Archive

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the need for prosthetic hands has increased sharply. TU Delft researcher Gerwin Smit has designed a prosthetic hand that can be made through a combination of 3-D printing and laser-cutting, which means that they be produced easily and relatively cheaply in countries that have little money to spend on such things. These prosthetic hands are already being used in India and now, the Indian technology company Vispala has donated 350 of Smit’s 3D-printed prosthetic hands to war victims in Ukraine, sponsored by the American IT-company, Cisco.

De Winter’s research focuses on touchless interaction between robots and humans so that in the future, robots can read and understand the intentions and instructions of humans in their vicinity by means of eye-tracking and other sensors. And robots, in turn, will be able to adapt their functioning to communicate their own intentions both to nearby humans and other robots. The vision is to contribute to a future in which humans and robots share cognitive processes and adapt to each other.

Following the success of SeaClear1, which showed that a system of autonomous robots can detect and remove litter from the seafloor, the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme has awarded a second project, SeaClear2.0, nearly 8 million euros to extend the use of multiple robots working together to identify and collect even heavier objects from deeper seas.

Understanding the mechanobiology of glioma cells is of paramount importance for prospective treatment screening of this brain tumour. Nastaran Barin and Angelo Accard developed, in a joint effort with Erasmus MC, biomimetic 3D structures via two-photon polymerization and cultured therein patient derived glioma cells.

A smart alternative to the traditional sandbag and an experiment with clay to learn more about strengthening dikes. These are two examples of TU Delft research that is currently being exhibited as art at the Rijksmuseum.

Saskia van Heumen has been voted TU Delft’s Best Graduate 2022 for her outstanding research on the use of LED photoacoustics in treating Lymphoedema.

Today, at the TU Delft Best Graduate Award Ceremony 2022, eight recently graduated engineers presented their research and results of their excellent master thesis. Ir. Saskia van Heumen, graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (3mE), received the prestigious title TU Delft Best Graduate 2022. For her graduation research, Saskia developed a method to accurately image lymphatic vessels in patients.

The European Research Council has awarded an ERC Starting Grant to Ali Akyildiz. Akyildiz’s research focusses on cardiovascular biomechanics, specifically individual people’s susceptibility to cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke, due to biomechanical failure in their blood vessels. This 1.5 million euros grant is to cover the costs of a five-year research programme, and is awarded to researchers who are at the start of their career, but have already excelled in a promising line of research.

Ajay Seth has been awarded a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) grant of US$ 350,000 to develop his project, OpenSim Creator. This open-source biomechanical simulator will enable researchers worldwide to create accurate neuromuscular and musculoskeletal models within hours, enabling better and faster responses to biomedical questions about human and animal mobility.

Scientists of TU Delft and four other Dutch universities join forces to save energy in drying processes. In the ELECTRIFIED project, the researchers will use the power of electricity and electrical fields to develop breakthrough technologies for large energy savings in industrial drying processes.

How did ancient humans learn to make tools? And can we apply that knowledge to help AI-based robots learn creative skills? Carlos Hernandez Corbato and Geeske Langejans are heading up the TU Delft part of the multi-national METATOOL project, which is a unique combination of archaeology, neuroscience and robotics.

The first fully-automated demo of AVATARs - autonomous emission-free waterways vessels - took place on the pond in front of the 3mE building. Three model-scaled vessels neatly demonstrated their manoeuvrability, precision controlled turning and steering capabilities thanks to long-range Wi-Fi and 4G communications and newly-developed AI directed collision-avoidance technology.

At the bottom of the ocean lie lumps of valuable metals such as copper, manganese, nickel and cobalt - materials crucial to accelerating the energy transition. A collaboration between five European countries called ‘Blue Harvesting,’ has designed and now tested a new collector that can gather these nodules from the deep sea bottom with minimal disturbance to the natural environment.

The maritime sector needs batteries for the transition to zero-emission shipping. Different ships with different operational profiles may require different batteries. The NWO Executive Board has awarded funding to two research projects of maritime researchers Henk Polinder and Andrea Coraddu. Both will focus on improving the use of different battery systems. The awards involve a sum of 4.2 million euros.

NWO has awarded funding to six technology-science research projects from the Open Technology Programme. One of these is the e-HEAT project by researchers Jurriaan Peeters, Ruud Kortlever and Lorenzo Botto from the Process & Energy Department. In this project they are working on the development of large-scale CO2 electrolysers that enable large-scale energy storage on a seasonal time scale possible. The outcomes are expected to also benefit H2O electrolysers and fuel cells.

Wind turbines are getting bigger and bigger and the wind speed is never the same on every part of the rotor – the rotating part of a wind turbine. That is why it is important to carry out experiments using non-uniform wind fields: fields in which the wind speed is not the same everywhere. With the opening of TU Delft’s Wind AI Lab – a globally unique wind tunnel – this will become possible.

All students at the 3mE faculty were given the opportunity to vote for the best lecturer of 2021-2022. The votes are a token of their appreciation for the unique and creative way in which the lecturers concerned teach. Good lecturers are indispensable for the quality of 3mE’s programmes.

Riender Happee has been appointed Professor in Motion Comfort in Automated Driving at the department of Cognitive Robotics, section Intelligent Vehicles. Happee’s research focuses on motion perception and motion comfort as key factors in the acceptance of vehicle automation.

Did a person fall or was he or she pushed? Cases where a deceased person lies at the bottom of the stairs are complex. To aid detection, the NFI is working with TU Delft on a computer model that can simulate human falls.

Alfred Schouten has been appointed professor of System Identification for Human Motion Control in the Department of BioMechanical Engineering. Alfred Schouten’s research focuses on the development of methods and applications for identifying and understanding neuromuscular control. He does this in both healthy people and people with neurological disorders.

Gabriel Weymouth has been appointed Professor of Ship Hydromechanics at the department of Maritime and Transport Technology as of 1st of September. Weymouth's research focuses on the development of fast, accurate, and robust computational fluid dynamic predictions and application of those techniques to the marine and maritime environment.

After almost ten years, Theun Baller stepped down as 3mE Dean. Of course, we did not let him go without well-deserved recognition during his farewell symposium.