The University of Twente seems to have found out about study associations finding ways to avoid the alcohol convenant.

Since the University buildings have closed, associations have tried alternatives to have their weekly drinks online. However, research found out that 60-70% of the online drink attendees live on campus, resulting in the activity to be considered on campus following UT rules. In addition, people are serving drinks themselves while being far from sober, besides not having a valid IVA certificate. The UT considers this as violation of the alcohol convenant, and has therefore decided not to allow any more alcoholic beverages during online drinks via Discord, Google Meet, Skype and other online video platforms.

Unfortunately, Inter-Actief sees no other option than to follow these new rules set by the University. We will therefore no longer allow beer or other alcoholic beverages during our online drinks, but we will leave the online Abscint on the Inter-Actief Discord server open to have a chat while enjoying a non-alcoholic beer or soda. Naturally, we hope that the UT buildings will be opened again soon, so we can finally go back to our beloved Abscint to have a real, non-virtual beer!

Stay safe, and stay home!

Kevin, Reinier, Gerrit-Willem, Denise, Patrick and Danique.

We would like to give you an update regarding all the measures taken by Inter-Actief against the coronavirus (COVID-19)

In consequence of the press conference about the extra measures against the COVID-19 virus, as given by Minister Bruins of Medical Care and Sports and Minister Slob of Primary and Secondary Education and Media, we decided to extend the previously shared measures concerning Inter-Actief until the 6th of April.

Closure extended

All university buildings with the exception of Spiegel will be closed until the 6th of April. This also means that your building authorization that you may have obtained via Inter-Actief as an active member, has been blocked. The Spiegel is available for studying to those who are not in a position to study at home.

By extension, this measure means that all activities until the 6th of April will be cancelled in the same manner as the previously cancelled activities, and that the Inter-Actief room will also be closed until the 6th of April.

Study advisors

We understand that you might have many questions regarding your educational programme. Therefore, we would like to remind you that the study advisors Ellen, Rianne and Lilian are still available during the closure of university facilities. If you have any questions regarding education, they are there to answer your questions. You can make an appointment at https://ewi.planner.utwente.nl/.

Discord

As some of you may already know, Inter-Actief has its very own Discord server. Although originally hosted primarily for gaming, its use has now been expanded into a platform for the entire association. On the server you can meet up in the digital association room, have a drink, or work in one of the digital project rooms. The server can be found here.

Other Notes

We would also like to stress that you should follow all the measures and advice given by the government and the RIVM. Only then will we be able to resume a normal lifestyle in the Netherlands as soon as possible.

For future updates, we would like to refer you to the news-page on the website.

An email will be sent to all our members when there are big changes in the current measures. Until then, we will keep the news-page of Inter-Actief as updated as possible with the latest information.

Take care of yourselves, consider everything you do twice, and we hope to welcome you again as soon as possible in the Inter-Actief room!

Kind regards,

Kevin, Reinier, Gerrit-Willem, Denise, Patrick & Danique

The new Lustrum Committee has been formed! Together they will organize all activities regarding the 8th lustrum of Inter-Actief!

The function division is as follows

Frank van Mourik - Chairman

Michael Janssen - Secretary

Niels de Groot - Treasurer

Kitty Boersma - Promotion

Jasper Sustronk - Logistics

Gilian Schrijver - External Affairs

We would like to inform you about the measures Inter- Actief is taking in accordance with the guidelines set by the UT and RIVM regarding the corona virus (COVID-19).

Inter-Actief room

Today the decision has been made that all educational buildings at the University of Twente will be closed until the 23rd of March. This means that in the upcoming week, the University is not available for studying or project meetings. No educational activities will be held, including examination, lectures (both physical and digital), and tutorial sessions. In accordance with the UT, the Inter-Actief association room will be closed until the 23rd of March. During this time the board will be accessible for questions via e-mail at board@inter-actief.net. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Upcoming activities cancelled

All activities starting from now until the end of March will be cancelled. If you have signed up for any activities you will be automatically signed out and you will not have to worry about paying for these activities. For activities on a later date we are still unsure on whether they will continue. As soon as we know more information regarding this we will communicate this to all our members.

What happens next?

