How TU/e against COVID19 started

Soon after Covid-19 arrived in Europe, it became clear that this virus affected us more than we hoped for. Still, probably no one anticipated the impact it would have on our lives, and the outlook is yet unclear. When we went into our first ‘intelligent lockdown’ and we had to arrange all education online within a week. This was the start of a crazy time for me as director of education of the department Biomedical Engineering. Working-times were 24/7 in my attic, with online meetings back to back.

That same week the first initiatives for studies on Covid-19 treatment were in the news, making me wonder if we could and should contribute in some way. Therefore, I was very happy when on Friday evening I received an email by Liza: ‘We’re trained as Biomedical Engineers, and now that we are needed, we are sitting at home. I want to do something. Is there a way to arrange that?’. This email made me very enthusiastic, and after only a few emails to our Rector and people in Innovation Space, we launched the ‘TU/e against Covid-19’ initiative over the weekend.

Liza started recruiting friends to join what later became Team VERO. In parallel I sent out emails to colleagues to explore clinical needs. Marianne Brouwer brought us into contact with Hettie Janssens (both pediatric pulmonologists, at CWZ Nijmegen and Erasmus MC, respectively). This all happened at lightning speed, and it was indispensable for identification of our focus area and for progression that this Team Vero has made in the meantime.

I helped forming Team VERO, which was a great pleasure. With unprecedented enthusiasm, the students were eager to gain knowledge, widen their network, and work towards actual experiments. In real-time, I witnessed the power of Challenge Based Learning in its purest form. Although working with the team gave me more energy than anything else, there were too many other things that I needed to do. When Nico stepped in I could become less involved. I keep track of what is going on, I join where necessary, I help arranging things when required. I really enjoy all the spectacular movies and interactions regarding the experiments over the various chat channels, and above all I particularly admire the Team’s everlasting enthusiasm. The results are more than interesting, and I look forward to publication of their findings.