Volume 10
Number 3
June 2016
10-3
Periodical of S.V.A.T. Astatine
32 - Batavierenrace
16 - Predictive
Policing
22 - How Fake
Is Fiction
6 - Danielson
Excursion
Contents
The “ATtentie” is the periodical of
S.V.A.T. Astatine, which is issued four
times a year. The ATtentie is distributed among members of Astatine and
employees connected to Advanced
Technology at the University of
Twente.
Volume 10 / Number 3 / Issue 43
Copies: 750
Date of issue: June 2016
Editorial staff
Jasper Gerritsen - Editor in Chief/
Frank Esselink - Editor, Layout editor /
Tom Bokhove - Editor /
Boudewijn Sikkens Editor, Layout
editor / Bart Nonkes - Editor, Layout
editor / Daphne van Dijken - Editor/
Thijs Baas - Editor, Layout Editor
Address
S.V.A.T. Astatine
t.a.v. ATtentie
Post office box 217
7500 AE Enschede
Tel. 053-489 4450
Bank: 1475.73.769 (Rabobank)
[email protected]
http://www.astatine.utwente.nl
Printer
Inpakservice IJmond
Tel. 0251-272 430
With thanks
Thijs Baas, Tom Bokhove, Bernard
Boukamp, Daphne van Dijken, Bob
Steenmeijer, Zahra van Egdom, Frank
Esselink, Jasper Gerritsen, Herman
Hemmes, Jornt Lagerveen, Bart Nonkes,
Boudewijn Sikkens, Reinout Nonhebel,
Maarten Assendorp
If you want to contribute to the next
ATtentie, you can send in articles via
email: [email protected]
Authors remain responsible for the
contents of their works.
The editors preserve the right to
modify or reject received articles.
© S.V.A.T. Astatine 2016, all rights
reserved.
Science
16 The Math behind Catching Bad Guys
Tom Bokhove
22 How Fake is Fiction?
Jasper Gerritsen
26Language
Bart Nonkes
30 Irradiated Animals
Frank Esselink
Astatine
4
From the AT Staff
Herman Hemmes
5
From the Astatine Board
Jornt Lageveen
6Danielson
Bart Nonkes
13 Generation Differences
Maarten Assendorp
14Astatiny
15Graduates
32 Batavierenrace 2016
Daphne van Dijken
34 Astatine & Atlas Prom
Bob Steenmeijer
Editorial
Hello readers,
Other
2Colofon
8
Debating 101:
Sleazebag Edition
Thijs Baas
10 Interview with
Bernard Boukamp
Jasper Gerritsen
Frank Esselink
35 Cheerful Chef: Vlaai
Zahra van Egdom
38Puzzle
How much food should I take?
Maybe I’ll bring a soccer ball. At the
moment of writing I am quite literally packing my bags for the Lustrum sailing trip. It’s approximately one hour until departure. The
sailing trip isn’t the only Lustrum
event still planned for this year
though. The next edition of the Attentie will have a Lustrum theme
with lots of throwbacks to the old
days. But first 10-3 lies before you,
the indication that summer is coming, the heaven-sent sign that the
days of grey will finally be over,
clearly communicated by the reassuring orange on the front page.
Finally there will be redemption
for all this time of imprisonment.
Even the prison guards, the lecturers and researchers will have their
sins forgiven. Everyone will be able
to enjoy their hard-earned civil
right to summer. Together, united
as one, let us enjoy the sun.
Jasper Gerritsen
p22
Astatine
Astatine
The program staff is preparing the
curriculum for coming year, adapting modules where appropriate and
where possible taking into account
the results from module and curriculum evaluations. The updated
Educational and Exam Regulation is
a work in progress. Advice on these
plans will be asked from the educational committee and board of examiners.
Lecturers and module coordinators are busy preparing their module (especially for the modules in
the start of the year), the first draft
schedules have been made and soon
the choices have to be finalized,
student advisors are busy with
Deadlines!
All this busyness is driven by deadlines. Tests to take, reports to hand
in, or just keeping up with the topics
being studied. Lectures and tests to
prepare and grade. The implementation of curriculum and modules
follows the administrative deadlines
that have been set. Basically, having
things ready at the right moment.
Since the education process is cyclic
we are never done, so it’s important
not to let the deadlines take over.
Note that some deadlines are stricter and more urgent than others (the
deadline for this ATtentie was last
Wednesday ;) ).
While writing this I am reminded
that coming week the 1st and 2nd
year schedules have been cleared.
So, no teaching! In addition, the
schools in the region have their
spring break, so many colleagues
have taken time off. Coming week
will be relatively quiet.
I think I’ll take a few days off too…
Herman Hemmes
Busy
Students are studying hard and
have to accommodate for all sorts
of other activities. During the
tutorials that I attended there
were five announcements for activities by Astatine committees
alone, with a call for students to
attend…
matching activities for prospective
students and are in the process of
talking with the students on an individual basis, the Astatine board is
running the association as well as
working to get their AT BSc diploma
before the summer, the Kandi is
preparing for taking over the good
work and is preparing for the KickIn in August the ATtenCie is trying
to put a new ATtentie together…
From the Astatine Board
Jornt Lageveen
From the AT Staff
Dear reader,
The study year is almost at its end
and the holiday is just around the
corner. I can remember when I
started here that it didn’t feel
like a year had passed at all. It felt
like I just came from high school,
everything still felt new and some
regular things could still amaze
me. This year has been passing
by a lot faster than I expected it
would too.
I notice it with studying as well as
within the association, where committees still want to organize many
things and board members are piling up new ideas that could be nice
to incorporate within the association. I see a lot of potential in the future of S.V.A.T. Astatine, but there’s
only a limited amount of time left
for me to contribute to it as a board
member. You could consider this
one of my last attempts to try and
convince you to think about the future of the association.
When thinking of Astatine you see
an association full of kind and active
students. Looking at the amount of
people who are active within the association, we really can’t complain.
Our association has one of the highest contributions of active members, compared to the other associations. From this you can see that
Astatine members are often busy
bees, wanting to help out and like to
contribute to the association. Also,
regarding international students,
we are quite far ahead in terms of
the integration process. Furthermore the association contributes to
lots of nice activities for their members.
