Release Notes: 2017 Q4

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New Features

New Features

Improved Features

Bugfixes

Styling of text element

This is a new styling of text elements. It will give the element a white background, a coloured side bar, and a slightly smaller font. It can be useful to visually distinguish content.

In the element properties, under Appearance, select 'Wit met Zijlijn' and choose one of the TU Delft theme colours:

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Dynamic content overview - Card Layout

News and Agenda items are usually displayed in what is called a Dynamic Content Overview. The news / agenda feed on your page is one as well. There are several overview templates available, but there was great demand for a template that displayed the search results in a card layout. This has now been introduced, an example can be seen on the right.

Also, check out more Card Layout display options!

Styling is determined by the available content of the result pages, as well as custom settings in the overview element. All card variations (normal, half height, horizontal, and horizontal half height) are available to choose from, as well as the number of results per row.

Because the overviews are difficult to set up properly, changing from your current template to this new template is not done by editors. Please contact your local content manager to apply for this overview template.

Creating life from lifeless biomolecules with AI and lab evolution

“What is life? How does a living cell emerge from lifeless molecules?” wondered a multidisciplinary team of Dutch scientists. To answer these questions the research team, led by the TU Delft, aims to build a living synthetic cell from lifeless biomolecules, using laboratory evolution and artificial intelligence for the first time. The ten-year research programme to do so, entitled “Evolving life from non-life” or simply “EVOLF”, was awarded 40 million euro by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) as part of the Summit grants scheme.

Creating life from lifeless biomolecules with AI and lab evolution

“What is life? How does a living cell emerge from lifeless molecules?” wondered a multidisciplinary team of Dutch scientists. To answer these questions the research team, led by the TU Delft, aims to build a living synthetic cell from lifeless biomolecules, using laboratory evolution and artificial intelligence for the first time. The ten-year research programme to do so, entitled “Evolving life from non-life” or simply “EVOLF”, was awarded 40 million euro by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) as part of the Summit grants scheme.

TU Delft Cybersecurity MSc student participated at the 2024 European Space Agency (ESA) Academy Training

In April 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) Academy launched the pilot edition of a five-day Cybersecurity Training Course . After an open call, thirty highly motivated Bachelor and Master students were selected to attend the course at ESEC-Galaxia, Belgium — the ESA Education Training and Learning Facility. First-year TU Delft Cybersecurity Master student Jegor Zelenjak was selected to attend the event. During the Cybersecurity Training Course, the students have gained invaluable knowledge about Cybersecurity in the space domain, in the areas of Cyber Risk Management, (Applied) Cryptography, CCSDS Space Protocols, Radio Frequency (RF) communications, Software Defined Radio (SDRs) and RF Attacks and Jamming to Space Systems. Besides theoretical knowledge, the course provided practical exercises to help students understand the material better. The group project allowed the students further to apply their knowledge in a real-world operational scenario, while also allowing them to learn from other group mates with the same or different backgrounds. Finally, as part of the course, the participants also visited the ESEC-Redu site, which has satellite communications facilities and upcoming cybersecurity centres. The participants have also received a certificate of participation and a course transcript. For further information about ESA Academy’s Cybersecurity Training Course, click here : TU Delft MSc student Jegor Zelenjak at ESA Academy Training Course on Cybersecurity. Antonios Atlasis, Head of Systems Security Engineering Section at European Space Agency, delivers a lecture at ESA Academy Training Course on Cybersecurity. Trainees at ESA Training Course on Cybersecurity.

Roundtable Discussion on "Rethinking Materials Security: Co-creating with Policy, Engineering, and Design" at TU Delft The Hague

As part of Critical Raw Materials Week, a roundtable discussion on "Rethinking Materials Security: Co-creating with Policy, Engineering, and Design" was organized within the flagship program, Materials Security of the Climate Safety and Security Center (CASS), at the TU Delft campus in The Hague. Academics and policymakers came together to explore the critical intersections of materials security with climate, water, energy, and human security. With an interdisciplinary focus, we aim to co-create a holistic overview for a sustainable and resilient materials ecosystem. This event exemplified the mission of the TU Delft campus in The Hague, which is to bridge the gap and facilitate dialogue between engineering, sciences, and public policy. Listen to a short aftermovie what the organisers have to say below! Click here to find more information about this event or send an email to contact person k.r.rossi@tudelft.nl .

