Frank Teunisse

Ok, I realize it’s  a long time since I’ve posted something on my blog. If you are a frequent reader, you know that this is partly due to my study tour through Asia. But this only explains half of my absence here.

On November 19^th my plane to Being left, as I was participating on the Study Tour my study association organized (see reis.etv.tudelft.nl ).  During the Study Tour, we visited universities, like the best University in China (the Tsinghua University), cool companies, like State Grid, Samsung and Panasonic, and unbelievable cultural stuff, like the Great Wall, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and the Golden Temple in Kyoto. With a group of 22 students and 1 professor we had the 30 days of our lives in four different countries (China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan).

At the moments we had free time, according to our tight schedule, we took a change of getting to know the local culture for ourselves. We explored the shops and markets, and – of course – we thoroughly explored the nightlife. The most amazing party I enjoyed was on the thirtieth floor, in the middle of the Hong Kong skyline (impression). While we were having a great party with an excellent view, we were also “owning” the party. Everyone their liked our way of partying, and as soon as we introduced a new dance move, everyone was doing this move. We let them know the Delft way of partying!

This study tour is just one example of the many great things students in Delft accomplish on their own, just for other students.

When I got back from Asia, I got a tremendous amount of work waiting for me. Not only did I miss 30 days of lectures, and time to study at home, but the company I was going to start my graduation project at, already wanted me to start in January!  So the last weeks of December, although there was a Holiday break, I was working my ass off on my projects.

On January the 2^nd I started my internship at Scarabee Systems & Technology. I’m working on a really cool project: With the help of a camera of my choice (I’ll probably choose a Depth of Field camera, like the Kinect), I have to determine whether or not baggage on a conveyer belt is actually “conveyable”. If I succeed this will actually be used at Schiphol Airport (12^th biggest airport in the world). These few first weeks were really busy, as I was still working on my projects in the evenings and in the weekends, and afterwards the exams.

Fortunately now, after finishing my last exam – ever (!) - , I’m going to have more time for myself and for updating my blog. I’ve started to go to the gym again and I’ll probably even have time to get bored again. There is a chance that I’ll get involved with some medical research in Togo, but I’ll tell you more about this next time!

Wow, these were two busy weeks again! Even though I had an exam on Friday 11^th, I had quite some meeting the week before. I’m involved in a small task group researching the future of the two Master Programs, Embedded Systems and Computer Engineering. As planning with the academic staff is usually quite hard, they liked to meet in the exam period. Luckily my second exam still went somewhat okay.

Directly after the exam I had to rush to the train. I went to Maastricht, the Southernmost city of the Netherlands. My sister is studying there since September, and I never had the time to see here new room: I never even saw the City of Maastricht. The city itself was really nice, it had about the same atmosphere as Delft; pleasant people and a lot of mediaeval buildings.

As I’m leaving with the ETV study tour this Saturday, this was also the last weekend together with my girlfriend in quite some time. To celebrate this we went to a really classy restaurant. Unfortunately they weren’t quite used to my big stomach, so they were unable to entirely fill it..

This week started with the handover board meeting of the IEEE Student Branch. As I’m going to start my graduation project after my study tour, I wanted to reduce the number of additional jobs I do at the faculty. We found a motived new group, with a mix of International, Dutch, Master and PhD students.

From Tuesday one, the week was all about the study tour: it started with a symposium about the countries we are going to visit. We had a talk from the former Dutch ambassador in China, a PhD on cultural studies of South Korea, the embassy of Japan and a Professor on Asian economics. On Wednesday we had the chance to get to know all the participants and Asian food, in a wok-restaurant. All time that was left this week, I had to spend on getting ready to leave: washing and ironing my clothes, having last minutes meetings with people I won’t see for 4 weeks, etc.

As the study tour is coming closer and closer, I feel like going more and more. As I never left the western world, I think it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Ill post my experiences when I’m back!

Kind regards!

The time of exams has finally come. Is the a strange feeling that these are one of the lasts exams I’ll eve take. I have two exams for semester-courses in January, but then I’ve already started working on my graduation project. The first exam, for Displays and Image sensors, was last Thursday and on Friday I will have the exam for Ad-Hoc Networks.

As I already realized last time, I still had quite a busy agenda before I could start studying. First of all there was the beer-tasting. Although we had a really fun evening, learned a lot about the rich history of Dutch and Belgium beers and everyone was really enthusiastic about it afterwards, it was a pity that only a small amount of student showed up. The hazing, later that night, was a better success which ended with a spectacular tandem sack race.

