36 Magazine of e.t.s.v. Thor and the department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology December 2016 GLOW 2016 science tour tour on the campus with various Electrical Engineering projects

Internship Chicago | Summer schools | Thomas Edison | Transformation of Potentiaal to La Luna | Column IEditorial ContentI

02 Editorial Connecthor 24 04 Managing academics: a balancing act Volume 9, issue 4 - December 2016 05 From the President Connecthor is published by e.t.s.v. Thor and 06 In Memoriam the department of Electrical Engineering at Em. prof. dr. ir. Ralph Otten Eindhoven University of Technology. Connecthor is published quarterly with a 07 News circulation of 1400 copies and is free for all 08 Introducing... members of e.t.s.v. Thor and employees of the department of Electrical Engineering. 09 Whose desk is this? 10 A Stabilized Mode-Locked Laser Editor in chief: 12 The transformation of Potentiaal to Pauline Hoen La Luna Layout editors: 14 Thor Freshmen Weekend Birgit van Huijgevoort 14 Opening of the academic year 2016 Jeroen van Oorschot 15 Internship abroad 16 Photo page Editors: Elwin Hameleers Esmee Huismans 18 Sino-Dutch Summer School Suzanne Kuijlaars Mark Legters 20 Chicago Style Internship Chigo Okonkwo Fer Radstake 22 Excursion AME Rianne Sanders Mohsin Siraj Bart Smolders Lisa Teunissen 22 Excursion ASML Rabia Zainab Syeda Team STORM back in Eindhoven 23 Icons of EE: Thomas Alva Edison In 80 days around the world. Read the story of team STORM on page 24! 24 STORM, around the world Cover: ost of you are probably getting ready for a festive holiday season and are making 25 Lunch lecture Sioux GLOW 2016 yourselves ready for at least a week leave from the office. Hopefully this gives you Photo by: Mark Kleijnen Msome well-deserved time with family and friends, and some me-time. Time to sit down 26 The ideal side job for an awesome and relax. To look back at a year full of accomplishments and successes in your business and/or company in your personal life. And as life is not always kind to us, we also look back at things that didn’t 14 27 Towards Dynamic Contrast Specific Printer: Schrijen-Lippertz go well or think of people that have left us much too soon. Ultrasound Tomography Editorial correspondence: In this December issue, you will find a touching story in memory of Ralph Otten, written by 28 A summer in Sichuan! Connecthor Twan Basten, Wim van Bokhoven and Jochen Jess. We would like to express our deepest 29 IEEE Congres Eindhoven University of Technology sympathy and compassion to the family, friends, and ex-colleagues of Ralph, and we wish 30 Puzzle them strength in coping with the loss of their loved one. Groene Loper 19, Flux 31 Looking down on us P.O. Box 513 5600 MB Eindhoven Apart from this tragedy, this December edition brings you a wide range of student activities, such as internships abroad (Leuven and Chicago), summer schools in China, excursions to AME (040) 247 3223, and ASML, a STORM behind the scenes story, a lunch lecture, and more. Thor freshmen weekend [email protected] The organization of the freshmen weekend We are also proud of the achievements of the people in our department and their work. We tells about their experiences on page 14. Web: http://www.thor.edu have a PDEng research article by Monica Llorens Revull, about a stabilized mode-locked laser. http://www.tue.nl/ee Libertario Demi wrote about his research on dynamic contrast-specific ultrasound tomography. 15 Advertisers: Two of many new staff members introduce themselves, Teun van de Biggelaar and Amritam Page 25: Sioux (Lunch lecture) Das. Page 26: ASML Back cover: Vanderlande Finally, the Connecthor editorial board has positions open for creative and enthusiastic (scien- Deadline copy next issue: 12 January tific) employees of the Department of Electrical Engineering who are interested in joining us 2017 to make the Connecthor magazine. Up for a new challenge? Please contact us! If you have ideas for upcoming editions, please contact us via [email protected].

Copyright © Connecthor 2016 We hope you enjoy reading this new edition. We wish you a prosperous and – most of all – a All rights reserved. No part of this publication happy and healthy New Year! may be reproduced in any way without prior written permission of the editorial board. The Connecthor editorial board Disclaimer The editor reserves the right to shorten and otherwise edit the articles. The views and 12 opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the From Potentiaal to La Luna Internship abroad opinion of e.t.s.v. Thor or the department of Remember these stairs? Read about the trans- Bas de Wit tells about his internship in Leuven, Belgium. Read all about it on page 15. Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of formation of Potentiaal on page 12. Technology.

02 | connecthor December 2016| 03 IDepartment AssociationI Managing academics: a balancing act From the President By: drs. Jolie van Wevelingen By: Lester Manders

ou all probably know me by now. I am the Mjölnir hammer and my one-liter tankard. time we were invited to have a drink with the anaging academics is like herding roads less traveled, that is, the roads that are initiatives, just check out the ‘Excellent people Lester, the new President of Thor. But After a lot of fuss everyone was seated barkeeper. At this time we were finally alone cats.’ This truism comes up some- known to make all the difference once in a attract excellent people’ policy file, that you Yit was not easy to come this far. There (whether it was in a seat of a Board member with the Board and the barkeeper. We talked ‘Mtimes when the faculty board is while, in science as well as in life. Read Frost’s will find on the TU/e website. This is stuff that was a lot of preparation to this. Me and my or a seat in the GMM I will leave up to you). and talked about the evening and everything asked about its management and leadership poem, The Road not Taken, and you’ll know. you, as a Connecthor reader, will surely find fellow board members had to go through Some members helped me get a bit of control around it, but the thing that was said the most philosophies, and it always annoys me. First of Hence, a balancing act. relevant! months of challenges to test if we were up to and my fellow Board members were helping was: “Guys, we are the new BOARD!”. all, this truism is not true at all, and secondly, the task of becoming the new Board. There me as much as they could. After a negotiation ‘herding’ strikes me as unnecessarily and Let me give you an example. We would like to Switching from painting the big picture were definitely difficult moments, but there I got the five other medals back that I needed At the time of the GMM, we were already needlessly derogatory. diversify our staff, in particular by increasing to noting something seemingly minor but were also a lot of great and fun moments to install my fellow Board members. At this running Thor for four weeks. These weeks the number of female staff members. This is a important nevertheless, I would like to point with the wonderful group I can now call my point I was not on my own anymore, my were busy and tough, but do not get me Leading a university department has nothing somewhat sticky topic. Doing too little would out that there are not enough academic staff Board. The group consist of five young men, fellow Board members could help me. After wrong, it is great. It consist of a lot of serious to do with herding; it is primarily a balancing have our department stay a male-dominated members participating in the Connecthor me included, and one young woman. I got everything back from our members I things to handle during the day, preparing act, balancing all kinds of needs, each of which organization, as it has been for years, whereas editorial board. If you are interested in joining had to lead the GMM for the first time. It was meetings, talking to the Department. I feel must be met simultaneously. It is all about doing too much would create all sorts of the Connecthor ranks, please contact its After these months we were finally ready for a great feeling to sit there with the six of us. very proud to be the new President and Board striking a balance. Too little management unwanted side effects, both for women and editor in chief, Mrs. Pauline Hoen (P.E.R.Hoen@ the task: becoming the Board of Thor. The When everybody was sitting there in a row, of Thor. My Board is very motivated and there- and we would find ourselves in an Olbers’ for the university. Recently TU/e has launched tue.nl). Your help would be very much appre- annual General Members Meeting took place I felt strong, like I could conquer the world. fore I am even more motivated. It will be a paradox organization: we would find obsta- an initiative to strike a new balance on this ciated! from October 10 to October 12. This was the Leading the GMM was quite difficult at the great year where we will learn a lot of new cles in every direction we would want to be issue. In order to increase the number of last time that we had to present our policy beginning. We were with six people and I had things, gain experience and – the most impor- going. It’d be chaos. Part of a board’s task is to female staff, TU/e will further strengthen to our members. When I was in front of the to lead the remainder of the meeting, where tant thing – have fun. get rid of clutter, shield out superfluous noise, its WISE (Women in Science) network, e.g. previous President of Thor I was completely a lot of people were present, but we made it provide some homeostasis for the organiza- through additional grants and tenure tracks. Jolie van Wevelingen on my own. He discharged himself as through. We were the Board of Thor! All the ‘’Veel gedonder!’’ tion and frankly, to give us some space. Too It is just one of the many incentives in this Managing director President of Thor and installed me as the new other points that needed to go through the much management, on the other hand, and year’s updated TU/e policy for scientific staff, President of Thor. Then the spectacle began: GMM after the installing of us as a Board were Lester Manders we would all end up in a waveguide. Sure, we ‘Excellent people attract excellent people: the Photo: Bart van Overbeeke many former Board members dove to the completed. President of Thor would all be on the same wavelength – give next generation’. The key point is that every table and tried to grab everything. My fellow or take a few harmonics – but we would also high-potential scientist can further his/her board members tried to secure as much as The evening was not over, we had to clean be moving, collectively, in the same direction career through ‘development tracks’. If you they could, but almost everything was gone. up everything and that was a lot. It was and miss out every opportunity to explore the would like to know more about these new The only things I could secure were my medal, around 5 AM when we finished and at that

