Upon return in The Netherlands the weekly technological news magazine "Technisch Weekblad" asked us for an explanation of our finding on the engineering culture of Japan.

The article in Dutch can be found here.

Welcome to the web page of the studytour 2011 of the mechanical engineering department of Eindhoven University of Technology. The studytour committee is working on behalf of the mechanical engineering study association W.S.V. Simon Stevin.

The studytour will be held from August 22. until September 11.

Japanners zetten zich continu in voor hun samenleving

Dertig studenten werktuigbouwkunde van de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven zijn van 22 augustus tot en met 11 september 2011 naar Japan afgereisd om te onderzoeken waarom ingenieurs in Japan veel meer aanzien genieten dan hier in Nederland. Zij kwamen tot de verassende conclusie dat niet zozeer ingenieurs meer aanzien genieten in Japan, maar dat de hele beroepsbevolking kan rekenen op hoog aanzien en respect vanuit de maatschappij.

Elke baan telt!

Japan, een half jaar na de verwoestende aardbeving

De zoektocht naar meer duurzame energiebronnen

First press release

As committee we have released notice of our tour to the media. The following press release has been published (also published on Studio040 and Cursor), please note that this release is in Dutch only;

Dertig studenten werktuigbouwkunde op studiereis

Brainportregio Eindhoven is onlangs uitgeroepen tot slimste kennisregio ter wereld. Toch staat het ingenieursvak hier niet zo hoog aangeschreven als in technologieland Japan. Dertig studenten werktuigbouwkunde van de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven vertrekken op 22 augustus 2011 naar Japan om te onderzoeken waarom ingenieurs in Japan veel meer aanzien genieten.

De sleutel tot succes

Tsukuba toch nog best dichtbij de kerncentrale Fukushima

As you might know a typhoon is heading to Japan. Right now we are in Izumo in the Shimane prefecture. Because of this typhoon trains to Hiroshima will not run and therefore we cannot continue our normal program on day 13.

At this moment we decided to stay one day more in the hotel in Izumo. Probably we will be able to continue our trip on day 14. At this moment we are totally safe and there is no need to be worried. If we have more information we will let you know via this website

Special attention for our main sponsor Continu:

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Onze adviseurs begeleiden je graag op weg naar een baan. We zetten altijd in op een vast dienstverband op korte of lange termijn. Daarnaast heb je ook als zelfstandige volop kansen op interessante opdrachten! Continu zoekt kandidaten die van aanpakken houden. Handen uit de mouwen, de schouders eronder en borst vooruit.

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During our stay in Tokyo we are going to see a lot of interesting sites in the city. Among others, we will go to the Tokyo Tower (333 m), which is based on the Eiffel Tower in Paris (317 m). Ginza, one of Tokyo's great centers, where we can visit the Sony showroom. Other interesting places we will visit are the Tsukiji Fish Market, a huge fish market, where food sellers and restaurateurs from all over Tokyo buy their sea products. Akihabara, the electronics district, where you will find a lot of shops with the biggest collection of electronic devices. Shinjuku, with the busiest railway of the world (over two million people passing through every day) and from there we will go to Shibuya, the place to be for fashion, food, music and gadgets and it is a party town for Tokyo's youth.

Because there is so much more to see in Tokyo the participants will also have some free time in which we give them several options of interesting/exiting activities. They can go to the Ueno Park, to visit the National Science Museum, the zoo or they can go to Odaiba, that is a popular entertainment district on a manmade island in Tokyo bay, with a wide selection of shopping, dining and leisure options. Besides that there is a possibility to go to Tokyo Disneyland, Kamakura or Nikko.

On the 16th of May the second activity for the participants took place. We started with some pizza’s as dinner. After that we went to the Zwarte Doos to see the movie Still Walking. The movie is a family drama about grown children visiting their elderly parents, however none of them wants to visit each other they came together to remember the death of the oldest brother. This shows a bit of the way of living and the respect for one another in Japan.

This evening was organized in collaboration with Studium Generale. After the film we had a social gathering with some drinks to discuss the movie.

At this the moment we are busy filling the travel scheme with technical and technological visits. We are in contact with several companies. Here we will inform you about a few visits which that we have already planned: NIFS and CRIEPI, which we will visit in the first week and the University of Tsukuba in the second.

NIFS is an abbreviation for National Institute for Fusion Science. This institute was established in 1989. It is Japan’s national laboratory for fusion research. Since nuclear fusion is considered to be the solution to the world’s energy problem, it should be a very interesting visit. Due to the severe accident in Fukushima’s nuclear power plants, the situation of nuclear fusion is also becoming unsure, though fusion and fission are completely different.

CRIEPI is an institute, founded in 1951, which is doing research and development on technologies that contribute to the electric power industry and to society. The three main areas of their research concern the promotion of electrification, energy conservation and the use of low carbon power sources. In the first week of our tour we will visit CRIEPI.

The University of Tsukuba was established in 1973. We hope to visit differtent departmens, namely the department of Intelligent Interaction Technologies, the department of Engineering Mechanics and Energy, the Intelligent Robot Lab and Cybernics. In collaboration with AIST we will get a wide program.

Our thoughts are with the victims and the people in Japan. We are glad that our colleagues of the studytour of Thor (SATORI), who are right now in Japan, are safe and in good health.

At the moment there is no reason to cancel our studytour to Japan. The current travel scheme does not enclose the disaster area and our tour will take place in August. Of course we will keep up with the latest news and developments about the nuclear power plant in Fukushima and the seismic activity in the region. If there is news which has any influence on our trip, we will inform you.

On the 2nd of March our first activity for the participants took place. At 18:45 Diana Kuijpers started her presentation about Japan. She is studying Languages and Cultures of Japan on the University of Leiden. Next month she will go to Japan for one year. In the first half of the presentation she told us about the history, the religion and the language of Japan.

Directly after the presentation we started a Japanese culture activity, namely making sushi. After an introduction of our chairman on how to make sushi, it was time to put our own sushi rolling skills to the test. It was a nice evening and we hope that everyone enjoyed it!

The arrival of de Liefde, one of the ships of the Dutch East India Company, in the year 1600 started the long-term relations between Japan and the Netherlands. Nine years later, when the Dutch received their license, the trade started between the two countries. The Closed Country Edict of 1635 prohibited the people of Japan to leave for foreign countries and limited the trade with other countries. Nevertheless the Dutch were allowed to continue their businesses with Japan, although they were expelled to Dejima, a small artificial island in the harbor of Nagasaki. During the more than 200 years of seclusion the Netherlands was the only western nation which had intensive relations with Japan. At the end of the 19th century, when the political situation of Japan had become very unstable, the Dutchmen again played a role by supervising the composition of the Japanese Marine. During this period there also have been a lot of Dutch engineers in Japan, which developed a way of water management for Japan, building canals, locks and dykes to control the water level.

This small view in history learns us that through the years there always has been a strong relation between the two countries and hopefully this will continue in the future. Also our studytour is a way to maintain these relations, by visiting Japanese companies, institutes, universities and several cultural places.