TU wins Battle TU Delft students are the most innovative in the Netherlands, according to the organization that runs the idea contest, ‘Battle of Concepts’.
The organization places on its website problems encountered by companies and asks students to provide solutions. After one year of the competition, TU Delft, with 122 submissions (or 10 percent of the total), finished in first place. TU Delft, with five ‘best ideas’, also had the largest number of winners. Erasmus University was in second place. The competition continues this year.
Advanced grant
TU Delft’s Spinoza Prize winning Professor Leo Kouwenhoven, of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience, was one of several leading European researchers who this summer were awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. Kouwenhoven is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of the electronic properties of nanostructures. Professor Kouwenhoven will use the grant . worth 1.8 million euro . to research ‘quantum optoelectronics’.
New Delfly
TU Delft presented the minute Delfly Micro air vehicle. This successor to the Delfly I and II weighs just three grams, and with its flapping wings is very similar to a dragonfly. Ultra-small, remote-controlled micro aircraft with cameras, such as this Delfly, can be used for observation flights in difficult-to-reach or dangerous areas. The Delfly Micro is a ‘Micro Air Vehicle’ (MAV), an exceptionally small remote-controlled aircraft with camera and image recognition software. The Micro measures 10 cm (wingtip to wingtip) and is a considerably smaller successor to the successful Delfly I (2005) and Delfly II (2006). The Delfly Micro, with its minuscule battery weighing just 1 gram, can fly for approximately three minutes, has a maximum speed of 5 m/s, and has a tiny camera on board that transmits its signals to a ground station. With software also developed by TU Delft, objects can then be recognized independently. The camera transmits TV quality images, and therefore allows the Delfly II to be operated from the computer and maneuvered using a joystick.
DNA repair
Researchers at TU Delft and Leiden University have successfully filmed slow-motion footage of the repair enzyme DNA ligase repairing a break in a DNA strand. This groundbreaking research was published in June in the leading scientific journal PNAS. Factors such as sunlight, radiation, toxins, infection or ageing can cause damage to DNA. Continuous repair work is carried out in our hereditary material to repair this damage. Breaks in DNA are repaired by the enzyme DNA ligase. Dr Alexey Cherepanov, who works via a NWO VENI grant in Prof. Huub de Groot’s solid-state NMR group at Leiden University and under TU Delft enzymologist Prof. Simon de Vries in the Enzymology group, is studying DNA repair via enzyme DNA ligase. The entire repair process occurs at room temperature in a fraction of a second. The resulting chemical film shows in real time which chemical bonds are broken and formed. The researchers have proved that it is possible to make a 3D molecular film of enzyme catalysis.
Exact Software
Exact Software and the TU Delft signed a long-term strategic collaboration agreement that will allow the two organizations to share their knowledge and expertise to develop new technologies, products and services. The alliance will also promote Delft as an IT center for excellence in the Netherlands. Exact and TU Delft see a significant opportunity for long-term collaboration on research and development. The boundaries between business, social and personal activities are disappearing due to the rapid introduction of new IT technologies, and as a result, companies are changing the way they do business. The TU and Exact will share their knowledge and expertise to develop the new technologies, products and services companies need to succeed in today’s worldwide business world. Exact CEO Rajesh Patel: “This strategic relationship between Exact and TU Delft is unique in many ways. Besides both organizations residing in Delft, we share a common vision in terms of innovation, research and technology to deliver real value added to businesses. As a team we will work on common research projects, share know-how and experiences and promote innovation.”
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