Solar Challenge Solar Team Eindhoven wins World Solar Challenge

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

24 December 2013

Solar Challenge

Solar Team Eindhoven wins World Solar Challenge

Internships abroad in three countries | Autonomous Quadcopters | Valedictory lecture Paul van den Bosch

IEditorial Connecthor Volume 6, issue 4 - December 2013 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: Lulu Chan Anjo Peeters

Edgar van Megen

Editors: Manon Eijsvogel Georgios Exarchakos Pauline van Gelder Jerom de Haan Esmee Huismans Suzanne Kuijlaars Fer Radstake Elles Raaijmakers Rianne Sanders Bart Smolders Harold Vervoort Cover: Solar Team Eindhoven with Stella. Photo by Bart van Overbeeke Photography 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 3221 or (040) 247 3223, [email protected] Web: http://www.thor.edu http://www.tue.nl/ee Advertisers: Page 6: Brunel Page 18: AME Page 28: Thales Back cover: VanDerLande Deadline copy next issue: 3 January 2014

Copyright © Connecthor 2013 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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L

ooking back on the year 2013, it has definitely been a good year for our department, with a great number of new students and a lot of awards and recognitions for the department. In this Connecthor we bring you up to date with some of the highlights of the past period.

One of the major highlights was of course that the Solar Team Eindhoven, participating in the World Solar Challenge 2013, has won the competition for solar-powered family cars. The team and its car Stella, the world’s first solar powered family car, is the winner of the Cruiser class. In this edition you will find the personal experience of our proud dean Ton Backx who was present in Australia during the race. You might have noticed it when you opened this edition: Connector has changed to a new layout, more English articles than before, and as of next year we will introduce special editions. Also, the Connecthor editorial board has a new member, Rianne Sanders. We are very pleased that Rianne has joined us and we are convinced that she will be an asset to the Connecthor editorial board. Looking ahead, a lot will change for our department in 2014. Alfons Bruekers, who is currently Managing Director for the Applied Physics and Mechanical Engineering departments, will be appointed at the Electrical Engineering Department and at the same time will continue to manage the Applied Physics department. As such, he will be responsible for the so-called ‘Flux Departments’. And of course we will move to the Flux building next year. This will undoubtedly give us much inspiration for new articles in the 2014 editions of the Connecthor. Of course we warmly welcome suggestions and ideas for future editions and you can contact us via [email protected]. We wish you and your family Happy Holidays and a successful and healthy 2014! The Connecthor editorial board

Content I 2 Redactioneel

14

4

Board Issues

7

From the President

8 Introducing... 10 News 11 Avans students say “Hello!“ 12 News on education EE & AU 14 World Solar Challenge 16 Distortion in power networks 18 Being part of success is motivating 19 IEEE Day great success 19 IEEEXtreme 7.0 20 Internship Canada 22 Photo page 24 Creating autonomous quadcopters 26 Interning in Singapore 27 4000+ op de Open Dagen 28 Thales Nederland: een interview 30 Examencommissie en instellingstoets 32 PhD activity of the EES group 33 The lay of Hlöð

World Solar Challenge

36 Afscheid Paul van den Bosch

Read more about the performance of Stella in Australia on page 14.

38 Future laptop light-connected 40 Internship in Graz

Open Dagen

De Open Dagen van oktober zijn zeer goed bezocht. Ontdek hier meer over op pagina 27.

42 Puzzle 43 Can we trust time travel records?

27 Internships

Three students wrote about their internships abroad. Read their experiences on pages 20, 26 and 40.

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20

19 IEEE Day

For the annual IEEE Day, various pies were baked, ranging from good to even better, for the Baking Contest. Read more on page 19.

Autonomous quadcopters

Interested in reading about quadcopters getting more and more autonomous? Check out this article on page 24.

December 2013| 03

IDepartment

Board Issues

W

e are approaching the end of the year, and that is always a good moment to look backwards and also ahead. In the Board of the EE department, my role is to monitor and facilitate the research activities in our department. Looking back, we have done very well in the past year. A lot of new activities have been started, and also a lot have been concluded successfully. A myriad of research projects is running, in a wide range of fields. To go into the details of each project is of course far beyond the scope of this short story. In general, we were quite successful in executing projects as well as in acquiring new ones. It has become quite noticeable that in these difficult economic tides, industry is cutting back on research, and needs to focus on their short-term market interests. Hence our role in looking further ahead and providing our industry with nice new ideas is highly appreciated. On the other hand, however, our government is seriously reducing the funding for research. The Dutch ‘aardgasbaten’ are expiring, and new funding sources have to be found. When we propose research projects in the Dutch research programmes, industrial partners are often requested to participate. They have to contribute not only in-kind (e.g. by

04 |  connecthor 

By: Ton Koonen

participating in advisory meetings of the project) but also by contributing real money. And that has become quite scarce in their economic struggles… The Dutch government is trying to streamline the interaction between academic research and industrial innovation by means of the ‘Topsectoren-beleid’ in which large parts of the government’s funding money are concentrated. This process is not running smoothly yet, amongst others being hampered by the own contribution which the industrials have to bring in. The Board of our university has recognized these issues, and has introduced the Impulse programme by which some TU/e funding was made available to overcome the temporary dip in the governmental funding. The TU/e funding is meant for creating a number of PhD positions, which have to be matched by at least an equal number of PhD positions funded by industrial partners in a new joint research programme. The Impulse programme is getting shape now, and some nice programmes with major industrial partners such as NXP, KEMA, and Philips together with the Maxima Medisch Centrum are being set up. Another major source of funding for our research activities is provided by the European Commission. The 7th Framework Programme (FP7) in total had a funding budget of about 53 billion € in the period 2007-2013, with 8.1 billion € in its final year 2013. This is spread out over a number of sub-programmes, the major one (2/3 of the budget) being the Cooperation programme addressing joint R&D between academics and industrials. FP7 also encompasses the Ideas programme for individual grants for groundbreaking research (led by

the European Research Council), and the People programme for mobility actions (e.g. the Marie Curie actions). As a department, we have been quite successful in FP7, with numerous projects in the Cooperation programme and also some successes in the Ideas programme (1 ERC Starting Grant, 2 ERC Advanced Grants) and the People programme (Marie Curie grants). The EC-funded projects offer an international platform for research cooperation, they thus widen the scope of our research and give a good visibility of our results. Moreover, the EC funding also covers a large part of our overhead costs, which is especially welcome in view of the diminishing income from our government. External funding, also for our permanent staff, is becoming crucial to keep the operations in our EE department running! The FP7 is coming to a close this year. Luckily, the EC has already prepared an even larger programme, the HORIZON 2020 programme, with a budget of about 70 billion € over the

Department I

period 2014-2020, and which will follow up on the FP7 closely. The H2020 programme is putting a larger emphasis on the big societal challenges which urgently need solutions from R&D activities. It has three main themes: •

•

•

Excellent Science (budget 24 billion €): for individual research grants (ERC), cooperative research (Future and Emerging Technologies, FET), career development of researchers (Marie Curie etc.), and world-class research infrastructures) Competitive Industries (17 B€): for promoting industrial capabilities in Key Enabling Technologies (KETs; 5.9 B€) including micro- and nano-electronics and photonics; and for support for innovation by small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Tackling Societal Challenges (31 B€): for meeting the political priorities formulated in the Europe 2020 strategy, encompassing the climate change, the ageing of our society, food safety and security,

and affordable sustainable energy, smart green transport, and secure, inclusive and innovative societies. When comparing with the FP7 programme, the Ideas and People parts are now grouped in the Excellent Science theme, and the Cooperation part in the Competitive Industries and Tackling Societal Challenges themes. The H2020 funding rules will differ from the FP7 ones, e.g. being academics we can get 100% funding rate; but there also is a single 25% flat overhead rate. Industrials get 100% funding for research too, but 70% for innovation. There will be more emphasis on public-private partnerships. H2020 aims to transform Europe into the Innovation Union, and thus to position Europe better in the globally very competitive scene. Given the three themes along which the research in our EE department is organized, Connected World, Care and Cure, and Smart Sustainable Society, we make a great fit to many of the Societal Challenges formulated in the H2020 programme. The formal adoption of the H2020 programme by the EU Council is expected in November/December this

year. The first Calls for Proposals are planned to appear on December 11, and the deadline for submitting project proposals likely will be around April 2014. More information can be found via the EC site http://ec.europa. eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm , or via the Dutch Agentschap NL site http:// www.agentschapnl.nl/subsidies-regelingen/ horizon-2020 On November 12, there is a start event in the RAI Amsterdam for getting more in-depth information. There is much to be gained for maintaining and extending our research activities, so let’s get ready to get involved in Horizon 2020! Ton Koonen Oct. 25, 2013

December 2013| 05

Association I

From the President

By: Esmee Huismans

C

hanges, they occur everywhere and every day. The main change within Thor was that there is a new board. The board now consists of six students, instead of the four students it consisted of last year. Since the change of boards, I am the new president. I have the honor to write this column for this year. I will start with properly introducing myself. My name is Esmee Huismans and I am the third female president Thor has seen. I live in Eindhoven and I grew up in Oss. I am 20 years old and I really enjoy being important for our association.

A thing that never changes within Thor is that the new board has to formulate several focus points. These points are related to things which happen during the coming year or have happened in the past. A major change which occurred within the TU/e, is the Bachelor College. Therefore one of our points was Bachelor College and making sure Thor offers something for the new students. Giving them the opportunity to develop themselves through several activities like workshops, excursions but also making sure there is enough time to socialize.

We have had the opportunity to be the board for some time now. Three months have gone by, with us as the Thor board. Now I am used to being president. It was a big change for me. People expect you to know a lot of things and give them information about everything which happens in our association. In the beginning, that was difficult, but I had the support from my fellow board members. As the board you have several obligations, some you might like, others you might not. But the experience of being part of the board in general is most important.

One thing you are expected to do during your year as board is to organize activities. Taking care of your members by offering them something. We will offer them a place where they can enjoy themselves and keep on learning. Thor is a place with unity. We want to preserve and strengthen this aspect during the year. We are glad to see that there are more students attending both studies, Electrical Engineering and Automotive, and that we have quite a few international members. However the greatest change our association has seen in a while has yet to come. In the beginning of the year 2015 we will move to a new building. This will be the building

Flux. Unfortunately, we will have less space, therefore we will have to reduce our size. We have to work closely with for example the boards of our master associations and take the different opinions from our members into account. To make everything go as smooth as possible collaboration is extremely important. Keeping up the communication and improving it. Even though the actual move does not take place in the year that I am president. The progress towards this event is also really important. Nobody likes major changes and this is a major change. Luckily we work with people who want the best for Thor. So I am positive that we will turn this into a great change for our association. Changes, they occur everywhere and every day. Whether big or small, positive or negative, what matters is how you handle these changes. Most important is that you have the right people around to handle them as they come along. ‘Veel Gedonder!’ Esmee Huismans President der e.t.s.v. Thor

December 2013| 07

IDepartment

Introducing... H 2013.

ello, everyone! I am Hailong Jiao. I just joined the Electronic Systems group as an assistant professor in September

I spent five years in Hong Kong and received my PhD degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in December, 2012. My major research area is low power and variations-tolerant VLSI circuit design. I have experience in multi-threshold voltage circuit design, power gating, power distribution network reliability analysis, low power and robust SRAM circuit design, and device/ circuit co-design. I also have great interests in 3D integration, emerging devices, and design for manufacturability. If you are also interested in circuit design or have any good ideas about research, feel free to contact me. You can also track my updated news at my personal webpage: http://www.es.ele.tue. nl/~hjiao/.

D

ear all,

Let me take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am Jeroen Tegenbosch, 36 years old and I live in Helmond with my girlfriend and two daughters. I recently started as a project manager in the group Electromechanics & Power Electronics (EPE) headed by prof.dr. Elena Lomonova. My initial focus is initiating, coordinating and supporting European funded projects that fit the group’s strategy. I could describe the first couple of weeks with just one word; fantastic. It is really a privilege to work in an environment consisting of young researchers with (literally) a lot of energy to drive forward. Before I joined EPE, I worked at Philips for almost 12 years. I started within the Research department (read: invent) and ended up at the Innovation lab (read: implement), both with a strong focus on the TV business. Within these departments, I occupied several positions and ended up as project manager. I am absolutely confident that this experience will help me in being an added value for my current position at the TU/e. In my spare time I like to exercise sports, spend time with friends and family, and enjoy life as much as possible.

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Department I

H

i, my name is Bart Nelissen and in June of this year I joined TU/e Innovation Lab as a Business Developer with a focus on Health. In this role I can support researchers in the valorization of their research by promoting collaborative research projects with industry, patenting and licensing of university technology and setting up new spin-off companies. I can also provide input in proposals for funding where a valorization strategy is required. I did a PhD in Organic Chemistry at the Radboud University in Nijmegen and then moved to the University of York (UK) where I lead a number of Drug Discovery project from very early stages up to preclinical development over a period of eight years. Whilst

doing this I became more and more interested in commercializing university based research and decided to pursue a career in this field. For the last four years I have been working at the University of Antwerp in Belgium where I was responsible for valorization of research in the biomedical domain, working mainly with researchers of the Faculties of Pharmacy and Medicine. I am looking forward to working with the researchers in this Faculty and if you have any ideas on Health applications based on your research but don’t know how to go about realizing this you can always contact me for support.

