Life after TU/e

10
22 January 2015 | year 57
People | 21
See for more news www.cursor.tue.nl/en
And how are things in Berkeley?
Biweekly magazine of the Eindhoven University of Technology
For the latest news: www.cursor.tue.nl/en and follow @TUeCursor_news on
Setbacks don’t shake morale
ice church team
19 January - Frozen tools, unhinged anchors, thaw, and snow storms: the builders of
the ice church in Juuka, Finland had it all. They were dealt another blow this weekend,
when a gust of wind destroyed
more than half of the highest tower
and severely damaged the inside
balloon. But the team has got itself
together again and continues with
seemingly inexhaustible optimism.
They keep on working on building
the highest tower, but probably
won’t be able to finish it before
the deadline.
and tuecursor on
New bus route to connect TU/e
and central train station
16 January - The ‘gates’ to the NS train station and TU/e campus are a mere ten-minute
walk apart. Still, starting next month, students and staff can take a bus to travel to
and from TU/e. The bus 104 makes its route four times an hour during peak hours
(7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m.) and
has four stops on campus :
Laplace Square (Laplace
building), Lismortel (teacher
training building), Rondom
East (Differ building), and
Rondom South (Flux building).
The corner Hoofdgebouw/
Auditorium won’t get a stop
because of Hoofdgebouw
renovations.
More and more TU/e students go abroad for their studies to follow courses, internships or a doctorate path.
What is it like to find your way in a new country? Students tell their stories.
Hi everyone! The past semester I have been studying at the University of California in Berkeley,
and it was, in one word, awesome! The university is inspiring, California is laid back and nice and
warm, the road trips were fun, my fellow students were open and helpful, and most importantly:
my housemates were fantastic!
During my stay in Berkeley I stayed at the International House (iHouse). The reason I’m pointing this
out is because my housemates turned out to be the most fun aspect of my exchange. Everyone I’ve
met in the iHouse was special in some way (well, almost everyone). Whether it was a passion, an
achievement, or an ambition that characterized their stories, I made some of my best memories
with my housemates during one of the many lunches and dinners, just speaking with them.
In addition, the iHouse was convenient to meet up with likeminded people and organize all kinds
of road trips. Everyone in the iHouse was approachable. Lastly, the iHouse was also just very
convenient, because let’s be honest, during your exchange you don’t want to think about cooking
and other domestic chores too much. If you are considering Berkeley and would like to have an
unforgettable experience during your exchange, then I strongly recommend you stay in the iHouse,
despite some apparent downsides (rent, especially).
I can tell you a lot more about everything I’ve done in Berkeley and my trip from the west coast to
the east coast after that. Should you be interested in an exchange to Berkeley and would you like
to know more about it, feel free to contact me anytime.
New year’s eve in San Francisco.
Tom is first on the left at the bottom row.
To
studemn van Nord
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ManaIgnnovatino,n
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All the best!
Heart Foundati
packaging medon supports
icines in gel
15 January - The Du
tch Heart Fo
Would you also like to write an article about your time
abroad? Please send an email to [email protected].
undation (‘Hartst
in research by TU
ichting’) is investi
/e, the Hubrecht In
ng 1.5 million euro
stitute and UMC Ut
new method to im
s
recht into the deve
prove the delivery
lopment of a
and retention of me
to improve the effe
di
cines in the heart.
ctiveness of repair
The aim is
of the heart musc
adverse side‑effects
le after a heart at
. This research is led
tack without
by dr. Patricia Dank
and dr. Eva van Ro
ers (Biomedical En
oij (Hubrecht Insti
gineering)
tute Utrecht).
Tube for diploma
new alumni gift
Read more stories online: www.cursor.tue.nl/en
Life after TU/e
14 January - A sleek tube for your diploma, inspired by
the eye-catching red slash in the TU/e logo: it’s the new
gift to alumni, which the university will give out starting
this week. A little under fifty Built Environment graduates
were the first to receive the souvenir last Tuesday.