"Checklists no longer suffice"

Justin and Eleonora, you have just become co-directors of the TU Delft Safety & Security Institute , but surely you were involved before. What is your connection to or experience with the institute? Justin : As an AI expert I have been working with the local police force for years, both at my previous job in Singapore and now with the Netherlands police since I joined TU Delft in 2021. Amongst others, I’m now leading the recently established Model-Driven Decision-Making Lab which falls under the framework agreement that TU Delft signed last year with the Netherlands police . Both parties have been collaborating for years on topics like forensic technology and cyber security and with this agreement it has become a more formal partnership. The TU Delft Safety & Security Institute played a key role in bringing that agreement about and will continue to coordinate the collaboration. So that is how I became involved with the institute. Eleonora : Transport safety is the central topic of my research. I have been following the institute quite closely since I came to Delft, as its first director, Pieter van Gelder, is part of my section. It was very nice to get some seed funding from the institute to collaborate with people from different fields and really start new research pathways. And then during the past year I got involved in the transition team, a group of researchers from all the TU Delft faculties brainstorming on plans for the prolongation of the institute. This was something that I liked very much. The discussions we had were very interesting and constructive. What did the transition team discuss? Did you identify certain challenges for the field that the institute should address? Eleonora : The meetings with the transition team made me realize that it is becoming more and more important to address safety and security in an integrated way, as both the research agendas and the policy agendas are connected. We live in a in a time where things are happening very fast in terms of technology developments and geopolitical developments. There are many different societal issues, like climate conditions, an aging population and new digital technologies, that both Justin and I and our TU Delft colleagues are working on. I think the challenge is to keep safety and security a primary focus in all that work. And we cannot look at transport safety or industry safety or infrastructure safety or digital vulnerability separately, because one risk is associated with many others. For example, physical infrastructures increasingly become part of digital networks. Justin : I don't like to think in terms of challenges, I prefer opportunities. Yes, both safety and security are big and important themes. But at the same time, they are not yet. Sure, there are many researchers at TU Delft working on it and they have found their way to the institute. But I think there are also still many researchers at TU Delft who don't explicitly address safety and security, even though they could as they work on topics that raise such issues. They are just not sufficiently aware of the safety and security aspects of their work, or don't have the incentives, the means, the avenues, to address them. The challenges mentioned here by Eleonora were put central in the 10-year anniversary magazine of the TU Delft Safety & Security Institute, published in October 2023 with the title progreSSIon; Safety & Security in a Changing World . So, there are opportunities to do more. I think one of our goals should be to facilitate these researchers not yet working on safety and security by further expanding the work that the institute has been doing in the past 10 years. This includes organizing events, creating funding opportunities and building a strong ecosystem also involving external partners from domains like the police and defence, and certain companies. If I may play the role of the devil’s advocate for a moment... It surprises me to hear you say that many researchers who could or should be working on safety and security don’t do that yet, especially when it comes to safety. Is that not a very basic value in engineering? Justin : No, it's not surprising. Safety is not the most attractive topic. Think for example of autonomous cars, a technology that I work on. Engineers tend to get excited by the amazing opportunities that new technologies such as AI open up, and they don't care about crashing sometimes. Especially in startup companies, safety may often be an afterthought. OK, something went wrong. Who cares, right? As long as we push the envelope, and the investors are happy and we can raise money, it is OK. Safety is then seen as something that somebody else will take care of at some point, for example the government must worry about. But of course, to really deploy something in society, in practice to really commercialize something, safety suddenly becomes of primary importance. To make sure that important values are not ignored or overlooked, TU Delft pays a lot of attention to integrating ethics in the curriculum and to responsible research and innovation. Despite these efforts, could it be the case that exactly because safety has been a