A

big Hello to everyone!

This Ali Al-Rawi! I was born in Baghdad, Iraq on September 11th, 1985. I’m an electrical engineer, as I gained my BSEE in University of Baghdad, Iraq, and Applied Science University, Amman, Jordan, in 2008. In 2009, I got enrolled at Chalmers University of Technology, Electrical Engineering. Since 2011 I was conducting a one year research project in which I have developed a wideband MIMO antenna. The project was a collaboration between Chalmers and industrial partners. The work was a real success, and I am really happy about it. The work resulted in multiple publications in which I authored and co-authored. In addition, the work has been patent protected. Now, I am a PhD at the TU/e, Electrical Engineering, Electromagnetics group, and I am filled with happiness to join the group’s research activities. I am working on the mm-wave integrated antenna system with electronic beam alignment for point to point communication links (INTEGRANT). Therefore, I am very eager to achieve excellent work. I also like to do sport for example, football, swimming, badminton, and jogging. In my free time, I enjoy meeting up with my friends and do some activities such as watching a movie, wandering around, playing a game, etc. Therefore, I will be happy to have more friends since I am new in town. Your friend Ali

December 2013| 09

INews Farewell Paul Tiel Groenestege

Best bachelor student

On Thursday, August 22, 2013 Paul Tiel Groenestege had his Farewell reception. During his reception he received a Volunteers Medal from the city of Eindhoven.

Manuel van Rijn has been nominated for an excellence grant from the TU/e. He is one of the ten best bachelor students of 2013.

For 47 years, he was a staff member of Personnel and Organization service and for more than 7 years he was working at the Electrical Engineering Department. We wish him and his family all the best in the future.

Kivi Niria prize Yan Shi Yan Shi, who got her PhD cum laude in the ECO group in May 2013 and now works at Genexis, has won the KIvI NIRIA Telecom Prize 2013, on September 26, for her PhD work on Converged Optical In-Home Networks. The Prize is a yearly award for the best PhD work in the Netherlands in the area of telecommunications.

‘Vlaai’ from the Rector

Educational award for Prof. Baltus

On September 24, the Rector Magnificus of Eindhoven University of Technology treated the Department of Electrical Engineering to ‘vlaai’ on the occasion of reaching the milestone of 150 first-year students.

On the second day of September the new academic year started with a beautiful opening. At the opening, the educational awards for best bachelor and master lecturer were presented. This year a professor from our own faculty won one of these; Professor dr. ir. Peter Baltus received the award for best master lecturer of the year. Students liked his lectures very much, since the slides always contain a little bit of humor to get the students’ attention. He uses the clickers to check the foreknowledge of the students and to check whether the lecture material is clear to them. But the most important reason he was honored with the award is his incredible enthusiasm. Or like his students described him: dedicated, intelligent, enthusiastic, and a little bit crazy. The editorial board of the Connecthor would like to congratulate prof. Baltus with his award.

D

ag beste lezers, hier een groet vanuit het zonnige Boulder, Colorado! Onlangs kreeg ik (red. Joop aan den Toorn) te horen dat ik de Connecthorvlaai heb gewonnen indien ik een kleine bijdrage wilde leveren in de vorm van een stukje over de government shutdown in Amerika die me ongevraagd werd toebedeeld. Zoals jullie misschien weten vindt mijn stage plaats bij het National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Wat de relevantie van het woord ‘National’ hierin is kan je vast wel raden: NIST is al een paar weken gesloten omdat men in het “Congress” ruzie maakt over de financiering van hun overheidsprogramma’s. Eigenlijk begon de shutdown vrij onverwacht. Het is namelijk elk jaar zo dat de Democraten en Republikeinen het niet eens zijn over hoe en welke programma’s er precies worden gefinancierd. Ook is het gebruikelijk dat ze beiden geen millimeter toegeven tot op het allerlaatste moment, althans, zo werd mij verteld. Dit jaar echter kon de extreem rechtste Republikeinse Tea Party de nieuwe wetten

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over medische zorg, ook wel ObamaCare genoemd, niet verkroppen hetgeen uiteindelijk resulteerde in het deels sluiten van de overheidsinstanties. Waarom dit twee weken lang moest duren is omdat Amerikaanse politici het veel belangrijker vinden elkaar daarna de schuld te geven in plaats van naar een oplossing te werken, zoals kleuters dat ook graag doen. Voor mij betekende dit dat ik samen met mijn ‘non-essential’ collega’s bij NIST vier uur de tijd had om apparatuur uit te schakelen en een autoreply in te stellen. Omdat de beveiliging van NIST belachelijk strikt is kon ik letterlijk niet bij mijn data om thuis verder te werken. Er zat derhalve niets anders op dan me te vermaken met hiken, motorrijden en uitgaan, heel vervelend. Als je hier rond vraagt aan mensen wat ze er nou precies van vinden krijg je zonder uitzondering een antwoord met een zucht. Laatst nog zag ik een opiniepeiling waarin de waardering van het “Congress” door de bevolking

lager stond dan spruitjes en zelfs lager dan die voor de band Nickelback, ik bedoel maar. In deze regio werkt ongeveer 24% van de bevolking in een lab voor de overheid, maar indirect hebben ook veel cateraars, aannemers en andere partijen weinig te doen gehad. Vandaag echter kreeg ik de blijde boodschap: we moeten weer aan de slag! Verder wil ik nog even kwijt dat ik langer bezig was een vlaai te vinden dan dit stukje te schrijven omdat Amerikanen de vlaai nog niet helemaal snappen. Zoals je kunt zien is het ze bijna gelukt er een te maken.

Varia I

Avans students say “Hello!”

By: Roel van Uden and Maikel van de Schans

L

et us introduce ourselves, we are Roel van Uden and Maikel van de Schans. We both attend Avans University as bachelor software development students and have recently started our graduation project with the Electro Optical Communications (ECO) group of the Electrical Engineering department at TU/e. The goal of the project is to decrease the offline processing time of an existing digital signal processing solution for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) optical transmission systems. The project is an assignment for Dr. Chigo Okonkwo and is supervised by Dr. Georgios Exarchakos. Our educational background focuses on technologies required to develop desktop and mobile software, such as database technologies and user-interface design. So in comparison, the goal of decreasing offline processing time requires a vastly different mindset and technological expertise. In contrast to a typical bachelor software development graduation project, we have been provided with the freedom to research and act independently. This freedom provides both a challenge and, in comparison, a much higher work pressure, but also provides us with the challenge we were actively seeking for. Dealing with the ultimate goal of a reduced offline processing time, we set out to learn about the existing platform and used technologies. The most significant challenge we have been facing was the fact that our education does not focus on a mathematical background, which has forced us to go through a rather severe mathematical crash course to achieve something that would resemble a basic understanding of existing

computational code. Though, this lack of thorough understanding did provide an opportunity for improvement. Instead of seeing a logical flow of mathematical expressions, we have been seeing a flow that makes little sense in terms of processor optimization and have been achieving considerable

improvements by restructuring the existing code flow with the just-in-time compiler in mind. Continuing with the restructured platform, we aim for changes and new technologies to further reduce offline processing time. We have chosen to use a divide-and-conquer strategy by rewriting the networking architecture to reduce networking overhead and allow for parallel computation and data acquisition, the implementation of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), and a distributedcomputing platform. The required knowledge for the implementation of these technologies is applicable to our future as software developers, as the expectations of an enduser continue to shift away from traditional desktop software in favor of web-based solutions capable of serving millions on concurrent users in real-time. We are looking forward to see what we can do to push both ourselves and the digital signal processing solution to the limits.

December 2013| 11

IDepartment

News on education EE & AU By: Jan Vleeshouwers

T

his academic year, the number of 1st-year students in the bachelor studies of Electrical Engineering and Automotive has increased again, to 111 EE-students and 42 AU-students. Since we exceeded the 150 students, the university board treated us to “vlaai”, just like two years ago. For the Electrical Engineering program, we have most certainly left behind a prolonged period of low influx, with about 75 new students each year. This period started in the 1990’s and reached an all-time low of 50 in 2009. But we are still far away from the peak years of the 1980’s, when numbers exceeded 250. For Automotive, we do not have a long history to compare to. Starting with 30 students in 2011, the numbers are growing, but not as much as we hoped for. The current increase in influx is remarkable because of the overall decrease in the number of VWO-graduates with an appropriate diploma. The number of VWO-NT-graduates (“Nature & Technology”) will decrease even further in the coming years. We can point out several more or less probable causes for this growth despite the smaller “pool” of possible EE-students. A very

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obvious fact is the increasing number of foreign students, currently about 25% of the 1st-year population. We count 17 nationalities, and, surprisingly, we also have some Dutch students who are more fluent in English than in Dutch.

the 1980’s. Job prospects with an EE or AU master degree are still very good. In connection to this, possible cuts in financial support for students may also have caused students to decide to start studying immediately after finishing high-school.

Other developments have been said to cause the growing influx, but they are more speculative. Most likely, there is a relationship with economic adversity, which we also saw in

A final development that may have impact is the Bachelor College, which now entered its 2nd year at TU Eindhoven. But it is probably a little too early to attribute causality to this

Department I

new bachelor education design, because our colleagues in Delft and Twente experience a similar influx growth.

Many generation 2012 students obtained their 1st-year diploma

The bachelor students Electrical Engineering and Automotive who started their studies in September 2012, have been successful in their first year: 23 of them have completed their 1st-year program completely, and have obtained the Propedeutic diploma, 6 of them with distinction. This is 20% of those who started in September 2012 and 30% of those who reregistered this year. Although this may be a record, it is difficult to compare to previous years, because the faculty never paid much attention to 1st-year diploma statistics. The official examination committee meeting for 1st-year diplomas could just as well be in August as in September, as a result of which sometimes none of our 1st year students formally received a P-diploma within the 1st year. The graph shows numbers of diplomas for each academic year. The erratic ups and downs during the last 10 years are caused by this inconsistency in formally deciding about P-diplomas. Of course, the most prominent conclusion from the graph is that we are still nowhere near where we once were. There has been an official diploma ceremony for these students on Friday November 1st.

One student not allowed to continue the bachelor program

As a result of the BSA-procedure, on August 28th six students pleaded their case in front of the examination committee. For various reasons, they did not succeed in completing 30 credits in their first year and had to convince the examination committee of the appropriateness of their choice to study Electrical Engineering or Automotive. One student was unable to do so, and as a consequence did not get permission to continue his Electrical Engineering study in Eindhoven. Looking back to what happened to the two students who addressed the examination last year, in August 2012, we may conclude that it is difficult to draw definite conclusions on the question if a student is qualified for a study. The student who convinced the examination committee about his qualifications, all

but lived up to that; the student who could not convince the examination committee, switched to Electrical Engineering in Twente, and is currently doing well there.

Electrical Engineering not involved in accreditation follow-up

The university had a visit of the accreditation committee in the week of October 16th. Instead of the well-known program accreditations, which the faculty of Electrical Engineering most recently went through in 2010, this year the Dutch accreditation organization NVAO accredits the university as a whole. In the past year, many preparations have been made for this visit, which culminated in a so-called “Critical Self-study”. The committee took a day to talk to several representatives of the university, students and teaching staff as well as management. In accordance to the institutional level of

the accreditation, the topics were also much more abstract than in a program accreditation: the discussion was about the university view on education, how this view has been worked out in detail, how the university measures if its efforts are effective, how it organizes its activities for enhancement, and if its organizational structure is such that the university is “in control”. This buzz-word has shaped the preparations for the accreditation, and will probably do so as well for the follow-up. In the beginning of December, the committee will return to the university to study a couple of specific topics, which they consider possible weaknesses. Although it is not yet officially clear what the committee’s plans are, it is unlikely that the focus will be on the education provided by the faculty of Electrical Engineering.