Still with me? Fantastic! Not totally agreeing on what I said? That’s
okay too!I would like you to look
at the article once more and think
at which parts you get the feeling
that it could be improved upon.
Maybe we should try to involve international people more, or maybe
we should focus more on activities
that could involve a different group
of Astatine members. Maybe we
should do more in terms of education. So what do you think about it?
We are currently working on a way
to collect the opinions of the members of the association and trying to
get our Kandis to take these opinions with them. We hope you could
help to visualize the voice of the association. Thank you.
I would like to end with the sentence with which it all started: one
for all, all for one. Enjoy this edition.
Op de hoogste!
Jornt Lageveen
Astatine
Bart Nonkes
Excursion to Danielson
After a one-hour drive we arrive at our destination. A simple
building on the side of an industrial park, next to a freeway,
barely brightening the grey ambiance of an early morning after a
long Thursday night. But inside,
coffee awaits.
‘Welcome to Danielson, this way
please.’
We’re led to a room on the right, just
big enough to fit a long table, currently decorated with the appealing sight of thermos flasks, plates
stacked with cake, small bowls with
sweets and everything needed to
make a guest quickly and efficiently
feel at home. On our left, behind the
head of the table, a projector screen
against the wall and a computer facing away from us, on our right four
rectangular windows separating the
room from the early spring rain. As
we sit down, looking at a few pieces
of Danielson merchandise placed at
every spot on the table (a writing
pad, a pen and a screen protector),
two men walk in.
The first, in casual chic clothing with
short, neatly cut hair and glasses,
seemingly someone from the company’s management, helps some
people with their coffee, removes
the foil from the stack of cakes and
generally tries to extend the feeling
of hospitality being created in the
first minutes of the excursion. The
second, slightly less charismatic in
his trousers and t-shirt, gives the
impression of being part of the R&D
department of the company, turns
on the computer and starts setting
up the opening presentation.
While everyone drinks their coffee, tea or water and eats their cake,
the man from management gives a
short presentation on the different
Danielson accommodations across
Europe, their overall pursuits and
the company’s composition. He
says that Danielson will adopt a new
name within a few weeks.
The guy in trousers and shirt takes
over and starts telling about the
technical aspect of the company. He
tells us about the technologies they
are working on, which are mainly
oriented toward touchscreen applications. He gives us a short talk
about the theory behind touch-
Danielson
screens and passes around some
sheets of a plastic-like material as
he tells us about these rejects from
the production halls of the company, which are the basis for some of
the touchscreens they produce. One
of the interesting future Danielson
products he talks about is a threedimensional touchscreen. Where
most screens we know now work
in two dimensions, these 3D touchscreens should be able to detect the
distance from the screen to your
hand.
When the presentation is over, the
guy from the R&D department leads
us out of the room, starting the tour
through the Danielson building. On
our left, next to the entrance of the
building, a few offices, separated
from the hallway with glass partitions, on our right a small corridor
leading to the technical part of the
building. After we go through a
door on the right we get into what
seems like the transition from the
managerial to the technical part. A
big room, some carts with electrical
components against the walls and
a corner with some machines that
aren’t used at the moment.
After we walk past some production halls, our guide greeting some
of his colleagues, we get to the R&D
department. There are four guys,
telling us about what they’re working on one by one, showing us some
algorithms on their computers and
quickly explaining something about
the prototypes displayed in their office.
Now we get to the production part
of the building. The guy in trousers
and shirt explains the functions of
the machines creating the different
layers for their touchscreens, leading us through several compartments of the building with their
separate functions. We see some
workers doing the same exact activities over and over again, and
he tells us that some of them have
been doing that work for about ten
years already. “And honestly, some
are really content with that.” That’s
something.
The tour ends with another presentation about some theory about
the electrical background of touchscreens, after which the excursion
is closed off with a lunch provided
by the company. I realise that this is
the first excursion I’ve ever been to
where I did not feel bored at all.
Keep up the good work ATEC!
Debating
Thijs Baas
Debating 101: Sleazebag Edition
Debating is hard, isn’t it? You
just want to win and get the hell
out because there’s a bottle of
champagne calling your name in
Shell HQ, but your opponent just
keeps on dragging these pesky
facts in here that make you look
bad. “Global warming is a myth!”
you scream, and he just keeps on
asking for evidence. Ain’t nobody
got time for that, come on now.
But worry not, fellow sleazebag,
because this here guide will help
you win any debate and let you
return to your MASSIVE YACHT
just that bit faster.
Discredit him with evidence!
Your assistant found his cited studies and, sure enough, there’s some
sentences and datapoint clusters
here and there that you can twist
in your favour. Those three datapoints from Bakki, northern Iceland
and those other four from Balzers,
southern Liechtenstein totally show
that gobal temperatures are dropping if you squint hard enough. Ha,
evidence!
Debate Tactics
If a physicist with the brains to win
a Nobel Prize thinks global warming is bull hockey, who are they to
disagree!? Don’t let the subtle differences in his stance fool you, he’s
not on board with the whole global
warming thing, and they shouldn’t
be either.
“Your ‘honesty’ has been rewarded with
a MASSIVE YACHT!”
The Fallacy Fallacy
“He’s only one, there’s hundreds of
other scientists that think differently.” eh? Well, they’re not wrong, unlike you. “You keep insisting global
warming is a hoax despite all this
evidence, either you’re arguing in
bad faith or you’re just a complete
idiot!” eh? I think they just gave us
new ammunition my greasy-haired
friend! That’s an Ad Hominem, and
as everybody knows, an argument
containing a fallacy is always immediately wrong, no questions asked!
Sure, he had a point with the ‘bad
faith’ thing, but that doesn’t matter
now.
The Texas Sharpshooter
A true classic, the Texas Sharpshooter got its name from a joke
about a gunman in Texas who supposedly emptied his gun in the general direction of a barn and then
painted targets around the impact
sites. In our premise, where you’re
shilling for shell enlightening others about the fact that there is no
such thing as global warming, your
enemy is dismissing you with evidence, right? So what do you do?
The Strawman
With that, we have the momentum,
so it’s time to lay on the hurt with
the almighty strawman! He’s not
had too much to say so far except
statistics, hmm… Ah, we can use his
last comment, that’ll be a good one.
