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[SEJ] Joshua Becker: Does communication improve the wisdom of crowds?  It depends on the question.

esearch on the ‘wisdom of crowds’ has consistently shown that one way to improve the accuracy of numeric estimates such as economic forecasting is by using the average estimate of multiple individual contributors, rather than relying on one single person. However, decades of lab experiments have produced contradictory results about whether and when communication between group members makes the resulting average more accurate or less accurate. Thus despite the existence of over 100k results on Google scholar using the “Delphi method” form of information exchange, we lack clear evidence that this method is actually better than unstructured discussion, or that any form of communication is better than none. This talk will explain contradictions in prior research by showing how emergent network centralization interacts with pre-communication estimate distribution such that communication sometimes increases accuracy and sometimes decreases accuracy. Using a formal model of estimate formation and experimental data, I will argue that the fixed effect paradigm—i.e. the assumption that any form of communication is always either helpful or harmful—must be replaced with a model that depends on the particular estimation task under consideration. I will conclude by discussing some limitations of this model for describing true deliberation, sharing some new research under development, and opening the floor for collaborative speculation and brainstorming on how future research might address these topics.

Internships

Are you a bachelor student? Are you a master student? How to find an internship? Are you a bachelor student? Electrical Engineering We offer an Internship minor for Electrical Engineering bachelor students who want to gain experience in a company. This is a six-month fulltime internship at a company or research institute in the Netherlands or abroad. Please enroll for course ET3000 on Brightspace for orientation, information as well as preparation. Computer Science & Engineering Bachelor students of Computer Science do a software project in their second year of their bachelor. This project is for about 10 weeks and is typically fulfilled at a company. There is no room for (another) internship during the BSc Computer Science.The faculty of EEMCS will not sign any agreements or declarations for internships that are not part of the study programme. Applied Mathematics An internship cannot be part of your bachelor programme. The faculty of EEMCS will not sign any agreements or declaration for internships that are not part of the study programme. Are you a master student? Electrical Engineering We offer the possibility to do an internship of maximum three months at a company as part of your free electives. Please enroll for course EE5010 on Brightspace for orientation, information as well as preparation documents. Speak to your master track coordinator and your thesis professor to see if the internship fits into your IEP (Individual Exam Programme). Computer & Embedded Systems Engineering We offer the possibility to do an internship of maximum three months at a company as part of your free electives. Please enroll for course CESE5010 on Brightspace for orientation, information as well as preparation and student manual. Speak to your master track coordinator and your thesis professor to see if the internship fits into your IEP (Individual Exam Programme). Computer Science An internship cannot be part of your master programme. So if you wish to do an internship at a company it is your own responsibility to seek and arrange it, and to make time of your own for that purpose. The faculty of EEMCS will not sign any agreements or declaration for internships that are not part of the study programme. Applied Mathematics It is possible to do an internship as part of your master programme. The internship consist of a mathematical modeling project which is carried out at an external institute. The project is carried out at an institute where mathematics itself is generally not of primary interest but used as a tool to solve practical problems. The duration of a project can be up to three months (WI5118). Please enroll for course WI5118 on Brightspace for orientation, information as well as preparation. Before the project starts, the student has to write a project proposal. If the proposal is approved by the internship coordinator of the relevant specialization, the student can start with the project. Sustainable Energy Technology We offer the possibility to do a three month internship at a company as part of your free electives. The internship should concern a design, model, system integration or methodology implementation, or an experimental study relevant for the company involved and within the Profile Cluster. Please enroll for course SET3822 on Brightspace for orientation, information as well as preparation. Before the project starts, the student has to write a project proposal. If the project proposal is approved by the supervisor and the relevant profile leader, the student can start the project. European Wind Energy Master - Electrical Power systems Students of this inter-university double degree master track can also do an internship as part of their program. The internship duration for EWEM students lasts minimal four weeks for which you can be rewarded with 6 ECTS. The requirements are the same as for the EE5010 internship elective, so please enroll to that Brightspace course. How to find an internship? On the Brightspace pages of the internship course codes EE5010, SET3822 and ET3000 you can find a step by step approach on how to arrange an internship and get the internship approved. We encourage students to find an internship on their own. You know best which companies appeal to you (e.g. large, small, abroad, nearby, non-profit). You can orientate by looking at the company offers that are posted on the Brightspace page. You can also ask your teachers, fellow students, or contact the Career Centre. Offers on the Brigthspace page are not approved yet. The internship needs to be approved by your TU Delft supervisor. Contract TU Delft as well as all research Universities in the Netherlands (UNL) have introduced one standard internship agreement for internships at Dutch companies. The new internship agreement makes the arrangements between students, universities and internship organisations more straightforward. A standard internship agreement helps students, the private sector and the degree programme know what they can expect. The agreement sets out clear arrangements on the purpose, supervision and assessment of the internship as well as student’s rights, including their legal status, and the way disputes are handled. The UNL internship template is mandatory for all students doing an internship as part of their study programme at Dutch companies. Students doing an internship abroad should ask for a template 3-party internship agreement from the company and send this template for a review to the Internship Office. You can find the contract on the Brightspace pages. For any questions, please contact the internship coordinator at your faculty.