basic value in engineering for a long time, that people have the tendency to relegate it to the background without thinking about it too deeply? Eleonora : Safety is indeed often taken for granted. Even though every engineer or technology researcher is aware that safety is important, there is a risk that it is seen as something that can be addressed quickly. People think that if they follow the rules or tick the boxes of design guidelines, that things will be OK. But the systems are becoming more and more complex and with more and more interfaces with other systems. As a consequence, just following rules and regulations does not guarantee safety anymore. We need to critically rethink what safety and security mean in this day and age, and in the case at hand. Checklists no longer suffice. This is even more the case with new technologies like the autonomous cars that Justin just mentioned, areas where the industries are rushing, and authorities are lagging with regulation. We are moving into new areas of technology or applications where guidelines don't exist about what is safe or secure. We need to make sure that future engineers and planners are aware of these challenges and are trained to address them in their work. Safety and security education has a key role in this. Would more focus on safety help or hinder innovation? Justin : The European AI act does limit certain things. It will probably hinder certain technological developments, but would those really have been progress? Perhaps we can make it our business model in Europe that we have high ethical quality standards. That our products are green and safe. But yeah, it could also have drawbacks for business, there are two sides to it. Eleonora : I fully agree that safety is sometimes seen as a barrier while it could be a strength. When you have it, you take it for granted. But when you don’t have it, for example when you have a major aviation accident, you see again that there are serious consequences in terms of human losses, economic losses, reputation damage. But since Justin mentioned the ethical aspect, another point that was very much discussed within the transition team was that of inclusiveness. We want safety for all. And this is something that, I think, deserves a lot more attention from researchers. There is also a very important role for national and international governments to play here, to ensure that safe infrastructures, services and so on are accessible by all. We can think of countries that are not technology ready, or vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. Can you give some examples of how inclusiveness and safety relate? Eleonora : Sure. One example from my own field, traffic safety, is the automated vehicles which are developed in industrialized countries for industrialized countries to make the roads much safer by eliminating human errors. But the largest share of traffic fatalities takes place in low to middle income countries, which lack the required digital infrastructures. How can we make the roads safer over there? Another example is that industry has in the past prioritized the safety of the car occupant over the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. These people are unprotected, so this is a baseline vulnerability in our traffic system. Yet as a society we want people to be able to safely use active transportation modes like walking and cycling, these are more sustainable. So here you see three values coming together: safety, inclusiveness, and sustainability. So in the coming 5 years, equality and inclusion will be an important horizontal aspect cross-cutting our main four research themes [ see text box and image ], along with finding sustainable solutions, working transdisciplinary and integrating safety and security [ see image ]. Key research themes for the coming 5 years Safe by design Digital vulnerabilities Forensics & failure analysis Security & geopolitics To round off this interview, this is the first time that the institute has two directors instead of one. Will you have a certain division of work? Justin : Well, in a way it is straightforward, I will be more focussed on security, while Eleonora has more of a background in safety. Eleonora : But that does not mean that we see them as separate things. Justin : No, of course not, integrating safety and security concerns is key to the institute. Eleonora: Exactly. I think that one of our first steps will be to put together a new management team with people from different faculties. We look very much forward to talking to the faculties and to people who are interested in contributing. Our general approach will be to first build on what is already there, because in the previous periods a lot has been done and there is a very strong basis of activities and things that are already going on. And then we will also start thinking about new initiatives and opportunities. Safety versus security Safety relates to unintentional threats caused by natural disasters and unintentional human behaviour, such as technical failures and human error. Security relates to intentional threats caused by intentional human behaviour, such as sabotage, crime, fraud and terrorism.

