ROB O TS FO R S ALE NO W
Removes all work! Does your warfare! Makes life carefree!
Takes your job! Can kill innocents! Will take over the world!
Spectacular, It’s no news that robots play an increasingly big part in our day to day lives – we have them in our homes, they are being used in hospitals, factories, and where not. The film industry loves them, either as helpful sidekicks or as villains in an AI doomsday scenario. My lecturers in the Psychology and Technology field love them and show awesome videos of robots doing backflips (like really awesome: check it out!1). The media loves them and all interesting news they bring. I love them for all nasty and difficult tasks that they take off my hands. However, there is one specific category of robots that truly takes robotics to the next level and makes me appreciate them even more than I already did. I’m talking about the concept of ‘Shitty robots’: Robots that fail their tasks in very funny ways or robots that are designed to be useless. Thankfully, people film these things and put the videos online. Some great examples are a robot that automatically prints and then burns Trump’s tweets, a robot that dislikes everything on YouTube, and a robot that (very messily) pours you a glass of wine. Believe me, if you are ever having a very bad day, go to the shitty robots 1:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRj34o4hN4I or google ‘Robot backflip’
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subreddit and select the top of all time. It’s worth your time. After this introduction, I’m guessing you’ll have a vague idea of the theme of this edition… Robotics! While Noël will enlighten you with an article about the fears of mass unemployment due to automation (p. 27) and Arjun argues against killer robots (p. 19), Colin and Nienke will provide you with a some lighter material on how to build your own shitty robot (p. 16), and our rubric ‘Humans of Intermate’ is dubbed into ‘Robots of Intermate’ (p. 32). Additionally, you can read about the new bar on campus, Hubble (p. 8), a report on the first round of the Lustrums’ MasterChef Intermate (p. 11), and our new columnist Melissa introduces herself on page 43! I hope you enjoy my last edition as chief-editor! A big thanks to the awesome committee of the Intermania and good luck to my successor Hugo!
Table of contents Robots of Intermate
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Cartoon
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Robot Ethics
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Bert’s Happy Helpers
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Mutual understanding
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Potential in Potentiaal What is community bar Hubble like? Frank and Noël found out!
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Bert’s Business Buddies Bert shows how Intermate’s biggest partners affect our daily lives.
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The Future of Intermate
Robots, Step Aside
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Every Day is Pi(e) Day!
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Onderduiken bij Ichthus 38* Pam en Manon gingen een avond op bezoek bij Ichthus en delen hun bevindingen. Culture Calendar
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BBQ’s in Buenos Aires
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Grand Prestige –Zatmaker pur Sang 13* De Strijd der Sjaarzen
14* Column Melissa 43* Melissa Pruijn introduceert zichzelf in haar eerste column!
Theme: robotics Build-a-Bot
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Philips’ Kitchen Failure
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Killer Robots
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Column Hub
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The Future of Homecare
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Robotics Timeline
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Intermania Rates: Ex Machina
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Intermate Skills at ENGIE
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Puzzel: In ‘t Midden
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Career Expo
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Klaagmuur 48
*Dutch Articles
Automatically Unemployed 27 Noël dives into people’s fear of unemployment. Should we fear for our jobs? Column Jan
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Table of contents
“In Japan, 80% of citizens would consider buying a care robot.” - Frank, p. 35
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8. Colophon Intermania is the magazine of study association Intermate, home to the bachelor’s and master’s programs of the department Innovation Sciences at Eindhoven University of Technology. The Intermania is released four times a year, with a total of 700 prints. Members of Intermate automatically receive the Intermania at home.
Study Association Intermate Address: Den Dolech 2, IPO 0.74 Postbus 513, 5600MB Eindhoven Phone: (040) 247 44 30 Website: www.intermate.nl E-mail: board@intermate.nl Advertisements: external@intermate.nl
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Content for the Intermania may be submitted in consultation with the editors. The editorial staff shall not be liable for any consequences arising from its content and reserves the right to, without notice, amend or not publish any submitted content. Articles may only be redistributed with permission of the editorial staff.
Intermania Chief Editor: Editorial Staff: E-mail: Printer:
Marit Loonen Anke van Rietschoten, Benedetta Malagoni, Colin de Bruin, Frank Vendrig, Hugo Bezombes, Manon van Hastenberg, Mats de Ronde, Meike Heldoorn, Nienke Buikstra, Noël Coenraad, Pam Philippens intermania@intermate.nl Drukkerij Snep
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By the Commissioner of External Affairs
Bert’s Business Buddies When I was asked to write an article about being the Commissioner of External Affairs, I thought it would be cool to think of a situation that shows how important our biggest partners are in our lives. For this case I used the partners that organize(d) a career activity in our board year. Text and Image: Bert van Gestel, Commissioner of External Affairs
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Energy and grid: Enexis Alliander APPM
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Infra and built environment: Witteveen+Bos Rijkswaterstaat Deerns Intermania
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Cloud and IT: Sogeti Ordina Conclusion
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Processes and consulting: ITrainee Deloitte Ernst&Young 5
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By the Commissioner of Internal Affairs
The Future of Intermate One of the main policy issues of “Pharos”, the 34th Board of Intermate, is to prepare Intermate for the future. Jobert zooms in on what a day in the future at Intermate could look like. We follow the life of Finn, who has started his study Technology and Society in the year 2045. Text: Jobert Zoetbrood, Commissioner of Internal Affairs
Finn wakes up in his car, which is driving him to university. Since he can spend the time in his car effectively, he does not live close by. This wouldn’t be necessary anyway: the entire study program is designed to be followed from home. Nevertheless, he and many other students prefer to study at Intermate instead, as there they can discuss the contents of their courses while playing on the old foosball table, which has just marked its 50th anniversary. Once he arrives at Intermate, Finn realizes that his stomach starts to growl. He decides to order a caterpillar-pineapple mix from the Intermarché, which he receives mere seconds later from a bypassing drone. Finn receives a message through his brainmachine interface that it’s time for his next meeting. The European Times has asked Finn to comment on a recent development at the TU/e. As the university has officially allowed the enrollment of robots in their study programs, newspapers are wondering how Intermate manages to successfully integrate these new students within their association. You may be surprised that a federal newspaper is interested in a local development
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in Eindhoven. However, while it used to be the case that the Innovation Sciences program was so unknown that students continuously had to explain what their program was about, nowadays the study program is nationally and internationally renowned. The fact that the Brainport region has turned into Europe’s main technology hub further contributes to this fame.
“The university has officially allowed the enrollment of robots in their study programs.” Then Finn sees that it’s almost time for his favorite moment of the week, like it is for many fellow students: the Thursday drink! Here, he can enjoy a nice glass of orange juice while catching up with his friends. Of course, alcoholic beverages won’t be served anymore, as they have been prohibited ten years ago due to detrimental health effects. Finn downloads the new Intermania and starts scrolling through the pages. His eye catches an article about what Intermate could be like in 2083. Just imagine that these predictions could actually become reality! He laughs at the ridiculousness of the article while he takes another sip from his orange juice. Intermania
Bert's Happy Helpers
Career Corner
Hi there! We are the External Affairs Organ (EAO), the newest committee of Intermate which helps Bert, the board’s Commissioner of External Affairs, with exploring the integration of career in education. But what do we want to achieve? Text: Bert van Gestel and Kari Breider, EAO members. Image: EAO
Whether you’re a freshman or about to graduate, it’s important to know what you’re for to when you start looking for a job. It does not only give you insights in what different jobs there are, and how to get the most out of them, but you can learn more about yourself. What are you looking for in a job? What are your qualities? What kind of company do you want to work for? As a committee we help set and implement new goals which improve how we deal with companies and career related issues. Even though we’re still young, we already started focusing on bringing more companyrelated activities into lectures, in the form of guest-lectures, trips to companies, or even real-life cases. Right now we are investigating which lecturers are willing to adapt their methods and, afterwards, we will look for companies that will fit into the courses. Education is ready for career. Are you? April 2018
Our goals: • • • •
Bring the theory and practice of our studies closer together, Inform companies about our study programs, Emphasize the importance of career orientation for students, Promote Intermate as a study association.
From now on, Career Corner will be a standard rubric in the Intermania. Here, the External A ffairs Organ will publish about different companies that are relevant for the study programs of Innovation Sciences. Check it out in the coming editions! 7
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New on Campus: Hubble
Potential in Potentiaal Frank and Noël, together with a ragtag group of café critics, hit the new spot on the TU/e Campus: Hubble Community Café. Read about the atmosphere, staff, food and, of course, the drinks at this new establishment. Text & Images: Frank Vendrig & Noël Coenraad, Editorial staff
above ground. It is 9.30pm on a Thursday, What used to be the old Potentiaal building has and while plenty of seats are occupied, it is been refurbished into the new cultural center not annoyingly busy. Since the bar has only of the campus. Luna now hosts the culture just opened at the moment of our visit, we associations, housing, and more importantly, expect this to change, but right now we are a new bar! The Hubble Community Café, as it content with the laid-back atmosphere as a is called, opened its doors on February 21st. good alternative to the busy and sketchy vibe This, of course, is reason enough for a thorough of Stratumseind. investigation. We ultimately decide to collect Hubble is run by a student board. We our data using mixed methods: an interview manage to get Niek, the vice-chairman, to with a key actor of Hubble and a qualitative tell us a little more about the bar. Our notes observational study. We care about nothing of the night are a little more than informing our blurry and hard to decipher, dearest Intermania readers so we apologize for any about watering holes as “Hubble is a inaccuracies. We talk about accurately as possible, so we their mission and how it take great care in picking a potential oasis in came to be. It all started representative moment to about three years ago, he sample our data. drungry times.” explains. After the decision It is a cold Thursday night was made to close the and the Wine Tasting Drink Bunker, people realized has just come to an end. the end of the cozy Bunker bar was also We are still thirsty, but also hungry. With approaching. Quickly a group was formed to Stratumseind and kebab opportunities far start working on a replacement in Luna. They away, what are we to do? It is for moments were inspired by the old AOR, an iconic place like these that we see the Hubble as a in the history of Eindhoven’s student life, that potential oasis in drungry times. Together provided beer, food, and music to all students with a spontaneous test panel (nothing wrong in Eindhoven, run by students. And it appears with convenience samples, right HTI?), we set the Hubble crew has achieved its goals. off to explore new lands. The café is open every day, from the We park our bikes and enter Hubble. mornings until 2 am. And not only does Immediately, we notice the sober yet stylish it serve beer, but you can also get lunch design. The décor of the long room features a or dinner. To make all of this happen with mix of concrete and wood. There are plenty student volunteers would be a mess, so of little corners to sit, and they’re all a little Hubble has one full-time employer, Peter, to different. There’s a larger table for bigger take care of the kitchen and logistics. Niek groups, but you can also cozily enjoy a drink explains that having a fulltime employer take with your partner, on elevated seats one meter 8
Intermania
care of this helps achieve a little bit more professionalism than you’d expect in other student bars. However, at night you’ll be served by the board or bartenders supplied by the associations housed in Luna. Hubble serves multiple functions. It offers a conveniently close place to hang out after your dance class, but there are also opportunities for associations. Niek stresses that any association can call upon Hubble for activities. For small associations without a bar, like Chronos, the opportunity to have some beers after heavy debating makes sense. However, Intermate could also organize something at Hubble. What if we desperately need a bitterballenborrel? In return, Hubble will just ask the association to provide bar personnel and help clean up. Niek also proudly mentions the beer pipe connected to their outside terrace. Ideal for a cantus? He seems to think so. Finally, Hubble is equipped with a small stage. Niek mentions
Studium Generale and we can imagine a big pub quiz, but mostly, we are thinking ‘Open Stage Night’. Niek leaves and it is time we judge cuisine. The kitchen closes at 8 pm, but we can still order fries and bitterballen. The order takes a little while, but the fries were very good. When the bitterballen also quickly vanished from the table, we can only conclude the deep fryer is of good quality. We grab another round of drinks and our night slowly comes to an end. From what we have seen, Hubble does a good job at filling a void on campus. As the Intermate drink is destined to close at 7 pm in Atlas, Hubble will be a great resort for those who are not yet ready to go home, but also deem it too early for Café Costa. We dearly hope it doesn’t suffer from its success by quickly becoming overcrowded, so we can come back a couple of times for laid-back talks over bitterballen.
