Filling the gap: terahertz waves for next generation sensing and communication

Developing technology for the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum used to be only pursued by space exploration scientists and the military. Maria Alonso-delPino uses advances in silicon chip technology to open up a whole universe of more worldly applications.

Taming the software jungle with evolutionary insights

Just like your television or car, software nowadays is often assembled from hundreds of pre-built components – ready-to-use pieces of code created and maintained by companies, volunteer teams and sometimes even individuals. It gives rise to some very interesting dynamics, much like in a natural ecosystem. It’s an analogy professor Diomidis Spinellis wants to explore in his quest to help tame the ever-increasing complexity of software.

Living on the edge

Rajendra Bishnoi works on novel technological concepts for so-called edge devices and he inspires students to follow his example. ‘Conventional computing platforms will start using too much energy soon. We need to look for more energy-efficient alternatives.’

A fighter jet and your health, radar can track both

Any kind of sensing, human or not, unveils similarities. Ice and metal may both feel cold. The sun and an apple may both appear to be red. For Francesco Fioranelli, specialised in using radar technology for the classification of objects, there is little difference between a fighter jet manoeuvring at tens of kilometres distance, or an elderly person staggering through a room.

An algorithm for the perfect photograph

The rise of smartphones has made photography accessible to everyone, but this has not necessarily resulted in better photographs, as a quick look on Instagram or Facebook can confirm: there is a huge difference between being able to take photographs and being a good photographer. But what if this difference was eliminated? Thomas Saulou at TU Delft is working on software that can make this possible.

City of the future communicates using solar panels

If it is up to Patrizio Manganiello, the city of the future will not only run on solar energy, but we will also use the solar infrastructure for lightning-fast communication. The new field of research called Photovoltatronics is bringing this future closer.

Dreaming of the quantum computer

Doing incredibly fast calculations to develop even better new medicines. That is just one of the things that will be possible in the future thanks to a quantum computer. It’s the dream of Fabio Sebastiano from the Faculty of EEMCS and QuTech (a partnership between TU Delft and TNO). He is devising solutions to make this device a reality.

Improving the effectiveness of speech recognition

How can you ensure that a computer understands exactly what someone is saying even if they cannot speak the language perfectly? In her quest to make this possible, Odette Scharenborg (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Studies) is researching automatic speech recognition.

‘Rapid development of LEDs offers all kinds of medical potential’

You can use ultraviolet light from LEDs to combat coronavirus. But it’s not as simple as commercial providers are presenting it right now, concludes Professor Guoqi Zhang. On the need for a sound scientific basis and the potential for LEDs in medical applications.

Firm ground for cloud datacentre planning

Just like the roads that provide access to them and the dikes that protect them, cloud datacentres have become an essential part of our national, and worldwide, infrastructure. Thanks to capacity planning research by TU Delft master’s student Georgios Andreadis, these datacentres may continue to meet the ever-growing computational demands while reducing their operational costs and increasing their efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Looking over Vermeer’s shoulders

In 2018, Johannes Vermeer’s world-famous Girl with a Pearl Earring underwent a total ‘body scan’: using state-of-the-art techniques, the painting was studied in painstaking detail from top to bottom. It provided a wealth of new insights about the painting and the painter. Four TU Delft faculties worked on the project.

New sensor chips: low-cost, smart and efficient

Imagine using a chip to analyse heart cells, or being notified by a smart plaster if your heart rate gets too high. These are two examples of research that Frans Widdershoven is working on. This fresh new pro-fessor is developing new smart sensors.