Dentist vs hairdresser?

Posted on 01/07/2012 by | 3 comments

Today I asked myself, what is the worst, a visit to a dentist or a visit to a hairdresser? Maybe some of you have a very clear answer for it but for me it’s not that simple. Let me tell you how I experience both of those two visits. Maybe you will understand my confusion…

Last week I went to a dentist. It was nothing serious, just a simple check up. Still, I am feeling happy that the visit is behind me, at least for the next six months. Obviously, like many of us, I hate those visits. They can be painful, usually there is blood and, it’s not the cheapest thing. Besides, the fact that somebody needs to look inside my mouth and do some kind of maintenance is not really a liberating feeling. However, I do go regularly. Why? Because, the trade off is reasonable, i.e. I suffer for a couple minutes during the visit and that, next to regularly brushing my teeth, is supposed to get me healthy teeth for a couple of months. It sounds fair enough and… there is nothing else that we can do.

How about the visit to a hairdresser? It is not even comparable, you would think. Hm… let’s see. Yesterday I visited a hairdresser too (yeah, both of them in a same week). To avoid a long queue, I went early in the morning. I was third in the queue and with four hairdressers this translates to 10 – 15 min. Not too bad. It is just enough to read a Story article about why Jennifer Lopez broke up with her husband. I barely finished the last sentence from the article and it was my turn. Right on time, I was thinking. So, I had to go and sit in front of one of those big mirrors. Grrrr… Why? Why do they need those mirrors? I don’t want to sit for 20-30 minutes and look to myself. It’s not like I can see what they are doing with the backside of my head and then I can stop them doing it. Anyway, while thinking about the mirror mystery I heard those words: So, how do we want it? Hm, first reaction in my head was: Short! Both, your talk and my hair! But, of course, I could not say that. It is not polite. I got my hair short but here is the talk:

Hairdresser (HD): So, you are very early this morning. Are you always so early?

I: No.

HD: Last week I came back from holiday; now I need to get up early again. I am still not used to it. Will you go on holiday soon?

I: No.

HD: Not on holiday? You need to work?

I: Yes.

HD: Will you go later then?

I: Yes.

HD: When?

I: December.

HD: Where?

I: Don’t know.

HD: Where do you work then?

I: Hm…

HD: I mean what kind of work you do?

I: (in my head… we had this talk last time and you had no clue what TU Delft is but here we go…) Electronics.

HD: Wow, must be difficult.

I: Hmm…

HD: Do you follow the EK 2012 championship?

I: No.

HD: I do. Do you know who is in the finals?

I: Hmm… Okay, I follow.

HD: Are you Dutch?

I: Yes.

HD: But… you have this accent?

I: I was not born here.

HD: Where are you born?

I: Bosnia.

HD: Is it hot over there?

I: It can be 🙂

HD: I wish I could move from the Netherlands to some other, warmer, place.

I: Hmm…

HD: Do you know Monique Smit?

I: No.

HD: She is a singer and a little sister of Jan Smit. Do you know Jan Smit?

I: No.

HD: No? He is very famous. Part of “inburgeringscursus” should go about Jan Smit.

I: Hmm…

HD: She was visiting a company my husband works for.

I: Hmm…

HD: I mean, Monique Smit

I: Hm…

HD: They paid her €1500 per hour.

Custumer1: That’s nothing. Jan Smit got € 7000 per half hour from…

Custumer2: bla bla bla bla…

HD2: bla bla bla bla…

Custumer3: bla bla bla bla…

Everyone: bla bla bla bla…

HD: Do you watch soaps?

HD: bla bla bla bla…

HD: bla bla bla bla…

I think I switched off here, or fainted, or something else… Anyway I don’t remember it anymore…

So, what is the worst? Go to a dentist or to a hairdresser? Probably you don’t expect this answer but I still rather go to my hairdresser? Her picture would clarify my choice. 🙂

Senad Hiseni

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Posted in General

Motivation 2.0

Posted on 25/06/2012 by | Leave a comment

Today, it was announced in the news that the Netherlands is again facing, now for the third time, a case of severe fraud in science. A professor in Consumer Behavior at the Erasmus University Rotterdam has resigned from his duties and two of his articles will be withdrawn from the journals they were published in.

Mark my words. We’re not dealing with intrinsically bad people here and before you raise your fingers at the scapegoats, read this [taken from the Book ‘Drive’ by Daniel H. Pink]: "Goals may cause systematic problems for organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation and decreased intrinsic motivation. Use care when applying goals in your organization."

It makes me wonder to what extent the universities are falling into the pits they digged themselves.

