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Off campus
Invention

TU Delft alumnus Luci Santema puts cyclists in the spotlight

Inventor Luci Santema is making waves with a bike light she came up with four years ago during her studies in Industrial Design Engineering. By now, tens of thousands of Ziemis have been sold. How does she do it?

A small led light can make a big difference in visibility. (Photo: Ziemi)

“Our product is so simple we don’t need an influencer to explain how it works,” says Luci Santema (27). She runs the Ziemi company with Douwe Korver (25, Business Administration, Free University of Amsterdam). They produce bike lights that illuminate the legs, making cyclists much more visible. Over 40,000 units have already been sold. This year, you’ll see the Ziemi featured in magazines, newspapers, and on television. Santema believes this will help increase sales.

Ziemi founders
Luci Santema and Douwe Korver at Ziemi develop Biomotion lighting for sporters. (Photo: Kris Pouw)

The assignment for the Industrial Design Engineering’s Advanced Concept Design course was to promote e-bikes for bike couriers. But Santema was more concerned about their safety. Bike couriers often ride in the dark, are always in a rush, and steer with one hand while checking their phones to navigate. It’s thus particularly important that they are highly visible. No surprise, then, that accidents happen frequently, with 70% of collisions being from the side.

How can you make cyclists more visible? Santema wondered “How does Beyoncé make herself more noticeable? By standing in the spotlight! That’s what I wanted to do for bike couriers and cyclists in general.”

She created a prototype by attaching two Decathlon lights in a 3D printed housing to the handlebars with duct tape. The rear-facing light illuminated the cyclist from the feet to the waist. Later, she simplified the design to a single light. The cyclists can’t see the light themselves and are therefore not blinded by it.

‘How does Beyoncé make herself more noticeable? By standing in the spotlight!’

“You’ve struck gold, Luci,” said her lecturer Henk Crone, who urged her to develop it further into a product. “You want to be an inventor, don’t you? This is your chance.”

 

When she was five, she and her sisters were given a drill. At nine, she competed in The Best Idea of the Netherlands TV show. For her 21st birthday, she got a 3D printer. So yes, Santema definitely sees herself as an inventor – it makes her happy. It runs in the family: her father, Sicco Santema, is not only an entrepreneur but also a professor at Industrial Design Engineering, and her mother is also an entrepreneur.

Fietsbroek Ziemi
Ziemi puts the cyclist in the spot light. (Photo: Ziemi)

So she joined Yes!Delft, won a patent competition there, and step by step built a business while also completing her studies (on building blocks made of sand and plastic in Kenya).

Up to last year, she managed the production of lights without borrowing money, which meant that progress was slow. The first batch consisted of 2,500 lights, but now she has sold 40,000 in just four months. Thanks to an investment last year, the company can now grow more rapidly. Production has scaled up, and there’s a budget for advertising. Santema and Korver expect to quadruple sales next year.

Santema’s inventor’s heart does not rest. She’s already designed a rear light that illuminates the legs (designed for racing cyclists) and she is working on lights for runners. These are various forms of ‘Biomotion lighting’, as Santema describes the concept of lighting for athletes.

Science editor Jos Wassink

Do you have a question or comment about this article?

j.w.wassink@tudelft.nl

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