04 | connecthor December 2016| 05 In Memoriam News I Goodbye Manon For several years, Manon Eijsvogel has been Em. prof. dr. ir. Ralph Otten a valued team member of Connecthor editorial board. As Manon graduated and accepted a position as Technical Trainee at A life full of passion Alliander, she decided to step down from On Friday 30 September 2016, former Director of Education of the Department of Electrical the editorial board after the June edition. Engineering and former Chair of the Electronic Systems group Ralph Otten died in a tragic We would like to thank Manon for her accident during a holiday in Georgia, the Caucasus. contributions to Connecthor and wish her a lot of success for her future career. Ralph graduated in 1971 from the ECB Research group at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the former Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven. After completing his study he was appointed scientific researcher in the newly formed research group Design Automation, chaired by Jochen Jess. This was the forerunner of the current Electronic Systems group. Ralph combined his PhD research with teaching in the Electrical Engineering curriculum and, in the early years, he studied medicine in Nijmegen. He obtained his doctoral degree in 1976 on the subject of iteration-free design. ERC Starting Grant awarded to Roland Tóth In 1981 he was seconded to IBM Research in Yorktown Heights. He was responsible for the Roland Tóth, assistant professor in the Yorktown Silicon Compiler (YSC), at that point in time the most advanced tool flow for designing Control Systems Group, has been awarded Best Paper Award for Sofie Haesaert digital circuits. During his time at IBM he remained in the employment of the TU and every a Starting Grant of the European Research Sofie Haesaert (PhD at the CS group) has Photography: Bart van Overbeeke year he returned to lecture for one trimester. Later, during a sabbatical year in 1996, he also Council, for developing an advanced received the Best Paper Award during became a visiting professor at both Berkeley and Stanford universities. The years spent in the United States became very significant in Ralph’s framework of automated modeling and the 13th International Conference on life. He made many scientific and industrial contacts, but in particular many close personal friendships originate from this period in his life. control synthesis of nonlinear (linear Qualitative Evaluation of Systems (QEST parameter-varying) physical systems. The 2016), that was held in August in Quebec, In 1986, by royal appointment, Ralph became professor in Electrical Engineering at the TU in Delft. In Delft Ralph supervised many PhD students. intended research is aimed at developing Canada, for her paper “Verification of There too, several close friendships were formed. In 2000 Ralph returned to the TU Eindhoven as Chair of the Electronic Systems group. He was the required tools for off-shelf implemen- General Markov Decision Processes by instrumental in forming the group and laid the foundation for the group as it exists today. As Director of Education he had a significant influ- tation of so-called LPV control in an indus- IEEExtreme , Sleep == false Approximate Similarity Relations and ence on the current Electrical Engineering Bachelor and Master programs. He was very active in education and until his retirement in 2014 he trial context, in particular in the domain of Does 24 hours of programming sound like Policy Refinement”, co-authored by was involved in teaching no fewer than nine courses. high-tech systems. a good idea to you? At the annual global Alessandro Abate (Oxford) and Paul van Every year, only a few young scientists IEEEXtreme competition, this year taking den Hof (CS). In both the academic world and industry, his work has had an enormous impact on the automation of the design of electronic circuits. Ralph receive this prestigious grant of 1.5 million place on 22 October, this is the challenge, Sofie is in the final year of her PhD track. was the founder of slicing floorplan design, currently a standard step in all commercial design trajectories for digital circuits. Slicing floorplan EUR from the European Research Council. and the IEEE Student Branch participated. In her research she is building a bridge design made crucial optimizations in circuit design feasible. His scientific contributions are diverse, ranging from algorithms for logic synthesis From 2.00 in the night onwards, the teams between advanced control theory and to a new representation of planar graphs and a theoretical analysis of the simulated annealing algorithm. Earlier this year Ralph received the tackled the problems. After 20 hours and computer science. ISPD Lifetime Achievement Award for “outstanding contributions made to the field of physical design automation”. a huge amount of snacks and coffee, the need for sleep started to kick in, and some Ralph’s interests reached further than just Electrical Engineering. He had a broad interest in history, art, culture and religion. He was a passionate of the teams packed their stuff to go home. collector of books, music, and more. Verdi held a special place in his heart. He was also very keen on model building. In his garden, Castle Some diehard contestants made the full Rommelstein is a veritable fairy tale with precisely replicated landscapes and fantasies. He loved the ‘Burgundian’ life, enjoyed good food and 24 hours and got close to the top 100 of loved to cook. His collection of single malt whiskies is impressive. And he could talk for hours about football. Italy was his favorite country. the world! The competition was a great success, thanks to the contestants and Despite his busy workload and many hobbies, Ralph always had time and attention for the people around him. Birthdays, Christmas and especially the proctors. Sinterklaas were always extensively celebrated, often with a creative and educative accent. He was especially important to his godchildren and their parents whom he supervised as PhD students in Delft. His guidance and preparation for the first communion of his two youngest godchildren was very special. Elsevier: TU/e has best Electrical Everything Ralph did, he did with passion. This applied to Engineering program of the his hobbies, his research, his teaching and his friendships. Netherlands Everything has been shared with love and pleasure with TU/e is the best university of technology his wife Carla, whom he married in 1978. He did everything Arrival STORM in the Netherlands. That is the outcome his own way. Always just a bit different than everyone else. On 2nd November STORM arrived in of the annual ‘Best Studies’ survey by He was creative and had strong visions. In Ralph we lose Eindhoven after a 80 days trip around the the publishing house Elsevier. The Goodbye Hans Hegt a great inspirational spirit. We wish Carla, his godchildren world on their selfmade electric motor- Eindhoven students (54.5%) are second to On Friday 24 June, dr.ir. Hans Hegt, and their parents, family and friends much strength to cycle. They successfully showed the world Wageningen University students (63.2%) Associate Professor of the Mixed-signal overcome this great loss. that the future of mobility is electric by as being most satisfied with their univer- Microelectronics (MsM) research group, proving that it is already possible to drive sity. The students rated the Electrical said goodbye to the TU/e by means of a On behalf of the Electronic Systems group and the 23 thousand kilometers on a motorcycle Engineering program at TU/e as number well-attended reception at Grand Café De Department of Electrical Engineering, without local emissions. On pages 24 and 1. The University of Twente and the Delft Zwarte Doos. After a period of 33 years of 25 you can read more about their trip University of Technology ranked number service, Hans will be enjoying his (early) Prof. dr. ir. Twan Basten, around the world. 2 and 3, respectively. retirement. Chair Electronic Systems group Em. prof. dr. ir. Wim van Bokhoven, former Dean Dept. Electrical Engineering Em. prof. dr. ing. Jochen Jess, former Chair Electronic Systems group December 2016| 07 IDepartment DepartmentI Introducing... Whose desk is this? i everyone. Please allow me to intro- active member at our study association Thor. duce myself; my name is Teun van den To only name a few activities; I’ve been board HBiggelaar, I’m 25 years old and I was member of Thor in the year 2011-2012, I’ve y name is John Snoeijs and I have Before I started working in the Flux building, Since 1 January 2016 I have been employed born and raised in a small village called Erp. organized an interesting and awesome study been married to Esther for three my colleague Berty Vonken and I were by the department of Electrical Engineering In my free time I like to play (indoor) soccer, trip to Brazil in the summer of 2014, and Myears. Together we have two chil- responsible for clearing out the old Electrical and started my role as Health and Safety I sometimes take my racing bike for a ride during the move to Flux I was responsible for dren (boys) aged 20 and 17. The eldest Engineering buildings for the move to Flux. Advisor (arboconsulent). On 1 April I started and I love to do scuba diving. Next to sports, the new bar of Het Walhalla and the change recently moved out and by coincidence his This was an enormous task because the a training to become a safety expert and social activities are an important part of my from Bavaria to Jupiler. And next to that, you partner is also called Esther. My hobbies are building was 50 years old and a lot of things this involves writing a graduation thesis. The life. Therefore, for example, I can (occasion- might also know me for being a bartender in tennis, music and I like to cook – particularly had been collected over the years. We are not subject I have chosen is Cryogene liquids, and ally) be found in Het Walhalla as well. Het Walhalla for 4.5 years. in the Burgundian style. only talking about furniture and paperwork, in particular the filling point in the Cascade but also components such as capacitors and building. I am currently interviewing the users As some of you already know, I started my In July 2016 I graduated, and I was searching I joined the department of Electrical transformers from the Impuls and Corona and management involved. study Electrical Engineering in 2009 at the for a new challenge. Eventually, I got offered Engineering in 1988 with a short break from buildings. All this had to be done following TU/e. Next to studying, I’ve always been an a PhD position in an awesome project at the 1 April 2013 to 1 January 2016 when I was the legal regulations for disposing of equip- The Health and Safety team consists of Tom EM research group. In the coming four years, employed centrally (Dienst Interne Zaken) ment. A careful selection was made and a Eijkemans, Eric van de Sande and myself. We I will be exploring possibilities for efficient and worked at the Facility Services office of strict deadline was set in place as the EE build- are situated in Flux 0.154 together with our and low-cost antennas, which will hopefully the Electrical Engineering (EE) and Applied ings had to be handed over empty and clean colleagues from Facility Services and ICT. As help in enabling 5G communication systems. Physics (AP) departments. I am happy to be by 1 April 2015. On the last evening I worked you may know my colleagues from Health and Although only a very small fraction of my back in service at EE and AP as it gives me the on until 23.00 and then finally everything was Safety are now making a Risk and Evaluation time as a PhD Candidate has passed at this opportunity to get closer to my colleagues at cleared. It was an enormous challenge but I Inventory for EE and AP. My task at the moment, I already came across exciting chal- both departments. wouldn’t want to have missed it for the world! moment is to support my colleagues, which lenges and impressive technological high- involves setting up workplaces according to lights. I can only say that I’m looking forward Over the years I have got to know almost all After this gigantic operation, I worked at the the health and safety rules, other assistance to what’s to come! of the employees and most of the students at Mechanical Engineering department for six where needed and, of course, my study. the EE department, and I am now well on the months at Facility Services. This was a hectic way to doing the same with AP. I really believe period but very enjoyable. I met many new John y name is Amritam Das and I was of Technology is a renowned university in Mathematical descriptions of thermal or that these two departments fit well together people. born in Kolkata, one of the largest the field of mechatronics and was one of my fluidic systems are generally formulated as an and complement each other. Mcity of India. It is generally called the dream destinations. I was awarded with an infinite-dimensional partial differential equa- city of joy for its vibrant life, cheerful people ALSP merit scholarship and decided to join tion based system. Estimating such a large- and mouth-watering cuisine. After schooling, the MSc program in Systems and Control. scale system and building control algorithms I decided to study engineering and did my I have recently graduated and joined as a for it is a very challenging task from an imple- bachelor in Mechatronics Engineering in PhD scholar in the CS research group of the mentational point of view. In my research I India. I finished my bachelor degree as Electrical Engineering Department. My PhD aim to develop a generic framework where a gold medalist and wanted to pursue a research focuses on modeling and control such tasks become possible for real-time higher study abroad. Eindhoven University of thermal systems in professional printers. implementation, and improve overall printing performance.

