Education

News in brief

CorrectionIn the article ‘Things to do in Delft’ on page 22 of Delta 26, it was incorrectly stated that alcohol is consumed during the new member introduction periods for the DSC (Corps) student society.

This is a mistake: alcohol is in fact not consumed during this introduction period. The editors regret this error.


Quarantined

The University of Twente’s Solar Team is once again experiencing difficulties in the run up to the world championship for solar cars in Australia. The Australian customs service has confiscated Twente’s solar car. Australian customs is testing the car to make sure it does not contain any dangerous European insects. The car is now under quarantine in Melbourne. The team from Twente had already experienced a series of delays before arriving in Australia, including having to wait months before finally finding an engine for their car.
Large events

TU Delft does not want large events, such as pop concerts, to be held monthly on the grounds of the former Gelatine Factory on the Rotterdamseweg. For this reason the university has submitted a formal complaint to the municipality of Delft, which is in charge of granting building and event permits for the grounds. The original idea was that each year this former factory site would host 12 large events, with a maximum of 10,000 visitors, 10 medium-sized events with around 3,000 people attending, and a maximum of 15 small events with 1,000 visitors. The TU does not want the large events to be held. According to Dick Gutlich of the TU real estate department, 12 times per year is too much: “The concern is that such large events would have an impact on public order on the TU campus.” Gutlich says the safety of the university would be endangered if for example 10,000 people attended a pop concert. The plan had called for those attending such concerts to use the TU’s parking lots.
Student Parliament

In November two students from TU Delft will participate in the European Parliament for Students in Den Haag. The students, Wiebe Wilbers and Chokri Mousaoui, will join 123 other Dutch students in discussions about issues such as the divide between the European citizen and the ‘Europa’ of Brussels. These discussions should ultimately lead to resolutions that will submit to the chairman of the European Parliament, Josef Borrell Fontelles.
Unsafe networks

The networks that Delft’s student houses use for their computer traffic is unsafe. In order to steal the user names and passwords of users, hackers only need to start up their computers with the Linux dvd that TU Delft gives to all of its first-year students. This allows the hacker to access the log-in information of students who are using the network. Jochem van Dieten, chairman of the student organization Online Internet (Oli), demonstrated the vulnerability of student house networks on his own laptop: within three minutes Van Dieten was able to access the user names and passwords of students using the network. Van Dieten says the TU must secure the networks as quickly as possible; however, it has emerged that the TU has known of this problem since 2002. Van Dieten also believes that the PPPoE (Point-to-Point-Protocol over Ethernet) is not a good protocol for the authentication of users of the Ethernet network that the student houses use.
Gellish

Software developers have created a new information structure for computers that currently are seldom able to communicate or exchange information. TU Delft PhD Andries van Rensen has developed a new standard language called Gellish, an artificial language that can be read by people as well as computers. It is a combination of existing languages and variations of existing languages. There is for instance a Gellish English and Gellish Dutch. Expressions in one language variation can be automatically translated to another language, using a Gellish wordbook.

Correction

In the article ‘Things to do in Delft’ on page 22 of Delta 26, it was incorrectly stated that alcohol is consumed during the new member introduction periods for the DSC (Corps) student society. This is a mistake: alcohol is in fact not consumed during this introduction period. The editors regret this error.


Quarantined

The University of Twente’s Solar Team is once again experiencing difficulties in the run up to the world championship for solar cars in Australia. The Australian customs service has confiscated Twente’s solar car. Australian customs is testing the car to make sure it does not contain any dangerous European insects. The car is now under quarantine in Melbourne. The team from Twente had already experienced a series of delays before arriving in Australia, including having to wait months before finally finding an engine for their car.
Large events

TU Delft does not want large events, such as pop concerts, to be held monthly on the grounds of the former Gelatine Factory on the Rotterdamseweg. For this reason the university has submitted a formal complaint to the municipality of Delft, which is in charge of granting building and event permits for the grounds. The original idea was that each year this former factory site would host 12 large events, with a maximum of 10,000 visitors, 10 medium-sized events with around 3,000 people attending, and a maximum of 15 small events with 1,000 visitors. The TU does not want the large events to be held. According to Dick Gutlich of the TU real estate department, 12 times per year is too much: “The concern is that such large events would have an impact on public order on the TU campus.” Gutlich says the safety of the university would be endangered if for example 10,000 people attended a pop concert. The plan had called for those attending such concerts to use the TU’s parking lots.
Student Parliament

In November two students from TU Delft will participate in the European Parliament for Students in Den Haag. The students, Wiebe Wilbers and Chokri Mousaoui, will join 123 other Dutch students in discussions about issues such as the divide between the European citizen and the ‘Europa’ of Brussels. These discussions should ultimately lead to resolutions that will submit to the chairman of the European Parliament, Josef Borrell Fontelles.
Unsafe networks

The networks that Delft’s student houses use for their computer traffic is unsafe. In order to steal the user names and passwords of users, hackers only need to start up their computers with the Linux dvd that TU Delft gives to all of its first-year students. This allows the hacker to access the log-in information of students who are using the network. Jochem van Dieten, chairman of the student organization Online Internet (Oli), demonstrated the vulnerability of student house networks on his own laptop: within three minutes Van Dieten was able to access the user names and passwords of students using the network. Van Dieten says the TU must secure the networks as quickly as possible; however, it has emerged that the TU has known of this problem since 2002. Van Dieten also believes that the PPPoE (Point-to-Point-Protocol over Ethernet) is not a good protocol for the authentication of users of the Ethernet network that the student houses use.
Gellish

Software developers have created a new information structure for computers that currently are seldom able to communicate or exchange information. TU Delft PhD Andries van Rensen has developed a new standard language called Gellish, an artificial language that can be read by people as well as computers. It is a combination of existing languages and variations of existing languages. There is for instance a Gellish English and Gellish Dutch. Expressions in one language variation can be automatically translated to another language, using a Gellish wordbook.

Editor Redactie

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