much safer over the years. The motorcycle has quite a gap to close. To make this work for the driver, well designed software is necessary to ensure good Human Technology Interaction. Next is robustness, as the motorcycle will have to travel a total of 40.000 kilometres. Traveling 500 kilometres per day means the ride should also be comfortable, which is another focus. To

enlarge practicality and strategic advantages, a smart battery system should be created, smart refuelling as STORM likes to call it. Last but not least, all of this should not compromise our design too much. Motorcycles are elegant, let’s keep it this way.

The race is on! Officially, the team has been kicked-off with the team launch. With the prototype unveiling scheduled for June 2015, the STORM Eindhoven team has started the design process in early September. The team has made the necessary first steps in order to achieve its goal: race around the world in 80 days using only renewable resources and contribute to a sustainable future. The race is on!

Association I

AME excursion

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n Wednesday the 1st of October, a group of students including myself visited Applied Micro Electronics. AME, a company among the large number of technological companies to which the Eindhoven region owes its nickname ‘Brainport of the Netherlands’, provides high-tech solutions in electronics, embedded systems and IT. Rather than selling products directly to consumers, AME is aimed at companies lacking the technological resources or expertise to develop certain electronics or software. For example, your thermostat at home might have been developed and produced by AME, but it will have another company’s logo on it.

During the excursion, we split up in smaller groups to visit AME’s two departments: Research, design and development (RD&D) and Operations. Our group was first introduced to the Kardex storage shuttle, an automated two-storey (!)warehouse that holds millions, if not billions, of PCB components. A large part of production is automated: the components are placed on the circuit boards via a pick-and-place machine and everything is soldered simultaneously in a large oven. Every board is automatically inspected and tested before leaving the production line. Only a handful of people are required to operate both of AME’s complete production lines! After Operations we visited the RD&D department, which was a room full of desks with hand-soldered test circuits, prototypes of products, and measurement equipment on them. One desk even had a toilet sitting on it! The employee sitting there (behind the desk, not on the loo) explained that the toilet

Thales excursion

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tarting this year, excursions to companies are linked to courses, and first up was the Electromagnetics I excursion to Thales in Hengelo. We departed from the Potentiaal building at 8 o’clock and arrived around 10:30h in Hengelo, after some delay due to the traffic. Once we got the badges at Thales, we went to a room where we were received with some coffee and tea, got some gadgets and listened to presentations. These included facts & figures of the Thales company, a presentation on the projects Thales does in Hengelo (only the unclassified, however) and we saw the famous movie from the 90’s of the goalkeeper (those of you who have been to Thales before will know which one I mean). After this awesome display of radar technology, combined with huge automatic guns, we had lunch, another thing that most people will remember of the Thales excursion. Here we chatted with the people who gave the presentations and even with a random employee who got stuck in the Thor group, which was a perfect example of the great atmosphere within the company.

By: Martijn de Kok could be opened, closed, and flushed using a remote control, and that it also featured builtin lights. An app to flush your luminous toilet, isn’t that brilliant? On a more serious note, we also visited an electrical-interference-proof room, which was quite impressive to see. Beside a tour in the company, AME also provided us with a case to work on. We received one of their circuit boards and were tasked with explaining why the designers made certain choices. This was a great opportunity to put our recent Circuits lectures into practice. All in all, I personally enjoyed the visit a lot. Companies like AME serve a wide variety of markets, which enabled AME’s rapid growth and might make the company worth looking at if you are searching for an internship or a part-time job. It was a very interesting afternoon, and a big thanks to AME and Thor for organising this excursion!

By: Elwin Hameleers

The lunch was followed by a presentation on RF antennas, which was an adaption of the regular Thales excursion program to match the subject of the electromagnetics course (I’m going to spare you the details). When finished, we went on a tour through the company to see the antennas that are being made. We could see the assembling of Smart-L, Smart-S, and other systems and got to know interesting facts about these systems and the navies who use them. We then moved on to the long-range testing site, which was outside where pictures of us were taken. The Compact Antenna Test Range was next, where we were told how you can do relevant radar tests in a small room. This was followed by the Environmental Competence Center, where they even quizzed us on our knowledge of electromagnetism (luckily it was not an individual quiz). Afterwards we had a drink and left the Thales complex (and took some more photos). We went home after we had stopped in Arnhem to have a nice dinner, where we wrapped up our trip in an appropriate manner; with a steak and beer.

