Delft breakthrough in bioethanol production from agricultural waste

With the introduction of a single bacterial gene into yeast, researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands achieved three improvements in bioethanol production from agricultural waste material: ‘More ethanol, less acetate and elimination of the major by-product glycerol’ This week the invention was published in the scientific journal “Applied and Environmental Microbiology“.
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'Replace VAT on construction materials with ecotax'

We must aspire towards buildings whose materials cause no environmental impact whatsoever: zero-material buildings in other words, so Prof. Michiel Haas asserts in his inaugural lecture at TU Delft on Friday 20 November. To accelerate the path towards the zero-material building, he advocates charging an ecotax on construction materials. That way, VAT on construction materials could be abolished.
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TU Delft strongly represented in final European Enterprise Award

Delft-based technostarters, Holland Container Innovations and iOpener Media, have been selected for the final of the Academic Enterprise Awards Europe, a European award for enterprising scientists. A prize is also up for grabs for employees who have played an important role in encouraging enterprise at universities. Professor Marco Waas, the dean of the Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime, and Materials Engineering, has been nominated for this prize.
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Symposium at TU Delft: major energy problems solved at the nano scale

The chemistry student association Technologisch Gezelschap is organising a symposium on 19 and 20 November 2009 on the importance of nanotechnology in research into renewable energy. Specialists from trade & industry and from the research community will give presentations on their research in this field during the symposium. The symposium will take place at the MustSee cinema in Delft.
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"Wastewater is an important source of energy and raw materials"

Wastewater is not a useless by-product but a source of valuable raw materials and energy. Developing countries, in particular, can benefit from this new perspective. This will be the thrust of Prof. Jules van Liers inaugural address at TU Delft on Wednesday 18 November. "Remember that 2.6 billion people in the world still have no proper sanitation, resulting in 200 deaths per hour, with the highest number among children under five."
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Watery calculations

Reducing floods or droughts could prevent major economic and humanitarian catastrophes. Improved weather forecasting offers new ways of dealing with such hydrological events. But how to deal with the uncertainties of forecasts? Schalk Jan van Andel lets the computer analyze what actions to take.
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Forecasts call for stormy weather

International students of the future will have even more bad Dutch weather to complain about, as the country’s wet and windy weather will become more extreme owing to the greenhouse effect. Three TU Delft researchers are currently conducting joint-research aimed at helping the Netherlands prepare for the much heavier rainfall to come.
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Accelerated melting of Greenland’s ice sheet confirmed

Since 2000, the mass of ice on Greenland has been decreasing at an accelerated rate. Satellite observations and regional atmospheric models confirm these findings independently. Delft researchers Ernst Schrama and Bert Wouters made a significant contribution to the study by analysing data from the gravity satellite mission GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment). An article on the studys findings appears in the leading scientific journal Science issued on 13 November.
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Rapid assessment of potentially suitable hydrogen storage materials

Effective and safe hydrogen storage systems are a prerequisite for the possible future transition to a sustainable economy based on this gas. Prof. Bernard Dam has developed a technique for the rapid assessment of potentially suitable hydrogen storage materials. On Wednesday 11 November, Bernard Dam will present his inaugural lecture as the professor of ‘Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage’ at TU Delft.
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Who knows how to work the remote control?

Many consumer products are still a source of unnecessary irritation and confusion. In response to this the three Universities of Technology in Delft, Eindhoven and Twente are organising various events on user-friendliness to coincide with World Usability Day being held on Thursday 12 November.
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TU Delft researches CO2 storage using bacteria

TU Delft is taking part in a European R&D project (CO2SolStock) that focuses on using bacteria to capture and store CO2 in limestone. The project's key objective is to develop a sustainable, biological method for storing CO2 in mineral form.
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PARSAX-radar looks into clouds

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Minister Cramer to open incubator for sustainable entrepeneurs

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Second place for Nuon Solar Team

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First hydrological satellite gives better weather forecasts

The first hydrological satellite, SMOS, will map out the earth's soil moisture levels, which will enable scientists to anticipate floods earlier and to improve weather forecasts. TU Delft will be applying the data to the Volta Basin in West Africa, among other things. The European space organisation ESA is launching SMOS on Monday 2 November.
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TU monitors Delft tunneling project from space

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'Boat tail' decreases fuel consumption trucks by 7.5 percent

