From Bachelor Thesis to national media: student Nienke Hamster (IEM) develops fast solution for complex hospital scheduling Read about Nienke's view on all the attention from the media

Our Industrial Engineering & Management student Nienke Hamster was in the spotlight last week. During her internship at Gelre Hospital, she developed a mathematical model that generates an optimal hospital schedule in just 15 seconds.

The media picked up the story: from AD and regional newspapers such as Tubantia, to NPO Radio 1 and Radio 2. Nienke: “It was very special to see how big it became. I knew the topic was relevant, but I didn’t expect this much attention for it. Hopefully, the focus on the schedule solution continues so that manual scheduling is history.”

From idea to implementation

Nienke wrote her bachelor thesis on the model and has already started her master’s degree. “The thesis is finished, and the implementation of the model is further developed by the hospital. I did go back to collaborate and think about how the model can be implemented broadly, since the version I worked on during my thesis only applies to the cardiology department. Soon, I will give a presentation at the hospital to other departments, so that they also know how it works.”

Impressive work

Erwin Hans, Professor of Operations Management in Healthcare at UT, supervised Nienke during the internship. “I don’t just hand out a 10 lightly. For a bachelor thesis, Nienke achieved something exceptional. The type of model she used is normally introduced in the master, because of its complexity. What also made a big difference is that Nienke worked very independently and managed to capture all the requirements for the model by frequently consulting with doctors while keeping them enthusiastic about the outcome. That’s incredibly impressive because doctors don’t easily hand over the control of their schedule.”

Looking ahead

Nienke is not sure what the future holds: “I really enjoy working in healthcare. The solutions you get to design are socially relevant and make a real difference. That makes it very interesting and challenging. But maybe there are also other fields with great challenges too.”