December 2014| 21

IAdvertorial

Werkervaringen bij Thales

Edwin de Jong, masterstudent Applied Physics, 24 jaar

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k was vijf jaar geleden met mijn studievereniging T.F.V. ‘Professor Francken’ uit Groningen op excursie in Hengelo. We kwamen bij het bedrijf Thales terecht en ik

De opdracht die ik voor mijn stage zocht, lag voor mij klaar in Delft. Daar onderzocht ik met een wiskundige theorie de hoeveelheid informatie die in een radarecho zit en

Mijn stage wordt binnenkort op een wereldwijde radarconferentie gepresenteerd. Dat je als student zo serieus wordt genomen had ik niet verwacht. was onder de indruk van de technologische snufjes op het gebied van safety en security. Thales bleek een veel groter bedrijf dan gedacht met wereldwijd meer dan 68.000 medewerkers. Ook in Nederland bleek Thales meerdere vestigingen te hebben.

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hoe dit verandert als het doel verder weg is, met als doel dat radars op schepen nog preciezer doelen op zee aan kunnen geven waar dat mogelijk is. Dat klinkt heel theoretisch, maar ik leerde om de theorie direct met praktijk te combineren met een techniek ontwikkeld door een Thales-afstudeerder in 2011. Omdat ik aangegeven had na mijn

stage te gaan promoveren werd mij de kans geboden om tijdens de stage al papers te schrijven, samen met mijn begeleider. Deze papers zijn opgestuurd naar radarconferenties in Lille en A Coruña in Spanje. Als het daar goed ontvangen wordt dan zou ik daar via Thales zelfs heen kunnen en een presentatie mogen geven. De ontwikkelde theorie zal de komende jaren verder ontwikkeld worden door mijn begeleider en nieuwe afstudeerders en stagiairs, met als doel dat het uiteindelijk geïmplementeerd wordt in radarsystemen. Dat ik als student zo serieus genomen zou worden had ik niet verwacht. Afgelopen februari ben ik afgestudeerd. De komende vier jaar ga ik promoveren in Groningen, maar als ik dat heb afgerond, zal ik zeker Thales in gedachten houden.

Advertorial I

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ijdens de waterpolo vertelde ik mijn teamgenoten dat ik opzoek was naar een afstudeerplek voor mijn studie Technische Informatica aan de Hogeschool Avans in Breda. Mijn teamgenoten adviseerden mij eens bij Thales te gaan kijken. Ik heb op de site gekeken en vond de combinatie van groot, hightech en internationaal erg gaaf en besloot daarom te solliciteren voor een afstudeerplek. Ik kwam terecht aan de andere kant van Nederland, in Hengelo, waar veelal producten voor Marines worden gemaakt. Meer dan 85% van deze producten wordt geëxporteerd naar het buitenland, dat had ik niet verwacht in Hengelo te vinden. De gemiddelde leeftijd ligt hier wel vrij hoog, maar ik merk dat het gewaardeerd wordt als er jonge mensen binnen komen met frisse ideeën. Het wordt gestimuleerd om je mond open te trekken en kritisch te zijn, dat vind ik mooi! In het onderzoek houd ik mij bezig met het opzetten van een sterke WiFi verbinding op zee. Als schepen onderling contact willen

leggen via radio of satelliet is dat erg kostbaar, daarom is het van belang om alternatieven te onderzoeken. Het eindproduct dat wij voor ogen hebben zal bestaan uit een

In juni hoop ik te kunnen afstuderen. Er is mij inmiddels een baan aangeboden als netwerk engineer bij Thales. Ook in mijn eerste baan als netwerk engineer zal ik betrokken blijven

Een WiFi verbinding opzetten die mijlen over zee reikt. Het lijkt me gaaf om later te kunnen zeggen dat ik aan de wieg van dit project stond. demonstratie van twee apparaten die over een afstand van minstens tien kilometer een WiFi verbinding kunnen opzetten en met een hoge bandbreedte data over en weer kunnen sturen. Ik onderzoek, bouw en test het project. Het project is in eerste instantie voor op zee bedacht, maar ook de kustwacht heeft inmiddels interesse getoond.

bij het project van de WiFi verbinding op zee. Ik hoop dat het over een paar jaar in werking is. Het lijkt me dan erg gaaf om later te kunnen zeggen dat ik aan de wieg van dit project stond.

