SSU 2010

We are proud to announce to you the new board of the SSU 2011! They will organise a study tour in the coming academic year that will be at least as exciting, interesting and informative as this year’s trip to Tel Aviv. We cannot wait for them to reveal their new destination, but alas, we are forced to. Here they are, in order of appearance:

Chairman – Steven Snoek

Secretary – Vivette van Cooten

Treasurer – Pim Freriks

External Relations – Jade Oudejans & Casper Wolfert

Sponsor Relations – Malou Oreel & Jasper Verwaters

As all the participants have returned to the Netherlands and everyone has resumed his or her day to day life, the last months of the current SSU board have started. We have enjoyed the past year tremendously, but it is time for some new students to take over. This means we are now looking for applicants for the board of the SSU 2011. Are you interested to organise a study trip to a foreign location? Do you want to learn a lot about innovation? Are you prepared to have a very good time with other students whilst working on an unforgettable experience? Would you for once like to know in advance what the SSU destination of next year will be? Then we would like to suggest you apply for the SSU 2011!

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The people of the IBM research lab in Haifa have posted some nice photo’s of our Medical Biotechnology crew of the study tour on their facebook page. The pictures turned out really well. Check them out. Big thanks to IBM for hosting us!

We had two more free days before we have to leave Israel. So we used them wisely. Some rented cars and went trekking through the country. We visited the Dead Sea and the fortress of Masada. Some went to Haifa to visit the Bahai Gardens. Some stayed on the beach and played volleyball. All of us had a great two last days. We don’t want to go. Maybe, if we ask Iceland nicely, they can arrange another flight inhibiting volcano. On the other hand, we have lives to get back to. Israel gave us a wonderful time, and Tel Aviv is an amazing city. I’ll give you a picture of the desert and the Dead Sea and then I’ll finish up. Our flight leaves within a few hours. It was a pleasure being here. Good night.

Another day of travelling and companies. It was our last day of being a dead serious study tour organisation and we once again split up into three teams.

Energy & Materials intended to go to Sovna, but sadly the visit was cancelled on the last minute. They visited the Azrieli Center instead. The view was breathtaking. Mobility & Infrastructure visited Roseman Engineering and came back with the message that they actually learned something. They learned a lot, in fact, and were very much impressed with Roseman’s activities on innovation. Medical Biotechnology visited the IBM Healthcare Innovation Centre and they had to get up early for a ride across the highway. Also, they got lost in Haifa, which apparently is a tricky city to navigate. They were informed about the many ways data and information technologies can be used in healthcare systems and what issues arise with the implementation. They enjoyed the view over Haifa, and the lunch as well (or so they told me).

In the afternoon the different teams scrambled to reach the Tel Aviv University campus. There we visited Ramot, the technology transfer company of TAU. Being already the third technology transfer office that we visited this study tour it gave useful insights for comparing their methods and models. A great lecture later we stood outside on the massive campus. Needless to say, it was group picture time.

Then we were shocked to find this was our last day of real organizing, and thrilled to find there were two more days ahead of us in which we could do whatever we wanted. So, the last posts will be a little shorter. They will probably contain mostly pictures. We’ll be back on sunday.

Our sleep deficit starts to build up, as once again, we rise early. Whoever said that a trip is relaxing? It’s hard work for all of us, and we like it that way. In the cool morning we got out into the streets, slightly overdressed.

We split up into three groups. Medical Biotechnology was the first to be called to the stage for a visit to Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest generic drug company in the world. Their early getaway was more than made up for by an informative and interesting company visit, involving a visit to the Copaxone (a medicine for MS) manufacturing plant. The lunch was nice too. Next was Mobility & Infrastructure as they went on their daytrip to Haifa to once again visit the Technion Campus. This time to visit the department of Transportation Engineering, a field of studies that has remarkable overlap with both our studies in transportation and innovation dynamics. Cruising on the highways by ourselves was also a lovely experience. Lastly, Energy & Materials visited Netalya to engage in conversation with a start-up company determined to implement a new energy management solution, Computerized Electricity Systems. We gained insights in all the different events surrounding smart grids and what role technology and policy play in this and there were cookies, too.

