5 Biweekly magazine of the Eindhoven University of Technology For the latest news: www.cursor.tue.nl/en and follow @TUeCursor_news on
31 October 2013 | year 56
TU/e picks Coursera as educational platform
Grand opening new accommodation E.S.C well attended Sunday 27 October 2013 - The new home of the Eindhoven Student Corps (E.S.C) at Ten Hagestraat 13 was opened officially last Friday. The student society left the Bunker for a new accommodation in the city center. The opening generated a lot of attention.
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Friday 25 October 2013 - TU/e will be spreading free knowledge through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Last week, the international educational platform Coursera added TU/e to their list of high-quality universities that step into the limelight by offering free video lectures. The first MOOC of TU/e will be uploaded in April, 2014. It will be put together by prof.dr.ir. Bert Blocken of the Department of Built Environment. The course title is ‘Sports and Building Aerodynamics’. The video lecture production is part of a wide-scale plan to use more digital education at TU/e.
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Secretly turning off TVs at Media Markt
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Tuesday 22 Octobe r 2013 - “We’ve po rtrayed TU/e in a been pleasant.” Wo correct light. The rds from Rector pr meetings have of.dr.ir. Hans van dr. Nicole Ummelen Duijn and univers regarding the insti ity secretary tu tional assessment For now, the comm that was held last ittee will refrain fro week. m feedback. Ther assessment in De e will be another, cember, which wi more in-depth ll mostly focus on Engineering, Mech the departments anical Engineerin of Biomedical g, Mathematics & Environment. Computer Science , and Built The committee wi ll issue another verdict later that month, and in February TU/e will know whether or not it has met all criteria. The committee of the NVAO (Accreditation Orga nization of the Netherlands an d Flanders) is trying to determ ine if TU/e has an effective qu ality care system to warrant the quality of its programs.
Thursday 17 October 2013 - Last week, approximately 35 Electrical Engineering freshmen created universal remote controls with a single button: off. After instructions and subsequent soldering, the students headed for Media Markt to test their creations. They split up in groups and made their way for the TVs with the objective to switch them off. Staff was pretty baffled, says Pasquale van Heumen of Volundr - a committee within the Thor study association. “They kept trying to turn the TVs back on.” Volundr is a new committee within the study association that allows students to experience electrical engineering in everyday life. Yesterday’s theme was the art of soldering. The committee intends to organize more workshops like this.
More news on www.cursor.tue.nl/en
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Culture shock
Last week we celebrated the birthday of the TU/e Common Room (Cosmos). There was a photo contest this year, themed ‘Culture Shock’. As I was scrolling through my photo albums, I found many pictures that would be appropriate for the contest. I asked myself what I consider a culture shock. Coming from India, being almost on the other side of the planet, anything and everything is different from my own culture. Weather, food, dress, religion, festivities - everything! But how much of all that has been an actual ‘shock’ to me? Living in a cosmopolitan city in India, I was aware of what a ‘European’ lifestyle could be like, and what the heritage and culture of the continent might entail. I admired the beauty of Europe and the vibrant lives of its inhabitants - watching it on TV in my home in Kolkata. As I touched down in Europe for the first time during a Dutch summer, the excitement of experiencing it myself came as a thrill. The real shock came with the snow. I loved snow when I was still in India, but now it appeared
plain pale and depressing. On top of that, the sun rose in the afternoon and set way before Dutch dinner time (which is already so shockingly early)! Fortunately, I got a most wonderful ‘shock’ travelling around Europe. The clear water of the Mediterranean, the sharp contrast of the Dutch and German landscape, and the well-preserved Nazi concentration camps - it was a real culture shock to see all of those with my very own eyes. I felt shocked, thrilled, and amazed at the same time during the first year of my stay here, and I’m sure there’s more to come in the upcoming winter and the summer after that! Hey internationals, are you ready?
