Frank Pijnenborg

In the SEPAM (CoSEM) Master’s I had the chance to study abroad for one semester and I chose Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. An unforgettable experience since the Asian culture gave me an amazing culture shock. But I could use the Systems Engineering approach in an international team. Although communication was quite hard, the analytical methods acquired are very helpful since the application is widespread through the whole world. And as a result, our team was able to successfully accomplish the design project. All students have the chance to sit on committees – together with 5 other students I was a board member for a student society called Curius. This association facilitates all students within the faculty in study-related stuff, like study trips and business courses. They also run the book shop and coffee shop on a daily basis. I had an amazing year and learned lots of managerial/organisational skills there. Everywhere around me I see that our society is full of situations packed with technological, organisational and social challenges. Obvious cases are the extension of the Port of Rotterdam, the installation of heating networks throughout urban areas and the introduction of the public transport chip card – complex, but also very challenging in terms of coming up with design solutions that may lead to successful implementation. These are situations on the interface between the public and the private sector which you could say have a high Systems Engineering, Policy and Management (CoSEM) relevance.