Meet the Board
On the 4th of September, the 88th board handed over the scepter to the 89th board of E.T.S.V. Scintilla. We have asked them to introduce themselves by writing something about their history. Get to know the new board members a little better by reading their stories in this article and learn about what is driving them and what will be keeping them busy coming year.
From the President
Ewout Baars
Hello, dear Scintilla member,
You might already know me for a few years, maybe only a few weeks or even a few hours. One thing for sure is that I’d like to meet you. One of the main reasons I started the board year is to get to know more people, but more about this later. Let me start with something about me.
My name is Ewout Baars and I am happy to tell that I am the president of E.T.S.V. Scintilla. This means you will see me a lot on activities, in the Scintilla room and many more placed connected with electrical engineering. I am always open for a short (if I am busy) or long talk.
If there is any problem, you can always come to me. I might not know the answer but I will always know someone who has the answer. This connecting role is one of my most important tasks.
About 3 years ago I started full of energy and hope with electrical engineering and I could never have imagined how well that went. Right from the start, I felt at home among all other electrical engineering students and at Scintilla. Nevertheless, it took almost a year before I joined my first committee, the Borrel. After my first year, I had the urge to do more than only the Borrel, therefore I joined the SKIC (Scintilla’s Kick-In Committee). Here I learned a lot about planning, organizing and distributing tasks.
After the Kick-In camp was done, I had no activity to organize anymore, which I really liked. Therefore, I became part of the Borrel board. We knew everything about every Borrel organized, we made sure everything around the activity was taken care of and of course we joined the activities as well. I met many new people, people responsible for the bar, the building or even the O&O-square for example. Every activity which went successful gave new energy. I also had to lead the gatherings of the Borrel. I had a hard time doing this in the beginning, but after a few meetings it got easier. In the end I even liked to lead the gatherings.
When the option came to become a board member, I did not have to think twice. I knew for sure that as a board member I would get to know many new people, learn new skills, organize even more activities and, most importantly, have an awesome year. After a long period of being a candidate board member, I can now finally proudly say I am a board member. Together with the 5 other board members, we run around, work every day and drink a lot of coffee in order to make your year as good as possible.
That’s my Scintilla life, so to say, besides that I am just an ordinary guy. I love to do some sports and video or analog games. I have played; soccer, tennis and am still trying to see the gym sometimes (which is not going very well). My favorite video games are Rocket League and Viva Piñata Party Animals. My soldering iron is called Beau, simply because I like the name. The amount of coffee I drink is countable on two hands (if you count the cups of coffee I drank last hour). When I drink too much coffee you can clearly see it, since I’m bouncing up and down when this is the case. My favorite Scintilla snack is a nice Dutch snack: the stroopwafel. I can recommend it to everyone who does not know it. If you want to, you can try it with a cup of coffee and have a talk with me in the Scintilla room.
I hope you will have a great year and if I can do anything to make it better, contact me ;).
Greetings, Ewout Baars
P.S. I have lost untill thus far a few pairs of sunglasses, but I don’t know how many actually.
From the Secretary
Matthijs van Minnen
If you have been keeping up to date with Scintilla, you may have noticed that there is a new group of people constantly hanging around the Scintilla Room. They claim to be the new board and it appears I am one of them…
My name is Matthijs van Minnen, nice to meet you! I started my ventures at the University of Twente in 2015, but leaving this place is still far beyond the horizon. My hot-rod (soldering iron) is called Daphne. Perhaps I drink more coffee than is good for me and occasionally grab a Kitkat (Scintilla has several types, so there is room for some variation) as a snack to go along with it. The Kitkat is my favourite as it is a snack with chocolate which has some volume to it thanks to the layered biscuits inside. I will be consuming these snacks in/around the Scintilla room, so don’t hesitate to come by and snack along!
As the 89th board of E.T.S.V. Scintilla we were initiated on the 4th of September. In this board, I will be fulfilling the Secretary function. As such, writing a short piece for the Vonk is no problem. The attentive reader may even have noticed that I have been writing some other articles for the Vonk too, over the past few years. Hence, for me, making the step to become the Secretary was only logical.
Taking a complete year off is not a small feat, but in my eyes, this time is very well spent. Over the past few years I have actively been working for numerous committees. All of which were equally interesting and challenging. Nevertheless, I seek more challenge, which I hope to find in the upcoming year! Also, this year gives time for a well-deserved break from all the studying. Over the past three years I managed to obtain most of the study credits needed to complete the bachelor, but I would like to spend a little more time slowly taking in all of this material.
Besides executing all the board related activities and tasks I hope to improve many of my skills, such as improving my practical Electrical Engineering knowledge. Hopefully I will see you during one of Scintilla’s Shock hobby evenings, were we can work on projects together!