Next Thursday there was an “instemming“ in my student house. Because my Greek and Italian house-mates are moving out, there are two rooms coming free. At an instimming a lot of people are invited and, at the end of the evening, the person(s) fitting in the best with the house can move in. As I live in a house with a lot of different people, this is always a hard decision. Luckily our house will keep its international character, with a new student from the United States moving in.

In the next week I felt like a professional guide for our campus: on Monday I joined my 16 year old cousin at the open day of my faculty and the faculty of Aerospace engineering. Of course I hope he will choose for my faculty! Next Thursday,  after a full day of meetings, a group of 15 students Electrical Engineering from Hannover arrived. I showed them the Delft nightlife and the next day I guided them through our faculty.

It was funny to see that after showing them the nicest research labs at our faculty (e.g. the clean room for microchips and world’s 5^th largest high voltage lab), our nice campus and the beautiful city center, they were most impressed by the ETV. The ETV is the study association for students Electrical Engineering. It has a fulltime board which has close contacts with students, professors and companies. As written in my first blog, I also was in this full-time board.

This all toke place in the week that is supposed to be free in order to study for the exams. So in the weekend that followed I really started to study. Unfortunately for me, I had to take a break from studying on Tuesday for the job-interviews for the new IEEE SB Delft board I had to lead. It was strange to have these interviews from the other side of the table, especially because there are much older PhD student in front of me.

Luckily the time I had left was still enough to study for the first exam. Now there is one more week of studying ahead for me. Next period I will only follow two small courses as I will be away most of the time. Already in two weeks I will be walking around in Being, with the ETV study tour. I will try to give you one more update before I leave.

See you around!

With the exam period (31-10 till 11-11) ahead, things are becoming a bit more relaxed.  Last Friday I went to Limburg (southern of the Netherlands) with my family, to enjoy the autumn sun. We hiked, drunk special beers, got almost locked into a nature reserve and mountain biked near the border point with Germany and Belgium (Tripoint Vaalserberg). We were lucky: this year the autumn weather is extraordinary good, even better than in the summer.

Most courses are coming to an end and soon I really have to start studying. Luckily I’ve only got two exams:  for “Ad hoc networks”  and “Displays and imaging sensors”, both free elective courses. So I’ve got one week to study for every exam.

In the last two weeks still a lot happened:

First of all, there was the first activity organized by the new IEEE board, of whom I’m the chairman. One of our most easy-going professors gave an interesting lecture about IEEE and his research in the field of  biomedical engineering. At the end of the lecture we could provide al attendees with free pizza.

Then I had to do my final presentation for my internship at Deerns. Together with another student I had to give a 30 minute presentation on redundancy in Data Centers.  Although the idea of giving a presentation in the headquarters of a rather big company was rather thrilling, the presentation went surprisingly well. It was actually rather enjoying to give a presentation to such an interested group.

The same evening I was at a long meeting at the student housing organization, about the new internet connection.  Last Thursday I visited the Chinese embassy, to apply for a visa for my study tour.  

After a relaxing long weekend in Limburg I could start arranging upcoming activities. This evening we’ll organize an IEEE beer tasting and a few hours later I’m leading the “hazing” for the successors of the “Kobus Kuch committee”. Next week a group of 18 students from Hannover will visit Delft and I’ll guide them through our faculty and our city. Finally, on the first of November we have intake interviews for new volunteers for our IEEE Student branch.

Did I say life was becoming more relaxed?...

Welcome to my new blog. Since this is my first post I think it’s time for me to introduce myself:

I’m Frank Teunisse, I’m currently in my second year of the Master Embedded Systems, at the Delft University of Technology. I live in a student flat close to the faculty, together with my girlfriend and my 8 flat mates (1 Greek, 1 Italian, 1 Portuguese and 5 Dutch students).

I started studying in Delft in 2006 with my Bachelor Electrical Engineering. As I was always interested in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, I decided to do a Master where those two field of studies came together: Embedded Systems.

If you are fast in Math, you have calculated that I should have graduated by now, 5 years later… But, luckily I’m not: I lost time working on so called “extracurricular activities”. In the academic year 2009-2010 I was in the full-time board of my study association, the ETV.  Currently I’m still chairman of IEEE SB Delft (ieee.tudelft.nl) and member of the Board of Studies of Embedded Systems and Computer Engineering.

The first month of this academic year has been a really busy one. There were the traditional “welcome back” activities, a lot of graduation drinks, I had to finish the documents for my internship at Deerns, I started arranging my graduation project and the first activities of IEEE SB Delft are planned. Furthermore my study trip (to China, South Korea and Japan) is coming up, which I’m really looking forward to.

On this blog I’ll keep you up-to-date about my life as a student Embedded Systems here in Delft. You can expect a post from me at least two times a month. See you around