Kim Bakker
science editor
Kim (1994) writes about science for Delta and Delft Matters as well as everything connected to TU Delft and student life. As a real social sciences person, she sometimes feels a bit out of place on the TU Delft campus. Kim studied Dutch and journalism in Leiden, where she still lives.
It was a year of academic achievements, heroes, turbulent education policy in The Hague, and above all, a disastrous report about the lack of social safety. Let’s look back at Delta in 2024. We will be back on 6 January. We wish you a wonderful festive season!
The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) sees that students are receiving relatively less internship payments. Technical students are the luckiest, as they receive the highest amount on average.
The interdisciplinary and international AI student team ended in first place in a malaria detection competition held by the Lacuna Fund. It is their third win since the team started in 2020.
It takes a bit of getting used to when you first come to TU Delft to study. How do first years handle this? Delta follows bachelor and master students during their first year at TU Delft. Part 2: the first few months are finished.
Despite train delays and bad weather, it was crowded on the Malieveld in The Hague on Monday afternoon, 25 November. According to the organisers, 20,000 people attended the protest against the announced cutbacks on higher education. Among them were plenty from TU Delft.
On Thursday afternoon, around 150 staff members and students came to the demonstration organised by the VSSD students union to protest against the cutbacks in higher education. There were also demonstrations in Utrecht and The Hague against the Cabinet’s policy.
About 60 staff members watched the first performance of Mindlab, which will run up to 22 November at TU Delft, on Monday morning. What did they think of the play about the lack of social safety?
As of Monday 11 November, all employees at TU Delft can go to the Mindlab performance on social safety. Not a quick fix, but intended to be a conversation starter, the producers say. “Make yourself important and treat yourself to a performance.”
Even if you are not a believer, the Delft Old Church can be a place for reflection. TU Delft researcher Madelaine Ley organises the Sacred Sessions there on Tuesday evenings. “I wanted to satisfy a spiritual longing.”
This academic year, TU Delft has a student association specially for Jewish students. It is a religious association and not a political one, according to the founders. Last Thursday, they showed a controversial film at a remembrance of the victims of the Hamas attack on 7 October last year.
TU Delft is the backdrop for the Campus Open Days on Thursday and Friday. It is the first period in the academic year when pupils can visit and have a look at the academic institution where they may go and study. Have they already taken a decision?
Natalia Vtyurina has won the Marina van Dammebeurs 2024, a grant that is awarded every year to a female TU Delft alumnus. Vtyurina received the grant on Thursday during a celebratory gathering organised by the Delft University Fund.
The financial position of students is getting worse, say student union LSVb and its Delft counterpart VSSD. They took action on Tuesday.
While TU Delft drops eight places to number 56, it is again the highest ranking university in the Netherlands on the Times Higher Education Ranking. Just as last year, Utrecht University did not give any information.
From 1 October, Rob Mudde is no longer the Vice Chair and Vice Rector Magnificus of TU Delft. Delta spoke to him on his very last day, just before he officially bid farewell. How does he look back at his time on the Executive Board?
“The answers are probably mostly both,” warns Ibo van de Poel before Delta presents him with ten dilemma’s. Read and judge for yourself: what makes the winner of the Professor of Excellence Award 2024 a real Professor of Excellence?
As of this academic year, all Doctoral Committee members will have to wear a gown during the doctoral ceremony in which a doctoral candidate defends their dissertation. Before this, only professors could do so. TU Delft is the only university in the Netherlands to make this ceremonial dress mandatory.
It takes a bit of getting used to when you first come to TU Delft to study. How do first years handle this? Delta follows bachelor and master students during their first year at TU Delft. Part 1: After the OWee and IP.
On Wednesday, the penultimate day of the introduction week, it was time for the Cantus. After a rainy Tuesday, the sun shone again and the student associations again partied into the night.
Just like last year, OWee participants who do not feel like partying crowds can come to X for a quiet evening programme. Who comes?
On OWee Monday, everyone could go to the info market for goodies and, of course, information on everything to make the upcoming student life more beautiful. In the evening, all associations made it a party.
On Sunday, the opening day of the OWee, curious, newly arrived attendees enter the Auditorium one after the other ready for five introductory days. Not everybody is nervous. “I’ll just see what happens.”
Starting on Sunday, about 3,000 first year students will explore Delft in a fun packed introduction week. What should you not miss?
Shock and recognition dominate at TU Delft after the Inspectorate of Education’s negative assessment of the Plan for Change for social safety. “It seems that finally something will happen.”
The Inspectorate of Education considers that TU Delft’s plan to improve social safety consists ‘largely of objectives and direction’ but lacks firm actions. It also lacks critical reflection on the role of the Executive Board.
