Global The HAgue

BRAIN ANALYSIS

“My name is Matthan Caan, I’m 28 years old, and I’m a PhD student at Delft University of Technology, as well as working at the AMC (Amsterdam Medical Centre) in Amsterdam. I am involved in the analysis of quantitative imaging – ‘new images’ created by the brain through the use of an MRI scanner. Our analysis focuses mainly on white matter, which relays information between brain cells. White matter is subject to disintegration. I have already researched the side effects of chemotherapy on young cancer patients, using DTI analysis, which tracks the course of the nerve tracts. We use a starting point from which we follow the direction of the main diffusion, presuming that this corresponds to the direction of the nerve tract.
I demonstrated that less severe chemotherapy treatment causes less damage to the brain, which means children perform better in school.”

“In our brain analysis we search for biomarkers, which are speciﬁ c to a particular disease. These biomarkers tell you where a disease is likely to strike. In conjunction with the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, we analyse whether someone is going through the regular ageing process or has developed Alzheimer’s. We now believe the diffusion data contain such a biomarker, and so we’re investigating the origins of brain diseases. The biomarkers form the basis for treatment methods and medications. It’s fascinating to look inside the brains of living
human beings using an MRI scanner; the technology is so sensitive that we can even measure the local development of brain diseases. The Dutch population is ageing, which means the demand for and relevance of this type of work will only increase in the future. As for my own future, I would eventually like to head up a research team focussing on brain research. On a personal level, I would like to increase my knowledge by working with people from a variety of disciplines, such as radiology, psychiatry, neurology, MRI technology and image processing.”

LAUNCH OF GOCE

“My name is Pieter Visser, and I’m a senior lecturer in Astrodynamics at Delft University of Technology. On 17 March, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the GOCE gravity satellite from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, which will be studying gravity on earth with extreme accuracy. Based on the GOCE data, scientists will be able to create a detailed model of the ‘ideal sea level’, meaning the level at which the water would calm down if there were no wind and no tides. This theoretical water level – which shows highs and lows just like the landscape – is vitally important to the research of ocean ﬂ ows, ﬂ uctuations in sea levels, and climate change. Delft University of Technology has been involved in the GOCE mission since the early 1980s, as we have a lot of expertise in the accurate calculation of satellite orbits and in determining the gravity ﬁeld on earth. When the satellite is operational, Delft University of Technology will be performing some of the tests to ensure that all measuring tools are working effectively, as well as providing data on the satellite orbit.”

“When you have been involved for over two decades in developing a project that involves such huge technological challenges in the preparation as this one, I think it’s fair to say you have a
passion for it. It’s certainly an exciting project: there is a very large global user community consisting of oceanographers, geodetics experts, geophysicists, climate researchers and other scientists. COCE was funded with European taxpayer funds; measurements and gravity-ﬁ eld products are being provided free of charge. Experience has shown that various users will then start ‘adding value’, which, in turn, generates revenues. A good example is the GPS system developed in the United States, which was funded by the U.S. military and later resulted in the development of products like TomTom. My own dream for the future is to serve a large user community by providing useful information and products for satellites. I’m not talking only about the GOCE, but also about future satellites such as the CryoSat, which will be launched at the end of this year, and the Swarm, whose launch is scheduled for 2011.”

‘OSCAR’ FOR DUTCH UMBRELLA

“My name is Gerard Kool, I’m 29 years old, and I’m the co-founder of SENZ Umbrellas. In March, our company won the Gold iF Design Award in Hannover for the design of our storm-proof umbrella. This award is the Oscar of the design world, and our victory now puts us on a par with successful brands like Apple, Nokia, Porsche and Philips. Myself and my partners Gerwin Hoogendoorn and Philip Hess consider this to be our proudest achievement. We previously won a Gold IDEA Design Award in North America, as well as the Good Design Award in Asia.”

‘What began as a dream of three students at Delft University of Technology has evolved into a solid basis for a global brand in just a few years. Our dream is now to become the best, best known and most beloved umbrella brand in the world. We’ll only be content when, ten years from now, children drawing pictures of umbrellas make sketches of our typical asymmetric shape! We hope that other young people will also have the guts to start their own businesses believing in their own power and vision. If you work hard and have a good team, you can achieve almost anything. Particularly in times of recession and crisis, young, enterprising people have everything to gain.”

STUDENT-CREATED ROCKET BREAKS RECORD

“My name is Mark Uitendaal, I’m 26 years old, and I’m the head of the Stratos project of the Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering rocket society. On 17 March, a team of ﬁfteen students from Delft University of Technology broke the European altitude record for experimental rockets in North Sweden. The previous record, 10.7 kilometres, was held by a British group, and our group set the new record of 12 kilometres and 551 metres. To beat the record, our 4-metre-long two-stage rocket had to travel four times as fast as a commercial airliner. The rocket engine we developed is so powerful that it could theoretically lift the weight of a small car off the ground. Since the usual technology does not work for experimental rockets due to the signiﬁ cant height and speed, we had to create a number of innovative solutions. To limit the weight, we built the ﬁ rst rocket from carbon composite, which is a very light yet solid material. We also designed advanced electronics in order to be able to conduct parachute measurements of acceleration, air pressure and temperature during the ﬂ ight.”

