"uuid","repository link","title","author","contributor","publication year","abstract","subject topic","language","publication type","publisher","isbn","issn","patent","patent status","bibliographic note","access restriction","embargo date","faculty","department","research group","programme","project","coordinates"
"uuid:db3c8752-12d2-41d8-84de-51c3cd3332c8","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:db3c8752-12d2-41d8-84de-51c3cd3332c8","Privacy: the more, the merrier?: A case study of how Amazon uses privacy protection to expand its power over IoT manufacturers","van Gend, Thijmen (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Bertulfo, D.J. (graduation committee); Gürses, F.S. (graduation committee); van Eeten, M.J.G. (mentor); de Reuver, Mark (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2024","Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) have historically been used for safeguarding individual privacy from both public and private interference. But lately, tech companies have started using PETs as one instrument for the expansion of their power over different actors, as appears to be unfolding in the case of Amazon’s Sidewalk service: a United States-only privacy-preserving crowdsourced service that promises connectivity to Internet of Things (IoT) devices manufactured by third parties in smart-home, logistics, and utilities use-cases. Compatible IoT devices (‘endpoints’) are granted connectivity by ‘gateways’, namely smart-home devices from Amazon’s Echo (smart speakers) and Ring (smart cameras and doorbells) series that donate a portion of their bandwidth to endpoints that might be owned by others. Amazon pushed a software update to these Echo and Ring devices, that turned them from smart-home devices to contributors to the Sidewalk network, unless users actively opted out, yielding a coverage of at least 90% of the US population. With Sidewalk, Amazon leverages PETs (namely end-to-end encryption and device identifier obfuscation) to mitigate privacy concerns that the crowdsourced architecture yields. However, this necessitates significant investments from third-party manufacturers to make their devices Sidewalk-compatible, suggesting a power emergence shaped by PETs.
I answered the research question “How does Amazon’s use of privacy-enhancing technologies in Sidewalk affect its power over IoT manufacturers?” by reviewing grey literature, analysing the Sidewalk technology, and elite interviewing with high-ranking employees of Sidewalk-adopting manufacturers. I have shown that Amazon leveraged PETs to mitigate public security concerns, but in the meantime reshapes how manufacturers produce their devices. Part of this ploy is cementing AWS in their production processes. Amazon also uses this leverage to mobilise manufacturers’ and silicon providers’ resources to improve Sidewalk’s public reception, technology, and governance.
These reconfigurations are expensive and complicated to realise, but manufacturers stressed the importance of Sidewalk adoption to leverage Amazon’s reputation vis-à-vis suppliers and customers, and “befriend the giant” for they rely on Amazon’s Marketplace, cloud, and logistics.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s reductionist framing of privacy and security as protecting user identity and data confidentiality, means that confidentiality of manufacturers’ business-sensitive information is not discussed. With this vantage point, Amazon can learn which endpoint types are popular and how they work; but Sidewalk might also be a vehicle for Amazon to attract more IoT developers to AWS.
In sum, I have demonstrated that strictly pursuing user privacy (or confidentiality) in digital services may have unforeseen effects on production. Therefore, I call upon privacy and competition scholars, advocates, and regulators to question how privacy protection actually augments companies’ power, and stepping away from their narrow “consumer harm” lenses. These actors should debate a right to personal control over devices. A mere consumer focus in studying these developments is insufficient: I established that business-to-business relations and businesses’ production processes are more significantly affected than consumers. The production focus of this work lays bare the novel power dynamics between Amazon and manufacturers, shaped by PETs.","privacy; privacy-enhancing technologies; power; case study; Amazon; production; cloud computing; edge computing; computational infrastructure; mesh networks","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","Programmable Infrastructures Project",""
"uuid:bbb48867-989e-4d65-b244-36375cc5fab4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bbb48867-989e-4d65-b244-36375cc5fab4","Numerical analysis of unsteady compressible flow in the hose of Bubble Curtain Technology","Dhirde, Mayur (TU Delft Mechanical Engineering)","Jarquin Laguna, A. (mentor); Keetels, G.H. (graduation committee); Peng, Y. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2024","The offshore wind industry is rapidly advancing, expected to play a crucial role in renewable energy production, with a growing emphasis on addressing associated environmental concerns, particularly the impact of underwater noise generated during the installation of wind turbines. In response, bubble curtain technology (BCT) has emerged as a potential solution. While the BCT operational concept has been demonstrated in practice, a detailed investigation related to fluid dynamics, geometric characteristics, and operational parameters has yet to be conducted. It's important to note that this need for investigation is specifically applicable to large BCT systems. This research aims to enhance the understanding of unsteady compressible flow inside BCT hoses and examine the impact of operational parameters on the pneumatic aspects of the bubble curtain system along the hose length.
This thesis systematically defined its fundamental objectives, beginning with the development of a 1D unsteady model for compressible flow in pipeline systems. This model, which served as the basis for subsequent studies, was verified against the existing literature, revealing a 2-4% difference in flow rates and pressure responses. Subsequently, the scope was broadened to include nozzle configurations, which were gradually included in the pipeline model. The model evolved through configurations with one, three, and five nozzles, where larger diameters increased dampening on transient pressure fluctuations. As the research progressed, the final model, incorporating five nozzles, was used as the basis for the scaled Bubble Curtain Technology (BCT) model.
A sensitivity analysis for this study was carried out utilizing parameters from existing research. The sensitivity study specifically emphasized the influence of geometric (hose and nozzle diameters, hose length, nozzle spacing) and operational factors (discharge coefficient, water depth, air flow rate) on the flow dynamic of Bubble Curtain Technology (BCT). The main findings from this research included reducing backflow with smaller diameters and lowering reverse flow with greater discharge coefficients and airflow rates. Changing the hose length and nozzle spacing proved effective for adjusting the required flow rates. The investigation also found that nozzle diameter and discharge coefficient had a considerable impact on nozzle flow rates, with a 2-3% increase over reference values at the maximum value range. Other geometric and operational parameters in the tested ranges had a relatively lower influence on the nozzle flow rates or generated pressure variations.
The scaled BCT unsteady compressible flow dynamics model presented in this thesis is still in its early stages of development, but it can serve as a basis for the development of full-scale pneumatic models that can enhance BCT and lessen the environmental impact of offshore wind farm operations.
This study investigates this barrier to a successful digital transformation of the insurance industry. Following a literature review on innovations in this realm and technology acceptance, this thesis aims to identify factors influencing the behavioral intention to use technologies within this context....","business process automation; technology acceptance; Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology; Insurance; Emerging technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:09a0ef1d-9c35-4817-b515-e025a9ab837f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:09a0ef1d-9c35-4817-b515-e025a9ab837f","Design for Togetherness at Home: Integrating Technology to Bond Children and Grandparents Through Shared Experiences","Xu, Hongxin (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","van der Vegte, Wilhelm Frederik (mentor); Gielen, M.A. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2024","Strong intergenerational relationships can provide emotional support and stability for both grandparents and grandchildren. Technology tools have been proven to be beneficial in connecting grandchildren and grandparents. Prior work mainly examined how to use technology to connect children and their grandparents over a distance. Those collocated grandparents and grandchildren who keep regular physical contact are often neglected in the research.It is essential to understand technology’s potential in bonding them in physical meet ups considering the trending of multigenerational families.
This graduation project aims to foster connectedness between children aged 8 to 12 and their collocated grandparents in the Netherlands through physical interactions. Adopting a holistic approach, we explored moments of togetherness, identifying desired qualities of these interactions and defining promising shared experiences for the future.
The research involves three phases of empirical investigations. This research begins by examining how technology could positively impact their bond. Using participatory cards during interviews, this phase captures participants' perspectives, employing mixed methods including sentiment analysis, group clustering, and thematic coding to identify key elements in shared activities that promote or impede intergenerational connectivity. This analysis informs a framework to guide the development of technology aimed at supporting connectivity. Next, the second phase, insights from two design workshops are synthesized into a series of design concepts, which are then visualized through storyboards. The final phase involves evaluating these concepts by presenting the storyboards to both experts and child-grandparent pairs. This step is intended to refine our understanding of how these technological solutions can be leveraged to strengthen family bonds.","Intergenerational Relationships; Child-Grandparent Connection; Technology in Family Bonding; Design and Family Dynamics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:31117bb0-5f8b-496d-ac86-693b1524f733","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:31117bb0-5f8b-496d-ac86-693b1524f733","Reducing earthquake suffering: Solutions for vulnerable groups","Kljaić, Korina (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Bianchi, S. (mentor); Jansen, A.J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2024","The thesis focuses on creating a solution aimed at reducing suffering in earthquake prone regions. The research done resulted in the development of Embrace, a wearable communication device designed to alleviate human suffering during seismic events in seismically active regions like Zagreb. Commencing with an exploration of challenges faced by people living in these quake affected regions, the research aimed to devise a cost-effective, visually appealing solution to these issues.
Methodologies encompassed literature reviews, interviews, cause-effect analysis, and Inside out Design approach, offering crucial insights into user needs and preferences. Following an evaluation of various design concepts, Embrace emerged as the preferred solution, aligning with project requirements.
Embrace integrates LoRa technology for long-range communication, empowering individuals to request aid during earthquakes. Its design process involved modeling with Fusion 360, 3D printing, and utilizing liquid rubber for silicone shells. Sizing considerations, ergonomic enhancements with fillets, and a hierarchy of requirements guided its development.
Future research pathways should include testing Embrace's functionality, exploring diverse shapes and materials, and investigating additional features like smartwatch integration. The thesis resulted in development of Embrace as a significant contribution to wearable technology, enhancing safety and well-being during seismic events.","Earthquake; Wearable Technology; smart bracelet; LoRa Network; satellite communication; reducing suffering","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:d4826463-0c9b-467f-9bc2-489766c2536f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d4826463-0c9b-467f-9bc2-489766c2536f","Development of a Bypass Current Model in Modular Alkaline Water Electrolysis: Simulation and Application of 3D models","Kolff, Fenna (TU Delft Mechanical Engineering)","Rahbari, A. (mentor); Hooman, K. (mentor); Moultos, O. (graduation committee); Pourquie, M.J.B.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2024","The world is witnessing unprecedented climate changes, which have worsened over the past couple of years. Despite significant progress in renewable energy, achieving a reduction of global warming remains challenging. Renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydroelectric technologies offer promising solutions, but challenges persist due to their intermittency and geographical dependency. Green hydrogen, generated through electrolysis using renewable energy, has come up as a solution for storing electric energy and providing a constant energy supply.
Alkaline water electrolysis has emerged as one of the most promising electrolysis methods due to its large-scale operation, long durability and low costs. This does not come without challenges, one of them being leakage currents, which reduces the efficiency of the electrolyser. Leakage currents occur when not all current is used for hydrogen production, but some of it leaks into, for example, the produced hydrogen stream. To reduce these leakage currents, more research into the origins is needed. The first step is modelling the electrolysis while considering as much as possible of the physics happening inside the system. Current models of alkaline water electrolysers are either modelled using only mathematical equations or neglect the operating parameters, which makes the results highly variable per system. Other models do use analytical methods with experimental results, but these models only comprise one electrolysis cell rather than a full stack.
This work consists of developing two three-dimensional models, validating them using experiments, and using them to predict the effect of changes in geometry. The first model was made using COMSOL Multiphysics software and used to research the water electrolysis stack, which comprised one or eight cells using electrochemical relations and physical data. It was found that a model could be made that fitted the experiments within the error margin of the experiments (<2.5%). It lacked flexibility but overall showed good results for an electrolyser stack of one or eight cells. The second model was made using an equivalent electrical circuit (EEC) of the electrolyser in Python via the PySpice module. A steady-state model, including the leakage currents, could be developed by calculating all system resistances, namely the cell, inlet/outlet, and manifold resistances. This model overestimated the performance of the electrolyser by 10-15% for low current densities and 2-4% for high current densities. Nevertheless, it was highly adaptable for different scenarios, making it valuable for research into optimising the electrolysis stack. Both models were used to predict the effect of changes in geometry; the effect of the length of the inlets, and the number of cells. This showed that the EEC model was better suited for this research.
This project examines the privacy and stakeholder landscape of health data sharing through an evaluation of interaction with patients. It uses a Value-Sensitive design approach (Friedman et al., 2002) to contextualize the privacy values in clinical research for patients, doctors, patient organizations, clinical researchers, pharmaceutical industries and data sharing platforms. Through this examination, it identifies lack of transparent data use and research practices as a hindrance to the use of health data on a data sharing platform. Transparency is examined through a patient-centric lens, wherein information and control over preferences of participation are found to be crucial. This evaluation further identifies roles of researchers and data sharing platforms for a transparent approach.
The project results in a concept termed ‘Negotiated Consent‘, which examines the use of data sharing platforms in offering individuals transparency. This is contextualized within patient consent for recruitment in clinical research, wherein data sharing platforms are responsible for data processing through the use of Federated Learning and Natural Language Processing. The stakeholder landscape for the same is defined in 3 functions for the platform- Access to Health Data, Patient Consent and Recruitment, and Data-Driven Insights. The results are tested through a study of the prototyped user experience of ‘Negotiated Consent‘, wherein participants emphasized ‘feeling more informed and in control’ in comparison to the current informed consent.
Whilst the study examines a patient-centric approach towards health data sharing for clinical research, it has limitations in addressing the multi-faceted reality of patient’s lives that informs their choices to enrol in clinical research. The further development of patient-centricity in the domain requires examination of motivations through a lens of disease-specific patient groups, demographics, and personal history with diseases (Hong et al., 2020) will lead to richer insights. Furthermore, Negotiated Consent is a proof-of-concept for dynamic consent (Mascalzoni et al., 2022), that demonstrates revision over participation choices within one moment of patient consent.
This project contributes to an understanding of the privacy and stakeholder dynamics for health data sharing. It illuminates a transparent approach to recruitment for clinical research through a collaborative effort that emphasizes on patient-centric approaches. Using a mutually responsible approach, data sharing platforms can lead the way for use of data in clinical research that simultaneously empowers patients to control their data through a negotiated lens.","Health Data; Privacy; Informed Consent; Data sharing; Machine Learning; Ethics of Technology; Health Tech; GDPR; Data donation; Value-Sensitive Design; Systemic Design; Design for healthcare","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:f82420e1-eecb-4ae2-81b4-7b86c6b91b13","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f82420e1-eecb-4ae2-81b4-7b86c6b91b13","Integrating Blockchain Technology with Project Management System in the AEC Sector","YU, HAIHAN (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)","Papadonikolaki, E. (mentor); Hall, Daniel M. (graduation committee); Decouchant, Jérémie (graduation committee); Schipper, H.R. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2024","Since its emergence in 2008, blockchain technology has significantly expanded its scope, impacting various industries beyond its initial cryptocurrency applications. Its potential to enhance established practices is increasingly recognized, yet its application in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry has been relatively little researched to date, let alone been applied in practice. This research aims to develop a system facilitating the initiation and management of architectural projects on the blockchain, enabling multi-disciplinary collaboration and participation, by integrating blockchain technology into the AEC ecosystem. The proposed system is designed to allow architects, engineers, and designers, irrespective of their preferred design software, to contribute, manage and record their designs. By uploading these designs to the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and recording the IPFS hashes on the Ethereum blockchain, the system ensures immutable data provenance, transparent ownership representation, and heightened project transparency. Furthermore, this framework automates various aspects of project management, including contractual obligations, payments, and compliance verification through smart contracts. At the core of this research is a multi-step approach that begins with a literature review to establish the current state of blockchain applications within the AEC sector. The review focuses particularly on the potential of smart contracts, NFTs, and IPFS for improving the management of construction projects. A conceptual framework is then developed, drawing from the literature to designing a prototype system that integrates these technologies. The prototyping phase involves creating a blockchain-based system where architectural project management can be conducted securely and efficiently. Key to this phase is the crafting of smart contracts to automate project workflows and the use of NFTs for clear delineation of design ownership and achievements. The system also incorporates a method for offchain storage of design files through IPFS, connected to the blockchain, ensuring data integrity and easy retrieval. Systematic testing under certain scenario assesses performance and informs iterative optimization to refine the system's functionality. A performance evaluation strategy is employed to assess the prototype, ensuring its suitability for real-world applications in the AEC sector. This research develops a blockchain-based system in attempt to restructure project management in the AEC sector. Through iterative development, testing, and optimization, the objective of this study is to contribute to enhanced efficiency, transparency, and collaboration within the industry, exploring the potential benefits of integrating blockchain technology in a structured and measured manner.","Blockchain Technology; Blockchain; NFT; IPFS; Smart Contract; Construction Management; AEC industry","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Building Engineering","",""
"uuid:15a9fc86-7883-4b86-b0dd-904592c8bb5c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:15a9fc86-7883-4b86-b0dd-904592c8bb5c","Do we still need office buildings?: Four explorative scenarios for Dutch offices in 2050","Memović, Samir (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Vande Putte, H.J.M. (mentor); Koolwijk, J.S.J. (graduation committee); Rocco, Roberto (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2024","This study explores the use and demand for offices in the Netherlands in 2050. Employees and employers have not found a balance in hybrid working, resulting in significant hidden vacancy. This refers to office space that is leased but not utilized, leading to ineffective office management. Real estate managers lack a guide to formulate a future-proof strategy for their real estate portfolio. Therefore, this study examines four exploratory scenarios on how work could be conducted in 2050 and its implications for office demand. This helps map external developments that may influence the demand for offices. The central research question is: ""How can societal trends influence the way people work and, therefore, the demand for offices?"" In this study, human scale and technology use are identified as the two key uncertainties. Along these uncertainties, four scenarios have been developed: Human Hands, Bionic Man, Manual Machines, and Technological Domination. In each of these scenarios, there is a different balance between human and technology, resulting in distinct characteristics of offices. In the Human Hands scenario, the quantitative demand for offices increases, while in the other three scenarios, this demand decreases. Nonetheless, each scenario indicates that there will still be a demand for offices in the Netherlands in 2050.","Human scale; Technology use; Office demand; Quality of space; Quantity of space","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Management in the Built Environment","",""
"uuid:573a34dd-b90e-4d54-a636-f94e6d1f7f3e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:573a34dd-b90e-4d54-a636-f94e6d1f7f3e","Redesigning a Smart Speculum for Low Resource Settings: The Impact of Contextual Factors on the Design of a Point of Care Cervical Cancer Screening Device","Bruggen, Femke (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Diehl, J.C. (mentor); Chmarra, M.K. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2024","Cervical Cancer (CC) is a preventable disease and is easily treated when detected early. Yet it is the second most prevalent cancer related death in Cameroon, causing an estimated 1787 deaths each year (Woks et al, 2023). Cameroon has implemented no national strategy to prevent this disease and so screening practices that are in place are sporadic and scattered, causing a low national screening coverage of 6%, indicating a gap in the current healthcare landscape.
Apart from the issues regarding obtaining screening coverage, the screening method that is most commonly used in Cameroon due to the resource limited nature of the setting, is Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA). However, this method has significant limitations regarding accuracy and poses a barrier for women to undergo them due to its dependence on the use of a speculum. These limitations decrease the effectiveness of the screenings efforts that are made only further. Therefore the need for a comfortable, speculumless Point of Care (POC) CC screening device, which offers an increased accuracy, yet retains the accessibility that is associated with VIA, is identified.
In order to create such a device and contribute to an increased CC screening coverage in Cameroon, this thesis identifies and explores these gaps and in response creates Use Case Scenarios that both propose a solution for the current gap in the healthcare system and demonstrates the future context of use of this new device.
Additionally it seeks to adjust, complement, and tailor the set of Design Criteria established by the WHO for Point of Care (POC) Diagnostic tests, called ASSURED, to suit the requirements of a POC cervical cancer screening device (WHO, 2006; WHO, 2023) in order to guide the development of a new POC CC screening device that addresses the need of the end users in a local healthcare context.
Lastly it combines both these elements into a design tool that helps designers to understand how relevant contextual factors may impact the design of a CC screening device in different contexts of use. By making this an interactive experience, it tries to share complex contextual insights by making them comprehensive, yet retaining their complexity and minimizing the loss of depth during knowledge transfer.
How can different stakeholders regarding the sustainable transition of the maritime industry be assessed using the discourses of Dryzek?
With a basis of Q-methodology, a list of statements was created that, based on Dryzek’s discourse theory, is then used to judge the respondents on their environmental beliefs. Also the sustainability reports of selected companies where investigated. It was possible to identify the main themes that could count on agreement/disagreement and controversy. Nature and the existence of limits to our activities where rated highly, while the way to solve it remained controversial. People are more imaginative than their company’s current policies indicate. People see the limitations to the systems that surround them. The willingness of the employees is there, or there is a lack between the strategy of the board and the values of the employees. Further action is required to bridge the gap.
It is indeed possible to asses different stakeholders and firms on their discourses and the research shows two methods to do it. The set up of the interview and the statements proved to be able to provide information about the environmentalism of the stakeholder. This information gives an insight into the social context of environmentalism and brought forward interesting observations about the willingness of the employees and the stance of the companies. The reports indicate a gap between what is needed (and wanted) and what is currently being done. The companies should be more radical and imaginative in both their vision and their solutions, instead of focussing on the solutions alone. Vision is often omitted from the reports, an important oversight.
Overarching vision and motivation can be uncovered but the specific points of departure for technological advancement remain hidden. The thesis brings a contribution to investigations on stakeholder alignment in the clean shipping sector and uncovers some important issues. The firms specific operating context remains to be investigated with more detail, as to properly find the barriers that hold back solving wicked problems. However a good effort is made to indicate the grounds for disputes from the actors.
The goal is to implement a negotiation-based randomization solution over N9, N3, and N32 as these reference points cross the HPLMN boundary. This solution will be a part of the GTP-U header and can be easily implemented by modifying the existing signaling procedures. Random bytes will be added to the GTP-U header before the start of the payload. The idea of adding randomization bytes has been extended to include TCP-based randomization and IMS-based randomization. The TCP-based randomization also includes two different algorithms for the addition of random bytes. After analyzing the User Plane security, the vulnerability analysis of SEPP was undertaken, to understand the vulnerabilities that can be a threat to the network infrastructure. A vulnerability assessment matrix was made and high-risk vulnerabilities were highlighted along with a few precautionary steps. The implementation details and architectural changes for the implementation of GTP and TCP-based randomization are provided. The randomization is useful in masking the signature distribution of an application's packet length and can be a powerful protection mechanism against data traffic analysis attacks.","5G technology; Roaming Security; GTP-U","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Wireless Communication and Sensing","",""
"uuid:ab15e2e7-65cc-4314-a82d-40990d761102","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ab15e2e7-65cc-4314-a82d-40990d761102","InsightSpace: Broadening Inclusive Education Horizons for Vision Impairment","Ghorbani Moghadam, Rojin (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Boess, S.U. (mentor); van Boeijen, A.G.C. (mentor); Marin, L. (graduation committee); Metin, F. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","This thesis explores the challenges faced by students with vision impairment in accessing visual educational content, with the goal of designing an inclusive tool to enhance their learning experience. Adopting a human-centered design approach backed with value-sensitive design, the research methodology combined qualitative and quantitative techniques including interviews, surveys, and design ethnography. These methods provided insights into the lived experiences of visually impaired students, revealing difficulties in comprehending complex visual data and feelings of exclusion from the academic community.
The design process was structured around four key phases – Exploration, Ideation, Iteration, and Implementation. The Exploration phase involved in-depth user research to identify needs and values. Ideation generated numerous concepts, with a focus on converting visual content into accessible multisensory formats. Iteration prototyped and tested these concepts to refine the designs based on user feedback. Finally, Implementation delivered the high-fidelity prototype – an AI-powered platform called “InsightSpace” that integrates with the Brightspace LMS.
Key features of InsightSpace include the “InsightOut” tool which leverages AI to interpret and narrate visualizations, and the Envision Ally community portal that facilitates collaborative learning. The concept aligns with design values like accessibility, inclusiveness, personalization, and community identified through the research. Evaluation metrics focus on usability, user satisfaction, and platform effectiveness in conveying visual information.
The thesis concludes that InsightSpace demonstrates the potential of inclusive design and assistive technology in transforming educational experiences. It underscores the importance of multifaceted research and continuous user involvement in developing empathetic solutions.
The platform marks progress in the mission to create learning environments where students with vision impairment can thrive alongside their sighted peers.","Value Sensitive Design; Inclusive Design; Disability; Vision Impairment; Accessibility; Visual Content Accessibility; Infographics; Assistive Technology; Artificial Inteligence","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction | Medisign","",""
"uuid:04b828e4-1bf4-4d76-a24a-e8f20f72e766","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:04b828e4-1bf4-4d76-a24a-e8f20f72e766","Running Free: Wireless sEMG Garment for Tracking Runner's Muscle Fatigue","Jongbloed, Koen (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","van der Kruk, E. (mentor); de Vos, Robert-Jan (graduation committee); van der Helm, F.C.T. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Muscle fatigue's indirect link to higher athletic injury risks is a key focus of this study. It highlights how fatigue-induced shifts in muscle resource allocation and movement patterns can lead to biomechanical imbalances, subsequently heightening injury susceptibility. Addressing high injury rates in athletics, this study was conducted in two pivotal phases: the development of a wearable, textile-integrated surface electromyography (sEMG) garment, and the identification of the most effective real-time fatigue metric for true wireless detection for dynamic exercise. While traditional sEMG methods provide valuable insights in laboratory settings, they fall short in dynamically and individually monitoring muscle fatigue in real-world scenarios.
The initial phase focused on creating a smart garment with integrated textile-based electrodes named the RunWave. The second phase concentrated on analyzing muscle fatigue during dynamic running activities, employing an incremental treadmill exercise test. Fatigue was assessed using cardiorespiratory metrics and Borg's Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), alongside the evaluation of six fatigue metrics: Average Rectified Value (ARV), approximate and sample entropy, instantaneous mean and median frequencies, and Dimitrov's Spectral Fatigue Index. Significant differences between fatigued and non-fatigued states were observed, especially noted in shifts in entropy, mean and median frequencies, and most prominently in ARV. These findings underscored the necessity for personalized fatigue monitoring strategies, given the variation in fatigue onset and subjective exhaustion experiences among individuals.
The RunWave, with its focus on the ARV metric, emerged as particularly promising for fatigue detection. ARV's computational simplicity and interpretability make it ideal for real-world applications. Despite initial challenges such as fitment issues, electronic limitations, and garment robustness, the RunWave garment was positively received for its comfort and practicality. With targeted improvements, the RunWave garment, leveraging ARV, shows great potential for effectively monitoring muscle fatigue in runners, suggesting a substantial step forward in reducing injury risks in athletic contexts.","Electromyography Signals; Muscle fatigue; Wearable Technology; Wireless Sensors","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2024-05-23","","","","Mechanical Engineering","",""
"uuid:3a734de9-fb3a-4841-9a01-f85ea81f3ca8","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3a734de9-fb3a-4841-9a01-f85ea81f3ca8","RAESCY: A power side channel assessment framework for pre and post-silicon evaluation","Muntenaar, Laura (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Taouil, M. (mentor); Gaydadjiev, G. (graduation committee); Verhoeven, C.J.M. (graduation committee); Aljuffri, A.A.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Demand for smart, Internet-connected devices and other electronics has increased dramatically in recent years. This increase in demand for technological devices, driven by advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and autonomous systems, has exposed the digital system to potential security threats. As more devices access personal data, data protection and security have become increasingly challenging. The rise in security incidents, such as the MOVEit attack and the NeBu data breach, highlights the urgency for better security systems. Malicious attacks can manifest at different levels, ranging from the network and system to the circuit level. Power side-channel attacks, which exploit variations in power consumption to obtain sensitive information, have proven effective against modern cryptographic implementations. In response to the threats posed by such attacks, researchers have diligently focused on devising countermeasures. Current research efforts focus on developing these countermeasures, yet evaluation only happens in pre-silicon scenarios in simulation or on an FPGA. Evaluating the effectiveness of those countermeasures on real Systems on Chips (SoCs) is challenging.
The thesis introduces a novel framework to bridge the gap between pre and post-silicon power side channel assessment, allowing accurate characterization and comparison of cryptographic designs before and after manufacturing. This approach aims to provide comprehensive profiling and ensure the security of future cryptographic designs. The suggested platform was verified by employing a series of different versions of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm that were integrated into a full System on Chip (SoC). As a metric for determining whether or not the proposed platform is suitable, attacability is being measured via correlation power analysis (CPA). Pre-silicon enables the evaluation of each AES core in isolation from the other components of the system, hence having noise-free power traces. However, in post-silicon, in order to provide a correct analysis, the platform incorporates a wide variety of features, such as automation execution, trace alignment, and noise reduction of power traces. In order to improve the automated execution process, a Left Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) has been devised to introduce a level of randomness in the encrypted messages and keys used by the cryptographic engine. In the context of trace alignment, the platform has been specifically built to include a trigger signal that serves the purpose of identifying the start/stop of the execution. Clock-gating is used as a means of mitigating noise by freezing the operation of additional cores, hence preventing the generation of extraneous auditory disturbances. In addition, the suggested approach is specifically tailored for the manufacturing process using the 40nm TSMC technology, including a simulation evaluation. Finally, to facilitate power measurements on the platform, custom printed circuit boards(PCB's) and a software backend were designed to support real life measurements and the final correlation of the pre and post-silicon power side channel behaviour. The results of our study suggest that both Pre-silicon (i.e., standalone evaluation) and Post-silicon (i.e., system evaluation) provide similar levels of accuracy in assessing attackability.
warming such as N Ox emissions and contrails are less considered. Therefore, the climate impact improvement of new technologies compared to older ones is not straightforward and requires a deep analysis. This work performs such an analysis via three steps: The selection of a new fleet to be compared with the actual fleet (2019), a comparison between the two fleets emissions via an Aviation Emission Inventory code, and a climate impact assessment with the tool AirClim. The new fleet analysed consists of the replacement of 14 old (entry in service before 2002) Airbus and Boeing aircraft with their new versions (entry in service between 2011 & 2018). The results show a reduction of 8.7% of fuel consumed by total aviation just by replacing the 14 old aircraft with the new ones. On the other hand, it leads to an 8.0% N Ox emissions increase. Nevertheless, the climate impact assessment concludes that this N Ox emissions increase lowers the surface temperature change due to aviation. This is explained by the strong influence of N Ox emissions location on its climate impact. Overall, this new fleet leads to a decrease in temperature change due to aviation in 2050 of 5.3 mK (-5.2%). This work gives important conclusions on the priorities that need to be set for the development of ’greener’ aviation technologies.
Therefore, this study aims to evaluate, from a systemic perspective, the different impacts that the two ERS technologies will have on all stakeholder groups, thereby providing input to the decision-making process on the adoption of either technology. The methodology is an adaptation of Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA) and Design for Value (DfV), based on a literature review, stakeholder interviews and conceptual modelling. With the study area of the corridor between Rotterdam and Antwerp, related stakeholders are interviewed to understand their main values and criteria for evaluation. The data on ERS technologies is collected to carry out the evaluation and comparison. The results of the impacts of two ERS technologies are shared with stakeholders for validation purposes.","Electric Road System; Technology assessment; Stakeholder analysis; Design for Value","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Transport and Planning","",""
"uuid:b639b85b-a58f-4d29-9228-240d971a8c3a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b639b85b-a58f-4d29-9228-240d971a8c3a","Lossless Integration of Piezoelectric Transducers in CMOS Technology: Design and optimization of the microfabrication process","Puchol Morejón, Eduardo (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Lopes Marta da Costa, T.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","","Piezoelectric transducers; Microfabrication; Copper electroplating; Through-vias integration; Air-backing technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2025-10-31","","","","Biomedical Engineering","",""
"uuid:8f173142-2610-44e7-a999-86161de4b519","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8f173142-2610-44e7-a999-86161de4b519","Niche Strategies for Reuse Innovations: Niche introduction strategies for large scale diffusion of reuse innovations in the European domestic soft drinks industry","Warns, Ruben (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Tavasszy, Lorant (mentor); Khodaei, H. (graduation committee); Kamp, L.M. (graduation committee); van Binsbergen, A.J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Innovation, akin to crafting a novel recipe, involves identifying problems, experimenting, testing, and sharing solutions. This study delves into ""reuse innovations,"" which emphasize prolonging product usage before disposal. A prime exemplar is Home Carbonation Kits (HCKs), which can replace over 3000 single-use water bottles. Despite the significance of reuse innovations, there's a noticeable gap in academic literature addressing their adaptation phase, which lies between market introduction and mass-market acceptance. This phase is fraught with challenges, often causing many companies to falter. This research aims to discern how circular companies can navigate these challenges by targeting specific niches.
Utilizing the Technological Innovation Framework (TIS), tailored for reuse innovations, the study analyzes the HCK technology within the European soft drinks system. The research journey encompasses a semi-systematic literature review, framework adaptation, an explorative case study on HCK, and an assessment of niche strategies.
Key findings reveal dominant niche strategies like ""Stand-alone,"" ""Adaptor,"" and ""Educate."" These strategies address pivotal barriers related to logistics, market knowledge, and consumer education. Additionally, ""Supply Chain Redesign"" emerges as a novel strategy, emphasizing efficient, cost-effective, and goal-aligned supply chain structures. In conclusion, this research offers invaluable insights into the intricate world of reuse innovations, providing a roadmap for future endeavors in the realm of circular economy.","Technological Innovation System (TIS); Reuse; circular economy; reverse logistics; adaptation phase; niche strategies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2025-10-17","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:dbb139ba-0d89-442b-8fdb-59aa797c9fd0","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dbb139ba-0d89-442b-8fdb-59aa797c9fd0","Designing Real Time Insights Dashboards for SME Manufacturing with Legacy Assets","Warringa, Bob (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ding, Aaron Yi (mentor); Tavasszy, Lorant (graduation committee); Otten, Martijn (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Modern manufacturing operations rely on accurate, real time data for efficient operation and control of the production process. Many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) still operate with legacy assets, limiting their access to a clear data picture. This thesis research and its design solutions help SMEs gain real time insights into their manufacturing process, resulting in production efficiency gains and helping identify process improvements. These factors help manufacturing SMEs stay competitive in an ever-increasing competitive global business climate.
The primary objective was to identify the requirements for enabling real-time insights into SME manufacturing operations. Findings suggest that in-house infrastructure can facilitate the required transparency, provided it is lightweight and minimalistic. The essential factor is to transform machine-generated data into insightful metrics for relevant stakeholders. A significant aspect to consider is the human element— the adoption and commitment of employees towards the technology.
Upon analyzing the benefits, the research underscores that real-time insights lead to enhanced production efficiency. By offering an objective view into production data, SMEs can quickly identify and rectify bottlenecks. Moreover, such transparent insights improve communication within teams, empowering employees by showing the direct impact of their performance on overall production, thus boosting their morale and productivity.
The study also evaluates the key features needed to make these real-time insights actionable. Contrary to initial assumptions that a single KPI would suffice, it became evident that a more comprehensive view—incorporating metrics such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)—was necessary. For SMEs with diverse product portfolios, additional parameters like average batch size, cycle time, and machine power-on time provide valuable context.
Lastly, the implemented design framework showcases the positive impacts of real-time insights on production. Access to objective metrics aids in performance evaluation, problem identification, and the formulation of improvement strategies. An essential feature highlighted is the predictive capability that guides resource planning, thus minimizing errors.
This research emphasizes that manufacturing SMEs with legacy assets can achieve real-time insights into their processes through cost-effective, lightweight solutions. The proposed methods and guidelines, as discussed in detail in the design section, are foundational for SMEs aiming to modernize their operations and bridge the knowledge gap in implementing real-time monitoring. By offering universal access to transparent production metrics, SMEs can optimize their processes, ensuring better efficiency and communication at all levels of operation.","Industrial Internet of Things; IIoT; IoT; manufacturing; SME; data visualisation; dashboard; real time insights; legacy assets; Management of Technology; MoT","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:64f2ac59-f6b5-4001-8f10-2dcf4577a53d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:64f2ac59-f6b5-4001-8f10-2dcf4577a53d","Customer Experience in Technology Consulting: Expanding the capabilities of technology consultants through the adoption of a customer-centric approach","Valk, Frederique (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Mooij, S.C. (mentor); Bakker-Wu, S. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Customer experience (CX) is becoming increasingly important for companies in the financial sector. Digital engagement accelerated due to the pandemic, resulting in a higher demand for optimized digital customer experiences and user-friendly IT systems. Companies in the financial sector have to keep up with the digital transformation and bring their CX to the next level.
This project is done in collaboration with the Technology Transformation (TT) team of Ernst & Young (EY) which navigates its clients through transformations. The team implements the backend of new IT systems for their clients and therefore focuses on the business and technical side of these systems. TT works from a viability and a feasibility point-of-view, overlooking the desirability. The desirability of products and services is important because a negative customer experience leads to customers leaving their service-providing companies. Therefore, it’s becoming increasingly important for TT to pay more attention to the CX of the IT systems they implement. For TT to be able to provide its clients with viable, feasible, and desirable IT systems, this research investigates how TT’s service offering can be enhanced by developing new capabilities.
In this thesis, the first step towards a future where CX is incorporated into TT’s projects will be created. The ultimate reason for conducting this thesis is to add to the team's growing body of knowledge about CX and offer the team useful insights and suggestions on how to enhance CX in their future projects and provide more value to their clients.
The findings of this thesis might also be applicable to other groups and companies trying to improve their CX and gain a competitive edge in today's customer-driven market. The research phase finds accessibility, communicability, and traceability as key factors in contributing to the desirability of IT, and convenience, usability, security, trust, and personalization as key drivers in the financial sector for enhancing CX.
By involving a collaborative design approach with co-creation sessions with fellow SPD students and design consultants from VODW, ideas were generated, and concepts were created. The final concept for TT is The CX Innovator’s Guide. The CX Guide serves as a starting point for TT to develop and enhance its CX capabilities and work towards delivering more desirable solutions. The Guide is a tool for the team to get acquainted with the new topic, learn about current CX developments in the market, and how they can include CX in their projects.
We combine this with distributed key generation to cre-ate a board of trusted members, with each a share of the audit key. Board members can work together to collaboratively audit communication between healthcare providers and medical researchers. We demonstrate that the key generation is secure and ecient. We show that auditability is guaranteed under the assumptions that at least one of the communicating parties is hon-est. Our system bridges the gap between privacy-preserving medical data analysis and governing capabilities by assuring auditability without handing this power over to a single party. In real world scenarios, this system can be used to create international level of data sharing, as is explored for the European Health Data Space. The data inspection can be combined with already existing legislative power to detect fraudulent behavior and perform physical audits when required. The system can be extended to facilitate reproducible medical research.","Medical Data Sharing; Privacy Enhancing Technologies; Key Generation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Computer Science","",""
"uuid:560e550f-fe63-47f6-9cfa-73cac7e3882c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:560e550f-fe63-47f6-9cfa-73cac7e3882c","Barriers and Strategies for The Market Diffusion of Solar Electric Vehicles in India","Nandigam, Sai Pavan (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Annema, J.A. (mentor); Kamp, L.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","The transportation sector is a major contributor to global emissions, with road transportation responsible for a significant part of these emissions. Electric mobility, particularly Solar Electric Vehicles (SEVs), offers a solution to deal with the challenges encountered by traditional electric vehicles ultimately contributing to reducing emissions, which is especially relevant for countries like India. This thesis investigates the socio-technical conditions influencing the market diffusion of SEVs in India using the Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework. It involves qualitative research methods, including expert interviews, to explore barriers, opportunities, strategies, and stakeholders involved. This is investigated further by raising the (research) question
“What are the socio-technical conditions that affect the market diffusion of Solar Electric Vehicles in the Indian market?”
This study is conducted through four different phases. It begins by examining the current status of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and their technological similarities with SEVs. While SEVs have the potential to offer a dual power source with solar panels, they are yet to enter the Indian market. Also, various relevant frameworks are reviewed to understand the conditions affecting SEV diffusion, including the TIS framework by Ortt and Kamp (2022). SEVs are classified as disruptive technology, and the possibility of large-scale diffusion of SEVs in India is explored by evaluating the completeness of certain TIS building blocks.
During the second phase, the barriers, their underlying conditions, and the affected TIS building blocks are linked using the guidelines provided in the literature. Upon identifying the links, the status of TIS building blocks is evaluated for SEVs in India. It is evaluated by understanding the level of threat these barriers pose to the diffusion of SEVs in India, based on the validation from expert interviews. Additionally, the opportunities for SEV technology in the Indian market are also discussed highlighting their potential to solve the problems in India.
In order to address the barriers identified in phase two, using the Niche strategy framework proposed by Ortt et al. (2013), the strategies relevant to the market diffusion of SEVs are explored and validated. These strategies are clearly divided into the ones tailored for the government, industry, and customers. Expert interviews reveal the feasibility of the implementation of these strategies based on the current market conditions and also that of the future.
After identifying the barriers, and the strategies, in phase four, the links between them are formulated based on the guidelines provided in the literature. These guidelines are used to first, formulate all the possible strategy links circumventing each barrier. Secondly, based on the expert opinions the procedure to select the most important strategy (per barrier) from the list of possible all the possible strategies is provided.
Ultimately, upon forming the links, the immediate threats to the market diffusion of SEVs in India are discovered, and the possible measures to circumvent those threats are recommended to the stakeholders involved.
This study explores the factors influencing investment attractiveness in clean technology clusters, focusing on company-level variables like patenting activity, publishing activity, and proximity to universities.
Using a case study approach, the research analyzes four Western European clean technology clusters, aiming to uncover insights and differences in investment attractiveness. The four clusters are Aclima (Basque Country, Spain), CLEAN (Central Region, Denmark), Greenreality (South Karelia, Denmark) and Water Alliance (The Netherlands). The analysis is divided into the single case reports for each cluster, exploring the variables at the company level, and into the cross-case analysis, bring the previous observations together at the cluster level.
The findings highlight the positive impact of patenting activity on cluster attractiveness for the clusters under study. While no distinct relationships were found for publishing activity and university proximity, the cluster-level additional factors in consideration provided useful identifying some potentially meaningful differences between the clusters, such as the approach and recognition of their regions and countries toward sustainability.
However, the study also acknowledges its limitations, mainly stated as the availability and quality of data, as well as some methodological decisions on the assessment of investment attractiveness, suggesting future research opportunities in this dynamic field. From elaborating a more refined iteration of this study to approaching new topics, the findings and limitations of this research invite future researchers to enrich the body of knowledge associated with clean technology clusters, and in particular with their funding dynamics.
The implications of this study mainly concern the positive influence of patenting on the attractiveness of companies and clusters. Pursuing and supporting this kind of intellectual protection activity could prove to be a powerful tool for firms and cluster managers.","investment attractiveness; clean technology clusters; clusters; innovation capabilities; access to knowledge","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:4a5d6338-458b-440d-b9c6-4a0bca5ca161","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4a5d6338-458b-440d-b9c6-4a0bca5ca161","A Multidisciplinary Typology Framework for Technologies to Mitigate Urban Heat Island Effects: Framework development for knowledge integration and dissemination","Snijders, Kevin (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)","Rutten, M.M. (mentor); Goncalves, J. E. (graduation committee); Stache, E. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Urban areas often experience temperature imbalances, resulting in higher temperatures than their rural surroundings, known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. This effect has adverse consequences such as heightened heat-related morbidity and mortality, amplified energy demands, aggravated water scarcity, and diminished urban living comfort. These effects are expected to intensify due to urbanization, making cities more susceptible to heat-related problems and increasing the number of inhabitants subjected to them, and climate change, increasing the frequency and Intensity of heatwaves occurring. As more than half of the world population lives in these urban areas, the imperative for effective mitigation strategies becomes paramount.
Addressing the complexity of the urban environment necessitates the collaboration of various disciplines to create effective UHI mitigation strategies. However, the integration and dissemination of multidisciplinary knowledge in this context are currently inadequate. This study bridges this gap by introducing a multidisciplinary typology-based framework employing a concurrent mixed-method approach, encompassing systematic literature reviews, semi-structured expert interviews, and multidisciplinary workshops in four distinct phases. These phases are specifically designed to identify, collect, integrate, and disseminate knowledge in this field, with applicability across diverse disciplines and contexts.
While the framework was first designed for the technologies at ""Heat Square"" of ""The Green Village"" in Delft, Netherlands, it is highly adaptable and can accommodate the inclusion of different technologies to enhance its impact. Given the increasing importance of addressing UHI challenges, this framework contributes to integrating and disseminating knowledge, supporting the creation of mitigation strategies and, therefore, contributing to creating livable and resilient urban environments in response to a changing climate.
“To what extent does the implementation of redundancy enhance the operational performance of operational technology in the industrial processes of Gate terminal in the face of cyber threats, in order to maintain the availability of business services?”
The thesis shows that the key determinants for the effectiveness of a redundancy strategy are the criticality of the redundantly implemented element, and the degree of diversity applied. Additionally, a trade-off between the advantages of redundancy the inevitably increased attack surface can be observed: when implementing an ineffective redundancy strategy, overall system performance may degrade in comparison to the initial system conditions. The importance of an effective incident response cycle must not be overlooked. A redundancy strategy is only as effective as the capability of the system operator to prevent and deal with incidents.
Future research can build on this thesis, exploring more explicit redundancy strategies, types of attacks, and strategic defense systems, as well as the optimization of the redundancy trade-off. These research directions can help in further analyzing and understanding the impact of redundancy on system operational performance.
The primary focus is understanding and mitigating the warpage phenomenon in power module substrates. This warpage is induced by thermo-mechanical stresses during the assembly packaging process. The investigation begins by exploring the cause of warpage change by characterizing annealed copper properties and employing 2D finite element model (FEM) analysis. The study identifies plastic strain as the dominant cause of warpage change during process steps. Subsequently, a validated 3D FEM simulation model is developed to replicate practical annealing and sintering processes. Lastly, the project delves into factor analysis to identify critical variables influencing warpage. It underscores that balancing residual copper volume is crucial in warpage reduction. Additive and subtractive manufacturing techniques establish a correlation between the removal of copper volume and warpage reduction.
This project provides comprehensive insights into the manufacturing process of AMB substrate, warpage behavior, and effective strategies for reduction, constructing a solid foundation for future manufacturing and design.","Power modules; AMB substrate; Warpage; Finite element model; Sintering; Additive technology; Subtractive technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2025-08-31","","","","Electrical Engineering","",""
"uuid:03123229-0984-487e-961d-05777ffd24e0","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:03123229-0984-487e-961d-05777ffd24e0","Exploring the role of Niche Strategies in overcoming Barriers to Circular Innovation: Exploratory Case Studies on Circular High-Tech firms in The Netherlands","Raghav Shankar, Raghav Shankar (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Khodaei, H. (mentor); Ortt, J.R. (graduation committee); Kamp, L.M. (graduation committee); Delgado Medina, Fátima (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","The study embarks on a comprehensive investigation into the domain of circular innovation within Dutch high-tech firms, probing the dynamics of drivers, barriers, and the strategic impact of niche strategies. The research methodology builds upon the adaptable foundation of the Technological Innovation System (TIS) framework, adapting it to the unique contours of circular innovation. This framework guides the research objectives, which encompass discerning the propulsive forces driving circular innovation, unraveling the contextual intricacies, and critically evaluating the applicability of the adapted TIS framework.
Guided by this framework, the research addresses three pivotal sub-questions that delve into the nuances of drivers, barriers and the strategic potency of niche strategies within the circular innovation landscape. The methodology seamlessly interweaves an expansive literature review with in-depth case studies of four distinct Dutch circular high-tech firms. Through rigorous qualitative analysis, recurrent drivers emerge, including the catalytic influence of emerging regulations, collaborative partnerships, strategic product design and value proposition, and intrinsic motivation. On the flip side, barriers encompass the complexities of production systems, complementary products and services, network formation and coordination, and the intricate maze of customer engagement challenges.
Embedded within the empirical insights are four distinct niche strategies, meticulously tailored to specific contexts: the Redesign Niche Strategy, the Decentralization Niche Strategy, the Turnkey Product-Service System (PSS) Niche Strategy, and the Compliance-Driven Stepping-Stone Niche Strategy. These strategies come to light as potent tools in surmounting the entrenched barriers, underscoring the significance of strategic alignment with regulatory shifts, the formation of collaborative networks, and the innovation-driven approach to product design in propelling circular innovation.
The strategic adaptation of the TIS framework to circular innovation not only enriches analytical depth but also highlights its pragmatic relevance. Consultations with experts from HollandCircularHotspot - a platform driving the advancement of the circular economy by facilitating collaboration, knowledge sharing, and representing Dutch circular companies on an international stage, serve to validate the framework's utility, affirming its efficacy in dissecting the ever-evolving landscape of circular innovation. Acknowledging its limitations, such as the limited scope of case studies and the geographical focus on Dutch high-tech companies, the study sets the stage for future research endeavors.
In summation, this thesis offers a substantial contribution to comprehending the dynamics of circular innovation within Dutch high-tech enterprises. It underscores the pivotal role of specific strategies and reaffirms the pertinence of the adapted TIS framework. With its blend of empirical insights and theoretical foundations, the study illuminates potential pathways for circumventing barriers to circular innovation, paving the way for transformative change within the high-tech circular landscape.","Circular Innovation; circular economy; Technological Innovation System (TIS); niche strategies; Barriers to Circular Innovation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2024-12-31","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:74a2d20c-6eb2-4316-8d1f-1f89a5f32f62","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:74a2d20c-6eb2-4316-8d1f-1f89a5f32f62","Strategies for Overcoming Barriers in the Biomass-to-Syngas Value Chain: A Solution-focused Approach in the Context of the Dutch Bio-based Chemical Sector","Lammers, Tom (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Korevaar, G. (mentor); van de Kaa, G. (graduation committee); Nanninga, Patrick (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Over the past decades, global efforts have been made to address climate change and improve the well-being of our planet. The European Union (EU) has set ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets and strategies to combat climate change. Bio-energy, specifically biofuels produced from biomass, has gained significant attention as a crucial component in decarbonizing energy and production systems. While renewable energy sources like solar and wind are primarily used for electricity generation, bio-based processes focus on producing biofuels for heat, power, transportation, and biochemistry sectors. Therefore, biomass can play a crucial role in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries that are challenging to electrify, such as the chemical industry, heavy road transport, and marine and aviation sectors. However, the chemical industry, a major energy consumer and emitter of CO2, relies heavily on fossil fuels as feedstock and energy sources, necessitating a shift to carbon-free alternatives.
The biomass-to-syngas pathway, which involves converting biomass into bio-based syngas through gasification, has emerged as a promising solution for a more sustainable chemical industry. However, the development of this value chain faces technical and commercial challenges. Technical challenges include tar formation and product impurities, while commercial challenges include financing limitations, low market maturity, and sustainable feedstock availability. Moreover, handling and using biomass as a feedstock itself present constraints such as transportation limitations, variable composition and properties, low energy density, and high moisture and oxygen content. These challenges hinder the competitiveness of bio-based syngas production against fossil fuel alternatives and impede the development of the biomass-to-syngas value chain.
To address these challenges, the integration of torrefaction technology into the value chain has been proposed as a promising approach. Torrefaction enhances biomass densification, reduces moisture content, and improves the overall viability of the biomass-to-syngas value chain. However, the commercial implementation and economic feasibility of torrefaction remain uncertain. Additionally, research primarily focuses on technological improvements and lacks a deeper understanding of system integration, practical implementations, and stakeholder perspectives.
This research aims to bridge these knowledge gaps by actively engaging with stakeholders across the value chain to address the challenges of developing the biomass-to-syngas value chain and propose comprehensive solutions through stakeholder involvement. It explores the system integration of torrefaction technology, considering industry stakeholders' perspectives. The research employs a step-wise approach, focusing on an in-depth case study of the Dutch chemical industry. Data is collected through an exploratory literature review, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, a questionnaire, and a webinar serving as a panel discussion platform.
The research identifies 44 barriers hindering the development of the biomass-to-syngas value chain and the integration of torrefaction technology. These barriers primarily stem from deficiencies in innovation-specific institutions, network formation and coordination, and the production system. Stakeholders and experts agree that technological and logistical challenges can be overcome. However, addressing failures in innovation-specific institutions, such as the lack of economic and policy incentives and an unfavorable regulatory environment, is crucial for driving the development of the value chain. Based on these findings and insights obtained through expert reflection the research develops comprehensive solution statements and formulates five strategies to address the identified barriers, including cohesive policies, industry-tailored subsidies, standardized certifications and regulations, enhanced network formation, and decentralized torrefaction technology integration.
In conclusion, this research underscores the significance of the biomass-to-syngas pathway as a key driver for a sustainable chemical industry. By addressing technical and commercial challenges and the integration of torrefaction technology, comprehensive strategies have been formulated to overcome barriers and unlock the value chain's full potential. These findings thereby provide actionable insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders to drive the sustainable development of the biomass-to-syngas value chain.","Biomass gasification; Sustainability; Solution-focused Sustainability Assessment; Technological Innovation System (TIS); Value Chain Analysis; Torrefaction; stakeholder engagement; Chemical Industry","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:8058f786-c737-4143-887a-ca97decd4a5f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8058f786-c737-4143-887a-ca97decd4a5f","WaveTune: Millimeter Wave Radar based Hand Gesture Recognition for Musical Applications","Juneja, Suchdeep Singh (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Zuniga, Marco (mentor); Wang, Q. (graduation committee); Vaidya, G. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","In the ever-evolving field of music technology, new solutions continue to emerge that enhance musical expression and creativity. This thesis introduces WaveTune, a novel lightweight hand gesture recognition system that enables real-time control of musical composition and performance through natural hand motions.
WaveTune utilizes Millimeter Wave radar technology to capture gesture data, combined with optimized deep learning techniques for real-time recognition. This provides an accessible and non-intrusive platform for gesture control that enhances privacy since no visual data is recorded. Users can dynamically select tracks and control musical parameters in real-time using expressive hand motions, integrating seamlessly with music software.
A key innovation of WaveTune is the development of an optimized gesture recognition model that achieves high accuracy for real-time music interaction while minimizing complexity. This is accomplished through novel optimizations to a state-of-the-art point cloud classification architecture, resulting in an efficient and tailored model for fluid musical control.
Furthermore, WaveTune promotes open-source collaboration by providing full access to code, configurations and datasets, inviting the community to build upon this system.","mmWave; Hand Gesture Recognition; Music technology; Machine Learning (ML); FMCW Radar; Music","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2025-09-01","","","","Electrical Engineering | Embedded Systems","",""
"uuid:416051d3-97c0-4406-9673-f64b891c13f9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:416051d3-97c0-4406-9673-f64b891c13f9","Enhanced Ethylene Production Using Proton-conducting Electrochemical Cells: A Techno-Economic Analysis","Steneker, Tijmen (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Goetheer, Earl (mentor); Golombok, Michael (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","The petrochemical industry accounts for approximately 20% of global industrial CO2 emissions. Ethylene manufacturing is one of the major components and has a high carbon footprint. This study explores the use of proton-conducting electrochemical cells (PCECs) for ethylene production - the WINNER process. This non-oxidative dehydrogenation (NODH) reaction is still thermochemical, but the hydrogen is electrochemically removed, enhancing the conversion of ethane.
The electrochemically enhanced production of ethylene demonstrates substantial improvements over conventional steam cracking. It decreases Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) by approximately 20%, curtails thermal energy demand by 80% and enables operations at a lower temperature of 550°C. Some parameters are less favourable, but nonetheless, the reduction in SEC indicates a promising potential to decrease carbon emissions attributed to utility consumption.
Economically, the WINNER process outperforms the steam cracking benchmark, with a nearly doubled margin, almost tripled Net Present Value (NPV), and a seven-times higher Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of ethylene reduces by roughly 30% in the WINNER process. Additionally, the WINNER process produces pure, pressurized hydrogen as a high-value byproduct, adding to the economic viability of the process. A sensitivity analysis indicates that the most influential parameters are the prices of ethylene, ethane, and fuel gas.
Under current U.S. grid conditions, the Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) of the WINNER process and the steam cracking benchmark are approximately equal. An increased contribution from renewable energy sources would enable the WINNER process to lower the utility-based PCF of ethylene production.
In conclusion, the WINNER process exhibits superior techno-economic performance and potential environmental advantages over the steam cracking benchmark, making it a promising alternative for sustainable ethylene production. Therefore, this work lays the groundwork for a sustainable and profitable transition in ethylene production, leveraging advances in electrochemistry.
Foundation Models are emerging as a new paradigm in AI research &
commercialisation. While this opens up possibilities for radically innovative
solutions and significant value creation, startups are challenged with finding
unique & differentiated ways to leverage the technology, while simultaneously
mitigating potentially negative consequences.
Despite the rising prevalence of machine learning (ML) in products, designers
face challenges in creating solutions that make the best use of the new
possibilities. Designers building AI products are rarely involved in problem
setting & value finding, primarily solving human-AI interaction problems.
Additionally, common human-centered, customer feedback based innovation
approaches hinder radical innovation.
Lastly, AI Ethics and responsible innovation continues to be an afterthought.
Product designers are seldom involved in mitigating the potentially negative
consequences of such products.
APPROACH
This thesis combines literature study with a ""research through design""
approach to explore ways to address these problems. Working in collaboration
with a startup trying to leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) in their
products,I use empirical research to engage in the process of finding radically
innovative opportunities for using LLMs to create value for customers.
I study risk assessment practices to explore how designers can anticipate
risks in the discovery phase of product design. I then design & test tools that
can support other designers in the future.
OUTCOMES
This thesis makes multiple contributions to further the research on
technological & responsible innovation. It documents my process for finding &
analysing user insights to support the discovery of potentially radical
innovations. Additionally, I explore the process of finding value propositions
that leverage Foundation Models, and their potential risks, early in the design
process. The thesis also records how I design a process for discovering and
anticipating potential risks of harm, and how I developed a pair of canvases
and card decks to support future designers.
The thesis supports product designers in repeating these processes through
the pair of canvases and card decks. These help them to collaborate with
engineers, and contribute to the innovation & risk mitigation processes more
effectively. The discussions focus on observations & recommendations that
can further aid them.
To help designers innovate responsibly, this thesis brings the discovery of
opportunities and risks of using Foundation Models into the same
conversation. The designed deliverables and processes showcase how both
aspects of technology innovation can be tackled in similar ways.
Through all of the above, this thesis showcases the relevance of designerly
ways of thinking and doing to the fields of radical innovation, risk
management, and Foundation Model based product development.","Artificial intelligence; Responsible Innovation; Radical innovation; Design research; technological innovation; Machine learning","en","master thesis","","","","","","https://github.com/P2squared/InnovaitingResponsibly","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:c279fba3-10fb-4dac-90f3-31ba4e04f77f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c279fba3-10fb-4dac-90f3-31ba4e04f77f","Integrating Circular Strategies and Industry 4.0 Technologies to assist Manufacturing Firms in the transition towards Circular Business Models","Tripodis, Ilias (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Khodaei, H. (mentor); Verburg, R.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","In today's society, resource efficiency and energy conservation have become paramount, initiating discussions across businesses and nations. Circular strategies, rooted in the Industry 4.0 era of automation and data-driven processes, offer a compelling solution. This study investigates how circular strategies and Industry 4.0 technologies synergize to transform manufacturing companies into introducing circular business models. The research constructs a comprehensive framework interconnecting circular strategies, business model elements, and emerging technologies. This Hybrid Circular Business Model-Tech framework guides manufacturing entities in applying circularity, enhancing sustainability, resource efficiency, and competitiveness. Through literature review, framework development, and real-world case studies with renowned Dutch firms, the study bridges theory and practice, advancing circular economy principles in the manufacturing sector. Overall, the Hybrid Circular Business Model - Tech framework serves as an invaluable tool for transitioning from linear to circular models, fostering informed decision-making within organizations committed to embracing a sustainable future.","Circular Business Model; Industry 4.0 Technologies; Circular Strategies; Circular Value Chain; Manufacturing","en","master thesis","","","","","","Hybrid Circular Business Model-Tech Framework_Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVMN_laF0=/?share_link_id=667943663657","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:f7718e4c-49bd-442a-8a9b-d4a37d78fa8e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f7718e4c-49bd-442a-8a9b-d4a37d78fa8e","Natural gas networks in the Netherlands: An analysis of technical & institutional developments in relation to the network's integrity","Fehling, Anne (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (mentor); Correljé, A. (graduation committee); Rosmuller, N. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Over the last 30 years, different technical and governmental developments have taken place in the Dutch hazardous materials pipeline infrastructure. These have changed the utilization and governance of the system, with the transport of natural gas being one of the most important during this timeframe. Due to the danger of the transported material, the integrity of the system is crucial for its operation and performance. But with trends like liberalization, aging, and the energy transition, it raises the question whether this integrity is maintained. Also with many researchers analyzing either technical or governmental development, the combination has not yet been studied. The following main research question was formulated: What insights do we take when reflecting on the influence of technical and institutional developments on the integrity of the natural gas system in the Netherlands?
With the combination of desk research, interviews, and content analysis, the alignment between the technical and the governmental developments will be analyzed with the alignment perspective of Künneke, Groenewegen & Mènard. This information is then used to see if possible misalignments correspond to integrity perspective changes and issues of the infrastructure. Resulting eventually in insights into possible institutional or regulation deviations from what the system needed at that point in time.","natural gas; alignment perspective framework; Institutional development; Technological development; Integrity; safety","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:fb3c4dcd-7862-4064-94c8-8fba936e67e9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fb3c4dcd-7862-4064-94c8-8fba936e67e9","Incentives for Manufacturers in Certifying Medical Equipment for Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Unveiling the Potential of Appropriate Medical Equipment Label","RAJAGOPAL, AKSHAY (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Hinrichs-Krapels, S. (mentor); van Beers, Cees (graduation committee); Worm, Anna (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Medical equipment supplied to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are often substandard and inappropriate to the contextual needs. The majority of equipment entering these countries are donated or financed by external agencies. Procurement of equipment also happens through public tendering. However, the assessment and management of the equipment entering these countries are found to be inappropriate and ineffective. This has resulted in equipment that remains unused, malfunctions, or fails to meet its expected lifespan. This ultimately causes harmful consequences to the patient groups in LMIC. It is high time that this situation needs to be addressed and implement measures to provide quality, safe, affordable, accessible, and appropriate health technologies to people in these low-resource settings. One approach to create transparency around the notion of appropriate health technologies for LMICs is by creating a set of measurable criteria, tested in the form of a label. A global team of BioMedical engineers undertook an initiative to implement such a label, namely, ‘Appropriate Medical Equipment’ or ‘AME Label’. This research aims to examine the feasibility and constraints associated with implementing such an initiative from the perspective of medical equipment manufacturers.
The study investigated four main topics to answer the research question: ‘How can a new product label support medical equipment manufacturers to sustainably enter the healthcare market of low- and middle-income countries?’. These are the value of product labels in the market, regulatory challenges faced by manufacturers in the MedTech industry, challenges for manufacturers in entering LMICs, and perception of manufacturers on the concept of AME label. A combination of desk research and qualitative interview was used to deduce the conclusion. Initially, a case study was conducted involving a medical equipment manufacturer based in the Netherlands, whose operations primarily targeted LMICs. The data was collected through one-to-one online semi-structured interviews with managers within this organization. The preliminary findings formed were later validated through survey and interviews conducted with a globally diverse sample size including industry and academic experts.
The results of the study indicated that the adoption of AME label has the potential to benefit manufacturers with enhanced brand value, increased visibility, improved credibility, and greater product transparency in their target markets. These factors can in turn build confidence and trust among LMIC stakeholders on AME-labeled products, opening doors for sustained business opportunities for manufacturers in these countries. By optimizing the product design towards the contextual requirements and including competitive product features, manufacturers could use the AME label as a differentiating factor in their sales. Subsequently, manufacturers could attain higher commercial value for their products and improved operating efficiency in the healthcare market of LMICs. At the same time, it is found that the introduction of the AME label could increase the complexity of the regulatory system. Manufacturers of all sizes face challenges while undergoing any regulatory process, adhering to regulatory norms, or undertaking any product label. This is unavoidable for manufacturers while supplying medical equipment across boundaries. Therefore, the inclination of manufacturers to adopt AME label depends on how effectively it streamlines the supply process, cuts administrative costs, reduces documentation work, and expedites the distribution of equipment to target countries.
Considering the novelty of the label, there are some concerns that could hinder the full-fledged adoption of the AME label by manufacturers. These concerns primarily revolve around the reliability and trustworthiness of the label. To overcome these concerns, the AME team should take into account the following aspects when implementing the label. They should carefully plan and execute steps to ensure that the label is recognized and accepted by authorized bodies like the UN, WHO, etc. It is equally important that measures need to be taken in the direction where the label is validated by all relevant stakeholders in LMICs. It is also essential to establish a clear positioning of the AME label within the regulatory system by highlighting the unique testing methods and distinctive tangible advantages it offers to the manufacturers compared to existing labels. By addressing these concerns, the widespread adoption of the AME label by medical equipment manufacturers could be achieved, leading to the availability of appropriate equipment in LMIC hospitals, and ultimately benefiting the patient groups within.","Health technology assessment; Medical equipment; LMICs; Labeling; Regulations; Adoption; Manufacturer; Incentives; Contextual Design; Challenges","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:ca48478d-f4ef-4796-92a4-a6cd67496936","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ca48478d-f4ef-4796-92a4-a6cd67496936","Analysis of barriers and overcoming strategies to support the adoption and complete industralization of VR technology: A collective case study at AF-KLM","Jaime Sanchez, Francisco Ángel (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Annema, J.A. (mentor); Pachos-Fokialis, N. (graduation committee); Maloney, Jae (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","This research illuminates the complexities of Virtual Reality (VR) technology adoption within the airline industry, with a specific emphasis on Air France-KLM. Despite VR's transformative potential and its increasing prevalence in various sectors, its adoption in the airline industry presents unique challenges. The central research question guiding this study was: ""How can VR technology adoption be effectively supported within the airline industry to achieve complete industrialization?""
A methodological blend of comprehensive literature review and a detailed case study at AF-KLM was employed. The literature review revealed established technology adoption frameworks while also highlighting potential gaps, particularly concerning the airline industry's unique context. The case study at AF-KLM provided empirical depth, identifying various adoption barriers and potential strategies to overcome them.
Key findings underscored the importance of strategic alignment, managerial commitment, user acceptance, and continuous assessment in the VR adoption process. Based on these insights, a tailored technology adoption framework was developed, offering a roadmap for entities in their VR adoption journey. While the framework was specifically crafted for AF-KLM, its principles hold broader applicability.
This research contributes significantly to the academic understanding of technology adoption in specialized industry contexts. Practically, it offers a strategic tool for organizations, ensuring that VR adoption translates to tangible benefits. As the technological landscape continues to evolve, this research serves as both a reflection on VR's current adoption challenges and a guide for future endeavors.","Virtual reality; Technology adoption; Barriers; Strategies; innovation; airline industry; Air France-KLM","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:e93a7059-e84a-4a1b-bd56-91b62ee205db","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e93a7059-e84a-4a1b-bd56-91b62ee205db","Design Requirements for Future Technology to Enhance Surgical Instrument Counting: An Observational Study at the Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis","de Rouw, Lieke (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","INTRODUCTION Surgical counting of instruments forms a crucial part of safety procedures in the operating room (OR). This process has remained primitive without technological support. The manual count process is time-consuming and places heavy cognitive demands on nurses. Current technological approaches fail to detect the exact and detailed usage of surgical instruments under real-life OR conditions. This research aims to enhance surgical instrument counting in the hospital by identifying challenges in the pre-operative, intra-operative, and postoperative phases and formulating design requirements for future technology.
METHODS An observational study was conducted in a large teaching hospital in Delft. The process of surgical instrument counting was assessed in the pre-operative, intra-operative, and postoperative phases of 50 surgeries. Nurses were surveyed to assess the method used, the experienced workload, and the willingness to adopt technology for surgical counting. The sterilization department provided data on the number of additional surgical instruments found on surgical trays after surgery and data on the different types of surgical trays delivered to the hospital.
RESULTS In all surgeries, surgical instrument counting was not performed according to the hospital’s protocol due to limited time and resources. Nurses used a technique to memorize the surgical instrument count by placing the surgical instruments in even numbers on the surgical instrument table. Surgical instruments were retrieved from their original surgical tray and placed on a surgical instrument table in case of frequent use or retrieved from their surgical tray and promptly handed to the surgeon in case of infrequent use. The return of surgical instruments to the surgical trays occurred intermittently, mostly when the surgical instrument was not deemed necessary anymore for the remaining surgery. After sterilization, occasionally incomplete surgical trays arrived at the hospital (10,0%), necessitating additional surgical trays to be added to the sterile field. During a 16-week timeframe, 801 additional surgical instruments were found on surgical trays indicating they were not returned to their original surgical tray. All nurses were willing to adopt technology for surgical counting, specifically in the pre-and postoperative phases.
CONCLUSION This study highlighted the challenge of balancing protocol, ensuring patient safety, and working efficiently. A control measure for the initial and final surgical instrument count is necessary for every surgery, as the current technique is insufficient. The design requirements for future technology are monitoring counts in the preparation room (PR) and OR, adjusting to accommodate additional surgical trays, having a focal area on the surgical tray, and identifying incomplete surgical trays. Future technology could enhance surgical instrument counting at the Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis by ensuring the presence and return of used surgical instruments to their original surgical tray.","Observational study; surgical instrument counting; operating room; patient safety; efficiency; technological design requirements","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Biomedical Engineering","",""
"uuid:033a7775-0eb4-4c6e-b914-c841d0c2092a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:033a7775-0eb4-4c6e-b914-c841d0c2092a","Exploration on how could Chinese PV module recycling companies scale up a new recycling technology","Lu, Yundi (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Kamp, L.M. (mentor); Khodaei, H. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","As of 2021, China's newly installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity has topped the world for nine consecutive years. Considering that the general life of crystalline silicon PV modules is 25 years, in the near future, China will face a wave of decommissioning of waste PV modules. Therefore, it is crucial to develop and improve China's PV module recycling industry in advance. Based on TIS framework, this thesis analyzes how to make module recycling spread in China from the perspective of PV module recycling enterprises. The main content of the research is divided into two parts: the first part collects literature, reports and news related to PV module recycling technologies, and puts different technologies into the established evaluation system for evaluation, so as to obtain the best performing technologies. In the second part, information related to China's PV module recycling technology and industry is collected through desk research and interviews, and the status of each building block and influencing conditions in TIS framework is analyzed. On this basis, the barriers to the large-scale diffusion of PV module recycling in China are found, and the corresponding strategies that need to be adopted by all parties are also developed. The research results of this thesis show that the mechanical delamination of PV modules and the hydrometallurgical technology for valuable metal recovery are the most promising combination of PV module recycling technologies. At present, there are four main barriers to the large-scale diffusion of PV module recycling in China. First, the level of recycling technologies used by enterprises are uneven, and there is a lack of core technologies for large-scale treatment and disposal of pollutants generated by recycling. Second, it is not clear what to do with the valuable materials obtained after recycling. Third, China's PV module recycling market is very chaotic, lack of fair competition. Fourth, there are still gaps in key policies and standards, including subsidies and policies to regulate market order, as well as standards to judge whether PV modules are abandoned. Removing these barriers will require different types of actors in the industry. PV module recycling enterprises need to continuously explore and improve the module recycling technologies and supporting technologies. At the same time, they need to determine what to do with the recovered valuable materials. In addition, the Chinese government needs to formulate a subsidy policy for research and development and investment related to PV module recycling. Also, policy gaps to regulate market order should be quickly filled. The National Standardization Administration needs to issue the standard for judging the waste of PV modules as soon as possible.","photovoltaic; recycling; technology evaluation; Technological Innovation System (TIS); large-scale diffusion; strategies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:acff3b6c-e22f-4122-8c01-321416566422","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:acff3b6c-e22f-4122-8c01-321416566422","Adoption of Dutch Cycling Practices in The National Capital Region of India by Using Technological Innovation Systems Framework","Modi, Mishank (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Annema, J.A. (mentor); van de Kaa, G. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Cycling is a type of recreational activity that is rarely utilized for everyday travel needs except in some countries such as the Netherlands. Health can be improved as a result of increased mobility, and by encouraging people to use public transit or cycles instead of their automobiles, traffic jams, and pollution may be reduced. The adoption of cycling in a populated and vast area like India's capital region will benefit the nation from the perspective of the economy and combating global warming. The research gap identified is that The National Capital Region of India is currently experiencing similar challenges as the Netherlands did years ago like road accidents, high traffic, and air pollution. It is crucial to pinpoint the requisite factors affecting the region's transportation preferences and the existing literature does not focus on the relevant issues from the perspective of relevant stakeholders or how these stakeholders have varied objectives when it comes to the adoption and expansion of the different modes of transportation. To investigate this, the Dutch cycling practices were chosen because the Netherlands is regarded as the best country in the world to cycle.
This leads to the research question of the thesis and that is 'What can the National Capital Region of India learn from the Dutch cycling practices with the participation of key stakeholders?'. 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Dutch and Indian experts to collect relevant data. The Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework is used as the theoretical perspective in the thesis to analyze the data collected from the interviews and answer the research questions. The cycling success of Amsterdam and Copenhagen also helped in providing a conclusion and the results from the interviews are compared to see what India lacks when compared to the Netherlands with regard to the functions and structural dimensions of Technological Innovation Systems.
There were practical and meaningful insights from the findings of the research. The key ones which the Indian stakeholders can adopt are early learning for children, spreading awareness among people about cycling and its benefits, and political commitment. These factors mark the starting point for change and give the correct direction to the stakeholders to implement this change. It is imperative for children to learn about green transportation in their early life so they can understand numerous problems related to it like climate change and sustainability. This will also enable future generations to be more conscious and they will start demanding safe infrastructure for cycling. Politicians will then respond to public demands and create the necessary cycling infrastructure. Furthermore, policymakers can also adopt innovative ideas to make cycling a viable option for all social groups and try to change the perception of people towards cycling. The key findings from the research are interrelated in some or the other way as an action by a stakeholder can unfold an action by another stakeholder and hence collaboration among stakeholders is also necessary.
The research had variety of constraints. Due to various restrictions, primarily, the most relevant factors that influence the choice of transportation were determined. Only interviews with experts were conducted, however, interviews with other people who are not experts but want to cycle or cycle regularly would have offered new insights. Regarding future recommendations, the findings from this research can be used to establish a methodical approach on how to improve cycling utilization in the Indian capital region and identify the key elements that are currently lacking. Alternatively, instead of comparing the Indian capital to an advanced nation, it may be beneficial to do so with an emerging nation or a city as it would allow Indian decision-makers to better grasp the needs of the people and act with limited resources.","Cycling; Technological Innovation System (TIS); Transportation; Mobility; Policy; Adoption","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:cba16f9c-e1d9-4bb3-86da-1ab8f0d36548","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cba16f9c-e1d9-4bb3-86da-1ab8f0d36548","Strategies to Enhance Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency","Ghayeni, Seyed Mehdi (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Smets, A.H.M. (mentor); Padmakumar, G. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Thin-film silicon solar cells are an innovative approach to utilizing solar energy. Thanks to their flexibility, lower material usage, and production cost, they have the potential to be used in a range of applications. The conversion efficiencies of thin-film silicon solar cells need to be improved to make them commercially viable. This involves further optimizing the different layers of the solar cells. During this project, different strategies for enhancing thin film silicon solar cells were studied, including the deposition conditions for nc-Si:H layer, the sacrificial texturing used, the use of an additional back reflector layer, and the type of TCO layer used. A more consistent quality of the nc-Si:H samples were obtained by varying the hydrogen flow rate compared to the silane flow rate in the processing chamber. Using a silane flow rate of 2.3 sccm and a hydrogen flow rate of 120 sccm, a silane concentration 2.6 was achieved, resulting in nc-Si:H layer with a crystallinity of 60%, close to the desired amorphous-nanocrystalline silicon transition region. The texturing used in the glass sample can play a significant role in scattering the incident light into the solar cell. Craters of different sizes are formed depending on the material used for the sacrificial layer. Making smaller craters on top of larger craters using modulated surface textures (MST) is also possible. Using intrinsic Zinc Oxide (i-ZnO) sacrificial texturing resulted in the highest spectral utilization in single junction nc-Si: H with a Jsc of 25.2 mA/cm2. Indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) sacrificial texturing created micro-sized textures, resulting in the highest spectral utilization in micromorph samples (Jsc of 24.6 mA/cm2). Using an MST of ITO and i-ZnO also resulted in high spectral utilization with a Jsc of 24.3 mA/cm2 in micromorph cells Having an additional back reflector on top of the metal back contact can further improve photon absorption in solar cells. Using a material with a low refractive index, such as i-ZnO, increased the spectral utilization and improved the short-circuit current (Jsc) by approximately 10%. Depositing the i-ZnO back reflector layer using a higher heater temperature (300°C), improved the spectral utilization of the sample further by 9% The transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer must be highly transparent and conductive. Usually, ITO is used as a TCO layer, although it has limited absorption in the infrared region and lower conductivity at higher temperatures. A TCO with higher optoelectrical properties was obtained using a bilayer of hydrogenated indium oxide (IOH) and i-ZnO. nc-Si:H samples with the TCO bilayer showed a higher spectral utilization and an improvement in their Jsc by 9-12%. The performance of micromorph samples with TCO bilayer was also higher with Jsc improvement of 6%. The influence of the bilayer thickness on the performance of micromorph samples was also inspected, and it was found that using a thicker bilayer with a thickness of 1100 nm instated of 600nm boosted the performance of the sample further and improved its Jsc by 3%.","thin film solar cells; thin film technology; Thin film silicon; Solar cells; Flexible solar cells; nano crystalline silicon; amorphous silicon; Micromorph","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:f387f2ca-b300-4acb-b5f7-3acaf4824ffa","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f387f2ca-b300-4acb-b5f7-3acaf4824ffa","The Future of Critical Metals in Electric Vehicles: Impact of The Exponentially Increasing Number of Electric Vehicles On The Supply of Critical Metals","Nithin Harish, Nithin (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Annema, J.A. (mentor); van Wee, G.P. (graduation committee); Quist, J.N. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Climate change stands as a monumental environmental challenge confronting the world today, with ongoing global manifestations. Within the transportation sector, the carbon-intense essence of petroleum-powered vehicles, finite fossil fuel reserves, and strides in technologies such as batteries, fuel cells, power electronics, and electric motors have expedited the integration of electric vehicles (EVs) into the conventional automobile market.
The escalating demand for crucial metals within renewable energy technology sectors has raised alarms regarding supply chain security. It is imperative to fortify the sustained and secure provision of these pivotal metals to ensure the forthcoming viability of EVs. Numerous nations have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, intensifying the future prominence of renewables, and underscoring the significance of securing metal supplies for EVs to meet the 2050 demand amid competing technological contenders.
Multiple knowledge gaps and challenges encompass the repercussions of EV proliferation on essential metal resources. Prevailing studies on metal scarcity focus on various scenarios, yet few target the exponentially surging demand for these metals stemming from the EV surge. While geological reserve perspectives have scrutinized metal criticality for EVs, this approach lacks a comprehensive panorama, neglecting influential factors such as geopolitics and competing demand. Furthermore, there exists scant exploration of alternative remedies to diminish reliance on critical metals within EVs and their consequences for metal supply chains. The feasibility of these alternatives hinges on their impact on vehicular performance, a determinant factor for broad acceptance.
The primary objective of this research is to address the inquiry: ""How does the rapid proliferation of electric vehicles affect the availability of vital metals, and what strategies can be adopted to alleviate potential supply impediments?""
This research pursues a four-tier approach. Initial efforts involve delineating criticality for EVs and devising an analytical framework that encompasses diverse perspectives beyond geological reserves. A comprehensive review identifies socio-technical metrics instrumental in assessing metal criticality and their contributions to EV-related criticality. This informs the development of an analytical model, rooted in established frameworks, to evaluate metal criticality for EVs. The model then undergoes validation through expert interviews.
Subsequently, the research identifies potential bottlenecks in critical metal supply. Essential metals for EV functioning are identified through literature analysis. Building upon prior work by Habib et al., the research delves into geopolitical reserves and integrates future demand scenarios. Each metal within scope undergoes individual analysis, considering geopolitics and competitive demand, utilizing literature reviews to uncover potential supply bottlenecks by 2050.
The third stage concentrates on recognizing critical metals from the analytical model results and outlining alternative strategies to alleviate supply bottlenecks. Insights from academic and industry experts, garnered through interviews, illuminate the feasibility of alternative technologies and their metal consumption implications. Varied battery configurations and trade-offs are explored, employing a semi-structured interview approach to ensure thorough data capture.
Lastly, the research aspires to actualize alternative pathways to mitigate prospective supply bottlenecks. This involves examining existing practices that imperil suggested solutions and probing promising remedies to these challenges. The technological readiness of these solutions is gauged, considering their effects on EV design and performance. Policy approaches by global leaders, coupled with identified bottlenecks and solutions, inform actionable recommendations.
The pivotal factors impacting metal criticality for EVs encompass Geological Reserve availability to meet 2050 EV demand, Competing Demand Sectors, and a spectrum of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal factors. An analytical model is formulated to evaluate metal criticality through each of these lenses. Key metals identified as vital for EV functionality are Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Aluminium, and Rare Earth Metals (REES).
From the analytical results, potential supply bottlenecks emerge for Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, and REEs, stemming from diverse combinations of factors within the model. Expert interviews unearth alternative paths to circumvent these bottlenecks, including substituting REE-containing Permanent Magnet Synchronous (PSM) motors with other technologies, short-term adoption of Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) and Lithium Manganese Oxide (LMO) batteries, and long-term integration of alternative battery chemistries like Sodium-ion, Potassium-ion, and Solid-State Electrolyte batteries.
The readiness of these technologies is evaluated, alongside scrutiny of policies regarding Critical Raw Material supply and Net-Zero emissions, as observed in global leader initiatives such as the European Union. Drawing from this analysis, a compilation of recommendations is outlined for Global policymakers, EV manufacturers, and EV users. These suggestions seek to accelerate the integration of these alternative technologies within the Electric Vehicle Industry. The proposed strategies to veer away from metals susceptible to supply bottlenecks are summarized, culminating in practical recommendations for stakeholders, manufacturers, and policymakers.
Goal and Scope. The decarbonization challenge is especially dire for the energy-intensive industries which worldwide account for a large sum of carbon dioxide emissions. Heat is an essential product demanded by the energy-intensive industries and is currently produced through extensive use of carbon-based fuels including coal, natural gas and oil. Considering the need to meet (inter)national climate targets, these carbon-based fuels must be replaced by cleaner (i.e. less greenhouse gas emitting) alternatives. Biomass, when sourced sustainably, is one such mature alternative yet is still carbon based. For the energy-intensive industries, three of the main non-carbon-based options are: electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™. This research explores the environmental performance of these three alternatives in comparison to natural gas, biomass and each other in two potential future scenarios when implemented in an energy-intensive industry. It also proposes potential ways to reduce environmental impacts and highlights any foreseen (environmental) implications that may occur before large-scale implementation takes place.
Method. The use of ex-ante life cycle assessment allows for the prospective exploration of an upscaled electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ product system. The life cycle inventory database ecoinvent version 3.9.1 forms the basis for this research in which technology specific processes are modelled by data collected through the inclusion of domain experts and technology developers as well as the completion of desk research. The life cycle impact assessment is based on the European Commission’s proposed Product Environmental Footprint and the subsequent standardized set of impact categories included in this research are climate change; ozone depletion; human toxicity, cancer; human toxicity, non-cancer; particulate matter; ionizing radiation; photochemical oxidant formation; acidification; eutrophication, terrestrial; eutrophication, freshwater; eutrophication, marine; ecotoxicity, freshwater; land use; water use; resource use, minerals and metals; and resource use, fossils. Following the life cycle impact assessment, a contribution analysis was completed which highlighted multiple key parameters within processes that were subsequently tested in sensitivity analyses.
Results. This research confirms that electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ can limit climate change impacts in comparison to natural gas, thereby helping decarbonization efforts and achieve climate targets. From a solely climate change perspective, sustainably sourced biomass is a better alternative to electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™, but it has limited upscaling potential due to the finite availability of sustainable biomass. Considering other impact categories including acidification, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine, terrestrial and freshwater eutrophication, human toxicity cancer and non-cancer, mineral and metal resource use and particulate matter, electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ all exert more pressure on the environment than steam produced through natural gas. Most of the exerted pressures as seen in the electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ product systems stem from the assumed electricity mix and the expansion of the electricity network. As a result, some of the impacts, like those associated with expanding the electricity network, are inherently tied to the energy transition.