The new gift will replace the well-known baby blue
fleece scarf graduates received until only recently. New signage
on campus almost
completed
13 January - Nearly all bicycle signs have been put up and
most buildings now have posts indicating the building
name and its residents. Eight new signs with maps will be
erected on campus shortly, as well as large ANWB posts,
and visitors will find directions at parking lots. It’s safe
to say the new signage on campus is well underway, and
all signs are expected to be put up by the end of March.
Clmn
What do you do at your current job?
I advise the senior management on (re)financing needs focusing on capital
markets products,
from senior unsecured to secured debt, including structured debt product
s such as asset
securitizations and covered bonds. With over eight years of experience in
banking, quantitative
modeling and research, project management and consulting, I have been
providing qualitative
insights and quantitative solutions of complex matters in treasury funding
and risk management.
How did you obtain your current position? After having taken a research-oriented route at TU/e, I wanted to work with
real applied problems.
In 2006, right after having graduated from university, I was offered a
very interesting
opportunity at Rabobank as quantitative risk analyst. Gaining experien
ce there, I moved to
the world of private banking after several years. Now I’m Risk Manage
r at Van Lanschot
Bankiers where I have a key role in the development of sophisticated
internal credit risk
models.
More news on www.cursor.tue.nl/en
Why did you choose to go to TU/e?
Having graduated from Belarus State University with honors and having
obtained quite many
offers for a research position from different universities worldwide, includin
g TU/e, I was
puzzled what to choose. In 2003, a European Commission report ranked
TU/e at third place
among all European research universities. That ranking brought me here,
but also the onsite
interview at Eurandom that sparked a major interest in the subject matter.
Churches and social responsibility in The Netherlands
It was a sunny day in Amsterdam and I was doing some sightseeing with
an Italian girlfriend. Walking past churches she would invariably ask
about the names, after which saint they were called, etc. Passing near
the Moses and Aaron Church I ventured to say that it was not used as a
church anymore, but nowadays served for various cultural or social
events. As I recalled from my own experience in my student years in
Amsterdam, it also served as a meeting place for the local tax office.
My friend (who by the way was wearing a big cross as a necklace) was
really surprised and upset by my story, as I should have known. How on
earth would we in Holland dare to use churches for another purpose than
worshipping the Lord? The rest of the stroll through the streets of Amsterdam
was dedicated to avoiding churches and this controversial topic…
Isolated incident? Not in The Netherlands, for example the commotion
in nearby Veldhoven these days: 5 of 6 churches will soon be closed.
On a more positive note, a picture I got from a colleague shows a modern
church in Weert recently transformed into a skating rink (what about the
Name: Iryna Snihir
Place of Birth: Minsk, Belarus
Date of Birth: October 18, 1980
At TU/e: S
eptember 2003 - November 2006, Research Assistant at
Eurandom / Master program Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Current position: Treasury Funding Management professional at Van Lanscho
t Bankiers
summers…?). Why do the Dutch do that? There are several reasons.
Land is expensive, so each square meter is fully used in urban planning
and an abandoned church (fewer and fewer churchgoers nowadays) costs
money and will soon serve another purpose. Dutch pragmatism and a no
non-sense approach to life: if a church is empty, rebuild it into a place for
socially responsible activities, or in some cases a… mosque. Culturally
speaking, it is not seen as an offense to give the house of the Lord another
use. For the (economic) rationale behind this, see above.
The (very) Catholic city of Maastricht has an impressive list of churches
of which many are not in use as such any more. Many are now university
buildings and the best known example is the Dominican church
(Dominicanenkerk) which is a fancy bookshop these days. Old campuses
often include ancient monasteries, convents or chapels. Take our own
TU/e. If it were older, it would probably have a nice historical chapel,
most likely not in use as such any longer. So what would it be now?
A reception hall, a bookshop, student housing or even better…
our own campus supermarket? Problem solved in Flux!
Vi
advisor in ncent Merk,
ternationa
l commun
ity
What happens to international
students after they graduate
from TU/e? Do they go job
hunting in the Netherlands,
pack their bags and explore
the world, or return to their
home countries? International
TU/e graduates talk about
their lives after TU/e.
