August 2023
What does the future hold for the maritime sector?
Ships that sail the seven seas, kitted out with artificial intelligence and sensors but without a single human being on board: is this a dream of the future? No, it is already today’s reality. What you can see here is actually two developments. The first development is guiding the ship away from the dock side in the port and the [...]
June 2023
Cybercrime in the virtual world: a global problem without a solution in sight
This article will deal with developments in the field of cybercrime in the virtual world. When we talk about the virtual world, the term metaverse pops up fairly quickly. But what is this really, this metaverse? Metaverse is a new era of the Internet, linked to virtual reality headsets. Users often also have access to it by augmented reality. You [...]
Euromex and PIEK are global players
Euromex Microscopen BV is a leading manufacturer of microscopes and other optical instruments. Founded in 1966, Euromex has become a world-class supplier of biological and stereo microscopes. Euromex operates in more than 120 countries worldwide through distributors and resellers. A wide variety of customers such as schools and educational institutes, clinical and research laboratories and a wide range of industrial [...]
May 2023
Logistics is more than moving products
PIEK spoke to Bernard Piette, representative board member of Logistics in Wallonia. This organisation is the innovation cluster for three sectors in Wallonia, namely transport, logistics and mobility. Its activities are based on the one vision of being the Walloon go-to partner in the fields of logistics and innovation in the mobility sector on behalf of all parties active in [...]
Telemedicine and remote healthcare
Telemedicine and telehealth are two concepts that are increasingly used these days in the healthcare sector. Telemedecine refers to the offering of clinical services by doctors and nurses without there being direct contact with the patient concerned. Service is provided through computers or mobile devices. This means that a patient does not have go to the hospital or the GP’s [...]
Smart police service innovations
Artificial Intelligence Police services all over the world are using artificial intelligence (AI) more and more nowadays, which gives them opportunities to prevent planned crimes. This may seem impossible, but various promising algorithms have already been developed in this field. One of them has been created by Chicago University on the basis of publicly available data of crimes involving violence [...]
April 2023
Interview with Dr. S. Braun and Dr. M. Zoet; on the cutting edge of healthcare and data analytics
PIEK spoke to two Professors (=Dutch lectors) of Zuyd University, Dr. Susy Braun and Dr. Martijn Zoet. Dr. Braun is professor in the fields of nutrition, lifestyle and exercise. Dr. Zoet is professor in the field of future-proof financials. They join forces when it comes to data analyses in healthcare aimed at improving treatment methods, aftercare and prevention. Preventive measures [...]
March 2023
Trends 2023
It has been a tradition for PIEK to look into the future at the beginning of the year, and 2023 is no different. This article will be devoted to trends worth noticing. Medical 3D printing technology Tailor-made bones and bone implants printed on demand made from calcium-based minerals are no longer a pipe dream but a reality these days. The [...]
Online PIEK and IPC courses
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic not only IPC but also PIEK has speeded up the development and introduction of online courses. With IPC online courses and PIEK online courses your employees can keep developing themselves while also working on their sustainable employability, as there is a wide offering of certification, re-certification and challenge-test training programmes. What is online learning? Online [...]
Universities as sources of innovation
Companies from the technical interconnect industry are increasingly finding their way to research universities and universities of applied sciences to work on the innovation of products and services together with teachers and students. They are doing so in a wide range of fields. A good relationship with universities also allows companies from the technical interconnect industry to have access to [...]
Interview with Katleen Gabriels
In June 2021 PIEK talked to Dr. Katleen Gabriels, who works as an Assistant Professor at Maastricht University. It is therefore high time that we speak to her again about the developments in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), industry 4.0 and chatbots. A new edition of her book Conscientious AI (Regels voor Robots in Dutch) will be published, in [...]
January 2023
Clean air; a necessity
PIEK and Weller will intensify their years of cooperation even further. PIEK and Weller have been working together closely for years now. Weller regularly provides PIEK with various equipment for training purposes. For instance, when it comes down to soldering, trainees at PIEK utilise Weller soldering stations to master the intricacies of hand soldering with this equipment. Also, PIEK certifies [...]
Building without losing materials
Waste is no longer acceptable in constructing buildings nowadays. Material loss is considered a design error and is expected not to occur anymore. The building meeting the new requirements is located in Heerlen in the Parkstad region. The Green Transformable Building, GTB-Lab in short, shows that you can build without wasting materials. Furthermore, the building can undergo various transformations, adapting [...]
December 2022
October 2022
IPC-certifications for the defence industry
The war in the Ukraine seems not to be over soon. No matter how bad this is. Many countries and their political leaders are now supplying many weapons to the Ukraine. And not just that, defence budgets are also being brought back up to standard. And meanwhile NATO has declared Russia to be the biggest threat for Europe. All these [...]
June 2022
Chips in your head
Brain implants have been reality rather than science fiction for a long time and there are still many interesting developments in this field. These will have to be approached with a great sense of responsibility, because we will have to prevent a society from arising in which they are turned into a pure money maker allowing the very rich to [...]
