On Tuesday, 3 September, more than 120 students from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) visited the Royal Schiphol Group building to attend ‘Master Identity Day’, the start of their Master’s degree programme in Product Design. At the event, the students were given an introduction to the world of business and set to work on a series of specific challenges. The Master Identity Day was organised by Royal Schiphol Group and TU Delft as part of the Accelerating Innovation alliance. The event aimed to spark students’ interest in our company with a view to encouraging them to think of us when looking for an internship later on in their degree programme.
The fresh-faced students were met and escorted through the Innovation Hub. In the auditorium, students were briefed on the Schiphol vision and strategy, the group vision of innovation and given a choice of three challenges:
1. Business operations in the context of a Smart Mobility ecosystem How can we change the parking business model in order to offer future-proof mobility services while still maintaining profitability?
2. Zero-emission travel within Europe How can Royal Schiphol Group - Amsterdam Airport Schiphol & regional airports – play a role in encouraging and facilitating zero-emission travel for destinations within Europe? Think about potential partnerships, business models and different service concepts.
3. Spreading the load at peak periods How can we ensure that passengers travelling to Schiphol are spread more evenly across the day in order to reduce and possibly even completely eradicate waiting times at check-in, security and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, thereby contributing to passenger satisfaction?
The students then set to work in groups on one of the three challenges. They had just 2.5 hours to analyse the problem, identify potential solutions and present their concept to representatives from the business units, the Innovation Hub and TU Delft.