Dr. J.M. (Jaap) Vleugel

Range

During a master course lecture many decades ago, my eminent professor in Macro-Economics (Huisman) once told us to be prepared to work in a completely different area after your graduation. His advice came in a period of economic crisis. It echoes Schumpeter's view on innovation and economic development and their joint impact on the labour market. Following his advice, I got used to adapt to opportunities offered in many fields and areas (see list below). 
The pay-off of this approach is job readyness and security, albeit not in the same job or place. Many people are overspecialised, which may suit their employer (for some time), but  the individual may loose its ability to adapt to the requirements of an ever changing world. In an operational sense, flexibility and agility in content and above average (time) management skills allow one to switch field and focus, perspective or scale level or combine these on-demand. EQ-related skills, in particular listening without judging and other psychological principles are vital supports of one's decision-making. Being genuinely interested in what is driving other people is a prerequisite for successful interaction and personal effectiveness.

Experience and the essence of education

With over two decades of experience in bachelor, minor, master and EngD education at two very different universities and well over three decades in research, including non-academic jobs, I can deal with a wide array of topics. This also gives me a good insight in the state of todays education and areas for improvement.
The massiness of today's education is troubling both students and lecturers. I still manage to provide individualized coaching. I strongly believe in servant leadership (Covey) as a means to motivate and manage students. Successful education is about introducing students to means that allow them to develop themselves as humans and professionals. Students should become critical consumers of theories, methodology, data sources and data processing tools and attain a good understanding of policy- and decision-making. In design, thesis and EngD projects, students experience the value of their education when working in a professional environment. You study decision-making and internal communication. You experience how many people thrive on experience instead of collecting and using real process data next to other common, fundamental, flaws in professional decision-making. You learn to stay afloat, provide dedicated 'solutions' and manage expections of your supervisors. The final leg of a study program is what stays in the memory of graduates for decades. The same graduates may also become future commissioners.
Lecturers can also learn from their students to improve themselves and their courses; it helps to regularly upgrade your course material.
Being a native Dutch speaker means that you understand the full psychological, cultural and political meanings of the Dutch language. Coaching students is also much easier compared to a situation in which you have to rely on English only.

Many commissioners

In education you are constantly interfacing with external parties like businesses and governments. We now have a large network of regular commissioners who offer many opportunities for design- and thesis projects.
If students work with a company or government agency, they can access real (live) data. As a result, their methodology and results may and frequently also will be (directly) applied in practice and not end up in a drawer or bin like so many professional studies. This gives student research and the education provided by my co-supervising colleagues and me an exceptional social and economic impact.

Education topics

Economics is the study of choice in situations with constrained budgets and uncertainty. Technology is largely regarded as a black box and seen as a major means to generate financial wealth. In technical sciences humans are regarded as developers and users of technology. Our heavy reliance on technical 'fixes' to manage issues, which objectively are mainly due to wrong choices, like excessive behaviour (overconsumption, overproduction and exhaustion of natural resources leading to climate change etc.) means that technological 'development' is frequently used as an escape route, because the political will to change behaviour is lacking and strong lobbies exist to maintain this detrimental behaviour. 'Let the polluter pay' is a basic and fairly effective principle in environmental economics. It may save tax payers large sums of money, yet it is frequently ignored. Instead, society spends large amounts on technology, which is great for engineers, but does it also solve society's challenges or does it create new, but different problems?
I deal with decision-making with respect to:

• Advanced logistics - operations, warehousing, SCM, (change) management & engineering;
• Sustainability and climate impact: operations & policy;
• Asset management and maintenance;
• Trucking logistics;
• Railway freight and passenger services & technology;
• Airport design & operations;
• Maritime transport and container handling;
• Transport~ and infrastructure policy and planning;
• Other transport and traffic (public transport, emerging technologies, scenario studies);
• Built environment (housing, well-being, environment);
• (Techno-)economic and financial decision-making (cba, business cases) in railway- and sanitary engineering;
• Topics in transport-economics, spatial-economics and economic geography.

Education portfolio

• Commissie Bindend Studie-Advies (BSA: committee member);
• Minor CE (CT3200: module manager, lecturer, supervisor);
• MSc TIL (TIL5050-20 Design project: module manager, main supervisor);
• MSc TIL (TIL5060 thesis project: supervisor, chair, graduation committee member);
• MSc TIL (website, Brightspace, Programme Navigator, study advice, 2nd year rev. committee, master introduction and other workshops);
• MSc TEL (ME54035 thesis graduation committee member);
• MSc MTT (MT54035 thesis graduation committee member);
• MSc MADE (YMS80330 thesis graduation committee chair, thesis supervisor, TAC member);
• MSc Architecture and the Built Environment (AR3CS021 City of the Future: tutor, seminar and master class T&L);
• MSc AE T2.II C&O (AE5322 Sustainable Air Transport thesis supervisor & chair);
• MSc EnvEng (ENVM1600 Skills module: yearly guest lectures about Techno-Economic Evaluation);
• EngD Railway- & Sanitary Engineering (CEE5007 Techno-Economic Evaluation module manager, lecturer).

[07-09-2024]