Lunch lecture Mieloo&Alexander
At the end of Q2 we were visited by two former TEL students from Mieloo & Alexander (M&A) who lectured forty MME students about their company. They explained the main goal of M&A is to add information to a process in order to optimise it. One of the techniques they use is RFID technology to track the locations of products for different clients. For example M&A was able to raise the inventory accuracy of a leading fashion retailer by using RFID tags on its products. Besides, M&A uses RFID stickers to keep track of spare parts in a warehouse of a car manufacturer. Furthermore, it was said how a day of a Business & Technology consultant at M&A looks like and what skills are used for this job. In conclusion, it was an interesting lecture and we hope to visit M&A later this year!
MME Introduction days
At the end of the first academic week we kicked off the year with the introduction days . Over the course of two days some fun and educational activities were organised, attended by over 40 new first year Multi-Machine Engineering students. On thursday afternoon the students were welcomed to 3mE, where the Multi-Machine Engineering track coordinators gave interesting and informatic presentations on the study programme. Afterwards, the group went straight to Rotterdam. Here, they had a chance to get to know eachother and have dinner together. We continued the evening with all students at NRC Cafe, where Nemag joined us to host a pubquiz. While having a beer the students formed groups to tackle all questions about Nemag’s grabs and the transport industry. To close the night Wouter van den Bos joined the group as well, hosting his classic pubquiz, filled with crane and carrier related questions. Both quizzes were enjoyed immensely by the participants! Friday the students were split into two groups for the remainder introduction activities. Alternately the groups sailed on a Spido tour through the port of Rotterdam, seeing huge ship to shore cranes in live action, and went on a visit to Huisman in Schiedam. Huisman prepared presentations for the students, introducing them to Huisman’s field of expertise and some interesting ongoing projects. After the presentations, the students were taken on a tour through the production facilities to see their massive cranes being built. The visit was closed with a lunch at Huisman for the morning group, and a VrijMiBo for the afternoon group. It was a great experience to start the academic year by finally being able to organise a field trip to see Multi-Machine Engineering in real life, after a year and a half of lockdown. We would like to thank Nemag and Huisman for their great contribution. Hopefully it will be possible to visit more interesting companies soon!
Python course with Dispuut Verkeer
As programming has become an indispensable part of any engineering field, a basic Python course was organised for our students to refresh and sharpen their programming skills. Dispuut Verkeer, the dispuut of the MSc track ‘Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics’, hosted three sessions of two hours, in which the basics of Python were explained by two programming experts. The first session served as an introduction to Python. In this session the students got familiar with the basic functionalities of Python and the use of its many libraries. The second session was all about data analysis. Here, the students could try some hands on programming themselves by manipulating and extrapolating data from large data sets. Also, this session contained a short introduction to the use of machine learning algorithms in data analysis. Finally, in the last session the students were thought how to optimise linear programming problems by using the Gurobi library. We would like to thank Dispuut Verkeer for letting our students join their event. Combining our two disputes, we were able to motivate over 35 students to participate in this three day event. Let’s see what some teamwork with Dispuut Verkeer can bring us and them in the future!
Lunch lecture Royal HaskoningDHV
Last week Royal HaskoningDHV hosted an online lunch lecture for our students to present their business and latest projects. Royal HaskoningDHV is an international engineering and consultancy firm that operates in sectors such as energy, aviation, infrastructure, urban development and much more. In a presentation of an hour we walked through many different projects, including the design of ports and terminals around the world, as well as an extensive analysis of the renovation of the Van Brienenoordbrug in Rotterdam, which is planned to be done in 2025. The students were delighted to finally see a company present real life cases of topics we study everyday. It was a useful and insightful lecture that showed us what kinds of state of the art engineering solutions are currently being developed in our field.
Online escape room
Last week it was time for another fun social event for the students. As COVID regulations still prevented us to meet in person, we opted for an online escape room. Three groups of six students tried to solve the ‘Underground Murder Mistery’ as fast as possible. It was a cheerful evening where students could mingle with eachother about topics other than stuyding. Also, we can guarantee that there were definitely no hints or clues used in the solving of the mistery!