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2nd JPEG Workshop on Media Blockchain Announcement (Lisbon)

Dr. Zeki Erkin is giving an invited talk on “Blockchain, Distributed Trust and Privacy” at 2nd JPEG Workshop on Media Blockchain in Lisbon on Tuesday the 22nd of January 2019.

The ever challenging fight between strength and weight

Hey guys, Sasha here! When I began working at the Eco-Runner Team, I (as mathematician and physicist) never imagined that some day I would be doing structural analysis. Yet here I am, as Chief Structures, doing the work classically associated with Mechanical and Aerospace engineers. In this blog I shortly would like to tell you what I have actually done in this role over the last period, and how my background in the Applied Maths and Physics Bachelor has played a role in this. As Chief Structures I am responsible for the complete structural integrity of the body of the EcoRunner 9. The challenge is to make the car as light as possible while keeping strong enough. That means accounting for al the possible scenario’s in which forces are applied on the vehicle, and performing simulations to make sure the body is strong enough to withstand the force. An example such a scenario is carrying the vehicle with two people or simply the driver sitting inside. As for how light I am aiming for: About as light as a cat! To perform the necessary simulations, I use FEM software called ‘MSC Patran’ provided to us by InSumma, which together with Solico provide assistance and consulting during the process itself. With that help I am able to perform very accurate analyses of our body and can optimize it for weight. That process consists of three main steps: Firstly, the body has to be translated into the model, after which the possible load scenarios are integrated into the software. The final step is to iterate different structural designs. This in general means changing the type and amount of carbon fibre and honeycomb used. Now, most of the specific knowledge and skills that are required for this job, for example the concepts of stress or FEM analysis, are not discussed in my Bachelors. However, the general knowledge of numerical analysis, modelling and debugging, which I gained especially gained during my Bachelor Applied Mathematics has proven to be of high importance. With that, as well as the skill to find new creative ways to solve problems and understanding connections, I was able to perform the tasks at a high level and able to safe weight compared to the previous design. Looking to the future, I will have to adapt my model a bit to account for the changed rear-suspension design. After this I will create the lamination plan which the Lamination Department will use to produce the body. Then my job is done, and we will be another step closer to the lightest EcoRunner ever produced!

Using Scrum

It’s almost Christmas. This means that the end of the detailed design phase is in sight. This is the phase where everybody designs their subsystem to meticulous details. I have been working on the height control as electronics engineer: this means I design and produce the electric system and write the software for the actuation of the wings. Without proper height control we would not be able to fly! The detailed design phase is eight weeks long, which means that beforehand you have to make a planning to ensure we all make our deliverables. To help with maintaining this planning we have one person in the team who is busy fulltime ensuring that all people stick to their planning. In the case of people not sticking to their schedule, he will help them get back to it or look into the consequences and re-plan the yearly planning. We do need to have a working boat in July for Monaco, so this is an important job! To assist the planning our team makes use of a combination of Scrum and Waterfall methodology. Scrum is used a lot in software engineering so I was already familiar with this technique. Waterfall is used a lot more in other engineering fields, because it deals with tasks having to be done sequentially rather than when you feel like it. Because we are a multidisciplinary team, it works really well to combine these techniques. We start the week with department meetings, in which we update the engineers in our department what we did last week. Then you we ask ourselves questions like: “what do I need to do now?”, “What can I do within this week?” and “do I need to do certain tasks sequentially or on a certain date?” Then everybody makes a list of their to-do’s, and write them on a post-it with an estimation of the time it will take and a date if needed. Then we hang them on our scrumboard. To end this phase, we also needed to make a list of deliverables: these are tasks or concrete things that need to be completed by the end of the phase. In my list you can find among others: PCB design, choosing PCB components, connecting and reading of sensors. I finished all my deliverables a week early, which means that I could start on my production and enter the christmas break without stress! Happy holidays!

