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Flowers from the Education Committee Monday 1 March 2021 13:02
After the second quartile, the Education Committee gave a bouquet of flowers to Hil Meijer. His lectures were among the best interactive and fun lectures according to his students. The work he puts in communication with his students is also greatly appreciated as well as the huge amount of contact hours he tried to plan to ensure students would have many possibilities to ask questions and be in contact with other students and himself. He improvised on the current situation to create hybrid lectures where his students could join both online and offline. During these lectures he kept interacting with all the students creating a great learning environment. When we came to deliver the bouquet, we were once again reminded of how warm a person Hil is by his hospitality. We were given the possibility to converse with him and could appreciate the affection with which he speaks of his students. Thank you very much for the hard work Hil, enjoy your flowers!
New on the Abacus website! Thursday 11 February 2021 11:14
Links for educational support
There is now a new page on the website under Education: Educational Support! Here you can find redirects to all sort of useful pages, from an overview of the master courses AM to the canvas page of the SACC about mental well being. So make sure to take a look.
Work prospects
Another new page under Education is Work Prospects. On this page, there are stories about alumni. These stories are about the daily life of alumni, and about how they got where they are. If you have a story you think should be added to this page, please mail it to board@abacus.utwente.nl
Recordings of information sessions on Abacloud
Last weeks, an information session about the master specializations of AM and the minor information lunch took place. The recordings of these sessions, including the individual recording of MDS, can now be found on the Abacloud -> Standard Documents -> Study Information 2021.
In memoriam Dr. Walter Kern Tuesday 9 February 2021 10:02
With pain in our heart we share the news that Dr. Walter Kern has passed away on January 29, 2021. We share the following message of the faculty
The news that our esteemed colleague Dr. W. (Walter) Kern passed away on January 29, 2021, has touched us deeply.
Walter, born in 1957 in Nürnberg, graduated in Erlangen and received his PhD in 1985 from the Universität zu Köln, was a Mathematician with heart and soul. As associate professor in the Discrete Mathematics and Mathematical Programming group, he worked for the UT since December 1988, more than 32 years.
Walter had impressive qualities as a researcher in discrete mathematics, optimization, game theory and operations research. His mathematical knowledge was broad and deep. He was known within the group as the `lexicon' - anyone who was unable to make progress in his research was happy to pay Walter a visit. He knew a way out immediately or was so intrigued that he managed to find a solution within a few days. Walter was also an excellent teacher, a great friend of classical lectures on the blackboard, and he has trained many generations of students with enormous patience.
Several of Walter's former students are now active as professors and share his good taste for the beauty of mathematics, and the most elegant argument. Walter was also active for many years on the faculty council of the EEMCS faculty.
In the summer of 2020, he was diagnosed with cancer -after some complaints. In his unique way, he still made jokes about it at the time. But what followed was an almost unbelievably rapid deterioration of his situation, with more and more surprises. Unfortunately in a negative sense. Even recently, he still had hope, but interspersed with the idea of the inevitable.
We are going to miss very much his advice in mathematical questions, but especially his calm demeanor, his modesty, his helpfulness, his fine humor, and his counterbalance to the delusion of the day.
Our feelings of sympathy go out to his partner Angela and two sons Anton and Julius, further family and loved ones.
A message on behalf of the Executive Board and the staff and students of the University of Twente,
Prof. Joost Kok, Dean Faculty EEMCS
Prof. Stephan van Gils, department chair of Applied Mathematics
Prof.dr. Marc Uetz, chair Discrete Mathematics and Mathematical Programming
The board,
Daan, Luuk, Daan, Jorn, Anouk and Clara
'Attentive listeners' of Abacus Friday 5 February 2021 11:47
We are happy to announce Abacus has two 'attentive listeners'! Do you need to get something of your chest, or would you like to talk to someone in confidence? You can then send Raymon or Mariya an email. They will introduce themselves shortly:
"Hello, my name is Raymon, I'm 21 years old, and am currently in my third year of Applied Mathematics. I grew up in Klazienaveen, a small town in the northeast of the Netherlands, where I lived for the first 19 years of my life, before moving to Hengelo to study at the University of Twente. My hobbies include playing guitar, reading, practicing karate, playing videogames and playing tabletop role-playing games with friends." You can contact him on: raymon@abacus.utwente.nl
"Hi there! My name is Mariya and at the moment I am entering my last year of study. In the past years I have enjoyed the student life a lot: I joined quite some committees and have done a board year at Abacus. During these years I have met tons of new people, who have helped me to grow as a person and to learn how to help others out. At the moment I’m less active in the student community, but I do fill up my spare time with friends, housemates and some casual activities like playing the guitar and crocheting." You can contact her on: mariya@abacus.utwente.nl
Note that they are not accredited counsellors, and that they are doing this on a voluntary base.