Just accuse him of calling all climate
change deniers idiots, pull in some
big names like Giaever and Ebell,
add a sprinkle of ‘you’re denying
scientific discourse’ and voìla- he’s
on the ropes!
The Appeal to Authority
They just gave you a weird stare
and said “But that’s not strong evidence…”, didn’t they… They’re not
wrong, but now you’re going to be
stuck here debating even longer!
Well, they might not believe a normal non-scientist human, but surely
they’ll believe Nobel Prize winner
Ivar Giaever?
How could anyone disagree with such a
charmer?
Strawmen- even better at destroying decent arguments than my private lawyer.
The Gish Gallop
Let’s crank it up just a bit though,
just in case- let’s evolve our strawman into the almighty-er Gish Gallop! In essence, the Gish Gallop is
just strawmen strung together with
random arguments that make your
enemy look bad; they don’t even
have to make sense as long as there’s
enough of them! Just make sure the
first one or two are refutable with
some effort and he’ll have forgotten
the rest by the time he’s done.
Strawman and Literally Nonsense fusion digivolve to… Gish Gallop!
I hope that helped, I’m off to cash in
a new cheque from Exxon!
Astatine
Jasper Gerritse & Frank Esselink
Interview - Bernard Boukamp
What is your connection with AT?
I have been involved with the study
Advanced Technology from the beginning. Twelve years ago, Professor
Dave Blank came to me and asked if
I wanted to be a part of AT. I thought
that this would be a great challenge.
I started as Coordinator of Education for the first year students and
after two, maybe three years I took
over the position from Bert Heesink
as Coordinator of Education for the
entire program.
I found the program and organization of Advanced Technology
directly appealing. It would have
been the study of my choice when
I started with my university education in 1960.
The idea of a broad study program
is really interesting. For example, I
like the idea of mathematics as the
underlying ‘scientific language’ for
all technical studies. You can use
the same tricks to explain all kinds
of physical phenomena which will
give more insight in how things
work. This is something that you see
a lot in AT.
What did you study and what was
your motivation?
When I finished high school I wanted to become a chemistry teacher.
Of all the choices in the fields of
science, chemistry interested me
the most. Therefore I went to the
University of Utrecht and studied
chemistry and physics in my Bachelor program, with a larger focus
Interview - Bernard Boukamp
University. Through him I got also a
postdoc position at Stanford, which
was changed in a research associate position after one year. I worked
there for five and a half years with
pleasure.
on chemistry. I really enjoyed this
study and although I wasn’t the
fastest student, I still finished it in
6 years.
What did you do after your study?
After my masters I continued at the
University of Utrecht with a PhD
project. This took me a little longer
than normal, but this was common
practice at that time. In this period I really learned a lot, especially
with making my own equipment by
manufacturing and machining in a
workshop. This is something I miss
at the UT.
When I was finished with my PhD
project it was hard to find a job. So
I thought that getting my teaching
credentials would be a good idea. It
turned out that I was not the only
one with this idea. So, after doing
the theoretical part, I postponed
this option. A colleague of mine
was working as postdoc at Stanford
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Nijmegen. I really had
a carefree youth in which I was always busy with taking things apart,
causing short-circuits and blowing some fuses. I loved to play with
Meccano. It was a very exciting time
in which many things happened.
The television got invented, we put
a man on the moon. There were a lot
of inventions in those days that really had an impact on society. Nowadays those things have become
very normal.
If you had the option to follow a
different study, what would it be?
I think that I still would have done
the same study, but if AT was available in my time it would have been
the study of my choice. Still, all the
choices that I have made in my life
would be the same, since most of
them were based on coincidence.
For instance, in search of a subject
for my master project, I happened
to visit a research group on Solid
State Chemistry. This was so interesting that I did my master and PhD
thesis in this field.
If you may construct your own
5 EC course, what would it look
like?
That is a nice question. I think
that it would be a combination of
solid-state- and electrochemistry.
It would show all the possibilities
with these materials. Then I would
lay the focus on applications such
as batteries, fuel cells, sensors and
all the possibilities in the field of
electrochemistry. I would also add
a practical on impedance spectroscopy, which is a hobby of mine.
Do you have other hobbies?
I love to tinker, although I don’t
have much time to do that. I love
to read, both English and Dutch. My
biggest hobby at this moment is my
two granddaughters. They live very
close to where I live so they visit
quite often. I really love to spend
time with them.
Do you expect a large breakthrough in your field?
There don’t seem to be significant
developments anymore. But for oxygen ion conducting materials (e.g.
in solid oxide fuel cells) there still
is the challenge to understand the
transfer process of O2 in the ambient to O= into the oxide lattice. It is
important to understand what the
influence is of the (nano-) structure
of the oxide surface on this complex
reaction process.
Astatine
Generation differences
What do you think of the current
TOM model?
Don’t get me started! The TOM model only focuses on efficiency rather
than the capabilities of students. It
is more of a way to force students
to do their courses, which compromises the quality of education.
Also, students get rushed through
all the quarters. They are forced
to finish projects within just 8
weeks. Then it is hard to apply all
the knowledge that you gather in
these courses into the projects, as
you need this knowledge right from
the start. This brings the gaining
of knowledge and applying it, out
of balance because you don’t have
time to really think about what you
are doing. You need time and some
freedom for this, which is currently
not present.
I personally prefer the AT model
which I think is a solid model. There
was a lot more balance and freedom
over all the modules. You start off
with some broad but basic knowledge and then you were able to
choose your own route. This knowledge is very useful when you start
to work on your Bachelor of Master
assignment.
Who is your favorite Scientist?
I always admired Albert Einstein.
You would think that he won the
Nobel Prize for his Theory of Relativity, but it was actually his idea
that light also existed of quantum
particles. He found something ex-
traordinary during measurements
and directly came up with the idea;
that must be it! That is the reason
I admire him. He had the ability to
come up with solutions even before they had the equipment to test
them.
What is the biggest invention of
the century?
I would say the transistor. The first
try by Bardeen, Shockley and Brattain looks like a ‘Friday afternoon’
experiment, done just for the fun of
it. The general reaction was ‘what is
the use of this? Tube amplifiers are
much better’. Of course it entered
the market, first the germanium
and then the silicon transistor. But
the major breakthrough was made
by Texas Instruments. The placement of four transistors on a single silicon chip was the start of the
‘computer era’, which has changed
our world completely. That something so simple would have such an
impact on society is incredible.
