4 October 18, 2012 | year 55
Biweekly magazine of the Eindhoven University of Technology For news: www.cursor.tue.nl and follow tuecursor on Twitter and Facebook
22 | Dutch Design Week 2 What if .....
3 New prayer rooms
8 Multiscale institute at TU/e
2 | For Starters
October 18, 2012
Make some noise!
Colophon Editor in chief Han Konings
Executive editor Brigit Span
Editorial staff Judith van Gaal Tom Jeltes | Science Frits van Otterdijk Norbine Schalij Monique van de Ven
Staff Nicole Testerink Gerard Verhoogt
Photography Rien Meulman Bart van Overbeeke
Cover Bart van Overbeeke
Translation Annemarie van Limpt (pages 2,3,4,5,8,9) Benjamin Ruijsenaars (pages 6,7)
Layout Natasha Franc
Editorial board
It’s late September. On the weekend I’m leafing through ‘The Big Design Issue’ of the magazine that comes with newspaper De Volkskrant. The special edition also covers design city Eindhoven. The editorial staff of the magazine didn’t fail to note the city will be hosting the Dutch Design Week from October 20-28. In the back of the magazine, a two-page city tour is set out for design enthusiasts. It turns out TU/e is completely ignored in the listing of attractions. There’s no mention of the Dutch United exhibition where the three universities of technology present their innovative designs, or of the graduation show of Built Environment, whereas the graduation show at the Design Academy is elaborately promoted, and Piet Hein Eek, who shacked up at a former Philips factory building, is treated to some free publicity. Why would TU/e still be ignored regularly, considering it’s a place that has so much to offer in the field of industrial design? And mind you, it’s not just De Volkskrant that is to blame. Could it be due to lack of
prof.dr. Cees Midden prof.dr. Hans Niemantsverdriet Angela Stevens- van Gennip Thomas Reijnaerts Arold Roestenburg Anneliese Vermeulen-Adolfs
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Annoyed because of a silly misunderstanding
Han Koning s, editor in
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communication, does the popularity of the Design Academy cast a huge, dark shadow over TU/e, or is it just hard to believe that a university of technology harbors a lot of creativity (proof to be found in this issue)? How do we make TU/e count in the world of design? My solution: show them our one and only Tesla coil. This crackle-and-lightning machine doesn’t have a lot to do with design, but it’s definitely a major crowd puller, witness the visitors during the last edition of Glow. In other words: let’s make some noise!
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Address editorial office TU/e, Laplace 0.40 5600 MB Eindhoven tel. 040 - 2474020 e-mail: cursor@tue.nl
Clmn During introduction week back in 2010, I attended a number of workshops organized under the TU/e Introduction Program. One of these totally changed my perspective about different cultures. In that workshop, there were 12 people from different countries. Our workshop conductor divided us into 3 groups. Before starting the game, each group was given a sheet explaining the rules. After the first round, the winning pair from each group was shifted to the next group in clockwise manner. Oh yes, it was not allowed to talk while playing the game. It started to get confusing and weird while playing in the second round with the new team. When the new team could not play the game according to the given rules, I was irritated thinking that some dumb people cannot even remember simple rules of the game. The game continued for 3 rounds. At the end, everyone was uncomfortable due to the confusion created and having experienced the dumbness of other people. Here is what happened. Each rule sheet distributed initially on
3 different tables was DIFFERENT. Hence understanding of the game was different on each table. Oh my god. I was so stupid to get annoyed because of a silly misunderstanding. The moral is cultures from different parts of the world are different. One thing in one culture can have a different meaning in another and that does not necessarily make other cultures wrong. That was one of the biggest lesson I learnt. It is very important to understand and respect each other especially when you live in diverse culture like TU/e.
Sukalp Bho pl Computer e, completed Maste Security r From India. at TU/e.
Our Rewwwind feature provides you with snippets of last week’s news. What happened online after the previous Cursor magazine was published?