A boat tail, a tapering protrusion mounted on the rear of a truck, leads to fuel savings of 7.5 percent. This is due to dramatically-improved aerodynamics, as shown by road tests conducted by the PART (Platform for Aerodynamic Road Transport) public-private partnership platform.
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Day 2: chase is on for Michigan

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Agenda

Thesis defence: Morphology

Thesis defence by Ms. C.E. Pinzon Cortes: "Morphologies of fragmentation and continuity"
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Thesis defence: Public space

Thesis defence by Mr. M.G.A.D. Harteveld: "Interior Public Space"
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Thesis defence: Urban water

Thesis defence by Mr. R.E. de Graaf: "Urban water innovations to reduce the vulnerability of cities. Feasibility and mainstreaming of technologies in society"
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Studium Generale: The Truth Agenda

Why do so many people now believe in conspiracy theories, and what is the evidence to support them?
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Thesis defence: Space (1)

Thesis defenc by Ms. M.Y. Berghauser Pont: "Space, density and urban form"
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Inaugural speech: SMART & ADAPTIVE

Inaugural speech by Prof.ir. M.F. Asselbergs and prof.ing. P. Teuffel
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Thesis defence: Space (2)

Thesis defence by Mr. P.A. Haupt: "Space, density and urban form"
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Thesis defence: Beer

Thesis defence by Ms. L.A. Hazelwood: "Functional genomics of beer-related physiological processes in yeast"
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Thesis defence: Water scarcity

Thesis defence by Ms. D.W.H. Alnazer: "From Water Scaricity to Sustainable Water Use in the West Bank, Palestine"
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Thesis defence: Microeconomics

Thesis defence by Ms. B. Pourebrahimi Andoohjerdi: "Microeconomic Approaches for Resource Allocation in Heterogeneous and Dynamic Networks"
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Symposium Delft TopTech

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Inaugural speech: Science communication

Inaugural speech by Prof.dr. P. Osseweijer
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Thesis defence: Monuments

Thesis defence by Mr. D. Nellessen: "Von Baudenkmälern zu Baudenkmalen. Die Entwicklung des Denkmal rechts im Land Berlin von 1949 bis Heute"
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Thesis defence: Fires

Thesis defence by Ms. D.M. Hanea: "Human Risk of Fires: Building a decision support tool using Bayesian networks"
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Thesis defence: Flexible electronics

Thesis defence by Mr. A. Baiano: "Super Mobile TFTs for high-speed flexible electronics"
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Thesis defence: Composite structures

Thesis defence by Mr. A.J. de Wit: "Multilevel optimization of composite structures"
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Thesis defence: ICT for rural development

Thesis defence by Mr. V.S. Parmar: "Design framework to develop ICT product & services for rural development"
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Thesis defence: Nanoscale

Thesis defence by Mr. M. Poot: "Mechanical systems at the nanoscale"
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Thesis defence: Radio Systems

Thesis defence by Mr. I. Budiarjo: "Adaptive Baseband Processing Techniques for Cognitive Radio Systems"
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Studium Generale: The future isn't what it used to be

Exploring the future and 'What's next': the future isn't what it used to be
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Thesis defence: Audio

Thesis defence by Mr. L. Lu: "Content Discovery from Composite Audio: An Unsupervised Approach"
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Thesis defence: Driving behaviour

Thesis defence by Mr. V.L. Knoop: "Road Incidents and Network Dynamics - Effects on driving behaviour and traffic congestion"
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Studium Generale: Evolution and culture

Studium Generale
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Inaugural speech: Environmental design

Inaugural speech by Prof.ir. D.F. Sijmons
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Thesis defence: Sustainable building

Thesis by Ms. E.M. van Bueren: "Greening Governance: An Evolutionary Perspective to Polici-making for a Sustainable Built Environment"
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Inaugural speech: Hydraulics

Inaugural speech by Prof.dr.ir. W.S.J. Uijttewaal
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Thesis defence: Architecture

Thesis defence by Ms. E.B. Tunçer: "The Architectural Information Map: Semantic modeling in conceptual architectural design"
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Thesis defence: Reservoir

Thesis defence by Mr. N. Jung: "Eco-hydraulic Modelling of Eutrophication for Reservoir Management"
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Thesis defence: Motor drive systems