Who is going to be our next victim?
I would recommend Guus Rijnders,
the Chairman of Inorganic Materials
Science. He is a perfect example for
showing that there are many routes
into getting an important position.
Maarten Assendorp
Interview - Bernard Boukamp
A few older year students have been present at the Astatine members
room for quit a while now. Complaining to the board and thinking how it
used to be better in the past. That’s how things go, that’s how things were
and that’s how it always will be. Independent from what association you
choose, there’s always an old generation that feels replaced by today’s
authorities. In contrast there is also always a young generation that thinks
they’ll do things better when their time has come. Just before the lunch
break this new generation arrives in the right wing of HT700. It’s the last
week of the module, so there are no lectures and a lot of activities are upcoming. They have a few minutes to take some coffee, tea or lunch before
their committee meeting starts. One of the older members, he used to be
board, notices that a first year student was too incapable to make new
coffee. Without delay he takes this opportunity to share his discontent
with everyone around: “BESTÚÚÚR, The coffee is gone!!” No-one really
responds and since he still has a bit of love for the association and her
members in his blood, he isn’t the worst to make some new.
That’s how things roll. Not much later, a member from the ItCo calls upon
his own committee: “íeteecóó!!” Since he isn’t content with something in
the WebApps. Whether it’s a bug or a feature is vague, if and when this
will be fixed is also unclear. But we’ll manage, if not one way then another.
As long as there are people with a heart for Astatine, new initiatives will
rise, stay for a while, and make room for new traditions. Leaving their
inventors with the feeling that they’ve been replaced and forgotten. I used
to be a young member with naive plans, but in the meantime I’m an ‘ouwe
lul’, still struggling to collect ECs. Even though I miss the old times where
I brought in the new ideas. I don’t dislike helping out, giving advice and
commenting on everything that needs a push in the right direction. So to
everyone who hasn’t been longer than three years with our association,
this could be your future. Looking at how the things you achieved are being altered and changed.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Somewhere in the corridor we hear
a chairman shouting: “Where’s my secretary, we need minutes!” And a little later there’s a girl asking: “Does someone know where the oucie meeting is taking place?” A lot is being done at Astatine, and many nice things
are being achieved by the board and the committees. People gain lots of
experience, enjoy many activities and learn every day. I hope that long
after today, students experience the same liveliness as I am now.
Maarten Assendorp
Astatiny
Three hamburgers managed to escape
from the Kandi barbecue at the O&O
square on Wednesday April 20th. The
burgers are said to still be at liberty
and rumor has it they have requested
political asylum in Hamburg, Germany.
The aim of the meat meeting at which
this tragedy unfolded was to announce
the next candidate board of Astatine.
The line-up is as follows:
Chairman – Daphne van Dijken
Secretary – Kasper Hendriks
Treasurer – Nehal Mathur
Educational affairs – Cham Bustraam
External affairs – Jan Eggenkamp
Internal affairs – Douwe Shotanus
Mathematicians like to say that the
only problem physicists know how to
solve is the simple harmonic oscillator. That’s not quite true but it’s a
good approximation.
Three kittens are slowly sliding down
a roof pitched at 35 degrees above the
horizontal. Which one will fall off the
roof first? The one with the smallest
mew.
What did the thermometer say to the
graduated cylinder? You may have
graduated, but I’ve got many degrees.
A man, complaining of headaches, entered a hospital for diagnostic tests. A doctor examined the results of a brain scan and told the patient, “I have bad news
and good news for you. The bad news is that you have a serious brain disease
and will die without treatment. The good news is that due to a car accident
this morning two ‘fresh’ brains are available for transplantation: one from a
taxi driver and the other one from a scientist. The brain of the taxi driver costs
€225,000, while that of the scientist is only €30” Puzzled, the patient asked,
“Why is the scientist’s brain so much cheaper?” The doctor replied, “It’s used.”
The Astatiny: The Tiny Astatine ATtentie
Lustrum sailing trip
Friday May 20th the approximately 30 Astatine members left Enschede
to travel towards Terherne, Friesland. Arriving late in the afternoon the
sailboats were immediately put to use to explore the waters closest to the
island. Saturday evening the great mystery was revealed as to why we had
to bring a dish cloth and a flashlight, a dropping! Who would’ve thought!
Okay maybe some did. Along with the very last Lustrum drink this event
concluded the Lustrum year, so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the
Lustrum committee for organizing so many activities this year.
Graduates
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Koen van Haren
Biomechanical Engineering (BME/ CTW)
Vincent Teernstra
Physics of Interfaces and Nano-devices (PIN/TNW)
Riccardo Sneep
Biomedical Engineering (BME/CTW)
Kees van der Zouw
Nano Electronics (NE/EWI)
Bernhard van der Wel
Mesoscale Chemical Systems (MCS/ TNW)
Simon Pietersen
Sustainable Process Technology (SPT/TNW)
Gerjanne Dekker
Robotics and Mechatronics (RaM/EWI)
The math of catching bad guys
Tom Bokhove
The math of catching bad guys
Artificial intelligence can be useful for many applications. The
most common example is in robotics. However, artificial intelligence can be used in many more
situations. One of those is finding
criminals by the police.
Predictive policing, that is what it is
called. The idea behind it is that the
police can identify the time and location that a crime is likely going to
happen. The algorithm is now mainly being used in New York and Los
Angeles. This is done by analysing
previous crimes, social media messages and phone calls to 911.
The algorithm
The idea is based on a clustering
algorithm of artificial intelligence.
Clustering collects a lot of sampling
points of a set of samples, in this case
the locations of crimes. The idea is
then to let an algorithm determine
the mean values of the largest hot
spots. Based on how close a sample
is to such a mean cluster value, it is
given a membership degree of that
cluster.
Most fuzzy clustering algorithms
are based on the fuzzy c-means
functional defined (in a simplified
form, leaving out fuzziness) as follows:
This is basically the summation over
a set of mean cluster values V and a
set of sampling locations Z.
