On (the) T at....ABB

This time Cecile and Boudie were welcomed by a reception committee Rita Malik, Maria Pancheva and Willem Pietersz in a beautifully furnished office in building TQ.

What does your organization do?

ABB is a large, leading high-tech company worldwide with many diverse disciplines. In Eindhoven, e-mobility is central and R&D activities take place around EV charging. Among other things, research is being conducted into how charging electric cars can take place increasingly more efficiently.

The site at Strijp-T therefore has an indoor car workshop and a forecourt with various outdoor test stations. And ABB is the official charging partner of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. In cooperation with engineers from the motorsport governing body, ABB E-mobility has developed an innovative and safe solution for charging the Gen3 cars. "Together with Formula E we help encourage the global adoption of clean mobility by improving technologies and highlighting the benefits of sustainable electrification."

What is your role?

Rita has been working for a year as an office manager/management assistant. “In this role I act, among other things, as the first point of contact toward the Strijp-T community and the Strijp-T manager”, says Rita. Maria continues “and I work as global product marketing manager EV charging solutions. I partly fulfill this role at our location in Delft as well as here in Eindhoven”. Willem: “as a prototyping engineer I am responsible for the support during the Formula E race weekends”.

“In that respect our activities fit seamlessly with the Strijp-T theme Make-Create-Innovate. Every day we are here working on innovative ideas. And such an inspiring environment helps, where many young, highly educated people can meet each other easily. A visit to the rooftop terrace is therefore always part of our tour with our guests. From there it is very nice to see how the site is laid out with lots of greenery and various places where you can spend time or that contain a leisure element.

What stands out is how quickly this area is developing. All this dynamism strongly appeals to young talent, and being located here in the middle of Brainport is an absolute plus. The presence of Fontys ICT as direct neighbours here on Strijp-T also makes it easy to make use of the latest knowledge and techniques”.

With whom do you want us to go on the T next time and for what?

“When it comes to problem solving, working on problems with a ‘social impact’ may be the most important of all. Therefore a follow-up visit to ‘7-steps-2-heaven’, which is involved in ‘indoor farming’ as a solution to the global food issue, is definitely worthwhile.”