Virtual meetingsEach year 12 billion euro is spent on traveling to meetings in the Netherlands. Companies rarely use video- and tele-conferencing, and that’s a pity, because ‘virtual’ teams’ can perform most work-related tasks, according to TU Delft professor of Work and Organisational Psychology, Erik Andriessen, speaking during his valedictory address.
Mobile work continues to increase. 46% of employees travel a few hours per week to meetings, and 4% spend more than 10 hours per week traveling. In 1999, that figure was 1.5%. And only 2% of employees tele-work from home. The result of all this work travel: time lost, higher costs and environmental pollution. Professor Andriessen said video-conferencing isn’t used more often because people claim the social distance is too great when working together virtually. But field test proves this to be untrue. People also criticize this technology without knowing what new technology is now available. Moreover, people like traveling for their work, as this gives status. To promote and popularize virtual working, and thus cut costs and pollution, Andriessen said better leadership, improved social skills and technical knowledge are needed.
Thesis site
More than 2,700 TU Delft dissertations dating from 1990 to the present are now available online. On September 13, on behalf of all Dutch university rectors, Professor Kees Blom, Rector Magnificus of the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, opened the National Thesis Site. Some 10,000 dissertations are currently available worldwide via the DARE (Digital Academic Repositories) website. The dissertations originate from all the Dutch universities. The TU Delft collection (1990-2006) comprises more than 2,700 dissertations. Some 2,500 dissertations are published in the Netherlands annually, with around 200 of them originating from TU Delft. Now everyone globally can take note of new and pioneering research in the Netherlands via the National Thesis Site and the local repositories, like the TU Delft Repository, which is the university’s ultimate digital location for public scientific publications and is managed by the TU Delft Library. The National Thesis Site was developed within the national DARE program, in which all Dutch universities and several scientific organizations are collaborating.
www.darenet.nl
Student weblogs
Two TU Delft BSc students, Chris Rutte (TPM) and Steve van Bennekom (IDE), have started weblogs that feature regular reports on their studies and student life in Delft. The weblogs, which are hosted on the TU Delft website, aim to offer prospective students more than just information about the university’s various degree programs. The weblogs are personal accounts of university student life that will hopefully give prospective students a feel for what it is really like to study at TU Delft. The ultimate goal of this weblog project is to expand the number of weblogs to represent the university’s entire degree program. At a later stage, students will also start to write weblogs about their internship experiences and the research projects they are involved in. At the moment, the weblogs are in Dutch only, but it is assumed that in future this project will be expanded into English and therefore become accessible to prospective international students as well.
Solar
The new team TU Delft’s solar car Nuna will be out collecting money on the Bastiaansplein on Saturday 21 October. The money the team collects will be used to buy solar panels for the Nicaraguan city Esteli, which is Delft’s sister city and has hardly any access to electricity. The solar panels will used to generate electricity for health care centers and schools. The organizers hope to raise 25,000 euro, to be used to buy one hundred solar panels.
www.festeli.nl
Thorny tram
According to TU Delft Executive Board chairman, Hans van Luijk, a tram running along the Mekelweg is actually “a thorn in the eye”. Van Luijk made this comment during a round-table debate with select researchers about the TU’s ‘Superbus project’. “I see very little happening in the field of transport,” Van Luijk said. “And soon on the Mekelweg we will have a form of transport that is based on technology that is one hundred years old.”
Chipknip
Some TU foreign exchange students recently complained to AAG about the difficulty of opening Dutch bank accounts. Some Dutch banks won’t open accounts for people living in the Netherlands for less than one year. Thus, these students were unable to get a pinpass, or chipknip card, which is what all TU vending machines use instead of coins. The good news is that ABN-Amro will open accounts for short-stay students, and moreover, prepaid 20 euro chipknip cards are for sale in the Aula restaurant or at the IO service points.
Virtual meetings
Each year 12 billion euro is spent on traveling to meetings in the Netherlands. Companies rarely use video- and tele-conferencing, and that’s a pity, because ‘virtual’ teams’ can perform most work-related tasks, according to TU Delft professor of Work and Organisational Psychology, Erik Andriessen, speaking during his valedictory address. Mobile work continues to increase. 46% of employees travel a few hours per week to meetings, and 4% spend more than 10 hours per week traveling. In 1999, that figure was 1.5%. And only 2% of employees tele-work from home. The result of all this work travel: time lost, higher costs and environmental pollution. Professor Andriessen said video-conferencing isn’t used more often because people claim the social distance is too great when working together virtually. But field test proves this to be untrue. People also criticize this technology without knowing what new technology is now available. Moreover, people like traveling for their work, as this gives status. To promote and popularize virtual working, and thus cut costs and pollution, Andriessen said better leadership, improved social skills and technical knowledge are needed.
Thesis site
More than 2,700 TU Delft dissertations dating from 1990 to the present are now available online. On September 13, on behalf of all Dutch university rectors, Professor Kees Blom, Rector Magnificus of the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, opened the National Thesis Site. Some 10,000 dissertations are currently available worldwide via the DARE (Digital Academic Repositories) website. The dissertations originate from all the Dutch universities. The TU Delft collection (1990-2006) comprises more than 2,700 dissertations. Some 2,500 dissertations are published in the Netherlands annually, with around 200 of them originating from TU Delft. Now everyone globally can take note of new and pioneering research in the Netherlands via the National Thesis Site and the local repositories, like the TU Delft Repository, which is the university’s ultimate digital location for public scientific publications and is managed by the TU Delft Library. The National Thesis Site was developed within the national DARE program, in which all Dutch universities and several scientific organizations are collaborating.
www.darenet.nl
Student weblogs
Two TU Delft BSc students, Chris Rutte (TPM) and Steve van Bennekom (IDE), have started weblogs that feature regular reports on their studies and student life in Delft. The weblogs, which are hosted on the TU Delft website, aim to offer prospective students more than just information about the university’s various degree programs. The weblogs are personal accounts of university student life that will hopefully give prospective students a feel for what it is really like to study at TU Delft. The ultimate goal of this weblog project is to expand the number of weblogs to represent the university’s entire degree program. At a later stage, students will also start to write weblogs about their internship experiences and the research projects they are involved in. At the moment, the weblogs are in Dutch only, but it is assumed that in future this project will be expanded into English and therefore become accessible to prospective international students as well.
Solar
The new team TU Delft’s solar car Nuna will be out collecting money on the Bastiaansplein on Saturday 21 October. The money the team collects will be used to buy solar panels for the Nicaraguan city Esteli, which is Delft’s sister city and has hardly any access to electricity. The solar panels will used to generate electricity for health care centers and schools. The organizers hope to raise 25,000 euro, to be used to buy one hundred solar panels.
www.festeli.nl
Thorny tram
According to TU Delft Executive Board chairman, Hans van Luijk, a tram running along the Mekelweg is actually “a thorn in the eye”. Van Luijk made this comment during a round-table debate with select researchers about the TU’s ‘Superbus project’. “I see very little happening in the field of transport,” Van Luijk said. “And soon on the Mekelweg we will have a form of transport that is based on technology that is one hundred years old.”
Chipknip
Some TU foreign exchange students recently complained to AAG about the difficulty of opening Dutch bank accounts. Some Dutch banks won’t open accounts for people living in the Netherlands for less than one year. Thus, these students were unable to get a pinpass, or chipknip card, which is what all TU vending machines use instead of coins. The good news is that ABN-Amro will open accounts for short-stay students, and moreover, prepaid 20 euro chipknip cards are for sale in the Aula restaurant or at the IO service points.
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