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Organized chaos gets the job done

Training participant José Rodrigues
Dutch corporate tech culture can be a difficult hurdle for foreigners to overcome. That is why software developer ICT Strypes asked High Tech Institute to host an in-company corporate culture course for their Portuguese engineers.

When software developer José Rodrigues started working with his Dutch client, it was a culture shock for him. He had previous experience in the Netherlands: as an exchange student he had studied for a year in Groningen. Yet the high-tech work culture in real practice was still hard for him to get used to.

''It’s a bit like organized chaos, you need to learn how to trust the process.''

Rodrigues started out his career as a physicist, graduating from the University of Coimbra in Portugal. He quickly, however, moved into software engineering, where he ended up at ICT Strypes.

“I’m currently working on the drivers for a water cabinet that is responsible for cooling”, he says. “My job is writing software and testing it.”

ICT Strypes Portugal is originally a Dutch software development company. Today, they are based in Portugal, with facilities in Lisbon and Porto. But Dutch and Portuguese work cultures can be quite different. That is why the company decided to host a one-day culture training in Porto, ‘How to be successful in the Dutch high-tech work culture’ by High Tech Institute. Rodrigues was one of the students that took the course.

“There were two reasons to take it”, he says. “One was to better communicate with our Dutch contacts. The other was to learn from the Dutch high-tech ecosystem and see which of their lessons we can also apply here in Portugal.”

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Natural selection

The training zoomed in on a specific semicon equipment company, and their unique way of doing things. “Even inside the Netherlands, they have a very atypical culture”, says Rodrigues. “My first impression was: this is chaos. It was organized chaos, but still chaos. When I first had to work with them, it felt quite confusing. But after a while you realize that it’s efficient in its own way, and that they get the job done.”

“The Dutch are in general very punctual and direct”, he continues. “Our customer on the other hand is more chaotic than the average Dutch company. It is a type of natural selection. They overcame a lot of challenges and converged on this way of working. And it really works.”

The course was taught by Jaco Friedrich, one of High Tech Institute’s trainers, who has decades of experience in the Dutch corporate tech culture. He came to Porto to teach the course to ICT Strypes’ engineers.

“It was much more engaging than I initially expected”, says Rodrigues. “Often, these kinds of courses tend to get a bit dense, particularly by the end. There is the trainer with their PowerPoint spewing facts all day long. This one was not anything like that. There were a lot of practical examples. We also engaged with the trainer, and with each other. We for example did simulations of real-life social situations.”

José Rodrigues - ICT Strypes
José Rodrigues, who writes and tests software at ICT Strypes in Portugal.
Credits: Nuno Vasco of NVSTUDIO

Code review

Because of the course, Rodrigues and his colleagues learned how to accomplish certain tasks more efficiently. One of the most important of those was the code review. In the past, there was some friction here between the Netherlands and Portugal. After the course, however, the process was reviewed and improved.

The course also improved the professional skills of the participants and provided solutions to common workplace problems. “One of the things I learned myself was how to push an idea forward”, says Rodrigues. “As an engineer, we sometimes have the tendency to be very perfectionist. We want our product to be 100 percent perfect. This, however, sometimes delays a project and causes it to stall. For the client, a 90 percent perfect product that can be delivered earlier is at times better than a 100 percent perfect one that is delivered too late. Making that switch in mindset was an important result of the course.”

''Technical people tend to be sensitive about the quality of their work.''

Giving feedback, often a touchy subject for engineers, has equally improved since the course. “Sometimes it was hard giving feedback without seeming judgmental”, says Rodrigues. “Technical people tend to be sensitive about the quality of their work. The course taught us how to successfully communicate feedback without hurting or making the other person angry.  That’s something I now use very regularly.”

Criticism is one of the areas in which Dutch and Portuguese people differ heavily. Dutch professionals tend to be much more direct than their Portuguese counterparts. “If you are too direct with them, the average Portuguese person will get offended”, Rodrigues says. “That does not happen very often with a Dutch person. That of course does not mean that Dutch people have bad intentions, it is just part of their culture. A Portuguese professional however, will take that level of directness quite hard. That is another thing the course discussed and taught us to handle better.”

For Rodrigues, this training is a must-have for non-Dutch people working with high-tech companies in The Netherlands. “My first impression was overwhelming, he says. “Over time I learned to see that it actually made sense, and that their organization actually works very well. But if you’re not used to this, it can be a bit of a culture shock. If I had taken this course earlier in my career, I would have understood my Dutch colleagues from day one.”

José Rodrigues - ICT Strypes in Portugal
José Rodrigues, who writes and tests software at ICT Strypes in Portugal.
Credits: Nuno Vasco of NVSTUDIO

This article is written by Tom Cassauwers, freelancer for Bits&Chips.

 

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“Our project leads had the right energy but lacked formal leadership training. This course gave them that”

leadership skills
In a relatively short period, Strypes Portugal grew very fast. This meant that a new generation of project leads had to push the company forward. Which is why the software developer asked High Tech Institute to host a four-day in-company training course in Porto to sharpen their leadership skills.
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When software engineer Miguel Barros joined Strypes four years ago, it was a very different company than what it is today. “I was the sixth employee here in Portugal”, he remembers. “At this stage the company was quite small. That, however, quickly changed.”

Barros currently works as a project lead. “But when you work at a company that grows this fast, you learn to do everything”, he says. “You end up taking on a lot of responsibilities. During my time here I did everything from changing coffee filters and working on branding and marketing, to now coordinating large software projects.”

“My role at Strypes is to supervise projects and people”, Barros says. “I’m responsible for a couple of projects. I make sure that they are on the right track and that the customer is happy with our performance. Today, I have a strong coaching role.”

Technology leadership

Because Strypes grew so fast in Portugal, the company wanted to improve the leadership skills of their project leads. Many of them were technical experts who didn’t have any formal leadership training. Which is why Strypes turned to the High Tech Institute, which hosted the course ‘Leadership skills for architects and other technical leaders’ in Portugal on just that topic.

''The trainer made a big effort to use real-world examples. We were always talking about real issues. If we had a problem in our team, we could discuss it, and learn how to solve it. The course was very focused on practice.''

“Project leads already have good people skills, otherwise they wouldn’t be in that role”, says Barros. “But we wanted to reinforce this. We wanted to give them the tools for dealing with people and show why they work. The project leads already had the right energy but lacked the formal training. This course gave them that. It taught us some tools to navigate the responsibilities that we face as leadership figures at a technology company.”

For Barros the course put a name to things he had been doing all along without realizing it. “I already do things like talk to stakeholders and give feedback to colleagues. I just do it organically. After this training, I had a framework I could base myself on.”

