reading time: min

From the plane into the train

Few travellers combine plane and train: too much uncertainty, too much hassle. What needs to be done to get passengers on the train for a transfer before or after a long flight? Delft Design master's student Rosa Hendrikx researched how passenger service can be improved, designed a service to combine international train journeys and flights, and graduated cum laude

reading time: 5 min

Sand on the horizon

It’s a decade since the creation of the Sand Motor, an artificial sand bank off the North Sea coast. What happens to a natural system following human intervention on such a large scale.

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| Top 10 Stories in 2021

We are very proud of our Stories of Science. These are the ten best read English stories in 2021.

Stories

reading time: 4 min

Wheelchair owner and companion next to each other thanks to wheelchair attachment

A standard wheelchair is pushed, but if you walk behind it as an attendant, it’s sometimes difficult to keep contact with the person sitting in it, even though it’s a necessity. There’s probably a technical solution to this kind of problem, but then the right people have to know about it.

reading time: min

Neural networks put the afterburners on skin recovery models

First aid for burn injuries is to cool the area for twenty minutes with lukewarm running water. Math can play an important role in choosing the subsequent, often more intensive, treatment aimed at reducing the probability of permanent damage or even disabilities. But these mathematical models for skin recovery must be fast. By applying neural networks, Marianne Schaaphok increased their speed by more than a million times.

reading time: min

Planning a city with conflicting values? No problem!

Increasing urbanisation is creating major challenges in spatial planning. Not least because everyone has different priorities when it comes to organising the public space. For his Master's thesis, best graduate of 2021 in the Faculty of TPM, Rico Herzog, mapped out conflicts of values within a city and developed a model to deal with such conflicts; a model intended to help decision-makers to make better urban planning decisions.

reading time: 4 min

Delft research unravels mystery of motion of cilia

The cilia – tiny hairs – inside our body are important to our health. They help move fluids, such as phlegm from our lungs. Eduardo Gutiérrez Prieto, a master’s student in Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of 3mE at TU Delft, explains through his research how cilia acquire their motion and how multiple of them can synchronize. This insight could lead to the more effective treatment of various illnesses. For example the treatment of smoker’s cough or other diseases of the respiratory system.

reading time: 6 min

Zhuo-ming Shia: A design process for socially responsible global housing

When there is a global housing shortage, you do not go about creating one new dwelling at a time. Especially when there is a dire need for quality housing, sustainably designed, and befitting the people whom the dwellings are built for. Best Graduate of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (BK) Zhuo-ming Shia designed a participatory housing design process for Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

reading time: 4 min

Zooming in on and out of a circular region

Like the energy transition, the transition to a circular economy impacts the way we use space. So how should we go about planning structural reuse and value retention? For students on the Urbanism Master's track, this is not merely a theoretical question. A range of spatial strategies have recently been put forward for a circular South Holland region.

reading time: 6 min

Is hydrogen-powered air travel the future?

Hydrogen is a sustainable alternative to kerosene-powered air travel because there are no CO₂ emissions. But hydrogen is also associated with challenges and risks, such as the danger of explosion. TU Delft scientist Dr. Ivan Langella aims to use mathematical models, high-fidelity computational simulations and experiments to develop a zero-emission hydrogen-powered engine that will enable aircraft to fly safely and efficiently.

reading time: 4 min

Dutch lessons in the Chinese Pearl River Delta

The Pearl River Delta in the province of Guangdong in southern China is one of the most rapidly urbanising deltas in the world. More than sixty million people now live in an area approximately half the size of the Netherlands. The pace of developments, combined with the consequences of climate change, are creating a complex set of issues. How can a small country like the Netherlands help out?

reading time: 4 min

Using smart technology to make fuel out of CO2

Too much CO2 in the air is currently causing a major problem: climate change. If it were up to Peyman Taheri, researcher at Materials Science and Engineering at TU Delft, we would be making smart use of surplus CO2 by converting it into a new fuel. A fuel that could power factories and send cars hurtling down the motorway.

reading time: 8 min

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.

| TU Delft Best Graduates 2021

TU Delft is proud to present the eight Best Graduates 2021. Each year, the eight faculties select their best graduate. Read below the stories of these eight brand new engineers and their impactful graduation research.

reading time: 6 min

Looking over the shoulder of the pilot of a Flying-V

The first scale model test proved last year that the Flying-V is an airworthy, stable and controllable aircraft. In early November, it was time for the next step: the first simulator flight. Test pilot Thibaut Cappuyns had the honour of taking control of the stick of the SIMONA simulator. The pilot's experience of this revolutionary type of aircraft is crucial.

reading time: min

Neural networks put the afterburners on skin recovery models

First aid for burn injuries is to cool the area for twenty minutes with lukewarm running water. Math can play an important role in choosing the subsequent, often more intensive, treatment aimed at reducing the probability of permanent damage or even disabilities. But these mathematical models for skin recovery must be fast. By applying neural networks, Marianne Schaaphok increased their speed by more than a million times.

reading time: min

Planning a city with conflicting values? No problem!