In my leisure time, I love reading and playing guitar. Roots rock music is one of my favorite genres and I love playing to Dire Straits and The Eagles. Food is an inseparable part of Indian culture, which makes me an official ‘foodie’. I love the combination of different spices in Indian food and enjoy cooking dinner with friends. After coming to Europe, traveling became an added bonus in my hobby. I like the idea of solo traveling and enjoying quality time by yourself. The last solo trip to Rome and Florence was a unique experience to discover a whole new perspec- tive about the place and myself.

I am looking forward to spend the next four years of my life at this university. I am very excited to make new friends here and share experiences. After all, life is a journey with problems to solve, lessons to learn and most of all, experiences to enjoy.

08 | connecthor December 2016| 09 ITechnology TechnologyI

The corresponding amount of voltage generated at the output of the PID controller A Stabilized Mode-Locked Laser controls the electro-optic phase modulator. The EOPM is integrated inside the laser cavity By: Mònica Llorens Revull which allows control of the carrier-envelope frequency of the optical comb. Figure 3 irst of all, let me introduce myself. I metrology, spectroscopy as well as telecom- shows a simple schematic block diagram for am Mònica Llorens, another member munication applications, require a periodic stabilizing the CEO frequency of an optical Fof the PDEng family that Nick IIieskou pulse train with ultra-short pulse duration. frequency comb generated by a semicon- mentioned in one of the articles in the June Some of these applications make use of the ductor ring-MLL. Optical components and edition of Connecthor. I joined this family high peak intensity of the pulse, while others optical paths are represented in red, electrical two years ago and the family is still growing prefer wide optical frequency combs (OFC). components and electrical paths in blue and with the arrival of new PDEngs. These two The optical spectrum of a periodic pulse the low-pass RF filter which was used as a years were full of new experiences and good train generated by a mode-locked laser (MLL) Figure 2: Mask Layout of a 7.05 GHz ring mode-locked semiconductor laser. Semiconductor frequency discriminator in green. moments together. But of course, it was also consists of an optical frequency comb with optical amplifier (SOAi), saturable absorber (SA) and an electro-optic phase modulator full of responsibilities, such as finishing the mode spacing between its optical lines equal (EOPM). This method makes it possible to reduce the project on time. to the repetition rate of the laser. frequency comb. The symmetrical laser cavity consists of implementing an electric feedback frequency drift of the CEO frequency of an Some members of the PDEng family is 11.81 mm long, thus allowing a repetition loop and comparing the reference signal with optical frequency comb down to 50 MHz over I was a PDEng trainee in the Photonic The techniques used in this work are the the mode spacing of the comb, i.e. the mode rate of 7.05 GHz. The main components of the a set value. Then, using electronics, the laser 2 hours of measurement. A standard devia- Integration (PhI) group, in the Electrical so-called passive and hybrid mode-locking spacing changes with time. The second is that structure of a mode-locked laser are a gain frequency is driven back to the locking point tion of the output signal measured in the Engineering department at the Technical techniques. These techniques use a saturable the optical comb spectrum, as a whole, can section and a saturable absorber section. or to the so-called set value. In our case, a electrical domain was calculated to be 14.5 University of Eindhoven. One of the tasks absorber section to create time slots on the suffer from frequency drift, i.e. the carrier- beat-tone is generated by mixing the output MHz when the CEO frequency was stabilized. of my project was to stabilize an optical signal generating periodic pulses with short envelope offset (CEO) frequency of the optical In Figure 2 the semiconductor optical ampli- of a semiconductor ring-MLL and an external It also demonstrated a reduction of the timing frequency comb generated by a monolithic pulse duration. The monolithic mode-locked frequency comb is drifting with respect to the fier (SOA) sections are presented. Two of tunable continuous-wave (CW) single longi- jitter of 30% when the laser is frequency stabi- mode-locked semiconductor laser. The laser semiconductor laser presented in this article intended position. them are 455 µm long, and the third, which tudinal mode laser. lized. was designed and integrated in an indium was designed using a generic open-access is integrated in one of the MZI branches, is phosphide (InP) photonic integrated circuit active-passive technology platform. The InP Since a number of scientific and industrial 750 µm long. A saturable absorber (SA) of 30 The beat-tone together with a low-pass The purpose of this work was to demonstrate (PIC) chip. Thanks to this experience, I will PIC chip was fabricated in a multi-project applications require stabilized frequency µm, six electrical isolation sections (ISO) of RF filter (SLP-1000+) and a gain detector that by using photonic integration generic start working for EFFECT Photonics BV located wafer run using open-access passive-active combs, interest into further research on the 30 µm and an electro-optic phase modulator (AD8302) were used to make a frequency-to- technology it is possible to offer faster and in Strijp S Eindhoven. It seems that I like to photonic integration technology of OCLARO frequency stabilization of mode-locked semi- (EOPM), which is integrated in the second voltage conversion and thus to detect the free miniaturized devices for frequency stabili- work with these devices and that I have built Technology UK. conductor lasers has grown. An interesting branch of the intra-cavity filter, is 2200 µm. running direction of the optical comb. This zation systems of monolithic mode-locked a certain connection to the city of Eindhoven. and desirable result would be to find a method Two 2x2 multi-mode interference couplers technique can be interpreted as a variation semiconductor lasers integrated in an InP PIC But let’s talk about my project! This technology offers freedom in circuit for frequency stabilizing an optical frequency (MMI) were used to couple the light in both of the side-of-fringe locking technique. Once chip. For further information about my related design, i.e. one can choose the length of comb generated by a monolithic mode- directions of the ring. the laser frequency is detected and converted work, take a look into the Final Design Project But let’s talk about my project! active and passive components of the circuit locked semiconductor laser that is physically to a voltage, an error signal is created and sent report called “Wavelength stabilized optical In recent years, intense research into how to as well as the position where they are located compact. We believe that by making use of As mentioned above, the two main compo- to a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) frequency comb laser”. It will be published on generate ultra-fast optical pulses has been a depending on the requirements of each the generic open-access active-passive tech- nents for a mode-locked semiconductor laser controller, a SRS model SIM960. TU/e library by October 2016. topic of interest and explored many scien- application. Moreover, these platforms are nology for designing and fabricating InP PIC are a semiconductor optical amplifier and a tific and industrial applications. Medical, based on a collection of standard building chips together with the method presented in saturable absorber. A balance between gain blocks which allow one to design more this article, it is possible to achieve this goal. and absorption saturation makes it possible complex circuits and integrate more devices to correlate the phases of these modes and on a single PIC chip. In terms of fabrication, The method presented in this article allows thus to generate a periodic pulse train at the another benefit of these platforms is that they stabilization of the CEO frequency of an laser output, the optical spectrum of which allow the fabrication of several PIC chips in a optical frequency comb down to a few MHz corresponds to an optical frequency comb. multi-project wafer run, thus making large- relative to a tunable single frequency laser. When the optical frequency comb is gener- scale fabrication more feasible. Our method allows the integration of all ated by the integration of a saturable absorber optical components required for the stabi- section inside the laser cavity, the technique is Although monolithic mode-locked semi- lized system on a single InP PIC chip and called passive mode-locking (PML). conductor lasers seem to have a big market thus potentially offers the market faster and potential because of the large-scale manufac- miniaturized devices at reduced cost. The To stabilize the mode spacing of an optical turing capability of InP PIC chips, it has been main advantage is the independent control frequency comb, a stable electronic sinu- observed that these kinds of lasers offer low of the carrier-envelope offset frequency and soidal signal at a free-spectral range optical output power to the order of mere the mode spacing of an OFC through the use frequency of the laser cavity is applied to the hundreds of µW. Moreover, these lasers still of an electro-optic phase modulator intra- saturable absorber. This technique is called need to be frequency-stabilized. Experiments cavity while the laser is operating in a hybrid hybrid mode-locking (HML). So for that, +21 showed that an optical frequency comb mode-locking regime. dBm power of a stable electronic sinusoidal generated by a mode-locked semiconductor signal at 7.05 GHz was applied to the satu- laser can undergo variations in its spectrum The monolithic ring mode-locked semicon- rable absorber. To stabilize the CEO frequency due to amplitude and frequency noise. ductor laser with 7.05 GHz repetition rate, of a monolithic mode-locked semiconductor shown in Figure 2, is working in the telecom- laser, an electrical feedback control loop The frequencies in the optical spectrum of the munications wavelength range of C-band coming back to the laser has to be imple- comb can vary. This can be described by two (1530-1565 nm) and was used to demonstrate mented that controls this offset. The prin- Figure 3: Schematic block diagram for the CEO frequency stabilization system of an optical Some members of the PDEng family types of variation. The first is the instability of the CEO frequency stabilization of an optical ciple of a basic frequency stabilization system frequency comb generated by a semiconductor ring-MLL.

