Nibs

The program aims to attract more science and technology students. They are the first universities to enter into agreements with the Platform Beta Technology’s Sprint Programme. Platform Beta Technology is a national science and technology stimulation programme that has 20 million euros to spend until 2008 for promoting activities involving universities.
Top 10

The international electrical engineering magazine ‘EETimes’ has ranked TU Delft as one of the ten best universities for educating electrical engineers. The magazine said the reason for the universities’ excellence is because they think global, not local. The universities joining TU Delft in the Top 10 are, in the United States, MIT, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon; in Asia, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and Tsinghua University in China; and in Europe, the University of Cambridge, England; the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and France’s Ecole Polytechnique. The EETimes said that a contributing factor for the universities’ successes was the fact that “virtually all of these schools welcome foreign students, in part to attract the best and the brightest, whatever their nationality, and in part to create a cultural melting pot on campus.” S. Anath, director of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai, India, agreed, saying, “the university should be a meeting of unlike minds.”
EIT

The European Institute of Technology must be established by 2009 or 2010, according to EU President Jose Manuel Barroso, who attended a meeting at TU Delft last week. The EU has given the green light to establishing the institute. Barroso has high hopes: “To achieve excellence, we need a flagship: a powerful European institute of technology can bring together the best researchers and companies and spread the results of their partnerships across Europe.” Barrosa hopes to model the Europe’s EIT on the US’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Flood experts

Jos Dijkman of WL/Delft Hydraulics is the only non-American invited to be a member of an independent commission that will evaluate the flood protection system of New Orleans. The US’s National Research Council and National Academy of Engineering established the commission. Dijkman is specialist in flood control. He has been involved in projects around rivers and deltas in Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam), Europe (Rijn, Maas and Loire) and North America (Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri). Dijkman is a graduate of TU Delft’s Civil Engineering and Geosciences Faculty. The commission will meet for the first time this week and will publish its findings in September. Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the American Society of Civil Engineers also began a research project: TU Delft professor emeritus Jurjen Battjes is a member of this project’s ‘New Orleans team’, which is studying the flooding and dike failure.
Too young?

Is finance alderman Christiaan Mooiweer, of Delft’s student political party Stip, too young to join a trade mission to China next week? Yes, implied city council parties Stadsbelangen and CDA, in a letter they submitted to Delft’s city council executive board. The parties asked if the board was aware of the fact that “Asian cultures are highly sensitive to status, seniority and the continuity of personal relationships?” Stadsbelangen and CDA also asked why the trip was planned just prior to upcoming municipal elections.

Sprint Programme

Delft University of Technology, VU Amsterdam and Radboud University Nijmegen have joined forces in the Sprint Programme. The program aims to attract more science and technology students. They are the first universities to enter into agreements with the Platform Beta Technology’s Sprint Programme. Platform Beta Technology is a national science and technology stimulation programme that has 20 million euros to spend until 2008 for promoting activities involving universities.
Top 10

The international electrical engineering magazine ‘EETimes’ has ranked TU Delft as one of the ten best universities for educating electrical engineers. The magazine said the reason for the universities’ excellence is because they think global, not local. The universities joining TU Delft in the Top 10 are, in the United States, MIT, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon; in Asia, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and Tsinghua University in China; and in Europe, the University of Cambridge, England; the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and France’s Ecole Polytechnique. The EETimes said that a contributing factor for the universities’ successes was the fact that “virtually all of these schools welcome foreign students, in part to attract the best and the brightest, whatever their nationality, and in part to create a cultural melting pot on campus.” S. Anath, director of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai, India, agreed, saying, “the university should be a meeting of unlike minds.”
EIT

The European Institute of Technology must be established by 2009 or 2010, according to EU President Jose Manuel Barroso, who attended a meeting at TU Delft last week. The EU has given the green light to establishing the institute. Barroso has high hopes: “To achieve excellence, we need a flagship: a powerful European institute of technology can bring together the best researchers and companies and spread the results of their partnerships across Europe.” Barrosa hopes to model the Europe’s EIT on the US’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Flood experts

Jos Dijkman of WL/Delft Hydraulics is the only non-American invited to be a member of an independent commission that will evaluate the flood protection system of New Orleans. The US’s National Research Council and National Academy of Engineering established the commission. Dijkman is specialist in flood control. He has been involved in projects around rivers and deltas in Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam), Europe (Rijn, Maas and Loire) and North America (Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri). Dijkman is a graduate of TU Delft’s Civil Engineering and Geosciences Faculty. The commission will meet for the first time this week and will publish its findings in September. Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the American Society of Civil Engineers also began a research project: TU Delft professor emeritus Jurjen Battjes is a member of this project’s ‘New Orleans team’, which is studying the flooding and dike failure.
Too young?

Is finance alderman Christiaan Mooiweer, of Delft’s student political party Stip, too young to join a trade mission to China next week? Yes, implied city council parties Stadsbelangen and CDA, in a letter they submitted to Delft’s city council executive board. The parties asked if the board was aware of the fact that “Asian cultures are highly sensitive to status, seniority and the continuity of personal relationships?” Stadsbelangen and CDA also asked why the trip was planned just prior to upcoming municipal elections.