Delft Design Stories

Let there be light! How to design your own lamp in 1, 2, 3

Are you tired of seeing the same old lamp designs everywhere you go? Have you ever dreamed of designing and creating your own original lamp? With a material of your choosing? Then good news! Thanks to former IDE student Dino Liao and the rise of AI you can. Discover how in this Student Story.

15 September 2023

New tool shows accessibility of public areas for different population groups

What is a restaurant without its dining guests? What is a park without people walking their dog or kids playing? We are social beings and socializing is essential for our wellbeing. But how do we assess whether people from all walks of life are able to meet at these public places? This question motivated Vasileios Milias, PhD Candidate at TU Delft’s Industrial Design Engineering faculty to design a mapping tool which measures the concept of ‘co-accessibility’.

30 August 2023

Contestable AI gives citizens more control over smart technology

The use of AI is on the rise across society, including by governments. For example, AI is used in the scan cars that drive around cities and use machine vision to monitor public space. AI increases efficiency, but can we, as citizens, trust its decisions? With Contestable AI, we design decision-making systems that allow citizens to express disagreement throughout their lifecycle. This is a way to ensure that government AI is worthy of people’s trust.

29 August 2023

Dashboard sparks the growth of urban greenery

Greenery makes cities more liveable. But how do you ensure urban greenery flourishes? Sanne Keizer devoted her graduation project to unearthing this answer, and in doing so designed a dashboard that monitors and predicts the evolution of urban greenery. "Urban greening needs more than a four-year policy period to be flourish," she says. Sanne’s project received a perfect score.

28 August 2023

Data and the transformation of design research

The rise of data technologies is changing the game for design researchers. As design moves towards complex societal challenges, design tools need to evolve by integrating the benefits of both humans and advanced technologies. For her PhD, Jiwon Jung explored how designers can work with data scientists and machine learning in developing digital health solutions, proposing that there is a lot to learn from each other.

22 March 2023

From The Start: The Early Design Bird Gets The Remanufacturing Worm

The circular economy. Sustainability. Refurbishment. Remanufacturing. Recycling. We hear these buzzwords used all the time when talking about how humanity needs to lessen its impact on the planet. For her PhD research, Nina Boorsma looked into how to get companies to make more sustainable products and found that the process needs to start early.

02 March 2023

Circular composites - design is the missing link

Composite materials have a lot to offer in terms of fine-tuning material properties, optimising functionality, and ensuring a long-life span. Despite those advantages, they still leave a lot to be desired when it comes to reuse and recycling. For his PhD, Jelle Joustra explored strategies for making composite materials that support a circular economy, proposing that design is the missing link.

08 December 2022

IDE researchers launch open-source online emotion typology

IDE researchers have just launched one of the most comprehensive emotion resources in the world. The emotion typology is an open-access online database that provides detailed information on positive and negative emotions.

Delft Design Stories

Read the stories of researchers and students at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, and discover the scientific questions on which they work and the solutions they present.

How to paint convincing stuff

If you see a bunch of grapes, how does your brain understand that those are real grapes and not ones made of plastic? And if you see those grapes in a painting - say a 17th-century piece of Dutch Golden Age art - how does your brain understand that those are also grapes? That’s what Francesca Di Cicco wanted to know for her PhD thesis.

A robot with a soft touch

Try and picture a robotic hand and an image of metal fingers with rigid joints might come to mind. Imagine instead one made of soft materials that can dextrously grip an apple, automatically adjust to its shape, and pluck it from a tree. Rob Scharff, through his PhD research, explores how the emerging field of soft robotics has the potential to revolutionise the future of robotic manipulation.

The unique train toilet challenge

The toilet touches all our lives, but we don’t want to touch the toilet. In other words, we try to keep a distance from toilets, particularly those in public. However, these toilets are what makes it possible for us to leave our homes and travel. More specifically, anyone travelling by train is used to having free access to train toilets, certainly on long journeys. But, as they are perceived as being dirty, they are greatly underused. A dilemma for railway companies and a challenge for sanitary designer and PhD graduate Marian Loth.

Persuasive technology for health and wellbeing at work

Elsbeth de Korte isn’t your typical Ph.D. student. When she defends her thesis later this month, on how technology can improve health and well-being in the workplace, she will have already been working at the Dutch research institute TNO for more than twenty years.

LandShapes: made to feel real

Master’s student in industrial design Frederik Ueberschär used artificial intelligence to create non-existent satellite images of the earth’s surface in his interactive installation LANDSHAPES. People can change these landscapes, and in this playful way he wants to involve them emotionally in climate change.

"Humans don't develop like machines."

When Stefan Persaud took over the second-year bachelor’s course Product Dynamics at Industrial Design, he brought along his motto: "If you can't reach them, you can't teach them." Persaud believes in student-centred teaching, where lecturers focus on how students best learn and engage students in active learning.

"Humans don't develop like machines."

When Stefan Persaud took over the second-year bachelor’s course Product Dynamics at Industrial Design, he brought along his motto: "If you can't reach them, you can't teach them." Persaud believes in student-centred teaching, where lecturers focus on how students best learn and engage students in active learning.