Category: News

Interest in high quality practical design knowledge for ultra-clean systems remains very strong, according to High Tech Institute and Mechatronics Academy. This conclusion comes as the number of participants has continued to increase for the training session: ‘Basics & design principles for ultra-clean vacuum’.

Last April the training partners organized a brand-new, tailor-made, in-company version of their ultra-clean vacuum course for an onboarding program of a large OEM in the South of The Netherlands. This exclusive edition is the first of a series and it received excellent reviews.

Adrian Rankers of Mechatronics Academy was enthusiastic about the excellent scores the training received. “The group of 12 participants remarked that the training is unique and useful for designers working within the vacuum environment. They also commented that there is a good balance between theory and practice”, said Rankers.

Trainers Mark Meuwese, Sven Pekelder (both Settels Savenije group of companies) together with Dick van Langeveld, Theo Mulder and David Schijve (all members of Nevac) have put great effort in the quality and effectiveness of his courses. Their contributions and practical experience are the real value of the training. These top experts have an extensive track record in the high-tech industry.

‘Designing modules for use in ultra-clean vacuum is a challenging task’, says Rankers. ‘Our training is a valuable source for getting up to speed in that field. Our trainers are working full time in the industry, and I am very happy that they want to share and transfer their valuable knowledge with such great enthusiasm.’

Topics of discussion in the ultra-clean vacuum training are vacuum fundamentals, flow of gases, total and partial pressure, pumps, leak testing, engineering aspects, mechatronics in vacuum, design for qualification and system design and budgeting.

The regular open enrollment edition of the ultra-clean vacuum training is also very popular. The next edition, scheduled for June 2019, is already fully booked. As a result, High Tech Institute has planned an extra open enrollment edition starting on 4 November, 2019.

Due to the great interest and need for knowledge about the influence of passive damping in precision technology, the High Tech Institute and Mechatronics Academy are organizing a second, extended-edition of the new training Passive damping for high tech systems next autumn.

The first edition of the training Passive damping for high tech systems, last April, was fully booked. Participants came from high-tech OEMs, research institutes and first-tier suppliers, both from the Netherlands and abroad. “The brand-new training was unanimously praised by a very enthusiastic group of twelve participants with good interaction,” said Hans Vermeulen.

The only drawback was the somewhat short duration. Participants found two and a half days a little lean. They expressed the wish to add half a day to have more time to be able to work out a case. One of the participants even advised to extend the training to a full week. As a result, trainers Kees Verbaan and Hans Vermeulen, guest speaker Stan van der Meulen and course leader Adrian Rankers have decided to extend the coming edition, that starts on 19 November, by half a day. “That way we create more time for different exercises,” says Rankers.

The enthusiasm about the content and the trainers was shared by everyone. “Passive damping is part of a complex dynamic world and I really liked the diversity of the course,” one participant noted.

Various topics were mentioned as useful elements, such as ‘how to adjust the stiffness contribution of the damper’, ‘how to design a damper made of rubber’, ‘aspects in the different design steps’, ‘differences in narrow and broad band damping’, ‘how to model a system with passive damping’ and ‘how to select materials for passive damping’. One participant expressed his surprise: “Dampers made out of liquid, never thought about that!” Another summarized: “Excellent training, very inspiring, I already have multiple ideas how to use passive damping in actual systems.”

According to Kees Verbaan, “Participants in last April’s edition were mainly from high-end companies that design systems with high demands on accuracy. Despite the diversity of application areas, varying from stages and handlers to beam lines, most participants appeared to be somehow active in the field of dynamics and wanted to understand the possibilities of damping for their particular area.”

Due to the range of the participants, each of them favored different topics. For some, modeling and optimization was the most instructive, while others were more interested in rules of thumb and understanding of dampers. “This is not a math course,” said Verbaan, continuing, “Because of the global approach to this topic, most of them were helped by the overview that was created by the combination of topics. As a result, the content fit different people in different ways.”

High Tech Institute has entered into a joint collaboration with Cydrill, a Hungarian specialist focusing entirely on training courses about safe software. The first training course ‘Secure coding in C and C ++’ successfully took place in Eindhoven recently.

