October 8, 2018
A special in-company event of the "Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)" course, adapted to local wishes, started in Beijing, China. The course was vey much appreciated with scores between 8.8 and 10.
This was the motivation for the selection of the lecturer to "High Tech Institute lecturer of the year 2018".

May 7, 2018
The Course Modern Optics for Optical Designers (CMOP) course is a unique course for optical designers. It includes many individual assessments and various group assignments. The course has been extended with two lessons on optical design with Zemax. The course is known as a good and important course but also as a very heavy one. We discussed the course with former and new participants, and department managers interested for their teammembers. The feedback was a confirmation of the importance and the positive image of the course. The request was to keep the scope and objectives of the course, also the assessments and group assignments.
Therefore we adapted the organization of the course, to spread the workload of the course. The CMOP course will be split up into two modules: CMOP-Part-1 (optics basics and applications) and CMOP-Part-2 (optical system design). All assessments and group assignments will be introduced to speed-up the understanding. Every module will be extended with a workshop of one lesson to speed-up the learning process, to have more time for Q&A and making assignments together.
The first run of the CMOP part 1 course started on September 14, 2019.

March 3, 2018
A cooperation has been established with Pavel Paclik and Carmen Lai from PerClass on a course on Practical Machine Learning (PML).
Pavel and Carmen have extensive experience with the design of industrial machine learning systems in different application areas and a rich academic and teaching background from Delft University of Technology.
Market research of Deloitte shows that Machine Learning (a special form of Artificial Intelligence AI) has been applied in 2018 twice as much compared to 2017. Another doubling is expected in 2019.

The new course Pracical Machine Learning (PML) gives the possibility to learn Machine Learning on a "how-to-do-it" approach. The hands-on sessions are on real-world industrial case studies. Included in the course price is a license and support fee of the perClass software.
The first run of this course started on January 21, 2019.

February 2, 2017
The course "Cooling of Electronics" focuses on recognition and prevention of thermal problems through optimal thermal design and architecture choices in all stages of the industrial product creation process – avoiding re-design, delayed time-to-market and associated costs in time and resources. It is decided to adapt the name into: Thermal Design and Cooling of Electronics (COE). The course is attended more and more by persons with a considerable spread in prior knowledge on thermal design. Therefore it is adapted in such that both engineers with hardly any thermal knowledge and engineers with many years of thermal experience can benefit. On four different moments during the course, the participant can choose to deepen their understanding of the presented material OR to do a hands-on application exercise on an industrial relevant example.
The first run of the new setup of this course started on May 1, 2017.

June 10, 2016
A cooperation has been established with Erik Jan Marinissen (Principal Scientist at IMEC).
Erik Jan is a world-renowned speaker in the test field with broad scientific and industrial experience, covering the fundamentals of IC test and DfT. He is (co-)author of 275+ scientific and engineering journal and conference papers and (co-)inventor of eighteen patent families. He has presented his course material at international conferences, as well as to practicing engineers at in-house courses.

A new course on design-for-test and test of digital integrated circuits (TEST-DFT) has been defined and created.
The first run of this course started on March 24, 2017 internally at NXP.

June 16, 2015
A cooperation has been established with Herman Roebbers - Altran (Advanced Expert Intelligent Systems).
He is an embedded person with lots of experience in various companies, usually working close to the hardware. He has concentrated on various aspects of the design of Ultra Low Power systems.

The Ultra Low Power workshop, a new course, provides an overview of how to reduce the energy footprint and includes hands-on sessions to anchor the obtained knowledge. Energy consumption is a system issue with many aspects, many factors have an impact on energy consumption, a gain on one place can create a loss on another place. Various disciplines, as software and hardware, are involved. It is a matter of balancing and making compromises.
The first run of the Ultra Low Power workshop (ULP) started on December 10, 2015.

November 26, 2014
A cooperation has been established with Henk van der Kruijs (EMC & Signal/Power Integrity Consultant).
Henk is an EMC and Signal/Power Integrity consultant with more than 35 years of experience in the field of design for signal/power integrity and emc as well as in designing RF and analog electronics. He has an extended working experience in various technological settings (research & development, high tech, medical and consumer electronics industry) and various countries and cultures like Asia, USA and Europe.