The comparison between electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ showed that Iron Fuel Technology™ using scrap iron and waste hydrogen generally performed best except for the impact category human toxicity, cancer. Only when using a fully wind-based electricity mix is Iron Fuel Technology™ outperformed by direct electrification for climate change, fossil resource use, human toxicity cancer, ionizing radiation, land use, and particulate matter. Hydrogen, due to its large electricity demand for water electrolysis, consistently performed the worst throughout all investigated cases and can only be competitive to electrification and Iron Fuel Technology™ based on waste hydrogen when water electrolysis is completed with a fully wind-based electricity mix. The same applies for Iron Fuel Technology™ using green hydrogen.
Discussions. This research has made the first comparison of electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ considering its implementation in the energy-intensive industries in comparison to natural gas and biomass as well as comparing them among each other. It thereby investigated potential environmental impacts in a possible 2030 and 2050 Dutch future identifying hotspots and key parameters that are highly influential in determining environmental performance through performing ex-ante LCA. It stands out as it investigates a broad range of impact categories when most reviewed studies only focused on a set of impact categories. Consequently, the outcomes of this research can be used to guide research and development, monitor potential problem areas and be used as the basis for evaluation and further research.
However, the limitation of ex-ante life cycle assessment is that it is exploratory in nature and subject to large uncertainties. As “what if” scenarios are examined, this research does not provide any conclusive results and can only be used to provide insights into potential environmental performances of alternatives, to identify environmental hotspots, for debate and to make recommendations for research and development activities. Large uncertainties in the research stem from temporal mismatches in foreground ex-ante data and background dated data, unquantified characterization factors, and slight inconsistencies regarding system boundaries. The largest uncertainty yet may be the development of each product system in time as ex-ante LCA examines and compares a potentially upscaled emergent technology to a mature technology in the present which may also not necessarily be a fair comparison. The underlying availability and quality of the data in this research reflects this. Even though comparison is made at the same assumed technological readiness level, the underlying data of the mature technology is proven to be possible whereas the data of the emerging technologies is assumed based on expected results. The availability and quality of the used data is therefore drastically different and may lead to arbitrary results.
Recommendations. The results of this research suggest reducing material usage, making manufacturing processes of required background products more sustainable (e.g. copper) and decreasing electricity consumption are the most effective ways to limit environmental impacts in the electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ product systems. Specifically for Iron Fuel Technology™ it is further recommended to source waste hydrogen, produce initial iron fuel from scrap, further improve the circularity of iron fuel and to use ship transport over truck transport whenever possible. For hydrogen, key recommendations include keeping hydrogen losses to a minimum, and technologically improving the electrolyzer and boiler efficiencies. This research also highlighted that differences in case application and assumptions can influence the environmental performances significantly. As a result, it is strongly recommended to further examine electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ for various end-use applications and under different scenarios.
Conclusions. The results of this research suggest electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ could all reduce climate change impacts in both 2030 and 2050. However, it is also noted that they are not fully clean alternatives, i.e. that not all environmental impacts are lower in comparison to carbon-based fuels. The completed ex-ante LCA showed higher environmental impacts for multiple impact categories, among others: acidification, freshwater ecotoxicity, freshwater eutrophication, human toxicity cancer and mineral and metal resource use among other impact categories. Some of these impacts are a direct result of the assumed 2030 and 2050 scenarios reflecting the transition away from carbon-based fuels sketched in this research. The environmental impacts related to copper associated with an expansion of the electricity network is an example of this. To limit environmental impacts, this research suggests a multitude of redesign recommendations for electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™, primarily focused on increasing efficiencies, limiting electricity demand and decreasing emissions of background processes. Though implementing a set of these redesign recommendations helped decrease environmental impacts for electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™, it was shown to be insufficient to reduce environmental impacts in all impact categories to below the environmental impacts of carbon-based fuels or generally alter the environmental performance of electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ in comparison with one another. The results therefore indicate that Iron Fuel Technology™ based on scrap iron and waste hydrogen is most preferable among the clean alternatives in decreasing climate change impacts while limiting other environmental impacts in as far as possible. However, it must still be noted that dependent on the specific case, the assumptions used, and which impact categories are prioritized, which technology is best suited may be subject to change.
Perspectives. This research suggests that electrification, hydrogen and Iron Fuel Technology™ can help alleviate climate change impacts to varying degrees depending on the scenario assumed, but that tradeoffs of other environmental impacts will likely arise in the transition away from carbon-based fuels. It should therefore be cautioned that a sole emphasis on tackling climate change impacts, specifically decreasing CO2 emissions, may result in overlooking potential side effects that may be environmentally harmful. The environmental impacts of any technology must therefore always be holistically examined over multiple impact categories.
This work focuses on how PV solar panels can be directly coupled to a modular alkaline electrolyzer, without grid-based buffering or the use of an inverter. Literature research revealed that hydrogen technology has seen little exploration in on-grid Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HRES) and no exploration in off-grid HRES. To appropriately investigate whether a directly-coupled HRES would be technically feasible, a megawatt-scale system was modelled and simulated. All elements of the HRES were modelled, duly accounting for physical limits and constraints. Components were sized and configured to complement one another, optimizing for maximum hydrogen production. To experimentally verify the validity of the proposed HRES, a 5 kW pilot system was constructed. To control the HRES, a new algorithm was developed using the Incremental Conductance maximum power point tracking algorithm as a basis. Within the new Maximum Hydrogen Production (MHP) algorithm, the step sizing was discretized and a variable step size was implemented which can be applied to any target slope. This allows for the system to target operational points which optimize hydrogen yield instead of electricity yield. Furthermore, the addition of tracking bias helped adjust for the asymmetric nature of the interaction between electrolyzer stacks and the PV solar park.
Simulation results in The Netherlands demonstrated that the feasibility of the HRES is dependent on the configuration of the PV solar park and on the number of electrolyzer stacks in the system. Compared to industrial and research benchmarks, the proposed HRES increased hydrogen production by 14.9% and 4.2%, respectively. Dynamic 'm-tracking' of the MHP algorithm goal increased hydrogen production by 0.8% in months of high irradiance. Months with a lower average irradiance experienced an artefact in the MHP algorithm, resulting in prolonged periods of zero power output. An experimental setup confirmed the simulation results, showing that it is possible to control a system of PV solar panels directly coupled to a modular alkaline electrolyzer. Experimental results revealed the need for moving average filtering to prevent fluctuations due to changing conditions of the electrolyzer and the weather from causing poor algorithm tracking ability. The low performance of the experimental setup can be attributed to a low iteration and measuring frequency, which increase the likelihood of a tracking error due to rapidly changing operating conditions. Economic analysis of the proposed HRES yielded an LCOH of €3.44 per kg, 20% and 13% lower than industrial and research benchmarks, respectively. Therefore, an HRES featuring PV solar and modular alkaline electrolysis is technologically and economically viable without the use of charge controllers and inverters.","hydrogen; Renewable Energy Technologies; Sustainable Energy; Energy infrastructure; Hybrid renewable energy systems; Solar photovoltaic; Maximum Power Point Tracking; Energy Systems","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2025-07-10","","","","Mechanical Engineering","","52.100046668570556, 6.065424693312411"
"uuid:277bb013-2852-4ce0-86ae-1b77f52b617a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:277bb013-2852-4ce0-86ae-1b77f52b617a","The role of managerial communication in the adoption of IT automation: RPA in the recruitment industry","Dannenberg, Jan-Mark (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ding, Aaron Yi (mentor); Wagner, Ben (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","This master's thesis addresses a common problem of the adoption of IT automation; the nonoptimal use of the technology due to ineffective managerial communication. It searches for a solution by using the Design Science Research methodology to create a design artifact in the form of a managerial communication framework. This framework provides values to all stakeholders in the IT automation adoption process; the managerial level, the employees, and the technology provider. It improves managerial communication during the adoption process and identifies actionable guidelines for managers.
Narrowing down the scope of the thesis to the adoption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) within the recruitment industry allows the research to be manageable within the constraints of a master's thesis. A literature review is used to investigate the knowledge base of the topic of the thesis. Additionally, semi-structured interviews with managers and employees are used as a means of collecting data from the environment. Combining these inputs, this research designs a model that explains the role of managerial communication in the effective adoption of IT automation. The model consists of four main components: managerial communication, motivation & vision, impact awareness, and the effective adoption of IT automation. It explains the constructs that were found relevant in this process and how they relate to each other. Several root constructs are used as a basis to create actionable guidelines to facilitate an effective adoption process. Together with the explanatory model, these guidelines form the managerial communication framework. The main goal of the framework is to bridge the gap between the manager's and the employee's views on the nature of the change. This study finds that managers often view the change as a process optimization, whereas employees view it as an organizational change. The managerial communication framework allows to identify these differences and act upon them.
This study not only designs the communication framework, but also evaluates its defined objectives with several experts. The results of these evaluation interviews demonstrate the validity and usability of the research conducted and the design artifact. Future research can extend the framework to other domains & technologies and tailor it to specific problem cases. Furthermore, the framework can be researched and evaluated in practice by conducting a case study.","Managerial communication; IT automation; RPA; Adoption; Technology adoption; Job insecurity; Performance","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:359e60c6-a434-49be-9ec1-b49e94c29095","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:359e60c6-a434-49be-9ec1-b49e94c29095","Successful Scale-Up Support for Start-Ups in Industrial Biotechnology: A Multiple Case Study on Scale-Up Support Ecosystems","Brouwer, Gijs (TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ortt, J.R. (mentor); Delgado Medina, Fátima (graduation committee); Cuellar-Soares, Maria (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Industrial biotechnology is labelled by the European Commission as one of the six key enabling technologies to fight climate change. Industrial biotechnology is a sector where biocatalysts (cells or enzymes) are used to convert renewable feedstocks (e.g. sugars) or even waste into valuable compounds such as renewable chemicals or food (ingredients). Unfortunately, the road from invention to commercial production is long in industrial biotechnology, and most biotechnologies that look promising after laboratory development fail to cross the Valley of Death and reach industrial scale. Industrial biotechnology has a long technology development time before being commercialised, is capital intensive, has economies of scale, and usually produces bulk products with low profit margins requiring large industrial-scale production for economic viability. Scale-up support can facilitate scale-up towards industrial scale. Scale-up support was, for example, offered with the Bioprocess Pilot Facility at the Biotech Campus Delft, before its bankruptcy in November 2022. This bankruptcy occurred while being fully booked. This has left the Planet B.io - Biotech Campus Delft scale-up support ecosystem with a lot of potential. In an attempt to scientifically address this scale-up support problem, a knowledge gap was found on the verge of technical scale-up, industrial biotechnology, and scale-up support ecosystems. This led to the main research question: How can a scale-up support ecosystem for industrial biotechnology be best organised and operated?
To answer this, a multiple case study was conducted on the scale-up support ecosystems of Planet B.io - Biotech Campus Delft, Copenhagen, and Brightlands Chemelot. This case study was performed through desk research and semi-structured expert interviews with 3 different types of experts (ecosystem, technical scale-up and start-up expert) per ecosystem, resulting in 9 interviewees. This case study applies the Technological Innovation System (TIS) framework to a novel context and integrates it with the four identified scale-up support elements (technical facilities \& services, funding \& business services, network formation \& coordination, and knowledge \& talent) offering a framework to study scale-up support ecosystems. This study identified the scale-up support requirements for industrial biotechnology. These scale-up support requirements are, among others, a flexible and fully-serviced shared piloting facility up until TRL 6 ($\approx$ 2000 L bioreactor), a lab- to pilot- and industrial-scale technical support service, investment planning service and help with raising funding. These should be offered within a scale-up support ecosystem using milestone-based billing as a preferred revenue model, whereas a government voucher system should be set up to pay for the lab- to pilot- and industrial-scale technical support service. Also, the most important stakeholders for a scale-up support ecosystem were identified, including multiple large corporations, government institutions, universities (and other types of education), suppliers, and service providers. Based on the findings, a roadmap for the development of the Planet B.io - Biotech Campus Delft scale-up support ecosystem was proposed, focusing on strengthening the network, knowledge, talent, and funding before offering a piloting facility and business services. This study contributes to the field with a framework to study scale-up support ecosystems as well as with practical recommendations for scale-up support ecosystems in industrial biotechnology and similar industries, identifying the scale-up support requirements, its business models and required stakeholders.","Scale-up Support Ecosystem; Industrial Biotechnology; Valley of Death; Piloting; Technological Innovation System (TIS); Business Models; Stakeholders; Roadmap","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2024-07-13","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","","52.018397, 4.340845"
"uuid:37519d2b-29ad-4ba6-a038-c86ea67b28b2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:37519d2b-29ad-4ba6-a038-c86ea67b28b2","Bodenschatz Berlin: Preparing the Ground with Design Science Fiction","Mengel, Fynn (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Vrachliotis, Georg (mentor); Lee, Rachel (mentor); van den Ban, R.R. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Boden – a German term that can refer to soil and land, ground and floor, territory and habitat. Overhearing Boden in Berlin’s streets these days will, however, oftentimes result in tuning into a conversation about land ownership, the soaring cost of living and the city in transition. People, it seems, are worried. They are increasingly affected by effects of market processes, speculation, a marginalising financial approach* towards the city. They are not alone: Also Berlin's diverse ecological actors are threatened by such profit-oriented practices. Therefore, the term “Boden“ in Berlin has been conceptualised for discussing processes originating in and revolving around land tenure. In turn, its tangible qualities and positive notions are covered up, buried by a merely technical and somewhat pessimistic discussion. The inherent ambivalence is leaving Berlin’s Boden, stripping it off its multiple social and ecological facets: Boden has become a bare quantifiable medium.
This overheard finding is the spark of this thesis. While unsuccessfully searching for a singular translation of Boden, I started to discover more and more dimensions, relations, associations with the term. Thus, the question arose: Can we solve the multi-dimensional issues Boden faces in Berlin by exploring its stratified character, its layers of meaning? How can Boden in the city become tangible, meaningful, a resource - Bodenschatz - again? Can Boden itself become an ally for the city’s human and non-human inhabitants to solve the Bodenfrage issues?
The resulting proposal, Bodenschatz, is a multi-layered exploration of dimensions comprised in Berlin’s Boden. This is approached by science fiction: taking into account the status quo of science and research, it is reimagining urban futures as a fictional prototype of cyber-socio-ecological cohabitation on Berlin’s Boden. Its main vector is not analysis but action towards re-taking socio-ecological urban agency in Berlin. Architecture becomes a vehicle to spatialise this, the missing link to fill in the gaps between science and fiction. Without romanticism or fatalism, the project is a comment on the current state of affairs - and how the city of the future could be imagined by the means of today.","science fiction; soil; soil remediation; financialisation; land ownership; blockchain; sonic research; ecology; technology; cohabitation; machine design; Socio-ecological symbiosis; architecture; prototype; Berlin; Germany; urban; Neukölln","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Explorelab","","52.483969, 13.459683"
"uuid:076ad719-fd82-4d31-b629-b6fb815e13dd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:076ad719-fd82-4d31-b629-b6fb815e13dd","A ten-step framework for finding applications for a breakthrough technology: Partially applied to the case of quantum dots","'t Hoen, Jesse (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Applied Sciences)","Ortt, J.R. (mentor); Veeneman, Wijnand (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","New Product Development (NPD) of applications incorporating breakthrough technologies can be beneficial for companies, but can also come with serious drawbacks. Therefore, the NPD process must be approached with great care. Rather than adopting the chaotic trajectory of the NPD process, where applications are introduced, withdrawn, and reintroduced naturally over time, business prosperity could be enhanced if companies can up-front formulate a set of possible future applications for a breakthrough technology. The most promising alternative can hereafter be chosen to be further developed in the NPD process, possibly reducing the chance of having to switch to the development of other applications (and thus circumventing the Collingridge dilemma). In this thesis, I start with defining the terms (breakthrough) technology and application. Then, I suggest a ten-step framework that is suited for formulating applications for a breakthrough technology, based on the comparison and symbiosis of five existent frameworks that are helpful in reaching the aforementioned goal. Factors that are of importance in that process are also investigated. None were discovered in scientific literature, but some suggestions are made based on the current work. The framework is applicable to breakthrough technologies of which it is non-obvious, and even unsure, what the technology can do, how it can be implemented into applications, and whom it might serve. Next to this, the breakthrough technology must still be in the innovation phase. The process itself must make use of qualitative and quantitative approaches in a balanced way, must continuously involve known sets of experts, must look into the future, and must formulate concrete applications for the emerging technology. The framework is then partially applied to the breakthrough technology of quantum dots (QDs). The technology profile and the application profile were gathered, first, based on scientific records. Then, the most frequently used keywords and the most increasingly used keywords were retrieved for both profiles. The most frequently used keywords showed that carbon dots are the most dominant area of research that is being conducted on QDs and that optics and imaging are the two major fields where QDs are being incorporated. The most increasingly used keywords confirmed the observation that QDs are in the adaptation phase, where QDs are still surrounded by substantial uncertainty. Finally, with the aid of text mining software of VantagePoint and programming software of R, two dendrograms were formed. The remaining steps of the framework were not carried out in the current thesis project. It was concluded that the ten-step framework is most likely better suited for breakthrough technologies that are more in their infancy than QDs (so, breakthrough technologies still in the innovation phase). The framework should, next to this notion of novelty, be applicable to any breakthrough technology, regardless of the field that the breakthrough technology is situated in. As long as it is non-obvious, and even unsure, what the breakthrough technology can do, how it can be incorporated into applications, and whom it might be useful for.","breakthrough technology; finding applications; framework; quantum dots","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:bdced91c-f1fd-4e8c-8388-bbcf4dd89e13","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bdced91c-f1fd-4e8c-8388-bbcf4dd89e13","Enter 'space' to test the AI: Responsive Architecture: The home to come","Slezák, Samuel (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Vrachliotis, Georg (mentor); Muñoz Sanz, V. (graduation committee); Karvelas, G. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","As artificial intelligence (AI) technology progressively integrates into daily life and domestic environments, it instigates a pressing inquiry: What new spatial implications can arise from the integration of artificially intelligent technologies within homes, and what role can these AI technologies play in reinforcing social interaction among humans and between humans and machines? This paper does not predict the future but instead imagines a fictitious trajectory of the possible development of selected technologies and their spatial impacts on domestic environments through design. The aim is to incite a discussion that tests and explores core values that can be adopted or avoided in the future. This process allows for the contemplation and discourse around these novel technologies, thereby increasing the chances of their positive societal impact.
The paper further expands on the underutilised potential of technology within the architectural field compared to other disciplines more adeptly adjusted to the digital age. Utilising the 'Futurecraft' method, it frames a vision of potential futures, thereby encouraging robust discussion about the role of technology, who should design them, and the ideal ways of implementation. Amid the second wave of AI development, the urgency of examining the human-machine relationship is emphasized, especially given the rise and impact of Large Language Models (LLMs), including models like Chat GPT.
The paper posits the need for a 'Living Lab' - a controlled environment where new technologies can be deployed and tested to understand their broader societal impact. It addresses the ethical dilemmas tied to AI's rapid development and the potential adverse effects of these technologies, shedding light on the possible disconnect between humans and their environments brought about by automation. The discussion aims to develop narratives and spaces where individuals can explore their relationship with technology while ensuring safe and ethical implementation.
The study ultimately aspires to create a stronger narrative that will bring about democratic architecture and consider the rise of LLMs within the field of architecture, underscoring their potential impact and significance.","Architecture; Artificial Intelligence; Technology; Large Language Models (LLMs); Human-machine relationship; Spatial implications; Social interaction; Futurecraft method; Master Program Architecture; Human laboratory; Living Lab; Project narrative; Democratising architecture; Safe implementation; Technology-dominated landscape.; Machine house; Intelligent machines; Intelligent elements","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Explorelab","",""
"uuid:2b35d092-2531-415f-b1d6-36d0e56f99e4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2b35d092-2531-415f-b1d6-36d0e56f99e4","Transforming the Built Environment through Product Service Systems: A Path towards a Circular Economy: “Exploring the Key Characteristics, Challenges, and Solutions in Implementing PSS in the Built Environment""","Belt, Britt (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Wamelink, J.W.F. (mentor); Bruggeman, E.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","As climate change and resource shortages increasingly threaten our planet, the built environment sector is under scrutiny due to its significant contribution to carbon emissions and global raw resource extraction. A transition towards a circular economy, replacing the prevailing ""take-make-dispose"" model, is crucial. This research explores the concept of Product-Service Systems (PSS) in the built environment, wherein products are provided as services, thereby increasing supplier responsibility and closing the resource loop.
This study answers the research question: ""How can Product-Service Systems (PSS) be applied in the built environment and expanded to their fullest potential?"" It delves into the various characteristics and properties of products within PSS and factors influencing these systems. Furthermore, it analyses the roles of different stakeholders within the circular chain of PSS, current implementation of PSS in the built environment, and future possibilities.
Adopting a qualitative research method, the study begins with an extensive literature review to provide an overview of current concepts and existing PSS models. This review forms a basis for identifying critical properties and characteristics necessary for successful PSS implementation. In-depth interviews with experts further provide insights into potential new opportunities for PSS in the built environment.
The research highlights the modularity, environmental sustainability, and economic viability of various building products, ranging from windows and doors to smart building technologies. A comprehensive table analysis reveals the potential for PSS implementation and the degree of circularity for these products. This research contributes to the field by presenting new possibilities for expanding PSS in the built environment. It emphasizes the need for pilot projects to better match practice with literature, increase the understanding of individual products, and uncover currently unknown factors. By enhancing our knowledge of PSS, this study propels us one step closer to achieving a circular economy in the built environment.
The general public has become accustomed to yet another climate stunt. Some form of awareness is there, but acting on it, many people omit. Before even a slight adjustment of behaviour, our fast-paced society is already distracted by the next new soap opera, a new car or pondering about the impact of our next plane trip.
Museums recognise their changing role in this society. Museums should no longer just entertain and amaze, they should from time to time be able to chafe, awaken us and urge us to change our behaviour. Topics such as sustainability, climate change and the energy transition lend themselves well to this. The urge to change a behaviour can be caused by a transformative learning experience. For example, experiencing the real-life effects of climate change in rural countries can completely change a person’s relationship with their self-world, thereby producing lasting changes in attitude and behaviour. Museon-Omniversum, a science museum, would like to research such a transformative learning experience for a new exhibit in a mobility zone of their current exhibition One Planet NOW!.
Several research activities have been done to understand transformative experiences and place them in a museum context. A literature review, expert interviews, museum visits, and observations resulted in a set of 12 guide cards that can support the design of a transformative museum exhibit.
Following from research, cycling as a sustainable mode of transport was chosen as an exhibit topic. Besides, the findings resulted in a transformative museum experience journey, which in turn inspired a specified design goal.
Subsequently, various ideas were generated in brainstorming and creative sessions and translated into physical prototypes. Evaluation tests with these prototypes gave insights into the experiences and effects of the developed ideas. These insights resulted in the development of the final exhibit: ‘Pedalling towards sustainable urban mobility’. An exhibit which aims to let visitors explore and reflect on the mode of transport they travel with throughout the city.
The interactive exhibit is a hands-on experience that introduces visitors to a city where bikes are the main mode of transport. Visitors can magically discover a hopeful future vision of a bicycle city, where an intersection has been transformed into a version without cars. They are encouraged to explore what is going on in this world. Would they want to live in a city like this? The exhibition’s connecting part deals with transport's influence on urban planning. Visitors will have the opportunity to reflect on how transport choices affect the construction of a city.
Overall the exhibit successfully aims to inspire a sustainable urban mobility transformation. However, further alterations are needed to improve the design and test the impact over a longer period. Short-term design recommendations for improving the exhibit to be fully stand-alone and operational have been given. In addition, suggestions for long-term research and design activities have been made.","Transformative Experience Design; Museon-Omniversum; exhibition design; interactive technology; Transformative learning; museum learning","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:a4d449f5-4042-4d49-a308-d40b54bd57ab","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a4d449f5-4042-4d49-a308-d40b54bd57ab","Sustainable innovation implementation in Dutch horticulture","Buitenhuis, Petrik (TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft Facility Management)","Verburg, R.M. (graduation committee); Khodaei, H. (mentor); Delgado Medina, Fátima (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","The Dutch horticulture sector (Dhc sector) is a significant contributor to the country's GDP and a global leader in horticultural production and trade. However, despite government efforts, the sector faces challenges in achieving sustainable targets. Sustainable startups, the suppliers of innovative solutions, also encounter barriers hindering the implementation of their sustainable business models. This study aims to identify these barriers and propose niche strategies to help sustainable startups effectively implement their business models in the Dutch horticulture sector.
To address the research question, the study develops the Sustainable Transition Navigator (STN) model, which integrates the Sustainable Business Model Canvas (SBMC), Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework, and niche strategies. The model assists startups in visualizing and optimizing the impact of their niche strategies on their sustainable business models.
The STN model is validated and applied to two sustainable startups in the Dhc sector. Through stakeholder analysis and qualitative interviews, the study identifies six clusters of innovation barriers specific to the sector. These findings are incorporated into the STN model to highlight the barriers that sustainable startups must overcome.
The practical implementation of the STN model reveals its benefits. Startups find the model valuable for assessing technological viability and selecting appropriate niche strategies. The visual representation of the model facilitates communication within startup teams, emphasizing the importance of regularly revisiting and adjusting strategies. The STN model serves as an online tool for iterative evaluation and adjustment.
The flexibility of the STN model allows startups to adapt it to various stages of their journey. By accurately assessing hindering building blocks and influential factors within the TIS framework, startups can identify areas for improvement and formulate relevant niche strategies. Multiple niche strategies can be organized into a timeline, creating an implementation plan that can be continually revisited.
This study contributes to scientific and managerial fields by expanding the applicability of the TIS framework, introducing the STN model, and providing practical insights for startups and business leaders. The findings offer guidance for navigating barriers and driving sustainable transitions in the Dutch horticulture sector and other industries.
This graduation project aims to create a wearable garment that helps with daily levels of anxiety modulation in a non-clinical setting by providing warmth and pressure sensations typically associated with Deep Touch Pressure (DTP). DTP is a form of tactile sensory input that is provided by holding, stroking, hugging and squeezing, which has been proven to elicit feelings of safety, relaxation, and comfort. Although there are some commercially available DTP wearable products typically in the form of a vest, they are often heavy, uncomfortable, or indiscreet as the DTP sensations are provided by additional weights or inflatables with hand-operated pumps. Since they are difficult to conceal, wearing those commercial DTP vests can attract unwanted attention from nearby strangers and further aggravate anxiousness. Instead, DTP sensations can be applied to the body in a noiseless, lightweight, and discreet manner by utilizing shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators in wearable garments.
The insights that formed the groundwork for this project was gathered through literature review in a wide variety of topics including haptic technology, affect regulation, and SMA. Deeper understanding of the intricate nuances involved with anxiety modulation were gained through self-reflection and introspection as part of the autobiographical design method. Although the insights gathered from introspection are rooted in subjective lived experiences, they can yield universally applicable outcomes based on genuine empathy and firsthand understanding that resonate with a broader range of users who experience similar or related difficulties with anxiety. Moreover, rapid prototyping and iterative processes were utilized to tinker with and learn about designing SMA based actuators for wearable garments. After fabricating several prototype iterations, each exploring different design variables, SereniSleeve was developed.
SereniSleeve is a fingerless glove sleeve that provides warmth and deep pressure sensations to the forearm. It helps users break out of spiraling anxious thoughts by providing on-body haptic sensations that they can focus on, enhancing their grounding techniques. User test participants experienced feelings of calmness, relaxation, and comfort at varying pressure settings. Users can intuitively activate the sleeve by clenching their fists during stressful or anxious situations, triggering one of three preset pressure settings depending on the user applied force. All the electronic components can easily be detached from the double-layered fabric sleeve cover for easy maintenance and washability. Based on the participant feedback, future work and iterations on SereniSleeve could further improve its overall usability and user experience.","Shape Memory Alloy; Anxiety; Emotion Regulation; Wearable Technology; Haptic technology; Tactile Feedback; Anxiety Regulation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","","52.0126341,4.3555860"
"uuid:5e718d0b-c59d-4b2d-8951-49b5ab269fc2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5e718d0b-c59d-4b2d-8951-49b5ab269fc2","Geotechnical aspects of the Blue Piling Installation Technique: Design of a measurement plan and elaboration of results for prototype hammer on life size piles in Maasvlakte 2","Stokman, Charlotte (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)","Mai Van, C. (graduation committee); Gavin, Kenneth (mentor); van Wijk, Jort (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","The energy market is growing and noise regulations for offshore foundation pile installation grow stricter. New initiatives arise to comply with the ongoing developments in the field, such as the BLUE Piling Technology under development by IQIP. Its features are presented as reduced underwater noise levels during installation, which is attibuted to the lower pile wall vibrations caused during driving. In this thesis, the design and execution of a field test is described, identifying the most important differences in geotechnical aspects between a prototype Blue Piling hammer and a conventional impact hammer, the IQIP Hydrohammer S-30. The results show that the Blue Piling hammer creates a response between pile and soil that is very different from a conventional impact hammer. The fundamentally different soil response led to pile plugging during the field test, affecting the stresses around the pile tip. This phenomenon is unlikely to occur during monopile installation, but scaling the test results requires further research.","BLUE Piling Technology; Impact driving; Field test; Quasi-static; Dynamic; Maasvlakte 2; Strain gauge; Accelerometer; Total radial pressure; Pore pressure; Pipe pile; Open-ended tubular piles","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2025-05-25","","","","Civil Engineering","BLUE Piling project","51.924896, 3.986073"
"uuid:ab9cabf8-f367-46aa-8e88-6a20b3bab984","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ab9cabf8-f367-46aa-8e88-6a20b3bab984","Secure Payments in the Quantum Era: A Technology Roadmap for the Post-Quantum Cryptography Transition in the Dutch Banking Sector","Onkenhout, Job (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Bharosa, N. (mentor); Zhauniarovich, Y. (graduation committee); Christiansen, L.V.C. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","In 2019 a quantum computer performed a highly complex operation in 4 minutes, which would have taken the most powerful supercomputers of today around 10,000 years. Performing calculations unimaginably faster than is currently possible may bring great opportunities, but may implicate a threat to digital communications. Digital communication is kept secure through cryptography, which uses mathematical problems to protect sensitive information and communication from malicious acts of cybercrime. Cryptography is widely adopted across the cyberspace. The world’s fastest classical computers of today are unable to break cryptography’s underlying mathematical schemes, ensuring confidentiality and integrity of everyone’s data. However, it is predicted that future quantum computers could theoretically break current cryptography in just a few hours. The moment that a powerful enough quantum computer exists (called Y2Q) thus implicates that cryptography systems will become unusable as digital services are no longer secure. This could have catastrophic consequences for society’s critical digital infrastructures, such as those provided by Dutch banks. This problem is very relevant for banks, because of the sector’s abundance of sensitive data and information streams that rely on cryptography, as well as their critical role in society’s functionality (facilitating payments).
Because of the serious disruptions in critical financial infrastructures that the quantum threat could ignite, decision-makers within banks will be needing governing tools to mitigate risks. Adopting new quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms, known as post-quantum-cryptography (PQC) is absolutely critical in facilitating safety and security from the quantum threat. However, there is currently little or no governance, or guidance, for the management of this transition towards PQC and guidance is urgently needed. The formulation of these guidance-measures is one of the main challenges regarding the transition towards security in the quantum-era. Therefore, this research focusses on ensuring the Dutch banking sector’s safety and security of its digital infrastructures, from the cryptography-related cyber threats posed by quantum computing technology – from not merely a technological perspective, but with a holistic approach, considering the involved socio-technical challenges. In order to provide guidance to decision-makers from Dutch banks, this thesis aims to answer the following research question:
How can the Dutch banking sector ensure the safety and security of its digital infrastructures, from the cryptography-related cyber threats posed by quantum computing technology?
In order to answer the main research question, the Technology Roadmap (TRM) framework will be used. This framework provides the vital link between a first idea phase (i.e., banks’ digital infrastructures face a threat from quantum computing technologies) and the concrete implementation phase (i.e., how do we ensure protection from this threat?). The TRM is a diagram which consists of features, services, systems, resources, and drivers in relation with one another, that together facilitate an overview of what is required for the banks to become quantum-safe. Constructing this roadmap required three main methods:
(1) Exploratory research to identify in which parts of the banks’ processes and operations the vulnerabilities to the quantum threat are the highest. This included describing key concepts within cryptography, PQC-developments, and banking services, as well as stakeholder- and dependency-mapping of the Dutch banking environment.
(2) Semi-structured interviews with security architects, payment security specialists, and cryptography specialists from Dutch banks. Herein the perceptions of the Dutch banks on the impact, challenges, resources, capabilities, preparedness, and governance were obtained.
(3) TRM development based on thematic analysis of qualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews in which the perceptions were translated into elements fit for the TRM.
Lastly, the TRM was validated and revised by presenting it to experts and asking for critique, which enabled the final TRM to be developed. after which conclusions and recommendations could be drawn up.
The core banking services were analyzed in terms of the role that cryptography plays to ensure the security of these services, which helped to identify in which parts of the banks’ processes and operations the vulnerabilities to the quantum threat are the highest. The exploratory analysis identified the critical processes that entail the certain infrastructures that need to transition towards PQC. These being within the online payment process, the physical card transaction process, and the ATM transaction process. Within these processes the main vulnerabilities lie in: data channels through external public networks and service providers relating to payment gateways, payment processors, local store webservers, online merchant webservers, card association networks and Point-of-Sale (PoS)-terminals. Less vulnerable infrastructures, due to their primary use of symmetric cryptography, are: ATM networks, internal storage and communication infrastructures, inter-bank data exchange, and ATM controllers.
Through combining these insights with findings from the thematic analysis of perceptions derived from the semi-structured interviews, the TRM was developed which presented a 3-phase transition plan that aims to ensure the Dutch banking sector safety and security of its digital infrastructures from cryptography-related cyber threats posed by quantum computing technology. Phase 1 of this transition plan entails the development of a response plan for a potential privacy breach and the development of central cryptographic inventory, through management priority, internal alignment, and experimentation with to-be-standardized PQC algorithms. After PQC algorithms have been standardized, Phase 2 involves the adoption of PQC algorithms in online payment networks, requiring banks to draw up a PQC requirement list for vendors and external service providers. With a hardware replacement strategy in place, Phase 3 entails the replacement of all relevant hardware related to payment processes (payment cards, PoS-terminals, and ATM controllers), updating less prioritized software and network infrastructures, and overcoming technical challenges related to PQC algorithms' larger key-sizes. It is important to note that the implementation of PQC is not a one-time event, but rather an ongoing, ever-evolving, and uncertain process. The continuous development of quantum computing technology means that banks must remain vigilant and adaptable to stay ahead of potential threats, and may need to accelerate certain phases within the transition on a relatively short notice. Additionally, the success of this transition relies heavily on organizational awareness, as well as close collaboration between various stakeholders, vendors, service providers, regulators, and other financial service organizations.
Based on this conclusion, this research has made several recommendations to the Dutch banking sector:
Accomplish management priority. Management priority is crucial for allocating resources to execute the first steps that have to be taken to ensure quantum-safety. Therefore, the banking sector should shift the focus of management toward addressing the quantum threat and transitioning towards post-quantum cryptography (PQC) as a top priority, integrating quantum-readiness into the key strategic goals of the bank by means of organizational awareness. Organizational awareness can be created through workshops, seminars, and events that are aimed at educating management on the business implications of the quantum threat, as well as presenting them with solutions on addressing this threat.
Execute initial risk-free actions. Banks can already take certain risk-free actions in preparation for the PQC-transition, which will strengthen the preparedness of the banks. These actions include:
- Developing a privacy breach response plan
- Developing a centralized cryptographic inventory
- Doubling key-lengths for symmetric-key cryptography algorithms
- Developing a hardware replacement strategy
Extend continuous collaborative research to PQC. Dutch banks should proactively utilize their existing collaborative structures with other vendors, service providers, regulators, and other financial service organizations., to share their experiences and jointly develop strategies for addressing the quantum threat. This will benefit the Dutch financial market as a whole, as sharing experiences with executing the risk-free actions or experimenting with PQC-algorithms is highly relevant for creating a comprehensive understanding of the practical implications and technical challenges associated with becoming quantum-safe.
Based on the knowledge gap and the aim of this research, the following main research question was formulated: What are the key influencing factors that determine the adoption of a cloud platform within the cloud platform battle within the Dutch financial sector? The study uses a qualitative approach and the Best-Worst Method to determine the key factors and the most suitable cloud platform. As the focus is on standard selection, a modified version of van der Kaa's 2011 framework was eventually chosen to identify the most important factors in this battle. From the 29 factors in the framework, the 24 most relevant were selected and five additional specific Cloud platform factors were added. This resulted in a new set of 29 factors relevant to Cloud platform adoption. Data is collected through literature review and expert interviews. Interviews were conducted with 13 IT/Cloud experts from various Dutch financial institutions, varying from the consulting, banking, insurance, government and academic sectors.
Ultimately, this research showed that the factors: 1) Security & privacy, 2) Brand reputation and credibility, 3) Pricing strategy, 4) Commitment and 5) Compatibility, are the key influencing factors determining the adoption of a cloud platform within the cloud platform battle within the Dutch financial sector. Based on these key factors and the platform comparison, it was found that among the three most dominant cloud platforms (Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud), Microsoft Azure is currently the most suitable cloud platform for the Dutch financial sector.","BWM; Cloud Platform Battle; Dutch Financial Sector; Cloud technologies; Azure; Google Cloud; MCDM","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:29035458-72c0-4a9c-849a-3f4f40aec4ef","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:29035458-72c0-4a9c-849a-3f4f40aec4ef","Fitting Behavioural Artificial Intelligence Technology in the banking sector: A market research study","de Ronde, Guus (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Molin, E.J.E. (mentor); van Bergem, R. (mentor); Heyning, N. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","The banking sector is currently dealing with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) issues, with stricter legislation in Know Your Customer (AML) being the instigator. De Nederlandsche Bank is pursuing fully explainable and transparent models with a risk-based approach. Councyl provides such a model: Behavioural Artificial Intelligence Technology (BAIT). This study aims to analyse the current environment BAIT would be implemented, to see if the tool fits the requirements of the banking sector. The inherent features of BAIT, adding to the four functions make it an interesting tool for banks to consider.","Behavioral Artificial Intelligence Technology; Banking; Anti-Money Laundering; Institutional Analysis; Decision support system","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:32e4f4a8-4b41-4a42-95cf-12941bb9beac","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:32e4f4a8-4b41-4a42-95cf-12941bb9beac","Combining Logistics Resources between Urban Construction Projects: A cross-sectional study for the city of Amsterdam","Kemerink, Renk (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)","Vrijhoef, R. (mentor); Chan, P.W.C. (graduation committee); van Nederveen, G.A. (graduation committee); Venema, R. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Construction resource management in the Netherlands is causing environmental concerns due to a high demand for infrastructure maintenance and carbon/nitrogen emissions. Insufficient optimization of resource management between projects results in more traffic and higher energy demand, but measures such as linking projects, program management, and reducing transportation can save money, improve air quality, and decrease emissions. Efficient resource management is crucial in the construction industry to achieve project goals despite challenges such as complex projects, tight budgets, and supply chain issues.
The aim of this study is to develop a proof-of-concept for managing resources between construction projects using digital connections between resource data. The goal is to optimize information sharing between different companies to reduce urban city traffic, energy consumption, and emissions, while also being practical and easy to implement. This study uses a cross-sectional research design, which involved the collection of transport data from three civil work projects in the centre of Amsterdam. The study uses a combination of research methods including interviews, data analysis and a discrete event simulation.
The main mechanisms influencing inefficient resource management in construction are: (1) the lack of digitalisation at smaller sized construction companies, (2) the imbalance between ingoing and outgoing construction logistics, and (3) the inefficient transports of non-bulk materials.
The study focuses on optimizing logistics in the construction industry in the Netherlands to reduce emissions. The study emphasized the benefits of collaboration among different construction projects and proposed a hypothesis that a centralised resource management system can optimize resource usage and reduce environmental impact. By analysing the construction logistics of three projects in Amsterdam, the study demonstrated that a centralised system for logistic resource management can be employed to reduce traffic required for construction projects, optimize resource usage, and potentially improve the balance between ingoing and outgoing transports. The study also highlighted the challenges in data capturing and the need for a unified digital system for logistic data. The study concludes that a centralized system for logistic resource management can provide insight into transport data and could reduce traffic caused by construction projects through facilitating smart interventions.","Construction; Collaboration; Information Sharing; Resource-driven Planning; Information Technology; Supply Chain Management; Construction Logistics; Resource management; Resource Allocation; Logistics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering","",""
"uuid:5a0f385f-b2a0-4038-a9ce-ccf917500797","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5a0f385f-b2a0-4038-a9ce-ccf917500797","Technology type preferences and acceptance among Dutch secondary students","AMBROSE, JONATHAN (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Annema, J.A. (mentor); van der Voort, H.G. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Educational technologies play a critical role in the European action plan to strengthen digital literacy skills by 2027 and solve Grand Challenges related to work and education by 2030, as the global community shifts increasingly into the Digital Age. Four technology types are examined: face-to-face, online, hybrid or blended, and video learning. Policy makers who wish to weigh user preferences and acceptance of educational technology types will find they may better address, for example, the transition from school to hybrid work, as well as mitigate the shortage of teaching hours within The Netherlands. Acceptance is operationalized as ‘behavioral intention’ to use a technology type. However, models of acceptance cannot determine whether students and schools would successfully adopt these forms of learning (or technology types) after implementation, regardless of their reliability in measuring factors like BI/ATT, PE, or PEOU. Limited research has been conducted locally and nationally; literature case studies typically measure one or two learning forms. Moreover, theory suggests that, if a (learning) technology is accepted, then successful adoption is likely. Therefore, I aim to explore “To what extent do Dutch students of middle and higher education, ages 16-25, prefer and will theoretically accept different educational technology types?” This study employs a quantitative survey to rank learning preferences and assess its acceptance via a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study intends to propose an emergence preference model (EPM) composed of a modified technology acceptance model (mTAM) to challenge the theoretical concept of preference as a robust measure to supply statistical information in support of acceptance studies. The model was validated with PLS-SEM, and the results were delimited by the modified TAM. The results showed secondary school students prefer Face-to-face learning while university students’ preference is well distributed. The reasons for these technological preferences were comprehensive and well explained by chosen acceptance factors. The preference of student’s technology for each acceptance factor was key to showing this relation. Therefore, user preference and user acceptance indeed provide comprehensive knowledge to decision makers who consider weighing acceptance.","Dutch high school students; Dutch secondary students; education; Technology Acceptance Model (TAM); technology types; user acceptance; user preference","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2023-04-30","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:400c1593-48f6-496d-afd2-675af653bfaf","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:400c1593-48f6-496d-afd2-675af653bfaf","Assisting Experts in Image Description for Visually Impaired People","Vollebregt, Frank (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Lofi, C. (mentor); Cockx, J.G.H. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","There are an estimated 253 million blind and visually impaired people in the world. To grant them access to text publications that contain images, experts are employed to write image descriptions. There is both a societal and a legislative pressure to supply image descriptions to all new and archived publications within a number of years, yet the number of available experts is limited. The image description task for images in textual context is complex, since a fitting description combines salient elements from both the image as well as the context into a description, which also differs depending on the publisher and published medium.
Because of this complex nature, current automated systems are unable to reliably produce desirable results. Instead, this thesis focuses on developing software to assist the experts in their general image description task in order to improve their efficiency. Specifically, we use existing, commercially available automated tools to generate alternative representations of the data. To analyse the system, we develop a user interface to present all of the available data and design an experiment with a small group of experts to investigate the system's applicability and perceived usefulness. We find that such a system has great potential to assist the experts, but that it might be desirable to focus on a solution aimed towards a smaller subset of publications, so that domain-specific information sources can be exploited to improve the information quality.","visually impaired people; Image description; Expert tool; Assistive technology; accessibility","en","master thesis","","","","","","https://github.com/frankvollebregt/imagedescriptions Github repository with the code used","","","","","","Computer Science | Software Technology","",""
"uuid:1a7922df-e82b-4c2c-8d15-397344c33973","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1a7922df-e82b-4c2c-8d15-397344c33973","Introducing Privacy-Enhancing Technologies to Consortium Blockchains","van Schaick, Bart (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Kromes, R.G. (mentor); Liang, K. (graduation committee); Smaragdakis, G. (graduation committee); Roos, S. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","Blockchain technology has revolutionized the way data is stored, managed, and shared across various industries. Its decentralized nature and immutability make it highly attractive in use cases that require transparency, integrity, and accountability. However, some applications demand confidentiality, necessitating the development of permissioned/consortium blockchains that try to strike a balance between transparency and privacy. Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned blockchain that has gained popularity due to its modular architecture, performance, and scalability. Despite its strengths, the current set of privacy-enhancing features leaves room for improvement.
Therefore, this master thesis aims to explore the potential of introducing various privacy-enhancing technologies to Hyperledger Fabric, including Dynamic Searchable Symmetric Encryption (DSSE), Multi Authority Attribute-based Encryption (MA-ABE), and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE). Based on the promising results of our study, we decided to implement DSSE and MA-ABE. The combination of blockchain technology with TEE was ruled out after the thorough analysis of two research papers on the subject.
Our main result is the first implementation of a provable secure DSSE scheme in the context of consortium blockchains. Moreover, we developed a blockchain-enabled MA-ABE system that utilizes a novel and generic approach to foreign function invocation. Finally, the thesis discusses unexplored challenges in the field of logistics related to electronic consignment notes used in road transport. To address these issues, we designed a blockchain architecture that incorporates our developed privacy-enhanced technologies.","Blockchain; Privacy-Enhancing Technology; Searchable Encryption; Attribute-Based Encryption; Trusted Execution Environments; Permissioned Blockchains","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Computer Science | Cyber Security","",""
"uuid:9ed932c2-7f0f-4460-9df1-7a27c60a9274","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9ed932c2-7f0f-4460-9df1-7a27c60a9274","An Interdisciplinary Study on the Parana Delta of Argentina","Raszka, Patrycja (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment); Chen, Ningyi (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences); Mengel, Fynn (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment); Snow, Josh (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment); LAI, Kevin S.F. (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment); Armstrong Hall, Felix (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences); Imasaki Afonso, Victoria (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment); Moonen, Siirilotta (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences); van Sabben, Pepijn (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)","Hooimeijer, F.L. (mentor); Iuorio, Luca (mentor); Wüthrich, Davide (mentor); Hoes, O.A.C. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","With combined efforts from water management, architectural and hydraulic engineering students, an interdisciplinary and resilient design is set up for the Paraná Delta. The design relates to all the current environmental, architectural and flood risk challenges - among others, as well as the potential issues in the future since the Paraná Delta is a highly dynamic environment.","Parana; Delta; Interdisciplinary; Resilience; Architecture; Building Technology; Watermanagement; Hydraulic Engineering; Student; Project; Argentina; Buenos Aires","en","student report","","","","","","","","","","","","","Multidiscipinary Project",""
"uuid:dea4add6-ed8f-49d5-912e-b873cdeb9701","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dea4add6-ed8f-49d5-912e-b873cdeb9701","A Social life cycle assessment of Urban Wastewater Treatment Systems with Resources Recovery: A Case Study of the WATER MINING Project in Portugal","Mantero Morais Vieira Vasconcelos, Carmo (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Posada Duque, J.A. (mentor); Korevaar, G. (mentor); Tsalidis, G.A. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution); Universiteit Leiden (degree granting institution)","2023","Global water-related impacts are in constant aggravation due to climate change, increased water demand, intensive human activities, and deterioration of the quality of water bodies.
Under this paradigm, humanity must adapt and implement measures to ensure both the quality of water bodies and the sustainable management of resources.
As a result, unexploited water resources, such as wastewater, have been a focus of attention among researchers. Wastewater Treatment (WWT) technologies stand as an important step to promote water reuse and potentially recover raw materials with added value.
While WWT technologies have been assessed at the environmental and economic levels, their social repercussions are not extensively studied. Hence, the present master thesis project resorts to the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) framework to execute an evaluation of the social performance of an innovative WWT system for resource recovery in Portugal. S-LCA was conducted at the organizational level, assessing the social performance of organizations in the value chain through the evaluation of the social effects on Workers, Consumers, Local Community, Society, and value chain actors. In addition, a generic assessment was performed to identify hotspot areas of the Portuguese water sector, following the S-LCA framework.
The systems under analysis integrate a Water Mining (WM) project case study, where an innovative urban WWT technology is implemented. In the two systems defined, the wastewater is treated with the Nereda technology and safely discharged into the environment. Nevertheless, while in the reference system the sludge generated from the treatment is stored or forwarded to landfill, in the novel system a new biobased raw material is recovered.
Regarding the generic assessment, a total of eleven impact subcategories were listed as critical areas regarding the operation of companies in the WWT sector. These were further investigated in the site-specific assessment conducted at the plant level. The results of the site-specific assessment indicate that the organisations included in the assessment performed well for both
systems under analysis. However, organizations’ individual performances reflect that improvements are necessary mainly in the subcategories “equal opportunities/discrimination” and “community engagement”. Other subcategories where organizations need to improve are “promoting social responsibility”, “social benefits/social security”, “local employment”, “health and safety of consumers”, “safe and healthy living conditions” and “public commitment to sustainability issues”. For each organization that did not reach a satisfactory performance
level in a certain subcategory, improvement recommendations were proposed.
In general, the novel system performs better in all impact subcategories when compared to the reference system. Nonetheless, this result is intrinsically connected to system characteristics and model decisions such as weighting factors definition and multifunctionality matters, which remain as rather abstract concepts that do not completely reflect reality.
The main challenges faced during the study concern the accessibility and availability of site-specific and generic data. In terms of site-specific assessment, the high similarity of the reference and novel systems in terms of organizations involved hindered the comparison of the two systems.
To conclude, the S-LCA methodology allowed the identification of social hotpots areas as well as the evaluation of the reference and novel systems' social performance, contributing to the elaboration of strategies to improve social sustainability along the value chain of innovative WWT technologies.
Up until the last decade, fiber technology and materials science was limited to specialists. Since then, textile and clothing brands decided to invest in research and development. The lower costs of cutting-edge technology made it possible for independent designers as well as medium and larger companies to create concepts using innovative products. Additionally, there is a new consumer profile opting for environmentally responsible products that reflect their digital lifestyle.
The Try It Out contribution - sited in the Andermatt, a village in the Swiss Alps - proposes a facility for the development of prototyping and testing of the textile
performance.
Material research becomes increasingly paramount, as material innovation is one of the main drivers for the fashion industry to tackle environmental challenges. Improving the lifespan of fabrics (duration), creating better-performing garments (higher value), and revolutionizing production processes (production), will change how fashion is consumed (consumption).
This contribution is part of Fashion House, a collective project on the spatial implications of a decentralized and more tightly regulated fashion industry across Europe that reimagines the function and design for a fashion house.","Fashion Industry; Extreme weather; Technology; Performance","en","master thesis","","","","","","https://thesisinprogress-theberlage.nl/Fashion-House-Introword This contribution is part of Fashion House, a collective project on the spatial implications of a decentralized and more tightly regulated fashion industry across Europe that reimagines the function and design for a fashion house. Try It Out is a research center for prototyping and testing of products that perform under extreme conditions. It combines cutting-edge equipment with the rapid growth of influencers reviewing products. It is sited in Andermatt, Swiss Alps, Switzerland.","","","","","","The Berlage Post-MSc in Architecture and Urban Design","Collective Project: Fashion House",""
"uuid:2dffdd9b-bf93-4016-9b89-ff6e9ad9cf9a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2dffdd9b-bf93-4016-9b89-ff6e9ad9cf9a","Becoming green while flying blue","Spadon, Timo (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; KLM Royal Dutch Airlines)","Annema, J.A. (mentor); Verburg, R.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","This thesis investigated the transition towards sustainable aviation technologies using a macro and micro perspective. For the macro perspective the seven function model of an Technology innovation system was used. The micro level comprised a case study at KLM using theory of Melissa Schilling, Strategic management of technological innovation. The method was qualitative in which several interviews were performed with industry experts and innovation experts at KLM.
This study revealed that the TIS for sustainable aviation technologies is currently active. However, the TIS is not performing optimally as main barriers emerge for the function legitimisation and lobby, obstructing the transition towards a sustainable aviation future. KLM could take a leading role in overcoming these barriers by using its reputation and profound industry knowledge. For this,
it is important that KLM prioritises innovation and use its will to pioneer in the transition. A long road lies ahead for the industry to become green due to the complexity of the actor network and the technical challenges. Nevertheless, given the technological advancements, it is expected that the first battery-electric flights will emerge in this decade, marking the start of a sustainable aviation industry.
Recommendations were made for policymakers, KLM, and science. The main recommendation for policymakers is to install legislative incentives for entrepreneurial activities and stimulate the market in the future. Furthermore, aerospace should be made available to test battery-electric and hydrogen
technologies. Recommendations for KLM are to prioritise innovation by reorganising innovation teams in the organisation. Autonomous teams should be installed that are separated from the core business to explore new business models and the impact of new technologies on the existing model. Future research should investigate the role of sustainability on the TIS. Also, during the interviews it came forward that the relation between entrepreneurial activities and knowledge creation is bilateral rather than unilateral as presented in the TIS model. Research should further investigate the impact of the bilateral relation on the model.","Technology innovation system; Sustainability; Micro perspective; Macro perspective","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:1bfb060c-8e19-4c32-b5cb-0592240f066f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1bfb060c-8e19-4c32-b5cb-0592240f066f","A walled garden in Brussels: Ambiguity as the foundation for coexistence in the European quarter in Brussels","Meert, Sander (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Rosbottom, D.J. (mentor); Pimlott, Mark (graduation committee); Mulder, K.B. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2023","""Brussels was never destroyed by the wars, but rather by its own people"" these words of Victor Bourgouis show the destructive vision of social and cultural spaces in Brussels. The city's vision of urban development is based on top-down politics, fed by the desire to be modern. This affection leads to the non-identification and displacement of citizens. The tendency for the tabula rasa leads to the production of scar, but when the tabula rasa cannot be evoked, terrain vague starts to exist.
Terrain vague is defined by its ambiguous character. The project, which establishes the terrain vague as a walled garden, is a response to the scars that are made by the historic urban interventions. It defines itself as a space with a public character and gives it to those who require it. It gives meaning to a meaningless void in the city. It keeps the ambiguous, informal, and improvised character that is found on terrain vague, and translates it to a space of possibilities and forming a new center point in the European quarter in Brussels.
for more information, please send an email to:
meert.sander@gmail.com
Steam cracking is expected to be still the leading production technique for HVC in 2050. Therefore, this research focuses only on petrochemical clusters containing a steam cracker.
Accordingly, the research question to be answered was: How can existing petrochemical clusters containing a steam cracker be transformed to produce
HVC with net-zero emissions in 2050? This thesis aims to look into the potential of alternative feedstocks and combine them with other decarbonisation options for steam cracking to produce HVC with net-zero emissions by 2050 from a cradle-to-gate perspective.
A base model was created of a petrochemical cluster containing a steam cracker capable of serving the global market (3900 kt HVC/year) to answer the research question. The base model was used to develop six models with different decarbonisation options capable of accepting alternative feedstock. Decarbonisation options were based on carbon capture and storage (CCS), both post and pre-combustion, electrification and hydrogen. The alternative feedstock was sourced from the renewable materials: vegetable oils, animal fats, crude tall oil and lignocellulosic biomass. Also, plastic waste (recycled) and synthetic (FT wax and naphtha) feedstock made from captured CO2 and hydrogen were included. The maximum percentage of HVC produced from alternative feedstock was assumed to be 25% due to uncertainties and limitations in the availability of alternative feedstock. The rest of the HVC was yielded from a mixture of fossil feedstock (naphtha, LPG, ethane, gas oil and butene). Different experiments were performed to estimate the emission reduction potential of separate or combined decarbonisation options with HVC yields originating from alternative feedstock ranging from 0% to 25%. The supply chain and associated CO2 emissions of the feedstock were also analysed. Next to determining the emission reduction, the quantitative data from the models were also used to assess the levelized cost of zero emissions HVC and the geographical and infrastructural limitations of decarbonisation options. One problem was the residual fossil fuel gas from the process, possibly leading to unwanted emissions elsewhere if not appropriately handled. In conclusion, the only decarbonisation options capable of dealing with this problem are CCS and auto-thermal reforming combined with CCS. Together with renewable feedstock, from a cradle-to-gate perspective, these options are capable of reaching net-zero emissions or even negative emissions when fossil and renewable feedstock supply chain emissions are drastically reduced. For future research, it is advised to not only focus on producing HVC with steam cracking but also consider other greenfield production method capable of producing HVC with renewable resources. A comparison with the proposed pathways in this research would provide valuable insights.
Reviewing the relevant past literature found moderating and mediating effects between constructs examined in mobile payment studies to often be excluded from analysis. As a result, this thesis also aims to address this research gap. A suitable starting research framework was selected after reviewing eleven prominent research models and a conceptual model was designed based on these reviews. Data was subsequently collected using an online survey questionnaire. The 217 collected responses were subjected to data analysis of which the results indicate that the Dutch consumer is mainly driven by three functional motives regarding respectively: how well the technology is expected to perform, how well the technology is perceivably supported, and to which extent the consumer has habits that are similar to using mobile payment services.
Perceptions of involved risk and feelings of distrust towards providers of mobile payment services only reduced the incentive to adopt the technology among respondents within the age group of 25-34, and solely weakened the performance-based motive. It was furthermore found that the habit-based motive reduced both risk perception and distrust of the users. No motivational differences were found between users of BigTech services or those offered by financial incumbents, or between users and non-users.
The Dutch relevant authorities may induce from this research that the competitive balance in the Dutch financial sector is likely tipping in favour of BigTech as consumers are driven mainly by utilitarian needs to which BigTech can more easily cater than financial incumbents. Dutch financial incumbents may therefore require additional support to reduce the potential for harmful levels of competitive pressure in the financial sector and limit the sector’s exposure to concentration risk, which the involvement of BigTech can bring about. Dutch financial incumbents may induce from this research that the contemporary Dutch consumer mainly prefers improved functional capabilities. According to the results, performance, wide-spread support, and fit with consumers’ existing habits, should serve as key focus areas for improvement in order to compete efficiently. The theoretical contribution that this research made regards the discovered mediating and moderating effects of the evaluated constructs in mobile payment adoption research. The obtained results thereby implore future research in this field to similarly evaluate such effects in order to increase the explanatory power of the employed research model and potentially derive additional and crucial insights.","BigTech; Mobile Payments; Technology Adoption; UTAUT2; Consumer Trust; Digitalisation; M-Payments; PLS-SEM","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:7de1d918-1316-48b3-9345-1982af9b0b91","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7de1d918-1316-48b3-9345-1982af9b0b91","The Sustainability Transitions Platform: A digital innovation platform that serves as a tool for development of sustainability transitions research and as a bridge between theory and practice","Blom, Peter (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Energie and Industrie)","Kamp, L.M. (mentor); Ortt, J.R. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Sustainability transitions is a complex multi-dimensional research field. In this field, different frameworks exist that have grown as separate strands while they actually contain many similarities and in some cases can even complement each other. In general, these frameworks try to present and clarify the processes related to transitions of socio-technical systems and the emergence, diffusion and utilization of technological innovations. To do so, researchers carry out historical event analyses for specific cases. This means that they gather, process and analyse data about events that have happened in the past to build a narrative of how an innovation has developed or a transition took place over time. Although there are guidelines in literature on how this should be done for each framework, the case results as presented in academic papers are often varied and the clarification behind the results and the used data can be unclear.
In this research an attempt has been made to reduce this variance and unclarity by building a tool in which the data gathering, categorizing and processing of sustainability transitions research cases is done structurally and the data itself is systemically presented through visualisations. This tool is a software based digital platform, referred to as the Sustainability Transitions Platform (STP). In the first draft of the platform functionalities have been limited and the sustainability transitions theory has been focused on the Multi-Level Perspective and Technological Innovation Systems. These are two of the most frequently used frameworks in the field and a combination of both is already being experimented with taking advantage of their commonalities and complementarities.
The combined framework contains three elements that are deemed important to build the system of the case. These are i) the environment in which the technological innovation system resides; ii) the actors, networks and institutions of the system; iii) the functions analysis tool to determine how the parts of the system are functioning.
These elements have been translated to the platform as three separate visualization tools, which are:
1. Technology environment, which presents the technology being analysed within a graph together with other technologies relevant for the analysis as comparison and landscape factors that influence the system.
2. Structural components, which presents all the actors, in a structured way through predefined groups, and their networks in the same graph and also present the relevant institutions in an adjacent table.
3. TIS functions analysis, which presents how the system is functioning in a radar chart based on a set of functions and their corresponding indicators.
These visualization tools are intended to present the case data in a structured way in order to help users of the platform better understand the system development process and make it comparable between cases.
The platform template has been tested through a case for offshore wind energy technology in Brazil.
From this case we have seen that i) the data does indeed need to be implemented structurally; ii) the visualization tools in the platform present the system through the three required elements of the framework; and iii) the platform user is able to determine possible bottlenecks for further development of the system. Another advantage gained by carrying out the case in a platform instead of how they currently are in journals, is that the digital aspects of the platform allow users to interact with the visualization tools and the underlying data which can help clarify the reasoning behind the conclusions of analysis. From the case we have also learned that in the current version of the platform i) inputting the data can be very time consuming and should in the future be automated; and ii) some essential aspects of the case are still not presented in the visualization tools, for example, the power or influence specific actors have in a system, which should be taken into account in future versions.
The STP appears to have a positive effect on sustainability transitions case implementation and would be recommended to be further developed. Given its dynamic nature it should also be used as an experimentational tool to merge the strengths of other frameworks in sustainability transitions research to eventually generate a single more complete framework and act as a bridge between theory and practice.","Sustainability transitions; Platform; Multi-Level Perspective; Technological Innovation Systems","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:d36e15d4-e99a-4938-8f11-088da4fb3278","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d36e15d4-e99a-4938-8f11-088da4fb3278","The design of an intuitive interface for the GyBAR: Simplifying the controls of a balance assistance device for optimal adoption by physical therapists","Estrada, Daniela (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Poggensee, K. (mentor); Sterke, B.T. (mentor); Vallery, H. (graduation committee); de Winter, J.C.F. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","According to the WHO, falls are responsible for over 38 million disability-adjusted life years lost each year, globally. Additionally, an estimated 684.000 individuals die of falling each year, making it the second leading cause of unintentional death. One of the most effective physical activity interventions to reduce the risk of falling, is targeted exercise that safely challenges balance. One tool, that is currently
being developed, which can aid physical therapists with these interventions is the GyBAR. A wearable device that uses gyroscopes to apply moments to the patient. This can be used to either provide balance assistance or challenge balance by applying perturbations. The goal of this research was to develop an interface for the GyBAR. The interface should contribute to the acceptance of the GyBAR. This can be achieved by an excellent perceived ease of use, which combined with perceived usefulness
are indicators for the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The interface inspired by a Voodoo-doll was developed by going through the following design process steps; the creation of a list of requirements; a brainstorm to generate ideas; the development of three concepts; and the selection and development of one concept into a prototype. The Voodoo Doll controls the GyBAR by a handheld model of the patient, which can be manipulated and translates the movements of the model to the actual patient. User tests were performed to validate the design. With a SUS-score of 82.81 (SD=7.48), which is within the 90-95 percentile, it can be concluded that the interface has an excellent perceived ease of use. Further development is encouraged are several recommendations for points of improvement are given.
Informed by several inspiring design frameworks or theories (e.g. design for appropriation, end-user development, ambiguity in design, meta-design), the author proposed design for openness as a potential design strategy to address the first tension (chapter 5 prologue). What is so powerful about ‘openness’ in design is its potential to satiate various needs over time, in the meanwhile, promote autonomy in users. A theoretical model is theorized to provide firm design handles (chapter 5 prologue). Next, co-speculation sessions are conducted to gather situated knowledge and to experiment with the idea of design for openness (chapter 5). Findings from the sessions reveal the potential risk of leaving the design completely open: ineffective appropriation caused by misalignment between use and design (chapter 5). How to lower the seemingly paradoxical misalignment between design and use while still maintain the openness in design becomes the focus of the rest this research (tension 2) (chapter 5).
A concept artifact is crafted as an explorative attempt to address the misalignment between use and design (chapter 6). Next, the evaluation of the concept artifact is conducted which results in rich design implications (chapter 7). Insights from the evaluation sessions also help further develop the theoretical model (chapter 8). An alternative design process that's different from the traditional one is put forward and limitations are discussed and directions for future research are sketched out (chapter 8). The report closes by reflecting on the whole project and summarizing the main contributions of this project (chapter 9).
This research looks at this issue from the perspective of the value proposition design process. This process assumes a definition of potential benefits and uses on the side of the developer, aligning, and communicating them with the potential users. Specifically, the Value Proposition Creation model is used, as it is a method often used by AI startups and university spinoffs. The main question this research asks is “What are the factors influencing the specific value proposition of innovative AI solutions”. By answering this question, the paper hopes to establish a method for understanding the specific aspects of the AI solutions that should be taken into consideration while designing an effective value proposition and communicating it with the potential user.
To answer the research question, an in-depth look is taken at the Artificial Intelligence adoption processes. First, a literature study helps define the factors involved in the AI adoption. A conceptual model is created, which is then evaluated via a series of semi-structured interviews with AI research and development experts. By doing so, the relationships between the factors are obtained and a general impact on the adoption process is understood. This allows for a formulation of the relationship of said factors with the Value Proposition Canvas. Additionally, literature research is conducted on the value proposition frameworks, which allows for a definition of good practices in value proposition design in relation to the Artificial Intelligence solutions. The obtained frameworks are then tested in a single exploratory case study, which looks specifically at the idea of Deep Reinforcement Learning algorithms used as a decision-making method in the context of road maintenance planning.
The research provides an overlay on the Value Proposition Canvas, obtained through the evaluation of the AI adoption process. Such approach creates a framework, which then can be used to effectively define and clarify the individual values, benefits, gains, and features of an AI product. Moreover, by providing the interrelationships between the adoption factors, understanding of the internal dependencies of factors necessary in the product development process can be obtained. The framework can be used by developers in the field of Artificial Intelligence to assess the necessary requirements of the solution, highlight the key areas that have to be researched, as well as help in communicating of the crucial solution aspects with the potential clients and users. The framework can be best used in the context of an AI startup or a university spinoff, because of its generalist approach. It assumes a fast development of a value proposition, which is necessary in the context of a Minimum Viable Product definition.
The results of the research combine the adoption processes of the AI solution and the method for their value proposition, realized with the VPC. It has been shown that the adoption factors may play a relevant role in the value definition of the potential solutions. Because the adoption models may not be used directly in the VP processes, a framework of questions has been setup for the solution developers to reflect upon during the Value Proposition Creation. Such approach is in line with the general methodology of the VPC, as it uses questions to define the relevant fields of the canvas. The goal of the research was not to modify the canvas itself, as its intrinsic agility and simplicity is the core strength. Moreover, by looking at the common practices seen in other Value Proposition frameworks, good practices have been defined for the VPC in relation specifically to the Artificial Intelligence solutions. These results have been afterwards validated in the exploratory case study for the Deep Reinforcement Leaning decision-making system in the field of road maintenance, indicating the specific steps that the solution developer must undertake and creating an example Value Proposition Canvas for this specific case.
“From the technical innovation system perspective, how could solar electric vehicles reach mass adoption in Indonesia?”
This research is conducted in collaboration with Lightyear – a SEV producer. As Lightyear is aiming to mass produce its SEV, therefore, this research is conducted to explore and evaluate the Indonesian market, so that the best strategy recommendation could be provided to Lightyear so it could commercialize its SEV in a large scale in Indonesia. The qualitative research approach is implemented in this research by reviewing diverse online literature, including both scientific and grey literature.
The TIS Framework (Ortt & Kamp, 2022) and the Ten Niche Strategies framework (Ortt et al., 2013) are used as the starting point of the research. TIS is defined as innovation systems around a specific technology that consists of four main elements: the technology, a network of actors, the institutions, and the demand. Ortt & Kamp’s TIS framework is a tool to examine the TIS of an innovation that is in its adaptation phase to judge whether the innovation is ready for its mass uptake or whether a small-scale niche introduction strategy is needed prior to the large-scale diffusion. The framework consists of three major elements: TIS building blocks (most important aspects needed for large-scale diffusion), influencing factors, and strategies. When certain influencing factors negatively affect the completeness of the TIS building blocks, they pose as barriers to the mass adoption of the innovation. Certain strategies could be implemented to circumvent these barriers, such as the generic Ten Niche Strategies proposed by Ortt et al.
The research is conducted in four major steps. First, basic information about SEV technology is explored. Second, a new framework called “the Best Strategy Framework” is developed to extend and complete the original TIS Framework and Ten Niche Strategies Framework so that the users/readers could select the best strategy based on the combination of barriers that hinder mass adoption of the innovations. Third, the newly developed framework is used to evaluate the Indonesian market and to identify the barriers that might hamper Lightyear’s SEV mass adoption in Indonesia. Finally, by using the newly developed framework, the best strategy that could circumvent the identified barriers is selected and proposed to Lightyear.","Green mobility; Technological Innovation System; Barriers and Strategies Analysis; Indonesia; Solar Electric Vehicle","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:87a77bd7-adf0-4556-8c95-126d88fd2728","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:87a77bd7-adf0-4556-8c95-126d88fd2728","Preventing intellectual (near-) monopoly in digital education by developing free space for education technology development","LIU, RUOBING (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Naastepad, C.W.M. (mentor); van Eeten, M.J.G. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","In this thesis I investigate possibilities for expanding freedom of choice in the development and use of digital education technologies. This thesis may be of interest to university policy-makers, students, professors, software-developers, or anyone interested in expanding freedom of choice in the development and use of digital education technologies.
This research aims to investigate possibilities for the creation of a free space in the cultural sphere for digital education technology to protect from intervention by intellectual (near-) monopolies. Intellectual monopolies are companies that build their wealth by excessive monopolising access to knowledge and converting it into intellectual rents, a type of intangible assets.
The thesis are examined against the background of an overarching perspective on society as consisting of three spheres. Legal-political sphere is to develop laws and regulations; Economic sphere is about production, distribution (trading) and consumption of goods; Cultural sphere is to generate idea and knowledge. In each sphere, there also are three aspects belonging to legal-politics, economics, and culture.
The thesis consists of two parts and adopts a macro-to-micro research framework. In the first part, the research focuses on the macro-socialistic level first and then zooms in to business level (education technology) by analysing existing literature. This part investigates how intellectual monopolies emerge, first in general and then more specifically in digital education technology, and how they reduce freedom of education. More specifically, the thesis identifies economic, legal-political and cultural factors that promote intellectual monopoly in the digital industry, and explains how intellectual (near-)monopoly in digital education (e.g. in online-learning platforms, LMSs or video-conferencing software) arises as a consequence of particular relationships between the economic, legal-political and cultural sphere, where governments and international organisations give laws and regulation (e.g. IP law, education laws and regulation, the standardisation of education) that support the concentration of R&D in a few giant digital high-tech companies and the growth of (near-)monopoly positions in the digital education technology market, enabling high-tech giants to extract what in this study is called ‘learning-related rent’ (tangible and intangible assets formed by controlling learning tools and learning content), and reducing freedom of education (the core component of the cultural sphere).
In the second part, the thesis zoom in further to the university level and examines the possibilities decision-makers at universities have to expand freedom of choice in digital education technology for professors and students through a case study of a Dutch university. An interview is conducted as the main method of the case study to collect data. From the interview results, legal-political, economic and cultural hurdles in establishing free space in choosing education technology in the cultural sphere have been identified.","Intellectual monopoly; education technology; academic freedom; knowledge generation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:274da621-f91f-4bb1-bb33-3d5dd50f0c05","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:274da621-f91f-4bb1-bb33-3d5dd50f0c05","A mechanistic modelling framework for swirling gas-liquid vertical pipe flow: Investigating the bubbly to columnar flow transition","van der Zalm, Bart (TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft ChemE/Transport Phenomena)","Portela, L. (mentor); Martinez Garcia, M. (mentor); Henkes, R.A.W.M. (graduation committee); Bera, B. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","This thesis is aimed at developing a fundamental understanding of the key physical mechanisms associated with swirling gas-liquid flow in a vertical pipe, in order to construct a mechanistic model for predicting the flow behaviour. The model is based on quasi-1D reasoning, in analogy to the classical models for gas-liquid flow without swirl. As a benchmark case, it is used to investigate the onset of columnar flow patterns that are characteristic to swirling multiphase flow, for low gas input flows.","Multiphase flow; Swirling gas-liquid flow; Mechanistic modelling; Flow patterns; Transition modelling; Quasi-1D flow; Separation technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Applied Physics | Physics for Fluid Engineering","",""
"uuid:5baeb564-2a86-4a70-b10d-7d42584be888","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5baeb564-2a86-4a70-b10d-7d42584be888","The nutrient bioextraction potential of offshore macroalgae cultivation: A study on the establishment of ecosystem services through large-scale offshore macroalgae cultivation in the North Sea","Schoenmakers, Joris (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ward, Hauke (mentor); de Kreuk, M.K. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Due to the increasing impact of terrestrial agriculture on climate change, the attention of a myriad of industries is shifting towards the use of alternative, low-emission resources. Seaweed cultivation has presented itself as a contribution to the mitigation of the increased pressure on current resources. However, coastal and offshore marine areas are often unfit for seaweed cultivation due to increasing maritime activity. As wind farm areas are increasing, offshore seaweed aquaculture in multi-use platforms at sea (MUPS) has been proposed as one of the possibilities for smart use of ocean space. Apart from providing a multitude of benefits through the many applications of seaweed, it is also widely suggested that seaweed could offer ecosystem services during its growth by means of nutrient bioextraction of eutrophied waters. In this thesis, the critical nutrient flows of cultivation of S. latissima in MUPS at the North Sea are quantified using a dynamic mathematical nutrient model, and the impact on the marine vicinity is assessed. The assessment is performed for two scenarios: (1) a seaweed farm producing for a high-value chemicals factory, and (2) a seaweed farm producing for a fuel biorefinery. Both these scenarios are modelled over the course of one cultivation season on four offshore wind farm locations in the North Sea. Moreover, an analysis is performed on the potential role of monitoring technologies in offshore seaweed aquaculture in MUPS. The results of this study are combined to assess whether it is possible to establish ecosystem services through large-scale offshore seaweed cultivation in MUPS at the North Sea using monitoring technologies and nutrient analyses. The analysis in this study showed that offshore seaweed cultivation has a promising potential for nutrient bioextraction in the North Sea. However, nitrate depletion could occur during the last months of cultivation, when primary productivity is naturally lower. It is recommended that further research on the ecological effects of this nitrate depletion is conducted, and measures are taken to minimise the risk of detrimental effects. It is concluded that a combination of nutrient analyses and monitoring technologies could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of large-scale offshore seaweed cultivation. Subsequently, this can create a solid foundation for the development of ecosystem services and the further development of the offshore seaweed sector in the near future.","Seaweed; Macroalgae; Nutrients; Impact Assessment; Monitoring technologies; Offshore; Multi-Use platforms; North Sea","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:d723844d-658b-4aaa-9432-90039544d58d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d723844d-658b-4aaa-9432-90039544d58d","Role of IT Technologies in fostering Business Transformation: Case study of Philips","Gaonkar, Bhushan (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Khodaei, H. (mentor); de Reuver, G.A. (mentor); Scholten, V.E. (mentor); Pals, Hugo (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","The term ""digital transformation"" (DT) has gained popularity, sparking interest across many academic fields and inspiring new lines of inquiry(Hausberg et al., 2019). With the adoption of new technologies helping deliver secure high-quality patient care and drive greater business efficiency, healthcare sector has gained significant benefits from digital transformation. Digital technologies, driven by the exponential rise in computing power, have successfully altered the majority of economic sectors, from finance to entertainment, with one notable exception: healthcare. The increasing advancements in medical equipment and imaging technology serve as evident illustrations of how high-tech medicine is in many aspects. Nevertheless, healthtech companies are still on a learning curve on how to transform their companies digitally, despite billions of dollars being invested in digital health solutions by both startup and established technology companies(Walsh & Rumsfeld, 2017).
This study advances the body of knowledge in the field of digital transformation by identifying the barriers to and enablers of business transformation as well as the role of IT technology as an enabler of business transformation. By creating a theoretical framework for barriers and enablers of business transformation with IT technology as an enabler, it empirically studies Philips to undertake a case study and offers a basis for theory building. On the subject of business transformation, a literature review utilizing the five-step grounded theory methodology was carried out. According to the literature study, this research highlights four primary barriers facing business transformation: organizational, knowledge, financial, and technical. Strategy, people, process, data, and technology are the different categories for business transformation enablers. The theoretical framework for this study is developed using the results of this literature review. A case study is performed on the digital transformation journey of Philips by identifying the IT technologies of the acquired firms that are part of Philip’s healthcare transformation portfolio. This research captures the goal of business transformation while identifying the barriers and enablers of business transformation at Philips by conducting inductive qualitative research by interviewing. Analysis of data is carried out by following the steps stated by Miles & Huberman (1994) and using content analysis to analyze the interview data. The results of this study show that At Philips, the organizational barrier has emerged as the most pervasive barrier to business transformation. This study demonstrates that Philips' organizational structure, or the way they are set up, is a significant impediment to business transformation. The matrix organizational structure of Philips makes organizational change challenging. According to researchers, business transformation begins with establishing a strategy and achieving the organization's aim. According to the research, this strategy is misleading, and that any business transformation strategy should be developed by first comprehending customer demands before being in line with the intended outcome of the business transformation. According to this study, people with proper experience and knowledge in the field of business transformation are the key enabler of business transformation. This study supports the resource-based hypothesis, which contends that an organization has a great chance to outperform its rivals when it possesses strategic resources that can provide it an advantage in the market and could even help it generate sizable profits. This research examines three important IT technologies provided by the acquired companies of Philips, namely Tomtec, RDT, and Capsule technologies as resources that can enable business transformation. According to this study, Philips' business transformation was made possible by the IT technologies' significant contributions to the company's sales and revenues following the acquisition of these companies. By integrating these IT resources into other products in their portfolio to facilitate business transformation, Philips can further develop these technologies and achieve their objective of becoming a fully solutions-based firm. However, the findings of this study also suggest that IT technologies have not yet reached their peak value since Philips lacks the competencies and innovation culture to fully utilize these technologies and add value as a result of preexisting limitations.
Considering the fact that solar PV is a major driver of the renewable energy transition, this thesis in part addresses this knowledge gap by spatially analyzing which socioeconomic groups in the urban environment lack access to solar PV and where these groups are located. Access to solar PV in this context is defined as: the freedom of individuals or households to decide whether or not to adopt residential solar PV energy resources, dependent on the existence of one or more barriers. Secondly, does the research assess how access to solar PV resources spatially intersects with the ability to generate solar energy through these resources. The location that is selected as the area of study for this research is the city of The Hague, Netherlands. A framework is constructed to assess access to solar PV using the Theory of Planned Behavior originating from social sciences, which is frequently used to model adoption behavior of novel energy technologies. To evaluate the technical PV potential of the case-area the ArcGIS Solar Analyst Tool is applied. A K-means clustering analysis is performed to find any meaningful patterns in the distribution of access to solar PV across the area of study.
The key findings of this study are:
•Access to solar PV resources is unequally distributed across the Hague. Large parts of The Hague have unfavorable characteristics for solar PV adoption.
•The highest levels of technical PV potential are found in areas that are considered to have poor access to solar PV. As a consequence, currently the majority of technical PV potential within the case area is likely to remain unexploited due to poor access to solar PV within these areas.
•There is a need for energy policy that focuses on the groups that have poor access to solar PV and are unserved by current energy policy focused on stimulating adoption of solar PV. These groups are non-home owners in the private rental sector, home-owners that share ownership of the roof of a shared building and households that are provided housing by social housing corporations.
Further research could focus on exploring and evaluating policy design that is aimed at supporting socioeconomic groups that currently lack access to the renewable energy transition. This is important in order to ensure that the renewable energy transition makes its way throughout all layers of society.
To answer this research question several research activities were performed. The research activities consisted of selecting and defining the case, data collection, data interpretation, and theory building. Three forms of double counting were established. To further enrich the knowledge base the stakeholder dimension was mapped based on secondary sources and empirical knowledge gained through preliminary interviews. Several mapping techniques were employed to map the interrelations between the market mechanisms and double counting.
The MLGBE framework allows carbon market actors to evaluate and, if applicable, reason about the various available blockchain-based infrastructures as tokenizing carbon credits and the digitized trading of these credits. By doing so, they can identify the stakeholder dynamics with all policies, interrelated treaties, and community plans in place, to develop or evaluate sustainable blockchain-based platforms tailored to the market to prevent double counting.
Scientifically, new theory was built through the development of the MLGBE framework. By integrating multi-level governance theory and business & governance information to the particularities of asset tokenization in blockchain applications, a new approach to evaluate blockchain designs is presented. Secondly, the research delineates the issue of double counting in the voluntary carbon market, Lastly, the research corroborates earlier findings in the logistics domain of the importance of reliability of data elements of blockchain-based applications used for audit trails.
Concerning double counting further research is recommended on the potential of blockchain solutions to link schemes together to facilitate a global carbon market, how these link to the eventual implementation of Article 6, and the potential nesting within countries’ NDCs. For
the MLGBE framework, future research should look into the interaction between the standardization/fragmentation dependent on policy layers and the different rights in the governance
requirements.
In order to assess these wells, a decision making framework was developed that will consider the main mechanisms that can lead to leakage across an abandoned wellbore. The objective is that this framework could be used by an operator of a prospective reservoir for a CCS project, prior to the start of the operations, in order to understand the risk associated with the abandoned wells present, and take decisions for remediation if necessary and possible. This framework considers three main aspects relevant for the formation of leakage paths. These are the effectiveness of the abandonment process itself, the chemical processes that can lead to the degradation of the isolation elements, and the mechanical processes that can lead to loss of integrity.
The framework consists of two main parts. The first is a qualitative analysis, based on a thorough literature review, assessment of experts and testing with case studies. This qualitative assessment consist of decision trees, formed by a series of questions which answers will dictate the final outcome that will reflect the state of the abandonment. The second part is a quantitative risk analysis. For this purpose ""Bayesian Belief Networks"" are used which is a probabilistic tool used for calculating the relative probability of a combination of factors. The BBNs are constructed and populated based on a thorough literature review including data on experimental results. In addition, geomechanical simulations were carried to populate these models. All this data was processed and converted into normal random distribution functions, which were used to infer the probabilities that would be included in the BBNs. The final outcome of the BBNs reflect the probability for leakage to occur.
Both the qualitative and quantitative parts of the framework are integrated together in order to obtain a complete analysis. The complete framework was tested with case studies based on real wells for which the abandonment states are known and reported by the operator, to observe how the outcome of the framework analysis matched the outcomes of the analysis performed by the operator.
With this study, a complete and systematic framework was developed that can be used to aid decision making for prospective CCS projects in the future. The framework is constructed such that it has the capacity to be improved and expanded in the future, to increase its consistency and broaden its applications. A series of potential improvements are also explained at the end of this report. Furthermore, the framework can be used to challenge the current abandonment standards and assess what will have to be changed to adapt the current abandonment techniques so that they include CCS projects.
Based on scientific literature, a conceptual framework is constructed from innovation and business theories on why motivations, commitments, and beliefs are relevant for adoption and whether there are examples in literature. The conceptual framework visualizes the coherence of the theories and presents potential adoption factors but the combination of theories lacked specification, degree of importance, and a concise list of all relevant adoption factors reflected by the industry. Therefore will this research as a relevant scientific contribution, with the use of the conceptual framework, explore and specify relevant motivations, commitments, and beliefs in the industry toward adopting sustainable aviation innovations into the current technological regime.
The interviews that have been held with stakeholders have resulted in multiple specified types of adoption factors regarding motivations, commitment, and beliefs. Within these types are factors determined on their importance as well as factors that can be stated as new interesting knowledge. Based on these factors, the research concludes that over the last couple of years sustainable awareness is increasing a lot and therefore it is one of the most important motivations to start adopting SAF. SAF is becoming more widely known and it is seen that momentum for sustainable transition is being built in the industry. Nevertheless, the research can conclude the implementation of regulations is strongly demanded to create motivation for adoption in the industry. The industry explicitly claims that they require the implementation of blending mandates that cause pressure which is needed to motivate businesses to already start adopting SAF.