TU/e researchers of microfluidics join forces
Part of STU to relocate to MetaForum
15 October 2012 - TU/e research groups in the field of microfluidics want to join forces. With a new group dubbed ‘Microfluidics at TU/e’ they’re hoping to be able to share facilities more easily as well as engage in collaborations more often. Microfluidics involves the analysis and manipulation of fluid flows on a microscale, smaller than one
11 October 2012 - The Education and Student Service Center (STU) has begun moving a significant part of their services to the new office at MetaForum today. Starting today, students with questions for STU should report to the new service desk. According to Joost Timmermans from STU hardly anything will change for students. They’ll still
millimeter. It makes up the science and technology behind many applications, especially in the field of chemistry, biology and medicine. Researchers at various TU/e departments (Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Applied Physics, and Chemical Engineering) are either working on or working with this area of science.
be reporting to the STU service desk, the only difference being it will be located at MetaForum from October 11th onwards.
Brainmatters Psychology is becoming ever more important at TU/e. Technical systems and artifacts, be they games, cars, robots, lighting systems or buildings, are all meant for human end users eventually. It’s essential to know how these users perceive, think, feel, and act. The new human-oriented program Psychology & Technology examines every technical design from a psychological perspective. From now on, Cursor will be taking a closer psychological look at students, teachers, labs, technical artifacts, the workplace, the scientific business, campus, education, and websites.
If only I had ... Daniël Lake
ns, Assistan
It has been the most read article on the website of the Cursor for almost a month: a piece about the theft of a laptop with scientific data from the car of a PhD student. By the time this column appears, the article will have been read more than five thousand times. What makes this story so appealing to people? Daniel Kahneman and Dale Miller explained in 1986 why it is more annoying to be five minutes late at the airport and just miss your flight, than when you arrive thirty minutes late and miss your flight completely. The difference lies in how easily people can think about the alternative scenario. If you’re five minutes late, you can easily imagine what you could have done differently to make your flight just in time, then when your delay has risen to thirty minutes. The easier you can think of alternative scenarios (“If only I had created an extra backup”), the stronger the emotional reaction (“How awful the research data is lost!”).
t Professo
By starting the article starts with the phrase “What should have been one of the best days of her life “, you can just see the alternative scenario in which the PhD student is celebrating with champagne in her hand. This make you feel even worse about the actual scenario where she spend “nightly hours at the police station”. For the same reason, it is more annoying to flunk an exam with a 5, then to completely fail an exam with a 2. When friends call you to ask if you want to go and have a beer, while you have an exam the next day, I’d suggest you think about it carefully. An exam not passed by a tiny bit is especially annoying if you can easily imagine how you would have passed the exam, if only you had not gone to the pub the night before.
r in Applie
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For Starters | 3
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Vox Academici
Dr,ir. René van de Molengraft, associate professor of Control Systems Technology, Department Mechanical Engineering
Can robots survive on Mars? Robotics is booming business. Robots are used more and more often: care robots clean the house, industry robots take care of dangerous tasks, and military robots go to war. The Dutch company Mars One announced a rather special robot mission this week: in 2023 they want to send people to Mars to found a permanent colony on the planet. They’ll be preceded by robots that will take care of things like accommodation, electricity and oxygen supply. Can robots adapt to the variable conditions on Mars, and what type of robot would be most suitable? Should TUlip be preparing for a fun trip? “There are robots, and then there are robots”, says René van de Molengraft, associate professor at Control Systems Technology at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He’s also technical director of robot soccer team TechUnited. “Some robots are programmed to repeat a single action, which makes for a very predictable situation. Such robots are widely used in industry to take care of all kinds of dirty and dangerous jobs that require accuracy - and with great success, too. In healthcare for example, situations vary, so you’ll need a robot that can anticipate. These robots need to be aware of their surroundings and be able to make decisions, and those
are challenging technological problems. Although we are getting ever closer, the ideal care robot is still miles away. Situations on Mars will probably be quite unpredictable too. I’m pretty sure there won’t be an autonomous Mars robot in eleven years.”
