The third edition of the 2021 Twente Alumni Lectures has finished! Where we usually travelled around the country with various UT researchers to give lectures, for obvious reasons this year's edition was online. Despite the lack of real-life drinks and socialising, it proved a huge success. We can look back on a great event with more than 150 participants and many positive reviews.
Renske van Wijk (PhD '14) kicked off the lectures on 4 March. Renske is project leader at the UT TechMed Center and gave the attending alumni a glimpse of her TOPFIT Citizen Lab project. Here she develops new ways of living healthily, together with residents of Twente. In her presentation she focused in particular on the phenomenon of citizen science: what is it, what can we do with it and what does it add to mainstream science? Are you interested in Renske's story? Watch her lecture here (NOTE: Renske's lecture was in Dutch).
Sandor Löwik took the floor on 9 March. This former UT lecturer in Innovation Management is the Programme Coordinator at Energietuinen Nederland (Energy Gardens Netherlands). This project aims to show how energy production can be properly integrated into the landscape and can even add value, to biodiversity for example. From March, Energietuinen Nederland will be reinforced by a group of ECIU U students taking up a challenge formulated by Sandor: to develop business models which focus on promoting the multifunctionality of solar parks and increasing the biodiversity of the relevant landscape. Intersted to know what else Sandor said? Watch Sandor's lecture here (NOTE: Sandor's lecture was in Dutch).
Lastly, on 11 March, Katya Egorova took to the virtual stage with her lecture on citizens ‘who are more than just sensors’. Katja is a researcher at the ITC faculty and, like Renske, works in citizen science. Katja is involved in developing new ways to involve people in scientific processes. Ways that go beyond data collection alone. During her lecture, Katja gave examples of citizen science research at ITC and had some tips for alumni who would like to participate in citizen science projects. You can watch Katja's whole lecture here.
Each lecture was concluded with virtual drinks during which alumni could chat in smaller groups, based on their academic year. With a bit of luck you met up with a former fellow student, but it was great to share good memories anyway. The 20 minutes that were reserved for each drinks gathering flew by!
What topic would you like to attend a lecture on? Let us know via alumni@utwente.nl and who knows, maybe that topic will be in the line-up for future Twente Alumni Lectures.
We look forward to hopefully welcoming you (again) to one of our upcoming events, be it online or in person! Check our events calendar!
