For the first time in history, the Netherlands was represented at the world's largest international tech trade fair. The delegation of more than fifty startups travelled in a packed all-Dutch party plane. One thing was instantly obvious: the tidal wave of startups with their roots at our university. Our very own Hugsy, the baby pouch, even made CNN Live, while ‘homegrown car company’ Lightyear glittered and sparkled on the CES stage after winning the Innovator Award. What's more, TU/e alumna Iris Soute bagged an award with her Picoo children's toy.

As TU/e we can once again be proud of how our startups are performing. Slowly but surely the realization is growing at our university that we are a highly entrepreneurial lot and there is plenty more to come. The recently announced cooperation between TU Eindhoven and HighTechXL is bound to contribute, in some form or another.

Regrettably, we are seeing that far too many startups are moving off campus to work while still in an early stage of development. Consequently, as TU/e we aren't staying connected with these students, while they are often the very people with whom innovation starts.  

And so, to lend weight to our TU/e motto, we are starting two new experiments in innoSpace. As of February, we will be running a brand new Master's course (1ZM150) in which ten multidisciplinary teams will work on open-ended cases. All these cases will be professionally supervised by both academic and industrial coaches. In addition, the multidisciplinary BEPs will also be getting underway, giving some thirty students the chance to choose from various cases taken largely from startups and student teams but also from industry. We hope this will lead to closer links between students and the teams, motivating students to join a team permanently, or perhaps to start up a project of their own.

And to close, another piece of good news! Last week a new innoSpace team got started. In the coming years it will work with industry (with companies like Eneco and Enexis) to turn our campus into one big smart grid. So that before long, Flux can swap energy with Gemini, powered by the Student Sports Center. A self-sustaining campus, partly made possible by Team RED. Sounds great, doesn't it? Would you like to join them? If so, mail!

Students Tom Selten (Innovation Sciences) and Bas Verkaik (Mechanical Engineering) are very much involved with the TU/e innovation Space. They will be blogging about what's really going on within the four walls of the Gaslab, where the hotspot of innovation is located.