openME 52.1

November 2020

“AI and Robotics”

AI and Robotics

TECH: THE DANGERS OF AI

EDUCATION: INTERNSHIP ADELAIDE

TRUST ME: GRENFELL TOWER

JOIN US I N E XPLO RI N G

thale sc aree r s.nl

A WORLD O F

POSSIBILITIES

LOCATED IN HENGELO, HUIZEN, EINDHOVEN AND DELFT

150 INTERNSHIPS AND GRADUATION ASSIGNMENTS EVERY YEAR

THE MOST ATTRACTIVE EMPLOYER OF HIGH TECH JOBS IN THE FIELD OF SAFETY AND SECURITY

ACTIVE IN DEFENCE, TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS AND CYBER SECURITY

FOREWORD Dear reader, The new academic year has started and it has taken a lot of effort to adapt to the current situation from everyone. I want to thank and applaud everyone in their effort to combat the coronavirus and make the best out of the hand that we have been dealt. For our Department and Association, it has also been quite the change, but I guarantee that everyone is doing their part!

Since the Board change in September, I am the Editor-in-Chief and thus responsible for openME and the Editorial committee. Together, we have worked hard to offer you a brand new edition of openME! I am excited to present to you the first edition of the 52nd volume of openME. This edition has been centered around the world of AI and Robotics.

A selection of articles has been created that touch on certain aspects which you might find interesting. Also, a new series called the ‘Trust ME’ has been introduced, where we delve into crritical engineering mistakes of the past and how we can learn from them. Of course, other, more traditional, articles have also returned. There is plenty more to read, so I will not keep you waiting any longer.

Stay safe and I wish you much reading pleasure!

Kind regards,

COLOFON

Jankatiri Boon Montoya Editor-in-Chief

3

November 2020, volume 52, issue 1 The ‘openME’ is a publication by the study association for Mechanical Engineering Simon Stevin of the Technical University of Eindhoven.

Editor-in-Chief Jankatiri Boon Design Maartje Borst, Rik Lubbers, Roelof Mestriner, Joel Peeters, Lex Verberne Layout Jankatiri Boon, Maartje Borst, Sandor Habets, Freek Jansen, Jules Vaes

Editorial committee Jankatiri Boon, Maartje Borst, Sandor Habets, Freek Jansen, Kim van Loon, Robbert Louwers, Remco Martin Lizandara, Alma Meijssen, Karsten Slakhorst, Noah Tabor, Alyssa Tol, Lianne Tuin, Jules Vaes, Nicky Verheijen Illustrations and Pictures Editorial committee, Photo committee, Bart van Overbeeke or source stated otherwise Printing office Drukkerij Snep

Circulation 1000 pieces Contact Eindhoven University of Technology Gemini-Noord 1.61 Den Dolech 2 5612AZ Eindhoven Post office box 513 E-mail: redactie@simonstevin.tue.nl homepage: simonstev.in

FEATURED

GRENFELL TOWER

DANGERS

OF AI

17

43

FEATURED

TECH

36 TRUST ME: GRENFELL TOWER

6

Smile of science

8

Quality ME

14

Conspiracy algorithm

16

Interview Wang

21

Hey Siri

18

BFP: Neuron migration

32

Test track

26

Fruitpunch AI

36

Trust ME

Hear about the outback adventure of Luuk Moerenhout, which he experienced during his intership in Australia!

38

Mayflower

28

Interview Construction case assistant

43

Dangers of AI

30

Master track AI

EUROTRIP 2020

50

Reaching the stars

46

MT: Neual network material model

68

High tech on wheels

52

Internship Adelaide

80

Smart bionics

57

Interview Study Advisor

60

Do's and Don'ts studying

66

Best Teacher Awards

72

MT: Robot navigation

82

Quality assurance loop

Delve into this new article series where catastrophic engineering mistakes get reviewed!

43

THE DANGERS OF AI

Is 2001: A space oddyssey an accurate representation of what AI might become?

52 ADELAIDE

88

Under the motto ‘Ora Viaggeremo Davvero!’, 30 ME students went on a trip to Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

EDUCATION

ADELAIDE

EUROTRIP 2020

52 CAREER

ASSOCIATION

23

Interview SIOUX

40

Interview Rijkswaterstaat

10 Hephtig: Vo'lkswagen Golf

48 Skillslab

62 Sταυt: Friedrich Nietzsche

58

Interview AME

74 FSE

70

TWD

76

Grind my Gears

84 Fortimedix

82

World records

88

92

Puzzles and solutions

98

Sterrenhoekjes

99

Winning contest

Eurotrip 2020

95 Thales

E 88

SPONSORED BY

TU/e Mechanical Engineering Fortimedix TWD

SIOUX

Thales AME

Rijkswaterstaat ExxonMobil

Tech

Smile of science

From Anime to Reality Gigantic mechanical suits, one of the most prevalent fantasies seen in anime and cartoons. The most famous series in the west are Transformers, Pacific Rim, Real steal and Voltron. All these series are inspired by a famous Japanese anime named Gundam. Gundam is a series first going to air in 1979 and had a lot of influence on the Japanese culture. Gigantic sword fighting mecha robots are extremely popular. Gundam is the 14th highest-grossing media franchise of all time and to celebrate this success, a group of engineers is making a full-size Gundam suit.

In the port of Yokohama they brought the iconic RX-78-2 robot to life at the 1st of October 2020 were it will stay at least one year. The robot will be a 18-meter tall full model and it will weigh somewhere around 25 tons. The 24 degrees of motion will stretch the limits of the motor, materials, and actuator technologies. The team aims to make this monster walk on the port of Yokohama to celebrate. The robot is being developed using the open-source Robot Operating System and Gazebo simulation software, and the team will release a full-scale virtual copy. So if you want to play with such a monster and develop your actionsposes, it will soon be possible.

Holograms, the ultimate fantasy Holograms are one of the most used science fictions of the past century.

In the ’70s the Star Wars universe was started with the iconic scene of princes Lea appearing from R2D2, but even more recently like the Marvel cinematic universe in Iron Man. It sparked the fantasy of a lot of engineers thinking nowadays it would be possible for hologram technology to be real.

The earliest adoption of hologram technology was during a Coachella concert in 2012, where Tupac appeared to perform some of his songs, even though he has already died. It was so convincing that fans thought he had risen from the dead. Later, other deceased artists, like Michael Jackson and Andre Hazes, made appearances to give a concert from beyond the grave.

Nowadays the technology has evolved and a new kind of hologram is researched, so-called sound holograms. A grid of ultrasonic speakers positioned above and below the stage emits a silent ultrasound to create small pockets of low air pressure, where a small polystyrene ball can float in. By manipulating these created soundwaves it is possible to rapidly shift the 3D position of the ball to create the illusion of having an object hanging in the air. When the ball its speed is calibrated correctly, you will get the same image as early tv setups.

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Tech

WRITTEN BY REMCO MARTIN LIZANDARA

Relaxed Travel Imagine waking up and getting ready for work and not having to bother with a traffic jam of annoying drivers on the road. Just relaxing and still being able to go anywhere you want, maybe even read an e-mail that has to be read before you start your day at work. It was only possible for the rich who could afford a chauffeur. But times are changing, as new cars have so much technology that they can drive themselves.

Self-driving cars or so-called autonomous cars can be the future of transport. Tesla and Waymo amongst other companies, are working on autonomous cars.

Almost all Teslas can drive autonomous. Tests with autonomous cars are great success stories, with them driving on open roads regularly. But in the mind of people, having a computer at the wheel is still scary. Even though a computer at the wheel is safer than a human, the thought of not having someone in control is weird.

The perspective of the people has to change to make autonomous cars the latest science fiction that becomes reality.

Transhumanism Being stronger/better than your competition can only be achieved by training, training, and more training, that is the saying. But what if, and bear with me here, there is an alternative to the training and the endless suffering to become better. What if we can enhance you as a person by changing your DNA or to implement a chip in your brain, or even enhance your legs directly. Many different multimedia, for example games and movies, toyed with this idea.

In the game series BioShock your body could be modified to give you extra powers and more stamina, in the film upgrade a chip was put in your head that gifted you knowledge of things you never trained for and the chip could take over your body. These kinds of technologies are nice to see in a movie, but how far away is this kind of transhumanism in real life.

Upgrading your body is already done although on a small scale. Amputees can get prostheses to be able to blend in in society, these are mainly used to make their lives easier. But you can imagine that technology evolves in a way that prosthetics can enhance a person in a way they can become better than regular humans. A computer chip in your head a weird thought but the company Neuralink is working on it. By the end of 2020, they think the first computer chips will be implemented in someone’s head.

7

Education

QUALITY ME Mechanics

19%

Computational Mechanics

5 ECTS

5 ECTS

35%

6.3 114

*1

*3

*2

Feedback: • International students felt that they were at a disadvantage, because not all provided practice exams were translated.

• Interested and challenging content.

• The exam part with Marc Mentat should be smaller or test it separately.

Improvements: • No old Dutch exams will be available anymore, so no difference between the available course material for the Dutch students and the foreign students.

12%

7.8 117

Feedback: • Good structure and relation between the lectures and BZ. • Enthusiastic and helpful lecturers.

• Students suggest that Van Brummelen could also use the chalkboard during lectures.

Improvements: • The lecturers are pleased with the student evaluation of the course, they take the suggestions for improvements into account t fine-tune the next year’s edition.

Control Engineering 5 ECTS

30%

8.5

* Courses evaluation 2019

8

Feedback: • Enthusiastic lecturer and clear, well-taught lectures.

• Divide the 4-hour lecture into 2 separate lectures.

• Provide a possibility to do the oral exam in Eindhoven instead of Delft.

93

Improvements: • The lecturers intend to keep the lectures as they are, as they want to go through the theory as fast as possible.

Other students have remarked that they like it, so they won’t be changing that for now.

Education

*1 = % of student who filled in the survey

Good

*2 = Average grade of the course

Okay

*3 = Average spend time on the course

Bad

Analysis of production systems

Sustainable Energy Sources

2.5 ECTS

5 ECTS

15%

6.5 70

Feedback: • Students like that the topic is different and presents a new work field.

• Examination was clear and wellcommunicated.

• Change the use of Chi into another program like Matlab or Python.

Improvements: • The lecturers are pleased with the results of the course, Chi will be changed into something more common, probably Python.

35% 20%

5.1 140 140

Feedback: • Project was interesting and relevant.

• A lot of different lectures are involved in this course. It would be better if each lecturer uses the same Powerpoint template and skip the introduction.

In this way it is possible to go more in depth per topic.

Improvements: • A new lecturer will take over the coordination of the course and look into a solution to improve this course.

Thermodynamics 5 ECTS

20%

Feedback: • Well-structured course.

• Interesting subject and clear lectures.

• Organize the canvas page with the new Canvas template.

7.3 140 140

Improvements: • The quality of the video-lectures was not too well, the responsible parties will be asked to look into that problem.

• The reorganization of the Canvas page will be looked into.

Written by Maartje Borst

9

Hephtig: Vo’lkswagen Golf I can’t think of a Mechanical Engineering disciple that is not implemented in cars. That is probably why Mechanical Engineers and cars go so well together. As a Mechanical Engineer, it is important to be close to grounded technology. Unfortunately though, cars are seen as expensive objects.

Therefore, this article is here to convince you that all students are able to enjoy this amazing hobby; owning a Volkswagen Golf.

WRITTEN BY Rick Kapelle

10

Association Where it started for me Living in a small village where the closest train station is 12 kilometers away, I chose to buy a car when I started studying in Eindhoven. As an enthusiast of German technology, my eye fell on a 1997 Golf MK III. As reliable as it was, the car started getting boring quite fast; it never broke down, so it never had to be fixed. That is why, after a year, my eye fell on a broken, 1991 Golf MK II, which I bought for under a thousand euros.

Access to parts The Golf MK II was Volkswagen’s highest volume seller and was produced from 1983 until

1992. In this period, around 6.3 million of those iconic cars are produced. This high amount has a couple of advantages compared to other attainable cars. Firstly, because so many are produced, thousands of used parts are available online. Secondly, because so much of those cars are still on the road, new parts are still produced for those old vehicles. You can get the lowest prices by ordering parts from Germany and you will have them delivered in two weeks.

A little more expensive, but still quite cheap you can order parts at your local parts store and install them already in 24 hours. The first thing that had to be fixed on mine was a leaking radiator.

1.6 liter (displacement) is the combined swept volume of the pistons inside the cylinders of an engine. It is calculated from the bore (diameter of the cylinders), stroke (distance the piston travels), and number of cylinders.

Generally speaking, the displacement of an engine determines how much air/fuel mixture can be drawn into the cylinders and by this how much horsepower it can produce.

8 valve stands for, logically, how many valves are in the cylinder head of an engine. These valves open and close while the engine is running and control the flow of air/fuel mixture into- and exhaust gases out of the cylinders. As can be imagined, generally, the more valves, the more and faster the flow of gasses and thus the more power an engine can produce.

11

Association

For comparison; this part, that is responsible for cooling your coolant liquid can be bought for only 29,42 euros, while one for a 2020 Golf MK VII costs 69,48 euros already.

The second part I replaced on my project was the timing belt. This crucial part, which is responsible for synchronizing the rotation of the crankshaft and camshaft for proper valve timing, cost me 8.95 euros and 3 hours to replace. A garage asks around 500 euros for such a job.

Tuning The Golf MKII considered in this article was built with a 1.6 liter 8 valve engine with originally 69 horsepower. For those who are not familiar with these terms yet; it will be shortly explained. As for me, more horsepower is equal to more fun, I decided to tune the engine. As the displacement and amount of valves are not that easy to adapt.

I decided to install a bigger carburetor and another camshaft. Again; it will be shortly explained.

Logically, when a bigger carburetor is installed, more air/fuel mixture can enter the engine, and thus more power can be created. As with the camshaft; when the

valves open longer, faster, or earlier, the air/fuel mixture enters the engine longer, faster or earlier and thus more power can be created.

Those adaptions to my engine increased the amount of fun by about 30 HP. When you mess it up A big pleasure of owning this car is that all reparations and modifications bridge the gap between theory and reality of the Mechanical Engineering study, as for instance a carburetor, is mentioned above.

The techniques used in those cars are quite basic and simplistic, which makes it an easy car to start with. Most cars nowadays are not equipped with a carburetor anymore, but with an electronic injection system or other beautiful systems, such as catalytic converters and turbos. Those are parts that can be learned about after modifying your first Volkswagen Golf.

In case you are still not convinced to start this beautiful hobby after reading this article, and might be scared to mess things up when starting to tinker: a used but working engine will cost you around 100 euros.

A carburetor creates an air/fuel mixture from air and fuel. We want the fuel to be optimally burned, to create the most amount of power, and the least amount of emissions. The carburetor creates this optimal mixture, based on the venturi effect. Some of you may remember this effect from the subject Heat and Flow.

We consider a tube of which the air inlet can be regulated by your gas pedal. In the middle of the tube, a restriction is initiated and air flows through the tube, into your engine. Below the restriction, a cup of fuel is placed, which is not isolated from its environment. The airspeed must increase as it passes through the restriction, in accord with the principle of mass continuity, while its static pressure must decrease in accord with the Bernoulli principle. As a result of pressure decrease, fuel will be ‘sucked’ into the airflow and create an air/fuel mixture.

12

Association

Specifications Year of production 1991 Engine 1.6 liter 8 valve Transmission 5-speed manual Horsepower Around 100 HP Top speed 190 km/h Drivetrain Front-wheel drive Fuel comsumption 9.1 L/100 km

13

Tech

Image by: Grafiker61

THE CONSPIRACY ALGORITHM

WRITTEN BY JANKATIRI BOON

Have you ever noticed that suggested videos on someone else’s YouTube account are way different than yours? Videos on YouTube get sorted based on your preferences. These suggestions are based on your watching history, and might provide you with a biased view.

This is what happens to conspiracy theorists that have delved into the YouTube conspiracy rabbit hole‌ The algorithm With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is by far the biggest video platform on the internet. The platform has over 5 billion videos uploaded, since its creation in 2005. With this huge catalogue of videos, it needs a rock-solid algorithm to provide the best viewer experience. A video gets into your suggestions list, following this algorithm. Here it is displayed in a basic diagram.

14

Tech

From the assortment of videos on YouTube, a video will get selected based on certain criteria, like your own video history and personal interests. This information is gathered and analyzed from past sessions. This information is then used in two filters, which are displayed as ‘funnels’ in the diagram, to eliminate irrelevant videos and rank the videos the algorithm deems relevant to your personal taste and interests. These videos then end up in your suggestions list. This leads to videos that correspond with what you have watched earlier and also explains why your home page is suddenly filled with cooking videos if you watched a tutorial about cooking a steak the night before.

A great way to put this into perspective is that you walk into a store looking for tomatoes. Usually the store will look the same for everyone, but if you apply the algorithm to this situation, you would only see things relevant to tomatoes, like other vegetables. Another person would see something completely different, like bread, just because they have another view and want something else. All this happens even though you are in the exact same store! This seems absurd in reality, but this is what actually happens on YouTube. It may look innocent, but it has some unintended consequences for certain target audiences.

Confirmation bias

The result of this algorithm is users watching videos that align with their interests, as mentioned before. This also means that if you have a certain opinion about a topic, you will get videos corresponding to that opinion, not showing the other ways to view the subject. This is called confirmation bias, where you get shown results that align with your opinion. Results that show the opposing side are not shown to you and therefore you get a twisted perspective of the situation. The most contemporary example

of this is the conspiracy surrounding COVID-19. Thanks to the internet, it has only become easier for conspiracy theorists to come into contact with each other. It is now really easy to share videos with each other, for example about face masks choking you or the virus being a hoax.

For these people, almost all videos that will be suggested from then on will be about these ridiculous statements.

That is also why these videos seem to be such a hotspot for people that think alike. If a random person would stumble on these videos, they would be really confused that these videos are so well received and would instantly know that they are nonsense.

The switch to reality

The way YouTube currently works and the every-day increasing globalization, is a gateway to conspiracy theorists finding each other and creating a big echo chamber where the most ridiculous things get shared. This would normally not be a problem, but recently things have gotten out of hand. With regard to the corona crisis, people took to the streets to protest; verbally assault politicians and news reporters by calling them bloodthirsty, murderers, pedophiles and other ridiculous things; and took appeal to the new regulations put in place by the government by completely disregarding them. Rules are being ignored and people are being cursed at, just because some people deem certain ‘news’ sources as truth and dismiss others as fake news, without actually verifying anything.

Disregarding the rules and blindly assuming things from unverified sources is putting progress at a halt, most noticeable for fighting against COVID-19 right now. This just puts into perspective how one simple algorithm can unfold in such a mess.

15

Education

Interview Ye Wang

What and where did you study?

“I graduated in China, after which I decided to get some international experience. I got the possibility to do a Master in London. After two years, I got to a bottleneck as I don’t have a PhD while everyone else does, and at the same time I started missing the academic atmosphere in Europe, so I decided to move again. I came to Eindhoven University of Technology to do a PhD. In the end, I did all three stages of the study in different countries.”

What is a memorable moment of your study time?

“When I was studying in London, I had a job delivering flyers. By doing this I must have seen the whole city in the first three months. This was a fun way to get to know a new city.”

What did you do after you got your PhD?

16

“After my PhD, I work at Océ (now part of Canon) for three years.

I always liked doing research, so while I was working at Océ, I also worked at

the TU/e as a part-time researcher.

Since last November I started my tenure track at the TU/e in the research section Microsystems.”

Which courses do you give at the moment?