Bipashyee Ghosh Innovation , Master student Sciences
People | 19
See for more news www.cursor.tue.nl/en
And how are things in Melbourne? More and more TU/e students go abroad for their studies to follow courses, internships or a doctorate path. What is it like to find your way in a new country? Students tell their stories.
The day before I left, going to Australia on my own still seemed an abstract idea rather than something that I was about to embark on very soon. Right now I’ve been here for about two months and I can’t believe I got used to Australia so easily. For my internship I’m conducting research at CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. It’s one of the largest research centers in the world and has branches throughout Australia. My lab is at one of the largest locations in a Melbourne suburb. The term suburb makes it sounds like it’s very close to the city center, but this is Australia, so it takes me about an hour to get there. The concept of distance is completely different from what I’m used to as a Dutchie. Not that the common Australian cares about distance. The answer to everything seems to be ‘no worries’ and it actually works pretty well as an adage to live by. Here, living at walking distance from your work implies you should be able to reach your job in under an hour (not that anyone would actually walk; we invented buses and cars for that). Most of you have probably gotten used to the Dutch habit of complaining about the weather by now. In Melbourne, they found a cliché that works every time: Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes! The cliché is right though – sunshine can make way for torrential rains only to return within five minutes, and 32 degrees today could well be 16 degrees tomorrow. I’ve experienced hail and fall storms as well. It’s at times like those I think about the Netherlands for a second, and then quickly check when the forecast spells B-E-A-C-H again!
Nicky H s Biomed tudent ooek, ical En f gineeri ng Would you also like to write an article about your time abroad? Please send an email to cursor@tue.nl.
Read more stories online: www.cursor.tue.nl/en
Life after TU/e
Name: Alina Doban Place of Birth: Iasi, Romania Date of Birth: December 28, 1987 Studied at TU/e: In 2010 she obtained her BSc in Automatic Control Specialization from the Department of Automatic Control and Computer Science at the Technical University Gh. Asachi of Iasi, Romania. In September 2010 she started a graduate program at Electrical Engineering at TU/e. She received her master’s degree (with honor) in 2012. Current position: PhD student at TU/e, Department of Electrical Enginee ring, Control Systems group. Why did you choose to study at TU/e at the time? I decided long before I received my bachelor degree in Romania that I wanted to continue my studies abroad. I started looking at the best technical universi ties for every country. They had to have strong research groups in the area of control systems, and so I ended up with three nominees: KTH in Stockholm, DTU in Copenh agen and TU/e. Eindhoven caught my attention because of the strong relation with the industry and the university has scholarships available for international student s. I applied to all three universities and got accepted everywhere. I decided on TU/e because a professor from my old university was researching what I was interest ed in here in Eindhoven, and because TU/e offered me a scholarship. What are you doing now? After TU/e came more TU/e. Upon my graduation I was offered a PhD position at the Control Systems group of the Department of Electrical Engineering. I had been considering a PhD since I was an undergraduate already, but it was my graduate program that sort of guided me in that direction. I had the opportunity to obtain funding from NWO and the Dutch Institute of Systems and Control for a PhD project my supervisors and I proposed. My research interests include the Lyapuno v stability theory, infinity norms as Lyapunov functions, set-theoretic methods in control, constrained stabilization, and systems biology.
What happens to international students after they graduate from TU/e? Do they go job hunting in the Netherlands, pack their bags and explore the world, or return to their home countries? International TU/e graduates talk about their lives after TU/e.
What are your plans for the future? I want to finish my PhD project. I haven’t given too much thought to what I’ll be doing next. I would like to do something completely different, definitely, but at the same time it should be somewhere I can use some of my PhD skills. What advice would you give current students? I think international experience is important, whether it is with the intentio n of returning home or not. At least as a student. And as far as finding a job is concerned, I’d have to quote a former Romanian professor of mine: “It’s not too late to quit your studies if you’re not happy. Take up bowling, but be the best at it. Or become a fighter on the streets, but make sure no one can defeat you”.
