News in brief

The faculty of Aerospace Engineering (AE) recently considered limiting the inflow of students for the Master’s track ‘flight performance and propulsion’ and for two profiles within the Master’s track – control and operations. The Student Council writes in a letter to TU Delft’s Executive Board that in June, AE decided to select students by drawing lots. Irma Croese, of Education & Student Affairs, says however that the faculty will not draw lots. It is not allowed. How AE will limit the inflow of student is yet to be decided.

Fellowship

TU Delft wants to spend millions of euros on the Delft Fellowship, a tenure track for 20 talented female scientists. The intention is to place ten talented female scientists in 2012 and another ten in 2014. Following a positive evaluation at the end of a maximum of five years, these fellows will be awarded tenure. Candidates must be ambitious and creative and work in fields that are linked to the research areas represented at TU Delft. Among other things, they must also have published in first rate international scientific journals. Dependent on the candidates’ degree of experience, the starting position for the fellowship can be at the assistant, associate of full professor level. Apart from an annual salary, they will receive a start-up grant of 100,000, 200,000 or 300,000.

Wastewater

The Dutch town of Epe is the site of the international debut of a new wastewater treatment technology, called Nereda. Developed by the TU and engineering firm DHV, Nereda technology, which is based on the use of aerobic granular biomass, only needs a quarter of the surface and 75 percent of the energy compared with current standard wastewater treatment technologies. 

Numereus fixus

The faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (3mE) is considering a numerus fixus system for the Bachelor’s mechanical engineering. Not because of high numbers of first-year students, but rather because of the quality of their knowledge. Last year, one out of three first-year, mechanical engineering students received a negative binding recommendation on continuing their studies (bsa). One out of ten students dropped out. 

Binding recommendation

Despite severe resistance against the increase of binding recommendation for continuation of studies (BSA) up to 45 ETCS, the Student Council has advised positively on measures for long-term studying. The students did so after Paul Rullmann, a member of TU Delft’s Executive Board, committed himself to a number of agreements. For example, there will be extra money for study support, information on the BSA-increase, and an evaluation after four years. 

Rullmann also assured the Student Council that the BSA will not be increased to 60 ECTS if government policy is tightened or if TU Delft decides to merge with Erasmus University Rotterdam. This university already has a BSA of 60 ECTS for some studies.

Rising permits prices

To the great disappointment of universities, polytechnics and students, the Dutch minister of Immigration will raise the fees of scientists, researchers and students from non-EU countries who want to come to the Netherlands to study and work. The new fees the minister is implementing pertain to entry visas and residence permits, and these new fees will come into effect as of 1 July 2011. The cost of entry visas and residence permits will be raised from 438.00 euros to 600.00 euros. To extend a permit after one year no longer costs 52.00 euros, but rather 150 euros. For researchers, the fees will rise from 338.00 euros to 650.00 euros for visas and permits.

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Lelieveldt

Professor Boudewijn Lelieveldt received a Medical Delta appointment in biomedical imaging, both in Delft (faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Sciences) and at the Leiden Academic Medical Centre LUMC. How does he plan to bridge the cultural gap between doctors and engineers?

“Experienced surgeons who routinely perform complex operations tend to regard endoscopic surgery as a pretty basic task”, says Dr. Sonja Buzink, who has studied the ways in which surgeons learn to master various forms of image-based surgery. “But moving a camera through a tiny hole in the skin to get the best view is not an intuitive task. In fact, we saw little difference between the camera skills of experienced surgeons and novices.” In other words: experienced surgeons are no better than beginners in navigating a camera through the abdomen.

Endoscopic surgery techniques are on the rise. But, says Buzink, it is not necessarily advantageous to have experience in one endoscopic technique when attempting to learn another. She studied surgeons training on virtual reality simulators. By comparing the skills of specialists in either colonoscopy (inspecting the large intestine via a flexible hose) or laparoscopy (operating in the abdominal cavity with two tools and a camera), she concluded that experience in one field does not generally lend itself to the other. And her finding makes sense, because the hand-eye coordination required for both procedures is completely different. This means that training programmes need to be very specific. Making sutures for example is best learned in a mechanical box trainer, because the tactile feedback is essential.

Buzink’s PhD supervisor, Professor Richard Goossens (IDE), is glad that the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery has asked Buzink to set up training programmes. These trainings will allow a more objective skill assessment than the current master-apprentice system. “We may not be able to influence the current generation much”, Goossens says, “but we will improve the training of future surgeons.”

Sonja Buzink, ‘Improving patient safety in image-based procedures’, 7 September 2010, PhD supervisors: Prof. Huib de Ridder, Prof. Jack Jakimowicz and Prof. Richard Goossens.

Capacity problems
The Student Council is worried about capacity problems in Master’s degree programmers and on Master’s tracks, due to an increasing number of students. The faculty of Aerospace Engineering (AE) recently considered limiting the inflow of students for the Master’s track ‘flight performance and propulsion’ and for two profiles within the Master’s track – control and operations. The Student Council writes in a letter to TU Delft’s Executive Board that in June, AE decided to select students by drawing lots. Irma Croese, of Education & Student Affairs, says however that the faculty will not draw lots. It is not allowed. How AE will limit the inflow of student is yet to be decided.

Fellowship
TU Delft wants to spend millions of euros on the Delft Fellowship, a tenure track for 20 talented female scientists. The intention is to place ten talented female scientists in 2012 and another ten in 2014. Following a positive evaluation at the end of a maximum of five years, these fellows will be awarded tenure. Candidates must be ambitious and creative and work in fields that are linked to the research areas represented at TU Delft. Among other things, they must also have published in first rate international scientific journals. Dependent on the candidates’ degree of experience, the starting position for the fellowship can be at the assistant, associate of full professor level. Apart from an annual salary, they will receive a start-up grant of 100,000, 200,000 or 300,000.

Wastewater
The Dutch town of Epe is the site of the international debut of a new wastewater treatment technology, called Nereda. Developed by the TU and engineering firm DHV, Nereda technology, which is based on the use of aerobic granular biomass, only needs a quarter of the surface and 75 percent of the energy compared with current standard wastewater treatment technologies. 

Numereus fixus
The faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (3mE) is considering a numerus fixus system for the Bachelor’s mechanical engineering. Not because of high numbers of first-year students, but rather because of the quality of their knowledge. Last year, one out of three first-year, mechanical engineering students received a negative binding recommendation on continuing their studies (bsa). One out of ten students dropped out. 

Binding recommendation
Despite severe resistance against the increase of binding recommendation for continuation of studies (BSA) up to 45 ETCS, the Student Council has advised positively on measures for long-term studying. The students did so after Paul Rullmann, a member of TU Delft’s Executive Board, committed himself to a number of agreements. For example, there will be extra money for study support, information on the BSA-increase, and an evaluation after four years. 

Rullmann also assured the Student Council that the BSA will not be increased to 60 ECTS if government policy is tightened or if TU Delft decides to merge with Erasmus University Rotterdam. This university already has a BSA of 60 ECTS for some studies.

Rising permits prices
To the great disappointment of universities, polytechnics and students, the Dutch minister of Immigration will raise the fees of scientists, researchers and students from non-EU countries who want to come to the Netherlands to study and work. The new fees the minister is implementing pertain to entry visas and residence permits, and these new fees will come into effect as of 1 July 2011. The cost of entry visas and residence permits will be raised from 438.00 euros to 600.00 euros. To extend a permit after one year no longer costs 52.00 euros, but rather 150 euros. For researchers, the fees will rise from 338.00 euros to 650.00 euros for visas and permits.