‘Rockets are, of course, incredible machines – the rocket we built eventually moved almost three times faster than the speed of sound, and it travelled to an altitude of 1.5 times the Mount Everest. The air temperature on the tip of the nose cone is increased to almost 750 degrees centigrade. It’s of course a wonderful experience to be involved in such a project and actually build these types of machines. I think our product may have a future in sounding rocket technology; if we have enough funding and support, we may even be able to launch miniature satellites in the very distant future. My personal dream for the future is to have affordable and easy access to space travel in the foreseeable future, which would mean that a growing number of people would become interested in and inspired by aviation, aerospace, and technology in general. I, for one, would be very excited to play a role in that process.”

BATTERIES CHARGED IN JUST MINUTES

“My name is Crijn Bouman, I’m 30 years old, and I graduated from Delft University of Technology with a degree in Industrial Design. I currently work for a company called Epyon, which produces speed-charge batteries and storage batteries. The older storage-battery technology, which has been used for a century, runs on lead acid, but several years ago a new technology was introduced that runs on lithium ion (known as li-ion batteries). We didn’t invent that battery; it was already around. Our invention consists of what we actually added to the existing technology: we created a ‘smart’ battery that is equipped with a minicomputer on the accumulator. The trick in speed-charging is to allow in the same amount of energy that normally takes
eight hours to ﬂ ow into the battery in just several minutes. You might compare it to a door through which a thousand people enter each day, and suddenly they all want to enter at the same time. It’s not impossible, but it is does take some effort.”

“Epyon’s ultra-high-power battery systems are currently used in two different ways: in mobile devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players and cameras, and in vehicles such as electric cars, scooters and forklift trucks. Average charging time for electric vehicles is currently 8 to 12 hours, and we help reduce that to just a couple of minutes. We will be installing public charging facilities for electric vehicles at strategic locations in the city. We have also developed a consumer product, together with a Taiwanese partner: the ‘ﬂ ashpack’, which is a type of small electrical outlet you can carry around with you in your bag. It’s a little box containing a battery: you plug it in and in less than a minute the battery is charged. You can carry it around with you wherever you go, so you can simply charge your mobile while you’re on the train.”

INTEGRATION OF WIND ENERGY

“My name is Bart Ummels, I’m 29 years old, and this year I earned my PhD from Delft University of Technology. I conducted research on the impact of the integration of wind energy on the Dutch electricity system. The research shows that Dutch power plants will continue to be able to handle the ﬂ uctuations in the supply of and demand for wind in the future, provided they use the latest wind forecasts. I was able to demonstrate that there will be no need for energy-storage facilities. Although it will sometimes be necessary to increase reserves, power plants will more often need to reduce their production in order to allow room for wind. As part of that process, it is important to continue recalculating the use of power plants based on the latest wind forecast. The integration of wind energy in the Dutch electricity system can ensure a decrease in production costs of 1.5 billion euros a year and a reduction in CO2 emissions of 19 million tonnes a year.”

“Offshore wind turbines are amazing machines – they are the largest moving objects in the world. Their rotor diameter is more than 100 hundred metres and the towers have a height of eighty metres! Building offshore wind farms, which is what I’m currently doing at Siemens Wind Power in The Hague, is an incredible challenge. The design of wind generators is still very much evolving, and it’s extremely interesting to have the opportunity to play a part in that process. Wind conditions at sea are generally more turbulent than on land, the turbines can be installed increasingly further into the sea, and there is also no shortage of space. We need that space badly, since the demand for electricity in the Netherlands continues to rise. Once we all start driving around in electric cars in the future, wind energy will prove to be an excellent source of energy. Offshore wind energy is rapidly developing, and many thousands of turbines are set to be built each year. My dream for the future is a fully sustainable energy supply: economical, efﬁcient and based on renewable energy sources. For the Netherlands, offshore wind energy is a key component of the sustainable fuel mix.

There’s no shortage of either wind or sea in the Netherlands, so it’s important that we use it well!”

PILOTLESS AIRCRAFT

“My name is Pieter Wijkstra, I’m 27 years old, and I studied Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology. My ﬁnal-year project involved developing a pilotless aircraft that can be used to reﬁne and simplify three-dimensional site surveying. A recently established company, Heering UAS BV, will be developing and marketing the new land-surveying method. The new surveying system comprises an unpiloted aircraft equipped with a high-quality photo camera that can take photos of a site unaided. The photos created through this method contain data that can be processed into a threedimensional model using photogrammetric techniques. Until now, this traditional technology was too inaccurate and laborious to be able to compete with GPS equipment, which is currently the method most commonly used for land surveying.”

“However, by making use of the advances in digital photography and the remarkably low heights at which the unpiloted aircrafts can ﬂ y, we now believe we have a good chance’.

We developed our aircraft with the intention of using it to provide services; we will be using it to gather data that we will then sell on the market. For private companies, our system provides a more accurate, faster and more affordable method of gathering geometric data, as it offers greater accuracy as well as helping them reduce their site-surveying costs. I focus on UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), which are the latest generation of pilotless aircraft. These ﬂ ying espionage robots are becoming better known as they are often used successfully in crisis situations, but they are also used in a number of interesting ways in civil life. We are developing our product initially with the intention of using it for land surveying. My dream is to develop Heering into an international leader in unmanned aviation, and with all the aviation expertise available in Delft and the rest of the Netherlands, I am conﬁ dent that it will come true!”