Bas Baalmans, managing director GDBC and, together with colleagues Anton van Halteren, Angelien Lantinga (JTS) and Gerlof Lodewijk (JTS), founder of this initiative, looks back on a great start to the established learning community. “Learning communities organizing in the field of AI, for which students volunteer to enrich their knowledge and CV and in combination with companies and organizations from the region, is not new to us. We have been doing this successfully for years, especially from the Faculty of Economics and Business. What is unique about this variant is that it is truly multidisciplinary, because we now have students from Behavioral Sciences, Medical Sciences, Law, Arts, University College, Campus Fryslân, Science and Engineering and of course Economics and Business on board.”
The students started a few weeks ago. Getting to know each other, guest lectures on AI from Freya Liemburg (CleverAI) and Tommaso Casseli and especially team building. Geertje Dam from taem.io is part of the organizational team and with the use of the TAEMio app, eight teams have been put together based on personality, culture and more. “In this way we achieve an optimal connection between team and client. The experiences with student team formation through TAEMio are very positive. The form with the app and swiping is also popular with this target group,” Baalmans laughs.
The clients have joined in this week. In the third session, in the Van Swinderenhuys, with no fewer than eight pitches from companies / organizations such as AI Kickstart, Veterinary Practice ‘t Holland via IT supplier Nimble from Heerenveen, Onderwaterscan, Dataqueue, STEKZ, ColliCare, Hanze University and NHL Stenden.
The eight groups then split up to delve deeper into the specific challenge per company. “The projects have now really started. In the coming weeks we will combine this with a number of joint meetings in various places. We started in the House of Connections, where we will also end by the summer, with the delivery of the advice in the form of final presentations. We have now been in the Active Learning Classroom in the Duisenberg building, so we visit a different location every time, from the RUG but also from participating companies or organizations, for example.”
“We are really looking forward to seeing what the students will come up with towards the end of the year learning community. We are going to make this a beautiful and grand event,” Baalmans continues.
The collaboration with JTS is a perfect match for the GDBC. The knowledge center in the field of digital business and data analytics stands for strengthening the digital sector in the Northern Netherlands and JTS stands for the bundling of the knowledge of various faculties and for connections between the academic world and the surrounding society.
“All aspects that are included in this learning community getting together. In addition, a wonderful opportunity for the participating companies to benefit from the knowledge and skills of these students and thus come into contact with possible future employees and talent. The participating student is happy, the UG is happy and the participating organization is content. So win-win-win.”
Tags: RUG students Grote Markt working challenges Northern companies
