News & Agenda

Today, a team of Delft researchers and students from the BioMechanical Engineering department is launching a new type of ventilator that is purely mechanical and which you could easily construct and repair yourself. The team borrowed a 1960s ventilator from Rijksmuseum Boerhaave and used it as inspiration. As it works mechanically, no electronics are required. This is particularly advantageous since its production is not dependent on the – now uncertain – supply of parts from China.

Amir Zadpoor and a team of scientists from the BioMechanical Engineering department are testing the first prototypes of a ventilator that consists entirely of standard parts. These parts are available locally almost all over the world and can be produced by hundreds of manufacturers. This means that, in many cases, the ventilator can be assembled locally. It is hoped that the design will be able to respond to the demand for ventilators and offer a solution to the logistical problems resulting from a shortage of specific components.

Arjo Loeve and his research colleagues at TU Delft’s Department of BioMechanical Engineering are working with the Jeroen Bosch Hospital and the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences on a new pulse oximeter that is easy and inexpensive to produce. The pulse oximeter is a crucial measurement tool that monitors the heartbeat and amount of oxygen in the blood while COVID-19 patients are being treated. The aim of the research is to counteract the impending shortage of this tool.

In the fight against the 'Corona shortage’ of face masks, John van den Dobbelsteen and Tim Horeman, researchers at the Department of BioMechanical Engineering department, and with lab manager Rob Luttjeboer, developed a successful way to test reused sterilised surgical masks and surgical masks made of new materials.

Amir Zadpoor is working on a solution called 4D printing. He explains how it works: "We first grow a flat layer of tissue from stem cells that can provide itself through diffusion. Only when the tissue has developed a vascular system do we fold it into a 3D structure. So you grow a flat object into a 3D structure for a certain time, hence "4D" in the name. "

Heike Vallery, professor of human motor augmentation, has been named honorary professor of innovative rehabilitation technology at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Erasmus MC. This appointment underscores the importance of innovative rehabilitation technology in health care and is an important milestone in connecting technology and medicine.

Karel Terwel (CEG), Michiel Schuurman (AE) and Arjo Loeve (3ME) won a prestigious ICE Publishing Award for their joint work on ‘Improving reliability in forensic engineering: the Delft approach’.

The Department of BioMechanical Engineering has launched a unique research project called ‘Minor balance problems following a light stroke’ together with Radboudumc and two partners from industry, Motekforce Link BV and 2M Engineering.

This month, NWO awarded five researchers at TU Delft a Vidi grant worth 800,000 euros. From the 3mE faculty, Amir Zadpoor, professor of Biomaterials & Tissue Biomechanics at the Department of BioMechanical Engineering, was honoured with an award.

Dr.ir. Gerwin Smit from Biomechanical Engineering, 3mE faculty, TU Delft, has been nominated by New Scientist for the title of biggest scientific talent in the Netherlands and Flanders.