© Sam Rentmeester
‘The collabration with hospitals is a good example of how our research results in actual applications’
A healthy person has a thousand wishes, a sick person only one, so they say. In these times of crises, the importance of that wish for health is easily overlooked. Of course, anyone who’s sick also has other wishes, such as being able to return home from hospital as soon as possible. To help with that, we joined forces with LUMC (Leiden) in developing The Box, packed full of home monitoring devices that can prevent patients having to come for unnecessary tests. But can digital technology really make a difference in reducing the pressure on healthcare? Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, Ernst Kuipers discusses the issue with Maaike Kleinsmann, professor of Design for Digital Transformation.
The collaboration with hospitals is a good example of how our research results in actual applications, in this case involving medics and patients. With citizen science, we take a step further: citizens actively collect data for our research on plastic litter, rainfall or self-driving cars. These same citizens have recently faced problems with public transport. Rolf Dollevoet is definitely not to blame. As part of DelftRail, the professor of Railway Engineering is focusing on preventive maintenance for trains. Not only were railway workers on strike, there was also recent disruption to traffic by campaigners on the A12.
But how much of an activist should engineers really be when it comes to climate change? Mark van Baal, Charlotte Braat and Rouhi Farajzadeh debate the issue.
Finally, although our focus at TU Delft is often on the future, we can also learn from the past. Dean Aukje Hassoldt does both as she explores the history and future of the Faculty of TPM while conservator Charlotte Rixten guides us on an art walk through our heritage collection. In Sebastiaan de Vet and Stephanie Cazaux’s Meteorites Lab, there are digital models of the six meteorites discovered in the Netherlands in the last two centuries. Finally, what new insights were revealed after a Bronze-Age sword was scanned with neutrons? Read all about it in Delft Matters.
Professor Tim van der Hagen
Rector Magnificus TU Delft
