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Delft Design Stories

24 October 2024

Including residents in energy hubs could solve energy poverty

Wind turbines, solar panels, batteries. We are producing, consuming and distributing energy more locally. This offers opportunities to solve challenges like energy poverty. “But if we want to create just, fair, and successful energy hubs, we must make them understandable and relevant for everyone," says researcher Abhigyan Singh.

29 May 2018

A Taste of the Food & Eating Design Lab

How our society deals with food is of crucial importance. Many societal challenges can be traced back to our relationship with food and eating. “From agricultural production and food waste to growing obesity and diabetes problems. Even mental health can be related to food.” Rick Schifferstein is director of the Food & Eating Design Lab at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. Here, researchers, students and companies aim to improve people’s interaction with their daily food and provide solutions that promote people’s health and wellbeing.

29 May 2018

These shoes are made for falling

…And that’s just what they do. No, it’s not a bad cover version of Nancy Sinatra’s sixties hit. It’s the conclusion of researchers at Delft’s faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) who have been investigating the suitability of shoes for the elderly. When it comes to shoes, it’s never been a case of one size fits all. Yet the researchers argue that it’s not just shoe size that matters, but the shape of footwear – especially in the over 65 age bracket. Well-fitting and correctly-shaped shoes can improve balance, stability, comfort and safety.

29 May 2018

A beautiful alarm beside your hospital bed

In hospitals, sounds, beeps and other noises constantly tell staff and patients what’s going on; up to 700 alarm signals a day, or once every two minutes. But only about 2% of these signals require actual attention or direct action. This can lead to'‘alarm fatigue'. How do we solve this?

30 January 2018

'Blended learning will remain the ideal model for me'

Having already won the 2017 award for best lecturer in the Faculty of Industrial Design and Engineering, Associate Professor Giulia Calabretta went on to be elected the 2017 Best Lecturer at Delft University of Technology as a whole by a jury consisting of students and former winners. As a result she is competing for the National ISO Teacher of the Year Award. What makes her teaching so special? And what makes the field of strategic design so valuable?

30 November 2017

‘You first have to understand why people are equal before you can understand why they’re different.’

Paul Hekkert conducted research for years on the underlying principles of aesthetics and experience. As a ‘scientific figurehead’, these past two years he has mainly focused on creating the knowledge and innovation agenda for the Creative Industry top sector.

16 November 2017

People are the key to success in the operating theatre

Professor Jack Jakimowicz will be bidding farewell to the IDE faculty in November, where he has been professor of Safety in Healthcare since 2007. His association with TU Delft goes back much further, however. In the 1990s, he already worked with engineers and researchers on improving the instruments and safety of minimally invasive surgery as a surgeon at the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven.

16 November 2017

DesignScapes: Design-enabled innovation to tackle urban challenges

The European project DESIGNSCAPES officially started last summer, with a celebratory launch in Brussels. Associate Professor Ingrid Mulder is one of the partners in this consortium representing the Industrial Design Engineering faculty at the Delft University of Technology. ‘With DESIGNSCAPES I want to help designers create maximum societal impact.’

Delft Design Stories

Read the stories of researchers and students at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, and discover the scientific questions on which they work and the solutions they present.

A redesigned court: impartially on your side

Dutch citizens come into contact with the courts system on average once in their life. For many people - even those accused of minor offences such as being behind on a phone bill – the experience can be overwhelming. So when MSc graduate student Rens de Graaf got the opportunity to improve the service level of the provincial Noord-Holland Court, he grasped the opportunity with both hands.

The power of conscious decision making

“I believe this has the potential for change in our daily lives.” When Marina Bos-de Vos, researcher at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology, talks about the results of her research, her eyes light up. “Creativity can have a tremendous impact on society. But creative professionals often lose themselves along the way. If they can start to make conscious decisions about their business, their position will only get stronger. And then all those creative solutions, user-friendly designs and sustainable buildings will have an even bigger positive impact.”

Sustainability is a verb

Before we buy them, our products go through several phases where value is added to them. From cars and washing machines, to laptops and smartphones. Every product starts as a collection of raw materials. These have to be extracted first, after which a series of complex refining, manufacturing and transport processes start. Resources become materials, materials become parts, parts become products.
Professors Conny Bakker and Ruth Mugge talk about sustainability in design.

The Future of Cash

Igo Boerrigter, master student at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft, was commissioned by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the central bank of the Netherlands, to analyse the current use of cash. Based on this analysis he made recommendations for a sustainable, usable and affordable cash system for the future. He also devised a more user-friendly alternative to coins.

The unexplored dimensions of renewable energy

Solar power is a great way to produce renewable energy and provide off-the-grid areas in the world with electrification. The question is how solar powered energy systems can work on a local level. To gain insight on this, Abhigyan Singh studied energy exchanges in two rural villages in India and discovered that this goes beyond just monetary gain.

The role of designers within social robotics

Robotics has been a hot topic for a few years now, especially social robotics. As part of her Honours Programme Master project, SPD student Josefien Scholtes researches the rise of social robotics, and the important role designers could have in this.

An art and a science

What does it mean to be an industrial designer? Michiel Cremers recently graduated from with a Master’s degree at Industrial Design Engineering. He made a short movie about his experiences and development during his graduation process, where he designed a new helmet for jetfighter pilots.