Student Projects

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We work on three key research themes in imaging physics. For more information on available projects, please check the below themes.

Research in the spotlight

Want to learn more about our research? See below our latest projects.

A new tool to understand the brain

How does our brain work? An international team of researchers, including lead author Daan Brinks of TU Delft, has taken another step towards answering that question. They have created a new tool that allows them to image electrical signals in brains with an unprecedented combination of precision, resolution, sensitivity, and depth.

Researchers make 3D image with light microscope

For the first time, Delft researchers have succeeded in making a three-dimensional image of a cellular component using light. The component in question is the nuclear pore complex: tunnels that facilitate traffic to and from the cell nucleus. Studying cell components in 3D can help to determine the cause of various diseases, among other things. The researchers have published their findings in Nature Communications.

Decoding movement intentions in the brain using ultrasound waves

While many techniques can image brain activity, this was the first time that a new technology, called functional ultrasound imaging, was used to detect motor planning deep within the brain. The team is now applying functional ultrasound decoding to more complicated motor control tasks. At ImPhys, Dr. Maresca is developing ultrasound technologies to image brain activity down to the cellular scale.

IRIS Lab: AI for quantitative bioimaging

The aim of the IRIS lab is to open the black box of AI and develop methodologies for context-independent, knowledge-based learning of imaging systems that will address fundamental challenges in all quantitative imaging applications. The proposed AI-technology will be applied to electron, optical, and ultrasound imaging to unravel dynamic molecular processes in living organisms: conformational ensembles of proteins, single-molecule dynamics in thick tissue and super-resolved vasculature mapping in real-time.

An all-time high for far-infrared space exploration

Next year, a helium balloon the size of a soccer stadium will bring a NASA telescope to the edge of space. This project is called GUSTO, and it will help scientists understand galactic evolution by probing interstellar gas. Its most important payload are three detectors developed by Jian Rong Gao and his teams at TU Delft and SRON, without which the telescope would be blind as to its mission purpose.

Distinguishing apples from pears under the microscope

Every microscope has a maximum resolution. Beyond that limit, you cannot see your sample any more clearly. But scientists use tricks to try to do just that. “For example,” Huijben explains, “an optical microscope that uses special fluorescence to make certain proteins emit light.” As a result, they flicker constantly, a bit like the indicators on a car or flashing Christmas lights. “Thanks to that illumination, you notice the proteins and can check what shape they are later. If they look abnormal, that could be a sign of disease. So you want to

New technique for ultrafast electron microscopy (USEM)

Mathijs Garming, Pieter Kruit, and Jacob Hoogenboom (imaging physics) have published a paper in collaboration with Maarten Bolhuis and Sonia Conesa-Boj (quantum nanoscience) on a new technique for doing ultrafast scanning electron microscopy (USEM). Newly developed lock-in USEM was used to image charge carrier dynamics on the material Gallium Arsenide. The technique allows for bulk carrier and surface trapping dynamics to be separated and individually studied.

In the spotlight

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