News in brief

The model was applied to the condition data of some 3,000 concrete constructions in the Netherlands. Last week Maarten-Jan Kallen received his TU Delft PhD degree on this subject. The Netherlands faces a huge task when it comes to managing its civil infrastructure. Many bridges and viaducts were built in the 1960s and 1970s and will soon need renovation. Estimating the speed at which a bridge ages is a vital element of a bridge management system. Kallen developed a statistic-based model that enables an estimate to be made of the speed at which a bridge ages and to quantify the inherent uncertainty. Kallen also believes that his model can be applied to other, similar fields, such as the management and maintenance of asphalt and sewers.
Chimps rule

Chimpanzees have an extraordinary photographic memory that is far superior to ours, research suggests.Young chimps outperformed university students in memory tests devised by Japanese scientists. The tasks involved remembering the location of numbers on a screen, and correctly recalling the sequence. The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, suggest we have underestimated the intelligence of our closest living relatives. Until now, it was always assumed that chimps couldn’t match humans in memory and other mental skills. “There are still many people, including many biologists, who believe that humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions,” said lead researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University. Dr Matsuzawa and colleagues tested three pairs of mother and baby chimpanzees against university students in a memory task involving numbers. “We’ve shown for the first time that young chimpanzees have an extraordinary working memory capability for numerical recollection – better than that of human adults tested following the same procedure.”
CAAS

On December 6, TU Delft and the University of Leiden officially signed a covenant for the foundation of the Centre for Archaeology, Art History and Science (CAAS), which will focus on the technological study of objects from art and archaeology. CAAS will be a center for the scientific study of material cultural heritage in its archaeological and art historical context, with a focus on an effective interface among the disciplines involved.
Library open

The TU Delft Library will be open between Christmas and New Year. Unlike the faculties and the other TU Delft support services, the Central Library will be open during some of the Christmas period. Students are welcome to study at the Library on December 24 and December 31 from 10:00 to 15:00, and from December 27 to December 30, from 10:00 to 17:00. But please note that the central desk will be closed.

Fuel cells

The widespread use of cars powered by fuel cells won’t occur until 2030 at the earliest, but in the meantime many kinds of niche market applications for fuel cells will emerge, according to Hanna Hellman, who received her doctorate degree on the evolution of fuel cell technology from TU Delft on December 4th. Taking fuel cell technology as a case study, Hellman examined how companies deal with the application of radical technology before it becomes widely available. She looked at four relatively new companies focusing on fuel cell technology. Although fuel cells have existed for 150 years, their use isn’t widespread yet. Hellman: “Firstly, this is due to technological problems, such as storing the hydrogen that powers fuel cells. Secondly, our infrastructure must be adapted to the use of fuel cells and hydrogen, and finally, this type of replacement technology is logically subject to resistance from established interests. I don’t expect widespread use until 2030 at the earliest.”
Drunkards

Students drinking too much and then causing disturbances in Delft have no place in this age, said the mayor of Delft, Bas Verkerk. He believes that students must be more considerate of others: “Recently two drunken students jumped in the canal. That’s the wrong kind of humor.” The student political party Stip recently objected to the mayor’s banning of a student ‘beer race’. Such drunken events send the wrong signal, the mayor said: “This isn’t the 1960s. Nowadays people participate in society at much younger ages.”

Better bridges

A new model developed by TU Delft will allow the Dutch Directorate for Public Works & Water Management to determine the best interval between bridge inspections. The model was applied to the condition data of some 3,000 concrete constructions in the Netherlands. Last week Maarten-Jan Kallen received his TU Delft PhD degree on this subject. The Netherlands faces a huge task when it comes to managing its civil infrastructure. Many bridges and viaducts were built in the 1960s and 1970s and will soon need renovation. Estimating the speed at which a bridge ages is a vital element of a bridge management system. Kallen developed a statistic-based model that enables an estimate to be made of the speed at which a bridge ages and to quantify the inherent uncertainty. Kallen also believes that his model can be applied to other, similar fields, such as the management and maintenance of asphalt and sewers.
Chimps rule

Chimpanzees have an extraordinary photographic memory that is far superior to ours, research suggests.Young chimps outperformed university students in memory tests devised by Japanese scientists. The tasks involved remembering the location of numbers on a screen, and correctly recalling the sequence. The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, suggest we have underestimated the intelligence of our closest living relatives. Until now, it was always assumed that chimps couldn’t match humans in memory and other mental skills. “There are still many people, including many biologists, who believe that humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions,” said lead researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University. Dr Matsuzawa and colleagues tested three pairs of mother and baby chimpanzees against university students in a memory task involving numbers. “We’ve shown for the first time that young chimpanzees have an extraordinary working memory capability for numerical recollection – better than that of human adults tested following the same procedure.”
CAAS

On December 6, TU Delft and the University of Leiden officially signed a covenant for the foundation of the Centre for Archaeology, Art History and Science (CAAS), which will focus on the technological study of objects from art and archaeology. CAAS will be a center for the scientific study of material cultural heritage in its archaeological and art historical context, with a focus on an effective interface among the disciplines involved.
Library open

The TU Delft Library will be open between Christmas and New Year. Unlike the faculties and the other TU Delft support services, the Central Library will be open during some of the Christmas period. Students are welcome to study at the Library on December 24 and December 31 from 10:00 to 15:00, and from December 27 to December 30, from 10:00 to 17:00. But please note that the central desk will be closed.

Fuel cells

The widespread use of cars powered by fuel cells won’t occur until 2030 at the earliest, but in the meantime many kinds of niche market applications for fuel cells will emerge, according to Hanna Hellman, who received her doctorate degree on the evolution of fuel cell technology from TU Delft on December 4th. Taking fuel cell technology as a case study, Hellman examined how companies deal with the application of radical technology before it becomes widely available. She looked at four relatively new companies focusing on fuel cell technology. Although fuel cells have existed for 150 years, their use isn’t widespread yet. Hellman: “Firstly, this is due to technological problems, such as storing the hydrogen that powers fuel cells. Secondly, our infrastructure must be adapted to the use of fuel cells and hydrogen, and finally, this type of replacement technology is logically subject to resistance from established interests. I don’t expect widespread use until 2030 at the earliest.”
Drunkards

Students drinking too much and then causing disturbances in Delft have no place in this age, said the mayor of Delft, Bas Verkerk. He believes that students must be more considerate of others: “Recently two drunken students jumped in the canal. That’s the wrong kind of humor.” The student political party Stip recently objected to the mayor’s banning of a student ‘beer race’. Such drunken events send the wrong signal, the mayor said: “This isn’t the 1960s. Nowadays people participate in society at much younger ages.”