Our student community

Our faculty is home to ten study associations, covering all degree programmes. Together, they offer our students various social activities and a home. They often organize activities for career orientation and initiatives in collaboration with the degree programme themselves. The associations have strong ties with the Faculty and also maintain good contacts with companies and organizations in the field of the degree programmes. This, for example, results in  company visits, sponsorships or speakers for events.

The Bèta Student Federation (Bètastuf) is the overarching organization for student representation at the Faculty of Science and Engineering. The goal is to allow student representatives to work together and accomplish their mutual goals regarding student-related matters. Examples of student representatives within the Faculty that receive support of Bètastuf are: study association board members, programme board student members, programme committee student members, Faculty Council student members, and Faculty Board student assessors. In addition, there are other organizations or teams who are related to or closely work together with Bètastuf, for example the Beta Business Days, the FSE Radio Podcast team and the FSE Videos team.

Beta Business Days is the biggest career event for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students in Groningen. The event is annually organized by a student board and consists of two days filled with activities. The aim is to connect students with companies through networking and recruitment. Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students get the opportunity to orientate on their career prospects and make contacts that could lead to an internship, a thesis project or a job. 

As of 2021, the Faculty of Science and Engineering has its own student podcast: FSE Radio Podcast. It’s produced by and for students. Every episode covers a different topic with relevant guests. The podcasts are also used by study advisors to give better advice to students. 

The AI Safety Initiative Groningen (AISIG) is made by and aimed at students and focuses on education, research, outreach and networking related to AI. AISIG organizes a diverse mix of initiatives including AI safety courses, hackathons, in-depth gatherings, and more. The network aims to equip individuals, in order to be informed contributors in the field of AI Safety. 

The Top Dutch Solar Racing team is a multidisciplinary solar racing team. Multidisciplinary and unique, because the team consists of student members from various educational institutions and levels (University of Groningen, Hanze University of Applied Sciences and secondary vocational education (mbo). The students work together on building a solar car to compete in various solar challenges, with the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia as the most important and prestigious one.

The team was founded in 2019. Ever since, a large team of students is continuously updating and expanding the knowledge gathered to build a solar car. The team consists of students working on technical aspects, such as the software and the hardware, but also sees students taking up other tasks, such as management or promotion related functions. 

The Self Driving Challenge is annually organized by the RDW (Dienst Wegverkeer), as of 2019. The main goal is to offer students the opportunity to develop their skills in the field of smart mobility. During the challenge, the teams drive their autonomous vehicle through a set of challenges on a track that represent real-world driving scenarios.  

As of 2023, students of several degree programmes of the Faculty of Science and Engineering participate in the Self Driving Challenge. The team is a multidisciplinary University of the North team consisting of students from the University of Groningen, Hanze University of Applied Sciences and Noorderpoort. In 2023, the team won the challenge and in 2024, they became second. 

The European Rover Challenge is an international Martian robots competition, annually organized in Poland since 2014. It’s the biggest robotics and space event in Europe where students from around the world design unique Mars rovers. In the final competition, teams test their prototypes on geologically realistic Martian terrain, performing tasks based on real NASA and ESA missions. 

A few Physics students of our faculty started a team (Makercie) in 2023 and won the remote edition of the competition in that same year. In a short amount of time, the Makercie team has grown into a group of more than sixty students from University of Groningen, Hanze University of Applied Sciences and University of Twente. 

iGEM is the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition: an annual competition where multidisciplinary student teams are using synthetic biology techniques to build a biological machine. The students conceive, design and build a bacteria with a useful and / or interesting application. The big international jamboree takes place in Paris every fall. 

Students from our faculty have participated in the iGEM competition for around twenty years now. Usually the team consists of around 15 students in the life sciences, and for a few years now, also students from Minerva art academy join the team. 

Cybathlon is a project that has its origin at ETZ Zürich. It challenges teams from all over the world to develop assistive technologies suitable for everyday use for people with disabilities.

CybaNorth is a team of students from the University of Groningen, the University Medical Center Groningen and Hanze University of Applied Sciences. As a multidisciplinary team, they compete in the Cybathlon competition. Members of the Cybanorth team come from various educational backgrounds, such as Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Movement Science. By joining the team, students get the chance to experience all aspects of medical device design.

CanSat is the annually organized student design-build-launch competition for space-related topics, organized by the American Astronautical Society (AAS). Unlike most existing competitions, this one is not limited to ideas and designs on paper. Participating teams are challenged to design and build a space-type system, with which they will then compete against other teams in several challenges. 

Two teams with students of our faculty worked towards participation in the CanSat Worldcup in Mexico, in May 2025. Seven students from the Faculty of Science and Engineering currently form the vMajorz CanSat  team. They all bring different expertise to the team, from the degree programmes Astronomy, Physics, and (Applied) Mathematics. The second team is called Mulerius Satellites. This team currently consists of five students from our faculty and Hanze University of Applied Sciences, bringing knowledge from the degree programmes Applied Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.