Being technical together is just fun and enjoyable.
Thinker Thursday!
Every month we organize an evening that focuses on creating and discussing spontaneous ideas. We spoke with Maarten, Sander and Cornel about this fun initiative and now let's briefly introduce these three gentlemen:
Martin: He has a passion for understanding how things work and enjoys taking them apart and putting them back together. Maarten is enthusiastic and bursting with ideas. He gets satisfaction from making things and works mainly with Oracle and Apex in his project at client@ .
Sander: Sander is passionate about technology. His interest once began with Lego and K'NEX and later evolved into electronic devices. He acts as a kind of counterbalance to Maarten's ideas, resulting in a complementary collaboration, similar to Yin and Yang. Sander focuses mainly on Apex.
Cornel: Cornel is a valuable sounding board for the group and occasionally provides them with critical insights. He has a helicopter view and is an excellent facilitator. In addition, Cornel as the bridge to management and is an enthusiastic front-end specialist.
Our CTO Bjorn is a tinkerer, he's just like us on that front.
How did Thinker Thursday come about?
Maarten explains that they started this initiative a few years ago through Bjorn, the CTO. Bjorn is a tinkerer, someone who likes doing new things, trying and wanting to learn about new tech, Bjorn is like us in that respect. During the Covid-19 period some extra space arose and since we could not organize our Hackathon then, we decided to focus more on Thinker Thursday.
Sander and Cornel share their insight that the group grew because of increasing interest. They realized that it was necessary to have more than one project so that everyone had a chance to work on something. We noticed that there was traction and interest; it's just fun and enjoyable to be technical together.
How do you guys come up with ideas for Thinker Thursday?
The ideas arise naturally, Sander says. Sometimes they are just problems we notice, other times they come from conversations. We also get inspired by things we see on YouTube, for example, and think it would be cool to build them.
"People also sometimes bring something from home," Martin says, "and then we can think about it together."
What have you made already?
Among other things, we worked on a Hexapod, a prototype arcade cabinet, assembled our own 3D printer, and even hacked a smart refrigerator.Â
Sander emphasizes that the Hexapod project is surely the brightest project, as this was a challenge for all of us. Thanks to Google and experimentation, we moved forward and were finally able to realize this
Thinker Thursday has a strong social aspect and brings like-minded souls together.
What is the most used one that you have already made?
The 3D printer is our most widely used tool, mainly because we use it to produce parts. We also make extensive use of Retropy.
Cornel explains: "Right now we are also thinking about how we can support each other and what resources we need. Everyone also has the freedom to develop their own projects. For example, one of our team members is very skilled at working with wood.
The most important aspect is that you can spar together and share knowledge. Thinker Thursday has a strong social aspect and brings like-minded souls together.
What project are you currently working on?
We want a lot and have some ongoing projects. Right now we are working on the game table and have plans to develop an app for the office doorbell. We are also working on creating an LED wall for our office and would like to develop an LED game.
Mitte Berckmans
Customer Relationship Crafter
Want to know more about Thinker Thursday? If so, contact Mitte.