“At the moment I am busy with the DBL Truss Structure Construction, which is a part of Introduction to Mechanical Engineering. Setting up this course during the summer came with a lot of challenges as there were a lot of uncertainties. A new plan had to be made for the building process and the test setup. We still wanted to keep the practical aspect of the course alive, although the students could not build their own design anymore.

Next to this, I am one of the coordinators of the DBL Peristaltic pump and I have been assisting two master courses in the past, where I helped with the practical part of the courses. I like that I can help students understand the theory by practice and think about their applications.”

Can you also tell us something about the projects you are working on?

“Yes, of course. One of the projects that I am working on is droplet manipulation on a dynamic surface. For this project we make small changes to the surface topography, causing a droplet to move.

I was so thrilled the first time the experiment actually worked. It is exciting to see how theory becomes reality.

One thing about science is that you can plan your experiments, but you can never plan the results. You just start a project and explore the possibilities, sometimes a strange observation brings you to a whole new direction than the one you started with. This is what I like most about science, the unexpected part.”

How do you experience working during these times?

“You can learn a lot from these new ways of teaching. It is interesting to learn how to teach online and you are forced to apply new technologies for online teaching. It is a lot of work to adjust to the new circumstances. Something that is specifically missing is the face to face

contact with the students and the direct feedback you get from them. It is difficult to see how students react to new ways of teaching.”

What do you do in your free time?

“I have two kids, a son and a daughter, so I like to spend time with them. We like to walk in the woods. Next to this, I like to cycle and listen to all kinds of podcasts.”

What is your advice to students?

“The world is changing, and the information is always on your fingertips, just a few clicks away. Now, what becomes more important is how you learn and how to process information because you can always find and apply knowledge when you need them. The rate of learning is faster, but we now have a risk of information overload. Try to find a balance between the need to focus on specific problems and to diversify your knowledge. Focus on developing the skill of how to learn, as that is as important as the knowledge itself, if not more important.”

WRITTEN BY NICKY VERHEIJEN

Bachelor Final Project

Investigation of hydrogel strain stiffening affecting neuron migration

Written by Joris van oers

18

Education

Hey, my name is Joris. Last summer I have concluded my BEP at the microsystems research section in NeuroNanoscale Engineering. By the time of writing this I am a first year master student at the special track Manufacturing Systems Engineering.

This project is supporting the research of PhD candidate Gülden Akçay, supervised by Regina Lüttge. Furthermore, Lambèrt van Breemen has helped with some advice about modeling from Matlab to Marc Mentat.

Although my research was about the behavior of neurons (brain cells), I have not been able to perform any experiments in the lab, due to the Corona measures.

Instead I could focus all my time on developing a simulation environment, which might help understanding and predicting the mechanical triggers involved in neuronal migration. This project has been awarded a 9/10, and maybe after a bit more research, the results could even be published.

Introduction to research

At Neuro-Nanoscale Engineering, a so-called ‘brainon-chip’ technology is being developed. This is basically a small capsule where neurons are suspended in a soft hydrogel, resembling the structure of brain tissue, such that their behavior should be as natural as possible. The advantage of such a system (in vitro) is that the behavior can be observed more accurately than inside a living organism (in vivo).

Inside of this specialized microchip the neurons will start migrating to form a network. This is similar to a developing brain, where neurons will form a communication network to steer the functions of a human body. If we would know the exact triggers that are involved in this network forming behavior, it might be possible to create a controlled neuro-network. In such a network the effect of different medicines can be quantified. This method would thus be

Figure: Reaction force after a step in strain has been applied to the simulated hydrogel. Parameter A defines how quickly elements are disconnected under stress. This results in a decrease in reaction force over time, called creep.

able to shorten the development and testing phase for new medicines against brain-diseases, like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

Model introduction

You might wonder at this point how a mechanical engineer can contribute in this field of research. First of all, I had to start off with an extensive literature research, to acquaint myself with some basic biological concepts. With this new knowledge I proposed a model that would be able to catch as many of the biomechanical phenomena as possible.

As a starting point, I modeled the hydrogel as an assembly of randomly structured polymer chains. Notice that a hydrogel is essentially a polymer with a lot of fluid inside its structure. It should thus retain both viscoelastic and fluidic properties. Using an algorithm based on some proximity rules, I generated a random set of nodes and connected them with flexible trusses.

These chains can only be created if nodes are not too far apart, and chains may not overlap each other. This algorithm can be applied to both 2D and 3D. Now that the general structure is in place, some specific properties of a living bio-tissue can be incorporated. First of all, I have looked at the fluid behavior. By very close estimation, a fluid can be considered incompressible,

Figure: Representation of a hydrogel structure, using a geometric algorithm

meaning that its volume will not change significantly under stress. This can only be simulated properly by using 3D elements, because one-dimensional line elements don’t have a volume property. For this case, tetrahedron elements were used, so that each element in the model consists of six edges. Notice however that this method imposes some limitations for the geometry generation.

Secondly, I looked at the mechanical response of the hydrogel. Much like other polymers, hydrogels show effects of creep. This means that the shape will slowly change under sustained mechanical stress, allowing it to relieve some energy. In previous research, this has been modelled by breaking some chains in the polymer, and then reconnecting them if another node is close enough.

This is a probability process that depends (among other things) on how high the stresses are in a chain.

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Education

Modeling of a neuron

Now that we have a functioning material that could represent a bio-tissue, it is time to insert some neurons, to see how they would respond in this environment. Firstly, a method has been obtained to generate the shape of a neuron. For now, the neuron will be generated as a perfect sphere.

This represents a young neuron, before it has extended any protrusions (neurites). This sphere is initiated as some nodes along a half circle in 2D. Now, this 2D shape can be revolved around the center, to generate a full sphere in 3D space, represented by a discrete number of (axisymmetric) nodes.

As can be seen in the figure below, this has been shaped a little bit like a beachball.

Migration

The reason I have shaped the nodes on this sphere like a beachball, is to facilitate the migration process. During migration, the cell uses its internal skeleton to apply some forces on its membrane, thereby forming a protrusion (axon).

Each neuron produces a single axon, which reaches out to other cells. In reality, such an axon can grow up to 1 or 2 meters long, thereby reaching all the way from the brain area to your toes with just a single cell. The neuron can also use this axon to pull the main body of the cell (called the soma) along to a new position. This is called migration.

In this model, we will only look at the soma and axon, to evaluate how the axon will grow through its surroundings.

Migration will be started by applying a force to the axisymmetric center of the ‘beachball’. The tip will come out, and a thin protrusion takes shape. This has been achieved by pulling the nodes on each level towards the center, until they have reached the desired axon radius. This way, the migration can be modeled as a step-by-step process. Each timestep, the program will check if the path for a migration step is free. An example of a migration has been depicted above.

Now we have a fully functional simulation environment for axon growth modeling. The effect of different input settings on the resulting growth speed can be observed, like node

Figure: Model representation of a migration, in four steps. The cell is connected to the hydrogel with the black lines, but the hydrogel has not been shown in this plot.

density or enzyme effectiveness. Some examples of this are plotted below. At this point however, the conclusions we can make are mostly qualitative, not quantitative. In order to make valid conclusions on this behavior, the choices for the algorithms and its parameters should be evaluated with experiments in the lab. This is a topic for later research. If a set of parameters can be found that matches the observations in the lab, this model could be applied to make predictions on the behavior of neurons under different mechanical circumstances. In the end, this may help in reducing both the developing phase and testing phase of new medicines against brain disease.

Figure: Resulting migration speed of the axonal growth cone, with some different model parameter values. Here, enzyme effectiveness has been modeled.

Figure: Model representation of a neuron. The left image shows the numbering of the migration layers. In the middle image the surface has been made opaque, so the 3D structure becomes visible. In the right image, the cell has been connected to the hydrogel with red bold connections.

20

Tech

Image by: Grafiker61

HEY SIRI CAN YOU GIVE ME A TITLE?

WRITTEN BY ALYSSA TOL

This question has led to an article with ten tips for a catchy title which she found on the web. It took three tries to get to this result. Causes of failure of the first two are: not hearing the wake word (apparently it was switched off in the settings of my phone), and not correctly interpreting what was spoken.

These are some of the downsides of this technology, but there is also a world of possibilities to these algorithms.

Wake word

First, the wake word which is needed to interact with Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant/Home, and Amazon’s Alexa. There is more than meets the eye regarding this. For the word to easily be picked up by voice recognition it needs to have soft vowels and a contrasting hard sound, such as the ‘x’-sound in Alexa.

Besides, the word needs to be unique enough to avoid being heard during a normal conversation. (If someone is called Alexa in the household, it is possible to choose other names.)

Another important point for the wake word is the length. For example, a short wake word is not ideal since detecting short phrases would be difficult for the voice recognition and would lead to more false positives.

Extending a short wake word by adding a word like “Hey” or “Okay” is a good way of making a more viable wake word.

This principle is used by Google for their voice recognition, extending their otherwise small wake word to three syllables (“Hey Google”). Using a long phrase as a wake word is also not a good idea, since this might get annoying. Therefore, a wake word should optimally consist of three or four syllables and use diverse sounds. Hey Siri, hey Google, and Alexa all satisfy these aspects for an optimal wake word, making it possible to interact with the algorithm behind it.

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Correctly interpreting In order to understand what you are saying after the wake word, you need to speak clearly to the artificial assistant.

Making mistakes is human, so it happens that the assistant cannot understand you at all and says she has no idea, or the assistant interprets something completely different. This is not always your fault, but it also depends on the training that the artificial assistant has had. By training the assistant gets better and better at understanding you, as well as at showing you the answer to your question.

Training

Biases can arise unexpectedly, but they should be prevented as much as possible Not only the voice recognition software is trained, but a lot of algorithms are being trained, such as face recognition for on your phone or for interactions with social robots.

The training data that is used for the algorithms can have a tremendous impact on how the algorithms see the world.

For example, if the algorithm of a social robot is only trained to recognize faces with light skin tones, it will be unable to detect the faces of people with darker skin tones.

This leads to a biased software.

In other algorithms this phenomenon occurs as well, but it is often in a different form. Think of searching on a search engine, like Google, when you are searching for pictures of CEOs the results are usually males and when you are searching for personal assistance the shown pictures are of women. Also, when you ask your personal assistant on your phone or in your house a question, their voices are all female.

These flaws can be prevented with the use of one of the following solutions: being aware of your own biases, more diversity in the training data, and/or more diversity in the development group. If you are aware of the biases you have, you can prevent that from forming within the algorithm. By having more diversity in the training data, the algorithm is better trained with the different possibilities, so in the example of the face recognition it can be used by everyone no matter the skin color. If the development group is composed

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of a more diverse group of people, it is easier to look from different perspectives at the algorithm.

This means that it is possible to check on the flaws when using the software within the team. It is also beneficial to prevent flaws from developing in the algorithm without thinking of all the potential users and the impact it could have on someone. This will make the software more inclusive and more broadly applicable.

Endless possibilities When these solutions are implemented, there are endless possibilities for the algorithms behind these multiple kinds of recognition software to change situations for the better. Think of a person who is unable to speak due to an illness. For this person it takes several minutes to formulate a sentence with the help of a device, such as an onscreen keyboard and head movements. Recognizing what he/she would like to say by feeling the signals formed due to very subtle engaging speech systems, when internally articulating words, and an artificial intelligence program would help them communication smoother and easier than they can now. Other helpful possibilities could be using phones for health check-ups when the doctor is hours walking or not accessible at all, to prevent loneliness, to create equal opportunities when applying to a job, to get help when dealing with domestic violence, and any other use that could be thought of. So, lets create artificial intelligence for everyone and for a better version of tomorrow’s world.

Will we one day have such advanced AI as WALL-E?

Career

Image by: Sioux Technologies

SIOUX TECHNOLOGIES WRITTEN BY JULES VAES

Sioux Technologies is a high-tech engineering company that provides a significant contribution to leading tech companies by functioning as a flexible R&D department.

The Sioux Mechatronics Competence Centre focusses on state-of-the-art mechatronic products and production systems. This is of course closest to our hearts as Mechanical Engineers. It was therefore a pleasure to be invited by Sioux to visit one of their offices in Nuenen and talk with Pieter-Bas Wulms about his role within the company.

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Career

Sioux Technologies is a well-known high-tech company that can be found all around the world. It is however not a coincidence that its headquarters and multiple branches are located in Eindhoven. With the university and the High Tech Campus just a few blokcs away, it is the ideal location for this innovative company. Sioux takes great pride in developing and building smart modules and software for advanced OEMs. Their contribution can range from designing and testing to producing single-use machines and even serial products. This is all part of their philosophy in contributing to a safe, healthy and sustainable world through technological innovation.

The Sioux Mechatronics Competence Centre is the branch of Sioux were Pieter-Bas Wulms is working. It is situated next to Eindhoven, in Nuenen, and is specialized in precision movement and positioning, miniaturization, vacuum technology, optical monitoring and embedded design. With these expertise areas, they can reach clients from a wide variety of markets and industries, such as: semiconductors, analytics, medicine, automotive, infrastructure & agriculture. Sioux offers help in the form of customized innovation, technology development, integration, production and much more. It combines this all in a single building so that designers and manufacturers can communicate and cooperate efficiently and work towards reaching Sioux’ goal: bringing high-tech to life.

Pieter-Bas Wulms

Pieter-Bas Wulms is a Principal System Designer at Sioux Technologies, but he didn’t start off that way. He began his academic career as a Mechanical Engineer in Delft. After his bachelor, he did his master in Biomedical Engineering and when he eventually left the university, he had already 3 publications under his belt.

After having no luck in finding a job in his field of expertise, Pieter-Bas shifted his focus to the mechanical market. He got in touch with Sioux, which got quickly followed up with a contract.

He started as a Mechanical System Designer and got a project to work on. The company is structured in such a way that new employees get a buddy assigned that guide them within their new job and can answer all their questions. Looking back, Pieter-Bas feels he learned more in his first 2 years at Sioux than during his entire time at the university. However, the university taught him a flexible way of learning and thinking, which he still adopts to this day. This is also necessary at Sioux, because every day new challenges or new learning opportunities arise.

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Over time, Pieter-Bas has been able to develop his own field of expertise at the company, namely heat & flow. This was partly because that position was vacant and needed filling, but also because heat & flow affects almost every aspect of project. This gives Pieter-Bas the opportunity to get to understand the whole project or machine that they are working on, instead of just a small component of it.

Pieter-Bas is currently a Principal System Designeer and in charge of a team that can range from 2 to 15 passionate engineers, that work together on a project. These projects are highly interdisciplinary, which means he must work closely together with people from different engineering branches to achieve the project goals. This can be tricky, since the challenges that arise are not always up his alley. In this case it is very important to understand thoroughly what the problems are and discuss with the responsible people how they can solve it together. This requires great communication and cooperation to overcome.

It is therefore no surprise that this is also one of the pillars of Sioux. Everyone is very open and willing to answer any of your questions.

Besides leading a project, Pieter-Bas also advices other teams about heat & flow. This allows him to work on multiple different projects simultaneously, something which he greatly enjoys.

Every single project has its own set of challenges and allow him to grow as an engineer. Two of his most interesting projects will be described below.

Wafer transfer test rig

One project that Pieter-Bas worked on was for the well-known producer of lithography machines, ASML. The goal of the project was developing a test rig that qualifies and allows development

Career

research on the electrostatic clamps. These clamps need to be tested in a highly controlled environment, since it is a very delicate piece of technology. To achieve the necessary level of precision, robots are utilised. These robots are able to perform a wide range of different tests and are designed in such a way that the engineers at ASML can replace certain measuring equipment independently.

This enables them to measure factors like friction on the surface of the electrostatic clamp and the voltage on it. Also, placement accuracy of the wafer on the electrostatic clamp can be measured. These tests must be conducted in a near vacuum.

Since total vacuum is extremely difficult to achieve, the pressure inside is carefully controlled by adding hydrogen or other gasses to the chamber.

Pieter-Bas was responsible for the entire vacuum system, which he designed and then produced together with a supplier. He started this project in the same way he begins all his projects, by doing simple calculations by hand. This gives him an early indication of what is and what isn’t possible. Every next step he goes a little bit more into detail and therefore must ignore less and less factors. This leads to an ever-increasing accuracy, but at the cost of a lot of time and effort. This challenge is also something that drives Pieter-Bas. Eventually, the parts for the machine are ordered and fabricated elsewhere and assembled in-house. This also highlights another great aspect of Sioux;

the hardware is always very close, so you can see what you have been developing come to life.

Hot-indexer-machine

This project was much closer to Pieter-Bas’ field of expertise (heat & flow). It involved developing a hot–indexer-machine that could heat up a thin plate of 100x300 mm to 500°C in just 15 seconds. Furthermore, the temperature was not allowed to differ by more than 5°C and the installation height to heat it up was only 50 mm. To make it even more complicated, the machine must be able to withstand accelerations of up 10 g and a position accuracy of a few micrometers is required. Naturally, the material of which the indexer is made, should be able to cope with the forces on it, but it should also be able to expand a little bit due to thermal expansion. This made the problem not only challenging in thermodynamics, but also in dynamics and solid mechanics and is a nice example of how different fields come together in a project.

As always, Pieter-Bas starts a project by drafting some initial concepts for the machine and performing simple calculations by hand, before moving towards simulations. This makes sure he has a general idea in which direction the project should head. In the meantime, designers start making a more detailed design of the machine, based on the first drafts. Pieter-Bas starts running some simulations to see whether the path they chose can achieve the desired results. Often these simulations show that the chosen direction is not feasible anymore, which forces the team to return to other concepts. These unforeseen circumstances happen in every project. The real challenge is overcoming those hurdles and learn from your mistakes. Designing machines is an iterative process in which simulations show flaws that need correcting. This goes back and forth for a while and eventually, all project goals will be achieved, and a nice well-functioning machine is ready for the customer. All in all, this project required a very high accuracy in really challenging conditions, which made it one of the most intense projects Pieter-Bas has ever worked on.

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Tech

Punch AI into practice FruitPunch AI

At FruitPunch AI, we are building the international community of AI engineers, with a mission to apply AI for good.

What we do We educate people by organizing masterclasses, coding sessions and workshops, so everybody can become an AI expert. We believe that AI can be applied in every engineering field, and thus we want to involve everyone.

We connect researchers, students and developers by hosting AI Connect events where you can connect with other AI enthusiasts and learn a great deal from pioneers in the field of AI. On our online platform, connect.fruitpunch.ai, you can see the projects that the global community is working on and the events they are hosting. You can also showcase your own projects or events.

After connecting and educating AI enthusiasts, we can start to develop AI systems that do good for the world. Currently, we are working on three AI for Good projects: AI for Food, AI for Health and AI for Wildlife.

In the AI for Food project, we are creating an Agrobot, a robot that can help improve the agriculture sector. Using intelligent systems, the Agrobot recognizes different kinds of fruits, after which it can move and collect the fruits, and sort them into the appropriate container.

In the AI for Health project, we aim to predict patient diagnosis and improve treatment planning in cooperation with hospitals in the Eindhoven region. Training AI on patient datasets allows the discovery of patterns and connections that were previously undetectable, which leads to new insights further improving our healthcare system.

In the AI for Wildlife project, we are building an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that can detect poachers in Africa. This requires a highly accurate and specific recognition system, which is being developed using AI. When the UAV detects

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poachers, it will send its location to the local rangers, which can then act on it to protect the endangered species in Africa.

What can you do?

As said before, we believe that in every engineering discipline AI can be applied. Whether you want to help build an Agrobot, a UAV, a model to predict patient diagnosis, or you just want to start learning more about the fascinating world of AI, you can help to apply AI for Good!