The University has made the decision to halt educational activities for next week. The reason for this is to adapt the education to these new circumstances. Study advisers are still available. Meetings will be held via phone and you can still schedule meetings via the online planner. The University is looking into possible consequences the closure might have for the study progress of our students (e.g. concerning BSA). As of right now, there is no need to worry about these kinds of issues.

More information regarding the measures the UT is taking can be found on the UT corona page here. As soon as new information arises that has impact on our activities and/or members we will send out another email. If you have any questions regarding how Inter-Actief is reacting to these measures and to new information you can contact the board.

If you have any questions feel free to contact us!

Kind regards, Kevin, Reinier, Gerrit-Willem, Denise, Patrick & Danique

Every year several heros rise to form the new board of Inter-Actief. Are you ready?

Like every year, Inter-Actief is searching for a new board that will take on the daily operations and steer the association in the academic year of 2020/2021. With more than 1200 members and 200 volunteers, this is quite the task.

Will you...

...lead your team effectively and represent the association towards hundreds of students?

...take on the correspondance and reporting for the entire association?

...manage hundreds of thousands of euros?

...motivate a new class for activism and guarantee the continuity of the association?

...maintain more than fifty partnerships with companies and single-handedly finance the association?

...be the voice of our students regarding the quality of our education?

A full-time board year at Inter-Actief is an informative experience. You will encounter various challenges and project your vision on the association. Furthermore, a board year is full of amazing activities and you will learn countless of new people. Will you grab this opportunity?

Send a mail to the board before next Sunday, the 15th of March, in which you indicate your interest. You will then be invited for an interview. Are you unsure whether a board year at Inter-Actief would fit you? Approach one of the board members in the association room, or send an email!

During the week of the 23rd of March, the Inter-Actief room will be closed due to the installation of a new airconditioning system.

You will still be able to get tea/coffee/chocolatemilk at the machines on the balcony. In this week, the Inter-Actief board will continue their daily routine in the Scintilla association room, right next to the Inter-Actief room. This means that the board will be available each workday from 09:00 to 16:00.

The week before, the week of the 16th of March, the board of Scintilla will reside in the Inter-Actief room due to construction work in their room. Just like the board of Inter-Actief, the Scintilla board will have priority over the work stations.

The Inter-Actief room is closed on the 4th of March because of Symposium Nexus in The Grolsch Veste in Enschede.

Starting the 5th of March the room will be open again from 09:00 till 16:00 in accordance with our normal opening hours.

We are looking for people who would like to help us with the matching of new international students! Apply through www.ictsv.nl/matching

We are currently looking for people who would like to help us with the matching of new international students. Applicants of the Bachelor’s programmes Technical Computer Science and Business Information Technology will be invited to a matching day in order to get a better understanding of the future study content. Since it is difficult for most international applicants to join the matching days, they will be invited to Skype meetings instead. For these Skype meetings we are searching for TCS and BIT students who are interested in chatting with our international applicants. Both Dutch and international students can apply for this job!

Interested? We would like to invite you to our information session where you will receive further details. The session will take place on Friday the 28th of February, starting at 12:45 in HalB 2A. You can also already apply for the job through www.ictsv.nl/matching

On the 30th of January the study advisers for the bachelor programmes TCS and BIT received the educational bouquet!

Ellen, Bibian, Rianne and (until the start of this academic year) Jan are the study advisors for both of our bachelor programmes. Every week they help students with large and small problems. Especially during the BSA-stress period and in helping solve the issues with starting a completely new studies at the start of the year they are super helpfull! To thank the study advisors for their continuous effort in helping all the students they have all received an educational bouquet!

Do you know someone who is extremely committed to improve the quality of education or is always willing to help students without hesitation? Then, what are you waiting for? Nominate him or her for the education bouquet! Think for example of a teacher who gives extra lectures or a student assistent who is making hours in overtime to help each and everyone of you! You can nominate someone by going to this page.

Overview of awarded bouquets

The Kick-IT committee for the Kick-In of 2020 has been formed, together they will organise the faculty Kick-In for Inter-Actief.

The function division is as follows:

Jelle Maas - Chairman
Merel Bijkerk - Secretary & Integration
Alen Badrajan - Treasurer & Do-group Market
Jochem Bleeker - Logistics
Robin Kreuger - Camp
Arda Koç - Bachelor Day & Activists

For Module 7 the module team is looking for students with knowledge of Python to help assist with the lab sessions for Python!