Increasing urbanisation is creating major challenges in spatial planning. Not least because everyone has different priorities when it comes to organising the public space. For his Master's thesis, best graduate of 2021 in the Faculty of TPM, Rico Herzog, mapped out conflicts of values within a city and developed a model to deal with such conflicts; a model intended to help decision-makers to make better urban planning decisions.

reading time: min

Meltwater from the Austrian Alps

An imposing, compelling and urgent social problem, that is what Master student Sarah Hanus wanted for her final project. She found it high up in the Austrian Alps where climate change is altering river runoff patterns. Using a model she developed herself, Hanus is able to come up with long-term projections of what these patterns will look like in future. Her work earned her the title of Best Graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Sciences.

reading time: min

Stronger together: Swarm mini-drones sniff out gas leaks

Developing drones that are smaller and lighter than normal drones but still capable of performing the same tasks – Bart Duisterhof has succeeded in doing just that, and has been named Best Graduate in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. For his Master’s thesis, he developed smart mini-drones that can independently detect gas leaks. “If you’re not afraid of thinking outside the box, you can reach solutions that you might not otherwise have thought of.”

reading time: 4 min

Delft research unravels mystery of motion of cilia

The cilia – tiny hairs – inside our body are important to our health. They help move fluids, such as phlegm from our lungs. Eduardo Gutiérrez Prieto, a master’s student in Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of 3mE at TU Delft, explains through his research how cilia acquire their motion and how multiple of them can synchronize. This insight could lead to the more effective treatment of various illnesses. For example the treatment of smoker’s cough or other diseases of the respiratory system.

reading time: 6 min

Zhuo-ming Shia: A design process for socially responsible global housing

When there is a global housing shortage, you do not go about creating one new dwelling at a time. Especially when there is a dire need for quality housing, sustainably designed, and befitting the people whom the dwellings are built for. Best Graduate of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (BK) Zhuo-ming Shia designed a participatory housing design process for Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

A better environment from the comfort of your chair

A modular chair made of blocks in which CO2 has been stored and that can be converted into other pieces of furniture. With his special design - Unito - Riel Bessai, who recently graduated from the Faculty of Industrial Design, wants, above all, to tell a story. “With my chair I am making the global CO2 problem tangible and I hope to encourage people to view our consumer society from a different perspective.”

reading time: min

Perfectly common enzymes the key to green medicines and chemicals

Friederike Nintzel, who recently graduated from the Faculty of Applied Sciences, has an important mission, greening the pharmaceutical and chemical industry by making the production of medicines and chemicals more sustainable. The research she conducted for her master’s degree shows the use of enzymes might be a game changer in this. She earned a perfect ten, published her research and was nominated Best Graduate of her faculty.

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| Stories

reading time: min

The landslide forecast coming to you from space

Watching time: 12 min

ESP Lab - Lucia Beloqui Larumbe, Power Electronics

Four designers from Delft University of Technology travelled to Lake Victoria, Tanzania and partnered with Sagar Energy Solutions to design a solar-powered fishing lamp for the night fishing industry. This effort aims to put an end to the reliance on dangerous and expensive kerosene lanterns.

Watching time: 12 min

ESP Lab - Peter Palensky, Digital Technologies

Four designers from Delft University of Technology travelled to Lake Victoria, Tanzania and partnered with Sagar Energy Solutions to design a solar-powered fishing lamp for the night fishing industry. This effort aims to put an end to the reliance on dangerous and expensive kerosene lanterns.

Watching time: 12 min

ESP Lab – Miro Zeman, Photovoltaics

Four designers from Delft University of Technology travelled to Lake Victoria, Tanzania and partnered with Sagar Energy Solutions to design a solar-powered fishing lamp for the night fishing industry. This effort aims to put an end to the reliance on dangerous and expensive kerosene lanterns.

reading time: 3, 5 min

The new interior wall: demountable, sustainable and pure

When Bob Geldermans finalised his doctoral thesis in 2020 on demountable partitioning of circular and natural materials, he did not yet know that he would be able to continue his research with a number of like-minded partners. He is now testing and further improving his design concept, which can make a major contribution to sustainability of the building industry.

Collection Climate Action

reading time: 5 min

Compact nature for the compact city

Urban dwellers need green public spaces. To put oxygen in their lungs and improve their mental health. To capture carbon dioxide and mitigate extreme weather. To ensure balance between the built and the natural environments. But in densely built-up cities there is little space for greenery at ground level. So, what can be done about this? For his graduation project, Menno de Roode studied and designed compact urban public green spaces: “Following nature as far as possible enables you to avoid unnecessary maintenance and management.”

reading time: 5 min

Monitoring buildings to boost performance

Professor Laure Itard is working to identify solutions for energy waste and faulty indoor climate within buildings. The key question facing the recently-launched Brains 4 Buildings (B4B) research programme is: how can artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning contribute to improving sustainability and comfort? Living

Collection Climate Action, Collection Climate Engineering

reading time: 6 min

Climate technology you hope you’ll never need

Could clouds be modified to slow global warming? Cloud expert Herman Russchenberg is investigating climate intervention but hopes his theories will never be put to the test.