The latter term of this equation,
namely,
||zk − vi ||2A
is a squared distance norm, which
simply determines the distance between location k and mean I, possibly with a scaling value depending
on the reciprocal of the variance.
The criterium to optimise this equation is to find the optimal cluster for
each location, such that the overall
distance between each location and
its corresponding cluster(s) is minimal. This algorithm is called the
fuzzy c-means algorithm.
In the context of predictive policing this means that one should see
clusters of locations on a map, in
which crimes often occur. A regression analysis determines where and
when the next crime is going to occur.
The math of catching bad guys
Data
The obvious data about gender and
age is used, but it goes further than
that. Research shows that a burglar
is very likely to come back to a place
he already visited, because he is familiar with the environment. The
burglar knows the level of protection in the neighbourhood, the value of his to be stolen goods, and the
location in which he operates.
Furthermore, the burglar is likely to
have a specific way of working. He
might get in via the windows or via
breaking open a door, he might operate on a certain day of the week,
he might operate in a certain area,
etc.
Finally, a technique called machine
learning is able to change the algorithm by itself. New buildings in an
area or new inhabitants of that area
thus change the way the algorithm
works.
PredPol
The algorithm for predictive policing is already worked out in a commercial application called PredPol.
PredPol is an application that shows
a map to a police officer of areas
that are likely to be target of a crime
that day. The police officer has
quite some ground to cover during
his shift, and thus cannot be everywhere at the same time. If he has a
tool like PredPol, then he can decide
to patrol on the spot where a crime
is most likely to occur.
PredPol claims that due to their
program, a police department in Los
Angeles saw a 20% drop in pre-
“We’re taking in individuals
who have broken no law.”
dicted crimes. A police department
in Alhambra went as far as to claim
that they saw a 32% drop of burglaries and a 20% drop in vehicle theft
based on this program.
Future
The final target is similar to a concept called “pre-crime” introduced
in 1956 by a science fiction writer
called Philip K. Dick. His short story “The minority report” is about
a task force that uses a technology
to identify the culprit of a crime,
before he is going to commit it.
A popular reference identifying
the drawback of this mechanism:
“We’re taking in individuals who
have broken no law.”
Pre-crime would be the ultimate
goal for predictive policing, in the
sense that it is possible to identify
The math of catching bad guys
with absolute certainty where a
crime is going to happen, when it is
going to happen, and who the culprit is. Besides using the technology
of predictive policing, it is possible
to also look at the person, and certain biological, social and psychological characteristics.
Discussion
The New York Times published an
article on the 18th of November
2015 about the ethical consequences
versus the effectiveness of predictive policing. One of the most heard
arguments against using predictive
policing is that this technology invades the privacy of individuals,
by using data mining algorithms in
combination with commercial tools
built by companies that keep their
algorithms a secret.
“Of course, even algorithms
used to predict the location
of crime will only be as good
as the information that is fed
into them.”
Furthermore, the concern arises
that the technology will be used
to discriminate against certain minorities. Inserting more crimes that
were committed by a certain race,
can bias the outcomes of the algorithm. Faiza Patel, co-director of the
Liberty and National Security Program, responded to this article with
the statement: “Of course, even al-
gorithms used to predict the location of crime will only be as good
as the information that is fed into
them.”
There are however also positive responses to predictive policing. The
first statement is that mathematical models have been used before
to successfully predict cholera outbreaks and the transmission of HIV,
as said by Andrew Papachristos. He
is associate professor of sociology
and health, and director of the centre for research on inequalities at
Yale University. His point of view is
that instead of using predictive policing to punish a culprit that is yet
to commit his crime, you should be
focussing on helping the culprit to
avoid getting such tendencies in the
future.
Another argument is that there are
people literally posting on social
media about the crimes they are going to commit. Is it not a waste to
not stop a murderer, when victim,
address and time are literally posted
on the internet for everyone to see?
How fake is
Fiction?
Jasper Gerritsen
Living in the technical realm can bless
you with many friends with outstanding critical thinking capabilities, sometimes even skeptical. I’m sure many
readers have met the downsides of this
too, for example when watching a movie.
Although I try to keep it to an absolute
minimum, I myself have committed this
horrible crime too, the atrocity of accusing fiction to be fake. “I don’t think
you can yell in outer space”, “cars aren’t
supposed to explode when they crash”, I’m
sure you can think of some more. While
there is some value of entertainment in
pointing out the mistakes, I’d like to take a
different approach here. Let’s not criticize
but embrace the narratives, let’s not look
at it with disgust, but put it into perspective: how fake is fiction?
How fake is fiction?
Superman energy output
Let’s start with the big daddy of superheroes himself. The not-a-plane,
not-a-bird, newspaper-writing cultural icon. As it turns out, in the
roughly 75 years since Superman’s
first appearance, he definitely lived
up to his name. It was to be expected that he can stop a train or
carry a ship, but Superman is not
content being Mediocreman. Escaping a black hole? (Travelling at the
speed of light) No problem. Blowing
away a star? Superman does it. Destroying an entire solar system with
a sneeze? I’m freaking Clark Kent,
let’s go!
This seems insane, but it really isn’t
that much energy if you calculate it
(/sarcasm). First we must define destroy. From the picture it looks like
all the planets are being vaporized.
Since Jupiter is so big, and the Sun
already is a plasma, we’ll assume
that it is the most difficult to ionize.
We look up the ionization energy
for hydrogen: roughly 1 kJ/mol. Us-
ing the number of atoms in Jupiter a
quick estimation gives us an energy
in the order of 1030 J. For reference,
the total energy used in the entire
world in the year 2010 was 5x1020 J.
Next we will have to blast all the
planets away from the sun. Jupiter has a potential energy of 1035 J,
which we will assume is the largest
in our solar system.
This still isn’t enough to fully crush
the solar system though, in order to
pull apart all the individual bodies
in the solar system, we must now
simply overcome the gravitational
binding energy of each body. This is
quite a bunch more energy than the
other two effects mentioned earlier. In fact, the gravitational binding energy for the sun is 6.87×1041 J,
completely overshadowing that of
all the others, with Jupiter at 1036 J.
Therefore, it is safe to assume that
all of the other effects combined
cannot even change the second digit of the energy of the sun.