This is very helpful for someone like Barros, who also needs to teach others what he knows. “Sometimes you do something naturally, but you don’t know why it works well”, he says. “Which makes it hard to explain to others how to do the same thing. These tools allow you to understand. Now I can point them to frameworks and tools.”

Feedback

During the training, the participants could discuss practical cases. “The trainer made a big effort to use real-world examples”, says Barros. “We were always talking about real issues. If we had a problem in our team, we could discuss it, and learn how to solve it. The course was very focused on practice.”

Credits: Nuno Vasco of NVSTUDIO

One focus area was feedback. “After taking the course, I started giving feedback in a different way”, says Barros. “I learned how to respond critically to a person’s work without hurting them. That is a valuable skill I will probably use for the rest of my life.”

The course proved particularly valuable for younger project leads. These are people who got promoted after we saw potential in them”, says Barros. “They know a lot about the technical side of their job, but they need to learn how to deal with certain social problems and communication issues. That’s what the training did very well.”

This fits into Strypes philosophy of having technically trained managers. “That’s very important at our company”, says Barros. “In other companies you often see a disconnect between project leads who don’t have a technical background, and just manage Excel, and the technical people below them. We want to have project leads that can do the technical things, but also have good people skills and can support their team.”

''We could discuss together how we were using the tools, and which ones were particularly helpful to us. This way, you just don’t forget about what you learned after a few weeks.''

Diving deeper

The course took four days in total, divided into two sessions of two days each. “It took place in our office in Porto”, says Barros. “There we gathered all our Portuguese project leads, which was an interesting experience in itself. It was almost a team-building exercise.”

In between the two sessions, there was a break of a few months. During that time, the participants could experiment with some of the things they learned. “We had about three months to apply what we learned”, says Barros. “We even created a buddy system, where each of us kept track of another participant. We could discuss together how we were using the tools, and which ones were particularly helpful to us. This way, you just don’t forget about what you learned after a few weeks. During the second session we reported on our experiences to dive deeper.”

Looking back on it now, Barros is very positive about the training and what he learned from it. It helped him become a better leader, and helped Strypes operate more smoothly. “When you take one of these courses there’s always skepticism”, he concludes. “You ask yourself: ‘will I actually use any of this in real life.’ In this course that was different. It was highly practical, and the trainer knew the culture of Dutch tech organizations very well. The things we learned really made a difference.”

This article is written by Tom Cassauwers, freelancer for Bits&Chips.

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“Delving deeper made me a better system architect”

system architect
Stefan Rutjes learned the trade of system architect on the job at Demcon. Still, he was looking to deepen his knowledge. That’s why he took the systems architecting course at High Tech Institute.
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Before Stefan Rutjes became a system architect, he had a long career path as an engineer. Initially, he designed offset printing machines. In 2019, he changed course and joined Demcon as a mechanical engineer. “I ended up more and more in the lead,” he states. “Thus, I did several large projects. Eventually, I became a system architect.”

That role was right up Rutjes’ alley. “You have to learn to think along with the customers, and I love that,” he says. “What are they struggling with? What are their challenges? You can design a great piece of technology for them, but if it doesn’t match what they want, you’re going to go off the rails.”

At Demcon, this is embedded in the design process. “The system architect is involved from the very start of a project,” Rutjes explains. “A system architect already sits at the table during the coordination phase with the customer, to give direction to the project and ask the important questions. Can we do this within Demcon? Is this a good fit for Demcon? Do we have the right people to tackle this issue?”

''The training is organized in a setting with a mixed group. A lot of views came together. The interactions we had with each other were valuable. I learned a lot from hearing how others approach something.''

Deeper

Still, Rutjes felt he had more to learn. He found the depth he was looking for in the “System architect(ing)” course at High Tech Institute. “I wanted to go deeper. I learned this job mainly on the job. That gave me a good foundation. At Demcon, we already use frameworks for system architecture. Still, I felt it was time to explore systematic approaches outside of these frameworks. The training gave me additional tools and insights.”

It wasn’t just the content that helped Rutjes move forward. “The training is organized in a setting with a mixed group. A lot of views came together. My group consisted of a mix of software, mechanical and electrical engineers. A few of them also had previous experience in systems engineering. We all came from different companies. The interactions we had with each other were valuable. I learned a lot from hearing how others approach something.”

During the training, the emphasis is also on a practical case. This strengthens the learning process, contends Rutjes. “Parallel to the theory, you develop a case in a group. You get a customer question and based on that, you have to pitch a proposal at the end of the training. In the groups, different views of the same problem arise. That turned out to be very interesting. You see great divergence and sometimes convergence between ideas.”

After the training, Rutjes began taking positions much more consciously, more clearly articulating the needs of different groups. According to him, that’s the most important thing he learned. “Of course, I already did that before. But I became more aware of it. For example, I now regularly make time to examine the whole project from the customer’s point of view. Subsequently, I take another look at everything from the usability point of view.”

Since the training, Rutjes has been making more time to be a true system architect. “This is a role where sometimes you just have to be able to think in peace and quiet,” he points out. “During a hectic day, that’s difficult, but it’s necessary. That’s why I’m planning my schedule a little more liberally now. I like to keep thirty percent free space to be able to think quietly about things like system choices or who to talk to. Especially after the training, I started doing that much more consciously. I really take my time now.”

System puzzle

Rutjes is enthusiastic about his work as a system architect. “A system architect actually stands alongside the team. You can look at things from every position, but you’re not an expert in anything. You have to ask people questions so that they themselves come to insights and grow. In my opinion, the role of system architect isn’t about taking the lead but about inspiring others.”

''Sometimes the problem isn’t the technology but the collaboration in the team that’s going awry. I work on that, too.''

Sometimes that involves things like consulting stakeholders and developing frameworks. But a system architect also plays an important informal role. “You drop by people and have a chat here and there,” Rutjes illustrates. “That sounds trivial, but it’s a crucial part of my job – I even put it on my calendar. It’s not always about the technical stuff, by the way. Sometimes the problem isn’t the technology but the collaboration in the team that’s going awry. I work on that, too.”

A system architect also has to learn to choose. “You’re constantly making trade-offs, for example between cost and performance,” Rutjes explains. “In turn, you have to run that by the stakeholders. You have to check with them that you’re making the right choice.”

And not just with the customer; the whole chain is important to a system architect. “Maybe you need to talk to the person installing the technology, or the one doing the maintenance. Such players are right next to the customer and sometimes they can make all the difference between failure and success. You’re constantly looking for the right people whose shoes you can step into for a moment.”

Rutjes is enjoying the profession of system architect very much. “The diversity appeals to me the most,” he concludes. “It’s like putting together a big puzzle. You have to make all the conditions, requirements, views and budgets come together nicely. Being able to successfully solve a puzzle like that is what makes this job so interesting to me.”

This article is written by Tom Cassauwers, freelancer for Bits&Chips.

