Today we took a short train ride into the city of Delft. Delft was described to us as a smaller Amsterdam, and it certainly made sense. With smaller scale canals, ornate churches and tightly packed buildings with store houses it was very similar. Our real plan for our visit in Delft was to go to InHolland Delft which is a university branch of InHolland. We had the pleasure of hearing from their aeronautical engineering department and meeting two students, it was certainly interesting to see such a unique discipline.

InHolland Delft only offered aeronautical engineering and other disciplines were provided by other campuses, the school itself was similar to an American college and was taught in English. The degree offered is in applied sciences, because of this they include a large amount of hands on projects to their curriculum. I found it most interesting that from the beginning of your freshman year they are making aircraft related projects and these projects increase in scale as you move on. Eventually, they collaborate with aerospace companies and help solve problems that they request be solved. It seems extremely unique to have so many real world examples prior to moving onto their career. Additionally the diversity of the university was unique with 35% being international students representing countries from all over the world. The head of the department made the comment that this diversity is important due to the diversity within the aerospace industry and the ability to work with different people. The curriculum for a four year degree seemed very similar despite the physical projects the students complete in teams. They are prepared to enter multiple different areas within the industry and their projects are unique. For example the students are working on converting a plane to use electrical energy and then hydrogen as fuel. Another unique project that was introduced to us in their composites lab was the University’s goal to send a satellite into space. The professor remarked that this satellite would no be sent into space to be added clutter but instead it would serve a few functions. First the satellite would test the use of an infrared laser for transmitting data. It would then use a small camera to measure atmospheric conditions and they hope to report that back to a meteorology agency. Finally it would employ a small wind sail to catch the tiny bit of air in order to decelerate and decrease the time it takes for the small satellite to fall. From a business perspective, the professor described that the cost of the small shoebox sized satellite was 2 millions euros. The funding was their only obstacle currently and they needed it in order to launch the satellite via space x and build the components.

After our tour of the composites lab we had the ability to make a glider to test our skills. Our team came in first place due to the skillful Kam Chan who threw the plane. Following all of this we were treated to milk shakes by Dr. Bursic and Frank. It was a wonderful gesture by two people who have made this trip truly amazing. They both are full of interesting stories and amazing human beings who are without a doubt the best people to take us around Amsterdam. They also gave us a boat tour of Delft which was wonderful.