And just like newborn sparrows, the teams must learn to leave their nests as soon as possible. They must get out of the building and talk to the outside world. In the era of the sacred and all-knowing internet it is more valuable than ever to test ideas by talking about them. And only after eight weeks of talk, analysis and validation will the teams be allowed to withdraw to incubate their own eggs. Team results will be presented at the end of June and perhaps even after that we'll see something beautiful flourish.

The interdisciplinary Bachelor's final projects are now also underway. After a round of intensive matchmaking, four teams have been selected that will experience the same breeding period as the Master's students. They will be working on such ideas as wearables for Parkinson's patients, sustainable homes, and a ‘smart grid’ for use on our university campus. The aim? To learn how to apply various disciplines to reach a consensus solution in just a short period.

And while it is regrettable, in innoSpace as in nature, where some eggs fail to hatch or baby birds are born dead, we have to bid farewell to some teams. The projects Marble.us and eMinds are being put on ice for the time being, and may later be thawed. A kind of student-team cryonics. Fortunately, as the laws of nature dictate, new projects are taking their place. In 2018 team TEST will develop another new type of biosensor, and the rocket scientists of REXUS will be tracking missiles. And, of course, we'll be supporting GLOW again with a mixed team of builders from CHEOPS and design-freaks from LUCID.

And perhaps the fourth-generation TU/e contest will bring more newcomers. A quick scan reveals that more than 40 projects have signed up. These will no doubt include a number of high-flyers! If you aren't yet involved, there's still time to register! And if you want to usher in the spring in style, Eindhoven's largest hackathon HEX will be held once again in the weekend of 16 March. It looks all set to be a madhouse.

See you in Gaslab!