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“When I talk about my own experiences, my trainees are all ears”

Jack Leijssen enjoys training mainly because participants in his “Signal integrity” workshop recognize the problems from his world. He especially wants to get people to think differently because electromagnetic phenomena often go against intuition.
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Jack Leijssen’s cradle literally stood on the High Tech Campus – he was born on one of the farms on the land where the Natlab emerged in the 1960s and an environment for open innovation developed after 2000. Leijssen worked at Philips all his life, as did his parents. “My mother made the PL86 television lamps as a girl, my father was employed by the Natlab. They met outside Philips and got married in 1956. A year later, I was born, so I can rightly say I come from a Philips nest,” he says laughingly.

Leijssen is a seasoned technician who was also trained within the Dutch multinational. After primary technical school (LTS), he was further educated at the company school while working at the Natlab. Following his military service, he attended the MTS and HTS, again at Philips, and took didactic training there. “Philips remained the common thread in my career: I worked in the company workshops, the production departments, the measuring room and electronics repairs.”

Very clever

After 23 years at the Natlab, Leijssen moved to the electronics department at Philips CFT in 1998. Among other things, he designed equipment for measuring interference (jitter). He was also sent by Philips to work for Bang & Olufsen for a year and a half. The Danish company truly inspired him. He was part of the team that developed the HDR1, a recorder for analog TV with an 80 GB hard disk. “You could buy it in the store. You could take it apart and I could point out the parts that contained my thoughts.”

Bang & Olufsen distinguished itself from Philips with a totally different market approach. His boss in hardware development, Pelle Nissen, once confided to him that at B&O, it didn’t all have to be so cheap; it was all about quality. When Leijssen brought up that, in his opinion, Bang & Olufsen distinguished itself through product design, Nissen told him that the difference between B&O and Philips had nothing to do with design. “That’s what everyone thinks,” he said. “Philips makes cost-optimized consumer electronics. So does Sony. We at Bang & Olufsen don’t. We want to meet our customers’ expectations.” “Well,” Leijssen replied, “so do we at Philips, but our customers’ expectations may be a bit lower, as are our price tags.”

Leijssen soon discovered that Bang & Olufsen wasn’t just selling a design experience. “They put extreme demands on EMC immunity and emission. It had to be 20 dB better than the then-strictest standard. When I reported this at CFT’s EMC Competence Centre in 2003, they just laughed in disbelief. The general opinion was that they were never going to succeed. But they did. And the remarkable thing is that they did so without industry-grade connectors. To achieve a signal-to-noise ratio of 100 dB in the audio path with just SCART is very clever.”

Jack Leijssen is an electronics enthusiast. At home, he can usually be found in his hobby room.

Warm feelings

In Leijsen’s experience, electronics was always the darling of the Philips community. CFT’s hundred-person Professional Electronics group, for example, where he worked for 23 years, was established during the infamous large-scale reorganization codenamed Centurion. “Electronics people were made redundant in all product divisions. However, they were too good to lay off, so they were transferred to CFT. What the top executives thought about that, I don’t know, but many managers must have realized that those capabilities had to be saved.”

The many reorganizations at Philips passed Leijssen by without him breaking a sweat. “I went from the Natlab to CFT on my own accord, but after that, I worked in as many as five or six different departments. It all happened to me. Suddenly, I was working at a different business unit. I opened my mailbox in the morning to discover that I had a different boss.”

A lot of colleagues were upset by the changes, but not Leijssen. “That’s the way I am. I’m into technology, and if I’m honest, everything else doesn’t interest me that much. I saw the Philips organization struggling, but I knew that the technology I was working on was sustainable. The things I liked always turned out to be useful and necessary. That’s been a constant throughout my life and my entire Philips career. My warm feelings for Philips also never suffered from all the changes and hiccups. When I retired two years ago, I knew that Philips Healthcare would continue to hire me. I’m still having a great time there.”

''I particularly enjoy training because the people in my class understand what I’m talking about. They come from a world with problems just like the ones I had. When I talk about my experiences, I notice that they’re all ears''

Regular trainer

At Philips CFT, Leijssen also developed his skills as a trainer. It all started with problems at Philips Semiconductors in San Jose. The IC designers there had developed a chip that gave EMC problems on printed circuit boards at customers. An old department manager who had been promoted to North America came up with the idea of asking Leijssen to fix the issues. “I knew him from a digital cassette project I had worked on ten years earlier.”

“The designers had delivered a good design, but they hadn’t taken into account that customers wanted to mount the chip on cheap circuit boards in a low-cost production process,” recalls Leijssen. “They had pushed all the problems out of the chip, to the periphery. As a result, the circuit board was almost impossible to make. Customers, however, want a chip in a simple reference design so they can quickly demonstrate compliance with all EMC and regulatory requirements. They don’t want a headache; they want a cheap circuit board in a cheap plastic box.”

Leijssen came up with a solution on the circuit board without requiring a new chip design and was promptly asked to train Philips employees in the US. “The initial proposal was for me to be there ten times a year for three weeks, but I was able to bring that down to five times.” He set up an EMC course and taught people at both Semiconductors (later NXP) and CFT (merged into Philips Healthcare and ASML). He became a regular trainer at Philips Centre for Technical Training and later High Tech Institute, where his course is now known as “Signal integrity of a PCB workshop.”

Leijssen is an avid radio tinkerer. For his home-made long-wave medium-wave transmitter, a giant antenna is spanning his yard, which can be tuned with this equally home-made tuner.

System-level decisions

“I particularly enjoy training because the people in my class understand what I’m talking about,” says Leijssen. “They come from a world with problems just like the ones I had. When I talk about my experiences, I notice that they’re all ears.”

The training attracts a very broad group of participants, not just IC designers but also PCB layout designers and system architects. The PCB designers especially need rules of thumb, Leijssen observes. “They have a different perspective. We have a guest lecturer in our workshop who knows their world better than I do. It involves, for example, the right selection of components and whether to put them on one or more boards.”

Leijssen especially enjoys teaching people who have to make system-level decisions. “In a low-cost design, everything has to be clearly structured together on one PCB. Unfortunately, that also means that the noise class is the same across the board. If you put a 16-bit analog-to-digital converter on there, it might only do 10 bits because it uses the same three-dimensional electromagnetic environment. In that case, it’s cheaper to use a 10-bit ADC. After all, a 16-bit result doesn’t mean you get that quality. 16 bit means a 96 dB signal-to-noise ratio. You don’t get that for free; you have to put effort into that. You have to partition for that.”

Pretty useless

Signal transmission on printed circuit boards changed significantly under the influence of CMOS chip technology. “CMOS devices became faster and faster, so the flanks of the signals traversing a PCB track became steeper and steeper. The frequency spectrum required for such an edge also became wider and wider. We’re talking gigahertzes.”