Founders of Cydrill, Ernõ Jeges and László Drajkó, recently signed an agreement with Ger Schoeber and René Raaijmakers of High Tech Institute. Cydrill is a Hungarian Institute that offers a large number of training courses in the field of secure coding. Security for embedded systems is one of its specialities.

Cydrill director Ernõ Jeges explains that his goal is not to educate people about hacking, but to develop paranoia. ‘This emotion is important,’ he says. ‘It has an impact impossible to achieve with online training.’ According to László Drajkó, secure encryption doesn’t require extra time. ‘It takes time to learn it, but not afterwards.’

Ten people took part in the first edition of the Secure coding in C and C ++ training course that High Tech Institute organised in collaboration with Cydrill. They gave the trainer Ernõ Jeges an average score of 8.4 out of 10 for his training. Some of the feedback from the participants read as follows: ‘Very good training session, with many illustrative examples to make me aware of software security issues’; ‘Course was very interesting and I found it very revealing ’; ‘I appreciate the content of the course, the trainer lived up to expectations.’

‘In our training course you don’t learn how to hack, but you do learn how to sideline hackers,’ say Ernõ Jeges (2nd from left) and László Drajkó (left) from Cydrill. They recently entered into a joint collaboration with René Raaijmakers (2nd from the right) and Ger Schoeber (right) from High Tech Institute.

High Tech Institute introduces a new EMC course for engineers who work on motion and power conversion systems. The first edition is planned for next May in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

The focus of this training is on EMC problems that occur in the development and qualification of a wide variety of motion systems. In this field, engineers, designers, architects, project leaders and quality engineers typically encounter low-frequency disturbances caused by motion and power conversion systems.

The knowledge received from this course is applicable to systems from a few milliwatts, like small robotic systems – up to megawatts, like container transportation and wireless power transfer, large robot systems and automated manufacturing.

Industry experts Mart Coenen, Ramiro Serra, Mark van Helvoort and Ernest Bron will teach the new course, with an emphasis on choosing a proper cable, filter, grounding and shielding. Moreover, participants will learn how to use LTSpice tooling to analyze systems consisting of a motor drive, filter, cable and actuator. In addition to lectures, there will be several practical demonstrations, as well as hands-on sessions.

The 3-day course ‘EMC for motion systems’ is developed by High Tech Institute’s content partner Technical Training for professionals.

High Tech Institute rolled out a very successful first edition of the one day boot camp course ‘How to be successful in the Dutch high tech work culture’. The April edition got an overall score of 9.1 out of 10.

Eight participants from five companies and different nationalities attended. Participants commented very positive.

‘Really helpful and to the point. It shed light on many aspects of Dutch work culture that I wasn’t aware of prior to joining. Exercises are the best bit.’

‘Very useful. In-depth for one day. Very pleased.’

‘Very good advises and tips.’

‘It was most interesting to see the different nationalities present and their views on Dutch culture.’

Participants said they would certainly recommend this training to others. The question ‘Would you recommend this training to others?’ got an average score of 9.6.

The one day boot camp course ‘How to successfully perform in the Dutch high tech work culture’ was developed by High Tech Institute’s content partner Settels Savenije & Friedrich. In the past months these experts in soft skills and leadership organised several knowledge sessions in Eindhoven and welcomed over 200 expats. One of them was hosted by The Holland Expat Center South.

High Tech Institute received requests from high tech companies and will plan several editions this year. The next edition is scheduled for 26 August 2019 in Eindhoven. It is open for everyone to attend.

Klaas van Gend expanded High Tech Institutes’ portfolio with the training ‘Multicore programming in C++’ since you do not learn these skills from Dijkstra. The first edition, which is now open for everyone to attend, will take place in Eindhoven on 26 – 28 March 2019.

According to Van Gend, the problem is that many developers failed to receive a pedagogically sound basis during their computer science training. ‘At university it was all about Dijkstra, which means mutexes, locks and condition variables. But the moment you turn on a lock, you only ensure that the code is executed on one core whilst the others temporarily do nothing. So, you really only learn how not to program for multicore,’ he says.

