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Jacopo Zamboni

Faculty of Aeropace Engineering Jacopo obtained his master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering. For his thesis he developed a method for the conceptual design of hybrid electric aircraft. Society demands future aircraft to be more fuel-efficient to limit their negative impact on our climate and still warrant a sustainable growth of the aviation industry. Jacopo developed a design methodology based on fundamental theories of flight, electrical engineering, and aircraft design. He demonstrated the versatility of his method by designing various future aircraft relying on different hybrid-electric architectures. By performing a thorough validation of each of the subcomponents of the methodology, he convinced the graduation committee of the validity of his results. Furthermore, Jacopo outlined three distinctive paths forward for hybrid-electric propulsion, with overall reductions in energy consumption ranging between 6% and 35% for the most conservative and most progressive technology assumptions, respectively. Jacopo received a 9 for his thesis and will present the contents of his work on the international AIAA SCITECH conference. “Jacopo is an excellent student with a deep passion for aviation and aircraft design in particular. His thesis is original, scientifically sound and very relevant with respect to developments within society” Graduation committee – Dr R. Vos, Prof. L. L. M. Veldhuis, P. C. Roling MSc, R. de Vries MSc Thesis synposis As the aviation sector keeps expanding, a growing interest in technologies that can reduce the dependency from non-renewable energy sources, both for economic and environmental reasons, has led researchers to investigate the opportunities offered by the electrification of flight. However, fully electric designs are not viable in the foreseeable future, as the performance characteristics of the electric devices are still not comparable with the achievements of fuel-burning propulsive systems. A proposed solution is to electrify only a fraction of the aircraft system while the technology maturity level is still advancing. The use of two energy sources opens the design space and allows for the experimentation with novel aircraft configurations that could lead to interesting energy consumption reductions. However, established methods for aircraft design become obsolete as the required complex configurations and control strategies cannot be modelled. Therefore, the objective of this project was the development of a conceptual design procedure that can be applied to size and analyse any hybrid electric architecture that remains simple enough to be usable at the start of the design.

Guillermo Ortiz Jiménez

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science Guillermo obtained his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He chose a graduation project in the field of signal processing. He first dived into the topic of deep learning, a machine learning technique that teaches computers to learn by example. He examined whether he could extend classical deep learning techniques, meant to classify audio signals or images, to techniques useful for classifying signals supported by an irregular structure. Such learning methods can be used to classify complicated non-structured data such as measurements from body sensors. Guillermo managed to quickly develop a graph-convolutional deep network structure, which successfully classified the irregular signals. Guillermo also tackled the topic of sparse sensing, a technique to reduce the number of sensors in a sensing system. He established a complete sparse sensing framework. His work can, for example, help movie recommender systems (such as Netflix) to pick movies and users in a clever way to predict all preferences. Guillermo is the first to introduce such a framework and his work is truly ground-breaking. A conference paper has already been accepted for one of the main conferences of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. His thesis was rewarded with the highest possible grade (10). “With Guillermo you can always have very mature discussions and brainstorming sessions with interesting outcomes. He is one of the best MSc students I ever met.” Graduation committee - Prof. GJ.T. Leus, Dr S.P. Chepuri, Dr R. Hendriks, Dr D. Tax Thesis synposis In this new era of data science, Machine Learning (ML) and Signal Processing (SP) are becoming the key driving forces of the fourth industrial revolution. They are paving the way for the genesis of new disruptive applications across many fields, ranging from the biomedical sciences to the ICT and manufacturing industries. Most of the tools in ML and SP, however, can only be applied to signals residing on a regular grid, e.g. audio and image signals. In my thesis, hence, I extended these tools to signals that lie on irregular domains with a graph structure, e.g. traffic networks, 3D meshes, or social network graphs. In particular, I developed two mathematical frameworks: one for the classification of graph signals using tools from deep learning and one for their sampling. The applications of my thesis are diverse varying from brain signal decoding (classification) to the automatic recommendation of items in e-commerce (sampling).

Eleni Chronopoulou

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment Eleni completed her master’s degree Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science in the summer of 2018. Her thesis explores how landscape architecture has the capacity to work as an integrative common ground, bringing together conflicting notions such as natural and engineered, formal and informal, concept and reality, process and form, the designed landscape and the practices of everyday life. Eleni researched the landscape of Kifissos, a heavily abused river area in Athens, Greece. This area has become part of the city’s infrastructural network, functioning as a highway and a sewage collector. The once natural dynamic river banks are now replaced with strict concrete boundaries, expressing a conceived necessity to dominate nature. Eleni describes the case of Kifissos as oppositions of uncontrolled dynamic natural processes and an over-controlled landscape. The oppositions are addressed in her graduation work through an alternative reading of the existing landscape sustained by theory, in search for latent conditions of coexistence. Extracted from their habitual settings, Eleni translated these conditions into design concepts. This combination has resulted in a flexible landscape architectural framework that integrates social, environmental, and technical aspects. Her thesis was rewarded with the highest possible grade (10). “Eleni’s thesis is an outstanding contribution to the discipline of landscape architecture, combining theory and design in a clever innovative way.” Graduation committee – Dr Inge Bobbink, Dr Esther Gramsbergen, Alexander de Ridder MSc Thesis synopsis Kifissos is an abused urban river in Athens: a heavily polluted landscape suffering from deadly flood events that have been escalating together with the city’s growth. The river’s containment within concrete boundaries reflects a conceived necessity to over-control unpredictable natural dynamics, reflecting an opposition between man and nature. Furthermore, the unnegotiable linearity of the river results in one more division: between rich, formally designed neighbourhoods and poor districts which have grown informally, outside the control of urban plans. To address these oppositions, the design starts from an excavation on the existing site, investigating the common grounds between conflicting notions: between natural and engineered, formal and informal, the designed landscape and the practices of everyday life. The extracted conditions of coexistence are translated into design tools able to incorporate social, environmental, and technical aspects closely related to the realities of the existing milieu.

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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.