Opening times: Monday – Friday: 08:00 – 02:00 Saturday – Sunday: 11:00 – 02:00 (kitchen closes at 20:00) Prices: Beer: 1.50 (2.00 for non-students) Craft beer: ~5.00 Dinner: 5.50 16 bitterballen 9.00
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InterT.E.A.M.
Robots, Step Aside! As InterT.E.A.M., we might want to reconsider the recruiting of next year’s Van Lint Week teams. Maybe with some metal friends by our sides, we would reach some more finales and actually win that beloved blaadje Palm... Text: Sanne van der Laan, chair InterT.E.A.M.
After all, it seems that robots are not only exceeding humans in chess or solving a difficult calculus exercise; also in sports, robots are becoming stronger, faster, nimbler and smarter. Naaaah just kidding! Last year’s Batavierenrace results were surprising, in a positive way. Sprintermate almost landed in the top 100: we took over place 111 of a total of 314 participating teams. I mean, that’s above average, right? This year, Intermate is even sending two teams in order to double our chances. Sprintermate’s purpose is to improve last years’ total time of 15:05:59 and to reach that appealing top 100. The Bierteam’s purpose is to not get in the way of Sprintermate and survive until the parties come to an end, or in other words: to be the last team standing at the well-known Bata parties. Wednesday the 14th of March, InterT.E.A.M. got in the mood for the Bata trainings by putting a stick between the legs. Even some magic was involved and, eventually, everyone was flying high, grabbing balls and scoring some points by playing with them.
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A great collaboration with Lumos Eindhoven Quidditch caused a really fun workshop with a lot of enthusiasm from both the trainers and the trainees! As lame as it sounds (don’t tell Lumos) and looks (don’t tell Lumos), it
“Everyone was flying high, grabbing balls and scoring some points by playing with them.” cannot be denied that Quidditch is quite an intensive sport. For the sake of the noobies, tackles were forbidden and hitting a head didn’t count. After two hours of sweating in the same cold as our fellow Intermate members in the snowy mountains of St. Sorlin d’Arves, we had to show our newly learned skills in a 7 against 7 match. The golden snitch was flying around at high velocity and the seekers had a hard time catching it. The beaters were doing a good job throwing bludgers at everyone, while the chasers tried to throw the quaffle through one of the rings. With two teams and the same enthusiasm as was shown with the Quidditch training, InterT.E.A.M. is sure that the Batavierenrace of 2018 will grant us a huge success! The robots can step aside, for now. Intermania
Every Day is Pi(e) Day!
Lustrum
The last couple of weeks were characterized by people bringing their homemade pies to the Internaat. These pies were all part of the assignment for the first round of MasterChef Intermate! The duos that made it through round 1 are now preparing for round 2. The Taskforce shares its perspective on this pie extravaganza and how it Text: MasterChef Taskforce. Images: Roxanne Boehlé came to the final results. The adventure for the contestants - and their loyal supporters - started the 4th of February. For the MasterChef Taskforce, however, the journey started months before with planning and outlining the entire competition. You can imagine our relief and joy when the subscriptions opened and so many people were enthusiastic about joining! Still, we remained nervous about whether people would actually show up with a pie, and of course very curious to see what people would make for us. The Competitors Laura and Patrick were the daring first duo to present their marshmallow and chocolate pie to the jury. This delicious calorie bomb infused with Rolo bars was definitely a good start of the competition. Second were Alex and Bas with their original buttercream and beer pie, with the nice touch to put a seven
“A delicious infusion of amaretto, coffee, and way too many calories.” on the top, it is the seventh lustrum after all. Another Bas (Gremmen) partnered up with Anouchka and presented his “Tiramitaart”, a delicious infusion of amaretto, coffee, and April 2018
way too many calories. The next duo decided to take on a challenge; their cake was fully vegan. Since it was the national meat-free week – and Florijne is a vegetarian herself – they decided to go for it. Their mud pie was very chocolatey, heavy and delicious. Anne Jane & Julie decided to lighten things up a bit, with a little less calories. This pretty pie named: ‘Lekker cheesy, mooi groen is niet lelijk’, served its name. With a green layer on top and raspberries as a finishing touch, it was a nice variation for the jury. Then, a member of the Lustrum committee decided to take his chances to create a caramel, sea salt, and chocolate pie, together with Sanne. Inspired by the Tony Chocolonely trend, this pie had a sea salt caramel layer, topped with dark chocolate, on a cocoa almond foundation. A classic but 11
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“The bar was set high and it was a hard decision.” great combination. Another booze-infused cake passed the jury, this time by team Roodbaard (Bart & Marit): a mojito cake with rum, lime, mint and sugar crystals on top to recreate the feeling of drinking a mojito. After this duo, the second lustrum committee participant was up, together with Benedetta. Their roots were clearly represented in the rijstevlaai with limoncello. As their vlaai could have no boundaries it was extended with cupcakes topped with buttercream and fondant. After this, the jury got something a bit healthier to mix things up a bit. Nienke and Fenna created a sugar-free carrot cake, and presented this on World Pie Day! ! (Kudos to our readers who spotted the pun on their pie!) Lastly, de Brabakkers (Timo & Rob) created a chocolate cheesecake to end this competition. With a nice crusty foundation and soft filling, this cake was a good way to conclude round 1! The Ultimate Decision The MasterChef taskforce was very happy with all the enthusiastic participants and great pies that were made during this 12
competition. Unfortunately, not everyone could go through to the next round, but the bar was set high and it was a hard decision. Everyone was graded on the appearance, presentation, taste, originality, and difficulty of the cake. The final grade for each duo was then calculated as the average of all the individual grades. As announced on our Facebook page; duo’s Alex & Bas, Bas & Anouchka, Anne Jane & Julie, Bart & Marit, Bo & Benedetta and Timo & Rob will go through to the next round! Here, Hugo & Killian will join them to battle their way to the third round! In the second round, the participants will have to cook a main course around one color of their own choosing, exciting! We are very curious to see whether the newbies Hugo & Killian will be able to compete against the thunder that we saw in round 1 and we cannot wait to see what the duos will create for us in this next round! Stay tuned for updates on our Facebook page, because we will be sure to share what we are witnessing in this competition. Intermania
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Grand Prestige –Zatmaker pur Sang Wanneer ik achter de bar sta, zijn er regelmatig borrelaars die advies nodig hebben bij het te bestellen drankje. Meestal in situaties als slecht gemaakte tentamens, een vroeg weekend dat gevierd moet worden of een verkorte borrel door college tot half 6. Hoewel deze situaties erg verschillend lijken, hebben ze allemaal één ding gemeen: er wordt een grote hoeveelheid alcohol in een kort tijdsbestek gewenst. Omdat men niet alleen maar wil shotten, komt uiteindelijk het advies: Grand Prestige. Welke legendes schuilen er eigenlijk achter deze heerlijke zatmaker? Tekst: Bart van de Wetering, beer lover. Foto: Manon van Hastenberg, redactie.
Al sinds 1983 wordt Grand Prestige gebrouwen in de Hertog Jan Brouwerij te Arcen. Met een alcoholpercentage van 10% en volle en complexe smaak, wordt het al vanaf het begin gezien als het kroonjuweel van de brouwerij. In 2014 bereikte dit een hoogtepunt door het verdienen van een gouden medaille op de World Beer Cup in de categorie ‘BelgianStyle Dark Strong Ale’. Dit is best een knappe prestatie; het is namelijk de eerste gouden medaille voor een Nederlandse brouwerij sinds 2000 (en hoe ‘Grolsch Premium Lager’ die gewonnen heeft is mij een raadsel…). Een nog mooier verhaal komt van één van de meesterbrouwers van de brouwerij. In 2001 liep deze door de kelders onder de brouwerij en vond daar een door rivierslib bedekte pallet met flessen Grand Prestige. De modderlaag betekende dat de flessen er
“De eerste gouden medaille voor een Nederlandse brouwerij sinds 2000.” al lagen sinds 1993, toen er water uit de Maas naar binnen was gestroomd. Na een flesje schoon gemaakt te hebben, bestudeerde de April 2018
meesterbrouwer de inhoud. Ondanks het schudden bleef de vloeistof helder en leek het dus nog drinkbaar. Nieuwsgierig als hij was, schonk hij een beetje in een glas. Nog steeds was het bier erg helder en de geur was overweldigend rijk. Na een klein bedenkelijk slokje genomen te hebben was hij meteen overtuigd: deze smaak was geweldig.