Wouter

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Posted in Education, General, Understanding the Brain

Mission Possible

Posted on 25/06/2012 by | 1 comment

In order to present the Biomedical Electronics Group of Delft University of Technology to a couple of companies, it made sense to reveal our mission statement. So here it goes…

The mission of the Biomedical Electronics Group of Delft University of Technology is "to provide the technology for the successful monitoring, diagnosis and treatment of cortical, neural, cardiac and muscular disorders by means of electricity." In order to reach this goal we investigate and design circuits and systems for electrical stimulation, ExG readout, signal specific analog signal processing, power management/conversion, energy harvesting and wireless communication, to be applied in future wearable and implantable medical devices, such as hearing instruments, cardiac pacemakers, cochlear implants and neurostimulators.

So how about that? Reactions are welcome via this blog.

Wouter

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Posted in Electronics, Energy Harvesting, General, Medical Body Area Networks, Neurostimulation and Neuromodulation, Pacemakers

Excuse me, I am just a university professor

Posted on 10/06/2012 by | Leave a comment

LoserThe
economic downturn in Europe, often denoted as the Euro crisis, is often rightly associated with the negative effects of the "neoliberal meritocracy" we
live in. The term meritocracy perhaps deserves some explanation. It was
coined in the book of Michael Young, entitled "The rise of the
Meritocracy", which appeared in 1958 and sketches a world in which the
best, i.e., those with the highest intelligence and the highest work
power, climb the social-economical ladder very fast, and vice versa [1].

Also the universities, and Delft University of Technology
unfortunately is no exception, suffer under the yoke of this neoliberal
meritocracy, which has created an atmosphere in which professors only
become visible and respected if they have successfully competed with their colleagues
and have won an award, of which they subsequently advocate that it is
the most prestigious in their field.

Another effect of this
neoliberal meritocracy is that it all is about numbers that pretend to
reflect quality rather than that they are part of the quality itself. To me, the
best book ever on true quality is Robert Pirsig’s "Lila",
the worthy successor of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (1974) and
which appeared in 1991. Naturally, an abstract topic like "quality" that
needs more than a book to give the reader a notion of its true essence
cannot be reduced to a number. Yet, in universities, the meritocracy
florishes due to numbers. In a self-assessment, made for the periodical
accreditation of our university, the quality of the research of its
professors was reduced to a number, in this case the Hirsh index or h-index. For a detailed discussion on h-index I refer you to the many web sites of Elsevier’s Scopus,
but for the moment just remember that it is a number that supposedly
indicates the influence of one’s scientific publications and thereby of the author himself on the field.
As if all fields are equally important, of equal size and all scientific communities
deal with their publications, authors, etc. in the same manner. Of
course not!

Quality of education of course is another aspect that
should be of concern to universities. Unfortunately, here the numbers
are more difficult to generate, if possible at all. As also education is more
inside-oriented and research is more outside-oriented and universities
would like to show to the outside world how great they are, they have a
tendency to stress the impact of their research more than the impact of
their education. Also, a university is an education institute of which
the major outcome, i.e., the student that successfully completes his studies
with a diploma on time and thereby is well equipped for his professional life to come, is a result of the great work of many individuals in a
team, including, of course, the student himself, but definitely more
difficult to trace back to the individual effort of a single professor. I
believe that, as a consequence of this more hidden impact of the
efforts of an individual professor, less appreciation exists among their
colleagues and bosses for the great work they are doing. Also, it is
striking to notice how many years must pass before a teacher that
clearly underperforms (according to which numbers?) will be no longer
able to pursue his damage. 

However, this is also not my main
issue here. I guess my main issue is that in this meritocratic
university system there is no appreciation and thus no room for the glue
that keeps things together. To give you a few examples:

  1. If a
    professor falls ill and a colleague takes over and brings the expedition
    to a satisfying close, this will most often go unnoticed as the project
    or course officially is still under the wings of the original professor. You have to be
    a loser to help your colleague in situations like these. 
  2. If a
    student suffers from a delay in his studies due to lack of motivation,
    skills or talents and he finally makes it due to the strong motivation
    and commitment offered by his thesis advisor, whereas the thesis advisor
    could 
    instead  have spent his time on supervising at least two other more
    brilliant students, according to the numbers, the advisor did the wrong
    thing. You must be a loser to spend your time on less brilliant
    students.
  3. If a thesis advisor trains a student to let the creativity and the innovation come from the student himself rather than that he imposes his own solution to a
    scientific or engineering problem on a student,
    the result takes longer time to come to fruition and therefore requires
    more time from the thesis advisor. You must be a loser if you don’t tell
    your students exactly what to do and how. 
  4. If a thesis
    advisor himself writes major parts of the scientific paper that is based
    on the work of a student, this paper has more chance to be accepted for
    publication and even win an award. You must be a loser to let your
    student write his own paper.