Starting November 1st, you have the opportunity to delve into the possibilities of AI with our free FruitPunch AI Bootcamp, which will teach you the most important principles and topics needed to get your AI career started!

More information If you want to know more about FruitPunch AI and our projects or events, you can visit our website www.fruitpunch.ai or follow us on social media. For questions, you can email us at info@fruitpunch.ai.

A LOOK INTO THE UPDATED COURSE

Education

4GA00: Introduction to Mechanical Engineering WRITTEN BY SANDOR HABETS

The last couple of decades, every first-year student started their career within Mechanical Engineering the same way: by following the course Introduction to Mechanical Engineering.

After getting your technical drawings disapproved by Willie and Jaap, you spend hours in the workplace in the basement of Gemini to build your own wonderfully designed crane. Eventually, your construction would be tested and by using a seesaw, you and your entire group would be baptized in the Dommel to become true Mechanical Engineers.

Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic, this course could not continue with its normal setup. To make sure that the new first-year students would still get to know the practical side of Mechanical Engineering, a couple of students and staff members. have worked hard over the summer and in the first quartile to make it as successful as possible. One of these persons is Stijn Janssen: a Mechanical Engineering student, currently doing his Master’s and this year’s responsible for the organization of the practical side of this course. In this article, you can read about the new set-up and his experiences!

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Education

The new case As you all might understand, the workspaces in the basement of Gemini had too little capacity to fit all those first-year students at the end of the first quartile. Despite this, the Department saw the necessity for the freshmen to gain some practical knowledge. For this reason, the entire course has been changed.

Instead of building your own designed crane, the students now got the opportunity to build one of the three pre-designed constructions. Building already started in the second week of the quartile. Next to the old familiar basement of Gemini, the canteen area of Traverse was transformed into a suitable workplace. In total, all groups were divided into five timeslots spread around the entire quartile. With this approach, the focus of the course shifted from designing to failure analysis and evaluating.

It is noticeable that among freshmen, everyone has different construction experiences before this course. Some students like it and these students often have a large learning curve during the project. Other students would rather stay aloof from the building. When building with five people, this would probably be the student in charge of the music. In the new setup, everyone is triggered to build, meaning that more students are getting their hands dirty and benefitting from this. Another upside is that the ratio between supervisors/students was significantly higher this year than in previous years.

Of course, this shift brings along a couple of advantages. Stijn mentions that he noticed that more first-year students are actively participating in the workspace. During every moment for building, only two persons from a group were allowed to be present to work as safely as possible.

“The building starts a lot sooner, leaving a lot of the student with a lot less time to think everything through.

Th0rough preparation was the key to success in this part of the course.”

Late night for the students in Traverse

“One time when I was supervising, I saw a group count the number of bolts they received. Another time I was asked if I had some cleaning tools for their crane because they did not like that their hands were getting dirty.”

Most common mistakes - -

-

-

- -

Stijn Janssen standing next to the test setup

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Needing multiple people to saw a strip.

Ruining a scriber by smashing it with a hammer.

Sawing before thinking (ruining either your strips or attachments plates).

Marking the place you want to drill on the inside of a corner profile.

Staring at your construction for too long.

Not keeping 1.5-meter distance.

Education

The testing

What is next?

Next to the alternative for the building, an alternative for the testing was necessary as well. The testing was done by placing the constructions in a frame to which a pulley is attached. The constructions are brought to a little pretension using a winch and the cable is kept taut. A force sensor measures the force exerted on the crane. The measurements are displayed onto a laptop and via excel, a statistical analysis of the force over time is projected.

This year, the demolition of every crane is filmed as well to let the students see when their construction breaks. The force is exerted by a hydraulic cylinder that can move two ways. The exerted force increases gradually and slowly to measure as accurately as possible.

Whether the normal set-up of the course will ever return is yet to be seen. Despite the circumstances, the new set-up was a great success thanks to all who put in their hard work to make it possible. Unfortunately, this year’s students did not get the opportunity to be baptized, but just like with everything else, a suitable alternative will be found for this

The testing this year was done in the Automotive lab in Gemini. Here the groups were able to witness the demolitions safely at 1.5-meter distance. Of course, they all got the assignment to give an estimation of how many newtons their construction could handle. After the demolition, they can use the information to evaluate the building process. This way, they can learn something by linking theory to practice.

Future tips from Stijn -

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-

-

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Use all your material and if you have any spare material, use it to fortify the weaker parts.

Come prepared/make a task division on beforehand.

For your own design: the best 2D design is not always the best 3D design.

Keep 1.5-meter distance or he will send you home!

A presentation in the format of a rap is always appreciated.

A throwback to the Construction contest of 2018

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Education

Mastertrack Artificial Intelligence Engineering Systems WRITTEN BY SANDOR HABETS & TU/E

The last couple of decades, artificial intelligence has made a truly remarkable impact on the world and its industries. It is a relatively new field that is becoming more and more important to modern society every day. Even though new AI technologies can nowadays be found everywhere, its incredibility should not be overlooked. As in many industries, artificial intelligence is changing modern engineering. The TU/e is not planning to stay behind on these developments, making sure its students have the opportunity to get knowledgeable within the field of AI by developing two Master’s programs.

These Master’s programs will be called: Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DS&AI) and Artificial Intelligence Engineering Systems (AIES). The DS&AI program will be offered by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science and will have a theoretic focus. Due to Corona pandemic, the starting date has been postponed to 1 September 2021.

For us Mechanical Engineers, the AIES Master will probably be more interesting. The program will focus on the application of AI to complex engineering systems, e.g. in the areas of high-tech systems, robotics, health and mobility. It will include courses from various departments such as Industrial Engineering &

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Innovation Sciences, Applied Physics, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. Unfortunately, also the program is still under development and has been postponed to 2022. To bridge the gap between now and then, the Master Programs of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering both have an AIES master track since 1 September 2020 which covers the same area.

The AIES tracks will admit students with a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics and Computer Science and Engineering. In the future, the scope may be even broader.

Education

The AIES Master’s program

General program setup

This summer, Eindhoven University of Technology announced to invest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and education, which was accompanied by installing a new institute, the Artificial Intelligence Engineering Systems Institute (EAISI).

The AIES program is fully aligned with the core vision of EAISI: to educate engineers to develop Ai-based technology for realworld engineering systems.

An AIES engineer will combine the following capabilities: 1. Core AIES knowledge such as (a) Mathematics, (b) Learning in AI, (c) Data Science, (d) Fundamentals for Engineering Systems, (e) Human machine interaction & ethics.

2. Core AIES skills such as Programming (Python); including cloud application development using AI software libraries such as TensorFlow and PyTorch.

3. Bachelor level knowledge of a discipline in which AI technology can be applied.

4. Specialized AI and disciplinary knowledge: courses to extend the B-level disciplinary knowledge plus the AIEScore to a competency level suited to address real world AIengineering problems in aspecific application area. This includes topics covered in the complementary program DS&AI, but also other disciplinary domain-knowledge. In particular physics based modelling courses and courses on data-based learning for modelling, diagnositics and control provide necessary knowledge in this domain.

5. Work in a multidisciplinary team 6. Proven ability to carry out an AI-engineering systems project.

The MSc AIES offers students that have a basic background in engineering with a unique combination of courses in one cohesive program that will provide them with knowledge and skills to analyze, develop and implement AI solutions for complex engineering systems, including (but not limited to) the three AEISI core application domains: (1) high-tech/smart industries, (2) smart mobility and (3) health.

The program addresses the engineering gap between AI and real-world applications. Its starting point is a balanced set of AI knowledge and skills:

• foundational courses with generic knowledge,

• AI-specific courses and skills,

• AI-knowledge related to particular application

domains, and

• ethically responsible AI-based design engineering.

The AI-component of the program is complemented by an engineering systems aspect which builds upon bachelor level disciplinary knowledge and extends into: • (real-time) engineering applications and implementations (software and hardware), which • includes dynamic systems and control theory • includes fundamental domain knowledge in relevant engineering domains and • combines (merging) physics-driven and data-driven modelling and design approaches The engineering systems component distinguishes the AIES master program from the other TU/e AI master program (Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, DS&AI), and from the other AI master programs in the Netherlands. As a consequence, the AIES program covers AI-theoretical subjects to a lesser degree.

Professional field Although the professional field indicates a general and lasting need for engineers of almost any discipline, it specifically indicates a need for engineers who are able to apply and develop AI-based solutions to concrete problems of specialized highcomplexity systems, e.g., ASML with respect to wafer-steppers, Philips with respect to MRI-machines and NXP with respect to mobility systems. Industry typically indicates that these engineers should have experience with cloud-based dataintensive Python programming and with addressing an actual engineering project, preferably in an industrial context.

As a graduate in Artificial Intelligence, you will have developed a scientific perspective combined with a practical approach that forms an excellent foundation for a successful career. There is a large need for engineers who combine disciplinary knowledge and AI knowledge, and there are numerous fields in which AI is applied, which means that you could find yourself in any number of roles. You will find AI applied in research laboratories, banks, (government) organizations, hospitals, multinationals and internet companies, to name a few. Finding a job should be no problem for an alumnus in AI!

The future of AIES To have been able to start in September, the program is currently implemented as tracks within existing master programs. The real AIES program will hopefully start in September 2022. After this, the intention is to gather these tracks into an independent interfaculty program in September 2023, according to the current timeline. If you would like to keep up-to-date on the progress, send a mail to AIeducation@tue.nl to receive notifications when there is an update!

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Tech

Photograph by: Otto van de Ven

PORSCHE PANAMERA SPORT TURISMO Test track

WRITTEN BY NOAH TABOR

Since 2009 Porsche has been providing a dynamic alternative to the established order of the luxury car segment in the form of the Panamera. A luxury car built by a sportscar company.

However, in 2017 Porsche added a very unusual car to this segment: a station wagon called the Sport Turismo. This opens it up to a completely different audience, interested in extremely fast estates instead of luxury limousines. To test if it can live up to this audience’s expectations, the most powerful flagship version is on trial here: the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo.

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Tech

Drivetrain and performance Let’s first talk about the way this Porsche produces its power and the way it gets this to the road. The basis of the power unit is a 550 horsepower and 770 newtonmeter 4.0 liter bi-turbo V8, which is the same engine as the ‘normal’ Panamera Turbo gets. On top of this, the Turbo S model gets an upgrade to make it a bit more special. An electromotor producing 136 horsepower and 400 newton-meter connected through the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission to be precise.

Adding all of this together properly and the Porsche produces a staggering 680 horsepower and 850 newton-meter as standard. This torque figure could even be higher but it is restricted so the gearbox can handle it.

Driving all four wheels, it accelerates the 2300 kilograms of steel and leather from 0 to 100 kilometers an hour in just 3.4 seconds. Using the launch control function, this frankly blows your mind and hurts your neck every time. Engaging this launch function is very easy: put your left foot on the brake and your right foot on the accelerator as hard as possible, release the brake and your off. Given enough space on an empty Autobahn, it will take another 8.5 seconds to reach 200 kilometers an hour. The fun is finally over at 310 kilometers an hour.

When driving fast, stopping fast is also a critical part. At least, if you want to leave a car in one piece. There are no problems here for the Porsche. The Turbo

S E-hybrid comes standard with Porsche Ceramic Composite Brake (PCCB), which have cross-drilled brake disks with a diameter of 420 millimeters at the front and 410 millimeters at the rear.

Furthermore, packing huge 10-piston brake calipers at the front and 4-piston at the rear.

Driving on purely electric power is also possible. With a fully charged battery, a theoretical range of 49 kilometers and a maximum speed of 140 kilometers an hour should be enough for most people’s daily commute. This gives it a true practical advantage against most of its superstation rivals, while most of them are solely powered by V8 engines. You are a less frequent customer at the local petrol station, provided that you ease off the throttle.

Driving Technology There is a lot of technology inside every high-end sports car these days.

The Panamera is no exception to that.

Optionally it comes with rear-axle steering. This makes it more nimble at low speeds and more stable at highspeed manoeuvres. It reduces the turning circle at low speeds by steering the rear wheels in the opposite direction of the front wheels. At high speeds, it does the opposite. A very clever trick to make a car both more practical and more dynamic.

In general, the car is really adjustable to your wishes. Something that contributes to that massively is the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM). This system unceasingly measures the body movement with sensors and adjusts the damping force on each individual wheel based on the road circumstances and the driving style. This improves the stability of the vehicle on the road which helps both comfort and performance.

This system works seamlessly with the adaptive air suspension. A threechamber air suspension system which can change the dynamics of the car from being really firm to comfortable and soft in a matter of seconds.

On top of this Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control Sport (PDCC Sport) and Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV Plus) are added to the mix. The PDCC Sport in an active roll stabilization system.

The system works to suppress lateral

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Tech

inclination of the body, which means it tries to oppress body roll. In other words, keep the car level through corners. It operates using active electromechanical anti-roll bars. The second system, PTV plus, divides power over the wheels to improve steering response and traction.

It brakes the wheels tactically and divides the torque between the left and right side with an electronically controlled rear differential lock.

There is an immense amount of driving technology on board of the Panamera flagship. However, the good thing is that this is not very noticeable when driving the car. It feels very natural, even though factually a lot is happening in the background. The car is well balanced in corners and really stable at high speeds.

You need to be a very good driver to come near the limits of this car. On the public roads, you will lose your driving license within seconds even trying. On the other hand, Porsche is capable of being a comfortable cruiser. Riding along the highway silently and smoothly.

Luxury

It should come as no surprise that the Panamera on the basis is a luxurious vehicle. The tested example has almost every option available in the catalogue.

There is almost too much to mention in there so a couple of things will be highlighted. For starters, the seats are extremely comfortable and there is natural leather everywhere. All four seats have both electric heating and ventilation, which can also be used simultaneously for a warm airstream covering your back. On top of this, all seats have massage functions. There are five different programs and five different Specifications

intensity levels of massage available. It is lovely to have your back massaged while driving, although it is a bit distracting if the intensity is too high.

There is no lack of entertainment either.

In the front, everything can be connected up with Apple Carplay to run your favorite apps (like the much-needed Flitsmeister) on the front screen. The people in the back are treated with the Porsche Rear Seat Entertainment. A system that connects to the car and the internet, giving it the possibility to run everything from the navigation or the vehicle functions to one million games and apps on the 10inch touch screen. For the audio, the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo

Drivetrain 4.0-liter turbocharged V8 + Electromotor Gearbox 8-speed automatic gearbox Mass 2400 kg Power 680 hp Torque 850 Nm Acceleration (0-100) 3.4 s Price â‚Ź242,790,-

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Tech

Burmester sound system comes with 21 individual speakers producing 1455 watts of excellent surround sound, providing a real opera feeling.

Being a modern luxury car, it is almost inevitable to not be full of safety and driving assistance systems. Adaptive cruise control with automatic distance keeping and traffic jam assist to do everything for you when the morning rush hour keeps you waiting is very nice. Lanekeeping assist is something that does not really comfort me. It works properly but it moves a little more inside the lane than a human driver would. It also waits quite a long time to change direction in a bend on the highway. Maybe it is just me but I do not really like it when a car steers for me. Nonetheless, it is available. A funny safety feature on the car is the night vision system, which makes pedestrians light up in the display. It works using an infrared camera, and when recognized the car illuminates them to bring them to the driver’s attention. A test performed with me can be seen in the picture.

Conclusions The Porsche Panamera Sports Turismo is not an ordinary family station wagon.

But no one expected that anyway. One does not buy this car completely out of rationality, a piece of you has to love cars to buy a car like this. For that reason, it is very convenient that this car does not disappoint in any way. It is a car with two different faces. On the one hand, it drives like an absolute sportscar: it is extremely fast, surprisingly nimble and gives a lot of feedback through corners. The emotional side of every driver is tingled by the amazing sounding optional sports exhaust. Simultaneously, the car is a

luxury people carrier that brings comfort for all four people that could be on board.

Television screens, massage seats, night vision camera, 3D surround sound, you name it. I cannot think of a better way to travel to the south of France and back without being tired when leaving the car. Does this sound good to you? Before we all go running towards the Porsche dealership, it should be mentioned that there are minimally about 202,000 reasons to stop you, while our test car cost even more at â‚Ź242,790,-. Honestly, if yours truly had this kind of money to spend on a family car, this would be his pick.

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Trust ME, I’m an Engineer The Grenfell Tower Tech

As an engineer you are entrusted with a lot of responsibilities. You are expected to be the expert in your field. But unfortunately, we are still human and we can make mistakes. What is even worse than making mistakes, are the potential disastrous consequences of those inaccuracies. Small miscalculations can result in the loss of human lives. In this series we will take a look at engineering errors and the lessons we can/could learn from them, so you don’t have to make the same mistake.

WRITTEN BY REMCO MARTIN LIZANDARA The Grenfell tower

14 June 2017, a small kitchen fire in an apartment on the fourth floor of the Grenfell Tower led to the greatest fire in the modern history of the UK. The 67.3 meter high tower with 24 floor burned down completely. The building burned for 24 hours hundreds of firefighters tried to control the fire, but they could not keep it

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from burning down completely. According to estimates, there were 350 people present during the fire. Unfortunately, seventytwo people died in the fire. How could a small kitchen fire have such dramatic consequences? Can we prevent other buildings from burning down?

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How could the fire spread so fast

The emergency services were alerted to the fire at 00:54, this was when only one apartment on the fourth floor was burning.

From there, the fire spread across the north face of the tower.

At about 01:30 the top floors of the building were set ablaze. The 30 minutes it took for the fire to lit up the whole building is way faster than the safety code prescribes. So what went wrong for the fire to spread this fast?

The firefighters were able to save 65 people from the burning building, but for some the help came to late. In desperation, other residents went upwards and sought refuge on the upper floors were they were trapped. Of the seventy-two casualties, twenty-four people died on the top floor of the tower block were they could not escape the fire.

In 2016, the Grenfell Tower was renovated with new cladding on the outside of the building. Dense foam boards coated in zinc rainproof sheets were installed across the building to give the building a nicer exterior. The initial fireproof cladding was downgraded to save money. During the fire the Aluminium facing of the cladding fell away, exposing the flammable core of the cladding. These exposed cores ignite extremely fast and accelerate the failure of nearby panels, so flames race through the entire building in no time.

Just two months before the Grenfell fire, the London Fire Brigade warned the councils of the risk of these claddings on tower blocks. The fireproof version of the cladding would have cost approximately €5000 more then the cladding that was used.

Saving Lives

As seen on the floor plan, there is only 1 set of stairs and there is no emergency exit in the building. This contributed to the slow evacuation of the residents in the building. The evacuation by the fire department was started too late. At first the emergency services issued a stay put to all residents in the building to stay inside. Some people ignored the ‘stay put’ advice and made it down to safety. When the say put policy was abandoned, the whole building was already on fire.

Conclussion of the fire

The reason for this fire was a small kitchen fire that got out of hand. But such a small problem should not bring down a tower block. The main culprit of this fire are the aluminium claddings on the outside of the building. These claddings were not up to standard and accelerated the spreading of this fire. The company that owns this building can be held responsible since it was known that these claddings were unsafe and the alternative was only € 5000 more expensive.

The emergency services were too lax. They did not consider that the fire would spread that quickly and reacted too late with regard too evacuating the building. We are not sure how many lives could have been saved if they reacted more decisively but it most certainly would have saved lives.

Prevention

The owners of buildings such as the Grenfell Tower must do more to make these buildings fireproof. The cladding that was used must never be used again so the fire can’t spread as rapidly as it did. Fire escapes must be made so it is possible to escape the top floors in times of emergency. And of course emergency services have to act more decisive.

