What brought you to Holland? Each month Page 4 asks a member of the TU’s foreign legion to share their thoughts with us. This week we meet Sally Gardner (22), from Queensland, Australia. She’s worked in Delft since January 2000 at the department of Medical Technology and Mechanics (Mechanical Engineering).
On May 14 she’ll be heading home again, speaking Dutch fairly well.
For my final project of medical engineering, I had to work with prosthetic hands. I wrote everybody in the world and Delft wrote the nicest letter back. My friends and relatives encouraged me to go, saying ‘You’ll love it’.
What are you working on?
A very young child only needs to open and close his or her hand. But opening a prosthetic hand was too difficult for small children, so I designed a compensating mechanism to make up for the prosthesis’ stiffness.
Would you like to change anything at the TU?
There’s a lot of red tape here. Often, only one person is allowed to do certain jobs. In summer, with lots of people away on vacation, it’s hard to get anything done.
Is life in Delft much different?
The weather is, the summer was so short! And you can hop on your bike and go absolutely everywhere, while in Australia, you really need a car.
Where’s your favourite place in Delft?
Kerkpolder. It’s a park area with canals and nice sunsets.
What’s the greatest challenge facing mankind in the 21st century?
For Australia, it’s water: there isn’t enough. With people irrigating their lands, the water table rises and the land becomes arid and non-fertile. For Holland, it’s the amount of people.
Who are you closest to?
In Holland, my boyfriend, who I met here in our department. I value reliability and a sense of adventure in someone.
What’s your passion?
I really like doing outdoor things, like hiking, caving, canoeing, sailing. I’ll never economise on holidays. So, leaving Holland on May 14, my boyfriend and I will first go to the Czech Republic for four weeks, because many of my departmental colleagues are Czech. Then we’ll go to Sweden and the USA, before finally arriving back in Australia on July 3.
Your greatest achievement?
Being elected school captain in high school. A school captain isthe head of the student council, responsible for liasing between students and teachers.
Which famous person would you like to meet?
I’d have liked to have an intelligent conversation with Einstein, to see what he was like and if he had a sense of humour.
What are your hopes for the future?
Getting back to Australia causes some anxiety. I must set up my life there again, find a job, a place to live. I hope to find somewhere to stay for more than two years. As a student I’ve been moving around, never staying anywhere for more than a year. Now, I’d like to settle down for a while.
Each month Page 4 asks a member of the TU’s foreign legion to share their thoughts with us. This week we meet Sally Gardner (22), from Queensland, Australia. She’s worked in Delft since January 2000 at the department of Medical Technology and Mechanics (Mechanical Engineering). On May 14 she’ll be heading home again, speaking Dutch fairly well.
For my final project of medical engineering, I had to work with prosthetic hands. I wrote everybody in the world and Delft wrote the nicest letter back. My friends and relatives encouraged me to go, saying ‘You’ll love it’.
What are you working on?
A very young child only needs to open and close his or her hand. But opening a prosthetic hand was too difficult for small children, so I designed a compensating mechanism to make up for the prosthesis’ stiffness.
Would you like to change anything at the TU?
There’s a lot of red tape here. Often, only one person is allowed to do certain jobs. In summer, with lots of people away on vacation, it’s hard to get anything done.
Is life in Delft much different?
The weather is, the summer was so short! And you can hop on your bike and go absolutely everywhere, while in Australia, you really need a car.
Where’s your favourite place in Delft?
Kerkpolder. It’s a park area with canals and nice sunsets.
What’s the greatest challenge facing mankind in the 21st century?
For Australia, it’s water: there isn’t enough. With people irrigating their lands, the water table rises and the land becomes arid and non-fertile. For Holland, it’s the amount of people.
Who are you closest to?
In Holland, my boyfriend, who I met here in our department. I value reliability and a sense of adventure in someone.
What’s your passion?
I really like doing outdoor things, like hiking, caving, canoeing, sailing. I’ll never economise on holidays. So, leaving Holland on May 14, my boyfriend and I will first go to the Czech Republic for four weeks, because many of my departmental colleagues are Czech. Then we’ll go to Sweden and the USA, before finally arriving back in Australia on July 3.
Your greatest achievement?
Being elected school captain in high school. A school captain isthe head of the student council, responsible for liasing between students and teachers.
Which famous person would you like to meet?
I’d have liked to have an intelligent conversation with Einstein, to see what he was like and if he had a sense of humour.
What are your hopes for the future?
Getting back to Australia causes some anxiety. I must set up my life there again, find a job, a place to live. I hope to find somewhere to stay for more than two years. As a student I’ve been moving around, never staying anywhere for more than a year. Now, I’d like to settle down for a while.
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