“I’m pretty sure there won’t be an autonomous Mars robot in eleven years.” “I can imagine living units being programmed to execute several actions themselves, according to a fixed step-by-step plan: searching for a suitable spot, positioning themselves, and then expanding their solar panels. They could be elaborate Mars rovers, in a way. All this might sound very simple, but it definitely requires a technological tour de force. You have to hypothesize like crazy, and then base your programming on that. If things don’t pan out as planned, you’re done. That’s the main weakness of this type of robot. On the other hand, shipping a humanoid robot like TUlip off to space
is completely useless right now, and will be until it’s more advanced cognitively. Although we are currently working on reasoning schemes in order to determine the architecture behind certain skills, it’s a slow process.” “It’s an ambitious project, having people on Mars within eleven years. Still, it’s good to set goals. At the start of the RoboCup, we said we’d be able to defeat human players by 2060. In the academic world, goals like those give direction; whether we’ll be the overall world champion in 2060 or in 2065 doesn’t really matter. It’s different for a commercial enterprise. It involves a lot of money, and it’s valuable because of the technological progress that can be made because of that alone. These projects shouldn’t be mocked. Having said that: people on Mars? I like a challenge like the next guy, but I’ll pass on the Mars pioneering.” (NT)
René van de Molengraft. Photo | Bart van Overbeeke
Fifth-floor contemplation 5
th floor of the Hoofd
The gebouw now has new prayer rooms. Students and staff can go there for a moment of peace and quiet or contemplation.
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The areas have replaced the Quiet Room that used to be located in De Hal. At every prayer, the room was visited by to students from various nationalities. Among that group were many Muslims, who are required to pray at least times a day. The mandatory part of the prayer ritual lasts minutes at the most.
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The Quiet Room closed last September , because De Hal will probably be demolished. After that, the university had to go without any prayer room for days, until the two new rooms were opened on October . (MvdV)
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Photo | Rien Meulman
4 | Linked
October 18, 2012
A buddy for guid TU/e: a home away from home for tens of thousands of employees and students. The international community is a relatively small one, with infinite connections between its members, be they professional or private. In ‘Linked’, two community members talk about their mutual relationship and their connection to the university.
A new job in a foreign country where people speak an unfamiliar language; the initial period after arrival is often hard for international TU/e employees. That is why the HR department is now trying to link new foreign employees, usually PhD students or Postdoc researchers, to a colleague – preferably from the same group. South-African PhD student David Dogon (25) was paired up with compatriot Carina van der Walt (29).
Van der Walt came to Eindhoven to pursue a PDEng in Mathematics for Industry some seven years ago. She is in her last year of a PhD with Materials Technology (Mechanical Engineering), in which she makes calculations on polymer fiber spinning processes. Dogon started a PhD in the Process Technology of this same department last March. Van der Walt recounts HR asking her to become a buddy. “Ideally, a buddy from the same group is preferred, but nobody wanted to take up this task. Most people don’t know about the buddy project and everybody is just very busy with their own research.” Her protégé understands: “I’m in a group with a lot of international PhD students who only started recently themselves”. The fact that his buddy works in a different research group is no problem for Dogon. “She’s from SouthAfrica, that’s more important to me.”
The two of them do not share the same roots exactly. Van der Walt is originally from Pretoria and studied in Potchef stroom, some 1300 kilometers from Dogon’s home in Cape Town. Furthermore, Dogon was raised in an English speaking family, whereas Van der Walt’s mother tongue is Afrikaans. Dogon: “I have been taught some Afrikaans at high school, but it wasn’t enough to learn to speak Dutch easily.” They may have different backgrounds, but they do share a common frame of reference, says Van der Walt. “When David is looking for a certain kind of store, I can tell him what store is similar to the South-African Woolworths or Makro, for example, like the Dutch will look for the equivalent of HEMA when they’re abroad.”
“Dutch can’t always help out with specific issues” And that‘s exactly what the buddy system is about: shopping, housing and getting help obtaining the required documents. Van der Walt: “It struck me that the Dutch are often at a loss when it comes to certain specific issues that concern foreigners, like tax rules and housing issues.” When Van der Walt arrived in Eindhoven, there was no buddy system, she says.