After the fire, the UK government has made new safety laws to prevent a new disaster. Buildings like the Grenfell tower will be equipped with more sophisticated early warning systems that can detect smoke and fire early enough. These systems include automatically closing windows, self-controlled ventilation systems and sprinklers.

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A VOYAGE TOWARDS AUTONOMY Taking a look at the Mayflower: A fully autonoumous AI powered marine research vessel WRITTEN BY SANDOR HABETS

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ff Our ocean planet The maritime history of our race dates back thousands of years. Humans have been travelling through the seas ever since the AustraloMelanesian populations migrated into the Sahul landmass, better known as Australia nowadays, around 53000 to 65000 years ago. The value of the ocean for the planet is profound. It covers around three-quarters of the Earth’ surface and contains 97 percent of its water. Despite this, we still know so little about it. It is estimated that around 95 percent is still unexplored. The ocean also helps to mitigate the effects of global warming, absorbing the Earth’s excess heat and a lot of the human-induced CO2 emissions.

Nevertheless, with increasing pollution and depletion of the sealife populations, the ocean is suffering and so are we. To safe our ocean, we have to gain knowledge about it. This is where the Mayflower comes in. In its quest for data and discovery, it is a frontrunner in the global effort to increase ocean health again.

The Mayflower The Mayflower is named after the ship which transported the first English pilgrims from Plymouth in England to Plymouth, Massachusetts by crossing the Atlantic ocean. On its 200th anniversary, it was decided to build a 21st-century version of the Mayflower. The only huge difference: instead of 132 persons on board, the new version has none!

With no human crew on board, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) uses artificial intelligence systems to travel the ocean and collect data. While out to sea, the ship launches drones to conduct meteorological and oceanographic research. It is built as a collaboration between the nonprofit marine research organization ProMare and computing giant IBM and this September, it was lifted into the water.

Design Not having to take human comfort into account, the design of the vessel could be completely innovated.

Its engineers could solely focus on the mechanics and functionalities of the ship.

The 100+ feet ship is a trimaran. This gives the ship a low, highly stable and dynamic profile. The multihull design provides the most efficient hull form for low-speed monitoring. The task of the outer hulls

is to reduce resistance by almost 8 percent. The middle hull allows waves to go through the vessel, thus reducing the impact of waves.

In contrary to the original Mayflower, it does not fully dependent on wind for propulsion. The MAS is powered by state-of-the-art wind and solar technology with a back-up diesel engine enabling unlimited range. Since the solar cell that is necessary for effective monitoring was too large to fit on the ship, the hull system has been adjusted accordingly by increasing the area of the solar cell in calm condition by almost 40 percent. It is made mainly from Aluminium and composite materials to make it as lightweight as possible.

Autonomy What is special about the vessel is that it can independently assess situations and decide what to do without ever having to contact mission control.

This is crucial as there is no connectivity in the middle of the ocean to systems on the land. The radars onboard can detect multiple hazards miles ahead. The operational decision manager evaluates the “unsafe” situation ahead by making a risk map every vessel in the vicinity. The AI captain then assesses several options to avoid the hazard and determines the best action. The Safety Manager verifies whether the decision is safe and the change is implemented.

The mission provides many challenges. The ship must be fully aware at all times what its goal and destination are. Besides, it must be able to update its route often to gather the most valuable data.

The sample collection system is also automated, meaning the ship can evaluate which analysis should be performed at sea and what sample should be further analyzed onshore.

What is next?

Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the construction was delayed. This means that the goal of travelling across the Atlantic ocean has been postponed to 2021. For now, the vessel will undergo around six months of trial on the sea and will take some small trips before sailing across the Atlantic next year.

The duration of the trip is not yet known. Even though it is expected to last 8 to 10 days, the ship is able to retrieve more data for research purposes the longer it sails. One thing that is for sure, it is already sailing towards autonomy.

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Career

RIJKSWATERSTAAT

WRITTEN BY JANKATIRI BOON

The Dutch are known for their battle against the tides. The Netherlands has always been at the front of the race with developing revolutionary technology regarding conquering the sea level. The Delta works are probably the most famous display of power against the sea. Rijkswaterstaat is the executive agency of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, which has been active for centuries in this field. I have gotten the opportunity to have a talk with Heleen Payens, who has been working at Rijkswaterstaat for two years now.

Getting the job

Heleen has studied at our sister Technical University in Delft, where she also studied Mechanical Engineering. She did a master in Precision and Microsystems Engineering, where her thesis was specialized in the field of nanotechnology and mechatronic design. She experimented with nanostructured diamond electrodes for electrochemically sensing glucose.

In the end, this was a fun project, but not really what she was looking for since it involved standing in a laboratory a lot. Along the way, she found out that she missed the tangible part of Mechanical Engineering, like the heavy machinery and the giant gears. She started working at an engineering bureau, but did not really know what she wanted to do for a job. She got into contact with Rijkswaterstaat for the first time when she applied

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for a traineeship there. What also helped was that she knew two people that already worked at Rijkswaterstaat. They were friends from the study and the student association “De Koornbeurs”, which is a smaller student association. After her first job, she started orienting at Rijkswaterstaat, while thinking hard about what she wanted for a future job. In the end, she decided to fully go for Rijkswaterstaat and has never left since.

Central contact point

At Rijkswaterstaat, Heleen fulfills the function of Technical Consultant, which she has been doing since March. She does this at the department of Flood Barriers, where she has been subdivided into the “Hollandsche IJsselkering” and the “Haringvlietsluizen” teams (all flood barriers have been

Career

subdivided into two sections). This means that Heleen takes care of all technical aspects that come looking around the corner with projects regarding flood barriers and that these get noted correctly in contracts. This means that she has a lot of contact with the managers and the contractors of the projects. That way she stays involved with the technical aspects like when certain projects need to have maintenance done. That way Heleen kind of acts like a central contact point for all knowledge regarding Mechanical Engineering.

What makes this function so interesting is that Heleen can provide knowledge and input with operations regarding these huge projects. These machines and structures that are built

by Rijkswaterstaat are quite menacing, but that is exactly what excites Heleen. She also likes that the function inherently has quite some contact with plenty of people, as mentioned before.

“It is impressive to see what exactly needs to happen at these projects when maintenance is needed. These enormous operating rooms and constructions are simply awesome to look at.”

In the end, you are not just involved with the mechanics, gears and braking systems, but also the electronic, sensory and mechatronic aspects of these projects. According to Heleen, it is great to see all these disciplines come together and work so fluently together.

“In the end, it never gets boring. Every system at every location works differently so you always get to see something new. It is like a playground for Mechanical Engineers!”

The works

Right now, Heleen is active in conserving the waterlocks at the “Haringvlietssluizen”. They can close when the waterlevel gets too high. Every Mechanical Engineering-related part needs to work properly, as you can imagine, so they need to be tested regularly. You do not want too much clear space in your bearings for example.

In this project, Heleen mainly keeps an eye on what kind of demands are made, implement them in the contract, and finally let the contractors make them reality. This requires close communication and involvement with the contractors and the project managers. When a contractor has been chosen that has won a certain project, she has to file through the paperwork and verify it. As you can imagine, this can be quite a lot. In the end, you get to know a lot more about the technical background of the machinery, but you don’t get to actually construct them. This is not bad for Heleen though, the social aspect and providing the advice on projects gives plenty of energy for Heleen to stay motivated and happy, especially when you achieve a nice result.

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Career

What can Rijkswaterstaat mean to you?

As a Mechanical Engineer, you have some clear options for a job at Rijkswaterstaat. Like Heleen, you can become a technical consultant, but becoming a technical manager is also an option. Of course, the more specialized branches of Mechanical Engineering are also applied there, like FEM analyses of constructions to test if they are strong enough to withstand the forces they have to deal with. Rijkswaterstaat does not solely focus on waterworks; they also branch out into projcets like converting bridges to be remotely controlled, industrial automatisation, or how to apply predictive maintenance in future projects.

In the end, Heleen has a technical job, but this does not necessarily have to be technical. You are free to branch out in any way you like. As a Mechanical Engineer, you are simply expected to bring your technical expertise from your study, so you can deliver input about anything ME related when there is a new project.

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If you want to know more about Rijkswaterstaat and their possibilities for you, visit their website werkenbij.rijkswaterstaat. nl. There are also videos that give a good view of what Rijkswaterstaat is all about and what they can mean for you. You can also send an e-mail to campus@rws.nl.

Tech

Image by: Grafiker61

THE DANGERS OF AI

“I’M SORRY, DAVE, I’M AFRAID I CAN’T DO THAT.” WRITTEN BY JULES VAES

When thinking of the dangers of Artificial intelligence (AI), this iconic line from the even more iconic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey might pop into your mind. It is a classic example from AI that has gone rogue, but is this an accurate representation of the threats that AI, like HAL 9000, can pose? And should we dread that one day Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant might say the same to us?

Fortunately, our current AI companions are not at HAL’s level of intelligence yet. For instance, asking my Google Assistant what time it is, can sometimes still be a very challenging task. It is however inevitable that AI will be even more prominent than it is now. Many people fear, or are at least skeptical of, the rise of this smart technology and among them are many experts. The well-known concerns are of course the possible loss of jobs, the replacement of humans and the development autonomous weapons. However, there are more subtle risks that we should be careful of as well. These subtle risks became painfully clear after the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Social manipulation

Facebook and other popular social media platforms, like Instagram, YouTube and Tiktok all use algorithms, whose sole purpose is to keep you on their platform the longest. These algorithms have several cheeky tricks build in to achieve this goal.

For example, YouTube monitors how long you watch a certain video and bases its video recommendations on this metric.

At first glance this may seem like a good and harmless idea, but it can have some very serious consequences. Since these algorithms are focused on maximizing their time with you, they serve you anything you might be remotely interested in, even if

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Tech

Image by: Shutterstock

A theory that has become very popular due to AI: Flat earth

it is about how flat our earth actually is, how 9/11 is a hoax and why Hillary Clinton keeps children in the basement of a pizzeria in Washington D.C. And before you know it, you end up in a deep rabbit hole that knows no end.

Image by: Pikrepo

Although you and I will probably not fall so soon for such ‘interesting’ theories, many people do believe them and sometimes they are even prepared to do something about it. Famous examples of real-life consequences of these algorithms are the outcome of the presidential elections of 2016 and, more recently, the fires in transmission towers in our own country. As you can see, these algorithms can have a very real impact on our society, so we should be very careful when using them.

Racist AI

Not only humans have gender racist biases, machines apparently have the same bad tendency. Infamously, Amazon’s face recognition technology was 76.5% sure that Oprah Winfrey was a man.

Unfortunately, this is not a unique case; Microsoft’s AI could perfectly recognize the gender of lighter-skinned men, but about 20% of the time, darker-skinned women were misidentified as men. The sad part is that Microsoft did it better than other companies on this topic.

The cause of these biases in facial recognition AI, lies in the training’s dataset. These datasets consist for 75% of lighter-skinned male faces. No wonder that the algorithm can only recognize this part of the society, while excluding all the rest. The solution is simple; train the AI to recognize all humans, instead of a minority. Otherwise, we might end up with a very racist computer...

Image by: Pikrepo

Losing jobs

Probably the most dreaded fear about the rise of AI is that it will take over all our jobs. And undoubtedly, computers are much better in certain tasks than humans. Logically, routine, repetitive and predictable tasks are easiest to automate and will therefore most likely be handed over to machines. However, this does not necessarily mean that all routine jobs will disappear. More likely is that these jobs will evolve into something different, requiring workers to learn new skills.

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Autonomous weapons are not limited to the future

Tech Although it is nearly impossible to predict, but new jobs will probably arise as well. A good example of this is the rise of the internet, smartphones and social media. Barely 20 years ago, no one had heard of an ‘App developer’ or a ‘Content moderator’. This trend could also be applicable for the current situation, but that remains to be seen.

And if the previously mentioned predictions turn out to be incorrect, we still have a back-up; There are still jobs with very low risk of being overtaken by AI. Creative jobs, complex, strategic jobs and, most importantly, empathetic jobs are not so much at risk. The required skills for these professions are well-beyond the scope of the current and near-future AI. All-in-all the job market of the future will look quite different indeed, but there will still be a recognizable face, a human face.

Autonomous weapons

Autonomous weapons are, of course, an obvious concern.

These machines are literally programmed to kill, which is in and of itself already very dangerous. When this technology falls in the wrong hands, it could have disastrous consequences.

Countries are already expecting an AI arms race. Unfortunately, the efforts of the United Nations to regulate the development of such weapons, is not very effective.

With great power...

Although we do not have a HAL 9000 on our devices yet, we should still be careful with adopting artificial intelligence. This technology can open up amazing and exciting new opportunities, but, when we are not extremely careful, we might end up with a much, much worse outcome.

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Education

Master Thesis: A NEURAL NETWORK MATERIAL MODEL WRITTEN BY BART VERHAEGH

In the design and analysis of mechanical structures, increasing use of complex materials make the role of micro-structures in engineering design ever more important. Current technology to incorporate micro-structures in structural analysis software however requires huge amounts of computation power. This research project shows a new approach that requires a fraction of this power by applying artificial intelligence using neural networks.

In the design and analysis of mechanical structures, the finite element method is a widely used technique to perform calculations for safety and performance of the design. An extension of the finite element method which allows to incorporate micro-structures into the analysis is called FE^2.

Typically, an FE^2 simulation takes thousands of iterations to solve, making this technique very hard to apply in real-life analysis situations. First, it will be explained briefly how this FE^2 method works. After that, the AI solution will be introduced that can replace FE^2 and finally the performance will be illustrated.

FE2

Finite Element Squared is a method that allows the incorporation of micro-structures into a macroscopic FE problem. Instead of defining a material model that captures behavior coming from micro-structural properties, a separate micro-scale finite element model is simulated to see what effects happen on this microscopic level. For example, the designed part shown below is made of a light material with holes in it.

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For every integration point of the macroscopic model, a microscale model (often called Representative Volume Element or ‘RVE’) is introduced that represents the microstructure. When applying a load onto the macroscopic model, strains will occur in each of the elements. This strain is passed to the RVE model and the model is then simulated. From the results, an effective stress and stiffness are calculated which is then used in the macroscopic model to calculate stresses and displacements.

As you can probably imagine, simulating the RVE for every point in the macroscopic model each time step takes quite some effort.

It gets worse; when non-linear behavior occurs in the RVE, the macroscopic model also becomes non-linear and an iterative approach has to be used to solve the macroscopic problem, often meaning that all RVEs have to be simulated for between 3 and 10 iterations. A simple model of a clamped bar (as shown below) of about 1000 elements could already mean 10.000 FE simulations of the RVE!

Education

Artificial Intelligence

Performance

As you might have already imagined, these 10.000 FE simulations of the RVE are all quite similar; the model is the same, only the strains applied onto the boundary differ a bit.

This is a perfect use-case for a machine learning algorithm.

By training the algorithm to predict the effective stresses, the RVE simulation can be replaced by an approximation of the RVE. Machine learning algorithms in the end are just very large formulas, which take an insignificant amount of time to calculate compared to the power required for FEM. For this graduation project, the machine learning algorithm chosen is an artificial neural network, or ANN. It consists of an input layer, an output layer and one or multiple ‘hidden layers’ of nodes. As machine learning algorithm need to be trained using data, thousands of FE simulations of the RVE are used to generate training data.

In the graph below, the stresses during a tensile test on the blue RVE depicted are illustrated along with the prediction from the ANN. As you can see, the predictions are sufficiently accurate to replace the RVE simulations. However, analyses conducted in this project also show that sufficient knowledge of the inner workings of the ANN are required to use it in practice. The ANN can only predict reliably for strains it has been trained on; when the ANN is asked to predict much larger strains or more complex strain paths over time, the accuracy can drop. To enable the enduser to confidently use the ANN model, a method to describe the training set is delivered. Using this formal description, the macroscopic model can stop using the ANN and shift back to FE^2 when strains occur that weren’t foreseen during training.

For the ANN replacing the RVE, the input parameters are the strains that normally are applied to the RVE, and historical data to account for the non-linear behavior that might occur: Strain in xx, yy and shear εxx, εyy and εxy, these strains in the previous time-step εijt-1 and the estimated effective stresses σijt-1.

The effective stresses σij from the output of the ANN. In the middle of the neural network is where the magic happens; the large number of RVE simulations are fed into the network and the coefficients represented by arrows in the illustration are adjusted to make the approximation as close as possible to the actual stresses that come from the FE simulations.

As explained, current solutions to incorporate microstructures into an FE model are reliable but take huge amounts of computational power to calculate. By using machine learning algorithms such as an artificial neural network, an approximation of the microstructural behavior can be made that is way faster than current methods.

By applying the neural network material model reliably within the training domain, the thousands of FE simulations can be reduced to just one per time step, saving the end-user from using supercomputers or days of simulation time.

47 Stress prediction vs. FE simulated stress of the RVE

How to write a persuasive cover letter WRITTEN BY GERGO SUTO

Think of your cover letter as the first handshake with your future employer - the opportunity to introduce yourself. Just like a firm handshake, your cover letter should be strong, brief and making a good first impression. It allows you to go more in-depth than your CV, so use this opportunity to convince the recruiter that you are the right fit for the position. In this article, you will read how to write a persuasive cover letter, ways to stand out from other engineering graduates and ultimately how to increase your chances of getting invited to a job interview.

Process Before we dive into the details of writing a cover letter, I would like to point out that it is by no means easy or trivial - especially if you want to get it right. Don’t expect yourself to put together a convincing cover letter overnight, because that is simply not how it works. Even for me, who has been checking CVs and cover letters weekly at the TU/e Career Academy, it took weeks to produce the letter for the master’s program of my dreams.

Sure, I might be a perfectionist, nonetheless composing your letter is a process that takes time. This process, of course,

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differs for every person but generally looks something like this: start with brainstorming by yourself and write a draft. Then send this to your friends and peers and ask them for feedback.

At some point also come by the TU/e Career Academy where you can get feedback from trained assistants. With your collected feedback, you can improve your letter. Finally, iterate these steps until the point when people other than your mom say: “if I read this as a recruiter, I would be very interested in meeting you”.

Career

Structure Before you start composing sentences, think about how you want to build up the letter. Creativity is very welcome. Try to structure it in a way that makes sense and has a nice flow when reading.

There aren’t any rules to follow, but there are a few guidelines that you should keep in mind. These can be either used as separate paragraphs or combined in any way you like.

• Opening: start with a catchy first sentence that grabs the reader’s attention, because this will help you throughout the rest of your letter. Of course, coming up with such a sentence is easier said than done, so I suggest you visit the TU/e Career Academy website for more inspiration and examples. You should also mention if you have spoken to a person from the company, refer to this person’s name.

• Suitability: tell about your background and your most relevant experience. What makes you the right fit for the position? Explain how you match the job requirements. Don’t forget to always support your claims with examples and be prepared to be asked about them in the job interview. The most common mistake is repeating your CV. You can avoid this by linking experience to skills and traits which are needed for the job.

• Motivation: you might be suitable for a position, but it is likely also offered by other companies. What drew your attention to this firm (and not its competitor)? Why are you motivated to join their team? Make sure to motivate why you want to have that specific job in that specific company.

• Ending: wrap up by briefly summarizing what has been said, for example: “Considering my academic background, my desire and my experience, I believe I will be a valuable addition to the XYZ team.” Thank the reader’s attention and finish with an active sentence that suggests further contact. Do not hope, wish or pray.

Rules of thumb Now, some general rules of thumb that are good to follow. Some of them you are probably familiar with, but I am going to briefly discuss them anyway to give you an overview.