Thesis defence by Mr. D. Zhao: "Hierachical EMC Design for Inverters in Motor Drive Systems"
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Thesis defence: Delta dryer

Thesis defence by Mr. G.W. van Gemert: "The Delta dryer - Theoretical and technological development of an energy-efficient dryer for sludge"
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Studium Generale: HOME (film and discussion)

Studium Generale
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Thesis defence: Navigation systems

Thesis defence by Mr. Y. Memarzadeh: "Ionospheric Modeling for Precise GNSS Applications"
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Thesis defence: Gravity

Thesis defence by Mr. T.F. Wittwer: "Regional gravity field modelling with radial basis functions"
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Thesis defence: Workflow

Thesis defence by Ms. A. Jalote Parmar: "Workflow in Design of Expert Systems"
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Inaugural speech: Waves

Inaugural speech by Prof.dr. A. Metrikine
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Studium Generale: Galapagos

Lecture
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Thesis defence: Seismic Reservoir Characterization

Thesis defence by Mr. P.V. Angelov: "Seismic Reservoir Characterization, Integrated with Geo-mechanical Modelling"
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Thesis defence: Next Generation Higher Education

Thesis defence by Mr. A.H.W. van der Zanden: "The Facilitating University; Positioning Next Generation Higher Education"
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Thesis defence: Poly(p-pheylene terephthalamide)

Thesis defence by Mr. H.P. Westerhof: "On the Structure and Dissolution Properties of Poly(p-pheylene terephthalamide) - Effect of Solvent Composition"
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Inaugural speech: Solar cells

Inaugural speech by Prof.dr. M. Zeman
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Thesis defence: Porous Media

Thesis defence by Mr. K. Elewaut: "Two-Phase Reactive Mass Transfer of an Oil-Soluble Chemical in Porous Media: A CT-Scan Study"
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Thesis defence: Silicon chemistry

Thesis defence by Ms. H.J. Brasser: "A tracer aided study on silicon chemistry in biological systems"
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Thesis defence: Simulation

Thesis defence by Mr. I. Lazic: "Atomic scale simulation of oxide and metal film growth"
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Thesis defence: Architecture

Thesis defence by Ms. R. Baumeister: "De l'Architecture Sauvage. Asger Jorns Kritik und Konzept der Modernen Architektur"
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Thesis defence: Modelling

Thesis defence by Mr. J. Dijkstra: "On the Modelling of Pile Installation"
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Studium Generale: Future and communication

Presentation
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Thesis defence: Scenarios

Thesis defence by Mr. W.F. van der Vegte: "Testing virtual use with scenarios"
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Thesis defence: Quantum Dots

Thesis defence by Ms. K.C. Nowack: "Electrical Manipulation and Detection of Single Electron Spins in Quantum Dots"
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Thesis defence: Silicon Nitride

Thesis defence by Mr. K. Babaei Gavan: "Dynamic Characterization of Silicon Nitride Cantilevers"
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Inaugural speech: Aerospace engineering

Inaugural speech by Prof.dr.ir. M. Mulder
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Studium Generale: Evolution and consciousness

Studium Generale
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Thesis defence: Leadership

Thesis defence by Mr. J.P.G. de Rooij: "Leadership for Distributed Teams"
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Thesis defence: Crystallizers

Thesis defence by Mr. A.N. Kalbasenka: "Model-Based Control of Industrial Batch Crystallizers. Experiments on Enhanced Controllability by Seeding Actuation"
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Thesis defence: Innovation

Thesis defence by Mr. G.A. de Reuver: "Governing mobile service innovation in co-evolving value networks"
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Thesis defence: Glass

Thesis defence by Mr. F.P. Bos: "Safety Concepts in Structural Glass Engineering"
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Thesis defence: Nanostructures

Thesis defence by Mr. A.P.J.M. Botman: "Towards high purity nanostructures from electron beam induced deposition of platinum"
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Thesis defence: Finite elements

Thesis defence by Mr. T. Rahman: "A Pertubation Approach for Geometrically Nonlinear Structural Analysis Using a General Purpose Finite Element Code"
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Thesis defence: Electron sources

Thesis defence by Ms. M.S. Bronsgeest: "Physics of Schottky Electron Sources"
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Studium Generale: Christmas concert

by the St John's College Choir from Cambridge
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