The main recommendations to put on the scientific agenda are to do additional similar research including more European countries or on other continents. For policymakers, they need to lay focus on the development of regulations that stimulate the adoption of SAF. For the industry, this research recommends using the specifications of the adoption factors at the negotiation table or as advice for firms as a supportive base to start adopting SAF
Thinking towards a time of copper depletion, From Mine to Mine, envisions in three chapters transitions for these copper landscapes - turning them from destructive into productive ones while giving agency to the house of the miner itself. From there, the miner of the future enters remotely through screens the three chapters - “The Toxic Forest“, “The Baquedano Oasis“ and “The London Mine“ - all mines in their on right, that materially and programmatically feed into the house. This way, the house becomes both consumer and constructor of a context in trans-ition, a context that is being “mined“ trans-territorially, trans-temporally and trans-disciplinarily.","Chile; digital; Extraction; Domesticity; Home; technology; sensors; Mining; Resources; materials; transition","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Explorelab","",""
"uuid:afd3df73-345d-4189-a326-eeda523767c3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:afd3df73-345d-4189-a326-eeda523767c3","Building Blockchains: A Thesis about how we will Work in the Future","Haak, Stijn (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment; TU Delft Urbanism)","Kuijper, J.A. (mentor); Parravicini, M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Work in The Netherlands seems to evolve along the line of technological inventions as a result of increased productivity rates. Because of its increasing productivity, the earliest technologies are quickly adopted in spaces of economic activity. Traditionally, the place to work was centralized so employers could keep an eye on their employees and often also because the home environment couldn’t provide a reasonable place to work. But through the disruptive decentralization of the internet, work activity was partially released from its geographical constraints. During this time of Remote Working employees saw increasing productivity levels. However, some negative side-effects were introduced that limited the remote desktop. As digital developments continue the full disruptive power of the internet has not yet been met. Currently, some disruptive technologies are being developed that try to expand the digitally assisted professions into safe immersive experiences. In moving away from technology as a medium to re-act upon, this research shows how active acting can deliver on socio-economic sustainability in Amsterdam Nieuw-West through the example of work.","digitization; work; decentralization; metaverse; VR; AR; Blockchain; Blockchain Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","City of the Future",""
"uuid:9dd876db-0657-4b69-9bad-5610df65ccd8","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9dd876db-0657-4b69-9bad-5610df65ccd8","A BIM Components Library for Circular Energy Renovation Design","moutou, danai (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Konstantinou, T. (mentor); Turrin, M. (mentor); Alattas, A.F.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","This study intended to combine façade energy renovation strategies with circular design to improve energy performance and overall sustainability and circularity of the existing building stock. BIM technology can facilitate energy renovation projects by following circular design principles. A BIM library can offer most of the benefits of standardization, which is a crucial aspect of a successful circular design. The study's main research question was: “How can a BIM components library facilitate the design of a circular standardized façade renovation system that meets the energy-saving measures and it is adjustable?”It was intended to design a circular components library with BIM software that could provide the designer with the necessary information to help the design process of energy façade renovations. The library consists of standardized components and their different configurations so that the final façade system can be adjustable to different buildings. The library can provide the designers with all the information regarding the components' energy performance and circularity level by creating several evaluation indicators. The main focus of the design was the management of the data and the structure of the BIM library. The findings of the thesis are based on the research of the existing frameworks and guidelines and the “research by design” of the BIM library. The main stages of the thesis were the analog design of the circular standardized façade system and how it can be flexible, the digital design of the façade system with the creation of the BIM library, the validation of the design and the function of the library through the application to the case study building. The BIM library can facilitate the design process by:• Providing easy and quick accessibility to the different circular components of the façade system. • Grouping and organizing the components’ families of the library according to their function and relevance with other components of the system. • Providing information regarding energy performance and circularity with the evaluation indicators. • Counting the different components of the system and their different configurations. This can effectively contribute to the standardization of the system, the minimization of material waste and time, and it will improve its overall circularity level. This thesis provides a pragmatic perspective of the BIM library design and application and an instructional process for the user. It can be used as a starting point for these types of renovation projects. Further research and applications of the BIM library should follow this thesis approach. Also, changes need to be made to the data structure of BIM to improve the efficiency of the proposed library.","Circulair economy; energy renovation; BIM technology; BIM library; components; Facade design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","",""
"uuid:d9a00ea0-8a28-4eee-aac8-c4c40b5431ff","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d9a00ea0-8a28-4eee-aac8-c4c40b5431ff","Platform Urbanism Beyond Colonization and Commodification: Designing the Platform Before It Designs Us","van der Drift, Bjarne (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Muñoz Sanz, V. (mentor); Viseu Cardoso, Rodrigo (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","The rapid upsurge of the platform economy is producing profound changes to the way in which urban areas are functioning. With digital technology putting roots down in the fields of public transport, hospitality and the service industry, it opened up possibilities for new platform economy companies to nest themselves within the activities of these traditional public services. In some occasions serious disruptions of existing systems occur, while in other cases it may unveil opportunities to improve the functionality of public life in cities. Where (local) governmental organizations seem to grapple with policy making to effectively balance the interests of corporate platform organizations and the public good, it is important to critically explore the implications of inadequate regulation vis-a-vis the novel platform economy and the commodification of public space and services. This thesis is an extensive multi-facetted analysis, providing insight in the externalities of flash delivery platforms, as they claim their place in cities and influence urban planning practice. Furthermore, it shall offer design-based interventions to generate synergies between platform services and the traditional functionality of public services to provide creative solutions where policy instruments will fall short. As a result, a more thorough understanding of platform urbanism is acquired and new ways of using platform economies to enhance the lived experience in cities are being presented.","platform urbanism; digital technology; public space; urban logistics; Berlin","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Urbanism","","52.47607713705822, 13.365335920670118"
"uuid:4cdc9c3f-f455-4e7d-8e7f-6012f64c57a4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4cdc9c3f-f455-4e7d-8e7f-6012f64c57a4","Striking Gold in the Valley of Death: Identifying Key Drivers of Venture Capital Investment in Sustainable Innovation","van der Hout, Edward (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ward, Hauke (mentor); Ortt, J.R. (graduation committee); Rubinstein-Malamud, Liza (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution); Universiteit Leiden (degree granting institution)","2022","If we are to avert Climate Change, the world must reduce its net carbon footprint to zero in the coming decades. This will require an unprecedented shift in the technologies relied on in almost every part of the economy. Venture Capital can play a pivotal role in hastening the adoption of new technologies, but for investors to pursue a technology, certain conditions must be met. This research uses the Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework to qualitatively explore the nature of these conditions. It does this through a double case study of two technologies at the forefront of the “Climate Tech” investor movement: Electric Cars and Plant-Based Meat Alternatives. Combining literature research with interviews of both investors and people closely involved with these technologies, the research identifies several key building blocks as likely to affect investor interest. These building blocks include Product Quality (the product needs to be competitive on grounds other than its sustainability), Product Price (the product must be able to be sold at an initially significant premium), Production System (product components or materials as well as production capacity should be commoditized), and Customers (the product must be interesting to the mass-market). In both case studies, the ultimately successful companies showed that the existing niche fundamentally misunderstood the market. Through the lens of the TIS, this could be considered an Accident or Event, where a visionary founder challenges existing Knowledge of Application and Market. There is a significant level of overlap between the case studies, suggesting that this might be a key strategy to developing sustainable B2C innovations.","Technological Innovation System; Venture Capital; Cleantech; Sustainable Innovation; Battery Electric Vehicles; Plant-Based Meat Alternatives","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:bcd8ba05-8859-491a-90e0-17cf20ad3bcc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bcd8ba05-8859-491a-90e0-17cf20ad3bcc","Bamboo to electricity: Assessment of the technoeconomic potential of bamboo on degraded land for electricity generation in Indonesia","de Klerk, Linde (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Langer, J.K.A. (graduation committee); Blok, K. (mentor); de Jong, W. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Following the Paris Agreement of 2015, Indonesia aims to reduce emissions by 29% by 2030, compared to the business as usual scenario. In Indonesia it is expected that between 2015 and 2030 the electricity demand could triple and the total energy demand could increase by 80%. Bioenergy would account for more than half of all renewable energy in 2030 in Indonesia. However, the expansion of energy crops contributes to negative effects like deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and competition with food production. An other problem Indonesia currently deals with is the large amount of degraded land. A solution to these problems would be to cultivate biomass on degraded land. Bamboo can be used as a biomass feedstock, as it meets all selection requirements to be produced on degraded land. This thesis report quantifies the extent and finds the location of degraded land in Indonesia. Also, the technical and economic potential of bamboo cultivation on the degraded land locations is assessed. The research question that will be answered is: how much degraded land would be needed to cover Indonesia’s electricity demand by 2030, when using bamboo as a biomass feedstock, and how likely is this land available? This research question is answered by first doing a geographic information system (GIS) analysis. Through the QGIS software, the degraded land locations in Indonesia which are suitable for bamboo plantations can be found. This is done by layering multiple datasets on top of each other in four steps. Next, the technoeconomic potential analysis is done by calculating how much degraded land would be needed to cover a certain percentage of Indonesia’s electricity demand by 2030, and calculating the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of different biomass conversion technologies. The results show that between 0.21% and 49.9% of Indonesia’s total land area can be considered degraded according to different scenarios. The suitable area for bamboo plantations lays between the 0.01% and the 13% of Indonesia’s total land area. Using these areas the potential electricity that can be reached lays between the 0.4732 TWh for gasification, 0.3533 TWh for combustion, 0.3506 TWh for anaerobic digestion, and 0.1266 TWh for pyrolysis. The area needed to cover 25% of Indonesia’s electricity demand by 2030 ranges from 2.05.6% of Indonesia’s total land cover when using different conversion technologies. For 100% electricity demand this area increases to the range of 8.122.4% of Indonesia’s total land cover. The LCOE goes from 13 US$ct./kWh for gasification, to 16 US$ct./kWh for combustion, 22 US$ct./kWh for anaerobic digestion, and finally to 45 US$ct./kWh for pyrolysis. The result show that when using the least strict degraded land scenarios, it would be possible to cover a significant amount of Indonesia’s electricity demand. However, it is not likely that these scenarios will be applied. The definition of degraded land, still is not completely clear, and extensive field research needs to be done to validate the degraded land results. This research shows that bamboo cultivation on degraded land for electricity generation in Indonesia might not be applicable to generate large amounts of electricity. Nevertheless, it can be applied on smaller scales and it is a step in the right direction of Indonesia’s energy transition. Finally, some recommendations for future research can be made. First of all, uncertainty exists about the datasets used to assess the extent of degraded land in Indonesia. It is recommended that the datasets are validated through field research. Furthermore, in this research an assumption for the yield of bamboo is made, which can be tested against the actual yield of a bamboo plantation on degraded land in Indonesia. Also, socioeconomic and environmental effects of bamboo plantations are not considered, which provides the opportunity to address these in further research. Finally, other end uses like biofuel, other conversion technologies like cofiring, and pretreatment technologies to enhance the conversion efficiency can be evaluated in more detail in future research.","Sustainable Energy Technologies; Degraded land; Electricity generation; Indonesia","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:63b799a3-c5cf-4433-8f0c-e2cfb72a2dd7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:63b799a3-c5cf-4433-8f0c-e2cfb72a2dd7","Reversible 3D printing onto textiles for footwear design","Tsoli, Dimitra (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Doubrovski, E.L. (mentor); Balkenende, A.R. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","3D printing is currently blooming in a lot of different industries, including fashion in the form of 3D printing onto textiles. In parallel, fashion circularity is an increasing movement that has emerged due to the negative impact that fashion creates on the life on this planet and the planet itself. Therefore, a shift to responsible consumption and production methods (sustainable development goal 12) is necessary. To join this circularity movement, 3D printing onto textiles for fashion is required to fulfil certain requirements, including recycling. However, recycling is nowadays hindered by the lack of methods to separate the 3D printed structures from the textile at the End of Life (EoL). This graduation project researches the possibilities to achieve material separation at the EoL, so that the materials can be independently recycled and turned into new products.
The contribution of this research is a framework to achieve material separation that enables recycling for interfaces created by 3D printing onto textiles. This framework has three key steps, which are: developing a separation plan, selecting materials and designing the polymer-textile connection. The separation happens through heat deformation and more specifically, through increasing the temperature locally during separation. The selected materials are PLA, as the polymer, and plain-woven cotton, as the textile. The printing method used is Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). The connection design is implemented on a product application, which is a footwear’s mid-sole bond to the upper shoe’s textile. Four interface designs are tested on separation conditions related to EoL and a scenario of usage conditions, to investigate the effect of the connection design on separation and thereafter, recycling. At the end of the research, clean material separation between polymer and textile is achieved, which is a promising achievement for reversible 3D printing onto textiles.","3D Printing onto Textiles; Circular Design; 3D Printing; Textiles; Footwear Design; Separation Technologies for End of Life; End of Life; Circular Fashion; Circular Textiles","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:a1e63800-f925-4418-ad80-24079a2dfe8d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a1e63800-f925-4418-ad80-24079a2dfe8d","Truck Routing for an Online Grocer: Solving a Pickup and Delivery Problem with Resource Constraint","Barendse, Thomas (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Yorke-Smith, N. (mentor); Konijnendijk, G. (mentor); van Essen, J.T. (graduation committee); Alonso Mora, J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Demand for online grocer Picnic has increased exponentially over the past years, and their truck transport operation must scale with it. Given the resource constraints at all warehouses, as well as other specific restrictions, this poses a Multi Depot Pickup and Delivery Problem with Resource Constraints, for which no good solutions are found to date. The goal of this thesis is to develop an algorithm that provides good solutions to this problem within 30 minutes.
This thesis presents three solution methods to solve this problem. The first is an Adaptive Large Neighbourhood Search (ALNS) algorithm closely related to earlier research. We propose a mechanism with only linear time additional complexity to impose the resource constraint. We also demonstrate ways to take additional constraints into account, such as minimum route duration and driver switches. For the second method, dubbed ALNS+LS, we extend the ALNS with local search heuristics to enhance its performance. As a third method, we propose a matheuristic novel to this specific problem class. This consists of the ALNS+LS algorithm applied to the problem without resource constraints in the first phase, and imposing the constraints using a Constraint Programming model in the second phase. We show that the ALNS+LS outperforms the other two algorithms on a real-life-inspired benchmark set, and that the matheuristic comes close to the ALNS+LS for small instances. We finally show that the full problem is best solved by decomposing it into four parts and solving these separately.","Vehicle routing; Resource constraints; ALNS; Local search; Matheuristics; Picnic Technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Computer Science","",""
"uuid:991c0bd4-f37f-47ba-bfaf-9e866d0a17b3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:991c0bd4-f37f-47ba-bfaf-9e866d0a17b3","Solving the problems of unconstrained technological innovation: Three models of inclusive society","de Jong, David (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Naastepad, C.W.M. (mentor); van der Voort, H.G. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","The recommendations in this thesis are relevant for research and consultancy firms specialized in social aspects of technology. The problem that is analyzed is how in the future society can remain inclusive, when faced with the problems of technological innovation and the possibility of it causing technological unemployment. Researching such societal problems is the goal of this thesis, and the results may be interesting for those (for example in consultancy firms) who seek to widen the concept of ""inclusive society"", by including ideas of what meaningful participation and individual autonomy could entail. For example, in the third model of inclusive society, maintaining individual autonomy includes providing civil society with true freedom for self-development. The discussion of how individual autonomy in this sense could be maintained, is closely related to the way work is funded, and how productivity gains in the economy are distributed to finance more work.","Inclusive society; Technological unemployment; technological innovation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:139bb808-c84b-4ed1-ad57-8f1d900f5ffa","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:139bb808-c84b-4ed1-ad57-8f1d900f5ffa","Adoption barriers for medical technology in Sub Saharan Africa","van der Kooij, Nienke (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Hinrichs-Krapels, S. (mentor); van Beers, Cees (graduation committee); Bots, P.W.G. (mentor); Schuitemaker, Jelle (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Currently, medical technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are not yet sufficient to provide robust healthcare systems. This is not due to it being unavailable, but due to a large portion of present technologies being non-functional. This non-functionality also causes a lack of adoption of medical technologies. Through a T-shaped case study (e.g. a multiple case study with one case worked out in-depth), current barriers in adoption are uncovered. These are then integrated into an actionable framework that can be used by organizations implementing medical technologies in SSA to uncover barriers applicable to them, as well as proposed mitigating strategies to overcome these barriers. Themes included affecting adoption in this thesis are: maintenance, training, organizational and behavioral change. Barriers discovered can be divided into three categories. The first being resource-barriers, covering time, money, human and materials. Secondly, institutional barriers, covering policy, trust and the need for breaking habits. The last barrier category covers communication between client and organization. The framework offers the possibility to find applicable barriers based upon characteristics of an implementation situation. The implementation situation herein is medical equipment (ME) being implemented by an organization (O) into a client organization (CO). Using the knowledge on barriers in an early stage provides opportunity for the organization to overcome these barriers by informed analysis of mitigating strategies that they could implement.","Technology Adoption; medical technology; LMIC; Barriers; Sub-Saharan Africa","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:f5a8b7e6-488f-43a0-a417-66aab2c5c736","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f5a8b7e6-488f-43a0-a417-66aab2c5c736","Few shot emotion recognition using intelligent voice assistants and wearables: Learning from few samples of speech and physiological signals","Kapadia, Mihir (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Ali, Abdallah El (mentor); van der Veen, A.J. (graduation committee); Cesar, Pablo (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Emotion Recognition is one of the vastly studied areas of affective computing. Attempts have been made to design emotion recognition systems for everyday settings. The ubiquitous nature of Intelligent voice assistants (IVAs) in households, make them a great anchor for the introduction of emotion recognition technology to consumers. The existing systems lack such pipelines and rely on dictionary-based architectures in their design. Further, these systems lack conversational properties and are merely an extension of information retrieval engines.
In this setting, we propose to introduce and develop emotion recognition pipelines that are suited to the interactions, common with these IVAs. To augment the existing emotion recognition pipelines which rely on audio information, we look at physiological information derived from wearables. Our proposed model uses multimodal embeddings with a Siamese Network to achieve the task of emotion recognition from a few samples. Physiological signals of blood volume pulse (BVP) and electrodermal activity (EDA) are used as additional input embeddings to two audio embeddings arising from the speech samples. We employ the state-of-the-art training schedules for Siamese Networks, which use a very limited amount of training on support datasets via sample pair comparisons. The performance of the model is evaluated using weighted binary accuracy and f1 scores.
The proposed model is applied on two datasets that denote two unique experimental settings - the K-EmoCon dataset and RECOLA dataset. We demonstrate an improvement in the state-of-the-art accuracy with the K-EmoCon dataset with accuracies of 63.97% and 66.91% on arousal and valence dimensions respectively. Further, on the RECOLA dataset, the model performs moderately well with 53.81% and 53.87% respectively for arousal and valence dimensions. In addition to this, we present a study of the effects of variation of available support set for training from the dataset. We make some salient observations for these experiments across individual participants and also identify how the label distributions affect the performance of the model. Further, we investigate the impact of real-world noise samples from the DEMAND dataset on the two datasets. We observe that the proposed model is robust and performs sustainingly well even in the presence of imputed noise.
The objective is to research a standardized way of estimating the weight of a superyacht in different stages of the project, including validating the current, improved, and new methods and combining this in a single tool. In the design phase, at the beginning of the project, most weight items or groups are based on comparisons with another yacht. Currently, this is done based on a single ship similar to the new design. Still, a significant improvement will be to compare the new design with multiple yachts, with the possibility for the designer to choose the comparison vessels.
The margins can also be researched. Currently, only the starting margin and the production margin at the end are set, but not in between. A guideline should be provided to indicate what margin is expected during each project stage. Also, the complexity level can influence the expected margin, which can all be placed in a table for a clear overview.
The center of gravity estimation of the items is done similarly to the weights. The weight distribution of the yacht is currently not included in the weight estimations, but it will be included in the new weight estimation tool. To achieve this, besides the CoG, the length of the items also needs to be noted for the longitudinal weight distribution. With this information, distribution along the ship in the length direction can be calculated per meter. The model can be validated by comparing these early design stage estimation methods with the more detailed estimates at the end of the engineering stage.
Finally, the research question can be answered, concluding the research. The weights and centers of mass of a superyacht can be predicted in the design phase by comparing the new ship to a database of existing yachts. These estimations can indicate the calculations’ completeness and accuracy at the engineering phase. The weight list includes margins based on the project’s stage and complexity. This way, the estimations and calculation accuracy are transparent and explainable. Also, the longitudinal weight distribution is added to complete and track the center of gravity estimations. Both the design and engineering department can present their findings and estimations next to each other, resulting in a clear overview of development during the project.","Superyacht; Lightship; Weight Estimation; Center of gravity; Design; Marine Engineering; Marine Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Marine Technology | Marine Engineering","",""
"uuid:9c38a591-acba-4adc-b36f-904fd7938333","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9c38a591-acba-4adc-b36f-904fd7938333","Adapting care robot Tessa for early-stage dementia with implementation through general practitioners","Elfering, Rosa (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Mooij, S.C. (mentor); Murray-Rust, D.S. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Tessa is a social, assistive robot from the company Tinybots, designed to support people with early- to moderate stage dementia and other mild cognitive impairments.
By giving verbal reminders and instructions, programmed by their formal and informal caregivers, Tessa gives people back their self-management and autonomy, enabling them to live independently for a longer period of time. Next to this, Tessa can be used by home care organisations to save physical minutes of care, up to 132 minutes per week (Onderzoek En Ervaringen, n.d.). With the staff shortages in the health care sector and the expected rise of people with dementia from 290,000 in 2021 to 620,000 people in 2050 (Alzheimer Nederland, 2021), the use of e-health solutions like Tessa will become increasingly important.
This master thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, a distribution scenario is designed to implement Tessa through GPs, a potential market for Tinybots to target. Currently, Tessa is implemented through home care organisations with the support of their health insurance. From interviews with GPs and their supporting caregivers like POHs and casemanagers, the appropriate scenario was chosen. In this scenario, the general practitioner gives Tessa as an option to their patient and refers them to a home care organisation that implements Tessa. This scenario gives GPs the opportunity to support their dementia patients while maintaining their current role in which they assess the situation and then refer. Due to a limited time per patient, more involvement than that is not feasible. With dementia especially, most care is immediately taken over by the casemanager. Another important factor is the lack of financial support the GP receives. Without this support, affording Tessa is impossible. In home care, there is a higher chance of financial support which is therefore incorporated in the scenario.
In the second part, the focus is on acceptance. Acceptance of help and therefore, acceptance of Tessa is hard. To increase acceptance by this group of people, the perceived usefulness of the product needs to be increased, which is what the second part of this thesis focuses on. To do this, multiple solutions were proposed surrounding themes like increasing autonomy, independence, compatibility, social connectedness, and trialability. Adding the functions of listening to audiobooks and receiving personal voice messages will give Tessa a relative advantage over the current products elderly use and increase perceived usefulness and social connectedness.
In addition, a light version of Tessa in the form of an app to be used on
people’s own devices is proposed as a solution to lower the barrier to accepting Tessa. An app is more subtle, is better compatible with the elderly who use their phone or tablet and who are still living an active life. When dementia progresses and home care is needed, the app evolves into an app that can be used by home care to provide care.
Since material and logistical costs are saved with an app, a free trial can be offered to potential users. With this, the attribute of trialability is used, which can lead to easier adoption of a new product.
In preparation for the launch of the Tessa app version and the new functions, Tinybots needs to prepare a website and information aimed at people with dementia and their informal caregivers instead of care organisations.
By implementing these design changes, Tinybots can implement Tessa through the GP with the proposed distribution scenario. This means they can use Tessa to support people with dementia and their informal caregivers from very early on and for a longer period of time.","care robot; technology acceptance; General practitioner","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design | Medisign","",""
"uuid:7c2bb61a-f04e-4d37-9a9a-0918c9ba200b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7c2bb61a-f04e-4d37-9a9a-0918c9ba200b","The future of Green IT: A framework for Deloitte Technology Strategy & Operating Model to implement sustainability in their current offerings","Maatje, Eline (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Calabretta, G. (mentor); Buijs, M.J.J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Increasing energy usage and environmental concerns force us to look into green innovation. Organizations need to become more sustainable in every aspect to stay relevant. To minimize a company’s carbon footprint, IT should also be included in the sustainability strategy. Therefore, greening IT is and will continue to be a necessity, not an option (Murugesan, 2008). his project is done in collaboration with the department Technology Strategy & Operating Model (TSOM within Deloitte Consulting. Within the research phase of the project, desk research was conducted which existed of literature review and trend research, which was followed by ten expert interviews. The outcome detected an opportunity for Deloitte TSOM. By using a collaborative design process, a modified framework, implementation strategy, and adaptation AIDA model for employees were developed to incorporate sustainability in their everyday work. Additionally, an implementation roadmap was created using the AIDA model to ensure a straightforward adaption process. The new framework and implementation strategy were validated in multiple validation sessions with employees. New insights resulted in iterations on the AIDA model and a new implementation strategy of the new capabilities. Finally, based on the validation and assessment of the solution, it can be stated that the outcome adds to Deloitte TSOM’s current offerings.","Sustainability; Information Technology; Consulting; Framework; Roadmap; Collaborative design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:e1d5d55c-8061-4114-9001-e42d433bcacd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e1d5d55c-8061-4114-9001-e42d433bcacd","Comparing real-world evidence usage in gene therapy health technology assessments: Implications for achieving alignment in future joint clinical assessments","Wassink, Mats (TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Enserink, B. (graduation committee); Boru, A. (graduation committee); Hinrichs-Krapels, S. (mentor); Nijhuis, Tom (graduation committee); Constandse, Tom (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","b>Background & Objective: The unprecedented value and longterm uncertainties of gene therapies have challenged established health technology assessment (HTA) methods. Real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) may mitigate the encountered uncertainties. However, empirical evidence appears to be lacking in the literature. This research aimed to provide this evidence and identify implications for EU-wide gene therapy joint clinical assessments.
Methods: An initial literature review laid the theoretical foundation for the research. A retrospective comparative analysis delivered empirical evidence on RWD/RWE usage in gene therapy HTAs. Preliminary findings were probed in three use cases and verified in semistructured interviews.
Results: Nineteen HTA reports published by the HTA bodies GBA (Germany) and NICE (England) were identified for the ten inscope gene therapies.
Whereas NICE had an average inclusion of 14 sources per HTA report (with an acceptance rate of 56%), GBA had 8 (with 32% acceptance rate).
While RWD/RWE supporting evidence on an external comparator had the lowest acceptance rate, RWD/RWE on intervention effectiveness had the highest acceptance rate. Insufficient information to substantiate the choice of RWD/RWE and inappropriate RWE study design was the most common exclusion rationales for RWD/RWE.
Conclusions: The presented empirical evidence adds to the current knowledge base in two ways; it provides empirical evidence on HTAs of gene therapies (1) and RWD/RWE usage in gene therapy HTAs (2). This work provides insights into how RWD/RWE usage differs between HTA bodies and explicates relevant considerations for gene therapy manufacturers when using RWD/RWE in future HTA submissions. It also proposes that alignment on evidentiary requirements and assessment elements will optimise the transferability of future joint clinical assessment outcomes to national HTA bodies. Knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing initiatives will play a pivotal role in achieving such a consensus.","Health technology assessment; HTA; Real-world evidence; Gene therapy; Joint clinical assessment","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:b008e2cb-0e38-4ea9-bc26-030063b84247","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b008e2cb-0e38-4ea9-bc26-030063b84247","Moving towards zero-emission construction sites in the Dutch infrastructure sector","Aalbers, Sebastiaan (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)","Chan, P.W.C. (mentor); Peppink, T. (graduation committee); Annema, J.A. (graduation committee); Hombergen, L.P.I.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","To limit the effects of climate change, it is crucial to motivate contractors and the government to reduce emissions at construction sites in the infrastructure sector. This research is an exploratory study on which barriers slow down and which drivers accelerate the transition towards zero-emission construction sites in the Dutch infrastructure sector. The goal of this study was to gain insight into the transition process from a government, contractor and technological perspective. Eventually, actions for acceleration were established to answer the main research question: How can the transition towards zero-emission construction sites be accelerated?
Technologically, the most important barrier is the limited availability of zero-emission construction equipment. Also the costs of zero-emission alternatives are currently too high to be profitable compared to the existing machines functioning on fossil fuels. For motivating contractors, the interviewees indicated the need for incentivizing emission reduction at construction sites by rewarding frontrunners and creating competitive advantage through award criteria in infrastructure projects. The research shows that corporate drivers, e.g. competitive advantage are key internal drivers for contractors. Contractors can accelerate the transition by tendering these emission reduction projects to enhance their competitive advantage. Winning these projects finances the zero-emission equipment and leads to an increased competitive advantage. Contractors could start to increase their experience with available small and medium size electric equipment. The respondents also indicated that the government could play a greater stimulating role than it does at present. As main client it is important that the government challenges the market to operate in a zero-emission way as much as possible. As legislator/policy maker it is important to create boundary conditions for contractors to enable them to invest in zero-emission equipment. More clarity and continuity of future policy plays a significant role for motivating contractors.
When the actions for acceleration are taken, the first step towards an accelerated transition can be made, by slowly changing some of the underlying problems how the construction industry is organised. These are mainly changing the competing market dynamics, the enabling policy environment and increasing the attractiveness of alternative technologies. The government can use policy instruments to incentivize, communicate and cooperate with and enforce the private sector to enhance private emission reduction efforts. Moreover, contractors could also take social responsibility, and not consider emission reduction at construction sites only as a governmental matter. The combination of more intrinsic motivation of contractors and an active use of policy instruments by the government can pave the way for creating more resilient and future-proof ways of construction.
A DSR approach is executed in a situated setting at Schiphol Airport to capture the value proposition of CVT for the baggage handling ecosystem by the identification of use cases. . The results show that the implementation of CVT provides value for Schiphol Airport, the baggage handling system provider, airlines, handlers, passengers, and society. The value proposition of CVT is the automated identification of bags based on visual images that provides thirteen use cases applicable throughout the whole baggage handling process, which leads to more autonomous processes, process improvement, the generation of more (types of) valuable data compared to the current identification techniques and can contribute to the achievement of sustainable goals if it replaces the current identification techniques.
The results not only contribute to the aviation industry, but the insights gained during the research are also valuable for future digital transformations within other established ecosystems. During the research, a lack of ecosystems’ support for the digital transformation was identified, caused by two factors. It was found that certain process choices had a positive influence on these two factors, which inspired the formulation of process guidelines. These guidelines contribute to the digital transformation knowledge base as they provide insights into how to enhance ecosystems support for digital transformations. In this way, it guides future digital transformation processes within established ecosystems. Furthermore, the research provides an approach to get a grip on a complex established ecosystem and a tool to specify data-driven use cases in combination with its implications for the established ecosystem. No tool existed to accommodate that. Therefore, a tool was constructed and used, which provided guidance on the use cases’ specification and could be valuable within future ideation processes of data-driven use cases for established ecosystems.
Up to the present, this industry is mainly studied from a technological perspective where the hydraulic capabilities and design formulae are extensively researched (so called 'hard factors'). However, some units became very commercially successful in terms of units placed but others did not. In this highly technological industry, no market research is done in order to study which factors led to commercial success.
In this study, an effort is made to investigate which factors are responsible for becoming successful in this branch. To do so, the concept of technological dominance is linked to this industry. Technological dominance is a technology management concept wherein a market similar technologies are ‘battling’ for the allegiance of the market. Eventually, the market selects a particular design and becomes dominant.
Over the years scholars identified factors that contribute to obtaining technological dominance and collected those in a framework. In this study, the framework by Van de Kaa et al. (2011) is chosen. This framework consists of 29 factors that influence the outcome of a technology battle.
The methodological approach for this study is to select relevant factors regarding this industry by interviewing 4 key experts. The identified relevant factors are then carried into the next round of interviews, where a broader group of 14 experts were asked to rank these factors according to the Best Worst Method.
The Best Worst Method (BWM) is a multi-criteria decision-making tool, designed by Rezaei (2015), where the decision-maker expresses their preference by making pairwise comparisons. This method gives more reliable weights and requires fewer pairwise comparisons in respect to other multi-criteria decision-making tools, like AHP.
The results yielded by this method suggest that the factor ‘brand reputation and credibility' are among experts considered as the most important factor for technological dominance regarding this industry. Furthermore, ‘hydraulic stability’ is in this branch considered second most important for obtaining technological dominance. Also, factors like 'marketing communications' and having a large network of stakeholders are considered very important. Based on the results, there can be concluded that in this technological branch soft factors can be more important than hard factors.
This implies that in order to be successful in this industry actors should focus more on building a reliable and well-known brand reputation. In this branch, actors have proved that a strong brand name can help to extend the commercial lifespan of an armour unit with expired patent and can help to speed up the adoption of new armour units.
This thesis shows that TE and ME are different, should be treated as such, and has identified several influencing variables that affect TE differently than ME. Thus, TE and ME can be independently stimulated by increasing the levels of the influencing variables. For governments seeking to increase their levels of TE through relevant policies, despite a traditionally non-entrepreneurial environment, it means that all is not lost, and that the levels of TE can be raised by focusing on increasing levels of education, economic environment, and technological environment. Managerial recommendations include the geographical placement of technology start-ups and the diversification of the team to improve success.","Entrepreneurship; Technology entrepreneurship; Mainstream entrepreneurship; The Netherlands; Japan; Comparative analysis","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:f9111295-ce49-4fd9-b16a-867a55f00d99","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f9111295-ce49-4fd9-b16a-867a55f00d99","Designing a Privacy-Preserving Rebalancing Algorithm for Payment Channel Networks","Hendrikx, Roemer (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Cyber Security)","Erkin, Z. (mentor); Roos, S. (mentor); Verwer, S.E. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","In the past 8 years, Bitcoin has dominated the cryptocurrency markets and drawn attention from academia, developers and legislators alike. Bitcoin has been praised for its impact on decentralizing trust and currencies but also criticized for its volatility and energy-inefficient consensus mechanism. To improve its limitations, in 2016, payment channels and payment channel networks were introduced in the form of the Lightning Network. Payment channels allow for so-called off-chain transactions that, in case of dispute, can be published to an existing cryptocurrency blockchain, like Bitcoin, for arbitration. After its introduction, the concept of payment channels was quickly adopted by many cryptocurrency users. However, although payment channels remove the need for many on-chain transactions, some still remain. An on-chain transaction is required for the opening and closing of a channel. This happens during the initial setup between two users but is also required if one of the users runs out of balance on their side of the channel. The latter is a common occurrence as transactions are often unidirectional, say between a customer and a merchant. To limit the amount of closing and opening on-chain transactions required, a user can start or take part in a rebalancing. A rebalancing is a process with the aim of bringing a channel to a balance as desired by its owners. The state-of-the-art existing protocol to carry out a rebalancing is called Revive, which is a distributed protocol using leader election and a linear program to calculate the optimal rebalancing between its participants. Although effective, the protocol provides little privacy to its participants. We, therefore, designed a new, privacy-preserving peer-to-peer rebalancing protocol. Alongside it, we also introduce an accompanying participant discovery protocol that allows users in a network to find other users interested in running a distributed algorithm. We show that both protocols are secure and that our rebalancing protocol provides more privacy than Revive, at the cost of a suboptimal result and an increased message and time complexity. Finally, we compare our rebalancing protocol and Revive using a payment channel network simulator that simulates transactions taking place during the rebalancing. Using this simulation, we show that both protocols have a negative effect on the payment channel network as they lock the to-be-rebalanced channels while they are executing. We, therefore, conclude that an ideal rebalancing protocol should both be privacy-preserving and concurrent, and propose ideas to achieve this in future research.","Rebalancing; Payment Channel Networks; Distributed Systems; Privacy-preserving technology; Payment Channel; Blockchain; Peer-to-peer; Cycle detection; Participant Discovery; Transaction generation; Revive","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Computer Science | Cyber Security","",""
"uuid:a92b637d-97e4-407b-9f4a-bea13acc62a6","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a92b637d-97e4-407b-9f4a-bea13acc62a6","Factors for the success of upcoming more sustainable hydrogen production technologies for use in refineries in the Netherlands","Visserman, Douke (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","van de Kaa, G. (mentor); Kamp, L.M. (mentor); van den Dool, Jacques (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","The incumbent dominant design for hydrogen production used in refineries in the Netherlands is producing grey hydrogen using steam methane reforming with CO2 as byproduct. Therefore, the current incumbent hydrogen production technology used in refineries in the Netherlands is unsustainable. However, it is still unclear which hydrogen production technology will become the new dominant design during the transition to a sustainable hydrogen feedstock for refineries in the Netherlands. The research objective of this study is to assess which factors influence the success of the competing hydrogen production technologies during the transition to more a sustainable hydrogen feedstock for refineries in the Netherlands and find out which technology is most likely to become the new dominant design. The hydrogen production technologies within the scope of the research are steam methane reforming (SMR) of natural gas (grey hydrogen), SMR with carbon capture and storage (CCS) (blue hydrogen) and electrolysis of water using renewable electricity (green hydrogen).","Hydrogen production; refinery; factors for success; dominant design; technology battles; technology selection; sustainable energy technologies; incumbent; energy transition; electrolyser; steam methane reforming; carbon capture and storage; green hydrogen; blue hydrogen; grey hydrogen","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:d9c4ad79-c64e-4757-9a98-b7808b7d9935","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d9c4ad79-c64e-4757-9a98-b7808b7d9935","Object detection inside a wearable ultrasound neuromodulator patch: A deeper look into implementing ultrasound neuromodulator patches and how to find nerves using computer vision techniques","Boerkamp, Christiaan (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Lopes Marta da Costa, T.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","Neuromodulation of the vagus nerve is used as a treatment for all kinds of ailments and even as a means of improving the wearer's physiology, however, this form of treatment is not popular due to its invasive nature, high chance of side effects, and short period between reimplementation surgery, as such an alternative is sought in the form of neuromodulation using ultrasound. In this thesis, 2 designs for wearable ultrasound neuromodulators for the vagus nerve are suggested, based on these designs a solution is made, solving the problem of detecting vagus nerve within a wearable environment. To detect the vagus nerve two methods are proposed: neural networks and template matching. Based on these methods and these proposed designs 5 unique works have been created, Vivo las vagus (VLV) an object detector using a neural network, a mobile implementation of both VLV as well as template matching, an FPGA implementation of template matching, and 2 FPGA implementations of VLV in which one uses a streaming dataflow architecture and the other a systolic array architecture.
The best results are achieved with the streaming dataflow architecture implementation of VLV within an FPGA, resulting in an accuracy of 87.5 percent on the test set with the 10.88 FPS/watt, and inference of 0.174 seconds. This was achieved by using FINN, a community project for converting software neural networks into HDL representation for the FPGA. Combined with to the best of the author's knowledge, first-ever created loss function to automatically decrease the bit width of a quantized neural network layer without impacting the accuracy during training creating the first-ever fully automated end to end flow for creating a software neural network object detector and converting it towards an HDL representation, allowing biomedical engineers without knowledge of digital electronics or Neural networks to simply load in data and run the python files. To assess the accuracy an accuracy calculation function was created together with a dataset and test set with images taken from [1]. As the dataset has shown to be lacking severely in variety the accuracy assessment of all of the implementations can be considered moot. The VLV FINN implementation was compared to other FPGA implementations based on energy efficiency, showing that the work created within this thesis is one of the best in terms of power efficiency and the smallest in terms of resource usage footprint.","FPGA; Object detection; vagus nerve neuromodulation; Object detection Ultrasound; ultrasound; edge ai; Android App; Neuromodulation; Wearable Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","https://github.com/ChristiaanBoe/Wearable-Vagus-Nerve-object-detector/graphs/traffic Repository consisting of code created within thesis https://app.roboflow.com/new-workspace-sghkd/vagus-nerve-ultrasound-correctname/1 Repository for dataset ultrasound B-mode images vagus nerve","","2023-10-01","","","","Biomedical Engineering","",""
"uuid:6dd0039a-8128-4b57-ab32-64e239102829","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6dd0039a-8128-4b57-ab32-64e239102829","Influence of trial experience with V2G on consumer acceptance of EV drivers in the Netherlands","Nijssen, Koen (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Annema, J.A. (mentor); Lukszo, Z. (graduation committee); Ghotge, R. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","In the Netherlands, a big move towards electrification has been underway for decades, while the share of renewable energy in the Dutch energy mix is increasing. Grid capacity issues and the intermittency inherent to renewables require intelligent solutions, one of which may be V2G. V2G allows for bi-directional flows of energy between an EV and a DC charging station. Focussing on consumer acceptance of V2G is vital to the technology's adoption. Previous research is scarce in this regard, especially considering the influence of trial experience on consumer acceptance. In this research, using qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews, this influence is described for EV drivers in the Netherlands. It is found that trial experience using V2G alleviates earlier worries regarding range anxiety and (desired) user-friendliness. Trial experience also revealed that EV drivers find controlling the state-of-charge a vital barrier for adoption, as this would take away most of their uncertainties. This research, being one of the only studies assessing trial experience of V2G at short term parking qualitatively, can function as a building block for other research, such as similar experiments in different geographical locations or with different case settings.","Vehicle-to-grid; V2G; Trial experience; Consumer acceptance; Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology; Dutch EV drivers","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:77d602aa-b102-4fb2-8771-df8fe5d34ab4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:77d602aa-b102-4fb2-8771-df8fe5d34ab4","Technological Framework to assess the implementation of Power to Hydrogen","Purohit, Aditya (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Yang, M. (mentor); van de Kaa, G. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","The current EU member states have set targets to reduce annual greenhouse emissions for 2021-2030. Sixty per cent of EU emissions include sectors like buildings, agriculture, non-ETS industry and waste. Much research cannot be found to reduce emissions in the buildings, houses and community-based scenarios. Therefore, this research focuses on developing an innovative model to make the community a hundred percent reliant on renewable energy sources. Renewable energy produces power variably depending upon external conditions. At times, the variability of renewable energy cannot be fed into the power grid due to network constraints or low demand leading to curtailment of the energy or selling the energy at zero marginal price. Therefore, the curtailment of energy and its intermittency is the biggest barrier in delaying the transition towards a hundred per cent of renewable power into the power systems. Robust energy storage technology is required to integrate with an intelligent control system to increase the penetration of renewable energy into the energy mix. To meet this requirement, “Green Hydrogen” produced can contribute to energy security by providing another energy carrier with different supply chains, producers, and markets, diversifying the energy mix, and improving the system’s resilience. To produce hydrogen, power to hydrogen technology is an innovative solution, and a framework needs to be developed to integrate this technology in the community using Industry 4.0.
In the simulated base scenario, NOx, PM, and CO2 emission targets are not met. Economic policies must contribute to the realization of these emission targets. Here, quantity-based economic instruments are preferred over price-based economic. Quantity-based economic instruments ensure that emission targets are realized virtually, while the effect of price-based economic instruments is subject to uncertainties related to cost developments, for instance. The introduction of a Renewable Energy (HBE) obligation and the inclusion of the IWT sector in the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) are effective quantity-based economic instruments. When implementing both these instruments, policymakers must prevent double burdening of the IWT sector.
When introducing an HBE obligation, obligation levels must be set in accordance with the emission goals and a multiplier for hydrogen is recommended to create a level playing field with other renewable fuels. To include the IWT sector in the ETS, the minimum tonnage condition for ships must be removed. In addition to these policies, subsidies must be provided on the large capital investments for hydrogen to compensate for the higher marginal abatement cost in the IWT sector and create a level playing field with other transport modes, countries and fuels. Besides economic policies, the development of relevant regulation and bunkering infrastructure is a prerequisite for the hydrogen transition in the IWT sector.
This research mainly focused on a techno-economic trade-off between hydrogen- and diesel-powered drivetrains. Future research could focus on additional (qualitative) criteria in the decision-making process, such as upcoming legislation, safety, and (bunkering) infrastructure availability.","hydrogen; Inland Waterway Transport; Technological Transitions; Simulation; Policy; Decision-making process","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:a2fab06a-b622-4af6-bf1a-d931ba8b43af","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a2fab06a-b622-4af6-bf1a-d931ba8b43af","A study on the implementation of digital technologies for improving steel reuse","Athanasiadis, Giorgos (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)","Bakker, H.L.M. (mentor); Koutamanis, Alexandros (graduation committee); Jalali Sohi, A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2022","The present research tries to promote circularity in steel structures by attempting to further incorporate technologies like BIM, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Blockchain in the AEC industry. BIM is already applied in construction projects but not yet focused on aspects that will enhance the reusability of steel structures. IoT and Blockchain, on the other hand, are implemented with success in other industries and according to researchers have the potential to add value to the AEC industry as well. The Design Science Research approach is used to develop a framework that will indicate what information should be registered in order to improve the decision making towards reuse when the structure has reached its end of life. During the different phases of a project and specifically the design, construction, operational, and maintenance phase various characteristics of the structure were indicated for registration. Moreover, a detailed roadmap on how they would be registered in each technology, what they would offer to the reuse process, and who is responsible for inserting them. To examine the soundness of the framework, it was validated through semi-structured interviews with experts from the AEC industry.","Circulair Economy; Blockchain Technology; Steel Reuse; IoT; BIM, Building Information Modelling","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering","",""
"uuid:7b4ca14a-e842-4d6c-8b6e-a463f8d0a7f9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7b4ca14a-e842-4d6c-8b6e-a463f8d0a7f9","Design, evaluation and acceptance of a visual support tool for air traffic control (CDI thesis version): communication thesis","Wiechers, Stephanie (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering; TU Delft Applied Sciences)","van der Sanden, M.C.A. (mentor); Wehrmann, C. (mentor); Borst, C. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","This study has researched what are defining factors on the attitude toward a new technology within the group of Area Control (ACC) at Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL) and how these factors shape an Air Traffic Controller’s (ATCo) attitude toward the technology in an exploratory way. The outcomes of the research suggest that dominant factors are result demonstrability, output quality, job relevance, subjective norm and (timeliness of) involvement in the development process. First, the work domain of air traffic control and the functioning of holding patterns were researched and a description of these things was given, based on interviews with air traffic controllers and on literature. It was found that the largest challenge when holding at LVNL is adherence to Expected Approach Time (EAT), and that this is caused by two things: the first is a lack of accurate and integrated information on the impact of a control decision on EAT adherence, the second is that current practice of ATCos is to aim for a 2:00 minute deviation from the EAT, which is the current error margin they are allowed to operate on. It was found, based on interviews with two professional area controllers and one other expert from LVNL, that in current practice an ATCo makes estimations of when to give a turn-to-IAF command based on a rule of thumb with a holding loop timing of four minutes and by extrapolating the history dots of the aircraft. However, analysis of historical holding pattern data shows that lap times often take six or seven minutes and that wind severely influences the in- and outbound ground speeds, making both the four-minute loop time and history dot extrapolation unreliable estimators. A support tool was designed that gives a prediction of the time it takes to reach the IAF from different locations, taking into account aircraft characteristics and wind. The new tool was designed such that it is in accordance with the layout and style of present LVNL systems. It involves two things. First, a prediction of the EAT adherence error upon giving an immediate turn-to-IAF command in the form of a delta-T in the aircraft label. Second, and a prediction of the turn-to-IAF locations at which an EAT adherence error of +120s, +110s, ..., 0s, 10s, ...-120s will be achieved, in the form of colored dots (ECOL dots) on the vertical view and the top view radar screen. The social situation at LVNL was described based on interviews with two professional area controllers and one other expert from LVNL. Indications were found for two opposite things. On the one hand, that (some) ATCos are willing to innovate and actually take initiative in innovation processes, and on the other hand, that (some) ATCos have a strong resistance toward technological system innovation. Regarding collaboration between groups, itwas found that the relation between ACC and Approach Control (APP) that is characterized by skepticism on the skills of the other party. Finally, it was found that ATCos take pride in the way they execute their job and are willing to work hard to achieve the goals they believe match their job description. In doing this, ATCos have indicated to value their autonomy and the idea that the effort they put in actually adds value for the full Air Traffic Control (ATC) process. Besides interviews to describe the situation at LVNL, case studies were done to research innovation in other organizations that showed similarities to the context of LVNL. Three things were found. First, ensuring people can contribute and influence the innovation from early stages of the innovation process is a promising factor that seems to influence a person’s attitude toward using the innovation in a positive way. Second, the lack of implementation of innovations has caused skepticism under ATCos. Third, the TAM is a suitable framework to further explore how area controllers at LVNL’s attitude toward innovations manifests itself. To be able to use the TAM in the framework, first, literature on the TAM has been reviewed. It has been found that there are different versions of the TAM that include or exclude several variables. For the present research, the most suitable version of the TAM was determined to be the TAM2, using the following external variables: result demonstrability, output quality, job relevance, image, subjective norm, experience, voluntariness, age. Next to the TAM in the framework, literature was reviewed on several factors surrounding the interaction with support systems, where autonomy and trust were found to be of a valuable contribution to the framework in the present research. The operationalization of the framework was done using survey questions, a semi-structured interview, and results from letting ATCos interact with the system innovation concept (the tool). It was found that some factors of the TAM could be questioned straightforward in either the survey or the interview, while for other factors it was necessary do design multiple questions and depend on the type of answers given by the participants. Since the research is exploratory, it was decided to keep the interview setup semi-structured to ensure participants would be able to outline defining factors for their attitude toward innovation relatively freely, instead of needing to keep them within a predefined set of factors. From the performed case study, where 10 ATCos participated in an experiment in which they had to manage two holding scenarios, with and without the tool, the following things were learned. First, three of the external variables defined in the framework played the largest role for participants’ perceived usefulness of the tool were result demonstrability, output quality and job relevance. Second, it was found that subjective norm impacts the attitude towards use for the participant group. A mismatch was found between the participants’ attitude toward innovation in general and the way the participants thought their colleagues viewed system innovations. Subjective norm was also found to be of influence on the participants personal objective in the level of EAT adherence they aim to obtain in their day-to-day work. Third, participants linked the external variables not only toward perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, as is the case in the TAM, but also to attitude towards use. Finally, it was found that participants appreciated being part of an innovation process rather than being presented with the final solution, which was further improved by the fact that the concept was visibly not perfected yet (even though it was functioning, it was clear it was still under development and showed some minor issues in e.g., the stability of the computer program).","controller acceptance; air traffic control; technology acceptance model; holding support","en","master thesis","","","","","","Double degree in Aerospace Engineering | Control & Simulation and Design for Interaction | Science Communication","","","","","","Aerospace Engineering | Control & Simulation","",""
"uuid:9335077d-f950-4e32-a911-55b7490aedd5","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9335077d-f950-4e32-a911-55b7490aedd5","Design of a Supply Chain Coordination System-of-systems: Applied to offshore wind power park maintenance","Frijters, Wout (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Beelaerts van Blokland, W.W.A. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Due to the European Union renewable energy targets for 2030 and beyond, increasing trends of installed offshore wind energy production capacity and increasing wind turbine size emerge. Therefore, the offshore wind maintenance demand increases and becomes increasingly more complex. The most applied maintenance strategy is reliability-centred maintenance, which is a form of preventive maintenance that uses prediction models to determine future ocean and weather states and asset health states. Based on those predictions, maintenance demand is scheduled. The processes that lead up to the generation of the maintenance schedule ranging from asset condition monitoring, to data analysis, to future state predictions, to maintenance scheduling are currently highly automated. The last part of the maintenance organisation cycle, matching and contracting of maintenance supply for the demand is currently still done manually via email and phone. Offshore wind maintenance operations predominantly are multi-party operations, requiring vessels, teams of technicians, spare-parts and ports supplied by the WPP itself, shared WPP inventory, third-party service providers and OEMs. The increasing maintenance demand puts a lot of pressure on the already complex task of the Asset Manager that is processing all this information and communication manually.
The problem that is preventing automation of the matching and contracting process, is the lack of a system of demand and supplier systems, that processes commercially sensitive information, such as maintenance demand schedules and supplier availability schedules, in a trustworthy privacy preserving manner. The main research question for this design research therefore becomes:
How to design a technical feasible decentralized system-of-systems that enables automated matching and contracting of maintenance supply for scheduled demand through privacy preserving processing of commercially sensitive data?...
investigated. This research was a proof of concept.","CO2 capture; negative emission technologies; pH swing; BPMED","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Environmental Engineering","",""
"uuid:8d14c328-9926-4d91-8fa3-370194bf6942","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8d14c328-9926-4d91-8fa3-370194bf6942","Conditions for Profitability & Grid Effects of PV-Electrolysis","Visserman, Thiadmar (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","van Wijk, A.J.M. (mentor); Blok, K. (graduation committee); Fens, T.W. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","In this graduation research conditions affecting the profitability as well as the grid effects of a PV-Electrolysis system have been studied using the site of PV park Oosterwolde as a case study. During the study a wide variety scenarios have been created from a set of influential parameters on the PV-Electrolysis business case, which have produced meaningful insights into the conditions for profitability and grid effects of such a system and at the same time have emphasized the complexity of the business case as it can be affected by a wide variety of factors of which the future development remains uncertain.
According to the Base Price Scenario in this study there are multiple ways that lead to profitable PV-Electrolysis business cases in 2025, all of which including a subsidy. This is due to favourable developments in several areas, most notably electricity prices, renewable hydrogen prices, PV and Electrolysis system costs and subsidies. Sizing of the electrolyser and the grid connection can have significant effects on the business case as well, but under the scenarios simulated in this study are not able to attain profitable business cases alone in 2025.
An analysis of the grid effects of the PV-Electrolysis results in two key takeaways: 'island mode' business cases can achieve attractive returns when supported by subsidies, and: years where the 'Spread H2/Power' is mobile around the zero line reflect the response to price signals with a more balanced power-to-grid profile compared to the individual PV system, which is desirable from an electricity system point of view, leading to improved utilization of the power grid.","future energy systems; engineering systems and services; energy and industry; values, technology and innovation; economics of technology and innovation; sustainable energy technology; profitability; grid effects; distribution grid; pv; electrolysis; hydrogen","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:47bcb391-f82d-4c26-ae3e-a86f8cff501b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:47bcb391-f82d-4c26-ae3e-a86f8cff501b","Modelling the future of aviation: Developing a comprehensive, user-friendly model able to assessthe climate impact of policy and technological measures","Neuman, Joris (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering)","Melkert, J.A. (mentor); Werij, H.G.C. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","The aviation sector accounted for 3.4 to 4.0% of the total anthropogenic radiative forcing in 2015. The sectors’growth is several percentage points larger than the annual fuel efficiency gain, resulting in an increasing climatechange impact. The world formulated goals for 2050 to limit anthropogenic climate change, the aviation sectorrequires a mix of fuel consumption reducing technology, increased operational efficiency and carbon offsettingto contribute to the goals.The Aviation Integrated Model (AIM) developed at the University of Cambridge resolves the impact of tech-nological and operational choices, but requires detailed knowledge of the technological development. This workis directed to retain the air traffic and fleet resolution model of AIM, while utilising a different performancemodel. Aircraft performance is modelled by technology trends to assess a range of technology options (such ashybrid electric flight or different aerodynamic configurations) at limited required knowledge while retaining themodel’s physical basis.The model uses the Breguet range equation and fuel fractions updated with Lissys’ Piano-X data to resolveaircraft fuel consumption with limited modelling error. The fuel and carbon dioxide emissions have an averagenormalised root-mean-square error of three percent compared to AIM, while nitrous oxide emissions incur a1.5% error.A case study to demonstrate the capability of the model has been performed to investigate the possibilities forhybrid electric flight serving a significant market share before 2050. The current trends in annual fuel efficiencyincrease and increase in battery specific energy do not result in a significant market share or reduction of aviationemissions for hybrid electric aircraft before 2050.To achieve a 10% decrease in carbon dioxide emissions, the annual increase of the aircraft fuel efficiency hasto be increased from 1.1% per year to 1.5% and the annual battery specific energy increase is required to goup to 5.67%. The required increase in both battery specific energy and the aircraft performance parameters issignificant, which makes a substantial reduction of emissions of the aviation sector by hybrid electric aircraftbefore 2050 improbable.","aviation; climate impact & goals; modelling; technology & policy; aircraft performance; fleet activity & composition; air traffic","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Aerospace Engineering","",""
"uuid:02413975-578e-4bd0-ab67-b0880547d0d5","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:02413975-578e-4bd0-ab67-b0880547d0d5","Economic and Environmental Impacts of Cascading System Implementation for Waste Wood Pallets in The Netherlands: Outline for a cascaded system towards a transition to waste pallets reuse practices","Rabah, Malek (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Scholten, V.E. (mentor); Quist, J.N. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Upcycling of the biomass residues and wastes is a necessary innovation within the given environmental and economic trends, policies and regulations, competition and depletion of natural resources taking place nowadays. Thus, wood pallet upcycling is chosen in this thesis to be the ambassador of biomass.
Research is built upon the fundamentals of the waste hierarchy of Lansink ladder and on the circular economy.
Interviews and case study analysis were crucial in drawing the conclusions and stimulating a thorough discussion within the concept of upcycling versus other processing management scenarios happening daily, such as waste to energy, incineration and even dumping of wood wastes.
Upcycling (cascading), is built on adding value to the waste by coming up with new products and increasing the lifespan of the infinite woody products.
The cascading takes place first as a manufacturing phase, this manufacturing shows a tremendous panorama of possible products covering the great demand on such homeware, kitchenware, pavilions, and other sectors. Then, and after the end of the lifespan of the new product, the second phase is generating biofuels from the biomass products using a complex process starting from gasification and ending up with Fischer-Tropsch process to produce for example, biodiesel, ethanol or jet fuels within a long list of high value biofuels.
In general, the tackling of such transition economically required addressing important indicators represented in policy, market, technical implementation, environmental and stakeholders involvement.
Environmentally, life cycle assessment indicators were projected to find out the influencing factors, those indicators include the land-use change, GHG, the premise of the neutrality of burning biomass to generate electricity, carbon capture, monocultures and biodiversity, fossil-based materials substitution, distinguishing between by-products and wastes, etc...
An action plan (system outline), forms the practical final tip to this research by giving guidance of a pathway striving to achieve a stable and secure transition towards upcycling using a robust and mutual collaboration between the valued stakeholders, which are represented by the government, acting authorities such as municipalities, companies active in the wood market sector (recyclers, pallet pooling, manufacturers).
This collaboration has increased chances to be a key player only if a new set of policies exist, these policies shift a share of the incentives given to energy towards upcycling, activate the role of the SMEs, and act as a forcing tool to retrieve used pallets using the deployment of EPR and GPP tools.
Finally, this study is considered as a master plan for similar biomass wastes and can be complemented with quantitative studies to reach further horizons supporting the premises addressed in this paper.
The starting point of this research is to solve the problem within the building industry and with the use of natural ventilation. This distinguishes it from existing solutions in mechanical ventilation systems such as the HEPA filter.
The purpose of this research is to add a new function to the façade by filtering the incoming air using existing air purification technologies and applying them in an innovative way.
The research focuses on high-rise buildings in urban areas in industrialized regions, because there the exposure to polluted air is mainly indoors. Despite the fact that in those regions other measures are or already have been taken to reduce air pollution, this is still not enough and in these regions the willingness to apply technological solutions in the building industry is high.
The focus is on a facade type that is fully or partially closed and placed in a building that uses ventilation type C, which means natural supply of air through the facade and mechanical exhaust within the building.
The research question answered is as follows:
'How can the façade of a high-rise building in an industrialized region be designed to improve the indoor air quality by using ventilation type C?'
An answer to this question is given in this research by six concept designs and two elaborations in two case studies of the building 'Montevideo' in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
To obtain that answer, a literature study was carried out to examine existing air purification technologies, five of which were further elaborated and their relationship to each other determined. It was also investigated what has to be taken into account when designing ventilation openings. Hereby it was examined which ventilation openings are relevant for this research and how they relate to each other.
Partly to validate the literature, partly to discover how air purification technologies work and mainly to support the concept designs, a test set-up was made to test filters for filtering out particulate matter. A sub-goal was to do this with a test set-up at home instead of in a laboratory.
For this research, hard criteria have been formulated that the concepts must meet. Soft criteria have been defined in order to be able to compare the different concepts and determine which concept is best to be worked out in which case study.
The concept designs and case studies, which are answers to the main question were created to serve as inspiration for designers interested in developing facade systems that filter air. As such, the designs in this research are primarily conceptual examples and are not yet a product. This research provides a theoretical basis for further concepts to be developed and applied in case studies.
FACTOR LIST
Because of the novelty of plant factories and especially their integration into the built environment, most architects are not equipped with the knowledge to do so. The first step is to provide a document dissecting what is relevant for architects designing building integrated PFAL.
GROWMODULE PROTOTYPE
An automated growmodule prototype is designed, with the aim of optimising social and aesthetic potentials without compromising on production quality and efficiency. These modules can be placed into any building space and include a structural system that allows for modular placement along all axes.
BUILDING TESTCASE
These growmodules do not require any natural light, allowing them to be placed in spaces that are typically regarded as dark and unattractive. When transforming large offices and factories to a residential function, these dark spaces often occur. Hence, the growmodule prototype is tested in one such building, the grain silo Latenstein (Rijnhaven, Rotterdam). The building concept consists of three layers; a vertical farming core, apartments and a green shell. Multiple aspects are explored including user interaction, aesthetic qualities, climate design and reduction of overall energy demands by integration of the vertical farm with the climate system of the building surrounding urban network.","Vertical Farming; Plant factory; Urban Agriculture; Building technology; Architecture; Building integrated; Explore Lab; Modular; Climate Design; Architectural Engineering","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2022-10-01","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Explorelab","",""
"uuid:1cd2c6b0-7c49-4be0-ae1e-5df7d5fb180e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1cd2c6b0-7c49-4be0-ae1e-5df7d5fb180e","Design and Fabrication of a Thin Film Optogenetic ECoG Array with Individually Addressable micro-LEDs","Krishnaswamy, Medha (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Giagka, Vasiliki (mentor); Martins Da Ponte, R. (graduation committee); Serdijn, W.A. (graduation committee); Mastrangeli, Massimo (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Optogenetics is a neuromodulation technique that uses light to control genetically modified cells to express light sensitive ion channels. Optogenetics allows stimulation of only the specific cells in the region that have been genetically modified and thus results in a high resolution of stimulation.
Currently optogenetic implants are used to stimulate specific regions in the brain, either deep in the cortex or on certain regions on the surface of the cortex. An implant with a larger surface area would potentially allow stimulation of the entire cortex simultaneously, if required. By also including recording sites on this implant, it is possible to record responses at one end of the brain produced due to optogenetic stimulation on the other end of the brain. Thus, the underlying neural circuit can be mapped for investigation.
Thin film technology (TFT) so far has had a huge impact in the field of large flexible displays. The flexible substrates and processes employed for the fabrication of flexible displays can be used for the realisation of an optogenetic array that covers the cortex of the brain while being flexible and conformal to the shape of the brain.
This work explores the implementation of TFT in fabricating a flexible large area high-density optogenetic ECoG array. The fabricated array features multi-stacked alternate layers of thin film Au/Ti (for electrodes and interconnects) and thin film SiN (insulation and passivation) on a flexible polyimide substrate to provide a high-density array for improved resolution. Commercial micro-LEDs were bonded to the surface of the array using ICA (Isotropic Conducting Adhesive) to provide on-site stimulation. The resulting flexible implant was characterised to determine the electrode impedance, behaviour of the passivation layer in phosphate buffered saline and thermal characteristics of the micro-LEDs. The final device was implanted on the cortex of a mouse.","thin film technology; LED; Microfabrication; Flexible electronics; Optogenetics; ECoG","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2023-10-29","","","","Biomedical Engineering","",""
"uuid:20614993-4209-481a-ac14-416ebf39766e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:20614993-4209-481a-ac14-416ebf39766e","Developing an Pattern Artefact for implementing Digital Technologies that Improve Coordination between Material and Information Flow in Supply Chains","BALAJI GANESH, SANGAMESH (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ludema, M.W. (mentor); Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","The international trade sector is projected to undergo a significant shift in the next years, with transparency and trust being the most pressing concerns to be resolved as part of the Industry 4.0 revolution (PwC, 2019). International trade consists of several complex process involving several intermediaries (actors). Due to the complexity in international trade, the amount of errors in manual paperwork, delayed order deliveries and the deterioration in quality of products throughout its shipment may arise. As the industry tries to deliver precise and realtime information that can be transmitted to many parties, the volume of data increases.","Supply Chain; Material Flow; Information Flow; Digital technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:d45c0cb1-6cfc-45ef-a89e-e369fcec337d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d45c0cb1-6cfc-45ef-a89e-e369fcec337d","The Extent of Private participation in European Mission Oriented-innovation Policy: An exploratory analysis of the CORDIS database","Nair, Pranav (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","van de Kaa, G. (mentor); Doorn, N. (graduation committee); Wiarda, M.J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","The advent of the 21st century has seen economies worldwide increasingly investing towards developing smart and sustainable innovations for addressing social and environmental challenges such as climate change, adapting to demographic change, public health care an well-being etc. These challenges, often referred to as 'grand challenges' are extremely complex in nature and require dynamic collaborations between the state and private actors to explore and exploit new areas of growth, and develop suitable solutions for the same. Through mission-oriented innovation, policy makers provide a framework for systematically implementing mission-led research to bring together the willing public and private actors to create system-wide transformations across the entire value chain.
By virtue of its abundance of knowledge, skills and resources, the European Union provides a fervent ground for implementing mission-oriented innovation to address grand challenges, but this fragmentation could also make it an extremely complex scenario to do the same. However, through public funds such as the Horizon 2020 framework programme, the public sector can provide a foundation for initiating mission-oriented policies by funding the early, high-risk and uncertain stages of innovation, which private organizations and SMEs can capitalize on to develop smart innovations. In order to do so, the public sector must possess the appropriate set of dynamic capabilities for bringing private actors to actively work towards developing solutions for addressing grand challenges. Additionally, the fragmentation of knowledge and skills available across member nations of the European Union, industrial sectors or technologies differ, making it highly probable that the degree of private participants in mission-oriented innovation also differs.
This thesis identifies the extent of private participation in European mission-oriented innovation by qualitatively analyzing data extracted from the European Commission's Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) database. A descriptive statistical analysis of the data extracted from CORDIS has identified the current degree of private participation in initiatives encompasses in the Horizon 2020 framework programme. This study identifies the proportion of private participation in the various member states of the European Union and across different societal challenges. It also, identifies the participation of SMEs and incumbent in these initiatives. Based on the results obtained, this study discusses its implications for mission-oriented innovation and provides a scope for possible areas for future studies. Additionally, this study goes one step further to analyze the CORDIS database to understand it benefits and shortcomings.
Lastly, this study also provides recommendations for steering policies in a more effective to better suit actors/researchers/policy makers from specific regions or sectors. The results can be utilized by researchers to conduct studies to identify the dependent variables that directly affect the participation of private actors, which can open up areas of research to understand what factors drive the participation of actors in mission-oriented policies. It also provides insights on the possibilities of using the CORDIS database for steering mission-oriented research.","Mission-Oriented Innovation; Private Participation; CORDIS; European Union; SMEs; Dynamic Capabilities; Sectoral Innovation systems; technological Innovation systems; National Innovation systems; public sector","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2021-09-28","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:7c5432e9-6733-4c15-8a0a-09128591f5ef","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7c5432e9-6733-4c15-8a0a-09128591f5ef","The Human in Command: An exploratory study into human moral autonomy of Behavioural Artificial Intelligence Technology","Yildiz, Can (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","van de Poel, I.R. (mentor); Kortmann, L.J. (mentor); Chorus, C.G. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","The accelerating development of algorithms causes a disruptive effect in many domains, including the complex decision-making of knowledge workers. Experts can manage difficult but repetitive decisions with software technologies like a Decision Support System (DSS). A DSS is used to monitor decisions, get additional insights and improve decisions over time. Their supportive performance characterises these systems to assist human decision-makers. To answer to the pressing demand for transparency in DSSs, Councyl developed Behavioural Artificial Intelligence Tenchnology (BAIT). BAIT is a DSS that adequately supports experts with making decisions. However, algorithms like BAIT may affect the autonomy of experts and their decisions in numerous ways. This thesis studies human moral autonomy (HMA) of end-users in the context of BAIT. We do this by measuring perceptions of end-users. The product arising from this study is the HMA Survey.","Moral autonomy; Behavioural artificial intelligence technology; Factor analysis; AI ethics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:32f7c2a2-607d-408d-beb3-70d16366712d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:32f7c2a2-607d-408d-beb3-70d16366712d","Sensitivity study of engine design parameters to climate impact","Saluja, Harjot Singh (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering)","Gangoli Rao, A. (mentor); Yin, F. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","In the last few years, there has been a growing awareness regarding the climate impact of aviation in the general public. With global warming effects becoming more severe, it is important that aviation drastically reduce its emission footprint to keep the impact on the climate lower. There have been ongoing efforts by various organizations such as ICAO and ACARE which have led to the formulation of ambitious targets for reducing aviation emissions in the future. In the past, the main goal of improving aero-engine performance has generally been to increase the operating pressure and temperature, thereby improving the cycle efficiency leading to lower fuel consumption, and consequently, lower CO2 emissions. However, this increase also leads to more NOx emissions from the engine, as NOx emissions are sensitive to engine pressure and temperature variations. The climate impact of aviation is mainly driven by long-term impacts from the CO2 emissions and short-term impacts from the non-CO2 emissions. This thesis aims to analyze the sensitivity of the turbofan engine design parameters towards the impact on the climate in terms of near-surface temperature change due to the various emission species. A detailed methodology was developed for the thesis, encompassing different aspects such as aircraft performance, emission prediction, engine modeling, emission inventories, and climate analysis. The aircraft performance model, the emission prediction model, and the emission inventory model were developed specifically for the purpose of this thesis. The engine modeling was done in the Gas Turbine Simulation Program (GSP), which is a modeling tool used for the development and simulation of gas turbine systems. The climate analysis was carried out in AirClim, which is a surrogate model obtained from the results of Climate-Chemistry models, meant for comparing aviation technological options from a climate impact point of view. The results from the thesis are intended to develop a better understanding of the relationships in the field of aviation emissions, especially concerning the tradeoffs between the CO2 and the non-CO2 effects, since the relationship between design parameters, emissions, and climate impact is not straightforward.
For India to emerge as such a solar PV technology hub, it needs to engage in several activities ranging from technology development, market formation, policy development and others. Scientists and researchers have established that such technological developments or transitions cannot be studied as an isolated concept, but it is part of a larger ‘Innovation system’. The Technological Innovation System (TIS) approach provides a holistic framework focusing on technical, economic, policy, and socio-cultural aspects to nurture a new innovation. However, the current TIS framework is focused on the early stages of the technology life cycle and on how to make them successful in the niche and bridge markets. Whereas in the current case, solar PV is a well-matured technology and India being a hub or a market leader need accelerating large scale diffusion and needs to face competition from global players. For a country to emerge as a market leader in such a technology, it needs to engage in activities that are focused on building competence on par with global market leaders and take steps for large scale diffusion. The current thesis addresses this scientific knowledge gap by developing a new conceptual framework focused on the matured phase of TIS and on activities that will allow a region/country to emerge as a global competitor through formation of technology hubs. The author conceptualized the new framework called 'Factors of TIS acceleration' catering to the processes that a matured TIS needs to engage to compete with global players and diffuse in large scale. These processes include, 'Building competitive advantage', 'Integrating complementary innovations’, ‘Expanding market reach and ‘Overturning incumbents’ that are essential in advancing a particular TIS. This new framework is then applied to the case of solar PV in India to evaluate if the country can emerge as a solar PV technology hub in the next decade.","Solar photovoltaic; Technological Innovation Systems; Technology hub; Matured sustainable energy technologies; Sustainable Energy Technologies; India; Innovation; Technology transition; Sustainable transition","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:c617b1e1-1c60-4559-a17b-07072a0399e3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c617b1e1-1c60-4559-a17b-07072a0399e3","A Technology Adoption Model in the Dutch Energy sector: The case of Digital Twins","Durani, Abhinav (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Wagner, Ben (mentor); Brazier, F.M. (mentor); Huang, Yilin (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Emerging technologies are revolutionizing organizational growth, productivity and in- vestments more than ever before. One such technology that has come into the limelight in the past few years is the Digital Twin. The so-called ’digital twin’ is a real-time virtual replica (representation) of any given physical asset/object. The full-potential of a digital twin lies in its ability to not only communicate with the physical asset, but also control it remotely. Although the concept of digital twins is more than a decade old, digital twin initiatives are now been deployed in the manufacturing, automotive and healthcare industries among others. One such industry, experimenting with digital twins is the Energy sector. The objective of this research was to perform an exploratory investigation into the adoption of Digital Twins in the Dutch Energy sector predominately by Trans- mission System Operators (TSOs) and Distribution System Operators (DSOs). The investigation comprised of four elements: establishing the most fitting technology adoption model when it comes to digital twins, determining the relevant adoption variables, exploring the perception of digital twins in the industry and investigating the relationship between absorptive capacity and organizational characteristics. The research method deployed for the former two elements was desk research, whereas the latter elements were probed by conducting (semi-structured) interviews and targeted questionnaires respectively. There were a total of nine participants involved in this research which included technology adoption decision-makers having a wide range of work experience (1-5 years to 20+ years) from the five of the eight TSO/DSOs of the Netherlands.
The research found that the most fitting technology adoption model when it comes to digital twins in the Dutch energy sector was the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) Framework with the following relevant (non-exhaustive) adoption variables: Complexity, Compatibility, Perception, Technological Characteristics, Availability, Organizational culture, Organizational size, Budget size, Incentives, Management support, Ab- sorptive capacity, (decision-maker’s) Demographics, Attitude towards technology, Regulations, Competitive pressure and Network effects. In addition, the overall perception of digital twins was found to be positive across the Dutch Energy sector, however, there was no consistent relationship established between organizational characteristics and the levels of digital twin perception. Similarly, the research suggested that organizational characteristics and absorptive capacity were not correlated. Nonetheless given the limitations of having a low number of study participants and the potential of bias amongst respondents towards their employer, the strength (significance) of these discovered relationships are indicative and should be further investigated in future research prior to making any additional claims that are conclusive.","Digital Twins; Technology Adoption; energy sector; Emerging technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:0926ffde-d641-450f-b800-e993c9ced40e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0926ffde-d641-450f-b800-e993c9ced40e","Topology optimization for ship structures with manufacturing constraints","Bos, Dennis (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Walters, C.L. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Currently, most ships are designed on the basis of rules and reference ships for which often only the critical structural parts are calculated and designed in detail. This process can result in an over-dimensioned ship with the standard structural outcome of longitudinal stiffeners, transverse stiffeners, and bulkheads with a fixed distance due to ease of manufacturing. With the use of finite element analysis (FEA), the complete structure of a ship is analyzed against prescribed loads, which facilitates the determination of the detailed dimensions of all stiffeners and plates within a reasonable lead time and could result in better engineering in the form of a lighter ship. In addition, the most common structural forms could be optimized by replacing them with unique and optimal shapes. Topology optimization (TO) uses FEA, and it facilitates unique structural shapes. TO generates an optimized material distribution for a set of loads and constraints within a given design domain. The result can be used to inform the design of an improved part. Although the results provide helpful insight, they often cannot be used literally, as they are organic and cannot be manufactured with typical steel shipbuilding methods. The objective of this study is to research the possibility to design the structure of a steel midship with TO where the resulting structural form is manufacturable using steel-cut plates and cost-effective from a shipbuilding perspective. However, constraints that result in a manufacturable structure that can be made cost-effectively from steel-cut plates have not been developed and implemented in TO. To meet the objective, this project was initiated in cooperation with C-Job and the University TU Delft. The methodology was established based on a software comparison followed by an extensive trial and errortesting process. The study was executed in a case study for which the domain concerned the midsection of a 203m offshore vessel named Orion, as TO could result in substantial computational time such that analyzing a hull section is more efficient. The optimization was performed in multiple iterations with different design objectives using the method of Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP). After a baseline comparison, the manufacturing constraints were implemented and developed. Despite the availability of manufacturability constraints, it is currently not possible with the software used in this study to design the complete structure of a steel midship. However, it can be very useful to employ TO as a suggestion early in the design process, as this can result in manufacturable structures (see Figure 77). The TO software used in this study can help designers with structural suggestions in the basic design phase when there are fewer design limitations. This case study resulted in unusual 45-degree, X-shape components that are highly efficient for sustaining shear loads and which resulted in a weight reduction of the mid-section of 2.4%. In addition, the result shows that unique structural shapes under various angles can result in an optimal strength-weight design rather than in orthogonal structural parts with a fixed span.","Marine Technology; Topology optimization; Ship; Structure; Manufacturing constraints","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Marine Technology","",""
"uuid:b20bb5b9-f3b3-4078-947f-c13b9b6962da","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b20bb5b9-f3b3-4078-947f-c13b9b6962da","Intelligent transformation of Logistics hub with automated transportation by integrating Blockchain Technology","Sathiyendranath, Suraj Dharmasastha (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","van Duin, Ron (mentor); Veeneman, Wijnand (graduation committee); Piest, Sebastian (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","The focus of this thesis is to introduce the application of blockchain to address the challenges associated with Port terminal operations. The research aims to investigate the interactions between different processes such as communication, planning, and transportation and associated challenges at a small-to-medium size logistics hub. Combi terminal Twente (CTT), situated at XL Business Park (Port of Twente) is considered as an ideal representative of such a small- to-medium size logistics hub, to carry out this research. To understand the intensity of changes that could be bought into the system when a disruptive technology like blockchain is implemented, different levels of digitalization is studied. The study also emphasizes identifying enabling technologies that can enhance the functions of blockchain applications and implementing automation. Furthermore, the study compares the current business process with an improved blockchain-based process by employing BPMN. The contribution made in the study can possibly help the researchers and the developers to introduce Proof of concepts and different business models. During the course of analysis, six main areas were identified where blockchain technology can be employed; secured communication to secure release reference number, container sorting, planning routes and congestion, trade documentation, certification & maintenance of the assets, and fleet management. the research contribution is as following; First, from a practical point of view, analysis facilitated the recognition of bottlenecks in the current inter-organizational processes, where the unloading process is studied and depicted in the report. Second, the proposed categorization of blockchain solutions may help understand the different uses of blockchain in Port terminal operations. Third, from a Business Process Management point of view, the improved business process extends the knowledge in BPMN, and the domain of blockchain-based information systems and the findings are validated through interviewing experts. The alternative solutions were considered to critically evaluate the technologies success rate. Also, the significance of the applications on the KPI's specific to terminal operations is investigated. Finally, based on the findings and the interview, a roadmap for future implementation is determined to develop proof-of-concept leveraging opportunities offered by blockchain in the future.","Blockchain Technology; Terminal operations; BPMN; Key Performance Indicators; Digitalization","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:6b147beb-918e-4ff5-a477-89fde89eb707","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6b147beb-918e-4ff5-a477-89fde89eb707","Privacy issues of mobile phone companies’ usage of Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology: Analysing the use of UWB in mobile phones from a multi-actor perspective, magnifying privacy concerns and formulating guidelines","Ahmed, Adeeb (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Hernandez Ganan, C. (mentor); Gürses, F.S. (graduation committee); Fiebig, T. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology became unregulated within the EU in 2007. Most recently, it was integrated into mobile phones in 2019, notably Apply and Samsung adding it to all their newer models. While UWB is characterised as a radio technology with any signal above 500 MHz, it operates within the 6-9 GHz
range in mobile phones. This allows for fast data rate, low power secure
communication, multipath facilities and accurate localization. While the integration of UWB is mostly advantageous to users and innovators, its ability of accurate localisation may lead to severe privacy concerns
The aim of the thesis is to understand the privacy concerns of UWB’s integration into mobile phones by answering the main research question: how do experts and users perceive privacy concerns of UWB usage in mobile phones; and how can they be mitigated? It was subsequently broken down into three sub-research
questions: 1. What are the possible applications of UWB in mobile phones? Phones have other incumbent radio technology embedded such as Bluetooth (BLE) and Wi-Fi, however it seems like UWB is being integrated to serve additional purposes. The answer to this question seeks to understand from gray and research literature how UWB can be used in mobile phones and what advantage it gives over incumbent technology. Research shows UWB gives phones the ability for indoor navigation, gesture-based control, foot traffic analysis for smart retail, teleconference systems, proximity-based localization, key-less entry among others.
This leads to research question 2. What are the potential privacy concerns associated with UWB? The incorporation of new technology capable of accurate localization leads to privacy concerns. All privacy issues were categorised on the basis of three paradigms: social, surveillance and institutional mentioned in Gurses and Diaz, 2013. This was initially done by interviewing experts from the three groups of privacy experts, policy regulators and technology experts. Analysis of their answers showed that UWB privacy concerns seem relatively similar to BLE and Wi-Fi localization, albeit with higher granularity. UWB allows mobile phones companies, third parties and governments track people accurately indoors, push advertisements depending on location, obtain relative relationships between people based on distance leaving people with no place to hide. Subsequently, user interviews were carried out to see if they could identify the same concerns of UWB. Results showed that that from the data of users interviewed, all of them believed that accurate data
localization of people is crossing a line that users cannot push back on. A majority of them saw most of the same privacy issues as the experts showing that, as people get more adept with technology they understand
how it can affect their privacy. A common question that was asked across all the interviews was how can we protect our privacy in the face of such penetrating innovation as time lapses.
Which is the final sub-research question: 3. What are technical and societal approaches to address privacy concerns? Experts provided solutions that were more industry oriented which included decoupling UWBfrom other location-based services, provision of opt-out settings on a more prominent basis, reworking license agreements, industry wide discussion and self-regulation in terms of privacy. However, users gave answers that were more user-centric and gave more control to the common public. This included users neggotiating their own privacy agreements, compensation models for loss of privacy, a more holistic regulation process and finally, trying to break the control of big tech companies. This shows that users and experts have very similar understanding of privacy issues but very different views on how privacy should be protected. Perhaps, it may be time for regulators to pay heed to user suggestions. These suggestions were then compared with privacy mitigation strategies mentioned in literature. Notably, the most overarching concept that needs to be incorporated is the concept of Privacy-by-design which can then be broken down into technical and societal strategies. Technical approaches included concepts such as obfuscation, k-anonymiser, differential privacy, dummy localization and access control mechanisms. All the technical strategies seemingly had the same issue of requiring third-party applications to function. Sophisticated security measures and privacy statements would then be needed to ensure these companies do not choose monetary gain over user privacy. Societal approaches included concepts of data-for-all, technical regulatory bodies and finally, breaking up of big tech companies. As time passes and innovations become more pervasive, it may be too late to incorporate privacy protection actively. The time to protect privacy is now.","Mobile phones; thematic analysis; privacy; Ultra-wideband technology; radio technology","en","student report","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","Master Thesis",""
"uuid:204bb07a-f9f6-4abc-8fea-48e9e4ef38eb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:204bb07a-f9f6-4abc-8fea-48e9e4ef38eb","Integrating shape memory materials in haptic technology as an aid for the visually impaired","Sandhir, Preeti (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Huisman, G. (mentor); Ghodrat, S. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","There are approximately 285 million people worldwide living with a visual impairment and the rate of acquired blindness is expected to continue increasing. Assistive technology for them is progressively being developed in order to enable independent living. For the blind and visually impaired, the tactile sense is the primary source of understanding non-audible information. Therefore, haptic technology is being incorporated more in assistive devices meant for situations in which one cannot rely on sight to manipulate objects and conduct various activities.
An issue with currently available haptic solutions is that they typically use electromechanical systems that are heavy with large, obtrusive forms, produce sounds that hinder their usability and sometimes even provide unpleasant haptic feedback. A way to mitigate these problems is by incorporating soft, flexible and lightweight smart materials as actuators into these systems. Shape memory materials are a specific category of smart materials that have the ability to recover their original shapes from a deformation when certain stimuli are applied. They have the potential to bring hedonic characteristics to haptic technology such as providing organic sensations. Consequently, the haptic assistive devices become effective and comfortable interventions for the visually impaired.
