leestijd: 7 min

Adding social awareness to conversational agents

Conversational AI right now almost entirely lacks an ability that’s natural to us humans. It can’t yet tune in to the subtleties of how something is being said and adapt a response to fit. Catharine Oertel from the Interactive Intelligence Group develops conversational agents that are socially aware, allowing them to engage with people in a much more human-like manner
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leestijd: 7 min

The human factor in software testing – from curse to blessing

Our lives heavily depend on software, from the cars we drive to the bank cards we use to pay. And if that software is solid – that is, well tested so that few bugs reach the user – then our lives are mostly better for it. "But the reality is, unfortunately, that developers are not always willing or able to test their software, and neither are their executives," explains Andy Zaidman. As a professor of software engineering, he is therefore researching better and more robust ways of testing software, taking into account both the technical and the human factor. The goal: simply better software.

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reading time: 6 min

“We have to close the knowledge gap on ventilation now”

What Professor Philo Bluyssen had been advocating since the beginning of the pandemic, finally happened at the press conference in July 2021. By adding a ventilation icon, the Dutch government
embraced the fact that Covid-19 can also spread by means of aerosols. While it is a victory that ventilation is now the fourth basic measure, we still have a long way to go according to the professor of indoor environment.
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reading time: 4, 5 min

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

Contentious. That is an apt description of the Climate Agreement’s requirement of achieving a near-zero energy status in the built environment by 2050. How is this supposed to work for the approximately 7 million existing homes and other buildings? Henk Visscher, Professor of Housing Quality and Process Innovation, advocates an active role for scientists in the much-needed innovation. “We need drivers who can make processes better, easier and less expensive.”
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reading time: min

The landslide forecast coming to you from space
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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.
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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.
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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.
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004

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.
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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.
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reading time: min

Building differently to combat aircraft noise

Aircraft noise around airports is a major problem, and a persistent one. Researcher Martijn Lugten asked himself whether the way we build houses might hold the key to solving this problem.
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006

reading time: 7 min

The third dimension in tissue culture

After two life-changing moves, Angelo Accardo is now exactly where he wants to be. He is developing engineered nanoscaffolds, in which human tissue can grow as in nature. It opens up a world of applications for neural disease modelling.
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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.
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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.”
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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
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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.
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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.
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reading time: 4 min

Digital Water

Overflowing sewers, plastic waste and leaking water mains… the Netherlands and the world are facing water challenges below ground as well as above. Simple human effort alone is not enough to solve the problem, Professor Zoran Kapelan says. That is why he has been using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
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reading time: 4 min

Shelf-stocking robot working independently

A robot that helps store employees by moving independently through the supermarket and shelving products in their proper place. According to researcher Carlos Hernández Corbato of the Department of Cognitive Robotics, this may be possible in the future. But the robot must be able to adapt to the dynamic and challenging conditions in a supermarket.
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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.
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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?
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reading time: 4, 5 min

With each other, for each other

Building more homes without rethinking the way we live together will not solve the fundamental issues with the housing crisis. Besides more quality homes for lower and middle incomes, we also need housing solutions that are sustainable, foster strong social connections and are affordable.
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reading time: min

From the plane into the train
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reading time: 5 min

Sand on the horizon

leestijd: 7 min

Adding social awareness to conversational agents
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leestijd: 7 min

The human factor in software testing – from curse to blessing
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reading time: 4 min

Putting the urban mobility jigsaw together, piece by piece
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leestijd: 7 min

Human-Centered Multimedia: making remote togetherness possible

leestijd: 7 min

Engineering the evolution of the Internet
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reading time: 7 min

Super sustainable renewal is the future
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reading time: 6 min

Learning to lead as a young woman in aviation
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reading time: 4 min

Tracing waves to find phantom plastic
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reading time: 7 min

AI for all students at TU Delft
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reading time: 4 min

More space for manufacturers please, but where?
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reading time: 4 min

Safety first: evacuating with common sense
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reading time: 5 min

This physicist’s greenhouse coating increases crop harvest
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reading time: 6 min

The success of the Aerospace Innovation Hub: ‘It’s fantastic to see companies take off’
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reading time: min

The coming age of ‘solar everywhere’
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reading time: 6 min

Smart certification for sustainable aviation

Floating wind turbines change everything

reading time: 4 min

Using artificial intelligence to eye the quantum computer
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reading time: 10 min

The battle of the Amsterdam quayside bulge
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reading time: 5 min

TU Delft and Intel drink a toast to the qubit
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reading time: min

Deep learning for complex networks
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