Collaboration between departments

As a member of the Software department in the Forze Hydrogen Electric Racing team, making the car ready to race is not only a one department’s job. Communication with the other departments is of high importance, especially with the departments were software is directly in contact with: Electronics and Control & Simulations. Collaborating with Electronics is necessary where software has to be written for newly designed hardware. The last project that was finished was an iteration of a new Power Distribution Unit, PDU for short, that gives power to all low-voltage components in the car, such as the embedded nodes, cooling pumps and sensors. The newly implemented sensors had to be read out correctly in software due to changes in the schematics, for example, series and parallel resistors to sensors changed. When implementing control in the car that was made by Control & Simulation, the Simulink model of a control system in the car is compiled to C++ which is put in the car. In the software, it must be made sure that all inputs and outputs are connected and integrated into the rest of the software. It was not always that the communication went smooth. A couple times, this resulted in long days and very short nights to integrate and fix software on time for an important test. However, the dedication of the whole team really shows when the people involved in preparation are ready to not stop working until problems are fixed and the car is ready to drive!

Communication in the car

In the Forze VIII race car we have a lot of electronics, such as the electro motors, nodes and sensors. All of these have to be able to communicate or send signals to each other. Therefore we have the wiring harness in the embedded system and big power cables in the powertrain. The choice for cables is very important. For the powertrain the main considerations are the insulation of the cable and being able to conduct up to 400 amperes. For the embedded system the main considerations are capacitance and coupling. A good example is the cables for the CAN bus. CAN is a protocol used a lot in the automotive industry for communication between systems. CAN has a high speed mode of operation, and because of that it is important to reduce the bus capacitance. So we use shielded twisted pair cables for this. The shielding is used to reduce noise, which we have a lot in our car due to the high currents. To further improve to reliability of the wiring harness, we make use of high quality connectors. In the powertrain these connectors have to be able to handle high currents and have to be connected firmly. In the embedded system low capacity is required as well as waterproofness. Lastly all our cables are extra protected using heat shrink. Boots are used to provide strain relief on the connectors. Without boots the tension when you pull on a wire is on the pins of the connector, usually resulting in a broken connector.

Solar Deck & MPPTs

This year we will do something which has never been done before by a student team. We will build a seaworthy solar boat that accommodates three passengers. As we go offshore, we need to build a huge boat which requires a power source. As we are the TU Delft Solar Boat Team, we make use of solar panels. The solar panels form a deck which is vital for the boat. The solar deck acts as the power source of the ship, by converting the solar energy into electrical energy. It will also make the public realize that this is not a regular boat, it is a solar boat. All the solar panels are placed on top of the deck. Thus, the public will see a giant deck of solar panels. But how do we convert as much solar energy as possible to power? We do this with the help of MPPTs. The maximum power point trackers are used to ensure that the maximal amount of power is delivered by the solar panels. The voltage-current characteristic of a solar panel is depicted as the red line in figure 8. The electrical power can be found by multiplying the voltage with the current, P = U I (the blue line of figure 8). The figure shows that at the voltage VM the power reaches a maximum, this is called the maximum power point (MPP). At the MPP the highest amount of power (for constant solar intensity) is generated by the solar panels. The MPPT ensure that we operate at the correct voltage.

Brainstorm with Sintecs

Hey all! First of all, on behalf of the whole team of Project MARCH, I would like to wish you a happy and productive new year! In this blog I want to talk to you about a great brainstorm session with one of our partners, Sintecs. We visited Sintecs just before the holidays to talk about the Power Distribution Board (PDB) we’re developing. During this visited we discussed how we could improve the PDB with respective to last year’s PDB. We want to primarily focus on optimising the size of the Power Distribution Board. During the brainstorm we got a lot of new amazing ideas and drafted some new concepts. We found that making the PDB mostly a double-sided PCB would provide the most area saving. First, we worried this would be very cumbersome to do and it would take too much time. The consultants relieved us with their new ideas and tips. This meant we could begin placing all the different schematics in Altium after the holidays. After some more brainstorming we concluded our visit at Sintecs in Hengelo it was time to head for Delft again. It would be long two-hour drive to Delft, luckily Martijn could entertain us with his beautiful singing voice as he serenaded “Ik kom eraan” from Dries Roelvink. I hoped you enjoyed this blog and I hope to talk to you soon! Roy