Linked | 5
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ance in the mist “I had the advantage that I came here to do a post-master. I was in a group of mainly international students who spent a lot of time together. It was a really nice group of people and I always found someone who could help me or refer me to someone else.” On top of that, it was relatively easy for her to pick up the Dutch language because of her ‘Afrikaans’ background. Still, not everything went smoothly for her in the beginning. In contrast with Dogon, who had already lived in New York for two years to do a master’s at Columbia University prior to his ‘Dutch adventure’, for Van der Walt it was her first experience abroad on her own. “When I had just arrived, I forgot the address of my hotel. I did remember the name, though, so at the bus station people could tell me which bus to take. But I didn’t know at what stop to get off at. The driver didn’t speak English well and couldn’t understand my Afrikaans. Fortunately, a fellow passenger came to the rescue.” “The first time the buddies met was right after Dogon’s arrival in March. “I slept in a hotel for one night before I could transfer to Lismortel. I had to contact the Vestide housing agency for that, but I had no idea where to go. Carina then came to my hotel and showed me the way. That was nice. As a PhD student you’re on your own more. In the Anglo-Saxon world, including South-Africa, all PhD students start in September. Here, being a PhD student is considered a job rather than
an education.” Even though they haven’t spent a lot of time together recently - Dogon went home for the summer and had his parents visit him, Van der Walt was very busy with her research- it’s clear they get along pretty well. “Carina is nice and cool and helpful”, Dogon says, smiling. The first few weeks their contact was of a practical nature mostly, but they connect on a personal level as well. “It is also nice to have lunch together or go to the movies.”
“The bus driver couldn’t understand my Afrikaans” Despite the good care of his buddy, Dogon sometimes has qualms about his decision to come to Eindhoven. “Sometimes I’m riding my bike thinking I must be crazy to come here. I’m from Cape Town and studied in New York; I’m a city guy. Eindhoven is really different. At those moments I keep thinking: this is not who I am. I had a similar experience when I was here for my interview. I arrived on a Sunday, on a very foggy day - I barely saw a thing and the streets were deserted.” “But the research I do here is great. In cooperation with Shell I’m working on procedures to extract oil and gas from porous rock, using a technique
called hydraulic fracturing to crack open the rock by pumping water into it, or fracking. The rocks under the Karoo semidesert, a national park I really love and have been to often, are said to contain huge amounts of natural gas. There is a serious controversy between environmentalists and the fracking movement about whether to try and extract this reserve or not. It would be great if I were able to find an environmentally-friendly way of extracting the gas when I’m back in South-Africa Both he and his buddy definitely want to go back to South-Africa. “I think we live the best life.” Even Van der Walt, who left her home country many years ago, still says her best friends are in South-Africa. “They are mainly friends I studied with. In South-Africa you know
people will move to the other side of the country, which is pretty far away. Still you keep in touch. The friends I make here, they come and go.” For Dogon, being able to keep in touch with home was a reason to pursue a PhD in Europe, instead of the US. “Living in the same time zone makes things much easier, compared to the situation of my Indian and Chinese colleagues.” He stresses he chose to come to the Netherlands for a reason. “This is the most civilized country I have ever been to. Everything is so well-organized; it’s a safe and politically stable country - at least compared to South-Africa. I’ m extremely impressed.”
