Design is not only ID
Eindhoven was back in the full glare of the spotlight last week during Dutch Design Week. The well-attended Mind the Step exhibition put on by our three beloved high-tech universities (excluding the wannabe nerds from Wageningen) was a resounding success. Once again the event drew a record number of visitors and an abundance of ambitious students who displayed their projects. The Industrial Designers who yet again were responsible for the large majority of the projects deserve nothing but praise. And congratulations, among them were some gems. Still, a minor criticism is in order.
Presenting your project to more than 70,000 interested people is not something that only ID students should aspire to. Every department should embrace this opportunity to show the solutions they are working on. Dutch Design Week provides all of us, as TU Eindhoven, with the ideal platform for showcasing our capabilities and our work in progress. So shall we agree that from now on we won't let the word ‘design’ deter us? Okay, it's a deal.
That's enough complaining, of course there were also plenty of highlights to enjoy last week. First of all, for a short while we boosted the numbers of the female population of innoSpace quite considerably by inviting Fresh Connection. This is a national community that is keen to encourage entrepreneurship among students. Besides the fact that we do, of course, completely support their vision, the overrepresentation of women in their ranks is an added bonus. Perhaps our beloved President of the Executive Board might just get his way: an all-female student team. Not really interdisciplinary, but good.
Fuck fast fashion
The Wednesday evening with Fresh Connection was a Jan Mengeling [read 'mix' - ed.] not only of genders, but also of studies and backgrounds. The students of humanities and sciences were exposed almost literally to a tough case by ID students Fabienne and Jessica. These 'top chicks' from LabeledBy want to soon be printing our clothes fully customized in 3D. Fuck fast fashion! Sounds appealing, right? They could certainly use some TBK, TN, WTB and EE help with this. All spam is welcome at f.m.h.v.d.weiden @student.tue.nl.
Anyway, to round things off, why not make the occasional foray into the world of entrepreneurs by taking part in StartUp24. It's a very strict (and ‘free’) event organized by the brother of King Lager himself, Mister ‘Startup’ Constantijn van Oranje. Whatever else, it is sure to be a majestic twenty-four hours. See you in the Gaslab!
Students Tom Selten (Innovation Sciences) and Bas Verkaik (Mechanical Engineering) are very much involved with the TU/e innovation Space. They will be blogging about what's really going on within the four walls of the Gaslab, where the hotspot of innovation is located.
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