Principiaprijs 2023

On the 28th of November the yearly “Principiaprijs”-contest was held.  Innovation Cluster Drachten (ICD), Isaac Newton and Principia worked together to come up with a challenging program. This year ICD-member Astron did present a case about their radio-telescope.  As a start Astron introduced basis information about their current Radio-telescope (functionality, the current requirements, …). Additionally their question was presented:

how to optimize transport, assembly and sustainability.

During the rest of the day eight student-teams worked very committed to find an out-of-the-box solution. Most teams started with brainstorms on the key-functions. Even “Methodisch Ontwerpen bij van den Kroonenberg” was used.  Sketches for working principles were made.

Student Team at work

The jury made a few rounds, visiting each group and answering questions.  After Lunch concept-solutions were translated to CAD Design and some teams even made simulations. Closing activity for all teams was the final presentation to the jury.

Presentation to the jury

The competing teams were judged on creativity, quality, feasibility, sustainability, costs, and the quality of their presentation. The jury, existing of members from ICD and Principia, had the hard task to decide which group had the best concept and presentation to win the grand prize of €3000,-. The winner was team “Space Case”  with the idea of an unfoldable briefcase that contained all components for a complete radio-telescope unit. “Easy to transport and easy to install”.

The winning Student Team

After the official award-ceremony by Mr. Pragt form Astron the team celebrated their victory in “de kelderbar Diep Zat”.

A good example of the Principia-efforts to build a bridge between the academic technical students at the UT and the real-life-business world.

Report: René Scheltes

Principiaprijs 2023

Vooraankondiging! Dit jaar is het weer zover … de Principiaprijs zal weer plaatsvinden! Op 28 november 2023 gaan groepjes werktuigbouwkunde studenten de strijd aan om de meest originele en creatieve oplossing te vinden voor een Radiotelescope LOFAR. Deze casus is aangedragen door Astron en het Innovatiecluster Drachten. In de ochtend wordt de casus uitvoerig gepresenteerd, daarna gaan de studenten de rest van de dag hard aan het werk om aan deze opgave te werken. Nadat alle groepen hun ideeën hebben gepresenteerd is het aan de jury (bestaande uit twee leden van PentairXflow, twee leden van Principia en twee leden van de UT) om deze resultaten te beoordelen. Het winnende team zal een geldprijs van 3000 euro ontvangen.

Voor Principia-leden is er de mogelijkheid om deze dag bij te wonen. Belangstelling? Stuur dan graag even een mailtje naar voorzitter@isaacnewton.nl

Met vriendelijke groeten namens de Principiaprijs-organisatie en het 66ste bestuur van W.S.G. Isaac Newton,
Veralin Staring en Niels Zandberg

Verslag principiaprijs 2021

On the 18th of November, it was finally time for a Principia prize again. Innovation Cluster Drachten[1] (ICD), Isaac Newton and Principia worked together to come up with a challenging problem, to find students who wanted to take up the challenge and to give the student groups a place to work on this problem for a day. We managed to gather 36 students who were all willing to work their hardest to come up with the best solution.

The jury, existing of members from ICD and Principia, arrived at 8:30 at the Newton room to look through the programme and the assignment. At 8:45 the contestants arrived and at 9:00 the explanation of the assignment started.

There was a small introduction first, and then the case was explained. This year the case was about the automatization of placing sanding belts onto a CNC belt grinding machine.

After the presentation, the 9 groups had to decide on a team name and then they were off to their separate rooms to start brainstorming. The teams all had been assigned their own room in the Horst tower where they could spend the whole day working out the assignment. Most groups started with some sketches, after which they choose the best solution and started working on the more complicated design features.

While all the groups were working on the assignment, it was also possible for them to ask questions to the jury, via WhatsApp or face-to-face. The jury made a few rounds, visiting each group’s room in the Horst. In addition to just answering questions, a prototype from Stork was also brought in. The contestants were able to take a quick look at it in the morning but the real show was at noon when the prototype had been connected and could be shown working. This was very helpful as it gave some real-life insight for the students.

After the demonstration, it was time for lunch. During lunch, there was a presentation about ICD where they explained the origin and about all the companies of ICD. After this lunch, full of new energy and enlightened with the prototype demonstration, the students headed back to their rooms to finalize their ideas and put them in a presentation.

