Today we took a ten-minute train ride to Delft where we visited Inholland, a university of applied sciences, at their campus there. This campus focuses on aeronautical engineering specifically, and seeing this focus at an entire university campus showed some of the major differences between American universities and Dutch ones. We first were lectured on how the university works. I thought it was very interesting how the entire campus was focused on teaching one discipline of engineering. I guess the benefit to this is that they can have all of these students in one place which allows them to be very specialized in their field. I think the downside to this is that once a student is at the university, it can be more difficult to change their mind about what they want to learn compared to colleges in the U.S. Another downside to this is that students aren’t well-taught subjects that don’t directly relate to their field. This can be an issue for an engineer because while they might be able to make an innovative product, without the business and marketing expertise, they won’t be able to make money off of it. At Pitt, engineers are still required to have many classes outside of their field to ensure that they have a broad enough education. They also mentioned how much of the learning is done by hands-on experience instead of lectures. This is another major way this university differs from most American ones. In the U.S., a lot of hands-on experience is expected by the time you graduate, but it is offered in few classes compared to Inholland. One of the students who showed us around the school said that about 60% of the first year is lectures and the rest is project-based learning. I think that this is far more beneficial than the mostly lecture based learning that takes place in the States because it’s more representative of what you’ll be doing once you graduate with an engineering degree.

They also spoke to us about the demographics of the university. They said that about 5 to 10% of the Dutch people at the university are female, and this surprised me because I thought that the Netherlands was a very egalitarian society. They explained that it was difficult for them to encourage young girls into the field because of how math is taught at younger ages. They also seemed very happy and envious to hear that about 30% of the engineers at Pitt are female, which reinforced the idea of the Netherlands being a very tolerant country.

After this, we went around the university and visited some of its facilities. The most interesting part to me was the lab. Here we were shown a model satellite that included three different parts. It also included a parachute type of mechanism to slow down the satellite and get it out of orbit from the Earth after a few years. This reminds me of a video that I saw recently that talked about the problem with space debris. There is lots of small pieces of debris orbiting the earth because of old satellites that were launched and never brought back. This debris is making it increasingly more difficult to launch new spacecrafts. This effort towards making it possible for future generations to complete their own space research and exploration shows the university’s efforts toward sustainability.

We also built our own gliders and competed with other groups to see who’s would fly the farthest. My group came in second, and even though we lost, it was a really fun experience. I’m jealous that the students here are able to do these types of activities often, although I’m sure it’s not always this fun.

After leaving Inholland, the Bursics treated all 24 of us to freaky milkshakes and a canal cruise in Delft. The milkshakes were delicious and the canal cruise was similar to the one in Amsterdam, but also very interesting and exciting. I learned that Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the famous scientist who discovered microorganisms with his microscope, was from Delft. Thank you Dr. Bursic and Frank for treating us all to this!

Tomorrow we are headed to Delta Works which I think is going to be one of the most fascinating parts of the trip. See you then!