20 | Research
31 October 2013
4 burning questions
Indu Babu | Chemical Engineering
Novel piezoelectric composites
1 ’s on f your o r e ov the c rtation? disse What
2 Wh a peo t do y ou t ple a t par ell whe n t abo ut y they a ies our s rese k arch ? 1 | cover
3 What person, technology, or device has been essential for your research?
4 es ow do
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2 | parties Piezoelectric materials are invisible materials we use in our everyday life all the time - they’re embedded in many devices (alarm clocks, mobile phones, car parking sensors) around us. A large number of materials are piezoelectric (they expand when exposed to an electric field, and produce an electric field when mechanical stress is applied, ed.), including crystals (both natural and synthetic), ceramics and polymers. However, there’s still a need for highly flexible, soft and thin piezoelectric composites with excellent piezoelectric properties.
3 | essential
fit
ne e b y iet
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The cover of my dissertation shows a 3D topographic electrostatic force microscopy image of the novel piezoelectric composite developed during my research. We see local expansions of the domains when an electric field is applied to these piezoelectric ceramics.
k? r wor u o y from
The study presented in this dissertation is the result of support and inspiration from several people, professionally as well as personally. This support has been most essential.
4 | society benefit The advantages of the novel piezoelectric materials that we’ve created are the easy formability and flexibility into any shape, and the low cost. These open new ways to ‘soft touch’ applications in a variety of transducer and sensor applications. (edited by Tom Jeltes)
Research | 21
See for more news www.cursor.tue.nl/en
Joachim Arts | IE&IS
Spare parts for trains 1 | cover The front cover shows a steam locomotive driving through a pasture, while the back cover shows a modern intercity train. The two images symbolize the transition from old to new technologies.
2 | parties Capital goods, such as trains and railway infrastructure form the backbone of our public transport system, and are an important part of our daily lives. Maintenance operations are necessary to ensure safety and to prevent disruptive failures. To make these operations run smoothly, and keep as many trains operational as possible, it is crucial to have the right amount of spare parts available. In my research, I’m developing mathematical models to optimize the supply chain of spare parts.
3 | essential This research project was done in collaboration with NedTrain, the maintenance provider for the Dutch railways (NS). Extensive testing is important to develop models that can actually be applied in practice.
4 | society benefit The societal cost of capital goods downtime can be substantial. Just think of the downtime of MRI scanners (delayed diagnoses of patients), aircrafts and rolling stock (travelers missing important appointments). However, the costs to avoid downtime can also be quite substantial. The models developed in this study help decision makers perform a trade-off between these costs, so relevant services can be delivered to society reliably, and at reasonable costs.
Feixiong Liao | B
Predicting people’s daily trajectories 1 | cover On the cover you see an abstract supernetwork that integrates a social network and networks of different transport modes and locations of services. In my research, a personalized multi-state supernetwork corresponds to the so-called action space of an individual’s daily mobility patterns.
2 | parties By linking all network services and the individual’s preferences, my research offers accurate predictions of a person’s daily mobility trajectory, like where, when, with whom, by which transport mode, and via what route daily activities are conducted.
3 | essential As supernetworks contain many choice facets with regard to conducting daily activities, the size of the supernetworks can be huge. Network representation and optimization is essential to make the supernetwork approach tractable.
4 | society benefit The study can be adopted by policymakers to assess land use and transport-related policies systematically in terms of urban accessibility and mobility efficiency. Furthermore, it can be adapted for a recommendation system for daily mobility navigation on an individual level.
22 | Research
31 October 2013
Less stress for child and parents Sibrecht Bouwstra with a prototype of the Close To You concept. This soft, easy-to-use item allows parents of incubator babies to feel their child’s heartbeat and breathing – quite literally. Breathing is simulated with a speaker in the wider part of the object. The speaker cone moves with the rhythm of the baby’s breathing as it is recorded by the medical equipment. The narrow part contains a similar mechanism for the baby’s heart rate: a small solenoid with a metal core is pressed up against the fabric with every heartbeat, so the parents feel a beat of sorts.
