UTAlumni NetworkCalendarTwente/4TU Alumni Event Berlin, 7th February 2023

Twente/4TU Alumni Event Berlin, 7th February 2023

Catch a glimpse into the future of smart farms, giga-manufacturing and C02 capturing through mini-presentations by three TU alumni who will talk about innovation and sustainability in their work during a special alumni gathering in Berlin on Tuesday February 7th.

The DEAN* event will be hosted at the Dutch Embassy in Berlin with a great line-up of speakers! Hear more from Gigi Laan (alumna TU Delft) about what it means to be a 25 Guns Taskforce Engineer at Tesla’s Berlin’s Gigafactory. Learn how Andrew Shamu (alumnus TU/e & UT) and his colleagues from startup NeoCarbon plan to reverse climate change by retrofitting working cooling towers in the industrial sector. Delve into the world of precision agriculture with Pavlos Kalaitzoglou (alumnus WUR) and discover how Infarm plans to feed our cities with thousands of cloud connected vertical farms. More details about the speakers follows. The programme also includes updates from both the Embassy as well as our TUs, and concludes with a networking 'borrel'. Prior registration is necessary to attend so please sign up using the link below. 

Gigi Laan started her Bachelors in Civil Engineering at the TU Delft in 2012, after knowing for some time already that she wanted to study in Delft. In search of a more fitting study curriculum though and being in awe of what SpaceX is doing in terms of reusability, she switched to an Aerospace Engineering Master. Getting more and more intrigued by transitioning to reusable and sustainable technology, she joined the Delft Hyperloop student team in the middle of her Masters, and participated in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in Los Angeles. She then joined Tesla in two subsequent internships in the Netherlands, to continue the high on this crazily motivated and dynamic environment. Her Tesla journey didn’t end there though as she after finishing her thesis moved to Germany to join Tesla Gigafactory Berlin in early 2021. This is the first Tesla Gigafactory in Europe and one of the company’s most advanced, sustainable and efficient facilities yet, from which its first Model Y was delivered in March 2022. The factory is designed to manufacture hundreds of thousands of Model Y vehicles, as well as the batteries and powertrains. At Giga Berlin she is part of the 25Guns, a taskforce set up by Elon musk to tackle and resolve the most pressing issues that are holding the factory back from ramping up production. She has been there now for almost two years and is still going strong. 

Andrew Shamu, who has spent most of his life near Münster, Germany, decided in 2014 to make the leap across the border to write his chemical engineering master's thesis in the Membranes, Science and Technology group at the University of Twente. After successfully completing his thesis, he earned his PhD in the field of carbon dioxide dehydration with membranes in the Membrane Materials and Processes group at Eindhoven University of Technology. After two postdocs at the University of Twente and a stint in the CO2 capture department at Bilfinger, Andrew joined Berlin-based cleantech startup NeoCarbon in April 2022 as its first employee and Head of R&D. There, he is leading the company's research and development efforts to create a product that can capture carbon dioxide from ambient air affordably by utilizing industrial cooling towers. Having already successfully captured CO2 with their first prototype, he and his colleagues plan to build by the end of this year a pilot plant with an annual CO2 capture capacity of 100 tons.


Pavlos Kalaitzoglou, originally from Greece, earned his MSc in Plant Sciences from Wageningen University. His current doctoral research focuses on the effects of LED light spectrum and intensity on plant growth and development. Pavlos joined Infarm in 2016 as Director of Crop Science and since last year is VP of Science. Infarm, a start-up founded in Berlin in 2013, has grown to become a world leader in vertical farming of local, fresh, pesticide free local produce with over 1000 employees and activities in 11 countries. The company from a former Siemens washing machine factory on Berlin’s Gartenfeld Island is developing its next generation of vertical farms – 18-metre-high fully-automated “growing chambers” using 95% less water, 99% less space and 75% less fertilizer than conventional land-based farming.

Participants will have an opportunity to meet fellow alumni not only from Twente but also TU Delft, TU Eindhoven & Wageningen University. With over 1500 TU graduates living in the Berlin region there will be a great cross selection of participants from different companies, sectors and roles – the closing reception/borrel will be organized to maximize networking opportunities.

This event is free for alumni from the Dutch Technical Universities but for logistical reasons, prior registration is required via this online form (Registration is being handled by the TU Delft Alumni Office)

-- Note that space for this event is limited. Alumni may be placed on a waiting list if maximum capacity is reached and will receive notification --

Date: Tuesday February 7th 2023

Time: 17:30-21:00hr

Location: Embassy of the Netherlands (Klosterstraße 50, 10179 Berlin, Germany)


Programme:

17:30 – 18:00, Arrival with light refreshments

18:00 – 18:10 Opening words on behalf of the Dutch Embassy

18:10 – 18:25 Updates from your TU's

18:25 – 18:50 Talk by Andrew Shamu, Head of Research & Development – NeoCarbon

18:50 – 19:15 Talk by Gigi Laan, 25 Guns Taskforce Engineer – Tesla Berlin Gigafactory

19:15 – 19:40 Talk by Pavlos Kalaitzoglou, Vice President of Science – Infarm

19:40 – 21:00 Networking Borrel

Alumni in Berlin who are unable to join this gathering but wish to be notified of our future DEAN activities in Germany can submit/update their contact details using the event's registration form. A special DEAN Germany Linkedin group also exists to faciliate sharing information and networking between nearly 8000 graduates living in the country - to request to become a member click here  

* ABOUT DEANThe Dutch Engineers Alumni Network (DEAN) is the cooperation of the four universities of technology of the Netherlands in the field of alumni relations, and launched its activities in 2014. Together, they represent nearly 250,000 alumni all over the world. Today DEAN encompasses over 30 alumni communities in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Nordics, Spain, Switzerland and the USA with activities aimed at connecting local alumni both with each other as well as with students and the universities. Read more: https://www.4tu.nl/en/about_4tu/alumni/

Twente/4TU Alumni Event Berlin, 7th February 2023
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