If situations like those sketched above arise, I have accepted and even deliberately decided to be the loser. 

Wouter

[1] Paul Verhaeghe: De effecten van een neoliberale meritocratie op identiteit en interpersoonlijke verhoudingen, Oikos 56, 1/2011. 

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Posted in Education, General

Video’s ELCA festival ONLINE!

Posted on 03/05/2012 by | 1 comment
Our loyal readers of this weblog have probably been waiting for this moment for a very long time and I am proud to finally present to the world: the video’s of the ELCA festival 2012!!
 
The festival was again a great success with many people attending. Besides the ELCA band (which is mainly composed of people from within our group), we had the honor that 3 other bands were performing: Ignoramus (where Cees-Jeroen is the lead singer), Three (where Wouter plays keys) and Rainbow (where June plays guitar).
 
Please find all the videos in our youtube channel or click one of the performances of the ELCA band in the list below:
 
ELCA Band 

 
Our ‘own’ songs: 

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Posted in General

Award for Senad Hiseni

Posted on 03/05/2012 by | 1 comment
On March 16, Ir. Senad Hiseni received an award from the Biomecial
Electronics Foundation for excellence in research on implantable
medical devices with a high scientific, engineering, clinical and
societal relevance.
 
Congrats, Senad!
 

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Posted in Education, General

Dance4Life, Oranjetrophy and the Biomedical Electronics Foundation

Posted on 03/05/2012 by | Leave a comment

The Biomedical Electronics Foundation supports the Orange Trophy in its action for Dance4Life and Miep and Christy of Team DrivingCrazy
in particular. On May 3, 2012, Miep (at left) received the donation
from Wouter (at right) and fixed two stickers of the Biomedical
Electronics Foundation on both sides of the car.

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Posted in General

BELEM

Posted on 19/04/2012 by | Leave a comment

BELEM is an
Erasmus intensive training program labeled by the EU for 2012. BELEM
addresses the field of BioMedical Engineering (BME), with a
specialization in BioElectronics.
BELEM supports
multi-disciplinary research and helps young engineering researchers,
in the early phase of their research project, bridge the gap with
life sciences. BELEM intends to bring them the necessary background
and methods to conduct efficiently multi-disciplinary research
through a deep and broad integration of engineering and biology. [
The above text is coming from the BELEM website
http://www.ims-bordeaux.fr/BELEM
]

BELEM took
place from 25th of March till 6th of April at
the University of Bordeaux, France. The course is especially
interesting for PhD students being at the first year of their
research. It gives an overview of the BME research area and can help
you in gaining a better understanding of your research topic. The
course consists of lectures about the topics in BME, a small research
project, a hospital visit and a bio laboratory visit.

Three
people of TU Delft presented about their research. Wouter gave
lectures about the electrophysiological aspects in recording bio
signals and low-power circuit design, Marijn about electrode-tissue
modelling and Mark about the RF link between an implant and the
outside world.

Besides the
lectures, the course is a very good opportunity to meet fellow PhD
students from other universities working in BME as well. During the
course, you have the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences
with each other.

Cees-Jeroen

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Posted in Education

Hallucinations

Posted on 17/03/2012 by | 1 comment

Iris Sommer, Professor in psychiatry at the UMC Utrecht describes in a video at www.volkskrant.nl/akademie a schizophrenic man who told her about the terrible voices in his head. To figure out what happened in his brain during these hallucinations, she made several MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans. It turned out that in patients with hallucinations also the language areas in the right half of the brain become active. In healthy people usually only those areas in the left half of the brain are active.

She further explains that these areas and the voices in the head can be influenced in a variety of ways, e.g., by means of TMS, transcranial (through-the-skull) magnetic stimulation. Unfortunately, TMS is not always effective and psychiatrists are on the lookout for alternatives. 

I would say that this is another area where neurostimulation can come to the rescue. In the (often successful) treatment of tinnitus, patients are first exposed to TMS to check whether neurostimulation, in this case, electrical stimulation of the auditory cortex, can possibly be an effective treatment for them. Once indeed the level/severity of tinnitus can be influenced by TMS, neurostimulation becomes a logical next step for permanent treatment of the tinnitus.

Now it is just a matter of convincing the other voices in my head that this is indeed the right way…

Wouter

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Posted in General, Neurostimulation and Neuromodulation, Understanding the Brain

The end of the ELCA festival?

Posted on 17/03/2012 by | 1 comment

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

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Posted in General