Education

Life after Delft: fighting ‘dark forces’

Plamen Manoilov looks back fondly on his time spent at TU Delft in 2005 as a Socrates exchange student at the faculty of EEMCS. The years since however have challenged the electrical engineer and assistant professor at Bulgaria’s Ruse University.

Today Plamen Manoilov (55) soldiers on as best he can as an assistant professor at Ruse University (RU), in Ruse, Bulgaria, a city situated on the banks of the Danube river. Until recently, he worked in RU’s department of communication technique and technologies, but since January 2011, following internal strife within his previous department, he has moved to the department of informatics.
Back in 2005, Manoilov spent half a year as a Socrates exchange student in Delft, where he worked at the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science in a group, headed by Professor Leon Rothkrantz, which focused on Human Machine Interaction. At TU Delft Manoilov was particularly involved in research related to a Brain-Computing Interface project.

After leaving TU Delft in 2005, where did you go?
“I went back to my previous position of assistant professor, which could only be changed to associate professor after having a PhD diploma. As I was a PhD student at that time, in 2005, the most important thing for me was to first finish my PhD thesis. Following Professor Rothkrantz’s advice I continued my research on a Brain-Computing Interface and finished my PhD work in 2008.”

What have been the high or low points of your professional career since leaving TU Delft?
“After I’d received my PhD, the head of my department and the dean did their best to stop my career. And they did this very successfully: in comparison with my colleagues, who presented their PhD works after me, some of them are already associate professors while I’m still an assistant professor. Moreover, there were two books that I wrote – as co-author with colleagues – that were stopped from being
published, and there was one project that I applied for that they rejected, even breaking the normal procedure to do so. Every new academic term they’d schedule me to teach students different subjects – this way I’d lose my time in having to prepare for these new subjects. Last year I started some court cases against them. As a result, I had to change my department and faculty. These were the bad things.”

And the good things?
“Well, in 2009 I won a project from the internal fund for scientific research. The topic was about modeling DSP devices by VHDL. VHDL is a language for programming programmable hardware logic. I was invited to give a presentation of what I’d done on this project at an EU-sponsored meeting in Bucharest, which was attended by people from Ireland, Germany, France, Holland and Romania. There, some Romanian colleagues made me a proposal to take part in an international project from the Cross Border Cooperation program. I agreed.”

And this was successful?
“Yes, in December of last year that international project I wrote with the Romanian colleagues won and will be funded. The project itself is for 1 million euros. There are five partners in it. I’m a coordinator for Ruse University. Our part is funded for approximately 49,000 euros. I’m proud, because this is the first international project I’ve won.”

How did your experience at TU Delft in 2005 help you in your career back in Bulgaria?
“At TU Delft I saw many useful things that I tried to apply in my work. The most important thing I saw there were hard working people – both researchers and students. I think I too worked hard at TU Delft. This helped me most after returning to Bulgaria.”

Over the past five years, have you ever thought about returning to TU Delft to work again? Or have you worked someplace else outside of Bulgaria since?
“I didn’t try to work in another country outside Bulgaria, because I was busy finishing my PhD thesis. About TU Delft, I think I wasn’t invited back because of lack of funds.”

Is the reality for a country like Bulgaria in terms of technological education simply to serve as a source of brain drain for richer western countries, where Bulgaria’s best and brightest young students must go to develop to their full potential?
“Yes, it’s very sad but true. Looking to my own professional experience, I understand these young Bulgarians.”

In the interview with you published in Delta back in 2005, you were very positive about the Netherlands and TU Delft. Do you still feel that way?
“I will forever respect the Dutch people. About TU Delft I’m still very positive. I respect people that do their work professionally. I can say this for all the people that I worked with at TU Delft – starting with Professor Rothkrantz, colleagues, system administrators, the secretary….”

If you had to sum up your feelings about your post-TU Delft professional career in one word, what would it be?
“Fighting. Fighting against the ‘dark forces’.”

The interview with Plamen Manoilov published in Delta in 2005 can be read online at: delta.tudelft.nl/14540

Spiegelzee: Een houten strandpaviljoen dat laat zien hoe de zeespiegel de afgelopen honderdduizend jaar langzaam
daalde en weer steeg. Met dit idee stond het Delftse Team Hoogendoorn in 2007 in de finale van de Academische Jaarprijs. Ze wonnen niet, maar hun gedroomde strandpaviljoen kwam er toch.

Het begon allemaal toen initiatiefnemer dr. Bob Hoogendoorn (geo-engineering) een oproep voor de Academische Jaarprijs las in NRC Handelsblad. Toevallig had hij een week eerder met collega-promovendus Joep Storms een discussie over hoe je onderzoek kon uitdragen en of je dat moest doen. Hoogendoorn: “Er wordt veel onzin verkocht over verandering van het klimaat en de gevolgen daarvan. We wilden het publiek het juiste perspectief bieden door te laten zien dat er altijd klimaatveranderingen waren en wat de gevolgen daarvan op de zeespiegel en de kust zijn geweest.”
Hoogendoorn en Storms voegden de daad bij het woord en meldden zich aan. Een paar maanden later stonden ze met vijf andere teams in de finale: “Toen was het opeens een heleboel werk.” Met een team van vijf maakten ze gedetailleerde communicatieplannen en begrotingen.

Spiegelzee kreeg positief commentaar van de jury, maar won niet. Hoogendoorns toenmalige promotor Salomon Kroonenberg bracht het team in contact met Mart van Bracht van TNO, voorzitter van het Jaar van de Planeet Aarde. Zo kwam het paviljoen er alsnog en stond het in de zomer van 2008 op het Katwijkse strand.

De uitvoering kostte zeeën van tijd: Hoogendoorn besteedde driekwart van 2008 aan het project Het resultaat: tussen de dertigduizend en veertigduizend bezoekers en een tiental interviews in de media. Hoogendoorn deed veel contacten op in bedrijfsleven en politiek. Daarnaast leerde hij hoe ontzettend moeilijk het is om te bepalen wat mensen kunnen bevatten: “Dingen die voor jou vanzelfsprekend zijn, gaan er soms niet in. Als je vertelt dat de zeespiegel vroeger 120 meter lager was, vragen mensen waar het water dan is gebleven. Als je uitlegt dat de kustlijn in die tijd bij de Atlantische Oceaan lag, dan antwoorden ze dat dat niet kan omdat daar nu zee is.”
Hoogendoorn vindt het achteraf jammer dat hij in het project niets van zijn eigen onderzoek heeft uitgelegd. “De link tussen wat ik hier van dag tot dag doe en Spiegelzee is slechts dat alles in het project tot de basisstof behoort.” Toch noemt Hoogendoorn het project vooral ‘ontzettend leuk’ en raadt hij elke onderzoeker aan om een keer zo’n groot project te doen.

Voordeel: Je doet contacten op buiten je gewone werkkring.
Nadeel: Het kost heel veel tijd.

Editor Redactie

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