10 | connecthor December 2016| 11 IDepartment DepartmentI

The transformation of Potentiaal to La Luna By: Suzanne Kuijlaars and Chigo Okonkwo. Pictures: Mark Legters and Chigo Okonkwo

On a beautiful day in August we put helmets circumstances. A mild winter, as was the case, and safety shoes on and stepped into the was not of much help because of the wind Removing the litter was an enormous logis- were knocked down. When renovating it is and the end corridors where the fire hoses From old into the new adjourning Potentiaal building which was and rain, which in an open building is very tical operation. To facilitate this process it not compulsory to adhere to the building are installed, targeting adventurous residents The transformation of the old Potentiaal into completely covered in scaffolding. unfavorable. When the wind is strong the was decided to take the litter away through regulations stipulated for brand new build- who may be tempted to tamper with the fire the new La Luna has been impressive. Before cranes employed for the construction cannot the back wall (north facing side). New mate- ings. However, the most recent regulations hoses. the new building was delivered in August Our guides be operated. Without the façade, the building rials were delivered through the front wall are applied to isolate against noise and insu- 2016, we honor the achievements since 1963 Before been shown around, we were covered and the roofing completed, the inte- (south facing side). Several new materials late for low energy consumption. The connec- When the building fully opens to students, when Potentiaal was delivered as a new welcomed with coffee and briefed on safety rior fixes cannot proceed. Purely due to its were employed to bring the renovated tions of the heating and the electricity make visiting students and professors, it is expected building. Much valuable research has been procedures. The representatives of Dura age, the roof on the old Potentiaal was bad building in line with state-of-the-art stan- part of the new floor, which creates a floor that the highest energy label will be achieved. carried out, leading or contributing to the Vermeer¹, Jordy Mintjes and Virgil Tas, and and renovation of the roof in previous years dards, employing novel building techniques having a cross-section of 7 cm. The walls are invention of new technologies. Not forgetting the representative of Camelot Europe², Inge was limited due to the building being occu- such as the 441 prefabricated bathrooms and highly isolated as well in order to make the Trivial facts and figures the countless friendships formed, stimulating Burgmans, together formed a team of enthu- pied at the time. Before the new roof could kitchens. These were literally lifted and placed apartments noise-proof. The waste pipes There were 25 bags of concrete removed from discussions over work, and the many students siastic guides who provided the opportunity be placed, a total of four weeks was spent to into each apartment. of the bathrooms lead through the meter each floor. 1 bag contains 1.000 kg. that have gone through Potentiaal to achieve to ask about the renovation work. remove the old roof and reveal the skeletal cupboard which is also an advantage for the greater things. structures. Constructing the new roof took All of these activities occurred whilst guaran- noise reduction. The value of the project is 30 million euros. A big challenge another four weeks. teeing a safe place to work for up to 150 men This is the construction and the land value. Since the relocation of the facilities there to To demolish and refurbish such a huge on site daily. Rooms can set individual temperature It is based on a leasehold of 50 years. The Flux, the old landmark has been completely building in a small period is always a big After this process, the stairs leading to all allowing better control. As the tenants occu- university can buy this all back after 50 years. stripped and rebuilt over the course of thir- challenge due to the different factors at fourteen floors were refurbished with new New technologies pying these rooms require state of the art teen months. Although only the external play. Firstly, the moment the work can start bannisters and carpets over a period of six New technologies are used in the refurbished wireless internet, the renovated building is On 26 August 2016 441 apartments, of features such as the new shades and windows depends on several signatures, and this weeks, and will be unrecognizable to those building. The windows are sun-protected, the connected to the TU/e network via optical which nine are penthouses, were delivered, are visible, our recent excursion inside the process can be late. As the delivery date is who marched down the stairs during the fire curtains are blinded, and there is a state-of- fiber patch panels, with individual rooms including the roof terrace which is available building has unraveled the impressive meta- a deadline, the building time therefore is a drills of the Potentiaal era. the-art ventilation system. The plague of flies connected to optical patch panels at the end for all the inhabitants. morphosis. From the Connecthor editorial fixed period. A second factor is the challenge in the façade of Potentiaal was a problem that of each floor. An amusing trivia by our guard team; Lisa, Birgit, Mark, Jeroen, Chigo and in realizing the plans due to the weather is now solved when the fronts of the building revealed that a CCTV scans the pristine halls Suzanne enjoyed the privilege of visiting the building whilst in the final phases of renova- tion.

1) The building company 2) The owner of the building

12 | connecthor December 2016| 13 IAssociation Va r i a I Thor Freshmen Weekend Internship abroad By: Elwin Hameleers By: Bas de Wit

ike every year Thor organizes a weekend After the summer holidays it was time to move to Belgium for my internship. At the University of Leuven I’ve been doing my intern- for the freshmen to get to know each ship for the past two months. Here I help on the development of measurement interfaces for different purposes. My main project Lother. This weekend, called the ThEW includes sensor measurements on microbial electrolytic cells and in home sensors. (Thor Eerstejaars Weekend), typically is set in one of the first weekends of the new academic t the end of my first master year my year and, as a Board member of Thor, this is internship period came closer. So, I had one of the last activities you organize before Ato choose a place to do my internship you give the responsibility of the associa- at. As my interests on the field of electronics tion to the next Board. The weekend is full of are wide, I didn’t really know where I wanted relaxing times around a campfire, joyful and to go for an internship. Therefore I requested musical times loving the taste of a few beers a list of possible places and projects in a with your palls, and numerous other activities. range of 300km from home (I had not been living on my own yet, so I didn’t want to go The goal of the ThEW for the first-year too far away). In this list of possibilities I saw students is to get to know more students. the projects of the KU Leuven, which got my During the Introduction week, most students attention. These projects included the work only know their ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ (their on the field of microbacteria. I never had done fellow students with whom they were in an anything on this topic before, and it sounded intro group), but during the ThEW they get to like quite a challenge. So without knowing know a lot more students of their year. It is not For me, as one of the organizers of the event, anything about the university or the city of surprising that a lot of friendships are formed it was mainly an exhausting weekend. I had Leuven I applied to do my internship there. during this weekend. Next to that, these new to drive a lot from place A to B and had to members of Thor get to know the association make sure everything went according to the Even though Leuven isn’t too far away from a bit more. Next to the first year students, also schedule. This, of course, failed from the very Eindhoven, there are quite some differences. a lot of older members drop by this weekend beginning, since some of the participants got The KU Leuven originates from 1425, and all to show what Thor is all about and how much lost on the way towards the camping place. the departments are spread out over the city. fun the association really is. Luckily I had my two fellow organizers, three This makes Leuven a real student city and it Board members and three more awesome is mostly active during the work-week. Most behavior of particular bacteria with prom- in such a manner that the user can choose people to help making the weekend a of the buildings in the city and the buildings ising applications in a circular economy. These a curve which should be supplied to the success! of the university have an historic value, which bacteria convert carbon-rich wastewater into bacteria, and a way to save the sensor data. makes Leuven a beautiful place to live. valuable organic chemicals. This process is The sensor data has to be well logged, so it accelerated by applying electrical current can be used by users who don’t have any During my internship I am working at the through these bacteria. At this moment the experiences into the field of electronics. As department of Electronic Engineering at measurement equipment is very expensive most of the tests take days to months, these Opening of the Academic Year 2016 the KU Leuven, in the MICAS research group and the experiments themselves are rather systems have to work very robust. In a process By: Stefan Molenschot under guidance of prof. Verhelst. This group time-consuming. Next to this, the way these which might take months, the bacteria die mainly works on new technologies for micro- devices work is very static. The operator needs when the environment is not right, so if there and nanoelectronics. The project in which to find the optimal settings for his purposes is something wrong with the way the micro- s is tradition, the new academic year Thor and Van Der Waals. We had to overcome 50L kegs of beer, which is the largest amount I am involved investigates the electrical manually. As most experiments easily take processor controls the environment, a few was kicked off with one of the biggest problems like cooling of the beer (standard of beer Het Walhalla has ever sold in one up to months, this is a very time-consuming months of measurements and work is lost. ATU/e parties of the year: the Opening beer coolers don’t quite match up to 1500 evening. process. In the research of the project in This is a new experience for me since most of of the Academic Year party. The TU/e went liters of beer in 27 minutes), getting the right which I’m participating, the goal is to build the tests and projects I did took at the most all-in, with famous artists like The Partysquad. people to the right place at the right time, We are proud that we managed to organize a measurement device to have this process one hour per test. automated. The measurement equipment will Like last year, Het Walhalla, in corporation be actively trying to find the optimal settings The work in a multi-disciplinary team is a very with Van Der Waals, had the honor of orga- (current supply) for these bacteria to accel- interesting experience and gives me a lot of nizing the complete distribution chain of beer 120 volunteers in two shifts, 14 taps and erate the process. insight into different fields of work. Applying and other drinks. To this goal we assembled everything I learned during my bachelor and about 120 volunteers in two shifts, 14 taps 10.000 liters of beer I am doing the master of Electronic Systems master so far is really interesting and chal- and 10.000 liters of beer. Traditionally, the myself, which is quite different from the lenging, especially, since it is used on a field TU/e gifted the first 1500 liters of beer to the main topic of this project. In this project a I did not work on, and choosing the best students for free. sales of tens of thousands of coins, electrical one of the biggest parties of the year (around lot of measurements and controlling is done solutions for the goals to be met. Choosing supplies for the equipment (for those inter- 6000 attendees), with the cheapest beer of by the use of a custom embedded platform. an internship outside of the University of Of course this took a lot of preparation. Even ested: 15*230V/16A, just for the beer distri- the year (€0,80). I would like to thank every- On this platform is a microprocessor that Eindhoven is something I would really recom- though we could build on last years’ experi- bution) et cetera. The final score was 168 body that helped make this possible, and I performs different experiments and records mend to everyone, as you gain a lot of experi- ence, the planning of the event took about would like to invite you all to the party next the response, which is where my part starts. ences when working outside a familiar envi- three months with a team of six people from year! My goal is to program this microprocessor ronment.