Remco IJpelaar, student Technische Informatica, 22 jaar

Op zoek naar een stage, afstudeerplek of eerste baan? Start jouw carrière bij Thales. Kijk op www.thalesgroup.com/nl

December 2014| 23

IAssociation

Cleanroom visit NXP Nijmegen By: Lulu Chan

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wo full years after the first seven students got their scholarships for their Master Electrical Engineering from NXP, and one year after the next batch of five started, we had the NXP visit of our dreams. On Friday September 19th 2014, we finally managed to worm our way into the cleanroom of NXP Nijmegen. We, being engineering students, are curious by nature, which is why I guess they immediately warned us not to touch anything. They knew us too well. We started off the visit to Nijmegen with a presentation and tour through the Regional Quality Center, which brought back fond

IEEE Day

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he first quartile was just 4 weeks in and our first activity as the new board of IEEE SBE was already a big one. IEEE day was coming up and we had to think up a plan to promote the branch. Many plans did cross our minds, ranging from a paper airplane competition to a lunch lecture. However, if there is one thing we all love, it is pie. So we decided to repeat the pie-baking contest during the break. For the evening program we would present all our committees like the SailCo, the WIE, SayCheese and the LuCo. The baking contest turned out to be a huge success. While the beginning was a bit messy and chaotic, soon there were 14 pies to be

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memories of lectures on transistors, inverters and the like. (If there was one sure-fire way to get us to graduate ASAP, that was probably it.) The topic of quality control and testing is closely related to electrical engineering and we had two enthusiastic hosts for that leg of the tour, which made it a very interesting lab visit for us. After packing ourselves in like puppets going out on a rainy day, we went into the cleanroom. Once inside, we found it bustling with activity, which was only logical, knowing the amount of production that goes on in there. Yet, there is something tranquil and serene

about the cleanroom when you’re on the outside looking in. While everything looked very organized and structured, we quickly learned not to block the hallway as a group, otherwise we’d be run over by various trolleys. Some of the students seemed especially enamoured by the monorail and as a group, we gawked at a machine processing a wafer for a good five minutes before moving on. All in all, it was a worthwhile visit and we would like to thank our host Joop Bruines, presenter and QC guide Frank Zachariasse, and cleanroom guides, Domien Draaijers and Barbara Sanders, for a wonderful afternoon.

By: Steven Beumer tested and tasted by our professional jury consisting of dr.ir. Massimo Mischi and dr.ir. Bart Smolders.

SailCo, which hopefully are not an omen for the sailing trip that will happen this academic year.

After the jury had succeeded in tasting every pie, they announced the winner: David van Eijl. Then it was time to open the pie buffet for every attendant and at the end of the break there was almost nothing left, except some pieces of pie that were thrown by the new board of Thor.

All in all it was a really fun day with lots of pie and fun and we hope that next year it will be even better.

However, the baking contest was not the only thing planned for IEEE day. At around 4:30h it was time to present some of our committees. There were snacks from the LuCo and the SayCheese, drinks from the WIE and the LuCo, the candidate board behind the bar and last but not least paper boats from the

Varia I

Desert, earthquakes, snow and pisco By: Tom Geelen

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hat do you think about when you say Chile? Well I thought: longest coastline in the world, Pinochet, and earthquakes. All these things are true about the country but luckily it is much, much more, but more of that later. First, I wanted to elaborate on the experience of going on an internship abroad. Such a decision is not a light one; you will leave the comfort of home and friends to go to a place of which you know next to nothing. I remember arriving on the airport of Santiago with 2 suitcases and a backpack thinking: ‘why did I do this exactly again?’. The thought was quickly followed by: ‘I thought I knew Spanish but I can’t understand a word of this’. Chile is a very interesting country. It has the most beautiful nature and diverse landscapes across the country and the people are very warming and welcome. But they also have their quirks. For instance, a lot of people think South American countries are horrible with their administration. Well, that is certainly true about Chile. Everything is documented and (in my opinion) it completely went beyond the point of being useful. Within two weeks of arriving I knew the document number of my passport by heart since I had to fill it out literally everywhere. Bus to a different city? ID-number. Go into the city park? ID-number. Sometimes even in the supermarket. Then we have the language. Officially it is Spanish but they call it Chileño themselves. Not surprising, since the pronunciation of the

Fun in the desert of Bolivia!

