TU/e community proud of professor EW Dijkstra’s legacy

Making intangible heritage visible is no easy task. Nevertheless, the Art and Heritage Committee (KEC) took on the challenge and, to mark TU/e’s 70th anniversary, created an exhibition featuring five important items that represent the university. The Digital Twin Lab proved to be an indispensable partner.

An interactive website now showcases the Big Five of TU/e heritage. From October 12 through 16, a touchscreen in Neuron will allow visitors to find information about the items and their locations.

The framed autograph that former Queen Juliana signed in 1957 at the university’s opening, hangs on the wall in the offices of the Executive Board. A digital twin of the royal signature can now be found on the platform.

EW Dijkstra

One person with a long-standing connection to the university nominated more than twelve items. That person is Tom Verhoeff, who began studying mathematics at what was then the Eindhoven University of Technology (Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven, or THE) fifty years ago and continued working at TU/e as a computer science lecturer until last year.

One of his submissions was the THE multiprogramming system from the 1960s. “This software was conceived by Professor EW Dijkstra, who taught me when I was a student, and developed further by a small team. It is still known worldwide and represents a milestone in the field of operating systems.”

Verhoeff helped explore how this development could be made visible. “I created an interactive visualization for experts, and Khristupas Cepelis from the Digital Twin Lab built a version for a broader audience for the TU/e Heritage Platform. It is available to view starting today.”

Not just one student team

The KEC did not select a single student team for the top five, but included all teams collectively. Curator Britte Sloothaak explains: “It’s not just about objects, but also about ideas and ways of thinking. The jury chose ‘the way student teams work’ rather than a specific team.

“When no student teams came forward after the first call for nominations, assistant Brianna Brinkley—whom Sloothaak describes as the person who actually curated the heritage platform—contacted all the teams again. This resulted in five submissions representing the distinctive way student teams work: Phoenix, the recyclable car developed by TU/ecomotive; the TURTLE robots from Tech United; the Stella Terra solar car from Solar Team Eindhoven; a modular building system from VIRTUe; and an arcade machine from gaming team Totem.

Anyone expecting to build a house or play games digitally on the platform will have to lower their expectations. The platform’s interactive features are limited to allowing users to rotate the models.

Sloothaak is almost reluctant to reveal the final number of nominations because it seems “too good to be true,” but the total is around seventy. “The TU/e Heritage Platform is a living platform. For the next anniversary, we would like to present another five items.”

Pictured from left to right: Brianna Brinkley, Tom Verhoeff, and Khristupas Cepelis

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.