How do you reflect on your time at TU/e?
It was a great time. Coming from the parents’ house, I was so lucky to
find myself in a very
warm place, and that warmth was definitely coming from my colleagu
es’ and new friends’
attitudes, hospitality, and their willingness to help, workwise and persona
lly. I would like to
express my gratitude to my supervisors, William Rey, Evgeny Verbitsk
iy, Peter Notten, Laurie
Davies and Alessandro Di Bucchianico. It was also in that period I learned
how to handle the
Dutch’ straightforward style of communicating; I took criticism when
it was necessary, and
at the same time I was strongly encouraged by the people around me.
I have benefited hugely
from the ability of my supervisors to come up with (and solve) new and
challenging problems.
It’s something I’ve taken with me and use in my professional life today.
But I’d like to refer
to Dr Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”.
What advice would you give current students?
The experience and the words of Winston Churchill, who said: “Succes
s is not final,
failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”.
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22 January 2015
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Open access: a curse or a blessing?
Text | Tom Jeltes
Illustration | Marc Weikamp
The reasoning seems watertight: results obtained through
research financed by public funds should be freely accessible
to the taxpayer. So down with high-priced subscriptions for
scientific journals: open access is the future. Make that the near
future, if it is up to the Dutch authorities. Is the Netherlands
making a glorious comeback as a model country, or are we
shooting ourselves in the foot? Cursor lists the facts and has made
a tour along the departments so as to sound out the scientists.
For a while it seemed as if employees
of Dutch universities would from
this year on no longer have access
to thousands of journals published
by Elsevier, including reputable
titles such as The Lancet and Cell.
After all, early in November the
negotiations were discontinued
between Elsevier and the VSNU
about the subscriptions of the
university libraries. According
to the VSNU the publisher was
‘not responding in any way
whatsoever to the necessary
change [concerning open access]’.
Only by mid-December were
negotiations with Elsevier gradually
resumed again, after which it was
decided to allow the old contract
to run on in 2015. In the meantime
the VSNU did succeed in concluding
an agreement with Springer,
another major scientific publisher.
This agreement implies that
‘articles written by authors
corresponding with a VSNU or NFU
institution (the teaching hospitals,
ed.) will be published in open
access without any costs for the
author’. This will apply only, by the
way, to Springer’s hybrid journals whereas the authors will have to
keep paying for the journals that
are already fully open access.
For the time being the slowly
progressing negotiations between
the universities and the publishers
do not have any tangible results
for researchers and students.
It remains to be seen whether it will
stay like that. It cannot be excluded
that Elsevier will refuse to budge
and put up with the (temporary)
loss of the Dutch clients – after all,
Open access-symposium
On Tuesday March 10 TU/e will host a symposium about the theme
of open access, organized by the Information Expertise Center (IEC).
The program features workshops as well as a debate with NWO
chairman Jos Engelen, university professor Anthonie Meijers and
representatives of publisher Springer, journal PLOS ONE and the
science trade union VAWO.
www.tue.nl/openaccess
Open access:
green and gold
Open access publication is possible in roughly two ways: gold and green.
In the gold variant the author pays the publisher an amount to make an
article available without any subscription fees involved. Some journals
- like PLOS ONE and Nature Communications - are fully open access,
whereas others use a hybrid model in which it is determined per article
whether it is freely accessible. The publication costs may be bought
off in one go by the VSNU, for instance, as part of Big Deals with the
publishers.
In the green option authors get permission to put the final author’s
version (peer reviewed, but not laid out by the publisher) on-line
themselves in a public database, for instance in the Repository of TU/e.
However, less than fifty percent of the publishers will allow this. The
rest forbid publication of the final author’s version, or impose an embargo
period that may run up to as many as four years.
While scientists from poor countries can now partly circumvent the high
subscription costs by directly approaching the authors of articles that
are relevant to them, a world in which everybody has to pay to publish
appears to be less favorable for science in developing countries. One
possible solution might be to exempt researchers from poor countries
from these costs. On the initiative of the World Health Organization there
are already special arrangements in place for developing countries
under the denominator HINARI. Scientists from the more than one
hundred HINARI countries can already publish for free in journals
including Nature Communications.
the global market share of Dutch
science is merely some two percent.