Interview | Tom Jeltes Photos | Bart van Overbeeke It’s a nightmare for expecting parents: your child is born prematurely, and has to spend weeks in an incubator covered in electrodes and wires connected to monitors. Doctoral candidate Sibrecht Bouwstra developed creations that ease the experience for both child and parents. The chance of survival for premature babies has increased substantially over the past decades. And it’s a
good thing, too, because the number of babies that’s born prematurely has seen a significant increase as
well in the Netherlands. Reasons for that include the fact that because of IVF and the rising age of motherhood more and more twins are born. And unfortunately, premature, underweight twins are common. In the Netherlands, babies born in the 24th week of pregnancy or later are treated actively, says designer Sibrecht Bouwstra. From that moment there’s a chance they survive, thanks to the current standard of medicine. Still, such an early start often has undesired consequences.
“At a later age, premature children have a greater chance of developing learning disabilities and behavioral issues, for example.”
A baby covered in electrodes is a traumatic sight To prevent problems that may occur later in life it’s important a premature
baby develops as well as possible at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). And that’s a problem, because not only does an incubator baby start off with an obvious disadvantage, but there’s a lack of supportive (physical) contact with its parents as well. The conditions - electrodes, wires monitoring its temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen level - make that difficult. These circumstances cause stress in the child, causing an impeded development. “Physical contact with a parent
The development of the Smart Jacket in fifteen consecutive prototypes. The baby suit is fitted with ECG sensors made from fabric to monitor the baby’s heartbeat, making electrodes stuck on the sensitive baby skin redundant. The Smart Jacket leaves part of the belly and chest bare, so parents and child can experience skin-on-skin contact. The complementary hat leaves room for sensors to monitor the baby’s temperature, breathing, and blood oxygen levels.
Research | 23
See for more news www.cursor.tue.nl/en
relieves stress, and has a positive effect on the child”, says Bouwstra. “It’s one of the reasons to perform so-called Kangaroo care, where the baby is transferred from the incubator to one of the parents in a chair to hold the baby skin-to-skin on the chest.” All stickers and wires are a hindrance, obviously, and the sight of an incubator baby is quite traumatic for the parents. One of Bouwstra’s supervisors, prof.dr. Sidarto Bambang Oetomo, is a neonatologist at the Máxima Medical Center and part-time professor at Industrial Design. “In his inaugurational speech in 2008, he proposed to improve the conditions of the NICU by taking away any stress factors for the babies, including the monitor system with the stickers”, says Bouwstra. In that context, she
developed a first version of what would later be called the Smart Jacket for her graduation project. The Smart Jacket is a cheerful and comfortable baby suit with wireless, cardiographic electrodes (to monitor the baby’s heart rate). In the future, the suit may come to contain other sensors as well. As a doctoral candidate at ID and the Máxima Medical Center, she worked out the concept further. As Bouwstra was working on the Smart Jacket, she was also thinking of a way to improve the bond between parents and child. After having interviewed a number of parents at NICU, she decided to create a monitor displaying the vital functions of the baby. “Heart rate and breathing especially seemed to stimulate bonding and interaction. And since the display is used close to the
parents and their child, comfort was very important, much like with the Smart Jacket.”
The heartbeat stimulates bonding The designer created four prototypes that made the baby’s heart rate visible or noticeable for the parents: one with magnetically powered spinning beads, a smartphone app, a blanket with pulsating LED lights visualizing the heartbeat and breathing, and finally a crossover between a stuffed animal and a pillow. Bouwstra decided to develop that last item into the Close To You concept. “Parents can feel the
heartbeat and breathing of their child by holding the little pillow, or pressing it against them. The concept is also suitable for passing on the body temperature of the child.”