In the afternoon it was time for the students to show what they had been working on the entire day in a short presentation. The groups explained their thought processes, their final solution and showed some nice sketches or even SolidWorks models of their solutions. Some groups even went the extra mile and came up with a life cycle analysis, cost prediction, moving model, or slogan for their design.

When these presentations were finished, it was up to the jury to decide which group would win the grand prize of €3000. The contestants were judged on things like creativity, quality, feasibility, costs, and the quality of their presentation. After a long discussion, they finally came to a conclusion to tell the eagerly awaiting students. They started with announcing the 2nd price, a beer tasting at the Beiaard, which was for group ‘Oosthorst Top Team’, which had the idea of placing 4 screws in a cylindrical shape. Then finally the 1st place winner was announced to be ‘Het Fundament’, with the idea of also using screws, but placing them in a triangular shape, which fitted exactly over the performer from Stork. They were very happy to have won and gladly accepted their prize.

We thank ICD and Principia for helping us organize such an amazing day!

 

[1] Innovation Cluster Drachten (ICD) is a cluster of 23 high tech companies in the northern Netherlands. About 1500 FTE of the 4300 employees (45 nationalities) are product- and process innovators in the field of high tech systems. Together they innovate their HIGH TECH Big Five: 3D metal printing, Sensoring & AI, Vision & Deeplearning, Robotics (at customer & factories) and renewable propulsion. They offer internships, design – and master projects for talented Twente students, see their website www.icdrachten.nl

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Principia prijs 2019

De Principia prijs is weer terug. Vooral door de inspanningen van het Isaac Newton bestuur kon het traditionele gezamenlijke evenement van Principia en Isaac Newton dit jaar weer nieuw leven ingeblazen worden. Zodoende gingen 9 studententeams op 21 november 2019 de strijd aan om de meest creatieve oplossing te vinden voor een vraag zoals die door het Enschedese bedrijf Pentair Xflow was aangedragen. De opdracht was om een standaard ‘skid’ (waarop een filterinstallatie) zo te herontwerpen dat de ‘modules’ met membranen zo efficient mogelijk geplaatst kunnen worden om een zo klein mogelijke footprint te krijgen in de waterzuiveringsinstallatie van de klant.

Na de ochtendpresentatie , waar de vraagstelling werd toegelicht, werd de door de teams de hele dag aan oplossingen gewerkt. In de loop van de middag gaf elk team een korte pitch, en selecteerde de jury de vier beste teams.

De jury aan het werk

De jury bestond uit de heren Yannic van Straalen en Frank Morsink van Pentair Xflow, Bert Geijselaers en Ysbrand Wijnant van de UT, en Leen Noordzij en Jan Broeze van Principia.

De vier geselecteerde teams mochten aan het eind van de middag in de collegezaal een eindpresentatie geven, en toen had de jury de moeilijke taak om een winnaar aan te wijzen.

De trotse winnaars samen met de andere vier geselecteerde teams

De gelukkige winnaars werden uiteindelijk het team van Hugo Wesselink, Lucas Vermeer, Seth Ruiter, Silvie van den Boogaard. Zij gingen er elk met een prijs van 1000 euro vandoor. Het evenement werd afgesloten met een gezellige borrel.

De Principiaprijs herleeft

Na 3 jaar is het weer zover… de Princiaprijs is weer terug. Op 21 november 2019 gaan WB-studententeams de strijd aan om de meest originele en creatieve oplossing te vinden voor een probleem dat door het Enschedese Pentair Xflow (membraantechnologie) is aangedragen. In de ochtend wordt de case gepresenteerd, en verder de hele dag gereserveerd om aan de opgave te werken. Aan het eind van de middag beoordeelt een jury (bestaande uit 2 leden van PentairXflow, 2 leden van Principia en 2 leden van de UT)  de resultaten. Het winnende team gaat er met een geldprijs van 3000 euro vandoor.

Voor een beperkt aantal Principia-leden is er de mogelijkheid om deze dag bij te wonen. Belangstelling? Dan graag even een mailtje naar a.meer35@upcmail.nl

Anne F.van der Meer

 

Inmiddels heeft dit mooie evenement weer plaats gevonden zie het verslag van de dag hier