Mechatronics engineer Naveen shares how he landed at ASML fresh out of college and his exciting career journey, working at the heart of tech innovation.

‘Scintilla’s commissie voor mensen die de verkeerde studie hebben gekozen Arago’, in short s.c.v.m.d.d.v.s.h.g. Arago or just S.V. Arago. If you have never heard of them, they are the study association for Applied Physics and a proud committee of Scintilla. You may have seen their board on the last committee market or heard them join in our ‘proost’ during a constitution drink. How did this start? Have they really been a committee of Scintilla? Or is this one of the student legends that everyone takes as a fact? At the Vonk we tried to find out how the story fits the history!

In today’s world electronic devices are all around us. A primary building block within these devices is the Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC). This block can convert a digital signal (i.e. a code consisting of 1’s and 0’s) into an analog signal by for instance switching on/off current sources using switches. A traditional switching method requires 2 overdrive voltages to make this work. If this voltage can be reduced, applications can work at lower supply voltages which saves power. A new switching technique is build and tested in a Digital-to-Time Converter (DTC) application.

Automatization in the agro- and food industry requires more intricate robotic grippers, which is currently quite a hassle due to how hard grasping (fragile) food products is for machines without intuition. What seems as an easy task for us due to our years of experience, is actually a daunting task for unconscious robots.

During your bachelor you get two modules where you can decide to do almost anything you want to get credits for your study. Yes, it is the magical study space-time relation called your minor space. Those who have done their minors already know that it can range from the easiest to the hardest courses they took and from the most fun they had to the most dreading days of their bachelors. We asked four students to tell us the story of their minor.

Dear Vonk reader, We’re already well into 2024, and I’ve already well passed the period for holiday wishes, so I’ll leave them out. We can take some time to look back on an eventful previous year, but I’d rather look forward to the current. Because even though a lot has already happened in the past few weeks, this year still has many things in store. Personally, I am looking forward most to the Batavierenrace coming May. ...