On the other hand it was reported
earlier this month by NRC that the
universities have a ready-made plan
for an overall boycott of Elsevier,
with everything that entails for the
medical science division in the
Netherlands.
Regardless of the consequences of
failed negotiations with publishers,
the plans prepared by NWO may
result in scientists active in our
country no longer being allowed to
publish in the journals they prefer.
Nature Publishing Group, for
instance, has a six-month embargo
period for all Nature titles before
the final author’s version of an
article published by it may be
released. The exception is formed
by Nature Communications,
which is now fully open access.
The downside is that it costs no
less than 3,700 euro to publish an
article in this journal.
“The Netherlands should
not overplay
its hand”
The Netherlands is playing high,
says Paul De Bra, professor of
Information systems at the
Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science. “Open access is
a magnificent principle in and of
itself, but you should not overplay
your hand. The Netherlands often
tends to exaggerate its importance
a bit.” The NWO plans may make
the Netherlands less attractive to
PhD candidates and postdoc
researchers, the computer scientist
thinks. “If you can’t publish in the
right journals during that stage
of your career, you can forget
about the rest of your career.
That is crippling.”
De Bra thinks that change needs
to be brought about by the
international professional organi­
zations rather than by a national
government. “In mathematics this
has been done successfully.
Mathematicians were fed up with
certain publishers and set up an
open access journal of their own
to replace a commercial journal.”
Without broad support from within
the relevant field that is a hopeless
enterprise: it stands to reason that
new journals do not have an impact
factor yet, so that publications in
such journals initially tend to carry
little weight.
The Netherlands is not the only
country where open access is
promoted, for that matter.
The British Wellcome Trust, an
organization that mainly funds
medical research, also requires
research results to be made freely
accessible. And recently this was
also made mandatory for research
financed with European funds.
The big difference from the NWO
plans is that the European Union
agrees to an embargo period of
six months - so that publications
in Nature are not a problem.
And this is necessary if you want to
play along at the top level, agrees
Henk Swagten, professor at Physics
of Nanostructures. “Nature is an
important player. Researchers in
my field of expertise will not want to
play in a lower league. And Nature
publications in particular are scored
by means of NWO funds, such as
Vidi and Vici subsidies. The plans
unfolded by NWO do worry me,
then. Whereas the impact of
Elsevier journals is generally
smaller, the upside is that Elsevier
also publishes conference contri­
butions. So life would indeed
become awkward if we cannot
publish in them anymore. By the
way, we also put all our articles
on arXiv.org, but they haven’t been
refereed yet then.”
Maaike Kroon is professor of
Separation technology at TU/e and
a member of De Jonge Akademie.
From the perspective of chemical
engineers she anticipates that the
less reputable journals will get into
trouble if they do not embrace open
access. “The very best papers will
still be submitted to the traditional
top journals, such as Science,
Nature and Angewandte Chemie
(the most reputable chemistry
journal, ed.), while more articles
will be submitted to the lowerranking gold standard open access
journals. Another problem is that
renowned journals ask for high
fees to publish open access and
the relevant funding cannot be
incorporated into research
proposals.”
“Having to pay
to publish
valuable
knowledge
feels odd”
The consequence of the emphasis
on open access is that new open
access journals are shooting up
like mushrooms, Ton Koonen has
noticed. “Quantity exceeds quality”,
thinks the professor of ElectroOptical Communications. “All those
articles need to be reviewed, and
you can see that finding reviewers
is becoming more and more
difficult. My own mailbox is bulging
with requests to review articles.
We ourselves publish mostly in
journals of IEEE (the professional
organization for electrical engineers,
ed.). They are not open access, and
you also pay per published page, but
there is no profit motive involved.”
The vice-dean of the Department of
Electrical Engineering characterizes
the situation as an impossible
predicament. “Of course the
taxpayer has a right to see the
results. Still, I also get the impression
that the system is being diluted
due to all the new journals. And I’m
afraid the balance will tip to the
negative side. Besides, it feels odd
that you have to pay to be allowed
to publish valuable knowledge.
