Two Veni grants for Aerospace Engineering researchers

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded two Veni grants worth up to 250,000 euros to researchers from the faculty of Aerospace Engineering. The grant provides the opportunity to further elaborate their own ideas during a period of three years.

Dr. Irene Dedoussi receives her Veni for her research on improving technological and policy decision-making for sustainable aviation. “When designing future aircraft, engines, and environmental policies, we disregard that these pertain to a future world, with different pollution levels and climate. This project assesses the effects that these future conditions have on aviation’s air pollution impact and enables their inclusion in decision-making for sustainable aviation”, says Dedoussi. “I am excited to independently pursue this idea that can help us make better informed decisions towards sustainable aviation and other transportation systems”.

Dr. Anahita Jamshidnejad will use her Veni to develop autonomous decision-making approaches for search-and-rescue drones that perform optimally in situations that are dangerous for firefighters. “Optimal performance and autonomous decision-making in uncertain situations are open challenges of search-and-rescue drones, which I will address by developing mission-planning approaches for drones that integrate mathematical optimization and artificial intelligence in a novel way”, says Jamshidnejad.

A total of 1,127 researchers submitted an admissible research proposal for funding. 161 of these have now been granted, 14 of which from TU Delft.