Electronic systems show increasing speed, power dissipation and density. The design, manufacture and simulation of a Power Distribution Network (PDN) for such systems become an increasing design challenge. A large number of supply voltages and signaling levels is used, timing and noise margins are reduced. The allowed noise on signals and power supply rails decreases while at the same time the density and bandwidth of interconnections increase. This means that the design of a power distribution network is not independent anymore from the signal integrity and electro magnetic compatibility (EMC) design domains. Power distribution design therefore becomes an important condition for good signal integrity and electromagnetic compatibility.
A new course has been defined and developed.
The first run of the course Power integrity for product designers (PI-PD) started on November 26, 2014.

November 2013
A cooperation has been established with Marcel van Doorn (EMC Technology & Strategy Manager).
He worked at the Dutch Railways in Utrecht. In 1986 he joined Royal Philips Electronics in Eindhoven, where he worked as Technology & Strategy manager in many different areas of the Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) domain, from testing and standardization, to design and research. He has given many international EMC trainings for the Philips University and to post academic students. Since 2018 he is a freelance EMC trainer and consultant.

An electronic engineer engaged with the design of a system, delivers an assembly of electronic components (including for example a printed circuit board). The mechanical / mechatronic engineer converts this assembly into a physical design. The electronic engineer should have sufficient EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) knowledge to be able to prevent and/or resolve EMC problems. His EMC analysis results in EMC requirements that have to be fulfilled by the mechanical / mechatronic engineer. Therefore the mechanical / mechatronic engineer needs to know what kind of EMC problems can occur. He should be able to communicate with the electronic engineer to understand the EMC requirements and how he can take care that the mechanical design obeys the EMC requirements.
A new course has been defined and developed: EMC course for mechatronic engineers (EMC-ME).
The first course run started on March 27, 2015.

December 9, 2013
A cooperation has been established with Frans Pansier (Power Supply Architect).
Frans has been a power supply specialist - architect at Philips and NXP. He has a broad experience ranging from new architectures and control strategies to solving problems in production.

It is not always obvious that a Switch-mode Power Supply (SMPS) is to be used instead of a linear supply. A SMPS is much more complex than a linear design and requires generally more components. However, a rough calculation on efficiency shows why they nevertheless are used in an abundant range of applications, especially when the output voltage has to be very stable over a wide range of load and input voltage variations. Moreover they are generally more compact and lighter.
A new course has been defined and developed: Design of switch-mode power supplies (D-SMPS). The course discusses the design of switch mode power supplies, general topologies, components of power circuits and switching devices.
The first course run started on December 9, 2013.

April 15, 2013
A cooperation has been established with Gerard de Gier (A motivational speaker / trainer about networking and business creativity).
Gerard de Gier works since 1992 from his own training and consultancy company (Riff Advice) in the field of human resource management and marketing. He gives motivational training and lectures in the field of networks (relationship management) and business creativity. He worked for Kluwer, TNO, Economic Information Service (including Russia), RABO, ING. Since about 1995, he is also a lecturer at NVM SOM, a guest lecturer at the University of Leiden in Science-Based Business, and a freelance senior outplacement consultant associated with Lee Hecht Harrison, career advisors in Eindhoven, Amsterdam and 240 offices worldwide. Previously, he worked for more than twenty years at IBM Netherlands, for more than 17 years in various management positions. He was head of training, Deputy Director of Personnel and worked for several years at the IBM headquarters in Armonk, USA. He is author of seven books include about Networking, Creative Thinking.

Also for people in technical occupations, communication and people networks become more and more important. Working in teams, talking to end-users, finding resources and getting your ideas across are only a few of the reasons why. A new interactive workshop Networking (NETW) has been defined and developed during which we go through many aspects of networking, in a way especially geared towards technical people who (often) do not like networking in the first place. At the end of the workshop the participants will have basic knowledge of networking. The focus of the course is helping the participants to further develop their personal skills to start building and maintaining a successful network. Therefore the course is a mixture of brief lessons and many small exercises.
The new course has run for the first time on April 15, 2013.

January 30, 2012
A cooperation has been established with Anton Montagne (Self-employed consultant/designer/trainer at Montagne Design & Consultancy).
Anton was employed as an IC designer at Philips Semiconductors in Nijmegen (NXP) and at Product Partners in Delft. This company, which he co-founded, concentrated on designing mechatronic products. In 1995 Product Partners merged with the Multin Technology Group where he stayed on as CTO for two years. From 1985 until 1990 he gave lectures at an evening school in the Technical College, The Hague and led the PHTO course `IC design and application'. After this, he continued developing company courses and offering lectures. Since 1997 he works as a freelance designer, consultant and lecturer in the field of analog electronics.