It feels as if you are thrusting
knowledge upon people.”
“Open access is simply
a commercial earnings model”
Henny Romijn is Associate
Professor of Technology and
Development at the Department
of IE&IS. The development
economist talks about her
personal experience with
open access.
regular journals. Every week I
would receive mails; it was a bit
too much for me. The idea among
us at Innovation Sciences is that
research is an activity for the late
Friday afternoon - education is
our main job.
“So far I have published open
access once. It concerned a
project in which I was involved as
advisor of AgentschapNL, which
paid the publication fee of 1,000
euro for a special issue of the
journal Sustainability. The subject
was Jatropha, a desert plant of
which it was then assumed it was
possible to extract oil from the
seeds in a commercially viable
way. Which turned out not to
be the case, by the way.
Some time later I was approached
again, for a new special issue.
Apparently our contribution had
met with appreciation, for now I
could publish for free. I had a PhD
candidate who had graduated with
honors on the relevant subject
(education in India). So I suggested
she contribute a piece. She would
do that solo, without the professor
who had supervised her at the
time, but the journal did not want
that. This really made me rethink
things; they just wanted a few good
articles for their reputation - it’s a
reasonably new journal. I find that
sort of haggling objectionable. It
should be first and foremost about
the quality of the publication,
irrespective of persons.
That’s when you find out that open
access is simply a commercial
earnings model. For one, they
constantly chase you to ask if
you’ve already written a new
version, whereas this sometimes
takes months with regular
journals. I was sent the referee
reports within three weeks, when
this occasionally takes a year with
There is also a proliferation of
open access journals, to such
a degree that the Information
Expertise Center has drawn up
a list that enables you to check
whether they are bona fide
journals that approach you.
However, I get requests every day
to publish in journals. A lot of
them simply amount to spam.
They even remind me of those
fraudulent Nigerian e-mails that
you often get.
Open access gets to be promoted
a lot, by our Executive Board
and the IEC as well. This way of
publishing has significant
drawbacks also. For example,
we publish regularly without any
external funding. It would be a
pity if a lack of money forced us to
publish in a less reputed journal
because it asks less money.
In that respect the agreement with
Springer, in which the university
has agreed to an aggregate
amount and researchers no longer
need to pay per article, seems to
be a better option. On the other
hand, this would still restrict the
choice to certain publishers. And
that problem will only be solved
if all publishers join in with this.”
Nature of Science never more?
If NWO carries through its intention
to oblige researchers to publish
open access directly, in the current
situation this would mean that a
sizeable portion of the top journals,
including the most highly reputed
titles Nature and Science, would
become off limits for scientists
with NWO subsidies.
NWO is aware of the potential
consequences of the proposed
policy, the press office department of the scientific financier
admits when asked. “That is an
item for consideration for the
entire scientific world. NWO will
duly take it on board in the further
elaboration of its tightened policy.
Of course this will also be done in
consultation with other parties
involved, such as the universities
and university libraries.”
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is
responsible for a number of the
most highly reputed journals with
which the new NWO rules would
clash. Communications manager
Amy Bourke informs us that NPG
wants to await the details of the
Dutch plans before offering any
comment. She does indicate that
NPG has devoted a great deal of
attention to open access over the
past decade. “Of the almost one
hundred titles under our guard,
there are 64 with the option of
gold open access, and Nature
Communications is fully open
access.” The embargo of six
months for the other publications
she calls “liberal”. Before long, by
the way, scientists can simply and
legally send on a link to their Nature
article to interested outsiders, who
can then - without a subscription
- read the article on the site of the
journal.