The peaks of the Andes in spring. words is different and they use a lot of words that are not in the Spanish dictionary. Even my Spanish colleague took two months to properly understand the Chilean language. So even though I thought I could speak some Spanish, I had to go back to basics and start over again. And I had to, since only a very small percentage of the population speaks anything else than Spanish/Chilean. I work here at the astronomy department of the ‘Universidad de Chile’. Why as an Electrical Engineer? Well, I work in the instrumentation team that develops the new equipment for

the big telescopes in Chile like ALMA. So I work in Santiago at the observatory at Cerro Calan. My assignment is developing an orthomode transducer in digital. Normally, an orthomode transducer is an element in a telescope that enables the splitting of the polarization of the incoming electromagnetic signal. However, also in astronomy the trend is changing to digital for more accurate measurements. So I am working on implementing the transducer on an FPGA board. My weekends are used to explore the country. Chile is as wide as the Netherlands but 5000 km long. In the far north you have the driest desert in the world, which (as you travel south) changes into a Mediterranean climate and afterwards into a temperate climate. In my first three months of my stay I have explored the north of Chile with highlights such as: Valle de Elqui, the Atacama desert and Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. The fourth and fifth month are used to explore the middle to near south, and in a month I have 3 weeks of holiday. In that time I will travel to the far south and go to the world famous landscapes of Patagonia. Thinking back to the first thought I had when I arrived here, I think I now have an answer to that. I did this because it is an once-ina-lifetime experience and one of the most awesome and exciting things I have done so far in my life!

December 2014| 25

IDepartment

Stella goes USA

By: Jirry Pons

Stella has found her way to many corners of the world. Of course there was her first great trip to Australia, where she won the Cruiser Class of the World Solar Challenge. Shortly after, Singapore was her next stop and even when she was back home Stella went on trips through Europe. To Copenhagen, Hannover, and London, all to show more people how real solar mobility is. Last September, she visited her fourth continent, North America. In Detroit and in the Californian sunshine, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, she was turning heads on the roads and at every stop.

Detroit: Motor City

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n the 8th of September our trip labelled “Stella goes USA” started in Detroit, aka “Motor City”, at the International Transport System World Congress (ITS in short). The ITS is all about top of the art high-tech innovations combined with the latest technologies in the automotive industry. The future of automotive is found here and of course that makes it a great place to present Stella to the US public. The Car-2-Car communication, developed by our sponsors Cohda Wireless and NXP, was one of the main features of Stella we were showing of.

Onward to the golden Californian sunshine

After a couple of days in Detroit the adventure really got started. Two of our team members drove a truck with Stella inside down the 4000 kilometre road leading to Los Angeles. When our truckers arrived on the 15th of September, we prepared her to get ready for a trip down Highway One. This highway is the beautiful coastal road that leads from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Car-2-Car communication

The beautiful scenic route down Highway One

A familiar, wonderful feeling

The next day it was time to really turn some heads. We started off at Plugshare in Santa Monica and on the first day we were driving towards Paso Robles, the overnight stop along the route to San Francisco. It all felt a bit similar to the World Solar Challenge, driving in convoy, using CB communication to communicate between cars, with the sunshine always in our backs, but at the same time it also felt like an amazing holiday, to take Stella out in California.

Stella being a star on Highway One

The scenic views down the road were amazing, but the most amazing thing were the reactions we got from other drivers. People in the cars next to Stella all were shocked and astonished when they saw Stella, trying to take pictures of her and even attempting to take selfies with Stella in the background, while smiling the whole time. The attention

Stella can communicate to the world via a new standard of Wi-Fi, developed for the automotive industry. With this communication, complex problems like emissions, congestions, and safety can be tackled. With this technology it could be possible to drive in convoy, to intervene at near crashes, to give a warning when dangerous infrastructure conditions occur, and to communicate with traffic lights. The possibilities are seemingly endless and several examples of the technology could be experienced by participants through a ride in Stella at ITS.

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got even better at our first mid-day stop at the Santa Barbara harbour where we lunched. It was so cool to see how enthusiastic Americans are about Stella. Once you get to tell them our story they really support it on the fly. But I guess the idea of a car that fuels itself by the sun is pretty attractive to people living in such a sunny state of America.