This project demonstrates how these materials can successfully be incorporated to produce different types of tactile feedback as a form of an assistive-wearable and enrich the lives of the blind and visually impaired. The end demonstrator provides two types of sensations- dragging and squeezing.","Shape memory materials; Shape Memory Alloy; Haptic technology; Haptic feedback; blind; visually impaired; Assistive technology; haptic perception; smart materials; Material exploration; Wearable","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:3a7abbf5-8ee0-46aa-9a7e-79bcfed3decc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3a7abbf5-8ee0-46aa-9a7e-79bcfed3decc","The Just Transition Fund - Is the EU becoming more just?: A theoretical research","Moesker, Karen (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Values Technology and Innovation)","Pesch, U. (mentor); Correljé, A. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","In 2018, the European Union laid the foundation for a large-scale energy transition: away from fossil-based energy and towards renewable, sustainable energy solutions. The need for a transition is mainly accepted, but it is questioned whether all European Union citizens benefit from such a change. In fact, the greenhouse gas reduction will lead to a costly restructuring of carbon-intensive regions. Consequently, the European Union and its critics expect extreme job destruction and decreased economic activity in such areas. To cope with the ills that an energy transition brings, the Just Transition Fund is proposed. It serves as a financial buffer and provides strategic support for the successful energy transition to decrease injustices. Support for the most affected regions is undoubtedly necessary but is the Just Transition Fund increasing justice for these regions? The European Commission provided a similar strategic support program earlier with the Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition, which included providing support to apply for funding. As such, the question arises whether the Just Transition Fund increases justice when comparing to the predecessor programs.
This master thesis serves as a first insight into the justness of the European Union’s proposed Just Transition Fund. To do so, several projects of the Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition are compared to the current setup of the fund. The data for the Just Transition Fund has been gathered in previous research while information on the Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition was acquired with an exploratory desk research approach. The gathered data was structured coherently by the creation of two main categories, the project and contextual factors. Each was complemented with subcategories allowing allowed the comparison of the projects. Ultimately, these findings could be evaluated with a transition justice framework that has been adapted to the research needs.
It becomes clear that many injustice issues were present and often left unresolved in the assessed projects. Compared with the Just Transition Funds current criticism, many of these issues can be detected again. The most prominent justice issues found were of distributive nature due to scarce funding and a lack of stakeholder participation. The interplay of both problems leads to the desire to reach one goal: receiving as many funds as possible. As a result, the eligibility criteria seem to be seen as obstacles to overcome or boxes to tick leading to window dressing to meet imposed requirements. Implementing the same process kind for both programs is thus an inadequate path to take as the most critical justice issues stem from precisely this process.
The inadequacy of some criteria leads to the conclusion that the Just Transition Fund merges indicators of funding needs with requiring solutions to grand societal problems. The European Union needs to reassess the posed criteria on their ends and make the said challenges a priority to be addressed during the energy transition. Furthermore, it becomes evident that the application process can lead to injustice due to a lack of capacities and political capabilities of the regions in need.
With the current setup of the fund, transition justice can only increase to some extent. Still, there is potential for this program the first step is made towards a more holistic approach to coping with justice issues. The monetary aid, although insufficient now, can help the most affected if distributed and spend adequately. Besides, the fund serves as a symbol of solidarity with the most affected regions currently left behind. Policymaking is always a trial and error. Now, the identified shortcomings must be addressed to increase the fund’s impact.
2 emissions. In the Netherlands the Dutch industry accounts for 40% of the total CO2 emissions and therefore decarbonisation of this sector is highly relevant. The Port of Rotterdam is home to a large variety of power plants and chemical companies producing all sorts of essential products, such as fuels, platform chemicals and polymers. Polyvinylchloride (PVC) is one of the polymers produced in the Port and on average 100 ktonne of CO2 is emitted every year during the manufacturing. PVC manufacturing companies have a significant responsibility to reduce their CO2 emissions and explore more environmental-friendly production methods. This research aims to aid in the transition by exploring decarbonisation pathways through which PVC manufacturers in the Netherlands can reduce their direct CO2 emissions.
This study will answer the main research question: How can selected hydrogen and biomass decarbonisation configurations reduce direct CO2emissions in the Dutch PVC industry and how do these perform in a grey-box techno-economicanalysis?
To answer the main research question, secondary research questions were formulated, which are systematically answered throughout this study:• What are the main steps of the production of PVC in the Netherlands and which step is the primary source of CO2 emissions?• Which three selected hydrogen and biomass decarbonisation configurations are promising for decarbonisation of the Dutch PVC industry and where do they fit in the PVC production process?• How do the selected hydrogen an biomass decarbonisation configurations compare in a grey-box techno-economic analysis?
This was done by carrying out a literature study on the current PVC production process ofShin-Etsu in the Port of Rotterdam, followed by a Mass Flow (MFA) and Energy Flow Analysis (EFA) which identified the thermal cracking of ethylene dichloride (EDC) to vinylchloride monomer (VCM) as the main source of CO2 emissions in the production process. Next, three decarbonisation configurations were proposed that make use of several renewable energy technologies, such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOEC), electric furnaces (EF) and hydrogen furnaces (HF):• Configuration A: A hydrogen-fed SOFC system with an electric furnace.• Configuration B: A biomass-fed SOFC system with an electric furnace.• Configuration C: A electricity-fed SOEC system with a hydrogen furnace.
These configurations were modelled using grey-box modelling and compared in a techno-economic analysis using the following parameters: Net Present Value (NPV), Payback Period (PBP), Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and Energy Efficiency (EE). The main results and conclusions of the study are as follows:
• PVC production in the Netherlands can be split in two main production steps: VCM production and PVC polymerisation. It was found that thermal cracking of EDC to VCM during VCM production is the main source of CO2 emissions.• Under the assumption that indirect heating technology will continue to be developedand pilot tested, electric furnaces with a supporting SOFC system could see implementation in the future. The energy efficiency of this configuration was estimated at 51%. This setup has the potential to negate direct CO2 emissions from the traditional cracking furnaces. However, the economic viability of hydrogen fed SOFC systems will be highly dependent on lower hydrogen market prices. In order to avoid shifting CO2 emissions from inside the gate to outside the gate an infrastructure where affordable, green hydrogen is available is key. Close collaboration between all the stakeholders in this supply chain will be important.• Biomass-fed SOFC systems combined with an electric furnace showed a positive NPV due to the lower price of biomass compared to hydrogen. The energy efficiency of this configuration was estimated at 45%. Sufficient availability of biomass in the Netherlands would benefit the potential of biomass-fed SOFC systems in the future, but this is not certain. Furthermore, the debate whether or not the use of biomass is carbon neutral continues as scientists call for caution since burning biomass is instant, while depending on the type of biomass it might take decades before the same amount of CO2 is drawn from the air. Biomass should therefore be used carefully. The future price of electric furnaces are subject to uncertainty and the economic viability of configurations using this technology should be reaccessed once the technology is closer to maturity.• A SOEC system supporting a hydrogen cracking furnace showed the highest NPV and the shortest pay back period of all three configurations. The energy efficiency was estimated at 61% which is the highest of all three configurations. SOEC is reaching high TRL and it is expected that by 2030 1+ MW systems are commercially available. If hydrogen cracking furnaces will also continue to strongly develop in the future, this configuration could be successful. Availability of renewable electricity and storage methods to deal with the intermittent nature of wind and solar are important enablers that could help SOEC systems gain momentum. Access to renewable electricity will also avoid displacement of direct CO2 emissions from the PVC industry to indirect CO2 emissions sources.","MIDDEN; Decarbonisation; Sustainable Energy Technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:445f091f-7aae-420a-a884-1c4992e27f5d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:445f091f-7aae-420a-a884-1c4992e27f5d","Got something to hide? say it with flowers!","Hoffer, Thom (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","van de Pas, R.R.J. (mentor); Speksnijder, F.J. (mentor); Kousoulas, S. (mentor); Mulder, A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","","Nature; Culture; immunity; technology; dualism; Coronavirus; architecture","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","","52.0101005,4.3594966"
"uuid:dbf548c7-849f-4aad-b4b7-455ba4a1835d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dbf548c7-849f-4aad-b4b7-455ba4a1835d","Enhancing the privacy and security of Hyperledger Fabric smart contracts using different encryption methods","Stefanov, Radoslav (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Intelligent Systems)","Liang, K. (mentor); Scharenborg, O.E. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Blockchain networks have gained recent popularity among organisations that want to make use of the security aspects that blockchain provides. Fabric is one of the most used distributed network technologies, most commonly applied in scenarios that require confidential data to be stored securely and privately. Use case examples are finance, trading, dispute resolution and healthcare record-keeping. Multiple research has shown that Fabric has vulnerabilities that can allow malicious attackers to obtain access to the data stored in the ledger or the state database. This research presents a symmetric encryption methodology that can be implemented in most of the Fabric smart contracts to protect the stored information in both ledger and state databases. Some drawbacks of the method are increased smart contract execution time, increased storage size, slightly higher code complexity, and limitations when executing CouchDB range queries. In conclusion, although this implementation enhances the security levels of Fabric, other approaches can be used to additionally improve data protection, such as ZKPs and MPC.","Hyperledger Fabric; Blockchain; Cyber Security; Encryption; Distributed Ledger Technology","en","bachelor thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Computer Science and Engineering","CSE3000 Research Project",""
"uuid:e2e43934-c3ac-462b-a94b-25c1b32aa044","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e2e43934-c3ac-462b-a94b-25c1b32aa044","A Roadmap towards Touchless Interaction during Image-guided Therapy: Enhancing workflow in complex medical procedures through strategic technology implementation","Wijn, Victor (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Goossens, R.H.M. (mentor); Li, M. (mentor); Buil, V. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Philips is the global leader in Image-Guided Therapy (IGT). This medical specialization provides integrated solutions that allow for minimally invasive medical procedures. A specialized medical team consisting of multiple stakeholders works closely with Philips's newest technological devices and systems during these interventions. These complex procedures are followed and guided via real-time, on-screen imaging modalities. This way, technology-enabled, optimal care can be provided for many different interventions. Clinical demands, challenges and complexities can be very specific and patient-dependent. Often bottlenecks in IGT procedures come down to limitations like sterility and hands-busy situations. However, touchless interaction technologies provide solutions in many ways. Technologies like eye-gaze, voice control and gesture sensing are expected to minimize the number of mistakes made and time lost because of inefficiencies. The future context of IGT is explored by doing creative trend research to get an idea of the technologies, trends, and developments in the future healthcare landscape. A future vision of IGT is established to give an expression of a desired future. It provides a strategic reference point for actionable innovations. Through qualitative research, ideation and conceptualization, several design implications are provided. Synthesizing these concepts into an implementation strategy that aligns with the future vision is essential. Since the result of this thesis will be a roadmap, a division is made into three separate horizons leading towards the future vision. These horizons address a particular aim, alignment with the developing healthcare landscape and related implementation of the concepts into the roadmap. Through validation and assessment, the roadmap is optimized and aligned with the business. An estimated improvement target is established as a reference point. Additionally, the expected value of the clinical and operational performance of the concept propositions are estimated and substantiated. This results in a strategic roadmap that can deliver concrete insights and provide guidance in the implementation possibilities of these touchless UI innovations in this healthcare domain.","Image-guided Therapy; Touchless Interaction; Roadmap; Workflow; Strategic Design; Interaction technologies; Sterility; Cath lab; Minimally-invasive Surgery; hands-busy; Experience; UX Design; UI Design; Future of healthcare","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design | Medisign","",""
"uuid:7abff4cc-e387-4ec8-b8c5-4da7efe727c2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7abff4cc-e387-4ec8-b8c5-4da7efe727c2","Living at Gele Scheikunde: How to redevelop former campus buildings by integrating social & ecological values?","Ugnat, Diana (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","de Andrade, Bruno (mentor); de Ridder, A.C. (mentor); Tomesen, P.L. (mentor); Pereira Roders, A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","This research looks at Gele Scheikunde - a TU Delft chemistry department building constructed in 1945. The complex served for educational purposes until 2012 and then was sold by TU for redevelopment.
The ambition of the city of Delft is to increase the housing stock, furthermore, the number of TU campus users has grown significantly in recent years. This brings up a dilemma between densification and quality of life. For these reasons, abandoned or non-used buildings like TU faculty building Gele Scheikunde is envisioned for housing purpose. According to the official regulations and the Commission for Environmental Impact Assessment (MER), there is great potential in this university area to develop an innovative sustainable neighbourhood. Thus, the question that arises is: How to redevelop the former campus buildings?
The goal is to research on how to cope with abandoned campus buildings by including social and ecological values into the transformation and re-adaption design. The approach for the research was to involve stakeholders in the co-creation process. This co-creation process was facilitated through the Minecraft workshop. During the workshop, not only experts (e.g. architects, designers, planners) but also external parties (e.g. neighbours, users, ecologists), decided over the built environment. However, a co-creation approach is not limited to one method. There are various ways to involve stakeholders: interviews, surveys, questionnaires and workshops, with or without heritage games. For this research, a combination of the above was chosen: interviews, surveys and a gaming workshop with Minecraft.
This approach provided information on what is valued in the case study, why it is valued, what should be kept and what can be demolished. Besides all stakeholders shared their opinion on what would be the best “new program”.","heritage & Architecture; Campus; building reuse; Building renovation; Green Blue roofs; Ecological approach; design based research; Heritage and Architecture; Values and technology; Heritage value; University","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Heritage & Architecture","Gele Scheikunde",""
"uuid:7afdfb9e-e55a-4230-9fc1-98b413dfa8cb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7afdfb9e-e55a-4230-9fc1-98b413dfa8cb","An ECG- and PPG-Based Wearable Atrial Fibrillation Detection Device: Signal Acquisition","Kohabir, Amar (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science); Smit, Alex (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Abdi, Bahareh (mentor); Hendriks, R.C. (mentor); Neto, A. (graduation committee); Fioranelli, F. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","When symptoms of atrial fibrillation (AF), a common cardiac arrhythmia, are experienced, a Holter monitor or event recorder is used for official diagnosis. Apart from the fact that these devices are experienced as inconvenient, AF can already manifest damage in a pre-symptomatic phase. This thesis is aimed at developing a method for recording heart activity using a wearable device to permit convenient early detection of AF. For this, heart activity is measured continuously by means of photoplethysmography (PPG). A classification algorithm is used to detect AF episodes in the PPG recording. If the algorithm suspects AF, a limb lead I ECG recording is requested from the user. The ECG recording can be analyzed by a clinician for official diagnosis. The Maxim Integrated Max86150 chip is used for the implementation of PPG and ECG. Acceleration data is gathered by means of the Adafruit MMA8451 accelerometer to allow for detection of motion artefacts. These sensors and the data they retrieve are controlled and processed by the ARM Cortex-M7 microcontroller. From the results, PPG recordings have a higher quality when infrared light is used as compared to when red light is used. However, both types of recordings are of sufficient quality for monitoring the heart rate accurately when in stasis. Although complete functionality of the system could not be verified, the results are promising for future work.","atrial fibrillation; AF; electrocardiography; ECG; photoplethysmography; PPG; motion artefacts; medical device; Wearables; Wearable Technology","en","bachelor thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:1a4d7463-049f-4a2f-a9a4-f8f6a05e0842","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1a4d7463-049f-4a2f-a9a4-f8f6a05e0842","New Museum for Contemporary Technology","Chung, Daul (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Bultstra, H.J. (mentor); Eckardt, H.F. (mentor); Lee, S. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","The site is located on the south side of the Maas river, Rotterdam South. As Rotterdam is an international and contemporary city, I focused on contemporary technology. Technology for humans has always been a necessity, as the site has been transformed from polder to harbor by technology and it will transform one more time. Technology is more important than ever before. Artists produce provocative art works using today’s technology. Those art works seem to be hard to understand. But more and more artists become new media artists. When technology is developed, the media is changed. When the media is developed, the way of adopting arts is changed. But also it needs a suitable place to exhibit new art forms. I believe that when technology is changed, not only the way of adopting the new art forms but also the place of presenting the new art is changed for better understanding of new art forms using contemporary technology. Therefore, the New Museum aims to express new art forms in today’s technology. To do that, the New Museum for Contemporary Technology should be an unconventional museum which follows the New Media Principle: Remediation, Discrete Representation, Modularity, Variability, and Transcoding.","New Museum; Contemporary Technology; New Media Art; Multiplicity; Public Building","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Public Building","","51.89715, 4.49168"
"uuid:95906b6a-67c9-421f-b222-f628f54a6099","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:95906b6a-67c9-421f-b222-f628f54a6099","Smart safety shoe of the future: Detecting risks of low back pain","Zhang, Yixiang (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","van der Vegte, Wilhelm Frederik (mentor); Jellema, A.H. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","The warehousing sector is among the top when it comes to the risk of developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), in particular low back pain (LBP). In this sector, LBP is a prevalent issue, due to the nature of the job of lifting and moving (heavy) objects around. The issue has significant implications for the workers’ health, in terms of quality of life. Companies and society feel the consequences in terms of financial costs. This issue could be tackled by introducing smart technology in the form of a smart safety shoe. The concept has been developed by a strategic product design student and the strategic direction has been determined. This project explores the concept further and validates the idea of smart safety shoes to reduce the risk of LBP during manual handling, through technological means.
To understand the problem of LBP in context, extensive literature research was conducted on ergonomics. Understanding what causes it and the current methods to reduce the risks. Further, looking into the possibility of detecting causes through technology. The research results were used to build a prototype for validation of the concept.
The causality of LBP is not easy to point out, as multiple factors (physical, psychosocial, and individual) play a role in its development. Research does conclude that physical factors play a major role, which is related to heavy lifting, repetitiveness, and awkward postures. Manual handling can be performed safely as long as the weight is below 23 kg and correct postures are adopted. Though not all workers adhere to correct posture, and it is hard to track through observational methods.
Postures can be tracked or detected through plantar pressure distribution (PPD), by using pressure sensors. These sensors can be placed within safety shoes and will collect PPD data of workers. The PPD data shows certain patterns and have characteristics that can be linked to different postures. The data can be analysed using machine learning, to automate the process and could be able to give feedback to the user when a risky posture is adopted.
A pressure insole has been prototyped with the conducted research to collect PPD data of different postures (stoop lifting, lifting above shoulder height, and asymmetrical lifting). The collected data were manually analysed to understand how patterns may look like. A machine learning model was made, using a tree algorithm, to analyse the data as well. It can classify all the measured static postures with 100% accuracy. Dynamic lifting data were not analysed by the model yet as it needs additional data preparation. At this point, the concept needs more development to analyse dynamic data and to implement the hardware in the safety shoes.
Based on the results, the core components of the concept have been proven to work and able to detect different postures with great accuracy. The idea of a smart safety shoe that can detect and warn the worker of potential injury is not far-fetched.
This project is the first step in the development of the concept. Due to the complexity of the issue and required knowledge, additional research is needed for the continuation of the project. The posture database has to be set up, improving the machine learning model for dynamic lifting data, hardware design and a live feedback system. With these developments, a smart safety shoe could be brought to market that could improve workers' lives and save additional costs for companies.","Smart technology; Protective footwear; Smart product; Occupational safety; Ergonomics; Manual handling","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:9df9371f-bd2d-4f0c-8f00-ba23194ce1eb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9df9371f-bd2d-4f0c-8f00-ba23194ce1eb","Minimally-Interactive Protocols for Privacy-Preserving Set and Multiset Operations Between Multiple Parties","Vos, Jelle (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Erkin, Z. (mentor); Picek, S. (graduation committee); Chen, Y. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","In our increasingly digital society, we are making a growing amount of data available to computers, networks and third parties. As a consequence, our sensitive data is in danger of getting exposed. The field of multi-party computation attempts to mitigate this by studying protocols that enable parties to perform their operations digitally, without the risk of privacy-violating data leaks. Among those operations are multi-party private set and multiset operations. In such a scenario, multiple parties, each with their own input set or multiset, want to collectively find the result of an operation over their inputs, without revealing these original inputs. Such operations are the cornerstone of many complex privacy-preserving protocols. For example, a two-party private set intersection forms the key to several privacy-preserving contact tracing protocols.
While multi-party private set and multiset operations have been studied for almost two decades, these privacy-preserving alternatives are often impractical: one limitation is that, to the best of our knowledge, all known protocols require several interactions between the cooperating parties. This means that rather than simply submitting their input, each party must actively take part in the protocol. In this thesis, we propose the first non-interactive protocols for privately computing set and multiset operations between multiple parties,
which rely on two constructions for non-interactive secret sharing. In addition, for operations that cannot be trivially performed using our non-interactive primitives, we propose minimally-interactive alternatives that instead rely on a homomorphic cryptosystem over elliptic curves. By using elliptic curves, this cryptosystem is faster and requires less bandwidth than the commonly used cryptosystems over integers, while retaining the same level of security. We provide proof-of-concept implementations of exact and more efficient approximate protocols that take on the order of seconds to minutes to compute, depending on the number of parties and possible inputs. Finally, we give formal proofs for the security of these protocols, so as to offer practical and provably privacy-preserving alternatives to otherwise sensitive operations.","Privacy-Enhancing Technology; Set operations; Multiset operations; Private Set Intersection; Private Set Union; Multi-Party Computation; Non-interactive; Secret Sharing; Homomorphic Encryption; Elliptic Curve Cryptography","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:80dbf46e-486b-4fb6-af72-6273d9d7e620","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:80dbf46e-486b-4fb6-af72-6273d9d7e620","Solar Morphing Kinetic Envelope: Integration of thermo-responsive Shape Memory Alloys in an autoreactive facade system to reduce the building’s impact on the Urban Heat Island effect in the Mediterranean climate (case study: Athens, Greece)","KOUKELLI, CHRISTINA (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment; TU Delft Architectural Engineering +Technology)","Prieto Hoces, A.I. (mentor); Așut, Serdar (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Kinetic responsive systems are gaining attention in architectural applications, to help reduce the building’s energy consumption and environmental impact, while improving the indoor comfort conditions. The thesis explores the potentials of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) for the design of autoreactive facade systems without using additional energy. The exploration is conducted and assessed through the design of a facade concept for the city of Athens in Greece, aiming to improve both the indoor and outdoor environment by means of a kinetic autoreactive system, with a focus on the building’s direct and indirect impact on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The methodology follows a feedback-loop logic informed by environmental and energy performance evaluation studies conducted in the Grasshopper environment to optimize the shape, geometry and movement of the proposed shading component. Throughout the facade design development, a comprehensive and systematic computational toolset is being developed, targeted on the abovementioned performance evaluation studies with the goal to compose a combined digital tool to facilitate designers and other specialists in the area. The proposed facade system, as a case study application and outcome of this iterative process, features a dynamic seasonal response, triggered by the temperature changes and exhibits a dual function. During the cooling-dominated periods, the aim is to reduce the cooling demands, by increasing the reflective surfaces directing the incoming solar radiation to the atmosphere, while also increasing the shading and self-shading effect through undulated geometries. In the contrary, during the heating-dominated periods, the system adapts a double facade function with multiple-cavity zones for heat amplification, with a higher solar absorption enabled through larger sun exposure. The system’s mechanism composed of two SMA wires, operates in coordination with a pivot axle and rotating mechanism, in combination with elastic steel threads and membranes that can accommodate the dynamic deformations. The activation of the SMAs, due to the environmental temperature changes, causes their linear deformation and initiates with a single movement the linear and rotational movement of the components involved, in a cause-effect internal system, while also controlling the cavity aperture. The design aims to minimize the need for actuators and mechanical parts with no additional energy, while the study evaluates in parallel the energy and environmental performance in the urban microclimate and the potential for passive operation. Through the development and assessment of the facade concept, the objective is to explore the potentials and limitations for the application of autoreactive envelopes in the facade design and development. At the same time, the aim is to exploit the possibilities and optimization potentials offered through the developed iterative computational workflows. This is realized through an interoperability logic of the digital tools used for the data interchange, which can be developed and used as a toolset in a broader range of applications, with the studied facade design as one demonstration example of its use in practice.","smart materials; Shape Memory Alloys; passive; autoreactive; adaptive facade technologies; kinetic; shading strategies; environmental response; Urban Heat Island effect; computational workflows; Grasshopper; performance-driven optimization; thermal; energy performance","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Building Technology","","37.983810, 23.727539."
"uuid:0bb60b54-e7f8-4cb0-9e78-d7e223c1b31e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0bb60b54-e7f8-4cb0-9e78-d7e223c1b31e","Transparent Decision Support in ever-changing healthcare contexts: Designing an architecture of a transparent and dynamic Clinical Decision Support System grounded in Discrete Choice Modeling","Schrama, Verena (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","de Reuver, G.A. (mentor); Kortmann, L.J. (graduation committee); Chorus, C.G. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Every day physicians make choices on clinical treatment that directly influence patients’ well-being. To deal with these critical decisions and avoid treatment errors and costs, physicians show a growing interest in Clinical Decision Support Systems (IDSS). Current CDSSs, however, suffer from limited transparency and flexibility, which gives rise to ethical concerns when applied in healthcare environments. A novel CDSS approach overcomes these limitations: Behavioral Artificial Intelligence (BAIT). However, a BAIT-based CDSS is not yet capable of incorporating new clinical developments to keep its recommendations accurate over time. Because healthcare decision-making is highly dynamic, the static BAIT-based CDSS needs a transformation into a dynamic BAIT-based CDSS that retains its accuracy and, therefore, clinical relevance over time. However, the preferences regarding a dynamic BAIT-based CDSS vary among healthcare decision-making contexts. Therefore, CDSS developers need an architecture that illustrates how to create and customize a dynamic BAIT-based CDSS that matches physicians' preferences in a particular healthcare context. Because designing these architectures is challenging, this research aims to formulate design principles that guide the design of dynamic BAIT-based CDSS architectures. By following the Action Design Research (ADR) framework, this research identified and tested a set of architecture requirements by building an architecture in a situated problem context. The generalization of the requirements that worked in a situated context resulted in ten design principles guiding the design of a dynamic BAIT-based CDSS architecture. The greater part of the design principles is specific to the design of a dynamic BAIT-based CDSS architecture. By providing these novel insights, the design principles contribute to the CDSS architecture design knowledge base. The research also contributes to CDSS architecture design knowledge because it tackles the challenges of designing a dynamic BAIT-based CDSS architecture. By doing so, the research outcomes eliminate the barriers to design such an architecture and lay a foundation to continue the work on transparent and dynamic CDSSs. The findings highlight new design challenges for further research, like designing a dynamic BAIT-based CDSS architecture with the ten design principles in another sector to investigate how to modify the design principles, so the principles are useful outside the healthcare sector.","Clinical Decision Support Systems; Discrete Choice Modeling; System Architecture; Design Science Research; Action Design Research; Healthcare decision-making; Behavioral Artificial Intelligence Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:6b4ca8dc-7615-4b3e-8f9d-d5af6754dbb4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6b4ca8dc-7615-4b3e-8f9d-d5af6754dbb4","Creating a Framework for the Economic Impact of Multi-party Computations","Minnema, Harm (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","de Reuver, G.A. (mentor); Roosenboom-Kwee, Z. (graduation committee); Ofe, H.A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Data is becoming more important because of the increased possibilities of analysis and the increase in possibilities of data sharing. Multi-party Computation or MPC is a privacy-preserving technology that enables anonymous data sharing between companies. This thesis identified quantifiable aspects of economic impact such as legal costs and improved targeted marketing. They are put together in a framework that is validated by doing expert interviews and applying it to the case of telecom companies.","MPC; Privacy-preserving technology; economic impact","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:4dc97c47-0d89-4356-927a-2e811a2b0ca9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4dc97c47-0d89-4356-927a-2e811a2b0ca9","Atrium: Facilitating social interactions for sustained wellbeing in a digital campus life","Monteiro Rego Meyrelles, Henrique (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Lomas, J.D. (mentor); Sonneveld, M.H. (graduation committee); van der Maden, W.L.A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","It would be hard to think of someone who isn’t benefiting from their social circles and social interactions within them. The many and varied social interactions we all experience are intrinsic to nurturing and maintaining our social connections, which are arguably one of the core capabilities to which we can attribute our dominance as a species. In parallel, we have our capacity to develop technologies. Which goes from the first tools and deliberately making of fire to antibiotics and the world wide web. All of which undoubtedly elevated our quality of life in general.Still, in spite of all these advancements, we seem to struggle with the pursuit of well-being - to achieve a balance between our capacities and the challenges we face. To be in a state of satisfaction while still driven and stimulated. And to flourish.One can say that today we are more connected to one another than ever before, with hundreds of people one touch away in our powerful smartphones and computers. Yet we seem to feel more isolated than ever (Coombs, 2020). Even more now with the challenges imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, literally isolating us even more.It shows that simply having the means to connect isn’t enough. It is necessary to understand what motivates us on a behavioural level, what makes us engage and maintain quality social interactions?This graduation project sets out to explore the experience of university students, in the Netherlands, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Aiming to be informed by the unique set of circumstances we face today, in the hope to design better digital solutions for our future. The project has the goal of assisting students in a remote study situation to be able to build and nourish their networks and personal relationships. The project’s approach is focused on qualitative data gathered in context mapping activities (Sanders & Stappers, 2012), combined with literature studies and fitting within a double diamond approach(TU Delft, 2019). In order to design for sustained well-being, the project follows the multi-stage framework for sustained wellbeing promoted by technology proposed by Wiese, Pohlmeyer & Hekkert,(2020).In order to understand the target group’s experiences, we have looked into their routines during the lockdown and collected their recollections of their previous university experiences. With the insights from the research, a problem statement was formed, leading to a design direction.The design direction was focused on stimulating and facilitating the engagement with positive activities related to the nurturing of personal relationships (Wiese, Pohlmeyer & Hekkert, 2020), exploring how to reinstate the drivers of behaviour necessary for the engagement with such activities in a virtual scenario.The ideation phase explored 10 different ways of virtual social interactions, which were later exposed to the target group for feedback and combined into one final concept: Atrium, a close-knit environment to feel connected and interact with your peers in digital university life.Atrium is a well-being informed digital platform. Designed to lower the friction in initiating social interactions between university peers. It creates an environment that conveys belonging and keeps you connected to the community, motivating students in their daily work and enabling moments for spontaneous and more natural online social interactions. Atrium means a communal space to be together and naturally connect, not only for tech-savvy and extroverted personalities but for all students.","Well-being; interactive technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:99a9c7b4-f3db-4c9a-b851-09dae88283fb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:99a9c7b4-f3db-4c9a-b851-09dae88283fb","Creating Impactful Standards:: Assessing the importance of RRI dimensions on standard development","Meijer, Joran (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","van de Kaa, G. (mentor); Doorn, N. (graduation committee); Wiarda, M.J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has seen a recent surge in policy uptake, but currently lacks guidance on clear institutionalisation in practice (Burget et al., 2017; Owen et al., 2021). Formal standards have tremendous potential as a possible instrument in order to meet societal challenges due to the anticipatory and inclusive nature of standardisation processes. Yet standardisation present an under researched field of study in relation to RRI. The goal of this study is to test the relative importance of typical RRI dimensions and their criteria in formal standard development processes, since it is not clear if the concepts of RRI are important to organisations (Stahl et al., 2017). In order to test the relative importance of RRI dimensions, core concepts and their applicability were explored in the context of standardisation through a series of semi-structured interview with NEN professionals. Subsequently, a questionnaire was administered among standardisation professionals at NEN. Respondents were asked to rank the relevant RRI criteria. A BWM analysis was performed to make pairwise comparisons between RRI criteria to calculate their overall weights. Results indicate that the diversity of participation, consensus and the role of information are considered most important, followed by the identification of standards’ impact. This suggests that adoption of standards requires a wide variety of participants relevant to the standards context to enable broad support. This is further supported by the need for consensus and openness to protect participants’ interests and increase trust in the process. Lastly, the study suggests the need for standards to be impactful for them to be used and useful.","RRI; Standardisation; Values and technology; Responsible Innovation; Ethics and engineering","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:a2eb189a-2712-411c-af5f-519dac2a30b6","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a2eb189a-2712-411c-af5f-519dac2a30b6","The interactive bodysuit: A full body monitoring system for physical therapy patients","Monster, Tamara (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Jansen, K.M.B. (mentor); Goto, L. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","This project focussed on the use of smart textiles for full body posture monitoring and exploring the potential of a tight fitting catsuit to measure posture close to the body. A full body monitoring system (FBMS) that is wearable and easy to use, was found to be most relevant in the domain of first line care physical therapy(PT). As the form of the product was set in the beginning of the project, the ViP analysis was used to gain insight in the Domain of physical therapy, the context the FBMS is used, the qualities of the interactions users have with the FBMS and the features of the product. A fully textile based wearable system for monitoring postures is complex but not impossible. In terms of research in the field of wearable textiles, recent developments has shown a surge in possibilities and posture sensing abilities. The identified target users are female physical therapy patients with a young family who experience lower back pain. Prevalence of lower back issues are highest among musculoskeletal conditions and issues related to lower back pain have a large influence on the rest of the body. Here the posture changes due to poor posture behaviour, creating deformities in the body. These deformities can be measured by adapting strain resistive sensors to textile based sensors and integrated them in a tight fitting bodysuit. For this purpose, the zigzag stitch, shieldex 2-ply silvercoated yarn and 85% lycra proved most successful in obtaining a useful sensor signal. Here, posture and change in posture could be measured and provide the user with direct haptic feedback on their posture with vibration motors.","Textile sensors; Wearable Technology; Smart textile; Stitched Sensors; Conductive Lycra; 2NCS; Catsuit; Interaction Technology; Physical Therapy; Fashion Technology; Fashion Desing; ViP; Textile Based; ZigZag stitch sensor","en","master thesis","","","","","","This research contains a lot of detailed information in creating stitched sensors and optimising their response.","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:07022a9c-347e-4b26-a28b-ed7ee270dd18","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:07022a9c-347e-4b26-a28b-ed7ee270dd18","The end of an era, start of new beginnings: The legacy of the Women’s Studies section at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft (1978-1998)","Andriessen, Mirthe (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment; TU Delft History & Complexity)","Novas, María (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","This thesis focuses on the Women’s Studies section at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft, active from 1978 to 1998. The initial goal of the section was to contribute to the elimination of women's oppression by expanding the knowledge of this social reality. The emergence of the second feminist wave in 1960 in the Netherlands motivated women to establish female study groups, to link societal changes to the academic content. In 1977, architecture students in Delft followed this trend and organized female consultations at the Faculty of Architecture. They started sharing personal experiences concerning the women’s movement linked to their position within the faculty and the architectural profession in general. Despite internal disagreement from the faculty’s dean, the consultations ultimately led to the official course of Women’s Studies in 1978. The goal of the course shifted during the first years from the “oppression of women in the built environment” into a more scientific field of the “construction of gender differences”. In 1986, staff members started questioning the future of the section. They believed that two scenarios were possible for the development of Women’s Studies: the section could continue as a separate study field or integrate with existing research areas. Unfortunately, for the future of feminist studies at the Faculty of Architecture neither of these scenarios became reality. The section lost its support, and therefore the needed money flow, and got disbanded in 1998. The aim of this research is to link recent questions concerning the position of women in architecture to the achievements of the Women’s Studies section 40 years ago. The current activism is linked to the persistent gender gap in architectural practice, which shows that the topics covered by the Women’s Studies course are still relevant today. In the current women’s movement, the subject goes beyond the oppression of women and into intersectionality, in which the societal discrimination of multiple social groups comes to light. To bring about actual change, listening to and talking with the students is not enough. They need the right resources to take that next step in the women’s movement to eliminate inequality and exclusion in universities.","AR2A011; Women’s Studies; Architectural Education; Anna Vos; Heidi De Mare; Intersectionality; Delft University of Technology","en","student report","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","AR2A011",""
"uuid:bcf6dd0c-ec98-474e-8d52-6f821f3ddd9a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bcf6dd0c-ec98-474e-8d52-6f821f3ddd9a","Design and development of a downstream separation process for ethylene recovery within the e-Refinery framework","Snoeks, Casper (TU Delft Applied Sciences)","Eral, H.B. (mentor); Huesman, A.E.M. (graduation committee); Kortlever, R. (graduation committee); Burdyny, T.E. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Electroreduction of CO2 into high-valued chemicals is a promising way to reduce CO2 emissions while simultaneously producing bulk chemicals currently produced from fossil-fuel feedstocks. The downside of this process is that conversion rates are low, meaning the resulting product stream is a complex gas mixture consisting primarily of reactants and by-products and a relatively small amount of product. This study focuses on the development of a new downstream separation process to capture ethylene from a mock-up reaction mixture (mole fractions C2H4/CO2/CO/H2/H2O : 20/55/15/15/5), based on low driving forces and suitable for application in a 100kW test case within the e-Refinery. An extensive literature study of numerous separation techniques for gases was conducted and adsorption was chosen as the most suitable option. After screening of various adsorbents, active carbon was selected as the most potential sorbent. Based on a selectivity analysis, the primary focus was on the behaviour of C2H4/CO2 on active carbon. Using a simple, custom-build set-up, transient breakthrough experiments were performed for this gas mixture and the resulting selectivity for an equivolume feed, yielded a lower separation performance than expected based on the ideal adsorption solution theory, respectively a selectivity of 1.5–1.7 versus 3.2–3.5. Additionally a theoretical model was developed using MATLAB, which described the velocity profile inside the adsorber column and could qualitatively predict breakthrough behaviour. Further analysis led to the conclusion that for a more accurate quantitative match between experimental and numerical results, isotherm parameters should be obtained from the same type of active carbon. Ultimately this technique could be used to increase the ethylene content in a CO2-bearing stream and pave the way for a new, energy-efficient method to obtain hydrocarbons, ethylene in this case, from an electrolyzer cell.","Adsorption; Ethylene capture; Breakthrough times; Activated carbon; Separation technology; e-Refinery; Numerical model","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2021-03-02","","","","","",""
"uuid:d658ac52-b3b1-48e3-9ba0-d96e1be18937","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d658ac52-b3b1-48e3-9ba0-d96e1be18937","Automated lane changing using deep reinforcement learning: a user-acceptance case study","van den Haak, Daniel (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering; TU Delft Cognitive Robotics)","de Winter, J.C.F. (mentor); Bazilinskyy, P. (mentor); Dodou, D. (graduation committee); Wang, M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Lane change decision-making is an important challenge for automated vehicles, urging the need for high performance algorithms that are able to handle complex traffic situations. Deep reinforcement learning (DRL), a machine learning method based on artificial neural networks, has recently become a popular choice for modelling the lane change decision-making process, outperforming various traditional rule-based models. So far, performance has often been expressed in terms of achieved average speed, absence of collisions or merging success rate. However, no studies have investigated how humans will react to the resulting behavior as potential occupants. This study addresses this research gap by validating a self-developed DRL-based lane changing model (trained using proximal policy optimization) from a technology acceptance perspective through an online crowdsourcing experiment. Participants (N=1085) viewed a random subset of 32 out of 120 videos of an automated vehicle driving on a three-lane highway with varying traffic densities featuring our proposed model or a baseline policy (i.e. a state-of-the-art rule-based model, MOBIL). They were tasked to press a response key if the decision-making was deemed undesirable and subsequently rated the vehicle's behavior along four acceptance constructs (performance expectancy, safety, human-likeness and reliability) on a scale of 1 to 5. Results showed that the proposed model caused a significantly lower amount of disagreements and was rated significantly higher on all four acceptance constructs compared to the baseline policy. Moreover, considerable differences between individual disagreement rates were observed for both models. Our findings offer prospects for the practical application of DRL-based lane change models in a use-case scenario, depending on the user. Further research is necessary to examine whether these observations hold in other (more complex) traffic situations. Additionally, we recommend combining DRL with other modelling techniques that allow for personalization of behavioral parameters, such as imitation learning.","automated lane changing; automated vehicles; deep reinforcement learning; artificial neural networks; proximal policy optimization; technology acceptance; crowdsourcing; MOBIL","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Mechanical Engineering","",""
"uuid:b25f5133-7710-4a2c-abd8-3e4a5d929a97","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b25f5133-7710-4a2c-abd8-3e4a5d929a97","Industry4.0 Technology Battles in Manufacturing Operations Management: Non-technical dominance factors for IIoT & MES","de Vries, Aksel (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, new industrial automation technologies (Industrial IoT) may replace the existing standard (MES). Most literature analyses software vendor techno-functional design, or manufacturer’s digital transformation. This paper takes a novel approach, by analysing the Business Eco-System with a lens of 11 nontechnical dominance factors. Evolutionary Economics and Economics Networks models are employed, such as Platform Wars, Technology Battles and Hughes’ Large Technical System. Can existing vendors adopt the new technologies, or will market entrants gain market dominance? How can manufacturers respond to the market uncertainty? A lot is at stake; will Europe be able to re-industrialise, and re-shore millions of jobs lost to Asia?","Technology Battle; Platform War; MOM; MES; IIoT; Industry 4.0; Factory of the Future; ISA-95; RAMI4.0; B2MML; MAAS; Manufacturing as a Service; System Builder; Collaborative Supply Chain; Smart; Creation of Meaning","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2021-03-31","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:4cef8ac3-fb7f-47a6-8d5a-7260a0196f5a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4cef8ac3-fb7f-47a6-8d5a-7260a0196f5a","Modular steering mechanism design for cable guidance through reusable minimally invasive instruments","Lether, Remie (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Lenssen, T.A. (mentor); Horeman, T. (graduation committee); Spronck, J.W. (graduation committee); Dankelman, J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) has made tremendous impact on hospitals worldwide. Introduced as a patient friendly alternative to open surgery by significantly reducing incisions size, benefits such as faster patient recovery time, and less pain for patients, are achieved. However, in MIS, rigid instrument shafts can impair surgeons’ dexterity as access to pathology sites is complicated. Steering mechanisms have been developed to locate and orientate an instrument tip for tissue manipulation. Many steerable Minimally Invasive (MI) instruments are intended for single use only, because the actuation cables in those instruments cannot be properly cleaned. Consequently, costly and well-functioning instruments are disposed after each surgical procedure, forming a burden to both hospital sustainability and financial expenses. A platform technology suitable for reuse is brought to the market by the Delft University of Technology in collaboration with Surge-On Medical B.V. Problems with this platform arise in the integration of an internally routed cable, since a hinge in the steering mechanism leads to a critically small cable bending radius. In the present master’s thesis, a bare minimum design approach is followed to make the platform technology compatible with internally routed cables. Based on set requirements, multiple concepts of steering mechanisms are generated and evaluated. The most promising concept is modelled, tested and validated with computer models and experiments. The final design comprises a four-bar linkage mechanism and an innovative joint is used to kinematically stabilize the mechanism. The mechanism achieves 140 degrees of tip articulation and guides internally routed cables with a bending radius of 5mm. The steering mechanism fits through trocars of 5mm and can support loads of 40N, as applied by internally routed cables. The design can be integrated in reusable minimally invasive surgical instruments, since detachment of components allows for effective cleaning and inspection. The designed steering mechanism can be used as building block for reusable minimally invasive instruments, providing an important step to the next generation of steering technology in MIS.","SATA technology; Steerable instrument; Steerable mechanical joint; Reusable instrument; Minimally invasive surgery","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2026-01-26","","","","Biomedical Engineering","MARL project",""
"uuid:e0f7c500-4922-489a-b5f8-7f02fe67df41","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e0f7c500-4922-489a-b5f8-7f02fe67df41","Detecting local surface motion of pastures on peat soils using laser scanning technology","Li, Ze (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)","Hanssen, R.F. (mentor); Steele-Dunne, S.C. (graduation committee); Lindenbergh, R.C. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2021","Subsidence can be observed at various locations in the Netherlands. While it can be due to both shallow and deep subsurface processes, the shallow subsidence is mainly a result from compaction, oxidation and/or groundwater drainage. Moreover, for grasslands on organic soils, in particular pastures on drained peat soils, the vertical position of the ground level is subject to significant temporal variability. Temporal scales of the vertical motion are expected to vary between days and centuries, and spatial scales between millimeters and kilometers. Unfortunately, performing precise, reliable, and representative geodetic measurements of shallow subsidence processes is very difficult for soils, as fixed benchmarks do not exist. Here we propose an insitu measurement procedure for grass-covered soils using laser scanning, both terrestrial and airborne, using a vertically fixed reference platform. We show that for terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) it is possible to detect changes in the vertical position of soils with a systematic error of up to 2.6 mm and a standard deviation of 0.4 mm. Given a predefined level of significance of 훼 =0.05 (confidence level of 95%) and a detectability power of 훾 =90%, we achieve a minimal detectable vertical deformation (MDD) of 21.1 mm in our study area. We show that the results are influenced by the grass density and length, the incidence angle of the laser beam, as well as other settings of the laser scanner. We find that the parameter settings of the method for estimating soil surface, and subsequently the subsidence, has an influence on the results and related statistics. For airborne laser scanning (ALS), using a precisely leveled reference platform, we find that the quality of elevation estimates is still limited, requiring further considerations on the design of data acquisition surveys and the reference platforms. Our results demonstrate the ability of laser scanning technology for investigating shallow subsurface motion of grass-covered soils relative to a benchmark on a local scale. Based on the quality assessment, the detection of vertical ground level change is better understood in terms of time and probability. In future research, the factors affecting terrestrial laser scanning technology to accurately identify soils affected by vegetation, environment, and device condition, should be further studied.","Subsidence; Laser scanning technology; IGRS; peat soils","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:c274c98b-71f5-4cbe-8fa7-327ae1e9d1c4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c274c98b-71f5-4cbe-8fa7-327ae1e9d1c4","Earth-Fixed Heave Compensation","Ouwehand, Tim (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Ummels, B.C. (mentor); Geene, P (mentor); Burger, M (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","With a global growing demand of energy, more offshore wind farms are installed, further away and in deeper waters. Nowadays, offshore wind turbines are mostly installed by jack-up installation vessels. Most existing jack-up vessels have legs that are becoming too short for these water depths while offshore wind turbines are increasing in size year after year. Since 2014, the turbine capacity of newly installed wind turbines has increased by 16% every year. Therefore, larger jack-up crane vessels are needed and installation by floating crane vessels is being considered. Heerema Marine Contractors aims to be one of the leaders in the offshore wind installation with her large crane vessels such as HLV Aegir, SSCV Thialf and SSCV Sleipnir. The challenge of floating installation of offshore wind turbines is that motions of the vessel are transferred to the rotor-nacelle assembly (RNA) while low tolerances apply for the installation of an RNA. Vertical motions can be reduced by means of a heave compensation system. Such systems are available but come with certain drawbacks: they are difficult to retrofit to a vessel, use a large amount of energy and are rather expensive. A possible solution to these problems could be a novel concept called earth-fixed heave compensation. In this concept, the crane wire is connected to the seabed via a transmission on board of the vessel, transforming an upward motion of the vessel into a downward motion of the RNA and vice versa. At present, it is unclear if such a system is technically feasible. In this research, an analytical model of an earth-fixed heave compensation system is developed. The objective of the model is to gain insight in the influence of design parameters such as the transmission and stiffness of the system. The model is set up in three stages: Stage 1 comprising one degree of freedom for the transmission; Stage 2 comprising two additional degrees of freedom for the sheaves that connect the earth-fixed wire from the seabed to the transmission; Stage 3 comprising all other sheaves, crane reeving and payload are added, resulting in a sixteen degrees of freedom model. A first finding is that wire damping has a negligible influence on the results because natural frequencies of the system are found to lie outside the wave frequency range. However, the first natural frequency is close to the wave frequency range, resulting in a larger response amplitude for both transmission and vertical payload motion in the higher frequencies. Furthermore, it is shown that the inertia of the sheaves of the earth-fixed wire can be neglected for a range of transmission inertias and earth-fixed wire stiffnesses. On top of this, the model confirms that the inertia of the other sheaves can be modelled by means of an equivalent inertia block, to simplify the model for time-domain simulations. The losses in wire tension due to wire-sheave interaction were approximately 5% and it is shown that they can be modelled accurately by means of a sigmoid function. Frequency-domain simulations showed that the heading of the vessel, or wave direction, has a significant influence on the vertical RNA motions. On top of that, increasing peak periods generally result in larger vertical RNA motions. A time-domain simulation for typical North Sea environmental conditions, head waves and a fixed crane slew angle without the heave compensator is made to compare results with. These simulations have shown that it is in principle possible to reduce vertical RNA motions. For a given sea state, 80% motion reduction is achieved by tuning the transmission ratio of the system. It is shown that the location of the earth-fixed wire has an impact on the vessel and payload motions. When located on the starboard side of the vessel, rather than reducing the vertical payload motions that are induced by vessel roll, those motions of the vessel itself are actually increased. Further simulations show that the stiffness of the earth-fixed wire and the losses occurring due to wire-sheave interaction determine the performance for a large part. Although the overall performance of the system can be considered promising, additional research is needed to confirm whether earth-fixed heave compensation can be competitive relative to existing passive and active heave compensation systems with a performance of 80% to 95%. Also, it is recommended that the behavior of the system for different sea states is investigated. Sensitivity analyses already show that shorter wave periods result in a significant drop in performance. The vessel heading seems to have a limited influence on the performance of the heave compensator.","Heave Compensation; Offshore Technology; Wind Turbine; RNA Installation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2022-12-15","","","","Offshore and Dredging Engineering","",""
"uuid:d7da2993-849b-408f-80b8-fdb68193b953","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d7da2993-849b-408f-80b8-fdb68193b953","Towards Real-Time Olivary Neuron Modeling","Nicou, Nikolas (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Gaydadjiev, G. (mentor); Strydis, C. (graduation committee); Verhoeven, C.J.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","The field of Computing has been a significant catalyst for innovation across various segments of our lives. Computational neuroscience keeps demanding increased perfor- mance to implement powerful simulators able to closely approximate brain behavior using complex mathematical models. This resulted in various High-Performance Com- puting systems able accelerate the above simulation workloads. One of the challenges is how these applications are being ported to massively parallel accelerators that requires significant time and effort for designing and debugging. This thesis primary task is to optimize an existing hardware library for neural simulation. The above library uses one of the most widely used biophysically-meaningful neuron models called Hodgkin-Huxley. The library optimizations will be performed while following a design methodology to accelerate applications on Maxeler’s Data-Flow Engines (DFEs). A DFE is an FPGA- based accelerator incorporating a top-of-the-line reconfigurable device surrounded by high bandwidth, large capacity on-card memory. This work focused in the fully ex- tended model that had room for performance improvements. The result, an optimized model that takes advantage of the FPGA capabilities and achieve up to 2.66x speed up over the previous implementation. They key to this speedup is the use of fixed-point arithmetic that provides 2x speed up compared to the optimized floating-point version. Additionally, the model is implemented in multiple kernels in such a way that can be scaled up using multiple DFEs to achieve even greater performance.","High Performance Computing; Hodgkin-Huxley model; Maxeler Technologies; Neural Networks; FPGA; Dataflow Engines","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Computer Engineering","",""
"uuid:18ac14ec-169e-48b6-97a8-0404974df157","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:18ac14ec-169e-48b6-97a8-0404974df157","The refittable ship: A method for modular design of a ship's power supply","Kortenhorst, Julia (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering; TU Delft Ship Design, Production and Operations)","de Vos, P. (mentor); Hekkenberg, R.G. (mentor); van der Bles, A.A. (mentor); Duinkerken, M.B. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Traditionally, ships are powered by fossil fuels in combustion engines, causing 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative installations have yet to prove their reliability and are currently not as cheap or technological ready.
To enable ship-owners to prepare their ship for the future, but postpone their decision on which alternative installation to choose, it is the objective of this research to develop and validate a method for modular design of the power supply system of a ship, that allows a low-impact refit to lower the ship’s greenhouse gas emissions when the alternative power supply technology is ready.
This method is developed within the scope of short-sea dry cargo vessels with little auxiliary power(<20%) that is to be refitted before 2050, but the method is kept as general as possible. The studied background information includes greenhouse gases, possible alternative installations, low-impact refits, and modularity. Furthermore, the method is verified and validated using two different case ships.
In this report information about the method for modular design can be found, but also information on alternative power supply systems. The method is presented in chapter 5 and 6. It is concluded in chapter 7 that the developed method is effective and enables a low-impact refit, without significant negative impact on the initial design.It is concluded from this research that the method is effective and enables a low impact refit, without significant negative impact on the original design.For readers who want to know more about the alternative installations instead of the method, some basic information about available energy carriers and power supply units can be found in 2.3, the components of alternative installations of the case ship can be found in chapter 4 and the effect of those installations on the design to be found in section 5.3.
high-speed pick and place machine arm while picking up the micro-electronic chip from the silicon wafer. As this research focuses on measuring the strain by a sensor, it naturally deals with the fundamental constituents involved in it, namely: the type of sensor head, the placement of sensor and the interrogation system. The research starts with reviewing all the optical approaches for
strain measurement and is then focused to Fiber Bragg Gratings due to its obvious advantages and the interest of company in it. A brief literature review is presented in chapter 2, where the working of a Bragg grating, its various manufacturing techniques, and the principle on which it works is mentioned. This is coupled with the various applications it provides and further its application as a sensor which is demanded in this research is explored.
Determining the types of sensor heads which are formed by varying index modulation in the core of the optical fiber, the various interrogation techniques used for demodulating the reflected wavelength to detect the measurand are mentioned in chapter 3. Considering all the advantages and disadvantages, Mach-Zehnder Interferometric demodulation is selected for its suitability and
sensitivity in this research problem. An experimental setup has been designed to display the connection between various parts and the flow of light from the input source to the final detector. The strain to be measured on the selected part of the machine, is very small, hence an amplification mechanism is proposed as a solution to this, thus amplifying the input strain and providing the Bragg grating sensor with a stronger input. This amplification mechanism also solves the issue of coupling or positioning of the sensor in the machine to attract the maximum strain possible. Numerical analysis was performed to analyze the optimum geometry of the amplification mechanism by which maximum strain can be detected by the sensor, given the design space constraints. Simulations were made regarding the same. A compact amplification device that could fit in a 2.5 cm × 2.5 cm box is designed which is suitable for the physical space available in the system. The strain amplification of 5.64 is obtained with the percentage error between the numerical analysis and the simulations to be 3.521 %.
A conclusion is made based on the parameters chosen, various recommendations and limitations have been listed to solve this problem in other possible ways to obtain better results.","Optomechatronics; Fibre Bragg Gratings; Optical sensors; Amplification structure; Sensing Technology; Strain sensor; Optics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2023-01-01","","","","","NERI",""
"uuid:41fd9358-5d93-464c-a016-31c755fc2703","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:41fd9358-5d93-464c-a016-31c755fc2703","Exploring the impact of the sudden shift to fully working remote due to COVID-19 on the productivity of employees of an SME: A case study in a technological start-up environment: Binkies 3D","de Jonge, Eline (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Annema, J.A. (mentor); Scholten, V.E. (graduation committee); Boers, Jerke (mentor); Dobbe, Jeroen (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","COVID-19 has affected many economies all over the world. Due to COVID-19 employees worldwide are forced to completely work from home suddenly. There is not much literature yet on the effects of this sudden shift on productivity. This report aims to find the factors that influence productivity most while working remotely. An in-depth single case study is used to examine the effects of COVID-19 on small businesses in the technological industry. A model extracted from a literature review is used that can describe productivity while working remotely. Through two rounds of interviews with employees at Binkies 3D and accompanying content analyses, this model is partly validated and new factors are added. Important factors to focus on, after the first interviews, are alignment, communication, social connection, tools, environment and work-life balance. After second round of interviews the factors time mangement and type of personality is important. The conceptual model found through literature reserach and interviews might be dependent on personality and household composition.","COVID-19; productivity; technology; start-up; working from home; working remote","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:284bb7b7-d0c3-46ca-951c-412ebc0c75b9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:284bb7b7-d0c3-46ca-951c-412ebc0c75b9","Impact of kitchen waste grinder application with water conservation strategies on urban water sewerage systems","Srinivasa, Vibhu (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences; Waternet)","van der Hoek, J.P. (mentor); van Lier, J.B. (mentor); Abraham, E. (mentor); Blokker, M. (mentor); Zlatanović, L. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Wastewater discharged from the domestic household has proven to be a potential source for resource recovery. Apart from wastewater, kitchen organic waste contains an enormous amount of energy in terms of organic content and nutrients such as TKN and TPH. Now that the disposal of waste into landfills is prohibited in most parts of Europe, one of the options is to divert the organic waste to wastewater treatment plants using kitchen waste grinders (KWG). Since KWG is a water-consuming appliance, the installation of KWG with water conservation technologies may be a viable option in the future. This can aid efficient recovery of resources and reduce the drinking water demand. The evolution towards sustainable urban sanitation will lead to several positive and negative effects. Some of the positive effects, apart from resource recovery, are the possibility to postpone the enlargement of existing sewer systems, to construct new sewers of smaller pipe diameter and to lower energy consumption for sewage pumping. While the negative effects are blockage of sewer due to reduced flow rates, increased sedimentation and release of malodour in the contemporary sewerage system and increased treatment costs due to increase in COD oxidation and nitrogen or phosphorus removal. Eventually the low flow-high load wastewater needs to be transported through sewers and treated locally (decentralised treatment). In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the effect of coupling the effluent from KWG at various penetration rates such as 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% with water conservation scenarios on hydraulic and quality parameters in the sewerage system. Water conservation scenarios were onsite greywater and rainwater reuse and application of ultra-low water demand appliances. SIMDEUM was upgraded with the addition of an extra appliance in the form of KWG to generate stochastic discharge patterns with appliance specific wastewater flows and quality. The data generated was incorporated into the sewer network model, InfoWorks ICM to analyze the impact of the addition of KWG with water conservation strategies on the contemporary sewer network. The results obtained showed that there is an increase in the mass load of COD, TKN and TPH of 118%, 84% and 90% respectively and reduction in flow, velocity and shear stress of up to 54%, 49% and 74% respectively for the application of water conservation strategies with KWG. This substantiated the fact that the contemporary sewer system is not efficient in transporting the wastewater generated due to the addition of KWG along with water conservation strategies at the household level. A new sewer design with smaller diameters and steep slopes was used to study if the low flow-high load wastewater can be safely transported, in terms of adequate self-cleansing velocity and shear stress. The results from the investigation of new sewer design showed that 100% and 75% implementation of KWG with water conservation technologies will achieve self-cleansing capacity which will help prevent clogging and sedimentation for a piping network of 110mm diameter at a slope of 1:160. KWG market penetration rates of lower than 50% along with water conservation strategies might face issues of sedimentation and clogging. In conclusion, the up-gradation of SIMDUEM with KWG was successful to generate stochastic discharge patterns. This research has demonstrated that the application of KWG along with water conservation strategies may aid in resource recovery and reducing freshwater demand in the urban water cycle. The accomplishment of implementation of KWG with water conservation strategies is not realistic in the contemporary sanitary system however, this transition can be adopted in new urban developments with efficient design of wastewater transport and decentralized treatment system. Further research is required into the feasibility of a decentralised resource recovery system for the implementation of KWG with water conservation strategies.","Kitchen waste grinders; Urban sewerage system; Water conservation technology; Hydraulic modelling","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:8ed130f1-bd49-436b-b4bc-74b76c11b885","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8ed130f1-bd49-436b-b4bc-74b76c11b885","The European Green Hydrogen Network: Knowledge Development and Diffusion in the European Water Electrolysis Network and the Role of RTOs in Improving it","Safwan Shurieh, Safwan (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Suurs, Dr. Roald (graduation committee); Kamp, L.M. (mentor); Enserink, B. (graduation committee); Lukszo, Z. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","In order to fight climate change, the EU is providing funds for knowledge development on water electrolysis technologies. Numerous projects have been funded so far, and an EU wide water electrolysis network has been formed, however, from an RTOs perspective, there is no overview of knowledge development and knowledge diffusion regarding the European Green hydrogen technological innovation system. In this thesis, we have used the CORDIS database to develop a social network model of all the water electrolysis projects funded by the EU, alongside we performed interviews with central European RTOs and reviewed project reports to analyze knowledge development and diffusion. We have summarized the key areas for knowledge development in PEM, SOE and Alkaline networks and we have also found certain issues related to knowledge development and diffusion within the green hydrogen network. Given these issues, we finally proposed recommendation for RTOs and the EU in order to improve knowledge development and diffusion.","Water electrolysis; water electrolyser; Green hydrogen; Technological Innovation Systems; knowledge development; knowledge diffusion; RTO; research and development; research and technology organizations","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:b87e0281-0c18-442b-aacf-65b49f4e0081","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b87e0281-0c18-442b-aacf-65b49f4e0081","Si-air Battery: Alkaline cell modelling in MATLAB (Simscape)","Jacob, Nithin (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","van Swaaij, R.A.C.M.M. (mentor); Smets, A.H.M. (graduation committee); Santbergen, R. (graduation committee); Kelder, E.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Renewable energy sources (RES) such as Solar and Wind energy rely on the availability of natural resources like sunlight in the case of Solar and wind speed in the case of Wind energy generation which is variable in nature. There are periods where there is excess energy production than needed and periods of energy shortage where not enough energy is produced to meet the demand. To mitigate this mismatch, a short term solution is to use batteries in order to store energy at times where energy production is more than the energy demand. This stored energy would be later used at times where energy production is low and meet the energy demand. However, the current battery technology is still novel for this application making it uneconomical when compared to current energy infrastructure of using power plants. The current battery market is held by Li-ion batteries which uses lithium as a raw material which is a rare earth material. In 2009, a battery cell utilizing Si as its anode and air as its cathode was discovered. As this system relies on two of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust which is silicon and oxygen and has much higher theoretical energy density than Li-ion batteries, it has become a growing area of research and development. Battery models are created to simulate battery operations based on empirical formulas and electrochemical reactions taking place in the battery. Development of these models are very critical as they provide results and optimum condition evaluations much faster than physical testing with minimal resources. A battery model for the alkaline Si-air battery which utilizes KOH as the cell electrolyte is developed in Simscape (MATLAB) as part of this thesis. The modelling parameters are also subjected various physical conditions such as varying electrolyte concentration and change in electrode materials and the variation is investigated for model validation to study whether changing physical conditions of the Si-air cell has an effect on the modelling cell parameters. It is supported with experimental results obtained from discharging a fabricated Si-air cell. It was concluded that there are cell parameters which are dependent only on the state of charge (SOC) of the cell and one cell parameter that is a function of both the SOC as well as the discharge profile of the cell. The fabricated Si-air cell gives higher open-circuit potential (OCP) values than what was reported constant 1.4 V in literature which is speculated to be due to the usage of a 99% Aluminum and 1% Silicon (Al:Si) back contact layer. Average OCPs ranging from 1.5 V to 1.45 V which varies due to change in electrolyte (KOH) concentration is achieved. The MATLAB battery block is calibrated to be integrated with energy system models as a Si-air battery.","Battery; Battery technology; Si-air; Metal-air; Alkaline battery; Simulink; Simscape; MATLAB; Battery management system; Silicon","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","Si-air Battery",""
"uuid:2d39a75c-005a-42ef-bc6d-90bb1bd02361","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2d39a75c-005a-42ef-bc6d-90bb1bd02361","Smart safety shoes: The next step in preventing occupational incidents","van den Berg, Stan (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","van der Vegte, Wilhelm Frederik (mentor); Coelen, J. (graduation committee); Pavlic, V. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","The construction and logistics sectors in the Netherlands are rapidly increasing in size, but unfortunately are also part of the most hazardous industries. One part of safety which needs to be addressed is manual handling related incidents. The moving of objects around a worksite through utilization of an employee’s body increases the exposure of the employees to hazards, especially if done incorrectly, and will increase costs for both employee and employer. This thesis explores the possibility of transforming the passive and reactive role of safety shoes into safety shoes that are capable of proactive (manual handling related) incident prevention, through utilization of smart technology. To gain insight into the problem, its context and the possibilities for the implementation of smart technology, an extensive literature review was conducted. In addition, practical field knowledge was gained through multiple series of semi-structured interviews and analysis of relevant cases. Research results show that the human factor plays a major role in the causation of occupational incidents and can be divided into three categories: the individual, the task and the organisation. As this human factor is either the leading cause or part of the cause for around 80% of all incidents, it is vital for incident prevention. Furthermore, current methods for detection and prevention (e.g. manual handling training and safety programs) have serious shortcomings which make them less effective tools for the reduction or elimination of manual handling related incidents. In addition to this, studies indicate the opportunity for (smart) technology to aid in overcoming these shortcomings. The above mentioned insights served as input for the synthesis of a concept design (smart safety shoes), which uses sensors and data analysis tools (e.g. machine learning) to identify and detect leading and lagging indicators for manual handling related incidents and subsequently is able to effectively communicate those insights to different parties: employees, employers, supervisors and training providers. The smart safety shoes can, in this manner, support current detection and prevention methods in their shortcomings. The before mentioned parties deploy the insights through a hybrid system: reactive incident prevention (improve the individual) and proactive prevention (improve task design and organization), which both, increase incident prevention. The concept design is accompanied by a roadmap outlining the general steps for the development of the concept. To conclude, smart safety shoes are the next step towards occupational incident prevention and potentially the first step towards smart, ubiquitous, occupational safety. However, further research is needed for the development of the smart safety shoes and the exploration of further possibilities. In addition to this, the principles behind the smart safety shoes could serve as a basis for further design research, to address other occupational safety issues and other industries.","Smart technology; Protective footwear; Incident prevention; Leading indicator; Lagging indicator; Occupational safety","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2021-10-09","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:4eccd22d-073f-4411-9ebb-4b8eff50d5a0","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4eccd22d-073f-4411-9ebb-4b8eff50d5a0","Smart Insoles: Prevention of Falls in Older People through Instant Risk Analysis and Signalling","Foppen, Rosan (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Song, Y. (mentor); Jellema, A.H. (graduation committee); van der Cammen, T.J.M. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Falls in the elderly are a leading cause of injury, affecting one in three older adults annually. These fall incidents can lead to various disabling conditions, and therefore have the ability to affect one’s quality of life and independence. Not only are falls potentially taxing to the individual, they are also responsible for a big portion of annual health care costs. Due to an ageing society, the number of falls and their consequences will grow in parallel with the expanding number of seniors, becoming an even greater concern for the health care system. Therefore, there is an ever-increasing need to develop (cost-)effective fall prediction systems to reduce these financial and physical burdens associated with the consequences of a fall. Introducing the design proposal of my graduation thesis: smart insoles with accessory mobile application, the ‘StApp’. The insoles with an integrated fall prediction smart system capture the physiological risk factor of an impaired minimum toe clearance (MTC) variable, signal the impending danger to the user, and hence, aid falls prevention in the elderly. The final product consists of three segments, detect - warn - and inform, represented in the two separate products. (Detect) Smart insoles that analyse and monitor the user’s gait in real-time, in particular the MTC parameter, through a sensing technology integrated in the sole. (Warn) When MTC values display an apparent risk, the user is alerted through a technological intervention. This presents itself in the form of vibrational stimulus, embedded in the support arch of the smart insole. Hereby, the whole smart system, including the intervention, is embedded in the smart insole, discreetly concealed. (Inform) For the sensor data to be meaningful to the user, an accessory mobile application monitoring the MTC- and multiple other gait parameters is suggested. The StApp presents concrete information and advice on sufficient and safe exercise to improve the user’s MTC and overall gait and balance. An experimental research study was conducted to preliminarily validate the viability of the main product-idea of the smart insoles, studying the effect of the product’s intervention. A minimum of 2 minutes of treadmill walking was analysed for two young adults (1 M, 1 F) using the Tracker motion analysis software. The effect of the intervention was clearly illustrated in the data gathered in this pilot test, as the effect of the intervention deemed to be statistically for all administered vibrational stimuli. It seems to be an appropriate tool to optimize the toe clearance parameters in the pursuit for strategies of falls prevention. However, further in-depth research is required to explore the intervention’s characteristics and study the effect of the intervention on the elderly’s gait. Finally, as the wearable technology depicted enables optimization of elderly care, healthcare professionals who might be interested in giving more personalized advice to their patients will benefit from the design of the smart insole and accessory StApp, presented in this project.","Elderly; Falls Prevention; Gait; Sensing Technology; Intervention; Risk","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:4916b73e-a496-48c0-b0f7-8a1c78bf5749","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4916b73e-a496-48c0-b0f7-8a1c78bf5749","Scenario Analysis of Secure Multi-party Computation implementation in EU-based multinational banks","Lam, Julia (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","de Reuver, G.A. (mentor); Verburg, R.M. (graduation committee); Steenbergen, Roel (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","EU banks have a dual obligation to generate and protect assets as a due diligence for their customers, their business longevity, and in accordance with regulatory bodies. The effective use of data presents opportunities for banks to meet their obligations in improving financial risk and also ensuring business growth and continuity in their offerings. For these reasons, there is value in acquiring and using mixed or aggregated data sets from external sources as a means to extrapolate and gain information and knowledge. However, the balance between data privacy and data use remains a challenge for banks which impedes on their ability to proficiently and resourcefully generate and protect their assets. Privacy-preserving data sharing methods such as Secure Multiparty Computation or MPC may be a viable solution for enterprises facing this issue. Through the use of multiple cryptography protocols and computational algorithms, MPC is a technology that enables parties to anonymously compute functions on shared data without demanding a trusted third party. This study aimed to explore the potential business impact of MPC whereby semi-structured interviews were conducted with expert stakeholders from three major EU multi-national banks. The possible future outcomes of MPC implementation is determined via a scenario analysis over time horizon of five years (2020-2025). Based on value creation theories from inter-organizational systems and business model disciplines, a conceptual model for MPC implementation outcomes was developed to guide the scenario analysis process. This study found that there are generally four archetypes of scenarios for MPC implementation in banks leading to improved internal efficiency of banks and/or (in)direct MPC enabled business models. Besides known MPC use-cases in money laundering initiatives and security risk frameworks, new MPC business cases were found for data-driven ""as a service"" models and (cross)industry data platforms. This study also identified new business model components based on an existing taxonomy of data-driven business models.","Secure multi-party computation; MPC; SMPC; business model innovation; Data-driven business models; Scenario Analysis; Banking; Emerging technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:e64647de-d9b3-4eda-8db2-7af48bc8c151","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e64647de-d9b3-4eda-8db2-7af48bc8c151","Responsible Technologies in Public Spaces","Daswani, Siddharth (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Kortuem, G.W. (mentor); Smit, I.R. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","History has taught us that not all innovation is good innovation. Just take for example the ecological devastation the DDT and the carcinogenic asbestos have caused. The advancement in new technologies like AI, IoT, autonomous robots and big data brings with it plenty of uncertainties, risks and ethical questions that need answers to if we wish to reap their benefits safely. We need these technologies to tackle some of the greater challenges of your society (like sustainability) but at the same time, we require ways to know how they should be deployed responsibly. This project focuses on the responsible deployment of technologies in the city of Amsterdam and this project has been done in collaboration with the Cities of Things Labs and the AMS institute. The project starts with an initial problem statement of “How can the “Principles for Accountable Algorithms and a Social Impact Statement for Algorithms” be used to develop a strategic framework for responsible Al innovation in Amsterdam” and to answer this question a literature review was done, Municipalities were researched, perception of the citizens were researched and in order to understand the relation of devices to the city a technology called Scan Cars was researched. Later in the project, the initial problem statement was reformulated into a change statement. The formulated change statement was “I want citizens to get well informed about what data collecting devices are doing in public spaces so that citizens can help authorities decide what is best for them” the value of transparency and the ladder of citizen participation were seen as means for achieving the above statement. The final design that was developed is a mobile application that shows citizens where the various data collecting devices are around them in the city, what actions do these devices take after they collect the data, how do the devices work and it gives citizens the opportunity to respond to these devices by either asking a question, giving feedback or participate in programs that work to improve the way of working of these devices in the city. In order to ensure technologies responsible usage in the city, it is important to reduce as many uncertainties about the devices as possible. This can be done by making sure every citizen has the channels to ask questions, give feedback and even raise their voices against these devices anonymously. It is also part of the municipalities “inclusive digital city” ambitions and interests to work on such platforms. In conclusion, the application is one such channel that the city should be developing for informing and empowering their citizens and the recommendations given in the report can be the first steps for fully developing the application.","Strategic Design; Responsible technology; Transparency; citizen participation; responsible innovation; Scan Car; ScanAuto; Amsterdam; public space","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:06a3d962-dd33-48ec-8d31-40216cd3e61c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:06a3d962-dd33-48ec-8d31-40216cd3e61c","Optimization of LED-based agrivoltaic system: Combining photovoltaic and light emitting diode technology in a horticultural system to improve the space and energy efficiency of crop cultivation","van Wijk, Martijn (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)","Isabella, O. (mentor); Ziar, H. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","By 2050, the global demand for food and energy is expected to grow by 70% and 50%, respectively, as a result of the increase of the world’s population. To keep up with the growing world population, significant changes have to take place in the agricultural sector regarding land and energy use. In this work, two developments in the agricultural sector are combined: the integration of photovoltaic (PV) modules in a horticultural system and the use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) as supplemental lighting source for crops. Four greenhouse systems having different configurations of these two technologies and a plant factory are designed. The performance of these LED-based agrivoltaic systems are analysed for the crops lettuce and tomato and for three different climates: Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates. This study shows that the integration of a PV system and LED technology in a greenhouse system improves the crop production per unit of energy compared to conventional greenhouse systems. Furthermore, it has been found that the production of crop per piece of land can be significantly increased by the use of a plant factory. In extreme climates, the plant factory is the optimal system for the cultivation of crops.","Agrivoltaic; Horticulture; LED technology; Greenhouse; Plant factory","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2022-09-16","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:13801170-1519-40d6-9782-6f0e9838a925","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:13801170-1519-40d6-9782-6f0e9838a925","Improving Shared Understanding with Hart: designing a telemonitoring smart care agent to support transcatheter aortic valve implantation patient care in perioperative journey","Chen, Winnie (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Kortuem, G.W. (graduation committee); Kleinsmann, M.S. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This master thesis explores how Philips wearable the biosensor can bring value in the cardiovascular disease care pathway. This project proposes a concept of product-service system to improve patient care in transcatheter aortic valve stenosis implantation (TAVI) perioperative journey. Aortic valve stenosis (AS) is one of the most common and progressive valvular heart diseases in ageing society. According to the European Society of Cardiology (2020), the burden of AS symptoms affects the patient’s quality of life and survival. For intermediate or high-risk patients experiencing severe symptoms, they are often suggested TAVI treatment, is a minimally invasive clave replacement surgery. However, TAVI patients are also frailer and with comorbidities, which requires multidisciplinary teams to deliver perioperative patient care. The problem is defined as when patients step out of the hospital, there is a lack of communication in (1) knowing when and what actions to take if complications occur; (2) Knowing how active can and should the patient during home recovering. Hart, a smart digital care assistant, is a PSS for the adoption of Philips wearable biosensor data in TAVI perioperative patient care. Hart initiating communications on helping patients reflecton their own health situation, building shared knowledge by using patient-shared contextual information with long-term monitoring during physical activities or experience of symptoms.","smart agentive technology; patient-clinician communication; improving shared understaning; ptoduct-service-system; Medesign; TU Delft CardioLab","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:3e595d78-726d-4c55-b59e-bf6695791e31","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3e595d78-726d-4c55-b59e-bf6695791e31","Comparative case study into the barriers that prevent QKD and Tokamak nuclear fusion power plants from large scale diffusion","Stam, B.C. (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ortt, J.R. (mentor); Vermaas, P.E. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This research has the aim to investigate the large pre-diffusion period for two
technologies: quantum cryptography and nuclear fusion power plants. Both technologies originate from basic physics research, have a high societal value and are a business to business product. First, a status overview of the technologies is given together with its principles and (dis)advantages. Hereafter, the high-tech products are positioned in a life cycle pattern and pre-defined factors that could create a barrier to large scale diffusion are investigated.
In the following chapters, other literature is investigated and different reasons for a long pre-diffusion period are explored. The literature that is used to determine the position in the life cycle pattern and investigation of factors, is critically reviewed and discussed. Different factors outside the existing framework are found that apply to the cases of quantum cryptography and nuclear fusion power plants. Additionally, a bias due to the telecom industry data that has been used to build the framework has been observed in different aspects of the diffusion theory.
This research is conducted by the means of a comparative case study, including a literature review and the opinion of an expert.
The final delivery of this research is a proposition for an extended diffusion theory and a thorough discussion on validity and decision making within the framework. In this proposition the diffusion theory is extended with additional factors: type of funding, potential misuse of a technology, competition, managing expectations and a case specific factor. The current and additional factors are categorized into different types of factors. Additionally, a distinction between niche applications, innovations and split-offs in the life cycle pattern is made and discussed. Finally, notes on the validity of the assessment of factors are given.
This research unravels the complexity of the workflows of musicians, which lie amidst their individual musical expression, the constant exchange of their ideas, and the evolution of their personal relationships, with the goal of contributing to a shared musical piece. Additionally, currently used music making apps do not facilitate collaborative activities, making musicians seek alternative file sharing and communication tools to fulfill their needs online. This blocks their creative flow and slows down the band’s progress, particularly in the context of remote collaborations.
In a bid to address these issues and improve their collaboration, a solution was designed: Syntonize is a simple music making app concept that enables musicians in a band to easily collaborate on their early music making activities. They can create music teams with their bandmates, as well as shared music projects where they can easily record and combine their ideas. They can also communicate about their music, whether it is for precise feedback on their work, or general project management.
According to the literature, there are three different modes of standardization processes, namely: committee-based, market-based, and government-based standardization. Based on the involvement of various actors in the standardization processes, the concept of multi-mode standardization was introduced in the literature. The case of charging standards related to V2G technology involves actors from various domains indicating the potential case of multi-mode standardization. While the three charging standards are still in the early phases of the battle, it is imperative to analyze the factors that could influence the standardization of charging standards. Hence, the main research question for this research was framed: ""What are the factors that influence the success of charging standards in the context of multi-mode standardization in the European market for the implementation of V2G technology?"". The factors influencing success within the case of multi-mode standardization were recently introduced into the literature. A thorough literature review was carried out to identify a total of 39 influential factors within various case studies of multi-mode standardization. And it resulted in the proposition of a new framework for further analysis in this research. With the combination of a literature review and interview with the experts, 35 factors were found to be relevant. Further, a Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) tool known as the ‘Best Worst Method (BWM)’ approach was used to rank the factors based on expert’s preferences. A total of seven interviews were conducted to allocate weights for each factor using the BWM approach to rank the factors. The experts belonged to academic as well as industrial backgrounds. The results of the analysis showed that the factors ‘brand reputation and credibility’, ‘compatibility’, ‘financial strength’, ‘bandwagon effect’, and ‘lobbying’ ended up being the top five influential factors in this research. While there were two groups of interviewees, a set of two different statistical tests were performed to analyze the significant differences between the results obtained from the two groups of experts. The weight of the factor ‘delay in the standardization process’ was found to be significantly different among the two groups. Hence, this factor was not considered for listing the influential factors.
Compared to the previous framework in the literature, a set of ten factors were added to the framework constructed during this research. The new factors were found to be indeed relevant in the standardization of charging standards. It was also observed for the first time in the BWM literature that a total of 35 factors were found to be relevant. Researchers can use the new framework for analyzing the factors influencing standards battle in different domains. Also, the BWM approach was used for the first time to identify success factors in the selection of charging standards for the implementation of V2G technology. Additionally, the articles that discussed success factors previously in literature from the market perspective were re-analyzed to explore the concept of multi-mode standardization for the first time. Out of ten reviewed articles, eight articles were recategorized to a relevant combination of multi-mode standardization. Moreover, empirical evidence was found for the factors that were considered to be relevant in the third phase of technology dominance. Additionally, it was also found for the first time that a few factors believed to be crucial in the fourth phase of technology dominance were found to be essential already in the third phase of standards battle between charging standards. The statistical analysis tests used in this research can also be used where there are more than two experts involved in the application of the BWM. Finally, the results obtained in this research provide empirical evidence to assign weights to the relevant factors and analyze the importance of those weights to explain their influence in the standardization using the BWM approach.
