Anchoring Power: Ensuring Control and Stability in Offshore Energy Hubs

We rely on electricity daily, from checking our phones in the morning to grabbing breakfast from the fridge. We drive to work in electric cars and spend much of our day on computers. And just like our internet connection, we need our power supply to be stable. That’s where Assistant Professor Aleksandra Lekić plays a key role. She focuses on the control and stability of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power systems, including offshore energy hubs like wind farms and floating solar panels. Her work is vital in preventing major disruptions, such as blackouts, that could impact the entire power grid.

Energy hub als krachtig concept in de energietransitie

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Anchoring Power: Ensuring Control and Stability in Offshore Energy Hubs

We rely on electricity daily, from checking our phones in the morning to grabbing breakfast from the fridge. We drive to work in electric cars and spend much of our day on computers. And just like our internet connection, we need our power supply to be stable. That’s where Assistant Professor Aleksandra Lekić plays a key role. She focuses on the control and stability of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) power systems, including offshore energy hubs like wind farms and floating solar panels. Her work is vital in preventing major disruptions, such as blackouts, that could impact the entire power grid.

Solar panels, solar systems, photovoltaics, energy transition

From waves to shadows: Optimizing solar systems by modelling their energy output

When Alba Alcañiz Moya was younger she went around her house to turn off all the lights when they didn’t need to be on. “Even then I knew I did not want to waste the energy and electricity”, she explains. And that hasn’t changed. As a PhD within the Photovoltaic Materials and Devices group, she focuses on the optimization of solar systems to make sure that they yield as much energy as possible. She does so by developing digital models of solar panels in different situations, and focuses on questions like: What is the effect of shade on the energy output of solar panels? And how do waves affect the energy yield of floating solar panels?

Social skills for digital humans

If anything, the Covid pandemic taught us that real-life interactions couldn’t be replaced by digital ones. This is just one of the reasons why Chirag Raman, assistant professor in the Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatics group, wants digital agents or avatars to interact with humans in a more seamless and lifelike manner. Using artificial intelligence and knowledge of human behaviour, he is teaching machines to understand and deploy human-like social intelligence – verbally, vocally and visually. At the horizon are technologies for a wide range of applications, from distance learning and e-healthcare to immersive games.

Protecting a Sustainable Future

If you want to know more about the research of Thomas Höllt, you could simply have a look at his work. It should – for the trained eye – speak for itself. And what you will see, will vary from the dispersion of proteins in cells, to the different layers in an old Vermeer painting. His visualization platform does not only help biologists to understand how the immune system works, it also helps them to get to the roots of diseases and come up with specialized treatment. And it can also be used to identify and chart invaluable paintings and could have many more applications.

Feminist AI: transforming and challenging the current Artificial Intelligence (AI) Industry

As a discipline and as a practice, data science has historically been led by a narrow cohort of people, representing a homogeneous demographic. This lack of diversity has contributed to the (often unconscious) perpetration of biases and stereotypes, which pose significant risks to society. Increasing diversity in data science not only mitigates these risks, but also fosters creativity and produces better outcomes.

Feminist AI offers a new perspective on the AI industry by challenging the notion that AI design, development, and deployment should be guided by – and should mainly benefit, a limited group of individuals, predominantly from Western male backgrounds. Sara Colombo, who leads the Feminist Generative AI Lab at TU Delft, advocates for other voices in data science and AI. “Only by making other voices heard can we ensure a more fair and equitable development of data science and AI, and the products and services that are built on them.”

Creating order in chaos: data visualization

If you want to know more about the research of Thomas Höllt, you could simply have a look at his work. It should – for the trained eye – speak for itself. And what you will see, will vary from the dispersion of proteins in cells, to the different layers in an old Vermeer painting. His visualization platform does not only help biologists to understand how the immune system works, it also helps them to get to the roots of diseases and come up with specialized treatment. And it can also be used to identify and chart invaluable paintings and could have many more applications.

leestijd: 7 min

Organ-on-chip: Creating a home for human cells outside of the body

Associate professor Massimo Mastrangeli is the embodiment of enthusiasm for scientific research. He specifically exudes passion for his own field, namely that of organs-on-chip. “What I would like people to know about this field of research? That it’s amazing!”, exclaims Massimo.

leestijd: 7 min

Supercomputing power for racing cars and quantum states

A remarkable service on the TU Delft campus: a supercomputer for anyone in need supercomputing power. DelftBlue, as the new supercomputer is called, has now been in use for over a year. Researchers and students make full use of the 1.05 petaflops, 10,000 CPU cores and more than 200 computing nodes – a doubling in size is already planned. From fundamental quantum research to designing electric racing cars, what are their experiences like?al and the human factor. The goal: simply better software.

leestijd: 7 min

Sustainable artificial intelligence: from ChatGPT to green AI

A decade ago, Luís Cruz worked on developing software tools to bring artificial intelligence (AI) to smartphones. It quickly triggered the question of energy efficiency. Not with the noble goal of making them more sustainable but to prevent them from draining the battery too quickly. Cruz went searching for tools and knowledge, but encountered an empty field. “It made me realize there was a need for research,” he says. Soon thereafter he started his PhD research project on ‘green software’, starting simple by studying the energy efficiency of basic mobile apps. As an assistant professor at TU Delft, Cruz remains passionate about sustainable software, specifically AI.

