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jaargang 43, 31 mei 2001 English page

30 million for Joint institute NUS and TU/e Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have extended their existing co-operation to include a new enterprise. A joint institute for education and research in the area of technological design is to be founded on NUS campus. The Singapore ministries of Education and Economic Affairs have promised the institute subsidies in the coming five years totalling 30 million guilders. TU/e chairman of the Executive Board dr.ir. Henk de Wilt and NUS vice-chancellor professor Choon Fong Shih signed a contract detailing joint ownership of the institute last Friday in Singapore. The 'Design Technology Institute' (DTI) is to open before the end of the year. Courses will start early in 2002. DTI will be comparable to the Stan Ackermans Institute (SAI) in Eindhoven. Executives from both universities will participate in the Singapore institute's Board of Governors and Executive Board. TU/e and NUS will both have a fifty per cent interest in the institute. DTI will offer a number of two-year post-academic courses resulting in a Master's degree in Technological Design, all in close co-operation with the state-of-the-art design industry in Singapore. The institute will also take on research and development contracts from this same industry. Student Interest "There's already a lot of interest from students in Singapore who are planning to follow certain subjects with professor Brombacher. They will do half their courses in Singapore and the other half here. Students from both countries are eager to spend their practical year abroad", says TU/e spokesman Peter van Dam. According to Van Dam, TU/e's contribution will mainly consist of supplying staff and supervision. Most of the concrete funding will come from Singapore. It is already possible for Ph.D. students to earn a doctorate from both NUS and TU/e at the same time in certain subjects. Co-operation between TU/e and the department of Technology Science at NUS began about ten years ago and was based on personal contacts between scientific staff from both organisations. The relationship of NUS and TU/e staff with Philips was vital to this co-operation. Philips has its own technology campus and expertise centre for manufacturing technology in both Singapore and Eindhoven. The fact that both Singapore and the Eindhoven region are characterised by a strong concentration of state-of-the-art, internationally operating design industries also made TU/e and NUS natural partners. Both universities co-operate closely with industries in their own regions in the fields of education and design. TU/e's Stan Ackermans Institute has extensive experience with two-year, post-academic design courses. These programs for engineers and science graduates fill an ever growing need in the current design industry for technological designers who can 'translate' technological concepts quickly and efficiently to successful complex products, working in inter-disciplinary design teams. More than 1000 technological designers have already graduated from the Stan Ackermans Institute at TU/e. This is about half of the total number of designers to graduate in the Netherlands. Design Assignments The programs at the Singapore Design Technology Institute will fill demand from the local design industry. The courses will fit in with the courses at the SAI in Eindhoven and result in a Master of Technological Design degree. The parti-cipants will first follow one year of basic training courses. They will then work for one year on a design assignment in the industry, under close supervision from the institute. Graduates already working in the industry may follow the first year of courses in the evenings over a period of two years. They can then tackle their practical assignments at their places of work. The first courses available will be 'Rapid Product Development', 'Mechatronics' and 'Embedded Systems'. The number of courses will gradually increase. TU/e staff will be available to help set-up the courses and also to teach or supervise design assignments. There will also be student exchange between DTI in Singapore and TU/e's Stan Ackermans Instituut. Students may follow their first year in Singapore and then travel to Eindhoven for their design project and vice versa. NUS and TU/e will try to make possible a double degree from both institutes for these exchange students./.

New Prize for Best Ph.D. University Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the best university of them all? This is the knotty question facing the Landelijk Aiooverleg (Laioo) when they decide where their Best University Award should go. The prize is awarded to the Dutch university that offers the best conditions to Ph.D. students. May-May Meijer, chairman of Laioo, is a third-year Communications Science Ph.D. student at VU Amstredam studying the 'influence of media on the image of organisations and sectors'. She became active in Laioo partly because of her research into this subject. "In the beginning, I thought I shouldn't complain about my low salary. It was my own fault for becoming a Ph.D. student in the first place." But at the same Meijer was researching the image of education in the Netherlands. She found articles with titles like 'Research on the Dole', including comments like "Working for a doctorate is for losers". This got her thinking. "The Netherlands are proud of being in the top ten of scientific research nations, and even in the top three of quoted articles, but most of this research was done by young researchers. In technological subjects the percentage is up to 80 per cent. So Ph.D. students are definitely important to output, but if you look at payment, a different picture emerges." "Having said this, the Award is meant to be a positive thing. We hope to get some constructive attention for Ph.D. student's problems. We are not only demanding improvements, but also giving the universities some constructive criticism. We want to reward universities who are trying to improve things for Ph.D. students. Hopefully, this will encourage universities to do their best." To qualify for the prize of best employer, universities will have to clean up their act where Ph.D. students are concerned. Laioo advises scrapping the current rules applying to Ph.D. students in favour of paying this group of researchers a normal research staff salary. Universities should also pay more attention to career planning and supply better supervision for those writing theses. Based on old data on doctoral results, TU Twente and TU Eindhoven have a good chance of winning the prize. Doctoral theses on science or technology are usually finished more quickly than those in other fields. But asked whether TU/e has a chance at the prize, Meijer answers as any discrete jury member would: "Nominations will be made known at a later date." The date for the presentation of the award has not yet been fixed./.

TU/e Offers Students and Staff Entry to Internet and Intranet For 45 guilders a month all students and staff can be connected to the university network. This supplies unlimited access to TU/e's facilities and the internet. 1400 people living in Vestide housing already make use of this service. After lengthy negotiations with Priority Telecom, a UPC subsidiary, the way has been cleared for permanent links from home to the world wide web. TU/e's contract with Priority Telecom for supplying cable internet is valid for five years and will cost the university about three million guilders. To start with, only students and staff living in Eindhoven are eligible for a connection. But the service will be available in the rest of the Eindhoven region shortly. The advantage for users is the high speed with which information can be sent. Users work via the university server and avoid the cumbersome digital files that develop with the big providers, causing long waits in weekends and around dinnertime. Students interested in the service may apply at the info counter at the Studenten Service Centrum. Staff should go to the info service desk at Laplace building 1.94./.

Furniture Needed You've got an apartment, but no furniture. This is a problem facing many foreign students and Ph.D. students arriving in Eindhoven. TU/e always had a solution: a furniture depot in the Laplace building cellars where students could pick up furniture almost for nothing. However, the supply of 'new' furniture has come to something of a standstill. Herman van Hooff has been managing the furniture depot for a number of years. In order to keep up with student demand, he needs a regular supply of used furniture. "I usually get my stock from various places, but my supply is dwindling. I have been working with Van den Eijnden movers, and they recently pointed out to me that people who move usually also buy a lot of new furniture. The old furniture is often destroyed. That's a pity, as we could put that furniture to good use." Van Hooff is now asking people who move to donate their old furniture to the depot. Apart from chairs, tables, beds and cupboards, the furniture depot also offers electronic appliances such as stoves and lamps. "I will take anything, foreign students can use most things. They are not choosy, as long as the items are still functional. The greatest demand is usually in the autumn at the start of the academic year. When they go home, they return the furniture," says Van Hooff. More information: Herman van Hooff, 040 211 06 24. The English Page is written by Paula van der Riet. She can be reached at engcur@stud.tue.nl.