From a managerial point of view, a few practical contributions were also made during this research. The technology managers can use the proposed framework for the selection of charging standards globally in the future. The combination of the proposed framework and the BWM approach can be used to analyze technologies within similar domains in a situation of multi-mode standardization. The identified factors in the framework can be used to define strategies by the technological managers in the market to gain an edge over competitors in the market. Furthermore, the newly introduced factors in the proposed framework influence the members of the committees and help them to arrive at a consensus in standard development organizations. These factors can not only be validated by the technology managers but also by the committee members representing other aspects in the process of technology standardization. The proposed framework can be modified by the addition of new factors based on the relevance in the technology battle. With the increasing number of startups in the market, the framework can act as a guidance tool for entrepreneurs to analyze, validate and evaluate various factors that could influence the standardization of their product in the market.","Standards battles; Vehicle-to-Grid; Multi-mode standardization; Best Worst Method; Success factors; EV Charging standards; CHAdeMO; CCS Combo; Tesla Supercharger; Phases of technology dominance; V2G; Mann-Whitney U test; Independent sample T test","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:1db63388-3c42-4003-af7b-fe09085e25c3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1db63388-3c42-4003-af7b-fe09085e25c3","Adoption of AI Based Predictive Maintenance Technologies in the Manufacturing Industry: Research to determine and develop the suitable best practices reference checklist to facilitate the adoption of artificial intelligence predictive maintenance technologies","Loorpuu, A. (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Chappin, E.J.L. (graduation committee); Ding, Aaron (mentor); Oudmans, Jules (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Predictive maintenance (PdM) is one of the promising technologies coming along with the fourth industrial revolution being pushed by disruptive technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR). Adopting PdM potentially allows companies to reduce equipment downtime, increase the safety of their processes, increase revenue and develop additional business models. Although the promises of the technology are extensive, the successful adoption rate of this technology is still relatively slow. This is stemming from PdM’s multi-disciplinary nature and “hype” that over-promised its ease of implementation. Organizations are now starting to understand what is needed for efficient implementation, and this helps to manage the expectations about this technology. The fundamental problems highlighted in this research are the complexity, unclear vision, lack of knowledge and know-how in adopting AI predictive maintenance technologies inside an organization. According to Bain & Company’s survey companies in the industrial sector indicated that implementing IoT inside their organization proved to be more complicated than anticipated (Schallehn, Schorling, Bowen, & Straehle, 2019). There is a knowledge gap in the scientific literature, where a lack of best practice methods in terms of predictive maintenance implementation can be identified. Based on the problem highlighted and knowledge gap, the main research question was formulated: “How to facilitate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence-based predictive maintenance technology in the manufacturing industry?“. This study follows a phase-wise approach to obtain the research results. In the first phase, a literature study is conducted to identify the current situation about PdM, what information is available about the factors affecting this technology’s adoption and where is the knowledge gap to be filled. Selected factors to focus on with this research are discussed and agreed upon with the researcher and supervisors. In the second phase, the development of the best practices checklist is commenced. The centrepiece of this phase and the research project overall is the set of semi-structured interviews with 11 industry experts with extensive domain knowledge about predictive maintenance to collect best practices in PdM implementation. The insights gathered from the interviews are analysed in-detail in multiple iterations and then that filtered, aggregated information is used to develop the predictive maintenance project reference checklist. In the third phase, expert panel evaluates the practical applicability, generalizability and the validity of the constructed PdM checklist. Efficient implementation of PdM inside the organization could face numerous barriers and difficulties. Most of these barriers related to technologies using big data could be divided into three categories: technical, organizational and people related (S. Li, Peng, & Xing, 2019). Addressing all of these barriers in those 3 major categories would be unwise since that would not provide sufficient depth of analysis for each one of them. Selection of barriers is based on 3 criteria: the barriers must be relevant and applicable to the adoption of the PdM technologies; there should be a noticeable knowledge gap about how to overcome the barriers; the barriers must be complex enough (affecting multiple layers and stakeholders of the organizations) to fit with the Management of Technology multidisciplinary problem-solving perspective. Based on the information from scientific literature and consultancy reports on PdM, 3 relevant barriers to be focused on are chosen: business case building for PdM; trust in AI-based PdM (lack of trust in big data analytical results) and data management for PdM (the challenge of collecting the data, utilizing it and making sense of it). The interviews with the industry experts revealed valuable insights about predictive maintenance adoption, factors affecting the implementation and best practices that other companies have followed during the process of PdM realization. The most notable best practice that all the interviewees mentioned was involving all the relevant stakeholders early on. In addition, taking small steps, maintaining PdM platforms, celebrating small successes, showing a broad picture and providing a range for PdM business case were outlined. Furthermore, key factors that emerged from the conducted interviews influencing PdM adoption are delineated and summarized in this research project. These are useful for both practitioners and academic personnel who have an interest in this domain and want to gain further understanding of the dynamics surrounding predictive maintenance projects. This research project developed best practices reference checklist for predictive maintenance project implementation that supports organizations on high-level in adopting this novel technology by illustrating and bringing awareness to best practices that other organizations have been following during PdM implementation. This reference checklist is constructed to be a holistic, high-level PdM project support tool for the stakeholders proceeding with predictive maintenance implementation for the first time. This means that a detailed analysis of separate nuances is not sought after since that would misalign with the goal of being a wholesome, comprehendible overview of PdM project implementation checklist. Having a clear, structured and holistic perspective allows stakeholders to conveniently follow this checklist commencing and during predictive maintenance projects without being overwhelmed by excessively detailed information. This best practice checklist based on empirical study comprises a five-phase approach where the enablers and barriers in each phase are mentioned and suggestions on how to deal with them are outlined. These 5 phases are as follows: concept, feasibility, data, PdM algorithm development and operation phase. Furthermore, high-level, structured steps in each phase are laid out to support and offer recommendations to organizations with their PdM activities. In the end of each phase, an overview of best practices and barriers is delineated to recapitulate. In the concluding section of this best practices checklist, a compact, five-page adaptation of this reference checklist is devised for a quick overview of this constructed PdM project support medium and it is advisable to resort back to phases in the checklist itself if the more detailed explanation is needed. This compact version is meant for practitioners in the industry who have strict time limitations and wish to receive information quickly in a condensed format. To the best of our knowledge, such kind of high-level compact overview to assess PdM projects was not existing in the scientific literature. This research project directly investigates and provides a best practices checklist to fill this gap. In addition, this research provided design improvement ideas for different stakeholders to incorporate in their processes/products to facilitate better adoption of PdM. Trust factors affecting the implementation process of predictive maintenance are also outlined, helping companies to better communicate with their clients and internal organization about the benefits and usefulness of PdM. The developed research output has been preliminarily validated and evaluated by the expert panel that concluded that this best practice checklist indeed supports organizations in adopting predictive maintenance technologies. Furthermore, it was agreed that the output is clear and understandable with a well-structured approach. Coming from the high-level nature of this research, experts agreed that this research is generalizable to other industries. Main recommendations (for future research) include validating the best practice checklist in practice with multiple organizations inside the industry to correlate usage of this approach and success factor of implementing PdM. Furthermore, the development of additional support tools and frameworks to facilitate efficient implementation of predictive maintenance technologies would yield increased adoption rates of the technology. This research highlighted important factors contributing to the adoption of predictive maintenance technologies from organizational, people and technology perspectives. This helps to create more awareness about what is needed to consider for better adoption of this technology. Furthermore, a high-level structured overview of best practices checklist supporting PdM implementation is contributed to the scientific and practical domain, filling the previously outlined gap in the literature. In addition, coming from the analysed literature, this research complements the scientific literature on the topic of predictive maintenance by providing original content and additional awareness to the overall academic context regarding the dynamics of this technology’s adoption.","Predictive Maintenance; Maintenance; Internet of Things; Technology adoption; Industry 4.0","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:4db140e9-253e-4a86-b0b1-3579a16da69d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4db140e9-253e-4a86-b0b1-3579a16da69d","Innovating Airport Passenger Terminals: Determining the feasibility of new terminal concepts based on seamless flow technology","de Graeff, J.C. (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)","van Wee, G.P. (graduation committee); Vleugel, J.M. (mentor); Baggen, J.H. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","The continuing growth in air travel passengers, in combination with enhanced security regulations, has led to unsustainable situations at airports. In order to handle the future amount of air travel passengers while complying to security regulations and enhancing the passenger experience, the terminal system must be innovated. Seamless flow is a future end-to-end continuous, efficient and secure innovation which uses passenger biometrics for identification throughout the airport processes. Previous research is focused on fitting the new seamless flow technology in with the conventional airport processes. This research explores whether the biometric technology could lead to new, and feasible, passenger terminal concepts. Two new seamless flow concepts are constructed and assessed on their feasibility by conducting interviews with stakeholders, performing desk-research and executing a financial Cost-Benefit Analysis. The research findings indicate that the new technology could lead to feasible, efficient and experience enhancing passenger terminal concepts in comparison to the conventional terminal concept equipped with seamless flow technology. Thereby, the support of - and collaboration between - stakeholders, especially the border guard agency, is shown to be essential for the implementation of seamless flow technology on civil airports. Besides that, it is shown that more efficient terminal concepts could significantly benefit airports through increased commercial opportunities.","Airport Design; Passenger experience; Seamless flow; Biometric technology; Terminal concept","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:214f02de-edf4-46d1-b5b6-876311852982","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:214f02de-edf4-46d1-b5b6-876311852982","Who is at risk of automation?: Estimating the effects of automation technologies on employment","Temizel, Irem Naz (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Schröder, E. (mentor); Enserink, B. (graduation committee); Postma, Roberto (graduation committee); Sprockel, Yuri (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This study defines who is at risk of automation and discusses policies to ensure the vulnerable groups are seen. The study of Nedelkoska and Quintini (2018) is taken as the role model: The risk of automation for individuals across OECD countries is calculated by associating the expert assessment conducted by Frey and Osborne (2013) with individuals’ skills used at work collected by PIAAC. The analysis is improved by training the model with different country datasets and including additional skills into the analysis. 14% of the total employment of 33 countries is found to be at significantly high risk of automation. Workers at the highest risk of losing their jobs are more likely to be less-educated, low-income earners who perform unskilled jobs. The risk of automation declines as the level of education increases. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of training and reskilling the risky-groups to cope with the possible adverse effects of technological progress.","Technological change; Employment; Skills used at work; Econometrics; Data analysis","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:eb8381be-5154-48bb-97e4-b194f5e37065","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:eb8381be-5154-48bb-97e4-b194f5e37065","Digital Data Technologies to help Technology Manufacturing Companies towards Circular Business Models","Yip, Henk (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Khodaei, H. (mentor); Verburg, R.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Currently, technology manufacturing companies are driven by revenue, based on volume sales, cost reduction of supply chains, factories and operations. This is all based on the current linear economy business model. In order to go against the negative environmental impacts, sustainability plays a major role by the aim to achieve sustainable growth and enhanced resource efficiency. The optimal solution for the companies is the circular economy. In reality, the technology manufacturing companies are still far from operating closed-loop systems. Company business models and strategies are still based on the linear business models. As a key driver, digital data technologies can play a critical role in order to overcome the challenges and barriers, as well as being a key driver in gaining competitive advantages. Therefore, by conducting a structured literature review and case studies, this thesis aims to analyse the challenges and barriers, digital data technologies and circular business models. In the end, to improve the business models of technology manufacturing companies towards Circular Business Models. Ultimately, this thesis contributed to the research by generating data-driven approaches and strategies based on digital data technologies and circular business model elements. Furthermore, a flow diagram is created to give an overview of the existing literature. It shows the challenges, barriers, strategies, characteristics, and competitive advantages. Therefore, helping the technology manufacturing companies with the implementation of digital data technologies and their transition towards Circular Business Models.","Circular Economy; Circularity; Circular Business Models; Technology Manufacturing Companies; Digital Data Technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:cd41b015-7f76-457d-a108-71a7af217a53","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cd41b015-7f76-457d-a108-71a7af217a53","Empowering Consumers in the Circular Economy with blockchain-enabled storytelling","Panyapatiphan, D. (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Calabretta, G. (mentor); de Jonge, F.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This thesis introduces the vision and implementation to involve and empower end-consumers in the circular economy. This thesis is the graduation project of Strategic product design master’s program, developed for Circularise, a B2B company who connects supply chain. It aims for an in-depth understanding of the users need and challenges in the purchase decision of durable products with recycled plastic components.
The project began with literature researches of consumer behaviours with circular products. It also looked into their behaviour with blockchain technology, and current support that blockchain technology provides to a circular economy, namely, supply chain transparency and others. The new target segmentation was created according to literature, and user research was done with the target group. Contextmapping method was used to collect the user’s insight, and qualitative data were analysed. The results showed that consumers lack trust in sustainable claims that were advertised by brands, consumers lack motivation since the sustainable impacts are not clearly measurable, and more. The research also showed that blockchain technology in supply chain transparency could provide consumers with trustworthy sustainable data to support their purchase decision of the product.
Based on these insights, new target segment (end-consumers), brand identity, platform design, and a roadmap of implementation plan were created with value exchange between consumers, brands, original equipment manufacturers, part manufacturers, material manufacturers, and recyclers in the future.
This thesis aims to empower consumers by translation blockchain’s sustainable claims from manufacturers, into product storytelling. With accumulated value, it also proposes a long-term strategy to connect the consumers to the supply chain. This will further influence the connection of the chain to recyclers and close the loop for the circular economy in the future.
This research aims to investigate the relevant factors of user satisfaction that could be implemented into façade design, while also investigating state of the art interactive/adaptive façade technologies (passive and active) and energy efficient façade design methods, in order to provide design solutions which optimally satisfies office users’ needs of comfort, and therefore increases work productivity, and also supports nearly energy neutrality of office buildings. This leads to the research question of, “How can an interactive/adaptive office building façade element be designed to optimally satisfy its users in order to increase work productivity and to support nearly energy neutrality of office buildings?”. Optimal indoor satisfaction is defined as office users being thermally comfortable, experiencing comfort in the air quality indoors, the acoustics, and the lighting, and also when other human preferences are met such as, having control of their environment, having a view, and having an appealing place to work.
Based on literature review regarding user satisfaction, façade design, state of the art interactive/adaptive technologies, and energy efficient design methods, the design considerations were stipulated. These are user comfort, user control, energy efficiency, and user preferences. The user preferences is the most subjective criteria, because it expresses the preferences and desires of specific type of people. Therefore, this research presents office façade designs for specific type of users, namely the Energy Efficient archetype, the Self-Adaptive environment archetype, and the Full-Control of their environment archetype. The evaluation of these design configurations show that it is almost impossible to have one interactive/adaptive façade design that complies with all of the user
preferences of all types of users, because every type of user has different preferences and some might contradict each other. Nevertheless, this research concludes on design characteristics derived from the presented design
configurations, which show how the most optimal officer-user oriented façade design should function, that can ensure user satisfaction for different types of users and can help its building become nearly energy neutral.","user satisfaction; façade design,; interactive/adaptive technologies; energy efficient design methods; office user preferences","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","",""
"uuid:66e0269d-323d-462d-b686-d41bd40c74cd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:66e0269d-323d-462d-b686-d41bd40c74cd","Optimising the building management system in smart passive buildings","Rouwenhorst, Tessa (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Bokel, R.M.J. (mentor); Turrin, M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","The MOR prototype is a smart passive building with a central building management system to control and optimise the operation of the active and passive building systems and therefore reduce the energy consumption of the building and improve the users comfort conditions (MOR Team, 2019b). During the competition, the systems in the prototype were set to function in the Hungarian climate (Warm-summer humid continental climate according to the Köppen climate classification) whereas the Netherlands has a temperate oceanic climate. Showing that the MOR prototype can function efficiently in both Hungarian and Dutch climates with only changing the settings of the building management system can prove that it will also be able to function efficiently when the local climate will change. This research is aiming to extend the period in which the passive systems are used within the building management system in order to minimize the energy consumption while improving the comfort conditions. The following research questions will be used to find the important aspects to be considered: Which parameters have the biggest influence? What are the comfort conditions that the building management system has to reach? How is the building management system currently programmed? Can simulations optimise these setpoints? The parameters that have the biggest influence on the total energy consumption of a building are space heating (16 %) and water heating (21 %). The biggest is electrical appliances (33 %) but these are not influenced by the building management system (Nuiten, et al., 2019). For thermal comfort, the Adaptive Temperature Limits guideline suggests a range of temperatures based on a calculated average of the four preceding days (van der Linden, Boerstra, Raue, Kurvers, & de Dear, 2006). For indoor air quality, a maximum CO2 level was found of 800 ppm above the normal outdoor level of around 400 ppm (VLA, TNO, Peutz BV en Nieman Raadgevende Ingenieurs BV., 2018). And for relative humidity, a range of 30 – 70 % was found for an indoor temperature of 18 – 24 °C (BOOM-SI, Milieukundig Onderzoek-& OntwerpBuro, 2019). For visual comfort, there are no standards for residential buildings. A recommendation for the amount of light needed in a room is based on the activities. For the average room, a minimum of around 300 lux is found. For areas with more precise work such as the workstation, kitchen counter or bathroom mirror, a minimum of 500 lux is recommended (Bodart, et al., 2011). Acoustical comfort is not controlled by the building management system. Finally, a Grasshopper model is made with Ladybug, Honeybee and Ironbug plugins to use with the modeFRONTIER optimisation software. After comparing simulations made by this model to measurements inside the MOR prototype, it turns out that this model is not able to accurately simulate the different systems. Therefore the existing DesignBuilder model is used for optimisations with the built-in optimisation engine of DesignBuilder. The optimisations show that for the MOR prototype, an energy consumption reduction of 11 % per year could be realised if the heating setpoint is raised from 20,5 °C to 20,8 °C and the mechanical ventilation rate is reduced from 1,3 ach to 1,0 ach. An additional 2 % could be saved by not using active cooling. Because natural ventilation in the model is only considered as a cooling strategy and not as an air quality control strategy the optimisations showed that no natural ventilation is necessary. The workflow as described in this report can be used for optimising the setpoints in other buildings using building management systems. Further research is needed to be able to optimise all setpoints mentioned in this report.","Building management system; BMS; MOR; Optimisation; Modular Office Renovation; Sustainable renovation; Passive design technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","","51.99659408484556, 4.377973299901974"
"uuid:ccad20f8-ef96-4d2f-8b27-4ef4f4069c69","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ccad20f8-ef96-4d2f-8b27-4ef4f4069c69","Recommendations for Improvement of the Building Design by Evaluating the Indoor Environmental Quality of the Pilot Floating House Project in Macabebe, the Philippines: floating house, the Philippines","Benoy, Reji (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","van den Ham, E.R. (mentor); Ham, P.H. (mentor); Remøy, Hilde (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This thesis aims to provide passive design recommendations to improve the design quality of low income houses in the Philippines, by evaluating the indoor environmental quality of the pilot floating house project. The pilot project is the result of researches carried out by Pieter Ham and Joran Van Schaik to find a solution for the housing backlog, poor living conditions and the seasonal natural disasters in the low lying areas of the Philippines. The thesis focuses on the indoor environmental quality, the thermal comfort of the pilot house. Prior to the field visit, the significant parameters for the in situ measurement and the comfort standards for the region are chosen by literature studies. A systematic measurement plan is made in order to perform in situ measurements and field study. The measurements are done for a period of nine days. In addition to this, one of the objectives of the research is to develop an economical measuring and remotely accessible monitoring device for the thermal comfort parameters. It is achieved by programming Raspberry Pi and DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor. Hypotheses are formulated after the field visit. Then the measured data is sorted systematically and analysed. This analysed data is further studied and the comfort performance of the house is compared with the comfort standards of the region. It is found that the performance is quite satisfactory for all the spaces in the house except the attic space, which has higher temperatures than the upper comfort level. Moreover the usability of the existing doors needs improvement in terms of controlling privacy and air velocity. For the improvements, it is envisioned to have minimal interventions to the existing design and construction. For this two options are put forward. Both the options are compared with the existing design by making DesignBuilder models. The simulation results of the models are compared to find the better performing strategy. Final design is made with the inference from the comparison of the simulation results, and visits to the local architecture. From the final design, the following design improvement recommendations are put forward for the housing type: “openings for ventilation at sleeping height in the attic floor” “openings at top of the roof to enhance stack effect” “collapsible doors with louvered shutters for providing users with more option in controlling air velocity and privacy”","Indoor Environmental Quality; Tropical Climate; Thermal Comfort Performance; Compassion+Technology; Floating House Philippines; Climate Design; Traditional Architecture; Weather Monitoring; IoT","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Building Technology | Sustainable Design","Finch Floating Home","14.908154, 120.705082"
"uuid:c9b1d180-cf53-4034-a993-102b75e10595","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c9b1d180-cf53-4034-a993-102b75e10595","Reconstructing vaults 2.0: The potential of cast glass for reconstructing historical buildings","Smit, Angela (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Oikonomopoulou, Faidra (mentor); Bilow, Marcel (mentor); Barou, Lida (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This thesis is about reconstructing historical vaults with cast glass. The vision is to design a complete dry-assembly cast glass arch vault where the Notre Dame de Paris is the chosen case study. The main question is: To what extent can a historical masonry arch vault be reconstructed by using cast glass components? The method is based on literature research and FEA simulations. The thesis contains three main phases of the research. First, the background, problem statement and research objectives/ questions are discussed in the introduction. Then, the complete literature research where heritage, arch vault structures, structural glass and cast glass in structures will be discussed. The third part describes the complete design phase including the criteria and final design. The thesis finishes with a conclusion and discussion chapter. The main results of this thesis are that a historical arch vault can be reconstructed from cast glass, but this will bring high risks and costs. Therefore, the suggestion is to use cast glass for the structural arches as this meets the complex geometry but use traditional materials for complex nodes and float glass where single, abstract curves can be made. The connections between different components are dry thanks to interlayers, but the cast glass elements are adhesively bonded. From safety, assembly, and labor perspective, these connections are chosen. This way, the blurry effect of glass in a heritage is reached, but the method is simplified. This principle can also be applied as roof structures for future buildings, but also for small pedestrian bridges as the geometry possibilities are unlimited.","vault; reconstruction; cast glass; glass; Notre Dame de Paris; Building technology; structural glass","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Building Technology | Sustainable Design","","48.852966, 2.349902"
"uuid:5f110401-5bbc-430c-87a0-7dc993dea71f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5f110401-5bbc-430c-87a0-7dc993dea71f","Talent Machine: A platform for the exchange of information, skills and knowledge","Cieślikowska, Joanna (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","van Bennekom, Henri (mentor); Zhang, Yang (graduation committee); Holst, Sjap (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","A platform for the exchange of skills and knowledge in both local and global scale is located in the context of very highly educated people of various backgrounds, driven by ambition to develop their knowledge and careers. Talent machine supports the next step in the development of Northeast Midtown ensuring its future well-being and enhancing the historic value.
these data-sets, it is possible to gain understanding of problems. Through a
process of informed consent companies have been able to sequence the genome
of large populations. Providing insight to the consumer about their family
lineage and possible future risks that they could face. As a consequence of
providing such services to consumers, companies are in the position where
they can monetize a database of information hat they possess. The primary
issue that will be addressed is how private genetic data should be handled
correctly. As without clear ethical guidance corporations will (un)willingly
abuse trust. The result of aiming to maximize asset value can be unethical
conduct such as selling the data to third party insurance companies. The
apparent need to process larger quantities of data in order to acquire new
information to fill our knowledge gaps is a trade off between privacy and
anonymity of the individuals within society. Creating an ethical conundrum
for companies trying to profit. This research makes a contribution to prove
that certain actions when sequencing or using genetic information infringe
on privacy and are not morally permissible. Providing greater clarity when
trying to decide whether a use case of personal data is ethically permissible.
By reviewing modern literature that describes the ethical implications of
informed consent and human genome sequencing the research will identify
key areas requiring further work to develop the ethics of technology in a way
that enables innovation whilst keeping society safe.","Informed consent; Technology management; Whole genome sequencing","en","student report","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:fd472446-8213-4149-a1e0-456de0dc898a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fd472446-8213-4149-a1e0-456de0dc898a","Vertical Campus: The future of big player architecture in Midtown Manhattan","van Dijk, Bjorn (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Smidihen, Hrvoje (mentor); van Zalingen, Jelmer (graduation committee); van der Meel, Hubert (graduation committee); Koskamp, Gilbert (graduation committee); Mulder, Bram (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","As big player architecture has been the main shaper of the NYC skyline this thesis sought to find the answer to which industry would follow to built the next addition. The result is a vertical tech campus where the new york office is mixed with the california campus to create a flagship store/office for the fictional client Google inc.","Google; Vertical Campus; Campus; Manhattan; New york; Technology; complex projects; skyscraper; transformation; park avenue; office","en","master thesis","","","","","","This thesis was defended during the covid-19 quarantine and was therefor completed entirely digital","","","","","","","","40.746440, -73.981074"
"uuid:440bf00c-a393-4d2e-821e-d18387aa2b4d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:440bf00c-a393-4d2e-821e-d18387aa2b4d","Towards prevention of overuse lower limb injury with a smart wearable for military use","Ahsmann, Laura (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Huysmans, Toon (graduation committee); Crone, Henk (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This thesis explains the research into and implementation of overuse lower-limb injury prediction among military recruits, using wearable plantar-pressure sensing and biomechanical gait algorithms. The research has been done with the purpose of designing a usable, affordable and accurate injury-prevention tool, increasing both military wellbeing and operability. For years, researchers have gathered evidence of correlations between specific gait biomechanics of individuals and their influence on injury incidence. Using various types of laboratory equipment, such as pressure plates, walkways and treadmills, researchers found a strong correlation between parameters like cadence, vertical loading, (time to peak) heel rotation and local peak pressure values and different types of common overuse injuries in the lower limbs. However, laboratory tests often neglect the influence of footwear, distraction and fatigue. In addition, they are expensive and time-consuming tasks. One specific user group that suffers from a high incidence of overuse injuries is the military. About 3000 recruits follow basic military training each year, of which about 13% end up with one of three most common injuries: MTSS, iliotibial band syndrome and tibial stress fractures. Of those injured recruits, about 8% gets discharged from the military. This high rate is caused by the intensity of training, often accompanying high carried loads and pressure to perform. Specifically, the cumulation of repeated smaller impacts during marches is bound to cause overuse injury. The ability of commercially-used pressure-sensitive insoles to measure abnormality in injury-predictive gait parameters was tested in a series of studies. First, measurements from the insoles were compared to a commonly used gait-analysis tool: a GAITRite walkway (n=20). This study found no statistical agreement in sample-to-sample predictability. To validate whether those results could be caused by methodical differences, a second study was performed comparing the insole measurements of injured soldiers to those of control subjects (n=10). This test did result in significant between-group differences for all measured parameters. Furthermore, significant differences in parameters were found between walking on military boots and running shoes. A strategic study revealed that the product could find a competitive advantage in service and software innovation, with a focus on (a) accuracy while maintaining usability for specific user groups and (b) multi-diagnostic ability and spread market targeting (both b2b and b2c). Specific user demands were found and defined as a reduction in insecurity at various levels (e.g. where a soldier wants to be reassured about their personal fitness, a commander wants to ensure operation-readiness). A design proposal was created (Figure 1), based on research insights. The concept insole not only meets military-specific embodiment, hardware needs and improved sensor placement, but a service-design proposal enables both direct users and important stakeholders to use the data for injury prevention, rehabilitation, adaptation of footwear, operational management, training customization and general overuse-injury research. Besides meeting the needs within a military context, the product could be adjusted to meet the needs of other (occupational) overuse-injury sensitive users, such as police, hospital staff and factory workers. Clinical applications include automation of insole orthosis customization and prevention of ulceration among diabetic patients.","Injury prevention; lower limb; Biomechanics; Wearable Technology; gait analysis; plantar pressure","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:cc78e71d-b35c-478d-ae62-78dc3e5b5fd9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cc78e71d-b35c-478d-ae62-78dc3e5b5fd9","Formation and stability of lithium protective layer for corrosion protection of AA2024-T3 and AA2198-T8 aluminium alloys","Chen, Chongchong (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Gonzalez Garcia, Y. (mentor); Michailidou, E. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","As a possible replacement for chromate-based coatings in the aerospace industry, lithium leaching coatings have been widely studied in recent years. The formation mechanism of protective layer on AA2024-T3 aluminum alloys has been investigated intensively. In order to explore more possibilities for its application in aerospace industry, AA2198-T8 aluminum alloys is also be considered in research for its unique chemical composition which contains lithium. In this thesis, three kinds of different polymer coatings which are non-inhibiting coating, coating containing Li2CO3 and proprietary industrial Li2CO3-loaded coating XP420 are used. These three polymer coatings were applied on the AA2024-T3 and AA2198-T8 aluminum alloys samples. A defect was artificially made on the these samples. Then the samples were divided into two groups, one group is used directly for the experiment to investigate the formation of protective layer, one week neutral salt spray test were applied to another group in order to form the protective layer in advance and later used for the experiment. The second group is mainly focus on investigating the stability of protective layer. What is more, low volume of electrolyte was used during experiment considering the real environment of coating’s application. The research results showed that: (1) Under low volume electrolyte of 5ml aqueous 0.1M NaCl solution, the protective layer is successfully formed; (2) Li2CO3-loaded coating shows better corrosion inhibition performance compared to the non-inhibiting coating; (3) AA2198-T8 aluminum alloy containing lithium in its element composition further contributes to the formation of protective layer; (4) In general, proprietary industrial Li2CO3-loaded coating XP420 are more stable when exposed to the corrosion condition.","Coating technology; Corrosion; Electro-chemical Characterization; Lithium","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Materials Science and Engineering","",""
"uuid:9ba0e67b-9426-4982-81c7-b8560884c1e0","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9ba0e67b-9426-4982-81c7-b8560884c1e0","Exterior design of a bigger, faster, stronger last-mile delivery vehicle for Picnic Technologies","van Brouwershaven, Rutger (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering; TU Delft Human Information Communication Design)","Brand, D.I. (mentor); Hoftijzer, J.W. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Picnic is an online supermarket currently operational in the Netherlands and Germany. Groceries are ordered from an app and delivered to the customer using a last-mile delivery vehicle. This last-mile delivery vehicle is currently used for densely populated cities and works well enough to support the current number of deliveries. However, this specific current last-mile delivery vehicle can not access all households in the Netherlands. This is because its speed is limited to 50 km/h and can only carry a limited amount of cargo. In order to expand and reach new households, Picnic is looking for a new last-mile delivery vehicle. Having started a joint venture with VDL and TNO, Picnic is looking to design and build their very own last-mile delivery vehicle that is purpose built for their needs. They are looking to become bigger, faster and stronger on the roads. Increasing the vehicle speed to 80 km/h and carrying more cargo allows them to reach the households that are currently out of the geographic scope. Having a vehicle that can reach those extra households would significantly increase their customerbase and consequently market share in the supermarket space. With the opportunity to build a purpose specific vehicle, they also have the opportunity to control the aesthetic of the vehicle. Picnic relies heavily on their brand image and identity as a means of differentiation from their competitors. Therefore translating their brand assets to the vehicle will give them a stronger brand presence in the consumer environment. Having identified the raison d’etre of the vehicle, reaching new households in less densely populated areas, research was carried out to find different design cues and assets that could be leveraged in the exterior design of the new vehicle. The result of this was that the new vehicle had to look quirky, friendly and electric. Accompanying these terms was a design vision also derived through research and in talking to the relevant stakeholders. “Design a next generation company icon, to remain a local hero”. Using this input, the sketchphase was conducted with a funnel approach. Creating a broad spectrum of different designs and options that were in accordance with the design vision and form language derived from the research. Through method of elimination with the input from the different stakeholders, the sketchphase reached a point of maturity, which consequently yielded a final design. This final design satisfied all the requirements derived from the research and embodied the Picnic aesthetic while remaining functional for the runners. This final design was thereafter iterated once more and presented using renders from a CAD model along with detailed renders of key features and elements of the design. That is the final phase of the project and the culmination of the efforts documented in this report. Further recommendations are also included at the end of this report. They aim to develop the sophistication of the design to the point that it is ready for VDL and TNO to create a proposal for the next steps required to take the design to a first prototype.","Automotive design; Exterior design; Design aesthetics; Last-mile delivery; Picnic Technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","Graduation project",""
"uuid:29d7b453-f381-4c87-a4c8-c41574584ecd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:29d7b453-f381-4c87-a4c8-c41574584ecd","Transformation Structuralism: 21st century university in a 70's structuralist building","Eshuis, Valery (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Meijers, Lidy (mentor); Koopman, Frank (graduation committee); Nevzgodin, Ivan (graduation committee); Spaans, Marjolein (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","The goal of the project is to find out to what extent it is possible to adapt the Faculty of Humanities in Leiden to meet the requirements of a 21st century university. The Faculty of Humanities is a university designed in the 70’s. Although it will remain the same institute, the program of the 21st century version consists of different types of spaces than the faculty program of the 1970’s. This is the result of a new, and modern way of learning. A 21st century university with more students and a higher demand for usable space, not only raises the question how Leiden University is going to transform the faculty, but also how it will facilitate students with housing in their future program. The design ambition for this project is to focus on what the changes in trends for learning are in order to transform the South cluster into a design for the university. An experiment on the North buildings will test whether it is possible to adjust the former university building to student housing. However the focus on the design will be on the University design.","Reuse; Building technology; Heritage & Architecture; Transformation; Interior Design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Heritage & Architecture","",""
"uuid:46338102-d98c-4c27-b2dd-fb6e76647e80","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:46338102-d98c-4c27-b2dd-fb6e76647e80","Blockchain-based crowdfinancing mechanisms for renewable energy projects: A business case for consultancy & engineering firms","López Cañizares, Janko (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)","Koutamanis, Alexander (mentor); Chan, Paul (graduation committee); Rellermeyer, Jan S. (graduation committee); de Jonge, Krispijn (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Recently, there is a growing need to address the investment gap in renewable energy by attracting non-institutional investors that have investment preferences better suited for the energy transition. Crowdfinancing is a promising alternative, as it allows for increased innovation, more sustainable development and reduced community risks and is driven by a crowd of small investors that are less profit-driven than professional investors. However, current crowdfinancing models are limited by lack of trust, adverse selection, exclusive corporate governance and lack of liquidity. While extant research has identified these limitations and the potential of blockchain technology to solve some of them, there is a need to design the blockchain-based crowdfinancing mechanisms required and provide a business case for their implementation. The research objective of this practice-oriented design research is to provide a practical plan for the implementation of blockchain-based crowdfinancing for renewable energy projects by means of a design and business case for engineering and consultancy firms as the facilitators of the process in the Netherlands, with the purpose to give a boost to the energy transition.
A foundation for the research was provided by making an analysis of the evolution and current state of the Dutch energy market organization based on three cornerstones: market roles, production and financing. This analysis showed a high degree of decentralization in terms of market roles and production from renewables that allowed the emergence of community driven energy cooperatives, while a dependence on centralized financial intermediaries is still present; risky and small projects do not have access to bank financing and existing crowdfinancing platforms charge high brokerage fees and provide no secondary markets. A pilot study based on the same cornerstones and consisting of interviews with relevant market parties was performed in order to supplement the analysis of the market for the formulation of design requirements for the crowdfinancing mechanisms. Qualitative desk research was done on existing smart contract applications that could be utilized to overcome the limitations of crowdfinancing and served as the building blocks for the conceptual designs. Qualitative desk research was also performed in order to quantify the costs and address the (legal) implications of implementing the mechanisms proposed.
The result was a practical plan consisting of blockchain-based crowdfinancing mechanisms that reduce brokerage fees and facilitate the organic establishment of secondary markets by making use of existing public blockchain infrastructure, and a positive business case for consultancy and 10 engineering firms to facilitate the process. Smart contracts govern the crowdfinancing process autonomously for low and high risk projects, where with the latter crowdinvestors are given financial control by locking project funds in trustless escrow contracts, thereby allowing them to cut losses in failing projects and thus addressing the issues of lack of trust and exclusive corporate governance, while mitigating the effects of adverse selection. This practical plan provides a tool to further empower the crowd as the fuel for the energy transition, thereby increasing investments in renewables. However, social exclusion might result at first from the intrinsic complexity of blockchain technology and the degree to which a boost can be given to the transition remains unclear due to a lack of consensus on the effectiveness of crowdfinancing to increase support for the bigger projects. There is further research needed into a risk management-based approach for the design of escrow contracts that release funds according to a project planning, while the delegation of control rights to more capable third parties also requires more research. Additionally, the application of decentralized governance beyond financial control requires further examination as well.","Infrastructure; Renewable Energy; Financing; Crowdfunding; Crowdfinancing; Blockchain Technology; Distributed Ledger; Smart contracts; Decentralization","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering","",""
"uuid:5fb0c5c7-391c-49da-827f-ebdf69f0dc29","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5fb0c5c7-391c-49da-827f-ebdf69f0dc29","Fabula rasa: Gamifying a storytelling platform to enhance proactive science communication from TU Delft researchers","Zanon, Davide (TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft Science Education and Communication)","Kalmar, E. (mentor); Kortmann, L.J. (graduation committee); van der Sanden, M.C.A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This research project proposes a theoretical gamified design of a storytelling platform to engage TU Delft researchers into proactive submission of story ideas to co-create online storytelling for wide audiences. While universities have focused on improving communication with the general public in the past decades, researchers may still find barriers to engage in public communication of science. One of these barriers is proactive media contact, as the scientific community may perceive it as outside of the researchers’ role and subject the “transgressor” to informal peer-based sanctions. By assessing a sample of TU Delft researchers’ attitude towards an online TU Delft non-profit storytelling platform for internal and external communication similar to the target one, response efficacy proved to be the primary variable to motivate TU Delft researchers to engage in co-creation of online storytelling. The findings further confirm existing theories that younger and more intrinsically motivated researchers seem more willing to engage in online storytelling compared to older and more extrinsically motivated peers. The study translated these guidelines into a gamified design based on graph force models that challenge researchers to create tags related to their story, and form connections with peers within the TU Delft. To access these functionalities, TU Delft researchers must register to the platform by submitting a story idea, e.g. related to their researcher or field of study, and be willing to co-create online storytelling if their story is chosen. The design targets different groups of users by balancing the experience through the Octalysis framework, and implementing social points, competitions among faculties and badges. According to an evaluation with the case owner and a gamification expert of the first iteration of the design, rewarding the submission of stories with a network, seem effective in engaging TU Delft researchers to submit story ideas proactively and enhance collaboration and innovation with the TU Delft.","Gamification; Collaboration; Storytelling; Technology Acceptance Model; Science Communication","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Applied Sciences | Science Communication","",""
"uuid:79c0bc18-3a43-4675-9a11-c84fbef3714e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:79c0bc18-3a43-4675-9a11-c84fbef3714e","Influence and Adoption of BIM within the AEC Industry: A study into how policies, workflows and process can set the tone towards adoption and implementation of BIM within the AEC industry and how the future of BIM and Data Validation can influence the future of Architects","Varghese, Paul (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Lousberg, Louis (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","This research paper investigates the topic of “How policies, workflows and process can set the tone towards adoption and implementation of BIM within the AEC industry and how the future of BIM and Data Validation can influence the future of Architects.” BIM has become a fundamental aspect of today’s AEC Industry. From its conceptual inception in the early 1990’s to its widespread adoption and integration in current workflows over the last 20 years. This rapid rate of adoption for BIM within the industry has been accelerated through governmental mandates, client requirements and through its use in larger organizations. This research paper will investigate how the construction sector views the adoption of BIM within the AEC industry and what process and steps are required in order to adopt and implement a digital design work methodology supported using BIM over that of a traditional design work methodology. We will also discuss how current and future roles and workflows of Architects will be defined due to R&D in advancements technological in BIM. For these advancements of innovative solution in BIM will result in a change as to how we define the role of a future Architect to be.","BIM, Building Information Modelling; AEC industry; Construction sector; Trends; adoption of innovation; Workflow; Technology adoption; Process guidelines; Validation and Verification; Process Management; Future Architecture; role of architect; Digital Design; Architecture, Engineering and Construction","en","bachelor thesis","","","","","","Varghese, P. (2020, February 10). Influence and Adoption of BIM within the AEC Industry. Retrieved from https://paulvarghese.com/portfolio/influence-and-adoption-of-bim-within-the-aec-industry/","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","",""
"uuid:5db9053b-d0e9-43b7-8bfe-c8ba68afd4ad","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5db9053b-d0e9-43b7-8bfe-c8ba68afd4ad","Acid etching as a surface pre-treatment step for PVD coatings on high strength steels","Balasubramanian, Manikandan (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Sloof, W.G. (mentor); Westerwaal, Ruud (mentor); Sietsma, J. (graduation committee); Garcia, Santiago J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Coating deposition by Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) on high strength steels is an important research project at TATA Steel - IJmuiden. The research is aimed at replacing the conventional hot-dip galvanisation process to obtain a defect-free coating without affecting their well-engineered properties. However, the annealing treatment of the steel, performed to obtain these properties, affects the coating adhesion properties. This is a result of the selective oxidation process, which forms external oxides of alloying elements at the surface. Therefore, a pre-treatment process is required to remove these surface oxides from the steel strips before they are coated. Plasma sputtering is currently being
used for the pre-treatment to remove any contaminants and surface oxides from the steel. To obtain a good coating adhesion, a relatively large amount of surface oxides needs to be removed by sputtering. Also, the removed material is known to contaminate the vacuum chamber in the PVD deposition line, for which frequent maintenance of the chamber might be necessary. Thus, an additional
surface pre-treatment step was investigated in this study to reduce the sputtering process inside the vacuum as much as possible. In the present work, the effect of both direct current electrolytic alkaline cleaning and sulphuric acid etching on the surface of DP800 steel was investigated. Two different baths were considered for this purpose; a 27 g/L NaOH bath with some additive at 60°C and a 50 g/L H2SO4 bath at 25°C and 50°C. A current density of 1.5 A/dm2 was applied during the electrolytic cleaning for which both cathodic and anodic polarisation methods were investigated. Also, a range of acid etching times (10s to 120s) was investigated for the given concentration and temperatures of the acid bath to study its effect on the surface. The effect of adding a corrosion inhibitor into the acid bath on the rest of the coating deposition process was also investigated. Various surface characterisation techniques and wettability tests were performed to study the changes in morphology and composition of the surface and their effect on the coating adhesion properties of the treated samples. Finally, coating adhesion tests were performed after zinc deposition to investigate the adhesion performance of the steel after the pre-treatment steps. Initial surface analysis during electrolytic alkaline cleaning showed that the anodic polarisation was more effective than cathodic polarisation of the sample, as the latter tends to reduce the surface wettability by additional deposits of iron fines over the surface. A subsequent acid etching provided a reduction in the minimum required sputter intensity to obtain a good adhesion from 2300 kJ/m2 to about 800 kJ/m2. A further reduction was achieved to a sputter intensity of only 214 kJ/m2 after retarding the effects of surface reoxidation by vacuum sealing the samples. Acid etching at 25°C provided bad coating adhesion at lower etching times, attributed to the partial dissolution of surface oxides and absence of an initial grain roughening. Good coating adhesion was either obtained at higher etching times or by increasing the temperature of the acid bath to 50°C. Addition of a corrosion inhibitor was considered impractical as high sputter intensities (> 321 kJ/m2) was required to remove the adsorbed inhibitor molecules from the surface. Thus, a reduction in the required sputter intensity was achieved by more than a factor of 10 after acid etching, only if the effects of surface reoxidation during the transfer time between acid etching and entering the PVD installation can be minimized.
The meat factory works as a cooperative model. It aims not only to supply the yearly demand of meat but also to democratize access to technology. The cultural aspect of the program enhances community participation on the decisions regarding the production of the food itself but also, through the “bio-hacking labs” allow the common folk to understand and replicate those techniques, further developing the technology itself. It takes food production away from big corporations, giving it back to the community, creating resilience, diminishing inequalities. Although the program is not site specific, it does fit within the context of Parkstad. A post-mining community struggling with unemployment and lack of identity, the idea of a new production facility that doubles as public square not only creates new opportunities for economic growth but also potential community engagement and, by making livestock production obsolete, new greener and ecologically oriented opportunities arise to re-create Parkstad as a future garden city.","bioengineering; automation; democratization of technology; rewilding","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","",""
"uuid:d3d56dd8-60ee-47f7-b23a-cdc6c2650e14","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d3d56dd8-60ee-47f7-b23a-cdc6c2650e14","Consensus-less Security: A truly scalable distributed ledger","Brouwer, Jetse (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Pouwelse, Johan (mentor); Roos, Stefanie (graduation committee); Zuñiga Zamalloa, Marco (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Distributed ledger technology was expected to spark a technical revolution similar to the internet revolution. After the release of Bitcoin in 2008, many developments have significantly increased the performance of distributed ledger technology. Nevertheless, the first truly scalable ledger has yet to be deployed. All of them have issues with scaling in either the throughput, the number of nodes which can validate transaction or both. The concept behind a distributed ledger is that the integrity of the ledger is a shared responsibility. However, as soon as new technology emerges, also misuse surfaces, especially if there are financial gains involved. The general solution, to prevent such abuse, in distributed ledger technology is through the use of global consensus. If the majority of a network is honest, and we require a majority vote on the validity of a transaction, no malicious transactions will succeed. A downside of requiring a majority vote is that every node eligible to vote must contain full knowledge on all previous transactions. This work argues that the requirement of global consensus is a major limiting factor when it comes to the scalability of current ledgers. The goal of this work is to design a scalable distributed ledger whose security does not rely on global consensus. It proposes a novel algorithm that guarantees security, even under adversarial attack, by up to a third of the network exhibiting byzantine behavior. It does so using Trustchain, a pair-wise ledger designed by the Delft University of Technology, and `Fair Witness Selection Protocol', a newly designed publicly verifiable witness selection algorithm with an indicated message and communication complexity of $O(log^\star(n))$. A mathematical lower-bound is given on the security level of the algorithm, and the security is reduced to the security of the underlying hash function. Several experiments were executed on the DAS-5 supercomputer to confirm the scalability of this work. These experiments show that the throughput of the network scales linearly, and has been tested up to 2500 nodes (simultaneously acting as validators and clients). To the best of the author's knowledge, it is the only ledger that has no theoretical limits on the number of clients, number of validators, or throughput. A peak-throughput of 7025 tx/s has been observed at a network size of 280 nodes. Furthermore, the total transaction time remained roughly constant at about 15 milliseconds regardless of the network size.","distributed ledger technology; Security; Global consensus; scalability; trustchain","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:e72a4bb1-0aa1-457a-9c29-699937311cba","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e72a4bb1-0aa1-457a-9c29-699937311cba","Unraveling decision-making in irrigated farming in Malawi: Using Q methodology to develop typologies on water transport technology adoption","van Dijk, Ruben (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)","Ertsen, M.W. (mentor); Diehl, J.C. (graduation committee); Intriago Zambrano, J.C. (mentor); van Beusekom, Martin (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2020","Despite the strong emphasis on irrigation development in Southern Africa, different initiatives from technology developers, policy developers and development organizations to encourage water transport technology adoption have often been disappointing. The lack of long-term success can partly be contributed to a mismatch between farmer realities and technology packages, national irrigation management and development aid policies. In order to better design and promote adoption of water transport technology alternatives, it is important to create a clearer understanding of the full spectrum in which farmers operate and make farming and investment decisions. This study therefore analyses the diversity in decision-making variables influencing the adoption of water transport technologies, and considers the implications for policy & technology developers, researchers and development facilitators. Following the Q-methodology, four different factors of participants with respective sorting characteristics were identified. Thereafter the study reviews how conventional ways of grouping farmers in policy and development programs hold up against the statistically formed factors. The results show that the definitions used in the conventional way of grouping are inadequate in dealing with the subjectivity surrounding adoption of water transport technologies in Malawi. With this new appreciation for the heterogeneity of farmers comes an understanding that technologies, policies and programmes must move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approaches to more targeted, tailor-made approaches that are more likely to facilitate efficient, sustainable and long-term uptake of water transport technologies. Policies and technology packages do not have to be tailor-made on individual scale, but should recognize the idea that there are many different kinds of farmers that base their decision-making on different variables. Recognizing this and translating it into contextualized support and technology packages can more effectively encourage uptake of water transport technology by farmers. Also, the study shows that Q-methodology can act as an useful tool to better understand farmer decision-making, feeding policy and technology discussions and development. The research seeks to contribute towards the understanding of farmer decision-making and improved action around implementation of water transport systems.","Malawi; Q-methodology; Farmer decision-making; Farmer typology; Water transport technology adoption","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Water Management","",""
"uuid:fd9de39b-2f6b-45d7-94a6-5b5754497a61","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fd9de39b-2f6b-45d7-94a6-5b5754497a61","Iterative Bias Estimation for an Ultra-Wideband Localization System","van der Heijden, Bas (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Grammatico, Sergio (mentor); Kober, Jens (graduation committee); Ferranti, Laura (graduation committee); Kok, Manon (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Three bias estimation frameworks are presented that mitigate position-dependent ranging errors often present in ultra-wideband localization systems. State estimation and control are integrated, such that the positioning accuracy improves over iterations. The frameworks are experimentally evaluated on a quadcopter platform. Two state augmentation frameworks show that the anchor placement has a significant influence on the observability of the problem. A third framework circumvented any observability issues by using a classifier. This framework performed best as it improves the tracking performance with respect to ground truth, and also smoothens the overall flight by significantly reducing unwanted oscillations; see https://youtu.be/J-htfbzf40U for a video.","Ultra-wideband technology; adaptive observer design; Bayesian methods; sensor fusion; recursive least squares; classification; non line-of-sight","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Mechanical Engineering | Systems and Control","",""
"uuid:ace20544-9a0c-4b2a-aadc-faf30e4896c7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ace20544-9a0c-4b2a-aadc-faf30e4896c7","Beyond Monetary value: An alternative approach to creating value with innovation","Lukkes, Bart (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Smulders, Frido (mentor); Bluemink, Bart (graduation committee); Janssen, Albert (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This thesis answers the question: “How can we generate and maximise value from technologies that sit in the periphery of the technology development ecosystem?”. The launchpad innovation strategy provides the solution. A technology in the periphery of the development eco-system fell out of development after changes to the technology strategy. The project owner remained adamant that there was value to the product if licensed. The goal was to create value, and the product was developed to create as much value as possible to its users. But rather than designing a product to create value for the user, turning those roles around provided an interesting perspective. By designing a strategy to create value for the company from this type of technology product an interesting strategy was designed. The strategy’s aim is to create as much value as possible, but rather than focus on revenue, it looks at what technology can create that creates long term benefits. The strategy revolves around creating a type of company that sits between a corporate startup and a spinout with the purpose of commercialising the technology. The companies are autonomous but have close contacts to the mother company allowing for the exchange of money, information, people and most important knowledge. This is the launchpad strategy.","Technology Commercialization; Strategy development; Design for value; Launchpad","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:466ea0b5-49da-43ea-8346-81c4e61f4953","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:466ea0b5-49da-43ea-8346-81c4e61f4953","The Future of Washing as a Service in a Circular Economy","Nahar, Nilesh (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Oberdorf, Jos (mentor); Bakker, Conny (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Bundles is a Dutch startup that is working on developing circular propositions by offering products on a subscription model. Bundles already offer high-quality Miele washing machines on a “pay per wash” model to consumers. However, high lifecycle costs hinder the competitiveness of the business. This high cost is a result of the product (washing machine) and service (subscription model) not being developed in tandem with each other. The current washing machine is not designed for the Circular Economy (CE) and not designed for multiple use cycles.
CE, Digital Technologies and Product Service Systems Different academics point out that digital technologies create opportunities for circular propositions (e.g., Ellen MacArthur Foundation,2016; Pagoropoulos et al., 2017; Bressanelli et al., 2018). The connection of products through the internet enables them to sense their own and their environments status, process this information and interact with their users. These capabilities help service providers to extend the useful life of products, maximise the utilisation of products, loop products through additional use cycles, regenerate natural capital from their products, and make sure these products are used efficiently. Bundles currently, uses a smart plug to connect their devices to the internet which generates little insights for users and the service. Washing machines that last forever Through the knowledge of the condition and status of a WM, PSS can increase the useful service life of the WM eternally by enabling lifetime extending strategies like maintenance, service, refurbishing and remanufacturing . With washing machines, proactive service and maintenance is important for the service life of a washing machine. Users are critical stakeholder in enabling proper maintenance and service as if they do not participate in the service and maintenance process, the actions do not succeed. Fogg (2009) describes in his behavior change model three elements needed for a behavior to occur – Motivation, Ability, and Trigger. If a person has high motivation to do an action and the ability to do it and triggered in the right way, the action will occur.
Design Solution
The result of this design project is a User Interface framework for enabling easy and efficient maintenance and service of the WM. The concept looks at the different faults and maintenance actions for a washing machine and describes three different states of a WM.
Green State – the Most desired state where the machine is functioning perfectly and does not require any user action
Yellow State – A state where the functionality is intact but the machine requires maintenance action to be done
Red State – A state when the functionality is seized due to a fault and requires a service action to fix it.
The concept also looks at the transitions between the different states and what causes them and what action is needed to bring the machine to the green state. On the basis of the different actions, and a behavior change model that is aimed at motivating users and giving them the ability to carry out the maintenance and service actions, a UI concept is generated. This concept brings together Digital Technologies enabling circularity in a PSS.
In the first part a study was conducted into the status and characteristics of different fuel cell technologies and fuel storage solutions. Seven different types of fuel cells are investigated which can divided based on their operation temperatures (Low, Medium or High). Fourteen different types of fuels which are categorised as physical-, fuel- or material based hydrogen. The density of both separate systems were analysed and merged into a combined density for comparison reasons. Other factors which have been investigated are the: storage type, maturity, safety, and emissions. To be sure that a good choice can be made despite the many variables, these review subjects are used as decision criteria for the developed tool. In addition, the time influence on the density is taken into account by the adjustable time factor which is integrated in the tool. Specific preferences for a system can be given by changing the weighting factor for the different decision criteria. When changing the weight factors the order of all options will be rearranged by the tool, showing the ranking of the most promising solutions corresponding to the preferences of by the user.
From this tool, it has become clear that a fuel cell solution should be specifically selected for any different type of application. A specific application could lead to the selection of a completely different type of technology, which is in contrast with a diesel combustion engine where only an appropriate size needs to be selected.
The second part focuses on the design study of a fuel cell powered yacht, whereby an Oceanco yacht was used as reference. The most promising fuel cell solution for this yacht was selected based on the decision making tool and selected weighting criteria, a high temperature PEM fuel cell powered by methanol turned out to be the best solution. In order to determine the influence of the conversion to fuel cells additional research has been performed towards other factors which have an impact on the design. The following subjects were considered: regulations, fuel cell characteristics, energy storage, propulsion and electrical distribution. From these topics, several important conclusions have emerged. First of all the regulations have a substantial impact on the design of a yacht. Secondly, the fuel and fuel cells itself require more space compared to the original configuration, and the fuel cells require a larger battery system to be able to follow the fluctuating load of a yacht. Lastly, it became clear that the use of fuel cells makes it possible to have some volume and efficiency gains when switching to PODs and a DC energy distribution system. A detailed design study based on these findings made clear that the yacht needed to become longer to fit all the required systems while keeping the functional requirements for the owners the same. Additionally the system changes corresponding to the fuel cell conversion resulted in an increase in terms of weight. These changes in length and weight turned out to have negligible change on the resistance of the yacht.
There are some factors which have an impact on the operation of the yacht. One of these is the fact that the lifespan of the used fuel cell technology is lower than that of a diesel combustion engine. A well designed hybrid system and by using shore power as much as possible, could be used to stretch the expected lifetime. Another operational issue could be the fact that this fuel cell technology is not fully developed which could influence the operability of the fuel cells. In addition, the methanol used as fuel is not as widely available as diesel. Positive influences are the fact that the overall efficiency increases while reducing all emissions with 100% except for the CO2 emissions which will be 14-20% lower compared to a diesel engine. When using green methanol, the overall emissions of the yacht will be completely reduced since it will be CO2 neutral. Additional advantages of fuel cells are the added comfort due to low noise and operation without any vibrations as well as an increased redundancy because of the modular design of the fuel cells.","Superyacht; Fuel cells; Alternative fuels; Design impact; Marine Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2024-10-02","","","","Marine Technology","",""
"uuid:06969230-dcfd-464f-a75e-11634152f72c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:06969230-dcfd-464f-a75e-11634152f72c","Designing a positive white cane: A future vision and design approach","te Velde, Thijs (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Price, Rebecca (graduation committee); Desmet, Pieter (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Context & case You are reading the report for a master’s graduation project conducted at Delft University of Technology. This project is chaired by prof. dr. ir. Pieter Desmet and coached by dr. Rebecca Price. The project was initiated by Margot Scheltema, an influential Dutch commissioner with multiple companies. She initiated this project because she is suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive eye disease, and will soon have to walk using a white guiding cane. However, she finds this cane too stigmatising and is looking for a more positive white cane. Research In order to get insights into possible design directions for a positive white cane, extensive user research was conducted. This research was conducted in collaboration with Visio, an institution that helps the visually impaired that is based in Den Haag. With help from Visio, three auto-ethnographic studies were conducted, as well as one generative session and three observation studies. These observation studies were conducted by means of participant observation and gave insight into how cane walkers are trained, how the visually impaired interact with technology and how visually impaired people can be profoundly misunderstood by their environments. Independently, two observations of Margot Scheltema were conducted that gave insights into how the visually impaired are still able to live a rich life. Also, one generative session was conducted and two events were visited that include a trade fair and the Dutch retina day. The research shows that the visually impaired face multiple problems on a daily basis. These problems include increased visibility due to (the effects of) visual impairment, loss of agency, difficulty communicating (the effects of) visual impairment and experiencing a negative self-image. Some attitudes towards assistive devices were also observed, and these are connecting the image of the assistive device to self-image, facing the reality of the situation, not letting the opinions of bystanders affect you and being concerned about the social effects of using specific assistive products. From these insights, four personas were created that can be places in certain situations in a journey map. These personas, combined with an extensive literature study and the journey map served as a basis to develop design proposals upon. Design proposal After some failed attempts to reaching a meaningful design proposal, a tool was created that allows concepts to be developed while keeping research front and center. The final concept consists of a modular cane that used contemporary technology to give the visually impaired an edge in developing their unique skills and add their insights to the world. It leverages positive aspects about being visually impaired and amplifies them, making them actionable. Three embodiments of this modular, open-ended design were developed and presented in scenarios. The aesthetics of the cane were designed in such a way that it shows the technological advances it makes use of, while still having a very striking and unique appearance. Combining the added benefits with this unique identity brings together multiple strategies that serve the purpose of de-stigmatising assistive products that were found in literature research. Validation The concept was validated using a stigmaticity test and a generative session at Visio using visually impaired participants. The session at Visio gave insights into what kind of data the visually impaired imagined to be generating, with whom they would want to share that and which degree of privacy they would prefer to be associated with which kind of data. The stigmaticity tests shed some light into the effect of the aesthetics of the positive white cane. In these tests, the dyadic distance between participants and a research confederate were measured and the amount of looks the research confederate received were recorded. It was found that, in the female research confederate, dyadic distance was significantly closer when wielding the positive white cane. This means that people were more comfortable getting closer to her than when she was wielding the current white cane. This was also the cane with the male research confederate, but less significantly so. Conclusion The results of this design project suggest that a positive white cane be made that combines advances in technology and a unique aesthetic that not only de-stigmatised the white cane but also brings meaningful new features to the visually impaired. These new features will allow them to become more connected, learn faster and contribute to society in a more direct manner. The data generated by this positive white cane would also serve researchers in their attempts to shape the world and make it more inclusive for everybody. Next steps that can be taken include the making of functional prototypes, holding joint workshops with both professionals working in the field of visual impairment, visually impaired users and government workers to explore the possibilities the positive white cane has to offer and many others. This project will exhibit at the Design United exhibition at Dutch Design week and I hope to make many connections there that could potentially allow me to develop this project further.","Stigma; Assistive technology; Design research","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:156ae329-9f4f-4f18-87ae-b55544238017","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:156ae329-9f4f-4f18-87ae-b55544238017","Enabling Data Marketplaces with Multi-Party Computation (MPC): An Exploratory Study investigating the Implication of the Maturation of Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology to the Architecture and the Threat Landscape of the Data Marketplaces","Kumar, Jeevan (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","de Reuver, Mark (mentor); Fiebig, Tobias (mentor); Hernandez Ganan, Carlos (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The emergence of the Data Marketplaces is the latest iteration in the phenomenon of data-driven transformation of the world. Data marketplaces have emerged as a new form of data-driven business models which enable trading of data between the data owners/providers and data consumers by providing the necessary technological and non-technological infrastructure. These features present an alternative to the cumbersome logistics currently involved in searching, buying and selling data; thus, simplify the data supply chains between the data-driven business entities. However, they suffer to take off into mainstream success because of a myriad of reasons. Of all the reasons, 2 of them are focused in this thesis. Firstly, the difficulty involved in architecturally enabling a data marketplace platform as the prospective enabling technologies are still immature. Secondly, the uncertainty associated with the commodification of data which comprises of the intellectual property enforcement of data (data ownership), privacy and confidentiality breach (threats), regulatory ignorance (implication of GDPR), reluctance of businesses from participating because of the previous reasons et cetera. This reason is collectively referred as due to the uncertainty around the threat landscape of the data marketplaces. Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology provide a solution to these problems. Through its capabilities to preserve the confidentiality of data architecturally and thereby securing the interests of the data actors with respect to the uncertainty of the threat landscape around data, MPC can enable safe and secure data sharing between data actors. This characteristic of MPC can help data marketplaces to overcome their challenges and foster their realisation. However, since MPC cannot handle the scale of real-life application, it is not mature enough yet to be incorporated into real-life data marketplaces. An EU funded project called SafeDEED: Safe Data-Enabled Economic Development, proposes to overcome the scalability issue and intends to achieve the maturation of MPC for real-life application. Building upon this forecast, a research was conducted to investigate the implication of the maturation of MPC technology towards the 2 problems faced by data marketplaces, architectural and threat landscape; and the same is documented in this thesis.","Data Marketplaces; Multi-Party Computation; Secure Data Trading; Cyber Threat Modelling; High-Level Architecture; Business Threat Framing; Technology Adoption; Data-Driven Business; Exploratory Study; Qualitative Research; Inductive Reasoning; Hypotheses Development; Expert Judgment","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","Safe-DEED",""
"uuid:442169f6-204f-426b-bc43-6d2fefec73bb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:442169f6-204f-426b-bc43-6d2fefec73bb","Metaphoric Interfaces: A case study for the digitally enabled luxury kitchen","Bernstein, Adriaan (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Keller, Ianus (mentor); Schifferstein, Hendrik N.J. (graduation committee); Szpryngwald, Piotr (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Successful interfaces have often been the result of powerful metaphors. By likening an unfamiliar context to one we are more familiar and experienced with, it becomes relatable and easier to navigate. With its wealth of sensory stimuli, the kitchen space offers enormous opportunities for the creation of such metaphors. At the same time, the act of cooking is riddled with sensory “black boxes ”: Moments in which little to no information is available to the senses. In the kitchen, those are often caused by literal boxes: Ovens, microwaves, fridges, etc. Whenever these moments occur, the cooking process moves beyond sensory reach. Being deprived of any direct means of probing food throughout the process presents a significant challenge: Clues that would otherwise inform decisions and provide reassurance are no longer intuitively available. The lack of tangible, practical information is a core challenge for the development of future kitchen appliances. This thesis explores multimodality as a tool to resolve the difficulties users are currently experiencing. Multimodal interactions describe interactions that make use of multiple senses at once. By investigating the roles different senses play in human perception, this project builds a repertoire of engaging communication tools. Various techniques are developed to frame information in multisensory ways. By tailoring these techniques to their context of use, they can elicit experiences that are situationally relevant and enjoyable to the user. Using the findings of the multimodal explorations, this thesis developed a concept using haptic, spatial, and visual modalities. The interface of an oven was altered to guide users towards helpful and relevant information. This was done by including a multimodal dial into an oven's display unit. The dial uses its repertoire to expose information on ongoing processes that would typically be out of reach to users . By modulating its stiffness and texture it can, for example, tangibly inform users about the cooking progress. This three-dimensional, dynamic exploration of evolving processes helped users understand their choices and increased their confidence and enjoyment throughout the experience. For a luxury kitchen manufacturer such as Gaggenau developing interfaces that bridge the gap between the sensory, physical world and the digital future of technology is of great importance. This thesis hopefully contributes insights that will help Gaggenau shape the future of the kitchen.","Multimodality; Home Appliances; Interface; Metaphoric Design; HCI; Kitchen; Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:58218422-8a56-4960-ba5d-e3669e3a1ac3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:58218422-8a56-4960-ba5d-e3669e3a1ac3","Decarbonisation of the Dutch Container Glass Industry by 2050: A Model-based Analysis of Technology Options","Papadogeorgos, Yannis (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Engineering, Systems and Services; PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency)","Ramirez, Andrea (mentor); Kwakkel, J.H. (graduation committee); Schure, Klara (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The Dutch container glass industry is an energy- and capital-intensive industry which accounts for about 350 kt of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on an annual basis. The fluctuating energy prices during the past decades as well as the implementation of the European Emission trading scheme (ETS) are pushing towards the deep decarbonisation of container glass-making activities. However the uncertainty which surrounds the transition strategies hinders the decarbonisation efforts, leading investment decisions in CO2-reducing technologies to postponement. In this study, a set of optimally robust-performing policy options is identified for the effective decarbonisation of the container glass industry by 2050. By conducting techno-economic analysis on the processes of Dutch production sites, alternative technology options and their combinations are compared on the basis of their technical and financial feasibility. The robustness of decarbonisation strategies is determined on the basis of carbon emissions, energy consumption, product cost and return of investment and assessed under a wide spectrum of potential future events using a many-objective robust decision making technique. The study concludes on the importance of using alternative fuels (i.e. biomethane, electricity and syngas) as well as the coupling of waste heat recovery options with innovative furnaces for improving the melting activity. Further development of breakthrough technologies is necessary to achieve greater carbon emissions reduction, which will be supported by a sound regulatory framework for technology deployment. The study can be leveraged by industry stakeholders and policymakers on the future of the container glass sector and the industry in a broader sense in a competitive low-carbon economy.","Decarbonization; Container glass; Techno-economic analysis; Decision Support; Deep uncertainty; Robustness; Multi-objective optimization; Emerging technologies; Policy advice","en","master thesis","","","","","","https://github.com/ioannispapadogeo/MSc_Thesis The developed code in Python for performing the decision support method is made available at GitHub.","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:4b7e4abb-e591-492a-b61e-c8d0fec92acd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4b7e4abb-e591-492a-b61e-c8d0fec92acd","A CE Indicator Scorecard and Circular Economy Business Model Canvas for the Food and Beverage Industry","Möslinger, Margot (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Quist, J.N. (mentor); Lindeboom, R.E.F. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution); Universiteit Leiden (degree granting institution)","2019","A circular economy (CE) is seen as needed in all industry sectors to manage finite resources and to reduce the impact of production and consumption of goods on the planet. While the food and beverage industry has already many measurements in place to ensure cleaner production, a transition towards a CE requires a broader systems perspective. Insights from the field of Industrial Ecology (IE) are used to develop ways to measure CE. Based on the biological loop of the butterfly diagram of the Ellen MacArthur foundation, water, organic materials and especially nutrients were defined as core focus points for a CE in the food and beverage industry. A CE for this sector needs to include a systems perspective, minimizing losses of nutrients, water, and energy along the entire life-cycle of products. In contrast to the technical loop, it is significantly more challenging to achieve a closed loop as production is connected to natural processes (when growing the raw materials). However, companies can develop strategies to take into account best practice of resource use. To best support companies in developing strategies for business models for a CE, a review of existing business models was performed. CE was explored within the overarching category of sustainable business models to ensure the development of a Circular Economy Business Model Canvas (CEBMC). Based on this CEBM canvas, a set of 14 CE indicators was developed in the form of a scorecard to measure the progress of companies in the food and beverage industry in terms of CE. These indicators are based on water, material, nutrients, energy, customer, supply, production (water & energy), employees, partners, transportation, packaging, profit, system consideration, and pollution prevention and were obtained by letting companies fill in a questionnaire with a set of 24 questions (see appendix IV). The indicator results are shown in a spiderweb and were presented as equal (thus not weighed) as CE is considered an equally important element in all aspects of the BM canvas. The CEBM canvas and the CE indicator scorecard are available for use in Microsoft Excel. The developed canvas and indicator scorecard were reviewed and validated through a peer review session, experts from academia, consultancies and companies in the field. A thesis research project with SEMiLLA IPStar B.V., the technology transfer partner of the MELiSSA space program, and a pilot study of the BioMakery at the La Trappe brewery in Koningshoeven, Tilburg, showed the functioning of the framework in practice, including its strong and weak points. The final chapter of the thesis provides recommendations for the companies involved in the pilot study, as well as recommendations to industry, government and consultancies for developing a CE.","Circular economy; Industrial Ecology; closed loops; brewery; industrial symbiosis; nutrient cycle; water cycle; technology transfer; space technology; La Trappe; MELiSSA","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:0c861f0f-35aa-4039-9ce0-ab82bd8b891a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0c861f0f-35aa-4039-9ce0-ab82bd8b891a","Creating meaningful conversations user-data for the fitness tracker experience","Gonzalez Fernandez, Karen (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Desmet, Pieter (mentor); Pannunzio, Valeria (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This thesis presents the results of the project “Creating meaningful conversations user-data”. This project aims to understand the impact that interactions with technology currently have on users and to redesign a fitness tracker service to create more personal and meaningful experiences. These experiences enable fostering the users’ wellbeing and ultimately user engagement. The project explores the personality (conceptual characteristics) of the fitness tracker and its impact on user interaction. Moreover, it researches the meaning and value of health for the individual. These trackers are perceived by the users as very controlling in the interactions, which are mainly based on outputs and behavioral instructions leaving the user a passive role on the experience (conversation). The reason is that trackers follow a machine personality approach based on optimization and goal-seeking. Moreover, it has been found that the value of health for the tracker follows a different approach than the user. While the user values health to find balance and self-care based on doing holistic and meaningful activities, the trackers approach health as a predefined list of activities and are based on performing and achieving. This tracker approach zooms in on the activity (tangible meaning), difficulting for the user to see beyond and find the personal meaning that these devices can have to transform their lives (intangible meaning) into a healthier life. To design a more meaningful conversation user-tracker, five specific challenge areas related to this problem have been found: meaningless and impersonal goals, trainer tone of voice, linear and achievement focus, perceived lack of self-control and lack of health balance. The redesign is a new concept for the fitness tracker service (mobile and smartwatch app). It tackles the entire concept of the fitness tracker service (mobile and smartwatch app), rather than only data visualization because there needs to be a common ground regarding the personality of the user and the tracker (such as having a common approach to health) before the user-data conversations can become meaningful. The redesign zooms out from tangible activities and frame goals as journeys towards a healthier life. In this journey, the user is not only supported in the achievements but also empowered in the lower points of the process though self-reflective questions to learn from his unconscious behavior, which makes the service a platform for self-growth and gives the user a proactive voice in the conversations user-tracker. Moreover, a meaningful topic of conversation is established from the beginning of the experience by the “goal-setting” where the user can define holistic and personally meaningful goals to design his future-self. Finally, the motivation strategy of the app has been shifted from competition and achievement to share learnings with others (Self refections) regarding the journey, since it has been found that in this context, motivation related to de creativity. Therefore the user finds meaningful the experiences that inspire their behavior rather than instruct it.","positive design; fitness tracker; service; technology impact; Experience design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction | Medisign","",""
"uuid:0690d444-7e75-44df-97ad-a7028143c90a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0690d444-7e75-44df-97ad-a7028143c90a","Indoor Solar Lamp: Simulating Interior Radiant Energy for the Design and Prototyping of an Indoor PV Lamp","Verkou, Maarten (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Zeman, Miro (mentor); Isabella, Olindo (mentor); Ziar, Hesan (mentor); Chandra Mouli, Gautham Ram (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Solar photovoltaic cells are destined to become an important contributor in the renewable energy sector, also for small electrical systems inside buildings. They can be used to mobilise the electrical infrastructure, by providing an independent energy source for medium-consumption products, like decorative lighting. This thesis shows all aspects of designing and building an interior, solar powered lamp. First, the ideal position for indoor light harvesting has been investigated extensively, by recreating two typical Dutch rooms with 3D modelling software Blender. The light simulation tool RADIANCE was then used to compute the irradiance at various spots in the room, considering three standard sky types. Weather data from the KNMI was used to classify the sky conditions for every hour during two weeks in November, and the results were compared with pyranometer measurements, showing an error of 20% on a daily basis, and 5% over a five day period. The same simulation method was applied to predict the PV energy yield of four common solar cell technologies for a full year, for multiple room orientations and positions on a wall. Based on these results, three concepts were designed, corresponding to three specific room positions with different indoor light characteristics. Ultimately, one concept was chosen to be build as a prototype, with tailor-made, foil-to-foil laminated PV module, consisting of laser cut SunPower interdigitated back contact (IBC) cell technology. At standard test conditions, the measured short-circuit current was 2.37 A, with an open-circuit voltage of 21.5 V and a maximum power point of 35.9 Wp, resulting in an efficiency of 20.3%. Furthermore, a charge controller with maximum power point tracking algorithm was used to charge a 12V polymer lithium-ion battery pack. The combination of pyroelectric infrared (PIR) motion sensor detector and a light sensor module assures a conservative use of a 2.4 W strip of light emitting diodes (LED).","indoor photovoltaics; IPV; interior light simulation; RADIANCE; Blender; PV module design; Prototyping; SunPower IBC technology; laser cutting; integrated sensors","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2020-09-30","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:a3740234-9723-43d4-b4cf-80c22d277e89","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a3740234-9723-43d4-b4cf-80c22d277e89","Feasibility study on the application of blockchain technology in the reclaiming asphalt process","Bachas, Konstantinos (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)","Koutamanis, Alexander (mentor); Boelhouwer, Peter (graduation committee); Ubacht, Jolien (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The present research is focused on the possibilities of implementing blockchain technology in the reclaiming asphalt process in the Netherlands, in collaboration with BAM Infraconsult. The feasibility of using blockchain technology in order to improve several parts of this process is investigated. More specifically, the Design Science Research approach is used, and the main purpose of the study is to design an artifact that will be used for two use cases in the reclaiming asphalt process, i) an information platform use case and ii) a supply chain management use case. At first, the process is analyzed in terms of i) business network, ii) the process itself and iii) the information that is exchanged during its execution. Then, the proposed model is designed in two ways, i) a Sequence Diagram and ii) by using the online playground of Hyperledger Composer. At the end, the proposed model is validated and five possible benefits that could be brought in the process are mentioned: i) transparency in transactions, ii) materials traceability, iii) long terms sharing of data in a predetermined way, iv) g give permission to predetermined actors to view specific data and v) reliability, immutability and trustiness in the stored data.","Blockchain Technology; Reclaiming Asphalt Process; Design Science Research; Feasibility Study; Dutch Construction Industry","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2019-09-05","","","","Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering","",""
"uuid:87a82730-ebf5-47f2-a7ae-014275e51d02","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:87a82730-ebf5-47f2-a7ae-014275e51d02","Estimating the effects of technological progress: A data-analytic and agent-based approach","Ingwersen, Mylène (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Storm, Servaas (mentor); Nikolic, Igor (graduation committee); van Beers, Cees (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This thesis investigates the effect of technological progress on the Dutch labour market. For this, a replication of the Frey and Osborne (2013) study on Dutch data is conducted. The application of the FO model has shown that approximately 12\% of the Dutch workers are at high risk of being replaced due to technological developments. Moreover, when simulating this risk, this study found that on average, 36\% of the Dutch workers can lose their jobs within 20 years due to technological progress.
However, this analysis did not account for the possibility of retraining of workers and the strategic behaviour of workers and firms stemming from their uncertainty due to technological progress. To take these factors into account, an agent-based model was developed. By experimenting with this model, the average unemployment rate after 21 years dropped to 3\%. However, due to policy and scenario testing, the underlying unemployment rates of this average unemployment rate of 3\% varies greatly.","technological change; skill-demand; Employment; Dutch jobs","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:a8dfd4da-268b-4536-b998-40a4ccae1c84","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a8dfd4da-268b-4536-b998-40a4ccae1c84","Real time implementation for Grid-forming control of type-4 wind turbines to mitigate voltage and frequency instabilities in high renewable penetration","Sethi, Shubham (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Rueda, José L. (mentor); van der Meijden, M.A.M.M. (graduation committee); Oleinikova, Irina (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution); Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (degree granting institution)","2019","The increasing penetration of PE converter interfaced generation units in electrical power systems have given rise to many challenges in the power system operation. Two of the most important challenges are the voltage control and frequency control in the absence of conventional generation units. Furthermore, the PE converters can interact with the power system elements causing the power system to become unstable.
In this thesis, the effect of the wind turbines modified with grid-forming capability is analysed on the transmission networks as well as on the Offshore VSC-HVDC converter station. The dynamic response of the WTs is studied considering the high share of the power electronic converter interfaced generation.
It is shown when the wind turbine power converters are equipped with the implemented control strategy, they can provide voltage and frequency stability to the system and further upgrades can be added to enhance the system response. The control strategy implemented employs the direct voltage control which is upgraded with voltage dependent active current control for improving the transient voltage recovery of the system. The inertial response based on modifying the machine side converter is also added which extracts kinetic energy from the wind turbine rotor that improves the frequency response of the system following load change.
In the end, an offshore wind farm network is modeled which includes the offshore wind park connected to an offshore MMC HVDC converter station for delivering bulk power to the DC source connected via the HVDC cable. The developed wind turbine model is employed for integration in the offshore wind farms which has shown to eliminate the transient overvoltages occurring in the offshore network during the blocking of the HVDC converter.","grid forming; renewable integration; HVDC technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2021-08-30","","","","European Wind Energy Masters (EWEM)","",""
"uuid:d6ff0f02-f140-463f-bdcb-111e32104d1c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d6ff0f02-f140-463f-bdcb-111e32104d1c","The Role of Pilot- and Demonstration Projects in Accelerating Hyperloop: A Multi-level Perspective towards Large-scale Technological Transitions - Maglev as a Case Study","Koerkamp, Hidde (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Transport and Logistics)","van Wee, G.P. (mentor); Annema, J.A. (graduation committee); van de Kaa, G. (graduation committee); Marges, Stefan (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The contemporary transportation system is encountering drawbacks related to air pollution, noise nuisance and traffic congestion. Emerging sustainable alternatives based on magnetic levitation have emerged but failed to successfully breakthrough in incumbent regimes based on high-speed rail and air transportation. Emerging innovation systems face difficulties in obtaining enough momentum necessary to break out of the niche level and induce a technological transition. Therefore, it is important to understand the changing roles that pilot-and demonstration projects have in the build-up processes of emerging innovation systems. As a start, the role of pilot- and demonstration projects together with the state-of-the-art literature on innovation systems and technological transitions is analyzed. A conceptual framework is constructed and empirically tested with a longitudinal case study on the emergence of the high-speed maglev transportation innovation system in Germany and Japan. In conclusion, the recognition of the changing roles of pilot- and demonstration projects along the motors of innovation together with anticipation of the landscape and regime developments could result in enhanced momentum for emerging innovation systems to break out successfully of the niche level.","Pilot- and Demonstration Projects; Technological Transitions; Technological Innovation Systems; Motors of Innovation; Landscape Developments; Niche Developments; Regime; Maglev; Hyperloop","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:aedaf205-6ed9-4ff9-bebd-48660338eb75","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:aedaf205-6ed9-4ff9-bebd-48660338eb75","Assessing technological alternatives to reduce Energy Poverty in Mexico","Flores Santana, Cynthia (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Pesch, U. (mentor); Quist, J.N. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution); Universiteit Leiden (degree granting institution)","2019","More than half of Mexico’s population is living in a type of poverty, recognized as a multidimensional challenge with a geographical context. Even though Mexico’s poverty is measured in a multifaceted way, the concept of Energy Poverty has not been studied, per se, by governmental institutions. It is until recently that the study of this concept in Mexico has been undertaken by Mexican researchers, focusing on measuring it at a national and subnational level through various energy services at the household level. However, any research has been done until now to identify people’s energy needs in rural areas in the country. Thus, this study objective is to research this situation through a qualitative-exploratory research approach. Focusing on the particular case of rural areas in Mexico, where more poverty is experienced, and less research has been done. Different available and governmental supported technologies in Mexico are analyzed to address Energy Poverty. While translating people’s daily routines into specific energy needs, which could be overcome and satisfied with the evaluated technologies, to reduce or abate this situation. As the used approach comes with some disadvantages, a bunch of different methodologies has been used to carry out this research and reduced drawbacks. In the first place, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are used to minimize researcher biases and identify the target population at the macro level. In this way, it is diminished the research approach disadvantage of generalization to a broader community. Narrative and thematic analyses are used to investigate in a more refined level people’s energy practices leading to energy necessities, reducing population under-representation by interviewing a larger sample. Finally, Energy Biographies are used to determine participants necessities according to their daily practices concerning energy use in their homes, attenuating researcher biases and increasing research usefulness as a tool for decision making. Additionally, a comparison between people’s energy necessities and different available technologies to tackle them, according to the energy services technologies can provide, are analyzed to see how technologies characteristics fulfill people’s needs. After developing the different methodologies, it can be concluded that many rural communities in Mexico are experiencing Energy Poverty, where the higher is in the Tropical region (south of the country), followed by the Temperate (center of Mexico) and the Extreme Warm one (north of Mexico). Additionally, Energy Poverty in Mexico is mostly related to the fuel that is used for cooking. Whenever technologies are assessed, it will pop up the question if a given technology life’s cycle, is enough to achieve a balance of the benefits against the impacts. Mainly concerning energy poverty, this is highly relevant; because not necessarily having the most up-to-date technology will solve the problem. Instead, having a technology that can be developed with local materials according to user’s needs will reduce the targeted problem and undesired collateral effects. The recommendation for different stakeholders, such as technologies producers, government, and researchers, is to turn around to understand people’s necessities and work towards increasing people’s well-being, instead of creating more needs in these rural communities.","Energy Poverty; Rural Areas; Available technologies; Households; Mexico; Narratives; Practices; GIS","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:f41f5255-b58e-46b0-9826-c4c45dd5f3f3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f41f5255-b58e-46b0-9826-c4c45dd5f3f3","Time Domain Modeling of Photoconductive Antennas","Degasperi, Andrea (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Neto, Andrea (mentor); Llombart Juan, Nuria (graduation committee); Isabella, Olindo (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Photoconductive antennas (PCAs) have been extensively utilized for the generation of broadband pulses over very large bandwidths. PCAs rely on a semiconductor (e.g. LT- GaAs) gap pumped by a laser and coupled to a passive structure biased at a certain voltage level. When the laser impinges on the semiconductor gap with an appropriate carrier frequency, enough energy is provided such that free electron-hole pairs are generated from the electrons that move from the valence band to the conduction band. As a result, the resistivity of the material decreases to a few ohms which in turns allows a time-varying current to flow across the gap. In recent year different hybrid equivalent circuits [1], [2], [3] have been developed in order to take into account all these complex phenomena although none of these models account for the frequency dependence of the impedance of the antenna, being formulated in the time domain. This approximation works for non-dispersive antennas such as the bow-tie, but fails in the characterization of more diverse and complex structures. The Norton equivalent circuit’s aim proposed in [4] was to fill the aforementioned gap by introducing an analytical model completely in frequency domain, although the difficulty in the characterization of the generator impedance obstructed the way for a wide acceptance in the community. In this thesis a novel approach based on a commercially available electromagnetic simulator [5] to characterise the biasing of the passive structure, the optical laser excitation and the impulse response of the photoconductor is proposed. The accuracy of the model is verified by calculating the average power radiated by a bow-tie and the results are compared to the measurements in [6]. Moreover, a revised version of the Norton equivalent circuit [4] which describes more accurately the effective generator impedance is presented. While the computer-aided model offers great introspection in the characterisation of voltages and currents and thus in the maximisation of the power radiated, the revised Norton equivalent circuit offers an even better accuracy and reduces significantly the computational time.","THz photoconductive antenna; CST; Equivalent circuit; THz radiated power; THz source; THz technology; Connected Arrays","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering","",""
"uuid:3c4aaf9e-178a-43a6-86b0-0d619934b224","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3c4aaf9e-178a-43a6-86b0-0d619934b224","Disappearing professions through technological development: Implications for the Dutch labour market","Schot, Paul (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Warnier, Martijn (mentor); Mouter, N. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Frey and Osborne (2013) have researched the effects of current digitization and robotization of society and concluded 47 percent of American jobs have a high probability of disappearing between now and the year 2030. There are signs that these technological developments may lead to a fourth industrial revolution and consequently, unemployment will rise, as job creation cannot keep up with job destruction. The previous Deputy Prime minister of the Netherlands underlined the necessity of dealing with the possible changes of technological development for the Netherlands (Buddingh, 2014). A quantitative database-driven approach is used to determine a labour market forecast for the Netherlands. The programming language ‘Python’ was used to conduct the research. The research concludes in a policy space with three technological development scenarios and a generalized methodology. The development scenarios are low, medium, and high technological development. The research concludes in respectively 0.8, 2.6 and 4.7 million loss of jobs for the scenarios. The loss of jobs should be regarded as a space for policy since it does not incorporate the creation of new occupations. It is recommended to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employed to instate a committee that addresses the sketched scenarios and designs policy to mitigate possible negative effects.","Industrial revolution; Emerging technologies; Job loss; Technological development","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:f32458de-b842-46c2-b92d-508143e844c2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f32458de-b842-46c2-b92d-508143e844c2","Organizational Readiness for Machine Learning: Exploring the key readiness factors for business adoption of machine learning","Yoon, Ahhyun (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (mentor); Scholten, V.E. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Demand for machine learning is ever-growing in today’s business. Situated at the convergence point of big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning allows companies not only to unlock hidden insights from the data deluge but also to fundamentally revolutionize their products and services. Recognizing the opportunities, industrial players are on the lookout to partake in the machine learning journey, or some are already experimenting with machine learning. However, the disparity between expectation and action is still substantial, and subsequently, machine learning adoption remains elusive for many companies. This is partly due to the relative immaturity of the technology, but also due to a myriad of uncertainties conjoined with the adoption process. As of now, a lack of understanding of machine learning adoption in business is prevalent in both academia and practice impeding companies from creating values at scale. In brief, the way to best prepare for machine learning is still an unsolved question. In this regard, it is timely to reflect such contemporary managerial needs into academic research. With the research main question of “What are the key readiness factors for business adoption of machine learning?”, this study investigates the factors which can increase companies’ overall readiness towards machine learning. This research utilized three research strategies (i) literature review, (ii) expert interviews, and (iii) multiple case studies to answer the main research question. The main research outcomes of this research are threefold. Firstly, the research concept of organizational readiness for technology adoption is clarified and two distinctive research streams – users’ and exploiters’ readiness – are subsequently identified. Secondly, the barriers to business adoption of machine learning are consolidated. Based on this, the key readiness factors which can mitigate the barriers are identified and empirically tested. Thereby the model of machine learning readiness is developed with its constituting factors: (i) Top management support, (ii) Vision and strategy, (iii) Open culture, (iv) Multi-disciplinary team, (v) Data governance, (vi) Existence of a translator, (vii) Machine learning infrastructures, (viii) Ambidexterity, (ix) Strategic partnership, and (x) Awareness. Theses outcomes are valuable to both academia and practice. This study contributes to academia by clarifying the ambiguous theoretical concept of organizational readiness for technology adoption. For industry, this paper can be used as a white paper to understand the phenomenon of business adoption of machine learning.","Artificial intelligence; Machine learning; Machine learning readiness; Organizational readiness for technology adoption; Organizational technology adoption","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:6c2100e9-2528-4e75-9655-2e1d9249953c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6c2100e9-2528-4e75-9655-2e1d9249953c","A Multi-Criteria Analysis on Digitizing Services in the Port of Rotterdam","Janssen, Donald (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Annema, Jan Anne (mentor); de Bruijne, Mark (graduation committee); van Wee, Bert (graduation committee); van Wulfften Palthe, Linde (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The purpose of this master thesis was to explore in which way the service of Vopak Agencies could be digitized and be accepted by the client the most.","TAM; Technology Acceptance Model; BWM; Best Worst Method; User acceptance; MCA; Multi Criteria Analysis; Port sector; Maritime Industry","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","",""
"uuid:dcf5ef90-7533-48e4-9c86-1aa03c9e4b4a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dcf5ef90-7533-48e4-9c86-1aa03c9e4b4a","Efteling: Innovative, while authentic and customer centric","Wu, Hoi San (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering; Efteling)","van den Hende, Ellis (graduation committee); Cankurtaran, Pinar (graduation committee); Prins, Willemijn (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","There is a shift to the experience economy. Customers are increasingly craving unique experiences and authentic brands; brands that are real, sincere. Additionally, technological developments are booming and can help enhance these customer experience. Efteling employees have lots of ideas to innovate technically. This master thesis explores how the Efteling can balance these changing factors with the question: How can the Efteling balance technological innovation, without losing sight of the brand authenticity of the Efteling and meet the expectation of the customers? Different physical, digital and phygital (physical + digital) technological innovations were researched via in-depth interviews with Efteling employees and guests. Comparing the results gave insights in points for improvement in the current authenticity process. Physical innovations are doing well with the current guidelines and there are some chances to improve in digital and phygital innovations. Creative workshop sessions revealed criteria for how to improve these points. All insights from the above mentioned research, combined with literature and Efteling insights revealed recommendations on how the current authenticity guidelines of the Efteling can be improved, and applicable for all three categories technological innovation, and not only physical innovations. Recommendations for what the current authenticity guidelines of the Efteling should contain: 1. Build everything for eternity, from real materials Keep the changing context and consumer needs in mind 2. Make it look like it has been around forever Immerse the guests in the magical world of the Efteling 3. Highlight a fragment of a story Use implicit storytelling to trigger the imagination of the guests 4. Look for it in the little things too Beautiful finishing and details are important 5. Strive for perfection Have a consistent Efteling style throughout all innovations 6. Use organic forms: think in curved lines Stimulate wondering and exploring, in a Pieck style 7. Use well-known fairy tales and stories Create an experience that triggers nostalgia 8. Let technology facilitate the story Technology should be purposeful and easy for the guests 9. Guard the heritage Be inspired by the founders Pieck and Reijnders","authenticity; customer experience; technological innovation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:658cd142-0a07-4884-8366-5c60eeeb5e5d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:658cd142-0a07-4884-8366-5c60eeeb5e5d","Data sharing for a circular economy: A project for plastic's traceability in the automotive supply chain","Tramutola, Lucia (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering; TU Delft Design Engineering)","Bourgeois, Jacky (mentor); Jamsin, Ella (graduation committee); Sabur, Mesbah (graduation committee); de Vos, Jordi (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The relevance of circular economy, in these days where the environmental impact and toll of humans’ activities is undeniable, grows steadily. Circular economy, founded on three basic principles, advocates for all materials to be kept in use for as long as possible. This takes a concrete shape, for example, in the importance of recycling materials.