14 | connecthor December 2016| 15 13 14 17 20 1

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21 11 9 6 1 & 2. After intro party 19 & 20 Exam training Calculus 3 & 4. Lunch lecture Alliander 21 & 22. TV-Deco 5 & 6. TeaseLAN 23 & 24. Exam training Electromag- 7 - 9. kandi drink netics 1 10 & 11. Lunch lecture Arcadis 12 - 16. Constitutieborrel 17 & 18. OkTHORberfest IDepartment DepartmentI Sino-Dutch Summer School By: Qiang Liu and Bedilu Befekadu Adela

ino-Dutch Summer School is an inter- national high level talent forum and Ssummer school on semiconductor tech- nologies. Qiang Liu, Bedilu Befekadu Adela and Dian Tresnawan from EM group, Zhe Chen from MSM group and Sasa Gazibegovic from Applied Physics department participated in this year’s Sino-Dutch Summer School held in Fudan University from August 22 - 28, 2016. Sino-Dutch Summer School The International Summer School for IC Technology Exchange and High Talent was school. The summer school includes technical an interesting panel discussion by people identify their role in a team, develop their some guidance on technical questions from Garden where we tried all kinds of traditional born in April 2012, by bilateral agreement lectures, soft skill training, a group assign- who own companies. Furthermore, prof. strengths, manage their weaknesses. It was an lecturers. Topics of the assignment included Chinese snacks and street foods, and walked between the Dutch Ministry of Economic ment and a city tour. dr. ir. Jacob Fokkema from TU Delft gave an important training, as it helped the students Von-Neumann architectures, advantages and around the traditional temple-kind of build- Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and interesting talk about “The Joy of Knowing”. eliminate the cultural obstacle between disadvantages of the IC technology scaling, ings. We also visited Bund, a famous touristic the Municipality of Changzhou. The objec- Lectures He mentioned the paradox of learning, “you Chinese and Dutch students. In addition to how to make the microelectronics industry place in Shanghai. The Bund stretches one tive of the Summer School is to strengthen The summer school invited some experts from have to know what you do not know, and then the training, it included a fun quiz. In the more attractive to young people, and chal- mile along the bank of the Huangpu River the collaboration between China and the universities and industries, both from the start learning and experience the pleasure of quiz three Chinese students participated in lenges to startups and how to build an entre- and from there you can see the Shanghai Netherlands in the field of micro- and nano- Netherlands and China. They gave lectures on knowing and the joy of understanding”. answering questions about China and the preneurship mentality. Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center and electronics. The first summer school was all aspects of microelectronics and emerging Netherlands, the culture of both countries, the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower. Especially cuisines, festivals and so on. City tour – Shanghai the night scene is extremely beautiful. As part We arrived in Shanghai on August 20, after of the Summer School, Fudan University also “You have to know what you do not know, and then start learning Group assignment an eleven-hour flight. We were eager to see organized a city tour. On the second day of As part of the summer school students had this populous Chinese city and try some deli- our arrival they took us to the Oriental Pearl and experience the pleasure of knowing to do a group assignment on two different cious Chinese cuisines, and so we started our Radio & TV Tower. It was the tallest structure and the joy of understanding.” topics: a technical and a non-technical subject tour from the first day without taking a rest. in China from 1994 – 2007, before it was area. The 28 students were divided into Shanghai, with a population size of 24 million, surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial four groups. Each group chose a chairman is one of China’s most populous and modern Center. It is still the landmark building in held on August 6-10, 2012 in Changzhou technologies. After the opening ceremony, Soft skill training and secretary for the group discussion and cities. Being the most influential economic, Shanghai. We were able to see the whole city with “Solid State Lighting” as a theme. Since Shaojun Wei from Tsinghua University and prepared to present to the audience, that cultural, scientific and technologic city in and the river from top of the tower. This place then, it has become a yearly event that takes Kees Beenakker, gave keynote speeches In addition to the technical lectures, the included all the professors and the summer China, it offers a popular touristic sites for is so famous in Shanghai that it took us more place in China, where Electrical Engineering about IC industry in China and micro- and summer school included soft skill training. school students. During preparation, each visitors. We visited many places, including than four hours waiting in a queue before we PhD students from famous Chinese univer- nanoelectronics in the Netherlands, respec- MoTiv Team from a training and coaching group got coaching from the MoTiv team and the commercial place near temple named Yu started our visit. sities meet with Electrical Engineering PhD tively. The lectures following the keynote school for leadership and communication students of the three universities of tech- speakers included the topics IC technology, from TU Delft gave training on personal lead- nology in the Netherlands. This year it took fabrication processes, testable design and ership, intercultural communication, commu- place in Fundan University in Shanghai from testing of integrated systems, MEMS tech- nication skills, presentation skills, talent August 22-28, and from the Netherlands thir- nology and its application in IoT (Internet of development and motivation, and personal teen PhD students from the three technology Things) and energy-efficient SoC (System-on- coaching. The training was given for two universities participated in this year’s summer Chip). It also included a lecture on startups hours a day for six days in total. Using Belbin and entrepreneurships that was followed by tests, the MoTiv team helped the students

18 | connecthor December 2016| 19 IVa r i a Va r i a I

comedy theater and its school of improvi- sation called The Second City. I have made Chicago-style Internship up my mind to sign up and take one of the improvisation classes. By: Iulian Dobrovolschi Interning at Argonne The world is a book and those who don’t travel read only one page - I’ve been driven by these words all my life, so I decided to Argonne National Laboratory is one of the few throw myself into the challenge of completing the master internship abroad. Living in a society where nearly everyone wants to National Laboratories in the USA. Ironically experience the ‘American dream’, I thought this could be a perfect opportunity to check it out in person, and compare the European it is run by the University of Chicago, which educational system with the American benchmark/standard. Due to the diverse experiences which one could have across the US, does not have any engineering departments. I’ll just give you a taste of what I have discovered in Chicago. Tune in and check out my story below. It is however part of the US Department of Energy (DOE), which means that all kinds How to make it to America of research in the sphere of energy is done Everything started last year when I walked solely at this laboratory. The campus is huge, into my first master program class. The beauty it looks like a village from the inside. It has of the courses in the master program is that all the vital aspects of life, because it is situ- at the beginning of each course lecturers ated 30 km away from the city. The wildlife is present the niche research of their depart- also quite diverse, white deer being the iconic Google campus (main building) ment and discuss the kind of opportunities emblem of Argonne. It is host to more than a predictive controller that is able to reduce destinations I was interested in, and in partic- that follow. Each professor has a huge network 4000 researchers and engineers, and accom- the fuel consumption by giving a route and ular San Francisco and the Silicon Valley area. of connections from different academic envi- modates many conferences and lectures on information about that specific route. So far, After checking out some iconic attractions in ronments and research institutes. After some different top-notch engineering projects. I I am half way through the project and I really San Francisco, I spent one full day wandering coffee talks with different lecturers I already was quite impressed to learn that one of the enjoyed diving into the problem, conducting around the Google, Facebook and Tesla knew that the USA is a hot trend right now, most important tools in engineering, MATLAB, literature study and presenting information Motors campuses. Finally, I paid a visit to and that relevant academic progress is being started its development at Argonne as a PhD about my findings and strategy. The research Stanford University and felt deeply impressed conducted at different institutions! Therefore, project. Moreover, by next year Argonne will group that I am part of is very dynamic. We by it. During the Thanksgiving weekend break I firmly made up my mind to go to the USA. be the home of the most powerful supercom- hang out together in Chicago at clubs, we I planned my visit to New York and at the end puter: Aurora. play games, we have potluck dinners and of my internship I intend to check out Cuba. I first started to prioritize companies based Golden Gate bridge (view from Baker beach) other social activities such as movies. on the type of internship I was interested home to big communities such as the Puerto that, there are not many good places to eat If you haven’t been impressed by the company Final impressions in. Soon I realized that getting in touch with Rican, Indian, Ukrainian and Polish, where you or just hang out, or to dance in a club. People by now, I will tell you about my interaction One particular aspect that I would like to Doing an internship abroad is definitely institutions by yourself was an impossible can encounter different lifestyles. prefer to escape from the hectic life and find with it. As I mentioned earlier, it was a warm point out is that the myth about Americans something that every student should expe- mission. Hence I decided to ask teachers to the more down to earth environments of a welcome. The company organized a guided being workaholics is confirmed. They might rience. You get to learn a lot, meet amazing put me in contact with companies they had Yes, everything here is Chicago style. From terrace or bar just a bit outside the city loop. tour through the campus and provided lots not be as productive as the Dutch people, but people and make lifetime memories. Chicago connections with. By sheer chance my current hot-dogs, burgers and other American This way you have a mesmerizing view over of training to make you quickly familiar with their leisure time is pretty much proportional is a perfect destination for all of that, with host company from the USA asked one of the ‘gourmet’ food to beer, salsa dancing, jazz the Chicago skyline in the evening. the work you will be doing. In my department to the time they spend at work. The majority plenty of job opportunities and experienced department’s lecturer for some internship music and other ways of life. The city has a there were plenty of young students like me. of them arrive at work around 9 a.m. and leave people to lead you in the right direction. I candidates. I was humbled by the oppor- vast history of art culture and is packed with Chicagoans are very welcoming, I guess I met people from all over the world and had around 6 p.m. strongly believe that as a student you have tunity that was offered, and now, here I am small exhibition centers and public sculp- this is actually part of the American culture. really great experiences. to go out and explore new limits, and frankly, in Chicago, Illinois at the Argonne National tures. One of the most famous is the Cloud Independent of the location or people, they Exploring the USA I am happy that I was one of them. See you Laboratory, Transportation Technology R&D Gate Sculpture, situated in the heart of would welcome you with the classic “Hey, The task I was assigned to is part of a big The United States is a beautiful country but later! Center. Chicago. As you walk down the streets you how are you doing today?” and unless you project which is conducted at the request - oh God it IS huge. As an intern, Argonne get a glimpse of American culture starting are anti-social you cannot avoid engaging of the DOE. I am part of the Transportation provides several free days for travelling Chicago lifestyle from 50s up to today. From wood-like houses with them in a random conversation. I have division, and my research topic is in the same around the country. The most convenient Chicago, also known as the windy city, is one to glossy and overwhelming marble towers. been experiencing this at my job, the bar, area. The current trend in the automotive way is by plane and the tickets for flights of the top three cities in USA that one would Of course, these ones are concentrated bank, shops, sporting games and even while industry is focused on connected and auto- are pretty reasonable. In the first months of want to live in. Its unique allure includes the downtown, but surprisingly a big majority on Uber rides. The city is also famous for its mated cars, and guess what - that is exactly living in Chicago I visited most of its attrac- world’s top skyscrapers, as well as the river- of them are just office buildings. Because of the field that I am exploring. I have to design tions. The West Coast was one of the travel walks along the channel that split Chicago in three parts: North-East, South-East and West. The city is very ripe with diversity, and it is