“Denk nog even aan deze legende!” Tegenwoordig is de Hertog Jan Brouwerij aan het proberen een nog rijkere smaak te geven aan de Grand Prestige door het te laten rijpen in bourbonvaten en extra kruiden toe te voegen om het bier een unieke twist te geven. Kruiden als nootmuskaat, gember, steranijs, kardemom en kaneel passeren de revue. Ook de verschillende soorten bourbon geven het bier een spannende draai door de smaken die uit het hout worden overgenomen. Denk de volgende keer bij het bestellen van een Grand Prestige eerst nog even aan deze legende, voordat je de volgende dag niets meer weet. 13
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Sjaarscommissie
De Strijd der Sjaarzen Elk jaar strijkt de traditionele strijd tussen de drie welbekende sjaars commissies weer neer bij Intermate. Meike voelde de leden eens aan de tand over het reilen en zeilen van hun commissies. Tekst: Sjaarzen bij het Smobo, de Parentsday en de SjaarsCie
Smobo Waarom hebben jullie gekozen voor het Smobo? Ik had oorspronkelijk voor SjaarCie gekozen en had Smobo als tweede keus, maar ik werd uiteindelijk hier geplaatst. Achteraf ben ik daar blij mee, want ik denk nu dat Smobo veel leuker en interessanter is. Dat komt omdat het de bedoeling is om je mede-sjaarzen te leren kennen en ik vind het altijd leuk om meer mensen te ontmoeten. Daarnaast is de hele Smobo commissie lekker actief, waardoor we, ondanks de vele fouten die we natuurlijk maken als eerstejaarscommissie, echt mooie resultaten boeken. Wat is het belangrijkste dat jullie tot nu toe geleerd hebben? We hebben geleerd dat er bij elke taak binnen een commissie meer komt kijken dan we in eerste instantie zouden denken. Zelfs de promotie, wat wel de simpelste taak leek omdat er weinig externe factoren zijn (buiten Intermate), was toch wat uitdagender dan we verwachtten. Het is veelomvattend om een simpel jaarboekje te maken, maar het is een leuke uitdaging. Waarom werken jullie zo goed samen als commissie? Ik denk dat de reden dat we zo gemotiveerd zijn is dat de commissie voornamelijk uit vrouwen bestaat. Ik heb namelijk het idee dat het vaak het geval is dat vrouwen dit soort taken serieuzer nemen dan mannen en dus ook harder werken. De mannen worden dan bijna automatisch meegenomen in het harde werken. En door dat harde werken wordt het smoelenboek van dit jaar een prachtwerk.
“Ik denk dat de reden dat we zo gemotiveerd zijn is dat de – Smobo commissie voornamelijk uit vrouwen bestaat.” 14
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Sjaarscommissies
Parentsday Wat vinden jullie het leukst om te regelen? Bij de ouderdag is er natuurlijk een grote activiteit; dat is elk jaar hetzelfde. Er is gelukkig wel heel veel ruimte om er helemaal je eigen invulling aan te geven met allerlei leuke kleinere activiteiten. We hebben veel zin in de grote activiteit. Hier zullen in tegenstelling tot de SjaarCie-activiteit veel mensen naar toe komen. Waarmee hebben jullie de meeste moeite? Met onze zeer drukke agenda’s is het voor ons het moeilijkste gebleken om allemaal aanwezig te zijn bij de meetings. Ook het organiseren van een brainstormavond blijft nog steeds erg lastig. Wie is het meest serieus tijdens de vergaderingen? Wij zijn allemaal zeer gefocust en gedreven en perfect tijdens vergaderingen. Daar valt niks op aan te merken. Een sterk team bestaat uit sterke spelers. Daar zouden de Smobo en SjaarCie nog wat van kunnen leren!
SjaarsCie
Wat vonden jullie het leukste aan de SjaarsCie? Van de drie eerstejaarscommissies hebben wij de meeste vrijheid in het organiseren van de activiteit. Het is leuk dat wij onze creativiteit op de vrije loop kunnen laten en zo iets bijzonders kunnen bedenken. Dit terwijl het SmoBo per se een boek moet maken en de Parentsday indruk probeert te maken op papa’s en mama’s.
Wat is het stomste dat er ooit is gebeurd tijdens een vergadering? Nou, over deze vraag konden wij het maar niet eens worden. Iedereen noemde andere momenten als het ‘stomste’ moment. Er brak dan ook een heftige discussie uit. De gemoederen liepen hierbij zo hoog op dat er gewonden zijn gevallen… Dat was wel stom. Waarom zijn jullie de beste commissie? Ten eerste zijn wij 5e geworden tijdens de Battle of the Committees, dit ten opzichte van de teleurstellende resultaten van de Smobo (13e) en de Parentsday (12e). Dit zou eigenlijk al onze superioriteit over de andere eerstejaars commissies duidelijk moeten maken. Daarbij organiseren wij simpelweg de leukste activiteit voor de sjaarzen :). April 2018
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Build-a-Bot Always wanted to build your own robot? This do-it-yourself robot helped Colin and Nienke to build their own. It’s not the most amazing, coolest or biggest robot we have ever seen, but still a nice Monday-afternoon-activity. Text; Colin & Nienke, Engineers of Human Destruction
It doesn't look like much, but a Weapon of Mass Destruction will be made from this rubbish.
With this edition’s theme, and regarding the fact we study at a technical university (maybe not the most technical studies, but that doesn’t matter), it would not feel right if we did not at least try to build our own robot. We could have made this hard for ourselves by carefully selecting all components and coming up with a nice design, and this would probably have made the end result much more satisfying, but being lazy, cheap and short on time, that is not what we did.
Luckily, Nienke had a ready-made robot kit lying around. The kit allowed us to build 3 kinds of robots. Naturally, we went with the most robot-like robot. The box contained loads of small components that had to be painstakingly removed from the plastic mold. Being careful not to cut ourselves on the resulting sharp bits, we removed all the parts one by one. Fortunately, the kit came with assembly instructions, which weren’t great, but at least they did lead us in the right 16direction.
Look at these arms powerful enough to break bones! Intermania
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You may have noticed from the pictures that this is a solar-powered robot (very sustainable), so no fiddling around with batteries. Also, no soldering needed, as the solar panel was already connected to the motor. Building this robot took way longer than expected. Putting some screws in the wrong place also didn’t help. All-in-all it took us around 2 hours, not including putting all the decorative stickers on it.
Who needs an atomic reactor when you have photo voltaics?
Even though this was not designed to be a crappy robot, it was still pretty shitty. Illfitting gears meant the robot was not able to move - at all - even when shining a powerful light at the solar panel, our little mechanical friend would not budge. This was a little disappointing, to be honest, but we did have fun building it. If we would ever build a robot again, we’d probably go for a truly shitty robot.
April 2018
Looks like the villain in the next Transformers movie!
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Philips’ Kitchen Failure As we all know very well, technical innovations do not happen overnight, not even in the kitchen! On behalf of the KookCie, Benedetta illustrates why we own Philips shavers and televisions, but no microwaves. Text: Benedetta Malagoni, Editorial Staff
robotics
recommended promoting the microwave Our kitchens are getting more and more highas a low-tech, inexpensive, additional tech. As innovation scientists, we understand kitchen appliance. Marketing experts that such evolutions are the consequence of a insisted on positioning the new product as a large number of circumstances. Technological revolutionary device, that might eventually expertise is merely one of the elements that replace traditional stoves. Radiation experts participates in this complicated equation. experimented with cooking different Let’s look at Philips’ research and kinds of meat to the desired level of development of microwave ovens. As doneness and texture on the “microwave a leading radio vacuum-tube producer, stove”, for example. Bypassing ordinary Philips had a great expertise in magnetron technology (vacuum tubes that generate housewives, the marketing division focused microwaves). In the 1940s on professional cooks, and 1950s, magnetron as they matched Philips’ technology was booming self-image as “high-tech” “A revolutionary worldwide, and Philips also company. In 1960, the first wanted to participate. Next oven for the professional device, that might to military applications, food market was ready. companies were starting to eventually replace Even so, the hypothesized work on kitchen appliances, market of professional using microwaves to cook cooks in commercial traditional stoves.” or reheat meals. Philips’ kitchens turned out to household technology be too difficult to develop, division decided to enter the arena, and Philips ended up dismantling the acknowledging that microwave ovens might production line altogether. revolutionize domestic food preparation. Despite the technical expertise, they At the beginning of their research, Philips’ missed on the booming market of engineers set up a collaboration with Unilever household appliances. It would take Philips’ to develop frozen meals that could be researchers and marketers two more reheated at home, in a microwave oven! This decades to gap the bridge between their project, however, never came to a conclusion expected high profile clients and the as Philips soon changed approach towards reality of the existing market. In the the new technology, betting that household 1980s, Philips finally started producing consumers would only later adopt it. small, light, user-friendly microwave The research focus shifted to professional ovens, after the international market microwave cooking, even against the advice had already developed, causing Philips’ of Philips very own home economics lab share to remain marginal compared to engineer Frouke Bosma, head of the lab. She German or Japanese competitors. 18
Intermania
Killer Robots
Theme: Robotics
.Even though robots make our lives easier in many ways, there also are downsides to their development. Arjun digs into the possible dangers of killer robots and autonomous warfare. Text: Arjun Tyagi, SI Student
War is a clash of societies which occurs when societies compete for resources, be it land, food, money, etc. It’s a tool that can be used both actively, by declaring open battle between countries or passively by propaganda or the threat of war. What is often forgotten by people is that, in our current, relatively long stretch of peace, war is what gives borders legitimacy. Only a military force can keep borders rigid and other trade agreements from being blown off the page. Warfare has been evolving towards autonomous solutions more rapidly in the last few years. The current existence and the use of UAVs, UGVs, etc. (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Unmanned Ground Vehicle) has accelerated the research of all countries towards autonomous weapons and robots. The idea of it may seem good and appealing to many countries, since that would involve putting fewer soldiers on the front line, leading to fewer deaths on the battlefield. But
can it be guaranteed they don’t fall into the wrong hands, what would happen when they do? Despite its dangers, countries have been pouring resources and manpower into
“All is fair in love and war.” – John Lyly developing drones and unmanned vehicles to reduce causalities on their side. But at what cost? The existence of these drones and robots gives an advantage to whoever can possess them, legally or otherwise. Even though they are mostly being developed by the government for good intentions, which is solely being able to provide better security for the people, it poses a greater threat to society.