However, recycling materials can be a trickier business than one might think. Nowadays materials are so complex and specialized, that recycling them properly requires precise knowledge of their composition and content. In a way, then, it can be argued that the exchange of this knowledge, from material manufacturers to recyclers, is a core enabler of circular economy. As information exchanges happen mostly digital, data becomes then the key asset in this depicted scenario.
Data exchanges are as well not an easy feat. Looking only at a business to business market, several obstacles refrain companies from sharing data more liberally. For once, openly sharing data exposes companies to threats from competitors and losses in their negotiating power.
Circularise, the start-up this project has been developed for, has come up with a technical solution for a data exchange system that relies on a distributed ledger. Thanks to their technological protocol, circularise can enable secure collaboration between material manufacturers and the rest of the supply chain, all the way to recyclers.
Despite the technological feasibility of the protocol, Circularise is struggling with finding clients. Currently the start-up has developed a value proposition that caters mainly towards material manufacturers and, as a consequence, material manufacturers are the only paying customer segment for them. In order for the protocol to have an effective impact and benefit on circular economy activities, expanding the client range is necessary for Circularise. This can be accomplished by expanding the start-up’s business model portfolio, so to speak. This means running two different business models at the same time, one being the existing one, catering to material manufacturers, and another one ensuring that a new customer segment receives an offer worth paying for.
This is the opportunity this project is built around. In the course of this graduation project a digital platform has being design and is explained in this report, together with a new business model for Circularise to cater to automotive OEMs with a tailored offer.","Circular economy; Business Model Canvas; Automotive industry; Digital Platforms; Blockchain technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:9176c8ec-5d85-48e4-ab8b-454805903dcd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9176c8ec-5d85-48e4-ab8b-454805903dcd","Voluntarily imprisoned: Prototype the future city","Swank, Dafne Sara (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Sepulveda Carmona, D.A. (mentor); van de Pas, R.R.J. (mentor); van de Voort, J.A. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The city is in a throes of a gigantic transformation process, due to modernisation, globalisation, technological innovation, urbanisation, explosive population growth and climate change (Brotchie, Newton, Hall, & Nijkamp, n.d.; Cohen, 2006). Within a time of change, whereas technology integrates progressively in our lifestyle, and where man is increasingly designing its environment according towards its own needs – the development and future expansion of the city is becoming a challenge. This lead to the main problem statement: What is the new kind of future habitat that can respond to the socio-technological dimensions, recognising the uncertainties of the future? In order to answer the main problem statement, the project will start with a literature study, followed by a case-study / prototype design. The literature study consists of two part: 1) Starting with the technological revolution, the first part will try to reveal the changing dynamics ofthe socio-techno system (within the global urban context) and which consequences these changing dynamics has on our lifestyle and on a broader scope, 2) Secondly, the aim of literature study is to expose the spatial implications of this socio-techno transformation on the urban structure of the global city. Firstly, we have seen that technology is a part of growth, acceleration and the expansion of the city. Technology has facilitated us with increased speed and a more inclusive network ever seen. Users of this network, supported by communication and information technologies, become singular nodes, isolated but connected through screens and the virtual world. For those connected to the network, the concept of time and place changes entirely. The connected urban population is not just bound together by the physical infrastructure of a city anymore, but starts to merge with it, annihilating time, and killing distance. In order to protect oneself, from the increase in physical and informational speed, man will increasingly has the need to withdrawal in capsules. Blind to the outside world, the capsular civilisation is one of dualization of segregation of exploitation and exclusion resulting in an implosion of the polis of the common (Barney, 2013; ManuelCastells, 2000; Cauter, 2004, 2012; Graham & Marvin, 2002). Secondly, we have tried to reveal what spatial (in the urban and architectural realm) consequences this capsular society brings forth. We have distinguished five mechanism of capsularity: decentralisation, fragmentation, isolation, privatisation and simulation. Together these characteristics will increasingly lead to the encapsulation of the urban and architectural realm. The future city will not just be a collectives, but rather a multiplicity of entities with their own sociality, character, and own rights (Manuel Castells, 2000; Cauter, 2004; Neil. A, 2018). The coming age can be defined as an age of disintegration, gated communities are the urban and architectural models that give shape to this order: an inside world of privatised publicness versus a chaotic, unsafe and uncontrollable outside world. We become voluntarily prisoners (Cauter, 2012; Davis, n.d.; Eckardt, 2017).","Future city; Capsularisation; Technological revolution; network society","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Explorelab","",""
"uuid:eab25c38-e0fa-4419-bcce-088ed9c52515","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:eab25c38-e0fa-4419-bcce-088ed9c52515","Sun shading of the future: A next generation workflow for applying the performative computational architecture framework to sun shading design, based on an example sun shading system for high-rise office buildings with all-glass exteriors in tropical climates optimised on visual and thermal comfort","Prins, Shane (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment; TU Delft Architectural Engineering +Technology)","Turrin, Michela (mentor); Tenpierik, Martin (mentor); Nijhuis, Steffen (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This thesis is about improving the workflow for applying the Performative Computational Architecture (PCA) framework to sun shading design. The PCA framework is a design approach consisting of three phases; form-finding, performance evaluation and optimisation. The conventional workflow in regard to sun shading design is defined as a combination of tools for each of the PCA framework phases. The feasibility of this conventional workflow is explored based on an example case. This example case refers to a fictional office high-rise building in a tropic climate with an all-glass exterior, which is optimised on visual and thermal comfort. The selected sun shading system is an adaptation of the egg-crate system, which has an increased potential over other shading systems for this specific building typology in tropic climates. All further assumptions for the fictional example case are based on common trends in architectural design. Based on the optimisation results of the example case using the conventional workflow, the challenges limiting the feasibility of the workflow are identified. Proposals for overcoming these challenges resulted in the development of the next generation workflow. The core concept of this next generation workflow is to split up the workflow in three parts; preparation, execution and interpretation. First tests using the next generation workflow indicated it is significantly faster on a single high-end computer, compared to the conventional workflow. In addition, the next generation workflow offers a solution to some limitations in running sun shading optimisations in grid- and render farm environments.","Performative computational architecture; Visual comfort; Thermal comfort; Evolutionary optimization; Sun shading; Building technology; Design informatics; Building physics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","",""
"uuid:e15a3ed9-ef69-435c-8a09-9752a9f6cbc6","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e15a3ed9-ef69-435c-8a09-9752a9f6cbc6","Palác Florenc: A dialogue between technology and the public realm in the smart urban palace","Vişan, Andreea (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Komossa, Susanne (mentor); Deboutte, Niklaas (graduation committee); Verkuijlen, Stephan (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The project investigates the possibility of integrating new technological processes into the public realm in the city of Prague. This will act as a statement against the legacy of the new industrial capitalism, which has disconnected production, distribution and consumption spaces in the city. The focus is the design of a grocery re-distribution center as part of a larger network of sub-centers which make use of the shared-economy system and the Internet of Things (IoC)7. This emerged from the growing pressure to find feasible, environmentally friendly solutions for last mile deliveries and to keep up with the current market trends of same-day or 24 hours delivery. This process will deploy a paradigm shift in the architecture of storage and delivery on the one hand and on the other it will help Prague transition to the status of a Smart City.","public building; architecture; Digital; Technology; automation; distribution; borders; groceries; internet of things; shared economy; urban palace; arcade; prague","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","",""
"uuid:e363a3aa-b96d-4dea-bed4-a53a171b0182","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e363a3aa-b96d-4dea-bed4-a53a171b0182","Sustainable Water management scheme for the Negin Safari Park","Nanda, Priya (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Schnater, Frank (mentor); Janssen, Christien (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Though the perils of climate change on our environment are common knowledge its mitigation through informed planning is widely absent. This research project aims to aid the architect in developing a design which has a comparatively lower ecological footprint and focuses on opportunistic utilization of renewable resources readily available in the context. Within the preview of this thesis the potential of developing a sustainable water management scheme for the Negin safari park located in the Fars province of Iran is studied.
Iran is facing a situation of drought for the past few years which has had an adverse impact on the region. One of the communities to have been affected by this are the Qashqai nomads of Iran, who have been threatened with deprivation of their freedom due to the economic woes brought by drought. The Negin safari park being developed in the region aims to uplift this community and provide a platform for them to be able to share their work and culture. However, the influx of tourists due to the development of a Safari park further increases the stress on the depleting water resources in the region. In turn development of water technologies facilitating the reclamation of waste water, conservation of water and mitigation of extreme withdrawal of resources needs to be studied and implemented.
In order to create a design which consciously uses the water resources and facilitates re-use of waste water, different water technologies have been identified and studied to understand its feasibility for installation in Iran. Once the ideal technologies were identified, a water management scheme was developed which facilitated water autarky in the park. Further on the relation of the built form with the technology was explored. The technologies which were shortlisted entailed requirements which had a direct impact on the design of the built form and its spatial organization. The final product of this thesis entails a customized set of design guidelines for the development of a Safari park in Iran. These guidelines have stemmed from the optimization strategy used in designing the Negin safari park with the intended water technologies.
Adhering to the concept of developing the park as an eco-tourist destination attention has been placed to propose sustainable technologies with lower energy requirement and maintenance. It is believed that through implementation of these technologies the added stress on water demand caused by the erection of a Negin safari park in a drought hit region can be reduced. The implementation of these technologies can also further help in educating the local community and lead to encouragement of widespread implementation of these systems. This graduation project is an attempt to develop an informed relation between resource flows and spatial design in order to enable an uninterrupted functioning of the Safari park leading to prosperity of the region and its people.
This study explores this new relationship between form, materiality and structural performance through the proposal of a theoretical framework and an original digital tool, SpaceWeave, developed in Grasshopper for Rhino in collaboration with the Karamba plug-in for structural analysis. SpaceWeave aims to facilitate the generation, modelling and preliminary structural analysis of woven structures during the early design phase. The role of material properties in a design workflow, the advantages and limitations of designing and structurally analysing in a parametric setting, as well as the correlation between weave parameters and structural behaviour of the resulting structures are discussed.
Of the challenges for future offshore wind farms do the short-term profile effects have the most influence. These effects negatively affect: 1. the security of supply in the electricity system, 2. the stability of the load on the high voltage grid and 3. the market value of the produced electricity. The impact of these effects is intensified by the strong correlation in power production between the connected (future) onshore and offshore wind farms. To reduce profile effects energy storage is used, the optimal configuration of the storage system has a power capacity between 0.23 and 0.27 times the rated power of the wind farm. For the optimal energy capacity, however, no optimum is found, and the design depends on the desired impact of the system. An analysis on the impact of an optimal design has shown that an offshore wind and energy storage system does not result in an economical feasible system. Short-term profile effect reduction with energy storage, however, is shown to be essential in a future electricity system that is dominated by wind and solar power. The short-term profile effects of wind energy production are correlated too much and will have a too high impact on the system if no energy storage is included in offshore wind electricity production.","Energy Storage; Offshore wind energy; Offshore Technology; Energy integration; Electricity market; Electricity market design; wind energy integration; Offshore energy storage; wind turbine design; renewable energy systems","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2020-05-10","","","","Mechanical Engineering","2974",""
"uuid:5a4067fb-568b-43a8-a11c-a5dd1eadbdcc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5a4067fb-568b-43a8-a11c-a5dd1eadbdcc","Omnivisi Earable: Continuous and non-invasive monitoring of vital signs","Aydin, Mucahit (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Albayrak, Armagan (mentor); Jansen, Kaspar (graduation committee); Klaassen, Rene (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This project is an initiative of the Department of Surgery in Maasstad Ziekenhuis. In the department, two types of patients undergo abdominal surgery: 1) mobile obese patients and, 2) patients with cancer. These types of patients need personal contact and guidance, especially patients with cancer. However, nurses are overwhelmed with work and utilize a great amount of their time to manually measure the vital signs of patients three times a day. These vital signs are heart rate, blood oxygen level, respiration rate, tympanic temperature, and blood pressure. The current method of measuring vital signs is highly inefficient and prone to error. Additionally, there is also a lack of an alarming system that can notify nurses when patients’ health condition deteriorates. Due to this, patient deterioration cannot be detected in time and complications cannot be avoided. When manual measurement of vital signs is digitalized, patients can be continuously monitored. Due to this, small changes in the patient’s health condition can
be detected and nurses can intervene immediately. Current wearable devices in the market do not meet the needs and wishes of the user group. Therefore, the initial goal was to design a wearable device that is able to continuously and noninvasively measure vital signs of patients, taking into account the level of comfort for patients and level of user-friendliness for nurses. After extensive research, conceptualization, and testing, one final proposal is presented: Omnivisi Earable, a compact and lightweight wearable device that can measure all aforementioned vital signs in a continuous and non-invasive way. Due to its small form, it does not limit patients from performing their daily activities. It is also user-friendly for nurses due to the lack of wires and extra modules. This makes it easy for nurses to attach the product on the patient's body.","Master thesis; Wearable; medical devices; Vital signs; Wearable Technology; Continuous Measurement","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:368e89e6-a138-4ab3-b2c4-a1877db74399","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:368e89e6-a138-4ab3-b2c4-a1877db74399","Expectation management for innovation processes within highly institutionalized environments: A framework for analyzing the organizational consequences of blockchain technology on the legitimacy of banks, and strategic approaches to manage these effects from a communication perspective","Vreman, Marvin (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft Science Education and Communication; TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology; TU Delft Economics of Technology and Innovation; Ernst & Young Accountants)","Roosenboom-Kwee, Z. (mentor); Kalmar, E. (mentor); van den Hoven, M.J. (graduation committee); van der Sanden, M.C.A. (graduation committee); de Vries, M.J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This project has researched the consequences of blockchain technology on the
expected future role of banks. And furthermore, how banks can respond to these effects to improve the innovation strategy and remain their future relevance.","Blockchain Technology; Organizational Legitimacy; Banking; Communication","en","master thesis","","","","","","Double degree in Management of Technology and Science Communication","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:f3747b7f-d420-411a-8332-c0383cfebb75","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f3747b7f-d420-411a-8332-c0383cfebb75","Myo: A discreet device to monitor atrial fibrillation for elderly people","Petrocchi, Filippo (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","van Heur, R.J.H.G. (mentor); Ruiter, Iemkje (graduation committee); Lombardi, David (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","In collaboration with Cardioline Spa, this graduation project presents the development of a discreet device to monitor atrial fibrillation among elderly people. By means of user research and contest analysis, the project is aims at delivering a new product-system device for the company, for Healthcare institutions and for private patients. The project is characterized by three main phases: the first one is about the analysis of the holter monitor world ; the second is related to synthesizing the research results into one concept; and the third one focuses on validating and test the concept proposed. According to the three pillar of Industrial design engineering the research was divided into the three macro areas of: People, Business and Technology. The people linked with the holter monitor system investigated during several activities including Interviews were 14 elderly patients, one General practitioner, one cardiologist and two nurses. Furthermore, to dive deeper into the experience I underwent a 24 hour holter monitor experience. The magnitude of the cardio healthcare business side was explored by the analysis of the main Healthcare trends. In addition, special attention was given to Cardioline’s past innovations and some guidelines for future innovations were outlined. The technology side was also investigated. The Scope of the technology analysis was to understand the current state of the art of ECG technology and its related evolution over the years.
There was a special focus on the transition from the current situation to the mobile health and to why biosensors are preferred to the standard holter monitor. To close the technological part, a perceptual map was made in order to compare the Cardioline product with its competitors. The perceptual map was also used to decide on the transition from the current product to the future product. All the data collected during the analysis phase was collected in a list of requirements composed of demands (hard requirements) and wishes (soft requirements). Afterwards a brainstorm session was run taking into account some of the main problem revealed. After several iterations, the brainstorm results were synthesized into three concepts which were presented during the midterm presentation. Feedback was provided by chair, by mentor and by the Company mentor. Suggestions were used to determined the final user scenario, the final system layout and the final concept. The final concept consisted of a wearable device which records and transmits ECG signal to the smart phone. The smart phone collects and transmits data to the cloud server where the user and Doctor, if authorized, can have access. With a special focus on the setting up phase, a test was performed. The scope of the test was to check if specific concept features were correctly driving the user towards the hypothesised behaviour. The test revealed good and improvable aspects of the product-system designed. The improvable aspects were used to refine the final concepts.
Finally, together with Cardioline supervision, several engineering ecommendations were elaborated. Those recommendations were related to the concept material, to the electronic components","atrial fibrillation; Healthcare; Comfort; Wearable Technology; heart","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:48a368a0-7dca-45a3-9913-3e6e59c52475","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:48a368a0-7dca-45a3-9913-3e6e59c52475","Voice-Interaction Design from a Brand Perspective: Creating a Personified Voice Identity for Rituals","Schuurman, Melanie (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Calabretta, G. (mentor); van Erp, J. (graduation committee); Karis, Sandra (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Voice-technology is, as the name entails, technology that enables the exchange of information through voice. As this technology is currently growing in adoption and usage of customers, the popularity at organizations and researchers is increasing noticeably as well. Normally new intelligence is associated with impressive high-end capabilities. However, this technology is still in its early stages of development because, although humans may be more capable of speech-interaction, the machine now needs to learn from its users. It is important to understand the principles rooted in human communication in order to understand user’s underlying expectations of conversational interfaces and to design for a desired user experience. Conversational interfaces are creating opportunities for new touchpoints between brands and its customers. It adds a new dimension to a customer’s experience and interaction with brands and their services. Brands need to decide how to behave as one of the partners in the collaboration driving this machine-driven conversation. On top of that, a new challenge is found in how to expose a unique identity without any visual and tangible elements to rely on. Alongside a case study for the lifestyle brand Rituals, a brand-driven strategy is proposed to design a voice-interaction service integrated with personified voice-identity. It is of great importance to form a unique and recognizable position within speech-technology corresponds to the existing brand in order to engage customers with a relatable personality. The Rituals case study is used to extrapolate general guidelines, set out in a design kit. It functions as a practical tool to guide organizations in the innovation process towards a voice-interaction service. This project has found a branded identity in the context of voice-technology, defined by an unique fusion of five components. The brand functions here as an overarching connecting factor.","Voice Technology; Human Machine Interaction; Machine personification; Brand Driven Innovation; Brand Experience; Brand identity; Conversation Design; FMCG Industry; Strategic Design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:222130ff-788d-4b89-a847-ce252860f69a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:222130ff-788d-4b89-a847-ce252860f69a","A novel design for decoupling the energy storage and return in passive ankle foot prostheses: A redesign of the VSPA foot","Quraishi, Hashim (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering; TU Delft Biomechanical Engineering; University of Michigan)","Plettenburg, D.H. (mentor); Harlaar, J. (graduation committee); Horeman, T. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Conventional passive prosthetic feet cannot provide net positive mechanical energy, causing a strong reduction in push-off work. This decrease the comfortable walking speed and increases the metabolic cost of walking in amputees, as more than half of the positive work performed during able-bodied gait is done during the powered plantar flexion at the ankle joint. A possible contribution to enhance push-off is to utilize passive prostheses that can store and release energy by means of springs. This restores the push-off partially, enabling a higher self-selected walking speed and a lower metabolic cost.
Effective energy release at push-off is not just a matter of higher energy storage, but the release also needs to be well timed. Controlling the release rate of energy in current passive prosthetic feet is often constrained due to the unnatural ankle joint mechanics caused by simple spring behavior. The Variable Stiffness Prosthetic Ankle-Foot (VSPA-Foot) of Shepherd and Rouse (2017) tackles this problem by using a cam and follower transmission to decouple the leaf spring mechanics from the mechanics of the ankle joint. The cam profile determines the mechanics of the ankle joint, whereas the stiffness of the spring determines the energy stored for a particular deflection. Despite achieving this control of ankle mechanics, the VSPA still acts spring-like. This means that energy is stored and released in the exact same manner. The purpose of this study was to decouple the energy storage and release characteristics. A prototype was build that uses two cam-profiles in order to do so. These cam profiles can differ in the way they store and release energy, as long as the total energy stored or released is at most equal (thereby not violating the laws of thermodynamics). By using multiple cam profiles, energy can be stored in the initial part of the stance phase. Rather than returning this energy instantaneously, it is released during late stance to enhance the push-off. This is a continuous approach to the energy recycling concept originally proposed by Collins and Kuo (2010). Implementing the energy recycling concept in the VSPA foot redesign removed the hysteresis losses found whilst using a single cam profile and showed net positive work done during the push-off phase.","machine design; prosthesis; assistive technology; variable stiffness","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2020-03-26","","","","Mechanical Engineering | BioMechanical Design","",""
"uuid:b2c4d7a5-c2e4-4866-a768-0ae041ce061a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b2c4d7a5-c2e4-4866-a768-0ae041ce061a","Towards a Digital User Research Tool: A Digital Workflow of User Research for Software Companies","Lasamahu, Garry (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Romero Herrera, Natalia (mentor); Creusen, Marielle (graduation committee); Lagendijk, Frank (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The assignment that is of issue in this graduation project elaborates on Shipright. Shipright is a digital tool meant to be used to capture insights for customer research purposes. It offers a workflow to collaboratively process and analyze feedback, in order to find insights about customers’ experiences with software products and possible directions to improve product design. Shipright is meant to be used by scale-up SaaS companies to conduct user research on their products’ users. SaaS (software as a service) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. The targeted SaaS companies are the small and medium businesses (SMBs = up to 100FTE / up until 10M revenue) and Mid-Market Businesses (100 – 500 FTE / 10M – 100M revenue). For outreach, though, the minimum of company size is set on 10 FTE. This allows start-ups to be included as a secondary target group. Among this target group, user research is defined as the collection of user feedback and the analysis of it to get to actionable tasks. All the actions that goes around product decisions, revolves around product teams with typical key members of Product Managers / Owners, UX-researchers, designers and developers. The problem encountered is that, though rich insights from user research is desired, the fast-paced environment of scale-up companies prevents them from being able to spend enough time and attention on user research. Shipright’s original design is able to help scale-up SaaS companies to collect and organize feedback data from their products’ users, and to turn these data into insights. But, users do not seem to fully understand the different steps to follow throughout this analytical process. Besides that, team collaboration is not supported yet.","Digital technology; Software; User research; User feedback; UX-design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:5e187ce8-7c67-4644-b30e-17bbda1c736a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5e187ce8-7c67-4644-b30e-17bbda1c736a","The Future Building Envelope: Circular and Adaptive: A strategy for designing demountable unitized curtain walls, with an application on 4 adaptive concepts","Ntailianas, Nondas (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences; TU Delft CITG Section Building Engineering)","Schipper, Roel (mentor); Jonkers, Henk (graduation committee); van der Spoel, Willem (graduation committee); Nijsse, Rob (graduation committee); Huizer, Tom (graduation committee); van Wely, Rowan (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This report includes all the research conducted during the last phase of the Master of Science Building Engineering within the faculty of Civil Engineering. The main aim is to form a strategy for designing demountable unitized curtain walls; one that could actually be used in practice by future engineers and architects. This is why this graduation project includes an application on 4 chosen adaptive concepts. Having already been applied in a comparison study of these quite complicated and costly designs, this framework can provide one extra consideration that will be critical in the near future at the very early stages of designing a building: the Design for Disassembly.","demountable; Circular Economy; Facade; Curtain Wall; Adaptive; building envelope; Building technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Building Engineering","",""
"uuid:c43901fe-afd2-4a78-a139-221a0446dd45","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c43901fe-afd2-4a78-a139-221a0446dd45","Consider the impossible: Helping collaboration discover common ground through the promises of blockchain","van Welsem, Sander (TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Calabretta, G. (mentor); de Jonge, F.M. (graduation committee); van der Sanden, M.C.A. (mentor); Kalmar, E. (graduation committee); de Vries, M.J. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","This thesis explores how strategic and communication design can have an influence on the adoption process of blockchain or distributed ledger technology. It does so through dividing the thesis into four parts: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. In short: Discover: What is found is that distributed ledger development is a technology push development. Companies only explore the technical possibilities and the viability and desirability of the technology are underexposed. This has caused for a chasm to appear between the enthusiasts and the rest of business and society. Define: Through a set of interviews it is discovered distributed ledger technology can grow the fastest if it is developed in a collaborative setting. For this to happen, more people need to join in the movement. It is determined that a new mindset needs to be created. A mindset that is daring, bold and experiment friendly. Failure should be seen as a learning moment. Develop: To make sure companies can engage in mindset development, a tool is created. This tool is based upon the realisation that an immersive and playful experience is the best way to reach an audience. Thus, a workshop is developed, based on a set of canvasses. Define: As this thesis follows a lean development cycle, a simple prototype is developed. This prototype is then iterated upon through testing, reflecting and redesigning. In the end, a design of four canvasses and a booklet is created that help companies to on-board new partners. What was found, is that strategic and communication design are two fields that compliment each other in just right way to influence the adoption of DLT. Through the iterative and user focused process of strategic design, tools were created that help people to understand the complexity of DLT through a simple and smooth experience. At the same time, communication design provided the exact approach needed in guiding a group of people through the multiple layers of complexity of DLT-ecosystems. By understanding the abstraction of their own context in contrast to the technological possibilities, new understanding and appreciation of networked-collaboration was created. This new-found appreciation should ultimately result in a foundation of common ground and understanding, upon which the adoption of DLT can be built and spread.","Blockchain technology; distributed ledger technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:eb977fd9-8a95-4f25-b0b2-04dafc6bbb91","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:eb977fd9-8a95-4f25-b0b2-04dafc6bbb91","Voice Technology as a tool for enhancing the dialogue between company and customers","Spijkers, Peter (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Price, R.A. (mentor); Mooij, S.C. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Speech is the most natural and most comfortable method of communication for most people (Tadeusiewicz, 2010). So why not use speech for digital communications between company and customers? This graduation assignment aimed to examine this by questioning how voice technology could possibly enhance the dialogue between TUI and its customers.
Voice technology is a rather new technology and has not been fully adopted yet by the public. It was found that the technology should be implemented in gradual steps. This way, company and customer can get used to the technology. Also, starting off small and simple enables stimulation of the adoption (Rogers, 1995).
The Brand Driven Innovation model (Boeijen et al., 2013) was used to structure this project and in order to maintain a high focus on the relationship between company and customer. It was found that the company could highly improve the information it provides to the customer throughout their journey. Within the entire customer journey, the “prepare to go” phase was chosen as a scope due to it not being of critical harm to the rest of the journey. After all, the technology is relatively new and, therefore, brings some risks with it.
Experiments aimed at validating assumptions showed that customers are looking for information while preparing for their journey. They are mainly interested in obtaining information about activities (excursions) and dining options (e.g. restaurants). A link with Musement was made, a company that was acquired by TUI and is designed around providing information about both activities and dining options. The voice-based solution, therefore, consists of an integration of the current Musement voice application into one that suits the purpose of TUI and was named the TUI Tour Guide 1.0.
As said, the technology needs gradual implementation and therefore a stepping stone (MVP) was designed: Holiday Trivia. A voice application with which users can learn what type of vacationer they are and obtain holidays and deals tailored to their vacationer type. This stepping stone was designed using a process tree flow to structure the dialogue, which highly limited the errors in the conversation as was found by user tests.
Both Holiday Trivia and the Musement integration (TUI Tour Guide 1.0) are steps towards the future vision, in which a TUI voice-based tour guide provides information along the entire journey in a personal and transparent way. In order to get there, a roadmap has been established in which the voice-based application is expanded step by step.","Strategic Product Design; Voice Technology; Future Vision; Roadmapping; Brand Driven Innovation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:d6736f9b-f870-4736-a5e7-2ef292cf69aa","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d6736f9b-f870-4736-a5e7-2ef292cf69aa","Accelerating the transition towards circular economy within the built environment: Utilizing blockchain technology and designing a circular, modular, temporary start-up incubator on the Marineterrein in Amsterdam","Bolier, Marc (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","van de Pas, Roel (mentor); van der Zaag, Engbert (graduation committee); Peck, David (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","The master graduation project focusses on accelerating the transition towards the circular economy. Specifically it is a design for an intervention on an existing building on the Marineterrein making it into start-up incubator in a way consistent with the thought frame of the Circular economy. The project is a exploration of the role of the architect within the proposed circular economy. In depth research is conducted into blockchain technology by a startup Circularise to explore how this technology could stimulate the transition towards a circular economy within the Built Environment industry. The design is intended to combine the whole Marineterrein into a transition campus by fulfilling the necessary program and urban function needed. The design is built up by a set of modules that is made out of elements that are all leased by a number of manufacturers. Main conclusions can be found within the emphasis on the standardized sizes and easy connections of these elements and the effect that these decisions have on the design. Other conclusions include 1) the need of the continues involvement of the architect within the project by creating policies for the use of the building by the start-ups and pro-actively stimulate the living lab function of the building and 2) the need for a ‘creative’ architect to combine the different element into ‘good’ architecture instead of just a combination of different element. The latter conclusion is incorporated in this design by finding a set of design principles to guide the design found in the history and context of the Marineterrein and the concept of the circular start-up incubator.","Circular design; architecture; marinterrein; transition; Circular economy; Blockchain technology; Circularise; Role of the architect","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences","","52.373611, 4.916667"
"uuid:2f619b08-4bd4-4d20-98ef-091f2bd1e136","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2f619b08-4bd4-4d20-98ef-091f2bd1e136","The energy and Comfort Performance of a Lightweight Translucent Adaptable Trombe Wall in Different Buildings and Climates: A numerical study","van Unen, Jeroen (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences; TU Delft CITG Section Building Engineering)","Tenpierik, Martin (mentor); Nijsse, Rob (graduation committee); van der Spoel, Willem (graduation committee); Schipper, Roel (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","A traditional Trombe wall is known as a high thermal-mass wall, situated behind a window of a room and separated by an air cavity. The idea behind using a Trombe wall is that heat, ventilation and comfort can be passively generated by using the ‘free’ energy of the sun. The surface of the wall absorbs solar radiation when the sun shines, stores the energy and releases the heat at night to the room, when the occupants need it (Saadatian, Lim, Sopian, & Salleh, 2013). In addition, a Trombe wall can be used as natural ventilation system, of which its power is generated by the buoyancy effect in the cavity. Because a traditional Trombe wall is heavy, blocks daylight and cannot be adjusted to changing environmental conditions and seasonal differences, a new and innovative version was devised by the Double Face research team (4TU). The innovative version is called a lightweight translucent adaptable Trombe wall (LTATW) and is about five times lighter than a traditional Trombe wall. In addition, the wall is translucent and can rotate around its axes. The lower weight and translucent character are achieved by applying a phase change material in combination with aerogel, instead of stone or bricks. Phase change materials can store a large amount of (latent) heat during the change from solid to liquid state and thus, increase the thermal inertia of the system. The translucent elements are located in front of a glass façade and act as a thermal buffer in both winter and summer by rotating the elements towards the source of incoming heat or towards the sink for heat release (4TU.Bouw, 2014). In the winter, the layer of PCM is oriented towards the outdoor environment at daytime and is thermally charged by the low winter sun. At night, the system rotates and releases the accumulated heat to the interior. In the summer, the LTATW is oriented towards the interior at daytime to store the interior heat loads and during the night, it rotates again and releases the heat to the outside environment by means of (passive) night ventilation (4TU.Bouw, 2014).In this thesis, the results of a numerical spin-off study of the Double Face research project are shown, in which the influence of eight parameters (climate, building function, orientation, age, building method, room size, window size and type of glazing) on the energy and comfort performance of the innovative Trombe wall has been studied. First, an initial simulation model was developed in Matlab/Simulink, which was subsequently validated using a cross-comparison with results from DesignBuilder. After validation, the initial model has been extended to a suitable and reliable final version, with which more than 6000 different situations were simulated. The results of the simulations are values for the reduction or increase in energy demand for heating and cooling, expressed in percentages or in kWh. All results are processed in multiple designer tables, which interested designers can consult to assess whether installing the Trombe wall is useful for his or her situation, or not. In addition to the development of designer tables, the influence of each individual parameter on the performance of the Trombe wall was investigated using modeFRONTIER. It was found that in case of heating only a cold and temperate climate support a proper operation of the Trombe wall, since no heating is required in the other climate types. From the analysis, it was concluded that in relative sense (%), the Trombe wall performs best in a temperate climate, and that in absolute sense (kWh), the Trombe wall performs best in a cold climate. In case of cooling, the system performs best in a temperate climate and in a dry climate. Because the LTATW is designed to be both a passive cooling system in the summer and passive heating system in the winter, it has clearly been proven that only the temperate climate is the most logical choice. The average reduction of the heating energy demand in a temperate climate equals 36.1% (or 181.3 kWh per year) and the average reduction of the cooling energy demand equals 49.9% (or 115.0 kWh per year). Analysis of the second parameter, building function, has shown that in case of heating the function is not of great influence. The system performs well in both an office and a residence. In case of cooling, higher reductions of the energy demand are achieved in residences. Thirdly, the influence of the orientation of the Trombe wall was investigated and it was found that the best performance in case of heating occurs on a southern orientation. In case of cooling, the orientation is of less importance. The study shows that the age of a building does not have a major influence on the performance of the Trombe wall. Only in case of cooling, a slight preference can be expressed for new buildings. Studying the influence of the construction method on the performance of the wall has shown that this parameter has the least influence of all studied parameters. In both light-weight, medium-weight and heavy-weight buildings, a good performance can be achieved. For the size of the room, it was found that both room sizes perform equally well. It could be concluded that a Trombe wall can be installed in both small rooms and big rooms, but that when a room is too big, the capacity of the Trombe wall will no longer be useful to reduce a large amount of the initial energy demand. The same applies to cooling. Research has shown that for heating purposes, a room with a smaller window is more often preferred and for cooling purposes, a large window. Because the innovative Trombe wall will have to serve as both a passive heating and cooling device, an average size window will therefore probably be the most suitable. Finally, the influence of type of glazing was studied. It became clear that in relative terms the largest reductions of the heating energy demand are achieved with clear glazing. In case of cooling, the type of glazing is of less influence. Multiple sensitivity analyses were carried out to study the influence on the results of conditions that are easily affected by building occupants, and finally, a side-study was carried out into the influence of the Trombe wall on the energy demand for artificial lighting. It was found that even under slightly different circumstances the same conclusions can be drawn with regard to the influence of the parameters. The influence of the Trombe wall on the energy demand for artificial lighting is not negligible and should be carefully considered too.","Trombe Wall; Phase change materials; Passive Design; Building technology; Energy and comfort","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering","",""
"uuid:a659e44d-44b0-4871-8f24-2a4f64cf322e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a659e44d-44b0-4871-8f24-2a4f64cf322e","The effect of nodal topology on cellular solid mechanics: A preliminary diagnostic experimental investigation","van Helvoort, Derron (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering)","Rans, C.D. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2019","Additive manufacturing allows material structuring, supporting the fabrication of multiple-level structures or metamaterials. Through the lens of classical stress reduction, nature’s cellular solid structures feature stress-homogenizing nodal topologies. Avian long bones are an example. Research into the mechanics of open cell cellular solids seems focused on the effectiveness of unit cell architecture and neglects the detailed behavior of constituent nodes. Several specimen series were printed on the nodal- and cellular solid-levels of analysis, all with varying nodal topologies. A discussion of force-displacement and digital image correlation experimental data is had; the cellular solid deflection rigidity seems highly sensitive to nodal topology under quasi-static compression. It is thought that bioinspired profiles successfully homogenize stress and improve load transfer, mitigating nodal softening: peak stresses and the propagation of nodal torsion into adjoining strut deflection decreased. This sensitivity is relevant for lightweight strain energy absorption and stiffness provision, and demands further research.","Additive Manufacturing; additive manufacturing; 3D Printing; 3D printing; Bio-inspired; Honeycomb structure; Experimental study; quasi static; Quasi-static; Compression; Lightweight; lightweight; lightweight sructure; Topology study; cellular solid; cellular solid node; lattice; lattice node; avian bone; Delft University of Technology; Aerospace; aerospace; Mattheck; Baud; Fillet; stress concentration zone; Stress Distribution; stress concentration factor; Digital Image Correlation; DIC; Energy Storage; strain energy","en","master thesis","","","","","","The unprocessed data, data processing scripts and processed data can all be accessed on the project's Open Science Foundation page. See links for access.","","","","","","Aerospace Engineering | Structures and Materials","","51.990533, 4.376853"
"uuid:36c6fef5-3eef-4472-a4b2-c2fc4f4d3bba","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:36c6fef5-3eef-4472-a4b2-c2fc4f4d3bba","Design and MEMS Microfabrication of an Optrode for Combined Optogenetics and Electrophysiology Studies","Huang, Chengyu (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Serdijn, Wouter (mentor); Martins da Ponte, Ronaldo (mentor); French, Paddy (graduation committee); Giagka, Vasso (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Optogenetics is a biological technique that uses light to control cells in living tissues, typically neurons, that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. Using this technique, neuroscientists can investigate the neural circuits underlying neurological diseases with a higher spatio-temporal resolution when compared to other known neuromodulation methods.
As employed today, optogenetics requires methods for guiding sufficiently strong and precisely timed light to specific brain regions, while the experimental subject carries out behaviors of interest. For this role, miniaturized devices (namely optrodes) shall be properly engineered to hold the required components (e.g. light source, recording electrodes, etc) whilst complying with some surgical and biocompatibility issues.
In this work, an optrode was designed and fabricated using an in-house MEMS microfabrication technology. The custom-made device featured (a) low impedance level with TiN-coated microelectrodes, (b) sufficient optical power delivery through on-chip-uLEDs, and (c) miniaturized dimensions with tolerable tissue damage during long-term animal experiments. In addition, different optrodes were fabricated to allow different experiment conditions (i.e. chronic or acute implantation, multi-site or multi-layer studies). A MEMS cavity for the on-chip-uLED was engineered on the optrode's shaft in order to further minimize the induced tissue damage during the surgical implantation. Last but not least, this customized optrode is also compatible with our in-house CMOS technology and can be further upgraded with additional electronic functionalities, as well as with the deposition of novel materials.
After the microfabrication and system integration, in-vitro experiments on three different designs were performed to characterize electrically the electrode impedance, the control of uLED's light intensity and pulse frequency.","Optrode; Optogenetics; Electrophysiology; MEMS technology; Micro-LED; Microelectrodes; Microfabrication","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:615994d3-5354-4788-a928-8ece1043129e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:615994d3-5354-4788-a928-8ece1043129e","On board monitoring of polluting emissions in sea shipping","de Jong, Robin (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Hopman, Hans (mentor); Frouws, Koos (mentor); Van Mensch, Pim (mentor); Van der Voorde, Eddy (mentor); Schreier, Sebastian (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has been working on the reduction of emissions in sea shipping. This has been done by stricter regulations over the past years in the form of emission limits. An important element which determines the success of this reduction, is the enforcement of the emission limits. A drawback of the current enforcement procedure is that there is insufficient insight in what happens at open sea or, for example, at the borders of an Emission Control Area (ECA). TNO investigates if there are methods to improve the enforcement of emissions in shipping. Therefore, TNO started a research into an on board emission monitoring system. This report is the first step in this research and has the objective to recommend an on board monitoring system that is able to monitor pollutant emissions of seagoing vessels. The polluting emissions of seagoing vessels that are investigated in this report are: sulphur oxides (SOx ), nitrogen oxides (NOx ), particulate matter (PM) and black carbon (BC). The legislation study showed that there is no legislation for an on board emission monitoring system. This means that there is no obligation for the system in the near future. However, the IMO and the European Union want to investigate enforcement options in the future, which offers possibilities for the emission monitoring system. The available on board monitoring systems were divided into two groups, the low-end systems and the high-end systems. It turned out that the low-end systems are not yet sufficiently developed to withstand the maritime conditions and could therefore not be used as an emission monitoring system in the near future. The high-end systems showed to be suitable in the near future as an on board monitoring system. Therefore, the high-end systems were compared and assessed with each other on characteristics like: robustness, costs, accuracy, number of sample points, dimensions, emission measurement and maintenance. The assessment of the high-end systems was executed in the form of a multiple-criteria decision analysis. The on board emission monitoring system that scored the best was the Opsis M800 from Consilum. The main advantage of this system is that it operates with the UV/IR Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy principle. The big advantage of this principle is that the sensors and the exhaust gas are separated, which causes much less maintenance. The above mentioned on board emission monitoring system is therefore recommended, which means that the objective of this research is met. To improve this recommendation it will be desirable and recommended to test all the high-end systems in practice in order to determine and compare their performance for the above mentioned criteria. The opinion from the stakeholders is that they see potential in the system, especially with the task to create a level playing field, after the implementation of the 2020 sulphur limit. However, they also indicate that international legislation will be necessary to implement the system successfully. The shipping companies also indicated that they see potential for the on board emission system besides the enforcement task.","On board emission monitoring systems; Legislation; Stakeholders; Emission control technologies; Fuels; Sensors","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:0c176910-ef39-4e23-99b0-35cdb2d41984","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0c176910-ef39-4e23-99b0-35cdb2d41984","Unlocking customer value within the Dutch telecommunication sector: The process of designing the compelling customer value proposition model within the Dutch telecommunication sector","Brummer, Menno (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","de Reuver, Mark (mentor); Scholten, Daniel (mentor); Kuijt, Maurits (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","","Customer Values; Design Science Research; Value propositions; 5G technology; Telecommunication","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","SEN 2331 Master thesis",""
"uuid:016fd138-397b-4c8c-8bfb-74aad3fceb85","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:016fd138-397b-4c8c-8bfb-74aad3fceb85","Electroluminescence, a user-oriented material driven design","Verhoeckx, Josien (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering; TU Delft Design Engineering)","Jansen, K.M.B. (mentor); Taminiau, F.P.A.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","TThis project started out as a quest to find a meaningful application for the electroluminescent material: a phenomenom where a plane of phosphor is lit up when an alternating current is run through it. The material has several unique properties which make it perfect for application on smart wearables:It emits light, it is paper thin, it is flexible, it allows for an almost unlimited form freedom and lastly, it can be printed on a lot of different materials, including fabric. These properties can not be found in other forms of light, which gives the electroluminescent material competitive advantages in the field of smart clothing. One aspect of life often forgotten is physical activity. In busy periods, it is hard for people to maintain a rhythm. Yet it is this rhythm that can help with maintaining a healthy physical lifestyle. What if our clothing would help us remain active? Not by demanding even more of us, but just by keeping us up to date with ourselves, helping us gain awareness on our movements and connecting us again with our bodies. Well, meet Awareable.This smart system makes the user aware of their daily physical activity. The progress of a daily set goal is reflected on their wearable; the further the progress, the more electroluminescent sections will light up and the more appealing the garment becomes. This constant reflection enhances awareness which eventually leads to the wanted behaviour change of being more active.","Electroluminescence; Material Driven Design; Wearable Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:3fba1707-ef26-47c2-a934-e7c06fa3d2f2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3fba1707-ef26-47c2-a934-e7c06fa3d2f2","Exploring the barriers and strategies of the innovation phase: a case study in renewable energy technologies","Izma Rindamelia Effendi, Izma (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Kamp, L.M. (mentor); Ortt, J.R. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","More than ever, there is a growing importance of renewable energy technology (RET) as a part of the global energy source. With the increasing need of a cleaner energy and abundance incentives from the government, the evolution of innovating firms who are developing radical innovations related to RET products has been expanding, especially in the Netherlands. However, there is usually a long time frame in the innovation phase in which the innovative technological principle is translated into a viably commercialised product. This is due to the occurrence of certain barriers that may hamper the development of the product and thus, innovative products may fail even before entering the market.
In this research, we aim to identify the barriers that can occur and inhibit the innovation phase and analyse the strategies that can be implemented in order to remove or circumvent these barriers, which will lead to an initial framework of barriers and strategies for the innovation phase. In order to reach this objective, a three-stage methodological approach has been followed, consisting of literature review, conceptual framework development, and case studies. From this research, we have developed an adapted framework of barriers and strategies for the development of a new, high-tech product in the innovation phase. It was found that there are barriers that can persist in the innovation phase from the product perspective as well as infrastructure perspective and there are strategies that are found to be implemented in the innovation phase to remove or circumvent these barriers. This research has contributed to more knowledge and insights in terms of the nature of the innovation phase, the complex dynamic between the barriers and strategies, and the influence of these barriers on the time frame and processes of said phase.","Innovation; Barriers; Strategies; Renewable energy technologies; Product Development","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","Master Project Report",""
"uuid:066c00e8-b94c-4f5e-992a-d2ffbc3543ed","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:066c00e8-b94c-4f5e-992a-d2ffbc3543ed","DeepSleep: A sensor-agnostic approach towards modelling a sleep classification system","Rao, Shashank (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Multimedia Computing)","Cesar, Pablo (mentor); Ali, Abdallah (mentor); Hanjalic, A. (graduation committee); Hung, H.S. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Sleep is a natural state of our mind and body during which our muscles heal and our memories are consolidated. It is such a habitual phenomenon that we have been viewing it as another ordinary task in our day-to-day life. However, owing to the current fast-paced, technology-driven generation, we are letting ourselves be sleep-deprived, giving way to serious health concerns such as depression, insomnia, restlessness, apnea and Alzheimer’s. Polysomnography (PSG) studies are used for diagnosing and treating sleep-related disorders. Although the PSG studies are considered as the gold standard, they are obtrusive and do not allow for long-term monitoring. Various wearables have been manufactured to help people monitor their sleep-health. However, these devices have been shown to be inaccurate.
The ubiquitous sensor technology employed by the wearables provides large volumes of data, recorded in the most natural setting of the user. There is an opportunity to make use of the highly available sensor data to model a sleep scoring system that could help individuals monitor their sleep-health from the comfort of their home. In this thesis, we aim to alleviate this problem by attempting to bridge the gap between the highly accurate but obtrusive medical diagnosis (PSG) and the non-intrusive yet inaccurate wearables.
In this work, we propose DeepSleep, a deep neural net-based sleep classification model using an unobtrusive BCG-based heart sensor signal. Our proposed model’s architecture uses the combination of CNN and LSTM layers to perform self-feature extraction and sequential learning respectively. We show that our model can classify sleep stages with a mean f1-score of 74% using the BCG signal. We employ a 2-phase training strategy to build a pre-trained model to tackle the limited dataset size and test the transferability of the model on other types of heart-signal. With an average classification accuracy of 82% and 63% using ECG and PPG based heart signal respectively, we show that our pre-trained model can be used in the transfer learning setting as well. Lastly, with the help of a user study of 16 subjects, we show that the objective sleep quality metrics correlate with the perceived sleep quality reported by the subjects with a correlation score of 푟 = 0.43.
Although our proposed model’s performance is not yet comparable to the medical standards, we show that it is possible to monitor our sleep-health using the wearable signals with the least domain knowledge and preprocessing techniques. The prediction and performance of our DeepSleep model show that it is able to learn the biological rules of sleep wherein it always follows a Deep or REM stage with a transitional Light stage. Our model treats the classification problem sequentially, thus, identifying important sleep parameters like the onset of sleep cycles and time spent in different sleep stages which are time-dependent factors. Furthermore, our user study, conducted using the SATED questionnaire, provides an insight into the difference in the user’s perceived sleep quality and model’s estimation. It shows that an automated classification system needs to incorporate various external factors such as environmental and ambient conditions to be able to strongly correlate with the perceived or subjective quality. We further discuss the future research gaps and opportunities that could improve the model’s performance and also extend it to other domains like irregular heart-beat and apnea detection. We consider this work to be a starting point for research into sleep and heart health using non-intrusive wearable sensors and deep neural network-based architectures.","Machine Learning; Deep Learning; Sleep-state classification; Sleep System; Ubiquitous; Wearable Technology; long short-term memory networks; Convolutional Neural Networks; Transfer learning; User preferences; Human health; Sleep deprivation; Sensor data; Recurrent Neural Network; Sleep quality measurement; User perception study; subjective assessment; Artificial Intelligence; Explainable Machine Learning","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Computer Science","",""
"uuid:2cec53a5-9fd8-48f8-b4af-7229cc2ad7cb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2cec53a5-9fd8-48f8-b4af-7229cc2ad7cb","The contribution of Enterprise resource system (ERP) on Green supply chain performance: Case study Approach","Pandarahally Venugopal, Jayanth (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Rezaei, Jafar (mentor); van de Kaa, Geerten (mentor); Tavasszy, Lorant (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","The increasing awareness towards environmental protection demands industries to enact viable solutions in their operations, one such example is the introduction of the concept of “Green Supply chain management” in supply chain operations. The supply chain process operates as a link connecting firms and industries to deliver a product or service to the end customer. The procurement activity in the supply chain process plays a vital role in providing the materials for production and consequently to business sales of the firm. Over the years, the technological development and integration of information technology in procurement process have transformed manual information sharing to a more automatized system of Enterprise Resource Systems (ERP) in the business to the business operational platform. The growing importance of green practices in manufacturing firms and the research gap reviewed in the literature addressing the relation between ERP systems on green supply chain motivates to carry out this research. In this report, I attempt to answer the research question formulated addressing the relation between ERP and Green supply chain operational performance through a Case study. The research is carried out structurally adhering to the research framework developed in the initial stages of background study. I follow the case study methodology to collect the relevant data to reflect on the conceptual model developed through literature review and to answer the research question. Finally, I conclude the research by providing recommendations based on the analysis and reflect on the limitations and future research prospects.","ERP; Green supply chain; Enterprise system; Information technology; supply chain","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2018-12-31","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:98d3e447-e5d1-4d9f-ba81-9e31d23b863b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:98d3e447-e5d1-4d9f-ba81-9e31d23b863b","Flowy: Designing an assistive wearable technology for children with AD(H)D that increases attention in class","Voorendt, Jesper (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Oberdorf, Jos (mentor); Bourgeois, Jacky (mentor); Hogenbirk, H.W. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Behavioral treatment shows long-term success among children with AD(H)D, but is often expensive and hard to bring into practice. Flowy is a wristband that supports behavioral interventions by giving rhythmic vibrations as reminders for behavioral change.
Rhythmic vibrations on the wrist have shown to have a calming effect, and can alert users to think of behavioral interventions. Different vibration patterns can foster self-regulating thoughts such as asking “Am I behaving as I intended to do?” or “Am I still focused?”. This increases the self-regulating ability of a child during individual tasks at school.
Flowy is designed like a buddy for children with AD(H)D. It is like a helping friend that motivates them to study longer. It also gives the child ownership of self-regulation, because it let children create own vibration patterns for activities. This is realized by providing an app that brings the ‘buddy’ alive, explains self- regulation techniques and involves parents to monitor the process to create a positive reinforcement within the family.","ADHD disorder; Wearable Technology; Vibrations; Attention; new product development; behavioral change","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:f8fa890a-d75c-466c-8f45-fbcad907f980","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f8fa890a-d75c-466c-8f45-fbcad907f980","Applying blockchain technology in multi-sided platforms to enable business model innovation: An explorative case study on decentralized sharing platforms","Ribbens, Frank (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Bouwman, Harry (mentor); van Beers, Cees (graduation committee); Roosenboom-Kwee, Zenlin (graduation committee); Weddepohl, Daan (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","The competiveness between businesses is continuously increasing and multi-sided platforms seek to reduce cost, increase efficiency and improve the quality of products and services. This research explored the role of blockchain technology as a driver for business model innovation of multi-sided platforms. This case study contributed to scientific literature by analysing how blockchain technology can be used by multi-sided platforms. The interview results were used to design a decentralized business model for Peerby. This business model facilitates the sharing of goods between individuals. The research outcomes reveal that multi-sided platforms can use blockchain technology as a driver for business model innovation. Business models need to be both viable and feasible to function in a market. However, the early stage of development of blockchain technology comes with barriers for large-scale diffusion. Therefore, a business model stress test workshop was organized that revealed how uncertainties, relating to market, society and regulation, affect the decentralized business model. The research outcomes are relevant for peer-to-peer multi-sided platforms within the sharing economy. This case study could be used as a framework for a whitepaper that describes how multi-sided platforms intend to use blockchain technology to benefit their users. This research takes a novel approach to business modelling research, which will be introduced as business model decentralization.","Blockchain technology; Smart contracts; Decentralization; Multi-sided platforms; Sharing economy; STOF; Business model innovation; Business model stress test","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:2e6cc09f-3288-4522-8b94-86c82f251eb9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2e6cc09f-3288-4522-8b94-86c82f251eb9","Modelling and Assessment of Restoration in Electrical Power Systems with High Penetration of Power Electronic Converters","Noris Martinez, Leonel (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Intelligent Electrical Power Grids)","Rueda, José L. (mentor); Palensky, P. (mentor); Mor, A. R. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Power outages can damage severely critical infrastructures such as telecommunication networks, financial services, water supplies and hospitals and completely shutting down production at companies. While most power blackouts usually last from some minutes to few hours, some can last days or even weeks. Furthermore, it is likely that these kinds of events would become more recurrent due to the stranded expansion of aged Electrical Power System (EPS) infrastructures in Europe for coping with the increased societal and environmental pressure for massive deployment of adopting Renewable Energy Source (RES)-based generation, which is known for having a variable characteristic. It is expected that RES will become the dominant factor in the power grid and will gradually replace Conventional Synchronous Generation Units (CGU), and it is known that Offshore Wind Farms (OffWF) are more suitable for large-scale generation applications. However, RES, including Wind Farms (WF), are not well aligned to work with EPS that were designed fifty - to - sixty years ago, due to reduced inertia, reduced short-circuit power, and limited control capabilities that imply the integration of RES. Moreover, more grids will contain more renewables, and thus more risks of outages could arise as one fault can trigger another one as a domino effect, deriving in widespread disruptions, including regional blackouts.
In this context, the contemporary control systems that regulate WF inject power to the grid via Power-Electronic Interfaces (PEI), and their schemes are designed to not interfere actively with the safe and secure regulation of a large-scaled EPS. On the contrary, they are just limited to inject a predetermined power injection setpoint with a current-injection control method that assumes all the time this power has load demand to go (grid-following control). However, this is not the case when unplanned islanding or an outage arises in an EPS, as the WF currently do not possess a control system that regulates the frequency of an island.
This MSc Thesis Project presents the design, implementation and testing of a control system attached to type-4 Wind Turbines (WT) that can manage and tightly ensure the load and generation balance during any circumstance, including a massive blackout. This control method can successfully regulate voltage, reactive power and frequency, which can be adapted automatically to the real-time conditions of the grid. The scheme takes the grid-following control approach as a starting point, which was modified in order to have Grid-Forming and Black-Start capabilities. The proposed new control approach for grid-forming and black-start design was implemented in DIgSILENT PowerFactory 2018, where a total of seventeen large-scaled type-4 WF are located into a three-area EPS. The Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) WF containing the proposed grid-forming control system are accompanied by Hydro, Nuclear and Thermal Plants, accounting CGU. Additionally, the three-area EPS also contains two HVDC Transmission Systems composed each by two Voltage-Source Converters (VSC), which also have similar grid-forming and black-start capabilities, and seven Battery-Energy Storage Systems (BESS), which give auxiliary power to the Black-Start Units and frequency support to the areas with loss of generation. The WF, BESS and the HVDC stations are interfaced via modelled Modular Multi-level Converter (MMC) controlled voltage sources.
The proposed grid-forming and black-start capabilities of the three-area EPS were tested with several EMT simulations reproducing severe short-circuit faults followed by a loss-of-generation scenario, the blocking of the HVDC converter stations and a massive relay protection program, resulting in the full outage and isolation of the area responsible for the largest power supply in the three-area EPS. After the blackout, the three-area EPS performed a Restoration plan, from the generation resetting and the reconnection of lines, transformers, etc., to the final (cold) load pick-up stage. In order to evaluate the advantage of using utility-scaled WF with grid-forming controllers to execute a conjunct Black-Start and Restoration plan, two operational scenarios were performed: one with 90% wind power share and another without any participation of wind power. As a consequence of the implementation of the proposed grid-forming control systems, the simulation results endorse that an EPS with 90% wind power share can steer a Black-Start and Restoration operation when required.","HVDC technology; Offshore Wind Power; EMT Model; PowerFactory; Battery Energy Storage System; Power System Modelling","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Electrical Power Engineering","",""
"uuid:c1996e12-1462-4683-8716-72110c665d4c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c1996e12-1462-4683-8716-72110c665d4c","Blockchain: A Proof of Trust","Manrique, Sebastián (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering; TU Delft Product Innovatie Management)","Calabretta, Giulia (mentor); van Erp, Jeroen (mentor); Smeets, Tim (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","This report explores the topic of ‘designing for trust in blockchain solutions’ as part of the technology’s adoption by clients of Cognizant. The result is a game that provides clients with a first insight into the new form of trust relationships that blockchain brings.
In recent years blockchain has gotten attention from public, business and politics. It is said to decentralize the exchange of value, similar to what the internet did for information. For this blockchain addresses the key topic of trust. In the past decades trust has evolved from local to institutional to partly decentralized. Blockchain takes this further and assumes distrust among peers and enforces exchanges through hard code. Instead of having to trust a peer or a third party, people can trust the veracity of the process. Although proclaimed to be trustless, trust still needs to be placed in the technology itself. The goal of this project was to design an experience that allows people to build (initial) trust in blockchain technology. Understanding the role of trust in a blockchain ecosystem was achieved through a literature study on trust in technology, a decomposition of blockchain and a case study of one of Cognizant’s blockchain projects for a multinational shoe retailer on inventory sharing.
From a theoretical perspective results show that trust still plays a role in blockchain ecosystems: A lack of computer literacy prohibits people from understanding the open source algorithm code. Governance of a blockchain protocol can be fuzzy, making individuals unable to control changes. Blockchain propositions often include human interaction or physical products which cannot be affected by a blockchain system. Data that is fed into a blockchain system cannot be checked for correctness by a blockchain system, thus providers of this data still need to be trusted. Transfers done on a blockchain cannot be undone placing a heavy weight on someone’s personal trust (self-confidence). If a crypocurrency is used, participants need to trust that it will maintain its’ value.
Another key challenge is nudging trust towards a justified trustee. Blockchain appears to bring forth a new form of trust that is not peer-to-peer nor institutional. Rather, trust has to be placed in a collection of components (code, cryptography and protocol) that is controlled by an algorithm and collective group. It will take time for people to adopt this new form of trust as social norms need to (be) developed.
Results from the case study show that adopting blockchain technology is not only a technical or business feat but also an emotional and social endeavour. Setting up a blockchain ecosystem forces the initiating company to engage with competitors in a more direct way and seems to feel like they have to open up. It creates interactions that companies might be uncomfortable with as it often concerns sensitive data. Next to this, it seemed hard to really grasp or experience the value of blockchain technology which can be a barrier when designing with it. Clients also appeared to approach the technology using ‘old’ trust concepts, which might result in missing out on the technology’s real potential.
Cognizant could play a key role in making clients comfortable with this new form of interaction by offering direct experiences with blockchain rather than only knowledge transfer. Also acknowledging the emotional/strategic challenge of cooperating with competitors more closely is something where Cognizant should build activities around. Eventually the company could position itself as an ‘ecosystem builder’, providing support to not only the client but also the partners in shaping the ecosystem and relationships.
To support this role, an interactive game called ‘Viral Art’ was created that provides clients with an initial experience of the new form of trust and ‘coopetition’ that blockchain brings. Experiences from the game can lead into a discussion on the impact on a clients’ own business network and shape the further activities of a project. In the game participants simulate a digital museum and compete for the most valuable (unique) art through trades. Throughout the game players go through all three different forms of trust.
A final evaluation with Cognizant led to recommendations for further development including digitization, stronger facilitation and the extension to a workshop format.","blockchain; trust in technology; design for trust; game design; consultancy","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:c95b61c6-bead-45c0-919e-bf8585034e05","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c95b61c6-bead-45c0-919e-bf8585034e05","Tokenized Ecosystems: The design of a Tokenized Ecosystem assessment tool: a design science approach","Scholte, Abe (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (graduation committee); Roosenboom-Kwee, Z. (mentor); Allessie, David (mentor); Mellink, Bart (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Blockchain technology can be transformational to a lot of business sectors. Businesses have attempted to extract value from blockchain technology but failed to do so. An unexplored blockchain business initiative is Tokenized Ecosystems. Startups using Tokenized Ecosystems have the potential to disrubt incumbent businesses. Yet, it is unclear how they should react. A structured approach to assess whether a business should apply Tokenized Ecosystems to their business processes is lacking. This thesis proposes such a structured approach: a Tokenized Ecosystems assessment tool for business processes. A design science approach is used and gathered insights from academic literature are confronted with empirical evidence. Eight of the most outstanding and globally renowned blockchain and tokenization industry experts and thought leaders were interviewed.","Blockchain; Design Science; Tokenized Ecosystem; Business IT Strategy; Technology Assessment Tool","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2019-10-02","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:00909154-c776-4aea-ab7f-8a8c89b4aa56","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:00909154-c776-4aea-ab7f-8a8c89b4aa56","Blockchain for aircraft spare part management: Evaluating the robustness of the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul business model","Rajkov, Dusan (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Maknoon, M.Y. (mentor); Ubacht, J. (graduation committee); Tavasszy, Lorant (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Due to the complexity of aircraft spare part management, the aviation supply chain and ecosystem are not deemed as transparent as desired. As a result, participants face additional cost of communication and compliancy as proprietary component data is not made immediately accessible. To solve these problems, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) providers currently consider to use Blockchain to track and trace aircraft spare parts. Guided by Business Model Stress Test, this thesis evaluates the robustness of MRO business models when they use Blockchain as an aircraft spare part track and trace capability. Blockchain as an aircraft spare part track and capability is not only strategically relevant for cost-conscious innovating MROs, it also does not impose a risk to the robustness of their business model in most scenarios. MROs should engage in a regulatory-backed Blockchain consortium through which they share limited component data throughout the entire industry. If this is not possible, they can retreat from the consortium under the notion that their business model is threatened. Even though Blockchain could improve aviation supply chain and ecosystem transparency, the feasibility of the consortium is questionable. To remedy this concern, future research should focus on identifying strategic incentives for Original Equipment Manufacturers and aircraft operators to participate in the Blockchain consortium.","Aircraft Spare Part Management; Inter-Organisational Information Sharing; Blockchain Technology; Track and Trace; Business Model; Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul; Distributed Ledger","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:62791590-f39b-4720-bae3-ee76196e3343","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:62791590-f39b-4720-bae3-ee76196e3343","Economic feasibility of a hydrogen-fuelled marine transportation system: Case study of a bulk carrier at CMB","Quintana Diaz, Rayco (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering; TU Delft Marine and Transport Technology)","Van der Voorde, Eddy (mentor); Frouws, Koos (mentor); Campe, Roy (mentor); de Koning Gans, Henk (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","The crises of global warming, air pollution, acid rain and the running out of oil make the investigation into alternative fuel technologies crucial. New technologies are being investigated on a global scale in an attempt to address these problems. This thesis investigates the use of hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel engines and fuel cells. The economic feasibility includes the comparison of these energy converters with more conventional alternatives. The storage of alternative fuels, the reforming of hydrogen carriers or the inclusion of carbon capture systems are some of the aspects considered in the analysis.","Hydrogen; Dual fuel engine; Hydrogen carrier; LNG; Fuel cell; Marine technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2020-09-19","","","","Marine Technology | Ship Design, Production and Operations","",""
"uuid:3b94f970-8e56-4ff2-80e4-1960c2e3976d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3b94f970-8e56-4ff2-80e4-1960c2e3976d","Developing and testing a Smart Wearable System for Sensing Stress of Veterans with PTSD","Zhang, Xinjie (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering; TU Delft Design Engineering)","Jansen, Kaspar (mentor); Li, Xueliang (mentor); Rozendaal, Marco (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that can develop after having experienced a traumatic event and in which a person experiences trauma-related symptoms or impairments in everyday functioning that last for at least a month and sometimes for life (Friedman, F2015). In order to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have four typical symptoms: intrusion symptoms, avoidance symptoms, negative alterations in cognition and mood and alterations in arousal and reactivity (Friedman, 2015).
Currently, two therapies show a high effectiveness rate (around 70%) in treating PTSD: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). But they are restricted to conditions and devices. There are other self-management methods like meditation, breathing exercise and yoga. But those methods focus on regulating symptoms in the short term and the effectiveness is not well supported by studies.
It is envisioned that by integrating biofeedback sensors into a wearable product, verifying symptoms can be unobtrusive and stress can be monitored very often. By looking into the existing products, there are already many wearables which can detect stress by measuring some physiological signals like heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate or electrodermal activity. Physiological signals are more accessible to detect and are ideals measures for real-time monitoring. However, their accuracies are not high and easily compromised by the environment. The most sensible bio-signal combination is still not found out yet. And the cognitive or emotional aspects of stress is more difficult to detect. Thus a more intuitive method is decided to combine bio-signal with subjective feeling.
Based on those literature study and preliminary field work, the vision of the project was formulated and the mission was focused on sensing the stress and making the communication between data and users with a later aim of coping with it.
The embodiment of the concept was divided into two design iterations. The first design iteration aimed at selecting the right physiological sensors and validating the sensor quality and a self-reporting tool. The second design iteration focused on improving the product wearability and product style. In the first design iteration, some physiological sensors were chosen regarding different criteria. Four categories of sensors were selected including a heart rate sensor, a GSR sensor, a temperature sensor and an accelerometer. Based on the sensor sensibility on different body positions, the first prototype was decided to be a chest vest.
The first user test was conducted with 11 male students from TU-Delft to identify the technological features of the prototype 1 in recognizing different stress levels and development of the stress experiences. Besides, a self-reporting method was validated in this experiment by providing a self-reporting tool to the participants. The result was that physiological sensors are able to recognize the stress but they are not accurate enough to distinguish the different level of stress. And the self-reporting tool can reflect users’ real-time perception of stress to some extent. Some design insights were collected from the interviews to apply to the next prototype.
In the second design iteration, an interaction vision was generalized based on the updated concept. The product style was formulated after a style study and the wearability was improved by changing some details and making it wireless. The second user test was conducted with on participant from TU-Delft. The final integrated prototype can detect the stress and body movement to some extent. But it is still not accurate enough to differentiate stress levels. More experiments and research should be done to develop this wearable product further.
have in the process of developing technological innovation, for both successful and unsuccessful
development.
Design/methodology/approach – The theory advanced within the present thesis is the result of a
literature review of innovation system (IS) literature and social media literature. Also, the proposed
theory is illustrated and expanded through a case study which employs social media data and
interviews.
Findings – The effects of social media on the development of technological innovation can be grouped
in three categories: knowledge formation, customer relationship management (CRM), and marketing.
These effects can be positive or negative depending on the strategies and methodologies utilised.
Research limitations/implications – The validity of the advanced theory is limited to the illustrative
case study which has only focused on part of it.
Practical implications – The results of the study indicate that both private and public organisations
involved in the development of technological innovation should adopt different social media
strategies, methods, and tools at different point in time during this maturation process.
Originality/value – This thesis is the first to combine the full spectrum of potentials of social media
communication in the success and failure development of technological innovation.","Innovation Systems; Technological Innovation Systems; Functions; Motors of Innovation; Social Media; Social Networks; Solar Power Window","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:cea8499f-dc50-4fb8-94ee-0bee6098c216","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cea8499f-dc50-4fb8-94ee-0bee6098c216","Effects of cumulative social impacts on emotions regarding ultra-deep geothermal energy projects","van Giezen, Andreas (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","van Wee, Bert (mentor); Molin, Eric (mentor); Roeser, Sabine (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Royal HaskoningDHV is currently exploring ultra-deep geothermal heating systems in the Netherlands. Within this research it was analyzed whether people show different levels of emotions when being confronted with ultra-deep geothermal energy projects, and whether there are differences in antecedents of emotions between people living in an area with or without cumulative social impacts and between people living closer or further away from a potential project location.
It was found that people do not show different levels of positive and negative emotions when they were asked to imagine an ultra-deep geothermal energy project to be taken place at a distance of 600 meters or 5 kilometers from their living area. However, people living in areas with cumulative social impacts did show significantly higher levels of negative emotions.
This means that when looking at the possibility of starting ultra-deep geothermal energy projects in areas with cumulative social impacts, the project developers have to take into account that people will be more negative towards the technology, in comparison to other regions. As it is argued by some academics that emotions should play a vital role in debates and project developments, this should specifically apply to areas with cumulative social impacts as this will lead to more responsible project outcomes and thus will most likely increase public acceptance.
This research designs a solution for a large and complex contemporary socio-technical problem. In this, several contributions to technology entrepreneurship literature are made. Firstly, internal and external variables are identified that influence strategy making for NTBFs. Secondly, strategies and tactics that are applicable for NTBFs in specific situations and environments are defined. Thirdly, a conceptual framework that enables to select growth strategies for NTBFs by using an extensive “matchmaking” process is build and validated. This conceptual framework was built around three strategy management theories: Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Contingency. Accordingly, this research investigates and reveals some theoretical implications for applying these theories to NTBFs specifically.
The designed framework suggests that a strategy is subject to the internal and external environment, where the interpretation of this environment and the final decision is made by the management team of a NTBF. Feasible growth strategies for NTBFs are built around four regimes: Vertical Integration, Inter-firm Cooperation, Technology Transfer and System Integration. Two important clusters divide NTBFs and their suitable growth strategies; the ones with a strong financial position and the ones with a suitable situation for collaboration. When having a strong financial position, NTBFs can choose to vertically integrate or become a system integrator. Collaborative strategies can be subdivided in backward and/or forward strategic alliances, exclusivity agreements, equity strategic alliances, joint ventures and an IP-based technology transfer. NTBF founders use similar strategic tactics to deal with shared challenges.
This research did not strive for prediction and certainty but strived to reduce the complexity for managers of NTBFs in choosing their growth strategy. Empirical findings and theoretical knowledge were bundled to understand the phenomenon, where this understanding is located on a higher level than the empirics itself. Especially since there will always be exceptions. Accordingly, the complexity of the research problem was reduced by using abstraction instead of generalisation. Generalisation was minimised where it is assumed that generalisation in NTBF growth strategies has significant shortcomings where too many variables interact. The art is within the clustering of variables, where these clusters are matched with a specific, optimal growth strategy on an abstract level.
The multi-disciplinary abstraction approach of this research enabled to bridge the gap between research and practical execution. The designed conceptual framework is based on flexible conceptual terms rather than rigid theoretical variables and causal relations and aims to help to understand phenomena rather than to predict them. The input for the conceptual framework was holistic, using interviews and theory. In-depth interviews with founders of NTBFs were used to review the object of study from different, practical perspectives. Moreover, four theoretical viewpoints were used complementary: contingency, strategy, transactions (TCE) and resources (RBV). No attempt was made for theoretical integration or synthesis of theories. Rather, theories were combined in such a way as to enhance the qualities of each other. TCE theory was used for the identification of strategies, where RBV theory was used for the identification (or a lack) of resources, for which specific strategies and tactics can be executed. Contingency theory served as the overarching theme of the framework, where strategy forms the common thread in this research. An in-depth case study could be used to validate the conceptual framework by reflecting on a real-life case. A single case study was used, while context-dependent knowledge was assumed to be more valuable than predictive theories.
The framework as designed in this research can be used for NTBFs when selecting their growth strategy. Further research is needed to examine the suitability of the framework for different NTBFs, where this research only validated the framework with a single case study. This can be done by executing several in-depth single case studies that lead to a more complete and usable framework. Data should not only be gathered from NTBFs but should also be gathered from researchers when it comes to the critical assessment of the used theories (RBV and TCE) and possible extensions of the conceptual framework.
This novel concept requires a multibody modeling approach to perform a dynamic loads and response analysis, as the stiffness between the floating platform and the counter weight is provided by chains. Additional design criteria are required for the counter weight system dependent on a combination of chain capacity and maintaining positive tension in all of the suspension lines. To satisfy these design criteria a global hydrodynamic load and response analysis of the floating system is performed. In this concept, the counter weight depth contributes significantly to the dynamic properties of the system and therefore a parametric study is conducted. The global response parameters of the rigid-body motion, natural frequencies, nacelle accelerations, counter weight chain tensions, and maximum platform-pitch angles are compared. Following the parametric study, an ultimate limit state analysis is conducted on the original and alternative designs. Design recommendations are made for the counter weight depth and configuration of the suspension system layout.
In the last twenty years these materials have been applied to several components of the building, but it is only in recent times that experimentation with the translucency of some of these materials has been starting to be integrated into windows and other transparent facade elements. Translucent phase change materials in facades open a huge range of potential options and experimentation, but still need to be further explored to analyse and evaluate their full applicability in buildings.
This graduation project consists of a climate adaptive facade system with integrated translucent to opaque phase change materials, optimised for reduced energy consumption and improved indoor thermal and visual comfort. The final design consists of a modular facade system which allows the achievement of indoor comfort throughout the year with free cooling while achieving a total energy saving of 39%.
A final evaluation has been carried out to verify the overall performance, by assessing: applicability in different climates, orientations and economic feasibility. Finally, based on the knowledge collected through the research and design, some general guidelines have been given by formulating a basic stepped strategy for PCM application in facades.
“To design a non-stigmatizing, portable and affordable product for people with Usher syndrome, that offers enhanced control over lighting and/or acoustics, with the goal of improving their sense of involvement in social contexts.”
Methods
Methods used in tackling this assignment are the classic design cycle by Roozenburg and Eekels, accompanied by the diamond model of Buijs. The design cycle entails evey step of the innovation process where in every step - by using the diamond model - information is gathered (diverging) and narrowed down subsequently (converging), steering many options to a single defined design outcome. Important steps are evaluating ideas and validating concepts with end-users, to ensure a meaningful product is realized.
Results. As a result of the deficits caused by Usher, having conversations with other people can be challenging. Especially, in a dark and noisy context like a bar or pub: the design context in this project. In understanding a conversation, speech contains the most information. By aiding the sense of hearing, speech intelligibility can be improved and in turn the sense of social involvement. Important functions to for a design for people with Usher is this context is separating speech from background noise, reducing the distance between the speech source and person with Usher, allow volume control over the speech source and enable a connection with the hearing aid(s) and/or cochlear implant(s) of the person with Usher. Current products do not offer such functionalities.
Functions and requirements are ultimately translated into a design proposal: a microphone system called Micall. Micall is a system of small microphones that can be divided among friends/family. These Mics can pickup sounds from each person individually rather than capturing an entire scene like current microphone aids do. Speech is now separated from background noise and is made more intelligible. Feedback received from validation tests shows that the project assignment is validated: Micall is a non-stigmatising, portable product with enhanced control over acoustics and improving sense of involvement in social contexts.
Conclusions. After a full design project has been performed, a solution is found to the project assignment: Micall.
Micall proves to assess the main functionalities as stated in the project assignment by the validation of the end-users.
Discussion. A realisable design proposal is made, which can be developed in the near-future. However, more focus is needed on the sound engineering and manufacturing sides. With more advanced models deeper use insights can be gained. Also, investment models should be researched in order to come up with viable ways of developing, producing and selling the product.","Usher; Assistive technology; hearing impaired","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","","","","Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:e14148ac-7687-44e9-8dea-7e08a04f271a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e14148ac-7687-44e9-8dea-7e08a04f271a","Relink: Leiden University: Rising above the existent","Mexis, Yiannos (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Spoormans, Lidwine (mentor); Koopman, Frank (mentor); Nevzgodin, Ivan (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","The Project is located in Leiden University’s Humanities Campus (Leiden, Netherlands). Specifically, this project is about intervening on two Structuralist buildings, PN van Eyckhof and Matthias de Vrieshof designed by Joop van Stigt in 1982; the brief calls for their regeneration and adaptation in today’s society, while focusing on one of the two clusters. Although the buildings do not fulfil the criteria to be considered as monuments they have a significant value due to the movement they represent, making their preservation an obligation for our generation’s architects. Starting of through an analysis at the scale of the city, context and buildings, allowed me to understand the architect’s original intentions and investigate which of these were actually realised. Through this analysis I found the architect’s initial ambition of creating an open building that would be linked to its context, to be the most intriguing aspect. Those bold differences between the architect’s ambitions and the realized proposal were also the ones that defined my project’s research question, “How can I re-link the cluster’s buildings with each other, the university as a whole and with the wider context, Leiden and its inhabitants?”. My intervention’s aim is to fulfil the architect’s ambitions; achieving this aim could be done using two types of interventions, programmatic and architectural. Regarding the Programmatic Interventions, following the tendency of educational facilities to be associated with the professional environment from early stages, the introduction of an entrepreneurial hub to the university, would become an innovation for the University of Leiden, giving a new essence and spirit to it Leiden and engage it with the society of Leiden. A series of well-considered architectural interventions, including the replacement of the original top floor, glazing of the courtyard, introduction of the tower, and others, have resulted to a project which fulfils my initial aims, respects the existing building and is a contemporary translation of van Stigt’s design. Talking about the value of my proposal for specifically the Humanities faculty and its context, through my proposal my aim is to positively affect the development and regeneration of the university and its context though programmatic and architectural (form & image) alternations, strengthening the Humanities Buildings’ position both in the university and the wider context. That being said, throughout any decision I took during the design process, my aim was to always respect van Stigt’s ambitions and values in his building and at the same time consider how users currently experience the building and what are their needs. Looking back at my proposal and reflecting to its quality both in programmatic and architectural language terms, I believe that my intention to respectfully adapt my proposal to the original design, and at the same time giving a new essence and revitalizing the historic composition and its context, has been achieved. Through my proposal, I have managed to show that despite being hard to intervene on such historic buildings due to all problems that underlie them, a deep preliminary study, together with concrete reasons for every decision an architect takes considering the values of the existing composition, can lead to innovative ideas and results, showing new ways to intervene on Structuralist monuments","Heritage & Architecture; Heritage; Structuralism; Joop van Stigt; Monument; Leiden University; Hummanities Campus; Architecture; Architectural engineering; architecture-based design; Building technology; revitalisation; Renovation; extension; Heritage and Architecture","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","","52.156911, 4.481836"
"uuid:d3ea93ac-dba8-4e24-9f44-74f29ab432e8","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d3ea93ac-dba8-4e24-9f44-74f29ab432e8","A decision-support method to meet the emission standards in shipping: The case of Seatrade","van der Meer, Mick (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Van de Voorde, E.E.M. (mentor); Frouws, J.W. (mentor); Peeters, V.P. (mentor); Schaap, M. (mentor); de Koning Gans, H.J. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Due to the increased social importance and regulations on shipping emissions, effort must be made by shipowners, operators and naval architects to reduce the amount of air emissions from ships. A large set of emission control methods exists, but compatibility and interaction issues complicate their implementation. This thesis contains a decision-making method tailor-made to the case of Seatrade. The decision-making method makes a cost comparison of different emission compliance methods for an arbitrarily ship, making use of the NPV. Case studies are performed to get an indication of the promising emission compliance methods for the Seatrade fleet.","Shipping management; Emissions; Decision-making; Marine technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2023-06-13","","","","Marine Technology | Ship Design, Production and Operations","",""
"uuid:e4818a29-3344-4ae1-bd26-97b5a06403ae","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e4818a29-3344-4ae1-bd26-97b5a06403ae","The Advantages and Challenges of the Blockchain for Smart Grids","Winter, Thomas (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Bauer, P. (mentor); van der Blij, N.H. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","In our current society both the demand for electricity is increasing and the demand for electrical energy as energy carrier is increasing. Renewable sources will play an important role in future energy generation due to societal developments. These distributed energy resources introduce new challenges to our current electrical power system. One of these challenges imposed on our current electrical power system is the introduction of a new grid user, the prosumer, who consumes and produces electrical energy. Another challenge is the intermittent nature of renewable sources such as solar and wind energy. During the past year Blockchain gained momentum as a technology mainly through the evolving industry of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. Application of the Blockchain to the electrical power system could oer solutions to some of these challenges that the future electrical power system will face. The main goal of this thesis is to identify the opportunities, advantages and technical challenges of applying the Blockchain to the electrical power system. First, as part of the literature study the Blockchain has been studied and the operation of the Blockchain has been analyzed. The Blockchain has been dened as a collective of technologies that can be described as a database, which is distributed among a peer to peer network, combined with securitization elements relying on multiple cryptographic technologies. Second, the opportunities where the Blockchain could be applied in the current electrical power system were identied. In order to study the application of the Blockchain to the electrical power system four case studies have been introduced. These case studies dierentiate themselves in the level of adoption of the Blockchain and the functionality which could be provided to the electrical power system. Ranging from a local peer to peer trading infrastructure to the entire market being operated via the Blockchain with advanced features such as the control of power ows. Third, the various advantages of applying the Blockchain to the electrical power system have been explored based on the proposed case studies. A distinction has been made between advantages which are inherently linked to the characteristics of the Blockchain and the provided functionality to the electrical power system. Fourth, the challenges of applying the Blockchain to the electrical power system have been analyzed and discussed. Based on the dierent case studies a segregation has been made between challenges attributable to the characteristics of the Blockchain and challenges specically linked to the implementation of the case studies. Last, the practical application of the Blockchain to the electrical power system of the dierent case studies have been discussed. Explanation is given how the dierent case studies could be implemented within the electrical power system and what the role will be of dierent parties currently involved within the electrical power system.
The cluster around Naval Energies and Akuo Energy in France and the cluster of OTE Corporation and Makai Ocean Engineering both perform well on most of the investigated elements. The performance of the Dutch cluster suffers somewhat from the small scale of its main OTEC developing actor, Bluerise. The Japanese cluster performs very well on research related aspects although limited commercialization efforts can negatively influence further technology diffusion. Malaysia lacks essential actors for technology development and should therefore not be defined as an OTEC cluster.
Two influences external from the industry were found to affect OTEC development negatively. Firstly, current support mechanisms for emerging (renewable energy) technologies are not suitable for technologies that require high upfront investments due to focus on production subsidies instead of upfront grants or guarantees. Secondly, OTEC is not included in renewable energy development plans from governments, which negatively influences the confidence in the technology of industry and investors and creates uncertainty in the market.","OTEC; Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion; technological innovation systems; functions of innovation systems; Innovation; Policy","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:2b8d0503-69b4-41ee-b47c-b6b89b7252c7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2b8d0503-69b4-41ee-b47c-b6b89b7252c7","The Design and Implementation of a Domain-Specific Language for the Description of Medical Devices","Rensen, Tim (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Programming Languages)","Visser, Eelco (mentor); Tintarev, Nava (graduation committee); Erdweg, Sebastian (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","LeQuest develops interactive e-training modules to improve the competence regarding medical technology of medical professionals. The medical technology is analysed by LeQuest to develop training modules, but the analysis process and writing associated information can be performed more efficiently. This would reduce the required time and resources which could be invested in additional trainings and quality improvements. In the end, this will lead to an improvement regarding the patient's safety in health institutions. This work empirically evaluated the Spoofax Workbench by conducting an industrial case-study which consists of the design, implementation and evaluation of a domain-specific language (DSL). The LeQuest DSL is used as a tool for transforming the current analysis process into a more formalized process which does allow for objective observations, measurements and quantifiable information. Although the LeQuest DSL is not integrated in the current work-flow yet, the evaluation has shown that it is expected that the overall quality and efficiency of the analysis process will increase after the introduction of the DSL.","domain-specific language; medical devices; medical technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:661045b2-ea55-4993-b4d8-f4568f96596b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:661045b2-ea55-4993-b4d8-f4568f96596b","Sensory Augmentation by means of Wearable Technology: Supporting Intercultural Adaptation through Language Learning","Marquez Alvarado, Guillermo (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Kortuem, Gerd (mentor); Hekkert, Paul (mentor); Kawsar, Fahim (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","It is known that the distinctive relationship of the Millennial generation with technology has brought two icons of the current lifestyle, mobile phones and online social networks, which it is often considered as a badge of generational identity. The accelerated rise of smart devices has enabled modern society to reach amazing levels of productivity in regular lives. On the other hand, technology has contributed to increase the ""absent presence effect"", which is described as an individual is physically present but is absorbed by a technologically mediated world of elsewhere. This phenomenon has affected the quality of interpersonal relationships and the ability of individuals to accurately read verbal and non-verbal codes. In a higher multicultural context, as a consequence of the process of globalization these verbal and non-verbal communication coding systems are learned and passed on as part of the cultural experience, therefore, a cultural-specific knowledge (knowledge of intracultural communication) is required regarding the different verbal and non-verbal communication codes from a particular culture in order to understand and respond accurately to different the social interactions presented during the socialization process among different cultures.
