Author Archives: Wouter Serdijn

Exactly 364 days ago, we had the second edition of the ELCA festival, the annual music and cultural festival hosted by the ELCA group, with a rather large participation of the members of the Biomedical Electronics group. Soon thereafter, as witnessed by browsing back in time on this weblog, the first pictures appeared on the weblog, and a little later even the BME YouTube channel was created.

8 days ago, the 3rd edition of the ELCA festival took place in a fully booked /Pub. If you’d ask me, this was the best edition ever, especially due to the enthusiastic response from the audience. However, where are the pictures and where are the additions to the YouTube BME Channel? I had a couple of Alumni asking for it and all they got was this lousy paragraph, so far. 

So, guys and gals of the BME group, hold your horses, stop staring at that Cadence screen for a while and bring the world something to remember. We need another pint of MOSFET song, Gambatte Ne, Price Tag, Chinese Song, AC/DC. We need you now.

Wouter

It is with some pride that I introduce you here the official opening of the Biomedical Electronics Foundation. 

The Biomedical Electronics Foundation aims at the improvement of education, research and valorization in the field of biomedical electronics, the discipline of electronic engineers, who, in close collaboration with doctors, hospitals, manufacturers and industry, work on the next generation of devices for medical diagnostics, monitoring and therapy. Examples of such devices are:

Important medical breakthroughs in the 21st century are the results of improved medical devices and thereby better insight into the workings of the human body and better diagnosis and treatment methods. The Biomedical Electronics Foundation aims at speeding up the development of medical devices and the development of the field of biomedical electronics by, a.o.:

The Biomedical Electronics Foundation has been registered at the Chamber of Commerce (KvK No. 45288517) and is being supported by donations, gifts and legacies. 

The most direct way to support our work is by making a donation to bank account no. 555947203, attn. St. Biomedische Elektronica, Leiden.

Please visit the web site at: http://stichtingbme.nl

It is with deep regret and shame that I have to read in the news today in the Telegraaf of January 24, 2012, that the Board of Directors of Delft University of Technology appears to have declared more than the maximally allowed costs for reimbursement for many years in a row. According to the newspaper (not the best in the Netherlands, but still…): "Together, the three directors declared more than 1 million Euro (!) between 2008 and 2011."

What makes matters even worse is that, instead of showing remorse and promising to improve on themselves they state that such an offense would be "common practice for all employees." This is so untrue! As dedicated and committed professor I have never ever in my whole life travelled business class, even not on long-distance flights. Whereas companies such as Analog Devices allow their employees to travel business class on long-distance flights. 

When I travel by train, I save money for my university by putting my personal 40% discount card (‘kortingskaart’) to good use.

And when I travel by car, even when my car is stuffed with students, I get only 19 cents per kilometer. Parking costs and tollway costs are not reimbursed. Last Friday I went to the Erasmus Medical Center to visit the Neuroscience Department. We went by car as this was the cheapest and the fastest. Parking costs were 6 Euro; the distance: 15.6 km. When my travel expenses will have been processed I will receive only 5.89 Euro, which is even less than the actual and factual parking costs.

I knew it. I should have never become a university professor but a university director instead. 

Wouter

Frequent readers of the this blog may have noticed that there has been hardly any blogging activity during last month. Main reason for this is that most of us have been busy with work- and family-related matters. December is a busy time of the year, with Sinterklaas, Santa Claus, the traditional Christmas drink of the Department of Microelectronics, the ELCA Christmas lunch (for which this year PhD and MSc students together prepared dishes from their home country) and … the rehearsals for the ELCA Festival.

Speaking of which, the ELCA Festival has been rescheduled to March 9. On stage will be 3 bands, Ignoramus, Three and the ELCA band and various other acts, performed by members of the Electronics Research Laboratory and a few from other directions at Delft University of Technology. So, make sure that you mark your calendar, if you are around. Entrance is free; good mood obligatory. 

Other things that are cooking are, a.o.,

• that 6 papers (!) have been accepted for presentation at ISCAS 2012, the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, the flagship conference of the Circuits and Systems Society, May 20 — 23, Seoul, Korea,
• that Marijn and Wouter are working hard on their second patent to valorize their new neurostimulator circuits better,
• that Cees-Jeroen, Wannaya, Marijn and Fatih are looking into whether current neurostimulators can actually deliver the range of currents that they promise in their user manuals,
• that June and Senad are currently measuring the 3 chips that they designed that comprise circuits for cochlear implants,
• that Yongjia will probably set for a full differential version of his level-crossing ADC and tape out two designs,
• that Yao is about to define a better (i.e., lower NF and/or lower power consumption) interface between the antenna and the LNA for body area networks (BAN) that involve implantable devices,
• that Duan is preparing for measurements on his subsampling receiver IC,
• that Wannaya is generating the layout of a biphasic neurostimulator IC for cochlear implants,
• that Mark soon will have his design review of an RF energy harvester that is more sensitive than any previously reported RF energy harvester,
• that Rachit soon will start his PhD studies at IMEC,
• that Wouter will have an invited talk at Sense of Contact in Soesterberg, April 11, in Soesterberg, the Netherlands,
• that the Biomedical Electronics Foundation has been created with the notary and that all paperwork with the Chamber of Commerce will be completed soon,
• and that next month Vincent will graduate.

So, stay tuned and check us out regularly.

Happy New Year!

Wouter