• Salutation: always address your letter to the person who will most likely assess your application. If you are unsure who this person is, try to find out by, for example, directly calling the company. If you can’t find this information, address the person by their role (e.g. Dear Hiring Manager). Keep the very impersonal ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ as the last reserve.

• Length: remember that less is often more. If you want to maintain the reader’s attention, your cover letter shouldn’t exceed one A4 page.

• Format and style: keep the looks of your cover letter similar to your CV. Choose a font that is easy to read, typically a sans serif for good readability on screens. At the end, you can also insert a digital signature for a professional touch.

• Contact details: mention your e-mail adress and phone number, so if the recruiter thinks you are a potential candidate, they can easily find your contact details. These typically go in either the top right corner or at the very end of your letter.

Tips With the information you have acquired by now, you should be able to construct a decent cover letter. I would like to finish with three additional do’s and don’ts that can help you stand out from the rest.

• Overusing ‘I’: using the pronoun ‘I’ comes naturally when you are writing about yourself, nevertheless, avoid overdoing it. Alternatives can be “My time at the company…”, “As a conceptual thinker myself…” etc.

• Fit to the team: engineers often fall into the trap of focusing too much on their technical expertise. Recruiters, however, are also thinking about how the personality of a candidate will fit into the team. They will appreciate hearing about what soft skills you possess as these are also important factors for them. If you are unsure how to approach this, pick three of your best traits that match with the vacancy and write about them in the letter. Don’t forget to demonstrate them with examples.

• Customize each letter: writing unique letters for each application is something that I am sure you have heard about, but I would like to stress the importance of it. This doesn’t mean though that you should start from scratch every time. Once you have written a cover letter for a company, reuse certain parts of it and just adjust it to the specific application.

Looking for more?

I hope the guidelines and suggestions you have just read will help you write a cover letter that grants you the job interview that you wish for. For more inspiration, you can always visit the TU/e Career Academy website (educationguide.tue.nl/careeracademy) and send your letter to careeracademy@tue.nl to receive feedback from our assistants (our walk-in session will restart when TU/e opens again).

Wish you a lot of success!

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REACH FOR THE STARS The Very Large Telescope Array is one of the most important facilities for ground-based astronomy. It consists of four 8.2 diameter Unit Telescopes that use 22-watt lasers to project four artificial guide stars onto the sky by glowing sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere till they resemble real stars. The artificial stars enable the adaptive optical systems to counteract the blurring effect of the Earth’s atmosphere so that the telescope can take sharp images. When working together, it allows scientists to see details 25 times infer than the individual telescope. The light beams are combined using a complex series of mirrors in underground tunnels with extremely accurate precision. It can reconstruct images with an angular resolution of milliarcseconds, resulting in several noticeable scientific firsts, such as the first image of an extrasolar planet or the observation of the afterglow of the furthest known Gamma-Ray burst.

WRITTEN BY SANDOR HABETS

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Image by: ESO / F. Kamphues

INTERNSHIP IN ADELAIDE Education

A journey down under

WRITTEN BY LUUK MOERENHOUT

WRITTEN BY LUUK MOERENHOUT

In the Master Mechanical Engineering you have the opportunity to do an internship abroad, this opportunity I seized by going down under in Adelaide, South Australia.

This huge and vast country offers heaps of possibilities, from unexplored nature to leading research institutes in e.g. solar technology. In this journal, I will briefly tell you about my own experiences in this most interesting country and the other countries I visited.

After a flight of 28 hours, I arrived at the airport in Adelaide.

Jetlagged as I was, I managed to get to my hostel, where they welcomed me with the famous words ‘G’day mate! How you going?’ . With that impression (and all the others) in mind, I went directly to bed for a long sleep. The next week I moved in with two French fellow engineers in a nice apartment in Chinatown, part of the city center. I had settled down just in time before my internship started.

Internship project At the University of Adelaide, I joined the Center for Energy Technology of the school of Mechanical Engineering, which is involved in a nationwide project concerning

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Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). My project was focused on conducting experiments on falling particle receiver (FPR), which is an application of CSP, the technology is visualized on the next page Currently, CSP plants use a fluid of molten salt to absorb solar heat. The maximal temperature that can be reached is about 580 °C, however, by replacing the fluid with solid particles, temperatures over 1000 °C could be reached.

This will improve the efficiency significantly and provide a possibility to directly process metal ore into (green) steel.In order to improve the current understanding of particle-based solar receivers, I conducted preliminary experimental measurements in a lab-scale falling particle receiver.

Education

The working principle of concentrating solar power and its application in a falling particle receiver.

The experiment consisted of particles (Silicon Carbide) falling under their own weight via a 3D-printed hopper. The effect on the particle mass flow rate and curtain opacity has been studied for various input parameters (e.g. particle size and hopper geometry), using a high-speed camera and strain gauges. The results of these experiments give some interesting and useful insights that can be used for future FPR designs.

After finalizing my project, the University of Adelaide gave me the opportunity to present my research at the Asia-Pacific Solar Research Conference. Allegedly, three months later I participated in this educational conference in Canberra, the capital of Australia.

Life in Australia Australia, a continent the size of Europe, is only relatively recently discovered due to he fact that there are a lot of undiscovered and uninhabited areas. With a multicultural population of 24 million inhabitants, Australia is one of the most sparse countries in the world. From that population 89% is living in urban areas, the other 11% is living in the bush. I had the privilege to experience both, by living in the 5th biggest city of Australia and traveling through areas knowing there was no city within the next 700 km.

In the four months I had lived in Adelaide I got used to the Australian way of life, which is most of all more layback and adventurous compared to The Netherlands. Layback in a way that people do not plan as much as in The Netherlands and go more with the flow and with the weather conditions

(it can become pretty warm). Adventurous because the conditions are much more extreme in almost every way, the landscape, the (dangerous) wildlife, the weather and the amenities outside the city. Nevertheless, living in the city center, you don’t notice much about the adventurous part.

However, with the layback lifestyle, you are confronted when someone says ‘no worries mate’ every day, to reassure everything is alright.

Life in the city is comparable to life back home. During the week I worked on the project in the daytime and in the evening I went out to do some sports or hang out with some friends. However, in the weekend we (a group of exchange students) organized small trips to explore the surrounding areas of Adelaide. For instance, by camping in the bush, hiking between the wildlife, visiting the local wineries and surfing at the nearby beaches.

Next to that, I joined the local soccer team and the exchange student association to meet both locals and other exchange students. Also, I worked occasionally at festivals to make money for the expensive grocery shopping and to save up for my upcoming travel plans.

Time to travel!

After finishing my internship I was sad to leave my friends in Adelaide, but it was time to explore the rest of this huge country. Saying that, I took a 3-hour flight to Cairns, the biggest city in the North-East part of Australia, Queensland.

Cairns is known for the Great Barrier Reef, the nearby rainforests and the beautiful surrounding landscapes.

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Education

The stereotype about Australia that everything wants to kill you originates mostly because of this area. That contains deadly spiders, snakes, jellyfish, crocodiles, sharks, not to speak about all the poisonous plants that will kill you by touching them. This, in combination with a tropical climate and a thin Ozon layer (you have to wear sunscreen), makes it a tough place to live. But therefore, it is one of the most stunning places.

Although this was a most interesting place, I couldn’t stay there too long. Together with some fellow backpackers, we rented a van to go south in the direction of Brisbane, following the well-known East-coast. This is a very touristic part of Australia, known for its party scene.

Fortunately, we managed to skip most of the crowded places to explore local towns and deserted National Parks. After a few weeks, I decided to continue on my own because of different travel schemes. Therefore, I had to (hitch)hike the last 300 km towards Brisbane, which learned me how easy it was to travel without a van.

After staying one week in the relaxed city of Brisbane, I continued my journey to Sydney in order to catch a flight to New Zealand. Again I found a travel buddy (with a van), and together we toured further south, stopping at some villages known for their surf spots and easygoing vibes.

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During this trip, I learned the basics of surfing and the lifestyle that goes with it, which is kind of essential when you go to Australia.

Before I knew it, the chill-out weeks were over. After a small stop at the Opera-house and Bondi Beach in Sydney (the largest city of Ozz ) I left for a new adventure, New Zealand! This Vulcanic country is known for the Maori culture, Kiwi (fruit/bird), the All Blacks (rugby) and the extraordinary scenery. My experiences in a nutshell; I was tired of traveling with a van, and got inspired by a guy who traveled around the whole world by bike camping everywhere. Therefore, I bought a bike and while bike-packing I explored the hilly NorthernIsland. In the Southern-Island I met up with a friend.

By hitchhiking we explored an interesting area partly.

Halfway, we rented a Fiat Punto in order to see the rough backcountry.

The days passed quickly while we were enjoying hiking and camping in the most impressive places.

Two months after arriving in NZ, it was time to go back to Australia, to present my internship and because my family would come over for Christmas. To cover the time in between those events I worked in a surf hostel near Adelaide for a few weeks, enjoying life in a small town with heaps of Barbies . The plan with my family was

Education

Mount Osmond, Swannysa to travel from Adelaide to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road, a trip that includes lots of National Parks and many abandoned beaches. Luckily, we departed from Adelaide just before the main bushfires started to arise and we made it to Melbourne (voted to be the most livable city in the world) alive. Despite that, I have to mention that the conditions in Australia last summer were extreme.

Due to a six-year drought and highest temperatures ever recorded, an unimaginable amount of wildlife and inheritance forests got lost. This will continue because of the rising global temperature, which we all know where it originates from.

Back to my story, in which my adventure down under had come to an end. It was time to leave Australia and go back to the Netherlands with one last stop in South-East Asia.

From the moment I left home, I knew I wanted to visit a county with a totally different culture, now I had three weeks in which I planned to visit both Cambodia and Laos. At first, it was hard to comprehend the way of life in Cambodia, but quickly I could appreciate the beauty that this most interesting country had to offer. The Buddhistic customs, chaotic but thriving cities, tropical sceneries, delicious cuisine and old immense temples were amazing to experience. Besides that, it still surprises me how warmhearted and gentile the people are, knowing their recent cruel history (Khmer Rouge) and the poverty of some areas. Continuously I took in more of the culture while discovering the country by train, bus, scooter and tuk-tuk.

The busses were pretty crowded and the roads were far from good, which resulted in a long bumpy journey if you wanted to get to another place. This little more effort paid itself constantly off with the view of various surprising sceneries.

After a few weeks, I traveled to Laos, where I had only one week before my flight to The Netherlands would have departed. In this short time, I mostly relaxed in Si Phan Don, a group of many small Islands in a river. Where I had the chance to overthink my journey so far and to enjoy the backpacking life once more, by learning about a new fascinating culture.

Seven days later I arrived back home, looking back at nine months (mostly) down under. What a time it had been!

Catch ya later!

Don’t foget your bike!

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Education

A1: Australian Appendix Ozzy dictionary

¹ Heaps – A lot of ² G’day mate! How you going? – Hello ³ Bush – Countryside, away from civilization 4 No worries mate – No problem, don’t worry about that, you’re welcome, sure thing 5 Ozz – Australia (duhh!)

6 Barbie – Barbeque 7 Catch ya later – Take care, see you later

Ozzy songs

Sticky Fingers – Reggae / Indie-rock band Home among the gumtrees – Classic road trip song Xavier Rudd – Singer-songwriter (also didgeridoo artist)

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Ozzy books

Down under – Bill Bryson, a humoristic book about the history and culture of Australia Dark Emu – Bruce Pascoe, a truer history about the colonization of Australia and the Aboriginal culture First, they killed my father – Loung Ung (Cambodian Book)

Education

ACADEMIC ADVISOR

Karen van Engelshoven I am happy to introduce myself as a new academic advisor for mechanical engineering students.

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, I mainly meet new colleagues and students online. I realize this is the same for all freshmen Mechanical Engineering students. They experience their start of the study so different from senior students. This is really strange on the one hand, but on the other hand, I have great respect for all the teachers, other colleagues and students who work hard to make studying during this crisis as good as possible.

good time but I am happy to be back at a regular university. It’s funny because I think the TU/e has the same atmosphere as Wageningen University; small scale and people first. So I feel right at home at TU/e.

When I was a student at Wageningen University I was very active outside of my studies. I joined a student association and several committees. Also, I was a board member of my student sports association. In between my bachelor (nutrition and health) and master studies (health & society) I did a board year at the student sports foundation of Wageningen University. I think these are good ways to develop yourself on a personal level during your student time.

Personally, I love to be outside.

Camping in summer, gardening, playing ultimate frisbee, mountain biking are things I enjoy. Also, I really fancy playing the guitar, singing, going to concerts and listening to music.

For now, it is unfortunately not possible to meet you on campus, but I definitely hope to meet many of you in person soon. Maybe we can have a drink together at one of the activities of Simon Stevin!

In my previous job, I worked as a study coach at a private University of Applied Sciences. I had a

Karen van Engelshoven k.v.engelshoven@tue.nl

As academic advisor, I will focus on the firstyear students for now, together with Elia Beks. I love being in contact with students, advise them and think along with study-related issues they face. It feels very rewarding for me to do this work.

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Career

AME DEVELOPING TOMORROW’S PRODUCTS In the spring of this year, before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, I visited the headquarters of AME in Eindhoven to talk about what they do as a company. Many students know the company already due to activities from Simon Stevin, but most of them do not know what kind of products they produce. To get a better insight view of AME, I talked with Mechanical Design Engineer Andreas Waldus.

WRITTEN BY KARSTEN SLAKHORST AME is a Dutch-based company that started with developing high-quality electronic products for their clients in 1997. As an independent developer and manufacturer, located in the Brainport region, they create innovative products that exceed customer expectations. With integrating product development and in-house manufacturing, they are able to make the components even more perfect. This can be achieved by searching for the best solution combining the disciplines of electrical, mechanical, software and industrial engineering.

In the Research, Design and Development (RD&D), they use state-of-the-art technological concepts and crossfertilization between markets to create the most innovative components of products. AME offers complete traction, speed and power-flow solutions for the conversion market.

For these products, AME can also provide the integration of Internet of Things (IoT). Therefore, they supply a stateof-the-art Wi-Fi modules which can be integrated by

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customized off-the-shelf solutions. Next to the Internet of Things, they can also incorporate sensors. With their knowledge on sensor design and signal analysis, they can design accurate and reliable sensing products.

Cooperation of three different departments designs the products: - The electronics development group provides state-of-theart electronics with high quality. They provide solutions with analogue components as well as high-speed digital signal processing. A key strength is a close cooperation with the in-house manufacturing department resulting in excellent design for test and manufacturing cost-effectively.

- The embedded software development group concentrates on microcontroller firmware development. By measuring input signals from the surroundings, the microcontroller firmware can create a response. Devices in which this software is integrated are for instance: voltmeters, oscilloscopes and interface converters.

Career - The mechanics group focuses on products design and on the automation of the in-house manufacturing facilities. Tmake excellent products, the group performs simulations on strength, and lifetime and user interaction analysis. These products are manufactured on the highly automated assembly line, which is designed by this group. This group is also involved in polymers.

They are making their own injection moulds for the production line in which current techniques will be implemented to make all kinds of products.

Another aspect of the company that he really likes is the flat organization. The organization structure has few levels of management between the management and staff level employees. That makes the company dynamic and creates even space to submit projects/products yourself. With more than 60 other engineers, you can get the chance to work on small scale projects and gain experience in different aspects of the mechanics. As a full-timer, you work on different projects at the same time, but as a part-timer, you work mostly on one project.

But let’s talk about what kind of projects can you get your hands on at AME, and what challenges can come with them. Currently, Andreas is working on test equipment. Every product which will be delivered to the customer will be tested in-house. The old test equipment is out-dated, so therefore the testing facility will be redesigned. Andreas works together with the project team to design and build this equipment. Together with two Electronic/ Software Engineers, one Mechanical Engineer and a Project Manager, he does this project. Andreas’ task is to design the mechanical part of the equipment.

The test facility consists of a rolling car on which the products can be attached on. The functional test, in which the products will be placed, has to be connected to the test cart. Andreas has been working on this connection. The design process started by searching for connection methods which can be used to this application and are durable. After making several designs, the final design has been produced by external suppliers and assembled at their manufacturing facility. The product, which is attached to the left component, can be connected to the casing by pulling the levers from right to left until they will be vertically orientated. Later on, the electrical equipment will be implemented so that they can test the products on errors.

Interested?

Andreas Waldus

Andreas Waldus is a part-time Mechanical Design Engineer at AME. Andreas completed his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in Eindhoven. His bachelor’s thesis was about Peltier modules. These thermoelectric elements can create a hot and a cold part, which is, for instance, applicable in an electric cooling system. Through experiments, he could create a model to simulate the linear behaviour of these modules.

From there it was a logical choice to choose for the master Mechanical Engineering with Control Systems Technology as his specialization track. Currently, he is in the third year of his master and he hopes to finish it at the end of this academic year. Over the two past years, he has followed two courses each quartile to combine it perfectly which his part-time job at AME, where he works now since November 2018.

Do you also want to work for or do your graduation project within a successful company, that leads in technological development and innovation? With many challenges, responsibility and the best engineers around you? Then choose for a function at AME in Eindhoven. As a graduated Mechanical Engineering student, you can become a Trainee Engineer, Hardware and Software Engineer or Mechanical Engineer. Even if you are not yet finished with your study, you can apply for a part-time job.

For more information, please visit: https://career.ame.nu/

Andreas likes to work part-time by AME to get hands-on experiences with real projects and find out what is involved by designing and manufacturing a product. He works with a lot of young engineers from different fields and education levels, most from universites of applied sciences and universities.

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Education

ONLINE EDUCATION, WHAT WORKS? Now that we are officially in the second wave of the coronavirus, life like before Corona seems further away than ever. With this, also fully on-campus education.

We have spent centuries perfecting education, taking careful steps of improvement, sometimes towards online parts of education. But never before have we had to switch this fast to a complete new way of education: fully online education.

As of quartile one, a few students can call themselves lucky to have one contact hour on campus, but most elements of education remain online. We have had a few months to practice and experiment with online education. Usually, a change as big as this takes years to experiment, practice and perfect. As we look back on online education in quartile three and four from last year, the question is: what works and what does not? This is of course highly dependent on the course, but in this article, I will show the do’s and don’ts of online education.

Did you know? ESA organizes courses to train students in effective study methods and habits. In the first stage, the training itself builds motivation; subsequently, you learn to build it yourself.

Online do’s

Online dont’s

-Make a clear study guide, so students know what the planning and deadlines are. This is more important than usual, as students need more structure to motivate themselves.

-Schedule hours outside the timeslots that the course is scheduled.

-Give short web lecturers of approximately ten minutes on the subjects of the lectures.

-Create a moment for students to ask questions about the course, via canvas conferences or teams.

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-Only give students the old recorded lectures, especially when a large part of the lecture is given on the chalkboard. In the online lecturers, the chalkboard is often unclear, and it makes it difficult for the students to follow the lecture.

Education

TIP: SMART goals Specific: Your goal shouldn’t be vague; make it as concrete as possible.

Measurable: You should be able to verify that the goal is being translated into actions you can define and measure.

Attainable: It should be clear who needs to do what to achieve the goal. This is particularly important in the case of group goals.

Realistic: This means setting goals you know you can actually accomplish. Sometimes, goals are so ambitious that they’re all but possible to achieve. And not achieving a goal is demotivating. Conversely, goals that are not ambitious enough are easy to achieve but won’t bring much satisfaction.

Time-based: Define a clear start and end time. When will you start carrying out the activities needed to achieve your goal and when will you have accomplished it?

