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Industrial BoardFor the first time I enjoy the privilege to write a few introductory words to the Annual Report of the J.M. Burgers Centre, the research school for fluid dynamics in The Netherlands. In the time I have been member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the J.M. Burgers Centre I have witnessed a continuous growth to the presently well recognised research school. Nevertheless, last year we noted a striking development, that is the interest of the Dutch Industry for the use of OpenFOAM. The assembled industries showed a surprising interest in the initiative. The list of industries is: Unilever, TataSteel, Philips, AKZO-Nobel, Teijin Aramid, Shell, DOW Benelux, ASML, DSM , Océ , NLR, NMI/VSL, TNO-Science and Industry, TNO-Defence and Safety, TNO-Oil - and Energy Industry, MARIN, Deltares, KEMA, ESTEC, ECN/NRG and FlowServe. This inspired a dedicated initiative to promote the use of OpenFOAM at the Dutch Universities. Basically, the aimed target was to grow a community of researchers that have a proper understanding of OpenFOAM, and use this to formulate their scientific findings. The idea is that OpenFOAM is an ideal platform for knowledge transfer from Universities and institutions to the participating industries. To achieve this, the initiative group prepared an application of the OpenMIND programme for STW support. The group found the outcome rather remarkable, that is that the application perspective of the application was found insufficient. Looking backward, all involved in the initiative remain very supportive, and are presently formulating alternative programmes. The descried initiative was not possible without the demonstrated interests of Dutch Industries for the knowledge developed within the Burgers Centre. We enjoy the support of our scientific director Prof. Gijs Ooms and the support of Ilse Hoekstein-Philips as continuous values in the Burgers Centre. One example of a well recognised event is the Burgers Day where PhD’s were demonstrating and sharing their developments. The sustained huge number of visitors of the Burgers Day illustrate that the community is living and developing well. I thank the Scientific Director of the Burgers Centre and the Office for leading this living community to the volume is has nowadays. |