This research proposes wearable technology as the preferred tool of communication for the human being, with the potential of improving human intercultural adaptation. Although wearable technology has the potential to assist all the dimensions of intercultural adjustment (verbal and non- verbal communication elements) however, for the purpose of this study, it has been decided to focus on one of these dimensions, direct communication (language barrier). Language is considered as the most relevant mediator that allows the human being to relate and understand each other. Hence, its importance as an initial approach to wearable technology assistance in intercultural adaptation.
The design proposal exposed in the present document aims to show the advantages that wearable technology can offer through the implementation of sensory augmentation principles, to improve and encourage an individual in his language learning process. In addition to the integration of augmented reality systems as a provider of a motivating, entertaining, and engaging learning environment. Thus, allowing the individual to be involved in a rich real-time support environment as he performs his daily activities (learning through direct experience).
It has been found that currently, enterprise-grade blockchain solutions that meet the requirements of the insurance industry regarding governance, privacy, scalability, identity and access management, security and reliability are not available. Besides no concrete insurance use cases that will actually realize benefits have been found. Therefore, it is hard to justify investments that are specifically targeted at blockchain technology. However, there are two investments insurers should make that are not specifically targeted at blockchain technology, but will prepare insurers for technological innovation, whether blockchain will reach maturity in the near future or not. The first and most important investment is related to standardization. The workshops led to the insight that the most crucial uncertainty outcome is the strength of cooperation. The standardization of data formats and field descriptions is a prerequisite for this cooperation. Insurers just started this standardization in order to facilitate data exchange with other insurers. Insurers should continue their standardization efforts, as it will facilitate data exchange in the insurance value chain and being compliant with GDPR, regardless whether blockchain will be implemented. The second investment is related to rationalization, it will enable insurers to respond more quickly to changes in IT and be compliant with regulation. Blockchain can be a driver for thinking about how systems can be developed to support decentralization, a division of roles and agility, however, the rationalization process should not be targeted to a specific blockchain platform, as it is hard to choose from the scattered field of blockchain platforms.
Transformation of the mobility industry
With increasing globalization and urbanization, space in urban areas is very limited and air quality is decreasing because of fossil fuelled engines. Since the invention of the automobile in the early 1900’s, the automotive industry currently faces their biggest disruption so far. With automation, digitization and electrification, the automotive industry can offer Mobility as a Service in collaboration with other mobility providers.
Transformation of Ford
Currently, Ford’s value to the ecosystem is the product (vehicle). In order to offer Mobility as a Service, Ford needs to work together with other stakeholders in the mobility ecosystem. Only then, users can experience the efficiency of shared mobility from A to B. Moreover, if Ford is able to collaborate with other mobility providers and stakeholders of the ecosystem, space in urban environments can be regained, giving the streets back to the community. This fits with Ford’s vision of democratizing mobility.
Design approach
In order to achieve this, I have emerged myself in the complex ecosystem of mobility and found different variables that are of influence when designing for urban mobility. I interviewed experts in the field of new mobility solutions and visited multiple stakeholders of the mobility ecosystem in order to formulate a founded vision on urban mobility (see one of the figures in the attachment bellow). From this vision, I subtracted new strategic mobility solutions for Ford in order to anticipate for the future ecosystem of urban mobility.
Scope
The scope for the assignment is Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Eindhoven has a car friendly infrastructure and is relatively small enough for quick iterative testing of new technologies with the automotive campus nearby. Also, stakeholder position possitive towards mobility initiatives. Finally, Eindhoven is also far ahead compared to other European cities in Smart Mobility initiatives.
Envisioning the future of urban mobility
The method of ‘Visual Thinking’ is used in order to communicate my vision for future urban mobility. This vision is iterated with stakeholders and validated with Ford. The visualization of the vision has several layers of information (see vision in attachment).
1. Car metaphor (rear-view mirror is the past, inside the car is the present, in the window in the future)
2. Urban zones (zone A: Downtown, zone B: Pre-war, zone C: Suburbs)
3. Dominant transportation modes (zone A: walking, zone B: biking, zone C: driving)
4. Mobility users (people transport, goods & services, construction & maintenance)
Strategic mobility solutions for Ford
From this vision I created multiple mobility solutions. Finally, I recommend the three most viable, desirable and feasible solutions:
1. First and last mile transportation in collaboration with busses;
2. Dedicated autonomous areas;
3. Autonomous goods delivery.
These solutions perfectly t Ford’s vision of democratizing mobility and enable Ford to implement emerging mobility technologies correctly and prepare itself for the transformation of the mobility industry.","Urban mobility; Autonomous technology; Servitization","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2020-03-01","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:c9477325-59d2-46bf-9968-c1bbbd040ec3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c9477325-59d2-46bf-9968-c1bbbd040ec3","Battery boat: Concept study in bulk electric energy sea transport","Huberts, Joris (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Hopman, J.J. (mentor); Frouws, J.W. (graduation committee); de Jong, W. (graduation committee); Hoogendoorn, D. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Developments in the field of renewable energy technologies have lead to low energy cost in areas with specific characteristics. In the Middle East solar power plants are built for prices around 3 cent per kilowatt-hour and bids below 3 cent have been placed. In Europe wind energy is the second largest source of renewable energy after biomass. Although, wind farms are being built without subsidy the total cost of a wind farm is much higher in the order of 14 cent per kWh and it can decrease to 10 cent by 2030.
In this research an concept study for the transport of electric energy is made to find an answer to the question: “is it possible to ship electric energy which is delivered in a port between areas of generation and consumption over a fixed distance with the use of a ship and deliver it for a levelised cost of electricity (LCoE) which is competitive in the market of unloading.”
The cost of a kilowatt-hour of electric energy in the Dutch market is 8.33 if it is produced by a modern gas fired power plant and if the cost for CO2 emissions are included according to the current prices in the European emission trading scheme. If higher carbon cost scenario's are applied the price could increase to prices over 17 cent per kilowatt-hour. The concepts in this study are tested against four different carbon emission cost scenario's ranging from 8 euro/tCO2 to 190 euro/tCO2
Most electrical energy is transported by electric energy power grids. For long distance high volume energy transmission a high voltage direct current energy cable is the most efficient way to transport energy but at larger distances the transmission system gets more expensive. In this research the electric cable is used as a reference case which the concept has to outperform.
To test the concepts a non-linear model is made which is solved with Matlab-integrated solvers to find the optimal transport concept. The model works by optimising the main dimensions of the ship. With this optimal ship design concepts are analysed. For this research: a concept based on a hydrogen-carrier (ammonia) and a concept based on thermal energy storage are discussed.
.
The hydrogen-carrier concept uses ammonia as a carrier. Ammonia has a high energy content and can be produced with the Haber Bosch process or with Solid State Ammonia Synthesis (SSAS). If the energy is produced using the well known Haber-Bosch process in 2018 the levelised cost of energy is 21.2 and 24.2 cent per kilowatt hour depending on the distance. Developments in the field of electrolysers will reduce the capital investment which can reduce the price to 17.8 to 20.8 cent per kilowatt hour by 2025 if the energy is supplied at 2 cent per kilowatt hour to the ammonia production facility.
The SSAS method offers higher energy effincies at lower capital investment cost. The LCOE calculated in this research is 11.4 to 16.4 cent per kilowatt-hour.
The thermal energy storage concept is based on molten salt. Molten salt is being used in concentrated solar power plants as a storage of energy. In the concept used in this project the molten salt is transported to another part where the heat which is stored in the salt is used to generate electricity. The LCoE is already 28.5 cent per kilowatt-hour at a distance of 1,000 nm. The thermal energy storage concept is more expensive than the ammonia concept.
Depending on the distance and the carbon cost scenario's the concept can be competitive to the fixed connection with a cable and fossil fired power plants in the home market. If the low cost carbon scenario's (1 and 2) are applied by law makers the concept of electrical energy by sea is not competitive but if politicians would decide to increase the cost for carbon emissions the transport could become competitive. When the carbon emission cost increase to values over 100 euro/tCO2 the SSAS concept is competitive for distance up to 2,000 nm but it still more expensive than a cable connection. For this distances larger than 4,000 nm and carbon prices according to the 4th scenario (190 euro/tCO2) the SSAS-based concept can be a competitive energy supplier.
The results of these analyses were combined to formulate a set of design principles, which could be used to determine which components to include in a personalized internal corporate accelerator program, depending on the characteristics of a specific project in the program. Furthermore, it was shown how the design principles could be used to determine the proper division of time and resources over these components in the program. Finally, it was argued that the principles could be used for selection purposes, to select only those projects to partake in an internal corporate accelerator program that would stand to gain the most benefit from such a program. After formulating the design principles for such programs, it was argued that these internal corporate accelerator programs could be used as a vehicle for introducing improvements to the regular New Product Development processes of corporate organizations.
The building industry is the biggest consumer of raw materials and has one of the biggest carbon dioxide emissions of the world, therefore the building industry should act in a responsible and responsive way. We have to change our linear economy into a circular economy and thereby change our way of working, living and designing.
Redesigning waste focuses on the implementation of the plastic waste stream into the built environment. One of the main focus points understanding plastic as a material and where the negative connotation latched on to this material is coming from and then shifting (the public’s) perception towards a more positive outlook on this alien material. By consulting relevant literature, companies who have experience in the working field and potential customers a (new) roadmap towards the topic of creating value in this undervalued materials has been created.","Plastic Waste; Circular Economy; Architecture; Building technology; Perception; Re-use; Amsterdam; Buiksloterham","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","","52.401543, 4.8907417"
"uuid:6d60dba9-5817-4787-a799-bc7a2188146e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6d60dba9-5817-4787-a799-bc7a2188146e","Semi-supervised Energy Disaggregation Framework using General Appliance Models","Bontor Humala, Bontor (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Venkatesha Prasad, Ranga Rao (mentor); Akshay Uttama, Nambi S.N. (mentor); Langendoen, K.G. (graduation committee); Bozzon, A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Providing detailed appliance-level energy consumption information helps consumers to understand their usage behavior and encourages them to optimize their energy usage. Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) or energy disaggregation aims to estimate appliance-level energy consumption data from the aggregate consumption data of households. NILM algorithms can be broadly classified into supervised and unsupervised (or semi-supervised) techniques. The former requires a large amount of prior data for each appliance and the latter relies on manual tuning of models of appliances based on some metadata information. While there is a significant interest from academia and industry, NILM techniques are still not adopted widely across households. This is mainly because the techniques developed for one household cannot be generalized and applied in other households (applicability), require tremendous manual-tuning to apply across households (scalability), and cannot run in real-time. To overcome the above issues, we propose a novel semi-supervised energy disaggregation framework – UniversalNILM. The key idea of UniversalNILM is to model appliances in a few (3-10) training houses, which has detailed appliance-level data and transfer this learning to test houses (blind disaggregation), which has only aggregate house consumption data to derive fine-grained appliance energy consumption. To this end, we develop an automated appliance modeling technique that creates general appliance models across various appliance brands and models. The general appliance models are analytical models which describe power consumption of each appliance. These general appliance models are then fine-tuned automatically on test houses to accurately disaggregate the energy consumption in real-time. To test the robustness of UniversalNILM, we empirically evaluated it across three publicly available real-world datasets. We show that the general appliance models learnt on a few households is able to accurately disaggregate on unseen test houses in the same dataset, as well as unseen houses from different datasets. This is the first work in NILM which is able to perform disaggregation across datasets. Another improvement is that UniversalNILM outperforms the reported accuracy from both state-of-the-art supervised and unsupervised NILM techniques.","NILM; Machine Learning; disaggregation; Energy efficient technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering | Embedded Systems","",""
"uuid:dc16066e-e0f3-4694-8885-b0ad853e7b11","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dc16066e-e0f3-4694-8885-b0ad853e7b11","Development of an LED Driver for Automotive Applications","Conesa Baños, Alvaro (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Electrical Sustainable Energy)","Del Croce, Paolo (mentor); Illing, Robert (mentor); Qin, Zian (graduation committee); Bauer, Pavol (graduation committee); Cvetkovic, Milos (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Power switches are used very often in applications such as industrial and automotive. The main function of these devices is to switch the energy delivered to the load so that power could be transferred in the most optimum way meeting a certain set of requirements. Due to recent and continuous developments in system-on-chip technologies, it will be possible to combine power devices together with more and more highly integrated circuits. This is the case of Infineon’s smart technology, whose fitness for mass-production culminates in very cost-effective and attractive solutions to customers in the automotive field.
This thesis focuses on proving the feasibility of using Infineon’s smart technology for an LED driver application and developing a flexible hardware platform which can be used to perform system-level analysis before designing integrated circuits.
Starting from an available test-chip which integrates the power device, the feasibility of the solution will be firstly analyzed making use of a simulation approach. The driver concept and the DC/DC stage will be put together with the switch’s detailed model to determine whether the device family could be used in the conditions given by the application of interest.
Once the problem has been tackled from a simulation point of view, a loss model will be derived in order to evaluate the efficiency of the whole system. Coil, capacitor, diode and switch among others will account for the total losses of the solution.
The next step towards the physical implementation of the solution will consist in finding a suitable floating gate driver which could deliver the required amount of current to the switch. Two systems will be analyzed and compared in order to determine which would suit the application best.
A step further will be taken in order to optimize the prototype setup. The DC/DC converter will be implemented on a PCB to minimize undesired parasitics and improve the results observed at previous measurements.
Besides, a literature study on concepts and strategies to control the system will be introduced and carried out. A comparison between different alternatives will be made in order to choose which would suit the application best. Once the most suitable control topology has been selected, a practical design will be proposed for the application of interest.
Lastly, the most suitable control scheme will be implemented on a real system at the lab using a rapid control prototyping tool from dSPACE. The steps of this process will be described and the obtained results will be shown and analyzed in order to draw final conclusions and present future work.","smart; technology; DCDC; buck; LED; driver; dSPACE; automotive","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2020-01-19","","","","","",""
"uuid:e6c46512-5a2d-4563-9304-1482a0439684","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e6c46512-5a2d-4563-9304-1482a0439684","Organic Rankine cycle as waste heat recovery system for marine application: Screening methodology, modelling and analysis","Thimmanoor, Sai (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Visser, K. (mentor); Georgescu, I. (mentor); Mestemaker, BTW (mentor); Infante Ferreira, C.A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Carbon dioxide emission into the earth’s atmosphere by maritime activities are a concern for the people within and outside the industry. This is because of the environmental impacts that are caused by these greenhouse gas emissions which changes the very chemistry of this planet. These impacts can be mitigated by reducing the CO2 emissions which can be achieved by several design and/or operational means. Waste heat recovery (WHR) technology is one such means that is capable of reducing emissions. This is achieved by improving the overall fuel efficiency of marine engines which reduces the fuel consumption of the vessel. This improvement is realised by harnessing the heat energy that is expelled by the engine through waste heat sources such as exhaust gas, etc.
Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is one of many WHR technologies that is capable of harnessing that waste heat energy from the fuel which cannot be utilised by the engine operation alone. ORC as a WHR system (WHRS) is widely implemented in land based applications due to its fluid choice flexibility, plant simplicity and net efficiency. However, it is rather new to the maritime industry because WHRS on-board ships are predominantly based on steam Rankine cycle or turbo-compounding. These systems have their own advantages but ORC-WHRS may outweigh them in certain applications on-board ships. This is especially for electrical power generation from low and medium temperature waste heat sources. However, ORC in marine application encounters challenges unlike seen in land based applications. These challenges are caused by the physical & geometrical constraints, operational profile of the vessel or uncertainties caused at sea.
In this thesis, the implementation of ORC-WHRS to marine engines for exhaust gas is investigated and studied to understand how such an application can be beneficial. Unlike steam Rankine cycle, an ORC system has flexibility in choosing an organic fluid that is suitable based on the application. This flexibility in fluid choices are confronted by the above mentioned maritime related challenges. Hence, a screening methodology is devised in this thesis that finds a suitable fluid based on the waste heat source profile and selection parameters. These selection parameters are necessary to filter out functioning organic fluids that can be limited due to the mentioned challenges. In this thesis, the power density of the ORC plant is the selection parameter used.As mentioned earlier, the ORC-WHRS may often be subjected to off-design conditions due to the operational profile of the vessel or by uncertainties at sea. Hence, off-design performance is analysed to study the ORC system when designed at several discrete engine load points. These analysis are carried out in plant models modified from an existing steam based dynamic model and developed into a simple-ORC and a recuperative-ORC dynamic plant models. Sensitivity analysis of these models are also performed to understand uncertainties in the model output corresponding to uncertainties in model input parameter. This analysis is followed by analysis of the dynamic behaviour of the ORC plant model to varying load step functions and step duration for plants designed at discrete engine load points.
This thesis can be extended, not only to study how ORC can be used to meet future regulations on CO2 emissions, but also on operability limitations imposed on ships. The fluid screening approach used here can also be modified based on parameters, such as toxicity, flammability, cost, specific power etc. This can present a realistic approach to an end product that can be safely and economically operated on board.","organic rankine cycle; Waste heat recovery; Marine Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Marine Technology | Ship Design, Production and Operations","",""
"uuid:ae1d4dab-7da1-4a75-b1cc-b57e49ef8c01","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ae1d4dab-7da1-4a75-b1cc-b57e49ef8c01","Feasibility Study on Deep Seawater Solutions for Manado: ROTEC","Koppes, Fabian (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering); van der Veer, Machiel (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering); Veldt, Timo (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences); Marif, Kizjè (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences); Smits, Roy (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Heijman, Sebastiaan (mentor); Jarquin Laguna, Antonio (mentor); Garsadi, Rusnandi (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2018","Due to climate change and growing cities, water scarcity is becoming one of the futures biggest problems. On top of that, the population and prosperity of cities around the equator are growing fast. Meaning that the need for electricity, cooling and drinking water will grow fast in the following decades. ROTEC’s vision is that these growing problems require a sustainable approach for the future.
A solution to these challenges can be found in the oceans temperature difference. The top layer of the ocean is heated by the sun, while the deeper layer remains cold. This causes around the equator a temperature difference of more than 20 degrees over the ocean’s depth. This offers a lot of opportunities. It can be used as a vast source for electricity production (OTEC), large scale drinking water production (ROTEC) and for cooling (SWAC). Indonesia is one of the best locations worldwide, due to the easy access of cold deep sea water and the abundant presence of hot surface water. North-Sulawesi has a unique access to these sources. Due to the steep slope of the seabed the cold deep seawater can easily be reached.
Team ROTEC conducted a research in Manado for two months and came up with several solutions that can contribute to a more sustainable and beneficial future of North Sulawesi. There was mainly focussed on performing a need assessment for the capital Manado and the touristic Bunaken Island. This pointed out that Manado can reduce their electricity usage during peak loads by implementing a new way of cooling of malls and hotels along the boulevard. Bunaken needs electricity and drinking water in a way that is more easy to maintain and operate. Data analysis and measurements showed that both Bunaken and Manado have a high theoretical potential, since cold deep seawater is close to shore and found at relative shallow depths.
For Manado a new seawater district cooling system is proposed. This system uses cold deep seawater to cool the large buildings along the boulevard, instead of conventional chiller-cooling-tower units. The solution reduces their electricity usage for cooling by 96% and more electricity is left for the grid of Manado. The yearly costs for the operation of the cooling is 92% cheaper and the investment for the installation is earned back within 6 years after construction. Peak loads in the grid are decreased and emissions reduced; equivalent to 19,000 tons CO2 per year.
For Bunaken an integrated drinking water and electricity solution is found. By just using the temperature difference in the ocean, to produce clean and constant electricity and drinking water from seawater. The proposed installation provides the base load (80kW) for Bunaken for the same price as current solar PV and diesel generators together. Clean drinking water for the villagers is 12 times cheaper than Aqua Danone and 1.4 times cheaper than the not drinkable water from fresh water wells on the island. Such a kind of installation can produce 24/7, is stable and that without the need of fuels.","Manado; drinking water; rotec; energy; ocean energy; district cooling; OTEC; Reverse Osmosis; Direct Contact Dehumidifier; Indonesia; North Sulawesi; Sulawesi; SWAC; renewable; TU Delft; Unsrat; Universitas Sam Ratulangi; Delft University of Technology; Multidisciplinary; large diameter; Heat exchanger; chiller; pipe; offshore; Hydraulic; Watermanagement; future","en","student report","","","","","","","","","","","","","Project ROTEC","1.458938, 124.827711"
"uuid:b1eaaff3-5b94-4867-87bd-076e1c81995e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b1eaaff3-5b94-4867-87bd-076e1c81995e","Shaping the Future. Together.: A strategy to guide and inspire technological innovation across Achmea","Huikeshoven, Leroy (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Nas, Deborah (mentor); Jaskiewicz, Tomasz (mentor); Fleer, Thijs (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","Digitalization is a phenomenon describing the increasing use of information and communication technologies in our society as at large and in our daily lives. They reshape the world around us, how we organise our lives, how we interact with friends and family, and how we work and collaborated. Digital technology makes us more connected and more insightful. Because of digitalization companies like Achmea experience increasingly dynamic markets. Many markets already have experienced significant change, such as the logistics and entertainment industry. The financial and insurance markets are experiencing that change right now. Start-ups working on ‘Insurtech’ and ‘Fintech’ are hot and booming. The Assignment The assignment for this project has been to develop methods for Achmea IT in order to stimulate technological innovation across Achmea. The solution is a strategy called ‘Shaping The Future. Together’ and is meant to align existing innovation processes by creating shared vision about the future among employees. This strategy is an answer to the several problems found during research; (1) the lack of understanding new technologies and its potential by the employees at the divisions and the brands, (2) the struggle to imagine and develop an IT infrastructure that is ready to support new innovations based on new technologies, (3) the lack of governance on innovation processes across Achmea and (4) the lack of a proper process at the research side of innovation. The strategy is designed for Achmea to innovate with digital technologies. It empowers employees to come together across Achmea and collect insights about the future to imagine visions - new interactions between people and products. These visions guide, inspire and steer innovation at Achmea. ‘Shaping The Future. Together’ means connecting different innovation processes within Achmea together. Different processes work together in an iterative (Agile) and open (open innovation) manner to generate knowledge about the future. This is done by doing tests in innovation funnels, generate concepts during hackathons and imagining desirable futures for people and Achmea. Innovation funnels, Customer Arenas, Hackathons, Innovation challenges, Trend reports and whitepapers are structured in a comprehensive way to organise a strong overall innovation process within Achmea and its ecosystem. This innovation process generates knowledge on new value propositions, new business models, new products and services, new business processes, new ways of collaborating and the future state of the IT infrastructure, see figure A. Workshop Except for the creation of visions, most processes are already present within Achmea. Therefore, a custom workshop has been designed for the innovation managers across Achmea. This workshop generates visions with employees on a specific topic. During the workshop these visions are mapped on a timeline to create a path towards the future. The visions are based on insights, data, knowledge and personal values the participants have to collect upfront. These insight can be collect from anywhere; whitepaper, family and friends, experiences, customer research and business analytics. This approache is grounded in literature and argues that futures are created by the action people take based on the knowledge they can muster and the value they have. The workshop has been tested with employees of Achmea and is used by innovation managers at the Innovation and Experience centre IT. The pilot was a success. The energy was high and the participants were impressed about the deep discussion the workshop facilitated. In only four hours they managed to make multiple visions for the future. The strategy, innovation process and workshop is based on a combination of different approaches; Innovation of Meaning (Verganti, 2017), Vision in Product Design (Hekkert & Dijk, 2011), Contextmapping (Sanders & Stappers, 2012), Backcasting (Vergragt & Quist, 2011) and the Three Horizons Method (Curry & Hodgson, 2008).","Innovation and Technology Strategy; IT Services; Design Driven Innovation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:0fd7f446-f661-42e9-abe4-2e51167c6a90","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0fd7f446-f661-42e9-abe4-2e51167c6a90","Spatial information: An investigation into the impact of lacking spatial information in Dutch infrastructure projects","Rambaran, Amresh (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)","Brazier, F.M. (mentor); van Nederveen, G.A. (mentor); Lukosch, S.G. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","This research project focuses on the impact of lacking spatial information in the execution phase of Dutch infrastructure projects. In this research project, spatial information is defined as a combination of geometric and geographic object related information. Three construction projects have been examined through case studies and depth interviews with construction planners. As an answer to the research question, people seem to be the key. The greatest advancements on the issue of lacking spatial information currently seem to lie in the management of human errors.","spatial information; modern technologies; construction project; BIM; Augmented Reality; virtual reality","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering","",""
"uuid:e1ea48b3-aee3-4cbc-985c-708949773057","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e1ea48b3-aee3-4cbc-985c-708949773057","The adoption and diffusion of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies: The factors that drive and impede the adoption and diffusion of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies of private communication and data storage","Hup, Ben (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Asghari, Hadi (mentor); Scholten, Victor (graduation committee); van Beers, Cees (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","Privacy and security are perceived as of great importance. However, readily available Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and their development, innovation and standardization is not very forthcoming. Indeed, the dominant business model is privacy invasive: gathering and using private data as part of the business model to safeguard continuity. Meanwhile, users want their digital privacy and security safeguarded. The research strategy consists of desk research (analysing transcripts and the literature) followed by a survey to quantitatively analyse and find drivers and barriers of Privacy-Enhancing Technology adoption and diffusion. The research objective is to discover what managerial and policy recommendations can be stated in order to help PET producing organizations to increase the adoption and diffusion of PETs in general.","Privacy-Enhancing Technology; PET; adoption; diffusion; managerial; management; policy; consumer; business; entrepreneurship","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:9a437364-c865-4d8b-90c5-b598c57841f5","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9a437364-c865-4d8b-90c5-b598c57841f5","Entrepreneurs and Accountants: Vision 2025","Mathur, Gaurav (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering; TU Delft Product Innovatie Management)","Kleinsmann, Maaike (mentor); Price, Rebecca (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","Based on research with entrepreneurs, accountants and technology experts, a vision for the future of entrepreneur-accountant relationship is articulated. This vision is brought to life by the 'Centaur' product concept. Centaur uses Machine Learning to generate actionable financial insights. Voice commands make interaction seamless, and Dynamic Emotion Graphs encourage a deeper connection between accountants and entrepreneurs.","Vision in Design; Technology Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Accounting; Digital Design; Exact Software","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:9aefb5cf-b070-465b-95bb-5374dc7a14a9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9aefb5cf-b070-465b-95bb-5374dc7a14a9","Case Based Reasoning: As a Cost Estimation Method for the Ship Building Industry","Visseren, Sanne (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)","Hekkenberg, R.G. (graduation committee); Coenen, J.M.G. (mentor); Alblas, G. (mentor); Beelaerts van Blokland, W.W.A. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","Accurate cost estimations are important for ship production companies such as Royal IHC. The research discussed is based on a feasibility study for a CBR cost estimation method. The current cost estimation method at IHC is a top-down price-to-win analogy cost estimation. This method uses mainly the weight of the ship as an input variable for the estimation. A problem with using only weight is that the actual work performed on a section is left out of the estimation as well as other cost drivers. Another problem occurring is the current estimation method being divided into three phases, with lacking evaluation, optimization and feedback possible. This research discusses two new cost estimation methods. The statistical method is a parametric cost estimation method, that uses equations with the main cost drivers. The graph database method uses the CBR theory as a basis for cost estimations. Problem solving is done by using a solution from an old ship and reusing this solution for a new ship. The graph database stores detailed information about the work performed on the ship and the main cost drivers. The qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that usingmultiple cost drivers and the work performed on a section creates more accurate cost estimations. With a solution as the graph database method also the possibilities of evaluation and process optimizations are broader.","Case Based Reasoning; Marine Technology; Cost Estimation; Shipbuilding; Section Building; Ship Production; Royal IHC","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2022-11-20","","","","Marine Technology | Ship Production","",""
"uuid:972b0ebc-e525-4077-8c4d-8fd60aa04411","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:972b0ebc-e525-4077-8c4d-8fd60aa04411","Towards the future of humanitarian UAV adoption: Technology assessment and cooperative stakeholder strategies","Byatarayanapura Nagendra, Vishnu (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ubacht, Jolien (mentor); Ludema, Marcel (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","","Humanitarian UAVs; Drones; Humanitarian technology; Technology adoption; Cooperative stakeholder strategies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:3a63e8a0-a564-4b1c-ae15-95fefa397bc7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3a63e8a0-a564-4b1c-ae15-95fefa397bc7","The TommyTwist: an innovation roadmap and design proposal for Tommy Hilfiger to integrate wearable technology in their product","de Jong, Puk (TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering)","Hultink, Erik-Jan (mentor); Simonse, Lianne (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","Driving a significant part of the global economy, fashion represents one of the world’s leading industries. Currently, the fashion industry is radically reshaping by the forces of technology, globalisation and shifting consumer values. The top 3 words executives used to describe the fashion industry in 2016 were: uncertain, changing and challenging (Source BoF-McKinsey Global Fashion Survey, September 2016) In order to stay relevant amidst this state of flux, fashion companies are being forced to innovate. So is Philips-Von Heusen Corporation, parent company of several well-known fashion brands, among which Tommy Hilfiger.
PVH’s main priority for innovation is focused on their product. For Tommy Hilfiger this means exploring opportunities of the Internet of Things, with wearable technology as a subset of it. This graduation project was executed to kick off innovation in this area: creating an innovation roadmap and design proposal for wearable technologies for Tommy Hilfiger to enhance consumer experience.","Roadmap; Wearable Technology; Branding; Design; Innovation; Context mapping; Strategic Design; Innovation Strategy","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:63936c54-4759-4d63-8be4-61f75cbafa82","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:63936c54-4759-4d63-8be4-61f75cbafa82","Stimulate utilization and social interaction in physical public space through the implementation of digital technology: The case of Hong Kong","Guo, Ziyi (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Calabrese, Luisa (mentor); de Wit, Saskia (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","","Digital technology; Public space; Hong Kong; Digitalization; Social integration","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:b6ec7ece-e879-4ae3-8232-d8144ac2642d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b6ec7ece-e879-4ae3-8232-d8144ac2642d","Blockchain: Towards Disruption in the Real Estate Sector: An exploration on the impact of blockchain technology in the real estate management process.","Dijkstra, Martijn (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Boelhouwer, Peter (mentor); Koutamanis, Alexander (graduation committee); van der Hoeven, Franklin (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","In response to greater demand for transparency, technology advancements and the disintermediation by startups are gradually making some of the information public. As a result, property-related information is increasingly available in digital and paper form. However, a significant portion of the digitized information is hosted on disparate systems, which results in a lack of transparency and efficiency, and a higher incidence of inaccuracies that creates a greater potential for fraud. Blockchain technology could enable the commercial real estate industry to address these inefficiencies and inaccuracies.
This research focusses on exploring the different possibilities for integrating blockchain technology in the real estate management process. By analyzing the current real estate management process and gaining knowledge about the implementation of blockchain technology, the objective of this research is exploring in which phases of the real estate management process the process can benefit from the use of blockchain technology.
The research findings contribute to the knowledge of opportunities for broad implementation of blockchain technology in the real estate management process by providing a scientific based research document. It provides a broad overview of different opportunities and constraints for using blockchain technology in the process. It increases awareness for the disruption this technology might bring. This research provides scientific arguments for possibilities of implementing blockchain technology in the real estate management process and will function as a trigger for continuation of research into this topic.
In this thesis project policies that include the role of the intermediary in residential technology adoption are compared to other energy efficiency policies by means of an agent-based model. Recommendations on future agent-based models on the role of the intermediary and efficiency policies are made.","Energy efficient technologies; Adoption; Households; Agent-Based Modelling; Intermediary; Energy Efficiency policies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Complex Systems Engineering and Management (CoSEM)","CHanging Energy Efficiency Technology Adoption in Households (CHEETAH)",""
"uuid:c785d5f5-8624-4829-980b-1a3d97e69f2b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c785d5f5-8624-4829-980b-1a3d97e69f2b","Towards a Low Emission Port: Development of a decision making tool for technologies for the reduction of the shore-related emission footprint of existing ports in respect to the stakeholders’ values","Tzimitras, Vasilis (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Ravesteijn, W. (mentor); van de Poel, I.R. (mentor); Stikkelman, R.M. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","Energy-related and environmental issues are getting more attention and are becoming more important over the years. Currently, they are considered as one of the greatest challenges worldwide. The widespread use of fossil fuels causes the increase of the harmful emissions which are associated with significant health and environmental issues. Ports are no exception to this problem as they are considered as major contributors. Although there are some measures available, the high majority of them focus only on technologies that can reduce the vessel emissions. The focus of this research study is on the development of a decision making tool for technologies that can be used for the reduction of the emission footprint of the ports’ shore-operations. The decision making for such technologies is not an easy process. The large number of stakeholders, the environmental concerns as well as the fast changing business environment create a complicated decision making scheme. This scheme represents specific practical and theoretical issues which need to be addressed. A list of known theories that solve these issues and a list of methods and tools that deal with values and data were used for the development.
The developed decision making tool describes a ten step approach that provides specific guidelines and sub-tools for the assessment of the port’s situation and the technologies until the final technology selection. Considering the diverse character of ports, their fast changing business environment as well as the innovations concerning the low emission technologies, this tool has no static data-input. It reacts with the business environment and provides with the best technology choice related to the values of the stakeholders at a specific moment of time.
The developed tool was applied as an illustration study to the port of Piraeus for the following vision: ““Implementation of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation that can reduce the emission footprint of the Piraeus’ shore-operations”. The decision making tool can be used by port authorities either as the main decision tool or as supplementary tool that provides port authorities with an indication. The tool can be applied to all types of ports without restrictions such as the size or the economic activity. Its main characteristic is that it quantifies the decision making process by creating a “common language” for understanding the current situation in terms of decision criteria importance and technology opportunities. The application of the tool proved that it is particularly efficient for gradually identifying the values and their importance as decision criteria. The idea of dynamic input of data provides the flexibility to possible changes which consists an important aspect for making responsible decisions.
Although the recent attention given to the challenge, most literature research in the field fail to deliver a comprehensive picture of the phenomenon and its major drivers. Often, demand volatility is given for granted without digging into its nature, being the focus directly on ”how” rather than ”why” volatility exists. Increasing transparency and visibility on the issue has called the need for the study, performed on the assignment of a leading European semiconductor company, Infineon Technologies AG. Demand volatility has been always a challenge to the sector, whose unique characteristics enhance the complexity of the industry. The management of the company is willing to increase the awareness and responsiveness towards the phenomenon once having a clear picture of the issue and its relevant sources. Therefore, the present Thesis Project aims at exploring the nature of demand volatility, determining and analyzing its causes as well as root causes. The study looks at the challenge from a more holistic view, taking into consideration factors outside and inside the business, either at macro and micro level. As outcome of the research, a volatility model is designed able to measure the extent of volatility, understand and access its causes, and possible counteractions.","Demand Volatility; Root Causes; Model; Supply Chain; Infineon Technologies AG","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:b96654aa-db0a-43e1-bd3c-345461f75901","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b96654aa-db0a-43e1-bd3c-345461f75901","Modelling, control and stability analysis of the COBRAcable project integrated in the Dutch transmission system: Evaluation of the performance of the controllers","Karaolanis, Aris (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Electrical Sustainable Energy)","van der Meijden, M.A.M.M. (mentor); Mor, A. R. (mentor); Rueda, José L. (mentor); Alefragkis, Alex (mentor); Perilla Guerra, A.D. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","The COBRAcable project is one of the major interconnectors being constructed in the North Sea, connecting the Netherlands with Denmark. It is a 325 km submarine cable which will have the ability to transfer 700 MW. The importance of the interconnector is manifold: to facilitate the exchange of renewable energy coming from the onshore Danish power system. Since electricity demand and supply of wind energy is geographically spread an adequate transmission capacity is essential for the growth of renewable energy. The link will also provide a strong connection that will enhance the security of supply in the Northwestern European region. That is in line with the ambitions of the EU for a stronger interconnected European electricity transmission grid and it will be a backup in case of breakdowns.
Moreover, it will enhance the internal European electricity market. COBRAcable will contribute to the development of the internal European electricity market and specifically contribute to the further investigation of the Northwest European electricity market. Lastly, COBRAcable has been granted a European subsidy for researching and developing activities necessary for the connection of wind farms to the cable.
The main focus of the present thesis is to create a RMS model of the COBRA cable project in PSSE software. The starting point of the master thesis project was a basic model of a VSC station which consisted of the basic VSC converter controllers: the active power controller, the reactive power controller, the AC voltage controller and the DC voltage controller. Gradually, the active and reactive power controllers were upgraded in order to support the special functions of the COBRAcable project. Also, an equation regarding the injection of reactive current was added to implement the fault ride through capability of the converter. In the end, the responses of the final model created throughout this master thesis project were compared against the responses of the model built in Powerfactory, which was created in more detail and was already compared against the results of the EMT model in PSCAD.
The modelling framework for VSC – based HVDC transmission system was initially developed and tested in a benchmark system consisted of two areas. Both areas had three buses connected in a meshed configuration and the performance of the controllers mentioned above was evaluated there. Following the benchmark system, the modelling framework was then tested with a reduced model of the Dutch power system around the Eemshaven region.
Different tests were defined in order to evaluate the suitability of the model and in more details to evaluate the performance of the controllers. To evaluate the performance of the active power controller several cases were introduced associated with the special functions of the COBRAcable regarding the regulation of active power. The reference of the reactive power was changed and the performance of the reactive power controller was tested while using different ramping rates. Moreover, the voltage at the point of common coupling was changed in order to assess the performance of the AC voltage controller. Finally, the equations regarding the injection of reactive current were used to evaluate the fault ride through capability of the converter.
From the simulation results, it was observed that the active and reactive power controllers were able to follow the changes of the reference power quite stably regardless the different ramping rates that were used. The reference changes created a dynamic behavior regarding the performance of the AC voltages of the buses in the Dutch power system. The investigation regarding the AC voltage controller led to the conclusion that there is a limit on how much you can increase and decrease the voltage at the PCC. The equations associated with the fault ride through capability have shown that the converter is actually trying to inject reactive power when the voltage has dropped below certain levels. In the end, the creation of a user – written model of the COBRA cable project in PSSE added an increased level of complexity. The absence of block diagrams with their respective signals as well as the required knowledge of the software made the translation of the control structure of the VSC station from the Powerfactory model difficult.
This thesis studies the strategic motivations for large firms to engage in partnerships with young ventures, and aims to design a service model for an intermediary that puts the needs of the large firm at the core. This project was commissioned by, and executed in collaboration with Venture IQ, an innovation scouting company founded in August 2015. Venture IQ develops a software platform (named Catalist) to collect data on companies and share the results of their search efforts with their corporate clients. For every search project Venture IQ carries out the same approach, that spans three phases: Kick-off, Search, and Deep Dive. This approach does not embed client needs or provide structure to its team of analysts.
With the goal of this assignment to redesign Venture IQ’s service model with a focus on client needs, the assignment was formulated as follows:
To develop a service proposition for an open innovation intermediary to aid large firms in the early stages of their search for strategic partnerships with young ventures.
Through phase of discovery including review of literature, explorative interviews with industry experts, analysis of the context and Venture IQ itself, two main research questions are formulated.
1. How can Venture IQ’s service model be designed to better serve individual projects?
2. What role can Catalist fulfill in the future of Venture IQ’s services?
The discovery phase provided insights into a variety of strategic motives that large firms have for searching for an innovation partner. To better understand the differences between individual projects and find answers to the research questions a conceptual typology of three search project types is constructed:
Market search projects - The large firm intends to gain access to new or adjacent markets to leverage their current technologies, products or services
Technology search projects - The large firm intends to gain access to novel technologies that can increase value of the firm’s current market
Explorative search projects - The large firm intends to gain access to, or knowledge about unfamiliar markets and the technologies, products or services that are shaping them
The research questions and the conceptual typology form the foundation for the next phase of in-depth research, during which nine search projects carried out by Venture IQ are investigated through case studies. The data for the case studies was collected through observations of client meetings and discussions, and analysis of correspondence and presentation documents. The nine case study projects were augmented with a survey among the analysts working on those projects to document their experiences. Follow-up interviews were held with analysts to clarify responses where needed.
In addition to the goal of obtaining insights into Venture IQ’s process and client needs, the case studies form a method to learn about how the software platform is currently being used and how it can add more value to the search process. As a result from the case studies three platform user types were defined: Analysts: Venture IQ analysts that execute searches provide clients with results, Client lead users: people at the client firm who lead search projects and have experience in the field of corporate venture capital, and Project-based users: employees at client firms that are involved in specific searches because of their expertise in the field.
The insights derived from the qualitative data are summarized into five clusters, that each form opportunities for design. The design opportunities are collected in the design brief that states the vision for the future of the software platform:
The vision is for Catalist to become the go-to platform for initiating and organizing corporate venture capital searches, and accelerate these with Venture IQ’s data-driven services.
The insight clusters are formulated into design challenges that, together with the design vision, parameters and requirements form the design brief, the foundation for the ideation phase.
Three concepts were composed from ideas that arose during team brainstorms. After detailing these concepts were tested along the requirements stated in the design brief and one concept was selected. The selected concept describes a procedure where clients can initiate new search projects within Catalist whenever they desire to do so. This intake procedure consists of a series of questions that cover all the information that analysts need to start a search. Additionally, project information is captured in a format that allows collaborators (client lead users, project-based users and analysts) to review the project characteristics at all times and make alterations when necessary.
Two iterations of prototype testing with clients have illustrated the value of a structured intake procedure. Despite the low fidelity of the prototypes valuable information was uncovered by asking for specific types of project attributes and motivations. Test users, who were client lead users, acknowledged the value of the procedure. Not only to improve the effectiveness of the search process but also to individually assess the underlying reasons for a new project.
A challenge for the future arose during the prototype tests of the intake questions, as some questions and definitions can still be misinterpreted. It is therefor recommended that the intake procedure is thoroughly tested to smoothen out the ambiguity that some elements might cause.
The most important design features are two elements that are strongly connected: a new experience for the client to start their search for a strategic partner, and a service model that is a guide for the intermediary performing the appropriate search actions.
The final design illustrates an innovative process for client users to interact with each other and with analysts, via Catalist. Aside from the intake procedure, a series of features is designed to make Catalist a central place to collaboratively search for potential partners and share ideas about future projects.
Although Catalist must undergo changes before the final design is realized, the new service model can be put into operation immediately. A simple online survey or intake document can be sent to clients that want to start a new project. From this intake survey analysts can select the appropriate actions and start the search process. ","Design; Strategy; collaboration; Innovation and Technology Strategy; Innovation; Design thinking; open innovation; corporate venture capital","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","","","","Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:d0afc872-8118-4103-a162-54ecf003677b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d0afc872-8118-4103-a162-54ecf003677b","Pattern Based Evaluation of Blockchain Technology as a Catalyst for Business Model Innovation: Exploratory Research with Focus on the Potential Implications for e-Health","Šalehar, Darija (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","de Reuver, Mark (mentor); van den Hoven, Jeroen (graduation committee); Warnier, Martijn (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","As blockchain technology became more established in the financial arena, federal health IT officials, vendors and developers started looking at its potential and its use in the healthcare sector. Lately, there has been a major hype around the potential of the technology. It is described as a disruptive technology that could enable business model innovation with increased transparency, new models of partnerships and possible disintermediation. Business modelling was recognized as a potential tool to help the healthcare sector to determine a technology implementation strategy by involving all the important stakeholders in a value-driven dialogue about the way in which the technology should be utilized.
This research focused on exploring the potential of the blockchain technology for business model innovation with the use of business model patterns as a theoretical construct. From the scientific perspective, research contributed to a better understanding of the role of business model patterns as a construct with multipurpose character. The construct was used in a role of classification device to gain an understanding over the technology associated business model logics and in a role of instruments of scientific inquiry to explore potential technology implications. A two-way relationship between the disruptive technology and business models was considered. As a result, tokenization was proposed as a new business model pattern, specific to the blockchain technology. Moreover, value patterns (patient empowerment, privacy by design, security by design, transparency by design) were recognized as an important matter that is potentially impacting future business models. In the second step, business model patterns were evaluated in the context of e-Health industry specific moderators. A Discussion with the implication of the technology from the business model innovation perspective was provided.
by transmission system operators (TSOs) is trying to accomplish these requirements, but it is important to realize that each TSO has its own grid protocols and standards. Consequently, all major TSOs in the interconnected meshed European transmission system are facing a huge difficulty in maintaining a strong operational coordination to work together as a one single European technical market model. In order to guarantee the highest security of electricity supply, it is necessary to structure a stable, reliable and secure analytical AC framework that takes into consideration the stochastic nature of system in-feeds in the daily operational planning. In this thesis it is analyzed how incorporation of smart technologies such as HVDC transmission can be used as a smart grid solution to improve the power system security and lower the risk in different adjacent areas/zones. The proposed risk-based security assessment (RBSA) methodology based on Monte-Carlo sampling is employed to investigate the security of the system and to quantify the expected system risk. It is shown that the market optimal HVDC power set-points may result in unnecessarily high risk when subjected to the unavoidable uncertainty of inputs
(fluctuations in load and RES) inherent to day-ahead forecasting. A detailed comparison of market optimal versus security optimal HVDC power set-point is presented. It is proposed to properly adapt the HVDC set-points with respect to the actual operating situation, which can be quite different from the day-ahead point forecast. Moreover, it is shown that by being able to adapt HVDC set-points in realtime operation, further more serious and more costly remedial actions such as active re-dispatch and load shedding, can be avoided. Furthermore, a study with two HVDC transmission lines is performed to show the necessity of coordinated control of the HVDC lines, and how this can reduce the stress in the network by acting as a tool to shift generation.","HVDC technology; RBSA; Monte-Carlo; Remedial actions","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2018-08-28","","","","Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology","",""
"uuid:e55389c3-3966-40f5-bf83-a8f9c6c393f0","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e55389c3-3966-40f5-bf83-a8f9c6c393f0","Data Analytics in Web-based Education in the Higher-education Classroom","Praharaj, Sambit (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)","Bozzon, Alessandro (mentor); Hauff, Claudia (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","Attention span of students in a classroom is very short. To overcome this, different active learning methodologies have been used in the past. Active learning keeps the students busy and engaged throughout the lecture. It breaks the lecture into certain time intervals by intermixing breaks, demonstrations and questions after each interval. For using active learning, clickers and laptops are commonly used in higher education classroom. Most experiments in higher education classroom studying different characteristics of students like learning performance and attention, use clickers and laptop. But, most of these experiments are in a controlled setting, not scalable and compromise the privacy of students. We overcome these problems in an active learning setup in the higher education classroom where we use a web-mediated teaching tool called ASQ. ASQ is a web application that helps to give presentation in a classroom where the presenter has control over the flow of the presentation. ASQ also allows the presenter to interleave the presentation with questions, videos and other interactive JavaScript components. Anyone can anonymously join a presentation in ASQ using a web browser. ASQ tracks the activity of every student interaction by generating event logs each second. In the previous work using ASQ, it has been shown that these logs could be used to infer the attention level of students in the classroom. The goal of this thesis is to gather insights about the fine-grained study behaviour of students in a higher education classroom by analyzing these event logs.
We investigate (i) the effect of lecture elements (like the difficulty, relative positioning and spacing of questions; and duration of discussion in the slides) on study behaviour (like attention level, performance and reaction time while answering questions) of students; (ii) the relationship that might exist between attention percentage of students and their participation in the in-class questions; (iii) if students are taking external help when answering questions during the lecture and the relationship that might exist between their tendency to take external help with the difficulty of questions. We conduct our study in a classroom of around 300 students, for 15 lectures in the Web and Database Technology course at TU Delft taught by 2 instructors. We find significant effect of (i) spacing of questions on reaction time and instructor on performance; (ii) length of discussion time associated with a slide on the attention level of students which agrees with past studies; (iii) relative positioning of questions on the performance of students. However, we do not find significant effect of difficulty of questions on performance and reaction time of students while answering these questions. We also find significant effect that students with more attention percentage participate more in the in-class questions. Finally, we find that students take external help while answering questions but the tendency to take external help does not depend on the difficulty of questions.","Classroom; ASQ; Technology Enhanced Learning; Attention; Active Learning; Web; Internet; Higher Education; Clickers; Laptop; Question Spacing; Data Analytics; Performance; Student; Behaviour","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:ddc5f88d-5a15-4312-ac63-edbf5f977cc1","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ddc5f88d-5a15-4312-ac63-edbf5f977cc1","User Acceptance of Autonomous Vehicles: Factors & Implications","Kaan, Jens (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Transport and Logistics)","van Wee, G.P. (mentor); Annema, J.A. (mentor); Rook, L. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","Self-driving cars have developed rapidly in recent years, diminishing the technological barriers blocking the introduction of the technology. Besides these technological barriers however, there are other issues, such as user acceptance, that need to be dealt with in order for autonomous vehicles to be successfully introduced to the market. One of these issues is user acceptance. Getting a clear view of the user acceptance of self-driving cars is especially relevant for parties such as the national government and the automotive industry, who might benefit from the introduction of autonomous vehicles, and would therefore like to ensure that the technology becomes a success. This master thesis research looks into the factors that influence the user acceptance of self-driving cars through a series of interviews, after which the implications of these factors the government and the automotive industry are considered.","user acceptance; autonomous vehicles; Self-driving car; Technology Acceptance Model","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:49076541-dd48-4013-aa04-67f4c79842cb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:49076541-dd48-4013-aa04-67f4c79842cb","Fundamental Study of Small-Signal Stability of Hybrid Power Systems","Prakasha, Anand (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; TU Delft Electrical Sustainable Energy)","Rueda, José L. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","In the modern world, the load demands on the electrical grids are increasing at a very high rate. Due to increasing power demands and deregulation of the electrical power, the power systems are operated to their maximum capacities.
Many renewable sources are integrated to the conventional grids to meet the increasing load demands. The HVDC technology has provided an efficient way to integrate different renewable sources successfully to fulfil the electrical power requirements. The integration involves incorporating different types of machines with different mechanisms and technologies. At peak load operating conditions, the electro–mechanical modes of oscillations exist between different parts of the system, which possess serious threat to the operations leading to widespread blackouts. These modes depend on various factors like, loading conditions, weak tie–lines, type of faults, topology of the system and generators. Among these, one of the key factors that affect the system stability is the machine inertias. The stability of the system is a key issue to be addressed when different sources are incorporated into a huge system.
In this thesis work, the effect of incorporating different inertia machines on the small signal stability of the system is addressed. Two study cases are studied to examine the effect of machine inertia on the system stability, case–1 is a HVAC system and case–2 is a HVAC–DC system. Two methods are used to access the stability of the system, by linearized models and by signal record based approach. The results from the linearized models are compared with the result obtained from the information extracted from the measured signals.
To allow for flexible demand and supply of energy, digital technology for communication between computers or devices and electricity providers and consumers will become necessary. This will help to balance production and consumption at each time resolution, without high costs and unnecessary bothering of consumers. Blockchain is a technology that could potentially serve as a solution for a new energy industry system. Blockchain enables direct and reliable transactions of assets, between every party willing to do so, without the need for an intermediary or central party in control...","Blockchain technology; Business ecosystems; Energy industry; Scenario planning","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:5b40288c-0d90-4082-b550-01a4d5312584","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5b40288c-0d90-4082-b550-01a4d5312584","Community based biogas enterprises in Ghana: An explorative study on Ghanaian cultural values and the associated opportunities for biogas technology","Boerboom, Menno (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences; TU Delft Water Management)","Kroesen, J.O. (mentor); Lindeboom, R.E.F. (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution); Universiteit Leiden (degree granting institution)","2017","Ghana as a developing country has some challenges for the future. These challenges include an energy crisis, a high dependence on firewood and high levels of poverty. Biogas technology has the potential to make a contribution in solving these challenges, but is not yet widely implemented in Ghana. For this reason, the aim of this thesis was to find ways to increase the use of biogas technology in Ghana. To do this, a business model for community based biogas enterprises was created which was based on Ghanaian cultural values and by that included the most appropriate complexity and scale of biogas technology. To arrive at a representation of Ghanaian culture, a field study was done in which thirteen SMEs were visited. Data were collected by in-depth interviews and participatory observation. For the cultural analysis, a model was made based on cultural dimensions by Hofstede and Trompenaars. The model consisted of six dimensions which were given a score between one to five. Based on these scores, the degree in which a civil society and innovative entrepreneurship are present in Ghana were determined. A multi criteria analysis was done to find the most appropriate form of biogas technology in a Ghanaian business setting. The feedstock availability of an average Ghanaian community was assessed to find the most feasible alternative and determine the size of the digester. Various value propositions were compared on their economic viability by calculating their NPV, IRR and DPB. The major findings of this research were that the garage-type digester was the most appropriate digester design, fed with only crop residues available from the community. For an average community size of 491 people, a digester size of 67 m3 would be needed. The best value proposition was concluded to be collecting all the available crop residues from within the community with a cargo tricycle, digesting the crop residues in a garage-type digester, using the produced biogas to generate electricity, selling it to the grid, and drying the digestate and selling it as organic fertilizer. The cultural analysis and discussion showed that additional training for the workforce would be required in cooperation, dialogue, proper work ethic, due planning and precision in labor.","Biogas technology; Ghana; Cultural values; Business model innovation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:fcd701ec-8748-43ac-85af-950e43c5646f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fcd701ec-8748-43ac-85af-950e43c5646f","Anticipatory Life Cycle Assessment of Sol-Gel Derived Anti-Reflective Coating for Greenhouse Glass","Tsoy, Natalya (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Prado, V. (mentor); Quist, J.N. (mentor); Wypkema, Aike (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution); Universiteit Leiden (degree granting institution)","2017","Innovation has become one of the global aspirations of this era being the main driver not only for economic growth but also for sustainable development and improvement of human wellbeing. Although novel technology can bring benefits and opportunities, it may cause unintended and undesirable consequences to environment and society. In order to prevent future ecological disadvantages, environmental analysis is carried out to estimate the impacts of a certain innovation. Environmental assessment of technologies is usually carried out when they have been already launched in the market. As a result, reoriention of the technological development towards better environmental performance in the later stages of Research and Development (R&D) becomes more complicated. Anticipatory Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been developed as a framework to assess the environmental impacts of new technologies by exploring possible paths of the technological development. The thesis project demonstrates the application of Anticipatory LCA for the analysis of the innovation at the early phase of R&D. The aim of the following work is to guide the Netherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research (TNO) coating innovation technology based on LCA impact results. The novel coating is being synthesized at laboratory scale and has a great potential to be launched in the market. The scenarios method was used to scale up the coating production process to pilot and industrial scales. The LCA results showed that the novel coating manufactured at industrial scale would have approximately the same environmental impacts as conventional coatings in the future. In this study, environmental impact of implementation of the new coating was studied with the help of Sensitivity analysis. Depending on feedstock and logistics, reductions could be achieved with respect to environmental impact while implementing the same innovation.","Life Cycle Assessment; scenario; coating technology; greenhouse glass; Netherlands","en","master thesis","","","","","","The Master's programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology.","","","","","","Industrial Ecology","",""
"uuid:fcacf6fb-112c-453f-9903-8ec53274153f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fcacf6fb-112c-453f-9903-8ec53274153f","Construction robotics technologies 2030","Liu, Bo (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)","Wamelink, Hans (mentor); Stoutjesdijk, Pieter (mentor); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","The research explores the currently used construction robotic technologies in the Dutch construction industry (mainly in construction assembly and construction safety management), and the possible future landscapes of technical innovations in construction in 2030 (also in the two selected fields). The future study depends on experts interview and a scenario-planning-based method. The study could help practitioners to quickly get a full picture of the technologies' application in construction, and to decide to which technologies they should invest.","construction robotics; technologies; future study; scenario planning","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","","",""
"uuid:3248c433-c240-43d4-9497-8a439a6144cf","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3248c433-c240-43d4-9497-8a439a6144cf","Explaining Technology Dominance in the Standards Battle between Battery Electric Vehicles and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles by Means of Using the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Tool Known as the Best Worst Method","Rodríguez Alonso, David (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management; TU Delft Values Technology and Innovation)","van de Kaa, G. (mentor); van Beers, Cees (graduation committee); Annema, J.A. (graduation committee); Scholten, V.E. (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","During the last decade, the transportation market has experienced a remarkable transformation. Unprecedented technological innovation and an increasing concern about pollution and climate change have pushed society towards sustainable mobility solutions. Among these, the main current options for personal transportation are battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. Despite the social relevance of this topic, most research about technology dominance in this standards battle does not make use of a comprehensive framework of factors, what has a negative impact on the validity and usefulness of the obtained results. The main objective of this research study is to determine which factors affect technology dominance in the standards battle between battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles according to experts. To accomplish this task, a comprehensive framework of factors for technology dominance is employed in combination with the multi-criteria decision-making tool known as the Best Worst Method to analyse the data provided by experts on this specific case. The results of this thesis deliver a first indication of which aspects seem to drive technology dominance in this standards battle. The performed data analysis shows that technological superiority, compatibility and brand reputation and credibility stand as key factors for technology dominance in this particular case according to experts. Furthermore, eight additional factors are found to be relevant for this technology battle. This research study contributes to scientific literature by delivering a first indication of which factors are relevant, and how important these are, for the standards battle between battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. These findings may be useful for assessing other technology battles in the automotive industry as well as in similar sectors. In addition, this thesis contributes to find out which factors tend to drive technology dominance in standards battles in general.","Battery electric vehicles; Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles; Technology dominance; Technology battles; Standards battles; Best Worst Method; Multi-criteria decision-making","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:2076b3a8-bea2-4d05-8427-7614bdc5c6d3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2076b3a8-bea2-4d05-8427-7614bdc5c6d3","Blockchain Technology for Governmental Processes: The Design of a Blockchain Assessment Tool: a Design Science Approach","Allessie, David (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)","Ubacht, J. (mentor); Cunningham, S. (graduation committee); Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (graduation committee); Van der Harst, Guido (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","The European Union is exploring the possibilities of blockchain for their services and processes as a bottom-up approach to the coordination of citizens and economic administrators. However, the multi-actor complexity and the systems complexity of blockchain technology makes decision-making in this subject a difficult task, resulting in a proliferation of blockchain experiments that do not provide significant value. To capture the benefits of blockchain in processes where this technology is applicable in the EU, a blockchain assessment tool is needed that allows for the structural assessment of the fit with blockchain for an information exchange or registration process. This thesis uses a Design Science to design this blockchain assessment tool.
Six elements were found to be of importance for blockchain experimentation in EU Institutions and Bodies: Complexities, Process Factors, Ripple Effects, Organizational Factors, Decision-making Process and Design Features. It is critical to take the complexities involved in implementing blockchain in public administrations into account. Also, the factors that define the fit between the process and blockchain technology need to be considered as insight in this fit can enhance decision-making regarding blockchain experimentation in EU Institutions and Bodies. In addition, there are a number of organizational factors that determine the ability of a governmental organization to adopt blockchain technology. Given the institutional change that blockchains might present, it is critical to take into account the ripple effects of blockchains when deciding to experiment with blockchain technology as an EU Institution or Body. As there is not merely one decision-making process for IT innovation adoption, the process of how a decision on blockchain experimentation is reached needs to be considered as well. Lastly, as blockchain technology compromises of various types and design features, it is important to reflect on the impact of these features on the process criteria.
Using explorative expert interviews combined with Qualitative Data and Matrix Prioritization Analysis, the elements are concretized and translated into requirements for the blockchain assessment tool. Based on these requirements, the blockchain assessment tool is designed using a Morphological Chart to structure the design process. The blockchain assessment tool consists of three steps that allow a user to assess the blockchain fit, create a high-level blockchain design and to map the ripple effects. The blockchain assessment tool was demonstrated in two case studies exploring the possibilities of blockchain for an EU registration or information exchange system, for which the tool proved to provide key insights. Also, experts were interviewed to evaluate the tool, which demonstrated the need for this blockchain assessment tool for the public sector.
Future research is suggested to focus on the trade-offs between the design features to provide a better view on the possible blockchain architectures. Also, more research into the openness and interoperability of blockchain systems could create more depth in the debate of permissionless versus permissioned blockchains in governments. Lastly, research into applying Value Sensitive Design for blockchains could enable the design of permissionless blockchain systems where authorities can be supervisors to protect public values in permissionless blockchains.
This research focuses on the factors that play a major role in the battle for dominance in the field of B2G data exchange between EDIFACT and XBRL in India. Five phases were described in this research that the standards go through in their lifecycle when battling for dominance. These phases were designed using the framework of Suarez 2004 as a foundation [1]. To analyze the battle and identify the factors in a structured manner, this research was conducted in 3 main steps. Firstly, factors that were relevant in each phase for the battle between XBRL and EDIFACT were identified via an extensive literature search. This has resulted in a comprehensive list of 21 factors. The second step was primary data collection to identify the most important factors that are crucial to XBRL and EDIFACT with the help of a questionnaire. 9 experts in the field of data exchange standards answered the questionnaire. Data collection and data analysis were done using a Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method called the Best Worst Method. The third step was to calculate weights and establish importance of these factors for EDIFACT and XBRL using BWM. In conclusion, 12 factors are identified to be very crucial in the battle for dominance between EDIFACT and XBRL in B2G data exchange in India. These are Availability of a more general standard and Collaborations in phase 1, technical Capabilities and diversity of network in phase 2, regulatory support, awareness of the standard, and, implementation costs and time in phase 3, infrastructure dependency, switching costs, trial-ability and observe-ability, intermediaries and Bandwagon effects in phase 4, and, the factor innovation capabilities in phase 5. Based on the progress that the standards have made till date, and the results of BWM, XBRL has better chances of becoming dominant in future.
The results of this research have significant contributions in research and practical applications of standard battles. This research bridges the gap that exists in the literature between two different aspects of standard dominance – Phases – which look at the evolutionary aspects of standards over time and, Factors – which
consider a single point of time at which factors affect dominance of a standard. By combining these two perspectives, this research provides a way to not only analyse standard dominance battles in a phase-wise approach, but also to identify factors that can play a crucial role in increasing the likelihood of standard dominance in each phase of lifecycle of the battle. By doing so, one could establish chances for dominance of a standard in future, by analyzing historical progress of the standard.
This research also has practical implications for standard supporters and managers of firms who are willing to implement these standards in India. Standard supporters can strengthen their efforts in the direction of the factors identified in this research to promote the adoption of the standard they support.
Managers of firms can also benefit from this research as it would help them make informed decisions about choosing the standard suitable for their organization. For example, they can see where their firms stand with regards to the factors identified in this research to improve their chances of successfully implementing their standard of interest by leveraging these factors. This is important because, with new innovations evolving rapidly in the field of ICT, implementation of ICT standards is no more seen as a tool for achieving business objectives, but has become a strategic choice and a part of the overall business strategy of the companies.
Future recommendations of this research include expanding the scope to analyze this battle in the field of B2B (business to business) data exchange. Another interesting area to study in future would be to explore the fragmentation of data exchange standards in the B2B and B2G sectors.","technology battles; data exchange; Business-to-government; data standards; EDIFACT; XBRL; XML; ICT; Best Worst Method; Business reporting; Electronic Data Interchanage","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","","","","Management of Technology (MoT)","","20.5937, 78.9629"
"uuid:ac3274a6-cae3-416d-8fb4-3a312d9203e9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ac3274a6-cae3-416d-8fb4-3a312d9203e9","The overturning caisson: Construction method reconsidered","Korff, Baptiste (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences; TU Delft Engineering Structures)","van der Horst, Aad (graduation committee); de Gijt, Jarit (graduation committee); Everts, Bert (graduation committee); Groenewegen, Leon (graduation committee); Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)","2017","The construction method of an overturning caisson is reconsidered. This particular self-floating caisson was applied for several caisson quay wall projects over a century ago. After the year 1914, the design was abandoned. After this time, rectangular caissons became more economical due to higher qualities, simplified formwork and easier transport. However, the caisson geometry allows efficient material use and a relatively low draught during transport. When the concept is considered for current quay wall projects, these benefits are still present. However, the magnitude of these benefits reduced significantly. When other aspects, such as construction technologies are included, the remaining economic benefits are estimated to become negligible. The economic feasibility of an overturning caisson could therefore not be demonstrated.
