“As a PPD student and trainee, you work in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment. That’s a good preparation for the future, when you work as a Process Engineer. In this respect, the programme offers valuable experience.

Working as an engineer runs in the family, since my father and brother are both mechanical engineers. I studied at the University of Belgrade, at the Mechanical faculty. I opted for the Master’s programme in Process Engineering within that same department.

After my studies in Belgrade, I wanted to gain more knowledge, broaden my skills and taste the working experience somewhere abroad. At that time, it seemed impossible to find something like that. I checked out various courses throughout Europe, from Spain to Sweden. In the end, I shortlisted the PPD programme of SAI at Eindhoven University of Technology and a similar programme at Delft University of Technology. They have very similar programmes. I contacted them both and ultimately opted for Eindhoven, only because of their more personal ‘touch’ and efficiency.

During the first year, the programme focuses on practical courses given by experts from the industry. The emphasis is on team work and practical approach. The PPD students come from various disciplines: process, mechanical, biochemical and other disciplines in engineering. In such a team, everybody has their own approach and specialty. You can really learn a lot from your fellow students and the lecturers from industry.

During the second year, you carry out a project in a company. You have to put all things you’ve learned during the programme into practice. For a period of twelve months you‘ll be engaged in engineering work, but also project control, estimation, scheduling and so on. I did my traineeship at Essent. This is the largest energy company in the Netherlands. The project I was assigned to dealt with central heating. The problem was substantial heat loss from the piping. The cause was unknown; it could be bad maintenance, leakage, or a mistake in the readings. I had to define the problem, explore it and solve it. The solution was to combine operating and design parameters. Finally, this resulted in significant savings.

The traineeship exceeded my expectations. I learned a lot and my supervisors at the company really supported me in every way. They made my stay at Essent both successful and pleasant. I’m sure my traineeship prepared me for finding a job in technical engineering. Now I work as a Process engineer for Fluor. My current colleagues find it interesting to see how I adapted to Fluor in such a short period of time. I believe it’s thanks to my experiences in the PPD programme.

Besides all your technological knowledge, you have to develop your social skills. If you want to work as a technical engineer, you definitely need to be able to work in teams.”

Drs. J. Tieschnits, MTD

As a chemical engineer, it would have been a logical choice to obtain a PhD. My interest, though, shifted from fundamental chemistry to the industrial applicability of those fundamental molecules. In my view industrial applicability either is optimizing existing plant design, or, even more exciting, thinking about new plant design and developing new technologies. To fulfill my interest, I started looking around in the landscape of education. The post-master's program 'Process and Product Design' at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven turned out to be the right choice for me. As my graduation report dealt with the characterization of a catalyst, able to make polyethylene (PE), my wish was to work on a reactor using the same class of catalysts. In this way I could use the fundamental knowledge obtained during my chemistry education. I also wanted to perform my design assignment outside the university.

I was given the chance to work out a new reactor concept and design the corresponding reactor at DSM Research. The new reactor concept consumes less energy per ton PE, whereas more tons PE per m3 reactor can be made. Besides the steep learning curve during the first ?theoretical? year, my time at DSM Research was also highly valuable because I experienced an industrial environment. After the Designer Course I really felt I was ready for working in an industrial chemical engineering environment.

In October 1999, I started at DSM Research as a Process Engineer in the area of polymer process technology. Since the outcome of my designer assignment was positive, I presently work on patents related to PE reactors, thus securing the knowledge obtained. Together with my colleagues, I generate ideas to produce higher quality products for less money. Other activities are related to plant support of own different PE plants. This means I spend about 20% of my time at the production site itself. In this way I remain abreast of what is going on, both on the technological as well as the managerial level.

One of my projects is concerned with the feasibility to produce a higher quality product by means of a new reactor concept. First, this concept was modeled and proved to be feasible from a technology point of view. The next step was to test product quality at a lab-scale. My responsibilities in this project are to:

1. Convert these lab experiments to a plant-environment.
2. Predict the polymer properties properly with a kinetic model.
3. Prepare a potential trial run at plant-scale.

To meet these responsibilities I have contacts with a lot of people from different areas, like chemists from the lab (like I once was), plant staff, product experts, etc. This makes the job a real multidisciplinary team effort, giving people the chance to learn from each other. During my interview I indicated the desire to be involved in a plant start-up. Due to the skills I learned and showed during my design project at DSM, I was asked to join the start-up team of a PE reactor at our site in Germany. My choice for the Designer Course, without a doubt, allowed me to do the job I am carrying out today and enjoying so much!