RevaluationThe university-wide revaluation process is under way. The first two actions will involve reorganizing the material sciences section and merging two MSc programmes.
The TU’s Executive Board agreed to the faculty of Mechanical, Maritime & Materials Engineering’s plan to reorganize the materials science section, which will consequently cut 12 to 15 staff positions. The Executive Board also agreed to the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematic and Computer Science’s plan to merge two MSC programmes, computer science and media & knowledge engineering, into one MSc programme, named computer science.
Dies celebration
‘Movement’ was the theme of the 169th celebration of the University’s foundation day event, held last Friday. A movement, as became clear, away from The Hague and the new government. “The university has to become less dependent on the whims in The Hague,” said Rector Karel Luyben.
Self-organised learning
It all started with one computer which Professor Sugata Mitra, as head of an IT firm, placed at the disposal of children in a slum in Delhi. Twelve years later, over 600 workstations are active in eight countries, where children teach each other computer skills. Prof. Mitra’s success questions the classical approach of teaching. In 1999, Professor Sugata Mitra cut a hole in the wall of his office in Delhi, which was situated right next to a slum district. He installed a computer, complete with internet access, in the hole, which only children could reach and use. He then studied how the children learned and taught each other how to use this completely unfamiliar technology. For his research into self-organised learning, which he calls ‘Minimally Invasive Education’, Prof. Mitra was awarded an honorary doctorate by TU Delft.
New working
A test of New Working methods at TU Delft’s main library has been evaluated, with the result being that library personnel should be given more freedom in how they choose to work, as greater freedom and flexibility boosts their productivity. Sixteen library staff members, including information and collection specialists, participated in the three-month long study, during which they worked in alternative ways. The study found that output, not one’s mere presence in the work place, was a key factor. During the test, library staff members met each other in virtual environments and worked in various places and at various times, using laptops, iPads, smartphones and notebooks, as well new technologies to communicate from distance – chatting, wikis, weblogs, twitter and video conferencing. Project leader, Liesbeth Mantel: “We want to give people more freedom in how they do their work. But if a person still prefers to sit behind a computer from 9 to 5, they can do that as well.”
Student protests
On Friday, 21 January a national student day of protests against government cuts in higher education will be held across the country. As many TU Delft students are expected to join the protests, the start times of exams planned for 21 January have been moved forward. More information about the demonstration is available at the website. www.studentendemonstratie.nl
Super bus model
A scale model of TU Delft’s much talked about Super Bus is currently on show at Science Centre Delft. Super Bus is an innovative concept for sustainable mobility designed by Professor Wubbo Ockels. The total Super Bus project comprises a new vehicle, infrastructure and the logistics needed to transport people to their destinations. The scale model will be on display in the Amazing Technology room of Science Centre Delft until 16 January 2011.
Black hole
Astronomical researchers at Utrecht University have recently obtained images of what appears to be a massive black hole being jettisoned from a distant galaxy. The researchers estimate the black hole weighs about one billion times as much as our sun. Utrecht University student Marianne Heida discovered this bizarre star during her final undergraduate project, undertaken at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, in a galaxy more than half a billion light years away. To make the discovery she compared hundreds of thousands of X-ray sources, picked up by chance, with the positions of millions of galaxies. Normally each galaxy contains a super-massive black hole at its centre that sometimes lights up under X-rays. Yet the star Heida discovered was clearly not located in the galaxy’s centre. However, under X-rays the object is so bright that it can best be compared to other bright, super-massive black holes in the universe.
According to an online survey conducted by Van Dale, the Dutch publishing house, the most popular new word that entered into common usage in the Netherlands in 2009 is ontvrienden, which Van Dale defines as meaning ‘to dump or drop virtual friends by removing them from friends’ lists on social networking sites’ like Facebook.
In this online survey to find the ‘Woord van het jaar 2009’, 6,500 people voted for a shortlist of ten new words. Ontvrienden received 19% of the votes, followed by Mexicaanse griep (18%); hypotheekleed (15%); oeps-gebied (12%); tomtomburger (9%); griepcommissaris (9%); zeilmeisje (7%); recessionista (6%); twitterazzo (4%); and spuugkit (1%).
Of the above, a recessionista is a fashion-conscious woman who keeps incessantly buying clothes and accessories during the recession, but now does so only at outlet stores and during sales. A twitterazzo is someone who fanatically sends tweets. Hypotheekleed is a reference to the socio-economic misery that results from a person being unable to meet their mortage (re) payments. And tomtomburger is a citizen who passively goes through life guided only by possibilities offered to him/her by the State, and is a play on the TomTom, a popular Dutch GPS system.
Incidentally, Van Dale’s ‘Word of the Year’ for 2008 was swaffelen, but if you really want to know what that word means (and we’re not sure you do), then you should ask one of your Dutch student friends, for it was a word popularized by Dutch students (and their twisted minds).
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