Work prospects on the site Friday 22 January 2021 11:21
As of today, 'Work prospects' is added on the site. You can find this by clicking 'Education'. On this page, there are stories about alumni. About what they do in their daily life, and about how they got where they are.
If you have a story you think should be added to this page, please mail it to board@abacus.utwente.nl
Flowers from the Education Committee Tuesday 17 November 2020 16:57
Last week, the Education committee has rewarded Nelly Litvak with a bouquet of flowers. She deserved this because of her hard work for the students and the effort that she put in her work.
Due to the current situation, the form in which lectures are given is very different and needs changing to fit the needs of students. Contact is also an issue, so hearing the opinions of students has become a lot more difficult. Nelly put a lot of time and effort during Module 1 in order to ensure the best possible support for first year students. She recorded interactive lectures for students to watch and learn through and ensured that a lot of material and possibilities to exercise were made available to students. This second one was done through quizzes, 3 problem sets, extra problems and practice exams. She in addition added a new feature to the course: tutor groups. Students were divided into 10 different tutor groups. These groups would meet once per week with an older year as tutor to discuss any issues the students might have, what they liked and disliked about the course and strategies on how to properly learn for the exam.
Nelly has tried to offer as much as she could to students and tried to give them a voice even in these times during which communication is not as direct and clear as we wish it were. She showed she cared about the students she teaches to and deserves, therefore, a token of appreciation for the passion she showed for what she does.
Thank you for your effort and hard work, Nelly. Keep it up!
Corona road map Abacus Wednesday 11 November 2020 19:51
After the government made a Corona road map, we now made a Corona road map regarding Abacus! You can find it at 'Documents of W.S.G. Abacus' at 'Other Abacus documents'.
Room closed until further notice Wednesday 14 October 2020 22:50
Due to the new corona measures we have decided to close the abacus room and the service desk until further notice. The university urges us to work/study as much as possible from home, so we as board will do that. Of course we are still available for all questions, complaints etc via WhatsApp or Discord. We hope to welcome you in Educafé soon, but for now, stay safe and stay home!
Much love,
The 53rd board of W.S.G. Abacus
On Tuesday the 1st of September, the 53rd board of W.S.G. Abacus is constituted as follows: Friday 4 September 2020 10:04
Daan Velthuis - Chairman
Luuk van der Werf - Secretary & Officer Internal Affairs
Daan Pluister - Treasurer
Jorn de Jong - Officer External Affairs
Anouk Beursgens - Officer Educational Affairs
Clara Stegehuis - General Adjunct
Obituary Dr. Harry Aarts Sunday 16 August 2020 19:02
With pain in our hearts, we share that Dr. Harry Aarts passed away last Sunday, the 9th of August. He was 59 years old.
Harry, who graduated as mathematician in Nijmegen, obtained his PhD at the University of Twente in 1994. As a teacher, he was a member of the Discrete Mathematics and Mathematical Programming group. He worked for the University of Twente for almost 25 years.
Although Harry had outstanding qualities as a researcher, his true passion was teaching. His unique qualities as a teacher led to no less than five teaching awards. Apart from that, Harry had a major responsibility in the mathematics component of all engineering programmes of the university.
Harry had to give up his fight against cancer, that started in 2018. We'll deeply miss his quiet presence and performance, his friendly nature, his humor and his smile. Many students highly valued his lectures.
Our deepest sympathies go to his family and friends.
On behalf of the board,
Linda, Martijn, Sanne, Marjolein and Tugce.
