Things are quieter on the editorial staff for a while: we are away for the summer holidays and continue working behind the scenes on our research articles. In the week before the OWee (from Monday 11 August), we will pick up where we left off.
(Photo: Thijs van Reeuwijk)
In the meantime, feel like sinking into a good story? Get inspired by this selection of interviews, student news and exceptional academic articles we published recently. Happy summer!
Alumnus Winnifred Noorlander
Swimming for 17 hours in an unpredictable sea. This august TU Delft alumnus Winnifred Noorlander will swim the huge distance of the English Channel. She is doing this to raise awareness about brain health. “There are a lot of misconceptions about the treatment and after effects of concussions.”
Paediatrician Nico van der Lely
‘No alcohol for young people’. That’s the descriptive title of Nico van der Lely’s new book. The Delft paediatrician is still seeing too many students with alcohol poisoning at his hospital alcohol department. “Getting drunk has become a competition.”
AI-artist Katarina Petrović
Did you know that Jupiter emits radio waves? The artist Katarina Petrović, who is now exhibiting her work in the TU Delft Library, transformed these waves to poetry. By combining art, language and science, she holds up a mirror to scientists. Petrović believes that this is badly needed at TU Delft.
Researcher Tuğrul Irmak
He is climbing 41 alpine summits to collect money for his research. Tuğrul Irmak became dependent on dialysis and is adamant that his artificial kidney will come. “It’s my own ass on the line.”
Participation employee Willemijn van Hagen
Willemijn van Hagen did not finish her IDE course after a burnout. The diagnosis was autism. She is now back at Industrial Design Engineering, as a support staff member. She falls under TU Delft’s participation programme for people who find it hard to get regular jobs. “There is space for me here to be different.”
Theatre maker Andrea Voets
Harpist Andrea Voets created the ‘theatrical radio show’ For Real about the intellectual undermining of women. “I’m very curious to see how this will fall in Delft,” she says.
News in focus
Stinking students
Do EEMCS students really smell that bad? No. A call that went viral to shower more often did not come from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, but from a teacher at the University of Toronto. Smell was a problem there. “It gave some students migraines.”
Unique atlethes
Hockey, rowing and football are well-known sports among students. Others choose a more unique sport. Delta highlighted it in a series. Including fencing, mountaineering, wheel gymnastics and gliding.
Board photo contest
With their board photo, student boards put themselves on the map: dressed up in suits, in a meaningful place and sometimes with a wink. They give a year’s worth of everything for their association. Who are the people behind these photos? Delta spoke to board members of windsurf association Plankenkoorts, athletics association Dodeka, rowing association Proteus-Eretes, board sports association Drop, freerunning association Kong,study association Life, sustainability association Students4Sustainability en study association ETV.
Film debut
During the Covid pandemic, student life was locked down. What do you do as a first-year student, full of expectations, when lockdowns suddenly place you in quarantine? For Delft student Richard Lamb Jr. (22), it became the inspiration for his first film: Quarantine Crush. He talks about his journey from lockdown stress to film festivals.
New rental laws
Point systems and campus contracts. You will not make huge profits on renting out rooms anymore. So landlords are trying to empty their student houses as fast as possible to sell them. Students are the victims: “My landlady tried to force me out.”
Here’s what happens in your body when you row
Rowing and universities have gone hand in hand for over 150 years. Yet only now do we have the tools and knowledge to examine exactly which muscles drive the rowing stroke. “Thus we can analyse the rowing stroke in detail,” says postdoc Tom van Wouwe.
Collapsed tower
In the early hours of Sunday 16 March, the 30 metre high Wilhelmina Tower in Valkenburg collapsed. How could this happen? Delta asked Rob Nijsse, Professor of Structural Engineering for Buildings and Bridges.
Anti-acknowledgements
Dr Rachel Los recently did something completely new. Apart from the required acknowledgements, she added ‘anti-acknowledgements’ to her TU Delft PhD thesis. These were aimed at everyone who had made it clear to her, implicitly or explicitly, that there was no space for her as a woman in the sciences. ‘We have to deal with this undermining’ she writes in this letter.
I&IC a year after
One year ago, Delta published a much discussed article about the Innovation and Impact Centre. It suffered from a lack of social safety and a major breach of confidence. How are things now? “It always boils down to the same thing: openness, showing vulnerability, acknowledging mistakes.”
Prizes for Delta
With their article on the flawed auxiliary structures at TU Delft, Delta editors Marjolein van der Veldt and Annebelle de Bruijn won a Kring Award for the best background article. That award is given annually by the national cooperation of higher education media in the Netherlands.
With her investigative article on the Innovation & Impact Centre at TU Delft, Delta’s editor-in-chief Saskia Bonger is one of the nominees for the prestigious Tegel, the most important journalism prize in the Netherlands.
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