First years uncover TU Delft secrets

The description promotes this activity as a tour around The Green Village, Echo, towing tank, Dream Hall, Anechoic chamber, autonomous car, and the laboratories of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

The route appeared to have been drastically shortened during the registration procedure. The participants sign up in mentor groups for a time slot to visit two of the above-mentioned locations.

Delta was assigned to shift 11. Our tour goes through the Anechoic chamber to the laboratories at CEG. We end the tour in the Aula at The Delft University Fund.

Directions
To find one of the most mysterious locations at TU Delft, the Anechoic chamber we can download directions (with pictures!) on the OWee app. It turned out that this was not needed at all as the groups of first year students who entered the Faculty of Applied Sciences were highly visible.

It is heaving in the waiting room of the Anechoic chamber. Loud groups waited impatiently for their turn to enter this special room for their five minute slot. A couple of metres on, a researcher was working in his lab, oblivious to the noise.

Luckily for everyone waiting, the five minutes passed quickly. Delta, in a group of 181 (first year students of Nanobiology), could enter. Our guide had warned us not to take any small objects, apart from a mobile phone, inside.

Once inside, it became apparent why. The floor is a metal net through which small objects can easily fall. “And should something fall through, you have lost it forever,” promises the guide.

Trampoline
The metal net undulates as we walk inside. For one of the participants this was an invitation to test its pliancy. He jumps up and down as though it were a trampoline. The guide is shocked. “Stop that!”, she calls out. “You must not do that!”

When the door is closed, the group falls silent. Our guide claps her hands and asks if we saw what happened. “It suddenly went very quiet,” answers one of the participants. “There is no echo!” another adds.

The guide explains that the room was designed in such a way that all the sound is absorbed by hundreds of cushions made of isolating material on the wall. This makes the room, which was designed in the 1960s, highly suitable for experiments with sound waves and frequencies. These days, these experiments are done using computers so the Anechoic chamber is no longer used. Apart from tours then. The guide says that this is why it is one of the best kept secrets on campus. “This may well be the only time you come here while studying here.”

Before we leave the room, the guide asks us to scream really loudly at the cushions. She did not need to ask twice. After a cautious “Aaaah”, the group bursts out in a coordinated scream. “Nano!” screams one person, “Bio!” screams the rest of the group back. This causes a slight sound to echo around the room.

The beast of TU Delft
The second stop is the Stevin Laboratory at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, the home of ‘The beast of TU Delft’. It is an orange hexapod weighing 60,000 kilos with six hydraulic cylinders that move independently of each other. The beast is used to test the welding of ships and can move hundred tonne forces in all directions, just like waves at sea.

According to legend, the first test with the hexapod made the Faculty move by one millimetre. A tear on the outside of the building is evidence of this.

We continue the tour to the construction lab where research is done into how microbacterium help repair tears in underground concrete constructions.

After a brief lesson about concrete, the tour at Civil Engineering and Geoscience comes to an end. The last stop on the programme is the Delft University Fund in the Aula. It may not be a mystery, but it is good marketing. In the foyer, student employees try to get as many first years as they can to become a friend of the Delft University Fund for EUR 15. In gratitude for their friendship, they get a free TU Delft hoodie. This tactic is successful as at the end of the introduction week, the Fund has 1,500 new friends.