Alcatraz island (former-high-security prison) Riverside downtown Chicago (Trump building on the right) downton Chicago skyline (view from Lincoln park) San Francisco (with the cable car)

20 | connecthor December 2016| 21 IAssociation TECHNOLOGYI Excursion AME Icons of EE: Thomas Alva Edison By: Quinty Peters By: Matthijs van Oort

he excursion to Applied Micro hear, because it was a fellow student of ours uring the late 80s of the 19th century Electronics, also called AME, was the that gave the presentation. He talked about there was a battle between two engi- Thighlight of September 28. AME is an his work at AME and how he as student expe- Dneering companies called ’The War independent developer and manufacturer of riences his part-time job. It was also made of Currents‘. Most engineers will have heard high quality electronic products. People from clear to us that we also could apply for a part- about this battle for the standard in electricity electrical, mechanical, software, and indus- time job at AME, which is very interesting and networks, and the outcome of this completion trial engineering work together to develop a great opportunity. did have a huge impact on the way we work a new demanded product for the customer. with electricity. One of the two competing AME is also very interesting since this busi- After the presentation we got a tour through companies was the company of Thomas Alva ness is located at our city, Eindhoven. the company. As usual when visiting such a Edison, one of the greatest inventors from his company, everybody had to wear a coat and time with over 1000 patents to his name. But We all went by bike to AME. After we arrived, foot grounders. There was a lot to see. The how did he become one of the greatest inven- we got a short presentation about AME and guide told us about the process cycle step tors? What was his role in the war of currents? how it functions. It was extra interesting to by step. We could see everything from a very And what is his contribution to today’s engi- close range. What I found exciting to see was almost nobody knew all the answers. Luckily, neering? the live-cam from which you could see the the questions were discussed afterwards so soldering process in a machine. All machines we were not left behind without answers. Thomas Edison was born in 1847 as the were made for very precise actions, which is seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden logical of course, but it is still fascinating how Then it was time to just talk about AME and Edison and Nancy Matthews Elliot. As a young mankind built such machines. ask questions to the present employees while boy Edison developed a hearing problem, having a drink and some snacks. It was all which led to partial deafness during his whole Having returned from the tour, an assignment open and friendly which was very fun. There lifetime. The cause of this problem, told by was waiting for us to be made. The questions was no real ending time so after the assign- Edison himself, was that he was picked up made you think about details which you have ment everybody was free to leave whenever by the ears by a train conductor to prevent Edison’s first light bulb to take into account during the development he or she wanted. him from falling off the train. Expert however The beginning of Thomas’s famous career was producing light bulbs based on the light bulb of a new product. They were not quite easy, doubt the story of Edison because the partial at the age of twelve as a newspaper boy at of Edison with carbon filament. This in its turn deafness was running through his family the railway station of Port Huron. One of the led to an enormous technical impulse in the blood. Another remarkable thing about his talents of Edison was very soon visible while region of Eindhoven. life is that he did not go to school at all. As he started selling a new paper, which he a young child he was taught by his mother wrote with four assistants, next to the papers Besides the light bulb, Thomas Edison is also Excursion ASML at home, while at a later age he educated he had to sell. This talent for being a business well known for his contribution to the war of himself by reading books about science, art man eventually led him to found fourteen currents. During the war of currents, Edison’s By: Martijn de Kok and natural philosophy. companies during his lifetime, including company called Edison General Electric General Electric, which is still a huge company (which eventually became General Electric) n Thursday the 13th of October, a design choices in the development of the buildings. The buildings reminded me a lot nowadays. competed with Westinghouse Electric (which group of Electrical Engineering lithography machine. His presentation taught of the TU/e: there was a very nice campus-like employed the famous engineer Nikola Tesla). Ostudents, including myself, visited me several new and interesting things in only atmosphere. One of the inventions Thomas Edison is cred- According to Thomas, a low-voltage DC grid ASML in Veldhoven. ASML is well-known a short amount of time. ited for is the invention of the evanescent would be much safer than an AC grid which as the world’s largest developer and manu- After lunch we were given a case study to light bulb in 1879. This is however not totally needs a higher voltage. To strengthen his facturing of lithography machines. These We were lucky to be the first group excur- work on in small groups. The objective was fair because he was not the real inventor of statement, Edison designed an electric chair machines combine research disciplines sion to visit ASML’s brand-new Experience to design a system that could detect and the light bulb at all. The first light bulb was for performing an execution based on AC from several engineering fields, including Centre. This room was built to provide visi- remove contaminations on the wafer stage. invented by Humphrey Davy, which was voltage. This invention supported the, at Mechanical Engineering, Software Science, tors a hands-on experience with the various We presented our “search and destroy” system working in the electrical and chemical part that time, rising public furor over a series of and of course Electrical Engineering. machine parts on display, without having to concept to the other groups, who in turn of science, in 1806, way before the birth of deathly accidents with AC high-voltage lines. enter the cleanroom. There was also a 3D film presented their own ideas. What was really Thomas. While he was not the real inventor This however did not compensate for the The excursion day was specifically organised showing the operation of the wafer scanner interesting to hear afterwards: ASML engi- of the light bulb, his light bulb does have a cheap production of the AC grid. for Electrical Engineering students from all and a ‘surveillance camera’-style film that neers had already attempted most of our huge impact on the way we live and work over the country. Besides the familiar faces shows the fast-forwarded construction of a suggestions! today (especially in the region of Eindhoven). Overall, the inventions of Thomas Edison do from Eindhoven, there were students from complete lithography machine. Thomas found a way to make a light bulb influence the way we live and work nowa- the University of Twente, Delft University The day was concluded with a drink with which could be made so inexpensive, due to days. Maybe he did not do all the inventions of Technology and the ‘Hogeschool van Max Schoonderbeek, a TU/e Electrical all the participants. I enjoyed talking with the fact that he used carbon as a filament, that himself, but he did find a market fit for the Amsterdam’. Engineering graduate, gave us a short presen- our fellow students from other universities, it could be a commercial product. inventions with his entrepreneurial skills. And tation about what a week at ASML was like. and one particular ASML engineer who was although he did not win the war of currents After a brief welcome and introduction, Afterwards we were given a tour through the noticeably enthusiastic about his job. All in A good example to see this invention in rela- due to the hard competition with AC voltage professor Hans Butler, who works both at various buildings, seeing the view from the all, I think I can safely say that all of us had a tion with the way we live now in the region companies, he really did have an influence on ASML and at the Control Systems group at our top floor of ASML tower and the system of great time during the excursion. The electric chair Edison designed during of Eindhoven is the foundation of Philips the way we look at power grids today. university, took the stage to explain several cleanrooms that runs through the various the war of currents in 1891. In the first years the company was

