Student Research Conference 2018
On 9 November 2018, Bachelor’s students from all disciplines presented their research during the Student Research Conference (SRC). This year, the Student Research Conference took place at Leiden University College (LUC) The Hague.
Research is beautiful, fun and infinite
Pieter Duisenberg, President of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), welcomed bachelor students from different universities from the Netherlands and Flanders with his speech. He pointed out that this day was all about learning about different disciplines, sustainable development goals, and leadership.
Judi Mesman, Dean of LUC the Hague gave an inspiring opening speech, in which she talked about the challenges, opportunities and difficulties of doing research. ‘Every question you answer leads to a new question. This is what makes working in the field of research such fun, it never ends.’ Mesman ended with some encouraging words for the students: ‘You will see the beauty of research, when you come up with your own questions, collect your own data and write your own report. This will start today with your posters and workshops!’
The day continued with speeches from Saskia Bruines, Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of The Hague, Willem van Genugten, Emeritus Professor of International Law at Tilburg University and Eva van Rooij (Ammodo Award Winner 2017), Professor of Molecular Cardiology at the University Medical Center Utrecht/Hubrecht institute. Many interesting presentations were given by ambitious students, including Gijs Weijenberg, one of our own LUC The Hague Students. His research topic was: The French military’s tragic mission to protect mankind: How the guerre Revolutionnaire doctrine fuelled the politicisation of French Officers in the Algerian war of independence.
Participatory Design of a Social Robot Toolkit for and with Adults with Autism
A robot should not be designed because it is cool, but with its possible contributions in mind. For example, a social robot designer focusses on robots with human features such as arms, legs, facial expressions. But when I asked the participants what a robot should look like it turned out that having a voice was considered most important. What mattered most was the added robot’s added value, not that he was designed to look like a human.
Engaging in CSR: The effect of perceived corporate greenwashing in the CSR fit-purchase intention relationship, depending on the sector’s social responsible reputation
My research is about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the so-called CSR-fit. If there is no relation between the company and CSR, consumers will be very sceptical about these ‘good’ initiatives. For example, Rabobank had an promotion promising to plant a tree in the Amazon for every new account. This this turned out to be a failure because Rabobank has nothing to do with nature. Another example is Microsoft. Microsoft has taught elderly people how to work with computers. This turned out to be a success, because Microsoft’s initiative is a good fit with CSR. The initiative aligns closely with the company core values. If a company wants to do practice corporate social responsibility, they will need to start by identifying their reputation.
Knowledge is power, knowledge sharing is strength
I did my research at the ‘Rijkswaterstaat’ (the institute responsible for management and maintenance of the main infrastructure facilities in the Netherlands) about the sharing of knowledge within the Hydraulic Structures Department. Dykes and dams, for example, are hydraulic structures. My research made use of the SECI model in order to find out how explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge are shared within an organisation. Tacit knowledge (expertise, intuition and experience) is almost never written down, but is the most important knowledge to have in an organisation. You can compare it to driving a car: you can learn the theory from a book, but you need to practise in order to become an accomplished driver. This is why it is important to apply this model in different organisation. One of the recommendations is to have a senior work closely with a junior, so that the senior can share his or her valuable knowledge with the junior.
Student Research Conference
The annual Student Research Conference (SRC) in the Netherlands gives bachelor students of Dutch and Flemish universities (of applied sciences) of all disciplines the opportunity to present their research at an academic conference. The SRC is a contest exclusively for undergraduate research and follows common academic practice: after a call for papers, a committee of experienced researches reviews the submitted papers, selects the approx. 60 best for a workshop or a poster presentation and provides feedback on all the papers. The students incorporate this feedback in their papers, after which they give a presentation at the conference and in this way compete for the Student Research Awards.