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22 January 2015
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Focusing on the Now:
TU/e’s mindfulness
movement
Text | Angela Daley
Photo | Vincent van den Hoogen
University life can be hectic. You’ve got projects due, exams to take, and deadlines, deadlines,
and more deadlines. You’re worried about getting everything done and you’re worried about your
future. And on top of it all, that smartphone in your pocket keeps dinging and pinging, tempting
you to answer emails, return texts or check out your friends’ latest status updates. With so many
things fighting for your attention, how can you cut through the cacophony in order to focus on
the tasks at hand? The answer might be in learning to live your life more “mindfully” - a technique
that increasing numbers of medical professionals, psychologists and mindfulness enthusiasts tout
as a vital tool for maintaining physical and mental health.
And the concept has found its way to TU/e’s campus.
Anniek Mol is an assistant for
the student community TINT and
is currently following a second
mindfulness course offered by this
TU/e group. She says that simple
changes, like giving daily chores her
undivided attention, can positively
influence the rest of her day: “I try
to find one thing every day that I
do with a mindful mindset. The last
few months it has been making my
bed every morning with full focus.
I try not to think about anything else.
I focus on how the fabrics feel, how
the down covers move. I find that
making the bed that way is a great
way to start the day and the view
of a fresh made bed is soothing.”
go learn something and change my
life.” After attending a mindfulness
retreat in France, d’Achard says his
life was profoundly transformed,
“We’re so filled with stuff that
comes from the outside and it’s so
noisy and crowded with stuff that
comes from others, that we can’t
observe our own thoughts, feelings
and emotions anymore. I learned
to stop and come home to myself.”
So what exactly does it mean to be
“mindful”? In its simplest sense,
mindfulness means to narrow your
focus to your current activity without
allowing other distractions to pull
you away from the moment. Though
it may sound like an easy thing to
do, modern life makes the practice
challenging. Jerome Wehrens is the
owner of B-Mind Eindhoven, a local
mindfulness training center, and
explains that he often sees people
in his practice who are struggling
with information overload. “We have
so much information that needs to
be processed and our brains just
aren’t equipped for that. Think about
a typical farmer in the Middle Ages.
In his entire life, he was probably
only confronted with the same
amount of new information that we
try to process in a single month.
It’s just too much for us.”
Hans d’Achard, a part-time lecturer
in the Industrial Design Department,
experienced this overload in his own
life a few years ago: “I had a very,
very rough time. I was physically
and emotionally shook up and
everything had gone wrong - socially,
professionally, everything. I said,
‘I need a break’. I thought, I can go
sit on a beach somewhere or I can
Upon his return, d’Achard felt
compelled to share his new-found
knowledge with others. Now, he
and life coach Elizabeth Fricker offer
mindfulness training to students
and young professionals through
TINT. Fricker says embracing
mindfulness techniques can be
particularly useful for students:
“One student’s comment really
summed it up for me. He said,
‘My life is all about hurrying and
worrying.’ They have all of these
deadlines and they worry about
whether they’re managing their
lives properly. Mindfulness training
can help them learn to stop
hurrying through life.”
“My life is all
about hurrying
and worrying”
Though “mindfulness” has perhaps
become an overused buzzworddu-jour, the idea itself is rooted
in traditions that have existed for
thousands of years. In 1st century
Greece, philosopher Philo of
Alexandria outlined “spiritual
exercises” involving attention and
concentration and by the 3rd century,
other Greek philosophers were
discussing meditative practices.
Virtually every world religion
elucidates ideas based on meditation
and living mindfully - though, of
course, often called by a different
name. (For instance, the repetitiveness of praying the rosary in
Catholicism is often considered
to induce a meditative state.)
Today’s mindfulness techniques
are most directly connected to
Eastern philosophies, particularly
Buddhism, though modern
practitioners tend to steer clear
of any religious overtones.
The pioneer of the mindfulness
movement is American Jon KabatZinn, an MIT-trained scientist who
founded the Stress Reduction Clinic
and the Center for Mindfulness in
Medicine, Health Care, and Society
at theUniversity of Massachusetts
Medical School in 1979. Kabat-Zinn’s
personal experiences as a student
of Buddhist teachers and his
practice of yoga spurred him to
integrate these teachings with
those of science. According
Kabat-Zinn’s program, called
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
or MBSR, people can learn to better
cope with stress, anxiety, pain, and
illness. Currently, there are 1,000
certified MBSR instructors practicing
in over 30 countries.