Data acquisition

An important part of our boat is the data acquisition system. Our boat collects data from different parts of the boat, with which it can be tested, calculated and modelled. An example of this data is the temperature of the engine, the speed of the boat and various error messages of the software and hardware. First, it is very important that data is available when we test the boat. At the moment that the parts of the boat are being tested, there will still be errors in the hardware and software. This is where the data acquisition will play a major role because the system can show all error messages and wrong values. This way, all engineers of the team can solve errors and make the boat as optimal as possible! In addition, we have a strategy team every year, which closely monitors the data during the race. Our solar boat depends on the weather conditions and at any time it is important to know what solar radiation is and how we can deal with it. The strategy team has a good background in programming and modelling. because mathematical models are created using this data to calculate the best speed at any time. We would like to know how fast we have to sail at any time, in order to make the best use of our solar panels in combination with the batteries. In this way, we strive for the best result and we ensure winning the race!

Elif Özcan-Vieira’s work featured in New York Times

With her work on combatting noise and alarm fatigue in hospitals, Elif Özcan-Vieira captured the attention of the New York Times. She was interviewed about her research with the Critical Alarms Lab. The article is out now!

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2nd JPEG Workshop on Media Blockchain Announcement (Lisbon)

Dr. Zeki Erkin is giving an invited talk on “Blockchain, Distributed Trust and Privacy” at 2nd JPEG Workshop on Media Blockchain in Lisbon on Tuesday the 22nd of January 2019.

The ever challenging fight between strength and weight

Hey guys, Sasha here! When I began working at the Eco-Runner Team, I (as mathematician and physicist) never imagined that some day I would be doing structural analysis. Yet here I am, as Chief Structures, doing the work classically associated with Mechanical and Aerospace engineers. In this blog I shortly would like to tell you what I have actually done in this role over the last period, and how my background in the Applied Maths and Physics Bachelor has played a role in this. As Chief Structures I am responsible for the complete structural integrity of the body of the EcoRunner 9. The challenge is to make the car as light as possible while keeping strong enough. That means accounting for al the possible scenario’s in which forces are applied on the vehicle, and performing simulations to make sure the body is strong enough to withstand the force. An example such a scenario is carrying the vehicle with two people or simply the driver sitting inside. As for how light I am aiming for: About as light as a cat! To perform the necessary simulations, I use FEM software called ‘MSC Patran’ provided to us by InSumma, which together with Solico provide assistance and consulting during the process itself. With that help I am able to perform very accurate analyses of our body and can optimize it for weight. That process consists of three main steps: Firstly, the body has to be translated into the model, after which the possible load scenarios are integrated into the software. The final step is to iterate different structural designs. This in general means changing the type and amount of carbon fibre and honeycomb used. Now, most of the specific knowledge and skills that are required for this job, for example the concepts of stress or FEM analysis, are not discussed in my Bachelors. However, the general knowledge of numerical analysis, modelling and debugging, which I gained especially gained during my Bachelor Applied Mathematics has proven to be of high importance. With that, as well as the skill to find new creative ways to solve problems and understanding connections, I was able to perform the tasks at a high level and able to safe weight compared to the previous design. Looking to the future, I will have to adapt my model a bit to account for the changed rear-suspension design. After this I will create the lamination plan which the Lamination Department will use to produce the body. Then my job is done, and we will be another step closer to the lightest EcoRunner ever produced!