22 | connecthor December 2016| 23 IVa r i a Va r i a & advertorialI

to wear head-scarfs, the toilets weren’t seats anymore and the traffic laws were more like... STORM, around the world guidelines. We’ve seen Turkmenistan, which had a whole city, Ashgabat, built specifically By: Maarten Slenter to impress foreigners. We’ve seen Uzbekistan, where on the day of our arrival, the president ugust 14. After months of working motor. Since this is a very complicated piece died, causing a three-day period of national on the motorcycle and barely seeing of electronics, we bought a complete solu- mourning, cancelling all our events. We’ve Amy friends (sorry guys!), we finally tion from a company called Unitek, located seen Kazachstan, a country which we couldn’t left for our tour around the world. First stop, near Stuttgart. On our second day we went enter for about eight hours because the Munich! We hadn’t really been able to test from Munich to Vienna, meaning we would Internet at the border wasn’t working. We’ve the motorcycle yet, aside from a single day pass by relatively close to Unitek, allowing us seen Kyrgyzstan, the most beautiful country driving around the Netherlands. Soon, we to send one of our vans with a motorcycle to during our trip, located for a large part in the found out why test time is so important. On the manufacturer in order to ask their help in Himalayas. And finally, we’ve seen China, the very first day, the motorcycle broke down, determining what went wrong. where the roads returned to acceptable due to a software error on my part. Starting conditions (no more playing mini-games of off the thing that you have been working To allow the split-off van to catch up, we soon “dodge-the-hole” while driving 100 km/h) but towards for two years, that’ll put everyone decided to stay in Vienna for an extra day. We other drivers’ skills took a turn for the worst. in a bad mood. Our second motorcycle was had a back-up day planned in Istanbul, which still having issues with a current measure- meant we had to move everything, charging And now, after surviving the whole of Europe ment, which meant we couldn’t use that one locations, sleeping locations, events, that and Asia without a scratch (well almost, that either. In order to fix the motorcycle, four was planned between Vienna and Istanbul. accident with the taxi doesn’t count), we’ve people from our team, including me, spent Luckily, in Vienna, we had a great workshop already been in two accidents in our first the whole night replacing parts and making available to us from the local URE. Also, the week North-America. No one got hurt and we sure this mistake could not happen again. We Dutch ambassador there was kind enough weren’t to blame for either accident (I swear!), returned to the hostel around 6 AM. There I to provide us with not one, but two delicious but clearly, our adventures are not over yet. experienced something new to me: not being dinners at his residence. All of this meant that able to sleep because of stress. About two after two days and another almost sleepless or three hours later, we gathered the whole night, we finally had two working motorcy- team and prepared to leave for Vienna. Fairly cles. The STORM World Tour could now finally certain that we had fixed the problem, we set start. off with high hopes for Vienna. Imagine how Lunch lecture Sioux I, how we, felt when on the second day, the Of course, we have still had plenty of set- By: Martine Dubling (Sioux) motorcycle broke down again... backs, plenty of problems (no, challenges!). But most of all, we have had at least one Both times, it was the inverter that was working motorcycle. With this motorcycle, ees Kooijman graduated (1986) at Embedded Systems and is acting as system damaged and had to (partly) be replaced. The we have crossed through all of Asia. We’ve Eindhoven University of Technology, architect in various projects such as the inverter is the name for the power electronics seen Turkey, where slowly the western civili- Kwhere he specialized in low-noise Phenom desktop electron microscope. that convert the DC power from the batteries zation that we’re all so used to started fading analog electronics and signal processing. At into AC power for use in the three-phase away. We’ve seen Iran, where our ladies had Philips CFT he was leader of the Sensors and During the lecture Kees highlighted the elec- Measurement Technology group. In 1997 he tronic design challenges at Phenom-World. joined FEI where he was involved with image Phenom-World is a leading global supplier of and data acquisition and analysis. As an desktop scanning electron microscopes and electronic systems architect he was respon- imaging solutions for submicron scale appli- sible for the Small Dual Beam generation cations. Sioux contributes to the multidisci- of FEI instruments. In 2015 he joined Sioux plinary Phenom project with experience in technical software, mechatronics, electronics, industrial mathematics and remote solutions. liquids appear to be valuable ingredients The electronic design, especially in the high in this process where creativity, ownership voltage generation (up to 30,000 Volts) for and perseverance of the Sioux engineers are the new electron source, appears to be quite severely challenged. tricky. Costs, physical volume, reliability, ultra- low noise and stability where main themes in High voltage design comes with many the work at Sioux. hurdles like excessive stress on components and undesirable side effects like ionization A traditional “requirements-design-realiza- and flash-overs. To tackle these, fundamental tion” process is hardly applicable because of studies, proof-of-concepts and experimental hard-to-formulate requirements and many work are typical activities before the actual technical unknowns. Rather vague customer product design can start. A hands-on attitude requirements like “make it as good (cheap, is indispensable for this type of electronic small) as possible” make it even harder to design work but also illustrates why it is fun follow a traditional V-model. As mentioned by to work at Sioux. Sioux pizza lunch at the lunchlecture Kees, pizzas, gyrators, beer crates and magic

24 | connecthor December 2016| 25 IAdvertorial DepartmentI

Towards Dynamic Contrast Specific Ultrasound Tomography The ideal side job for an awesome company By: Libertario Demi By: Esmee Huismans

Esmee Huismans studies Electrical It all started with an observation between UCA and ultrasound a new marker Engineering at the TU/e and was President We began this study from the observation for UCA with great potential for imaging was of the Thor Electrical Engineering Student of unexpected artifacts in contrast-specific then discovered [Demi et al, Journal of the Union. Esmee: “I was on the Thor Board imaging [Mischi et al, International Contrast Acoustical Society of America 2014]. for a year. That was a really nice experi- Ultrasound Symposium 2007]. These artifacts ence. I had the opportunity to work on affect standard dynamic contrast-enhanced We have now obtained exciting results, acquiring other skills and get to know a ultrasound imaging (D-CEUS), and limit which prove the applicability of this marker Time intensity curves obtained from lot of people. Nevertheless, I am happy D-CEUS application in contexts where accu- to dynamic contrast-specific ultrasound cumulative phased delay that I am back hitting the books.” rate localization and quantification of ultra- tomography (DCS-UST), and named this new able to detect angiogenesis, a key process in sound contrast agents (UCA) concentration imaging modality “cumulative phased delay cancer growth, and hence detect and localize hanks to her executive year, Esmee are crucial. imaging” (CPDI). cancer. developed a large network amongst TEE students. A network that she can In essence, D-CEUS is an imaging technique CPDI is based on the different physical The research performed at the Biomedical put to good use in her role as ASML campus where diagnostic ultrasound is used in combi- phenomena behind nonlinear propagation Diagnostics Group on contrast ultrasound promoter. Esmee: “The previous campus nation with intravascular contrast agents, of ultrasound in tissue and UCA, producing dispersion imaging (CUDI) is a perfect promoter for the Electrical Engineering, typically gas-filled microbubbles encapsu- a different delay accumulation between the example of advanced signal processing tech- Mathematics and Information Technology lated in a lipid shell. To distinguish UCA echo second harmonic (2H) and fundamental (F0) niques which may be applied to D-CEUS data faculties went off to do an internship, and he signals from tissue, the nonlinear response component of the ultrasound field. In partic- with the final goal of detecting and localizing envisioned me as his successor. He said: ‘You of UCAs to ultrasound is usually exploited. ular, a positive delay between 2H and F0 is a cancer [Sloun et al, Medical Image Analysis know a lot of people, have a good speaking Microbubbles respond in fact to insonifica- marker specific to UCA, as opposed to varia- 2016]. style and know how to convey a message.’ So tion oscillating, not just at the (fundamental) tions in harmonic amplitude (exploited for that’s how I came to know ASML and quickly frequency of the applied ultrasound field, but echo imaging), speed of sound, and attenu- The future ahead took over the reigns. It’s an ideal side job for also at the second harmonic frequency, as well ation (exploited for ultrasound tomography). In particular, the research on CPDI has great me!” the company, I can fully confirm this. The I help interested parties with questions and as at higher harmonics, sub-harmonic, super- CPDI has already shown capable of detecting potential in the field of breast cancer diag- atmosphere is very open, people of all levels can tell them a lot about possibilities for an harmonics, and ultra-harmonic frequencies. and imaging UCA concentrations when nostics. A great employer comfortably converse with each other and internship, graduation project or job open- working at pressure regimes (0.05 ≤ MI ≤ 0.2) Most Eindhoven technology students are you can go in all sorts of directions with your ings. I also provide the required feedback to Based on these harmonic components, a and frequencies (2.5-3 MHz) of interest for In fact, nowadays the only breast cancer likely familiar with ASML. But what may be (technical) career. It’s an awesome company ASML. For example, if activities have been variety of contrast-specific imaging tech- clinical applications. screening method that has proved effective less well-known is that ASML supplies all the with a very positive vibe!” organised, such as a presentation, company niques have been developed in the past years, is mammography. Unfortunately, mammog- big chip producers in the world. Samsung, visit or scholarship, then I let ASML know and are clinically available. Getting noticed raphy is patient-unfriendly, costly, and false Intel and TSMC, among others, use the inno- Accessible intermediary how the student came across and what can The first CPDI images were presented at the positives are common. Abnormal mammo- vative lithography technology to make the So much for the company endorsement. But be improved, if necessary. However, tissue itself induces the formation 20th European Symposium on Ultrasound grams require further examinations using smallest possible and most powerful inte- what does Esmee do for students? Esmee: “I of harmonic components as a consequence Contrast Imaging in 2015, and were awarded additional mammograms, X-ray CT, ultra- grated circuits. Esmee: “ASML is well-known am really an intermediary. It’s a lot easier and Recommendation of the cumulative nonlinear distortion that with the best poster award prize for the cate- sound, MRI and often biopsies. Moreover, the in Eindhoven and is also seen as an appealing more accessible for students to approach Esmee: “I wholly recommend that anyone occurs during ultrasound propagation gory New Directions. use of ionizing radiation in mammography employer. Now that I’ve spent a few days at me instead of just knocking on ASML’s door. who is in the technology field get to know through tissue, further deteriorating the and X-ray CT is accompanied by the risk of ASML. The company is enjoying unprec- image quality. Also, a recent paper on CPDI was awarded inducing DNA mutations that spur cells to edented achievements. It is incredibly diffi- ’featured article’ by Physics in Medicine grow into tumors. cult to advance in the chip market. To make Moreover, the observed artifacts, which and Biology, and selected to appear in the chips that are even smaller and can do even appear to be caused by nonlinear propaga- European society for radiotherapy and In this context, a radiation-free technique that more. Nevertheless, ASML always manages to tion of ultrasound through microbubbles, oncology (ESTRO) newsletter in the section combines the diagnostic value of D-CEUS get ahead of the game. They build gigantic, affect standard DCE-US imaging techniques, Editor’s Picks: Highlight Radiotherapy Physics imaging with the advantages of computed complex machines to allow them to work in leading to possible tissue misclassification, Papers. tomography would represent a revolution nanometres. I think it’s one of the most chal- misinterpretation of bubble concentrations, in breast cancer care. This is indeed what lenging work environments for technically and image quality reduction. In October 2016, our most recent paper CPDI enables: the development of dynamic oriented people.” on CPDI, titled “Towards Dynamic Contrast contrast-specific ultrasound tomography Eureka! Specific Ultrasound Tomography”, was (DCS-UST). Want to know more? Studying these artefacts in search of solu- published on Nature Scientific Reports. You may recognise Esmee from her time with tions we got inspired, and investigating In this paper, we report on the first study When imaging the breast, DCS-UST will allow Thor or from the lecture hall. Do you have the phenomena involved in the interaction demonstrating the ability of CPDI to image for a more practical, faster, and less operator- more questions about ASML? Then contact and quantify ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) dependent imaging procedure compared Esmee - she will be glad to help. You can also kinetics. This aspect was crucial to evaluate to standard echo-contrast, while preserving email her at: [email protected] as to understand the clinical relevance of this accurate imaging of contrast kinetics, new imaging modality. In fact, by analysis of providing access to the whole 3D breast www.workingatasml.com/students the UCA kinetics one could infer on the prop- vasculature, and ultimately adding impor- erties of the vascular structure the microbub- tant features to multi-parametric ultrasound CPD images as obtained from two diffe- bles are flowing through, ultimately behind tomography of the breast. rent tissue mimicking phantoms

