reading time: 5 min

Resonance between brain and mind for better design

Caiseal Beardow, master’s student at TU Delft’s Faculty of Industrial Design, built an audio-visual installation that explores how brain and mind respond to subtle changes in a landscape of light and sound that test subjects experience in her installation.

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?

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| Climate adaptation stories

Best practices to adapt to climate change

reading time: 4 min

Understanding complex coral reef coasts

Fringing coral reefs provide a sheltered habitat for many sea animals and are a snorkelers’ paradise. But they also form a natural barrier which protects the shoreline and the area further inland. Experiments using 3D printed replicas of a coral are helping Marion Tissier gain an insight into how coral reefs influence and dampen wave energy.

reading time: 5 min

What is the coolest tree?

On a hot, windless day, a leafy neighbourhood may feel 10 to 15°C cooler than an urban area that is more exposed to the sun. Trees thus play a key role in preventing heat stress and the design of climate-proof and healthier cities. “Although we already understand a great deal about the performance of tree species in the built environment, there is very little empirical knowledge about their cooling capacity.”, says researcher Lotte Dijkstra. In order to determine how physical properties such as the trunk and crown shape and the leaf characteristics influence the local air temperature the research team designed and built special ‘climate arboreta’ with sensors installed in each of the 75 tree species.

reading time: 6 min

Urban Ecology: the increasing importance of nature in the city

‘Urban Ecology can have a positive influence in many other areas in addition to biodiversity, such as climate adaptation, health, water and energy consumption and circularity’, according to Nico Tillie, who, together with 26 students, looked at how the forces of nature could be given more room on TU Delft Campus. The coronavirus wasn’t much of a help though.

reading time: 6 min

Magnetic cooling for a greener world

A fridge or air-conditioning system that uses far less energy, is quieter and needs no harmful substances to run. This can soon become reality now that Magneto, a Delft start-up company co-founded by Michael Maschek, is bringing magnetic refrigeration to the market. And this is all thanks to the perseverance of Professor Ekkes Brück, who never lost faith in his affordable commodity.

reading time: 4 min

Into the mud to help nature

PhD candidate Lodewijk de Vet stood in the mud for weeks, in order to learn about organisms in the seabed and to take measurements. He wants to understand the Eastern and Western Scheldt better, so that he can help the ecology while simultaneously protecting our country from rising sea levels. His understanding of these areas served as a foundation for the Roggenplaat nourishments, that have since been executed.

reading time: 4 min

Can sandbanks save mangrove forests?

Reading time: 3 min

Making dikes safer with a bass guitar

| World Water Day 2021

reading time: 4 min

The creepy crawlies that can save lives

Reading time: 3 min

Resilient water management in India

Over the last decade, uncontrolled growth has transformed rural villages around major cities in India into peri-urban areas. The original water infrastructure in these agriculture-dependent villages is ill equipped to cope and this is creating tensions. Together with local stakeholders, researchers Leon Hermans and Sharlene Gomes are taking stock of vulnerabilities and opportunities for adaptive water management for sustainable development of the areas.

reading time: 5 min

Amina Chouairi: From a peculiar relationship to a clear view on the Venetian tides

If the Venetian Lagoon could talk, it would want a conversation with Amina Chouairi. She decided to listen anyway. For her Master’s thesis ‘The Operating Venetian Lagoon: The Agency of Barene’, Amina dove into the Venetian tides. Amina recently graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment with this Master’s thesis which earned her a nomination for Best Graduate TU Delft 2020 and a place in the Archiprix pre-selection.

reading time: 5 min

Value from wastewater

Reading time: 4 min

Water treatment in India: a matter for the local community

reading time: 5 min

Purifying water with diamonds

Diamonds have always captured our imagination as a material for jewellery. Fewer of us are aware that engineers also consider diamonds to be an absolutely prime material with many, surprising applications. Researcher Ivan Buijnsters at TU Delft, for example, focuses on purifying water with diamonds.

