Nibs

The United Nations sponsored ‘Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’ declared in February that the world is warming and that humans are to blame. In April, another IPCC panel reported for the first time that humans . through the greenhouse gasses we spew into the atmosphere and the resulting climate change . are behind many of the physical and biological changes that media reports already associated with global warming.
Pyongyang

In a sign that North Korea is emerging from isolation, the country’s first international university has announced plans to open its doors in Pyongyang this fall. According to an article in Science, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (Pust) will train select North Korean graduate students in a handful of hard-science disciplines, including computer science and engineering. The campus will also anchor an industrial cluster intended to generate jobs and revenue. Initially Pust will offer Master’s and PhD programs in computing, electronics and agricultural engineering.
Swift unraveled

A swift (a type of bird) adapts the shape of its wings to the task at hand: folding them back to chase insects, or stretching them out to sleep in flight. Ten Dutch and Swedish scientists, based in Wageningen, Groningen, Delft, Leiden and Lund, have shown how ‘wing morphing’ makes swifts such versatile flyers. Their study, published as a cover story in Nature on April 26, proves that swifts can improve flight performance by up to three-fold: numbers that make ‘wing morphing’ the next big thing in aircraft engineering. During flight, swifts continuously change their wings’ shapes from spread wide to swept back. When they fly slowly and straight on, extended wings carry swifts 1.5 times farther and keep them airborne twice as long. To fly fast, swifts need to sweep back their wings to gain a similar advantage. Morphing wings are the latest trend in aviation. In 2003, birds first inspired NASA to design a revolutionary ‘morphing wing’ aircraft. Today, in an ongoing project, students at Delft University are cooperating with scientists at Wageningen to make a small airplane fly like a swift.
Dow Award

Prof. Mark van Loosdrecht has awarded the 2007 Dow Energy Award for his contribution to an innovative biological wastewater treatment method. His invention saves up to 30% of the energy involved in treating wastewater, and may well change the way we purify waste water drastically within a few years. Jacqueline Cramer, the Dutch Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, presented the award to Van Loosdrecht at an energy debate that Dow held recently in Den Haag. The Dow Energy Prize is an initiative from Dow Benelux and has been awarded since 1985 to those who have provided exceptional services in the promotion of renewable energy in the process industry. Van Loosdrecht, a biotechnology professor, received the award for his work on a new aerobic granule sediment technology, in which aerobic . oxygen-using . bacteria form granules in the water to be purified. The granules’ great advantage is that they precipitate rapidly and that all the necessary biological purification processes occur within these granules. The technology holds potential for both domestic and industrial wastewater.
Senz-ational

Senz Umbrellas was ranked seventh in a nationl INNovation Top 100 ranking of medium and small companies. The company, which produces storm-resistant umbrellas, was set up 18 months ago by three TU Delft graduates. “It’s really great that we were ranked,” said Philip Hess, one of the company’s founders. “But it’s important for us not to stop here. We are already busy with the next innovation.” Two other Delft companies were also ranked in the top ten.
Dikes

Dr. Ramon Hanssen and Frank van Leijen (Aerospace Engineering) received fifty-thousand euros from the Dutch Ministry of Transport & Water. The funds are helping the two researchers develop their method for protecting Holland’s dikes by using satellite radar. The researchers have set up a company for this called, Hansje Brinker, which is the name of mythical Dutch boy of children’s book fame who saved his town by sticking his finger in a hole in the dike. Hanssen and Leijen will use satellite images to help monitor the dikes.

Global warming

An international climate assessment has found for the first time that humans are altering the world and the life in it by altering climate. The United Nations sponsored ‘Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’ declared in February that the world is warming and that humans are to blame. In April, another IPCC panel reported for the first time that humans . through the greenhouse gasses we spew into the atmosphere and the resulting climate change . are behind many of the physical and biological changes that media reports already associated with global warming.
Pyongyang

In a sign that North Korea is emerging from isolation, the country’s first international university has announced plans to open its doors in Pyongyang this fall. According to an article in Science, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (Pust) will train select North Korean graduate students in a handful of hard-science disciplines, including computer science and engineering. The campus will also anchor an industrial cluster intended to generate jobs and revenue. Initially Pust will offer Master’s and PhD programs in computing, electronics and agricultural engineering.
Swift unraveled

A swift (a type of bird) adapts the shape of its wings to the task at hand: folding them back to chase insects, or stretching them out to sleep in flight. Ten Dutch and Swedish scientists, based in Wageningen, Groningen, Delft, Leiden and Lund, have shown how ‘wing morphing’ makes swifts such versatile flyers. Their study, published as a cover story in Nature on April 26, proves that swifts can improve flight performance by up to three-fold: numbers that make ‘wing morphing’ the next big thing in aircraft engineering. During flight, swifts continuously change their wings’ shapes from spread wide to swept back. When they fly slowly and straight on, extended wings carry swifts 1.5 times farther and keep them airborne twice as long. To fly fast, swifts need to sweep back their wings to gain a similar advantage. Morphing wings are the latest trend in aviation. In 2003, birds first inspired NASA to design a revolutionary ‘morphing wing’ aircraft. Today, in an ongoing project, students at Delft University are cooperating with scientists at Wageningen to make a small airplane fly like a swift.
Dow Award

Prof. Mark van Loosdrecht has awarded the 2007 Dow Energy Award for his contribution to an innovative biological wastewater treatment method. His invention saves up to 30% of the energy involved in treating wastewater, and may well change the way we purify waste water drastically within a few years. Jacqueline Cramer, the Dutch Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, presented the award to Van Loosdrecht at an energy debate that Dow held recently in Den Haag. The Dow Energy Prize is an initiative from Dow Benelux and has been awarded since 1985 to those who have provided exceptional services in the promotion of renewable energy in the process industry. Van Loosdrecht, a biotechnology professor, received the award for his work on a new aerobic granule sediment technology, in which aerobic . oxygen-using . bacteria form granules in the water to be purified. The granules’ great advantage is that they precipitate rapidly and that all the necessary biological purification processes occur within these granules. The technology holds potential for both domestic and industrial wastewater.
Senz-ational

Senz Umbrellas was ranked seventh in a nationl INNovation Top 100 ranking of medium and small companies. The company, which produces storm-resistant umbrellas, was set up 18 months ago by three TU Delft graduates. “It’s really great that we were ranked,” said Philip Hess, one of the company’s founders. “But it’s important for us not to stop here. We are already busy with the next innovation.” Two other Delft companies were also ranked in the top ten.
Dikes

Dr. Ramon Hanssen and Frank van Leijen (Aerospace Engineering) received fifty-thousand euros from the Dutch Ministry of Transport & Water. The funds are helping the two researchers develop their method for protecting Holland’s dikes by using satellite radar. The researchers have set up a company for this called, Hansje Brinker, which is the name of mythical Dutch boy of children’s book fame who saved his town by sticking his finger in a hole in the dike. Hanssen and Leijen will use satellite images to help monitor the dikes.