Events

Meet Chester Houwink The interactive evening programme includes brief updates from the universities followed by a short talk by TU Delft and ETH alumnus Chester Houwink about his journey from Tesla and Rocket Internet to co-founding Zurich based 9T Labs – a company pioneering industrial 3D printing of carbon fiber composites that last year raised $4.3 million in seed financing.    Per tradition, our gathering concludes with a virtual borrel (BYOB) where you and fellow alumni living in Geneva, Zurich and other parts of Switzerland will be mixed with each other to maximize interactions and stimulate conversations. Make sure to also bring some snacks and drinks for the borrel!

Together with other Dutch research universities and on behalf of the SF Netherlands Consulate General and the Holland in the Valley network, DEAN alumni living on the USA West Coast were invited to a collective:

Automation and robotization were until recently primarily used in industry but that knowledge can now also be used in agriculture. Satellite navigation, robots, AI, infrared cameras, drones and sensors in the ground means that cultivating on a micro plot scale is quickly becoming a reality. We are only at the start of what is possible in agriculture with technology precisely measuring what happens in a plant. Is it sick and does it need treatment? Is it too dry and does it need irrigation? Is it a weed that should be removed? Discover how these elements are coming together at Wageningen University’s Farm of the Future with the farm’s manager Koen Klompe also a practical researcher on sustainable arable farming.

Using ICT in healthcare – eHealth – is a promising strategy to improve healthcare worldwide. Every individual, dealing with a condition presents a distinctly unique case, highlighting the need for personalized eHealth technology. How can we benefit from monitoring data and smart analyses to make timely decisions and provide personalized care when needed? Imagine for example a virtual world of eHealth where care is offered by your virtual coach or within a virtual body. Researchers from the University of Twente’s TechMed Centre use the eHealth House to develop such new forms of smart eHealth technologies. In this simulated living lab, technology is tested in a realistic but controlled setting. UT researcher Monique Tabak gives us a peek into the innovations we can expect to see soon in the real world.

The world is heading towards a new future, with different technologies which people have to get used to. Some innovations may be similar to things we already know while others may be drastically different as in the case of bicycles, e-bikes and the hyperloop. New behavior is hardest to adopt when it involves breaking old habits and researchers from the TU Delft Energy Transition Lab are exploring ways how our human nature can increase the (short-term and long-term) effectiveness of energy-transition policies. Lab Director Gerdien de Vries will share more details about their work as well as the science behind ‘nudges’.