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: 3 min

Water with a barcode

A world without a sewer system is not really something anyone would wish to contemplate. Flooding, smelly streets, not to mention the absence of toilet facilities, would make life intolerable. With approximately 150,000 kilometres of waste pipes the Dutch sewage system is one of the country’s most important pieces of infrastructure. While maintenance is crucial it is also expensive. Assistant professor urban water infrastructure Lisa Scholten, together with Francois Clemens and Juan Pablo Aguilar Lopez are looking at new ways to achieve an efficient inspection and maintenance system. With Leiden University computer scientists Arno Knobbe and Dirk Meijer they have been working on ‘SewerSense’, a project to develop a new inspection method which will also lead to a better understanding of the decision-making processes surrounding sewer maintenance.

reading time: 6 min

Using mathematics to explain why the River Ems is silting up

Why are the River Ems and the Dollard inlet so turbid that they barely harbour any life? Mathematician Henk Schuttelaars (TU Delft) is working on new models to improve our understanding of this puzzling river and find solutions to the problems involved.

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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.

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.

leestijd: 4 min

Op digitaal ziekenbezoek in Reinier de Graaf dankzij Delftse studenten

Vanwege strikte coronarichtlijnen is het voor veel patiënten in het Reinier de Graaf niet mogelijk om bezoek te ontvangen. Door alle drukte in het ziekenhuis kunnen verplegers oudere of zwakkere patiënten niet altijd helpen contact te hebben met hun naasten via welbekende middelen als WhatsApp of Skype. Delftse studenten ontwikkelden een tool die patiënt en familie toch bij elkaar brengt én het zorgpersoneel ontlast.

reading time: 5, 5 min

Concrete examples: a new start for used concrete

Concrete has been one of the most widely used construction materials in the world for decades. Despite this, concrete rubble is recycled in only very small amounts worldwide even though sand and gravel are becoming increasingly scarce and their exploitation is damaging to nature. As part of a European research project, students and staff from the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment have come up with a range of ideas on what you can make using recycled concrete. From permeable paving to street furniture that can generate energy: concrete rubble has real potential.

reading time: 6 min

Making corrosion a soft target

Corrosion is a plague to aviation and countless other sectors worldwide. Paul Denissen is literally targeting this phenomenon: with his ‘Corrosion Imager’ he can display the presence of corrosion in high resolution and real-time.

reading time: 5, 5 min

And the winner is... three graduation research projects into circular building systems receive awards

Can the current system of linear production methods and consumption patterns be transformed into a circular economy with more value retention? The three winners of the first circularity prize for budding architects are convinced it is possible. For example, there is no need to throw out insulating glass because it has signs of wear and tear, and houses can be constructed of locally grown hemp.

reading time: 4 min

Understanding complex coral reef coasts

Fringing coral reefs provide a sheltered habitat for many sea animals and are a snorkelers’ paradise. But they also form a natural barrier which protects the shoreline and the area further inland. Experiments using 3D printed replicas of a coral are helping Marion Tissier gain an insight into how coral reefs influence and dampen wave energy.

reading time: 6 min

Tasty vegetables from a smart greenhouse

A smart greenhouse that calculates when vegetables need water and more heat. That’s what professor Tamás Keviczky from TU Delft’s 3mE faculty is working on. This approach cuts costs and is good for the environment.

reading time: 4 min

Showcase ‘P-lab’: urban raw materials in a small-scale circular economy

Urban food and material chains contain huge amounts of valuable materials, a considerable proportion of which is still lost as waste. Take phosphorus for example, an indispensable and irreplaceable nutrient. Whilst the global supplies of phosphates contained in ores are steadily diminishing, we all excrete them in our urine where they return to the environment via sewers, mixed with other substances. Researchers at TU Delft demonstrate an alternative with their mobile mini-lab in a shipping container which has been built in a plot near to the AMS Institute, to be tested within the context of an urban living lab.

reading time: 5 min

What can mussel shells teach us about the circular economy?

In a circular economy, design is about more than just creating a sustainable product. In this system based on eliminating waste and minimising the use of resources, the design process is aimed at preserving the value of products and materials and keeping them in the economic system for as long as possible. So how do you do that? PhD candidate Marita Sauerwein came up with a novel material based on ground mussel shells and showed through 3D printing technology that the end life of a product is really just the beginning.

reading time: 4 min

A supermodel for all the glaciers on Earth

The Dutch coastline is continually changing. Coastal engineer Sierd de Vries is using ventilators, wind tunnels, drones, jet skis and laser scanners to gain an insight into the development of coastal areas and dune formation. He can often be found counting grains of sand.

reading time: 4 min

Breaking habits for a green world

We separate our waste, take shorter showers and there has been an increase in roof-mounted solar panels. Climate psychologist at TU Delft Gerdien de Vries, sees that in the Netherlands we are trying to put our greenest foot forward.

reading time: 4 min

Counting grains of sand to understand coastal dunes

The Dutch coastline is continually changing. Coastal engineer Sierd de Vries is using ventilators, wind tunnels, drones, jet skis and laser scanners to gain an insight into the development of coastal areas and dune formation. He can often be found counting grains of sand.

reading time: 5 min

What is the coolest tree?

