De Melkkoe – Student-assistent

“De Design Challenge is onderdeel van DCE, Delft Centre for Entrepreneurship, dat studenten de mogelijkheid biedt om tijdens de studie een eigen bedrijfje op te starten. De Challenge komt voort uit het gebrek aan praktijkervaring bij de meeste studies. Het leuke eraan is dat het niet alleen om een wedstrijd gaat, maar dat het ook écht is. Als een bedrijf enthousiast is, kan het de oplossing gaan toepassen.”
 “De wedstrijd vindt twee keer per jaar plaats. Mijn taak is het om de eerstvolgende editie mogelijk te maken. Dat betekent bedrijven bellen om te polsen of ze mee willen doen. Daarnaast werf ik studenten met posters en via de website. De opdrachten die nu lopen zijn erg aansprekend, bijvoorbeeld een nieuw soort autoconcept ontwerpen. Of zonnecellen maken van zand uit de Sahara. Aan iedere opdracht werken vier studenten, waarbij we van te voren bekijken welke mix van studierichtingen er het beste bij past. De inschrijving is net begonnen en loopt al goed.”
“Ik heb het vrij druk met mijn eigen studie. Dan is het wel handig dat je bijbaan in hetzelfde gebouw zit. Ik had laatst een kort overleg met studiegenoten voor een project, het was amper twintig passen lopen. Daarna kon ik het werk meteen weer oppakken. Sowieso zijn de tijden flexibel. Als ik na een tentamenweek geen tijd heb om uren te maken, haal ik die later in.”
 “Ik ben best wel een beetje een jobhopper geweest. Hiervoor heb ik veel promowerk gedaan, maar inhoudelijk had ik er niks mee. Ik spaarde voor een nieuwe iPod. Dat was mijn motivatie. Bij deze baan voel ik me veel meer betrokken, ik wil ook echt dat het slaagt. Dat komt ook door het team, want iedereen is superenthousiast. Toen de eerste student zich inschreef deden we een high five. Nu ik erover praat, merk ik dat ik er weer blij van wordt. En in september wil ik ook zelf mee gaan doen. Je zou zeggen dat ik dan eerste keus heb, maar er wordt gewoon geloot. Geen probleem, want van de zes opdrachten die er nu zijn, vind ik er al vier interessant.”

Bijbaan:Student-assistent Design Challenge
Verdiensten:  €12,99 per uur
Opvallend: Werkt samen met voormalig schaatser Marnix ten Kortenaar.

As part of the industrial design faculty’s 40th anniversary celebrations, dr. Steve Batill recently gave an open lecture about his recent experiences as a visiting scholar at the world famous IDEO design consultancy in California.
Certainly a fringe benefit of being an academic is a  sabbatical, the chance to take a year off for research, contemplation, travel… sleeping late. And Batill is certainly making the most of his break from his duties at Notre Dame, where he is a professor in the aerospace and mechanical engineering faculty. Having spent the first four months of his sabbatical as a visiting scholar at IDEO, arguably the world’s top design consultancy, whose past creations include Apple’s first mouse, Microsoft’s second mouse, the Palm V PDA and Steelcase’s Leap chair, Batill is now enjoying a six-month visiting professorship at TU Delft’s Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering’s product innovation management department. And before returning to the US later this year, he’ll also stop off in London to teach some classes.

Nice work if you can get it, as they say in the States.
“Oh yes, it’s one of the great benefits of an academic position, periodically having the opportunity to go and explore new areas or focus-in on your specific interests. Back home I’ve been the department chair and associate dean for nine years, which means you spend most of your time helping others do what they want to do, and not doing as many of the things that might have originally gotten you interested in being a professor. So this has been a very exciting year.”

What are the benefits of a sabbatical year, besides the obvious change of scenery and daily routine?
“Probably the biggest effect it has is allowing you time to think. Often in normal work environments, where you’re working as part of an organisation, and you have the responsibilities within that organisation to contribute, you can get so tied up in your day-to-day commitments that often you don’t have time to step back and think. But when you’re a visitor somewhere, you do have time to think. And by going to a variety of different places, you have the chance to find out what’s common. There are common issues that people always must deal with, and so you appreciate how other people deal with the same issues you’ve had to deal with in your own institution.”

Why did you decide to come to TU Delft?
“With a year to spend on sabbatical, I just sat down and said to myself: ‘if I could go anywhere I wanted to…’ I wanted to spend time outside the US, to see how design was taught and perceived outside the US. So I looked at international universities, was aware of some of Petra Badke-Schaub’s work, so decided to apply to the Fulbright scholars program to come here. In the TU’s product innovation management department, which Professor Badke-Schaub is the head of, there’s a really wonderful mix of people, and that mix is actually a fairly reasonable representation of what you find in the real world, which makes this a particularly good place to be.”

You’re an aerospace engineer and professor, so why did you seek such different environments, like IDEO and TU Delft’s industrial design faculty?
“Because getting into different environments forces you to think differently and to appreciate how others approach problems differently, even the same kinds of problems you may face.
IDEO, as a design consultancy in the practice of doing design, has a very, very broad group of people working there, and many of them do very different kinds of things and come from many different kinds of backgrounds.”

Is it also the case that TU Delft and IDEO are interested in seeing how you think and what you think about them?
“It is. When you’re within an organisation, you probably take your organisation for granted, may not recognise the strong points, or some weak points, because you’re immersed in it. I guess I’ve had that opportunity – especially at IDEO, where I helped them reflect on some of the things they were doing.”

But IDEO and TU Delft do have things in common, like the focus on designers and how they think and work in teams?
“That’s right, and that’s what I teach. I teach team-based design and design methodologies, so all of these things are tied together. An added benefit of being an academic is that you get to explore how other people approach problems. So, for example, seeing how psychologists or social scientists approach problems, which is different than how engineers may approach problems, that’s a benefit from immersing yourself in a group. But I’m not a designer, I’m an engineer, an educator. I’m interested in design. So going to IDEO, a place full of designers, to help them think a bit about what they do, was a somewhat daunting challenge, but also very satisfying.”

With so much upheaval in the world at the moment, what would say is the greatest challenge facing mankind in the 21st century?
“Well, the same challenges that have been the greatest in the past several centuries. All of them are related to human failings, but most importantly I’d say that dealing with the sustainability of non-renewable sources is the greatest challenge.”

Do you have a favourite place in Delft?
“I have several. I really enjoy the Kobus Kuch, and I also enjoy Locus Publicus and its wide variety of beers.”

And a favourite Dutch food?
“I’d have to say the pea soup, which is really wonderful, and also these little triangular things with walnuts, although I don’t know what they’re called.”

Is there a book that changed your life in some way?
“There are several, but just to name two, I’d say Dietrich Dorner’s ‘The Logic of Failure’, and ‘The Sciences of the Artificial’ by Herbert Simon.”

If not an engineer, what other profession would you like to have had?
“I considered architecture, but then buildings didn’t seem as interesting to me as space. So I set out to solve problems in that area.”

What do you miss most about the US?
“My daughters. They’re now married, but you always miss family. Other than that I don’t miss it much, although that of course can change over time.”