Studying do’s

Studying dont’s

-Have a study schedule and stick to it.

-Make sure you take a 10-minute break every 2 hours of studying, make sure you do something different and active.

-Have a desk that keeps in mind the RSI guidelines and preferably is in a different room than your bedroom. This way you are in a different setting and can focus longer.

-Try to study (online) with friends, this causes you to keep your motivation up and learn more.

-Set SMART goals for yourself, they are easier and more satisfying to reach.

-Study only on your bed or the couch, this will damage your back and can cause RSI. -Study in a room with a lot of distractions.

-Not asking professionals for help if you need it. There are many people at the university specifically trained to help you with your study management.

-Go to a lecture if you are not planning on actively following it -Be afraid to go to a guided selfstudy. if you are behind, the assistants are always there to help you.

-Give up on your planning, even if it is not working out currently.

Written by Kim Smulders

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Staut: Friedrich De hoop is het kwaadste der kwaadste, omdat zij de marteling verlengt.

Nietzsche

GESCHREVEN DOOR NOUD BOONEN

In dit artikel duik ik in de filosofie van Friedrich Nietzsche, om erachter te komen wat wij van hem kunnen leren.

Leven Om het gedachtengoed van deze filosoof te begrijpen, is het belangrijk om te weten hoe zijn leven eruit zag. Een leven dat je iemand niet snel gunt, maar wat hem gevormd heeft in zijn ideeĂŤn.

Friedrich Nietzsche was een filosoof die leefde in de 18e eeuw. Geboren in 1844 te RĂścken, Duitsland, als zoon van een dominee.

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Zijn vader overleed toen hij jong was, waarna hij opgevoed werd door zijn moeder, grootmoeder, zus en tantes.

Het is belangrijk om te realiseren dat hij tijdens zijn jeugd vrijwel constant ziek was, iets waar hij de rest van zijn leven ook mee kampte. Zo had hij een neurologische aandoening waardoor hij veel last had van migraine en gevoelig was voor licht. Hierdoor zou hij voor zijn dertigste al bijna blind zijn.

Association

Als jongeman ging hij bij het leger en vocht hij kort in de Frans-Pruisische oorlog. Hier liep hij een verwonding op, waardoor hij delen van zijn lichaam moeilijk kon bewegen en op slechte dagen zelfs helemaal niet.

Gaandeweg kwam hij erachter dat zijn lichaam het beter deed in milde klimaten. Het is hierom dat hij heen en weer reisde tussen de Franse kust in de winter en de Zwitserse Alpen in de zomer.

Een voorbeeld: een distributeur gaat failliet, maar start een half jaar later een succesvol nieuw distributiecentrum op. Iedereen ziet failliet gaan als het einde, iets waar je niet terug van kunt komen. Wat blijkt echter: na faillissement gaat het leven gewoon door. De ondernemer wist er zelfs voordeel uit te halen door met een kritisch oog te kijken naar wat er voorheen misging en leerde zijn nieuw verkregen succes meer te waarderen.

Gedurende zijn leven bleef Friedrich Nietzsche schrijven. Zijn boeken werden echter vrijwel volledig genegeerd. Hij had door dat zijn ideeën belangrijk zouden zijn in de veranderende wereld en sprak daarom de volgende woorden uit: ‘Mijn tijd komt nog, sommige mannen worden pas na de dood geboren.’

Moraliteiten

Op 44-jarige leeftijd werd Nietzsche geestesziek, hij stuurde briefjes naar familie die hij onder andere ondertekende met ‘Caesar’, ‘De Gekruisigde’ en ‘Dionysos’. Hij danste naakt op straat en wilde de Duitse Keizer laten vermoorden. Kortom, er was niets meer van Friedrich Nietzsche over zoals men hem kende. Hij leefde nog 11 jaar, waarna hij op 55-jarige leeftijd in Weimar overleed, in 1900.

Lijden Nu ik het leven van Friedrich Nietzsche in grote lijnen heb beschreven, is het tijd dat we hier lessen uit gaan halen. Er is één gemeenschappelijke deler gedurende heel zijn leven: lijden. Het is hierom dat deze alinea hieraan gewijd is.

Nietzsche heeft veel tegenslagen gehad in zijn leven, misschien wel veel meer dan jij of ik zullen tegenkomen, maar alsnog vond hij dat hij geen slecht leven heeft gehad.

Natuurlijk, sommige tegenslagen zijn lastig om van terug te komen, zoals het kwijtraken van zijn zicht. Volgens Nietzsche horen pijn en lijden echter bij het leven. Sterker nog, van alle aspecten in het leven is er in de ogen van Nietzsche namelijk één constante: je zult hoe dan ook pijn en leed ondervinden.

Leed is nodig om iets te bereiken wat ook maar enigszins van waarde is. No pain, no gain, zou een opgepompte Nietzsche-aanhanger je in de sportschool misschien vertellen. Het gaat hier niet om zinloos lijden, waar niks uit kan voortkomen.

Het gaat hier om leed dat omgezet dient te worden in energie om nieuwe dingen te ondernemen.

Nietzsche had een interessante blik op de samenleving. Hij bedacht dat er twee soorten mensen zijn in de samenleving: de elite en de arbeidersklasse. Hij noemde deze klassen respectievelijk de meesters en de slaven.

Hij zag namelijk weinig verschil tussen een heel leven lang werken voor weinig geld en slavernij. Hij beschreef deze klassen in zijn geloofssysteem.

Meestermoraliteit Wanneer iedereen in het begin der tijden gelijk is en de samenleving net ontstaat, zullen sommige mensen beter zijn in bepaalde dingen. Zij het een fysieke of mentale voorsprong, deze voorsprong zal hen uiteindelijk meer middelen en dus meer macht opleveren. Hierdoor behoudt deze groep de macht en ontstaat er een cirkel. Dit is hoe er een elitegroep ontstaat. De elite gelooft in het systeem dat je krijgt wat je verdient.

Als je ergens goed in bent, of harder werkt dan je medemens, mag je hiervoor beloond worden. Ze vertellen dit verhaal aan zichzelf om te rechtvaardigen waarom zij meer hebben dan anderen. Je ziet de meestermoraliteit terug in de rechtse kant van het politieke spectrum: als je harder werkt dan anderen verdien je het om meer te hebben.

Slavenmoraliteit Wanneer we in diezelfde samenleving kijken naar degenen die het minder goed hebben gehad in het begin, waardoor zij na generaties onderin de sociale ladder eindigen, zien we een slavenmoraliteit terug.

Deze groep gelooft in het systeem dat omdat zij zoveel nadeel gehad hebben, zoveel geleden hebben en misbruikt werden door de elite, zij het daarom verdienen om met het meeste respect behandeld te worden. De slavenmoraliteit zien we terug in de linkse kant van het politieke spectrum: de brug tussen rijk en arm moet gedicht worden, omdat de armen even goed recht hebben op geld en macht.

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Association

Geloof Als jongen uit een Christelijke familie heeft Nietzsche veel meegekregen van het Christendom. Een deel van zijn gedachtengoed is hier dan ook van afgeleid, zoals je later in dit artikel zult zien. Eerst zal ik in het volgende het beeld wat Nietzsche had over het Christendom onder woorden brengen. Ik zal dit doen door een vergelijking te trekken tussen de Oudheid – waar Nietzsche zeer geïnteresseerd in was, als professor klassieke literatuur – en het Christendom, door gebruik te maken van de zojuist besproken moraliteiten.

Oudheid In de tijd van de Grieken en Romeinen heerste de meestermoraliteit. In deze tijden werden kracht en uitstekendheid hoog aangeprezen, zelfs als het ten koste ging van miljoenen slaven of andere volken. Koningen en leiders die hele gebieden overnamen met bruut geweld werden gevierd door het volk en andere leiders.

neer er koningen en leiders zijn die om de haverklap het land veranderen in oorlogsgebied. De beste optie die mensen hadden, was om hoop te hebben op een beter leven in het hiernamaals, door te leven zoals de Kerk voorschreef.

Door deze reden had Nietzsche het niet zo met het Christendom, hij koos er daarom voor om als atheïst door het leven te gaan. De voornaamste reden hiervoor is dat hij vond dat het Christendom mensen hoop geeft op een beter hiernamaals, in plaats van mensen te inspireren om in dit leven beter te leven. Hij vond dat de Kerk afleiding en troost bood, in plaats van een manier om je problemen écht aan te pakken.

Hier komt naar voren hoe belangrijk Nietzsche het lijden vond. In plaats van het lijd direct aan te gaan, ontweken mensen het door naar de Kerk te luisteren. Hierdoor misten zij kansen op een beter leven.

Nietzsche was van mening dat waarden als kracht, uitstekendheid en onafhankelijkheid, waarden die geassocieerd worden met de meestermoraliteit, belangrijk waren in de mens. Dit contrasteert met zijn figuur: een zwakke, zieke man die vrijwel constant verzorgd moest worden.

Christendom Met de komst van het Christendom verschoof deze moraliteit. Het Christendom biedt namelijk een boodschap van gelijkheid en is dan ook niet verbonden aan een land of etnische groep. Het christendom institueerde de slavenmoraliteit onder haar volgers. Iedereen heeft een kans om verlost te worden van zijn zonden en om een plek in de hemel te verdienen. Het Christendom heeft waarden als medelijden en liefdadigheid hoog in het vaandel staan.

Het Christendom is een religie gebaseerd op geloof. Je kunt niet bewijzen of ontkrachten dat God bestaat, je moet erin geloven. Een gevolg daarvan is dat je altijd nog iets hebt om aan vast te houden, als het leven instort.

Mensen voelden zich aangetrokken tot het Christendom omdat ze niet konden hopen op een beter leven op deze wereld, omdat de omstandigheden vroeger zo slecht waren. Je kon moeilijk wat maken van je leven, wan-

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Wetenschap Met de komst van een belangrijke ideologie kwam hier verandering in: de wetenschap.

Door de wetenschap veranderde de wereld enorm. Eindelijk kon je in een mensenleven daadwerkelijk verandering zien. Je kon tien jaar terugkijken en je afvragen hoe je zo kon leven, een beetje zoals we nu kijken naar Cd’s

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en DVD’s. Voor de jongere generaties misschien wel hoe ze nu kijken naar Facebook.

Hierdoor ontstond er veel vrijheid en verantwoordelijkheid. Verantwoordelijkheid om je eigen leven in te delen om er optimaal de vruchten van te plukken.

Het nadeel van de opkomst van deze ideologie is dat deze niet robuust is. Nu je geen hoop meer kunt halen uit een almachtig wezen, word je geconfronteerd met de waarheid dat het leven is zoals het is.

God is dood Het is deze verandering die Friedrich Nietzsche ertoe zette om de volgende woorden op papier te zetten: ‘God is dood’.

Dit was niet zomaar een atheïstische uitspraak waarin hij wilde zeggen dat God niet bestaat. Dit was een observatie die hij deed op de staat van de wereld.

Met de komst van de wetenschap kregen mensen meer vrijheid en verantwoordelijkheid om hun eigen leven in te delen, om niet te wachten op verlossing in het hiernamaals.

Het zojuist besproken nadeel van de wetenschap, de afwezigheid van hoop, is hetgeen waar Nietzsche op doelde met deze uitspraak.

Men was minder afhankelijk van God (lees: de Kerk) en werd daardoor geconfronteerd met de realiteit.

zouden zorgen dan ze ooit bedoeld waren op te lossen. Als we naar conflicten kijken die zich nu voordoen op de wereld, zat hij er niet ver naast.

Amor Fati Van alles wat Nietzsche op papier heeft gezet, is dit het belangrijkste. Dit was hetgeen waar het allemaal naartoe leidde. Dit is hetgeen wat ik je mee wil geven van mijn onderzoek naar de filosofie van Nietzsche.

Omarm het lot. Accepteer het leven zoals het is, met al haar hoogte- en dieptepunten. Leer ook van de pijn en het lijden te houden. Dicht de brug tussen de realiteit en verlangens.

Hoop voor niets, hoop voor wat er al is. Kijk om je heen naar wat je hebt, in plaats van te blijven grijpen naar iets ongrijpbaars. Want maar één ding kan een droom verpesten, en dat is om hem waar te laten komen.

Ideologieën Nietzsche had een hekel aan ideologieën. Hij vond ze allemaal dom, naïef of beledigend. Hij achtte de mens niet geschikt om betekenis te geven aan het leven. Als je dit toch probeerde, was je alleen de realiteit aan het ontwijken.

Hij had goed door dat de conflicterende aard van ideologieën voor problemen zouden zorgen. Zoals de meester- en slavenmoraliteit diametraal tegenover elkaar staan, staan zo ook de ideeën afgeleid van deze moraliteiten tegenover elkaar. Hij voorspelde dat deze conflicten voor meer geweld en onnodig lijden

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Education

Best Teacher Awards “And the Best Teacher Award goes to...�

Teachers make education possible, without them there would be no education. Some teachers focus on innovative education, others prefer blackboards and chalks, but all of them try to transfer their knowledge onto their students in the best way possible. Each year, two teachers from our department are put in the spotlight and win the Best Teacher Award for Mechanical Engineering, after which they are nominated to become the Best Teacher of the TU/e.

Like every year, one teacher of the Bachelor College and one teacher of the Graduate School from every department are nominated to win the Best Teacher Award of that year.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering Within the Department of Mechanical Engineering, an election took place. All the bachelor and master student voted on their favourite teacher. The students could also submit why they choose this specific teacher. In total 340 students voted on their best teacher. Do you want to know why the students choose these teachers? Look at the graphs on the next page.

David Smeulders

Gert Witvoet

The Best Bachelor Teacher of Mechanical Engineering last year was David Smeulders. Students voted on David Smeulders because he is enthusiastic, committed, interacts with students and more.

The Best Master Teacher of Mechanical Engineering last year was Gert Witvoet. Student voted on Gert Witvoet because he is enthusiastic, passionate, motivates his students and more.

Courses 4RA10 - Introduction transport phenomena 4EB00 - Thermodynamics

Courses 4CM00 - Control Engineering 4SC070 - Learning control

WRITTEN BY NICKY VERHEIJEN

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Education DAVID SMEULDERS... is passionate

is professional

has interaction with the students

is committed

is motivating is accessible / approachable

gives good feedback at the end of a course

uses the chalkboard is creative

is inspiring

is consistent

is innovative is enthousiastic

is flexible

GERT WITVOET... is passionate

is professional is committed

has interaction with the students

is accessible / approachable knows his sh*t

is motivating

is creative is consistent

gives good feedback at the end of a course

is flexible

is inspiring is innovative

is enthousiastic

The Best Teacher of the TU/e During the online version of MomenTUm 2020, the Best Teacher Awards were presented. The winners were announced in a video which can be found on the Facebook page of the TU/e.

To everyone’s surprise, there were more than two winners this year.

The Student Advisory Organ (SAO), which consist of one student from every department, choose the best bachelor and master teacher each academic year. This year they did something different; they selected all the teachers.

Due to the special circumstances in the second half of the academic year 2019-2020, the students decided that all the teachers should be awarded. One of the students said: “All teachers worked very hard to make the online education possible. We appreciate this very much, that is why we wanted to award them all.”

During the third quartile, all the education had to be switched from ‘normal’ education to online education. This took a lot of work and effort from all the teachers. Also, in the fourth quartile, every course had to be given online. Some teachers excelled in their creativity to make online education possible and all of them put a lot of time in making the education possible. The students from the SAO noticed the effort the teachers put in switching to online education and trying to keep the quality of education this university strives for, that is why they decided to reward all the teachers.

Normally the two best teachers get a cheque, which they can spend on their education method. As this year all the teacher win, this money will be spent on something else. What the students of the SAO will give the teachers this year is still a surprise, but they promise that it will be something memorable.

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Tech

High tech on wheels WRITTEN BY FREEK JANSEN Perhaps the most non-student article in the openME. E-bikes, that is something for the elderly, right?

On the other hand it might just be the most typical topic for the mechanical engineer. Because while the average student will rarely be able to afford the true high-end bicycles out there, which true mechanical engineer hasn’t been called a ‘fietsenmaker’ at some point during their study? While it is certainly no unhealthy principle to distance yourself from e-bikes until your physical condition demands it, the e-bike is without a doubt a very interesting achievement when taken from an engineering point of view. I myself was intrigued by the novelties that are present in the newest and greatest models when shopping with my mom. The costs of regular bikes that students tend to be interested in rarely go into three digits. But for the price of the high-end fully electric bikes with all the little add-ons one can also buy a decent used car.

So why should you be interested at all? And what is it that makes people so intrigued?

Why an e-bike?

Well, to be fair, most people will buy their bike from purely practical motivation. They want to get from A to B fast, without much effort and they (pretend to, or actually do) care about the environment. And with the versatility, low additional costs and the looks of some of the refined models, who could blame them?

It is quite funny when you really look at it. The big batteries that are hidden under the cycle bags on their luggage rack to hide the fact that they are driving with electrical support. People often

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feel as inferior when they admit to driving an e-bike, but then it is accepted to drive a car. Some of the more advanced (and more expensive) models do their best in hiding the battery as much as possible. Battery hidden in the frame instead of on the luggage rack? Allright, add around 500 to the price. Or take a look at the bike pictured below, the new Vanmoof model. With an Tesla-like boost mode, which temporarily accelerates the car with even more power, this bike has done quite the job at hiding its secret electrical support.

Tech

The Vanmoof manages to hide most of its electric components

The power inside

wheel, then you know already how hard it can be to change your tires even with a regular bike. The implemented motor will definitely not make things easier. Since it is integrated within the axle, it makes the components of the bike more complicated, increasing the costs of eventual replacemnt of the gears, breaks etcetera.

So naturally, the solution converges towards the motor located around the paddle axis. This is for multiple reasons. While it might wear a little faster than the motor integrated in the back, the weight balance of the bike is the most ideal here. Since torque is not directly applied to the wheels, the chance of slip due to friction loss is minimal. The newest middle motors have also mastered the unsupported ride; without electrical support the bike should ride not that much different when compared to a regular bike. In the past, an empty battery often resulted in an unpleasant experience, requiring much more force than it should.

Do you want do go fast, far or is comfort important for you?

Those are factors that will mainly determine the internals of the vehicle. Typically, the batteries inside the e-bikes are apecified to provide around 500 Wh of power. With the motor of course being the main demand for power, it ultimately comes down to a balance between speed and durability. More powerful models can deliver more than 50 Nm of torque, the extreme models even going up to 100 Nm. The higher torque levels can of course be felt during acceleration. There really is no competition when you are trying to beat such a speedster when the traffic light hits green.

The next challenge is within the exploitation of that power. This is initially seen by the pricetag that goes along with the bike, but it makes sense when you look at it. Cheaper models often use a motor integrated in either the front of the back wheel axis. So what is the difference? Apart from the engineering and thinking that goes into fitting the motors at each of these locations, it ultimately comes down to a few simple rules. The motor in front would increase the risk for slip. Given that most of your weight is distributed towards the wheel on the back, the front-wheel has the least amount of friction with the road and is therefore susceptible to slip. Add to that the additional wieght, which makes steering a little harder.

Well, for the motor on the back it is likely that you can guess it out of experience. If you have ever had to repair your back-

Of course the most advanced bicycles cannot go without the newest and greatest evolutions in the industry. While definitely not exclusive for e-bikes, the hydraulic brakes are almost a guarantee when you are out of the budget territory. Completely sealed off from the environment, these braking systems should be less vulnerable to wear and the hydraulics serve for more power when compared to the conventional, mechanical breaks.

