How to survive in the Delft jungle

An article inspire in my experience living in Delft for few years between 2008 and today. The idea is to write down some of my experiences that can help the new comers make the most out of it.
This post will be a living document and the idea is to keep updating it as time allows.

The OWEE & International introduction programme

By ALT 08-08-2014

It is fair to start explaining how the academic year starts at Delft. The different societies will introduce them selves in a very big event called OWEE. This introduction programme is focused on all 1st year students, and mostly Dutch and Belgium student will join. During this week (from August 17th until August 21st).

The OWEE is normally preceded by the introduction weekend by the Study Societies or Studie Vereinegen "SV". This events varie a lot from faculty to faculty.

The OWEE is a very nice event where all the "Fraternities" and sports clubs try to recruit new members, it is packed with activities to show what each does and is a very nice and crazy week.

In parallel, the International office, runs and introduction programme for the non-Dutch students arriving to TU. The main difference is that these tend to be MSc students (except for the AE and one other BSc, all other BSc programmes are taught in Dutch). This intro programme does not mix much with the Dutch one, so I can encourage the participants to just ask their coaches to show you a bit of the Dutch one, with is also pretty fun


For completeness the promo videos and different societies theme presentation for the OWEE 2014

OWee Delft 2014 - In je Element Promo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxlaZrUg_2c
Virgiel Owee Themabekendmaking 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xX77SidXTc
DSC OWee 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_xjudvhq6k

Some useful links

http://www.owee.nl/

http://www.tudelft.nl/en/study/studying-at-the-tu-delft/services-for-international-students/introduction-to-delft/

Updates to follow

Delfi-n3Xt LEOPs: T menos ...

En menos de 3 dias , voy a ser parte del team que estara en Mission Control durante el lanzamiento, desde una base al Este de Rusia, del 2o satelite de TU Delft (Donde estoy siguiendo mi MSc en Space Engineering) Delfi-n3Xt (Countdown exacto y detalles de la mission en http://delfispace.nl/delfi-n3xt).

Mi idea es ir completando en este post pseudo en vivo con los desarrollos a dias del dia D.

Aca un breve resumen de lo que sera el primer dia:

Event	Time (UTC)
Launch Lift-off	07:10
Orbit Injection Delfi-n3Xt	07:26
Deployment Delfi-n3Xt	07:50
First possible reception	08:38
1st Delft Pass	08:47– 08:55
2nd Delft Pass	10:23 – 10:37
3rd Delft Pass	12:01 – 12:13
4th Delft Pass	13:40 – 13:46

Martes (T-2D)

El dia empezo temprano, nuevamente, hoy a seguir con los preparativos para el lanzamiento. El foco sera tener alarmas para los valores de telemtria fuera de rango (es decir, si un valor excede lo estimado por un cierto % una alarma se activara. Luego, un analisis mas detallado se debera llevar a cabo).

Es una semana muy ocupada en cuanto a lanzaminetos. 4 cohetes y ~60 satelites (la mayoria CubeSats) se lanzan estos dias. Mas detalles en los siguientes links.:

• http://ww2.amsat.org/?p=1864
• http://www.space.com/23643-record-setting-rocket-launch-ors3.html
• Swarm (ESA) http://blogs.esa.int/eolaunches/category/swarm/ 
• MAVEN (NASA) http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/#.Uot0RfleZ8E

Miercoles (T-1D)

Hoy es el ultimo dia de preparativos, manhana el lanzamiento es temprnao y solamente llegarmos a prender nuestros PCs y tomar desayuno.
El dia empieza revisando los e-mails, que a estas alturas son varias decenas y de diversos temas. Mas tarde tendremos una reunion de Mission Control (MC) para afinar detalles de las operaciones manhana.