In that world, a signal no longer ‘sees’ a PCB track as a capacitor that needs to be charged. “We’re now dealing with transmission lines, over which signals run like trains. Those signals have a flank that moves along the PCB track. The return current is below the edge. The signal doesn’t ‘see’ the entire capacity of the PCB track, only a small piece of about the length of the edge. Add to that that you can have multiple flanks in a PCB trace. On a transmission line, that’s all on the move, traveling. It’s one of the things I cover in my workshop. You can compare it to optical signals but at about half the speed of light.”

With his training courses, Leijssen wants to get people to think differently. “Best engineering practices are pretty useless in my world,” he states. “Many electromagnetic phenomena are contrary to what your intuition tells you. People think they’re charging capacitors, but in fact, such a traveling signal on a PCB track encounters various obstacles. A capacitance here, another capacitance there. Also, the signal experiences some self-inductance. A capacitance meter might measure a 100-picofarad capacitance on a PCB trace, but a signal doesn’t see it that way. It sees distributed capacitance and distributed self-inductance. Your cell phone, all the memories, they all work with transmission lines now.”

This article is written by René Raaijmakers, tech editor of Bits&Chips.

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Understanding the benefits of Rust

C++20
Rust, with its guarantee of memory safety, marks its place as a promising programming language. If you’re wondering whether you should invest your time in Rust, computer programming enthusiast Kris van Rens has a highly focused training for you at High Tech Institute.
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Rust, an emerging programming language, has started garnering attention among many companies due to its promise of guaranteed memory safety. Of course, there have been novel programming languages before, and the choice to adopt a new one is always a significant decision. If you’re wondering whether Rust could be a useful addition to your software development operations, computer programming enthusiast Kris van Rens has prepared a training for you, “Exploring Rust,” organized by High Tech Institute.

Van Rens likens Rust’s memory safety to guard rails: “It prevents software engineers from shooting themselves in the foot. Essentially, you trade freedom for guaranteed safety and predictable behavior.” Simultaneously, he considers Rust’s expressive syntax as one of its strong suits, making it an attractive language to work with. A third benefit he highlights is the compiler: “It’s a great programming companion, delivering excellent error messages. It also frequently offers suggestions for fixes, literally ‘guiding’ you as you go.”

Production-ready

As Rust is a relatively young programming language, it’s natural to question whether it’s ready for production. According to Van Rens, the answer depends on the application domain, but generally speaking, he would answer with a strong yes. “In fact, many renowned high-tech software engineering companies use Rust in production, for example in application, cloud and web development.”

In more constrained areas like embedded development, full support isn’t always guaranteed, partly because this depends on the support by the manufacturer of the embedded device. Domains like automotive and aeronautics requiring software certification trajectories may also be challenging with Rust at the moment. However, Van Rens indicates, “the German company Ferrous Systems already offers a Rust toolchain that’s ready for use in environments that require an automotive ISO 26262 certification. Efforts toward other requirement levels are underway. It’s just a matter of time.”

''My goal isn’t to deliver Rust experts but to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of what makes the language different.''

Distinct concepts

Van Rens doesn’t consider Rust harder to learn than advanced C or C++. “Yes, C might be a small language, but mastering C or C++ takes many years of focused work and discipline. Perhaps the learning curve for Rust is steeper in the beginning as the language in itself is larger, but in the long run, it doesn’t make a difference. I often come across software engineering companies publishing articles about their successful Rust adoption, explaining that the language wasn’t particularly hard to learn.”

Part of Rust’s steep learning curve is due to some unique concepts that aren’t found in traditional programming languages like C and C++. In his training, Van Rens focuses on these elements, expecting participants to be software engineers with systems development experience. “This enables me to introduce Rust at an advanced, thorough level. My goal isn’t to deliver Rust experts but to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of what makes the language different. This assists them in determining whether they should invest their time in Rust and facilitates a successful adoption of the language if they decide to give it a go.”

Because of its focused approach, the “Exploring Rust” training is spread over only two half days, within a two-week time frame. “I immediately jump in at a high level and cover the most important topics in-depth. I spend about 30 percent of the time on hands-on exercises. For those eager to delve even deeper, there are a couple of larger homework exercises.”

This article is written by Koen Vervloesem, freelancer for Bits&Chips.

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A deep dive in C++20

C++20
C++ has evolved a lot over time. Software engineers who are still using outdated paradigms of the programming language don’t realize its potential to the fullest. In his “C++ fundamentals” training at High Tech Institute, computer programming enthusiast Kris van Rens introduces C++20, including topics like templates and ranges.
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Over the years, many programming languages have been proposed as alternatives to C++. Nevertheless, this hasn’t made C++ any less relevant, computer programming enthusiast Kris van Rens insists. “There are millions of lines of C++ code in production, and a substantial number of engineers in the industry are trained in the popular programming language.”

One of the challenges of mastering C++ is the sheer size of the language, Van Rens notes. “C++ is an old language and it has become quite vast and relatively complex due to the multitude of new features that it has received over time. As a result, many C++ developers have built up their language knowledge in fragments, without a clear, comprehensive view.”

Van Rens aims to offer this comprehensive view on the programming language in his 4-day training course “C++ fundamentals,” organized by High Tech Institute. In this training, he introduces the fundamentals of modern C++ to software engineers of all levels, whether it’s their first contact with the programming language or whether they want to update their knowledge of older C++ versions.

''Many books and online resources are still teaching older versions of C++, thereby restricting you from realizing the language’s potential to the fullest.''

A living language

As C++ and its tooling have changed a lot over time, it’s easy to get stuck learning outdated paradigms. Van Rens cautions: “Many books and online resources are still teaching older versions of C++, thereby restricting you from realizing the language’s potential to the fullest.” C++ as a language is still very much alive, with new versions appearing every three years, and major feature updates at least every six years. “It’s up to software engineers and their employers to keep up-to-date with the language changes and benefit from the new features,” Van Rens opines.

Van Rens covers C++20 in his training, including powerful topics like templates and ranges. “This C++ version from 2020 is fully supported by most of the latest toolchains, and in industrial production environments, its adoption is relatively new. Maybe some participants of the training might not be able to apply C++20 directly in their environment. However, they’ll be able to identify the potential improvements and changes that C++20 will bring to their code. This way, they’ll hopefully be able to contribute to a future migration to newer C++ versions in their company. During the training, I also highlight the features of C++20 that were absent in earlier versions of the language.”

The “C++ fundamentals” training spans over four days in total, divided into two blocks of two full days, with a week’s break in between. “I cover the basic elements of the language in the first two days, followed by a more in-depth dive during the next days. The focus is on building a solid foundational knowledge of C++, and on knowing where to find sources for further professional development in C++,” Van Rens summarizes the training. He spends about half of the training duration on in-class exercises, all derived from his practical experience as a seasoned C++ software engineer. For those eager to delve even deeper, there are a couple of larger homework exercises.

