You may remember his energetic stage-presence and incredible trousers from the conference last February, however this was not Rolf Hut’s first time on the TEDxDelft stage.
This tinkerer and ‘MacGyver scientist’ spoke in 2011 about re-appropriating existing technology and even made it rain on stage. We spoke to him to find out what he has been creating since then. In this series we will be talking to past TEDxDelft speakers from TU Delft to find out, ‘Where are they now?’ TEDxDelft conferences are held once a year and often feature a number of TU Delft faculty, staff and students. You can watch their TEDxDelft talks on their website.
What is a standout memory from the TEDxDelft event you spoke at?
I very fondly remembered Lodewijk van den Berg. As far as stage presence went, he was introverted but I liked it, it added to the story. Another thing that really stuck with me was Jasper, the host. I took a lot of pointers from his style when I was asked to host earlier this year.
What major projects have you completed, since speaking at the conference?
I got my PhD, which was awesome, and a tonne of media attention for the stuff I did, partly sparked by TEDxDelft – some of it really snowballed. Presenting at TEDxDelft also contributed to getting a gig as a writer for the Volkskrant. I write a monthly column where I build something that makes life easier at home, then I write about it.
In October my first book will be published, around half is stuff from my columns, and half new material – it’s fun. My kid is also now 2 and a half years old, so that happened and that’s awesome.
What are you working on right now?
My work has been moving from a pure focus on science to more towards communicating science and technology to the general public. If a few years from now a university would say ‘do you want to do science outreach to the general public, here’s a bag of money and a fancy black dress go and do what you do best’, that would be cool. Now I’m mostly focusing on the scientific projects I’m working on, weather forecasting and tinkering work, making more and more elaborate tinkering devices based on stuff everyone has at home. Because it’s way too much fun not to.
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