A career day for all Mechanical Engineers of the Netherlands

In the past, both study associations used to organise a symposium roughly once every year. However, the ME Student Day was something bigger, being organised by members from both Isaac Newton and Simon Stevin. Because this was so positively received by both the companies and the students, this idea is definitely worth repeating. However, to keep the uniqueness of the events and keep a clear division between an educational symposium and the career-focused ME Student Day, the events will be organised alternately, so both events will happen every other year.

Regular symposia

A symposium is an educational day full of lectures (and possibly cases or workshops) provided by interesting companies, all linked to a specific theme related to Mechanical Engineering. The event takes place on the campus of your own study association or on a venue nearby your place of study, with usually around 200 students attending. The typical schedule of such a day includes lectures, a case, free lunch, a closing drink, maybe a small company market and an opening or closing speech by a keynote speaker related to the theme. It is completely up to the committee to choose the theme, so select something that interests you, find companies that can tell more about it and organise a symposium!

To get an idea of what a symposium could look like, have a look at the previous edition organised at Isaac Newton from December 2023. This symposium called “Power Up! – Energize the Future” was based on the theme of energy transition. Read more about it on the event page or look at the pictures on the Newton website or on Flickr. At Simon Stevin, the next regular symposium will be in June and for Isaac Newton, the new committee has just started planning their event around November this year.

Differences with ME Student Day

The Mechanical Engineering Student Day will be focused on general career perspectives for Mechanical Engineering, having a large scale company market during the whole day. In addition, a programme consisting of interesting lectures, workshops and cases will be provided by companies from all sectors of the Mechanical Engineering field. The goal is to include all students of Mechanical Engineering in all educational degrees in the Netherlands in one place. A new committee for ME Student Day will consist of members from both Isaac Newton and Simon Stevin, with a possible addition of more sister associations if they would like to join the initiative. For the normal symposium, only members of your own study association will be in the committee, as it takes place in your own city. The future and differences between a normal symposium and the ME Student Day are currently summarised like this:

If you are interested in organising one of these events, feel free to speak to the board of your study association or send us an email. For more information, ask the board or previous committee members, they are happy to share more!