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The Nuon Solar Team has won the Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa once again. During a couple of exhausting days, filled with technical setbacks as well as human error, the team twice lagged far behind their Japanese rivals.

The new MARCH III by TU Delft student team Project MARCH has won the Cybathlon Experience in Düsseldorf, the international obstacle race for exoskeletons. Entrants from several countries competed in the test of robotic harnesses for people with paraplegia, ending on 29 September. Together with ‘pilot’ Sjaan Quirijns, who has had paraplegia since 2000, MARCH III achieved the fastest time and the highest number of points. Thanks to improvements to the suit and intensive training of its wearer, the team successfully completed a four-obstacle course in just under 9.5 minutes. Project MARCH gained particular plaudits for the independent functioning of its device.

TU Delft is 58th in the global Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking this year, an increase of five places.

TU Delft has provided two of the three proposals that are competing for the tenth Earth Explorer mission by ESA, which is planned for 2027-2028. The Earth Explorer missions are aimed at Earth observation, one of the important aims of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Ruisdael Observatory – named after the 17th-century painter Jacob van Ruisdael – combines a nationwide dense network of measuring points with high-resolution simulations and the necessary computing power in order to map out changes in local weather, air quality and climate. The official opening of the observatory is on 27 September, with a meeting in the grounds of the KNMI measuring station at Cabauw (Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research, CESAR). In April this new top-class research facility was awarded a certificate from NWO’s National Roadmap for Large-Scale Scientific infrastructure.

Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have developed new technology that enables a drone to record all stationary and moving objects (such as trees, masts, birds of prey, helicopters) during autonomous flight and continuously alter its flight path to avoid them.

Last Wednesday, at the qualification for the starting position at the Sasol Solar Challenge 2018 in South Africa, the Japanese were just one second quicker than the Nuon Solar Team. So the Dutch team will start at Saturday 22 September, with their solar car Nuna9S, on the second position.

The field of optical microscopy research has developed rapidly in recent years. Thanks to the invention of a technique called super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, it has recently become possible to view even the smaller parts of a living cell. Now, by making a smart refinement to that technique, researchers at TU Delft have pushed its boundaries even further. Where previously objects measuring up to 10-20 nanometres could be observed, their method makes it possible to focus on structures of as tiny as 3 nanometres across.

Cyclist Lieke de Cock won the world championship for cycling in the Nevada desert in the US with a speed of 120 km/h.