Highlights 2013

Highlights 2 013 Highlights 2013 TU Delft University of Technology Content - 4 - Dirk Jan van den Berg Daan Bruggink 06 Foreword 32 ‘Ecological building should also be attractive’ Pieter van Gelder Marcel Fleuren 08 ‘Prevention is better 36 ‘I have always had the than repression’ urge to invent things’ Eline van der Kruk Hayley Hung 12 ‘I really go for it’ 40 Modelling human beha- viour in a social context Mark van Loosdrecht Nynke Tromp 16 Remarkable 44 ‘Design can change bacteria society’ Arno Smets Edward Valstar 20 Free top-level 48 ‘On my own I would education achieve nothing’ Paulien Herder Tim de Morée en Wouter Lion 24 Over 700 52 ‘It’s all about the team’ energy scientists Hans Hellendoorn en 28 Hans Welleman Keeping students on course Highlights TU Delft 2013 - 5 - Foreword Dirk Jan van den Berg ‘We are proud to be among the forerunners in the field of e-learning, a teaching method that we are in the process of expanding step by step’ - 6 - am very proud to present the TU Delft Highlights 2013. In be able to welcome such consistently high student numbers. 2014 our university, the oldest university of technology in Indeed, so great is the influx of students that we have to pull the Netherlands, will be celebrating its 172nd birthday. It out all the stops in order to be able to accommodate them all. Imay be old in years, but it has always been very much up This is an important sign that engineers are now highly sought to date in terms of its activities. Security, for example, is very after by the labour market even more than ever. It is still the much a contemporary theme, as witnessed by its extensive case that the vast majority of our graduates find employment coverage in the media. We are living in an increasingly complex more or less immediately. society, where new technology and old values clash and As high as the number of campus students may be, they form where our welfare is causing greater problems than is poverty but a drop in the ocean compared to the numbers of people elsewhere. In a society of this kind, issues relating to security we reach through online education. This is an experiment are becoming ever-more complex. The response to these that we believe in to the full. We are proud to be among the issues calls for a multidisciplinary approach to research. You can forerunners in the field of e-learning, a teaching method that we read more about this in the interview with Pieter van Gelder, are in the process of expanding step by step. Our own students professor of Safety Science and the Foundation Day Lecturer enjoy blended learning – a mix of face-to-face teaching and on the occasion of our 172nd anniversary, when he spoke online learning. In order to make outstanding education more exclusively on the topic of security. Multidisciplinarity brings accessible, we recently launched online Master’s courses. But rewards in other respects, too, as it is on the cutting edges our biggest success in 2013 was our Massive Online Open of different fields that outstanding new opportunities are to Courses on the renowned EdX platform: two courses on water be found. This is the view of Mark van Loosdrecht, who as a purification and solar energy attracted 24,000 and 53,000 professor of Environmental Biotechnology bridges boundaries enrolments respectively. Free top-level education, accessible to effortlessly, whether between fields, between research all. Arno Smets, who developed and teaches the MOOC Solar and application, or between government, entrepreneur and Energy, describes it in greater detail. research institute. Ultimately, what matters is that the results of our research Cooperation, collaboration, in every possible form, is in our and teaching work have an effect on society. An important way DNA. In our own organisation, we bring scientists and students for this to be achieved is through entrepreneurship, something from different disciplines together in our Delft Research we actively encourage in our curriculum. We also assist young Institutes Health, to focus on the societal themes of energy, entrepreneurs through the YES!Delft enterprise centre. This health, the living environment, and infrastructure & mobility. inspiring breeding ground for high-tech start-ups is actually To these have recently been added our TU Delft Institutes in so successful that it is almost growing out of its premises. the fields of climate, process technology, robotics, transport, Inventor and entrepreneur Marcel gives you a look behind the and safety & security. These institutes also serve as a platform scenes. for interfaculty contacts, knowledge sharing, and cooperation. These and other inspiring accounts in the TU Delft Highlights Looking beyond the campus, we are part of a cast-iron regional 2013 offer you a glimpse of what is going on at our great partnership with Leiden University and Erasmus University university, and