Seven promising TU Delft researchers were given Veni grants from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. The grants of 250,000 euros per researcher will enable them to conduct research over a period of three years.
Dr. Miriam Coenders (CEG Faculty) – Discovery of the invisible water drain: evaporation
Knowledge about evaporation is essential to the prediction of flooding and drought. Coenders will use fibre optic cables to measure temperature at different altitudes in forests and from that, she will derive the evaporation occurring at these altitudes. “Surprisingly little is known about evaporation”, Coenders said. “There are over 67,000 spots in the world where rainfall is being measured and just about 400 places where measurements are being performed on evaporation.” The hydrologist will also measure the relative amount of heavy water in the air and on the soil. This is a form of water that contains a larger than normal amount of the hydrogen isotope deuterium. From this information she can also derive the amount of evaporation.
Dr. Sofia Teixeira de Freitas (AE Faculty) – Fly-bond: More efficient lightweight aircraft structures
De Freitas’ Veni project will contribute to the acceptance of bonded joints in composite aircraft. “Aircraft are increasingly being built from composites instead of metals. Yet for the assembly of the different parts traditional techniques with rivets are being used that were developed and optimized for metal aircraft.” De Freitas believes to make efficient aircraft structures with composites, adhesive bonding – gluing the parts together – is a much better alternative. “I’m going to collaborate with two Portuguese research groups who specialize in optimization algorithms and composite material behaviour to develop a new design concept for composite bonded joints.”
Dr. Nima Tolou (MMME Faculty) – Rethinking Energy Harvesting for MEMS (REH-MEMS): High Performance at Random Slow Motion
By 2020 there will be over 20 billion wireless low-power electrical appliances requiring a battery, Tolou believes. “Low power electronic devices will be booming. Think about sensors that measure your sports performance and your heart beat, or all sorts of safety sensors in industry. These will all consume tiny amounts of electricity and they will need a battery. And after several years these batteries need to be replaced which can be costly. The batteries inside pace makers, for instance, need replacement every seven years. These operations cost tens of thousands of euros.”
“But what if we could have the low power electronic devices harvest energy from the environment like everyday motions? This is called micro motion energy. It would enable micro-electro applications continual battery-free performance for their entire life cycle. This however is very challenging with micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) because the kinetic energy of the environment is usually of very low and varying frequency and the MEMS are very small. I’m trying to solve this scale problem. I’m focusing on medical devices. But later on the energy harvesting MEMS could be used for all sorts of applications.”
Dr. Caroline Paul (AS Faculty) – Enhancing nature’s catalysts: new vitamins for enzymes
Nature’s catalysts, enzymes, are extraordinary at performing chemical reactions. These enzymes require expensive and unstable vitamin derivatives to catalyse reactions. Through the combination of chemistry and biology, Paul will try to produce new and improved vitamin B3 derivatives to enhance the use of enzymes for industrial applications.
Dr. Beatriz Seoane (AS Faculty)– Towards design in porous architectures
Although nanostructured porous materials are widely used in industry to catalyze all sorts of chemical reactions, the development of tools to control their shape is still in its infancy. Seoane will use state-of-the-art tools largely unexplored in porous materials synthesis to manufacture predesigned architecture.”I will experiment amongst others with a 3D printer and print porous materials out of composites”, she said.
Dr. Marco Molinaro (EEMCS Faculty) – Revisiting the foundations of cutting planes: Bringing theory closer to practice
Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) is a widely used tool for decision-making with huge economical and societal impact. Molinaro proposes new methods for improving the efficiency of solving MILPs.
Dr. Philip Robichaud (TPM Faculty) – Nudging responsibly: The impact of choice architecture on responsibility attributions
“Nudges” are aspects of a person’s choice architecture that will predictably influence their behaviour. Do people deserve to be blamed for any harm they cause and praised for achieving something good? This project develops theories that seek to answer this question and form the basis for guidelines on ethically responsible nudging.
The Veni grant is one of the three types of grant offered under the Incentives Scheme. It gives scientists who have recently obtained their PhD an opportunity to further develop their ideas over a period of three years. This year a total number of 161 researchers were offered a Veni grant. Besides the Veni grant, the Incentives Scheme also offers Vidi grants (for experienced postdocs) and Vici grants (for highly experienced researchers). The Incentives Scheme was set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the universities.
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