December 2013| 13

IVaria

World Solar Challenge By: Ton Backx

A

fter I arrived in Adelaide, Australia on Monday October 7th I hardly could wait to hook up with the team in Alice Springs. As my flight from Adelaide to Alice Springs was on Tuesday, I just read the latest news on the competition. After our team achieved a start at pole position, they had been doing well. After the first day in the competition they ended as first in their class. So this was good news! At the end of the afternoon I could get in touch with the team. They reported that the second day went very well also. No problems were encountered and despite that the team of Bochum was slightly faster than our team. Our team still kept the leading position as they had been driving with more people in the car. I really wanted to be part of it now. On Tuesday morning, I travelled to Alice Springs, arriving there at 13:00hr. Already at 13:30hr I received a telephone call from Ben Rutten that our team had arrived in Alice Springs as first at the checkpoint. What a performance! This implied that they had driven at very high average speed. As they were permitted to load their battery after arrival, they had fully exploited both the intense power of the sun as the full battery capacity. This enabled the team to drive at an average speed of close to 100 km/hr with 4 persons sitting in the car. The top speed driven was well above 120 km/hr. Ben picked me up and I finally could join the team after travelling three days. The team spirit was

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thrilling. I was welcomed by the whole team with exciting stories on the first three days of the challenge. The winning mood inspired the team to be alert for definitely not giving up the leading position any more. Wednesday morning we had an early start with waking up at 5:00hr and preparing for the start at 8:00hr. Initially, also this racing day had a good start. Unfortunately, after some hours of racing the strategic team reported a problem with one of the maximum power point trackers. Significant part of the solar power was lost due to this problem. The car electronics were designed in such a way that the strategy team members could remotely

analyse the problem and trace the cause of it. It was decided upon to organize a short pit stop after passing the next checkpoint. Everything was prepared to loose minimum time with a provisional repair of the malfunctioning piece of electronics. At the same time also a damaged tire was changed. The whole operation only took 10 minutes. A well trained formula 1 racing team could not do any better! Due to the problems, both the Australian and the German team finished before our Solar team this day. The team members used the evening for a solid repair and check of the car. The battery was also fully charged for the final stage of the challenge. The next day charging of the battery was not allowed.

Varia I

Thursday weather conditions were very bad for solar cars: Heavy front wind and a fully clouded, rainy sky. Due to the very poor weather conditions the team had to keep the average speed of the car low in order to save sufficient battery power for finishing properly in Adelaide on Friday. The strategy team was under heavy pressure the whole day as both the Australian and the German team were driving at slightly higher average speed than our team did. At the end of the day we were building up our camp at the side of the road with the Australian team leading with close to one hour time advantage and the German team also having made up the time they had lost earlier in the race. Everybody was feeling the need to perform on Friday again to assure the first position in the cruiser class. At a camp fire, strategy was discussed again for the final racing day. Friday promised to be a better day with less wind and a sunny sky. Friday morning, we started very early again to assure maximum use of the sunlight to charge our battery. At sunrise, the car was ready for collecting the maximum of sun power possible. Before the start of the race at 8:00hr more than 1kWh was stored in the battery. The whole team was highly motivated to reach the next checkpoint as soon as possible. We wanted to be there before both the Australian and the German team left. We achieved in doing so and found both competitors trying to get as much power to their batteries as well. We of course did not know the state of charge of their batteries. We had approximately 30% of our battery capacity left for the final stage of the race. Also we fully exploited the half hour checkpoint stop to get maximum solar power to our battery.

Australians had driven the whole race with just the driver in the car whereas we had driven with an average of three people. So we could afford to lose a couple of hours on the Australians. We ultimately reached to timely finish in Adelaide close to 13:00hr whereas the Australian team had finished at 11:45hr. The German team finished after 14:00hr. They lost a lot of time as they had fully run out of battery power and consequently had to drive the final part of the race at very low speed (<50 km/hr). We all fully believed in our chances to win our cruiser class. The final obstacle to be taken was the jury judgement on “practicallity” of our family car. This jury judgement was scheduled Saturday afternoon. The jury was very positive about the car design. The only negative comments were related to the comfort of the seats and the ease of access to the car for the driver and his passengers. We did not receive the jury reports. So we had to count every minute and nervously wait for the official announcements

of final results and honouring of the winning team. The announcement of the winner of the World Solar Challenge Michelin Cruiser Class finally was made at 19:45h in the Adelaide Convention Center. And the winner was: … The Solar Team Eindhoven!! How beautiful this moment was for a team that had been working very hard during approximately 1.5 years. A well-deserved first prize for this marvellous and winning team! Congratulations Solar Team Eindhoven with this achievement. Ton Backx

The final part of the race soon made clear that our strategy team had done a much better job than the Germans. We quickly could surpass them and go for further chasing the Australian team. Good news was that the

December 2013| 15

ITechnology

Distortion in power networks By: Vladimir Ćuk

The quality of the supply voltage was always important, but in the last decades it is gaining attention both due to the increased complexity of the power system and the user awareness of the “product nature” of electrical energy. As the reliability of the system became very good in many countries, with average yearly interruptions of the supply measured in minutes, other characteristics of the supply are starting to be monitored constantly and reported to the consumers. In some cases it is even possible to define the quality of the voltage in a contract with the network operator, with a financial compensation for deviations from the agreement. For practical reasons (briefly explained below), power delivery is intended to be done with sinusoidal voltages. However, the behavior of many devices leads to the distortion of the supply, which we like to represent as additional frequency components superimposed on an ideally sinusoidal signal. This “unwanted frequencies” cause additional losses in the system, and can sometimes lead to mal operation or malfunction of equipment. This was the topic of my PhD thesis, which I defended on October 2nd, 2013.

Power system with a “distortion pedal”

The question of the waveshape of the supply voltage is as old as the AC (alternative current) power delivery. After Tesla’s invention of the polyphase system in 1888 the road was opened for long distance power distribution, which was less than 20 km at the time (direct current systems were limited to even shorter lengths). One of the key reasons for this limitation was the complex voltage waveshape of the early AC generators, which was exciting the resonances of the transmission line in combination with a higher power system frequency (125, 133 or 140 Hz). The problem was mitigated with a combination of a lower frequency, 50 or 60 Hz, in combination with a nearly sinusoidal voltage of the generator. This increased the reach of transmission dramatically, and allowed the power system to cover the globe in a very economical way.

Fig 1. Examples of voltage distortion, single half-cycle (measured in a factory)

Fig 2. Examples of current distortion, single cycle (measured in a factory)

Even though most generators provide a nearly sinusoidal voltage, the supply is always at least slightly distorted due to the behavior of many loads, which “draw” a current with a distorted shape. This injection of additional frequency components is commonly referred to as “pollution” of the network. The problem gets additional attention each time a new

type of equipment is introduced in large numbers to the system, e.g. the electrification of railway in the 1940s, high voltage direct current links in the 1970s, and energy efficient electronic devices and renewable generators in recent years. If the voltage differs from the sinewave by only a few percent, network users do not experience problems. Examples of realistic distorted waveforms are given in Figure 1 and Figure 2, measured in a factory. As the deviation from the sinewave increases, problems start to occur, including overvoltages, overheating, mal operation and even malfunction of equipment. The financial losses due to these problems and changes in equipment keep the topic fresh, even after hundred years.

PhD project

Fig 3. A part of the Power Quality lab

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The design of an industrial installation or a distribution network supplying non-linear loads requires (among other things) calculation of current and voltage distortion in order to avoid problems. The main goal of this research is to improve the existing methods for distortion evaluation, which can be used in the design stage or for solving arising problems. Another important aspect is the needed quality of the supply voltage, because

Technology I power quality disturbances, with a configuration of a realistic low-voltage network. Except for the great research potential, I see the lab as a nice playground, which was very important because the work included many hours in the lab. Even when I didn’t have much time for experimenting I could look at interesting measurement results thanks to the many students which I had the privilege of supervising during the project. Their work and enthusiasm was always an inspiration.

Field measurements

Fig 4. From one of the field measurements, Vladimir (on the left) and Thomas (graduated from the SET programme, on the right) of its financial impact on network operators, manufacturers and customers. An overview of existing standards and recommendations is made, with an analysis of their shortcomings and possible improvements. Modelling of distortion propagation can be divided into three parts: modelling the sources, aggregation of these sources, and modelling the frequency dependent impedances. Modelling of sources of distortion is handled in several ways: using time-domain, frequency-domain, and hybrid (time and frequency domain) simulations. This research focuses on frequency-domain models. Iterative and non-iterative approaches for frequency domain modelling of harmonic current sources are analysed and models of different low-voltage equipment are derived from laboratory measurements.

distribution networks. These aspects are analysed analytically and using computer simulations. I will limit the description of the work to these few paragraphs. For all of those who might be interested in more details, the thesis is available via the website of the TU/e library. I would like to thank all of the colleagues from the Electrical Energy Systems group for their help, especially my supervisors prof. Wil Kling and prof. Sjef Cobben.

Power Quality lab The first thing that struck me when coming for the interview for the PhD position is the Power Quality lab (Figure 3), nowadays called the Smart Grids lab. This is one of rare facilities in Europe which can simulate all kinds of

Another exciting part of the work was the field measurements in industrial installations. After I customised a measurement system and checked its performance in the lab, I could gather results from several types of installations all over the Netherlands. This was an important step, because such results are free of any abstractions which are necessary in computer simulations and lab experiments. Another important part of it was the input from many engineers working in the field and facing the problems on daily basis. Lastly, it involved visiting interesting locations, as the “industry” shown in Figure 4, which includes toys for kids on stage, and for engineers behind the set (just to clarify, the dragon from the figure is mechanical, it is not real).

Future Even though I couldn’t wait to finally reach the defence, I am happy that I can still do research in the same field. I am continuing the work as a postdoctoral researcher in the same group, on related projects. Except for this, I plan to spend more time on my hobbies: guitar playing, reading books, playing basketball and traveling with my wife Jovana, who was my greatest support during these years.

The aggregation of sources is analysed with an empirical approach. In this way, a certain safety margin can be taken to handle calculation errors which lead to underestimation of distortion levels. Coefficients for empirical aggregation of harmonic currents are analysed based on field measurements, and also the measurement methodology needed to derive these coefficients. Frequency dependent impedances of different network elements and equivalent system impedances were already analysed in many studies. In this work, attention is given to the uncertainties of harmonic impedance calculation resulting from different network and load representations, specifically for

Fig 5. With my wife Jovana, near Esquel in Argentina

December 2013| 17

IAdvertorial

Being part of success is motivating By: Ronald van den Putte

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n 2004, Ronald van den Putte graduated from Electrical Engineering. During his studies, he was active in e.t.s.v. Thor and was Commissioner of the Walhalla in the board of 1999-2000. When he graduated, he was already part-time employed at the company (AME) he still works for. Below he introduces AME and elaborates his reasons why he chose to start and continued working at AME over the last 12 years.

Applied Micro Electronics “AME” B.V. Applied Micro Electronics “AME” B.V. is a fast growing organization, developing and manufacturing high quality products with electronics. Our goal is to create innovative products for our customers that exceed market expectations. We do this by making use of state-of-the-art development facilities and a highly automated manufacturing environment. Our organization is driven by technology and we strive for the best solution combining the disciplines of electrical, mechanical, software and industrial engineering. AME was founded in 1996 on the campus of the TU/e and nowadays both our buildings are situated at the industrial area “Esp” in Eindhoven. At the moment, the organization consists of approximately 140 motivated and professional employees and we are active in a high diversity of markets and products (consumer, industrial, offshore, automotive etc.).

My career at AME ‘In 2002, I started working part-time at AME as an electrical engineer, soon my internship and graduation project followed. After my graduation, I continued working as an electrical engineer doing the hardware design of several electronic products.

A few years later, I became a Project Manager, managing international projects and a little bit later Business Unit Manager of the Research, Design and Development department of AME as well. Nowadays, being a member of the management team, I focus on Business Development to make sure AME will keep growing in the future. During my employment at AME, the company has grown from an electronic development and manufacturing company, to a company that is developing and delivering complete products to our customers and taking full responsibility for these products. As AME has been (and still is) a fast growing company, it enabled me to develop myself in the direction of my interests within the company. Being part of this success is motivating.’

Your opportunities ‘If you choose to work at AME, it means joining a talented, ambitious and experienced team of experts, with a clear focus on personal and professional growth. You yourself, as I did, will be able to determine what career path you will follow. At AME, we are not only looking for new colleagues who want to develop themselves as technical specialist, but also for those who want to grow into project management, leading our multi-disciplinary project teams. Getting to know AME better is easy, as we are offering internships, graduation projects and parttime jobs. To experience whether AME fits you, like it fits me, I invite you to visit us and let you get inspired by our atmosphere of innovation. You can contact me directly ([email protected]) or sent an email to [email protected].’ “Geen gedonder!”, Ronald van den Putte

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Association I

IEEE Day great success By: Jasper Pijl

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ince 4 years, IEEE organizes its yearly IEEE Day. It started as an activity to celebrate its 125 year anniversary, but has since become a tradition. Student branches from all over the world participate in this event on the first of October of every year. The theme for this year’s IEEE Day was “Leveraging technology for a better tomorrow”. This year, we decided to join in the IEEE Day festivities. To celebrate it, we organized three activities and joined in the Photo contest. Our main goal was to promote our student branch and IEEE within the university. This way, we hoped to see more people join our activities, or become active members within the branch. The first two activities were pie-related. We handed out pie to whomever wanted in the hallway in front of the Jonkerzaal. This allowed us to talk to people about our branch and activities. Furthermore, the Women in Engineering organized a Baking Contest. The pies were judged by our counselor, Frans

Willems, and professor Lomonova. They declared the “Slayer” cake by Willem Burger as the winner. The third activity was to stress the international character of IEEE. IEEE is globally divided into 10 regions and we, along with the rest of Europe, Russia, and Africa, are in region 8. To illustrate the different regions, we tried to get a different beer from each region. Unfortunately, the beer store didn’t have all the beers we wanted. So, to compensate, we increased the number of beers per region. The result was a selection of mostly American beers which were generally nice to drink.