give me every confidence that 2014 will prove to Rotterdam; meanwhile, we are engaged in collaborative be another year that is packed with highlights. ventures on the international stage too. New are the Joint Research Centres that we have opened in Brazil and China, an Drs. Dirk Jan van den Berg important step towards becoming a global university where President of the Executive Board science really does know no boundaries. TU Delft Education, after all, is our raison d’être, and it is pleasing to Highlights TU Delft 2013 - 7 - Pieter van Gelder Prevention is better than repression On 1 October 2013, Professor Pieter van Gelder was appointed as Professor of Safety Science at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM). Before that, since 1994, he was affiliated with the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG), where he conducted research on probabilistic methods in hydraulic engineering and construction. He would now like to apply that knowledge to other security domains. n 10 January 2000, Hydraulic Engineering at the time. flood defence. “We use optimisation Pieter van Gelder was The mathematical advisor from techniques for that, because the awarded the first TU Delft Rijkswaterstaat took some courses optimal dike height not only depends Odoctorate of the 21st first. “While I was still working for on the consequences of a breach, century. “One of the propositions in Rijkswaterstaat, I attended a number but also on the investment costs in a my PhD dissertation was that I might of lectures on civil engineering, sitting higher dike. So we make a cost-benefit not be able to defend it due to the among the first-year students. Over analysis,” explains Van Gelder. You can millennium bug,” explains Van Gelder. the years I began to feel like a civil also use models for the management Fortunately it didn’t come to that, and engineer myself,” says Van Gelder. and maintenance of dikes. “It’s a the irregular leap day 29 February His mathematical knowledge turned dynamic model. We take matters 2000 did not cause any problems out to be extremely useful, as his PhD such as rising sea levels and ageing either. Van Gelder knows all about research was about probability models. into account. The dike subsides over risk analysis, although in 2000 he “I studied the statistical models in time, in which case the model has to was more concerned with the risks order to assess the reliability of flood show that the safety is lower than the involved in hydraulic engineering than defences,” he explains. “We want to requirements and that measures need those in the digital domain. With a quantify those risks. In other words, to be taken.” background in mathematics, he spent we want to determine the probability As a Professor of Safety Science, his first few years working for the Road of an event and its consequences. Van Gelder wants to apply his and Hydraulic Engineering Division For example, you can calculate the experience in hydraulic engineering of Rijkswaterstaat. “After a while, strength of a structure and the load on to other domains. “The method used I got rather tired of all the reading it. This tells you about the hazard zone, to quantify risks can also be applied involved in such a civil service post,” the overlap between extreme load and to other sectors, such as transport, he admits. “I was constantly reading weak strength. But there are a number chemistry or occupational safety.” about what the Hydraulics Laboratory of uncertainties in the results of those However, this is not a simple process, or Deltares had done, and then I had to calculations. How can you properly as there is an important difference. provide feedback on it. I realised that assess the parameters of those “In hydraulic engineering we usually it would be more fun to do research distributions?” work with structures: bodies of soil, myself, instead of supervising and concrete walls, steel walls, etc. evaluating it.” Van Gelder found a Dynamic model That makes calculations relatively PhD position with Professor Vrijling, Ultimately, such a model should straightforward. However, the other who was a Professor of Constructive lead to the design of the optimal domains involve a human factor. Take - 8 - Prevention is better than repression Highlights TU Delft 2013 - 9 - the transport domain for example: a the Dutch word for both terms is Lifelong Learning driver can make a mistake and cause ‘veiligheid’, security primarily refers to Pieter van Gelder also teaches, an accident, as can a pilot in a cockpit. protection against the risks of malicious not just regular students, High stress levels can lead to mistakes acts by humans. “For example, the but also professionals who being made, as can a lack of colleagues probability of a terrorist attack is far already have a good bit of work who can correct those mistakes.

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