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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.

06 April 2022

Designing frameworks for smart cyber-physical systems

Algorithms are all around you. They are in your office building within computer-regulated thermostats, they help pilots land the planes you fly in, they help robots manufacture the goods you use every day. But how do designers know which process to use or what information their devices need? And how do they get the many algorithms, which control these devices, to work together? In his Ph.D. research, Sirasak Tepjit set out to create a framework to help designers with exactly that.

02 February 2022

The creative breeding ground of Delft Design Labs

Imagine a research environment fuelled by creativity, where people from different disciplines and varying levels of expertise collaborate, seeking new insights and solutions that can change the world. That is what you’ll find in the Delft Design Labs, a theme-based research platform at the TU Delft Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) that brings researchers, students and external partners together to find innovative solutions to the complex challenges of our time.

27 January 2022

Why doesn't it work and can it be fixed?

Everyday annoyances: the hoover that suddenly stops working, the washing machine that refuses to spin. Or, a small disaster for the at-home worker, the coffee machine that refuses to give you fuel. And yes, of course you can order a new one, but if you want to contribute to a circular economy, you might also want to see if there is anything that can be repaired. PhD researcher Beatriz Pozo Arcos studied how easily defects in household appliances can be diagnosed, and how design can help users do this.

11 December 2021

Out of the Blue #21 – Generative Design

Maximum functions, minimum amount of materials. That needs to be part of the sustainable future of design. What technologies might be helpful for both the design and production process? We talk with Delft Design researcher Jun Wu about possible technological solutions using 3D printing for what he calls generative design: using algorithms to print the most sustainable product possible. Also in this episode: how to create more problems with your solutions, growing bridges with metal or tree vines and bicycles.
Richard Goossens on the podcast episode #24 cover

11 December 2021

Out of the Blue #24: Clashing Disciplines in Healthcare - Richard Goossens

A design researcher and a doctor sit together for a coffee in a hospital café. They discuss and draw on a napkin what a joined education programme for designers and medical students could look like. What if doctors understood design for healthcare, and designers the healthcare world?
Maaike Kleinsmann podcast episode cover

11 December 2021

Out of the Blue #23: A Designer walks into a Hospital - Maaike Kleinsmann

How can design research improve our health, and is it better to design for prevention or for the cure? We kick off our triptych on Design & Health with Delft Design Professor Maaike Kleinsmann. Ianus and co-host Marc talk with her about working with healthcare professionals as a design researcher, what all this new remote-sensing health-tech for consumers means for personal health challenges and the issue of health data and privacy. And dealing with Strava-men in tight lycra suits.

29 October 2021

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.”

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 conversation about informal care always feels premature, until it is too late...'

'You think to yourself: we'll do that over the Christmas holidays, or on a rainy day. Inevitably, however, you end up too busy doing other things.' Talking to your parents in a timely manner about their care situation in the future is very difficult. But it is important, as a lot of things can come at the same time when parents suddenly need care. Researcher Eefje Ernst designed and tested a method that helps families and informal caregivers on this front.

Supporting heart patients with sensors and data

The idea of setting up a research program with Philips Design and the Hartstichting (Dutch Heart Foundation) to improve efficiency in care and prevention for patients with cardiovascular disease began just over two years ago. Last summer the ‘CardioLab’ was launched. Maaike Kleinsmann is director and lead researcher at the lab. Her goals with Cardiolab are ambitious.

Can things design things?

All objects that we use on a daily basis are connected to each other and designers should be conscious of that. That’s the point of departure of the Connected Everyday Lab of Elisa Giaccardi, Professor and Chair of Interactive Media Design. She studied philosophy in Turin (Italy), but soon found herself immersed in the world of new media, interaction and design.

‘Service design without technology is no longer an option’

Dirk Snelders is professor of Organising Product and Service Development. At IDE his research focuses primarily on the future of service design. In 2011 he published articles with PhD student Fernando Secomandi about the essence of service design in the academic journal Design Issues. The article was received with moderate enthusiasm internationally. But as it turns out, Snelders was years ahead of his time.

'Medical consultations should be like a symphony orchestra'

It took IDE alumnus Jesse Beem some time to get used to being the only Delft engineer among the doctors and medical researchers at VU University Medical Centre Amsterdam (VUmc). He designs and modifies special meeting rooms in which doctors from various medical specialisms can consult with each other as efficiently as possible before deciding on a patient's diagnosis and treatment.

Passengers at the centre for enhancing flight experience

Summer has started, and so has the holiday season. The further away the better, seems to be the motto nowadays. As a result, increasingly more people are choosing to go on holiday by air, often resulting in long queues, delays and annoyed passengers. Although we must guard against the fallacy that science can solve all problems with overcrowded airports, researchers from the Faculty of IDE are certainly doing their bit.

'Internet of Things is all about valuable data'

As professor Internet of Things at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Gerd Kortuem specialises in the interaction between humans and computers, smart cities and data-enabled design. Kortuem is originally a computer scientist, but above all else he views the technology of the Internet of Things as an instrument. For him, it’s all about making sensible use of data.