Filter results

48108 results

Get Involved!

The start-up company aQysta, located in YesDelft! And Nepal, developed a principle for a hydro-powered irrigation pump, that operates using solely the power it obtains from the river or stream it is placed in. Following this principle, they designed an irrigation pump which is currently on the market. We were asked to use their principle to design a pump for smallholder farmers located in the mid- and highlands of Nepal, as their current design is too expensive and unsuitable for the context of these small farmers. Joint Master Project Marloes Aben Joost Vette Eva van Genuchten Bart Lukkes Renate Hulst Annemiek van Boeijen (Coach) Henk Kuipers (Critic) YesDelft/aQysta (Company) This is an example of a project in which the designers are unfamiliar with the culture they design for. There is a cultural chasm that they need to cross, but in advance it is uncertain how big this gap is. Therefore, the designers choose a holistic approach, which means that they tried to understand the context, and in particular the socio-cultural context, as well as possible (in the limited time they had), looking at their target context from different angles and with an open mind to avoid biases and limit their blind spots. Social aspects, such as the roles of women and men, division of tasks and power, responsibilities and ownership, forms of cooperation with neighbours and other people in their neighbourhoods, were examined. This was needed, not only to determine what kind of product solution would be most acceptable and sustainable, but also to develop a business model that tunes with local values. In the end cultural understanding stimulated their creativity too. Previous project Overview of projects Next project

Track Me & Chase Me

Track Me & Chase Me: An Engaging Environment for Paediatric Therapy Track Me and Chase Me are two designs within the proposal for a new, engaging environment for paediatric physiotherapy of children from 2 to 9 years old. The aim of this environment is to support a variety of physical activities for different target groups; invite children to explore the environment, engage them in play and challenge them on their own level. But also allow therapists to easily adapt the environment to a training or play situation. Track Me and Chase Me are developed for the Child Development and Exercise Center of the Wilhelmina ChildrenÕs Hospital. During the design process physiotherapists have been involved continuously, in order to make sure the designs support the way they treat and train children. In order to make sure the designs actually engage children in their playing behaviour, children have also been involved in the design process. Graduation project Student Donna Stam Coaches Aadjan van der Helm Boudewijn Boon The designs Track Me consists of four large elements that can be arranged in various positions by therapists or children. In this way Track Me can create, for example, a training track or play environment that supports activities like climbing, crawling, jumping, balancing, and constructing. Chase Me consistsÊof smaller, interactive elements that have an irregular shape and can respond on a childÕs actions by means of LED-light. Chase Me features a 'chase'- and a 'free play'-mode, and supports activities like running, reaching, aiming, picking up, holding and manipulating. Track Me and Chase Me will be used in an environment that has an open-ended character, and that alternates between open space for sports and tests, and routes and targets that can be used for play. Overview of projects Next project

Embassy of Youth

Embassy of Youth: A toolkit to explore and celebrate the talents of urban youth Teenagers in Feijenoord Feijenoord is a neighborhood in Rotterdam facing problems such as poverty and crime. Crime and nuisance are often assumed to be caused by local teenagers who hang out on the streets. This project investigated whether this is true, or if there is more to it. This led to the desire to get to know the teenagers better, to listen to their stories and to understand their perspectives. This was done through many interviews and workshops with local teenagers and youth workers. It proved that their activities are often misinterpreted by 'the outside world'. This can influence how the teenagers seeÊthemselves and how they feel about their own capabilities and future. Being outside together is actually very important to them; to have their own place where they get to represent and explore who they are, without the context of home, school or work. They feel as a part of the streets and the streets are a part of their identity. The streets could be seen as their embassy. An embassy of youth that represents a culture that is theirs. To celebrate this part of them and to provide them with a more meaningful and positive way to express their identity, the Talent toolkit was created. Graduation project Student Lisa van de Merwe Coaches Anna Pohlmeyer Stella Boess Jay Yoon Katherine Trebeck The Talent toolkit This toolkit can be used by youth organizations to give a series of three workshops for local teenagers to discover and develop their talents. It includes sets of 15 Talent cards for the teenagers to use. Each of these Talent cards have anÊanonymous quote from a local hero of the neighborhood, whose identity and story can be discovered on an online platform called Embassy of Youth, meant as an extension to the teenage street culture. Here, positive stories about their world are shared, to motivate and inspire each other. At the same time, it is also a way to show their identity to 'outsiders',Êbeyond what is perceived on the streets. Previous project Overview of projects Next project