''Perhaps in the distant future, C++ might evolve to accommodate strict safety requirements, but not at this moment. However, using the right discipline, guidelines and tools, working with C++ can be mostly safe.''

Software safety and security

A new theme in the domain of programming languages is the shift to stricter regulations around software safety and security. This will influence every field of software development, Van Rens emphasizes. “Software engineers will likely have to provide more assurances about safety and security.” The two main approaches for this are the use of a memory-safe programming language like Rust or the use of a language with garbage collection to eliminate manual memory management.

Although C++ isn’t a strictly safe programming language, Van Rens attests that C++ code still has its place in the application landscape. “Perhaps in the distant future, C++ might evolve to accommodate strict safety requirements, but not at this moment. However, using the right discipline, guidelines and tools, working with C++ can be mostly safe. This comes without hard guarantees, yet it might be ‘safe enough’ for your purposes.”

This article is written by Koen Vervloesem, freelancer for Bits&Chips.

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Learning the tools of the trade in Embedded Linux

Embedded Linux
When Johan Oedzes embarked on the Embedded Linux course at High Tech Institute, he wasn’t an absolute novice in the topic. However, reflecting on his journey, he confides, “I regret not taking the course earlier.”
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“The combination of software and electronics has always piqued my interest due to the interaction with the tangible world,” says Johan Oedzes. This interest led him to the University of Twente, where he completed his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and subsequently delved deeper into the field with a Master’s in embedded systems.

After graduating, Oedzes secured a position at a big company in Hengelo, focusing on C++ software engineering on Linux, albeit not in the embedded sense, he explains. “Although I learned a lot there, it started to bother me that I wasn’t working on embedded systems. I also felt that I was operating within the constraints that other people had thought out. I wanted to do the innovative and exploratory part of engineering too.”

One of his more experienced colleagues shared Oedzes’ sentiment and moved to Beeliners, based in Hengelo as well. The two kept in touch and his ex-colleague asked Oedzes whether he could share his contact information with the company’s owners. When commercial director Dennis Wissink called two years ago, Oedzes decided to take the plunge and he joined Beeliners as an embedded software engineer.

E-mobility

Beeliners immediately resonated with Oedzes’ interests, he says. “All our products combine a hardware design with embedded software engineering to create a prototype or deliver a proof of concept for our clients. Such projects may encompass compact medical appliances, intelligent gym equipment or innovative e-mobility devices. I’m currently working on a product in the e-mobility sector.”

One of Beeliners’ clients wasn’t satisfied with an externally sourced e-mobility control unit and approached the company for a solution. Upon the client’s request, Beeliners embarked on the venture of creating their own. The control unit links to two external systems: the e-mobility device on the one hand and the internet on the other. The internet connection enables communication with a backend server and reception of firmware updates.

“We separated the system into two parts,” Oedzes explains. “Everything that needs real-time behavior and has strict timing requirements runs on a subsystem with a microcontroller, interfacing with the e-mobility device. The code for the backend connection, the web interface and the product’s business logic run on an embedded Linux system with a C++ application.”

''Jasper asked me the right questions, like: what problem are you trying to solve, what threats do you want to protect against, is your web interface externally accessible? It’s actually all quite logical, but I learned a lot by reasoning about our product with him''

Flexibility

Despite having some experience in using embedded Linux systems from his studies at the university, setting one up was uncharted territory for Oedzes. It was during the e-mobility project at Beeliners that he self-educated and successfully created a tailored embedded Linux system based on the Yocto project. “You can find a lot of information about tools to create embedded Linux distributions, such as Yocto and Buildroot. It took some searching and experimenting, but eventually, we had a working system, even including functionality for remote updates.”

“At that time, Yocto felt like the most widely accepted solution. Renowned companies working on embedded Linux were using it and many software providers offer a Yocto recipe to create packages of their software with Bitbake. Recipes are a powerful concept, and it’s one of the reasons for choosing Yocto for this project.”

Because this was the first time that they created an embedded Linux system, Oedzes and his colleagues had some questions: “How do I know that my product is good? Does my embedded Linux system do what it’s meant to do? Is it secure?” Beeliners had progressed to initial field testing with a functioning prototype, but they wanted some validation of their approach before finalizing the product.

Embedded Linux

Initially, Beeliners thought of hiring external expertise for a comprehensive evaluation. However, they wanted a quicker, lighter approach and preferred building this expertise internally, Oedzes emphasizes. “This quest for knowledge led us to explore training options. Given a prior positive experience by one of our colleagues with High Tech Institute’s ‘Good software architecture’ course, we went looking for a similar program for embedded Linux, and we found that they had one.”

''If I had enrolled in the course earlier, maybe we would have still chosen Yocto, but we would have certainly given more consideration to Buildroot.''

As Oedzes wasn’t an absolute novice in embedded Linux, he wondered whether the course was relevant for him. “We engaged in a conference call with Jasper Nuyens, the course’s trainer, who listened to our questions. He concluded that we were well on our way but had some knowledge gaps on embedded Linux basics and rules of thumb in this domain. He also reassured us of the course’s flexibility to accommodate our specific questions.” Consequently, Oedzes enrolled in the embedded Linux course.

Better decisions

While attending the embedded Linux course, Oedzes continued to benefit from Nuyens’ experience. It revealed to him that Buildroot would’ve possibly been more suitable for his use case. “If I had enrolled in the course earlier, maybe we would have still chosen Yocto, but we would have certainly given more consideration to Buildroot.”

Yocto excels in use cases where various devices each require some hardware-specific configuration as well as a common part. You can then build a Yocto project with various subconfigurations for each device to create a custom Linux image, Oedzes explains. “This is a powerful approach, but we didn’t need this for our use case: it has one device and just a couple of minor hardware revisions. Yocto wasn’t a bad choice, but in the course, I learned that Buildroot would have been a better fit.”

The course also allowed Oedzes to discuss various security aspects of his e-mobility project. “Jasper asked me the right questions, like: what problem are you trying to solve, what threats do you want to protect against, is your web interface externally accessible? It’s actually all quite logical, but I learned a lot by reasoning about our product with him.”

In retrospect, Oedzes would recommend potential participants to start earlier with the embedded Linux course than he did. “If you know that you need an embedded Linux system in your product and have some C/C++ programming experience, the course has immense value. Jasper covers various options and explains for which use cases each of them is suitable.”

Oedzes also found Nuyens’ explanation of cross-compiling software for another target architecture quite good for beginners. “Yes, figuring this out yourself is possible, but if you’re starting with embedded Linux, a course like this provides an encouraging head start and warns you about common errors.”

