Serial Entrepreneurship, Chess Technology, Bluetooth chips & a Photonic Chip Factory in Twente

There is something particular about returning to the place where it all began. Not as a student, but as someone who now knows how it works — how an idea falls apart, how a team breaks down, how a company somehow makes it off the ground anyway. The Lustrum Alumni Days are, in that sense, more than a reunion. They are a mirror that shows you how far you have already come.

On Friday 8 May, two sessions are on the programme that capture exactly that feeling. Six speakers, each with a different story, each with the same starting point.

Innovate or Checkmate: From Twente Roots to Global Impact

What makes Twente the ideal breeding ground for innovation? It sounds like a marketing line — but for Giels Brouwer and Maarten Kollen, it is simply their own history.

Giels Brouwer (Industrial Engineering & Management, 2007–2012) built one company after another after graduating. Serial entrepreneurship is not coincidence, it is a way of thinking. And that way of thinking started here, at the UT. Maarten Kollen (Communication Science, 2007–2014) has recently joined as CEO of DGT (Digital Game Technology), the world market leader in chess technology. He is building further on a company that has been reshaping the chess world for decades. Together with Roy Spit, CEO of Novel-T, they will discuss what they call 'High-Tech Noaberschap': the Twente combination of no-nonsense thinking, craftsmanship, and the instinct to build together rather than compete alone.

Three people, three stories, and above all a shared conviction that the region you come from shapes you more than you realise at the time.

17:00–17:45 | UPark Hotel | Language: Dutch

From Lab to Factory: Chips Going Out into the World

Maryam Dodangeh began her career in a UT lab, working on her PhD research in Integrated Circuit Design under the supervision of Bram Nauta. That is where she designed her first Bluetooth chip. Today she works as Senior Analog Design Engineer at Renesas Electronics, one of the world's largest chip manufacturers.

Twan Korthorst (Electrical Engineering, 1990–1996) goes one step further: he is currently building Twente's first photonic chip factory through New Origin. More than a concept, more than a research proposal — a fully operational factory.

Also joining the session is Leontien Kalverda (Communication Science, 2004–2011). As Program Manager at ChipTech Talent at the UT, she works on a challenge that is just as urgent as the technology itself: how do you make sure there are enough people to actually build those chips?

Together, they will take you through the full journey from laboratory to production line. The breakthroughs that take years. The patents, the production scale, and the moments when you genuinely wonder whether it will ever work. And why Twente, for them too, turned out to be exactly the right place for it all to come together.

17:00–17:45 | UPark Hotel | Language: English

Two sessions that take you behind the scenes of careers that started on the same campus you once walked. Not polished success stories told from above, but honest conversations with people who know the road.

Want to be there? Register for Friday 8 May, or make it a full weekend.