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<p><strong>For technical MBO students at Graafschap College, jobs in the tech sector are up for the taking. The reason is that, even while they’re still in school, they tackle real-world problems and challenges faced by companies and develop solutions for them—often using artificial intelligence (AI).</strong></p><p>Software that counts how many nails a machine produces, detects when the machine is idle, or identifies why it isn’t running—for example, because it’s switching between sizes or due to a malfunction. This is critical management information that the company in question didn’t have until recently. Thanks to an AI application designed by students at Graafschap College, that information is now available in real time.</p><p>Other innovations the students are working on include, for example, a self-navigating unmanned speedboat and a chess-playing machine that can move the chess pieces using two robotic arms.<br>‘“By tackling challenges like these, students are prepared for the business world,” says Gijs Smeman of the Center for Innovative Craftsmanship in the Eastern Netherlands (CIVON), a subsidiary of Graafschap College that focuses on promoting innovation in the manufacturing industry in the eastern Netherlands. </p><blockquote><p>AI is here to stay; it’s embedded in so much technology. Students can’t start learning about it early enough.</p></blockquote><p>“Together with companies,” adds Martin Stor of Graafschap College. He serves as the liaison between education and entrepreneurs and sees the synergy between the two groups day in and day out. “They learn with and from each other.”</p><p>“And that’s the only way to ‘stay current,’” Smeman adds. “If you had to write a textbook today about current developments, that book would be finished in six months, but its content would already be outdated. Learning together and implementing together is the way to go.”</p><h2><strong>Utilizing Existing AI Applications</strong></h2><p>Of the 32 practical assignments that students at Graafschap College carried out for companies over the past six months, AI was the key to the solution in 11 projects. Smeman: “That doesn’t necessarily mean, by the way, that the students came up with the AI themselves. More often than not, they use AI that’s already been developed. For example, for a company that uses vision technology to perform quality control on its products. Vision technology already exists, but our students have now applied it to that business process.” Stor adds: “Students are also developing dashboards to analyze the data.”</p><h2>Field Lab with Test Setups</h2><p>In some cases, students work on-site at a company for an extended period. For example, at Varex Imaging in Doetinchem, where students, teachers, and lecturers from Graafschap College and Arnhem Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences, along with companies from the manufacturing industry, jointly run a field lab. The ad-hoc team has a large workspace at its disposal, along with computers and test setups for conducting experiments. The goal: to further develop digital twinning. In other words: to create a digital copy of, for example, a machine that is under development. “Then, using augmented reality, you can walk through a design and literally experience what has been conceived so far. In other words, a simulation. This allows you to identify areas for improvement before the design is put into use,” explains Stor. “You can also, for example, replicate an existing production process at a different location.”</p><h2><br>Automated planters and virtual reality</h2><p>Anyone who wants to benefit from the knowledge and possibilities surrounding AI is welcome at the CIVON Smart Business Center, located in a former factory building in Ulft. CIVON’s doors are wide open to entrepreneurs, students, and school classes. “One day we welcome a group of 7th and 8th graders to get them excited about technology, and the next day we have students from one of Zone.college’s ‘green’ programs visiting.” For example, those students developed a smart planter here, equipped with a sensor that alerts them when the soil gets too dry, after which the planter is automatically refilled,” says Smeman. “For Zone.college—whose teachers know everything about the green sector but for whom technology is a world away—a visit to us is an ideal solution. This allows their students to delve into the technical solutions relevant to their field as well. And students in the Safety and Craftsmanship (VeVa) program, for example, receive instruction here using virtual reality.”</p><h2>Technology Inspired by Nature</h2><p>As enthusiastic as the gentlemen are about developments in technology, they’re already musing about what the next step will be after AI. “Biomimicry,” says Smeman decisively. “That’s the art of developing technologies modeled after nature.”<br>Stor: “Nature is gaining more and more of a voice in society. And if we want to continue living in harmony with nature, we must align ourselves with natural laws. Thanks to technology, that’s becoming easier and easier.”</p><p>Smeman gives an example involving students: “They recently used AI to devise a way to identify reusable plastics from 3D printer waste. Just as leaves that fall from trees provide new nutrients to the soil, we can also reuse raw materials from technology.”</p>

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<p>For technical vocational students at Graafschap College, jobs in the tech sector are up for the taking. That’s because, even while they’re still in school, they tackle real-world problems and challenges faced by companies and develop solutions for them—often using artificial intelligence (AI).</p>