IEEEXtreme 7.0

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By: John van Weerdenburg

n Saturday 26th of October, IEEE organized the seventh edition of its worldwide programming competition. Just like previous years, Student Branch Eindhoven participated in this event. Unfortunately though, because of the upcoming exams, only four teams of three students participated this time.

train scheduling software, reverse Polish calculators and DNA sequence generators. Each couple of hours, more problems were released including optimal path finding, riddles & puzzles, optimizing a given code or generalizing a piece of 8086 code. Despite the fatigue, everyone kept on programming till the last hour.

The coding started worldwide at 0:00 UTC, which corresponds to 2:00 AM in the Netherlands. To be well prepared for the upcoming challenge, some people were trying to catch some sleep on one of the couches, while others were dragging with whiteboards.

Teams had to submit the code online, where it was compiled and tested on a set of sample inputs and outputs. In total there were 22 problems, each with a maximum score of 100. In the days after the competition, the maximum scores were adjusted according to the number of submissions. With these new scores all our teams made it to the top 450 of the list of 1830 teams.

While the first pot of coffee was being made, the first assignments were put online. Using the language of choice (c#, php, java and python), people started to code automatic

So, to conclude the story, I would like to say a few words about the relation between IEEE and our Student Branch. IEEE has a great core structure and a lot of cool activities. We as a Student Branch use this as a base for our activities, but mostly adapt it to suit our needs. For example, we had to use a really far-fetched story to connect our IEEE Day activities to the main theme. On a positive note: this allowed us to organize activities that we think suit the needs and desires of the students in our university.

Team Pisdogaway (Maarten Slenter, Marco van Zijl and Sebastiaan Goossens) was the best team from Eindhoven (and the Netherlands). Their performance, which will be rewarded with some extra credits for the IEEE CanScan, put them in the 295th position in the world ranking list. There is still a year time to prepare for the next edition of the IEEEXtreme. So if you think you can beat the rest, join us next year!

December 2013| 19

IVaria

Internship Canada

By: Olav Bruggeman

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bout one year ago I started with my master Electrical Engineering. Although I didn’t know at that time exactly what I wanted to do, one thing I knew for sure: doing my internship abroad. At the end of September 2012 I made an appointment with prof. Van den Hof to discuss about the possibilities of doing an internship abroad. It soon became clear that there were a lot of possibilities and that it would not be easy to make the right choice. But after a few months and another appointment later, I decided to do my internship at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Sirish Shah. This university is located in Edmonton, Canada. Edmonton is, with a population of almost 1 million, the fifth largest city of Canada. This is remarkable, because the city itself is barely 100 years old. After all the necessary preparations and paperwork, it was time to leave the Netherlands. On the 23rd of April I departed from Amsterdam. After a trip of 17 hours I arrived, in the middle of the night, at Edmonton International Airport. Because I was very tired at that time, I first went to the Hotel to get a good night’s sleep. The next day would become very busy, because one of the first things I had to do was to find a room where I could stay for the next five months. After I found a room, it was time to explore the city. One of the first things I noticed was that everyone has his own house with a little

front and a little back garden, even downtown! It is not like in Europe where everyone is stacked on top of each other. This is because they simply don’t have to. With the Canadian population only twice the size of the population of the Netherlands and 268 times the area, they have plenty of space. Another thing I noticed was that everyone in Canada is very kind. For example, if you ask someone the way here in the Netherlands, they explain it and quickly proceed with their own things. If you ask someone the way in Canada, they take their time to explain and when they are finished, they mostly start a little conversation. Or in a grocery store, every cashier asks you how your day was. A lot better than some of the grumpy faces you get here.

After a half week of getting used to the environment, it was time to start with the internship at the University of Alberta. This university is established in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford and Henry Marshall, who were respectively the first premier and first president of Alberta. Nowadays it hosts around 40.000 students and 15.000 employees, spread over 5 different campuses: three located in Edmonton, one in Camrose and one in Calgary. The most important one is located in downtown Edmonton. The subject of my internship was about system identification with IDPUD. IDPUD is a recently developed identification algorithm which is closely related to the AUDI algorithm and based on least-squares. The advantage of AUDI and IDPUD is that both algorithms are capable of simultaneous order and parameter estimation of the system. The difference between the two algorithms is that AUDI can only be used on open loop systems, where IDPUD can be used for closed-loop system. On top of that, IDPUD estimates not only the parameters and order of the plant, but also estimates the parameters and order of the controller at the same time. The first part of my internship consisted of doing a lot of simulations in Matlab and Simulink. The second part of the internship became more interesting because I had to perform some experiments. The test setup on which I performed my measurements, was located in the lab of the Chemical and Materials department. This test setup consisted of a water tank with a level

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Varia I

and temperature loop, both loops controlled by a simple PI-controller which was implemented in a Delta-V system. This setup gave me the nice opportunity to just ‘play around’ with the system and the software. An opportunity you don’t get very often. Mostly because a real plant has to be operational to make profit, or it is just too dangerous to ‘play around’.

Around Edmonton, there are large, flat country fields. If you go more to the west, you have the Rocky Mountains with its beautiful national parks Jasper and Banff. Here you can see nature that has been untouched for thousands of years and a lot of wildlife. I even was lucky enough to see a bear which was approximately only 30 meters away from me.

After 16 weeks and a very great time at the university, I still had two and a half weeks left before I had to catch my plane. A good opportunity to see something more of the country. Although I didn’t manage to travel the whole of Canada, I surely had a very nice and diverse trip. Even between Edmonton and Vancouver, the landscape can change dramatically.

When you go further west, between the Rocky Mountains and Vancouver, the landscape changes dramatically. Suddenly the climate became very dry and I got the feeling that I ended up in some kind of western cowboy movie. This feeling was reinforced by an abandoned railroad and some ghost towns.

During my trip, I also made it to Vancouver and Vancouver Island. It is obvious that Canada does not suffer from the same crisis as Europe does. Large building cranes are part of almost every skyline and the skyline of Vancouver is no exception to that. It was also very clear that the infrastructure around Vancouver didn’t grow with the city. On the 3rd of September it was time to leave Canada with a very mixed feeling. Going to Canada was not so hard, because I knew that I would be back in a few months. Going back to the Netherlands was harder. In the five months I’ve been there, I built up a life and made a lot of new friends. It really began to feel like home. The question is however when I will be able to meet them again (although social media helps a bit). Doing my internship abroad was definitely a great experience. If you ever have the chance to go abroad: don’t doubt and just do it! It doesn’t matter if it is for your minor, internship, or for another part of your study. It is a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience from which you can learn a lot and that you will never forget.

December 2013| 21

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IVaria

Creating autonomous quadcopters By: George Exarchakos Back in March 2013, Connecthor had an article on quadcopters. It was the kickstart of the quadcopters hobby team in EE. Our quadcopter got equipped with an autonomous indoor localization module and the capability of human-machine collaborative object transport. All this thanks to the two really motivated bachelor students, Peter Koek and Manuel van Rijn, who completed their BEPs on that platform. They faced challenges, found solutions and gave ideas for the following projects.

Autocorrecting indoor trajectory Reading from Peter’s BEP report, “Odometry that is typically present on robots suffers from drift, because it does not measure position directly. A solution to this problem is the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm, which scans the environment using distance sensors and uses the additional information to correct the odometry. … SLAM algorithm … maintains a single long-term grid-based map and a series of short-term maps. Due to movements of the robot, the short-term maps will be translated relative to the long-term map. By looking for a best match between the long-term and short-term maps using a correlation search algorithm, the translation can be extracted and used to correct the odometry.” Nine months ago, our quadcopter was still in the making. Peter took over and fixed all problems, made it fly and created a new rotating module with four ultrasonic sensors to measure the distance from objects in indoor environments. The behavior of the module is embedded in the board and all data readings are transmitted to a workstation as input to his SLAM algorithm. The algorithm is capable of detecting the location drift by maintaining a long-term and a queue of overlapping short-term maps of the environment. The long-term map represents the complete history of the scanned

Fig 2: Experimental setup in the lab indoor environment whereas the short-term maps contain a shorter history with the top one being the most mature. Comparing the long-term map with the first short-term map, SLAM can calculate the movement offset of the copter from its previous position (figure 1). The exciting part started when everything had to be integrated and all components collaborate smoothly. In his retrospective, Peter mentioned that “the hardware can be really a pain at the integration phase. The biggest lesson is that Xbee Wireless RF modules are nasty little brainteasers.” His whole setup is pictured in Figure 2. Due to safety risks, we hesitated flying the copter in the lab without protective nets and bumpers. Instead, we hooked the copter on a trolley and moved it around a table to see the location drift and its correction by SLAM. However, the optical flow sensor was not performing well over the dark floor of

Fig 1: Overview of SLAM algorithm

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the lab and this is why one whole morning was spent in creating a high contrast area around the table with white tape. Finally, everything was ready for the experiments: copter hooked on the trolley pushed around the table, ultrasonic sensors rotating and reading the distance from surrounding objects, optical flow sensor reading the position offset based on the high contrast floor, Xbee transmitting all readings to the workstation and SLAM correcting the drift of the optical flow sensor. Figure 3 shows the circle around the table corrected by SLAM and the buge drift of the optical flow sensor if SLAM is not used. The error of the estimated from the correct position is also shown in Figure 3. Though SLAM was able to keep the error below one meter, it was still significant. Besides further improving the algorithm and the sensor reading accuracy, a big next step is the actual autonomous control of the copter. Our team now plans to automatically

Varia I

Fig 3: Auto-correction of copter’s position using SLAM send the appropriate commands to the copter once drifting is detected by SLAM. That could be a new BEP for those interested!

Human-driven copter-assisted object transport

Quadcopters with better indoors navigability are safer to collaborate with humans. Manuel undertook the task to make the robot learn the exact trajectory by collaboratively carrying an object with a human. Reading from his BEP report, “An interesting field of study … is the study of achieving good collaboration between a robot and a human. … we work on solving the problem of collaborative transportation of an object by an human and a … [quadcopter]. This is a problem that may arise, for example, if a large object has to be transported, but the path is ambiguous. Here the robot will carry an object and a human guides the robot in an intuitive way. [sic]” The object used for this project was a bar, one side of which was to be lifted by the copter and the other by the human as shown in figure 4. Based on a working setup similar to the one Peter built, Manuel added a gimbal to hold one side of a bar and two potentiometers to measure the rotation and angular velocity of the bar in two axes. Readings from the compass, accelerometer, distance sensor, gyroscope, potentiometers are collected by the copter’s board and

Fig 5: Height and angle sensor data smoothened to produce vertical speed and angular velocity as input to classification algorithm transmitted with Xbee to the workstation. Manuel’s algorithm monitors the movement of the bar relative to the copter’s orientation and tilt and estimates where the copter should move to. Estimation of the appropriate movement was proved to be a challenging task. First the algorithm is trained in various movements and, later, at runtime tries to map the ongoing movement to one of the training samples. This is achieved by

measurements give highly fluctuating derivatives, vertical speed and angular velocity respectively. The next steps to this project are, first, a better pre-processing of sensor readings suitable for smoothly controlling the copter and, second,the actuation of the copter by translating the estimation of the classification algorithm to navigation commands.

“Research is not only for researchers but mainly for those who are passionate” using several parameters from the sensor readings and a classification algorithm. However, the sensor readings are fluctuating around the mean curve, hence, making the classification algorithm unstable. Manuel applied a number of data smoothing algorithms but he had to introduce a delay at the response of the copter. A hurdle of this process is the use of vertical speed and angular velocity for the classification of the movement. As shown in figure 5, even the smoothened height and angle

Swarm Communications Though we started as a hobby team, I believe this team can make a statement: research is not only for researchers but mainly for those who are passionate. Our goal is to build a flying swarm that collectively adapts to the environment and reshapes in space by using inference and reducing the need for direct one-to-one communication. Our inspiration is nature, we have an interesting way ahead with more people joining either with their BEPs or volunteering.

Fig 4: Collaborative human-copter transport system [concept]

December 2013| 25

IVaria

Interning in Singapore By: Sander Geluk

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t the end of April 2013, I left the Netherlands for an internship in Singapore. The internship was arranged by prof. Bart Smolders. I interned at the National University of Singapore (NUS) where Koen Mouthaan was my supervisor. Arranging my visa gave some problems, but luckily my visa application was approved the week before I left. That enabled me to start at the scheduled date. After starting to work at the university, the contents of my internship became clear pretty soon. I had to develop a measurement setup to measure the Total Electron Content (number of electrons along a path through space) of the ionosphere. There has been research into measurement systems to measure this quantity in the past, but the NUS wanted to develop a method that would use a Nano satellite (a very small satellite, approximately of 10 x 10 x 20 cm3). The Nano satellite gives different constraints to the electronics, which made it necessary to research different measurement techniques and to consider these new constraints. During my internship I was able to produce a working proof of concept. I tested the system by using a signal generator that simulates the effect of the ionosphere on the signals sent from a satellite. With that setup I was able to arbitrarily vary the value of the Total Electron Content, which gave me the opportunity to prove that my measurement setup provides the correct output values. Currently, a new group of final year bachelor students is continuing my research. It is their task to improve my proof of concept to make it a robust system.

