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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| 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.

| TU Delft and COP26

Discover what our climate scientists contribute to #ClimateAction!

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: 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.

reading time: 3 min

Nuance in the quest for climate solutions

With all the uncertainties we are facing, climate engineering (geoengineering) is not a desirable means of combating climate change, but in the future may well be an unavoidable one. Philosopher of technology Behnam Taebi uses an ethics-based approach to try to bring some nuance into the search for technological solutions. Using the Climate Action Hub, he wants to build a bridge between science, citizens and politicians.

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: 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.

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: 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: 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

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: 3 min

The breathing of dikes

reading time: 6 min

A golden age for earth observation

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Reading time: 7 min

Using chemistry to close the CO2 cycle

Reading Time: 3 min

Floating homes for the Philippines

Reading time: 4 minutes

Measuring water quality with a smartphone in Myanmar

Reading time: 4 min

Not a band-aid but a feeder solution for our coasts

Reading time: 3 min

Bringing silent aviation closer

Reading time: 3 min

20.000 weather stations in Africa

Reading time: 3 min

Mapping minerals with sensor technology

Reading time: 7 min

Sustainability is a verb

reading time: min

From the plane into the train

reading time: 5 min

Sand on the horizon

reading time: 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: min

A revolution in modelling travel behaviour

reading time: min

Designing for darkness

reading time: min

Avoiding division in climate adaptation

reading time: min

The responsibility gap with self-driving cars

reading time: 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: min

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

reading time: min

Promoting social interaction through online games

reading time: 7 min

Four graduation projects win circularity award

reading time: min

Neural networks put the afterburners on skin recovery models

reading time: min

Planning a city with conflicting values? No problem!

reading time: min

Meltwater from the Austrian Alps

reading time: min

Stronger together: Swarm mini-drones sniff out gas leaks

reading time: 4 min

Delft research unravels mystery of motion of cilia
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