Even though Oedzes had previous experience with embedded Linux, the course armed him with important tips and insights. “I familiarized myself with new tools and gathered Jasper’s valuable advice about our e-mobility project. The experience of our current project coupled with the insights from this course gives me much more confidence for making better decisions for Beeliners’ future embedded Linux projects.”

This article is written by Koen Vervloesem, freelancer for Bits&Chips.

Recommendation by former participants

By the end of the training participants are asked to fill out an evaluation form. To the question: 'Would you recommend this training to others?' they responded with a 8.5 out of 10.

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“Technical knowledge wasn’t enough, I needed to see the big picture”

Sebastian Pricking from the German company Trumpf knows what he’s talking about when it comes to lasers. Yet when he was promoted to lead the development of a new fibre-based laser, technical knowledge alone wasn’t enough. He had to step into the world of system architecting. That’s why he took the Systems architect(ing) course at High Tech Institute.
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Trumpf is one of Germany’s hidden champions. Even though it’s not a household name, the Trumpf Group builds high-tech machines for clients all over the world, and employs more than 16.000 people doing so. Key to the group’s success is that since their founding in 1923 they have been family-owned.

“We work on innovations where we might have to wait five to ten years before we see a return-on-investment”, says Sebastian Pricking. “If your company is listed on the stock market, looking that far ahead isn’t always possible.”

system architect(ing)
Photo credit : André Boden (Trumpf)

Pricking works in the laser development department at Trumpf. “We develop the concepts and do basic research”, he says. “We have other colleagues that specialise in the CAD designs and software. My team takes care of the system interfaces, the fundamental principles, and the basic concepts.”

They for example design the optical layout of a new laser. “We decide which kinds of mirrors to use, the coatings on the lenses, and so on, based on simulations and lab experiments”, says Pricking. “The actual mechanical integration is done by another team.”

''This course gave me the tools and the framework which allowed me to see the big picture, and make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything.''

Fibre laser

Pricking’s team works on solid-state lasers. These include YAG-based disks, but also fibre-based lasers, where the active medium is an optical fibre. Pricking currently heads a team that designs a new fibre-based laser.

The main applications of Trumpf’s lasers lie in industry, where they are generally used to treat metals. “Welding and cutting are some of the main applications of these lasers”, says Pricking. “One of the biggest industries we serve is automotive. Electromobility in particular is driving growth here. In the construction of batteries and electro-motors a lot of laser processes are needed. That market is growing significantly now.”

Lasers have been used for a while in those applications, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more technological development to do. “Parameters like power and beam quality are still improving”, says Pricking. “We are also focusing on new features. We for example develop pulsed lasers. Here the light isn’t continuous, but comes in pulses with a higher peak power. That means that we need to time the pulses exactly right for the customer’s application.”

“We are definitely capable of offering suitable power levels for all the standard processes”, he says. “Solid-state lasers provide a broad range of power levels with an excellent wall-plug efficiency. One of our designs is a disk laser, which offers up to 24 kilowatt of infrared laser light.”

A disk laser has a thin active medium, which is placed on top of a heat sink. This solves issues around cooling. “In the past the active medium was often shaped like a rod”, says Pricking. “But that caused problems with the cooling, because it’s harder to apply a proper cooling to get the heat away. There are two possible solutions to this. Either you take the rod, and press it into a disk-shape, so the heat escapes more easily due to the increase surface. Or you take it and pull it, so that it becomes a fibre-based laser. We offer both of these designs to customers.”

''The entire experience was very entertaining. Me and the other students had dinner in the evenings, which allowed us to exchange experiences on how they do things in their companies.''

Architect

Pricking only recently took on the position of lead in the fibre-based laser team. Which is why he followed the Systems architect(ing) course at High Tech Institute.

“I’m originally an experimental physicist”, says Pricking. “I can do the lab work, I can simulate and calculate all the necessary effects. But when I took over the team, my work changed. I had to collect the requirements from the stakeholders. I had to make chains of tolerances. I had all these interfaces which I had to organise. I had to make sure everything fit together. I needed to be a system architect. The issue was not the technical aspects of the job, but how to organise the design. The training ‘Systems architect(ing)’ gave me the tools and the framework which allowed me to see the big picture, and make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. The framework showed me where I was on the right track, and where something was missing. It allowed me to close the gaps.”

The course taught the student how to apply the CAFCR framework.

“It allowed me to orient myself”, says Pricking. “I assume there are other, competing, frameworks as well. But this one fits our way of working nicely. It confirmed we were on the right track.”

Besides the content, Pricking also liked the way the course was taught. “I liked the mixture between, on the one hand, the experimental and group work, where you for example present the group’s results to solve a given challenge. And on the other hand, theoretical presentations about the model and how it works. The course took a week, and it was filled quite nicely. The entire experience was very entertaining. Me and the other students had dinner in the evenings, which allowed us to exchange experiences on how they do things in their companies.”

During the course ‘System architect(ing), the teaching team was responsive to the questions from the students. “I for example asked about which software can be used to apply this framework”, says Pricking. “The teacher mentioned that it wasn’t part of the course, but he still offered me a list of software tools we could use, together with the advantages and disadvantages of each.”

The lessons he learned during the course he now applies to his job. “With this new background, I checked everything again”, says Pricking. “I applied the model to the project. I saw that there were a few gaps, which we closed rapidly. This course helped us improve our laser concept. Our next project will for sure use this framework from the start.”

This article is written by Tom Cassauwers, freelancer for High-Tech Systems.

Recommendation by former participants

By the end of the training participants are asked to fill out an evaluation form. To the question: 'Would you recommend this training to others?' they responded with a 8.4 out of 10.

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Project leadership, the art of what not to do

In his project leadership workshop, Wilhelm Claussen aims to empower participants to reflect on their role as project leaders and support them in creating moments in which they align their teams and stakeholders with the project goal. All with a focus on making projects successful and turning work as a project manager into a rewarding personal development path.
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At some point in his career, Wilhelm Claussen experienced a pivotal moment while working on a project in America for a German company. Although he adhered to the guidelines set out by the company’s headquarters, he encountered unanticipated challenges in managing his people due to local particularities that were more insurmountable than the technical task itself. This ultimately led to an epic failure of the project but provided him with a profound learning experience.

This setback was the spark for what he now considers his project management style, which he now successfully teaches in his courses at the High Tech Institute. Based on his 26 years of experience in project leadership, he believes that beyond the various schools of project management, there are some universal principles and methods that good project leaders should master. He observed that such individuals are invaluable to organizations, as they can navigate a rapidly changing and dispersed environment.

“Many project managers today have to work internationally and in a multi-polar environment where the rules of the game change quickly. Dealing with this proactively is the key to success. Otherwise, even good technical ideas will never become a successful product due to poor leadership.”

''Project management means having everything on the radar, project management is the art of setting priorities.''