“Who is responsible for them, can it be guaranteed they don’t fall into the wrong hands?” the richer countries could use this power as leverage over poorer countries. The implications are far worse than imagined. The very existence of these technologies leads to a lot of unanswered questions such as who is responsible for them, April 2018
A few months ago, Stuart Russell, a scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, made a demonstration video for the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons, in a campaign to stop “Killer Robots”. The video explains 19
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how -if the development of this technology is uncontrolled- a drone the size of a bee, could potentially kill a human being with absolutely no way to track it back to the killer. This is said to work on a facial recognition basis and hence could only be used to target specific people and easily avoid collateral damage. If it is being used by the government to neutralize a threat or a difficult situation in public places, this could be a benefit but only conditionally. Experts believe that this is far easier to develop than self-driving cars, which requires a much greater standard of performance.
“But in the end, tactics win a war.”
Pursuing the development of the autonomous weapons, even though not fully automated, would pose a serious threat to one’s security on an international level. Since it is relatively cheap to produce AI-based
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technology in large masses, critics fear that if these weapons fall into hands of rogue nations or terrorists, they would use it to suppress the population or control revolts. It is also believed by experts that a machine that can decide when to kill a human should be disallowed under professional codes of conduct. Another common argument against autonomous robots that arises in this situation is that, due to economic differences between countries, the richer countries who have better resources develop better robots and automatically win a war. However, this argument is weaker when scrutinized closely since there is little difference between highly trained “rich country” soldiers vs lower budget “poor country” soldiers. This was evident in Vietnam War, when lesser trained soldiers essentially won against the colossal US military by using smart tactics. So, a key point in automated warfare is that a lot of money can be pumped into it to develop top of the line robots, but in the end, tactics win a war. Intermania
Column Hub
Happifying Technology: Roboasic Income I would like to have a robot for my household chores. All together those tasks require quite some time and their iterative nature seems like a clear case for automation. But it appears tough already for the state of the art “laundroid” to just fold dark clothing. Luckily, robotics has greater potential than cleaning after spoiled students. Before robots go domestic, they can first flourish in their talent of taking over boring and burdensome tasks. And factories are the perfect places to start releasing exploited humans from this type of work. Unfortunately and interestingly enough, many people fear the rise of robotics for this particular reason. Because even in the most horrible working conditions around the world, unemployment is feared over exploitation. There is little gratitude in being freed from humiliating working conditions if it implies missing the money to survive. Makes sense. From this perspective, it seems unethical to implement innovation into industry. So should we deny factories safer, cheaper, faster and more efficient processes? Technology in itself is never either good or bad and it would be a shame to not look for harmonious ways of adopting it. One solution has a pure ideology but is rigorous to implement: the basic income. With this comes the invalid fear of lazy people watching television at home all day long. Not you, your friends or family, but the ‘other people’. But studies show the importance of purpose that facilitates moments of happiness. Dare to assume ‘those other people’ pursue happiness too. Properly introducing a basic income makes room for more meaningful (and therefore more productive) work. Imagine the hindsight amazement of future humans: “Did some people really have to do that dreadful work to access basic needs? How barbaric!” Robots could do our dirty work (yet excluding our laundry) while removing one’s desperate need for any job just to pay for basic needs. Only then, the amazing technology that lets our minds shift towards meaningful purpose over mere survival, can be welcomed with open arms by everyone. April 2018
“Should we deny factories safer, cheaper, faster and more efficient processes?” –Hub
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The Future of Homecare Arjan makes an analysis of the future of the healthcare system and it is both less and more human than you would expect: robots with caring abilities are set to take up an ever growing role. Text: Arjan Derks, SI student
Robots are often seen as machines of the future. They are developed to be more and more versatile. One of these instances in which I think robots are useful is the homecare department. In a world where there are growing numbers of elderly and a shortage of nurses, I think robotics may prove to be a solution to many problems. They are extra hands, that can be produced on a large scale to do many tasks for which the nurses do not have time.
“A quicker response time could reduce the patient’s discomfort.”
Robotics
Currently, robots are being put to work in many sectors to do ‘tedious’ jobs or really heavy work. In healthcare, Android models (as in similar to humans) can be used to relay medicines through the wards. This is the case in hospitals in Japan, which not only has the highest average age of any country in the world, but also some trouble in finding enough staff to take care of these elderly people. In order to have staff available to do ‘meaningful’ things related to the care for elderly persons, such as personal attention, robots are brought up to do the more ‘tedious’ chores, like the medicine delivery. But even in Japan, where robotics is technically quite advanced, they are still far from a robot-manned utopia. We can anticipate that this type of 22
development will come, eventually. And we should be wary that the development will happen in a way that is responsible and ethical towards all involved stakeholders. Eventually, robots will be developed in such a way that they reflect a sense of empathy or sympathy. We still have a long way to go, but it is no secret (at least at our faculty) that robots are increasingly being made for interaction with humans. The fact that human-robot interaction is possible, where the robot learns increasingly complex nuances with regards to communication, is in itself not too scary. Especially if the ‘skill’ of the robot can be put to practical use in the homecare sector in the Netherlands. A clear benefit of robots which I see is in the treatment of elderly people. I often visit my grandmother, 87, who is blind and does not walk that well anymore. She receives care multiple times per day, from a pool of nurses. She always has the coffee ready for them, and bread. About some nurses, she is positive, about others, she is less positive, and I think the less positive experience can be solved with robots. The reason is that robots can be hardcoded to behave in a way that is pleasant for her and can be made adaptive to changes both for medical needs and communication styles. My hope is that this will improve the experience my grandmother has from the homecare, as well as helping her and by extension others, to prolong the period of time that she can live independently at home. However, robotics is not the only thing that can be applied to healthcare and homecare, especially if it comes to the work of nurses. Intermania
“Robots will be developed in such a way that they reflect a sense of empathy or sympathy.” – Arjan A proposed technical improvement for the nurses is the use of augmented reality, combined with medical sensors. It is farfetched and not feasible in the short term, but the idea is that the sensors can detect the issue in the body of the patient. Then the data of the sensors is processed by a computer to give meaningful statistical results and from the statistical results, the nurses get in an AR screen a plan of action. This time can be used to treat the patient/ elderly person in an adequate way, easing the situation more quickly. Furthermore, a quicker response time could reduce the patient’s discomfort, as the medical staff do not need to explain something that to them is obvious to someone who does not understand it as quickly, which might be uncomfortable if the person is in pain. April 2018
The robots are an extension/parallel to this. If the nurses cannot handle the situation or are asked to do things that are not specifically medically necessary in that situation, the robot can take over that task and save the nurse time to spend on more pressing matters. Besides, if the elderly person needs comfort, or a person to talk to during a treatment to provide some ‘distraction’, a robot can be programmed always to be pleasant, kind and empathic, or the robot can do the task whilst the nurse provides the comfort. Or the robot can provide company when neither nurse nor family can. Anyways, I think robots and technology have a great future in homecare. It may not be finished in time for my grandmother to see it, but I hope it will be in time for many, many more people to come. 23
1950 Alan Turing proposes a test to determine whether a machine truly has the power to think for itself. To pass the test, a machine must be indistinguishable from a human, during conversation. It has become known as the ‘Turing Test’.
en Theme: Robotics 1913 Henry Ford installs the world’s first moving conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory. A Model T can be assembled in 93 minutes. 1700 - 1900 Numerous life-sized automatons are created, including a famous mechanical duck made by Jacques de Vaucanson that can crane its neck, flap its wings and even swallow food.
1932 The first true robot toy is produced in Japan. The ‘Lilliput’ is a wind-up toy that walks. It is made from tinplate and stands just 15 cm tall.
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1495 Leonardo da Vinci sketches plans for a humanoid robot.
2017 A robot called Sophia is granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, raising questions on robot rights. Does this mean Sophia can marry or vote? Does this mean that shutting her down is murder? These questions, and the contrast to the rights of Saudi women caused a lot of controversy. 24
Robo Time 2015 Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk express their worries about potential dangerous side effects and unintended consequences of artificial intelligence.
Intermania
1964 The IBM 360 becomes the first computer to be massproduced.
Theme: Robotics 1997 IBM’s Deep Blue, beats world chess champion Garry Kasparov.
1977 The first Star Wars movie inspires a new generation through his image of a future shared with robots, such as the now famous R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Text & Layout: Marit Loonen, Frank Vendrig & Nienke Buikstra
1998 Introduction of the Furby, with retail prices reaching $300! 1999 Sony releases the first version of AIBO, a robotic dog with the ability to learn, entertain and communicate with its owner.
botics meline 2010 IBM’s Watson defeats Jeopardy! contestants. 2011 Apple announces Siri, a voicecontrolled personal assistent. April 2018
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2004 The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity land on the surface of Mars. The Opportunity is still there, happily conducting science. Sources: http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/ai-robotics http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/technology/historyofrobotics.html
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Intermania Rates
Ex_Machina Once again, the Intermania committee gathered to rate a theme related movie for you. This edition: Ex Machina, a movie about a programmer who is selected to evaluate the human qualities of a humanoid AI. Text and Rating: Intermania Editorial Staff, movie lovers
Weirdness
Well thought-out
Shocking
Makes you think
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Funniness
Final Verdict
IMDb-score: 7,7 - Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer: 92%
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Our review: Ex_Machina is a very good movie. Firstly, because of the interesting topic: what exactly is the boundary between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI)? If AI is similar to a human, how should we treat it? Secondly, because of the movie itself: it is very well thought-out. From the start to the end credits, the movie keeps your attention, shocks you with amazing plottwists and the mysterious characters keep you guessing about their intentions until the last moment of the movie. The fact that the movie is not thรกt futuristic anymore and situations such as these could actually become reality in the near future, only adds to this. The entire Intermania movie-panel would recommend this movie to you without any hesistation! Intermania
Theme: Robotics
Automatically Unemployed
Noël Coenraad discusses the fears of mass unemployment around automation in society and what the scale of the problem actually is. Feel free to read just what you need to do to prevent robots from replacing you. Text: Noël Coenraad, 3rd year Sustainable Innovation student
You can see automation entering daily life through robots or clever bits of technology. Sometimes in very subtle ways such as mobile phone operating software, and sometimes it is blatantly obvious such as healthcare robots. The majority of these innovations have made life easier for the user and society in general. However, what are the implications of the global trend of automation? We as a society have endured numerous disruptive innovations like the internet or the assembly belt. The common response to these technologies is to fear them and predict the apocalypse. Automation and artificial intelligence are no different and are also subject to being the general fear of the public. The reason why many people fear automation is because of the jobs that it seems to be making obsolete which, in turn, means that people will be losing their livelihoods. When people lose their livelihoods it is fair to fear that robots will replace you, but there are two variables that partly make up automation and that need to be considered before you completely reject this movement. Level of skill required The first variable is the level of skills required for the job that is being replaced. The necessary knowledge and training required to do your job is a good indicator of the level
of skill. Traditionally speaking, the trend is the lower the skill level the more likely it will be automated. There are plenty examples where this is the case, such as, the assembly line workers in the Ford factories that have been replaced by assembly robots. It takes very little skill to screw in the same seat bolts in each car rolling along the assembly line. Of course, as technology progresses so does the ability of the robots which means that higher and higher skill jobs will slowly be automated. So again, traditional economists would predict widespread unemployment. However, what wasn’t predicted was that automation also opens up new job opportunities since we as a society know that as soon as it is something electronic or mechanical you need an IT guy or a maintenance guy to fix it when it inevitably breaks down or bugs out. This puts us as a society at a crossroads. We can keep educating ourselves further and further to prevent us from being replaced, or there needs to be a shift in society where people can be unemployed and still be able to live comfortably. To start with the first option of maintaining a high enough skill level to not be replaced. It seems simple enough, but it very quickly becomes complicated when you consider the inequality in access to higher education
“The common response to these technologies is to fear them and predict the apocalypse.” – Noël April 2018
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en Theme: Robotics and on top of that the lack of ambition to pursue higher education. Nevertheless, there are some great initiatives that offer permanently unemployed people with education and training in a new field of work. The best example being the initiative that taught unemployed coal miners multiple programming languages so that they could get new jobs in the high labor demand market of ICT. Unfortunately, these initiatives are not installed in all sectors where automation of labor is most common because they are expensive and companies have no incentive to take care of the people they just fired.