Apart from the hardcore Electrical Engineering, I would like to improve my writing, which can be useful as the Secretary. Drafting emails and letters helps greatly, but there is only so much information one needs to put in an email. To publish larger pieces, I will continue writing for the Vonk. So, stay tuned for more interesting content written by yours truly.
Kind regards, Matthijs
From the Treasurer
Hessel den Hertog
Hello there,
My name is Hessel and I will be the treasurer for a full year, which means I should be able to control all the money that is going around within the association. As ABBA already stated in one of their songs:
Money, money, money Must be funny In the rich man’s world
Unfortunately, we are students so being rich is not an option. But being a student for sure brings a lot of fun, so again: ABBA is always right.
Furthermore being a Scintilla member also means that you have your own baby, which, when turned on, gets very hot. Of course I am talking about my soldering iron. I named her Tinna Turner.
Let’s describe a normal day in the Scintilla room. A day can’t begin without a good cup of black liquid gold, then I check some incoming mail whilst enjoying my coffee. Oops, I ran out of coffee let’s take another cup.
Next up, declarations!! Things that people paid for Scintilla and who want their money back. Entering these declarations takes a lot of time since we are a very active study association, which is of course a very good thing.
Then after the break it is time for the action points acquired in the meetings with the committees. Finally, when the clock jumps to sixteenhundred I start to interchange my coffee mug for a beer glass. But first, I need a little bodem so I turn towards the stripelist. First I check if my favourite snack, the suikerwafel, is still available. Otherwise I take a filled cookie. Then I go downstairs to, preferably, the Abscint, but the MBasement is also fine.
As Winter Is Coming and summer is going, the sunglasses can return to the wardrobe. But where did I leave them?
This is one big problem of mine. I think I can freely say that I am the biggest sponsor of Scintilla regarding the sunglasses.
I like both winter and summer. In the summer it is possible to drink a Grolsch Weizen in the sun on a terrace and in the winter it is authorized to sing Christmas and Frozen songs while building a snowman.
I ran out of words. You passed this part of the Vonk. You can now go to the next function. See you guys and girls (or, if preferred, other) in the Scintilla room.
Kind regards, Hessel
From the Commissioner of External Affairs
Melissa Tijink
My name is Melissa and 21 years ago (well, almost 22) I was born in Oldenzaal. Since Oldenzaal is close to Enschede, I still live there with my parents and our dog, my brother has moved to Groningen.
As you might already know, my function in the new board is the one of commissioner of external affairs. I will keep contact with the companies that we as electrical engineers are interested in and make sure that you have a good career orientation while you are studying. Now you might be wondering, how did I end up here?
At high school I enjoyed most of the subjects I had, but mostly mathematics and Latin. I did not enjoy physics, which may seem a bit odd for an electrical engineering student… Well, I never really imagined myself as an electrical engineering student. I used to think that I would study Medicine or some microbiological related topic. But everything changed, when I visited a Technical University.
From that moment I realised I needed some form of engineering and some form of mathematics in my study. And I liked everything I encountered. So the search began. I finally ended up doing a ‘student for a day’ thing here in Twente and I experienced something that can be described as: I did not choose the study, the study chose me. And from that moment I decided to do electrical engineering. Which was a surprising outcome for myself and everybody around me.
I still get some surprised faces when I tell someone I study electrical engineering, but that has more to do with the fact that I’m a girl. People still believe that being a girl in a men’s world is the toughest part about studying electrical engineering, that is at least what they usually ask me first.
I will not lie, it is hard sometimes. I did not really know what I was going to get myself into when I started the study. I remember the first weeks during the lunchbreaks. I expected to talk about our weekends and other things in those long 75 minutes, but we ended up watching Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes again and again. Luckily we started talking more as the year continued and I was less bothered watching silly YouTube video’s, and these 75 minutes feel shorter and shorter.
In my first year, I joined the LEX (lunch lecture and excursion committee), because I wanted to expand my skills and get active in the student life. At the end of my first year I became chairman of this committee. I enjoyed being in a committee, so in my second year I joined the Gala committee, the Sun and Scala (activity committee). In my third year I expanded my list of committees even more, by joining the CursusCommittee. I feel really at home within Scintilla and I want to work on some skills that we do not learn within the study for a year, that is why I am doing a board year.
In my free time I enjoy reading books, I love the Harry Potter books. I am also a fan of Scandinavian thrillers. The ‘whodunits’ genre intrigues me so much, I recently started Crimibox, which is a company who sends you a box with a (made up) murder case in it. Furthermore I enjoy watching movies and series and tv shows from the NPO (national broadcasting station). My other hobby is playing flute, which I do in an orchestra. Last year, I played basketball in Enschede and before that I used to swim. Basketball was a dream of mine, but because of my knees I never got the chance to play. I enjoyed it a lot last year, although I’m not really good at it.
I’m looking forward to this year, I am sure that I will learn a lot and, also quite important, have a lot of fun with my fellow board members and all the other Scintilla members!