The supreme court’s judgement last week that the subsidy that TU Delft received in 2017 for geothermal research was rightly reclaimed. The subsidy amounts to hundreds of thousands of euros.
The brand new Space Oasis student team has worked on a self-sufficient colony on the moon over the last year. The team members presented their first design last Friday.
Unions are disappointed that the negotiations for the collective labour agreements for universities have been difficult. Universities are reportedly reluctant to talk about social safety in particular.
In een few weeks, Annelous Lammerts will compete in the first Olympic kitesurf competition ever. TU Delft designed an aerodynamic and tear-proof suit specially for her.
Last year, security measures were taken for 59 scientists because of the hate and threats they receive. Whether this number includes TU employees is unknown.
Delta was awarded two prizes for the best journalistic work within higher education media on 6 June. Delta received the so-called Kring Awards for an investigative story on social unsafety at the Innovation & Impact Centre (I&IC) that caused much controversy in April and an interview with planetary researcher Daphne Stam, who left TU Delft out of discontent.
Week in week out Jasper van Kuijk dissects bad designs in the ‘Volkskrant’. Time to fight back, he thought, and explain how to create usable designs in his new book. “If this book makes my column redundant, I will be very happy.”
What is permitted and what is prohibited if you demonstrate on campus? Delta asked Amnesty International, the human rights organisation. Marjolein Kuijers, their expert on the right to demonstrate in the Netherlands, answers.
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) awarded the Summit Grants on Friday for the first time. These are large amounts of money for research groups that are at the world’s top. EUR 75.4 million went to two TU Delft projects.
After TU Delft announced that it will not reconsider its ties with Israeli universities on Wednesday, the demonstrators ratcheted up their fourth protest on Thursday. “We get the feeling that this is really needed.”
In the elections debate organised by TU Delft, the new Coalition Agreement weighed heavily in the discussions on the energy transition. “The VVD says they want to use European money for innovations. How does that reconcile with their plans to give less money to Brussels?”
The planned meeting between pro-Palestinian protesters and the Executive Board on Thursday was limited to handing over the demands and setting a date for a new meeting. Afterwards, almost 100 people joined a protest march.
This Wednesday and Thursday, students at TU Delft can vote for the Student Council for the coming academic year. There are three parties on the voting slip: Oras, Lijst Bèta and Dé Partij. What are their plans? The party candidates explain.
Despite repeated requests, the Supervisory Board did not share the draft report by the Inspectorate of Education about social safety with the representation bodies during the reappointment process of Rector Tim van der Hagen. The Supervisory Board claimed that there was nothing in the report that would jeopardise the reappointment.
A group of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated at TU Delft on Tuesday afternoon. The students decided to take action after a tented camp of protesters at the UvA was cleared by police Monday night.
At the Democracy Day organised by students on Wednesday 1 May, staff members and students discussed how TU Delft could be governed differently. “We do not have to accept the situation as it is now.”
The Vice Chair of the Executive Board will bid farewell this autumn. Rob Mudde himself said in the Executive Board’s announcement of his departure that he is aware that the timing is unfortunate. But he is having to stop for health reasons.
Disposable cups have been banned in the hospitality sector since 1 January. TU Delft students behind the Jelt start-up spotted an opportunity and designed a rinsing and drying station for reusable cups. Started Monday 22 April, TU Delft is their testing ground.
Partying at the faculty. It sounds unthinkable, but every two years since 1972, Delft’s Faculty of Architecture has been the setting for what the organisers say is the largest indoor faculty festival in the world. Saturday was the 26th edition.
The Students and Staff for Safety pressure group does not believe that the current Executive Board can pick up the pieces and make good. The pressure group was specially set up in connection with the social safety issue, and it wrote this in a statement on Thursday.
For the last time, a researcher from the GSE Department earns a doctoral degree for research into oil production. It was a long journey to this point, says the Department Chair. “If we would continue oil-based research, we would uphold the status quo. But don’t say we should not work with the fossil fuel industry at all.”
After TU Delft ordered Delta to take a critical article about the work culture at I&IC offline, the Executive Board Chair Tim van der Hagen today offered his apologies to Delta on behalf of the Executive Board. At the time of writing, it is not yet certain if the article can be put online again.
To draw attention to the visibility of transgender people, True U, the LHBTQI+ employees network, handed out Easter eggs on campus on Thursday. “We want to show that we too are allowed to be here. In all our diversity.”
TU Delft employees could share their ideas about a safer working environment in a meeting organised by the Works Council. “Don’t say that you want everyone to enjoy a good working environment, but say that it is your responsibility to create a good working environment.”