License and registration please? One of my personal favourite moments of this first day in California was when a police car spotted us driving in a suburban area. At the time I was sitting in Stella as a passenger and I could see on our rear view system that the police car started to follow us. When we hit a traffic light, the officer of the law was creeping forward in the lane next to us, inspecting us very carefully. As I looked towards him through the side window he didn’t seem particularly amused, especially not by me waving towards him. In the end he called in our hard earned license plate number and drove off, since Stella was neatly registered in the US.

Arriving in lovely San Francisco The rest of our trip went off without a hitch. It still felt pretty insane to roll down a hill on the highway with 120 kilometres per hour in your self-made solar car. But the elevation of the Californian roads never proved to be a problem for Stella, not even the crazy steep high way entrance we had to take right after

Department I champion, but also a Guinness World Record holder. After the parade lots of EV-fanatics were really interested in Stella, which lead to some nice talks and chats.

Inspiring young hearts while feeling like a rock star

Stella in Detroit getting checked by the Michigan State Police running into a red light. After a stop on the pier of Santa Cruz, we finally arrived in the Golden Gate Park, where we parked Stella in front of a Dutch windmill, of all things considered! We were welcomed in the residence of the consul general in San Francisco, which concluded our amazing, beautiful and exciting trip down Highway One.

Silicon Valley meets Stella One of the biggest collections of some of the largest technological companies, Silicon Valley, was our next stop. In the showroom of Tesla Motors, we met several battery and power-train engineers, which were very interested in Stella. It was really nice to get some in-depth technical questions from people working on one of the most innovative cars of this time. Our sponsor NXP also was a really nice stop, where the employees of NXP got to meet Stella, while enjoying some lovely

ice-cream in the hot sun. We ended the day with meeting and eating with our colleagues of Stanford University Solar Team. They got a fourth place in the Challenger Class of the World Solar Challenge and it was great to chat with them and relive some of the adventures we had down under, not even a year ago.

Setting a Guinness Book World Record

Our quick visit to Silicon Valley was great, but the Bay Area still had more to offer for Stella. In Sacramento, the capitol of California, we got to meet the EPA Secretary and other officials from the State Capitol. Only a day later we found ourselves in Cupertino to participate in the largest parade of full-electric vehicles ever. In total a whopping 507 vehicles entered and Stella had the honour of being the fourth vehicle that started in the parade. From this moment on, Stella was not only a world

During our time in America we received some very warm welcomes, but the warmest welcome must have been that of the Rio Linda Preparatory Academy. When we arrived we already saw the Dutch flag the kids had painted on the wall of their middle school with a lovely figure of Stella on it. We all felt so humble and grateful to be a part of Solar Team Eindhoven in these moments. The kids were so crazily excited to see Stella and wanted to take pictures with us, give us hugs, high fives and even receive our autographs! It was insane, but mostly insanely wonderful. We hope to have inspired some of these kids to follow their dreams and who knows, maybe, just maybe we have reached a couple of future Stella builders!

Another trip to remember Right now, as I’m writing this, Stella is in a freight container being shipped back to Eindhoven by boat. We are already home, remembering this great trip we made. From the business congress in Detroit, to the kids we got to inspire in California, it has all been really amazing. We also return even more convinced than ever that electrical driving is the future. Meeting with companies like Tesla and all the EV-fanatics we met down the road really solidified our believe in this. The next step will be taking it solar and I believe we have already convinced at least a small portion of Americans of this.

Stella driving on the public road next to a school bus, her nickname given by competitors during the World Solar Challenge was The Magic School Bus

December 2014| 27

IVaria

Hildebrandslied

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ontrary to the wealth of Icelandic stories still extant, there are almost no Germanic myths and sagas from continental Europe. One of the very few is the Hildebrandslied, discovered in a German library around 1715. The manuscript likely originates from the monastery of Fulda in central Germany, where in the 830s it was written down on two empty pages of a theological codex. After its rediscovery, the book eventually found its way to the library of Kassel, where it was kept safe for many years. But alas, in World War II disaster struck. Many of the US soldiers were little better than their German counterparts and stole every bit of art they could lay their hands on from their rightful German owners. Such was the fate of the Hildebrandslied. After a number of shady antiquarians, it finally came into the possession of the Office of Cultural Affairs in 1954 and was returned to the Kassel library.

