September 2019

For the first time in México!

Posted on September 30, 2019
in News
by JohanOost

Wetskills was held in Mexico for its first time and it was a really great experience. All of the hard work leading up to the program paid off and from the 25 of August till the 5 of September we all had a blast being part it. A total of 15 participants worked together in 4 multicultural and multidisciplinary groups. The backgrounds of the participants were very diverse ranging from Nanotech to Psychology. For me personally it was also a first time. My name is Kennard Burer and my first experience with Wetskills was when I joined the 25th Wetkills in Romania in 2017. After that I participated for a second time in Kygystan 2018. Both editions were so great that I now was a part of the organiser’s team for Wetskills Mexico. Together with great support and hard work of managing director Johan Oost and program manager Tim van de...

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Some last positions – international participants for Hungary

Posted on September 23, 2019
in News
by JohanOost

Wetskills Foundation is preparing its first event in Hungary. This Wetskills edition is aligned to the Budapest Water Summit with the presence of many presidents, ministers but also United Nations and famous VIPs of several countries discussing water challenges. This Summit is a more political event where water is the highest on the agenda!!   Together with the Hungary Water Association (HWA), Budapest University of Technology and Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Budapest, Wetskills Foundation will organise the finals in a vibrant side event of the Expo. Many professionals from Hungary and other countries are welcome to join and discuss the ideas. Afterwards the Young Water Professionals of HWA will organise another event to put the importance of YWP involvement on the agenda and extra networking.   There are some last positions left for this Wetskills event. If you have interest to join this new event, please contact Johan Oost (johan.oost@wetskills.com)...

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Last cases for Wetskills at Amsterdam International Water Week

Posted on September 23, 2019
in News
by JohanOost

Wetskills Foundation will organise its international Wetskills Water Challenge in Amsterdam linked to AIWW 2019, like in 2017 and all previous AIWWs. Teams of students and young professionals from various countries will work on real life water cases from government, business and knowledge partners in a two week programme. Their main challenge: to think out-of-the-box and develop innovative, realistic concepts. Each team will present their idea with a two minute pitch, Q&A and the Team's Poster, during the finals on 5 November (14.45-16.00) as part of the AIWW program. The winning team will be awarded by the jury during the AIWW Closing Ceremony.   Do you, as a business, government or knowledge institute, have an interesting case for the water challenge? a case for fresh, young and international ideas? Join this event as case owner and submit your case!   Wetskills is looking for some last study cases (Read the leaflet). Go to...

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Second edition Wetskills-South Korea: yet another great success!

Posted on September 17, 2019
in News
by JohanOost

Kimchi, karaoke and Korean BBQ: with a group of 20 participants Wetskills emerged itself in South Korean culture once again. Thanks to the success of the first (Olympic) edition in February last year, we were invited to this great country again to have yet another Water Challenge. This years’ edition was held in both the city of Seoul and Daegu and was hosted by the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). This institute was involved last year as well, in the role of case owner. Providing us with – among many other things – luxurious accommodation, a great private workspace and plenty of help from staff members, our host formed one of the main ingredients for this editions’ success. The group consisted of participants from South Korea, Pakistan, Turkey, Nepal and The Netherlands, who were divided into five teams. They worked on cases from five case owners: KIST itself, the...

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Wrap up the Wetskills

Posted on September 7, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-South-Korea
by Inge Muhlig

Wetskills South Korea 2019 -  by Khawon Lee (Sangmyung University -    Can you remember the first day of Wetskills? It’s kind of awkward when we met at first at least for me. Maybe someone was nervous, others were exciting. [caption id="attachment_56235" align="alignnone" width="300"] First day[/caption]   We had tough weeks, but also, we had fun. Sometimes we had hard works, but looking backward, it was helpful to us. It was great that we worked first and hung out together on free time.     I tried to hang out as much as I can and teach some Korean things to others, but I’m not sure it worked. Hope it worked! Haha In Daegu, I think moments in Daegu were parties. Even if the purpose of visiting Daegu is for Wetskills final and KIWW, I tried to hang out with people as much as I can.   We ate Korean barbeque, pork belly, Korean traditional meal and gorgeous buffet.     At first, when I...

