Current

Ammonia gas – it is both highly poisonous and corrosive, yet also often used in industry, or present around intensive livestock farming. To better mitigate the risks of ammonia leaks, Paddy French together with Lina Sarro and Sten Vollebregt will make smaller, more robust and eventually more affordable ammonia sensors. The NWO OTP programme has funded their research into a fully-integrated, single-chip sensor that incorporates two porous silicon carbide structures for detecting ammonia and humidity, all in a single layer and one etch step.

The SiLEAN project, funded by the European Union, has officially launched with the goal of setting a new benchmark in solar cell efficiency by over 25.5%, while reducing costs and lowering the carbon footprint by up to 75%.

Het PRogramme of Innovation in Mathematics Education (PRIME) is gericht op het herontwerpen van wiskundevakken voor ingenieurs. PRIME ging in 2014 van start, door middel van een pilot programma. PRIME is onderdeel van het Interfacultair Onderwijs vanuit de Department of Applied Mathematics (DIAM) bij TU Delft. Het programma maakt gebruik van een blended learning-cyclusontwerp om wiskunde te geven aan niet-wiskundestudenten binnen de gehele TU Delft.

Ana van Lieshout Titan - prospective master's student in applied mathematics at the Faculty of EEMCS - wrote her bachelor thesis during an internship at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. And her thesis has now resulted in a publication in the leading medical journal The Lancet Global Health. Ana developed mathematical models for the preventative treatment of tuberculosis among ex-prisoners in Brazil. It’s a tremendously special achievement that Ana has reached this milestone so early in her (scientific) career!

Martin Skrodzki, from the Computer Graphics and Visualization group, has been awarded the NWO WECOM grant. The aim of this NWO programme is to fund science communication projects that promote the connection between science and society. The goal of Martin’s research project is to  enable an AI-informed generation of tomorrow. He is creating an exhibition of four pop-up suitcases that teach the technical fundamentals of AI, and engage the general public in discussions about ethical issues surrounding AI.

Scientists from TU Delft faculty of EEMCS and Honda Research Institute (HRI) in Japan are collaborating on developing a comprehensive AI system for human and group understanding. The project is focused on creating a generic AI system that uses nonverbal cues from human body poses, like hand gestures, eye gaze, facial expressions and speech, for various social interaction tasks. This AI system could make a significant impact on many real-world applications like industrial work, personal daily assistance, and healthcare, where intelligent agents are getting more common in recent years.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded thirteen young TU Delft researchers from the Science (ENW) and Applied and Engineering Sciences (TTW) domains, a Veni grant of up to 320,000 euro.

A team of researchers at TU Delft are the first in the world to apply quantum computing to solve an old riddle in the design of fibre-reinforced composite materials: how to determine the optimal sequence of angles at which the material’s layers are composed and stacked. This layering determines the mechanical properties of the material, essential for the application of composites for lightweight aircraft, wind turbine blades, cars or even batteries, etc. The QAIMS team have now gone through to the final rounds of the Airbus-BMW Quantum Computing Challenge where they will pitch their approach to ‘push the boundaries of quantum tech for mobility.’

Electric cars are increasingly being charged 'smartly', which means they are only charged at times of high grid availability and low electricity prices. Smart charging prevents grid overload and saves you money. To get maximum benefit from smart charging, you not only want to reduce the charging speed at busy or expensive hours, but also be able to pause charging. Researchers from Utrecht University and TU Delft show that adding charging pauses doubles the effectiveness of smart charging. Most cars already support this, but some car models cannot handle these charging pauses properly. The researchers call on car manufacturers to ensure that all models can handle charge pauses. The standards for this already exist, but are sometimes not appropriately applied. Making technical smart-charging requirements mandatory could help.