Exhibition preview pitches best TU Delft research to businesses

The preview exhibition, opened by Rector Karel Luyben, was held in the TU Delft Library on June 2 during the IFoT. It showcased 20 projects from different faculties around campus, all in various stages of development from the fundamental stage to market ready products. Among the exhibits there was a light-weight powered knee prosthesis, a building façade leasing model, and even a project named ‘On-site sports aerodynamics with the ring of fire’.

Open to staff and students only from 10:00 to 12:00, the rest of the afternoon was reserved for businesses. The aim of the exhibition and preview is to increase awareness of research currently happening at TU Delft, and networking seemed a significant part of this. While many of the projects are already working with business partners, the Valorisation Centre hopes the TU Delft Research Exhibition will further develop links between research groups and industry.

The façade leasing team from the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, for example, is already in the early prototype stage. They have developed a circular business model for leasing façades, as you would a printer. The response to their project has already been “really good”, according to group member Juan Azcárate-Aguerre, and although they are already working with 15 companies and suppliers they hope the preview exhibition will yield new contacts. This was a sentiment echoed by Yibing Zuo, from another group in an earlier stage of development. With a project called ‘Geopolymer concrete systems for production of environmentally friendly building materials’, they were hoping to attract more attention from industry.

The first edition of the TU Delft Research Exhibition was held in 2014. It presented 80 research projects. The next edition of the Research Exhibition in 2017 promises to be quite large as they are expecting to boast 175 projects spread over several days to coincide with the university’s 175^th anniversary.