That is why Van Gend has taken the multicore training course given by his old employer Vector Fabrics, out of the mothballs. He realised that the problem is still relevant and decided to offer it under the High Tech Institute flag, for third parties. High Tech Institute organises this 3-day training on 26 – 28 March 2019 in Eindhoven, but is also available for inhouse editions.

Read the entire interview: ‘Multicore programming skills do not come from Dijkstra’.

Bob Puers, lecturer of the microelectromechanical systems training became Teacher of the year during High Tech Institute’s annual get together in Eindhoven.  His training scored a 9.8 with praising comments and even a 10 for him as a lecturer.

In October 2018 Prof. Bob Puers was asked to come to Beijing to lecture an incompany edition of his MEMS training to a group of 14 participants. Puers got the highest overall score of 9.8 out of 10 points and a score of 10 for him as a lecturer. Participants gave several praising comments. ‘It was an excellent training both in terms of contents and presentation. The trainer was exceptional in answering the questions raised’, one of the trainees commented. Another participant pointed out that the lecturer had shown authority on his subject. Other positive comments: ‘Professor’s way of teaching is extraordinarily good’, and ‘The professor was very friendly and has very good communication and comprehensive and easy to understand.’

Bob Puers is working at the Catholic University of Leuven. He is lectures our electronics training ‘Microelectromechanical systems’ once or twice a year. The 3-day course introduces designers to the basic theory of MEMS, shows how these devices are processed and addresses various applications of MEMS in sensors and actuators. Usage issues, assembly and housing, testing and interconnection are other subjects.

This year’s get together, on 4 February 2019, was held at BCN in Eindhoven. Besides some important clients, all of our lecturers were invited to come. It is a High Tech Institute tradition to elect the Teacher of the year, based on all training evaluation forms.

150 expats registered for free workshop on performing in the Dutch high tech work culture

On the 13th of November our partner ‘Settels Savenije & Friedrich’ organised a knowledge session on how to successfully perform in the Dutch high tech work culture. This free workshop by Jaco Friedrich in the TAQ building at Strijp-T even got fully booked. The next one is already scheduled and open for registration.

Dutch work culture
If you’re new to Holland, a lot of things may be different from what you’re used to in the workplace. For example, Dutch colleagues expect you to always say what you think – even if it means contradicting your boss. And you can expect them to comment on your work, too. Dutch jobs come with a lot of freedom – and a lot of responsibility, right from the start. What’s the best way to handle that? And all those seemingly endless meetings – how do you ever get things done? How do you move decisions in the right direction, when it’s unclear who’s in charge of making them?

2-day Training
In 2018 Jaco developed the training ‘How to successfully perform in the Dutch high tech work culture‘. It is intende for non-Dutch technology professionals working with Dutch colleagues.  You’ll learn the history behind the Netherlands’ unique approach to work, and why it’s a plus in the technology industry. You’ll also practice the concrete day-to-day skills you need to survive – and thrive. The next edition will take place in Eindhoven on 17 & 18 January 2019.

Free workshop
Jaco decided to organise some free knowledge sessions together with the Holland Expat Center South, to introduce the training. The next session will take place on the 24th of January 2019. Registration is required, so please register here.

High Tech Institute and Mechatronics Academy are introducing a new training focused on passive damping for high-tech systems. The first edition of this training will take place next April in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Over the past few years, efforts have been made to better understand the underlying principles of damping which has led to spectacular results. Experts from industry and academia share the latest insights and design approaches in the new short course ‘Passive Damping for High Tech Systems’.

When designing high precision mechatronic systems it is essential to achieve a high bandwidth of the feedback control loop. This is necessary in order to suppress the negative effects of disturbing forces on the machine accuracy and settling time. Dynamics and resonances play an important role in limiting the achievable bandwidth and settling time. Much focus is directed towards high ‘eigenfrequencies’ and understanding vibration modes including the mechanisms of excitation and observability. However, as accuracy and resulting bandwidth requirements are getting tighter, the requirements in terms of ‘eigenfrequencies’ of the system are sometimes reaching the limits of what is physically possible. Passive damping offers additional design space and is becoming a key design parameter for achieving these extreme requirements. Despite the risk of introducing hysteresis related virtual play, passive damping can significantly simplify controller design and improve positioning performance.

Sign-up for the ‘Passive Damping for High Tech Systems’ training here.