Nibs

“Partly automatic controlled trucks could partially reduce the number of accidents. For example a warning system will warn drivers when they aren’t driving straight in a lane,” says Tabibi, who will defend his on thesis on July 1. During his PhD research, Tabibi investigated what happens if automatic controlled trucks (ACTs) drive on the current road network in Holland. Because there isn’t enough space and money to build separate roads, these automatically driven trucks and cars and non-automatically driven cars converge at entry and exit points. Tabibi therefore designed an optimization program to reduce the problems caused when ACTs and ‘normal’ cars and trucks converge on roadways. He concluded that the up to 15 percent more trucks could drive on Dutch roads, thereby improving road efficiency. This is possible because trucks would drive in a ‘platoon’ formation: from two to ten trucks, linked by sensors, drive very close to each other. These platoons drive fully automatically, with a traffic control room monitoring and steering the platoon using GPS, cameras and sensors. Next month Tabibi returns to Iran to work at the Ministry of Roads & Traffic. Based on Tabibi’s recommendations, Iran has decided to develop Intelligent Transport System technologies on their road network with a consortium of Dutch partners, including TU Delft and TNO.
Events

A large concert and exposition hall will be built near the TU, on the site of the former Gelatine factory, between the Rotterdamseweg and Schie canal. The 9,000sq. meter site will open next year and offer 12 large (maximum capacity 1,000 people), 10 medium-sized (maximum capacity 3,000 people) and 15 small (maximum capacity 1,000 people) rooms for events. Delft municipality spokesman Peter Muller said the hall will be accessible to everyone, including TU student groups and societies: “The site is ideally located for the university.”
Russian retrial

Russia’s Supreme Court overturned the acquittal of physicist Valentin Danilov on charges of spying for China and ordered a re-trial. The Federal Security Service (FSS) accuses Danilov, a former professor at Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, of selling classified information about space technology to China while working on a contract between the university and a Chinese company. Danilov says he only used public information. After a four-year investigation and trial, a jury acquitted Danilov last December. But the court has now ordered a retrial under a new judge.

@01 kort nieuws kopje:Stem Cells
Cambridge University will open a center for human embryonic stem cell research. The center will develop treatments for currently incurable diseases, such as diabetes and spinal cord injuries. The $30 million Stem Cell Institute, which hopes to proceed to human testing within five years, will use the newest robotics to speed research. Roger Pedersen, professor of regenerative medicine at Cambridge, said the new institute’s “mission is to deliver clinical benefits at the earliest possible date.” Stem cells are master cells that are capable of becoming every kind of human tissue, and scientists say they can be used to replace diseased cells in people suffering from spinal cord injury, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. Pedersen previously worked at the University of California, San Francisco, but left in 2001 after U.S. President G.W. Bush banned federally-funded labs from doing research involving the creation of any type of human embryo. Britain however was the first nation to authorize the cloning of human embryos to produce stem cells for research.

@01 kort nieuws kopje:Student Strike

Schools were closed around Nepal as a student union affiliated with Maoist rebels held a two-day strike to push for free education and other demands. Administrators closed down all schools, including universities, to prevent any potential attacks by Maoists. A private school in the capital Kathmandu was bombed on Sunday, causing damage but no injuries. Officials said they considered the attack an apparent warning to schools to close down Tuesday and Wednesday. The All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary) called the strike to press the government on 13 demands, including free education at all schools across the kingdom. The student group is also demanding a ban on Indian teachers and instruction in Hinduism’s holy language Sanskrit, which is associated with higher castes. The students are also demanding an end to the “commercialization” of Nepal’s schools, claiming that administrators are reaping huge profits on education.

Automatic vehicles

Eighty percent of all traffic accidents in the world happen in developing countries, according to Iranian PhD student Masoud Tabibi of Citg’s transportation and traffic engineering section. “Partly automatic controlled trucks could partially reduce the number of accidents. For example a warning system will warn drivers when they aren’t driving straight in a lane,” says Tabibi, who will defend his on thesis on July 1. During his PhD research, Tabibi investigated what happens if automatic controlled trucks (ACTs) drive on the current road network in Holland. Because there isn’t enough space and money to build separate roads, these automatically driven trucks and cars and non-automatically driven cars converge at entry and exit points. Tabibi therefore designed an optimization program to reduce the problems caused when ACTs and ‘normal’ cars and trucks converge on roadways. He concluded that the up to 15 percent more trucks could drive on Dutch roads, thereby improving road efficiency. This is possible because trucks would drive in a ‘platoon’ formation: from two to ten trucks, linked by sensors, drive very close to each other. These platoons drive fully automatically, with a traffic control room monitoring and steering the platoon using GPS, cameras and sensors. Next month Tabibi returns to Iran to work at the Ministry of Roads & Traffic. Based on Tabibi’s recommendations, Iran has decided to develop Intelligent Transport System technologies on their road network with a consortium of Dutch partners, including TU Delft and TNO.
Events

A large concert and exposition hall will be built near the TU, on the site of the former Gelatine factory, between the Rotterdamseweg and Schie canal. The 9,000sq. meter site will open next year and offer 12 large (maximum capacity 1,000 people), 10 medium-sized (maximum capacity 3,000 people) and 15 small (maximum capacity 1,000 people) rooms for events. Delft municipality spokesman Peter Muller said the hall will be accessible to everyone, including TU student groups and societies: “The site is ideally located for the university.”
Russian retrial

Russia’s Supreme Court overturned the acquittal of physicist Valentin Danilov on charges of spying for China and ordered a re-trial. The Federal Security Service (FSS) accuses Danilov, a former professor at Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, of selling classified information about space technology to China while working on a contract between the university and a Chinese company. Danilov says he only used public information. After a four-year investigation and trial, a jury acquitted Danilov last December. But the court has now ordered a retrial under a new judge.

@01 kort nieuws kopje:Stem Cells
Cambridge University will open a center for human embryonic stem cell research. The center will develop treatments for currently incurable diseases, such as diabetes and spinal cord injuries. The $30 million Stem Cell Institute, which hopes to proceed to human testing within five years, will use the newest robotics to speed research. Roger Pedersen, professor of regenerative medicine at Cambridge, said the new institute’s “mission is to deliver clinical benefits at the earliest possible date.” Stem cells are master cells that are capable of becoming every kind of human tissue, and scientists say they can be used to replace diseased cells in people suffering from spinal cord injury, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. Pedersen previously worked at the University of California, San Francisco, but left in 2001 after U.S. President G.W. Bush banned federally-funded labs from doing research involving the creation of any type of human embryo. Britain however was the first nation to authorize the cloning of human embryos to produce stem cells for research.

@01 kort nieuws kopje:Student Strike

Schools were closed around Nepal as a student union affiliated with Maoist rebels held a two-day strike to push for free education and other demands. Administrators closed down all schools, including universities, to prevent any potential attacks by Maoists. A private school in the capital Kathmandu was bombed on Sunday, causing damage but no injuries. Officials said they considered the attack an apparent warning to schools to close down Tuesday and Wednesday. The All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary) called the strike to press the government on 13 demands, including free education at all schools across the kingdom. The student group is also demanding a ban on Indian teachers and instruction in Hinduism’s holy language Sanskrit, which is associated with higher castes. The students are also demanding an end to the “commercialization” of Nepal’s schools, claiming that administrators are reaping huge profits on education.