Interview | Tom Jeltes Photo | Bart van Overbeeke
6 | Zoom in
October 18, 2012
Enter a brave new world: DDW’12 Some fifteen hundred designers. More than three hundred events. Plus eighty locations featuring the latest design products, the latest trends and developments. Behold the proven formula of the Dutch Design Week, which will see its eleventh edition at the end of this month. On these two pages we present a small selection from the offer - highlighting activities at and from TU/e. Industrial design, spatial design, graphic design, textiles, fashion, architecture, sustainable design, design management and trends: during DDW design will feature in a wide variety of manifestations in exhibitions, lectures, workshops, fashion shows and seminars. Both well-established designers and talented newcomers hope to stimulate a broad range of spectators with their work, compiled under the umbrella theme ‘Enter a brave new world’. University campus During DDW TU/e will also make itself heard and seen in particular in different ways and at various locations. In the Hoofdgebouw and Vertigo, Master students and graduating students of Industrial Design and the Built Environment respectively will present their design view of the society of the future (read more about this on pages 12 and 13 in this Cursor). At Vertigo you can see the Trek-in, a sustainable hiker’s hut designed by Eindhoven students of the Built Environment. Inside Vertigo you can visit the exhibition ‘Urbanisms of Inclusion’, concerning global urbanization and the way in which cities adjust to this. The exhibition forms part of a joint program of a network of architecture courses, including the one at TU/e. In addition, an exhibition featuring work by Jan Slothouber and William Graatsma is on show in the accommodation of the Built Environment. In the 1970s both artists worked at this Eindhoven Department. The exhibition shows the
connection between the theory of forms and the designs of these two men at their Center for Cubist Constructions. This is the name under which Slothouber and Graatsma investigated the mathematic regularity of the cube. Outside at the TU/e Auditorium the ‘Design Changes’ exhibition of the platform Design United will be set up. Various designs from the Industrial Design study programs of the universities of technology of Eindhoven, Delft and Twente will be on display, arranged according to the themes Health, Mobility, Work and Leisure. In the city Visitors of DDW’12 will also meet TU/e outside its own campus. For instance, the university is co-initiator of the Smart Design Pavilion in Stadhuisplein, where designers present the stories behind their work, among other things. Here, too, there will be an alumni presentation of the TU/e Department of Industrial Design. The pavilion is linked with the Dutch Design Awards exhibition inside and in front of the town hall. Visitors can vote for their favorite design here. The town hall will host the ‘Design Cares’ exhibition. Works by TU/e students of Industrial Design, students of the Design Academy and of Aalto University in Helsinki will be displayed. The ever-increasing role of technology in healthcare will occupy center stage, which contrasts poignantly with the fact
that people using healthcare facilities have a stronger need for personal attention and contact. ‘Design Cares’ shows a variety of solutions for this. Also on show inside the town hall will be ‘Designing Out Crime’, an enterprise in which TU/e and the municipality are working together on safety projects. In 18 Septemberplein the NANO Supermarket will be presenting its new collection (see pages 14 and 15). Creative director of the mobile shop-of-the-future is Koert van Mensvoort, affiliated with the TU/e Department of Industrial Design. Strijp-S Outside the inner city, at Strijp-S, we shall get ConceptLab. Locked up inside a glass house in ‘Ketelhuisplein’ design students will work on a design assignment for three days and in doing so will make the design process visible (from the analysis down to the realization). Visitors can join in and think along. ConceptLab, which will start on October 22, is a joint venture of study association Lucid (Department of Industrial Design) and the Studium Generale office of TU/e. Also at Strijp-S, under the viaduct at Beukenlaan known as ‘Strijps Bultje’, a city campsite will be set up during DDW. At Urban CampScape -an initiative of Architecture, Building and Planning alumni Manoe Ruhé, Kirsten Bekkers and André Cools – guests and visitors can not only spend the night, but can also take part in the workshop Guerilla Gardening, for one, and in a cycling excursion or slump in a chair and watch a film provided by Plaza Futura. (MvdV)
The Dutch Design Week will be from October 20 thru 28.
For more information, the whole program and registration for certain events check out www.ddw.nl.