By: Fer Radstake

the manuscript, the same shady antiquarians had tried to remove the stamp with a range of chemicals (in the process irreparably damaging the book). When that failed to work, they had simply cut out the whole page. It wasn’t until 1972 that this last missing part was finally found, in the archives of the “renowned” Rosenbach Company. As most Germanic poems, the Hildebrandslied was written in alliterative verse (rhyme only entered European poetry in the 12th century). As I’ve sought to preserve this in my translation, I’ll shortly describe the rules. Every line is composed of two half-lines (here separated by the “/” character). At least one of the stressed syllables of the first half-line has to alliterate with at least one of the second half-line. Of the second half-line, the first stressed syllable always has to alliterate. The background of the story is the late 5th century, when the Germanic Odoacer disposed

But where had the first page gone? Ostrogothic fibula from Theoderic’s times But where had the first page gone? This page had contained the property stamp of the library. In an attempt to disguise the origin of

First page of the Hildebrandslied

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of the last West Roman emperor and established the Kingdom of Italy, nominally as vassal of the Eastern Roman empire. In practice however, he was entirely independent and increasingly becoming a menace to emperor Zeno. Meanwhile, the Ostrogoths were living as “foederati” (allies) on Roman soil under their recently appointed king Theoderic. They too were becoming dangerous and rebellious, so Zeno played the two nominal vassals out against each other, and incited Theoderic to conquer Italy and rule there as his viceroy. This is where the poem starts, between 488 and 493, at the onset of a great battle between the two Germanic kings. As was customary in Germanic culture, in each camp the strongest warrior was dressing up for a man-to-man fight against the enemy’s chosen... I once was told, / that between two armies Two heroes, / Hildebrand and Hadubrand, Checked their gear, / girded their swords, Put on their mailcoats / and their mighty armour, When they went / towards the battlefield.

The elder Hildebrand, / Heribrand’s son, Asked the younger, / “Of all world’s men, Who’s your father, / and which is your family? Name me one / and I know the others, All nobles in this land / are known to me!” Hadubrand answered: / “The old and wise Who lived back then / told me that Hildebrand’s my father’s name, / Hadubrand is mine. He left these lands / long ago, Fled from Odoacer / in the army of Theoderic. He left his son / and spouse at home To fend for themselves / as he fled east. As Theoderic’s grudge / against Odoacer grew My father became the / friendless man’s1 favourite. He always fought / at the front of the army, He loved the battle, / brave men liked him.” “God in heaven2,” / Hildebrand spoke, “You’d never let combat / such next of kin!3” He took off a beautiful / bracelet of gold, Given to him / by the Hunnic4 king. “In friendship I give / this golden ring!”

Varia I Hadubrand, son / of Hildebrand, said: “One should receive / these so-called gifts With spear and sword, / and shield no less! You try to trap me, / then throw your spear. Only because / of your cunning you’re old. Sailors who sailed / the southern seas, Told me he fell / fighting the foe: Hildebrand, son / of Heribrand’s dead!” Hildebrand, son / of Heribrand, said: “Your equipment shows / you serve a good king, And weren’t forced / to flee like your father. Alas, my Lord, / my life is tough. Sixty winters / and summers5 I wandered And in lands far away / I waged war. I was killed / in no castle I conquered; Now shall my son / strike me with his sword; If I don’t kill him first, / I’ll fall by his blade! From an elderly such as I, / you can easily win The battle-gear, / if you’re bold enough, And if you’ve got the right, / my riches you can take.” “No single hero,” / Hadubrand said, “would walk from this fight / that you want so fiercely. Now let us start / and see who’ll lose Not only his armour / but also his life; The victor will keep / the fallen one’s treasure!” Then they struck / with their sharpened spears, But those got stuck / in their shields’ wood. So they slashed / their swords with strength. The heavy steel / hit their shields Until the battered / boards broke, Shattered by their weapons / […]

The mausoleum of Theoderic the Great in Ravenna At the end of the second page, the text suddenly breaks off leaving the eventual fate of Hildebrand and Hadubrand uncertain. Both the 14th century “Jüngeres Hildebrandslied” and the 13th century “Þiðrekssaga” tell us a story of eventual reconciliation. This happy end however is most likely an alteration from

At the end of the second page, the text suddenly breaks off later times, suiting to the courtly audience of the middle ages. The earlier Germanics would have preferred a more tragic fate in which one of the two dies. This is preserved in a few other stories, where Hildebrand confesses to having killed his own son. Below is a rendition of how this original ending could have looked like.

