News in Brief – Delta 14

The plan’s key goal is to ensure that a million electric cars are driving on Dutch roads by 2020. C,mm,n is an innovative mobility concept, a new way of developing, manufacturing and using cars. By making the blueprint of the c,mm,n car publicly available under an open-source license, it’s possible to develop truly sustainable mobility. Just like open-source software, c,mm,n focuses on services around the product, and c,mm,n can be used to offer people lease cars, rental cars or other mobility services. C,mm,n can also be sold, but any derived work must be made publicly available again.

,Rooms-for-rent

Thanks to the economic crisis, it’s now much easier for students in the Netherlands to find rooms for rent, according to the website kamernet.nl. Last month the number of rooms for rent was 40% higher than in March 2008. In 2006 and 2007, the supply of rooms for rent only grew by 4.5% and 4.6%, respectively.  The rental price however has not fallen. Students now pay on average 18.83 euro per square meter, which is 5.6% more than last year.

,PhD community

TU Delft PhDs and the university community now have a platform for creating groups, writing and sharing posts, adding events, and communicating relevant news items and events (tudelft.phdcommunity.nl). The TU Delft Library created the platform with several objectives in mind, such as increasing the transparency of research conducted by TU Delft researchers and thus increasing the attractiveness of the university and the individual researchers. The platform also serves as social gateway for PhD’s .

,YES!Delft thrives

The high-tech start-ups of YES!Delft, TU Delft’s incubation center for encouraging new businesses, performed outstandingly in 2008: the workforce tripled, turnover was up by 75%, and venture capitalists invested ten times more in the young start-up companies than in 2007. YES!Delft’s 39 young high-tech start-up companies succeeded in attracting more than five million euros in venture capital in 2008, with 80% of it coming from foreign investors. In 2007, that figure was only 500,000 euros. Total turnover from sales rose to over nine million euros, an increase of almost four million compared to 2007, when 32 companies were operating under YES!Delft’s guidance. This growth in turnover and investment led to a tripling in the number of employees: 141.1 full-time employees in 2008, compared to 46.6 in 2007. “This growth is mainly thanks to a number of companies that have successfully tapped into new markets,” said Lesley Fockema Andreae, manager of the YES!Delft Incubation Centre.

,New dean

TU Delft’s Executive Board has appointed Professor Raoul Bino as new dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences (AS) from 1 September 2009. Bino succeeds Professor Karel Luyben as AS dean. Bino has been General Director of the Plant Sciences Group at Wageningen University and Research Centre since 2006. He studied biology at Amsterdam University (1983), specializing in plant physiology and genetics, and obtained his doctoral degree from Wageningen University in 1986. In 2002 he was appointed Professor Extraordinary in Plant Metabolomics at Wageningen University. Bino authored over 200 publications in scientific journals and has held a number of national and international positions. He is a board member of the European Plant Science Organization (EPSO), and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology of Copenhagen University. “Raoul Bino brings wide administrative and management experience in the academic environment,” said the President of TU Delft’s Executive Board, Dirk Jan van den Berg.

C,mm,n

TU Delft’s ‘c,mm,n,’ the car of the future, was a big hit at the opening of this year’s AutoRAI exposition in Amsterdam. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkende, and the Minister of Transport, Camiel Eurlings, were both present at the unveiling of the ‘c,mm,n,’ concept and were given copies of the ‘Driving on Electricity’ plan of action, drawn up jointly by the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment and the three Dutch universities of technology. The plan’s key goal is to ensure that a million electric cars are driving on Dutch roads by 2020. C,mm,n is an innovative mobility concept, a new way of developing, manufacturing and using cars. By making the blueprint of the c,mm,n car publicly available under an open-source license, it’s possible to develop truly sustainable mobility. Just like open-source software, c,mm,n focuses on services around the product, and c,mm,n can be used to offer people lease cars, rental cars or other mobility services. C,mm,n can also be sold, but any derived work must be made publicly available again.

Rooms-for-rent

Thanks to the economic crisis, it’s now much easier for students in the Netherlands to find rooms for rent, according to the website kamernet.nl. Last month the number of rooms for rent was 40% higher than in March 2008. In 2006 and 2007, the supply of rooms for rent only grew by 4.5% and 4.6%, respectively.  The rental price however has not fallen. Students now pay on average 18.83 euro per square meter, which is 5.6% more than last year.

PhD community

TU Delft PhDs and the university community now have a platform for creating groups, writing and sharing posts, adding events, and communicating relevant news items and events (tudelft.phdcommunity.nl). The TU Delft Library created the platform with several objectives in mind, such as increasing the transparency of research conducted by TU Delft researchers and thus increasing the attractiveness of the university and the individual researchers. The platform also serves as social gateway for PhD’s .

YES!Delft thrives

The high-tech start-ups of YES!Delft, TU Delft’s incubation center for encouraging new businesses, performed outstandingly in 2008: the workforce tripled, turnover was up by 75%, and venture capitalists invested ten times more in the young start-up companies than in 2007. YES!Delft’s 39 young high-tech start-up companies succeeded in attracting more than five million euros in venture capital in 2008, with 80% of it coming from foreign investors. In 2007, that figure was only 500,000 euros. Total turnover from sales rose to over nine million euros, an increase of almost four million compared to 2007, when 32 companies were operating under YES!Delft’s guidance. This growth in turnover and investment led to a tripling in the number of employees: 141.1 full-time employees in 2008, compared to 46.6 in 2007. “This growth is mainly thanks to a number of companies that have successfully tapped into new markets,” said Lesley Fockema Andreae, manager of the YES!Delft Incubation Centre.

New dean

TU Delft’s Executive Board has appointed Professor Raoul Bino as new dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences (AS) from 1 September 2009. Bino succeeds Professor Karel Luyben as AS dean. Bino has been General Director of the Plant Sciences Group at Wageningen University and Research Centre since 2006. He studied biology at Amsterdam University (1983), specializing in plant physiology and genetics, and obtained his doctoral degree from Wageningen University in 1986. In 2002 he was appointed Professor Extraordinary in Plant Metabolomics at Wageningen University. Bino authored over 200 publications in scientific journals and has held a number of national and international positions. He is a board member of the European Plant Science Organization (EPSO), and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology of Copenhagen University. “Raoul Bino brings wide administrative and management experience in the academic environment,” said the President of TU Delft’s Executive Board, Dirk Jan van den Berg.