Bruekers says the at the end of last week, the Executive Board expressed its wish to set up a platform that needs to forge a link between TU/e’s inner world and the outside world, which is currently faced with all kinds of issues and requests concerning the fight against the corona crisis. “We rapidly started developing that platform, which is called‘TU/e against COVID-19’”

Individual students and student teams – who are forced to place their activities on the back burner now – in particular are called upon to go to the platform and indicate how they can become active. “They will have the support from the scientific staff, and we will also call upon our alumni to help with that,” Bruekers says.

Students and student teams can help in different kinds of ways, “from writing software to being good at prototyping,” Bruekers says. “The outside world - think of the health care sector and the industry in particular, where people are trying to help find solutions in various ways - can see what fits with their needs and demands. That is where innoSpace emphatically wants to act as a broker. But we take it a step further, we want to transform these issues into challenges, which students can work on.”

Core business

“The outbreak of the coronavirus and the introduction of the measures by our board, such as the practically total shutdown of the university, has also severely impacted innoSpace in Matrix,” Bruekers says. “The coronavirus has thrown a wrench into our group work with interdisciplinary activities such as ‘hands on’ manufacturing, prototyping, technical support, work places and personal ‘live’ coaching, which is our core business. At the same time, we stand for Challenge Based Learning, and a sizeable challenge has now clearly landed in our lap with this coronavirus. It’s wonderful to see how quick and adaptive our employees and students in particular are in adjusting their activities. But then again, our position obliges us to do so. The Matrix building may be physically closed; mentally however, most things are still ongoing.”

Fruit Punch

Bruekers is proud to say that a number of projects has started from within innoSpace by now. And in addition, existing projects are being promoted. Such as one from the department of Biomedical Engineering, directed at aerosol treatment for children with lung diseases and (suspected) COVID-19, or from Fruit Punch AI, which already started with a challenge that needs to lead to the development of a prediction model. The goal of this model, among other things, is to predict the maximum capacity of the health care system. There is also contact with the Maxima Medical Center about the development of a chat application specifically for hospital personnel.

Bruekers says it’s wonderful to see that there are people who stand out for their proactivity and resilience during times of crisis. “That’s really something to be proud of. I’m convinced that, even though all this was obviously unintentional, unwanted nor managed, this situation will yield a few practical and mental things that will make our university even better than it already was.”