Archive

Researchers from TU Delft developed a method to watch the formation of kidney stones on a microscale, in a so called microfluidic platform. By slightly adjusting the pH and the concentration of specific minerals, the formation could be slowed down or inhibited completely. The research is now published in Biomicrofluidics.

In her search to determine the optimal speed skating technique, doctoral candidate Eline van der Kruk developed a dynamic computer model of a skater and instrumented clap skates. In the future, these will make it possible to offer skaters and coaches real-time visual feedback during training sessions. On Thursday 8 February, the day before the start of the Winter Olympics, Van der Kruk will be awarded her PhD at TU Delft for her work on this subject.

The use of technology is unavoidable to keep healthcare affordable and accessible, but its implementation must go hand in hand with respect for patient values, says trauma surgeon Maarten van der Elst. He has been appointed to TU Delft’s Reinier de Graaf chair for the coming five years and is holding his inaugural address on 4 March.

In our future energy system, electricity derived from solar panels and wind turbines, and heat derived from geothermal wells, heat pumps, solar collectors and urban surfaces will constitute cheap and abundant sources of carbon-free energy for our built environment and for our industries.

Eight researchers from TU Delft, including two from the 3mE Faculty, namely Wouter Westerveld, Remco Hartkamp and Carlas Smith, received a Vidi grant in June for their research proposals.

The Dutch Research Council has awarded 101 experienced researchers a Vidi grant worth 800,000 euros. Eight Vidis go to top researchers from Delft, of which no fewer than three researchers work at the 3mE faculty: Michael Wiertlewski, Willem Haverkort and Kim Batselier. The grant enables them to develop their own innovative line of research and set up their own research group in the coming five years.

On 14 November, a new group of Medical Delta professors and lecturers were inaugurated. Two TU Delft professors at the Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (3mE) received part-time appointments at other academic institutions within Medical Delta. 3mE also welcomes a new professor: Luc van der Laan.

Murali Ghatkesar, assistant professor in the Department of Precision and Microsystems Engineering, has developed a new method through 3D printing that makes it easier, quicker and more efficient to perform single-cell biopsies. It is the first time that 3D printing is being used for the production of micro- and nanofluidic equipment. The results of his research were published in the scientific journal Lab on a Chip this month.

TU Delft scientists provide insight into the limitations of super-resolution microscopy and offer a new calculation method to determine maximum resolution. The technology is important for studying processes in the living cell, discovering the origin of diseases and developing new medicines. In addition, their publication nuances major precision improvements previously claimed by fellow researchers. Their findings were published in Biophysical Journal.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant worth up to 250,000 euros to twelve highly promising young scientists from TU Delft.

We deeply regret to inform you that two students from our faculty were involved in the tragic surfing accident on Monday 11 May in Scheveningen.

On Wednesday May 13th, Delft University Fund organised the award ceremony of the Marina van Damme Grant 2019. This grant is made possible thanks to dr.ir. Marina van Damme and enables young female engineers to develop and boost their personal career.

Robotic body-weight support (BWS) devices can play a key role in helping people with neurological disorders to improve their walking. The team that developed the advanced body-weight support device RYSEN in 2018 has since gained more fundamental insight in BWS but also concludes that improvement in this field is necessary.

Robots can perform jobs underwater that are too complex or dangerous for humans. That is, if they can manage on their own, because no one can help them down there. The REMARO project works on its control systems and trains PhD students in programming work.

The Royal Dutch Cycling Federation (Koninklijke Nederlandsche Wielrenunie, KNWU), bike manufacturer KOGA and TU Delft unveiled the new track bike on Wednesday 29 May.

Popular culture characters, such as superheroes like Iron Man, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Batman and Hawkeye, can provide a unique and engaging platform for the communication of difficult scientific concepts. In the classroom, these characters can be used to communicate learning objectives to students in an interesting, fun, and accessible manner by taking advantage of student familiarity with these superhero characters. Hawkeye, a member of the Avengers, is one such superhero who can be utilized by educators, as Barry Fitzgerald of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands) argues in the article ‘Using Hawkeye from the Avengers to communicate on the eye’, published in the journal Advances in Physiology Education.

. In partnership with the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), Thijs Vlugt, Mahinder Ramdin and Otto Moultos, researchers at the Department of Process & Energy, developed a new method using artificial intelligence that can be used to solve arson offences.