On a hot, windless day, a leafy neighbourhood may feel 10 to 15°C cooler than an urban area that is more exposed to the sun. Trees thus play a key role in preventing heat stress and the design of climate-proof and healthier cities. “Although we already understand a great deal about the performance of tree species in the built environment, there is very little empirical knowledge about their cooling capacity.”, says researcher Lotte Dijkstra. In order to determine how physical properties such as the trunk and crown shape and the leaf characteristics influence the local air temperature the research team designed and built special ‘climate arboreta’ with sensors installed in each of the 75 tree species.

reading time: 6, 5 min

Data drives the circular economy

More than nine million kilometres. That is the distance covered every year transporting Amsterdam's waste from source to its final destination, which is usually a waste processor. This is one of the insights gained from the monitor platform that has been developed in Delft, with which governments will soon be able to analyse and optimise their waste streams.

reading time: 8 min

The first Flying-V test flight

Since 2017, a team of researchers from TU Delft has been working on a new, more sustainable type of passenger aircraft, the Flying-V. After the research phase, July saw an exciting and significant next step in the programme: the scale model’s first test flight. Would the aircraft remain stable when airborne, even at low speeds?

reading time: 5 min

Alive and Kicking: designing with living materials

Imagine a future in which our materials can morph. Your crisp white cotton shirt has been replaced by a living textile that purifies the air around you. As you settle down on the sofa to enjoy some wine, the glass bottle of yesteryear has been superseded by a tactile mycelium packaging which you can peel off to pour. And no need to switch on the light: bioluminescent organisms in your lamp set to work as light levels dropped, creating a warm evening glow.

Reading time: 6 min

Lockdown presents unique opportunity to study sustainable taxiing at Schiphol

Starting a PhD on the first day of the Covid-19 lockdown was a bit challenging for Bieke von den Hoff. But the lockdown also gave her an unexpected and unique opportunity. As part of a trial programme at Schiphol Airport, she was asked to measure noise levels of a sustainable aircraft towing vehicle called the TaxiBot.

reading time: 6 min

Urban Ecology: the increasing importance of nature in the city

‘Urban Ecology can have a positive influence in many other areas in addition to biodiversity, such as climate adaptation, health, water and energy consumption and circularity’, according to Nico Tillie, who, together with 26 students, looked at how the forces of nature could be given more room on TU Delft Campus. The coronavirus wasn’t much of a help though.

reading time: 5 min

Resonance between brain and mind for better design

reading time: 4 min

Dutch lessons in the Chinese Pearl River Delta

reading time: 5 min

LandShapes: made to feel real

reading time: min

In search of the plastic soup

reading time: 5 min

Sweet solutions to a salty problem

reading time: 4 min

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

reading time: 3 min

‘The market needs a quiet method for offshore pile-driving’

reading time: 5 min

Resonance between brain and mind for better design

reading time: 3 min

Nature inspires new materials

reading time: 5 min

Tiny autonomous satellites in hot pursuit

reading time: min

Saving lives with a fair emergency communication system

reading time: 4 min

Autonomous robots protect the lives of emergency services in disasters

reading time: 4 min

Airplanes cross borders, so do their environmental effects

reading time: 7 min

Taming the software jungle with evolutionary insights

reading time: 6 min

Applying wastewater treatment technologies to medicine

reading time: 4 min

Dutch lessons in the Chinese Pearl River Delta

reading time: 4 min

Living on the edge

reading time: min

A fighter jet and your health, radar can track both

reading time: 4 min

Using smart technology to make fuel out of CO2

reading time: min

An algorithm for the perfect photograph

reading time: min

Hit the roads safely with autonomous vehicles

reading time: 5, 5 min

City of the future communicates using solar panels
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