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Looking back over the last two weeks

Posted on September 7, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-South-Korea
by Inge Muhlig

Wetskills South Korea 2019 -  by Kyutae Kim (University of Twente) -    Short but so intense two weeks has been passed. Due to the hurricane in South Korea, my flight has been delayed. On the way to the Amsterdam in flight, I was looking all pictures we took during the 2 weeks.   I am a Korean but I am studying civil engineering in the Netherlands. I found out that a Wetskills program will be in S.Korea so I applied. We had first meeting at around KIST and we went on excursions to Shiwha lake tidal power station and Gyeongin Ara Waterway. It was awkward at first moment, but we quickly became close each other with the Dutch open mind.   While I am studying in the Netherlands, I always tried to get into the Dutch friends and culture, but I never imagined that Dutch friends got into Korean friends and Korean culture. But this Wetskills...

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Wetskills: such an experience

Posted on September 7, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-South-Korea
by Inge Muhlig

Wetskills South Korea 2019 -  by Roel Hunting (Waterschap Rijn en IJssel) -    If you asked me what I knew about South Korea prior to Wetskills, that could be counted in one hand at most. Of course, Guus Hiddink belongs to that list. But also, the past Olympic Winter Games. After Wetskills I could write a book about it, but for the sake of convenience I will only stick to a shorter version: this blog. Then why a book? Because so many different stories and experiences richer. But what I will remember most about South Korea itself is the friendliness and hospitality of the people. It felt like home. I really enjoyed that feeling.   Because so much has happened, we can mirror ourselves metaphorically to LingLing (typhoon) who was approaching last Saturday. In a very short time we came together just like a typhoon at the Welcomes dinner on Sunday, joined forces and...

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Happy Tears and Wetskills

Posted on September 6, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-South-Korea
by Inge Muhlig

Wetskills South Korea 2019 -  by Berkay Umut Yesildagli (Korea Institute of Science and Technology)    Wetskills is a journey. A psychical test which requires you to wake up every day and work for hours on topics that you have no idea about with people you just met. They can be Dutch people, straight forward and continuing. You will have Korean people too in your team. They will go under the radar and suddenly bring up amazing information. Wetskills will be a mental journey as well. You will be getting tested by other people's perception, their ideas, hardships of teamwork. You will be annoyed so much sometimes that you won't notice other people will be annoyed by you as well.   But you will keep going. You will wake up every morning and you will find yourself in a passionate worry. You will be having fun every time you find something that will help your...

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It’s finals day!

Posted on September 6, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills-South-Korea
by Inge Muhlig

Wetskills South Korea 2019 -  by Pleun Weijers (Waterschap Limburg) -    Time flies when thinking out-of-the-box! Today was the last day of our program, which we spent at the Korea International Water Week 2019 in Daegu to present the case studies we have been working on for the past two weeks. We had a very early start and a hasty breakfast, but we were all excited to pitch our solutions.   We arrived at the conference in the morning, where we had time for some badly needed coffee and a last round of practice (repetition is key to success, right Berkay?). Having displayed our posters, we sat down in the room where the Wetskills presentations were to take place.   After some words of welcome and a lovely surprise video about our adventures so far, it was finally up to us. In front of a big audience, we delivered our pitches and answered questions from the...

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Finals at AquaTech – and the winners are…

Posted on September 5, 2019
in Blogs, Wetskills Mexico 2019
by Kennard Burer

Wetskills Mexico 2019 - by Simone van Holst & Andrea Velasco Martinez This morning everyone woke up with excitement and maybe a little bit of nervousness because it was the day of the finals! In the morning all pitch presenters had time to practice and optimize the pitch to shine brightly on the Stage at AquaTech Mexico 2019. At 13.30 all groups were meeting at the entrance of AquaTech and everyone was dressed to impress. At 13.30 some groups practiced the pitch a last few times while the others walk around AquaTech to network with other water professionals. At 17.00 the moment we had all been waiting for started the pitch finals! By lottery the order of presentation was picked. The first group who had to give their presentation was DropWise. Arturo gave a clear pitch presentation about the technical and educational part of their water in schools project. Second up was...

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Wetskills

Wetskills is an independent Foundation based in The Netherlands. Wetskills is part of the Human Capital Agenda of the Dutch water sector. KNW Waternetwerk, the Royal Netherlands Water Network, is the (financial) administrator for Wetskills Foundation.

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