26 | connecthor December 2016| 27 IVa r i a Va r i a I A summer in Sichuan! IEEE Congres By: Bram Hooimeijer By: Frank Boerman

A hundred students spread over four cities following a seven week program filled with business, culture and academics in China. n Wednesday 17th of August it was Here you can see some impressions of what That’s what the Netherlands Asia Honours Summer School (NAHSS) is all about! This summer, my trip went to Chengdu, the capital finally time for the biannual IEEE it was like. Most of the pictures are from the of the Sichuan province in southwest China. A trip I’ll never forget! ORegion 8 Student & Young Professional most fun night, the multicultural evening on Congress. From all over Region 8 (Europe, Saturday. Everybody dresses up in his or her fter our flight we first stop for lunch, Africa and the Middle East) Student Branch cultural outfit and brings typical food and which is also our first taste of Chinese boards and members flocked to the beautiful drinks from his/her country. Obviously we Aculture. There are no courses and city of Regensburg, Germany, for five days of dressed up in orange and brought ‘jenever’, you do not have your own dish, everybody meeting wonderful people, networking and Schrobbelèr and ‘oranjebitter’ as drinks. For shares dishes which are put in the middle attending interesting workshops. From the food we brought ‘stroopwafels’ and ‘drop’. It of the table. The food in Sichuan is fantastic, IEEE SB Eindhoven we went with the whole was an awesome experience and I hope to especially if you like spicy. Yet, you get used board: Steven, Jeanine, Marco and me. bring a visit again to a later edition. to spicy, or have to, anyway. Out on the road, you note the many high apartment buildings, built in groups of five to ten identical build- This panda amused the public by getting The monastery and the grasslands of ings to cope with fast growth of the cities. stuck in a tree. Tagong. Shops and small restaurants can be found all What I found most remarkable in Chinese back – through the mountains. The taxi trip over the university quarters, as well as outside culture, is the atmosphere in the parks. takes another three hours but is absolutely the campus. Notable are of course the street During the morning, people get together to phenomenal. Even though the altitude is vendors, selling everything ranging from pig do yoga or tai chi. In the afternoon, people 4000m there are grasslands everywhere, noses to rabbit heads: all Chinese delicacies. get together to dance. The large groups of with gentle hills divided by creeks. Along the Shops are open until far in the night and there people dancing outside make a happy sight. way we find nomads, Buddhist flags, sculp- is always something happening outside. It’s a However, when you stand by and watch, you tures, monasteries, temples and monks. In different world, and very nice! are always urged to join in. In the weekends the end we reach Tagong, where we finish the people do sports like badminton, or even day with a Yak burger. The Tibetan village is We stay in Chengdu for five weeks, which make music together. Best part is, everybody small and has only three streets, a very sharp allows us to get accustomed to the Chinese can join in at any moment! contrast with a city like Chengdu. life: morning classes cover Chinese language, afternoon classes cover Chinese history and With our classes finished, we have the The serenity of the grasslands and the town politics. No bread for lunch here, so during weekend off for ourselves. Together with are delightful. After a breakfast with yak- the lunch break we look for new small restau- four others, we try to use every weekend yoghurt we set out into the grasslands, rants, exploring all sorts of meals. Both our to explore as many places as possible. The towards a large monastery. As we walk down classes were very enjoyable, and after a week weekend after our exams, we get on the the valley we find Tibetans on their motors, I was already able to use some Chinese when bus in the early morning for a ten-hour trip driving from the town towards the monastery. ordering food or taking a taxi. In Chengdu, to Kangding, a small city west of Chengdu. Their English is excellent and they like western few people speak English, which makes From there, we fetch the last taxi which tourists. It is a delight to find Tibetan culture learning Chinese quite rewarding. takes the five of us – yes, that’s four in the as well as Chinese in this corner of Sichuan.

Once we reached the monastery, one of the monks guides me through the temple, as long as we have taken off our shoes. Multiple Buddhist sculptures fill the hall, together with pictures of the different Dalai lamas. It is an incredible place to be. In front of every statue, the monk stops, and shows me the customs of his religion. He enjoys our interest and after- wards invites us for tea. Living in only a small shack outside the temples, his hospitality is amazing. Only a few days later, we leave the barren grasslands for the busy Shanghai.

The NAHSS is a yearly summer school open for all second- and third-year bachelor students, and includes a multidisciplinary project as well. More information can be Here, I am making my own rice bread by A typical Chinese façade we saw in found at http://bachelor.nahss.nl/, on which smashing cook rice to dough. The result Chongqing, another big city in southwest the new program will appear, probably, in was delicious! China. December.

28 | connecthor December 2016| 29 IPuzzle Va r i a I Puzzle Looking down on us By: Tom van Nunen

ur world has come to a point where Objective / Rules we actually have companies offering • Complete the grid with the digits 1 to Opedestrian crossing lights that are 9 in such a way that the four numbers built into the floor, so people notice them around each diamond shape add to when they’re walking around whilst they’re 20. busy doing stuff on their smartphone. Right • Each diamond uses a different way to after this news hit me, I instantly started add to 20, i.e. if there is already 1 + 3 + thinking of a person whom I admire a lot. 7 + 9, then there will not be another I’m talking about a man that presented a using the digits 1, 3, 7 and 9 (in any truly controversial idea that was, obviously order). but regrettably, not accepted by the general • The same digit isn’t allowed to touch, public for a quite some time. Let’s just put it even diagonally. out there: one of my biggest idols is Charles Darwin. Please send your answer to connecthor@ thor.edu before 12 January. Despite that I think everyone has heard of Darwin, I would still like to take the oppor- tunity to outline his most famous book, published 157 years ago: On the Origin of Species. Written in such a way that it was comprehensible for non-specialists, it attracted a wide public, which in turn started a lot of discussion. It took about 70 years until his ideas were really accepted as the under- lying concept of life sciences.

In his book, Darwin poses quite a number of statements, of which my favorite is undoubt- edly the process of natural selection. As biolo- Winner previous puzzle gist Ernst Mayr puts it, individuals less suited The winner of the previous puzzle is to the environment are less likely to survive Douwe de Vries. and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their heritable traits to future genera- tions, which produces the process of natural does not mean that we are apes). It feels like attacks by at least one order of magnitude. selection. the current set of organisms is somehow Don’t think of me as some kind of sadist, but fixed. it almost sounds funny. With all our inven- Organisms seem to adapt themselves to their tions we’ve brought ourselves to this point, environment, although this is in fact a passive Perhaps the species that’s changing the most, where we take our safety for granted, where activity; they are not actively adapting but is us, humans. Our life expectancy has been our technologies have made us so unaware rather the individuals with the most prefer- increasing slowly for millennia already, but of dangers that we don’t know how to handle able (random) genetic mutations turn out really sky-rocketed in the last two centuries, them anymore. Apparently, some of us need to survive. Think for example of a group of during which it more than doubled. Why is pedestrian traffic lights built into the floor bears, living in an area with lots of snow. If that? Are we adapting to our environment because they don’t understand that looking the one bear just happens to have a lighter at such a rapid pace? Are we suited to the down to a smartphone screen is not a safe colored skin than the others, that one is less environment so well? I think it’s exactly the way of participating in everyday traffic. likely to be noticed by a prey and will thus other way around: we’ve made the environ- have a better chance of catching that prey. ment suit us. Advancements in for example It almost sounds as if Darwin is making a small The other bears will catch less food and, harsh hygiene, shelter, medicine and food made return. For decades, we’ve been adapting our as it sounds, more of them will starve. that our natural causes of death became less environment for our own benefit, and now of a threat. Turns out we’re really good at our smartphones are trying to distract us; It seems like Darwin’s theory only applied to keeping dangers away from us. to make us less suited for the environment. species that lived long ago. Swimming crea- Never stop thinking, always pay attention, tures developed into land creatures, polar In this context I find it more than remark- and you’ll be more likely to survive and more bears developed from other kinds of bears able that the number of selfie-related deaths likely to reproduce and leave your heritable Puzzle solution September edition (Connecthor 35) Douwe with his prize and humans developed from apes (which outnumbers the number of fatal shark traits to future generations.

30 | connecthor December 2016| 31