News
Back to the Netherlands
Dear reader, I am writing this daily update with mixed feelings. Because this updates marks the final day of the study tour. And while I am desperate for a good night sleep I am also remembering the activities of the past three weeks. When we departed three weeks ago we had a general idea of our planning, a good motivation and a comfortable budget. During the trip we planned a lot on the spot and everyone was involved in making the study tour a succes.
Italian cooking class and Japanese dinner
We have all tasted the delicious food that the Italians can cook, but today we took it to the next level. We decided to learn how to cook some of the original Bolognese recipes by attending an Italian cooking class. 2 cooks guided us in making Tortellini, a Tagliatelle cake and Gnocchi. After making the food and waiting for a bit, we had lunch with our own made pasta. Guess what, it was delicious!
Antennae and culture in Bologna
This morning we visited the IRA radio astronomy station. This facility in the beautiful countryside of Bologna features a few extremely large antenna setups for observing our universe. After a technical presentation about the signal perception and processing, we received a tour around the premises. In the late afternoon our very own Prof.dr.ir. Stramigioli provided us with a tour through the city center of his hometown Bologna. We had a look some old university buildings and enjoyed some of the best gelato available.
The full Parma experience
Hello readers, Today was another interesting day. We visited no less than three cities. We woke up in our hotel in Milan where we enjoyed our breakfast and packed our bags. After that we entered the bus towards the university of Parma. At the university they gave us two presentations about communications engineering and computer vision. After the presentations they gave us a quick tour through their different labs which gave us a lot of insight in how they arrange their research.
Wrapping up Milano
Welcome to the summary of our last day in Milan! We started the day early as we were visiting Milans technical university, Politecnico di Milano, in the morning. We traveled via metro and train to the Bovisa campus, where the department of energy is located. Here, we got to see the laboratory of the Converters, Electrical Machines and Drives Group which hosted a testing setup for a gearbox-less windmill generator. Our knowledge on electrical machines was challenged and we got a nice demo of the machine in action.
Science and tech museum and guided tour
Ciao tutti, Today started a bit slow. Not because our schedule was empty, but because the breakfast at the hotel had table service, and only one employee was actually servicing tables. Nonetheless, we all managed to be ready in time to go to the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Technologia Leonardo da Vinci (which roughly translates as ‘National Science and Technology Museum Leonardo da Vinci’). At the start of the museum, we were greeted by an exhibition describing 100 years in 25 colours, from Black Hand to Gilets Jeunes.
Travelling day! Approaching the final country
Hello readers, Here I am again with another daily update. This update marks the start of the final phase of the study tour. This morning we left Grenoble and we started our journey towards the last country, Italy! The remainder of the study tour we will visit several locations in Italy. The theme of today is mostly travelling because it takes some time to get to Milan, which is the first destination.
Let’s go for a hike
Whereas for most of us their study began with the Storming of the Bastille during the Kick In, none of us had actually ever ‘stormed’ a ‘real’ Bastille in Grenoble in France. Up until today. Although it was not really ‘storming’ the Bastille, after about an hour of climbing and walking, we managed to get on top of the old fortress that was firstly build in 1592 and has a height of more then 200 meters relative to its surroundings.
Visiting research institutes in Grenoble
Bonjour à toutes et à tous, After 2 days in Geneva, it is already time to move to the next country in our study tour, namely France! The day started with a good breakfast, after which we were ready to start the journey to Grenoble. It was a foggy morning, so we were a bit hesitant on whether we could enjoy some views during the ride. Fortunately the fog cleared fast, and we were able to enjoy the beautiful views on the French Alps, while some other people took the time to get some extra sleep.
High Tech day in French speaking Switzerland
After our first night in Geneva and an early rise, we set off to Omnisens in Morges, Switzerland. This company designs, produces, installs and maintains equipment and software to monitor temperature and stress along pipelines and cables using fiber optic cables. They are able to accurately (down to a few meters) detect leaks, faults, people doing different things and many other things. They can detect these things this accurately over many tens of kilometers using just one fiber optic cable with one machine.
Visiting Sonova on the way to Geneva
Goedemorgen Zonnestraaltjes! This morning we left the city of Zurich for the sweet place of Murten. Here we visited Sonova, a company specialized in the creating of hearing aids and of systems to aid in hearing. First 2 employees from R&D gave us a presentation of how they build their systems, focusing on their transmitters and receivers. Moreover, we got a tour of their workspace and testing facilities. Their testing facilities were especially interesting, as their devices operate at the busy 2.
High tech Zürich
Today we all woke-up in a new city, Zürich. Our stay here will be short so the day is filled. We start the morning with a visit to CSEM, which is a Swiss research centre. They have a broad range of projects that they are working on. They gave us a short presentation on some of those projects which were all highly technological and focussing on improving the lifestyle of the Swiss people.
ABB Gilching & Andechs Monastery
Today was our last day in Germany. We started the day with a visit to ABB in Gilching near Munich, which is a research and development branch of ABB, focussing on collaborative robots. These robots are designed to work closely with humans. We received an interesting presentation about ABB on a larger scale, and then about the specific office we were visiting. Then, the topic was shifted towards the technical properties of the robots, and we were able to inquire about both the limitations and features of the machines.
