Science and engineering are great, as long as they are used. Think of vaccines, which lose their value when fewer people make use of them. That is why this article on another icon of Electrical Engineering heroes not necessarily a man known for his inventions, but for his propagation of other men’s ideas. The 19th century was host to some of the largest and most useful developments in physics, electronics and science in general. ...

As a first year first year student and member of Scintilla and the “de Vonk” committee, I am met with a lot of new expressions. This includes words from student jargon which were unknown to me when I still was in high school. At my high school, it was usual to address my teachers as Mister or Madam. Where if you’d want to address the professors at their correct titles, it’d be impossible to remember in some cases. ...

Extending inspection periods can result in a lower level of safety, but based on insight from using a mathematical model it is possible to use improvements to the rolling stock to create more efficient inspection schedules while maintaining the same level of safety. Until recently, the trains of the Dutch Railways were inspected daily. Frequency and scope of inspections were prescribed by legislation and regulations. Inspections were designed to ensure that the rolling stock to be deployed for passenger service with a sufficient degree of safety. ...

We visited Bram Nauta, professor in Integrated Circuit Designing and head of the research group Integrated Circuit Design(ICD). The University of Twente is really honoured to have Prof. Nauta as a reknowned professor here. There is continuous advancements that are happening in the field of ICD thanks to Bram. He has received a lot of Titles including awards such as Simon Stevin Meester Award which is the largest Dutch National prize for Technical Achievements. ...

After the introduction of a reformed Dutch constitution, many things in the Netherlands changed. The citizens got more freedom: of speech, religion, etc. This also meant that there was more liberty in creating groups of like-minded people. That is why, in 1855, a new law was passed that allowed associations (vereenigingen) to be set up freely. The government need not get notified of the foundation of new associations, unless the association wanted to become a legal person on its own, removing duties and responsibilities from the (board) members. ...

Are you biased well to do your job? At AnSem at least our integrated circuits are biased correctly. How come? Because we are using an automated analog IC design process that always results in proper operating modes. We call it the Sizing Tool. Some of us might know that in the mid 90’s fully automated analog integrated circuit design was a hot topic. Many attempts have been made to create fully automated a transistor circuit based on functional specifications. ...