“Shifting society to a system where employment is not necessary to live is a very radical approach, but might be the more sustainable option.”
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The other ‘solution’ suggest a more abstract approach to the problem. Shifting society to a system where employment is not necessary to live is a very radical approach, but might be the more sustainable of the two since it embraces the higher efficiency of robots while still not impeding on peoples basic standard of living. Many modern philosophers are hypothesizing that the mass automation of labor and unemployment of people will actually be beneficial since it frees up people to do what they want to do and explore their passions, instead of doing something because they have to in order to pay the bills. Of course, this is a widely 28
contested idea since there is no conclusive scientific evidence that supports the idea that people will engage in their passions if they always had access to basic needs. The next question is why is it a good thing that people do as they please and have more free time. Well, this is all centered around the well-being movement that is growing in western societies and very much alive in eastern societies. The idea is that people will be genuinely interested in their work which has a numerous of benefits. It makes people happy and gives them a sense of fulfillment. Besides that, it also makes people more productive since people do not have to be pushed to work on something which they enjoy anyway. At any rate, do not fear all automation, only start to worry if it can complete university level of tasks. The type of automation The second variable that needs to be considered when fearing automation is that not all types of automation will necessarily mean that the world becomes unemployed. On the one end of the spectrum, you have artificial intelligence which learns and trains itself to complete complex tasks. These systems are so complex that the human programmer isn’t even sure what the machine is doing which sparks a lot of robot apocalypse theories. The other end of the automation spectrum is hard automation where a system can only perform one task. This is usually for very tedious tasks like a production counter. The latter type of automation shouldn’t scare too many people considering much of simple manufacturing tasks such as packaging and sorting are already automated in that way and hasn’t caused any large economic downfalls. In most of these automation cases, they have improved the productivity of workers and have made life in general easier. Yet, where there is smoke, there is fire, because the artificial intelligence Intermania
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end of the automation spectrum is where most people start to worry. The eerie similarity to human consciousness becomes visible, and these systems will definitely be able to complete certain difficult tasks at a much higher rate compared to humans. For example, administrative tasks and problemsolving calculations are likely to fall prey to artificial intelligence. The key word in that statement is the “will” because this level of automation is still very limited and prone to bugs. Sometimes, implementing artificial intelligence is slower and more expensive than hiring the required human labor. Like with the skill level requirement technology will continue to improve and eventually will be feasible. So what can you do against the artificial intelligence type automation? Learn one or more coding languages: you can’t beat the growing automation - so join them. According to Forbes, the demand for programmers will only exponentially grow in the next decade. Once you have mastered a language or two, start with developing or maintaining applications. If you are not the most tech-savvy person then maybe transfer to sectors which is predominantly human service centered like April 2018
health care or hospitality because people do not trust robots and like human interaction.
“The artificial intelligence end of the automation spectrum is where most people start to worry.” The scale of the problem Much of what has been mentioned runs on the assumption that automation actually causes unemployment, which is still up for discussion. Previous technological advances have been predicted of causing mass unemployment and done the exact opposite. The Obama administration published a report that predicted that automated vehicles alone would threaten 2.2 to 3.1 million jobs. Even prominent technology institutions such as MIT have admitted that artificial intelligence and automation is much faster and intensive as a disrupter than anything that has come before it. 29
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That being said, there is a very large asterisk to the mass unemployment assumption. Automation is still in its infancy and the impacts on unemployment are yet to be seen. Especially since unemployment rates globally tend to be constant, or even declining, suggesting that humans are very capable of handling disruptive technologies. The larger problem is in the perception of automation. A Pew Research center poll showed that 72% of American adults are more worried than enthusiastic about automation. In addition, to that traditional economists warn for mass unemployment due to the profit maximization nature of firms. Furthermore, the capabilities of artificial intelligence are unclear which also make it hard for people to interpret automation and thus people tend to fear what they do not know. Fear of technology is a common theme for many people at the innovation sciences faculty and thus it will not come as a surprise that the same poll was reluctant to accept automation into their lives and place of work. Interestingly an Intermate poll shows that Intermate members are by a majority enthusiastic about automation (61.9%). A very physical problem is the income inequality that automation will create. The
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replacement of the low skill jobs means that incomes in a household dependent on low skill jobs will be hit first and will have fewer means to reeducate and no opportunity to instill systemic changes. This renders the solution mentioned above almost obsolete without government intervention. Government is the final contributor to the size of the problem. In current politics, little to no debate is had on providing re-education for the structural unemployment, unemployment reform or any other externalities that need to be tackled through legislation on automation. So in short, automation is believed and perceived as a cause for mass unemployment and governments are betting on it not happening because no measures are taken to prepare for it.
“72% of American adults are more worried than enthusiastic about automation.� What can you do prevent replacement? Affirming there is a chance that mass unemployment and further income inequality is caused by automation, but the real danger is the perception and myths around automation. The key variables to consider to fear automation are the skill level required and the type of automation. If you pass through both of those then you are safe. If not, learn a coding language or work with people and hope that a paradigm shift takes place which decouples employment from livelihood. Overall, we should be pleased that robots take over our jobs so that we can be automatically unemployed and do whatever we want. Intermania
Robotica Is Siri of Echo een robot? En zo ja maken ze dan onderdeel uit van wat Robotica wordt genoemd? Rondkijkend op internet naar de betekenis van robotica, vind ik deze omschrijving het best passen: ‘Robotica is de tak van de mechatronica die zich bezighoudt met theoretische implicaties en praktische toepassingen van robots in de ruimste zin van het woord.’ Het lijkt er dus op dat mijn eerste vraag met nee moet worden beantwoord. Maar kijk ik dan naar de definitie van wat een robot is: ‘Programmeerbare machine die verschillende taken uit kan voeren’, of ‘Een robot is een geautomatiseerde mechaniek, die semi-autonoom of volledig autonoom fysieke taken kan volbrengen’ (Robert Macniel, 2009). Het lijkt me dat machine en mechaniek in de fysieke wereld waargenomen kunnen worden. Welnu Siri en/of Echo kunnen vooralsnog zelf geen fysieke taken uitvoeren, ze kunnen wel zorgen dat bepaalde fysieke taken worden uitgevoerd. Zo hoef je geen zoekopdracht meer (fysiek) in te tikken, of kun je opdracht geven om een koelkast te laten bezorgen. Wel degelijk effecten in de fysieke wereld maar in zichzelf geen fysieke taak. Voordat het recht kan omgaan met de veelzijdigheid van wat er wordt verstaan onder een robot en wat precies onderdeel van robotica is, zal er nog veel water door de Rijn gestroomd zijn. De (meestal) eerste plek waar het recht in het geweer komt bij het toepassen (en mislukken) van bepaalde technische middelen, is het aansprakelijkheidsrecht. Laat ik hier eens een paar potentiële cases noemen, waarbij de lezer probeert een antwoord te vinden op wie in rechte aangesproken moet (kunnen) worden. De lasrobot maakte een rare beweging (softwarefoutje) en nu heeft de onderhoudsmonteur een hersenschudding en een gebroken schouderblad. Jouw Tesla ‘koos’ een boom in plaats van de moeder met kinderwagen, en jouw kinderen hebben geen vader meer. Het ABS-systeem in jouw BMW 5-serie viel uit, waardoor je achterop een vrachtwagen geladen met kerosine klapt, de camera’s van Rijkswaterstaat langs de snelweg constateerden de vreemde lange remweg. Derde generatie Echo slaagt er op jouw verzoek in, in te breken in de camerasystemen van alle sauna’s in Nederland. De microfoon in je Nest brandmelder ‘hoort’ dat je masturbeert en meldt je aan bij een dating-app. De ethiek kan normeren, maar het recht zal de ‘tanden’ moeten aanreiken om te kunnen ‘bijten’. En ingenieurs dienen zich veel meer dan tot nu te realiseren dat zij ook een maatschappelijke, juridische verantwoordelijkheid hebben in het bedenken en ontwerpen van ‘robots’. April 2018
Column Jan
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“De eerste plek waar het recht in het geweer komt is het aansprakelijkheidsrecht .”
–Jan Smits
©BvOF
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ROBOTS OF I Age: 34 years Birthplace: Paviljoen Pets: The mice running behind me in the kitchen Zodiac Sign: Pisces Favorite Snack: Old Wervingsdagen mugs John the Dishwasher
Biggest wish: That people would fill me with dishes! :-)
Favorite Holiday Destination: Atlas Secret Crush: Sebastian the SSBB because everyone uses it.
Robotics
Biggest Frustration: To get disrupted by someone opening the door while I’m cleaning myself
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Favorite Color: Spotless white Favorite Song: Anything but the Piano Man, I've heard that my whole life...