Ostrogothic earrings

But as the father neared / the noble fighter, the son struck / his sword with strength. Hildebrand dodged / the daunting blow and taunted his dying / treacherous child: “You learned to fight / from a lass6, and like a lass / you lost now!”

The heroes then fought / till Hadubrand fell, Hurt by the weapon / wielded by Hildebrand. “Have my sword,” / Hadubrand said. “You’re the winner, / I yield to you!

Then he sat / by his dying descendant, And held his hand / as the heavy breathing of his son / slowly ceased. A tear fell / from his face and he wept / with watery eyes: “Oh Lord in heaven, / let this hero peacefully rest / in your realm above! Me awaits / merely woe: I am cursed, / I killed my kin!”

Theoderic. Although the story is purely Germanic in nature, both armies were highly Christianised in the 5th century. 3 Thereby asserting he is Hadubrand’s lost father! 4 The Ostrogoths had been vassals of the Huns from ca. 370 – 454. 5 60 seasons divided by 2 seasons a year equals 30 years. 6 Hadubrand’s mother, Hildebrand’s ex-wife. The treacherous blow and the taunt are preserved in the Jüngeres Hildebrandslied and Þiðrekssaga. 1 2

December 2014| 29

IPUZZLE

Puzzle New puzzle Objective / Rules • You have to enter the letters A to Y in the grid.

Previous puzzle The winner of the previous puzzle is Martijn van Eerdt.

• Every letter is next to its predecessor from the alphabet, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. • The clues around the edge tell you which row, column or diagonal each letter is in. Please send your answer to [email protected] before January 9.

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Varia I

Column: Mega satisfaction By: Corine Spoor – Kolvenbag

A

t first instance, it seems straightforward: two departments move to a new building. The people in the two departments work in offices and laboratories, so the new building consists of offices and laboratories. Pack everything at point A, transport it to point B, unpack – ready. And that’s where the ‘straightforward’ part of my column for Connecthor ends. The two departments are spread out over eight buildings. Some groups are already located at their permanent places in buildings other than Flux, but still ‘A’ quickly becomes ‘A to E’. And those groups are all different. Different people, different processes, different atmosphere, different method of working, size, etc. It is this difference that makes our academic environment so interesting and exciting. I agree entirely. But for a move like this a blueprint that can be copied would be really useful in some situations. Although – the very fact that we have thought about every room in Flux and worked together to find the ideal solution makes Flux our building. It is common knowledge that Flux offers fewer square meters than we are used to. In the old situation, every group had found a way of working which fitted the character of the group and the people who make up that group. All these methods of working have been reinvented, or rather: they will be reinvented in the coming months. The foundation for this has been worked out in the Flux workshops and set out in the so-called ‘vlekkenplan’ or blueprint. This foundation is often completely different to the old situation. Everyone thinking together ‘out of the box’ was the key. Although Flux is smaller than we have been used to, we have enabled the building to breathe, for example by using the space for PhD students creatively. In addition, we have managed to create around 5 places for masters’ students on every floor. The masters’ students will have a place at the centre of the research group. The departments and groups will keep their own character and identity in the great Flux entirety. The creative solution is a tricky puzzle! Most of us will be familiar with moving house in our personal lives. Staring at an attic full of junk, perspiring, taking a quick break. Unbelievable what people collect and store! Here at the TU/e there is not so much junk as

such, but that is compensated for by paper: files, books, exams, dissertations, magazines, reports etc. And this cannot be moved to Flux, at least not in a physical form. So it has to be digitalized! We have also implemented this changeround. We have bundled forces, all archives have been taken in hand and where possible, have been digitalized. We are all set for a digital future in Flux! And then the labs. Office furniture and equipment is relatively easy to move, but the laboratories are a completely different matter. Very expensive, large, heavy and fragile set-ups have to be transported to Flux. Continuity is crucial: if something goes wrong it can have devastating consequences. Moving to Flux

cannot be done just by completing a checklist. It’s an exercise in precision! Every step and every choice we make brings a new split in the road. Do we turn left, right or carry on straight ahead? Or perhaps a step backwards? The many aspects that we want to deal with optimally form a puzzle that can only be solved with creativity and mutual agreement. It will succeed thanks to the many colleagues from the groups and service centres, who have put so much effort into the Flux project. We’re almost there. And me? Just seeing how this process is unfolding gives me energy. For me, Flux is a mega job with mega satisfaction!

December 2014| 31

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