Outside my work at the university, I also had a lot of opportunities to explore Singapore and the surrounding countries. Although Singapore is a very small country, it provides the opportunity to experience the Asian culture, but at the same time it gives somewhat of comfort since the culture is heavily adjusted to the many expats who are living there. In my opinion the mixture between the Asian and Western culture in Singapore is great, a good example is for instance the food. It was possible to eat a lot of different foods from all over the world.

But there is more to do in Singapore than only eating. First of all, the city is filled with large shopping malls. About every second subway station exits into a huge shopping mall. Although I do not really like shopping, there were a few malls that attracted my attention. There is for instance a shopping mall fully dedicated to electronic shops. However there are also huge parks that give the feeling of actual nature (although they are manmade of course). In these parks it is possible to see rain forest and a lot of animals like monkeys. Singapore also makes it very easy to visit the surrounding countries. I went to Malaysia twice and once to Indonesia during weekend trips and I spent a full week in Thailand after I finished interning. Before I left, I had the feeling that all the countries in that region would almost be the same, but these trips showed me that there are huge differences between them. Malaysia is for instance mostly an Islamic country whereas most Thai people are Buddhist. Finally, I experienced way more than I can ever cover in an article. But the main conclusion would be to just go yourself. If you ever get the opportunity to travel abroad for an internship, I would highly recommend it. You will get to experience many new things, things you would never experience if you stay in the Netherlands.

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Department I

4000+ op de Open Dagen Door: Rianne Sanders

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ij de eerste open dag van dit collegejaar is een recordaantal bezoekers geteld. We constateren een stijging van 28% bij het aantal scholieren en een toename van 21% van begeleidende ouders. Aangezien voor zaterdag een nog grotere opkomst werd verwacht, is in de loop van vrijdag zelfs besloten om de aanmeldingen stop te zetten. De TU/e wil op dit soort voorlichtingsdagen iedereen op een goede manier informeren en te woord kunnen staan. Dat dreigde door de drukte in het gedrang te raken. Het werd eenvoudigweg te vol. Er waren nu 2.316 studiekiezers tegen 1.883 in oktober 2012. In een tot de nok toe gevulde Blauwe Zaal luisterden scholieren en hun ouders ’s ochtends naar de uitleg van Lex Lemmens over het Bachelor College. Die onderstreepte in zijn verhaal de keuzevrijheid en de intensieve begeleiding binnen het onderwijssysteem. Alle majors waren vertegenwoordigd. Scholieren konden een presentatie van verschillende majors volgen en de stands op de Informatiemarkt bezoeken. In de Experience Zone troffen ze onder meer zorgrobot AMIGO, het schaalmodel van Stella, de raceauto van University Racing Eindhoven, en kregen ze uitleg over de sustainable dancefloor en cooperative driving.

Electrical Engineering en Automotive goed gepresteerd

Onze stands op de informatiemarkt, presentaties en het verdiepend programma zijn goed bezocht. Zo goed dat er extra stoelen moesten worden bijgeplaatst in de collegezalen. De

presentatie van EE is door 364 studiekiezers bekeken, voor AU zat dit aantal op 194. De nieuwe demo’s, voor EE een ledkubus en voor AU de modelauto 100% elektrisch op een rollenbank, gaven de stands een dynamische uitstraling. In het verdiepend programma van EE konden bezoekers een aantal demo’s zien zoals de hartslagdemo, glasvezeldemo, Rock Your Baby demo en een demo met de bliksemgenerator in de Hoogspanningshal. Daarnaast konden zij de cd speler workshop volgen. Vanuit AU werden het EPE lab en het AES lab opengesteld en konden bezoekers een presentatie bijwonen van het Solar Team Eindhoven en TU/ecomotive. In

het EPE lab kregen bezoekers uitleg over het OGO-project Automotive, machinesets die gebruikt worden voor Technische Vaardigheden en een aantal Bachelor Eind Projecten. In het AES lab zagen ze de – in samenwerking met DAF gerealiseerde – rollenbank, waarop bijvoorbeeld hybride vrachtwagens tot 7500 kg getest kunnen worden. Daarnaast een door de TU/e gebouwde volledig elektrische auto, die helemaal vol zit met sensoren. Verder een auto uitgerust met steer-by-wire, waarbij de voorwielen elektrisch met het stuur verbonden zijn. En tenslotte was er iemand van het URE aanwezig. Het verdiepend programma werd bij EE door 183 studiekiezers bijgewoond, bij AU door 100.

De toekomst van de open dagen De TU/e wil op dit soort voorlichtingsdagen iedereen op een goede manier informeren en te woord kunnen staan. Dat dreigde door de drukte in het gedrang te raken. Hoewel het deze keer goed ging, wordt gevreesd voor de toekomst. Het Communicatie Expertise Centrum (CEC), dat de organisatie van de open dagen grotendeels voor zijn rekening neemt, gaat daarom binnenkort om tafel met Lex Lemmens en met de faculteiten voor een structurele aanpak.

December 2013| 27

IAdvertorial

Thales Nederland: een interview

T

hales Nederland: een interview met Tom Griffioen en Hugo Anbeek.

Beiden werken bij Thales Nederland te Hengelo. Tom heeft elektrotechniek gestudeerd aan de Universiteit Twente en Hugo heeft technische natuurkunde aan de Universiteit Twente gestudeerd. Ze werken nu allebei ongeveer 4 jaar bij Thales en vertellen over hun dagelijkse werkzaamheden en andere ervaringen als Young Professional binnen Thales.

Wat doe je nu bij Thales? Hugo: “In mijn dagelijkse werk houd ik mij bezig met het bepalen en analyseren van operationele radar performance. Met behulp van complexe modellen simuleren we wat de detectie-afstand van onze radarsystemen is tegen verschillende doelen (dreigingen)onder verschillende atmosferische omstandigheden. Bij het ontwikkelen van modellen, het simuleren en analyseren van simulatieresultaten maak ik elke dag opnieuw gebruik van de kennis die ik tijdens mijn studie heb opgedaan.” Tom: “Als system engineer is het belangrijk systeem performance en subsysteem

Tom Griffioen (links) en Hugo Anbeek (rechts) terecht met veel verschillende disciplines, van werktuigbouwkunde tot elektrotechniek tot IT.” Tom: “Het leuke is dat ik zeker nog 50% gebruik van wat ik heb geleerd tijdens mijn studie. Je werkt hier aan complexe systemen en de optimalisatie gaat heel ver. Elke beslissing die je neemt kan verregaande gevolgen hebben voor het systeem.”

“Bij Thales kan je terecht met veel verschillende disciplines, van werktuigbouwkunde tot elektrotechniek tot IT" performance op elkaar af te stemmen. Neem bijvoorbeeld een verzonden signaal. Een radar zendt, net als sonar, een signaal uit dat reflecteert op het doel en weer terug valt op de radar. Zonder verder diep op de details in te gaan heeft de kwaliteit van dit signaal (gegenereerd door de signaal generator op subsysteem niveau) invloed op de performance van de radar (systeem niveau).”

Wat gebruik je nog van je studie? Hugo: “Netwerktheorie tot en met signaaltheorie en veel wiskunde. Dit kan je allemaal toepassen op de techniek. Bij Thales kan je

28 |  connecthor 

Hugo: “Het is echt High Tech, je moet op de hoogte blijven van de laatste stand van zaken omtrent de nieuwste technologische ontwikkelingen en de wetenschap.” Tom: “Als voorbeeld heb je een radar die je nu ontwikkelt en pas over 7 jaar aflevert; in die 7 jaar gebeurt er heel veel in de techniek. Ook al maak je de radar daarna opnieuw, dan heb je te maken met nieuwe technieken en nieuwe mogelijkheden.”

Hugo: “We werken nauw samen met de TU’s, maar we ontwikkelen hier zelf veel nieuwe technologieën, verder doen we research waardoor de TU ook weer van onze kennis gebruik kan maken.”

Waarom heb je voor Thales gekozen?

Tom: “Mijn vader werkte bij Defensie als bouwkundig architect. Ik ging een keer mee naar de Marinedagen en het enige wat ik zag was een ronddraaiende radar. Jammer dat de Phased-Array radars (Red: op alle vier de zijden zitten radarantennes, zodat het systeem niet meer rond hoeft te draaien) niet meer draaien. Nu werk ik aan de SMART-L EWC (Red: lange afstand radar tegen ballistische raketten, zie foto Tom en Hugo), die draait weer wel.” Hugo: “Mijn vader werkte vroeger bij Thales dus ik kende het bedrijf en de verhalen. Hiervoor heb ik bij de NAVO gewerkt. Ik was dus al bekend met de Defensiewereld en die wereld vond ik heel interessant.”

Wat is dan interessant? Hugo: “De diversiteit in projecten. Je doet bij Thales geen alledaagse dingen, je werkt aan High Tech systemen. Dat geeft een enorme kick.” Tom: “Je opereert echt op wereldniveau en het is ‘grote jongens speelgoed’.”

Advertorial I Hoe ziet een gemiddelde werkdag eruit?

Tom: “Heel verschillend. De ene dag werk je aan een project en moet je heel veel overleggen om te kijken wat we willen en kunnen, terwijl ik de andere dag de hele dag aan het simuleren en modelleren ben.” Hugo: “Nee je werkt nooit aan één project tegelijk. Soms werk je aan iets intern terwijl je de volgende keer met de klant zit en vragen moet stellen als; wat heb je nodig? Wat past bij jullie? Met welke dreiging hebben jullie te maken? Hier moet je dan weer analyses op loslaten en engineers opzetten.”

Aan wat voor projecten werken jullie nu?

Hugo: “Nu werk ik aan een paper voor een conferentie, dit doen we in nauwe samenwerking met TNO en daarnaast ook aan de gatekeeper en de goalkeeper.” Tom: “SMART-L en het STARS project http:// starsproject.nl/.”

Hoe zou je de cultuur bij Thales omschrijven?

Hugo: “Je hebt heel veel verschillende mensen die hier werken en het verschilt per afdeling. Daarnaast is het gemiddelde werk niveau heel hoog. Bijna alleen HBO en WO en dit is een leuke mix.” Tom: “Er is een hoge gemiddelde leeftijd, maar van deze oudere mensen kan je als jong persoon heel veel leren. Dit bedrijf is juist dankzij de jarenlange ervaring en kennis wereldleider geworden op het gebied van marine radarsystemen. Over het algemeen is er ruimte genoeg om je eigen ideeën in te brengen.”

Hugo: “In het begin moest ik even schakelen. Ik was jong en ambitieus en nam een sprint. Ik werd wel even afgeremd, maar dat kan niet anders. Bij Thales heb je één á twee jaar nodig om de wereld en de techniek erachter te begrijpen. Je hebt bepaalde ervaring en kennis nodig voordat ze je naar de klant laten gaan. Het is niet een alledaags product dat als je het niet aan de één kan verkopen, je naar de buurman kan gaan. Deze wereld is delicaat en potentiële klanten kan en mag je niet kwijtraken.”

Thales Nederland

Tom: “Wat verder leuk is dat als je hier werkt, je langzaamaan ook doorkrijgt dat je projecten/ opdrachten naar je toe kunt trekken. Zo kan je je door de organisatie heen manoeuvreren. Je moet hier proactief zijn, anders wordt het niets.”

Actief in de sectoren Aerospace, Defense en Security is Thales Nederland met 1.800 medewerkers de topaanbieder van hightechbanen. Productinnovatie en snel inspelen op de nieuwste technologische mogelijkheden zijn onze drijfveren. Spraakmakende voorbeelden daarvan zijn radar-, communicatie- en command & controlsystemen voor marineschepen en communicatie-, beveiligings- en betaalsystemen voor het bedrijfsleven. Thales Nederland is onderdeel van de Thales Group met 70.000 medewerkers in ruim 50 landen, waarvan 22.000 werkzaam in R&D en daarmee is Thales een van Europa’s grootste elektronicabedrijven en heeft wereldwijd een uitermate sterke positie.

Waar ben je trots op?

www.thalesgroup.com/nl

Tom: “Ons hele productportfolio. Als je bijvoorbeeld naar een land in Zuid-Amerika gaat hebben ze onze sensoren op hun schepen staan. Onze aanwezigheid in de wereld is gigantisch.”

www.facebook.com/thalesnederland [email protected]

Hugo: “Daarnaast moeten we altijd opnieuw op technisch vlak blijven innoveren ten opzichte van de concurrent. Dat houd je scherp.”

tot de mogelijkheden. Ik vind het wel jammer dat de man/ vrouwverhouding binnen Thales scheef is. Het lijkt me leuk als er meer vrouwen zouden werken.”

Tom: “De complexiteit van de systemen en het proces. Je werkt met gemak met 100 mensen aan één project. Dat moet ook gecoördineerd worden. Zelfs universiteiten vragen ons wat we nodig hebben qua techniek en vragen ons om nieuwe technieken. Dat zie ik als een goede referentie en als uitdaging.”

