Philips, here I come!

In 1891, Anton and Gerard Philips laid the foundation of Philips & Co.in Eindhoven and that is perhaps the biggest thing that happened here. The city was probably put into the map of the Netherlands after Philips' establishment and growth ;). The Eindhoven University of Technology, TU/e was established in 1956 to cater to the research needs of Philips. More and more industries gradually started growing around Philips and now Eindhoven has become an industrial hub of sorts.

So it is of no great surprise that several students at the university here do their projects directly at the industry and TU/e is the number one university in the world as far as university/industry tie ups are concerned.

I quite easily landed myself for a project work at Philips Research (talk about being at the right place! :D ). Not having worked anywhere else before, I was quite taken by the sheer size of the High Tech Campus (HTC), the facilities that they have and the work culture. Everything is so sophisticated. God even the canteens here are high tech! I looked like a fool the first day and stumbled across everywhere.

Everybody looks so serious to me in the office environment and people hardly have time to get to know anybody a little personally. The professional environment does scare me a little bit. University life is a little cosy, especially when you get into research. :D

Time will tell how I get through my project work. So far so good!

Best part: Free coffee machines :D and a 12km bike ride everyday!