leestijd: 7 min

'Elderly' first Dutch nanosatellite celebrates fifteenth birthday

She is affectionately referred to as "the old lady". After 15 years in space, she can safely be called very elderly. Few of her peers are still operational at her age. But the old lady is also hard of hearing and barely understandable. This month, the self-proclaimed adventurers who built her, celebrate her birthday but fear it will be her last. Proud father of the very first hour Chris Verhoeven (Faculty of EEMCS) and current caretaker Stefano Speretta (Faculty of AE) describe the Delft nanosatellite Delfi-C3 that exceeded all expectations.

leestijd: 7 min

An All-In Approach to Electrical Engineering

Learning makes İlke Ercan feel alive. That is why she studied physics: it was the most challenging topic for her. Now a researcher specialised in nanocomputing and an accomplished educator herself, she is helping bachelor students to make informed decisions about their future.

leestijd: 7 min

Lunar Zebro: students take aim at the Moon

Once you arrive at the world's largest space fair, the IAC, you first walk straight by Ariane's rocket and then turn left at ESA's booth. When you have passed three satellites you will see about 10 red vests under the orange booth of the Netherlands: that is the TU Delft student team Lunar Zebro. A team of student and professors that may soon go to the moon with their autonomous rover Leika.

leestijd: 7 min

When Open Source and Open Science go hand-in-hand

With over 200 million projects, Github is the communal storage space of the open source world – and in a sense, the foundation of our digital society. The hosting service for software development and version control is involved in countless pieces of software we use daily. With so many software projects, and so many active developers, GitHub is a gold mine for researchers wanting to understand the open source software world. But getting good information has always been hard. That changed when Georgios Gousios developed GHTorrent, a dataset that opens a window into the inner workings of Github.

reading time: 5 min

Out-of-bounds: an outside view of computer memory vulnerabilities

Out-of-bounds writes, you may not have heard of them, but they play an important role in the hacking of programs. From changing account balances in banking software to breaking into critical systems at hospitals, there are many malicious applications. Linus Hafkemeyer developed a tool making it much easier to assess the severity of such vulnerabilities, speeding up the process of fixing them and, ultimately, leading to a more secure digital society.

leestijd: 7 min

Sounds good: treating depression with ultrasound

Tiago Costa is developing a novel targeted neuro-modulation treatment for depression, using focused ultrasound. His goal is to treat only brain areas that need attention, leaving other parts of the brain undisturbed.

leestijd: 7 min

Adding social awareness to conversational agents

Conversational AI right now almost entirely lacks an ability that’s natural to us humans. It can’t yet tune in to the subtleties of how something is being said and adapt a response to fit. Catharine Oertel from the Interactive Intelligence Group develops conversational agents that are socially aware, allowing them to engage with people in a much more human-like manner

leestijd: 7 min

The human factor in software testing – from curse to blessing

Our lives heavily depend on software, from the cars we drive to the bank cards we use to pay. And if that software is solid – that is, well tested so that few bugs reach the user – then our lives are mostly better for it. "But the reality is, unfortunately, that developers are not always willing or able to test their software, and neither are their executives," explains Andy Zaidman. As a professor of software engineering, he is therefore researching better and more robust ways of testing software, taking into account both the technical and the human factor. The goal: simply better software.

leestijd: 7 min

Human-Centered Multimedia: making remote togetherness possible

After two years of COVID-19 we all know that communicating through a flat screen is exhausting. Since long before that, professor Pablo Cesar has been focussing his research on highly realistic volumetric video conferencing which will allow smooth, natural, communication and collaboration – making remoteness a thing of the past.

leestijd: 7 min

Engineering the evolution of the Internet

Many of us don’t realise that the internet is under great pressure. This network of networks is becoming increasingly complex, almost to the point of being unworkable. Human configuration errors are causing more and more major disruptions – far more than even those caused by hackers, for example. Added to that is the pressure of climate change, and extreme weather that can damage networks. The answer lies in making the internet more flexible and robust. Fernando Kuipers, Professor of Internet Science, sees part of the solution coming from a self-regulating internet, in which artificial intelligence (AI) determines the network’s configuration and evolution.

reading time: 4 min

Using artificial intelligence to eye the quantum computer

Imagine if we could find an alternative to plastic by using a quantum computer and artificial intelligence, to help us decide on all the best ideas that chemists have?

reading time: 5 min

Sand on the horizon

viewing time: 11 min

How to Print a Dinosaur

Anchoring Power: Ensuring Control and Stability in Offshore Energy Hubs

Energy hub als krachtig concept in de energietransitie

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Puzzling over behavioural models for sustainable greenhouse horticulture

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Battling the data hunger of Big Tech

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Cybersecurity | Story of Team Science | Technische Universiteit Delft

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Heating your home with lake water: the 'magic' of aquathermal energy

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Protecting vital infrastructure from cyber-attacks with physics-inspired AI

leestijd: 5 min

How do we keep our cities clean and accessible? | TU Delft
Mahnam Saeednia sits on a bench at the train station. Next to her is a package that points a megaphone at her.

reading time: 10 min

Giving freight a voice

reading time: 4 min

Our concrete inheritance: not always desired but definitely important

reading time: 2 min

How to design the train stations of tomorrow

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Rethinking transport in cities

reading time: 8 min

Hassle as a limiting factor for using energy when the sun shines

reading time: 10 min

Damping waves with 50,000 rubber grass blades

Solar panels, solar systems, photovoltaics, energy transition

From waves to shadows: Optimizing solar systems by modelling their energy output

Social skills for digital humans

reading time: 3, 5 min

From industrial heat to a social glow(-up)

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Open data is taking off in aviation – thanks to BlueSky

reading time: 5 min

Supercharged sustainability: designing circular solar panels

reading time: 6 min

Critical raw materials, from our own European backyard
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