Shining Light on Mussel Shells

This is not just a lamp shade. It is a representation of the material that it is made of: a 3D printable material that fits the circular economy. 3D printing is a promising manufacturing process to produce regenerative products for the circular economy. Common material input for existing 3D printers, however, is not yet sustainable. Therefore, we developed a material that is fully recyclable and can be obtained locally. This shade is made with extrusion 3D printing from a paste based on calcium carbonate and sugar-water. In this case, ground mussel shells were used as the source of calcium carbonate. The positive impact of local manufacturing is maximised if the material used for printing is obtained from a local source as well. The province of Zeeland produces an annual waste stream of 20 million kg of mussel shells of which the majority ends up as residual waste. Graduation project Student Joost Vette Coaches Mariet Sauerwein Zjenja Doubrovski The lamp shade is developed for a 'lighting lease system' that supports the initiative in this province to develop circular tourist residences. It is part of a system in which the manufacturer remains responsible for the performance of the lamp (i.e. illuminating a room). The shade is produced in Zeeland with a locally obtained material and can therefore also be repaired and recycled in this region. This increases the speed of repair and allows changes in the design to be made on demand. It is expected that this will contribute to a more dynamic and sustainable tourist sector. The lamp shade is the outcome of the graduation project of Joost Vette and is part of the PhD research of Mariet Sauerwein in collaboration with Zjenja Doubrovski. It is the outcome of a project in which we developed an approach to support the development of 3D printable materials for a circular economy. Previous project Overview of projects Next project

Joy

How might we encourage play between blind children and their sighted friends? Joy is designed to improve the interaction between visually impaired children and their sighted friends during play. By eliminating vision and focusing more on other stimulating aspects of play such as shape, sound and touch, Joy eliminates the disadvantage of the blind child, making interaction more equal and fun. The design process started with lots of observations regarding play. Key findings were: For unsighted children, play is often a frustrating moment Unsighted children have more difficulties understanding self-expression & emotions, and oftentimes need more time to explore tactilely If other senses are equally interesting, visual stimuli aren't necessarily needed for play Student project Student Lianne Siemensma Coaches Margreet Beets Kees Nauta After observations the key qualities of Enjoyment, Equality, Connecting, Imaginative and Explorative were used to describe the desired interaction. By iterative prototyping and acting out, these qualities were captured in tangible ideas and after multiple iterations, the chosen product concept was produced in maple wood. The final building blocks were tested with sighted and unsighted children in context. As the shapes were interpreted by the children in many ways, the building blocks immediately triggered their imagination and literally bridged the gap between visually impaired and sighted children, resulting in a much more joyful and pleasant playing experience. Previous project Overview of projects Next project

Lotte Asveld Group

Together with her research group Lotte Asveld studies the societal aspects of biotechnological innovations. Her main research interests concern responsible innovation in the field of biotechnology and synthetic biology: How can the moral, technical and institutional uncertainties around promising new technologies be addressed by society? How can societal concerns and values be integrated into biotechnological innovation trajectories? What are the responsibilities of various actors involved in these trajectories? For her research projects she has received various grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Journals in which her publications have appeared include ‘Sustainability’, ‘Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining’, ‘Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning’, ‘Journal of Rural Studies’, ‘Science and Engineering Ethics’, ‘Journal of Agricultural and Enviornmental Ethics’, ‘Energy, Sustainability and Society’ and ‘Life Sciences, Society and Policy’. In her teaching , Lotte discusses above mentioned questions with Life Science & Technology students. Previously Lotte worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Philosophy Section (Department of Values, Technology & Innovation) at TU Delft, as a researcher at the Rathenau Institute for technology assessment (focusing on the bioeconomy), and as a freelance researcher in China. Lotte Asveld Associate Professor +31 15 2786691 l.asveld@tudelft.nl Room number: B58-C0.360 Workshop “Building Inclusive Agricultural Value Chains” Workshop “Building Inclusive Agricultural Value Chains” October 2020 more information

Half Height Horizontal

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

New catheter technology promises safer and more efficient treatment of blood vessels