Hugo: “In het begin is het wel lastig en moet je even wennen, je moet jezelf de tijd gunnen om alles te leren en je de systemen eigen te maken maar na twee jaar ben je echt op stoom.”

Heb je nog laatste toevoegingen? Tom: “Ja, je kan hier je hele leven blijven werken. Mijn vrouw denkt dan; ‘saai zeg’, maar er is hier zoveel te doen. Het is niet saai, het is gewoon echt interessant en divers werk. Wil je meer met mensen werken? Wil je meer alleen werken? Bespreek het en het behoort

Tom: “Ja, dat merk je en je ziet ook dat de mensen die hier werken echt gepassioneerd zijn voor het vak. Dat kan ook niet anders, maar iedereen gaat er voor de volle 100% voor. Ik hoorde van de 34 WO-ers die hier de afgelopen drie jaar zijn aangenomen, er in totaal maar drie zijn weg gegaan.”

Figuur radar principe

December 2013| 29

IDepartment

Examencommissie en instellingstoets Door: Erwin Bente

I

edere opleiding voor hoger onderwijs in Nederland heeft een examencommissie en zo ook de faculteit Electrical Engineering van de TU/e. De meeste mensen in de faculteit kennen deze commissie als het orgaan dat formeel concludeert dat een student is geslaagd voor een tentamen, kan regelen als er iets anders dan normaal moet gebeuren en dat vervelende eisen stelt aan de procedure rond het afstuderen. Maar er zijn meer activiteiten, zoals het beslissen over afwijkende studieprogramma’s en het behandelen van verzoeken met betrekking tot het bindend studieadvies. Het bestaan van de examencommissie en haar ongeveer twintig taken staan omschreven in de ‘Wet op het hoger onderwijs en wetenschappelijk onderzoek’, oftewel de WHW.

Nu is die WHW op 1 september 2010 aangepast. Deze wijzigingen hadden ook betrekking op onder meer de rol en de taken van de examencommissie. Er wordt door de overheid nu sterk benadrukt dat de examencommissie onafhankelijk van het instellingsbestuur moet opereren en ter zake deskundig moet zijn. Dat is van belang vanwege drie nieuwe taken: ‘het borgen van de kwaliteit van de tentamens en examens’, ‘het vaststellen van richtlijnen en aanwijzingen binnen het kader van de onderwijs en examenregeling (OER) ….. om de uitslag van de tentamens en examens te beoordelen en vast te stellen’ en het opstellen van een jaarverslag waarin de commissie hierover rapporteert naar het bestuur. Deze wijzigingen hebben een aantal oorzaken. Een grote invloed heeft de landelijke discussie over de kwaliteit

van afgegeven diploma’s bij een aantal opleidingen. Zo was er bijvoorbeeld de affaire bij de Hogeschool Inholland een paar jaar geleden, maar ook recentelijk nog bleken er problemen met een groot aantal diploma’s bij de Hogeschool Zeeland. Bij een onderzoek door het ministerie een aantal jaren geleden gaven leden van examencommissies in den lande aan dat ze geen duidelijk beeld hadden of de studieonderdelen die men op de lijsten van studenten zag wel terecht waren toegekend. Vervolgens speelt er in het hoger onderwijs dat de financiering en middelen die richting de opleidingsinstituten vloeien onder druk staan terwijl de aantallen studenten in het hoger onderwijs toenemen. Tegelijkertijd stelt het ministerie steeds meer eisen aan het studierendement. Dan wordt het aanpassen van de norm en het inzetten van onderwijsvormen die minder arbeidsintensief zijn erg aantrekkelijk

Studenten EE van het 1e jaar Bachelor College aan de slag met een tussentoets Toegepaste Natuurwetenschappen in groepen van vier studenten. Is deze toetsvorm geschikt?

30 |  connecthor 

Department I voor instellingsbesturen als deze vooral gericht zijn op financieel management en projectontwikkeling. De examencommissies moeten daarom een wakend oog houden op de kwaliteit in omstandigheden waarin die kwaliteit duidelijk onder druk komt te staan. Vandaar dat onafhankelijkheid van belang is. Nu is 2010 al weer drie jaar geleden, maar recent is aan de TU/e veel meer aandacht voor deze ontwikkelingen. De oorzaak is de accreditatietoets die door de NederlandVlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie (NVAO) wordt uitgevoerd en die deze maanden door de TU/e wordt doorlopen. Dit accreditatieproces voor de hoger onderwijsopleidingen is begin 2011 gewijzigd. Daar is een zogeheten instellingstoets kwaliteitszorg bijgekomen. In die toets worden alle universiteitsbrede regelingen getoetst. Een aparte standaard daarin betreft ‘toetsing en gerealiseerde eindkwalificaties’ en dat slaat weer direct op de rol van de examencommissies. Als deze toets succesvol wordt doorlopen dan zijn de accreditatietoetsen van de individuele opleidingen eenvoudiger. Maar de instellingstoetsen die elders zijn uitgevoerd laten zien dat het geen uitgemaakte zaak is dat wij, de TU/e, dit gaan halen. Een jaarverslag was redelijk eenvoudig in te voeren (maar wel extra werk natuurlijk). Maar wat is dat borgen van de kwaliteit en wat wordt er bedoeld met kwaliteit? Dat zijn begrippen uit de wereld van kwaliteitszorg, een wereld met een eigen terminologie, denkbeelden, interpretaties, cursussen en consultants. Mede daarom zijn alle examencommissieleden op cursus gestuurd. Over die cursus kun je lang praten, maar er is wel een globaal beeld ontstaan van wat ons te doen staat. Kwaliteitszorg in het onderwijs is in ieder geval geen exacte wetenschap, al is die pretentie er wel. Als je gloeilampen produceert ligt het allemaal wat duidelijker. Een positief punt is de manier waarop de NVAO hier in staat. Zij leggen de nadruk op

Problemen met diploma’s bij Hogeschool Zeeland.

uitvoering en dan weer observeren. De uitvoering van die kwaliteitscycli ligt bij ons opleidingsinstituut, de docenten en studenten. De examencommissie wordt geacht te controleren of en hoe die cycli worden uitgevoerd. Van belang is dan ook dat je weet wat je wilt bereiken als organisatie. Inhoudelijk is dat omschreven in de leerdoelen van de vakken, in de eindtermen van de opleiding. Maar voor het toetsen wordt geadviseerd een toetsbeleid te formuleren. Dat wordt nu centraal op de TU/e ontwikkeld. Daar komen overigens een hoop logische zaken in te staan die we veelal al lang toepassen. Wat essentieel is bij zo’n kwaliteitscyclus is dat iedereen het nut er van inziet. De observatie moet op een zinnige manier gebeuren (geen bizarre zaken kwantificeren of overkwantificeren). Het proces moet aantoonbaar iets opleveren voor de betrokkenen, docenten, studenten

“De nadruk moet liggen op terugkoppeling”

kwaliteitsverbetering van het onderwijs en niet zozeer op kwaliteitscontrole. Dat betekent dat de nadruk moet liggen op terugkoppeling: je moet observeren (in bijvoorbeeld een college of tentamen), daarover onafhankelijk oordelen en dan terugkoppelen naar de

en instelling zodat het de inspanning rechtvaardigt. Het verkrijgen van een accreditatie is een rechtvaardiging, maar het moet meer opleveren. Van deze activiteiten moet aantoonbaar en traceerbaar zijn dat ze correct hebben plaatsgevonden. Die

aantoonbaarheid moet dus niet tot een administratieve nachtmerrie leiden. Dit geeft aan waar de gevaren liggen en dat de invoering van nieuwe regels zorgvuldig moet gebeuren. Daarom is het zo belangrijk dat we zelf regels opzetten. Samen met de mensen die betrokken zijn bij de opleidingen is de commissie aan de slag gegaan. Op de TU/e en onze faculteit en universiteit zijn wel veel zaken goed geregeld en er gebeurt veel. De terugkoppeling vanuit colleges is georganiseerd en functioneert. Wij hebben regelingen omtrent het afstuderen. Ook is er begonnen met het vergelijken van afstudeerverslagen tussen de drie TU’s. Er is overleg met het bestuur. De meeste organisatorische en administratieve aspecten van het tentamineren zijn ook goed geregeld. Wat er nu is moet als het ware vertaald en expliciet gepresenteerd worden in de context van kwaliteitszorg. Maar op het gebied van met name de kwaliteit van tentamens is er nog werk te verzetten. Dit verhaal is al langer en iets droger geworden dan ik dacht, maar hopelijk is het toch om doorheen te komen en geeft het enigszins een beeld van wat er speelt. Ik wil dan ook eindigen met een uitnodiging aan alle lezers om als u ideeën heeft t.a.v. deze problematiek, deze te delen met de examencommissie of opleidingsdirecteur. Voor degene die de WHW er nog eens op willen nalezen: http://wetten.overheid.nl/ BWBR0005682/. Daar staat precies in wat moet. De rest is interpretatie.

December 2013| 31

IDepartment

PhD activity of the EES group By: Hans Höft

M

y name is Hans from Greifswald University, Germany. During my short term stay at the TU/e, doing a research exchange, I was kindly invited to join the EES PhD team building activity on August, 30th. Not knowing what I had to expect, I waited in front of the Electrical Engineering building at 11:30 a.m. One PhD after another gathered around Helder—who’s now in charge of the PhD activities after Petr successfully defended his thesis—until the group was complete (approx. 15 students). Petr had had his PhD party the evening before, and therefore not everybody was in a great shape, but we were all in a good mood. So, when the group was all together we went to the city centre, to have a nice lunch at the Brasserie van den Berg (next to the Philips Museum) to supply us with the energy we needed for the upcoming activities.

32 |  connecthor 

After the meal, we drove away from the busy city into the quiet countryside. The fields were green and the weather was very fair—a nice summer day. There, we headed for a farm near the woods. And, after an animating coffee in the garden in front of the farm house (with view on the ostriches, bred on that same farm), we got the instructions for our first game from the farmer. (No, I would not be riding on an ostrich!!! ) He explained a game called “farmer’s golf” in Dutch. So one of the Dutch PhDs did a simultaneous translation, so that everybody got the rules. Then, we split the group in three teams and headed for the starting point. Farmer’s golf, for the ones who have never heard about it, as most of us on that day, is a golf-like game, where a stick with a clog at the bottom replaces the golf club and a small sized round football substitutes the golf ball. We started to golf like the farmers, across the field, from one hole to another. The golf course led us over the field and literally through the woods, because at one point we couldn’t find the next hole at first glance. It was quite amusing to fight our way through the undergrowth like scouts just to realise there is a normal path on the other side! But of course, we never gave up and we finally made it. Every punch was counted and the team with lowest amount of beats should be the winner. But, in the end the team which was always the last (and the funniest, too) had

the lowest number on their record. However, nobody cared, because it was not for winning but for fun. We then took a short refreshing break and went straight ahead to the next game: archery. We made one team for every of the four targets and started shooting like Robin Hood, or at least tried to do so! After some time the bull’s eye was hit more than once and we felt like real hunters in the woods.But, fortunately, we didn’t have to go hunting for our dinner. After resting some minutes on the meadow in front of the farm and watching ostriches again, we eventually went back to the TU/e where our trip had begun. But this was not the end of the nice day. We met again at the “Gauchos” for a splendid dinner with a lot of fine meat and beverages. We sat and chatted together until everybody was satisfied and happy, a nice ending of a very fine PhD activity day.

Varia I

The lay of Hlöð

By: Fer Radstake

A

mong the many Icelandic saga’s, there is one that stands out. Although written down only as late as the 17th century, the Hlöðskviða (part of the Heiðrekssaga) treats of semi-historical matter that had been orally transmitted for more than a millennium and therefore is a rare source of information about Germanic warfare around the time of the fall of the Roman empire. More specifically, it tells us of how the Thervingi1 kingdom is invaded by the Hunnic army, and of how eventually with Greuthungi1 help, the invaders are defeated in a huge battle. Typical for mediaeval Icelandic poems, this saga is composed of poetical stanza’s in alliterative verse. These are interspersed with prose text, often to fill in the gaps caused when many of the ancient stanza’s were forgotten after centuries of oral transmission. Below is a translation of Chapters 13 and 14 of the Heiðrekssaga. The prose parts are translated as literally as possible, while the poetic parts are composed in the Fornyrðislag in which most of the poem is composed. Fornyrðislag is the oldest of the Norse alliterative verse forms. It consists of lines split into half-lines, each of which contains two stressed syllables. At least one of the syllables from the first half-line alliterates with at least one of the

Hervor’s death

Heiðrek was a king of the Goths. He had a legitimate son and daughter, Angantýr and Hervör respectively, and by a Hunnic princess an illegitimate son Hlöð. Hlöð grew up with his grandfather, the Hunnic ruler Humli. But then Heiðrek was killed, and Angantýr inherited all the land. Hlöð went to his half-brother’s court and demanded half the inheritance. Angantýr didn’t comply, but instead offered Hlöð many riches and one third of the Gothic kingdom,

“And on the fields beside the south gate, there I ask to battle you”

syllables in the second, of which always the first one. Take for example these lines, with the stressed syllables in bold: The Gothfolk has fought / Before on those fields, And great victory / They famously gained! To properly understand the following story, it is necessary to give a short summary of Chapters 11 and 12 of the Heiðrekssaga: 1

something his advisors thought way too much for an illegitimate son of Heiðrek. But Hlöð wanted more and felt offended by the rough remarks of Angantýr’s advisor Gizur, king of the Greuthungi and foster father of Heiðrek, and returned to the Hunnic lands where he and his grandfather prepared to take the Gothic lands by force.