The most surprising development might even be that of the chain. A bike is almost unimaginable without its most important feature, but even the chain is apparently not immune for evolution. Newer, expensive bikes have replaced the chain with a rubber belt. While the gears have had to be redesigned to fit the belt, the removal of the chain has several advantages.

Once fitted on the bike, it is much more resistant to strain and will therefore operate for a significantly longer time until replacement is required. Oh and maintanance is almost zero, as throwing a bucket of water over the belt will suffice. Yes you read it correct, the infamous WD-40 is being phased out, sadly.

So, for now just hold onto your city bike, mountainbike, or cheap rolling piece of metal, but know that while bikes may seem obsolete nowadays, the reality is quite opposite. The e-bike has been a succes even abroad, as its mobility and accessibility is just unmatched by their larger, four-wheel counterparts. However, be ready to dig deeply into your pockets, as such impressive technology is far from cheap.

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Career

What it’s like being an Engineer at TWD TWD develops the methods and designs the equipment contractors need to efficiently realize major construction projects. Through the years we have built up a track record full of engaging projects. We are, amongst others, active in the heavy civil industry. A project we are proud of is the ‘walking piling gate’, a piling solution which autonomously skids forward, significantly shortening the project lead time. TWD’s core market is the offshore wind sector. One of our most recent finished projects is the monopile gripper on DEME’s heavy lift vessel Innovation, which was deployed to realize one of the largest offshore wind farms in Belgium.

The Innovation gripper In 2018, after Chris finished his Civil Engineering study at the TU Delft, he started working at TWD as an engineer. “The first project I worked on was the monopile gripper for DEME’s heavy lift vessel Innovation. The challenge was that the gripper had to be lightweight since these types of vessels have limited capacity in carrying heavy loads. The gripper, of course, also had to be strong enough to hold the monopile while being installed withstanding wave and wind forces.”

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The revolutionary ‘pendulum design’ has the gripper ring suspended in tension rods, resulting in such a logical and optimal load path that the systems’ stiffness could be maximized while keeping the overall gripper weight down. The unique combination of gripper stiffness with the slenderness of the structure enables DEME to maximize the useful payload on their vessel.

Career

“The great thing about this project was that I experienced it from start to finish, which meant that I was also involved in the fabrication and even went offshore to see the gripper in action.

Last January, the gripper successfully installed 58 windmill foundations in record speed. Something I am extremely proud of.”

The Wind Gripper

Luckily, the structural competences came back relatively quickly and I felt ready to further develop myself. After talking to my coach, I started to learn about planning and client communication and in less than a year I became Project Engineer.”

“Meanwhile, a year later, I finished six additional projects. I have been able to learn a lot in a short period since the projects had a relatively short timeline. Next to practical experience, I followed courses about engineering and management to give me better theoretical insight.”

My interest grew further beyond the engineering challenges and the project responsibilities that I faced. I got especially interested in the field of dynamics and had the chance to join the Marine department for two months to perform several challenging dynamic lowering studies. Because of this fastpaced environment and the opportunities, I had a steep learning curve in which I developed myself greatly. The beauty of TWD is, that if you take initiative you can grow along with this fastgrowing company. Anything is possible.”

“Every design is created from the collaboration between engineers and designers. For this project, I worked in an energetic team guided by experienced technical advisors.

I highly appreciate the collaboration within TWD. Difficult problems are always tackled together. This results in a large variety of activities and a strong social element in our work. At TWD there is a work-hard-play-hard mentality, which means there is always time to celebrate a successfully finished project with a cold beer at our recurring Friday night drinks”.

“Every design is created from the collaboration between engineers and designers.”

My learning curve “TWD offers multidisciplinary services, ranging from Structural, Mechanical and Installation Engineering to specialist disciplines and Marine Engineering. The initial challenge, when I started working at TWD, was that I was specialized in Hydraulic Engineering. I had to learn and familiarize myself with Mechanical and Structural Engineering. I did learn the basics of TWD’s engineering work during my bachelor, but that was already a while ago.

Working at TWD “Working at TWD, allowed me to do what I am most passionate about. The projects are challenging and diverse, you get to work in a young and energetic team and the options to develop yourself seem endless. I look forward to the engineering challenges ahead.”

Do you also see yourself working as an Engineer at TWD? Apply now and engineer your future, just like Chris, at TWD! Please send your letter of motivation and CV to hr@twd.nl or contact HR via +31 10 294 03 74.

“Engineering your future together”

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Education

Master Thesis

TASK-AWARE, LEGIBLE AND SOCIALLY COOPERATIVE ROBOT NAVIGAITON

A while back I wrote about the project that I was going to work on for my Master’s thesis.

At that time I only had a general idea about the scope of the project, but in the meanwhile, I have graduated and thus I got some results to show you!

WRITTEN BY ROBBERT LOUWERS

The title of my Master’s thesis was ‘Task-Aware, Legible and Socially Cooperative Robot Navigation’. Basically, the goal was to find out how robots should adapt their behaviour when sharing the environment with humans and to implement this. This would allow humans so anticipate the behaviour of the robot, and thus perturb the workflow of human and robot less. Changing the behaviour of the robot might even make it possible to move to situations where the robot takes priority over humans at for example intersections or when overtaking obstacles. This may sound easy, but fulfilling this goal brought up quite some challenges.

where a path is defined and then tracked where the controller minimizes the error between the actual and reference path, this motion planner places virtual tubes around the robot. While within these tubes, the robot drives towards its goal, and is only corrected when it is deviating too much to the side. This reduces the control input necessary, allowing for cheaper hardware on the robot platform. This is shown graphically below, where the blue zones are the correction zones. When the robot drives into these zones, it will be corrected back to the middle. The same method is applied to the robot when it needs to take a corner, where corrections happen when it drives into the blue zones.

For the navigation of the robot, a motion planner developed in a previous Master’s thesis was used. Before the behaviour of the robot itself could be changed to make it understandable for humans, several issues with this motion planner regarding its performance had to be addressed first.

Let me first explain the motion planner to you, to make the story clearer. The motion planner that was used, was a so-called tube driving navigation algorithm. Instead of the classic ‘reference tracking’ that you might know,

The way that the motion planner now corrects the robot when it deviates too much during a corner is quite slow, as the tubes are only present on the opposite side of the intersection. I addressed this by implementing elliptical tubes in the corners, such that the robot is corrected earlier and making it possible for the robot to also take corners at higher velocities, an important feature when it is executing a task that needs to completed in a rush.

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Education While these performance issues with the motion planner first had to be addressed, to make the behavioural changes to the robot possible, the most important part of my thesis was on implementing and testing this new behaviour on the robot. As an inspiration for robot behaviour, I looked at animation techniques that are applied to computer animations. These techniques are used to make inanimate objects seem human-like.

The results that were gathered from the questionnaires confirmed that the behaviour that I implemented on the robot was an improvement over the original behaviour of the motion planner. Participants were more clearly able to understand when the robot was giving them the right of way or when it was trying to take the right of way for itself.

I implemented two versions of the robot behaviour. One where the robot would defer to an oncoming person in a priority situation and one where the robot would try to display assertiveness to take the right of way over an oncoming person.

As the whole COVID-19 situation also affected my master’s thesis, I tested this behaviour partly through a virtual version of the experiment and an accompanying online questionnaire and partly at university through physical experiments to validate the virtual ones. Videos of the virtual and physical experiments can be found by scanning the QR-code.

It was quite a surprise to see that most people were actually willing to give priority to the robot when its behaviour clearly indicated that it wanted to get through first. However, from the questionnaire, it also became clear that some participants thought that robots are inferior to humans and should never be given the right of way. As humans are starting to share the environment with robots more and more, this mindset might need to change, such that both can work successfully.

In the virtual experiments, a first-person view walked down a hallway and saw the robot approaching in a partially blocked hallway. After seeing the videos, participants were asked several questions about the behaviour of the robot. The physical experiments tested the same situation and again participants had to answer several questions about the robot behaviour.

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FEDERATION OF STUDY ASSOCIATIONS EINDHOVEN WRITTEN BY HARMEN MEIJER

As you all know, Simon Stevin is the wonderful Study Association of the Mechanical Engineering department of the TU/e. Next to that, you probably also know that there are a few other study associations and that they can be quite different from Simon Stevin. Apart from the neighbours, Protagoras, you probably don’t see other associations that much.

However, there is quite some collaboration going on with other associations behind the scenes. To manage this collective of study associations, the Federation of Study Associations Eindhoven exists. Last year Harmen Meijer, also a Simon Stevin member, was part of the Executive Board of the FSE. From the moment I started studying at the TU/e, I was amazed by the student life, the community and the way different student parties interact with each other. After I secured my BSA in the first year and attended a few FSE parties, I decided to finally become part of this student life.

Once I became an active member at Simon Stevin, I decided that I wanted to keep on doing more besides following my courses.

The student life is too much fun, and there is too much to learn from it to let it fly by in five years. While being an active member

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at Simon, I also learned about all the other (study) associations and enjoyed going to all the FSE parties. I thought parties like the BorrelXL and Brasgala were great because students from different associations get together. It was at this very Brasgala that I spoke to the person that was FSE president at the time, and he asked if a board year as FSE-DB (Daily Board) would be something for me. This is where it all began.

Association

The Federation of Study Associations Eindhoven The FSE started 56 years ago, as a collaboration between the four study associations existing at that time, and it served as a fund for excursions. Throughout the years, it has changed to an umbrella organization that represents and facilitates the collaboration between its study associations. Apart from that, several things are arranged by the FSE-DB for the study associations.

For the last few years, the executive board consisted of four people: the President, Secretary, Treasurer and Vice-President.

Apart from these functions, we divide portfolios between the board members. These are matters like the central book sale and BHV courses, but also the organization of the BorrelXL. If you are not familiar with the BorrelXL, every year, the FSE and all its study associations organize an event that aims to show the strong bond our students and associations have. By being together and participating in fun activities, students from different associations get to know each other and the bonds between the different boards thicken.

Responsibilities as FSE-DB Together with our secretary, Leonie, I have represented the FSE on everything related to the introduction week. This means that we represent study associations towards the Central Introduction Committee (CIC) and other umbrellas. During the introduction week, we were the contact point for the CIC and the associations. We walked around a lot, checking out all the fun activities that were being organized and communicating any problems that could occur.

An important part of the work of the FSE-DB is representing the Associations towards the TU/e and other external parties. If a company or other organization wants something from multiple associations, a lot of the time they will step to us. On top of this wide assortment of connections, a lot of other random problems and projects will appear during the year. This year, the TU/e has asked for our input on student wellbeing for example.

Additionally, the FSE has worked on a GDPR (AVG) covenant together with the TU/e privacy department last year. Because of this variation throughout the year, this Board year intrigued me.

Then lastly there is of course MomenTUm. The FSE-DB forms and is also part of the student working group, which organizes the big party and has quite some influence on the total program.

This year however, MomenTUm could unfortunately not follow through because of obvious reasons. Luckily we were able to get a grean light from the university to organize something else, with the MomenTUm 2020 livestream as a result. This could ofcourse not match the original big party, but it at least helped soften the pain.

I have enjoyed my board year. As FSE-DB you have a unique overview of all study associations, but also the whole TU/e community. I got to meet so many student parties, some of which I did not even know they existed. Combined with the professional relations obtained from working with higher-ups from the university, the FSE-DB is a super interesting position to be in.

Interested in a doing board year as FSE-DB yourself? Email us or come by our office in Luna 1.244 to drink some coffee.

I was also responsible for the bars and ERO portfolios. The FSE owns and keeps track of all the Association bar’s permits.

To guarantee safety in the bars, a few persons must stay sober during drinks, so they can provide ERO if this is needed. To perform first aid or extinguish fires, the right equipment should always be present in the room. I have performed checks on these bars to make sure every association follows the rules that were agreed on with the fire department. On top of that, I also arranged the ERO courses for our Association in collaboration with the TU/e fire department.

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Association

Grind my Gears: Board edition “What do you think we study?”

WRITTEN BY JANKATIRI BOON AND ROEL HAZELHOF

Normally in the ‘Grind my Gears’, the Editorial committe visits the bars of the study associations, but since they are all closed we decided to give it a little twist. Instead of the bars, we looked up the boards of the associations for a little interview and some drinks. Find out if the FSE boards perform better than their members or not...

Armed with the following questions, we traveled the many buildings in order to interview the boards:

?

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Association

Is this Bode plot stable?

This topic comes from the course Signals and Systems, which is a second year course in the first quartile. The first question we got asked in return was “A what?” most of the time. The chairman of Japie did mention that he was supposed to know this, but most other associations did not know what this question was about. It was obvious that this was not the easiest question to start with, but in the end three associations answered the question right.

A trick you can do in this bode plot to find the answer is to determine the change of slope in the magnitude plot and divide it by 20 and compare this to the phase changes. There are two phase changes, one +180 degrees and one -180 degrees. There is only one slope change in the magnitude plot, being -2. From the magnitude plot you can derive two poles, but from the phase plot you can derive two zeroes and two poles. To determine what goes wrong here, we inspect the change of +180 degrees. At this frequency (between 10-2 and 1 rad/s), the slope does not change so a pole is cancelling a zero, instead of there being two zeroes. This means that there is an instable pole and therefore the system is unstable.

Stable Yes

No Unstable Can't be stable

Bode plots can’t be stable

Which is the hardest material shown here?

This topic comes from the course Structure and Properties of Materials, which is a first year course in the fourth quartile. There was a big division in strategies. People started by either going for the material with the most ‘lines’, or the least. There were also some associations that simply like the name or picture of pearlite.

Surprisingly enough, plenty associations used the right logic but jumped to the wrong conclusion. Protagoras and Pattern looked for the gaps between the crystals, or as we know them: grain boundaries. Sadly enough they concluded that this means that the material is weaker since it can slip more.

How it works is as follows: for a hard material you look for the most grain boundaries. Material inconsistencies can occur in these boundaries. Inconsistencies like, interstitial atoms, substitutional and vacancies lead to less ductile materials, with ductile being the opposite of hard. Having plenty of boundaries is favorable for wanting a hard material. This means that answer B, Martensite, is the hardest of the four structures shown here. This structure is acquired by heating the material to above its recrystallization temperature and then cooling it instantly by for example dipping it in water. This is what forgers do when hardening a blade.

Austenite Martensite Pearlite Ferrite

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Association Is this deformation homogeneous?

This topic comes from the course Solid Mechanics, which is a second year course in the third quartile. Some associations like Industria instantly answered A to satisfy their OCD by concluding it was homogeneous because of symmetry.

CHEOPS concluded the right answer claiming they have joined a ‘meeloopdag’ once. GEWIS took the long route and started calculating the volume.

The answer is really simple and is as follows. By simply checking the length of the bottom and the top of the rectangle in the first instance, and then the trapezoid in the second instance you see that only the top part has deformed. The bottom part is still 2a and the top part has deformed to 2b. This means that answer C is correct. The deformation is dependant on the reviewed point within the volume.

Yes, symmetric No, volume has changed No, dependant on location

Where does combustion happen in the Otto cycle?

This topic comes from the course Thermodynamics, which is a second year course in the second quartile. With this question the boards instantly looked at the car fanatics that were present, if a board had one. Protagoras did not have one and had to first ask what combustion was, but was soon enlightened simply by the word ‘sparky’. They then guessed correctly, claiming the technique to finding the correct phase is a secret. Intermate had plenty of discussion but someone put an end to the gibberish by just mic dropping the complete answer. In the end a lot of associations had the correct answer.

So how does one determine in which phase combustion happens? Combustion happens when the piston is at its top dead center (TDC), where the volume is the smallest. The piston has just completed compression of the gasses and is now ready to ignite the mixture. The gasses get ignited and a lot of energy gets released, which increases the pressure.

The piston is still at its top however, which means that the volume has remained unchanged in the same time. With the two variables now explained for, you can determine that combustion happens in phase 2-3, were the pressure rises but volume remains constant.

1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1

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Association How many zero force members are in this construction?

This topic comes from the course Mechanics, which is the first course a mechanical engineering student encounters. But that does not make it fair to the boardmembers according to them. According to them, at least the freshmen get some explanation first, which is a fair point but we did not admit that to them. For Japie this got really tense, as they really had no idea what was going on here. Wervingsdagen and FSE did a quick guess because the person which was given the task to answer this question left to prepare some shots. For Thor and van der Waals this was the make it or break it moment, seeing as we interviewed them at the same time and they were tied.

To approach this question you should first note that a very important property of trusses is that they only pass forces parallel to them, so not diagonally. Furthermore, in this diagram you can quickly spot that point C and point D have no external forces. Point A and E have reaction forces and B has point load P applied to it. Starting with point D, we apply the joint method, which looks at the force balance in a certain point. Here we conclude that, since there is no external force, and that truss DF is perpendicular to CF, truss DF is a zero member in order to uphold force equillibrium. For point F, using FDF = 0, means that CF is also a zero member to maintain force equillibrium. This concludes in answer C, that there are two zero force members.

0 1 2 4

Conclusion Usually this is the point where we build up suspense to present you the winner, but multiple associations have performed very well. Five associations have however not passed their exam, scoring a 4 or lower.

Since the previous edition, Thor and Intermate have really improved their Mechanical Engineering knowledge. Well done!

Lucid however has sunk really low with scoring 0 points. I don’t blame Elke though, as her fellow board members were sick, had a concussion or were at a birthday party. We have four clear winners; Thor, GEWIS, Intermate and Wervingsdagen + FSE. To say that they possess true Mechanical Engineering knowledge might be a bit too fast to conclude, but we are always happy to come by another time for an extra verification.

In the end, we want to thank and congratulate every association because we are all winners by having all these shots together. We really had fun during this trip across the campus. We would love to come by another time, armed with more questions and two bottles of Bokma, instead of one.

Final score 5

4 3 2 1 0

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Tech

Smart Bionics

AI as an extension of the human body

WRITTEN BY LIANNE TUIN

For someone with two hands, one of the scariest things would probably be to lose one or both. It is incredible how much you use your arms and hands. Just try putting one hand in your pocket and then go about your everyday tasks. Chances are that you will be unable to do a lot of tasks, and the ones you can do will take much longer to complete than when you’re able to use both hands. So it makes sense that since the beginning of time, people have tried to copy this intricate tool and other body parts for that matter, as far back as the ancient Egyptians.

Bionics vs prostetics

The first bionic arm

Let’s start with what bionics actually are. The field of bionics, as defined by dictionary.com, involves studying the functioning of biological systems and applying this to the design of mechanical and electric parts. So really anything that is engineered and inspired by nature, is within the field of bionics. In the context of the article however, bionics involve the merging of a manufactured limb with electronics. Prosthetics, therefore, are part of bionic limbs. Prosthetics are essentially the parts that replace a limb or other extremity, so for example, a wooden leg is already a prosthetic. As you may expect, these date back a lot further than bionic body parts, and many cases have been found throughout history.

The first person to ever receive a bionic arm already got it back in 1993. This arm could be interacted with using microchips and a cap containing micro-sensors. These micro-sensors detect brain impulses that would have moved the real limb if it were there but instead moved the bionic version of the limb differently.

Since then, bionics have become a lot more sophisticated. Smart bionic hands are embedded with sensors, allowing the user to control them using the muscles in the part of the arm that they still have. Sensors in the palm and finger monitor the current state and adjust where necessary. Sounds good, right? Well, unfortunately, not always.

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Tech Problems The problem with the sensing of signals is that it does not always work. To get the signal, a sensor currently has to rely on very small signals that the severed nerve of the limb sends through leftover muscle to the surface. Apart from that, it is difficult to detect the small signals, they are not always the required signals.

