Today, we head to the City of Enschede to visit the University of Twente. We started with a campus tour, during which we learned about the college. Twente is modeled after a traditional college campus, with lots of open space and the educational buildings being located in the east, while residential living is in the west. It was very interesting to hear about how their college works and compare it to Pitt. Though they may be similar to traditional American colleges, their clubs, residential living, and even their degrees differ. As is traditionally the case, everyone is very involved in clubs, there is no guarantee of housing, and you actually need to apply to live in the on-campus dorms. For degrees, almost everyone gets a master’s and is in school for roughly 5-7 years. After this tour, we head to a classroom to hear a presentation on the Kristalbad water treatment project, and immediately followed it up with a tour.
This project is about creating a natural filter for effluent from the Enschede sewage treatment plant, which also acts as a water storage for access to water. We learned during the presentation that with climate change, rainfall is changing, so water storage is important, especially for extreme dry periods. We took a nice walk around the faculty, which anyone can walk through, as it is a walking trail with info all around about the plant. When walking, you can see lots of wildlife and how the system works. It was very nice seeing all of this, and it is really fascinating how the Netherlands is able to use this for multiple things, and also how they are not just thinking about the present but also the future. After all of this, we were able to meet some of the Twente engineers and hear about their college experiences. A lot of them are members of certain organizations within their majors. It was really nice meeting all of them and learning about their engineering program.