So, apparently Superman will only
How fake is fiction?
need 6.87×1041 J in his sneeze to destroy our solar system. Assuming
this sneeze lasts 1 second, that is
also 6.87×1041 W. For reference, the
sun outputs 3.8×1026 W.
As seen in the picture, the energy
propagates through the solar system as a sonic wave. However, this
is not really possible, since there is
not much stuff in space for a sonic
wave to propagate. To solve this
problem I would like to suggest
Clark to fly to the center of the sun
and sneeze there with the prospect
that an exploding sun will seriously
mess up the rest of the solar system.
Superman speed
As mentioned before, Superman can
fly at the speed of light, but in another instance he actually surpasses
it. He flies from the planet Vega to
Earth in a matter of minutes. Vega
is 25 light years from Earth, so travelling that far in five minutes would
mean a speed of 2.6×106 times the
speed of light.
How fake is fiction?
The fellows at LIGO researching
gravitational waves will certainly be
excited to detect such amounts of
energy to say the least, though they
will only be able to celebrate very
briefly before disintegrating.
Stopping bullets
In the Matrix trilogy Neo stops bullets many times, but there is one
scene that really stands out. Here he
brings many bullets to a halt from a
gun mélange consisting of a whopping seven weapons. I was afraid
this might be a problem as guns are
not my hobby, but of course there
would be a specific wiki for firearms
used in movies: the imfdb! Here
we learn that the guns used in this
scene are from left to right: IMI Uzi,
M1928 Thompson, Colt RO635 9mm
SMG, Heckler & Koch MP5K, Heckler
& Koch G36K and finally the Heckler
& Koch MP5A3. Their bullets roughly average to 10 grams and their
muzzle velocities to 400 m/s. We
will assume that the bullets don’t
lose a meaningful amount of speed
in the few meters before Neo stops
them.
Now let’s count!
I count 424 bullets. That makes a total kinetic energy of 3.4×105 J, which
is equivalent to a 1 ton car moving
at 90 km/h. So imagine letting a
car drive at you and stopping it one
hand, that’s already quite impressive, but it gets better. The really
impressive part of this is that the
bullets are stopped within such a
short frame of time and distance.
It is very hard to make a valid assumption on the time that Neo uses
to decelerate the bullets, but I’m going to try anyway. When watching
the video on .25 speed, it looks like
Neo starts decelerating .5 seconds
before stopping them, so in real
time that is .125 seconds. Assuming
linear deceleration, that’s a power
output of 2.7×106 W, equivalent to a
Diesel locomotive.
So, answering the rethorical question: fiction is quite fake. Next time
you see false fantasy physics don’t
be surprised, be amazed. Thank you
for reading and good luck with your
movie nights.
The infamous bullet scene
Science
Bart Nonkes
Language
We’ve had quite some incredible
findings and inventions over the
years, mankind. Where it started
off with fire, then rope and at some
point the wheel, we’re now at semiconductors and quantum computing. We’ve become communities,
built cities, discovered new worlds,
and are now, under the influence of
continuous globalization, becoming
more and more connected to a point
where your next door neighbour
seems as close as a friend in China.
But one of the most important inventions of our race, and a considerable catalyst in the development
of mankind, is language. It’s used
to organize, connect, express, heal,
change and create. And just as its
creator, it evolves constantly. Today, we have words for absolutely
everything. For every object, every
sound, every feeling, there is a word
that perfectly describes it.
The ability to share thoughts and
ideas is a great gift, and one that
distinguishes us humans from the
rest of the animal kingdom. The
idea of one can change the world
of millions of people in today’s society. Writers use language to create new worlds, singers to express
themselves and scientists to take us
forward.
One of language’s most powerful
abilities is that it takes us past instinct. Before there was any form
Language
of spoken word, man did what it
pleased. Hungry? Go find some
food. Tired? Go to your cave and go
to sleep. Someone is in your cave?
Hit the fucker , this is your domain.
Today, we have reason, we have values, we have laws and guidelines.
We are not only directed by physical limitations, but also think about
things like reputation or the greater
good.
Today, if someone is in your cave,
you first analyse if the person is
supposed to be in your cave and is
for instance your child or wife, then
reflect on your life and try to recall
why you ended up living in a cave,
and then you’re still not at the part
where it would be a good idea to
start punching. Maybe it’s a guest of
one of your cave mates; maybe he’s
mentally ill and can’t find his own
cave. Language enables you to handle the situation without a single
punch (if he’s no violent burglar of
course). In these situations, where
instinct does not give the best possible outcome, language comes in.
And language does so much more.
Not only does it take us past in-
stinct, it also is a source of humour,
a source of art, and today, I’d like to
address some of the things that language does which we might take for
granted, but might still be interesting to think about.
Semantics
Let’s start off by addressing one of
the fundamental aspects of language. Semantics is namely the
study of the connection between
language and its meaning. Because
that’s the first special thing about
language; the fact that it has meaning. The fact that I can make a sound
which for a big group of people perfectly represents a certain concept
is only because that sound has that
particular meaning for this group. I
could make up a completely new language with someone in such a way
that only the two of us understand
it, making that it only has meaning
to the two of us, and is complete gibberish to everyone else.
An interesting example of where
semantics comes in is the sentence
‘I’ve never been in an empty room’.
This sentence is always true for people who interpret it using the stand-
ard English meaning. You can only
make it false by changing the meaning of the sentence. For instance by
defining the room as everything
around you, or defining empty as
‘nothing besides the observer’. Sadly enough, application of semantics
won’t often help you win an argument.
The fact that words can have different meanings for different people is
already interesting to think about
on itself. Where a big part of a foreign language may have no meaning
in your own language at all, some
may mean the same and some may
mean something completely different. For instance, saying ‘slut’ in
Sweden is fine, but in English… well,
you know what I mean. Fascinating.
Public Speech
Now I’ve talked about the most fundamental, maybe not most obvious
aspect of language, there’s of course
its most straightforward ability,
namely the expression of thoughts.
In our history, there have been numerous speeches of presidents, activists, politicians and humanitar-
Language
ians that have changed the world
one way or another.
Equality between black and white,
man and woman and the LGBT community and heterosexuals have often been discussed in front of big
audiences, and often they’ve resulted in quotes that are still used
today. “I have a dream that my
four little children will one day live
in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but
by the content of their character.”
