While the summer was slowly arriving and our students (hopefully) passed their 3rd quarter exams, time came for the second Hydraulic Dinner of this year. It is for the first time in our existence that a second edition of this annual event was organised.
This second edition we tried to keep somewhat smaller and more personal than the one held last December. To do so the location for this edition was right in the heart of our historic hometown: Delft, at restaurant “De Waag”. From as early as 1539 the municipality officials used this monumental building as a place where goods and valuables were weighed and measured. For our dinner night however, this location was used to weigh and measure weather the companies and students could be of interest to one another.
For this second edition three companies accompanied us (all of them for the first time) being Arcadis, Fugro and AllSeas over an exquisite menu. Twenty-one of our finest Hydraulic Engineering students got together with twelve representatives of the above mentioned companies. All students passed a selection in order to be able to participate, which resulted in an extra-motivated crowd.
During the evening the students had the opportunity to pose all their questions to the companies. Furthermore, after every course the students switched tables until every student had the opportunity to sit with every company at least once and to share a course with their employees.
In between every course there was the opportunity for one of the companies to have a short presentation about itself to the students. The companies were given quite some freedom concerning the exact content of the presentation, resulting in a good diversity in the presentations. Various aspects of the companies were highlighted like the working environment, company activities, sustainability, ongoing projects and available opportunities for students.
After the desert was served it was time for the final presentation, held by Fugro. Before the evening would come to an end there was time for some tea and coffee just and some final conversations before the evening had come to a conclusion.
As the representatives of the companies wandered off towards their cars or trains, the students of the group decided it was not yet time to go home and to pay a visit to all time favourite café “de Oude Jan”. At this location, the last serious note disappeared while the beers kept coming until the early hours…
All in all we can look back at an incredibly successful second edition of this event that has been very beneficial to the students and (hopefully) also the companies. Many of the students really appreciated the diversity between the participating companies as it gave a good overview of some of the various possibilities with a master degree in Hydraulic Engineering. The evening was a huge success and as the organisation we can’t wait for next years’ event!!!
