The first year of study is very exciting for many students. Everything is new: the school, your schedule, the teachers, and your fellow students. How can a university ensure a smooth transition for first-year students? For this, Inholland launched the Students for Students (S4S) project in the 2019-2020 academic year. In this project, second-year students (studentcoaches) support first-year students with their studies. They do this based on their own experience and the training they receive during their year as studentcoaches. Research shows that peer-mentoring is very successful in aiding first-year students through their first year of the study program. Peer-mentoring has the potential to increase well-being, social bonding, the feeling of belonging, and student resilience. It also ensures smoother academic integration, as peer-mentoring focuses on developing academic skills as well. Additionally, a studentcoach is often a low threshold point of contact for students where they can go with questions.
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Binnen de nieuwe opleiding Social Work van de Hogeschool Utrecht is gehoor gegeven aan de toenemende wens van studenten om meer te doen met eigen ervaringen met psychische kwetsbaarheid. Deze wens is onder meer vertaald in een peersupportgroep voor studenten, die in de periode maart t/m juni in 2018 en 2019 liep. Veel studenten beschikken over een behoorlijk potentieel aan ervaringskennis wat door middel van peer support in een veilige setting kan worden verkend. Deelnemers worden zich bewust van dit potentieel door hierop met elkaar reflecteren en (verder) te ontwikkelen. Een peer support groep werkt taboedoorbrekend en biedt ondersteuning aan studenten met een psychische kwetsbaarheid. Peer support ondersteunt ook aankomend professionals gebruik te maken van eigen kwetsbaarheid. Voor veel (aankomend) hulpverleners was het tot voor kort ongebruikelijk om dit te doen. Intussen worden de verhoudingen tussen cliënt en hulpverlener anders gedefinieerd en richt de (herstelgerichte) zorg zich steeds nadrukkelijker op destigmatisering, de inzet van ervaringsdeskundigheid, gelijkwaardigheid en openheid in de begeleidingsrelatie. Peer support-programma’s worden steeds vaker geïmplementeerd in (zorg)organisaties om mensen te helpen omgaan met problemen, maar spelen ook in de beroepsontwikkeling van aankomend sociaal werkers een belangrijke rol. Deze rapportage is een samenvoeging van een eerdere interne rapportage van de peer supportgroep uit 2018 (Leunen; Lamers & Van Slagmaat, 2018) en een evaluatie van de peer supportgroep in 2019.
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The methodology of biomimicry design thinking is based on and builds upon the overarching patterns that all life abides by. “Cultivating cooperative relationships” within an ecosystem is one such pattern we as humans can learn from to nurture our own mutualistic and symbiotic relationships. While form and process translations from biology to design have proven accessible by students learning biomimicry, the realm of translating biological functions in a systematic approach has proven to be more difficult. This study examines how higher education students can approach the gap that many companies in transition are struggling with today; that of thinking within the closed loops of their own ecosystem, to do good without damaging the system itself. Design students should be able to assess and advise on product design choices within such systems after graduation. We know when tackling a design challenge, teams have difficulties sifting through the mass of information they encounter, and many obstacles are encountered by students and their professional clients when trying to implement systems thinking into their design process. While biomimicry offers guidelines and methodology, there is insufficient research on complex, systems-level problem solving that systems thinking biomimicry requires. This study looks at factors found in course exercises, through student surveys and interviews that helped (novice) professionals initiate systems thinking methods as part of their strategy. The steps found in this research show characteristics from student responses and matching educational steps which enabled them to develop their own approach to challenges in a systems thinking manner. Experiences from the 2022 cohort of the semester “Design with Nature” within the Industrial Design Engineering program at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands have shown that the mixing and matching of connected biological design strategies to understand integrating functions and relationships within a human system is a promising first step. Stevens LL, Whitehead C, Singhal A. Cultivating Cooperative Relationships: Identifying Learning Gaps When Teaching Students Systems Thinking Biomimicry. Biomimetics. 2022; 7(4):184. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7040184
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Within the food industry there is a need to be able to rapidly react to changing regulatory requirements and consumer preferences by adjusting recipes, processes, and products. A good knowledge of the properties of food ingredients is crucial in this process. Currently this knowledge is available in scattered heterogeneous resources such as scientific peer-reviewed articles, databases, recipes, food blogs as well as in the experience of food-experts. This prevents, in practice, the efficient integration and use of this knowledge, leading to inefficiency and missed opportunities. In this project we will build a structured database of properties of food ingredients, focusing in particular on the taste and texture properties. By large-scale collection and text mining on a large number of textual resources, a comprehensive data set on ingredient properties will be created, along with knowledge on the relationships between these ingredients. This database will then be used for to find new potential applications for healthy and taste enhancing ingredient combinations by network-based discovery methods and artificial intelligence algorithms will be used. A concrete focus will be on application questions formulated by the industrial partners. The resulting hypothesis will be validated in a real life setting at the premises of the industrial partners. The deliverables of this project will be: - A reusable open-access ingredient database that is accessible via a user-friendly web portal - A set of state-of-the-art mining algorithms that can address a wide variety of industry driven use cases - Novel product formulations that can be further developed for the consumer and business2business market
