The day started early. At 8 AM we had to be suited up and gathered to embark on the bus that would bring us to the company Green Power. This company develops technology for wireless charging of electric vehicles (EV’s) and wireless power transfer for industrial applications. We were lucky to have a private bus because it was raining heavily. The ride took around 1.5 hours.
We arrived at half past 9. The company did not expect us until around 10 so we had to spend some time waiting in a conference room. Luckily, we got a drink from the staff. Also, our accompanying supervisor Helm gave us a minilecture on ‘wireless charging for dummies’ on the whiteboard. This is his area of expertise, and the explanation served as a good warm-up for the excursion.
When the chiefs of Green Power were present including the CEO and CTO, Martijn first gave a presentation about our university (a slightly altered version of the presentation he gave at the previous university). After that, an employee of Green Power gave his own short introductionary presentation. He explained shortly what the company was about and what they were working on right now. Then we had a tour through Green Power’s labs. We saw some different designs to store and transfer energy for different power levels. We also went to their automotive lab where we could see how an EV was being wirelessly charged. The short tour ended there and we went having lunch together. The lunch took place in a restaurant nearby, which was a self-serve buffet. As usual it was quite a lot so nobody could complain about their hunger anymore. After the lunch we went back to the main building of Green Power to wait for the CEOs to have a goodbye talk. We thanked them and gave them stroopwafels and a SPARK booklet as a gift. In return, Martijn and Helm each received a gift as well, a digital photo display.
We continued our journey to the Samsung Innovation Museum (SIM). The group was split in two and we got a tour through the history of electricity and communication technology. The interior of the building was quite modern and there were a lot of touch screens to see videos or read more information about a certain object such as the first battery. The tour was set up chronologically so we started with very old radios and TVs (from various producers) and ended up checking out the new products of Samsung. Some of these appliances I had never seen before, such as a smart refrigerator. It had a kind of tablet interface to check the contents of the fridge and to order new groceries if anything ran our. Overall, for me the devices were really nice to see and to try. In the end, everybody got a mouse pad with a group picture on it which was made at the beginning. That was a really nice present!
These two visits were our excursions for today. After that we were free to go. Since it is Jim’s birthday tomorrow, some planned to go to the party centre of Seoul to celebrate. However, some of us stayed at the hostel in the ‘living room’ just to chill. It was a nice day and a very nice evening.
– Quinty Peters