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Scale model of Indian Ocean island allows scientists to assess the impact of rising sea levels

Scientists have built a 50-metre scale replica of a coral reef island to explore how its real-life counterparts might be impacted by rising sea levels. The model has been designed to mimic atoll islands in the Maldives and the Pacific Ocean, thought to be among the most vulnerable parts of the planet as the climate changes. Over the coming two months, it will be subjected to varying wave and sea-level conditions, with its response being intensely monitored using wave sensors, current meters, video cameras and laser scanners. Researchers hope the experiment, combined with fieldwork and numerical modelling, will give them an indication of precisely how the islands might respond if sea levels and the frequency of extreme weather events continue to increase. The experiment forms part of the ARISE project, a five-year £2.8million project led by the University of Plymouth and funded through UK Research and Innovation’s Horizon Europe Guarantee programme. With partners across the world, including organisations in the Maldives and the Pacific, the project is exploring the potential for the world’s low-lying coral atoll islands to survive predicted rises in sea level through natural flooding processes. Professor Gerd Masselink, Professor of Coastal Geomorphology at the University of Plymouth and lead of the ARISE project, said: “ It is virtually impossible to record waves washing over a real atoll island, because the chances of an extreme event occurring on an instrumented island is very rare – you’d have to be instrumenting at least tens of islands spread across the Maldives and the Pacific to ‘catch’ it. This scale model will give us the opportunity to run a controlled series of scenarios and monitor with a range of instruments how the island might respond in a variety of present and future sea conditions. Combined with other measurements from the field, we hope it will give us a clear understanding of if – and how – these communities can survive in future. ” The experiment is a collaboration between the University of Plymouth, Delft University of Technology, and Deltares. It will take place in the Deltares’ Delta Flume, the world’s largest wave flume. Measuring 300m long, 9m deep and 5m wide, and with the ability to generate waves up to 2m high, the flume is the perfect place for this particular experiment. It will also enable the researchers to evaluate the impact of artificial reef structures in reducing the energy of the waves reaching the island shoreline. Such structures are increasingly being used as eco-friendly coastal defences that provide habitats for marine life as well as protecting island shorelines. Dr Marion Tissier, Assistant Professor of Coastal Waves at Delft University of Technology, said: “ Coral reefs naturally protect atoll islands from wave-driven flooding, but unfortunately, they are degrading worldwide. This experiment provides a unique opportunity to investigate the efficiency of reef restoration for coastal protection. Up to 150 eco-friendly, complex-shaped artificial reef structures will be installed on the reef of the scale model, and their effect on the waves will be systematically analysed. The large scale of this experiment is essential, as it allows us to get a realistic picture of how water moves through these complex structures, and thus of how the structures influence the wave field and ultimately flooding at the island. ” Marion Tissier of TU Delft is leading the ‘Coral reef RESToration to reduce island flooding’ (CREST) project. This project is embedded into the experimental program ARISE, led by the University of Plymouth. CREST is funded by the Top consortium Knowledge and Innovation (TKI) Delta Technology. In this project she works together with Deltares, Boskalis and the reef 3D printing startup Coastruction. Read the news article about CREST Suzanna Zwanenburg, project leader of the Deltares Delta Flume, added: “ We have built a scale model of a reef platform with an atoll island in the Deltares Delta Flume. With this unique, experimental facility, we can generate the largest artificial waves in the world, which makes it the perfect place to assess the effect of waves washing over an atoll island. The model is equipped with numerous sensors, which gives us detailed information about the wave heights, velocities and pressures along the reef platform and the overwash over the atoll island. ” The new experiment is being launched weeks after scientists returned from the Maldives, where they deployed more than 80 individual instruments on the island of Dighelaabadhoo as they seek to capture in-depth information about the energetic wave conditions during southwest monsoon season in the Indian Ocean. The measurements generated by the instrumentation will constitute the largest field campaign ever to be staged on an atoll island, and the instruments will remain deployed until August.

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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

Veiligere en efficiëntere bloedvatbehandelingen door innovatieve kathetertechnologie

Wereldwijd worden jaarlijks meer dan 200 miljoen katheters gebruikt voor de behandeling van vaatziekten zoals hartaandoeningen en slagadervernauwing. Hoewel essentieel, brengt het gebruik van katheters risico’s met zich mee: wrijving tussen de katheter en de vaatwand kan complicaties veroorzaken. Een nieuwe technologie, ontwikkeld door Mostafa Atalla en zijn team, biedt een oplossing. Met één druk op de knop kan de wrijving van de katheter worden aangepast, van maximale grip naar volledige gladheid. Deze innovatie belooft niet alleen veiligere, maar ook efficiëntere endovasculaire procedures mogelijk te maken. De resultaten zijn gepubliceerd in het wetenschappelijk tijdschrift IEEE. Slimme katheter met instelbare wrijving Het nieuwe katheterprototype is uitgerust met geavanceerde technologie die de wrijving tussen de katheter en vaatwand nauwkeurig reguleert via ultrasone trillingen. Dit mechanisme zet via ultrasone trillingen de dunne vloeistoflaag onder druk waardoor de wrijving dynamisch kan worden aangepast: lage wrijving voor soepele navigatie door bloedvaten en hogere wrijving voor optimale stabiliteit tijdens een procedure. Tests tonen aan dat deze techniek de wrijving op harde oppervlakken met gemiddeld 60% vermindert en op zachte oppervlakken met 11%. Veelbelovende resultaten Bij experimenten op dierlijk aortaweefsel heeft het prototype zijn potentieel bewezen. Deze innovatie kan niet alleen bij vaatbehandelingen worden ingezet, maar mogelijk ook bij andere medische procedures, zoals interventies in de darmen. De onderzoekers zijn nu bezig de technologie verder te ontwikkelen en te testen op bredere toepassingen. Meer informatie 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 Wil je een demonstratie bijwonen of in contact komen met een van de onderzoekers neem contact op met: Fien Bosman, persvoorlichter TU Delft Health: f.j.bosman@tudelft.nl/ 0624953733