‘We find ourselves in an age where superhero films are immensely popular. With many students familiar with many of these characters and their superpowers, superheroes can facilitate a unique platform to aid in the dissemination of physics materials in the classroom’, says scientist Barry W. Fitzgerald of TU Delft. In a paper published in Physics Education on 5th April 2018, he considers Wonder Woman, Hawkeye and Invisible Woman.

At the bottom of the ocean lie lumps of valuable metals such as copper, manganese, nickel and cobalt - materials crucial to accelerating the energy transition. A collaboration between five European countries called ‘Blue Harvesting,’ has designed and now tested a new collector that can gather these nodules from the deep sea bottom with minimal disturbance to the natural environment.

Another 78 promising young scientists receive Veni funding of up to 280,000 euros from NWO. This concerns sixty researchers from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SGW) domain and eighteen from the Applied and Technical Sciences (TTW) domain, who can further develop their own research ideas over the next three years. The Venis for the ENW and ZonMW domains were announced in December 2021.

Dr. Vera Popovich, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) has been awarded a prestigious 1.7 million euro grant to design microstructures and tailor mechanical properties in 3D (powder bed) printed metal components.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the need for prosthetic hands has increased sharply. TU Delft researcher Gerwin Smit has designed a prosthetic hand that can be made through a combination of 3-D printing and laser-cutting, which means that they be produced easily and relatively cheaply in countries that have little money to spend on such things. These prosthetic hands are already being used in India and now, the Indian technology company Vispala has donated 350 of Smit’s 3D-printed prosthetic hands to war victims in Ukraine, sponsored by the American IT-company, Cisco.

Vijayendra Umesh Shastri from the Precions and Microsystems Engineering Department has been awarded a NOW-XS grant for his quantitative de-cellurarization with single-cell resolution project.

Spiropyrans are chemicals that change colour when you shine light on them – a useful property in many areas of medicine and technology. Now Georgy Filonenko and his colleague, Richard Janissen at the Faculty of Applied Science have discovered a new use for these so-called photochromic molecules - visualising stresses in solid polymers. Their research is published in the ‘Journal of the American Chemical Society.’

This year the ‘steer-assisted bicycle’, a prototype bike with smart steering assistance, was nominated by KIJK magazine as the ‘Best tech idea of 2019’.

Innovations from the wind energy sector seldom find their way to shipbuilding, despite undeniable similarities. Researchers in the areas of marine engineering and control engineering seize the opportunity offered by the cohesion programme to change this.

Maarten van den Broek (DCSC) is the winner of the TU Delft Energy Paper Award with the development of an algorithm that ensures a higher energy yield from wind farms.

In June 1921, exactly a century ago, Stanny Koopman was the first woman to graduate from the mechanical engineering programme in Delft. It would take another 40 years before Diny Lammens would replicate that feat, becoming the second woman to graduate in 1959. Nowadays, dozens of women graduate every year from the Mechanical Engineering master’s programme, and that number is rising steadily.

TU Delft is working with seven other partners on an autonomous system for cleaning the ocean floor. This system consists of a surface vehicle with two underwater robots, which are going to identify and collect litter from the ocean floor. Now that the crucial gripper component of the system has been completed, the SeaClear system is almost ready for field testing.

Changing 'the Lecturer of the Year elections' to 'The year of the Lecturer' and sending a nice thank you gift. What could it be?

Steel pipelines can become brittle due to hydrogen and can therefore break. Fascinated by this urgent problem, Carey Walters (MTT), Othon Moultos (P&E) and Poulumi Dey (MSE) joined forces and turned to the cohesion programme to work on this together.

During ‘Meet the Professor’, four 3mE professors visited several Delft primary schools. They gave fifth and sixth grade pupils guest lessons dressed in togas.

Students in the last grade of primary school were stunned by professor Jan-Willem van Wingerden's guest lecture during “Meet the Professor”. This year, 33 Delft professors visited various primary schools in Delft to introduce them to science.

What if a robot shuts down during an operation? How long do you sleep every night? What kind of a suit is that you’re wearing? And what’s your biggest dream? A group of ten to twelve-year-old students from different primary schools in Delft listened with rapt attention to ‘their guest lecturer’, which was followed by a barrage of questions. 3mE-professors Jenny Dankelman, Paul Breedveld, Just Herder and Maarten van der Elst each visited a primary school class in the context of the unique ‘Meet the professor’ event and introduced mechanical engineering in a special way to the students.

Researchers at TU Delft and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) have developed a new ‘ruler-less prototype’ that may make the use of a physical ruler at the crime scene redundant.