Using Scrum

It’s almost Christmas. This means that the end of the detailed design phase is in sight. This is the phase where everybody designs their subsystem to meticulous details. I have been working on the height control as electronics engineer: this means I design and produce the electric system and write the software for the actuation of the wings. Without proper height control we would not be able to fly! The detailed design phase is eight weeks long, which means that beforehand you have to make a planning to ensure we all make our deliverables. To help with maintaining this planning we have one person in the team who is busy fulltime ensuring that all people stick to their planning. In the case of people not sticking to their schedule, he will help them get back to it or look into the consequences and re-plan the yearly planning. We do need to have a working boat in July for Monaco, so this is an important job! To assist the planning our team makes use of a combination of Scrum and Waterfall methodology. Scrum is used a lot in software engineering so I was already familiar with this technique. Waterfall is used a lot more in other engineering fields, because it deals with tasks having to be done sequentially rather than when you feel like it. Because we are a multidisciplinary team, it works really well to combine these techniques. We start the week with department meetings, in which we update the engineers in our department what we did last week. Then you we ask ourselves questions like: “what do I need to do now?”, “What can I do within this week?” and “do I need to do certain tasks sequentially or on a certain date?” Then everybody makes a list of their to-do’s, and write them on a post-it with an estimation of the time it will take and a date if needed. Then we hang them on our scrumboard. To end this phase, we also needed to make a list of deliverables: these are tasks or concrete things that need to be completed by the end of the phase. In my list you can find among others: PCB design, choosing PCB components, connecting and reading of sensors. I finished all my deliverables a week early, which means that I could start on my production and enter the christmas break without stress! Happy holidays!

Collaboration between departments

As a member of the Software department in the Forze Hydrogen Electric Racing team, making the car ready to race is not only a one department’s job. Communication with the other departments is of high importance, especially with the departments were software is directly in contact with: Electronics and Control & Simulations. Collaborating with Electronics is necessary where software has to be written for newly designed hardware. The last project that was finished was an iteration of a new Power Distribution Unit, PDU for short, that gives power to all low-voltage components in the car, such as the embedded nodes, cooling pumps and sensors. The newly implemented sensors had to be read out correctly in software due to changes in the schematics, for example, series and parallel resistors to sensors changed. When implementing control in the car that was made by Control & Simulation, the Simulink model of a control system in the car is compiled to C++ which is put in the car. In the software, it must be made sure that all inputs and outputs are connected and integrated into the rest of the software. It was not always that the communication went smooth. A couple times, this resulted in long days and very short nights to integrate and fix software on time for an important test. However, the dedication of the whole team really shows when the people involved in preparation are ready to not stop working until problems are fixed and the car is ready to drive!

Communication in the car

In the Forze VIII race car we have a lot of electronics, such as the electro motors, nodes and sensors. All of these have to be able to communicate or send signals to each other. Therefore we have the wiring harness in the embedded system and big power cables in the powertrain. The choice for cables is very important. For the powertrain the main considerations are the insulation of the cable and being able to conduct up to 400 amperes. For the embedded system the main considerations are capacitance and coupling. A good example is the cables for the CAN bus. CAN is a protocol used a lot in the automotive industry for communication between systems. CAN has a high speed mode of operation, and because of that it is important to reduce the bus capacitance. So we use shielded twisted pair cables for this. The shielding is used to reduce noise, which we have a lot in our car due to the high currents. To further improve to reliability of the wiring harness, we make use of high quality connectors. In the powertrain these connectors have to be able to handle high currents and have to be connected firmly. In the embedded system low capacity is required as well as waterproofness. Lastly all our cables are extra protected using heat shrink. Boots are used to provide strain relief on the connectors. Without boots the tension when you pull on a wire is on the pins of the connector, usually resulting in a broken connector.

