‘I want everyone in our department to think of me as their dean’

"I have every confidence in the new departmental board, as its members we complement each other very well. We've worked hard in recent years to create a multidisciplinary research climate, and we want to extend that further. As part of that, I want to strengthen our links with companies in Brainport. Our work dovetails with work in the field. I myself do a lot with ASML and other manufacturers of capital assets in the Brainport region."

"Back when I was studying math - and Brainport didn't yet exist - I was already intrigued by companies here in the region. Sometimes part-time professors would come along to tell us how things were done at Philips, about the problems and solutions they were working on. That was fascinating."

That powerful companies like Philips and ASML started in this region, I'm proud of that.

Geert-Jan van Houtum, dean of IE&IS

Societal research

Van Houtum, on the research at IE&IS: "Take any one of the major societal issues and changes in which engineering and technology offer a solution, and you're always going to be dealing with people and with ethics. These are the very things we're good at: innovation, business administration, the role of people and ethics."

"The review committee that visited our department in June confirmed that our research is excellent when it comes to applying it in society. That's why addressing societal challenges in their research is precisely what we encourage our scientists to do. I am proud of the impact that we have with our research."

Research themes

The Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences has four research themes : Humans and Technology, Supply Chain Management, Value of Data-driven Intelligence, and Sustainability and Circularity.

"During its visit, the review committee noted a great many enthusiastic reactions to our research environment, and found a good atmosphere. We've worked hard to achieve these things, and we'd like to continue this positive trend."

Falling intake

An important task for the IE&IS board is raising student numbers, says Van Houtum. So that the growing demand for engineers from companies in the Brainport region can be met, but also because the master's intake has fallen. For IE, this is a side effect of the decentralized selection introduced a few years ago, explains Van Houtum. Intake dropped from 280 to 170 students, while the ceiling was set at 250.

Under decentralized selection new students have to enroll in January, instead of May. "Many of them aren't even thinking of college in January. They also have to sit a test and then receive a ranking based on that test and their school-leaving exam grades. If they see themselves ranked pretty low, they may think they've no chance and end up not enrolling here after all. I've heard this is an issue for other programs too, and at other universities."

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