The list comes under the responsibility of the executive committee of this international student association and they ask that no illegal products be sold, no people be offended or provocative opinions be expressed on the list. Anyone who does not respect these requests will be struck off the list without further ado. ISN/e itself uses the list to announce its activities, such as the monthly film night and the ISN dinner.

Every day about a dozen calls are made. International students and employees in Eindhoven who are leaving sell their bed, sofa or fridge. Or they are getting started here and are looking for a room, a bicycle or new household contents. Before the holidays there are frequent requests for or offers of a lift home. Now and then there are special calls, such as someone asking where one can buy first-day stamps.

Is the list working? Do you get any reactions to your call? Cedric Flazinska, a Master student at the Design Academy, has already received three positive reactions to his request for help from someone with advanced 3D platform programming knowledge. Cedric: ‘I think the ISN/e list is very useful. Many of those who subscribe have a technical or creative background and many people are willing to help.’

Cedric, who is from Paris, is working on a prototype of a virtual designer of shoes for his Master course assignment. He chose the subject of user-driven design: ‘The shoe is taken as an example of a product people can design to their own taste. The software will work as a virtual designer for you. You enter specifics about your lifestyle and personality and the virtual designer will adjust your shoes to these variables.’ Cedric plans to finish his Master course in September and for afterwards he has several possible plans. Cedric: ‘One is to devote myself to music for a while.’ He misses his band in Paris, Fungi, where he plays the guitar. He has plans for an open source band, where people can freely add, use and alter songs.

Cedric Flazinska

Bookcase
Muhammad Rizwan Asghar has already had one reaction to his call for a bookshelf. ‘I expect more reactions.’ Rizwan needs a bookcase ‘to put all of my study stuff in, such as lecture notes, handouts, and books.’ At the same time another ISN/e list member is offering a bookcase. Unfortunately this bookcase is too big for Rizwan: ‘My room is not that big and I need a bookcase that I can easily move when I travel elsewhere.’ Rizwan is very positive about the ISN/e list: ‘It is really a collaborative network of international students and is useful for everyone.’ Rizwan is doing a Master in Computer Science and Engineering and specializes in Information Security Technology. He is from Faisalabad, Pakistan, and plans to stay at the TU/e till August 2009: ‘Afterwards, I would like to get some international experience.’

Andrei Korostelev put the ISN/e list to good use to find people who want to play football near the TEMA building on Sundays at 12.30. Andrei uses the ISN/e list now and then to top up his supply of new team members. ‘Usually after each post to ISN we get two to four new players. Some people contact me directly about details, but most of them just come and join us, ‘ says Andrei. He explains that they play with hockey-size goals. Normally they have between 6 and 12 players.

Andrea who is from Minsk, Belarus, says: ‘The original backbone of this football initiative was Belarussian and Russian guys. Nevertheless football is multicultural. We play with people from Bulgaria, Romania, Holland, Poland, Italy, and, when it is not freezing, that is when it is at least 30 degrees Celsius, guys from Spain and Chili join us as well.’ Andrei says he’s been playing football for as long as he can remember: ‘And after coming to Eindhoven I became a real PSV supporter.’

Until recently Andrea did research in the field of Service Oriented Systems in SAN group at the Computer Science & Mathematics department. At the moment he works as a software engineer for Sioux Embedded Systems. He still likes to use the ISN/e list: ‘Although the list of subscribers is not limited to students, it has a strong student flavor./.

Muhammad Rizwan Asghar

www.isn-eindhoven.nl / ISN@TUE.NL