During the master class “Technological Innovation in the Brainport Region Eindhoven”, we were taught many things about innovation and economy in the Brainport region. We attended some presentations about both small and big businesses which do their research in that part of the Netherlands, like for example Philips.
The first day, when we arrived at the hotel in Geldrop, we were welcomed by our host families. The next morning, we went with our hosts to their school, which was presented to us, and we also had a presentation about the whole Brainport region there. After leaving school we visited the Rabobank where they showed us the Google glasses. Later that day, we also visited the Philips research center, where we could try out a device to measure our heart rate using a camera.
On the third day we visited ASML, a company which manufactures and sells machines used to produce microchips. ASML controls almost 80% of the market in that department. In the afternoon we had another presentation about innovation in the Brainport region through smaller companies.
Finally during the last day, we went once more to the Philips research center, but this time we visited their healthcare department. We where explained what to do if you just developed a new technology and you want to start a business to sell it.
During the whole event, our hosts took good care of us and organized something for every evening, like, for example bowling, so that we wouldn’t get bored.
Overall, we had to listen to quite a lot of very interesting presentations and we also had to do some small assignments. What was disappointing to me the predominance of financial aspects of the innovation instead of focusing on the technical and the scientific aspects. Nevertheless, something I really liked was to meet other pupils from all over Europe. So despite the fact that most of the time it was all about money, it was very interesting and I learned a lot.
Justin Bourgois