New funding, new directors, new participating faculty, new themes: TU Delft Safety & Security Institute continues its work

The mandate of TU Delft Safety & Security Institute has been renewed for another 5-year period to continue its work with and for the safety & security research community at TU Delft. For this next chapter of the institute, Behnam Taebi will hand over the directorship to Eleonora Papadimitriou and Justin Dauwels. Together they will take the lead as co-directors. With Mechanical Engineering joining, the institute now represents the safety & security communities of six faculties. “Transdisciplinary safety & security: connecting TU Delft researchers and domains towards a strong societal positioning” is the strategy for the coming period. Building on its achievements in the past 10 years, the institute will continue its efforts regarding inclusive community building while also taking on ambitious new challenges. Continuation and change ‘Safety & security in a changing world’ was the theme of the anniversary magazine of the Institute , which was published at the end of 2023. Safety & Security aspects of climate change, new digital technologies, and the rapid changing geopolitical tensions all increase the need for inclusive, comprehensive, and thoughtful multidisciplinary engineering approaches. Considering such developments, and after a process of community and stakeholder consultation, the Safety & Security (S&S) Institute has picked four overarching joint research themes as its focus for the next five years: Safe & Sustainable by Design, Forensics & Failure Analysis, Digital vulnerabilities, Security & Geopolitics The first two themes are a continuation of the themes that successfully guided the work of institute over the past five years , the last two are new. Work undertaken under these themes includes expanding Safe by Design to more domains, novel work on the safety and security of transitions in transport, and programming on national security. The institute will continue to develop new initiatives under the recently signed framework agreement with the Dutch police to work on safety & security issues , which already led to the establishment of a joint Model-Driven Decisions Lab (MoDDL). Old and new faces The new funding period for the institute also involves a change in management. Behnam Taebi will step down as scientific director of the institute. In an article in the institute’s recent anniversary magazine, he reflected on the history and future of the field with Pieter van Gelder , who was scientific director during the first 5-year funding period. In the coming five years the institute will have two scientific leads, namely Eleonora Papadimitriou (Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management) and Justin Douwels (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science). The research of the former has a focus on safety, the research of the latter on security. Together they will deliver the synergy that the institute aims to create between both domains. In an interview on the website of the institute they introduce themselves. In the coming period the co-directors will start shaping the new management team, involving all the participating faculties. Eveline Vreede continues her activities for the institute. More information For more information, you can contact: Scientific co-director Dr. Eleonora Papadimitriou Scientific co-director Dr. Justin Dauwels Executive Manager Eveline Vreede

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Tabs as Grid Elements

What changed?

Tabs were difficult to manage, especially when you wanted to re-use and swap content from other pages. Therefore, the tab element has been redesigned for a more user-friendly interface, a better overview of the embedded content, and the added possibility to cut/paste and reference elements in it.

The old Tab element still exists and is not automatically replaced, but will be phased out. For this purpose, the old version has been disabled for editing. In the following weeks, we'll be changing all existing Tab Elements to Tabs Grids. Should you however come across an old Tab Element and you find yourself unable to edit it, please contact your local content manager.

How can I create a new Tabs Grid?

Tabs Grids are created like all other grids. When creating a new element, under Grid Elements, select Tabs grid. This will place a grid on your page with 5 rows, each row representing one of the tabs.

  • The Header in the first element of each tab will also be the title of that tab. So for instance, in this case, the Header of this text element ('How can I create ...') is adapted as Tab title.
  • You can select a colour theme by editing the Tabs Grid properties; under Appearance, select a theme (see fig.)
  • If you don't put any content in a tab, it will be invisible.

 

Any tips and tricks?

When you don't want to start a tab with a header (for instance, when it's an image), you still need to tell Typo3 which title to use for this tab. You can do so by creating a 'Header Only' element, and under Type, select 'Hidden'. This will not show the header inside your tab, but it will be adopted as Tab title.

 

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Youtube video in Header Slider

It is now possible to put a video in the Header Slider on top of any page. 

If you want to add a Youtube video to your header-slider, just paste the youtube URL in the link field of a slide; a play button will be shown on your slide, and a pop-up style video will play when the button is pushed.

Like all slides, this feature also requires you to upload an image.

View an example!

