During a visit to the Willem Barentsz Maritime Institute on Wednesday 30 March, representatives of Innovatiecluster Drachten and the Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden (NHL) strengthened the cooperation. With presentations of, among other things, the ship simulators with which students learn to sail, Gerrit van Leunen, director of the nautical college and Hans Drijfhout, director of the technique section of the NHL, introduced their guests to the school's work. Two lecturers, Hielke van Dijk (serious gaming) and Jaap van de Loosdrecht (Computer Vision and Data Science), used examples to demonstrate their collaboration with the business community.

serious gaming

Hielke van Dijk: ,,As a company, you want to combine your people and the smart systems. If you are going to automate a factory you want to put the knowledge of the current operators in the new system, but then you need new operators who are alert and can take the factory to the next level. Connecting people and high-tech systems, that's what we do with serious gaming.” 

Education versus business 

During the discussions it emerged that the school and the companies would like to work together, but that the different (company) cultures must learn to understand each other. Hans Drijfhout, director of the Technology Institute: ,,We have to get the rhythm of education and the dynamics of the business community attuned to each other. That starts with getting to know each other and we did that today””.