You make a clear distinction between project management and project leadership, why is that?

“This distinction has crystallized for me over time:

For me, project leadership is about how you guide project members and stakeholders to do the important things with the right timing. And it’s about the person who acts as a beacon in the project and provides direction and guidance. That makes project leadership something very personal.

“Project management, in contrast, is the sequence of actions that create the plan for execution. It is covered by a manageable set of tools for a given project environment and is effectively the project manager’s tools of the trade.

“I want to pass on the experience I have gained as a project leader. This means that I want people to become self-aware, to understand where they are in their project and to help them understand how they can influence their environment. That’s what leadership is all about, creating impactful moments and capitalizing on them.”

Does this mean that your project management workshop is not a project management course?

“Yes – and no!

First of all, many many institutions offer project management courses. They explain step by step  following their chosen model  ( e.g. Agile, Waterfall, V-Model…you name it) what to do and how for different types of projects. And of course, we will also look at the basic elements of project management, as this shapes our working environment through and through.

So far -Yes, you get to know the most important project management elements.

However, beyond this we will also look at the leadership aspect and how to deal with uncertainty and volatile environments. In other words, the question of how to plan for the unknown.

For example, how do I structure a technological development project where I CAN’T know what the right path to the result is? How do I avoid all the other sub-projects being swept away by one chaotic sub-project?

In volatile environments, how do you understand which part needs to be done next and drive it forward?

My passion is to teach people how to master this challenge in a highly technical integration driven environment. So, in deliveries where the final purpose of the project only can be gained when ALL  sub deliveries are functioning together like in Automotive, Semiconductor or Special Machine Construction.

For me, that means it’s fun to ride the white waves instead of constantly drowning and swallowing water.

In this respect – no, it’s not a normal project management course!

What was the most important experience that made you promote the relevance of leadership in your own career?

“In my first projects, I often felt like a victim in my role as project manager, trapped in the tasks and schedules set by others without being able to find clear solutions myself. So I joined other project managers complaining about scarce resources, insufficient budgets and a lack of tools. A sad path leading to a dead end.

One day, I understood that I had to accept risks and uncertainties on my path. Part of my leadership philosophy became to manage these risks, accept them and deal with uncertainty. Essentially, this required a willingness to proactively transform “unknown unknowns” into identifiable risks that I could manage and control. That’s how I would put it today.”

''The task of a good project manager is to respond optimally to colleagues without losing their own personality and without becoming completely opportunistic.''

The term “leadership” has become a buzzword, why do you use it?

“I agree with this observation, but I use it because I don’t have a better term.

To expand on this a little: project leadership goes beyond mere methods or manipulative tactics. It is rooted in the persuasive power of a consistent and holistic character. My aim here is to encourage the individual to reflect and grasp the essence of a leader by looking inwards rather than outwards.

Not only do you have to manage your own team, you also have to meet customer expectations!

“Above all, leadership means managing the stakeholders that are everywhere. I will guide participants in identifying these stakeholders and understanding their often-unspoken expectations. This insight is crucial for the effective management of all these stakeholders: customers, suppliers, technical experts and project members. The goal is to constructively engage with them and bring them along on the journey towards a common goal.

So it’s just all about communication again?

That’s not quite it. It starts with a solid foundation of project management tools and experience. However, what really sets a project leader apart is their ability to overcome cultural, linguistic and organizational barriers to achieve successful project outcomes. This requires the development of a unique personal style.

Project management means having everything on the radar. Project management is the art of setting priorities. It is the art of leaving out “what you don’t have to do”.

What impact do these cultural differences have?

“I have worked for a long time in Asia, Germany, the USA, Eastern Europe and the Netherlands. People in the different cultures carry their concerns, their conflicts, but also their disbelief and their differences of opinion in many different ways through the different levels of the organizations. This is normal and can be useful for the progress of the project.

A good project manager can deal with this by recognizing these challenges before they become a problem. And you have to be able to listen to these signs and adapt your management style to these different cultural aspects.

Just a reminder: in most cultures other than Dutch or German, disagreement and non-commitment are silent.

''We will interact more with machines than with people when it comes to routine tasks.''

What are other typical hurdles?

“Different levels of experience and personalities play a crucial role. You have to adapt and understand what kind of people you are dealing with. Because all people prefer communication that speaks their own language. It’s not just about vocabulary and words, but also about feelings, metaphors and cultural or personal beliefs. So a project leader shall translate his message into the different languages of his recipients in the project.

“Responding optimally to colleagues without losing your own personality, without becoming completely opportunistic, that is the task of a good project leader.

Of course, this will develop over time. But the good news is that there are certain questions, certain ideas, and concepts that you can practice. They will help you a lot to take the next step.

What does the future hold for project management if you look to the new options of AI?

I would like to deal with this question in three parts.

Firstly, for repeated deliveries, that we call “projects” the current project management systems already offer a high degree of automation for routine tasks. This trend is likely to continue in the coming years and facilitate the replication of complex projects, as Snowden notes. Project managers must adapt their strategies and project designs to fit these systems programming logic.

Secondly, original projects –  unique and unpredictable projects will still require human leadership due to the uncertain impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on project management. While AI will increasingly handle routine tasks, human oversight is crucial for original projects.

The third aspect is the most fascinating: when we talk about leadership, it is fundamentally about human-to-human interaction. With the advent of true artificial intelligence, we are faced with the challenge of integrating it into leadership roles within projects. This means that tasks, project structures and priorities are defined by intelligent machines and executed jointly within the project team.

However, as artificial intelligence works on rule-based models, the human leadership function will shift from direct task instruction to the definition of fair and effective rules. This means that the responsibility for collaborative and efficient project teamwork remains with the project manager, even if the tools and methods change.

What is essential in leadership today?

Leadership, as I define it, is ubiquitous in our daily lives because it requires the leader to understand the purpose and how to communicate in order to motivate others to contribute. We work in highly specialized organizations, so it doesn’t matter if you are a technician, engineer or group leader. I would expect that each subject matter expert is able and prepared to lead the organization in those aspects that belong to their field of expertise.

Leadership in our working current environment is always about asserting individual goals that are necessary to achieve the overall result. This includes influencing others to understand what we want and vice versa, so that we understand what they want. That’s what leadership is about at all levels, around the clock.”

This article is written by René Raaijmakers, tech editor of High-Tech Systems.

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“This course already changed our vendor interactions.”

mechatronics
Working as a particle accelerator engineer, Curt Preissner ran into the limits of their design philosophy. Which is why he and a colleague took the Mechatronics system design (metron) – part 1 course at the High Tech Institute. This allowed them to introduce a new design approach into the synchrotron community, and better talk to vendors. ‘You need to be able to communicate what keeps you up at night.’
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When Curt Preissner took the Metron – part 1 course at the High Tech Institute in Eindhoven, he was impressed by the local expertise, but also the amount of bikes riding around. ‘I bike to work here in the United States, but it’s not at all like in The Netherlands’, he looks back fondly.

