On Friday, October 3rd, 2025, it's time again for the Alumni Talks! Three prominent alumni will be our guests. How did they end up where they are now, coming from Twente? What is the passion that drives them to do what they do? And what developments do they foresee for the future from their field?
You can engage in conversation with them, either in the auditorium or afterwards at the drinks in the Vestingbar.
NB: If you register as a visitor, we will charge a small fee. However, the drinks afterwards will be on us!
"We don't need subsidies, we need deals."
From Twente to the frontlines: Siete Hamminga on radar systems against drone attacks and scaling up the defense industry
Siete Hamminga is the founder and CEO of Robin Radar Systems, a company that specializes in radar systems for detecting and classifying small flying objects such as birds and drones. His entrepreneurial career began during his studies in Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Twente, where he sold suits and tailcoats to fellow students. He later founded Waleli, a company that developed, among other things, a doorbell that came out on your mobile phone. He was way ahead of his time in the period 2000-2009. Too far, because the general public was not ready for it yet. The concept was sold to Amazon in 2018 under the name Ring for 1 billion dollars ... but not by him.
In 2010, Hamminga bought the rights to a radar technology from TNO and founded Robin Radar Systems, originally with the aim of keeping birds away from aircraft engines and windmills. Where conventional sensors could not detect birds, his technology could. The step to drones, which could also become a safety risk for airports, was then small. But the real game changer was the war in Ukraine, in which the role of drones in modern warfare became clear.
Now there is a loud call to grow the defense industry. To achieve that growth, scalability is crucial, says Hamminga: "For that, the sector does not need subsidies, we need deals." Thanks to mega orders, Robin Radar Systems grew into a global player, with more than 350 radar systems in use in defense, at airports and other critical infrastructures. Hamminga's leadership and innovations were recognized in 2024 with the UT Van den Kroonenberg Prize and the Martin Schröder Prize, which he received from the Commander of the Armed Forces for his contribution to the aviation industry.