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Full Width page template

This page combines the regular Content page with the Homepage. Its features are identical to the Homepage format in many ways, but it adds the bread crumb on top, so visitors can easily find their way back.

This layout was frequently created with a workaround (Content Page with Left Column, combined with specific element settings), which is why an official option has been included instead. 

To create this layout, go to the page properties, under Appearance, select the Backend Layout 'Content page that is full width'.
(feature renaming can hopefully be included in our next release)

This page is actually an example of this layout. Click 'To Top' to view the breadcrumb.

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Special Page template

This is another new page template (see: Full Width page template). This layout is designed for a long-read format, by dividing the screen in two halves; the left one is designated for images, the right one for all content. There is also a special connection between picture and content, enabling a nice scrolling experience.
Try it out!

This layout is particularly useful for magazine-style pages.

To create this layout:

  • go to the page properties; under Appearance, select the Backend Layout 'Special Page' (see fig.).

  • On this new page, create a new element; under Grid Elements, select Special Container (see fig.). This grid consists of two columns.

  • In the left column, you place a 'Special Image' element.
    This is the image that is displayed stationary alongside the scrolling content on the right; when the visitor is at the end of the content in this Special Container, the image will scroll up, and display the next Special Container.

  • In the right column, you place a normal 100% Grid element.

  • In the element properties of this Grid Element, under Appearance, select 'Used for content on special pages..' (see fig.).

  • Inside this 100% grid, you can place all elements to your liking.

The last steps, creating a 100% grid, are necessary to create the Special layout as it was designed. This element layout compresses the width of the elements within - otherwise, the text would run the entire width of the column.

 

View the new Special Template

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Facts and Figures element

This is a new element to display, for instance, facts and figures.

To create this, add a new Fact element inside a grid. Under Theme, select the header colour.
Then, edit the grid properties, go to the tab Appearance, and choose a background colour under 'Theme'.

Please note: the fact element only properly works in combination with this coloured grid background.

What is the coolest new feature?
Fact Element
How many features are in this new release?
40
Number of new features
11

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Coloured grid background

The background colour feature for grids can also be used without a fact element. It may for instance be useful for magazine-type pages, to highlight a specific text.

Two layout guidelines:

  • Dont overdo it! These coloured grids are very dominant. Don't create an abstract piece of art.
  • See if you should add top and bottom margins (under Appearance), to prevent the grid from overlapping with other elements. 

To create this, edit the grid properties, go to the tab Appearance, and choose a background colour under 'Theme':

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Notification element

This element can be used to draw attention to a certain part of your website, or a call-to-action (for instance, when an application deadline is approaching). You can add one or two buttons. The element is available in all TU Delft theme colours.

To create this, add a new Notification element. Enter a header, text, and theme, and, optionally, one or two buttons. The buttons can either be white or transparent.

Notification element

These are not the only release notes; they are only the new elements. Check out our improvements and bug fixes!

Improvements Bug fixes

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Read More-toggle

This option allows you, in a Text element, to hide paragraphs under a 'read more'-line (as seen below).

To create this, in the Rich Text Editor (RTF) of the Text element, stand in the text on the desired location. Click on 'Insert Custom Element', then 'Tudelft', then 'Insert Readmore'. An orange marker will appear in your text.

To demonstrate this, a piece of literary history:

Alice

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. ‘Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,’ thought Alice; ‘only, as it’s asleep, I suppose it doesn’t mind.’Read more

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: ‘No room! No room!’ they cried out when they saw Alice coming. ‘There’s plenty of room!’ said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

‘Have some wine,’ the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. ‘I don’t see any wine,’ she remarked.

‘There isn’t any,’ said the March Hare.

‘Then it wasn’t very civil of you to offer it,’ said Alice angrily.

‘It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,’ said the March Hare.

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Image side caption

An option has been added to display a caption next to an image. This was a feature in the original design, and works well in storytelling articles.

To create this, go the the element properties, under Appearance, and choose 'Image fullwidth with caption'.
On the General tab, under Description, fill in the caption text.

The caption can now be placed next to the image.

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