Each year, more than 200 million catheters are used worldwide to treat vascular diseases, including heart disease and artery stenosis. When navigating into blood vessels, friction between the catheter and the vessel wall can cause major complications. With a new innovative catheter technology, Mostafa Atalla and colleagues can change the friction from having grip to completely slippery with the flick of a switch. Their design improves the safety and efficiency of endovascular procedures. The findings have been published in IEEE. Catheter with variable friction The prototype of the new catheter features advanced friction control modules to precisely control the friction between the catheter and the vessel wall. The friction is modulated via ultrasonic vibrations, which overpressure the thin fluid layer. This innovative variable friction technology makes it possible to switch between low friction for smooth navigation through the vessel and high friction for optimal stability during the procedure. In a proof-of-concept, Atalla and his team show that the prototype significantly reduces friction, averaging 60% on rigid surfaces and 11% on soft surfaces. Experiments on animal aortic tissue confirm the promising results of this technology and its potential for medical applications. Fully assembled catheters The researchers tested the prototype during friction experiments on different tissue types. They are also investigating how the technology can be applied to other procedures, such as bowel interventions. More information Publicatie DOI : 10.1109/TMRB.2024.3464672 Toward Variable-Friction Catheters Using Ultrasonic Lubrication | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore Mostafa Atalla: m.a.a.atalla@tudelft.nl Aimee Sakes: a.sakes@tudelft.nl Michaël Wiertlewski: m.wiertlewski@tudelft.nl Would you like to know more and/or attend a demonstration of the prototype please contact me: Fien Bosman, press officer Health TU Delft: f.j.bosman@tudelft.nl/ 0624953733

A key solution to grid congestion

On behalf of the TU Delft PowerWeb Institute, researchers Kenneth Brunninx and Simon Tindemans are handing over a Position Paper to the Dutch Parliament on 14 November 2024, with a possible solution to the major grid capacity problems that are increasingly cropping up in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is unlikely to meet the 2030 climate targets, and one of the reasons for this is that large industry cannot switch to electricity fast enough, partly because of increasingly frequent problems around grid capacity and grid congestion. In all likelihood, those problems will actually increase this decade before they can decrease, the researchers argue. The solution offered by the TU Delft PowerWeb Institute researchers is the ‘flexible backstop’. With a flexible backstop, the current capacity of the power grid can be used more efficiently without sacrificing safety or reliability. A flexible backstop is a safety mechanism that automatically and quickly reduces the amount of electricity that an electric unit can draw from the grid (an electric charging station or a heat pump) or deliver (a PV installation). It is a small device connected or built into an electrical unit, such as a charging station or heat pump, that ‘communicates’ with the distribution network operator. In case of extreme stress on the network, the network operator sends a signal to the device to limit the amount of power. Germany recently introduced a similar system with electric charging stations. The backstop would be activated only in periods of acute congestion problems and could help prevent the last resort measure, which is cutting off electricity to users. ‘Upgrading the electricity network remains essential, but in practice it will take years. So there is a need for short-term solutions that can be integrated into long-term planning. We, the members of the TU Delft PowerWeb Institute, call on the government, network operators and regulator to explore the flexible backstop as an additional grid security measure,’ they said. The entire Paper can be read here . Kenneth Brunninx Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Governance and Management, where he uses quantitative models to evaluate energy policy and market design with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions. Simon Tindemans is Associate Professor in the Intelligent Electrical Power Grids group at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science. His research interests include uncertainty and risk management for power grids. TU Delft PowerWeb Institute is a community of researchers who are investigating how to make renewable energy systems reliable, future proof and accessible to everyone.

25 year celebration of formal collaboration between Delft University of Technology and the University of Campinas

On 25 October 2024 we celebrated 25 years of formal collaboration between Delft University of Technology and the University of Campinas. What began as a project to exchange some students in chemical engineering has now grown to a multifaceted and broad academic collaboration which accumulated into 24 joint research projects (>20 M Euro); 16 advanced courses and 15 Doctors with a Dual Degree PhD. Patricia Osseweijer, TU Delft Ambassador Brazil explained, “We are proud to show and reflect on this special day the added value we created resulting from our joint activities. The lessons we learned demonstrate that especially continuity of funds and availability for exchanges has contributed to joint motivation and building trust which created strong relations. This is the foundation for academic creativity and high-level achievements.” The program presented showcases of Dual Degree projects; research activities and education. It discussed the future objectives and new fields of attention and agree on the next steps to maintain and strengthen the foundation of strong relations. Telma Franco, Professor UNICAMP shared that “joint education and research has substantially benefitted the students, we see that back in the jobs they landed in,” while UNICAMP’s Professor Gustavo Paim Valenca confirmed that “we are keen to extend our collaboration to more engineering disciplines to contribute jointly to global challenges” Luuk van der Wielen highlighted that “UNICAMP and TU Delft provide valuable complementary expertise as well as infrastructures to accelerate research and innovation. Especially our joint efforts in public private partnerships brings great assets” To ensure our future activities both University Boards have launched a unique joint program for international academic leadership. This unique 7-month program will accommodate 12 young professors, 6 from each university. The programme began on 4 November 2024 in Delft, The Netherlands.