HomeNewsTim van Dijk wins the Voice of Innovation

Tim van Dijk wins the Voice of Innovation

Tim van Dijk has won the De Breed Kreiken Innovation Award. The Industrial Engineering and Management Master's student won the award and accompanying grant for his 'Teaching programming to children' research project. Each year, people can vote for candidates with appealing study grant applications on the website 'The Voice of Innovation'. The three students/alumni with the most votes receive a grant from the De Breed Kreiken Innovation Fund. The student or alumnus with the most votes also wins the De Breed Kreiken Award. 

Learning to program

Van Dijk applied for a grant for his project YOU++. With this project, he wants to teach children to program. His goal is to use the power of programming to elevate general education to a higher level. YOU++ is an online educational platform for children between the ages of 9 and 14 with lessons that combine programming with content from regular education. Successful pilots have already been implemented in Sweden. The next step is to successfully transfer the acquired knowledge and convert it into a sustainable enterprise here in the Netherlands.

Tim van Dijk will also receive a grant with his award, as will those in second and third place, Pim Willemsen (MSc. Civil Engineering & Management) and Ingeborg Bikker (PhD at Applied Mathematics).

Supporting innovative student-entrepreneurs

The De Breed Kreiken Innovation Award and accompanying grants are awarded by the De Breed Kreiken Innovation Fund. The objective of the De Breed Kreiken Innovation Fund is to support innovative student-entrepreneurs by means of grants for a follow-up study in a foreign country. The students must focus on innovation within their professional field with the aim of applying the acquired knowledge in the Netherlands. This is important for increasing and guaranteeing the innovation strength of the Netherlands.

Jan Kreiken

This fund was established at the Stichting Universiteitsfonds Twente by consultancy agency De Breed & Partners. Founder Loek de Breed is an alumnus of the University of Twente and honours his old mentor and former UT professor Jan Kreiken with this fund. Jan Kreiken was a full professor of business administration from 1968 to 1986, and was the Rector Magnificus of the University of Twente form 1974 to 1976. Kreiken was a well-known business strategist, founder of the management philosophy in Europe and co-founder of the Twente business administration study programme.

L.P.W. van der Velde MSc (Laurens)
Spokesperson Executive Board (EB)