You might have read my column on future steps, and I thought I had it all figured out. But now, please don’t ask me about it. So, for my final column, I have decided to share something about innovation Space, that is a location as well as an amazing team. For those who do not know innovation Space yet, it is located in the Matrix building at the pond and the team works on challenge based learning as well as on student entrepreneurship.

Many great things are organized by the innovation Space team, such as an interdisciplinary and challenge based BEP, many challenge based courses for bachelor, master and PDEng students, but also support is provided to student teams. You can find facilities to build your project, and together with teachers and other universities the offer of challenge based education is expanded. All these great things and much more have been rewarded in 2021 with the Higher Education Award.

However, I dare say that the team behind all these great things is even greater. The team I have been lucky enough to be a small part of for nearly the past 2.5 years. From the first time I ever set foot in innovation Space until this day I have been learning new things. I had to pitch so many times for spontaneous people passing by (to a degree that Bert-Jan started to scare me), but this also gave me the confidence to share our story to new people and share my enthusiasm. I learned prototyping and working with new materials and equipment from Huub and Edwin. As my first manager, I learned the ins and outs of challenge based learning from Chantal. And well, I learned how to take a joke from Bart (you are the best). These are just a few examples, but the knowledge and skills in this team are great.

But this is not the only thing that makes this team work. Everybody in the team cares for each other. A ’how are you’? is never asked out of politeness. Growth is supported, for the fulltime staff as well as for the student assistants. Everybody is welcome, and I hope Laura, my replacement, will feel as welcome as I always have. And to the entire team, thank you so much for the past years. And to everyone else: don’t hesitate and check out innovation Space, if you haven’t already.