Kind regards, Melissa
Favorite Scintilla Snack: Autodrop Scintilla sunglasses: 0 (my head is too small)
From the Commissioner of Internal and Educational Affairs
Romano Ferla
Dear readers of this piece about myself,
I’m the fifth board member you will read something about (at least if you read the Vonk from left to right). In constitutive order you would assume I’m the Commissioner of Internal affairs (CIA), which is totally correct! For 50%, as my second function is the Commissioner of Educational affairs (CEA). That doesn’t mean, however, that my piece will be as twice as long as the others. I could, but I won’t. That said, let’s move on.
So as CEA, I will do numerous things, such as being a contact person for students if they have problems with their study. I will try to combine information out of all the things I come into contact with. These might be student complains, but also arguments with the lecturing staff and university-wide discussions about education. With this information, I will try to improve (read: make people improve) the study and the relation between Scintilla and its educational side. If the students feel good, the CEA feels good.
As CIA (I like this abbreviation), I use some knowledge of the CEA part to know when and which students have time to participate in activities and make sure it fits in the planning. Activism is something I will promote, under the first years students, but also at the older years students. With this high number of activism already present in Scintilla, I will coordinate the committees on a higher level. If the members feel good, the CIA feels good.
That was a bit of what I ought to do next year, but that does not really inform you about who I am. If you have no idea who I am, I’m the guy with the ‘kuif’. In the summer you see me with sunglasses, when winter is coming I trade it in for a scarf.
Within Scintilla, I always loved to participate in activities and eventually ended up organizing them. In my free time (some sort of section of time, extremely valuable but hard to find) I like to be with my girlfriend/friends/family, drinking ‘just one beer’ with others and going to bigger parties. Other things I like to do more often are for example reading a book for recreation and losing myself in the stories in it. I also enjoy traveling (at least 1000km, not just getting the train to my parents) with a good companion (or more) and explore other cultures and adventure into nature.
My soldering iron is called Leonora, which means torch. Just like Indiana Jones is absolutely useless without a torch while exploring ruins and dungeons, an Electrical Engineer is just as worthless if the electronics are not made. Often that is also said with a student and coffee, but not in my case. I believe the number of coffee drunk last year (till the moment written) is countable on three hands. If I would extrapolate this data however, knowing that last two months I drank more than half of it, one finds an exponential curve. Though, with such a small data set, it’s unclear whether I will become a caffeine addict or if it’s just part of a sinc function and I will eventually stop drinking any more coffee. Time will tell. My favorite Scintilla snack is the ‘speculaas torondo’, it’s cheap, it fills your stomach, it has a great kcal/€ ratio and has a better taste than the regular one. It’s just the best.
Have a great year, don’t forget to enjoy the great things in life!
Kind regards, Romano
Ps. Lost 1 pair of Scintilla sunglasses, but also acquired one, so that counts as even.
From the STORES Administrator
Sebastian Bunda
Hello everyone reading this!
If you started reading this article from the beginning, you’ve got to know the most part of the current board of E.T.S.V. Scintilla. I am the last piece of the puzzle as the administrator of the STORES.
My name is Sebastian Bunda and I recently turned 21 years old. I am originally from Arnhem and started studying here in 2015. If you come to the Scintilla room often, you’ll notice that I am not always around. This is because I am trying to combine a part-time board function with working on a hydrogen car at the Green Team Twente. As the Administrator of the STORES, I will be managing the financial aspect of the best electronics shop in the neighbourhood.
As a board member I am not only responsible for the STORES but together with the rest of the board I will make sure that the association runs properly.
At the Green Team Twente I am working on the electrical drive train of the car. At the moment we are trying to figure out what part of last year’s car needs to be improved. This will likely include working on a new boost converter or a new motor controller.
You might think with all these tasks there is little time left to study, and you’ll be correct! Last year I finished the last part of my Bachelor. Since I haven’t decided yet on what Master to continue with, I decided to take a gap year between my Bachelor and Master with the aim to develop myself.
Since I started my studies, I have been an active member participating in many committees and after a while Scintilla became like second home to me. When I got the chance of doing a part-time board year next to a part-time Green Team year, I could not refuse.
The Scintilla room offers a large quantity of snacks you can buy. So if you ask me what my favourite one is, I do not have a definitive answer. During my Bachelor assignment I spend a lot of time in the SK which meant that I tried out a lot of different snacks. But if I do have to select a few, I would choose the “roze koek” and a Lion.
In my free time I enjoy making music on my guitar and jam together with some friends. When I am not playing the guitar, I also enjoy playing games with my friends and watching movies and series on Netflix. I still play tennis every week in my home town and I try to do some other sportive activities at the side, like jogging and the occasional visit to the gym.
I hope that I will see you around when you visit the Scintilla room. I will try to make the best of this year and I hope you will do to!
With kind regards, Sebastian
P.S. I still have the Scintilla sunglasses that I bought last year.