The right words at the right moment can touch people so strongly
that even fifty years later I don’t
even have to tell you who said it.
Tons of politicians have held
speeches that people still remember
today. Sometimes it is because they
inspired people, and sometimes
they are representative for what
people stood for at that time. Think
of ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’, a quote of
John Kennedy in Berlin, a simple
sentence that implied his new political view on the separation of
East- and West-Berlin, which we can
still find back in history books. And
there are tons of other examples of
Language
orations in which people expressed
their thoughts in such a way that we
still remember them now, and used
language to its maximum potential.
Poetry & Lyrics
Where the expression of thoughts
is the most obvious use of language,
poetry is one of its more abstract
applications. Poetry is defined as
‘the form of literature that uses
aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of
language’. Where ‘normal’ literature and public speech rely on their
meaning, explicit or implicit, poetry
often relies on more than the definition of its used words. It relies on
the language itself, its rhythm, its
sound. In fact, there is more than
enough poetry that you’d rather not
try to understand using its meaning, as there is very little meaning
behind it, or its very well hidden.
The same happens in music. There
have been more than enough songs
with lyrics that still inspire today
(think of ‘Imagine’), but there are
enough songs of which the lyrics
are mainly used as part of the music
instead of being a real inspiration.
Philosophy
We’ve discussed three things now;
first, the connection between language and its meaning. Then, an application of language which mainly
úses its meaning and then one that
also focused on the language itself.
The most broad way of saying what
language does with us, is saying that
it move us forward.
When we lived in caves, as I addressed before, we did what pleased
us. We dealt with what was in front
of us. When we got language, we
started to share thoughts; after a
while, we started thinking about the
‘if’ of it all. What if we’d start to use
this, what if we’d handle this otherwise, what if… We started thinking, about ourselves, about the universe, about this earth. We became
philosophers. And at some point,
from philosophers came physicists, chemists, mathematicians, et
cetera. Where people talked, they
shared ideas, ideals, problems and
possibilities. And it brought us to
this point.
A big part of this article may have
seemed obvious to you. It’s also
hard to fully appreciate something
that is so inseparably integrated in
society. However, it’s interesting to
think about the less obvious things
that language does, and to realize
how much has done for humanity.
What if we’d have lived in a world
without sound? Maybe we would all
have learned a kind of sign language
at some point, or all would have
learned to read lips. But until such
a fictional novel comes out, I appreciate what language does, and has
done, for humanity.
Science
Frank Esselink
Irradiated Wildlife
Irradiated wildlife
April 26, 1986. On this day, 30
years ago, the nuclear reactor
near the city of Chernobyl exploded and unleashed a blast
of irradiated material into the
earth’s atmosphere. Everybody
knows about this big accident,
but not everybody knows what
has happened in the radioactive
exclusion zone in those 30 years.
A wolf caught on camera near the village of Pripyat
One might think that the littered
wasteland is a desolate place. Empty
of life since all the citizens left the
area. The truth is actually quite the
opposite. Life is flourishing in the
zone. Wild boars, elk and deer are a
common sight. Even large packs of
wolves roam the zone. The populations of various animals seem to be
even larger compared to the years
before the famous accident. It looks
as if the absence of human life had
a bigger impact on nature than the
radiation.
heavily polluted zone. They wanted to investigate the population of
some of the species that lived there.
They placed cameras in regions
with different levels of radiation
pollution in order to record the effect on the animal’s health. The researchers were astonished by the
amount and diversity of wildlife
they encountered. Until then it was
always thought that the population
was decreasing year after year and
that the most animals came from
outside the restricted zone.
Since 2014, researchers have done
research on the biodiversity in the
The study focussed mostly on carnivores. These animals are on the top
of the food chain. Due to this status,
they have an increased risk of being polluted. However, the number
of carnivores, like wolves, foxes and
some eagles seem to be abundant.
Also, the amount of pollution didn’t
seem to bother the wildlife. They
were mostly found on ground they
preferred, with access to water,
food and decent cover.
Testing radiation levels in front of some
przewalski’s horses.
There is still speculation about why
the wild is doing so well. The answer might by rather simple. For a
human being it takes years before
any tumours develop due to radiation. Much longer than the life of
a single wolf, fox or deer. Their life
span is too short to die prematurely
due to the radiation. This doesn’t
mean that they are not affected.
Their DNA is being damaged, and
mutations do occur. The reason
that these don’t show immediately
is natural selection. The wild place
can’t be survived by a mutilated
animal unless it gives an advantage compared to its predecessors.
Some common sights of mutations
are albinism and other discolouring
among birds.
Still, the zone remains a very dangerous place. Although the radiation levels have dropped tremendously over the past 30 years, there
are still many places that mean
certain death if the exposure is too
long.
The wild life may be flourishing, the
area remains uninhabitable for humans for at least another 30 years.
Until then nature has full control
over the area.
Domestic dogs in front of reactor 3
Astatine
Batavieren Race 2016
Batavieren Race
Daphne van Dijken
delays. The bike was still holding up
quite well, only the chain had to be
fixed several times throughout the
whole race.
This year Astatine participated
in the Batavierenrace again. The
A-Team, as they call themselves,
gathered Friday the 22nd of April
in the TAP for dinner, right before the first team had to leave on
their way to Nijmegen.
The A-Team is divided into three
teams, the night, morning and afternoon team. Each team, consisting of 8 or 9 members, runs their
stages in sequence. With every person running, one of the other teammates will be joining by bike, in order to give water and keep an eye
on the road. The night team started
at 00:00 after a rough start with the
van.
During the first switch from runner to cycler, the chain of the bike
already fell off. Some helpful students put the chain back on, so the
first cyclist could chase the runner
again. However, halfway this trip,
the bike broke down completely.
Luckily the last part of the stage was
only downhill, so the cyclist could
just sit on the bike, racing to the
next switch point.
There, the bike could sort of be
fixed. However, this was not in time,
and since the van could not drive to
the next switch point due to logistic
reasons, one of the team members
had to wait for quite a while before
the next cyclist arrived and could
run her stage.