Interested? Send an email to r.langerak@utwente.nl

We’re already halfway through the second quartile, so it’s time for the first Educational Update of this academic year! We would like to keep you updated on everything!

TCS Module 1: Pearls of Computer Science

Pearls of Computer Science was the module about which we got the most complaints. Due to the large number of participants for the module and the new ‘Houses-system’, some issues arose. Below you will find a list of the issues with their solution:

• Grades for Pearl 1 were late. This was because a large number of plagiarism cases were detected, which needed to be handled by the examination board before the grades could be published. Soon after contact with the module coordinator about this, the grades were published.

• Multiple issues occurred during the Intelligent Interaction pearl. Lectures were rushed and chaotic and the material was not explained during the lecture. Due to this, the teachers for the pearl had been asked to give a recap lecture/Q&A session for the wednesday lecture. Next to that, they were also asked to join the practical sessions so they could see the issues for themselves and so that the pearl could be improved. After this, multiple students thought the test given was not representable for the week, as there was a lack of example tests as well as multiple issues with the testing system. This has also been brought to the attention of the module coordinators and will be evaluated for next year.

• An announcement made by the pearl teacher of week 8 regarding the test results was found insulting by numerous students, as it implied that they could not read and needed professional help. The teacher later clarified this with an announcement on Canvas that it was not her intent to insult anyone, but that students could have gotten a lot more points if they had read the questions properly.

TCS Module 5: Computer Systems

The Computer Systems module also had some hiccups, mostly concerning Operating Systems and IT&Law:

• The Operating Systems lectures were changed into Q&A sessions as the lectures had all been videotaped before and were available on the Canvas page of the course. The reasoning behind not having the conventional lectures again was that students are actively participating in a Q&A and not passively listening during lectures. As this change was not well received by all students, the module coordinator has discussed how to improve the lectures with these students.

• A pass/fail criterion for a VHDL crash course was added to the curriculum without being in the module description. This was later changed so that the crash course was no longer a requirement for passing the module.

• The grades for the IT&Law test were published half a day late. The teachers tried to get the resit to be moved back, however this was not possible and it was decided that the resit would still take place on the same date and time.

Remindo (Digital Testing Environment)

Starting from this year both TCS and BIT are making use of digital testing more than the previous years. This is done in the form of having tests on Chromebooks in the digital testing environment Remindo. Because we have just started using Remindo, there are still some startup problems. One of these is for example the calculator, which does not allow the use of logarithms, which were needed for pearl tests. When you take a test with Remindo and have issues with the system the team working on Remindo would like to know these issues as to solve these as soon as possible. You can send these issues to the e-assessment team by emailing to e-assessment-ces@utwente.nl!

Basic Machine Learning

Multiple issues regarding this Master course were brought to our attention. Officially this course is not run by our programme, but as a large amount of students following the course are Computer Science students the programme director still decided to pick up on this complaint. Evaluations and meetings have been held with the responsible teachers of the course and a plan is being made to make the organization of the course better for the upcoming year. A special OEC evaluation has also been held for this course.

What was noticeable with all the complaints filed during the last weeks was that most of the times, the module coordinator did not know about the issue at all before they were contacted by us. Usually module coordinators are very helpful in solving these issues and often it does not need involvement of Inter-Actief to solve the issue. If contacting the teachers and module coordinator does not work then we can of course help you! If you are unsure on what to do or if you have questions you can always come by the Inter-Actief room!

Next to all the negative points regarding different modules that are usually discussed, we would also like to showcase some positive points! The results of the NSE (Nationale Studenten Enquête) are in and both Technical Computer Science as well as Business Information Technology are scoring above the national average for their fields!

Another awesome thing you can do is to nominate someone for an educational bouquet! You can nominate a teacher, module coordinator, study advisor or any other staff member from our programmes for an educational bouquet if you feel like that person has gone above and beyond for the students! Nominating a person can be done through ictsv.nl/bouquet! Each quartile we will be handing out a bouquet, and the bouquet for last quartile will be handed out soon!

Good luck with studying and if you have any questions feel free to come by the Inter-Actief room or send an email to education@inter-actief.net!