Intermania
Theme: Robotics
INTERMATE Nienke, a true robot-lover, wanted to know more about the lives of the robots of Intermate. That’s why she has let them type in her friends book (NL: vriendenboekje). Text: Nienke Buikstra, Robot Whisperer
Favorite Holiday Destination: Hopefully the beautiful village of Gemert, during the next After-Intro weekend Secret Crush: The TV screen in the Internaat (It's so big!) Biggest Frustration: That people hurt me by ticking on me too hard, out of impatience Favorite Color: Red Favorite Song: Piano Man - Billy JoĂŤl Age: 10 months Birthplace: Delphi and Twan's workshop Pets: 5 fish in the boardroom/aquarium behind me Zodiac Sign: Taurus Favorite Snack: Campus Cards Biggest wish: To be 100% HTI friendly April 2018
Sebastian the Self-Service Badboy
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Intermania
Robot Ethics
Theme: Robotics
Will robots be the next group to demand more rights in society? When should we start caring about fair treatment of robots, and where does it go wrong? Frank explores some points of view on this matter. Text: Frank Vendrig, Editorial Staff
Back in the early 20th century, a Czech playwright Karel Capek wrote Rossum’s Universal Robot. Here, a mad scientist creates an artificial human to prove there is no god. Decades later fake humans are massproduced to do our dirty jobs. Essentially, they are slaves to the ‘real’ humans (‘robota’ is Czech for forced labor). Spoiler alert, by the end of the play the robots revolt and someone eventually burns the blueprints for making these robots, effectively ending the suffering. To do all of these human tasks the robots needed to be similarly skilled and smart to humans. However, this intelligence eventually led the robots to realize they were being mistreated. Now back to our world, where robots are currently stupid. Robots in our world really aren’t required to be very flexible and can’t be trusted to complete too many tasks unsupervised. Sure, AI’s beat chess and go players, but that same AI doesn’t know a thing about how to mop a floor. Sure, Amazon’s Alexa can answer your questions similarly to a cleric at an information desk, but it is highly unlikely Alexa ponders the questions of what to enjoy for dinner or is interested in new gossip from Roomba the vacuuming robot. Our robots are made for specific tasks and are only equipped with the means to achieve them. However, what if Amazon starts making a single device for all our household chores, combined with the ability to communicate with its owner? Wouldn’t we be slowly moving towards a situation described in a certain early 20thcentury Czech play? April 2018
Moral Status, Robots, and Animals Now it will take a while before any robot technology achieves any level of complexity comparable to humans, but it’s not unthinkable to see robots with similar abilities to other animals. We don’t let our pets vote, but we do have a party in parliament largely concerned with animal rights.
“We can give more moral status to Mary, the babysitter robot, than T1030, the assembly robot.” Now, should we care about how we treat robots? If we cared about it and took an entity’s wellbeing into consideration, that would mean that we are ascribing some kind of moral status to the entity. Often, when ethicists discuss granting any kind of moral status to an item or being, they quickly start considering questions like whether the object has properties such as consciousness. Moral status and rights are awarded based on properties of the entity. Is it a bad thing to kill a mosquito? Probably not, because likely the mosquito isn’t even aware it’s alive. However, you better not kick anyone’s dog. So, they point to the robot and ask whether you can show it´s conscious. However, 35
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en Theme: Robotics that’s quite unfair because the concept of consciousness and what it means is in itself an entirely debatable subject. And it gets more complicated when you consider infants, who receive high moral status despite being as smart and capable as a pillow. Mark Coeckelbergh (2010) considers this problem and offers a solution. He proposes to not look at an entity’s objective features, but instead look at how the entity appears to us. We can’t look inside the robot, but we can form a mental image of the robot based on interaction with it. Furthermore, he suggests moral status should also be based on the robot’s place in society and its relationships with others. We tend to give more moral status to pets than livestock and many vegetarians believe this is hypocritical. However, when you take social relations into consideration it starts to make more sense. Bello, the family dog, plays a larger role in its owners’ lives than Berta, one of many cows, plays in the life of the farmer that owns it. Similarly, we can give more moral status to Mary, the babysitter robot, than T1030, the assembly robot. In this light, when it’s 2040 and robots have a more ubiquitous place in our lives, why should we treat our robot teachers and police officers any differently than their fleshy counterparts?
robotics
Japan Being Japan Often when talking about the future of robots, we have a little look at Japan. The reason for this is because the Japanese population is much more accustomed to and accepting of robots in their daily lives. Jennifer Robertson (2014) also looked at Japan’s relation with robots and made some very interesting, but scary observations. Next to being the most robot-friendly on Earth, it is also the greyest country. Having an aging population is a large References:
problem for Japan, and contrary to countries like The Netherlands, it isn’t very keen on accepting immigrants to keep up the influx of young people. Instead, there is large hope for robots to join the workforce and to take care of the elderly. There is a reluctance towards granting permanent residents citizenship, but at the same time, Japan flirts with giving citizenship to robots and TV characters. According to a survey, most citizens are uncomfortable with receiving care from foreign nurses, but 80% would consider
“In Japan, 80% would consider buying a care robot.” buying a care robot. Robertson fears that robots have allowed Japan to keep up its xenophobic tendencies and possibly even step it up a notch. She sketches a future in which humanoid robots might ultimately enjoy higher social status than Japanese residents with other nationalities. Whether this turns out to be true remains to be seen, and because of our cultural differences, it´s a less likely to happen in The Netherlands. Also, whether it should or shouldn’t be okay to treat hyperintelligent factory robots and family robots any differently. It is still up for the debate. Nevertheless, the issue of robot rights lays bare some of the sketchier traits of humankind’s attitudes about morality. It’s too early to accurately predict how well the Party for Robots will do in the 2032 elections, but as more intelligent and all-encompassing robots become available in our lives, issues of robot ethics will become more and more relevant.
Coeckelbergh, M. (2010). Moral appearances: emotions, robots, and human morality. Ethics and Information Technology, 12(3), 235-241. Robertson, J. (2014). Human rights vs. robot rights: Forecasts from Japan. Critical Asian Studies, 46(4), 571-598.
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Theme: Robotics
Mutual Understanding
After her graduation, Margot decided to venture the academic life and joined the HTI group. In this article, she tells about the focus of her research: a better understanding between humans and robots. Text: Margot Neggers, PhD Student
In January of this year, the TU/e set up a pioneering research project with five industrial partners, which goes under the name FAST (new Frontiers in Autonomous Systems Technology). FAST aims to develop mobile robots with increased flexibility that enables them to operate with people in changing environments. The project is multidisciplinary and combines the knowledge of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Human-Technology Interaction. I work within the Human-Technology Interaction group and focus my research on socially aware navigation, intention recognition, social intelligence and human-robot interaction. Robots are more and more present in our daily lives and they come in many different flavors. Apart from industry robots that have dedicated tasks without human interference, many service robots are being developed that need to operate in environments with people; e.g. museum tour guides, care robots or autonomous cars. As robotic systems are
“Robots and humans will require meaningful interactions. ” becoming increasingly autonomous, also in less structured worlds, robots and humans will require meaningful interactions to ensure efficiency and performance of both human and robot workers. April 2018
Currently, social skills or social awareness of robots are still very poor. Most research in the field of robotics is typically done on navigation and recognition of the environment. For example, robots that can avoid obstacles, learn maps or track persons. However, to
“A robot must choose its trajectory and communicate its intention. ” position itself properly, robots must also take social rules and human behavior into account. Robots should respect social distances, incorporate social rules, and make sense of human activities. Additionally, a robot must proactively choose its trajectory and communicate its intentions in such a way that people will understand whether the robot is planning to interact with them or just plans to pass them by. It is expected that understanding human intentions and communicating a robot’s own intentions are necessary requirements for fluent and efficient human-robot interaction. Ideally, when robots operate in the same environments as humans, there should be no misinterpretations of each other’s intentions. However, to create such an environment, research is needed on how humans and robots can understand each other. 37
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Intermania duikt onder
Onderduiken bij Ichthus Wie denkt dat Ichthus een groep stoffige studenten is die 24/7 pannenkoeken bakken zal zijn mening wellicht moeten bijstellen. Pam en Manon gingen een avondje infiltreren op een GA (gemeenschappelijke avond). Lees hier hoe het was. Tekst: Manon van Hastenberg en Pam Philippens, redactie
Pasta pesto met de wild crowd We wisten allebei niet zo goed wat we moesten verwachten van een avond bij Ichthus. Er was ons verteld dat er eten zou zijn en we waren op de hoogte van een borrel na het programma. De inhoud van dat programma was ons nog onduidelijk. Met de instelling om het gewoon maar over ons heen te laten komen, begaven wij ons op een zeer koude avond naar een collegezaal in Luna.
