Honors Track

The students are recruited at the end of their first year in the BSc program, just before and during the summer break. The honors academy (regulations 2013-2014) imposes that the students have progressed nomi- nally in their BSc program, i.e. that they have finished the entire first-year curriculum in one year. To ensure that the track remains exclusive to ex- cellent students, the multiscale track considers it desirable that the average of the individual grades of a students ≥ 7. Moreover, the multiscale track considers it appropriate to expect of students committed to the honors pro- gram that they raise their average grade to ≥ 7.5 during the honors track. The performance of students in their regular BSc track is monitored by the EMI-Honors coordinator.

The newly recruited honors students have a meeting in the first week of September with both the Director of EMI and EMI-Honors coordina- tor.  They are then informed about the main organization aspects of the multiscale honors track and EMI institute where they are embedded.

Particularly, the honors students are informed about what activities and results are expected from them.

Objectives

The objective of the EMI honors track is to:

  • make excellent students acquainted with an academic research envi- ronment  and train them to foster an open and pro-active  attitude toward scientific interaction and discourse;
  • enable excellent students to engage on open-ended scientific questions already at the level of their bachelor thesis;
  • stimulate excellent  students to shape their technical and soft skills and their ambitions;
  • train excellent students to consider and deal with abstract information from a wide range of disciplines and applications;
  • push excellent students to be the best that they can be.

Program Year 1

Each student is expected to

(1) enroll in 2 extra courses  (BSc, MSc) of their choice; at least one course is recommended to be at MSc level.  The students motivate their choice of the selected courses in their personal development plan (PDP).  A list with  multiscale-related  courses can be found in the Appendix. However, this list is non-comprehensive and students are encouraged to identify suitable courses based on their personal pref- erences. The two courses should be finished successfully, as shown by a written statement of the responsible lecturers.

(2) actively participate in the EMI colloquia (cca 1/month).‘active partic- ipation’ means (i) the students organize a reading papers club, where carefully selected papers  from the EMI-speakers are discussed;  (ii) participate in an additional seminar given by an EMI scientist, expert in the given colloquium topic; (iii) participate in the EMI colloquium and get involved in discussions with the speaker (during or after the talk).  A record of attendance is kept.

(3) write a brief ( 1 –1 A4) self-reflection report on item (2) and an essay (max. 5 pages) on one of the topics presented in the EMI colloquia. Deadline for the submission is the end of Year 1.

(4) participate in the trainings organized by the Honors Academy.

(5) participate in joint activities between the honors tracks organized by the Honors Academy.

(6) write a proposal for a 10-ECTS individual or group research project with a well-defined multiscale character and find a senior advisor to assist and supervise in executing this research project in Year 2, i.e. in the final year of the program.  The proposal at least provides a tentative  overview of deliverables. Deadline, before  1st of July of Year 1.

For all these items, the students receive 15 ECTS.

List of courses for Year 1

Below you can find possible bachelor and master courses  which can be followed, cf. (1). However, this is by no means an exhaustive list.  Please contact the  track coordinator and/or your coach if you are interested in following other courses not listed here.

  • 2WAK0: “Introduction  to asymptotic techniques”, third year bache- lor course, first quarter.
  • 3FFX0: “Statistical physics”, third year bachelor course, first quarter.
  • 3FMX0:  “Physical  modelling and simulating”, third  year bachelor course, first quarter.
  • 6E11X0: “Multiscale fluid dynamics”, third year bachelor course, sec- ond quarter.
  • 3FPX0: “Statistical mechanics and molecular simulation”, third year bachelor course, third quarter.
  • 4LB00: “Strength and structure”, second/third year bachelor course, fourth quarter.
  • 2DX00: “Mathematical models in physiology”, master course, first quarter.
  • 8D010: “Front-end  vision and multiscale image analysis”, master course, first quarter.
  • 2WA25:  “Introduction  to homogenization”, master course,  second quarter.
  • 4K410: “Motion control”, master course, third quarter.

Program Year 2

Each student is expected to

(7) execute the individual research project proposed in (6). The project is finalized in the form of a short report (≤ 25 pages).   It can be envisaged, but this is not mandatory, that the research project serves as a (separately   assessed) preparation for the BSc final project, so that  the excellent  students in the honors program can reach much further depth in their final projects than is normally achieved.

(8) actively participate in the EMI colloquia (cca 1/month); cf. (2) above. (9) participate in the trainings organized by the Honors Academy.

(10) participate in joint activities between the honors tracks organized by the Honors Academy.

(11) write a final self-assesment report on their participation in the honors program: assesment of personal development, experiences, identified strengths and weaknesses, future plans, etc.

For all these items the students receive 15 ECTS.

Organization

Coaching

At the beginning of year 1 all students are assigned a coach. The coach is the first contact person of the student, and can be consulted for advice regarding the track program such as which courses to choose (cf. (1)), or how to find a suitable research project (cf. (7)). Coaches give also feedback on deliverables by the student; for example the personal development plan - PDP - and the EMI colloquia essay (see (3)).  In addition, coaches are involved in the end-of-the-year assesment of the student, together with the track coordinator and the EMI Director.

Visits

Visits to interesting  mutiscale-related  companies and research institutes are organized through the track on an ad-hoc basis. Students are encour- aged to take the lead in proposing and organizing such visits.

Visit MSE students to NIKHEF (National Institute for subatomic physics) in Amsterdam.

People