FAQ

Admission I would like to pursue a PhD position at the AE faculty, how do I go about this? Thank you for taking an interest in our faculty and the research we perform! At the Faculty Graduate School of Aerospace Engineering, we are not involved in the selection and hiring of new PhD candidates - this takes place within the different research groups. Please take a look at and monitor our current vacancies here . Very limited direct funding is available and almost all vacancies depend on the availability of grants and/or sponsorship of partner companies. What are the English language requirements for a PhD candidate? Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. Please find more information about the English language requirements on our Admission page . Doctoral Education How do I provide evidence for my Learning on-the-Job tasks in DMA? Claiming credits for the Learning on-the-Job activities can be done by providing proof that you have completed the activity. You can provide proof through documents that offer evidence that you have fulfilled the task. For instance, for a conference paper publication you could upload the paper to DMA, for a poster presentation you could upload your poster, for ‘Addressing a major international audience’ you could upload your conference presentation or the conference programme with your name listed, and for ‘Writing the first article’ you could upload the entire article. So, for many of the tasks there are ways to prove you have completed them. If you are unsure how to provide evidence for specific tasks, you can always check with us via Graduateschool-ae@tudelft.nl Where can I find courses for my Discipline-related skills? Your supervisors might have suggestions for courses you can follow within a given Discipline-related category. Furthermore, you can find some suggestions for discipline-related courses on this page . At the moment, there are no restrictions on following online courses, but please take into account the guidelines for following online courses and MOOCs. How do I apply for (a partial) exemption of the DE programme? At the AE Graduate School, we encourage all PhD candidates to follow doctoral education, as it is an invaluable part of the doctoral journey and a great way to strengthen a range of skills. In some cases, you might have completed doctoral level coursework prior to your PhD. If you and your supervisor agree that you have valid reasons for an exemption or full dispensation, file your request as soon as possible, but no later than 4 months after the date that you started your PhD at TU Delft. You can read more about the procedure on this intranet page . What is a DE check and when do I need this? After you have obtained at least 45 GS credits in total and at least 15 GS credits per category in your Doctoral Education program, send an email to the AE Graduateschool via graduateschool-ae@tudelft.nl to ask for a Doctoral Education check. During the Doctoral Education check, the AE Graduate School checks whether you meet all the requirements (please read carefully the document ‘Requirements, Conditions and Costs’ on this page ). Only after you meet all the requirements of the Graduate School and the Doctoral Education program has been approved, you can continue with the preparations for your doctoral defence. I am taking an external course, is there a budget for this? The Faculty Graduate School does not have a budget for external courses, but there is some funding available at the departmental level. Please contact your supervisors to see if (part of) the costs can be reimbursed. DMA I have a problem with DMA, who do I contact? Please check the DMA manual to see if it reports an answer to your problem. If not, please contact us at Graduateschool-ae@tudelft.nl Two factor authentication doesn’t work for me, what do I do? You need to give your mobile number to the secretary of your department. If you do not know who this is, please contact us at Graduateschool-ae@tudelft.nl Give the name and mail address of the secretary to the Service Desk of your faculty (the secretary will know how to contact the Service Desk) The Service Desk will check your mobile number with the secretary of the department and s/he has to confirm this and also confirm that you are working at the department The Service Desk will make sure that the 2 factor authentication will be organised and you can access DMA Faculty Graduate School / University Graduate School What is the difference between the Faculty Graduate School (FGS) and the University Graduate School (UGS) and when do I contact the FGS/UGS? The University Graduate School is responsible for setting university-wide doctoral policies. The UGS is also involved with centralized processes including the intake meeting and the management of the PhD defences. The AE Faculty Graduate School supports Aerospace Engineering PhD candidates throughout their doctoral journey. The FGS is responsible for implementing university-wide policies at faculty-level, as well as helping with the doctoral administration of the AE PhD candidates. AE Faculty Graduate School ( graduateschool-ae@tudelft.nl ) University Graduate School ( graduateschool@tudelft.nl ) Start Welcome mail, notification of registration Onboarding Module A & Digital Intake (diploma check) During For questions about: DE credits (how many can I receive for a course?) Discipline-related courses Learning-on-the-Job activities (Research skills) Forms (PhD Agreement, 6 months review, Go/No Go meeting, form A & Yearly Progress Meetings) All the above-mentioned forms can be sent to the FGS – we will check and upload them to DMA for you Doctoral regulations DMA For questions about: PhD Startup (Module A&B) Coachview, Brightspace, enrolment DE courses and course certificates Courses on Research competences (R1-R4) and Transferable competences (T1-T4) Language courses Final stages Performs DE check (please ask for this check by contacting the FGS before moving on with form B) Issues DE certificate Processes form B-D (please send these forms to the UGS) Is point of contact when you have questions about the PhD defense (dates, rules & regulations) If you are unsure who to contact, the AE Faculty Graduate School is your first point of call for all your PhD-related queries: Graduateschool-ae@tudelft.nl