All the groups came together – almost simultaneously! – at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Being the most prestigious institute for basic research, they gave us insight in the technology transfer process managed by the special branch they set up for this, Yeda. Furthermore, we got a tour of the enormous campus (we had to go by a little bus) and visited the different sites including the Solar Spire, the Clore Garden and the house of Chaim Weizmann himself. We felt at home, partly because we were welcomed in Dutch.

Tomorrow will be the same, but different as we will visit Ramot at Tel Aviv University and many others. Goodnight.

Time flies. So fast in fact that I forgot to update yesterday. And the day before yesterday. And the day before that. This means that today, there will be update of the two days before, and maybe even today. But enough about our schedule…

Monday was, as stated before, Remembrance Day. The whole of Tel Aviv was much more quiet than on any other day, but the city was still alive. At 11, the siren called for two minutes of remembrance, after which normality returned. We had a free day. Some spent it at the beach. Others went cycling through town. Others went out of town and visited a Kibbuts. Some managed to hitch a ride back home.

In the night, we went out to party. After all, it was independence night! The beach was a madhouse and great fun. After that, we tried our luck in the inner city and learnt what it was like to be lost in Tel Aviv. Most of us returned homeward, as the day after, we had to get up early.

Independence Day, and we left at eight o’clock in the morning to the east, to Jerusalem.  First, we crossed the city to visit Bethlehem and we were overwhelmed by the many differences and contrasts between Israel and Palestine. We returned to cross the different quarters of Jerusalem. Of course, we visited the Wailing Wall and the Holy Sepulchre. I’ll let the pictures speak for me. More news on more study related matters will follow.

This was our first big serious day. And by big, I mean long. We split into two groups and visited four companies. Our hosts were HCL Cleantech and Better Place for the tracks Energy & Materials and Mobility & Infrastructure and Compugen and ProChon for Medical Biotechnology and they did everything to make us feel at home. Which we enjoyed.

The company HCL Cleantech managed to cram us 20 students in to a room barely capable of holding 10 to tell us about their new sugar for biofuels. Also, they gave us a great tour of the lab to see their makeshift setup for test production. A great morning moving on into a great afternoon as we visited Better Place, the electric car infrastructure company that has partnered with Renault-Nissan. The marketing machine was slick but there was also time for a good discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of the Electric Vehicle. And hey, we got to race around a track in a fully electric car!

The Medical Biotechnology students kicked off with Compugen, a company combining biology and computer science to work in the field of bio-informatics, enabling new ways to discover potential drugs. Their presentation was as good as the food they served us, which was very good. As the business model is different than most biotech firms, there was enough room for a discussion. We then took bus and train to reach ProChon, a company developing and marketing regenerative cartilage for the replacement of kneecaps. As a highly specialised company, they gave insight in how their product is developed, what market mechanisms surround it and how they deal with the regulatory framework.

Tired but filled with knowledge we returned to the Hostel. We made dinner. We walked outside to hear when the alarm went off for the beginning of Remembrance Day. We stood still next to a crossroad to watch everything come to a halt for half a minute. Until tomorrow 8 PM, hardly any activity will take place. So we will be quiet, and watch in awe.

Had a short case of internet failure but we are all alright now. We had two lovely days. We visited the Technion Institute of Technology and learned about entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer in Israel and it is interesting to see how focused the university handles these subjects. We visited the border with Lebanon and explored the caves of Rosh Hanikra. On sabbath, we took it slow like the locals and stayed on the beach or took a walking tour through the city, or both.

Today, we faced crisis. You have probably heard about the enormous volcano eruption in Iceland that made any air traffic above northern and western Europe quite impossible. This means that our professor is still stuck in the Netherlands until further announcement. It also means that one of the companies cancelled due to an emergency trip to Europe. Luckily, we were able to make some last minute changes. A big thanks to HCL Cleantech for helping us out. Further updates shall follow, hopefully tomorrow.

Today was a walking day. Walking over the beach towards the old part of town was a very nice experience. Narrow streets, beautiful vistas, cobblestones and century-old buildings. The most strange and enchanting wares on the markets. We visited the old part of Tel Aviv, Jaffa. The participants got around, getting to know the layout of the neighbourhood, just like the exploratory group did three days ago. We got to know eachother over a great meal at the beach. There is not much else to tell. Tomorrow, the more serious part of the programme is about to begin as we will be visiting the Technion Institute of Technology. No pictures of Old Jaffa, as the camera malfunctioned. Instead, you’ll have to make do with the Meditterenean. Goodnight.