Dr. J.M. (Jaap) Vleugel

In flux

During a master course lecture many decades ago, my eminent professor in Macro-Economics (Huisman) once told us to be prepared to work in a completely different area after your graduation. His advice came in a period of economic crisis. It echoes Schumpeter's view on innovation and economic development and their joint impact on the labour market. Following his advice, I developed a more than average ability to adapt to new circumstances.
The pay-off of this is job readyness and security, albeit not in the same job or place. Many people are overspecialised and become static over time, which may suit their employer (for some time), but  the individual may loose its ability to adapt to the requirements of an ever changing world. In an operational sense, flexibility and agility in content and above average (time) management skills allow one to switch field and focus, perspective or scale level or combine these on-demand. EQ-skills, in particular listening without judging and other psychological principles are vital supports of one's decision-making. Being genuinely interested in what is driving other people is a prerequisite for successful interaction and personal effectiveness, in particular with young(er) people.

On education

With more than 45 years of working experience, of which more than 20 years in bachelor, minor, master and EngD education at two very different universities and more than 35 years in research, including non-academic jobs, I can deal with a wide array of topics. This also gives a profound insight in the state of education. Some issues are worth mentioning. First is how to keep, sometimes vital, knowledge in the organisation when a topic specialist leaves. Sometimes other lecturers add it to their portfolio, but when they also leave a whole topic or field may disappear. Second is how to make an education career more attractive and close the gap with a research career. This also allows career changes over time and spreads the education workload more evenly. Third is the massiness of today's education, that is troubling students and lecturers. I still strongly believe in servant leadership (Covey) as a means to motivate and manage students. But, providing individualized coaching is a real art in case of double digit numbers of (thesis) students.
Successful education introduces engineers to all the means that allow them to develop themselves as humans and professionals. Students should become critical consumers of theories, methodology, data sources and data processing tools and attain a good understanding of policy- and decision-making.
In design, thesis and EngD projects, students experience the value of their education when working in a professional environment. By studying decision-making and internal communication, students experience how many professionals thrive on experience instead of collecting and using real process data, next to other regular, sometimes fundamental, flaws in professional decision-making. You learn to stay afloat, provide dedicated 'solutions' and manage expections of your supervisors. The final leg of a study program stays in the memory of graduates for decades. The same graduates may also become future commissioners.
Lecturers can also learn from their students to improve themselves and their courses; it helps to regularly upgrade your course material.
As native Dutch I also fully understand the psychological, cultural and political meanings of the Dutch language. Coaching students is also much easier compared to a situation in which you have to rely on English only.

Economics and technology

Economics is about decision-making in situations with constrained budgets and uncertainty. Technology is largely regarded as a black box and seen as a major means to generate financial wealth. In technical sciences humans are regarded as developers and users of technology. Our heavy reliance on technical 'fixes' to manage issues, which objectively are mainly due to wrong choices, like excessive behaviour (overconsumption, overproduction and exhaustion of natural resources leading to climate change etc.) means that technological 'development' is frequently used as an escape route, because the political will to change behaviour is lacking and strong lobbies exist to maintain this detrimental behaviour. 'Let the polluter pay' is a basic and fairly effective principle in environmental economics. It may save tax payers large sums of money, yet it is frequently ignored. Instead, society spends large amounts on technology, which is great for engineers, but does it also solve society's challenges or does it create new, but different problems?

Logistics

After many years in railway research, some 12 years ago I made another career shift by specializing in logistics, learning on the job. There was a vision behind, of course. It started with the experience that the potential for innovation and the options to reduce its climate impact are much higher in logistics than in rail transport. Next, many logistic decisions are in essence micro-economic decisions. Logistics could also be studied at the meso-economic (freight transport sector) or macro-economic level (contribution to national income), but these are less relevant for engineers. Those decisions involve technology in various ways, hence a key reason why logistics should be taught at a technical university and in particular in an interdisciplinary program, such as MSc TIL. Within MSc TIL the majority of students have a logistics or network orientation, which opens a huge education market. The topic also provides excellent cooperation with other interdisciplinary colleagues, in particular at Mechanical Engineering. I primarily deal with:

• Advanced logistics - operations, warehousing, SCM, (change) management & engineering;
• Truck transport, logistics and technology;
• Rail freight services;
• Airport design & operations;
• Maritime transport and container handling;
• Sustainability and climate impact: operations & policy.

Other topics

I also deal with the following topics, separately or in conjunction with logistics:

• Transport~ and infrastructure policy and planning;
• Other transport and traffic (public transport incl. passenger rail, emerging technologies, scenario studies);
• Asset management and maintenance;
• Built environment (housing, well-being, environment);
• (Techno-)economic and financial decision-making (cba, business cases) in railway- and sanitary engineering;
• Topics in transport-economics, spatial-economics and economic geography.

Courses and related activities

• Minor CE (CT3200: module manager, lecturer, supervisor);
• MSc TIL (TIL5050-20 Design project: module manager, main supervisor);
• MSc TIL (TIL5060 thesis project: supervisor, chair, graduation committee member);
• MSc TIL (website, Brightspace, Programme Navigator, study advice, 2nd year rev. committee, master introduction and other workshops);
• MSc TEL (ME54035 thesis graduation committee member);
• MSc MTT (MT54035 thesis graduation committee member);
• MSc MADE (YMS80330 thesis graduation committee chair, thesis supervisor, TAC member);
• MSc Architecture and the Built Environment (AR3CS021 City of the Future: tutor, seminar and master class T&L);
• MSc AE T2.II C&O (AE5322 Sustainable Air Transport thesis supervisor & chair);
• MSc EnvEng (ENVM1600 Skills module: yearly guest lectures about Techno-Economic Evaluation);
• EngD Railway- & Sanitary Engineering (CEE5007 Techno-Economic Evaluation module manager, lecturer).

Board memberships

• Commissie Bindend Studie-Advies (BSA: committee member);
• Lokaal Overleg (LO), 'kaderlid' of Labour Union FNV.

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