13. Of the fall of Hervör and the gathering of Angantýr’s army One morning at sunrise, Hervör stood on the ramparts above the borough’s gate. Near the forest to the south, she noticed a great cloud of dust, so large that the rising sun was hidden for a long time. Then she saw a shine underneath the dust, a golden shine: beautiful gilded shields and helmets, and white armour. She saw then, that this was the Hunnic army, and it was a huge one. Hervör hurried down and ordered the trumpeter to assemble the army. Then Hervör said: “Take your weapons and prepare for battle. And you, Ormar, ride towards the Huns and challenge them to battle before the borough’s south gate.” Ormar spoke: “Ride I shall, / my shield I’ll bear. For the Gothic people / I’d give my life.” Then Ormar rode from the borough towards the Hunnic army. He called them and asked them to ride towards the town: “And on the fields beside the south gate, there I ask to battle you. The one who comes first shall wait for the other.”

Historical evidence suggests the Thervingi are the Visigoths, or at least a tribe associated with them. Likewise, Greuthungi may be an old name for the

Ostrogoths.

December 2013| 33

IVaria Now Ormar rode back to the borough, and found Hervör and all of the army ready. They now rode out of the town towards the Hunnic army and commenced a great battle. But as the Huns had a much larger army, the Gothic army suffered most of the killing. At last Hervör fell along with many others. When Ormar saw her die, he fled along with all who still lived. Ormar rode day and night, as long as he could, to meet king Angantýr in Árheimar. The Huns now burned and plundered the land. When Ormar came before king Angantýr, he spoke:

The sword she liked more / Than speaking with suitors.” King Angantýr, when he heard this, drew up his lips. It took him long to find the words, but finally he said: “Not worthy of brothers / Was the game We played with you, / Oh perfect sister!” He then looked at his court, and saw there were only few men with him. He spoke:

“From the south I came / To say you this: The dark wood’s on fire, / In flames is the heath. The Gothfolk is fleeing, / Good men are bleeding.”

“We were with many / When we drank mead. Now there are few / When far more we need. No men I see / In the squadrons of mine, Although I beg them, / And buy them rings.2 No man shall ride / To meet the Huns, Shall bear a shield / And search their army.”

And again he spoke:

Gizur the Old said:

“Heiðrek’s daughter, / Your daunting sister, Has fallen to the ground, / Felled by the Huns. Their mighty army / Killed many others!” “She preferred battle / To being a bride,

Gizur challenges the Huns

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“I will not ask you / An ounce of silver Not a single / Nugget of gold. But I’ll ride, / Shall bear a shield. I’ll bring the Huns / The battlestave.”

It was a law in the time of King Heiðrek, that when an army invaded a land, and the king of the land marked out a battlefield, then the invaders shouldn’t plunder until the battle was over. Gizur armed himself with good weapons and jumped on his horse as if he were a young man. He then spoke to the king: “Where must the Hunnic / Warriors head to?” Angantýr spoke: “Take them to Dylgja, / To Dún’s3 Heath bring them. Show them the many / Mounts of Jassar. The Gothfolk has fought / Before on those fields, And great victory / They famously gained!” Now Gizur rode away, until he came to the Hunnic army. He rode no nearer than he needed to talk to them. He then called out with a loud voice: “Cowards your soldiers, / Cursed your kings: Odin will burn / The banners above you!”

Varia I And continued: “I offer you battle / Under the Jassarmounts. We’ll fight you at Dylgja, / At the fields of the Dún. Your steeds shall be killed, / Your soldiers be corpses. Odin, fly the battlespear / Above the Hunnic army!”4 When Hlöð heared Gizur’s words, he spoke: “Grab now Gizur, / The Greutingwarrior, Angantýrs man / From Árheimar he came.” King Humli said: “We must not kill / Men who move Near our camp, / with no companions!” Gizur spoke: “Huns don’t scare us, your hornbows neither!” Gizur spurred his horse and rode to king Angantýr. He stood before him and greeted him. The king asked whether he had found the kings. Gizur spoke: “The Hunnic kings / I called to battle On the banks of the Dún, / In the dales of Dylgja.” Angantýr asked how large the Hunnic army was. Gizur answered their army was huge:

The Germanic lays and poems were often sung accompanied by instruments like this lyre.

which was of a considerable size. But then the Hunnic army came to meet them, and their army was one-and-a-half times as big.

14. Of the battle at Dún’s Heath At the second day, they began the battle and fought all day, until they returned to their camp in the evening. After eight days

“The only way to live was to win”

in the afternoon, the Goths made an attack so fierce that the Hunnic ranks collapsed. When Angantýr saw that, he stormed away from his guard’s protection and into the first rank, where he killed men and horse alike with his sword Tyrfing. Then the shield-wall around the Hunnic kings collapsed, and the brothers exchanged blows. Hlöð and Humli soon fell and the Hunnic army routed, but most soldiers were killed by the Goths. So many Huns were killed, that the rivers were dammed with corpses and flooded the plains, and the valleys were full with dead horses and men and blood. King Angantýr then searched the dead and found Hlöð, his brother. He then spoke:

“There’s six units / Of soldiers of the Huns. In each of these / Of thousands5 five, In each thousand, / Thirteen hundreds, Every hundred / counts ours times four!” Angantýr had now heard about the Hunnic army. He sent men in all directions and summoned all men to him, who wanted to be part of his army and could bear weapons. So he went to Dún’s Heath with his army,

of fighting, the leaders were still alive, but nobody knew exactly how many soldiers had fallen. But both day and night, reinforcements came from all directions to Angantýr’s camp, so that he had no less soldiers than at the start of the battle. The battle now became even grimmer. The Huns became even more determined, as they recognised that the only way to live was to win, because the angry Goths would give no quarter. The Goths protected their freedom and fatherland, stood fast and spurred each other. Then

2

During the Viking age, gold and silver rings were used as a general kind of currency.

3

Dún = Danube.

4

It was a Heathen Germanic practice to start a battle by throwing a spear over the enemy.

5

These are not numbers, but rather designations for unit sizes (e.g. modern battalion, squadron etc.)

6

The female beings that spin the threads of fate.

“I’d have given you, brother, / gold and ground, warriors and maidens, / whatever you wanted! For war however / there is no reward. No silver, nor swords, / you shall possess!” And: “We both are cursed: / I killed my brother! The doomful Norns6 / shall never forget!”

December 2013| 35

IDepartment

Afscheid Paul van den Bosch Door: Will Hendrix

O

p 6 september jongstleden heeft prof. Paul van den Bosch zijn afscheidscollege gegeven getiteld ‘Span of Control’. Paul van den Bosch was sinds 1993 voltijdhoogleraar en leerstoelhouder in de groep Control Systems van de faculteit Electrical Engineering. Hier heeft zijn onderzoek zich voornamelijk gericht op modelleren en regelen van dynamische systemen in de elektrotechniek, elektromechanica, energietechniek en automotive. Tijdens zijn afscheidscollege heeft Paul van den Bosch een aantal generieke aspecten van het vakgebied Regeltechniek voor een breder publiek inzichtelijk gemaakt. Hij deed dat vooral met voorbeelden van niet-technische problemen uit de natuur, de maatschappij en van ons eigen handelen. Zo omschrijft hij treffend de essentie van Regeltechniek met een citaat uit een gedicht van Bilderdijk:

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In het heden ligt het verleden In het nu wat komen gaat ‘Span of Control’, de titel van zijn afscheidscollege, gaat over het bereik dat je zinvol kunt beschrijven, begrijpen, regelen of besturen. Voor dynamische systemen duidt dit bijvoorbeeld op de verhouding tussen traagste en snelste verschijnselen in een systeem die je wilt regelen (=controleren). Het heeft geen zin in één model de snelle chemische reacties tijdens de ademhaling en van de evolutieprocessen te omvatten. Een te grote span of control leidt altijd tot problemen bij analyse, synthese en simulaties. De notie van het concept Span of Control is ook zeer bruikbaar in andere, vaak niet-technische situaties. Toegepast op bestuurlijke systemen wordt duidelijk dat een organisatiestructuur ontworpen is om een zinvolle span of control te krijgen, zoals de verschillende bestuurlijke lagen met ieder een afgebakend mandaat en verantwoordelijkheden. Deze aanpak

leidt niet als vanzelf tot een soepel lopend geheel. Het handelen en beleid van elke laag wordt bepaald door een eigen model van de werkelijkheid. Omdat er, zoals altijd, een verschil is tussen model en praktijk, ontstaan er problemen als deze discrepanties niet worden erkend door te weinig luisteren (feedback) en teveel volgens eigen gelijk (feedforward) handelen. Met enkele voorbeelden laat Paul van den Bosch zien hoe de kernbegrippen uit de systeem- en regeltheorie vaak generiek toepasbaar zijn, zoals bij de eigen universiteit. De volledige tekst van zijn afscheidscollege is beschikbaar op http://www.tue.nl/publicatie/ ep/p/d/ep-uid/286521/ Voorafgaand aan het afscheidscollege was er een Symposium getiteld ‘Universitaireindustriële samenwerking in regeltechnisch perspectief’. Paul van den Bosch heeft zeer succesvol gewerkt aan het realiseren

Department I onderwijsprijs voor de beste bachelor docent van de faculteit. Paul van den Bosch werd door studenten meestal aangeduid met zijn initialen en dus ‘PPJ’ genoemd. De onderwijsprijs zal dan ook de PPJ-prijs gaan heten. Paul van den Bosch was aan de TUD en TU/e promotor van meer dan 50 promovendi en hij heeft meer dan 400 afstudeerders begeleid. Na zijn afscheidsrede kreeg hij voor zijn uitzonderlijke verdiensten de Erepenning van de Universiteit uitgereikt door de Rector.

CV

van toepassingen van de bij Control Systems ontwikkelde kennis. Hij had de gave om in gesprek met ingenieurs uit de industrie een leidende rol te nemen in het scherp formuleren van hun probleem. Die formulering diende dan weer als basis voor het opzetten van toepassingsgerichte onderzoeksprojecten waar CS een cruciale rol in speelde. Dit deed hij voor vele toepassingen en toepassingsdomeinen, een aantal voorbeelden zijn: • Energiemanagement in auto’s met Fords onderzoek instituut in Aken. • Contactloos magnetische geleviteerde waferstage met ASML. • Regeling van een reluctantie actuator voor hoog-precisie positionering met ASML. • Prestatieverbetering van professionele printersystemen met Oce. • Control van de dynamica en hysterese van een elektromagnetische lens met FEI. • Gedistribueerde regeling van gedereguleerde elektriciteitsnetwerken met TenneT. • Control van automatisch geleide voertuigen voor de PHILEAS-bus. Dit alles heeft geleid tot tal van duurzame relaties met de High-Tech industrie. Tijdens het symposium gaven een aantal van deze industriecontacten hun kijk op de bijdragen het vakgebied regeltechniek, de

samenwerking met Control Systems in het algemeen en met Paul van het Bosch in het bijzonder. Sprekers waren: • Ir. Jack Martens van DAF trucks. • dr.ir. Hans Vermeulen van ASML • dr. Frank de Jong van FEI Company Paul van den Bosch had een grote passie voor onderwijs. Hij was een bevlogen docent die liefst zonder beamer en power point slides, maar simpel met bord en krijtje vele inspirerende colleges heeft gegeven. De waardering hiervoor door studenten blijkt uit de vele onderwijsprijzen die hij heeft gekregen. Zo kreeg hij bijvoorbeeld voor het bachelor vak ‘Systemen’ sinds 2006 bijna ieder jaar een onderwijsprijs.