Solar Deck & MPPTs

This year we will do something which has never been done before by a student team. We will build a seaworthy solar boat that accommodates three passengers. As we go offshore, we need to build a huge boat which requires a power source. As we are the TU Delft Solar Boat Team, we make use of solar panels. The solar panels form a deck which is vital for the boat. The solar deck acts as the power source of the ship, by converting the solar energy into electrical energy. It will also make the public realize that this is not a regular boat, it is a solar boat. All the solar panels are placed on top of the deck. Thus, the public will see a giant deck of solar panels. But how do we convert as much solar energy as possible to power? We do this with the help of MPPTs. The maximum power point trackers are used to ensure that the maximal amount of power is delivered by the solar panels. The voltage-current characteristic of a solar panel is depicted as the red line in figure 8. The electrical power can be found by multiplying the voltage with the current, P = U I (the blue line of figure 8). The figure shows that at the voltage VM the power reaches a maximum, this is called the maximum power point (MPP). At the MPP the highest amount of power (for constant solar intensity) is generated by the solar panels. The MPPT ensure that we operate at the correct voltage.

Brainstorm with Sintecs

Hey all! First of all, on behalf of the whole team of Project MARCH, I would like to wish you a happy and productive new year! In this blog I want to talk to you about a great brainstorm session with one of our partners, Sintecs. We visited Sintecs just before the holidays to talk about the Power Distribution Board (PDB) we’re developing. During this visited we discussed how we could improve the PDB with respective to last year’s PDB. We want to primarily focus on optimising the size of the Power Distribution Board. During the brainstorm we got a lot of new amazing ideas and drafted some new concepts. We found that making the PDB mostly a double-sided PCB would provide the most area saving. First, we worried this would be very cumbersome to do and it would take too much time. The consultants relieved us with their new ideas and tips. This meant we could begin placing all the different schematics in Altium after the holidays. After some more brainstorming we concluded our visit at Sintecs in Hengelo it was time to head for Delft again. It would be long two-hour drive to Delft, luckily Martijn could entertain us with his beautiful singing voice as he serenaded “Ik kom eraan” from Dries Roelvink. I hoped you enjoyed this blog and I hope to talk to you soon! Roy

Data acquisition

An important part of our boat is the data acquisition system. Our boat collects data from different parts of the boat, with which it can be tested, calculated and modelled. An example of this data is the temperature of the engine, the speed of the boat and various error messages of the software and hardware. First, it is very important that data is available when we test the boat. At the moment that the parts of the boat are being tested, there will still be errors in the hardware and software. This is where the data acquisition will play a major role because the system can show all error messages and wrong values. This way, all engineers of the team can solve errors and make the boat as optimal as possible! In addition, we have a strategy team every year, which closely monitors the data during the race. Our solar boat depends on the weather conditions and at any time it is important to know what solar radiation is and how we can deal with it. The strategy team has a good background in programming and modelling. because mathematical models are created using this data to calculate the best speed at any time. We would like to know how fast we have to sail at any time, in order to make the best use of our solar panels in combination with the batteries. In this way, we strive for the best result and we ensure winning the race!

Elif Özcan-Vieira’s work featured in New York Times

With her work on combatting noise and alarm fatigue in hospitals, Elif Özcan-Vieira captured the attention of the New York Times. She was interviewed about her research with the Critical Alarms Lab. The article is out now!
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Moving the Closet

You simply cannot miss it, it is big and magenta: the Pink Closet . On 12 November 2024 the Pink Closet will head to the Main Hall of the TU Delft Library for the first time! The Pink Closet will take its place at the Nook, where it will feature as part of the Studium Generale programme on loneliness. More information on events that coincide with and incorporate the Pink Closet at TU Delft Library will soon be available on the website of Studium Generale .

Green ammonia remains a challenge, but researchers make significant progress

The production of ammonia, essential for fertiliser production, is responsible for almost 1.5% of global carbon emissions. This needs to be greener, which is why researchers have been looking for sustainable alternatives for years.

"Measuring brain activity through the skull with ultrasound opens new doors"

PhD Candidate Rick Waasdorp is looking for ways to correct the distortion caused by the skull when using Ultrasound technology. ‘’My goal is to develop an adaptive method for skull corrections that automatically measures the skull of new patients.’’

NWO funding for flexible power demand in electrically driven industry

NWO is funding two projects to explore ways to make the power demand of industry more flexible, allowing it to better align with future energy supplies. One of these projects, “DEFLAME,” is led by Machteld van den Broek from TU Delft.