In the battle against climate change and for protecting biodiversity, seaweed and kelp forests are of incalculable value around the world. Team Epoch designed a winning AI model to monitor them.
For the first time, one of the spaces in the EEMCS Faculty bears the name of a woman. It is Johanna Manders, one of the first women to graduate in Electrical Engineering. ‘If the name attracts just one young women to come and study here, the goal has been achieved.’
Before TU Delft can start obtaining geothermal energy, the Geothermie Delft company must guarantee that the unusable well it drilled in October will not cause any problems. It also has to check if TU Delft’s research reactor could incur any problems from geothermal energy production.
It seems that the measures that the NWO took to address gender inequality may now give female academics a slightly higher chance of getting a Veni grant than their male counterparts. The researchers did not come up with any information specific to TU Delft.
Describing her as ‘a textbook example’ and a ‘versatile and innovative engineer’, TU Delft chose Hester Anderiesen-Le Riche as Alumnus of the Year 2023. This Tuesday, she comes to Delft to collect her prize. How would the inventor of the ‘Magic table’ explain her success?
In her inaugural lecture last Friday, Professor of Design for Public Health Judith Rietjens stressed the importance of personalised care. “Someone has a particular condition, and someone else can help. This is the key to caring for someone.”
While HollandPTC has been in troubled waters since its opening in 2018, TU Delft continues to pump money into it. This is the view of the NRC newspaper. Rector Magnificus Tim van der Hagen still believes that this is the right thing to do, he told the newspaper.
The student Board of the annual career market Delft Career Days is giving more space to sustainability. To some oil, gas and chemical giants, the door will remain closed.
No off the shelf items, but unique suits. Joost Bom acquired his collection from Marktplaats and London tailors.
Future cabinets should make efforts to reduce the migration balance, says a new demography report. But there is no need to put a brake on the number of student migrants, according to the committee.
On Wednesday students and the Students Union will gather outside the House of Representatives, The Hague, to protest against the increased interest on their study loans. Why?
Anyone is welcome to help choose the new coffee beans this week. Delta took a look. “This one tastes like it was made with love. Can you say that about coffee machines?”
Do you want to discuss TU Delft’s ties to the fossil fuel industry? You can do so from November onwards. The outcomes should lead to recommendations to the Executive Board.
The KNMI presented new Dutch climate scenarios on Monday. TU Delft climate scientist Herman Russchenberg and KNMI researcher Sybren Drijfhout: “Extremes determine livability.”
Artificial intelligence is the theme at TU Delft this year. Delta explains six pieces of AI research. Part 6: using AI to read medical scans.
Paternalisme en oneerlijke machtsverhoudingen waren voor planeetwetenschapper Daphne Stam reden om te vertrekken bij Luchtvaart- en Ruimtevaarttechniek. Aan Delta vertelt ze wat eraan vooraf ging.
The Works Council elections will be held on 3 and 4 October. For whom and which party can you vote? This time: Rebekka van der Grift of Young Researchers’ Impact.
TU Delft is ranked 48th in the Times Higher Education’s World University Ranking. That is 22 places higher than last year. However, there is some scepticism about the ranking.
Planetary scientist Daphne Stam recently told Delta that she left her Faculty because of its ‘macho culture’. Henri Werij, Dean of AE responds.
Artificial intelligence is the theme at TU Delft this year. Delta explains six pieces of AI research. Part 3: How drones can help biodiversity research.
Associate professor Daphne Stam has left TU Delft. She says she was not taken seriously in the “paternalistic atmosphere” at her Faculty of Aeropace Engineering.
From Monday, nearly all the catering spots on campus will be open again and are now being managed by Appèl, the new catering company. What are the plans for TU Delft?
Artificial intelligence is the theme at TU Delft this year. Delta explains six pieces of AI research. Part 1: how does AI ensure that a robot without GPS knows where it is?
After all association meals being vegetarian last year, the OWee and the Schie Dinner were next in line on the first evening. Has a turning point been reached in student life?
Much about the OWee has changed in 50 years, but much has remained the same, says former Chair Max van der Laan. Even at 86 years of age, the introduction week is part of him.
The adventure for the people attending the OWee began on Sunday. Delta asked seven first year students what they expect from the introduction week.
Work from home advice due to air conditioning problems Just when temperatures outside are rising, the air conditioning in some TU Delft building has stopped working. At least in the TU Delft Library and the A-wing of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM), the climate control has largely failed this…
Psychiatrist and ‘meta-scientist’ Joeri Tijdink specialises in the well-being of researchers. Now he wrote an uplifting self-help book on how PhD researchers survive academia.
On StudentDoet-dag dozens of students went volunteering at civil society organisations. The day ended with a concert on the Prinsenhof. Delta was there too.