From there, the night stages went
quite smoothly until the morning
team arrived at 6:00 at the restart
point to take over. They also had
quite a rough start, including several toilet breaks, but managed to
complete every stage without any
Very tired, the morning team could
return home at the next restart.
They decided to watch at the next
switch point, to cheer for the runner and cyclist while they switched
position. However, they made a
mistake by skipping the upcoming
switch point, and already drove to
the next one. Therefore, the starting
runner and cyclist of the afternoon
team were lucky they had the Bataphone with them. The Bataphone is
a very old Nokia phone, which was
used for the cyclist to stay in contact with the van.
This hiccup also cost quite some
time, but in the end the afternoon
team reached Enschede without any
further problems.
At roughly 6 pm, the last two runners, from Enschede to the campus,
arrived on the Sintelbaan and that
made the end of the Batavierenrace
2016. After a lot of meat at the barbecue, it was time to enjoy the deserved party.
Astatine
Recipes
Astatine & Atlas Prom
Bob Steenmeijer
Prom, the once-a-year opportunity to show off your fancy white
tie outfit and party with style. As
the prom committee, we spent
over half a year organising this
amazing evening. Atlantis, being
a relatively small study association, and Astatine, also a small
association but a bit bigger,
together hoped to get enough
people enthusiastic.
A good prom also needs a good
theme. You may know the final
theme we ended up with,
But before that we went from
steam-punk to Titanic (without the
iceberg) and from Junglebook to
Disney. After one brainstorm meeting we had the theme: Masquerade
Ball! Now the real work would
start!
When the theme was determined,
we had to find a great location.
After some searching (actually a lot
of searching) we came up with two
very different locations. One was a
big party boat, but unfortunately,
after some sceptic thinking we
encountered some problems, while
the other location (the Jaargetijden) would be epic as well. After
meeting with the Jaargetijden, we
were glad to have found the perfect
location. The room was perfect for
the theme and the people of the
Jaargetijden were eager to help us
as much as possible.
Of course, there were some problems, like the green bracelets for
those who are not yet allowed
to drink, but those were quickly
solved. In the end, prom turned out
to be a big success! We hoped to see
around 120 people there, but there
were more than 140 people!
Zahra van Egdom
Cheerful Chef
Hello everyone, this time I’m going to share something sweet I was
brought up with, vlaai. Making them is actually quite easy; it does
take some time, but the end result is very tasty. If you don’t have a
pie pan you can use a spring-form. The recipe is for a large pie, the
ones I made were done in small pie forms.
Vlaai dough
• 1 egg or 2 table spoons applesauce
• 100 ml full milk
• Packaged or fresh yeast
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 200 grams of flower
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 20 grams of butter (roomboter)
Make sure that the milk is lukewarm and dissolve the sugar and yeast in it,
put it on the side until it is foamy. (See the next picture)
Combine the flower and salt in a bowl and pour the yeast mixture, butter
and egg/applesauce in it and mix it until you have a dough. Cover the
dough and let it rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. (You
can preheat the oven at 50 Celsius and let the dough proof there).
When the dough has proofed, shape it into a ball and roll it out in a circle
in order to fill the form. Put the dough in the form, you can do this by
Cheerful Chef
Cheerful Chef
folding it and put it in the form and then
unfolding it. Now you can fill the vlaai.
All the vlaais are baked at 180 degrees
for about 30 minutes in a preheated
oven. Mind that the time can differ
depending on your oven!
Smurfenvlaai
• 700 grams of apricot compote
• A bar of white chocolate
• 400 ml cream or ready whipped cream
• 4 tablespoons of sugar
Put the apricot compote in the vlaai dough and bake it, after it is baked let
it cool down before topping it.
Whip the cream with some sugar, you could put some klopfix in it to make
it stiffer and grate the white chocolate. First put the whipped cream on
the vlaai and top it with the white chocolate.
Crumble topping.
• 100 grams of butter (roomboter)
• 150 grams of flour
• 110 grams of sugar
Knead the butter, flour and sugar with your hands until you have a crumble.
Apple-lemon pudding crumble vlaai
• 2 or 3 apples • Butter
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Vanilla pudding (store package)
Dice the apples and bake them in a pan with some butter, lemon juice and
sugar until they are soft. Prepare the pudding as per the packaging. Put
the pudding in the form on top of that the apples, top it with the crumbles
and bake the vlaai.
Cherry crumble vlaai
• Two teaspoons of potato starch
• A jar of cherries
Put the cherry juice in pan and a little bit in a mug, heat the cherry juice
in the pan. Combine the potato starch with the other juice in the mug.
When the juice in the pan is hot, take it of the flame and pour in the mixture and stir. Then put it back on the heat and let it boil for a while. Take
it off the heat and pour in the cherries, mix it and it’ll be ready to be put in
the vlaai. Put the crumble on top and bake it.
Puzzle
ATtenCie
Puzzle
Puzzle
Last time there were quite some
solutions sent to us, and we had
to randomly pick a winner. Congratulations to Rens Werink for
winning this puzzle, and thus
winning a cinema voucher of
10 euros. Also a thank you for
the contestants that did not get
picked.
The new puzzle is quite another
type of puzzle. In fact, there are no
instructions, it is all up to you to figure out how the puzzle works. We
do however give you the following
hints:
The solution to the nonogram (or
picross) puzzle of the last edition
was:
Which, with a bit of creativity, is a
fire extinguisher.
•
•
The last sentence about
“odds” is there for a reason.
The answer is just one number!
•
There are quite some question marks, maybe you can deduce
what these should be based on
their clue or any adjacent squares
(width=height) or isosceles triangles (triangles with two equal sides).
•
In your final answer, do not
count the large square.
One big square, made from small
square blocks and isosceles triangular
blocks. The answer is just one number.
May the odds be ever in your favour!
How do you make a
lithography system that
goes to the limit of what
is physically possible?
At ASML we bring together the most creative minds in science and
technology to develop lithography machines that are key to producing
cheaper, faster, more energy-efficient microchips.
Per employee we’re one of Europe’s largest private investors in R&D,
giving you the freedom to experiment and a culture that will let you
get things done.
Join ASML’s multidisciplinary teams and help us push the
boundaries of what’s possible.
www.asml.com/careers
/ASML
@ASMLcompany