Opening of the 2024-2025 Academic Year on 2 September

With the theme 'Engineering the Future', this year we are looking at the building blocks of our sustainable future. 

Mobility, food supply, healthcare, energy supply and the way we use raw materials: all will change dramatically in this century. At TU Delft, we can help shape these transitions. What we do here can influence how businesses as well as end users behave. Take our smartphones, most of whose gold and lithium still ends up in landfill after a few years. If you design them differently from the start, you can achieve 'zero waste' at the end - and this is just one example.

Our guests include Michiel Langezaal, alumnus and CEO of FastNed, the company building a network of fast-charging points along Europe's motorways. We talk to Dream Team Epoch, which aims to use AI to contribute to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. We also welcome Irek Roslon, alumnus and founder of SoundCell, the startup developing a screening that allows doctors to choose the right antibiotics for patients at lightning speed. They will talk about their paths to the future, the building blocks they need and the obstacles they face. How they are shaping their own and our future, and who they are working with. 

Music and dance will also be part of this festive gathering.  And at the end, we will all raise a glass to the new academic year!