Marcushof will be missed

Marcushof, the popular student housing, has been closed, with the last set of students moving out last week, to be accommodated in other student blocks managed by Duwo. For many students, especially international MSc and Erasmus exchange students, Marcushof was the place to be on weekends.

The Marcushof used to be a home for the elderly, before being converted into student housing, something that’s visible in the spacious and luxurious shared facilities, such as the shared baths and communal kitchens, on each of the five floors.

There was real concern among internationals recently when the building was being emptied. “I was told that everyone living there would have to move out after the six month period, because they were going to demolish the building,” says Alan, an architecture exchange student from the US, whose term ended last semester. Not surprisingly, the students even organized a ‘last party at Marcushof’!

Duwo, however, says the move is temporary. “We’re closing Marcushof, somewhere in late February, but for a short period. We’ll be doing maintenance work till the end of July. After this period, international students are welcome again. We’ll rent it on the same terms as before, probably for a longer period,” a Duwo spokesperson explained.

So why was Marcushof so popular? “The people!” Alan says. “It was a group of international students who lived there, and there was pretty much a random mix of people from all over the globe, which added to the Marcushof experience. Everyone shared they’re cultural differences, people learned each other’s languages and the world became very small, in a good way.”

From a lifestyle perspective, the way Marcushof was designed changed how residents lived as well, with the need to come together and cook together being forced upon the residents. “The shared facilities definitely made a difference,” Alan confirms. “People had to interact with and meet each other, and as a result there were life-long friendships made.”

“Nobody’s complaining, even if facilities are shared!” adds Stavros, who lives alone in the city but is jealous of such a socializing space. Stavros however has seen lots of Marcushof, thanks to its parties and his friends who live there. “It’s the kind of place where you’d find people playing ‘beer‐pong’ in the corridors ‐ legendary!”, he adds. “Since most house parties organized by the Dutch are semi-closed events, almost all the parties I’ve attended in the last six months have been at Marcushof, thanks to an international crowd and a friendly community.”

So, will Marcushof be missed? “Of course, it already is!” Stavros exclaims. “With the Marcushof empty and the exchange students also dispersed, I don’t see any other student housing rising up to take the responsibility of being the international party joint for Delft!”

While Duwo has responded by saying that an international student house is being built in the Kanaalweg, it’s going to be a long while before it’s ready and functional – a few years at least. Until then, creating socializing spaces is the responsibility of the students. “We’d be lucky to find another place like Marcushof”, Stavros says.

A four-month long field test involving 30 police officers in Groningen (2007) revealed that location alone was not a relevant basis for sifting information from the police database. When for example a police officer was in the vicinity of a local prison, the officer was overwhelmed by dozens of messages saying that people who hadn’t paid their fines were living in this area. Six officers quit the test programme because they felt the information they received wasn’t worth the trouble of consulting the device.

“The information you send to police officers in the street should be context-aware,” says Jan Willem Streefkerk, a psychologist at TNO and a PhD student of Professor Mark Neerincx at the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science’s man-machine interaction group. ‘Context’ implies the system takes into account information about the receiver’s location, the task he or she is engaged in, and the priority level of the message.

During his PhD research, Streefkerk developed a system that would use dynamic information from the emergency command centre. Depending on the priority, messages can be sent silently or with an intrusive beep tone. The system also checks what tasks the officers are engaged in and adapts the message’s priority level accordingly. A police officer on his way to an armed robbery for example will not be distracted by a missing-persons notification. Instead, the system simply sends a one-word summary. In a simulated experiment, Streefkerk found that contextual messaging improved both the officers’ awareness and their decision-making, although it did not reduce their reaction times.
Similar results were found for a smartphone-based team advice tool. This tool knows and displays the team members’ locations, while also selecting and calling a fellow officer when an officer on patrol requires assistance. Assisted team formations were improved (incidents were better divided among the team), but not quicker. “In a real emergency a radio broadcast is still the best option,” Streefkerk admits.
Since there is little budget available for further developing the system for policing purposes, Streefkerk plans to adapt the system for fire brigades and the military. 

J.W. Streefkerk, ‘Doing the right task: Context-Aware Notification for Mobile Police Teams’, 20 May 2011, PhD supervisor Professor Mark A. Neerincx.