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Floor Frings (Built Environment) | Experienced Space and Architecture “Technological developments are rapid and gaining importance in architecture. Lasers allow us to cut out complete scale-models and mathematical formulas enable us to generate architectural spaces on our computer. Still, I began to wonder whether this technological enrichment does not simultaneously lead to impoverishment. What do you threaten to lose due to technology? Can a smart but incorporeal computer better create things than someone of flesh and blood?”, is the question that Floor Frings posed herself. “In my graduation project ‘Experienced space and architecture’ I have tackled questions like that. I showed around twenty architects and students of architecture films, photos and three-dimensional computer models of a cardboard installation that I had conceived. Although in and of itself it was not that special, I wanted to know the opinion of these people about the design on the basis of these ‘incorporeal’ images. They had to fill in a questionnaire for this.” “In the second phase I built my cardboard construction on a 1:1 scale inside the Schellens factory in Eindhoven. The same people who had earlier seen visual material of the
design, were now invited to actually walk through the building. After this they had to complete the same questionnaire again. This yielded remarkable differences. During the first phase many of them called the design ‘quite white’. Yet when they walked through the space ‘for real’, they mostly found it ‘serene’. Of course the connection is obvious, but it still means something else. Also striking: after having seen just the visual material many participants drew attention especially to the rhythm of the cardboard sheets. At the moment when they actually get inside the construction, they find the cardboard sheets ‘enveloping’. Likewise, in the first phase there was nobody who said anything about the light. Not until they had actually been inside the construction, did everybody start talking about the light in the building.” “The human body is much more specific in experiencing a space than you would assume on the basis of the computer images during the architectural design process. Material has a big impact on details and on that specific bodily experience in particular. Whereas a computer allows you to make the most perfect designs, it is the refractory nature of the material that brings architecture to life. Which is exactly
Floor Frings. Photo | Bart van Overbeeke
what is needed to make the design better. Surely, this contradiction with technology can lead to better architecture if you are aware of this yourself.” (FvO)
Mark Thielen (Industrial Design) | Michelle gives a better insight into resuscitation “My project started several years ago with research into the effectiveness of devices for the improvement of resuscitation or CPR (CardioPulmonary Resuscitation). My research allowed me to conclude that simulation in healthcare is becoming more and more important for the training of medical practitioners, to prepare for real situations. One thing clearly proved not to be in order when training in CPR: the dummies. And if a dummy does not look like a human being internally (abdominal and chest cavity), how can you practice for the real situation? Neither the feel, nor the measurable values from existing dummies corresponded with what is genuinely human.” “In the end this has led to my final assignment, which involved the construction of a new design for today’s CPR dummies. I have tried to copy human reality as closely as possible by integrating organs, tissues and bone structures. And by making the effects of the acts performed in CPR measurable via integrated sensors.”
After the completion of the construction Michelle (the dummy, ed.) was tested by experienced doctors, ambulance staff and trainers of emergency response teams. They have focused on the sensory match with reality, as well as the use of her measured values. “The reactions were all positive. Michelle provides more insight into the effects of acts carried out on the human body and shows how one can improve these. The sensory experience during the chest compressions is closer to reality as well, say doctors and relief workers. This makes it possible to link the feeling with the measured values, so that a better sensory experience can be developed during training sessions. It is precisely this experience that better enables relief workers to assist real victims.” At present Michelle is still a prototype, though fully functional. In order to raise the quality level, a number of developments and redesigns will be required before the design can actually be used to enhance the quality of CPR or research into this. (FvO) Mark Thielen with ‘Michelle’. Photo | Bart van Overbeeke
8 | Research
October 18, 2012
Harald van Brummelen and Mark Peletier. Photo | Bart van Overbeeke
Research | 9
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Connecting sciences Next week, the Eindhoven Multiscale Institute (EMI) will be celebrating its official opening with a three-day scientific symposium and an SG lecture by prof.dr. Alfio Quarteroni. Professors Harald van Brummelen and Mark Peletier, director and vice-director of EMI respectively, talk about the hows and whys of this ‘virtual’ TU/e institute. “I like to say three-quarters of TU/e researchers is involved in multiscale research”, says Peletier. “That may be an overstatement, but it sure is a lot.” Van Brummelen: “During the startup of the institute, we contacted thirty professors whose focus is on multiscale research, and a dozen more to whom it’s of secondary interest.” At the departments of Mathematics, Mathematics & Computer Science, Applied Physics, Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, multiscale is a major theme. “But there are researchers at Built Environment and Electrical Engineering who are looking for a broader forum for the topic. Multiscale is one of the strong suits of TU/e.” The institute wants to bridge the gap between departments. Its members will have regular meetings in the Advanced Study Center in Ceres, the brand new home of ICMS, organize workshops and colloquiums, and submit joint research proposals in the future. On top of that, EMI is supposed to serve a promotional purpose as well. Peletier: “We’re hoping authoritative lecturers will be more willing to come to Eindhoven at an invitation of the Multiscale Institute than they would be at one of the departments.” “We’ve already noticed people tend to find each other faster”, says van Brummelen. “Because of the institute, there’s now a coherent set of electives on the subject for the Bachelor College, which wouldn’t have been feasible without EMI.” In Van Brummelen’s office, Peletier (professor at the CASA center of Mathematics & Computer Science, and co-founder of ICMS) and the former (head of the Multiscale Engineering Fluid Mechanics section of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and connected to CASA as well) explain what ‘multiscale’ means. Peletier has a great example from biology. “In the human body, the various
length scales exist very naturally. Proteins and other molecules form cells, and combined, those cells form tissue. Organs are made of a number of tissues. The organs make up the organism, which functions within an ecological system of all kinds of other organisms.”