TU Delft opened its new location in The Hague on Wednesday 7 June. What is the added value of having a branch in The Hague?
Still institutional rate for refugee student Refugee students without residence permits will continue to have to pay institutional tuition fees in the coming years, a narrow majority in the Dutch Parliament decided on Tuesday. Students awaiting a residence permit are considered ‘international students’, which means that they are not eligible for the…
It is final: the basic grant is returning The Senate voted on Tuesday 6 June unanimously for the return of the basic grant. This means that from the coming academic year, students will once again be entitled to a monthly allowance that’s not a loan. The basic grant for HBO and WO…
TU Delft was the only TU that did not have a RoboCup football team till now. Tim Verburg, Team Manager of the recently established Delft Mercurians tells their story.
The ViciMetro&Co rowing team, that only rows occasionally, grabbed the oars just six months ago.
Erik Scherff appointed new CIO of TU Delft The Executive Board (CVB) of TU Delft has appointed Erik Scherff as the new director of ICT, also known as Chief Information Officer (CIO), with effect from 1 August. The Executive Board announced this in an e-mail to TU Delft employees. Scherff succeeds Han Derkx,…
Ruim zestig Virgilianen werkten dit jaar hard aan hun lustrumtheaterstuk. Maandag staan ze in het Circustheater in Scheveningen.
Will Delft break the pipetting world record? The board of the Delft study association for nanobiology Hooke. (photo: S.V.N.B. Hooke) Transferring fifty milliliters of liquid from one cup to the other within five minutes with a pipette, with at least 250 people at the same time. That is what it takes to break…
Het bestuur van de Delftse studievereniging voor nanobiologie Hooke. (foto: S.V.N.B. Hooke) Met minstens 250 mensen tegelijkertijd binnen vijf minuten met een pipet vijftig mililiter vloeistof van het ene naar het andere bekertje verplaatsen. Dat is er voor nodig om het wereldrecord pipetteren te verbreken. Moet haalbaar zijn, dacht de…
Het bestuur van de Delftse studievereniging voor nanobiologie Hooke. (foto: S.V.N.B. Hooke) Met minstens 250 mensen tegelijkertijd binnen vijf minuten met een pipet vijftig mililiter vloeistof van het ene naar het andere bekertje verplaatsen. Dat is er voor nodig om het wereldrecord pipetteren te verbreken. Moet haalbaar zijn, dacht de Delftse…
Het bestuur van de Delftse studievereniging voor nanobiologie Hooke. (foto: S.V.N.B. Hooke) Met minstens 250 mensen tegelijkertijd binnen vijf minuten met een pipet vijftig mililiter vloeistof van het ene naar het andere bekertje verplaatsen. Dat is er voor nodig om het wereldrecord pipetteren te verbreken. Moet haalbaar…
Het bestuur van de Delftse studievereniging voor nanobiologie Hooke. (foto: S.V.N.B. Hooke) Met minstens 250 mensen tegelijkertijd binnen vijf minuten met een pipet vijftig mililiter vloeistof van het ene naar het andere bekertje verplaatsen. Dat is er voor nodig om het wereldrecord pipetteren te verbreken. Moet haalbaar zijn, dacht de Delftse…
Het bestuur van de Delftse studievereniging voor nanobiologie Hooke. (foto: S.V.N.B. Hooke) Met minstens 250 mensen tegelijkertijd binnen vijf minuten met een pipet vijftig mililiter vloeistof van het ene naar het andere bekertje verplaatsen. Dat is er voor nodig om het wereldrecord pipetteren te verbreken. Moet haalbaar zijn, dacht de…
Het bestuur van de Delftse studievereniging voor nanobiologie Hooke. (foto: S.V.N.B. Hooke) Met minstens 250 mensen tegelijkertijd binnen vijf minuten met een pipet vijftig mililiter vloeistof van het ene naar het andere bekertje verplaatsen. Dat is er voor nodig om het wereldrecord pipetteren te verbreken. Moet haalbaar zijn, dacht…
TU Delft eighth on SustainaBul sustainability ranking An earlier demonstration by action group End Fossil at TU Delft. (Photo: Nikita Ham) TU Delft came in eighth at the annual SustainaBul sustainability ranking. Just like last year, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences is the winner. Since 2012, the SustainaBul…
If it were up to Minister of Education Dijkgraaf, the BSA would be lowered to a maximum of 30 points. Not a good idea, say the Executive Board and the Student Council.
Supervisory Board has a new member As of June 1, Tennet CEO Manon van Beek will join the Supervisory Board of TU Delft, the Executive Board (CvB) announced on Monday in an e-mail to TU staff. Van Beek was nominated by the Works Council and the Student Council, after which she was…