Analog Electronics can be characterized as an implementation technique for information processing systems. In the training program a design approach will be presented for analog systems and circuits, which is based on the use of a limited number of basic analog signal processing and reference functions, the perception of information processing errors and the application of a limited number of error-reduction techniques.
Rather than focusing on known solutions (most professionals already know them) one could think of an approach that clearly separates desired functionality from its technological implementation. The concepts, the fundamental limitations to signal processing, and the design methods, are technology-independent. The final circuits and the manifestation of the information processing errors due to these fundamental limitations, differ for each technology.
The new course Design of analog electronics - embedded analog 1 (DAE-AE1) focuses on specifying, designing and/or applying the most important analog function "amplification" for embedded systems using standard integrated circuits and passive components.
The first run of this course has started on January 30, 2012.

The new course Design of analog electronics - analog IC design (DAE-IC) learns to specify and design an analog amplifier and/or DC reference on transistor level.
The first run of the DAE-IC course has started on January 21, 2013.

January 13, 2013
A very special in-company event of the "Cooling of Electronics" course started: in Riyadh - Saudi Arabia with a female lecturer.
The course started on January 13, 2013 and was very much appreciated with scores between 7.9 and 8.9.

May 8, 2012
A new course has been defined and developed: IC physics devices and processing (IC-PDP). This new course concentrates on the devices and their physics (MOS and bipolar), the processing and electrical process characterization and monitoring. It focuses on the relation between the semiconductor technology and the behavior of the devices.
The first course run started on May 8, 2012.

June 7, 2011
A cooperation has been established with Harry Veendrick to organize his 1-day, 3-days and 5-days IC courses.
Harry is holding many patents on CMOS circuit design, is (co-)author of more than 25 publications on robust, high-performance and low-power CMOS IC design. He is the author of Nanometer CMOS ICs, from Basics to ASICs. He has been a Fellow at Philips Research Laboratories and NXP Research and a visiting Professor to the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Next to his research activities, he has been actively involved in the training of more than 3000 semiconductor design, test, product, CAD tools and process engineers.

Developing CMOS ICs is a complex process requiring dedicated expertise. Engineers who supervise the design of an IC, need to have a thorough understanding of ICs, the possibilities and impossibilities of IC technology. The course Nanometer CMOS-ICs Basics (CMOS-BASIC) gives an overview of the basics, physics, fabrication, design and applications of CMOS ICs into the nanometer range. It also discusses technology/design scaling bottlenecks to and even beyond 22nm CMOS and is also meant to close the gap between the product development/engineering, design, test and technology communities. The course focuses on CMOS-ICs as 90% of ICs are made in this technology.
The first run of the 3-days Nanometer CMOS-BASIC has started on June 7, 2011.

More and more hi-tech companies integrate (CMOS) Integrated Circuits into their products. For good reasons: with ICs, products can be made smaller, run faster, use less power, be more reliable and have better IP protection. The 1-day course Bits on Chips (BOC) gives an introduction: what are ICs? How can ICs help me? What are their possibilities and restrictions? What does it take to develop an IC?
The first 1-day course has run on April 4, 2012.

January 12, 2011
A cooperation has been established with Professor Robert Puers of the “Katholieke Universiteit Leuven” in Belgium, department of electrical engineering, head of the division microelectronics and sensors. Professor Puers worked for many years on mems. Based on his work, the IEEE Board of Directors elevated Prof. Puers to IEEE Fellow, effectively on 1 January 2011, for his contributions to implantable mems.

The course Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) is an introductory course of 3 days: the basic theory of MEMS and how MEMS are processed, various applications of MEMS in sensors and actuators, and usage issues of MEMS, assembly and housing, testing and interconnection.
The first run of the course has started on January 12, 2011.

May 27, 2011
Former Philips Centre for Technical Training courses back under one roof.
Settels Savenije Van Amelsvoort and Techwatch, the publisher of Bits & Chips and Mechatronics Magazine, join forces and bring their existing activities on training for the high-tech industry together into one institute: the High Tech Institute (HTI).
The portfolio of High-Tech Institute is directed to highly skilled professionals in the disciplines of electronics, optics, mechatronics, software and system architecture. High Tech Institute also organizes training in personal development.