The basic tenets of Kabat-Zinn’s
program (and most mindfulnessbased training courses) are as
follows:
•M
indfulness meditation - sit
quietly and focus on your natural
breathing. This can include using
a “mantra” - a word repeated
silently. Allow your thoughts to
come and go without judgment.
•B
ody sensations - notice what’s
happening with your body - itches,
tingles, aches - and let them pass.
Take notice of each part of your
body from head to toe.
• Senses - notice sights, sound,
smells, tastes, and touches
without judgment. Let them pass.
•E
motions - notice your emotions
and allow them to wash over you.
Name these emotions for what
they are: “joy,” “sadness,”
“frustration.” Accept your
emotions and allow them to pass.
•U
rge surfing - coping with
cravings for addictive substances
or behaviors. Notice how you feel
when a craving enters your
consciousness. Accept your
urges and embrace the certain
knowledge that the craving
will eventually subside.
Coping with
the 21st Century
In addition to TINT, other organizations on campus are recognizing
the value of mindfulness training for
both employees and students alike.
Aafje De kuyper, head of the new
professional development unit in
the university’s Personnel Department, thinks teaching employees
to live more mindfully could help
them find a better work/life
balance. “Within all kinds of work
environments, employees experience
more pressure and more stress.
Training our staff in mindfulness
techniques would embed a culture
of wellbeing in the work environment,
and reduce a later burden.”
The department will soon offer the
program ‘Mindful in your Work &
Life’ which will be open to all
personnel, support and scientific
staff. In addition, the university’s
sports center has also given
training courses in mindfulness
techniques.
Not only are our work and personal
lives busier than ever in this
“always on,” hyper-connected
world, but the demands of modern
life also often force outside of our
comfort zone. Students come from
around the world to study at TU/e
and many young professionals Dutch and foreign alike - find
themselves relocating to other
countries in order to pursue their
career goals. Dimitrios Ikonomou
was one such young professional
who sought out the mindfulness
training on campus during a year
living and working in Eindhoven.
He says learning to live his daily life
more mindfully helped him deal
with the challenges of living abroad.
“Moving is high stress. You don’t
know how to work the money.
You don’t know how to speak the
language. You can’t even find the
grocery store. Mindfulness training
forces you to stop and listen to
yourself and it helps you understand
why you’re upset or not focused.”
Not ready to jump into an entire
mindfulness training course?
Elizabeth Fricker says there are
some simple things you can do to
help deal with stress and find a
better balance in your daily life:
“Choose one thing a day to do
mindfully. It can be eating your
lunch with your full attention or
brushing your teeth. Just make sure
to give your full attention to the
process. Also, try to take 10 minutes
a day to just sit and do nothing and
breathe. Breathing is really the
bottom line. When you breathe, you
connect to your body and mind.”
TINT’s next mindfulness training session will be on 21 January, 2015
at 19:30. For more information, check out: http://tint-eindhoven.nl/
To subscribe for the Personnel Department’s ‘Mindful in your Work &
Life’ course, follow the link on the university’s intranet.
26 | Research
22 January 2015
4 burning questions
Audrey Champion | Mechanical Engineering
Micromachining
with laser pulses
Research | 27
See for more news www.cursor.tue.nl/en
Karel Wilsens | Chemical Engineering
Developing renewable high-performance polymers
1 | cover
1
On the top and bottom of my cover you can see optical morphologies observed during the
polymerization process of liquid crystalline polymers. During my PhD project, I have spent
one year studying the liquid crystalline behavior of polymers and followed their polymerization
process with optical microscopy. Since these polymerization processes generally exhibit
cool textures, I decided that they would be a good candidate for my cover.
’s on
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2 | parties
The goal of my project is to develop new high-performance polymers which can be obtained
from renewable feedstock. However, if I try to explain this on parties I generally get more
questions than I am capable of answering. For this reason, I normally tell people that I try
to develop new renewable fibers for application in bulletproof vests. I should note that this
is the ultimate goal of my project, and it will likely take several more years until we actually
have polymers that can perform this well.