Cultural Sunday in Munich
After getting some well-needed rest, we started the day with queueing up for breakfast at the hotel. From there we went to the BMW museum, where the history of BMW and their vehicles was on display. They’re clearly proud of what they’ve produced, and it certainly doesn’t take an expert to notice.
Start of week two
Good evening everyone, With this update we survived the first week and today we entered week 2 of our study tour. This week started with a Weißwurst Frühstuck which included a typical München wurst and a glass of Weizen. Some people were struggling with their breakfast because they did some late night sightseeing the evening before. After the breakfast we enjoyed the nice weather by walking around in the city centre.
Das größte Museum der Welt
Did you think it would be possible to spend and entire day in a single museum? Where you can see entire planes, U1 submarines, the cave of Altamira, Enigma encoders and computers from the year 0? Well, you can in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. With a collection of more than a million pieces, they are the largest museum in the world.
Last day in Graz and visiting Aerospace Team Graz
Hallo leute, Unfortunately it is already the last day in the beautiful city of Graz. In the morning we checked out of the hotel while our great busdriver picked up the luggage. After that we had some more time to discover the beautiful places and musea that Graz has to offer. A quick questionnaire found out that some people visited the Landeszeughaus (Armoury museum), while others stroll around the city.
Climbing the Schloßberg and Styrian wine culture
After an exciting arrival in our apartment hotel in Graz, a few beers with the local Irish ’entrepreneurial community’, and a good night’s sleep, we started off our first real day in Graz walking to the city center and subsequently climbing the Schloßberg to find one of the most beautiful views over Graz and the adjacent mountain ranges. After a nice cup of coffee or radler in the sun, we took the 175 meter long, 64 meter tall Schloßbergrutsche (slide) back down to street level.
Last day in Vienna
Goedemorgen Zonnestraaltjes, This morning started with breakfast and packing our last belongs from our rooms and pack them into our bags. We dropped our bags in the bus and travelled to the Technischer Museum Vienna. Here technology from many different disciplines was on case, with many interactive exhibitions and interesting stories. Here, we visited a high voltage show where technology from late nineteenth and early twentieth century was shown. This included a lighting presentation where an old tesla coil was presented in an interactive presentation.
Monday at the TU Wien and the summer palace
The day started with the breakfast buffet at the hotel before we took the tram to the electrical engineering and information technology faculty of TU Wien. There we had a morning filled with presentations on research topics relating to mems design and the material science to support the devices. Luckily, we had some expertise in the audience so some intelligent questions were asked. We also toured the research group, seeing some manufacturing and measurement setups.
Vienna Cultural Sunday
Dear readers, Today (Sunday) we had a slow morning after visiting the Bermuda triangle in Vienna: the area with clubs and bars where you get lost at night, according to our tour guide. We caught some additional sleeping hours, and then ventured to Prater park. This is basically a theme park without entrance fee, but with entry prices for each ride, like a carnival. I have surveyed everyone in our group to find out which ride was the best in the park.
Clock museum and historical tour
After starting the day with some breakfast, we gathered in front of the hotel at 10:00. From there, we took a good half-hour walk to the Uhrenmuseum (clock museum), where we got immersed in the history of Austrian (and more generally worldwide) clock craftsmanship. Then, we split up for lunch and some leisure time.
Departure day!
Hello everyone, Today is the day of departure!! As participants of the study tour, we have been waiting for this day for so long. This is the first daily update where we will keep you updated about our travel progress. Today is a travelling day, this morning at 6:30 the bus left the University of Twente towards our first destination: Vienna. The first hours were very calm as everyone was getting a few extra hours of sleep.
New date of departure!
The new date of departure has been chosen! The date will be the 9th of September. This means we will be returning around the 3th of October. We hope that we will be able to go at that point in time but of course we will be keeping a close eye on developments to estimate whether is this plausible or not.
Study Tour Rising Technology postponed
After long consideration of various options, we have decided to postpone the study tour Rising Technology. Since it is still unknown how the restrictions caused by the global pandemic will develop in the next couple of months, we cannot guarantee that a satisfactory study tour can be organised in October 2020. Because of this, the study tour Rising Technology has officially been postponed to the first quarter of the academic year of 2021-2022.
Successful fourth casestudyweekend
With almost a year in preparations behind us the progress towards making the study tour Rising Technology happen has already come very far. However, like everyone, we have also run into some difficulties because of the coronavirus pandemic. We are watching the developments closely to see how this will affect Rising Technology in the future. We are still optimistic that the study tour will continue, albeit possibly at another time. All participants are also still working hard on the cases given to us by collaborating companies.
Website online!
Welcome to the Study Tour Rising Technology website! Hopefully, exactly a year from now we’ll be exploring the land of the rising sun. However up until that point we will have to work hard to make it a great trip. This website will be the best source for participants, companies, friends, family, pets and other interested parties to follow all the latest news on the Study Tour.