Preissner is a mechanical engineer at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. This synchrotron, a type of circular particle accelerator, generates radiation in the form of x-rays. These x-rays in turn can be used to, for example, make images of the nanostructure of materials. Preissner is designing a very specific component in that system.

‘In a particle accelerator you accelerate electrons with the use of radio-frequency energy’, explains Preissner. ‘They then oscillate back and forth between the north and south poles of magnets, which produces what we call synchrotron radiation. In our machine, that radiation is in the form of x-rays. The energy of the x-rays we produce ranges from a few KeV all the way up to 100 KeV, so it’s highly penetrating. We take those x-rays and use something called a monochrometer to select a particular wavelength. The instrument I’m designing is an x-ray microscope called the PtychoProbe. This will be a unique, world-class instrument, and it will focus the x-rays down to five nanometers, which doesn’t exist right now. So it will be a world’s first. The x-rays will be focused on the sample and diffract off of it. The diffracted x-rays from the sample will then be collected by a detector, from which we process the data to generate an image that shows the structure of the sample.’

mechatronics

Curt Preissner, credit: Mark Lopez Argonne National Laboratory

New engineering philosophy

Preissner and his colleagues realised that this new design, which demands high degrees of precision, would require them to adopt a new engineering philosophy. ‘The specifications we work with can be very challenging’, says Preissner. ‘Generally, our system is static. Yet on the side of the beamline, things are moving. We have to scan our samples in a different way because the new beams are much more bright. This brightness will allow us to see our samples in greater detail. However, this high photon flux can actually damage the sample, and prevent us from seeing these details . So, we want to do this quickly. We don’t need to work as fast as some semiconductor manufacturing equipment. We scan around seven millimetres per second, which aren’t extremely high velocities. But for what we’re used to, this is quite high. The sample and the x-ray lens, called the zone plate, also needs to maintain registration on the order of 1,25 nanometres. That’s pretty tight. We do that over length scales of about 10 millimetres. This is new territory for us. Which is why we’re looking for new engineering approaches to achieve this.’

''A mechatronic approach is very interesting here. It's great to think about things like error budgeting and dynamic models from the get-go. It's a more integrated approach.''

Integrated approach

After some research, they realised that mechatronics could offer an answer. ‘We first started in the synchrotron community, which isn’t that big’, explains Preissner. ‘There are a countable number of synchrotron instrumentation engineers, probably around a few hundreds, less than a few thousand for sure. The community is not that big. So when we didn’t find the answers we were looking for, we started researching other fields with similar performance specifications. This is how we ended up with semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and in turn the mechatronics approach.’

This approach, while common in some fields, is new in the synchrotron community. Mechatronics, however, might be what they need to keep pushing the technology forward. ‘In the last generation of instruments, ten to fifteen years ago it wasn’t uncommon for a mechanical engineer to sit down with a beamline scientist and just design the mechanics, connect a motion controller, maybe some interferometry, and achieve results that got the scientific job done. The only consideration to dynamics in the design was vibrations, and there was certainly no system-level approach.’, says Preissner. ‘But now the advancements in the accelerator and x-ray optics technology are really forcing us to  push the limits of what we can do. That old approach will not work.,. We need to look ahead; science does not allow us to stand still. The instrument I’m designing will need to be scientifically productive for at least the next ten years. A mechatronic approach is very interesting here. It’s great to think about things like error budgeting and dynamic models from the get-go. It’s a more integrated approach.’

Ending up in the Netherlands

Which is how Preissner and a colleague ended up in The Netherlands taking a mechatronics course at the High Tech Institute. For them it was the ideal way of being quickly plunged into the field. ‘At the APS we don’t always have the luxury to be able to do a huge amount of R&D’, says Preissner. ‘We’re in a time crunch with this project. We need to gain knowledge fast, so we can work with vendors or do our own design. If you look at for example the wafer scanners of ASML, their performance is very impressive. But an important thing to remember is that there’s roughly forty years of development behind them. When we’re designing these instruments we don’t have that time. We need to learn as fast as possible.’

''There's certain key issues in this design that keep me up at night, and we need to be able to communicate that. After the course I could go to a vendor and ask them to, for example, show us their error budget. Or I could talk to them about the controller dynamics overlaid with the mechanics dynamics''

Vendors

One important thing they learned in the course was a new type of language, which allowed them to better speak to their vendors. ‘We’re not just going out and buying something’, says Preissner. ‘We’re proposing things, and deciding whether a vendor can make certain designs. So knowing techniques like error budgeting is important, besides being able to look at designs with a mechatronics view. Getting some formal training accelerated our ability to talk to vendors. There’s certain key issues in this design that keep me up at night, and we need to be able to communicate that. After the course I could go to a vendor and ask them to, for example, show us their error budget. Or I could talk to them about the controller dynamics overlaid with the mechanics dynamics.’

Short timeframe

The course taught them this in a short timeframe. This is important for an engineer like Preissner, who is working on a time-sensitive project for a government-funded organisation. ‘We’re under a high amount of pressure, so we were eager to learn, and did so quite fast. We looked hard for a course that could quickly package this knowledge for us. APS is also a government institution, so we’re using tax dollars. We need to be mindful of how we spend them. We’re always looking at ways to achieve goals in an effective manner, and this course taught us what we needed to know very efficiently.’

All of this is a work in progress according to Preissner. ‘The synchrotron engineering community has been operating in a certain way for a long time. But now people realise that we need to do things differently. This course enabled us to take that different approach.’

''The first part of the training was good, and now we're thinking about taking additional courses.''

Model in a holistic way?

So far the new mechatronics knowledge has mainly been used in contacts with vendors. But Preissner notes that going forward, they want to also use it to design new instruments from the ground up. ‘It’s on the drawing board’, he says. ‘We are wondering if we can take this new approach, and apply it in a more systematic way. Can we model the instrument, the control system model and the influences in a holistic way? What knobs do we need to turn? What control approach would make sense?’

For now, however, Preissner and his colleagues want to expand their knowledge of mechatronics. They’re already looking forward to taking more courses. ‘If you don’t use it, you lose it. So we’re feeling some pressure to apply what we learned as regularly as possible. The first part of the training was good, and now we’re thinking about taking additional courses. When you learn new engineering techniques it takes a bit of time. You have to work with it. It has already changed our vendor interactions. The next step will be changing our own designs from the ground up.’

This article is written by Tom Cassauwers, freelancer for High-Tech Systems.

Recommendation by former participants

By the end of the training participants are asked to fill out an evaluation form. To the question: 'Would you recommend this training to others?' they responded with a 8.9 out of 10.