“Authoritative speakers will be more willing to come to Eindhoven for EMI” Eventually, ecosystems are made up of the same molecules that are present in cells. Still, based on the molecular makeup of a cell it is already hard to say one or two things about its functioning, so just imagine skipping a number of length scales and do the same about an entire ecosystem or society. Van Brummelen: “Particle physicists like to brag about how they’re the only ones involved in actual fundamental science, saying everything follows from their findings. But let’s be fair, the behavior of elementary particles can hardly predict anything about the human psyche. Connecting phenomena from different scales is a science in its own right, and that’s multiscale.” The director of the new institute phrases it slightly differently: “Traditionally, scientists divide the systems they describe into ever smaller components, until they’re left with something so small they can actually wrap their heads around it. At some point, however, you’ll lose touch with the big picture. Multiscale goes back to larger length scales; how do these tiny components work together to achieve certain behavior in a larger scale?” An important concept in this respect is emergence: systems with a large number of relatively simple components
turn out to display surprisingly complex behavior. The origin of life, for example, may be considered an emergent phenomenon. Multiscale research is gaining an ever more prominent position in today’s science, and in large part that can be credited to the computing power of modern computers, says Peletier. “It allows us to calculate systems with more and more particles, be they proteins, cells, or individuals. These particles often prove to engage in interesting stuff together. As a scientist, you can be working on your computer and suddenly find something you would have never expected. Things like that make you want to find answers.” “Another reason multiscale is becoming increasingly popular, is we’re starting to realize there are many things we can’t calculate”, says Van Brummelen. “Years ago, we were so excited about the idea we could calculate at all, we didn’t stop to think there could be limits to our possibilities.” Peletier agrees: “I can vividly remember what French professor Olivier Pironneau said twenty years ago: today, we can calculate the airflow around a car driving five kilometers an hour. To calculate the airflow at six kilometers an hour, we
need a thousand times more computing power. That takes years, because you need more and more data points really quickly, since the faster the car moves, the smaller the air vortices become. Multiscale techniques are indispensable if you want to say anything about friction at realistic speeds.”
“The behavior of elementary particles doesn’t tell us much about the human psyche” “What we’re saying is: we’ll never be able to calculate the flow profile at those realistic speeds exactly”, Van Brummelen adds. “In one of my own lines of research, we’re currently working on finding the friction force - the number that should be deduced from the flow profile, ideally - without having to calculate the entire profile.” “A similar process occurs with dilute gases, which are gases containing so little particles their molecular structure
becomes important”, he says. “This is important for ASML’s chip machines, for example. You want to know about the thermal conductivity in those machines. That’s easy enough for higher pressures, where the gas can be considered a continuum, but dilute gases are hard to model entirely, so you’ll have to look for ways to determine the heat transfer only.” Peletier shares an example taken from his own multiscale research as well: “We work with Tata Steel (formerly known as Hoogovens, ed.) to create a new generation of very strong, lightweight steel. The main problem lies in the grain structure of the metal - the areas with a certain crystal-like structure. The pliancy of the steel depends on the structure of the grains, but the way the grains move in relation to each other is also important, right up to the level of a sheet of steel for a car. It really is a multiscale problem.” When will EMI be considered successful, according to the founders? “For me, it’s when it starts generating new science, when it sprouts new ideas”, says Van Brummelen. “You could also say the annual €50,000 overhead is worth it if you can do a joint project that brings in the external funding for a single doctoral candidate. But I prefer the new-science criterion.” (TJ)
Impression of prof.dr.ir. Hans Kuipers’ multiscale research. A bubble column is zoomed into, seen from right to left. These columns are used for the production of synthetic fuels, among other things.