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TU Delft jointly wins XPRIZE Rainforest drone competition in Brazil

TU Delft jointly wins in the XPRIZE Rainforest competition in the Amazon, Brazil Imagine using rapid and autonomous robot technology for research into the green and humid lungs of our planet; our global rainforests. Drones that autonomously deploy eDNA samplers and canopy rafts uncover the rich biodiversity of these complex ecosystems while revealing the effects of human activity on nature and climate change. On November 15, 2024, after five years of intensive research and competition, the ETHBiodivX team, which included TU Delft Aerospace researchers Salua Hamaza and Georg Strunck, achieved an outstanding milestone: winning the XPRIZE Rainforest Bonus Prize for outstanding effort in co-developing inclusive technology for nature conservation. The goal: create automated technology and methods to gain near real-time insights about biodiversity – providing necessary data that can inform conservation action and policy, support sustainable bioeconomies, and empower Indigenous Peoples and local communities who are the primary protectors and knowledge holders of the planet’s tropical rainforests. The ETHBiodivX team, made of experts in Robotics, eDNA, and Data Insights, is tackling the massive challenge of automating and streamlining the way we monitor ecosystems. Leading the Robotics division, a collaboration between TU Delft’s Prof. Salua Hamaza, ETH Zurich’s Prof. Stefano Mintchev and Aarhus University’s Profs. Claus Melvad and Toke Thomas Høye, is developing cutting-edge robotic solutions to gather ecology and biology data autonomously. “We faced the immense challenge of deploying robots in the wild -- and not just any outdoor environment but one of the most demanding and uncharted: the wet rainforests. This required extraordinary efforts to ensure robustness and reliability, pushing the boundaries of what the hardware could achieve for autonomous data collection of images, sounds, and eDNA, in the Amazon” says prof. Hamaza. “Ultimately, this technology will be available to Indigenous communities as a tool to better understand the forest's ongoing changes in biodiversity, which provide essential resources as food and shelter to the locals.” . . . .

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