3 | essential
2
To be honest, all colleagues, researchers and companies I have worked with over the last
four years have been vital for my research. It might sound cliché, but you continuously develop
yourself and improve your research thanks to all the fruitful discussions, meetings and
conferences.
Wh
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4 | society benefit
1 | cover
The cover shows a femtosecond laser beam focused
inside a slab of glass (or, more specifically, fused
silica).
3
2 | parties
What person,
technology, or device
has been essential
for your research?
4
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3 | essential
fit
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(edited by Tom Jeltes)
Photos | Vincent van den Hoogen
Using ultrashort laser pulses focused in transparent
media (such as glass), we can modify the substrate
to create three-dimensional structures locally.
Because of a change in the properties of the
exposed glass, these structures can subsequently
be etched away using an acid. This way, we can
create 3D microsystems with features down to the
nanoscale. I studied the effect of various laser
parameters (energy per pulse, spatial energy
distribution, and polarization) on the micromachining. Of particular interest was the stress
generated by volume variation of the exposed
regions, since it plays an important role in terms of
etching rate, and can lead to crack formation. It is
possible to control the stress distribution around
the patterns by tuning the laser parameters.
I used several microscopic techniques to characterize
the effect of the laser pulses. It was wonderful to
have all this microscopic equipment available on
campus.
4 | society benefit
Femtosecond laser micromachining is a promising
technique, especially because it can be used to create
3D microsystems combining optics, mechanics
and microfluidics on the same glass substrate something that can’t be done with two-dimensional
fabrication techniques like lithography. Laser micro­
machining is particularly suitable for creating various
devices, such as sensors, or labs-on-a-chip.
The focus of this project is the development of new renewable polymers. The production of
such polymers should allow people to use materials that are less polluting and harmful for
the environment, while their performance is comparable to commonly used alternatives.
Björne Mollet | Biomedical Engineering
Artificial membrane for kidney cells
1 | cover
A kidney-shaped fractal built from separate building blocks, represents the endless ways
in which non-covalent molecular building blocks can be combined into new functional materials,
such as a biomaterial for a bioartificial kidney membrane.
2 | parties
Current dialysis treatments still suffer from major shortcomings in providing a sustainable
solution for kidney patients. A possible way to improve these treatments is to incorporate
living kidney cells and benefit from the intrinsic capacity of these cells to fulfill vital tasks
such as the purification of blood. To maintain cell viability and functionality outside the human
body, an artificial environment is required which mimics these cells’ natural environment.
The basement membrane on which these cells grow is very important. My research focused
on the application of non-covalent, or supramolecular, building blocks to form a synthetic
basement membrane. These building blocks, which could be regarded as molecular ‘Lego’,
interact and assemble via reversible bonds. For example it allows the facile combination
of building blocks to create and thus explore new biomaterials. Additionally, the manner of
material construction is more alike natural materials.
3 | essential
Microscopy techniques have been most important during research. With scanning electron
microscopy I visualized the morphology of the synthetic membranes and fluorescence
microscopy allowed me to study the behavior of renal cells on these membranes.
4 | society benefit
My research provides insight in both the possibilities and challenges regarding the application
of supramolecular biomaterials, in the formation of synthetic basement membranes for
renal epithelial cells specifically, and more generally as biomaterial for tissue engineering
purposes for future clinical applications.
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Regie: Femke
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4
Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday February,
20:00-22:00h, filmhouse De Zwarte Doos, TU/e campus
Interstellar
Our time on earth is ending, so a team of explorers starring Matthew
McConaughey make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass
the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances
involved in an interstellar voyage.
Event language:English with Dutch subtitles
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Weet jij alles over films? Ben jij dieg
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door muziek en fragmenten, correctvragen, allen ondersteund
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Wil je het winnende team van de vorig
Of houd je vooral van een gezellige e editie verslaan?
Wij vinden al deze redenen gegrondavond uit?
en ga de uitdaging aan op 4 februari, dus kom
!
Entreekosten: 3 euro per persoon