Students Amos Yusuf, Mick Dam & Bas Brouwer winners of Mekel Prize 2024

Master students Amos Yusuf, from the ME faculty (Mick Dam, from the EEMCS faculty and graduate Bas Brouwer have won the Mekel Prize 2024 for the best extra scientific activity at TU Delft: the development of an initiative that brings master students into the classroom teaching sciences to the younger generations. The prize was ceremonially awarded by prof Tim van den Hagen on 13 November after the Van Hasselt Lecture at the Prinsenhof, Delft. They received a statue of Professor Jan Mekel and 1.500,- to spend on their project. Insights into climate change are being openly doubted. Funding for important educational efforts and research are being withdrawn. Short clips – so called “reels” – on Youtube and TikTok threaten to simplify complex political and social problems. AI fakes befuddle what is true and what is not. The voices of science that contribute to those discussion with modesty, careful argument and scepticism, are drowned in noise. This poses a threat for universities like TU Delft, who strive to increase student numbers, who benefit from diverse student populations and aim to pass on their knowledge and scientific virtues to the next generation. It is, therefore, alarming that student enrolments to Bachelor and Master Programs at TU Delft have declined in the past year. Students in front of the class The project is aimed to make the sciences more appealing to the next generation. They have identified the problem that students tend miss out on the opportunity of entering a higher education trajectory in the Beta sciences – because they have a wrong picture of such education. In their mind, they depict it as boring and dry. In his pilot lecture at the Stanislas VMBO in Delft, Amos Yusuf has successfully challenged this image. He shared his enthusiasm for the field of robotics and presented himself as a positive role model to the pupils. And in return the excitement of the high school students is palpable in the videos and pictures from the day. The spark of science fills their eyes. Bas Brouwer Mick Dam are the founders of NUVO – the platform that facilitates the engagement of Master Students in high school education in Delft Their efforts offer TU Delft Master Students a valuable learning moment: By sharing insights from their fields with pupils at high school in an educational setting, our students can find identify their own misunderstandings of their subject, learn to speak in front of non-scientific audiences and peak into education as a work field they themselves might not have considered. An extraordinary commitment According to the Mekel jury, the project scored well on all the criteria (risk mitigation, inclusiveness, transparency and societal relevance). However, it was the extraordinary commitment of Amos who was fully immersed during his Master Project and the efforts of Brouwer and Dam that brought together teaching and research which is integral to academic culture that made the project stand out. About the Mekel Prize The Mekel Prize will be awarded to the most socially responsible research project or extra-scientific activity (e.g. founding of an NGO or organization, an initiative or realization of an event or other impactful project) by an employee or group of employees of TU Delft – projects that showcase in an outstanding fashion that they have been committed from the beginning to relevant moral and societal values and have been aware of and tried to mitigate as much as possible in innovative ways the risks involved in their research. The award recognizes such efforts and wants to encourage the responsible development of science and technology at TU Delft in the future. For furthermore information About the project: https://www.de-nuvo.nl/video-robotica-pilot/ About the Mekel Prize: https://www.tudelft.nl/en/tpm/our-faculty/departments/values-technology-and-innovation/sections/ethics-philosophy-of-technology/mekel-prize

The ENHANCE Diversity Seed Fund

Are you a student at TU Delft or another ENHANCE university with a passion for promoting diversity and inclusion? The ENHANCE Diversity Seed Fund is your chance to turn that passion into action. ENHANCE provides funding to support innovative, student-led projects that address key challenges related to inclusion and diversity within our academic communities. Key Details: Funding Available: Up to 1500 Euros per project in the 1st round! Eligibility: Students from ENHANCE member universities. Staff can also join student-led initiatives. Application Deadline: 8 January 2025. More information: Join the online Information Event on the 26 November 2024 16:00-17:00 CET on Zoom . More information: enhanceuniversity.eu/diversity/diversityseedfund/

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