This makes it difficult for the user to tell the bionic body part what to do.

code that AI is known for. So when using the AI, all you need is the algorithm, and that will learn to interpret the signals rather than someone having to manually code every single command.

Also, when combined with neuroscience, AI can analyze brain signals and translate these to commands for an output device.

This is similar to what was done in 1993, but using AI will lead to a much more sophisticated version of the detection and the ability to construct much more intricate limbs. And, again, the software will learn to interpret the signals. The cool thing about AI is also that it will adjust to the user’s needs. The learning algorithm will probably first learn from a standard set of signals and motions, but once installed, it will learn from the user as well, tailoring the limb to their needs.

Of course, this has a much wider application than only bionic hands. People with any missing body parts will find that AI will make an artificial limb a lot more natural to use once it can actually understand its user. For instance, walking and running is a lot easier when you can control the ankle and foot muscles.

These signals then also have to be interpreted. This traditionally relied on preprogrammed behaviour based on motions that able-bodied people make with their limbs. This is, in general, more useful than artificial limbs that do not move, but unless you always have to make the same motions, it is not sufficient to make the bionic limb a fully-functioning body part.

More applications: enhancing the human body

But why only stick to replacement limbs for those who have lost them? There are many other applications for bionics that can assist able-bodied people as well. For example, supporting them during physical work or enhancing the strength in their body.

Take, for instance, an exoskeleton that helps people who need to lift heavy objects for their profession or construction workers And that is not even considering the robotics that is necessary that need to work with their arms above their head for long hours. for mimicking the complex motion that a real hand is capable Bionics that can enhance the strength and stability of their body of. For the intricate movement, the hand is going to need a would help relieve the physical strength required for the work. lot of joints and motors to give the AI can tailor the interaction between duplicate the degrees of freedom “Bionics is the study of the func- humans and machines to allow them it needs to perform tasks, such tioning of biological systems, to work together seamlessly. as gripping a pen and writing or and applying the findings to meopening a water bottle.

Better sensors

chanical and electronic devices�

To get the right information from the nerves that are necessary to control a limb, a new technique has been developed that involves muscle being wrapped around the severed end of a nerve, allowing the nerve to grow into this, and in this way increasing the strength of the signal. These signals then have to be interpreted, which is a great task for an AI algorithm.

The use of AI The algorithm of an AI can monitor and analyze data, and also make predictions based on this data and previous, similar occurrences. Using learning data, it can start to predict the intention of the user and use this to send signals to the arm. So rather than having to program what signal should result in what movement, which is known as a bottom-up version of code, the AI can learn to recognize sets of signals and the pattern that is meant to follow based on that, going more for the top-down

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Education

THE IDEAL QUALITY ASSURANCE LOOP

In the last edition of openME, an article was written about what is done with your feedback, both the feedback of student councils as well as the feedback received by the course evaluations via the questionnaires. This article I will focus on the course evaluations via the questionnaires, from now on named course surveys. With the main question being: what is ‘The Ideal Quality Assurance Loop’ and why is this not working on this university?

Since it is a loop, it starts nowhere, but for it to be explainable I will start with the students following a course.

After students have followed a course, they all fill in the course survey. Yes, all of the students will fill in this survey! Now we enter a familiar field if you have read my previous article. The feedback is processed by a quality assurance employee and the analysed feedback is given to the responsible teacher.

After the teacher receives this feedback, they process it and apply the feedback. At the beginning of a new course, the teacher explains what the feedback of the previous year was, what they did with this feedback and why they made these changes.

Now you might think this does not sound hard. This should be easy right? Well… not really! ‘The Ideal Quality Assurance Loop’ is far from reality. At the moment two key

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Written by Nicky verheijen

aspects go wrong. First of all, far from all students fill in the course survey which results in unrepresentative results.

Can you trust a survey which has only been filled in by 15% of the students that took the course? This is a question a lot of responsible lecturers ask themselves before they start a discussion about this with the quality assurance employees. After this discussion, the feedback either is applied or is not taken into account. But whatever the outcome may be, chances are slim that the next group of students hear what the feedback was and if it is implemented.

This ends in a downward spiral; students do not fill in the course surveys as they argue that their feedback is not used. On the other hand, lectures hardly implement the feedback, with the argument that the feedback is not relevant nor representative due to small sample sizes.

So let us agree with all the students and all the lecturers. From now on all students should fill in the course surveys. Then all the lecturers present these results and the implementations at the beginning of their courses.

Well wasn’t that easy? We created ‘the Ideal Quality Assurance Loop’!

Association

Surprise ME with‌

The biggest and most extreme world records Going to the extreme to be the best, Mechanical Engineering style.

WRITTEN BY KIM VAN LOON

Largest loop the loop in a car Some of you might have played with toy cars. When you did, you probably made a car do a looping at some point. With real life cars this is a little harder to accomplish, because of the incredible precision required by driver and car to combat the enormous G-forces. Jaguar however, managed to do it in 2015. British stunt driver Terry Grant, using Jaguars sports utility vehicle F-PACE, successfully completed a 19.08 meter tall 360 degree circle at the Niederrad Racecourse in Germany. During that loop, both driver and car had to withstand forces of 6.5 G, which is more than space shuttle pilots have to endure. All in all, this was a wonderful demonstration of how human and tech are pushed to the limit.

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Association

Greatest height from which a basketball is shot A group of Australian Youtubers called ‘How ridiculous’ drops objects from a tower onto other objects to see what happens. The tower is around 10 meters high, so they have had some training in dropping things accurately. In September 2016 however, they managed something incredible. They threw a basketball through a hoop. The thing that makes this tricky is that the basketball was shot 180.968 meters higher than the hoop. Although that record seemed unbeatable, they managed to break their own record in 2018 when Derek Herron shot a ball through a hoop that was standing 201.422 meters lower! Imagine the precision needed by Derek to counter the magnus effect and the different wind speeds during the drop.

Largest parade of autonomous cars Autonomous cars have to be conducted to a lot of tests to determine their safety on the road. Changan Automobile decided to take it a little bit further and made 55 of their autonomous cars drive in a parade.

The parade was driven at 30 km/h and lapped the 3.2 km long test track in Chongqing in China in 9 minutes and 7 seconds. The distance between the cars was only 2 vehicle lengths. Since that is not a desired distance on the road, some modifications had to be made to these cars to make the parade possible. More sensors were equipped in the cars to ensure the cars were able to determine their own position with respect to its lane and the car in front of them with an accuracy of a few centimeters. Also the object and event detection of the cars was reduced to make the cars drive closer together. This was still safe because the test track has less variables than what would occur on the road.

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Association

Heaviest ridable bicyle If you ever think it is tough to ride your bike when the wind is blowing in your face, I doubt you would want to ride on this monstrosity of a bicycle. With its weight of 1385 kilograms this bicycle is the heaviest in the world.

Antanas Kontrimas from Lithuania broke this record in 2016. The bike is not also heavy, but also very big in general.

It is 2.83 meters long, 1.8 meters tall and 1.35 meters wide.

Although it will most likely be hard to paddle this bike anywhere, you do not have to worry about changing a tire, because these concrete filled monsters are not going to get punctured by anything.

Largest LEGO™ brick caravan What can you do with 288630 LEGO™ bricks? Build a caravan! This caravan was built by John Cochrane Advertising. Ben ‘The Brick Builder’ Craig was the one to oversee the building of the caravan.

Ben first drew a model of the caravan in 3D CAD software. After that, an independent Civil Engineer and LEGO™ representative verified the model and the building process. That was when Ben and his team started building the caravan, a process that lasted five weeks. After those five weeks, all 288630 bricks were assembled in the correct way to have created this real life scale caravan. During construction, Ben even slept a night on the LEGO™ bed, because he locked himself in. The caravan was made lifelike and complete with food in the fridge and pans, pots and other kitchen utensils, all made from LEGO™ bricks of course. Even a flower in a vase and a chessboard can be found in the caravan.

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Career

PIONEERING IN THE MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRY Fortimedix Surgical is a young and innovative company in the medical device industry. It designs, develops and manufactures surgical instruments for minimally invasive surgery.

The laser cut product architecture allows Fortimedix to create scalable, single-use, and low-cost (flexible) articulating instruments with exceptional performance and complex functionality from just metal tubing. The talented engineering teams work in close collaboration with surgeons in the US and Europe to challenge the status quo and to generate enabling and differentiating technological solutions that address unmet needs in human healthcare.

Committed to change the future of surgery While building on two decades of experience in medical device design and high-volume manufacturing in the cardiovascular space, the pioneering culture is still strong. Challenge yourself,

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learn from others, make a difference and have fun are some of the key elements of this culture. Development Engineer Ruben da Silva started at Fortimedix as a trainee engineer right after his graduation at TU Eindhoven. We asked him how he experiences working at Fortimedix:

Career

Where did you first hear about Fortimedix?

Traineeship

”The first time I noticed Fortimedix was during the Wervingsdagen Career Expo at the TU Eindhoven. After my graduation, while searching through vacancies at the university website, I noticed that they were looking for engineers.”

Fortimedix Surgical is looking for engineers with a mechanical or biomedical background. It offers traineeships for engineers who have just graduated. During this traineeship you will participate in different projects related to product development, process development and manufacturing engineering. This way you can discover what kind of activities have your interest and get you energized.

What was your first impression of the company?

“The application process was very personalized. While there was importance in checking that I had the right skills and knowledge, I got the impression that compatibility with the team and work environment were deciding factors as well.”

What do you like about working at Fortimedix?

“I like being able to contribute to the development of novel instruments which will enable surgeons to carry out procedures that are currently not feasible, while improving the patient’s quality of life during the recovery period and after.”

What did you do / learn during your traineeship?

“During the traineeship, I learned about the core manufacturing processes, design verification & validation, quality management system and stakeholder management.”

What has been the coolest project so far?

“There have been multiple interesting projects, but if I had to choose one, it would be the current endoluminal surgery project where we are developing a long flexible instrument (>100 cm) that can execute various manipulations in the upper or lower gastrointestinal tract. Using analytical computational models (Matlab) we are able to simulate the instrument performance and identify design changes which will lead to improvements.

Also, characterizing the instrument response using Python and OpenCV has been a lot of fun.”

What advice would you give to the students who are looking for their first job?

“I think the start of a professional career involves building up experience in various roles and recognizing which roles are a good fit. So in my opinion, first make sure the company’s core business aligns with your own interests and remain open minded when looking for a first job.”

Ruben Da Silva

About Fortimedix Surgical

Fortimedix Surgical is an innovative medical device company committed to driving the evolution of healthcare through smart innovation across surgical specialties.

Headquartered on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen, the Netherlands and having a U.S. subsidiary in San Diego, CA, the company develops and manufactures proprietary surgical instrument technology. With a strong history as a global market leader in stent design and manufacturing, Fortimedix has been a trusted partner in the medical device industry for more than two decades. For more information, please visit www.fortimedixsurgical.com Find out more about working at Fortimedix on jobs. fortimedix.com or contact Odette Creemers, Department of Human Resources, jobs@fortimedix.com, 045-5449520 In collaboration with both W.S.V. Simon Stevin and SvBMT Protagoras, Fortimedix will organize a participative lecture for the students on the 23rd of March. Next to that, we aim to organize a visit to the company during the Talent Day 2021 at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus on the 20th of May. We will keep you informed about the registration possibilities

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EURO TRIP 2020

Ora Viaggeremo Davvero!

WRITTEN BY PERONNE HOPSTAKEN

Under the motto ‘Ora Viaggeremo Davvero!’, which translates to ‘Now we are really going to travel!’, the Eurotrip committee prepared a six day trip during the carnival break to Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Italy. The trip would consist of plenty of company visits and fun side activities. On the 25th of February, 27 Mechanical Engineering students packed their suitcases and ot ready for a viaggio divertente!

Early in the morning of Tuesday the 25th of February, the participants of Eurotrip 2020 gathered at the parking lot of Gemini to start an amazing trip. For the committee, this was already the second day, because the day before they had to change the whole planning so that Italy could be avoided.

The group would visit ST Microelectronics and Politechnico di Milano, the university of technology, in Italy but because of COVID-19 this part of the trip, unfortunately, had to be skipped.

The first day consisted mainly of driving to Austria, with a few stops at McDonald’s. After a great first night of celebrating carnival in a small bar in the village, the group woke up early to visit the first company: Hilti. This company develops and manufactures products for mainly professional end-users, with its headquarters located in Schaan, Liechtenstein. Hilti focuses mainly on anchoring systems, fire protection systems, installation systems,

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measuring and power tools. The day started with a presentation with a special section about their internship program. After that, a guided tour around the factory and research center was given. During this tour, it was explained how their products were manufactured, which was very interesting. Before ending the visit, Hilti treated us to a very delicious and well-arranged lunch.

After Liechtenstein, we drove to Switzerland, where we had a big house for ourselves. The big kitchen was also used well by a few participants, which resulted in a great meal. In the evening there was a pubquiz, organized by the committee, with questions about all the companies and countries the group would visit during the trip. The third day was a rest day, because of the change in plans. During this day the whole group had a walk through the snow and the mountains of the beautiful village Muotathal, where the house was located. In the afternoon the caves at the edge of

Career

the town were visited. These caves are 200 km long and it is one of the largest cave systems in the world. The tunnels we walked through were originally sea beds and if you looked closely at the walls, some smalls shells could still be seen. In the evening the group drove to Zürich to have a traditional Swiss fondue.

On the fourth day, two companies were visited: MAN and Empa. MAN has been in Zürich for a long time and is the only mechanical production site left in the city center.

First, we got a presentation about the company activities.

Three things about MAN stood out. Firstly, MAN builds fully enclosed compressors that can be used for decades at the bottom of the sea without maintenance. Besides, these compressors use magnetic bearing and brushless electric motors to make them completely maintenance-free, which they all developed themselves. Thirdly the impressive drive of MAN to contribute to renewable energy sources: they showed us a system to store and release both heat and electricity providing a buffer where energy can be stored.

At the factory, MAN showed the group very impressive impellers, which had a diameter of almost 2 meters. If you are interested, this company is open to internships or graduation assignments as well.

The second company of the day was Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, near Zürich. Empa is a research laboratory. Here materials for all kinds of fields are being investigated. The mission is to develop materials and technologies for a sustainable future.

The materials researched include smart materials and surfaces, environmental, energy and sustainable building technologies, cleantech applications and biotechnology

and medical technology. After a short presentation, the group was split into two groups and got a big tour around the campus, visiting four different facilities. Empa showed a test setup for an airplane wing, testing of flexible solar panels, investigation of concrete bridge constructions that have cracks, and applications and production ways of ceramics.

After a long day with two company visits, we went back to the house to have a game night with another delicious homemade meal. The day after, the group went to Zürich again, but this time to see the city. In the morning we had a tour through Zürich, using an app on the phone, highlighting the best places of Zürich. After that everyone was free to have their own time in the city, visiting the expensive stores or admiring the beautiful views of the city, some even found a square with a band on stage. Before dinner, the whole group gathered again and drove to Tübingen, a small town in Germany. Here we had dinner in a typical German restaurant, which lead to a great night out in the city center.

During the trip, we learned a lot about the companies and got some great offers for internships. We can also look back at the great nights with each other in the house and the cities. Everyone got to know each other very well during the road trips, in which we had some quality time and bonding happened. Besides that, we enjoyed the beautiful views of Austria and Switzerland. Friendships were formed while enjoying the nice activities, but also learning about all the different subjects the various companies had to offer.

Thank you everyone and hope to see you next time!

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NUMBERLINK The goal of the puzzle is to connect each pair of numbers via an unbroken path that is not crossed by another path or doubled back on itself. It is also not allowed to leave a square on the grid empty, so in the end, all squares should be part of a path between two numbers.

PUZZLES MADE BY WILLEMIJN MARKUS

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Association

SUBADDO PYRAMID The object is to fill all hexagons with numbers between 1 and 12. The hexagons that are connected with orange triangles can be considered a set of three. This set should contain two numbers that add or subtract to equal the third. In addition, it is not allowed to have a repetition of a number in a horizontal row.

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Association

CLUELESS CROSSWORD This puzzle is a mix between a regular crossword puzzle and a cryptogram. The goal is to fill in the crossword grid by gradually uncovering the letter that belongs to each number.

The crossword grid is filled with only common, everyday English-language words. Each square in the grid is numbered 1 through 26, which corresponds to one and only one letter in the alphabet.

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Association

REVERSE WORD SEARCH This puzzle is, like the name says, the reverse of a word search. Instead of searching the words, the words have to be filled in. To get you started, some letters have already been filled in, those letters are the first letter of one or more words on the given word list. The grid can be completely filled in using only the given words without repetition. The words can be positioned horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and can be read forwards and backward (as in a regular word search).

Aorta Arming Bards Beets Brown Canes Clowned Debugger Desists Detailed Dumber Dumps Embeds Enrolled Equals Fantasies Feasible Frost Gnash Grates Hashes

Hoods Hover Improbabilities Jinxed Lagoon Lawless Nonresidents Norms Pharmaceuticals Priors Rebate Scene Scripts Seeps Spectaculars Stems Tipsier Tutor Voyaged Wealth Yours

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Association

SOLUTIONS

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IS LOOKING FOR

NEW EDITORS! DO YOU WANT TO: - IMPROVE YOUR WRITING - WORK CREATIVELY - JOIN A FUN COMMITTEE

SEND AN E-MAIL TO REDACTIE@SIMONSTEVIN.TUE.NL

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STERRENHOEKJES •

Huisgenoot terwijl ingenieur voor het

leven op staat:”Is dat Guus Meeuwis?”

•

Sandor: “Ik heb verder niet iets van

ambities ofzo.”

•

Kevin Looman: “Ik heb echt zin om een

high tech cowboy te worden.”

•

Sandor: “Ik snap nu eindelijk waarom

Roelof mij drie jaar lang kut sjaars heeft

genoemd.”

•

Jankatiri: “Ik hou niet eens van koffie, ik

trek liever elke dag een schoenadt dan

elke dag koffie zetten.”

•

Freek: “Blijkbaar zit er alcohol in

Bokma.”

•

Feut Kim: “De eerste keer dat ik feut Rolf

ontmoette dacht ik dat hij gay was.”

Top posters of 2020 1. Alma Meijssen 2. Harmen Meijer 3. Cas Dijkstra

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38 ‘vo 31 ‘vo 23 ‘vo

Association

CONTEST TIME Submit your answer and win a new Google home!

Previous online conest

Contest 52.1 November

While in quarantine, you get very bored and start to play all kinds of games you used to play as a kid.

One of these games is tic-tac-toe. Having beaten the computer a couple of times, you get bored and try to get the computer to play against himself. The computer plays itself by putting a cross and then a circle into a square randomly (so no strategy is applied in the process). What is the probability the game will end in a tie?

During the reopening of the Simonkamer, the Secretary found a secret box in a closet. The box has some documents that the Commissioner of Extraordinairy Activities needs in order to prove that the mobile bar Jan! is property of the Association.

In order to unlock the box, a code existing of 19 digits has to be entered. A note was found by the Treasurer in her back pocket, which she had forgotten about after drinking a bottle of Bokma. The note contains the following hint: Which 10 numbers from 1-1000 can make up any number from 1-1000 if added up without any 2 numbers being used twice?

The code is madeup of the 10 numbers from this hint, sequenced in order of magnitude.

Submit your answer in the Simonkamer (Gem-N 1.61) or via an e-mail to redactie@simonstevin.tue.nl with your name and the solution. The prize will be raffled from the correct submissions and the correct answer will be published in the next winning contest.

Correct answer

Make sure to submit your answer before the 1st of January!

The probability was 0.18 or 18%!

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