High Tech Institute addresses professionals on post bachelor and post master level, involved in the development of high-tech equipment, high-tech products and the industrial use of high-tech equipment. High Tech Institute involves universities and colleges intensively and is looking for a continuous dialogue and cooperation at the strategic level with the industry to fill-in the training curriculum effectively, according to market demand. The ambition is to achieve international recognition of the institute.
Various training programs are internationally renowned, including those for mechatronics, precision engineering, design principles, system architecture and optics. Most of these courses were until 1 January 2010 part of the portfolio of Philips CTT, the former training institute for technical training of Philips. Through continuation of these training programs, this important knowledge remains accessible for the industry.

Background
Joining forces, the former technical programs of Philips Centre for Technical Training (Philips CTT) are back under one umbrella.
On January 1st, 2010 Philips stopped with these training activities and transferred the portfolios of electronics, optics, information technology, mechatronics and precision technology to various parties.
Settels Savenije Van Amelsvoort took over the portfolio mechatronics and precision technology, Sioux took pity on information technology and system architecture and T2Prof acquired the disciplines electronics and optics.
The implementation of the mechatronics courses is accommodated in a separate mechatronics company, of which Dr. Adrian Ranker, Prof. Jan van Eijk and Prof. Maarten Steinbuch, are responsible for the content. This trio founded the mechatronics courses that have been developed at Philips and organized by CTT. Sioux (Information Technology) and T2Prof (electronics and optics) cooperate since early 2010 with Techwatch. Techwatch takes care of the acquisition and organization of the training programs. Sioux and T2Prof concentrate on the contents (the development and the quality) and the marketing. The initiative of Settels Savenije Van Amelsvoort and Techwatch brings all parties together again. A strong institute has been founded with courses that cover all disciplines in the high technology markets.

More information about High-Tech Institute and the training programs is available on the HTI website.
www.hightechinstitute.nl

November 30, 2010
A cooperation has been established with Marty Lou Leistikow. She is a woman with passion. Mary-Lou gained her experience working for international companies such as Philips International and Cap Gemini. A pure businesswoman and networker. Her passion is innovation with impact. She is an engaging speaker, enthusiastic and inspiring. Mary-Lou is already 16 years Master trainer and facilitator in De Bono Thinking Systems and is performing worldwide. She is regularly invited as a keynote speaker.

In the 6 Thinking Hats (6HATS) course, people become more productive on a simple and effective way. Meetings become constructive, creative and more structured. People listen to each other and are open to different points of view. The Six Hats method can be used individually but most power is gained when using the method in meetings and discussions. (We all know of meetings where the same person focuses on the same problem over and over again, without an option how to bend this into a constructive common solution.) In the course, you will learn how to separate thinking into 6 distinct 'thinking modes' and how to use this in your daily life. The concepts of the Thinking Hats will be explained, discussed and experienced in realistic cases.

Lateral thinking (LATH) is a very practical training about out-of-the-box thinking. During the course, participants learn how to generate a spectacular number of new ideas in a structured and simple way. Lateral thinking is more than brainstorming! You will also learn to avoid the logical pitfall of brainstorming. You will learn how to turn an unpromising creative idea into an idea that is both practical and valuable! During one of the numerous practical exercises a small 'think tank' is held in which a problem of one of the participants is tackled and maybe solved.
A combined introduction of the 6HATS (6 Thinking Hats) and LATH (Lateral thinking) courses has run on November 30, 2010.
The first run of the 6HATS course has started on October 3, 2012.
The first run of the LATH course has started on November 14, 2012.

March 29, 2010
T2Prof and Techwatch decided to start a cooperation for the organization of the portfolio of T2Prof. This portfolio includes courses on electronics and optics of Philips CTT, the former training institute for technical training of Philips. T2Prof concentrates on the contents (the development and the quality), the marketing and the lecturers of its portfolio, Techwatch takes care of the acquisition and organization of the training programs.

March 19, 2010
Philips Research and Technical Training for Professionals (T2Prof) decided to transfer a part of the portfolio of Philips CTT, the former training institute for technical training of Philips, to T2Prof. The portfolio includes courses on electronics and optics. Through this transfer and continuation of these training programs, important knowledge on electronics and optics remains accessible for the high-tech industry.