She evaluated her creations with test subjects at Industrial Design, but instead of real babies she used dolls in incubators and an electronically simulated heartbeat and breathing. Bouwstra found that the light blanket showed at least as much potential as the Close To You concept. Including the Smart Jacket, that’s a total of three appealing ideas that will hopefully be introduced to the NICU soon. But implementation is still ways away, says the designer. “Bear in mind it can take up to ten years for
an invention like that to be realized in a medical environment. We’ve already organized a workshop for the Smart Jacket to figure out how the concept may be marketed. I do know research into the concept will be continued within TU/e.” She won’t be involved in that anymore, though. “The steps that need to be taken now concern validation and business projects. I’d rather be looking for a new challenge as a designer.”
The ‘light blanket’ contains LEDs in two colors. The white dot in the middle pulsates as the heart beats, and the green circle surrounding the white dot expands and shrinks, representing the baby’s breathing. For the parents these indicators are a pleasant, intuitive way to understand the situation of their child, which they would have had to interpret from numbers and graphs on monitors next to the incubator otherwise.
Maandag
4 november, 20.30 uur Gaslab
De Leslies: soundtrack voor een
imaginaire film nr.2
Zwevende klanken fascineren. Een sirene die na passeren opeens zaktnaderende Bijna een eeuw lang zijn er muzieklikent iedereen. wegzwijmelen bij het magische geluefhebbers die id van de Lesliebox. Net als de passerende siren de Lesliebox omdat het geluid voor e boeit brengt dat beweegt varieert in toonhoogte, klan Geluidskunstenaars Horst Rickels kkleur en volume. hebben een kleine week in het Gasen Robert Pravda met deze fenomenen geëxperimen lab op de TU/e geluidsexperiment te komen dat jeteerd om tot een akoestisch moet ondergaan. Dit concert kwam tot stand als sam Axesjazzpower en Studium Generalenwerking tussen e TU/e. Entree: studenten gratis, niet-studen ten betalen 5 euro, reserveren www.tue.nl/sg
don’t TU/e and Eindhoven so you Cursor collects all events at , and nts eve ic dem aca , athletic and have to. Symposiums, films can notify You nl. ue. or.t urs w.c ww at parties: you can find them all ail to website, please send an em us of new events through our here will ine gaz Ma sor Cur so. do cursor@tue.nl if you want to ing happenings. publish a selection of upcom
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by Prof. Cherry A. Murray, This year’s Holst Lecture will be held ing and Applied neer Engi of ol Scho ard Harv Dean of the All’. for ring inee Sciences. Title: ‘Eng ther scientists, The Holst Symposium will bring toge Philips, TU/e and from s onal essi prof and nts tude D)-s (Ph. et various aspects of other institutions. The theme will targ stry) when it comes Indu (and emia challenges facing Acad re’. Speakers: Tim to educating ’the engineers of the futu, Peter-Paul Verbeek nce’ Scie a ‘Dat ica) ritm (Algo ans Salim and brain’, Thomas (U Twente) ‘Enhancing the human body Dekker (TU Delft) Cees en ics’ imet Speck (Freiburg) ‘Biom ‘BioNanoScience’. Language: English y Entrance fee: none, but it’s obligator to register http://tinyurl.com/qhl73n3
Monday
18-21 November, 9.00-17.00hrs, de Zwarte Doos, TU/e campus
Skill Sessions
This november, the Eindhoven University of Technology organises The Career Events (Wervingsdagen) again. The first event, the Skill Sessions, will take place from November 18th to During the Skill Sessions you can attend a week’s worth of interesting worksho November 21st , 2013. during and after your study. So after participating you can make use of inside ps that will help you information! The workshops take place in De Zwarte Doos and are free for all students of the TU/e, you just have to register online. This year also 9 workshops in English are scheduled. Entrance fee: none http://www.wervingsdagen.nl
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