’I see many opportunities to improve and change’

[VIDEO] In the fifth episode of our video series Boardwalk, the new President of the Executive Board, Koen Janssen, talks about his first 100 days and his ideas.

Who are our board members? What do they do, and what drives them in their work? These are all questions that we answer in our video series Boardwalk. Every quarter, we visit a special place on campus with a board member and talk to them about one of their themes. In this fifth episode, our new chairman, Koen Janssen, talks about his first hundred days and what he wants to work on. He takes us to two places that impressed him: the quantum computing lab and the cellab.

On 27 March, Koen Janssen officially took over the chairmanship from Robert-Jan Smits, who held this position for six years. For Janssen, the first three months were mainly about discovering and meeting. He visited many places on and off campus and spoke to many people.

Janssen: "It was a real voyage of discovery; I am impressed by the breadth of expertise; the campus is also beautiful with everything within walking distance, and the Brainport region in which we are located is also very inspiring."

Groundbreaking research

Janssen is originally a scientist (he studied chemistry at KU Leuven), and as a Belgian, he already feels quite at home in Eindhoven. "We are doing groundbreaking research for society here.

We not only have the possibilities and materials here, but also the people." He is referring, among other things, to the quantum computing lab in the basement of the Qubit building. The researchers themselves designed the two super-fast computers that are there (Sapphire and Ruby).

Connect, improve and adapt

In his new role, Janssen wants to work on connecting, improving, and adapt. "I see many opportunities to improve and change. We have grown enormously, and the supporting processes have not grown at the same pace, so there are opportunities for improvement. Our people are of the utmost importance. We must focus on work pressure, social safety, and personal and career development."

He also wants to improve processes and make them more efficient." We must realize that we get a lot of money from the government (three hundred million euros annually). We are also obligated to turn our efforts into impact and give them back to society."

Example of connection

The Vector building was recently taken into use by the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. It is located just off campus. They share people, infrastructure, and labs.

They also share workshops. Janssen is a good example of connection. The Executive Board will also go out more in the future if it is up to Janssen. He, therefore, immediately put his money where his mouth is because, in May, he held the meeting with the Executive Board and the deans in this building instead of in the boardroom, followed by a visit to the biomedical labs.

Lots of work to do

Janssen will work on the university course for the next five years. "We are working on a new version of the institutional plan. We will involve the community to get input so that everyone’s ’heart and mind’ are aligned on the mission and vision of TU/e."