“Het is bijna alsof we aan tafel zaten met een groep Intermaten; dezelfde verhalen en flauwe humor, ” We werden meteen vol enthousiasme ontvangen door een aantal bestuursleden en werden uitgenodigd om aan tafel te gaan zitten voor het eten. Al snel bleek dat de door ons willekeurig uitgekozen tafel een zeer goede was: hier zaten de gangmakers van Ichtus. De wilde verhalen en quotes vlogen ons dan ook al snel om de oren. Het stigma rondom Ichthus is vaak dat ze saai zijn. Op dat moment merkten wij daar echter niks van. Het is bijna alsof we aan tafel zaten met een groep Intermaten; dezelfde verhalen, flauwe 38
humor, en appreciatie voor Ronald Goedemondt sketches. Toen volgde het eerste moment waarop we wel degelijk verschil zagen: er werd even gebeden om God te danken voor het avondmaal en om hem te vragen er een goede avond van te maken. Vervolgens werd ons keer op keer op het hart gedrukt door onze tafelgenoten dat we hier niet met de “typische Ichthianen” te maken hadden. Blijkbaar hadden we met onze feilloze radar voor spanning en sensatie de wild crowd gekozen. Na het eten werden kringen aangewezen om af te ruimen en af te wassen. Dat gebeurde allemaal geordend en zonder protest. De koffie werd op de gang geserveerd, terwijl de ruimte werd omgebouwd voor het volgende onderdeel van het programma: de spreker. Religieuze karaoke en goede discussies We waren niet voorbereid op het allerleukste deel van het programma dat eerst kwam. Een muziek opstelling werd in gebruik genomen en we gingen met de hele groep liedjes zingen! Vanzelfsprekend waren het nummers met God als centrale thema, dus we hadden ze nog nooit eerder gehoord. De teksten werden echter geprojecteerd en de nummers waren verrassend catchy, dus hebben we luidkeels meegedaan aan deze “religieuze karaoke”. Helemaal opgeladen na het zingen, begon het echte programma: een pastoor uit NieuwZeeland die al 15 jaar de internationale kerk in Eindhoven leidt kwam vertellen over oppervlakkigheid in het geloof. Zijn lezing Intermania
“De teksten werden geprojecteerd en de nummers waren verrassend catchy. ” – Manon en Pam was opgebouwd rondom de stelling dat er in de huidige maatschappij minder ruimte is voor spiritualiteit en God, terwijl er meer ruimte komt voor de mens en materialisme. Het belangrijkste vraagstuk van de avond is hoe je dit als Christelijke vereniging kunt tegengaan. Gelovig zijn is niet echt cool en het maakt je niet populair - toch wel belangrijke drijfveren voor ons als mens. Het advies luidt om sterk in je schoenen te blijven staan en het geloof toch te blijven uitdragen; je hoeft niet normaal te zijn om leuk gevonden te worden. Een stelling die ook buiten deze context belangrijk kan zijn! Het programma werd afgesloten met een gezamenlijk gebed, waarna de handjes om ons heen begonnen te trillen want het was tijd voor het vloeibare goud. Wederom, net als bij Intermate. Feestbeloften De borrel is deze GA voor het eerst in Hubble (de nieuwe bar in Luna, zie p. 8) wat voor zowel de Ichthianen als ons een nieuwe ervaring was. De sfeer zat er echter al meteen goed in, de pilsjes vlogen over de bar en “aah joh, April 2018
we doen één biertje” eindigde voor Manon in “oh shit de laatste bus naar huis vertrekt over 15 minuten” en voor Pam in “wanneer is het opeens 3 uur geworden?!”. We beloofden ook plechtig dat we ze volgende week op hun feest zouden zien. Eenmaal thuis waren we beiden onder de indruk van hoe bizar gezellig we het hadden gehad met een groep mensen die we 8 uur geleden nog nooit hadden gesproken. Onze conclusie: Ichthus is echt een heel toffe vereniging. Natuurlijk, je moet wel openstaan voor het geloof om lid te worden, dus het is zeker niet voor iedereen. Echter, onze ervaring wordt getekend door het hartelijke welkom, de goede sfeer, en de bijzondere combinatie van het serieuzere bidden en het biertjes tikken zoals elke student kan. En hoe fijn dat je als gelovige student in Eindhoven een plek hebt om dat aspect van je leven te kunnen delen. Zeker als je bedenkt hoe lastig het voor jongeren in onze huidige tijd (en zeker als TU studenten) kan zijn om openlijk hun geloof uit te dragen. 39
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Culture Calendar
Hello Sunshine Spring is in the air, which means the kick-off of festival season! In April and May, the Dutchies organize festivals throughout the country to celebrate the birthday of their king and liberation day, both with a lot of music, beers and party. Internationals are very much recommended to join these festivals, but also to visit the events below, because all but one performances I selected are for English speakers. Enjoy!
15 Apr - Effenaar Ruben Hein Singer-songwriter €20.00
18 Apr - De Zwarte Doos The Handmaiden Movie €3.50
17 Apr - Jheronimus Bosch Art Centre (Den Bosch) Dutch Student Chamber Orchestra €12.50
19 Apr - Muziekgebouw Young Musicians Academy Classical Music €2.50
20 Apr - Parktheater
26 Apr - Stadhuisplein
Laughing Lizard Cabaret
Kingsnight: Royal Dutch DJs Free!
€11.00
* Or buy tickets at special venues ** Spoken in Dutch
27 Apr - Around the City Kingsday Festival Eindhoven Dutch Must-see Free!*
28 Apr - Stadsfoyer Blue note club session: Krupa & the Genes Pop/Jazz Free!
29 Apr - PopEI
30 Apr - Muziekgebouw
3 May - Natlab
Birds of Chicago Pop/Americana
Live Ballet: MANON Ballet €15.00
4 May - Pand P OUTSIDERS - International Theatre Collective Eindhoven €10.00
€10.00
5 May -Pettelaarsche Schans (Den Bosch) Liberation Day Festival Brabant Free!
Etan Huijs Singer-songwriter Free!
9 May - Natlab Movie that Matters: onderkomen** €18.50
Text: Anoek de Jonge, culture enthusiast
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BBQ’s in Buenos Aires
Living abroad
For her master semester abroad, Iris went to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Read how she broadened her horizons, literally and figuratively. The best part is that she also got to brush up on her Spanish along the way. Text: Iris Huijben, Electrical Engineering Master Student
Hola chicos! As you might know (or probably not, since I’m not at Intermate as often as I used to be), I am currently doing my exchange semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I decided I wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country since I already had Spanish lessons in high school. To make my trip a bit more adventurous than going to Spain, I ended up traveling to Argentina. And here I am, at this moment already enjoying my second month here. I would need the whole Intermania to describe all the things I’ve already experienced and done here, but I’ll keep it short! Let’s start at the beginning. Arriving here, it appeared to be one of the hottest weeks of the year. Traveling from the airport to my temporary place to stay was quite a hassle with my stuffed to the brim backpack and my daypack, while the temperatures easily reached 35 degrees.
April 2018
However, I could be lucky I arrived in the middle of the day. Days later, I experienced that taking a metro in rush hour is a whole experience here. Everyone is standing so close that you cannot even think about having any personal space in there. Therefore, one thing I can be really glad about is my height. It gives me an opportunity to get some air in the metro. After arriving, I could directly start with my Spanish class that lasted the whole month of February. I must say I never improved in a certain language that much within one month! After this intense month of learning Spanish, we started our semester. The first two weeks we could shop around and check out the courses that we wanted to follow. For us internationals, that turned out to be very useful since you can choose the courses in such a way that your mid-terms are scheduled
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Living abroad all together. That way, we have more time to travel around the country. And for traveling around the country you need time and patience since Argentina takes place 8 on the list of largest countries in the world. As a consequence, doing a weekend trip to another city always either requires a flight or a bus trip of at least 15 hours. However, if you then decide to go for it, you have millions of options to choose from. In some weeks, for example, I will travel to Patagonia, the southern part of Argentina, which appears to be a hiking heaven. In my trip, I will visit the most southern city in the world; Ushuaia, which is only 1000 kilometers from the South Pole! But of course, you don’t have to go far to have a great time here. Buenos Aires is a vibrant city with lots of different aspects. I live in the student neighborhood, which results in having a bar at literally every corner! Going out is so much different here than what we are used to in Eindhoven. For Argentinians, the evening normally starts (of course this happens more towards the end of the week) with an after-work drink in one of the many happy hours. Restaurants will be filled a lot later. If you enter a restaurant at 9 pm, you will
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definitely be one of the first guests. Therefore, entering until twelve is not strange at all! This late schedule of eating helps if you want to go clubbing because most of the clubs only start to be filled around 2 or 3 in the morning. You can easily party until 7 or 8!
“Almost every weekend, I have one or two BBQs.” So, I would say my whole rhythm moved a bit here. Since I’m doing master courses, my lectures are also late. The system here apparently is such that courses are taught later if you grow older. Finishing a lecture at 10 pm is therefore not strange and I never start before 1 pm. Next to traveling and following my courses, I also try to remain active here. I live rather close to the parks of Buenos Aires, which gives me a good chance to explore them all while running. I never had a motivation this high to do a lot of sports, because it’s unbelievable what we are eating here. Almost every weekend I have one or two BBQs. A BBQ here mainly includes meat … a lot of meat! And we are not talking about the euroshopper burgers from the freezer. No, it’s fantastic steaks, ribs and other red meats. Another typical thing is dulce de leche. They sell it here in big pots and add it to literally everything; cakes, ice creams, desserts etc. The amount of sugar that the Argentinians take is therefore unbelievable. Not only is there lots of fantastic ice, cakes, croissants (with extra added sugar), this country also is one of the biggest consumers of soft drinks. Anyway, I am really enjoying my time here, enjoying the helpfulness and openness of the Argentinians, the food, the sun and the travels. Let’s hope I will be able to get used to the Dutch weather and euroshopper hamburgers again! Intermania
First Dates Welkom bij mijn allereerste column! Misschien ken je me van de vorige twee edities, waarin ik onderzocht wat de beste versiertruc is en hoe dat over kan gaan in zoenen. In deze column zal ik mezelf voorstellen op gepaste wijze, namelijk naar aanleiding van het aanmeldingsformulier van het tv-programma First Dates. Laten we de algemene vragen overslaan en meteen doorgaan naar de vragen over mijn dagelijks leven. Ik studeer Psychology & Technology, ik heb geen kinderen, ik rook niet, ik drink wel alcohol. Goed, nu komt het spannende kopje: “liefdesleven”. Op wat voor type val ik? Intelligent, positief, zelfstandig en creatief. Volgens mijn moeder heeft hij bruine puppy ogen, maar staat wel stevig in z’n schoenen. Wat vind ik belangrijk in een relatie? Ik heb nog nooit een relatie gehad dus dat weet ik niet zo goed. Ik denk echter dat een wederzijds vertrouwen belangrijk is evenals dat we niet afhankelijk worden van elkaar. Vervolgens wordt de vraag gesteld waarom ik de ideale partner ben. Er zijn genoeg mensen voor wie ik niet de ideale partner zal zijn. Een moeilijke vraag, waarop ik geneigd ben te antwoorden met “it depends”. Het volgende kopje “persoonlijk” gaat over hoe vrienden mij zouden omschrijven. Mijn medebestuursgenootjes van de studententoneelvereniging Doppio noemen de kernwoorden spontaan, enthousiast, direct en aanwezig. Studiegenootjes vullen dat aan met eigenzinnig, eerlijk, sterke mening, vele interesses en passies, creatief. Dan komt het kopje “datingcircuit”. Ik heb ooit één date gehad, waar al snel bleek dat wij over geen enkel onderwerp hetzelfde dachten: zijn favoriete filmgenre was horror, terwijl ik dat juist verschrikkelijk vind. Hij vroeg of ik geïnteresseerd was in politiek, maar nee helaas. Toneel vond hij dan weer niets. Aan het einde zei hij “tot ziens” waarna hij zichzelf snel verbeterde met “Nah, ik zie je nog wel.”. Dit werd gevolgd door een ongemakkelijke knuffel/kus-opde-wang waarna wij elkaar niet meer hebben gezien. Nu ik heb laten zien hoeveel ervaring ik wel niet heb op dit gebied (met nadruk op het woord niet), geef ik u de mogelijkheid om een vraag in te sturen die ik mogelijk in mijn volgende column beantwoord. Mail naar m.e.pruijn@student.tue.nl en wie weet inspireer je mij voor de volgende editie! April 2018
Column Melissa
“Ik heb ooit één date gehad, waar al snel bleek dat wij over geen enkel onderwerp hetzelfde dachten.” –Melissa
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Working Life
Intermate Skills at ENGIE After two years, Joost reflects on his time at ENGIE and draws stunning similarities between his current life and former life as student. Curious to see whether the good student life ever stops? Text: Joost Tolkamp, Management Trainee at ENGIE
Over two years have passed since graduating and hosting the traditional graduation drink at Intermate; a so-called closing of chapters in your life. No more lectures, essays, cheap coffee or Thursday drinks. However, when looking back at my first years as a young professional at ENGIE, many parallels can be drawn, only now I get paid for it. This holds for activities, for example. I now host parties for young professionals as if I were part of the
Much like organizing an activity, all projects that I engage in during my traineeship at ENGIE have a head and tail and bring the same challenges you encounter in every committee: you brainstorm, plan, act, and afterward try not to forget to evaluate and learn. In the ENGIE traineeship, which is focussed on personal development and getting to know the company, you take on four assignments over the course of two
AC-team. However, it does not stop there. I also organized the ski-trip in a very similar fashion to Wintermate (naming it ENGSKIE was a bridge too far though). As it turns out, it is not only the activities that are alike. Many appreciated professional traits can be picked up in every-day Intermate life. These range from planning, financial insight and entrepreneurial spirit, to socializing in order to convince people and actually get stuff done.