Collection Climate Action, Collection Climate Engineering

reading time: 6 min

Heading for space to save the Earth

A membrane the size of the European continent. Together with other scientists, TU Delft researcher Jeannette Heiligers is currently exploring the possibilities for positioning a gigantic solar shield in space to combat global warming. A huge intervention which is not without its own issues.

reading time: 4 min

The added value of closing resource flows by communities at the neighbourhood level

Residents of IJburg were keen to participate in sustainable development of the new urban district of Strandeiland. How should they approach this in practice? Els Leclercq and Mo Smit offered them some guiding principles with the ‘Value Flower Model’ and ‘Value Flower Field Maps’, the results of their ‘Waardevolle Wijken’ research into exemplary case-studies of community-based circularity initiatives on the scale of neighbourhoods and urban districts.

reading time: 10 min

Innovation needs a place to grow

Mitigating the impact of climate change, facilitating the energy transition, solving the housing crisis… The built environment needs to address pretty big challenges, which ask for innovative solutions. Students at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment have plenty of good ideas to create the necessary innovations, but how can their ideas successfully evolve?

Collection Climate Action

reading time: min

From the plane into the train

Few travellers combine plane and train: too much uncertainty, too much hassle. What needs to be done to get passengers on the train for a transfer before or after a long flight? Delft Design master's student Rosa Hendrikx researched how passenger service can be improved, designed a service to combine international train journeys and flights, and graduated cum laude

Collection Climate Action

reading time: 5 min

Sand on the horizon

It’s a decade since the creation of the Sand Motor, an artificial sand bank off the North Sea coast. What happens to a natural system following human intervention on such a large scale.

reading time: 4 min

Zooming in on and out of a circular region

Like the energy transition, the transition to a circular economy impacts the way we use space. So how should we go about planning structural reuse and value retention? For students on the Urbanism Master's track, this is not merely a theoretical question. A range of spatial strategies have recently been put forward for a circular South Holland region.

viewing time: 11 min

How to Print a Dinosaur

How to Print a Dinosaur? Find out how a combination of new and traditional techniques can be used to restore an ancient creature like never before!

Collection Climate Action

reading time: 5 min

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.

reading time: min

In search of the plastic soup

To better understand the whereabouts of floating plastic soup, you need to investigate how the water moves at different depths. Angeliki Laskari, researcher of Multiphase Systems at TU Delft, therefore studies fluid dynamics, the science of the movement and flow of water. Her ultimate goal is to help predict how plastic spreads in water.

reading time: 5 min

Sweet solutions to a salty problem

Some sixty kilometres, all the way up to Gouda, that’s how far inland the Rotterdam Waterway has been carrying salty North Sea water over the last few years.
Salt intrusion in Dutch rivers is a growing problem for the country’s drinking water supply and agriculture, not only in the Dutch delta but in deltas worldwide. Julie Pietrzak is trying to find better ways of predicting and combating the problem.

Collection Climate Action

reading time: 4 min

Using smart technology to make fuel out of CO2

Too much CO2 in the air is currently causing a major problem: climate change. If it were up to Peyman Taheri, researcher at Materials Science and Engineering at TU Delft, we would be making smart use of surplus CO2 by converting it into a new fuel. A fuel that could power factories and send cars hurtling down the motorway.

reading time: 5 min

Getting it straight: bridges are becoming circular

A large number of bridges in the Netherlands are scheduled for large-scale maintenance work or replacement. In order to minimise the effect on the environment and bring down costs researcher Wenjun Cao is working on a model to assess the potential for circularity of these bridges. This will help the Netherlands to achieve its aim of a fully Circular Economy (CE) by 2050.

reading time: min

From the plane into the train

reading time: 5 min

Sand on the horizon

reading time: 4, 5 min

Ultimate challenge: to make 7 million buildings energy neutral on time

reading time: min

High-level language design

reading time: 6 min

The birth of the Delfi-PQ mini satellite

Building Pandemic Proof Cities

reading time: 6 min

Dialogue with residents creates a pleasant living environment

reading time: min

The landslide forecast coming to you from space

reading time: 6 min

The hydrogen car as a crucial link in a sustainable energy system

reading time: 6 min

Looking over the shoulder of the pilot of a Flying-V

Watching time: 12 min

ESP Lab - Lucia Beloqui Larumbe, Power Electronics

Watching time: 12 min

ESP Lab - Peter Palensky, Digital Technologies

Watching time: 12 min

ESP Lab – Miro Zeman, Photovoltaics

reading time: 5 min

A revolution in modelling travel behaviour

reading time: 8 min

Designing for darkness

reading time: 9 min

Avoiding division in climate adaptation

reading time: 4 min

The responsibility gap with self-driving cars

reading time: 8 min

Resilient water management in India through adaptive policy analysis

reading time: 4 min

Wheelchair owner and companion next to each other thanks to wheelchair attachment

reading time: 4 min

More grip on the unpredictable energy transition with GridMaster

reading time: 4 min

Analysing firefighter calls on New Year’s Eve with open source data

reading time: 5 min

Promoting social interaction through online games
View all stories