Paul van den Bosch (1948) studeerde Elektrotechniek aan de Technische Universiteit Delft, waar hij met lof afstudeerde. Daarna werkte hij korte tijd voor het bureau van de Rector en vervolgens als wetenschappelijk medeweker in de groep Regeltechniek. Hij promoveerde op het onderwerp ‘Landelijke optimalisatie van de productie van elektrische energie’. Aandachtspunten in zijn onderzoek waren de computer aided design, simulatie en optimalisatie. In 1988 werd hij in Delft benoemd tot voltijdhoogleraar in de Regeltechniek. Sinds 1993 is hij werkzaam als voltijdhoogleraar en leerstoelhouder in de groep Control Systems van de faculteit Electrical Engineering aan de TU/e. In de nieuwe faculteit Biomedische Techniek werd hij tevens benoemd tot deeltijdhoogleraar. Bij Control Systems heeft hij het onderzoek mede gericht op elektronische, elektromechanische, energie en automotive systemen in samenwerking met de industrie

In zijn afscheidscollege relativeerde hij het belang van docenttrainingen (BKO-certificaten) en de vernieuwing van onderwijsmodellen. Een docent is geen verzameling aangeleerde competenties. Studenten worden voornamelijk aangesproken door een motiverende docent die ze bereid zijn te volgen. Nieuwe onderwijsmodellen gaan gepaard met omschakelkosten maar zorgen soms enkel voor het opruimen van ingesleten slechte gewoontes. Ze geven geen blijvende garantie op verbetering. Als tekortkoming in het huidige systeem ziet hij het ontbreken van de juiste prikkels voor docenten voor het geven van kwalitatief goed onderwijs. Hij wil hier graag een bijdrage aan leveren door het beschikbaar stellen van een jaarlijkse

December 2013| 37

ITechnology

Future laptop light-connected By: Yan Shi

Initially, it sounded like science-fiction to use light in any wireless communication even at home. When Prof.ir. Ton Koonen talked to me about that PhD project at ECO group, I realized my research could have a huge impact in the society. That vision was so simple, strong, obvious, and challenging that it worked as a catalyst to my professional career. It was my driver all the way to the end of my PhD and my new job at Genexis. In brief, my mission was to convert light coming from a fiber to a wireless signal and back without any electronic components. In contrast to rumors, a PhD life is full of excitement and hurdles, teamwork, presentations, collaborations with academic and industrial partners, anything but… boring.

O

ptical communication systems, after having conquered the long-haul and medium distance connections, nowadays also migrate into short-range communication applications. Optical solutions offer the possibility of high-speed data transfer for professional as well as consumer applications. As the main driver, broadband access networks, and in particular Fiber-to-theHome (FTTH), are offering abundantly available bandwidth in the local loop with high quality of services. High-end service bundles readily offer 1 Gb/s and, given a historically sustained annual increase of around 50%, it can be expected that 1 Gb/s to the user premises is a commodity service in 2015 while at 2017 rates up to 10 Gb/s appearing for the high-end could appear for early adopters. Under such broadband connectivity conditions, the home network must not represent the bottleneck for the Internet service provider to deliver its services to the consumer. Surely when considering the expected evolution for services such as the introduction of high definition (HD) IP-TV, multi-room/multi-vision configuration, using different channels seen in different rooms with up to 3 set top boxes (STBs) and high quality video communication via the TV set. In order to address these concerns, the transport medium present inside the user’s premises must provide large bandwidth, and low latency with low packet error rates. In 2011, existing in-home networking technologies,

Fig. 1: In-home POF infrastructure for converged transport of wired and wireless services

38 |  connecthor 

Fig.2 UWB-over-POF demonstration.

namely twisted pair, coax, Cat-5, powerline, wireless, and plastic optical fiber (POF), were evaluated. The copper solution and wireless PHY cannot meet such high capacity and quality of service (QoS) requirements. Link reliability is often the main issue that leads to increased service calls and thus higher operational expenses for the operator. It is likely that the user is required to modify or replace the installed cable infrastructure. Moreover, the terminal placement is not flexible, meaning that a single connectivity point exists in the home. Fiber-in-the-Home (FITH) offers exciting features to address broadband high-speed connectivity in the user premises, and so it has great potential to be considered as a future-proof solution. Since such residential networks must be easy, fast and cheap to deploy due to no cost sharing for end users, large-core Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) POF has been shown as a strong candidate compared to conventional silica fibers. My PhD study mainly focused on the area of high-capacity optical fiber communication networks for in-home applications, based on such large core POF. POF

offers many advantages compared to conventional single mode silica fibers, such as “do-ityourself” installation, simple connectorization, easy maintenance and small bending radius. However, such POF has technical performance limitations, notably a severely restricted bandwidth. Many techniques have been proposed and studied to overcome such bandwidth restriction. My study started with advanced signal modulation techniques and how such techniques can be used for the transmission of very high capacity data signals over large-core POF, in particular, to enable the transport of high capacity radio streaming signals for wireless services.

OFDM based various signals In mid-1980s, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) began to be firstly considered for practical wireless applications. Up till now, the OFDM concept has been the basis of many practical telecommunication standards, such as WLAN, WIMAX, LTE, and ultra wideband (UWB), including DSL transmission using the baseband version of OFDM, discrete multi tone (DMT). The main concept of OFDM and DMT is that a high-speed serial

Technology I data stream is divided into multiple parallel low-speed streams and modulated onto subcarriers of different frequencies for transmission. Furthermore, by employing powerand bit-loading techniques, OFDM and DMT have proven to be very robust against the dispersion in the transmission pass. For most wireless signals, whose frequency bands are beyond 2 GHz, a frequency spectrum shifting has to be introduced. In my study, a signal local oscillator (LO) was used to provide a universal RF frequency for necessary frequency spectrum shifting. At the antenna site, after the photodetection a similar LO is used to up convert the signal to its original frequency and subsequently radiated over the wireless channel. To prove this technique, I demonstrated HD video streaming employing the UWB wireless techniques transmission over 50 m large core POF and 3 m wireless in the final review meeting of the EU FP7 POF-PLUS project in the innovation lab of Telecom Italia in Turin, Italy, 2011. Moreover, using the advanced modulation techniques high-capacity wirebound signals (with speeds of several Gigabits per second) and converged services transmission through such POF was successfully demonstrated. To extend this work to more comprehensive network topologies, I investigated the highcapacity wireless and wirebound signals together can be transported in a point-tomultipoint POF network.

A public presentation of my work is an integral part of academia

Giving presentations is also a part of being an academic. As a PhD student, I did have many opportunities in conferences to present my

ideas and achievements. It is a great chance to communicate with other researchers and develop communication skills. Sometimes audiences are experts in my field, so I need to answer many tough questions. From my experience, it might be more difficult to face general audiences since I do have to explain from basic and use non-technical words. After gaining experiences gradually from each time, I found I can do better and better.

deadline of ECOC was around the corner. In these 3 days, we exchanged our ideas, worked till midnight in the lab, discussed the results and wrote the paper together. Although 3 days sound impossible, at the end we got one high-ranking conference paper and one journal paper. I do remember we had some arguments and the disappointing moment. By good understanding, we overcame all obstacles and achieved our targets.

Collaborating with other teams

From University to Industry

PhD work is never a “same work day-afterday process”. On the contrary, it includes a series of activities that facilitate knowledge discovery, collaboration and emergence of new ideas. Sometimes, it is mandatory, as a PhD student in The Netherland is always involved in a project with other partners. Apart from that, we may come with a descent idea and look for the opportunity to realize it. I have learned a lot from some joint research activities. Learn to be a listener, learn to be patient and learn to effectively manage time. In 2012, a project partner from Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPVLC) came to our group for a joint experiment. Actually, we only had 3 days for the experiment as the

The innovative work in my PhD study inspired me a lot. From academic point of view, we need a creative way of thinking, which is very enjoyable. On the other hand, I also wished I could translate my ideas into something more widely used. I would like to follow what happens in the industry and learn from the people there. I appreciate my 4 years PhD experience, which lets me stand at a high platform to look at the future optical communication world, but after 4 years, it was time for me to make a change and go from research into industry. I hope to have a chance here to employ new techniques in practice and actually change the lives of people with what I do. So, after my PhD, I joined a FTTH company called Genexis, where I can learn what really happens in the optical communication industry and understand how to translate an academic idea into a real product. I’m still close to the FTTH research I did before, but now I can use my academic experience to build better and more innovative products for everyone to use. I can see the results of this work faster than how long it typically takes before more pure research finds its way into products. But if I had not done my PhD, I would not have had the same background and creative way of thinking to do this work. So it’s really a win-win situation where the academic research and the industry aspects strengthen each other to be highly innovative and still make real products that you can see and touch and use. No doubt, if a new FTTH modem is installed in your house in future, it will be one that I helped create!

December 2013| 39

IVaria

Internship in Graz

By: Elles Raaijmakers

40 |  connecthor 

Varia I

December 2013| 41

IPuzzle

Puzzle Previous puzzles

The winners for the puzzle with the lightbulbs from the June edition are Yuk Hang Yuen and Robert Mientki (left picture). The winner for the Japanese puzzle of the September edition is Sander Sebregts.

New puzzle Each puzzle consists of a grid containing clues in various places. The object is to reveal a hidden picture by painting the squares around each clue so that the number of painted squares, including the square with the clue, matches the value of the clue. In the example on the left we see no squares are painted around the 0, two squares are painted around the 2 and all squares are painted around the 9 including the square containing the 9. Please send your answer to connecthor@ thor.edu before 3 January 2014 if you want to win the ‘vlaai’.

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Varia I

Can we trust time travel records? By: Bas de Hon

I

seem to keep travelling back in time. Sunday, I saw the Malevich exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum. Around 1910, Malevich painted strong and cheerful, naive paintings of farmers and labourers. He moved on to develop Cubo-Futurism, which combined French Cubism (abstract forms) and Italian Futurism (movement). He added a sprinkling of Le´ger’s Tubism for good measure. In 1915, he introduced Suprematism, involving geometric, mostly rectangular shapes floating in space, with a single black square on a white canvas as centre-piece. Malevich saw himself as an evangelist of modernity and change in art, and welcomed the October Revolution as a sign of freedom and progress. Alas, in the 1920s the apparatchik issued an edict that art from then on should be figurative and depict heroic scenes in support of the revolution. The iron fist was soon felt. In the 1930s Malevich was churning out realistic but soulless portraits of farmers and labourers, and antedating them to 1910. While the flower of art was nipped in the bud, modern mathematics thrived in the Soviet Union. After a long hard battle to insure the support for fundamental science, Ivan Petrowskii had a heart attack at the door of the

Party Central Committee building in Moscow, and died. His last words were “I won1” - an anecdote by Vladimir Arnold, whose classical mechanics classic (1974 Russian, 1989 English) is a masterpiece second to none. Arnold has always been outspoken in interviews about due deference1: “it is too easy to omit quoting Russian fundamental papers in the modern world of the job hunters.” There are numerous examples of languagebarrier or indolence-induced misattribution. However, misattribution is of all ages, and has various causes. Huygens used Newton’s second law to describe circular motion thirteen years before - fair enough - Newton formalised, generalised and claimed it in the Principia. Beyond any doubt, the Principia marks the beginning of theoretical physics,2 but F = ma first appears in 1716 (Jacob Hermann). The celebrated Verlet method (1967) in molecular dynamics goes by different names in different branches of science.3 Years later4, Loup Verlet rediscovered his own method depicted in a diagram in the Principia. Recently, Higgs and Englert were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. Brout was not a contender on account of having deceased.

Guralnik, Hagen and Kibble could have been co-awarded the prize, except that the rules stipulate that it may not be shared among more than three people. Further, it took thousands of scientists half a century to produce experimental evidence for the Higgs boson, which has not been acknowledged (yet) either. My second journey back in time was in September, in Torino, the birthplace of Lagrange, whose statue still watches over the Via Lagrange. Lagrange defined the notion of a function in 1806, which basically amounts to stating that a function is a combination of operations.5 This notion is highly relevant in our age of computers. He also introduced the transformation of multiple integrals (we owe dx dy dz = r2 sin θ dθ dφ dr to him). To me, Lagrange’s main contribution to mathematics and physics, is the Lagrangian formalism which encompasses, extends and unifies Newton’s work on mechanics for conservative systems.5 Coming from optics, Hamilton would later generalise Lagrangian mechanics and introduce the Hamiltonian formalism. Nowadays, Lagrangians and Hamiltonians are the bread and butter of quantum and (super) string physicists. However, the so-called Lagrangian (T - V ) was introduced by Poisson,5 Lagrangian cobordisms were introduced in 1980 by Arnold,6 and the Lagrangian interpolating polynomial was first discovered in 1779 by Edward Waring.7 True, records may be corrupted, maliciously or not, and due deference is not always bestowed upon the deserving. However, several cases mentioned above are right and proper attributions, arrived at by analogy, by extension, by practicality, or after preponderance of the evidence. In a future issue, I might take you back to prehistoric times. http://www.ams.org/notices/199704/arnold.pdf DOI:10.1007/978-3-0348-9129-5 3 e.g., Sto¨ rmer (1907), or leapfrog 4 DOI:10.1007/3-540-30666-8 5 M. Kline, “Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times”, 1972 6 DOI:10.1007/BF01086179 7 Phil. Trans. 69, pp. 59–87 1 2

December 2013| 43

IN A WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY A BELIEF IN PEOPLE

Op zoek naar verantwoordelijkheid? Afwisseling? Internationale carrièremogelijkheden? Dan is werken bij Vanderlande Industries misschien iets voor jou! Wij danken ons succes aan de combinatie van hoogwaardige technologie én de passie van onze medewerkers. Zij zijn de drijvende kracht achter onze material handling systemen en bijbehorende services voor tal van nationale en internationale distributiecentra, luchthavens en sorteercentra. Kijk op onze website voor alle vacatures.

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