years. Each in a different role, in a different department. Currently, I assist our energy consultants with the introduction of two propositions: energy performance and utility supply. Both are long-term contracts that you might know as ESCo’s (Energy Service Contracts) in which we design, build, finance, maintain and operate the assets that deliver and use energy and other utilities. In contrast, as of the first of April, you can find me on-site with a helmet and safety gear on, working at
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Working Life young professionals with wide backgrounds the new Amphia Hospital construction site in that range from industrial engineering to Breda; a completely different world than the computer science. You will likely not be office environment I am now so used to. surprised that in their first pilot, the robot You might say: ‘ENGIE, I thought it was was programmed to grab, open and hand out an energy company’? That is actually not bottles of beer. even half of the work we do. The majority An aspect that both innovations have of our workforce exists of mechanics and in common is that they actually demand engineers that design, build and maintain organizational improvements most of the technology that you as well; people have to change find in industrial parks, buildings, “Only now their everyday routines and jobs and infrastructure. Think of the to optimally implement these installations that provide heating, I get paid new technologies. Change ventilation, cooling or the energy management focused on people supply in the building you read for it.” is thus necessary for all these the Intermania in: chances are projects. By acknowledging this, the added that one of my colleagues maintains these value of social engineers (like us) becomes installations. ENGIE set itself the goal to apparent. Many of you have experienced this be one of the world’s leaders in the energy yourself, when opting to change the ‘candy transition; a statement that has many cabinet’ for a proper dispensing machine, implications for the organization. This or when Intermate bought itself a new cash means that we need to pioneer new strategic register at the bar: technology is not the business in the field of energy efficiency and (only) key to making technology work for you. clean energy supply, but also the challenge to If you are curious about ENGIE or the actually practice what you preach. traineeship and how these fit with your To achieve such a position, a focus on both background, feel free to reach out or simply organizational and technological innovation give it a try and apply before May 15th. is needed. One of the areas where new developments are taking place in is the field of robotics. In 2017, the first pilots have started, where drones are used to maintain off-shore wind parks or inspect steam pipes. The latter can be done by placing thermographic imagery equipment on a drone and simply doing a flyby. A normally dangerous inspection can now primarily be done from behind the office desk at much lower costs. Another innovation takes place in the Northern provinces of the Netherlands at ENGIE’s robotics team. An industrial robot arm is developed that, unlike traditional robot arms, can be programmed to perform a wide array of tasks in all kinds of processes. This ‘robot-in-a-day’ also opens up possibilities for SMEs (red: small-to-medium enterprises), which often cannot afford the traditional machines. The robotics team consists of many April 2018
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Puzzel
In 't Midden Puzzel: Mats de Ronde & Colin de Bruin, redactie
Horizontaal 1. Vaart twee kanten op 5. Harde vogel 12. Zijn vinger gloeide 13. Daar kwam Barry Lola tegen 15. Mama van Willy 17. Oostenrijks dorp 18. Past na pa of voetbal 19. Houdt de contacten warm 21. Ik ambieer 23. Platte, dyslectische Amerikaanse adelaar 28. Sint Helena 29. Soort van Zebra-Giraffe 30. “_ the Wuck?!” 32. Vindt een Engelsman na een queeste 34. Begeven gamers zich niet graag in 35. Vlaamse koelkast 36. Luidruchtige klap 39. De jongere in Dallas 40. Niet vroeger 41. Kunsttaal 42. Donatie voor een vis 44. Gewoon nietszeggend straatje 45. “Gaat de muur mee betaald worden!” Verticaal 1. Mogen fosfaten in van de EU 2. Godin van de onheil 3. Wisselstroom 4. Overleden chef die als een malle ingrediënten samenvoegde 5. Hebben ze in Parijs en New York last van 6. Amerikaans tienerdrama 7. Doe je soms wel en soms niet in de vaatwasser 8. Halfgeleider 9. Muziek waarvoor je betaalt met 45 horizontaal 10. Past na ranc of lag 11. Kruid 14. Voorkeur 16. Populair onder piraten en Rotterdammers 20. Geen geld voor een prothese 22. Wederkerend dieptepunt 24. Grootste vond plaats in Bhopal, 1984 25. Opbouw van haar en ui 26. Wie pleegde die aanslagen? 27. Sul 28. Onopgeruimd persoon 31. Beeld zonder benen 33. Geografische aanduiding 37. “Holy shit, no way!” 38. Ezelgeluid 43. Uitroep Terug van weggeweest! Maak de puzzel en win €5,- borreltegoed, stuur je oplossing naar intermania@intermate.nl
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Career Expo
Sneak Review
For this edition of the Intermania, freshman Lies van Bakel hit the auditorium to learn all about potential careers, and might have even met a future employer. Text: Lies van Bakel, SI Freshman
It was hard not to know about the Career Expo. On the 6th and 7th of March, they put up quite a show right outside the Auditorium, with those air-balloon types of things, big blue letters spelling out “Career Day” and even a Volkswagen van.
“It was hard not to know about the Career Expo.” Inside the Auditorium, things were just as busy. At every entrance, there was a desk where you could sign in with your student card. You then received an excellent goodie bag, containing a can of soda and Doritos bites, which were much appreciated. They also gave you a key cord with a name card. On the front was the name of your bachelor, while on the back the names of all companies potentially interested in you were listed. It was very well organised and easy. All the participating companies had booths and once there you could start a conversation with representatives. I dragged along a friend of mine, who studies Computer Sciences. We had a few companies in common, like ING and Philips. Eventually, after awkwardly passing the ING booth for the third time, we bravely decided to talk to someone. We asked a girl standing there what we would be doing at the company, with our respective backgrounds. She told an interesting story. However, when she asked us what we were looking for in a future job, and what kind of electives we April 2018
had chosen and if we had looked at masters yet, we fell silent. Neither of us had a clear idea about what we wanted to do yet. She started looking at us funnily and was clearly scrambling for other questions to ask us, so we thanked her for the explanation, and explored the rest of the Expo. I came to the conclusion that, however fun, the Career Expo event is meant for people who have a better idea of what they want to do after they’re done studying. It is good to know your options, but you first have to know what you like, where your interests lie and what you want out of your job. So my advice for everyone is: before going to the next Career Expo, you should orientate. If you don’t want to orientate, go anyway even if it is only for the free goodie bag.
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Klaagmuur
Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere? De klaagmuur, which literally translates to the complaining wall, is a feature of the Intermania where anyone can address their pet peeves. Do you have something to complain about? Let us know! We cannot fix your problem, but you are bound to feel better about it. Text: An old member
Dear Intermania, I’ve just gotten my beer at the bar. Preferably a stout or tripel and not a Hertog Jan, of course. While turning around, I’m thinking: ‘who am I going to bore now with my great old stories about how great everything was years ago?’ Searching through the crowd, I am looking for one thing: a person who I actually know. But wait... I don’t know that person, I don’t know that other person and I prefer not to stand next to that person. WHERE IS EVERYBODY I KNOW? Maybe at the fussbal table? While making my way through the Internaat and pushing away other people I don’t know, I get the feeling I also don’t know the people at the fussbal table. Who are they and how do I get to know them? Maybe... Yes, an idea. Finally, I spot someone I know. ‘Hey, do you want to challenge the sjaarzen at the fussbal table?’. A loud ‘Yes!’ sounds through the Internaat and we make our way to the table. Me shouting ‘Challenge!’ is the beginning of getting to know these strangers. The game starts, some easy goals happen, and a final result of 10-0 means that the sjaarzen have to crawl under the table.
During a big applause, they come up again and I can finally get to know them. Adriaan and Sander, nice to meet you. Finally, now I know at least someone in the Internaat. But if this is the only way to get to know them, these are going to be some loonggggg drinks. Especially if the sjaarzen keep drinking Hertog Jan, instead of the good special beers from Pintermate. I try to find some older members again, but still nobody is here. Where is everyone? For now, I beg the older members to come to more Thursday drinks, challenge the sjaarzen, and get to know them better. You don’t just introduce yourself to them, but you show you are the greater kind of student. The special beer drinking, arrogant, fussball playing, a too big loan having, old member who had stufi and knows how everything works at Intermate (even better than the board): don’t let the sjaarzen take over the drinks, but let them buy beer for you. That is the least they can do for you, for being so superior! Oudere leden, ‘VO.
Do you have a complaint? Send it to intermania@intermate.nl (+- 450 words) and it might appear in next issue’s klaagmuur! 48
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Herrezen uit de dood: puzzelend rijk worden. Maak de puzzel op pagina 46 en win â‚Ź5,- borreltegoed! Stuur je oplossing naar intermania@intermate.nl.