Getting to know each other
On Sunday September 4th, the students were welcomed by the student board MADE IT, for an informal introduction at the Oedipus brewery. MADE IT organized a Crazy 22, and in groups of 4 or 5 people the students were challenged to find characteristic spots in Amsterdam and take a picture with the place. Of course, they went out by bike!
Getting to know the institute
On Monday 5th, the MSc MADE Education Team welcomed the new batch of students to the MSc MADE program, explained how the program is organized and and let the students know what they can expect from their study advisors during their masters journey.
Furthermore, the students were introduced to AMS Institute by Kenneth Heijns (AMS Managing Director). Also, the MADE-IT board introduced the students to the opportunities that the master program brings with, and the events that are planned for coming year. MSc MADE alumni Annie Berendsen (Regenboog groep) and Roberto Marques (Wijngaarde) also stopped by in a short video, where they highlighted that the students will become part of a great alumni-community after their masters.
Because, of course, the students can never be welcomed enough, they were also welcomed by Caroline Nevejan (Chief Science Officer of the City of Amsterdam). Caroline held a keynote about the importance of urban engineers in the city and appointed that the students are important connectors between research and practice. Feline van Vliet took over from Caroline, introducing the students to openresearch.amsterdam, a digital platform for research, knowledge and innovation about Amsterdam and the metropolitan region. She explained to the students that sharing research has many benefits, and that the students themselves can also share their research on the platform.
After the morning presentations it was time to stretch the legs, and the students were led around the building of AMS Institute. The time then came to leave the Marineterain for a while… So the students stepped aboard the Plastic Whale, and fished plastic out of the cannels! The day ended with snacks and drinks at AMS Institutes front yard, with beautiful views of the Maritime Museum.
“The MADE student program educates urban engineers to solve complex problems in the city, preparing them to create a better future.”
Caroline Nevejan (Chief Science Officer of the City of Amsterdam)
Why students joined MSc MADE
Reasons for signing up for the MSc MADE masters students varied greatly, as to no surprise with such a varying group of students. Whereas some were so impressed by our researchers that they sought out the master purposefully; “I met some AMS researchers during my thesis and they made a very good expression on me.”, others came across the master by chance; “I found the master by mistake actually. I was checking out the TU Delft website for masters and I was really impressed by the description.”. But also, that MSc MADE’s home base is situated in the midst of Amsterdam (“The chance to study in Amsterdam, and also combined with urban design and urban planning with programming and data was a nice opportunity.”) and the program (“What I like most is that it is program oriented, so you can pretty much create your own masters. That is so cool.”) were certainly pull factors.
It was a great start of the program! We are so excited to see what novel ideas and innovative solutions these new students will come up with and look forward to working together on sustainable cities!