In the end, who calls out the shots? Don’t go too high-tech. Keep in mind When using Animism as a design-strategy, define the character of the Object with Intent. The right amount of complexity of the artificial intelligence gives it character. The Object with Intent will confront the user and will therefore evoke strong reactions from the user.","Object with Intent; Research through design; Internet of Things; smart technology; smart product; connected product; interaction design; animism","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Master of Science Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:8d7890a7-3207-45ee-94d4-ddb3a10f5d0e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8d7890a7-3207-45ee-94d4-ddb3a10f5d0e","The Convergence and Integration of Operational Technology and Information Technology Systems","Kranendonk, R.P.","Stikkelman, R.M. (mentor); Correljé, A.F. (mentor)","2016","","IT/OT Convergence; Operational Technology; Information Technology; Oil and Gas Sector","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Management of Technology","","","",""
"uuid:25836d9d-c3cf-40b4-a172-e42e9964544d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:25836d9d-c3cf-40b4-a172-e42e9964544d","(B)ending the Linearity in the Corporate Front-end of Innovation","Deák, I.","Hartmann, L. (mentor); Ubacht, J. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor)","2016","The innovation process can be divided into three phases: fuzzy front-end (FFE) or frontend of innovation, new product development (NPD) and commercialization (Koen et al., 2002). During the front-end the product is being defined and the boundaries of the development project are set. Whereas a product innovating company needs to be proficient in all phases of innovation, the front-end has a great importance on the overall innovation performance (Khurana & Rosenthal, 1998). Current models that help to structure this phase follow a linear approach. The author argues that these do not capture real-world practices well and to increase research and development productivity, an alternative solution is needed. Therefore a design science research methodology is applied to design an innovation support framework based on the Cyclic Innovation Model (Berkhout et al., 2006) in this paper. Moreover, a research gap is addressed by combining Technology Readiness Level (TRL) definitions with an innovation model. The operationalized innovation support framework helps practitioners in the activity of maturing an idea to a compelling business proposition. It helps turning implicit decisions about the product concept into explicit choices. Finally, it helps to derive recommendations for complex innovation projects with various product/market combinations.","front-end innovation; fuzzy front-end; technology innovation; success factors; evaluation criteria","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Values Technology and Innovation","","Economics of Technology and Innovation","",""
"uuid:2b97a9a9-ea55-4803-88b5-f4e0b71ad26f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2b97a9a9-ea55-4803-88b5-f4e0b71ad26f","Atrium Deltion Revised: Comfort Research and Design Intervention for the improvement of indoor comfort in the atrium of Deltion college","Boschman, B.E.F.","Van den Engel, P.J.W. (mentor); Schnater, F.R. (mentor); Hordijk, G.J. (mentor)","2016","The current building industry needs drastic transformation to meet new performance standards regarding energy use and indoor climate requirements. It so happens that even with new buildings, the results leave something to be desired. This Master thesis describes the specific case of an atrium in the Deltion College building. The research is carried out to find which climate requirements are not met and how they can be improved. The main focus is on visual and thermal comfort. The design is the result of a design-by-research approach in which the maximum result is achieved with minimal interventions. Simulations are used to find the most comfortable solution with the highest energy efficiency. This research shows an example of how a building can be made more sustainable while improving indoor comfort.","atrium; sustainable; design intervention; building technology; simulation; indoor climate","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Architecture and The Built Environment","Building Technology","","Climate Design","",""
"uuid:80593798-5d79-4f1f-92b6-3b7e9bcd37fc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:80593798-5d79-4f1f-92b6-3b7e9bcd37fc","Enhancing Daily Digital Communication Through Instinctive Action Tendencies of Emotions","Lin, J.","Vermeeren, A.P.O.S. (mentor); Van der Helm, A.J.C. (mentor)","2016","This Master thesis is about research and conceptualization of a digital communication system to enrich expression and interpretation of emotions through sensor technologies in a more humane way. The project has explored and discovered user needs and concerns in digital communication through academic research, preliminary user research. For the defined target user and context, a new digital communication system, which involves meaningful tangible interactions with sensor technologies to help people express and interpret daily emotions was achieved as the result through co-creation, two rounds of user tests. In its first stage of implementation, the DUO system consists of two components, the physical interactive product as an extension of a mobile phone to translate body actions into dynamic visualizations, and the mobile application that serve as an universal tool which can be accessed both by users who have possession of the physical product and users without the product, who are willing to keep track of others’ emotions.","Internet of Things; Design for Emotion; Digital Communication; Sensor Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Master of Science Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:7becfcc6-6cd7-4da3-a654-fd3a08023ffc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7becfcc6-6cd7-4da3-a654-fd3a08023ffc","System design and orbit analysis for SpooQySat-1.","Pollier, C.M.","Kuiper, J.M. (mentor)","2016","The Center for Quantum Technologies (CQT), which belongs to the National University of Singapore (NUS) is developing a nanosatellite to host their miniaturized Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) payload called SPEQS. QKD makes it possible to generate encryption keys through the use of strongly correlated photons. This would allow two parties to securely communicate with each other without any possibility of their conversation being hacked. CQT has already demonstrated a QKD free space-link in 2005. The main challenge now lies within the creation of a global QKD network. One possible way to do this is through the use of nanosatellites. As CQT has no experience in designing nanosatellites, a first step towards this goal is to design a satellite which allows the team to test a version of their payload. The main purpose of the thesis work is to present a reliable design for CQT’s first nanosatellite, SpooQySat-1, through the implementation of a systems engineering approach. The requirements as first defined by CQT are revised and redefined through the use of a requirements discovery tree. After the requirements list was complete, an orbit analysis has been carried out to ensure the best suitable orbit was selected for the mission. This, together with the requirements, served as input for the design analysis. A concept of operations has been generated, leading to a realistic power budget that has been compared to the estimated incoming power for various cases. A communication analysis has been carried out taking into account the noisy environment of Singapore. COTS component selection has been carried out for all subsystems. To ensure maximum reliability, a risk analysis has been implemented. Data regarding CubeSat failures has been gathered to inform the risk analysis. The outcome of the risk analysis was a mitigation strategy that allowed a new design iteration to ensure maximum reliability.","satellite; design; system engineering; quantum technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2016-03-24","Aerospace Engineering","Space System Engineering","","","",""
"uuid:114d5e17-8389-4f1c-87e2-b175bb3830e1","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:114d5e17-8389-4f1c-87e2-b175bb3830e1","Regulating The Bitcoin Ecosystem","Kapoor, R.","Van Beers, C.P. (mentor); Storm, S.T.H. (mentor); Santoni De Sio, F. (mentor)","2016","Bitcoin is a peer to peer decentralized virtual currency, released online through a research paper in 2008 by the unknown Satoshi Nakamoto . Around the world, many countries have cautiously taken minor initiatives to address the regulatory issues, due to its rising popularity. The regulation is not seen as complete, due to the nascent and novel outlook of bitcoins, requiring time for analysis and empirical evidence. The main research question that needs to be answered, is how can governance ideas be conceptualized to support technological decentralization while protecting against illegal activities? To answer this question a literature review is performed across academia, digital media and conferences/ independent authors. From this study, ideas for frameworks are consolidated, to effectively regulate bitcoins through coalitions, analyzed with game theory. This is complemented with a theoretical understanding of the technical, political, economical and ethical issues surrounding the bitcoin ecosystem. The thesis is broadly divided into seven chapters, where initially an introduction is presented which presents the structure of the thesis, along with the research problem and its motivation. This is followed by an exploration of bitcoin's current framework, which forms the most important theoretical part of the thesis. Here, its system design, strengths, challenges and solutions to regulatory issues are detailed. Also, how bitcoin is being perceived globally across twenty nations, is presented. Being an economic system, there has been reasonable skepticism, as to its validity as a money system. This is presented in the next chapter, where its economic structure is first explored, which is followed by an analysis of bitcoin from the perspective of both Austrian economics and Keynesian economics. Further, to understand the overall validity of a new system, the ethical impacts must be considered. This has been analyzed through two frameworks in this thesis. Firstly, as a large social experiment and secondly through a standard ethical impact assessment. Also, bitcoin has always been portrayed in the popular press, as promoting only decentralization. This is critically analyzed, from classical ideas of noted humanitarian M.K Gandhi and British economist M.F Schumacher. As a follow up, a modern exponential technology framework presented by Singularity University, is offered as a comparison. It is observed that bitcoin excels in the material aspect of decentralization (while requiring centralized intermediaries), but struggles in the spiritual aspect, as detailed. The major regulatory solution offered in this thesis, is through coalitions among stakeholders. For clarity, seven crisis situations are highlighted with the different payoff's (relative power) among the different members assigned, with proper reasoning and a demo game explained. Finally, conclusions and favorable recommendations are drawn , along with sections on research limitations, future research and reflections. Also, an appendix section on the major digital media outlook, is presented for two years (Aug'13- Sep'15), to explain its popular portrayal and the opinion of the general audience. Overall, it can be said that it is still early days for bitcoin and there are major critics in every domain. Consistent issues with taxation, anonymity tools like TOR promoting illegal activities, its inherent economic value and price volatility exist. The internet as an information medium, is probably the only suitable precedent for bitcoin which has been far more successful than anticipated. The benefits of bitcoin from exponentially lower transaction fees, global banking outreach, framework for decentralized asset ownership transfer and its ability to impact the Monetary Policy of ruling governments have been appreciated. Further, as a practical lesson, policy makers could see mainstream bitcoin as promoting a balance of centralized and decentralized intermediaries. Any effort at promoting an extreme ideology could have long term negative effects. Also, offering technologies like bitcoin a fair trial run would be far more appropriate than inviting legally controversial use. With over hundred competing digital currencies, the question is certainly not if, but when they would be competitive with fiat currencies.","Bitcoin; Cryptocurrency; Peer to Peer (P2P); Colored Coins; Game Theory; Coalitions; Appropriate Technology; Technology Decentralization","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Economics of Innovation","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:3dc784c7-a7cb-42f6-9b34-1099bb03a471","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3dc784c7-a7cb-42f6-9b34-1099bb03a471","Technology-Inspired Design: A conceptual model for Strategic Design Professionals to design for Disruptive Innovation","Vishwanathan, G.","Smulders, F.E.H.M. (mentor); Kleinsmann, M.S. (mentor)","2016","The objective of this thesis is to find an approach on how strategic design professionals can utilize their design capabilities to help companies cope with these challenges. Building on the fact that companies are painstakingly developing new-to-the-world technological innovations brokering this newness to find other possible applications and multiply the chances of creating a disruptive innovation is explored. The 1-?-1 {pronounced One-Eight-One} is a conceptual model that illustrates the process of how a new-niche-technological-innovation developed for an emerging market can be recycled and used to serve other emerging markets. This model helps in sequentially translating the newly created technological-innovation’s potentialities to be reinterpreted and repurposed for alternate applications.","Strategic Product Design; Disruptive Innovation; Technology; New Technology Development; Cross-Pollination","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","Master of Science Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:570ab4dc-4697-47b8-8363-6c53500b62b1","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:570ab4dc-4697-47b8-8363-6c53500b62b1","Social acceptance of smart meters","Kizhakenath, A.","Van de Kaa, G. (mentor); Rezaei, J. (mentor); Van de Poel, I. (mentor)","2016","The introduction of intelligent meters - smart meters - to the electricity infrastructure should provide the grid intelligence the ability to cope with challenges and changes; thus, it is named smart grid (Verbong et al., 2013). We have learned that the smart grid system is a complex product system because its technologies, components and interfaces are interdependent; hence, the smart meter as its key node is a complex product (Ligtvoet et al., 2015; Suarez, 2004). However, the societal rejection of smart meters detains the introduction of smart meters in the Netherlands. Societal rejection results from a lack of consideration of social ethical values and conflicting values in society (Künneke et al., 2015). The research objective is to determine the most important values for the social acceptance of smart meters and formulate design requirements that facilitate its social acceptance in the Netherlands. We have reviewed social acceptance literature, finding multiple studies (Künneke, Mehos, Hillerbrand, & Hemmes, 2015; Ligtvoet et al., 2015; Narayanan & Chen, 2012; Shin, Kim, & Hwang, 2015) stating that a complex technology such as the smart meter should be assessed from multiple perspectives. We build our concept on the social acceptance concept of Wüstenhagen et al. (2007), adapting the dimensions to socio-political, market and household acceptance, which represent the important stakeholder groups for smart meters. Literature regarding each group of stakeholders’ acceptance was analyzed to derive and define their values, namely energy policy, network economics, technology management, technology acceptance, applied ethics and ethics of technology literature stream (see Appendix 1). Our multidisciplinary approach to analyze the acceptance and selection of a complex technology is a first notion and our theoretical contribution. This framework for the social acceptance of smart meters enables utilizing experts representing and possessing insights into the group of stakeholders to evaluate the importance of the values. After a qualitative validation of the values, the best-worst method (Rezaei, 2015) was utilized to evaluate the importance of the values, which is a first notion to measure the importance of the values with this method, our methodological contribution. Three experts performed the qualitative validation of the values. The evaluation of the values with the best-worst method was conducted with ten experts for smart meters and showed privacy as the most important value for socio-political and household acceptance, as well as cost-effectiveness for market acceptance of smart meters. Due to different regulation about privacy, there was no socio-political acceptance for smart meters (Bellantuono, 2014; Cuijpers & Koops, 2013; Ligtvoet et al., 2015). Several scholars have stated that for end users of smart meters, privacy is particularly important (AlAbdulkarim et al., 2014; Cuijpers & Koops, 2013; Darby, 2012; Verbong et al., 2013). On the other hand, cost effectiveness depends on the size of the market (Erlinghagen et al. 2014), the installed base of smart meters (Van de Kaa et al. 2011), which requires the acceptance of the end users and their importance for privacy. The value hierarchy approach enables to formulate design requirements based on values. We demonstrate how design requirements can be formulated based on the value privacy. These design requirements should foster the social acceptance of the smart meters, although it is limited due the conflict with the other important value of cost effectiveness. Hence, the design requirements should be analyzed and evaluated with the other important values by the groups of stakeholders for acceptance. Further studies should segment the groups of stakeholder (e.g. different end user groups) to analyze their important values, which enables creating service and incentive mechanisms for a particular group of stakeholders. Moreover, other complex products and other regions should be analyzed with our multidisciplinary approach, which would enable us to generalize our approach.","smart meter; social acceptance; VSD; BWM; technology selection","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Innovation Systems","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:cfb6a67e-48b1-4360-92c4-28a772881240","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cfb6a67e-48b1-4360-92c4-28a772881240","ICT as enabler or inhibitor of Lean Six Sigma Process Improvement","Bras, J.A.","Aldewereld, H.M. (mentor); Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (mentor); Warnier, M.E. (mentor); Verburg, Q. (mentor)","2016","","Lean Six Sigma; ICT; Inhibitor; duality of technology; enabler; improvement","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2016-01-25","Technology, Policy and Management","Engineering Systems and Services","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:27dc58f2-3029-4da6-b6b0-753026d0fb03","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:27dc58f2-3029-4da6-b6b0-753026d0fb03","Value and cost assessment of an Integrated Facade as a Product Service System","Van Winden, J.J.N.","Klein, T. (mentor); Den Heijer, A.C. (mentor)","2016","This thesis is a value and cost assessment of integrated facades as a product-service system. It focusses on the value of this new business concept in the built environment. Theoretical value is explained after which research by design is conducted to show the added value and cost on a real case study.","Integrated Facades; Product Service System; Life cycle cost; Facade; Decentralised Ventilation; Value; EWI; Photovoltaics; Building Technologies; Sustainable; Living Building Concept; Leasing; Real estate; University","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2017-01-29","Architecture and The Built Environment","Building Technologies","","","","51.998891, 4.373281"
"uuid:e67b0e2c-cf0b-484e-8c9e-ab1b2dc89529","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e67b0e2c-cf0b-484e-8c9e-ab1b2dc89529","Social Electro: Enabling digital music performance through wearable technology - everywhere","Naji, S.","Van Egmond, R. (mentor); Rozendaal, M.C.R. (mentor)","2016","This thesis examined what makes a device wearable and the role of technology in street music culture. The research uncovered the unused potential of a wearable for every day life in contrast to stage or home usage. Bringing digital music performance as a social jamming interaction into the public context appeared to be a natural step with regard to street music culture and the benefits of wearable technology. By using a conceptual model of the involved constituents it was investigated what makes musical expression in traditional jamming interaction and how could musical expression be achieved with the inherent means of digital music as a new form of expression. This led to a design concept which enables the performance of Dubstep music in an expressive and collaborative manner and can be worn on a daily basis.","wearable technology; digital music; interaction design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Human Information Communication Design","","Master of Science Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:82687965-fea3-4c0f-8a60-8127fc42dbfb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:82687965-fea3-4c0f-8a60-8127fc42dbfb","Design mobile support for cross-cultural travelers","Wang, Y.","Van Boeijen, A.G.C. (mentor); Jepma, E.J. (mentor); Chang, C. (mentor)","2015","This project looked into the ways applying mobile supports in cross-cultural travel, as well as how travelers use mobile supports to improve their travel experience. It was realized in the research that travelers could form various travel cultures based on their travel behaviors and values. Thus in the project, a research structure, integrating culture, travel and mobile technology was developed, getting insights for helping design. It resulted in a mobile application which integrates two main functions: supporting travelers explore the city though a map, and recording the journey for sharing and looking back on later in the life. The concept both helps to engage travelers in the local atmosphere and sustains their autonomy.","culture; travel experience; travel behaviors; mobile technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:4b337aeb-1611-414c-a0d1-7035a2b5b594","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4b337aeb-1611-414c-a0d1-7035a2b5b594","Roles of human and technology services in retail customer experience","Wang, Y.","Cankurtaran, P. (mentor); Van Boeijen, A.G.C. (mentor)","2015","With the engagement of digital technologies in retail, roles of human service and technology service are changing. As the franchiser of IKEA stores worldwide (except the one in Delft), Inter IKEA Systems B.V. contributes to the IKEA Business idea by providing solutions which construct a great customer experience. To keep ahead of competition in the future, It is vital for the company to figure out how to combine emerging digital technologies. Therefore, the goal of the graduation project was to research the current roles of human and technology services in customer experience in IKEA stores and design the in-store service which constructs redefined customer experience in the near future. In the beginning of the report, initial researches was introduced to understand the context of the project and formulate the assignment. Then field research was conducted,which applied a combination of qualitative research methods. There are interviews for customers, context mapping for co-workers and observations in store. The field research was targeted to understand the context of current service context and customer experience in store, and then figure out the relationships among human service, technology service and retail customer experience. The current service context and customer experience was illustrated into three info-graphics, including a customer’s and co-worker’s activities, their tools and devices, customer’s emotions and customer expectations. Last, the relationships were mapped out into the fourth info-graphic. Some context factors were selected, which came from initial researches and field research results, to formulate a design statement of customer experience in the near future. Base on the design statement, the interaction vision and design qualities of the future in-store service were generated. And then, strategy plan and tactical plans of in-store services were developed. Again, they were communicated in five visuals, including a service blueprint, two work flows and two storyboards. Finally, both research results and design results were evaluated with company and university mentor, and the influence of cultural variations was evaluated by two culture groups (Chinese and Dutch). In the future studies, it is recommended to study the customer experience of multiple channels at a time. As well as taking the idea of “life planner” into account in future customer experience management.","Retail customer experience; Human service; Digital technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","Master of Science Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:188540f8-4c00-4be1-bd86-43953f779df9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:188540f8-4c00-4be1-bd86-43953f779df9","Analysis and Design of Pulsed Photoconductive Antennas","Zhou, S.","Neto, A. (mentor); Carluccio, G. (mentor); Garufo, A. (mentor)","2015","Photoconductive antennas (PCA) are widely used in contemporary THz systems, especially in terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. They are used to radiate and receive THz power. The study of the generation and reception of THz radiation involves both semiconductor theory, electromagnetics, and antenna theory. In this work, after a review of some equivalent circuits for analyzing PCAs, a novel Norton equivalent circuit model is discussed. It effectively describes the coupling between the photoconductor and the antenna. In order to increase the radiated THz power, a connected array solution of PCA is discussed. Connected arrays allow an efficient radiation of the antenna on a large bandwidth and are therefore suitable for radiating the picosecond pulses generated in the photoconductor. In order to realize a connected array of PCA, a proper biasing circuit has to be designed. Such circuit can involve the use of inductors manufactured in printed circuit board technology. Two possible designs of inductor are also discussed.","equivalent circuit; photoconductivity; THz detector; THz photoconductive antenna; THz radiated power; THz source; THz technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2020-11-16","Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science","Microelectronics","","Telecommunications","",""
"uuid:0a7c9217-fa7c-4e97-bcb4-5bd632ea0148","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0a7c9217-fa7c-4e97-bcb4-5bd632ea0148","Is Healthcare a Market? Does turning health care into a market lower the cost (and increase the quality) of health care?","Koshy, M.A.","Van Beers, C.P. (mentor); Naastepad, C.W.M. (mentor); Enserink, B. (mentor)","2015","Rising cost of health care is a major crisis faced by different countries around the world especially the U.S. In an attempt to reduce the rising costs of health care, many governments are considering embarking on a path of turning health care into a ‘market’ which is expected to lower costs while improving the quality of health care. Considering the rising cost of health care in the U.S. there are basically two arguments – a. The rising cost is due to too much market. b. the rising cost is due to too little market or in other words due to government regulations. The aim of this thesis is to understand whether and how turning health care into a market would help bring down cost and raise quality. As a first step in answering this question first the concept of ‘market’ is defined. For this purpose a neoclassical model of health care ‘market’ is developed as a theoretical framework and explained how it is applied to health care and how this is expected to reduce cost. Neoclassical economics is an economic theory or model originally developed for the analysis and design of trade in goods, that is, for the production, exchange and consumption of goods. A first question that arises is whether neoclassical assumptions are compatible with the nature of health care. For example, is profit maximisation by producers reconcilable with the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors, and is utility (or consumption) maximisation by consumers reconcilable with ‘satisficing behaviour’ by patients? To further investigate whether market can bring down cost, the main components leading to high cost in health care have been identified as pharmaceutical industry, medical technology industry, physicians, and hospitals and cost developments in each area are analysed. Although the focus of this thesis is on the U.S. health care system, the Canadian and Dutch health care systems are also briefly studied for comparison. As a next step the claims made by critics of a market-based health care system – that the rising costs of health care in the U.S. are due to the opening up of health care to the (neoclassical) market is investigated. Regarding the cost of medicine and medical technology, three ‘neoclassical market’ factors contributing to rising costs are identified: the patent system, ‘direct-to-consumer advertising’, and lobbying (although whether the third is acceptable from a neoclassical point of view is debatable). Regarding the health care provided by doctors and physicians, three ‘neoclassical market’ factors have contributed to rising costs: the introduction of competition between health care providers which has resulted in a ‘technology arms race’ and an increase in expensive high-tech based treatments; ‘direct-to-consumer advertising’ which has increased the demand for medicines and treatments; excessive treatments resulting from lack of divisibility and substitutability; the establishment of Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) directed at bringing about competition between physicians but leading, in practice, to monopsonistic rents on the part of insurance companies rather than to lower costs of the care provided. Regarding the quality of health care, two major factors of concern are (1) the exclusion from medicine and treatment of individuals who do not have the ability to pay (in neoclassical term, meritocracy) and (2) the introduction of (Taylorist) ‘scientific management’ which has led to standardisation and protocol¬isation of treatment (in neoclassical terms, a homogenisation of the product of health care) and an increase in (expensive) robotic surgery; the quality effects of both are still debated. As a next step the claim made by proponents of a ‘free market’-based health care system – that the U.S. health care system is not (yet) a free market and that the rising costs of health care are the result of government intervention and over-regulation is investigated. Five factors contributing to rising costs are identified: (1) a restriction on free entry of new doctors due to licensing of doctors; (2) an insurance system that (a) supports medicine use and medical treatments by introducing a ‘soft budget constraint’ and, moreover, (b) places a heavy burden on physicians and hospitals in terms of time- and cost-intensive administration and negotiation; (3) the costs of research procedures for testing the safety of drugs (ensured by the Food and Drugs Administration); (4) ‘managed care’ by Health Maintenance Organisations leading to monopsonistic rents with insurance companies; and (5) standardisation or protocollisation leading to over-use of technology in health care. Regarding the first factor i.e. High cost is due to restriction on free entry of new doctors due to licensing of doctors, my thesis has found out that in reality, however, in the U.S., the number of doctors (per 1000 inhabitants) is found to be larger than in other countries (where costs of health care are lower), and other factors appear to be more important in determining costs, such as the high price of patented medicine (in comparison to generic medicine) and the increased over use of the newest technologies. These cost factors, however, are unlikely to disappear with the introduction of a neoclassical market; rather, they appear to be a result of the introduction of the neoclassical market. Significantly, however, although the rising costs of health care are related in part to the introduction of the neoclassical market model in health care, it should be noted that the system as implemented in practice in the U.S. (and elsewhere) is in many ways quite far removed from the pure neoclassical model. Neoclassical elements such as competition, homogenisation of products, and the commercial development and patenting of knowledge have been introduced within a larger system of ‘managed care’ regulated by a mix of public and private parties including government and insurance companies and behind these, (medical) industry. For example, competition between doctors and hospitals does not take place in a ‘free market’ context, but within an organisational framework managed by Health Maintenance Organisations run by insurance companies supported by regulation and legal adjustments. Therefore, it is not possible to draw simple conclusions such as that the rising costs of health care are due to either the introduction of a neoclassical market or government regulation. What has emerged in practice is a particular market-state mix which in the literature has been named ‘neo-liberalism’. Policy Implications & Recommendations Though my analysis about the way in which the pharmaceutical and medical technology industry as well as the health care provided by physicians and hospitals are organised in the U.S., I arrive at several questions which needs deep analysis and consideration by the policy makers while designing a health care system. The questions can be summarised as follows: If the aim of health care is to provide people in need of health care with the required medicine, medical technology and physician care, and if the commercial development of knowledge leads to (a) prices that are too high for many to afford, (b) a neglect of diseases experienced by people who do not have the ability to pay, what would be a better way or organising the development of knowledge? Should knowledge development remain within the boundary of economy or should it be considered as a separate sphere by itself? Most important question is whether in reality patent system which is allowing monopoly for the industries actually leading to knowledge development as claimed by neoclassical economics (in theory) since evidence suggest that most of the research and investments in developing knowledge is done by the government and the companies are just claiming the right to it (right which they acquired through lobbying). It is very important to note that, when ‘market’ is proposed as a solution, a careful analysis of what is claimed in theory (theoretical explanation of market) and what is happening in reality (when market is implemented) need to be done before any policy decision is taken. My thesis while investigating the reasons for the rising cost in health care, whether it is due to market or due to government regulations, came to the conclusion that what has emerged in practice is a particular market-state mix which in the literature has been named ‘neo-liberalism’. I feel that the impact of this new market-state relationship on justice (e.g. the impact of legal changes on access to health care) and freedom (e.g. freedom of choice in medicine and treatment) is an under-researched area and it is here that further research appears to be most urgently needed and considered by the policy analysts. Analysis of the health care services has led me to three questions I would like to raise, which needs careful analysis by the policy analysts. When it comes to health care services, it has been found out that it poses certain features that makes it a lesser candidate to fit into a neoclassical market which as already mentioned has been developed for the buying and selling of material goods. This leads to the question whether health care should be treated like any other good? Can health care service (interaction between doctors and patients) which is not uniform or homogeneous in nature be standardized without the loss of quality of it? Is it right to consider health care as a good and try to fit it into the neoclassical model? As we can see, health care is a growing domain (e.g. as a share of GDP) involving increasingly large sums of money. My thesis raises a very important question that need to be analysed by the policy makers. For what purpose are these resources being used? Apart from health, do other motives also play a role in the allocation of health care resources? For example are rules and regulations regarding health care (including medical industry and health care services) are implemented in such a way that they are used as instruments of industrial policy ? Since we do know only about just two options as solutions – either open up to market or government controlled system, it is time we think about a third alternative method which would ensure health care to all irrespective of their capacity to pay for it. As a first step I started with U.S. philosopher Michael Walzer who said that health care is a right of every human being and it should have its own sphere and autonomy unlike other regular goods that can be sold in a market. Although Walzer has a valuable point, I like to differ with him with respect to his treatment of the economy. When Walzer accepts the ‘justice of the market’ as a separate sphere of justice, it appears by ‘market’ he means ‘neoclassical market’, a market organised according to neoclassical principles such as competition and profit-maximisation. However, if competition, profit maximisation and utility maximisation (‘unlimited wants’) are accepted as the basis of the economic order, how can ‘economic imperialism’ – the domination of all spheres by demands coming from the economy – be avoided? How to protect the values belonging to each sphere if one sphere is allowed to expand without limits? Answering this question, in my view, requires rethinking the relationships between three spheres: health care (including the development of knowledge concerning health and health care), government (law-giving and regulation), and economy. What relationships between these three would protect the values belonging to health care, including access to health care for all, and freedom of choice regarding the kind of health care received? These questions require careful attention and analysis.","healthcare; neoclassical economics; pharmaceuticals; medical technology; Preferred Provider Organizations; standardisation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Values, Technology and Innovation","","Economics of Technology and Innovation","",""
"uuid:31da4059-5dac-4e60-93d7-36cad2d8ab46","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:31da4059-5dac-4e60-93d7-36cad2d8ab46","Real Time Localization of Assets in Hospitals using Quuppa Indoor Positioning Technology","Van der Ham, M.","Zlatanova, S. (mentor); Verbree, E. (mentor)","2015","Indoor positioning is becoming a hot topic in public areas that are used by large numbers of people. Finding people and assets in buildings has become more difficult because of the complexity and scale of today’s public space. On the subject of locating assets in the hospital the following use case is defined for this project. Positioning and localization of assets in a hospital is useful to do for several reasons. Loss and theft of equipment takes a large expense of the hospital’s budget. When it is possible to have the position of a device in real time, a system could be developed that locates the assets through the hospital building. The main goal of this project is to develop a model for an indoor positioning system for localization of assets in a hospital. The indoor positioning technology developed by Quuppa forms the basis for this. Their indoor positioning solution consists of Bluetooth powered tags measured by monitors on the ceiling (locators). The hospital that is going to be involved in this project is the Rijnstate hospital, located in Arnhem. They provided the input necessary to define the requirements for the use case. Based on the requirements from the use case and the specifications of the positioning system six test cases were defined for analysis of the test data and development of the localization model. This MSc thesis describes a scientific approach to investigate the subject of indoor localization by performing data acquisition, processing and analysis of indoor position data. In order to localize the assets indoors, a map matching method is developed that takes into account several factors such as geometrical influences, characteristics of the positioning system and obstructions in the indoor environment. For matching the position data to a real world location, several location types are developed by subdividing the floor plan into location clusters. The research has shown that a sub-meter accuracy level can be achieved for locations that are within the high-resolution range of the locator. The performance for positioning at the smallest cluster levels can only be achieved when having a dense distribution of locators. Test cases that were defined for specific situations related to the hospital case show successful localization for the majority of the test data. A correction model for making coordinate adjustments of the position estimates is described based on the reliability of the data from the test cases.","indoor positioning technology; asset tracking; Bluetooth Low Energy; Angle of Arrival; indoor localisation; map matching","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Architecture and The Built Environment","Geomatics","","Geomatics","",""
"uuid:155a86db-60c3-45ac-99fd-0f6e9cf7d65f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:155a86db-60c3-45ac-99fd-0f6e9cf7d65f","Investigation into the effects of advanced technologies on overall aircraft performance in a collaborative design environment","Higgs, T.A.C.","La Rocca, G. (mentor); Moerland, E. (mentor)","2015","For the past decades concerns over the effect of aviation on the local air quality have risen, with mitigation remaining a priority for industry. To meet the CO2 reduction goal of 75% compared to 2005 levels, set out by the European Commission report 'Flightpath 2050', more assessment on future aircraft technologies and their potential in meeting these goals is needed. Analysis of these technologies requires increased amount of disciplines being involved in the conceptual design stage through the use of physics-based methods. With the amount of computational budget and knowledge needed by specialists during this stage increasing, methods for effective management is needed. Multidisciplinary collaborative design aims at reducing the analysis burden placed on engineers by distributing computational load among numerous involved parties. Collaboration comes with technical and non-technical issues. Work at DLR in the last few years has focused on tackling some of these issues with the development of the Remote Component Environment (RCE), an integration framework, and the Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Scheme (CPACS). From projects, such as ""VAMP"", it has been shown that issues in effective communication between teams of experts with different specialists still exist in large collaborative design projects. Identifying common knowledge among the involved specialists, such as inter-disciplinary correlations, has shown to assist in this effective communication. In this project a visualisation tool has been developed in order to easily identify and present these correlations. This is accomplished through the use of Response Surface Modeling techniques in order to generate real-time functioning 2D and 3D plots from given data sets. The functionality of this tool is demonstrated throughout this report with the data obtained from analyses in this study. In order to assess the potential of advanced technologies a study is performed. Fuel consumption can be assumed to be directly linked to CO2 emissions, thus within this study analysis of fuel consumption is performed. Cost savings in future aircraft will also play a crucial role for airliners and passengers, and therefore is also analysed within this study. In order to perform this study an analysis workflow system was developed for the design of a mid-range conventional passenger aircraft from top-level requirements. This workflow was developed in the RCE collaborative integration environment and from joining tools from a physics-based toolkit developed at DLR. So-called adjustment modules were developed and integrated into this workflow in order to artificially adjust basic parameters at different stages of the analysis workflow, thus mimicking the effects of certain technologies. These technologies included retrofittable technologies, such as winglets, geared-turbofans, and lightweight cabin materials, as well as non-retrofittable technologies, including Natural Laminar Flow (NLF), Active Load Alleviation (ALA), and composite structures. Through these adjustments two analyses were performed. One in which the wing was fixed to the reference aircraft planform, and another in which the wing area was adjusted according to the reference wing loading and changes in MTOM from the artificial adjustments. From these analyses the potential fuel and cost savings of a number of case studies were performed. For a case in which technologies were retrofitted onto an A320-like aircraft, a potential fuel savings of 16-24% and cost savings of 4-6% was estimated. For a case in which a number of both non-retrofittable and retrofittable technologies were implemented at the start of development of the same aircraft, a potential fuel savings of 26-36% and cost savings of 9-13% was estimated.","Multidisciplinary collaborative design; technological assessment; artificial adjustment; conceptual aircraft design; workflow integration","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Aerospace Engineering","Flight Performance and Propulsion","","","",""
"uuid:3974d142-645b-4a1e-9a9a-08298697b240","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3974d142-645b-4a1e-9a9a-08298697b240","Impact of ICT on the Productivity-Compensation Gap: A Study on Technology, Works, and the Role of Capital","Pramudita, D.A.","Naastepad, C.W.M. (mentor)","2015","Researchers have observed that the growth of hourly compensation in the U.S. has lagged behind the labour productivity growth since 1970 (Fleck, Glaser, & Sprague, 2011). The disparity between productivity and compensation, which is known as the productivity-compensation gap (Mishel & Gee, 2011), suggests that workers do not benefit directly from the increase in the productivity growth. The dynamism between labour productivity and compensation may be influenced by the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). By raising labour productivity, ICT saves (labour) costs - in this thesis, the money that is saved due to productivity growth, or freed by productivity growth, is called ‘freed capital’. In principle, the freed capital can in turn be used to expand the production and create new jobs for those whose work is made redundant by ICT. But is this the best possible societal option for the use of the freed capital? While increasing labour productivity, ICT may also reduce work and/or alter work relationships, implying significant shifts in responsibility and hence in remuneration. Following this, two main research questions are formulated: First, what is the impact of ICT on the productivity-compensation gap? Second, what principle that should guide the use of freed capital? In particular, could it be used to counter the impact of ICT on the productivity-compensation gap? Does a theoretical principle exist that would support such use of freed capital? In the end, this thesis finds that the impact of ICT on the productivity-compensation gap is hard to be measured, mainly because the impact of ICT on the hours worked is still inconclusive. Nonetheless, this thesis provides two insights that shows ICT still have influences on works: first, ICT contributes to around $ 1.06 trillion (in constant 2005 US$) of the U.S. value added in period 1970-2005. This means that while, apparently, ICT does not have significant impact on the total hours worked, it still increases labour productivity (output per hour). Secondly, ICT is shown to have a positive correlation with the increase of both high-skill and low-skill works, while it has an opposite effect on the medium-skill works. This means that while ICT is assumed to open up new work opportunities, it may also cause a job polarization, in which the medium-skill workers might end up competing for a lower-skill works. Following this result, this thesis reviews various economic theories to review principles that may guide the freed capital towards activities that may counter the impact of ICT on the productivity-compensation gap. This thesis then argues that the answer for such question will depend on which value that is important from the economic perspective. If utility maximization is accepted as the value that organize economic activities, the freed capital can find its place in the expansion of production, as what neoclassical and Schumpeterian perspective prescribe. However, if human beings are perceived to have a higher capacity than merely satisfaction of utility, then the freed capital should also be used for the development of human capacities and character. Just like the investment in innovation that need a great commitment, the investment in the development of human capacities and character will also need one, even greater.","ICT; technological revolution; works; capital; productivity; inequality; economics theory","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Economics of Technology and Innovation","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:dcbf247b-1a33-4101-bb55-4231157a0fd4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dcbf247b-1a33-4101-bb55-4231157a0fd4","Understanding Uncertainty in the European Biodiesel Market: An Exploratory Modelling and Analysis Approach","Vita, P.","Stikkelman, R.M. (mentor); Kwakkel, J. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor)","2015","Investigation of the factors and uncertainties affecting the European biodiesel market performed through Exploratory Modelling and Analysis. This includes the employment of the EMA Workbench software in order to run numerous computational experiments with a bespoke system dynamics model.","biodiesel; Europe; Exploratory Modelling and Analysis; transport; Future Technology Analysis; System Dynamics; bioenergy","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Engineering Systems and Services","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:3850a8ec-d6aa-4f7d-a3ae-2f48f53cc148","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3850a8ec-d6aa-4f7d-a3ae-2f48f53cc148","Citizen Science in Water Quality Monitoring: Developing Guidelines for Dutch Water Authorities for Contributory Mobile Crowd Sensing","Minkman, E.","Van der Sanden, M.C.A. (mentor); Rutten, M.M. (mentor); Wehrmann, C. (mentor); Van Overloop, P.J.T.A.M. (mentor); Van de Giesen, N. (mentor); De Vries, M.J. (mentor); Kaspersma, J.M. (mentor)","2015","The Dutch water management system is confronted with a lack of awareness among citizens and further faces the consequences of climate change and urbanisation. New governance structures with high levels of citizen participation are required to be fit for the future. An implementation of participation could be citizen science, which is rather unexplored in Dutch water resource management. The thesis’ objective was to develop practical guidelines for practitioners at Dutch water authorities on ‘how to set up a citizen science project’. To get to this objective several research methods and steps were taken. This thesis provides an answer to how Dutch water authorities could incorporate citizen science in their activities, by focussing on the driving forces of both citizens and water authorities whether to engage in citizen science projects mediated by a mobile crowd sensing device. A literature review and case study were used to identify key success factors for citizen science projects. A survey, based on the Self-Determination Theory, was used to identify citizen motivations in water quality monitoring. Using a Q methodological approach three viewpoints on citizen science at water authorities were identified. Additionally it is investigated what role modern technology, such as mobile sensing, could play in designing a citizen science project using a Technology Acceptance Model. The developed guidelines answer how citizen science could be implemented at Dutch water authorities to increase citizens’ water awareness and to adopt governance structures with higher levels of citizen participation.","Citizen science; Water authority; Water quality monitoring; Design-based research; Q methodology; Technology Acceptance Model","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Delft University of Technology","Applied Sciences & Civil Engineering and Geosciences","","Science Communication & Water Management","",""
"uuid:80e98fb4-7c39-4074-bf30-86b7120a288f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:80e98fb4-7c39-4074-bf30-86b7120a288f","Innovation Framework for the Research & Technology department of Zodiac Air Catering Equipment","Nijman, J.","De Lille, C.S.H. (mentor); Santema, S.C. (mentor); Gomez Serrano, S.L. (mentor); Verweij, R. (mentor)","2015","During this graduation project, an innovation framework was created for the R&T department of Zodiac Air Catering Equipment","innovation; research & technology; fuzzy front end; framework","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","","",""
"uuid:db103b22-63e4-4fad-8df4-f9fade75e862","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:db103b22-63e4-4fad-8df4-f9fade75e862","Strategy to facilitate EV infrastructure on local level","Kuipéri, F.T.","Van Geenhuizen, M.S. (mentor); Annema, J.A. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor); Mulder, J. (mentor)","2015","The amount of electric vehicles is increasing due to measures taken by governments in order to make a, for sustainability, desired switch from the embedded system of combustion vehicles. A barrier for the market adaptation of electric vehicles is the availability of a charging infrastructure. In the Netherlands municipalities are responsible for the facilitation of charging places in public space. This thesis identifies strategies municipalities could take to facilitate and/or stimulate a charging infrastructure, using expectations about three different uncertainties: the future demand for a charging infrastructure, technological progress in charging infrastructure and the preferences of municipalities. A literature study identified fast charging and inductive charging as promising technologies. An analytical model based on an energy balance enabled predictions for the expected demand for charging places in 2020 and 2025, using multiple scenarios. A survey among municipalities identified their preferences towards facilitation and stimulation strategy alternatives. Municipalities are advised to cooperate on a regional level in for example a concession model. The future demand for a charging infrastructure differs between different types of neighbourhoods. A different facilitating role is needed from the municipality in these different types of neighbourhoods. In commercial and working neighbourhoods licenses to commercial companies could be enough. In high- and low-income residential neighbourhoods a more active facilitating role is needed. Rapid developments in charging capabilities and methods require a limited scope and active monitoring of developments. Changes imposed by mainly European policymakers require a similar monitoring. A framework to deal with these uncertainties is developed as part of this thesis.","electric vehicle; charging infrastructure; policies; neighbourhoods; municipalities; uncertainty; technological progress","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Economics of Technology and Innovation","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:1260902b-aee9-4f2d-9c25-e8197c6e5449","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1260902b-aee9-4f2d-9c25-e8197c6e5449","How and under what conditions would technological revolution create overall societal benefit? ICT, productivity, and capital: Lessons from economic theories and perspectives","Djong, J.","Naastepad, C.W.M. (mentor)","2015","With the advent of smart machines, ICT revolution is moving towards a relatively unknown territory. Economic theories play important role in shaping the direction and effect of this technological change to the lives of everyone. The acceleration of unemployment and dualism which the ICT revolution is expected to create has raised concerns regarding the social benefit of technological progress, and raises the question whether existing theoretical frameworks are adequate to deal with the societal consequences of technological revolution. The objective of this thesis is therefore to explore how and under what conditions technological revolution would create overall societal benefit. This study explores and analyzes five economic perspectives: neoclassical, (Neo)-Schumpeterian, Marxian, (Post)-Keynesian, and Aristotelian economics to understand the impact of technological revolution to productivity growth its economic consequences. Empirical study is also conducted to estimate the impact of ICT revolution from 1970 to 2007 in seven advanced economies: Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, The U.K., and The U.S. The various economic perspectives explored in this thesis seem to agree that technological revolution could give rise to savings (neoclassical), profits (Schumpeter), or surplus value (Marx). The empirical observation examines the impact of ICT to productivity growth in the seven advanced economies. This gain in productivity gives rise to productivity dividend, either in the form of more goods produced or reduced working hours. The econometric analysis of panel data from EU KLEMS database from 1990 to 2007 suggests that this productivity dividend, if expressed in money terms, is estimated to contribute U.S.$ 5.4 trillion (in 2007 value) as profit before taxes. The empirical result, however, does not satisfactorily answer whether the use of this productivity dividend has led to societal benefit, prompting further theoretical work. The result of further theoretical work on capital allocation suggests that standard economic framework found in the neoclassical theory prescribed capital allocation to maximize financial returns due to its tendency to focus social benefit solely on the basis of material gains. Schumpeterian perspective which encourages entrepreneurship also tends to emphasize on the accumulation of material wealth by the entrepreneurs. On the other hand, perspectives from Marx, Keynes, and Aristotelian economics adduce to the notion of social benefit by incorporating people’s immaterial needs. Importantly, the assertion that human’s material needs are limited makes possible the existence of freed capital – the capital arising from that is no longer needed to finance human beings’ material needs. This thesis argues that freed capital has its very origin in the human capacity, following Wilken (1992). The counterpart of this freed capital is proposed to be the immaterial needs of human beings, which include the need to develop human capacity. For the next step, it is recommended to dissect further the ethical foundations of these economic theories to strengthen the case for capital allocation that they prescribe.","ICT; productivity; economics theory; capital; growth; technological revolution; social benefit","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Economics of innovation","","","",""
"uuid:29f6f69a-29a5-4571-83db-7df7b58f05e0","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:29f6f69a-29a5-4571-83db-7df7b58f05e0","Face 2 Face: Urban equity initiated through mobility","Chandra, T.","Relats, M. (mentor); Stead, D. (mentor); Van Nes, A. (mentor)","2015","City-on-Demand is a technology, it gathers the demand of commuter (public transport or walking) and urban residents (public spaces) and interprets the spatial requirement and changes the city’s infrastructure accordingly. Thus creating a real-time dynamic system of demand and supply. Making a city smarter by having a demand based supply chain management of its resources. It stems from my research on Delhi, where resource (supply) and demand are mismatched and there is an explosion of image based planning resulting in a gentrified and inaccessible city; plagued by pollution, congestion, high car ownership growth, safety and lack of urban commons for its growing density.","technology; transport planning; participation; Delhi","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Architecture and The Built Environment","Urbanism","","Design as Politics","","28.6816, 77.2710"
"uuid:2e5e9dcf-0135-4c1a-a60d-f5779cfc5b87","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2e5e9dcf-0135-4c1a-a60d-f5779cfc5b87","Assessing the capability of a corporate technology intelligence unit in identifying technology trends","Sayadi, A.","Van der Duin, P. (mentor); De Bruijne, M. (mentor); Verburg, R. (mentor)","2015","Companies need to constantly adapt to their environment to ensure long term survival and economic success. In such an environment, technology trends can have a significant impact on the business for a technology intensive firm such as SKF. Therefore, these companies should be proactive in identifying and anticipating technology trends early on. This thesis deals with the use of technology intelligence by a business unit to identify technology trends. More specifically, in the context of SKF, this thesis was commissioned by the Renewable Application Development Centre (ReADC) operating within the Renewable Energy Business Unit (ReBU) to investigate the potential contribution of Group Technology Intelligence (GTI) in identifying and anticipating technological trends in the wind industry. The initial assumption of the business unit was that defining a search query to search in patent and publication databases together with GTI will provide valuable insights regarding early signals of technology trends. This search should then be carried out periodically, providing the business unit with regular updates.","Technology intelligence; Corporate foresight; Technology trends; SKF","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2017-06-01","Technology, Policy and Management","Economics of Technology and Innovation","","MOT","",""
"uuid:43f2a5e5-c3fa-49fc-92f9-c29d0c78924b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:43f2a5e5-c3fa-49fc-92f9-c29d0c78924b","Technology Monitor: Design of a Registration Method for Subsidized Energy Innovation Projects in the Netherlands","Foppen, T.","Cunningham, S.W. (mentor); Herder, P.M. (mentor); Van der Lei, T.E. (mentor); Koch, H.J. (mentor)","2015","Policy alignment is a well-known problem when stimulating innovative energy technologies. In this paper policy alignment is approached from a technology perspective. Using a technology classification, based on morphological analysis and design theory, projects are classified looking at the technological function and physical artifacts. The approach is demonstrated for measurement of alignment of the Dutch Topsector Energy policy (TSE) and the Energie Investerings Aftrek (EIA). Furthermore the method could be used for aligning all activities in the Public Funding System as an indicator for organizational misalignment. Additional attention should be given to usability and implementation of the method.","Morphological Analysis; Technology Classification; Policy Alignment; Energy Innovation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2015-04-23","Technology, Policy and Management","Energy & Industry and Policy Analysis","","Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management","",""
"uuid:d50dd6bd-92db-466f-8be2-872a05517f49","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d50dd6bd-92db-466f-8be2-872a05517f49","Improving Evaluation Practices at Universiy Technology Incubators","Schijf, T.","Scholten, V. (mentor); Van Geenhuizen, M. (mentor); Groenleer, M. (mentor)","2015","University technology-based incubators (UTBIs) have an important role in the development of new technology-based firms [NTBFs]. By providing a favourable environment for these companies it significantly reduces firm failure. In order to maximize the attainment of the incubator goal, UTBIs expect tenants to grow within a particular time. It, therefore, applies a strict incubatee evaluation practice that evaluates which incubatees show sufficient commercial viability to get further support and which ones do not. However because of the heterogeneity in development paths between NTBFs, considerable differences exist among incubatees. Slow growing NTBFs are not always a direct sign of lower commercial viability. Instead, these companies often show a slow commercial growth in their early stage but can grow out to large cooperation’s later on. These firms often need the intensive support from the incubator before they can show such growth. The question that arises: are summative indicators, like revenue or firm size, appropriate benchmarks for future incubation evaluation? Or should an incubator have a more balanced approach that better takes into account the heterogenic and nonlinear development of NTBFs? Not taking into account that this might lead to ineffective and inefficient evaluation and thus inefficient incubation. The study calls for an improved incubatee evaluation method that better take into account the dynamics of NTBF development. It provides an answer to the following research question: How can incubatee evaluation be improved within a university technology incubator? The study concludes that better progress evaluation can be reached when the incubator carefully takes into account the nonlinear development NTBFs. Firms that deal with long periods of technology/product testing, might be not need extensive support. This implies that they might need support at a later stadium, to grow the business. Also, capital-intensive firms or firms with a strong focus on R&D have higher incubator needs for support. Evaluators should be well aware of this when evaluating their potential.","university technology incubator; new technology based firm development; incubatee evaluation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2015-04-18","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology & Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:7b269752-5e1e-4e45-bc91-5415d6e5221c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7b269752-5e1e-4e45-bc91-5415d6e5221c","Teamwork on the North Sea","Satolli, J.","Hermans, L.H. (mentor); Thissen, W.A.H. (mentor); Hemmes, K. (mentor)","2015","The main focus of this thesis has been to gain an understanding on the key challenges for self-organization between the relevant stakeholders necessary for rolling out a North Sea Offshore Grid. The North Sea Offshore Grid (NSOG) is an important component in the realization of the renewable energy potential in different European countries. Up till now no commonly accepted strategy has been composed for rolling out this offshore grid in a coordinated way. This lack of a commonly accepted strategy is affecting the trust and progress in international collaboration and in the coordinate development of national visions. This lack of coordination increases the risk for lock-in effects leading to sub-optimal development pathways. The current research and practices on the valuation of optimal grid configuration has been based on the comparison of costs and benefits of the different policy options. This research has taken a different approach, and has looked at the different stakeholder perspectives on developments in the offshore wind industry. Results show multiple challenges currently blocking a coordinated NSOG rollout. One of the major challenges is the discrepancy and the lack of common ground between stakeholders on the monetization, composition and distribution of these costs and benefits. These disagreements on costs and benefits are not likely to be resolved by yet another improved effort at classic cost-benefit analysis. Also, the identification of costs and benefits for individual projects lacks the synergy effects of a total grid. Other important challenges identified are the lack of profitability and high risk level of making (anticipatory) investments necessary to facilitate a future grid expansion and the lack of trust between the different stakeholder on future commitment and collaboration. The combination of these challenges has resulted in an equilibrium of stakeholders defecting and performing free-riders behavior, waiting for others to take the risk and invest in sufficient offshore wind capacity necessary for allowing for profitable business case to be set up. It has thus been argued that focus of the current discussions should shift from identifying the most efficient project or grid configuration, towards a discussion about ways how to increasing the willingness of Member States to express their long-term financial commitment towards the development of the grid and accept the investment risks by putting the costs and benefits of the NSOG in a broader perspective of potential gains for the individual Member States. This research has used the SES-framework and the self-organization theory from Ostrom as tools for structuring and reflecting on the results. However, both the framework as the theory have been initially developed for ecological systems. Since the North Sea Offshore Grid is a Social Technical System (STS), a second line of research which has been presented in this report is related to the applicability of both the framework and the theory on comparable STS.","offshore wind; North Sea Offshore Grid; self-organization; stakeholder perceptions; technological and institutional integrations; SES-framework","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2015-03-29","Technology, Policy and Management","Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Managment","","Energy & Industry","",""
"uuid:f6310c28-af0c-4847-a56a-21baef12ff51","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f6310c28-af0c-4847-a56a-21baef12ff51","Positive Impact With Community Currencies","Koster, M.","Buijs, J. (mentor); Noyons, A. (mentor); Kampers, E. (mentor)","2015","Money is an essential technology used by many people around the globe every day. It is beneficial for efficient trade and saving. The aim of this graduation is to design money. A positive impact on the environmental is made with the design of a so called community currency. In the economy we stumble upon limits which the market cannot easily solve by itself. Community currencies are made in addition to legal tender (e.g. Euros or Dollars) with the aim to satisfy needs that are not facilitated by regular money. Advancements in information technology make it easier than ever to introduce and maintain such initiatives. The final concept of this graduation is Around the Corner; a holiday booking platform that stimulates users to go on holiday nearby. This makes a significant impact on reducing emissions, because the trip is almost half of the holiday’s footprint. If users stay nearby home, they get rewarded a community currency called Locals, which they receive after booking. Locals can pay for another holiday, sent to a friend or used for services at the accommodation. In addition part of the Locals are invested by the accommodations to compensate for travelling emissions. So far green holiday labels don’t take into account the emissions of the journey. With its transaction technology Around the Corner is extremely scalable, it removes initial investments for accommodations and offers self-help payment technology. If designed well; currencies can act as an intermediary to balance the interests of individuals, industry, society and our environment.","currency; holidays; bitcoin; loyalty schemes; payment technology; environmental; sustainability; emissions; footprint; economy; impact","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","Master of Science Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:816151fb-14b9-45e6-8d5a-023787f54ab5","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:816151fb-14b9-45e6-8d5a-023787f54ab5","Wind Turbines along highways: Feasibility study of the implementation of small scale wind turbines along the Prins Bernardweg Zaandam to Bolswarderbaan highway in the Netherlands","De Jong, B.C.P.M.","Mouter, N. (mentor); Annema, J.A. (mentor); Van der Lei, T. (mentor); Van Wee, G.P. (mentor)","2015","The Netherlands has the goal to have 14% of the total energy production in 2020 generated in a sustainable way. In order to achieve this goal, onshore wind turbines need to have a combined capacity of 6000 MW and the offshore capacity needs to be increased to 4450 MW. The onshore wind industry is however quite saturated. Experts forecast that the onshore energy target will not be achieved due to the lack of space and heavy conflicts with local residents. Even if the target can be achieved, there is little to no space left for more large wind farms. Fully dedicating and shifting the wind energy development to the offshore sector is not without risk. Social cost benefit analyses show a wide array of different outcomes for the construction of large offshore wind farms. The net results range from losses of 5 billion euros to profits of 12 billion Euros. The Dutch government has decided to continue research and development of Dutch offshore wind projects. However, instead of completely focusing on the offshore sector, new potential onshore wind solutions could be investigated as well. The small wind turbine industry is also part of the onshore wind sector and has been well developed over the past decades. Over millions of small- and micro turbines are part of the onshore wind industry across the world. Small wind turbines are integrated into buildings or used as wind batteries. One new potential application could be to use the space along highways to install small wind turbines. Both the natural wind as the turbulence created by traffic could feed the generators to provide electricity to the grid or local applications such as street lighting or electric charging stations in the future. The report investigates the feasibility of this new concept by using the Prins Bernardweg Zaandam to Bolswarderbaan highway in the Netherlands as a virtual case study. The case study analyzes how and if the concept can be constructed and explores the impact of possible implementation. A combined technical-, stakeholder-and social cost benefit approach comprise the most essential components to make a careful assessment and recommendations. Multiple experts and stakeholders participated in interviews to provide expertise and validate information used in the analyses. The technical analysis showed that using the conventional vertical axis wind turbines from Windside grant accurate, reliable data to be used in the study and no inescapable technolocial barriers to turn up. An important unknown factor remains how the windside turbines affect the air resistance for ongoing traffic. Even though experts indicated that the effect is most likely in the favor of the traffic participants, if the project turns out to increase fuel usage the project cannot be launched. This was the main outcome from the stakeholder analysis, where both representatives from Rijkswaterstaat as the ANWB indicate a no go when drivers face additional travelling costs by driving on a highway filled with wind turbines. When this is not the case, the stakeholder analysis showed that there are no stakeholders who are likely to seriously threaten or influence the project in a negative way. All critical stakeholders can be convinced to support the project or stay neutral. These outcomes would have paved the way for the concept of wind turbines along the highway, if it was not for the social cost benefit analysis showing excessive negative social costs. Even in a best case scenario the net value of the project over the course of time touches a negative amount of over 700 million euros, with costs of over 3600 euro per Mwh. The preceeding answers the research question: To what extent can the concept of converting traffic turbulence and regular wind to useful energy be implemented in the Netherlands? The answer is that the concept can be fully implemented, but at as for now excessive costs. It should not be implemented yet on a medium- or large scale. Implementing the concept on a small scale could be worthwhile to investigate several matters. First, the effect of traffic passing wind turbines should be investigated. This knowledge can be used to inspire highly customized wind turbines which could potentially be cheaper and more efficient. The research is also needed to replace the assumptions made by the report with empirical evidence. Secondly, the potential reduction of both noise pollution and blinding effects by a row of wind turbines need to be researched. When these effects are substantially positive the use of wind turbines along highways might yet become interesting again. Third, the complete potential of wind capacity along all the highways in the Netherlands needs to be mapped. This provides an indication of the extra capacity that could be installed onshore using this method. In the future this capacity could be called upon when other options turn out to have a more negative net value, or the net value of this concept changes to an acceptable value. The last recommendation is to expand the concept to researching the installment of wind turbines along railroads. The electrical infrastructure is in place and trains come and go when it is not winter time in the Netherlands.","Wind power; small scale wind turbines; traffic turbulence; onshore wind market; wind power development; economics of wind; technological evolution; future prospects; Social Cost-Benefit Analysis","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Energy, Water and Industry","","System Engineering, Policy Analysis and management","",""
"uuid:36a7475f-df00-4e09-bbbe-e2b3ef69a8cc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:36a7475f-df00-4e09-bbbe-e2b3ef69a8cc","Grandstand Design for Disassembly","Klerks, J.","Nijsse, R. (mentor); Schroën, J. (mentor); Jennen, P.H.M. (mentor)","2015","This work contains the technical report about the research in how to design and construct a demountable grandstand. The design itself is a modular structure which can be demounted and transported to different locations and to be reused multiple times. With the modular design any event organiser can decide what arrangement and capacity the structure has, and even decide which functions will be situated inside the building. Smaller and bigger stadium designs are hereby made possible. The research and design were made from an architectural point of view, with the main aims directed on reuse, functionality, materialisation, building technology, and aesthetics.","grandstand; stadium; design; disassembly; reuse; demountable; transportable; building Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Architecture and The Built Environment","Architectural Engineering and Technology","","","",""
"uuid:e0c9c451-b2b4-4074-b11b-8e825c833329","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e0c9c451-b2b4-4074-b11b-8e825c833329","Mobile Insurance - Overcoming Privacy Concerns in the Consumer Use of Insurance Services based on Mobile Technologies","Derikx, S.A.J.P.","Bouwman, W.A.G.A. (mentor); De Reuver, G.A. (mentor); Kroesen, M. (mentor)","2014","Management summary: Research problem Ongoing digitalization results in both threats as opportunities for the insurance sector. Increased transparency stimulates switching behavior and shifts the insurance market to a more price based competition. Together with recent developments such as the ban on intermediary commissions and the separation of banking and insurance activities, the traditional business model is put under pressure. By fully reaping the benefits of mobile technologies, such as portability, social interactivity, context sensitivity, connectivity and individuality, a variety of opportunities for innovative insurance services arises. A more differentiated product portfolio can shift the price based competition to a more quality focus which enables insurers to operate in more niche markets focusing on higher margins. In the last few years, privacy concerns associated with the consumer use of mobile technologies, have been the subject of many research papers. A number of privacy studies empirically verified the negative effect of perceived privacy concerns on the intention of use online and mobile services. As the disclosure of personal information is often necessary in obtaining online and mobile services, privacy concerns could inhibit people’s intention to use them as well. This could have major implications for the adoption of mobile insurance since privacy concerns regarding the insurance industry are already relatively high in general. Therefore, it is essential, in the development of future mobile insurance services, to understand the role of associated privacy concerns. Accordingly, this study aims to increase understanding of mobile insurance related privacy concerns, its relation on consumer’s ‘likelihood of use’ and potential compensating factors as perceived usefulness and expected monetary benefits. Therefore, the objective of this research is to further develop understanding towards the mitigating effect of perceived usefulness and monetary rewards on privacy concerns regarding the likelihood of use for mobile insurance services. In line with this objective the following main research question is developed: RQ In what way can privacy concerns, affecting the likelihood of use mobile insurance services, be mitigated by expected monetary benefits and perceived usefulness? Domain on Mobile Insurance For a clear and consistent understanding of this research question the definition of mobile insurance for this study is defined as “insurance products and services based on context sensitive mobile technologies”. Hereby insurance products and services involve all direct customer focused activities of an insurer. Thus, both the insurance policy itself and supportive services are involved. Context sensitivity of mobile technologies involves the ability to both gather and respond to real or simulated data unique to current location, environment, and time. Mobile insurance covers a broad field of insurance services. In order to get a better understanding on the scope of mobile insurance a categorization is made. This categorization is based on an explorative scan to all worldwide mobile insurance services. These worldwide mobile insurance services are subsequently categorized on its consumer functionalities and validated with insurance industry and technology experts. The final categorization, with a brief elaboration per category is listed below: 1. Usage based insurance; With a usage-based insurance premium, consumers pay only premium for actual use of their insurance. 2. Behavioral rewarding; By rewarding customers for less risky behavior, the insurer is trying to reduce the risk of accidents. 3. Up-to-date insurance package; By using personal (context sensitive) information of consumers, relevant personalized insurance products could be provided. 4. Preventative information services; Consumer context information offers insurers the opportunity to provide consumers with relevant context related preventative information. 5. Accident detection & prevention; By detecting (potential) accidents as early as possible, damages could be prevented and minimized. 6. Mobile accessibility; Mobile technologies facilitate a communication channel for sales and services. 7. Personal dashboards; By measuring individual behavior, insight could be provided in risk profiles of consumers to increase risk awareness. 8. Additional informative services; Context sensitive information offers opportunities for several semi-insurance services. Theoretical background on the concept of privacy Within literature a variety of definitions and interpretations for privacy is present, however a unified account of privacy has yet to emerge. This study interprets the definition of privacy as a tradable interest; “an interest that individuals have in sustaining a ‘personal space’ free from interference by other people and organizations”. Subsequently, this definition is operationalized to facilitate the measurement of privacy. A commonly used (reverse) operationalization of privacy in literature is the measurement of privacy concerns. Therefore, privacy is measured in this study by privacy concerns. Due to its plurality and inconsistency, a unified account for privacy is still absent in literature. Some scholars used another approach and instead of searching for an inclusive definition of privacy, they developed a typology for privacy. Recent literature defined seven types of privacy of which three are relevant for the application of (current) mobile insurance: Privacy of location and space ""The right to move about in public or semi-public space without being identified, tracked, or monitored."" Privacy of behavior and action ""The ability to behave in public, semi-public or one’s private space without having actions monitored or controlled by others."" Privacy of data and image ""Concerns about making sure that individuals’ data is not automatically available to other individuals and organizations and that people can exercise a substantial degree of control over that data and its use.” A majority of consumers considers the disclosure of personal information as essential in modern life. The disclosure of personal information is however contrary with the definition of privacy; sustaining a ‘personal space’. Consequently, numerous studies consistently concluded that people are very concerned about their online privacy. Aforementioned contradiction imply that individuals consider a utilitarian trade-off between perceived benefits and sacrifices of disclosing personal information. Hereby privacy concerns have to be considered as a sacrifice. Previous literature states that providers can mitigate the negative effect of privacy concerns on the ‘likelihood of use’ in two ways; (1) by offering privacy policies regarding the handling and use of personal information and (2) by offering benefits such as monetary rewards or convenience. These compensating are further operationalized as expected monetary benefits and perceived usefulness. No existence of a direct relation between the construct of privacy concerns, perceived usefulness and expected monetary benefits is found in literature. However, several IT adoption studies in literature suggest an indirect relation through the construct of likelihood of use. Hereby, the likelihood of use is positively affected by the perceived usefulness and expected monetary benefits and negatively affected by privacy concerns. These findings are combined in a conceptual model which is validated for the case of mobile insurance by the explorative assessment. Analysis and results In order to provide an answer on the main research question, two quantitative assessments are conducted. By means of a consumer survey and multiple regression, an explorative assessment is conducted to the relations between the constructs of likelihood of use, privacy concerns, perceived usefulness and expected monetary benefit. Hereby, the conceptual model is validated. By means of a conjoint survey, a more in-depth assessment to the buy-off value of privacy is conducted for all relevant types of privacy, for the case of Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) insurance. Explorative assessment The construct of perceived usefulness appears to be in general the strongest predictor for the likelihood of use mobile insurance. The relation between these two constructs is significant for all categories of mobile insurance. Mobile insurance services with a higher perceived usefulness are likely to raise more interest of consumers for future use. The relation between the construct of expected monetary benefits and the likelihood of use shows to be positive as well, however not significant for all categories of mobile insurance. Expected monetary benefits appear not to be a significant predictor for the use of mobile accessibility. Overall it can be concluded that mobile insurance services with a higher expected monetary benefit for the consumer are likely to raise more interest of consumers for future use. In contrast to previous constructs, the relationship between the construct of privacy concerns and the likelihood of use appears to be negative, however not significant for all categories of mobile insurance. Privacy concerns appear not to be a significant predictor for the use of Accident detection and prevention and Mobile accessibility. Overall it can be concluded that mobile insurance service with raised privacy concerns are likely to have a negative impact on the likelihood of use mobile insurance. Altogether, it can be concluded that the likelihood of use mobile insurance services is primarily driven by its perceived usefulness. Thereafter, consumers’ likelihood of use mobile insurance services is driven by raised expectations on accompanied monetary benefits and inhibited by increased privacy concerns. However, not for every category of mobile insurance the predictors have a significant relation with the likelihood of use, no significant contra relations are found. These findings seem to support the relations as found in literature. Conjoint assessment Although the explorative assessment shows us that monetary benefits are not the strongest predictor for consumers’ likelihood of use mobile insurance services, the conjoint assessment is used for a more in-depth analysis to the buy-off value of privacy. For this analysis, the buy-off value of privacy is determined for all individual relevant types of privacy for the case of pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) insurance. PAYD insurance is an automobile insurance whereby the premium is dependent on the actual car-use. Most common used indicators for car-use are mileages, and driving behavior. Respondents are willing to sell their privacy of location and space through continuously disclosing the GPS-location of their car for a financial compensation of 2,27 per month. Privacy of behavior and actions appears to have slightly higher buy-off value since respondents are willing to continuously provide insight in their car-acceleration, car-deceleration and steering behavior, for a financial compensation of 2,98 per month. Regarding the privacy of data and image two buy-off values are determined related to the internal and external (secondary) use of personal information. Hereby, secondary use is operationalized as the unauthorized use of personal information for personalized advertisement. Respondents are willing to sell their privacy of data image for third party advertisement for a financial compensation of 2,77 per month. In contrast to the external use of personal information, respondents are willing to pay a monthly contribution of 2,91 for internal (insurance related) personalized advertisement. However, these outcomes cannot blind be generalized to the entire population, it can be concluded that respondents derive more disutility from external use of privacy related information than internal use. Discussion and conclusion In conclusion, we can say that privacy concern are likely to rise with the use of mobile insurance services. However these concerns can be compensated by both perceived usefulness of the service and an expected monetary benefits. The compensation by the expectation for financial benefits appears to have a smaller effect than compensation by elevated perceptions on the usefulness of a mobile insurance service. However when the expectation on monetary benefits is amplified with a financial compensation, the buy-off values for different types of privacy appear to be rather small. Hereby, consumers perceive their privacy of behavior and action as more valuable than their privacy of location and space. Regarding privacy of data and image, the buy-off value seems to be dependent on the one who exploits their data; the data holder or an external party. While the use of consumers’ personal information for personalized advertisement by the data holder appears to be beneficial, personalized advertisement by third parties is perceived as adversely. This study is the first attempt in literature in which the buy-off value for different types of privacy is determined. As this study proves, is the buy-off value of privacy varying for different types of privacy, supporting its plurality. A plural approach on privacy could provide a more detailed method for future technology acceptance studies. Emerging trends, such as the ongoing digitalization, quantified-self, internet of things and big data require the disclosure of different sets of personal and contextual information. Consequently, different types of privacy may be involved affecting consumer adoption to another extent. Therefore, it is recommended to include a plural construct of privacy in future technology acceptance studies. Further research is recommended to evaluation the value of privacy for other mobile (insurance) services. A comparison between the values of privacy of these individual services may result in interesting insights for technology adoption and privacy literature. By proving the existence of multiple types of privacy dependent on the specific characteristics of concerned (mobile) services, this study validates the findings of Nikou (2012) that IT artifact should no longer be treated as ‘Black-Box’. Further, analysis methods such as factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) have not been applied in the explorative survey. By applying SEM in further research on the explorative dataset to examine both the effect of individual constructs per categories of mobile insurance and a generic constructs on the likelihood of use, could result in interesting insights, in line with Nikou’s (2012) findings, that IT artifact should no longer be treated as ‘Black-Box’.","Mobile Insurance; Privacy Concerns; Buy-off value; Privacy types; Insurance; Mobile technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2014-12-18","Technology, Policy and Management","ICT","","SEPAM","",""
"uuid:db0c1445-101d-4e4b-8674-48a1969ec539","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:db0c1445-101d-4e4b-8674-48a1969ec539","Southworks Technology Center","Sraiffe, M.","Bennekom, H. (mentor); Van Der Meel, H. (mentor); Cavallo, R. (mentor)","2014","Introduction My graduation project is about the lakeside development in South Chicago. Chicago Southworks was home to the previous US steel manufacturing plant. About 20 000 thousand people worked and lived at south side. The mill started to decline in the 70 ties because of the shifting market for steel. US steel closed his doors in 1992. The site has lost about 20 000 people, 40 percent of its population. The 20000 people are gone. The impact of the shutdown of the steel industry is still visible in the South side neighborhood, but the spirit of the manufacturing still runs through the neighborhood of south Chicago. The long abandoned site contains of 227 ha empty land is a potential area for e new development. The Goal of the studio is to create a strategy for the site. It includes a long term vision and a proposal for the first program. The strategy is based on urban analysis of the neighborhood and the city of Chicago. The assignment is to determine a new program and design the first intervention on the site. My strategy was to start a new development that will help the revitalization of the neighborhood and attract new people to the site. I will try to bring people back to the site with a new industry. This industry will focus on a new generation: The SMART Community! The new industry will focus on the growing number of creative’s, students and entrepreneurial engineers. South works will transform to a ‘Start-up Hub’ for small technology firms. The program of the building is a Technology Center. The building will be the first project on the site. This building will have a relation with a wide social context. The building will be a place of adventure and discovery. People will be introduced to the digital world and understand the technology that is surrounding them. The technology center will have a public and a private program. The building will help to create an interaction between the public visitors and the professional user who work in the building. It is important to use all the good qualities of the site: the water, the ORE walls, landscape and the existing infrastructure. The building will have a fluent relationship with this context. Visibility is a very important key to represent the program of the building.","Southworks; Chicago; Lakeside; Ore Wall; Technology Center; ETFE; Exhibition; Diagrid structure; U.S. Steel; Midwest; Urban analysis; masterplan; Education; Complex Projects","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Architecture and The Built Environment","Architecture","","Complex Projects","",""
"uuid:7870fe2a-5dad-42db-bf45-7d21f4aa8b70","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7870fe2a-5dad-42db-bf45-7d21f4aa8b70","Measuring the impact of Information Technology systems on police practices in the Dutch police force - Developing a measurement tool from a systems thinking","Osamulia, D.","Den Hengst-Bruggeling, M. (mentor); Verbraeck, A. (mentor); De Reuver, M. (mentor)","2014","To what extent does or will IT actually impact police practices for the better? In order to get closer to answering this question, this research focuses on developing a measurement tool following a system thinking approach. The system thinking approach employed in this research consists of mental mapping and identification of indicators from this mental map. The mental map and subsequent indicators will be mapped based on data derived from literature, interviews and card sorting data. These identified indicators are presented as the final measurement model. In contrast to reductionistic or deterministic approaches, the result of this research is focused on exploring and defining the semantic landscape of the police practices that are impacted by technology first before defining indicators relevant for measurement. Therefore, the presented mental map and proposed measurement tool should provide a broad perspective to those who are interested in exploring measurement of the impact of information technology on police practices.","Technology; Impact; Police; IS-success; information technology; information systems; law enforcement","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","System Engineering","","System Engineering","",""
"uuid:2ad1d153-2bf4-4de7-831d-b9b4b159ee25","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2ad1d153-2bf4-4de7-831d-b9b4b159ee25","Factors influencing eHealth adoption by Dutch hospitals: An empirical study","Faber, S.R.","Janssen, M.F.W.H.A. (mentor); Van Geenhuizen, M.S. (mentor); De Reuver, G.A. (mentor)","2014","This study aims at understanding the factors influencing the organisational adoption of eHealth by Dutch hospitals. This study proposes a model for organisational eHealth adoption based on the Technological-Organisational-Environmental (TOE) framework and elements of the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory. The following factors were identified and included in the model for examining their influence on organisational eHealth adoption: centralisation, size, organisational readiness, top management support, and absorptive capacity. A cross-sectional survey was developed and distributed to hospitals in the Netherlands. Data analysis was performed using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The study’s findings indicate that size, organisational readiness and top management support significantly influence the organisational adoption of eHealth by Dutch hospitals. The findings of this study can be used to derive organisational strategies or governmental policies to foster the organisational adoption of eHealth.","eHealth; organisational innovation adoption; Technological-Organisational-Environmental (TOE) framework; healthcare; Diffusion of Innovations (DOI); Dutch hospitals","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","ICT","","ICT","",""
"uuid:a421153e-1f71-45a8-b485-4780b6f33dfc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a421153e-1f71-45a8-b485-4780b6f33dfc","Integrating design thinking in SMEs","Datta, P.","Calabretta, G. (mentor); De Lille, C. (mentor)","2014","This thesis addresses technology development in SMEs and how a design oriented service can increase the output of successful innovations. Ultimately, from the research findings a designerly approach is developed, to guide SMEs though the most crucial development stages. The scope of the research was established because of personal interest and challenges that were encountered with a design consultancy. There was not a lot of information that could be found regarding designerly approaches towards the development of technologies. During my design engineering degree, there was an equally low focus. Since many great products stem from the development of new technologies, this thesis discusses exactly how designers can help tech savvy SMEs. This project consists of a research and analysis phase, concluded with a service design. The research phase consisted of a literature review, interviews with the participating companies, designers (working in SMEs) and design experts. In the analysis of the research, the findings were narrowed down to create main insights. These insights were primary overlooking themes across the findings. These same themes were then linked to the literature review and quotes from the interviews to extract the main problems in developing innovative technologies. Based on several issues, such as the knowledge gap between designers and engineers, the service will have an integral approach. The designers will aid the current development team of an SME, only the approach will be different. There are three themes that played a dominant role in categorizing the challenges experienced by SMEs and designers. Lack of knowledge, such as not knowing the kind of design tools that can be used. Isolated development processes, where specialists do their tasks in their own environment, without interaction with other specialists. Ability to guide designers, in which managers do not know which kind of designer to put where in the development process. Ultimately, the focus was put on three key actors. The most important key actors that this service focus on this service are: 1. Knowledge sharing 2. Utilize expertise 3. Channeling designerly skills These play an important role throughout the service approach, as they solve multiple problems throughout the early development process. The three phases that are targeted from the early stages of development are: 1. Patent or problem - A patent poses an opportunity, or a problem from a client, gives way to develop a new technology. 2. Problem based ideation - Development team bases the ideation phase around a specific context, ruling out other opportunities. 3. Product idea brainstorming - Development teams do not use the right techniques to brainstorm about products and ideas. These three early stages are changed in terms of the activities that take place in each phase, as well as the kind of development approach. The three abstraction levels, show the kinds of designers, design tools and the kinds of analysis that is done in each of the three phases.","Design thinking; SME; Managing technology; Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","Master of Science Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:03ac37a2-9ad6-44bb-8905-9ee5ccf060dd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:03ac37a2-9ad6-44bb-8905-9ee5ccf060dd","Designing an innovative consumer product using structures from space","Langbroek, M.","Ninaber van Eyben, B. (mentor); Van de Geer, S.G. (mentor); Chen, F. (mentor)","2014","This report discusses the development of a foldable baby bed for the consumer market in the UK. It is executed for Oxford Space Structures Ltd. as a graduation project for Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. A folding mechanism extracted from an ESA patent serves as the starting point for this project. It is developed from early sketches up to a functioning prototype. The approach to the project is based on design methods from Roozenburg and Eekels, Verganti and Hekkert and Van Dijk. In the end a reflection considers both the product and the process. Technical analysis of the mechanism, competitor analysis in the UK market and user research with UK parents concluded the following: - Ease of folding and deploying is the Unique Selling Point - The product should be marketed towards use in and around the house; not as a travel cot but as a home cot - Safety standards set elaborate requirements for market entry The concept of fabric in hanging in a frame is optimal for strength and stiffness combined with low weight. Both fabric and mattress fold in along with the structure. This allows the product to be ready for use or stored away within seconds. Specific attention is given to the hinges and connections in the frame; the functionality and feasibility of the concepts is key. Several 1:1 models test and validate the working principles and lead to a prototype that provides a proof of concept. A last problem with the synchronized folding of the structure is solves in the final design proposal. The final design consists of a lightweight aluminium bars, connected by plastic parts. The ring shaped hinges in the middle act as use cues for locking the product in deployed position. Their internal mechanism allows secure assembly and proper functioning whilst keeping a smooth outer surface for safety. The fabric hanging by the rim of the frame allows folding into a 150mm flat package and give the product its distinct shape.","Travel Cot; baby care; hinges; space technology; baby bed; VIP","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Master of Science Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:b93fa0de-36e1-4539-a887-1aa5e446c19b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b93fa0de-36e1-4539-a887-1aa5e446c19b","Analysis of Risk Management Activities in the Design, Engineering, Development phases of Manufacturing Organizations","Bhaumik, S.","De Bruijn, J.A. (mentor); Veeneman, W.W. (mentor); Ortt, J.R. (mentor); Wassink, C. (mentor); Mooi, H. (mentor)","2014","New Product or System development in a manufacturing industry is realized through the culminated efforts of different functional units, namely the Research and Development unit, the Supply Chain unit, the Design and Engineering Team, and finally the Manufacturing and Assembly units. The Design, Engineering and Development phase is a critical part of the entire product development lifecycle since it’s a process in which conceptualized ideas of the Research and Development unit or the Technological centers are given shape in the form of the first blue prints, which is further developed into the physical structure itself. The technical complexity of realizing a new technology, the interfaces and interdependencies amongst the different functional silos of the organization and the complexity of dealing with external suppliers and vendors leads to risks in the process of product development. These risks hamper the project in terms of quality of the product or system to be achieved, cost management and the time management of the project. Therefore it is necessary to adopt and practice certain important risk management activities which helps to be prepared to face such risks. Study of literature helped to realize that it is known what risk management is, and why it should be applied. However there is a gap of knowledge of how and what are the most effective and necessary risk management activities that should be adopted and practiced. An explorative multiple case study amongst three well established manufacturing organizations was carried out to study what are the best risk management activities practiced and adopted to manage risks on grounds of technological complexities, complexities and interfaces amongst the different functional silos in the organization and the risks which arose while dealing with the suppliers and vendors. The literature was used to develop the research protocol based on the risk management lifecycle. The protocol helped to build constructive questions which was used to investigate two past executed projects from each of the organizations chosen in the sample. The cases studied had realized at least the first prototype or the concept design successfully . Theory of consolidation was used to narrow down to twenty seven risk management activities. The next step in the research was to establish the most effective combinations of risk management activities. Using the concepts of fuzzy sets qualitative comparative analysis, the independent risk management activities were dealt as input conditions and the project outcomes in the context of quality of the product developed, the cost management of the project and the time management of the project was dealt as the dependent variable. The fsQCA tool was used to carry out the analysis by framing fuzzy data sets of the different conditions catering to technological risks, internal organizational risks and the external organization in the form of suppliers and vendors. The fsQCA analysis using the set and subset theory, analyzed the maximum consistency and coverage of the different combinations of the Risk management activities. This helped to conclude on the most important risk management activities on grounds of technical risks, internal organizational risks and the external organizational risks. The qualitative judgement of the cases helped to identify certain risk management activities which is essential to be practiced in order to make the combinations of the risk activities identified by fsQCA successful. The combination of the fsQCA analysis and the qualitative judgement helped to build up the Technological Risk activity model, the Internal organizational risk activity model and the External organizational risk activity model. These mentioned risk activity model are the main deliverables of the research on managerial terms. The fsQCA and the qualitative judgement further helps to establish relations between the independent risk activities and the dependent project outcomes which can be defined as the contribution to science. The added advantages and the contributions of the risk activities on the dependent project outcomes have also been discussed in the research. The study of the past executed projects help to conclude that risk management as followed in the literature is more algorithmic in nature with pre-defined steps, whereas risk management in actual practice is more aligned in towards a project management approach. The risk management framework followed in the organization is highly influenced by the driver of the project which could be quality, cost or time management of the project. The author deduces that larger the size of the organization, the more structured and streamlined is the risk management framework. Smaller the size of the organization, more informal is the risk management. In such organizations the risk management is almost carried out from the perspective of project management. Through the research it is realized that there are no perfect risk management activities, since even after taking immense precautions and adopting a vigorous risk management framework, the project can eventually meet some un conceived risks, which might completely hamper the process of execution. Therefore the prescription model recommended in the research, would enable the organization to be well equipped to face and counter the risks that evolve in the process of product development. The risk management activities as prescribed through the model should be primarily disciplined or institutionalized in the manufacturing processes.","Risk Management Activities; Technological Risks; Internal Organizational Risks; External Organizational Risks; Project Outcomes; Quality; Cost; Time","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Policy, Law, Organization and Gaming","","Msc. Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:efeabca2-b632-452e-a79c-c49647c30e16","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:efeabca2-b632-452e-a79c-c49647c30e16","Witnessed Presence in Networked Wearables","Srivatsav, N.K.","Nevejan, C.I.M. (mentor); Enserink, B. (mentor); Kroesen, J.O. (mentor); Brazier, F.M. (mentor)","2014","Wearable electronics is a nascent sector of technology that is already generating a lot of excitement and speculation as a clear candidate for (yet another) disruptive innovation. Data from the (social) Internet in combination with various deployments of ubiquitous computing such as the Internet of Things (IoT) together a promise of unprecedented intersection of the online and offline worlds, a new dimension rich with ambient information. Wearables present therefore an incredible opportunity to re-invent how we connect to ourselves and the world around us. And perhaps this is a timely intervention for modern civilisation. The technological aspect of modern socio-technical systems enables great flows of information, vastly extending human agency as well. Essential social processes are enabled and carried out over communication technologies; fundamental social structures are changing. However, the opportunities to witness one another, already tenuous in physical presence, do not smoothly transition into the new generation of technology-mediated interactions, be it person-to-person or person-to-system. It is only through the act of witnessing one another that people establish presence and develop trust, in ever-expanding merging biological, social and algorithmic realities. As a technological medium acting at the very boundary of the individual in both the physical and digital world, it would be interesting to design wearables that enhance witnessing in modern network(ed) societies. This work approaches the effort simultaneously from Policy Analysis, sociology and Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspectives. Key references include Marshall McLuhan (Medium Theory), Barry Wellman (Networked Individualism) and Caroline Nevejan (Witnessed Presence). This is coupled with a case-study of an upcoming wearable called BOND by Kwamecorp, a new media agency. BOND utilises the touch modality that wearables uniquely can harness, to send tickles between a pair of synced devices. The product is targeted at intimate couples. As such, both the wearable form-factor as well as the novel communication channel make BOND ideal for investigating witnessed presence in wearables. It was found that wearables in their mobility and portability can be imagined as technological organs on the modern human being. A useful design mantra for wearables was condensed as contextual embodied augmentation. Context-sensitivity demands specialised affordances; embodiment refers to intuitive extensions and calls to action that keep users immersed in the real world, as opposed to the reality-in-a-screen; and finally augmentation is recommended as a design principle such that wearables provide ways the enrich reality with information. Touch-modality is seen as a promising new avenue unique to wearables; digital stimuli can be ‘affective’ on users. Wearables in their selective and portable enhancement divorce traditionally conflated social function and physical place, condensing expertise into portable devices. In bridging the digital-physical world, wearables become the offline equivalent of digital ‘avatars’, which gain value by storing valuable personal information and furthermore using them to provide pointed affordances for (inter)actions in both online and offline worlds. An ethnographic study of Kwamecorp and a design history of BOND contributes an insider look at new technology development in a contemporary startup setting. Interviews conducted with nine designers from Kwamecorp are analysed to elucidate the design intentions of BOND. BOND’s Touch module is confirmed to facilitate witnessed presence by enhancing co-presence among interacting parties. This is enabled by a ‘quantum of presence’ interaction. This discretised form of connectivity is in line with a general trend of affordances to counterbalance the greater frequency of connection and communication in modern living. These kinds of communications, in their reduced format, are both easily deployable in wearables and, while the reduction in complexity can be ambiguous, it is a feature that invites more creative participation from both parties. Ultimately, the thesis is useful to anyone interested in developing both industrial and consumer applications with wearable electronics, those interested in how sociological insights can help actively in the design of new technologies for socio-technical systems, or as a primer for witnessed presence","witnessed presence; socio-technical systems; science and technology studies; policy analysis; new media; wearable electronics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Multi Actor Systems","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:f37ee12e-17d4-4b81-b89e-0dbdc22f3eb8","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f37ee12e-17d4-4b81-b89e-0dbdc22f3eb8","Added Value Framework and Information Technology Capabilities of Enterprise Application Integration","Baskaran, B.","Van Beers, C.P. (mentor); Bouwman, W.A.G.A. (mentor); Van der Duin, P.A. (mentor)","2014","This research deals with enterprise application integration with two new perspectives. The two perspectives are added value and information technology capabilities. Enterprise applications are a set of software packages that help organizations run their businesses. Enterprise applications have been used consistently in all industries. This wide usage resulted in new requirements from the users for functional specific and industry specific enterprise applications. This requirement made sure that the enterprise application market is filled with vendors who are developing many specialized enterprise applications. The result of the range of applications led to them becoming silo applications (applications that cannot communicate with other applications). Thus, the new problem came with respect to how to make sure these silo applications communicate with each other without changing the existing business and IT environment. This brought the concept of enterprise application integration (EAI). EAI is defined as the unlimited sharing and coordination of data and business process between any connected application and data source in an enterprise. The two perspectives that this research focuses on addressing the core problem that is existing in integration - users of enterprise applications are neither aware of the value of integration nor are they aware of the capabilities they need to make sure the integration is implementable. Software vendors are also facing stiff competition from the market and are interested in developing integrated solutions. But with a lack of knowledge of the adopter’s requirements, they lack a clear strategy for improving their product offerings. External consultants also face challenges from dealing with different applications and making them communicate as stand-alone systems. Thus, there is no clear focus on why EAI should be done and what capabilities are needed to do it. This research focuses on this knowledge gap by having the following objectives: ? Develop a framework that can be used to assess the added values of enterprise application integration. ? Identify the information technology capabilities needed to implement enterprise application integration. The three applications that form the focus of this research for EAI are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship (CRM) and Multichannel commerce. The research also focuses on Fast Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry since the use of digital channels for shopping is increasing among customers. Another reason why FMCG is a fitting industry for this research is that the important processes in the industry such as logistics, supply chain, customer relations are dealt with by the three applications. These two factors make FMCG an ideal industry for this research. Two theoretical models were used to develop the added value framework namely, Enterprise Application Benefit Framework and Value Creation for E-Business Model. The added value framework developed can be positioned as a aggregation of these two models with the perspective of enterprise application integration in FMCG industry which has not been done before. The research operationalized enterprise application integration using three business processes namely Customer_Order_Online, Customer_Complaint_Call_Center and Marketing_Campaign_Management. All the business processes are developed loosely based on SAP ECC, SAP CRM, SAP-Hybris applications. The business processes were developed keeping in mind that all the three applications under the research have to be involved with each other and must include the stakeholders in the process flow. Information technology capabilities were measured using two dimensions namely human and hardware capabilities. Human capabilities refer to the technical and managerial skills needed and hardware capabilities refer to the hardware storage and speed of computation. Research Method The research technique used for the research is Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Likert Scale. Data was collected from four stakeholders namely software vendors, software adopters, external consultants and academic professionals through an online survey. Conclusions The developed framework determine added value from two dimensions derived from the two existing models. The two dimensions represent two constructs of added values. The first dimension which represents the importance of the added value is categorized as novelty, efficiency, lock-in and complementarities. The second dimension represents the intensity of the added values and is categorized as strategic, managerial and operational. Based on the framework and the business processes that were used to operationalize enterprise application integration, nine added values were identified namely, Improved Business Planning, Increased IT alignment with business, Better Customer Experience Increased Company Common Vision, Improved on time Delivery, Accurate Sales Forecasting, Streamlined business processes, Increased Data Quality, Increase in Sales. These added values were then fitted into the framework based on the business processes previously defined. The developed framework was then tested using the online survey. The results for the second objective indicate that the highest capability needed is cross departmental interaction between IT and business units. This capability is also related to the increase in business IT alignment added value. The need for IT technical employees to gain managerial skills was also the second highest capability needed. The capabilities that were not required were business managers learning IT technical details and more hardware storage for integration. Generalization of the research The framework was developed with the SAP applications and hence the business processes were developed from these applications’ modules. But using this framework for other business processes would not be an issue at all since the framework itself does not rely on the business processes and only the added values are dependent on the business processes. The information capabilities identified are applicable to any type of company irrespective of whether they treat IT as a support or a strategic tool. The framework can also be used to determine the added values of other industries based on the business processes. Future Research More research can be carried out for the validation of the framework and fill the empty slots for combinations of added values that are novel and operational. Other factors that affect the concept of capabilities apart from IT, such as organizational, financial and regulations have to be investigated. Future research must include another important stakeholder in the framework which is the end customers since they are important in the adopter’s strategy. And the framework must be tested in other industries and with other enterprise applications products apart from SAP to make the framework more robust. Limitations of the research The research has five limitations. First, the framework is developed based on business processes suitable for SAP applications. Although the framework is not dependent on the business processes, in order to improve the external validity, more research has to be done on how it changes to other vendor applications and business processes. Second, the list of added values is limited to nine since increasing added values will affect computation of Analytic Hierarchy Process and increases the survey length. Third, the list of business processes is also limited to only three but they are some of the most commonly used business processes. But future research can be done to see if the framework works for other business processes. Fourth, due to the small sample size, this research serves as exploration and first validation of the constructed framework and further research can be conducted to do more extensive validation by means of survey research, mainly through in depth interviews. Finally, the adopters’ size can maybe be a limiting factor for using the framework. Since it clearly distinguishes the organizational levels within a company, SMEs and other smaller companies may not be the most suitable firms to use this framework.","Enterprise Application Integration; added value; multichannel commerce; ERP; CRM; FMCG; information technology capabilities","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2014-09-02","Technology, Policy and Management","Information and Communication Technology (ICT)","","Management of Technology (MoT)","",""
"uuid:b8de9be4-bc7e-4ae4-825b-def28367fadd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b8de9be4-bc7e-4ae4-825b-def28367fadd","Success factors for technology development of bio refinery & bio energy technologies at ECN","Pierik, K.S.","Scholten, V.E. (mentor); Stikkelman, R.M. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor)","2014","There is an abundance of research on success factors for R&D projects. Most authors have attempted to create a universal list of critical success factors, but different authors have found that the magnitude of significance and the direction of influence vary. Most studies have made no distinction between projects, and often neglected the context in which a project is implemented and differences in relative importance of success factors between stages of a project life cycle. This thesis undertook a review of existing literature on success factors for R&D projects and proposed a different approach to find success factors under case specific conditions. This research focused on technology development projects of bio refinery and bio energy technologies at the Energy research Center of the Netherlands and proposed a list of key success factors per stage in the project life cycle. The method used to derive this list is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. A case study showed a large overlap between what was considered to be important for project success in that specific case and the list of key success factors derived from the AHP analysis. However, this case study also showed that even the smallest case specific conditions have their influence on what is considered to be important for success.The method proposed in this thesis can be applied to other research institutes as well, since it makes use of the experience of local experts who work on development projects on a regular basis. Further research is proposed for the categorization element of the proposed method, for the project life cycle, and for further evaluation of the validity of this method.","technology development projects; success factors; research institutes; R&D projects","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2016-08-26","Technology, Policy and Management","Economics of Technology and Innovation","","Systems Engineering Policy Analysis and Management","",""
"uuid:1307b57c-ea79-4213-b7f2-665ae3b3760d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1307b57c-ea79-4213-b7f2-665ae3b3760d","TRL as a means for effective Innovation Project Performance Management","Bakker, P.","Ortt, R.J. (mentor); Veeneman, W.W. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor)","2014","The aerospace industry often faces challenges with respect to managing innovation project performance, due to the interdependence of disciplines. The projects are often managed by means of Technology Readiness Level (TRL). However, the metrics are not available to overcome the challenge of delivering technology in time and within budget. In this thesis a method, evaluated with a case study at Fokker Aerostructures, is recommended to manage the performance of multi-disciplinary innovation projects, using TRL as a stage gate approach and standard project management practices. However, to fully address the need to manage innovation project performance, more research and effort is required to adapt the method in daily practice.","TRL; complex project management; stage gate model; Product development; Technology development; interdependent disciplines","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2016-08-25","Technology, Policy and Management","Management of Technology","","Strategy, Technology & Entrepreneurship","",""
"uuid:0aca38e7-81ae-4ca7-9b1f-ffcf0f2e33fc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0aca38e7-81ae-4ca7-9b1f-ffcf0f2e33fc","Façades as a Product-Service System: The potential of new business-to-client relations in the facade industry","Azcarate-Aguerre, J.F.","Klein, T. (mentor); Den Heijer, A.C. (mentor)","2014","This thesis studies the potential of a Product-Service System applied to facades. It analyses the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process for new building constructions, and then evaluates the economic, functional, energetic and strategic advantages of a ""leasable facade"" for each of these parties. This work also explores a variety of possible design and technical schematic models for a disassemblable facade, and their potential as resource-efficient, market-focused facade solutions.","facades; leasing; PSS; disassemblable; resource; efficient; sustainable; renovation; business-model; economics; finance; building technologies; curtain wall; integrated services; smart facades; marketing; real estate; university","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2016-07-10","Architecture and The Built Environment","Building Technologies","","","",""
"uuid:7a379346-e46a-4a4f-b8d1-ff95e6f43281","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7a379346-e46a-4a4f-b8d1-ff95e6f43281","Re-sil(i)ence, aircraft noise abatement by the built environment in the vicinity of airports","Lugten, M.C.","Stolk, E.H. (mentor); Van der Hoeven, F.D. (mentor)","2014","The graduation research focusses on mitigations in the built environment abating aircraft noise which can used by urban planners, designers and policy makers operating in airport regions. Aircraft noise is an issue for airport regions as it forces building restrictions upon aircraft noise exposed areas (e.g. for Schiphol and the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area) and increases the chance people living in such areas will face (stress related) physical disorders. Instead of focusing on the noise source (the aircraft) this research aims to develop mitigations which can be applied within the built environment for different varieties of aircraft noise. The research first develops aircraft noise abating solutions by literature study, which are converted to twenty-four design patterns. The design pattern methodology has showed to be effective to translate (technical) information to design and planning tools and incorporates today’s complex realm of (airport) urban planning and design. Moreover, the research maps average and incidental sound pressure levels in the Schiphol area which are used to indicate where in the vicinity of Schiphol the design patterns can be applied. This results in design pattern which are partly generic (can be applied in any airport region) and specific (application of the design patterns in the Schiphol area). Aside from design patterns, also a qualitative system to analyse the effects and presence of (spatial) aircraft noise abating solutions in airport regions has been developed. By this analysis framework, different areas within the Schiphol region are analysed which indicates how the existing area can be optimized. In the final parts of the thesis, the design patterns are tested by two design cases. The first case aims to test the application of design patterns by urban designers and planners working in the Schiphol area. The results are positive but suggests further research and simplification of the design patterns in needed. The second case addresses an individual design proposal which is tested in a numerical model. The numerical model quantifies the sound pressure level reduction for the aircraft noise variety the second design case focussed on. The results are positive and show the design patterns applied in the second case contribute to increased sound pressure levels although more research will be needed.","aircraft noise; noise reduction; spatial interventions; spatial analysis; Schiphol; noise modelling; urban physics; building technology; building materialization","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Architecture and The Built Environment","Urbanism","","Explore lab","",""
"uuid:7f05a0f9-8241-4de0-8fe1-59c7eff9058a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7f05a0f9-8241-4de0-8fe1-59c7eff9058a","Consumer Acceptance of Biofeedback Products in Health Management","Lin, T.Y.","Sääksjärvi, M. (mentor); Tempelman, E. (mentor)","2014","People take time to explore pros and cons of a new technology. Since the biofeedback technology is a relatively state-of-the-art technology, the public do not know a lot about biofeedback technology. So it is important to understand the user acceptance of this technology in the market. In order to develop successful biofeedback products, it is essential to understand user demands and their opinions about accepting the technology. This project not only contains the analysis of possible advantages and disadvantages in biofeedback technology, but also explores the issues of the flexibility and the non-buttons in consumer acceptance. Then providing a strategy plan to promote the technology in the next decade.","Biofeedback Technology; Consumer Acceptance; Flexible Screen; Touch Screen","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","","",""
"uuid:9e391aef-21b9-49a6-a6d4-7e0ed5a955eb","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9e391aef-21b9-49a6-a6d4-7e0ed5a955eb","Design of a 95% Glass Climate Adaptive Curved Canopy","Valencia Juarez Ortiz, T.V.J.O.","Veer, F.V. (mentor); Borgart, A.B. (mentor); Tillmann, K.T. (mentor)","2014","The Design of a 95% glass climate adaptive curved canopy is analysed","Glass Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2014-06-24","Architecture and The Built Environment","Building Technology","","","",""
"uuid:26ea9815-3a2b-409d-861d-939166808d7d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:26ea9815-3a2b-409d-861d-939166808d7d","Negative Indirect Network Effects: How can a subsidiary product create a second standard in the Microsoft Windows vs. Apple Mac OS market?","Qavami Tehrani, M.","Van Beers, C.P. (mentor); Rook, L. (mentor); Nevejan, C.I.M. (mentor)","2014","New technologies create a network of complementary producers and consumers around themselves. Researchers have been investigating the effects of such networks on end-users and called them “Network Externalities”. These network externalities are either direct or indirect. There have been no prior researches on negative and indirect consequences of these networks. The aim of this paper is to observe negative effects of the network on the market from both macro and micro level. Therefore, our main research question is: “Does expansion of network lead to Negative Indirect Network Effects?” The objectives of the present research were to investigate the nature of the network and to acquire more insight into the causes of Negative Indirect Network Effects (NINE) and their impact on network growth, to develop an empirical model for it, and simulate this model in order to have a better understanding of underlying network dynamics. The focus of the present research was on the laptop operation system network. To start with, we reviewed different aspects of this particular network in order to reform a new conceptual model about consumers’ behaviour. Then, we studied three major operating systems (OS) existing in the market today (Windows, Mac OS, and Linux). First, we reconstructed the history of these technologies, their life cycle, network characteristics, network size, and then, we continued with a short history of unwanted complementary products like bugs, viruses, worms, and malware. We surveyed user attitudes for the two main operating systems, Windows vs. Mac OS, and used those insights to make an agent-based simulation derived from our empirical model and mathematical equation. This simulation was applied to different scenarios. Specifically, we found that a network becomes more attractive for unwanted complementary goods when it expands in size. Also, we discovered that an increase in problems for the dominant design will lead to NINE. Importantly, security measures play an important role in the satisfaction of end-users. When users distrust security measures of the dominant technology, they may decide to switch to a smaller and saver network, and create herd behaviour in NINE, leading other end-users or even new consumers to choose for the secondary technology. However, expansion of the secondary design could also attract unwanted actors in its network and same procedure would emerge for the secondary technology as well. Our model is able to explain this recursive S-curve mechanism. Therefore, the present research provides additional understanding for industries to implement dynamic strategies in order concern to NINE. That is, security is important and industries have to be conscious about it and maintain safety measures with the intention of preventing NINE to happen. But also, industries must be aware that end-users should be involved in the feedback process.","network; network externalities; network effects; strategy; operating system; IT consulting; indirect network effects; standard battle; substitute technology; negative indirect network effects","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:91dd814f-d42d-4580-9c30-821d5a89dcdd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:91dd814f-d42d-4580-9c30-821d5a89dcdd","The Emergence of De Facto Standards: The value of integrative frameworks in the analysis of standards battles","Tedjakusuma, V.","Van de Kaa, G. (mentor)","2014","Usually, no particular framework is used in the analysis of standards battles. Such an approach is good for the discovery of new knowledge, but it cannot reliably lead to a comprehensive analysis of a standards battle. The comprehensiveness of an analysis of a standards battle is currently very dependent on the knowledge and expertise of the researcher. In this thesis we propose to use integrative frameworks for standards battles in the analysis of standards battles. By performing an analysis of the VCR standards battle with a model where we integrate the main aspects of current integrative frameworks for standards battle we showed that this approach can provide valuable new insights that have previously been overlooked. A deductive content analysis of the literature on the VCR standards battle showed that some factors of our model were rarely or not at all mentioned in previous publications on the VCR standards battle. This indicated that an integrative framework could discover new aspects of the VCR standards battle that have previously been overlooked. Through interviews we tried to verify whether or not these “missing” factors were indications of actual gaps in the knowledge on the VCR standards battle. We found that three factors were completely overlooked and the relevance of two factors was underestimated in previous analyses of the VCR standards battle. Moreover, we found that design philosophy was also relevant in the VCR standards battle. This factor was previously not mentioned in any publications on the VCR standards battle nor in any of the integrative frameworks. To analyze this new factor in more depth we borrowed concepts from the field of moral philosophy, more specifically the field of human values. This resulted in a first illustration of the integration of ethics in the analysis of standards battles. The final result of our analysis provides a more comprehensive explanation of the emergence of VHS as a dominant standard and also explains the demise of the competing standards, Betamax and V2000, in more detail than previous publications.","standards; dominance; technology; frameworks","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Values, Technology and Innovation","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:d4614d8f-2e78-4cb7-9947-ee08102c6ebc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d4614d8f-2e78-4cb7-9947-ee08102c6ebc","Business Model Development in the Front End of Innovation","Danguleva, A.D.","De Reuver, M. (mentor)","2014","The first stages of innovation are highly uncertain. Companies often collaborate with other organizations in an attempt to combine different knowledge and expertise, and share risks. However, organizing and managing innovation in a network business environment is quite complex and challenging. The activities in the front end of the innovation process are often difficult to anticipate and perform. Still, they are seen as critical factors for having successful outcomes of the innovation process. The use of the business model concept has recently been recognized as a construct that establishes the link between an emerging technology and its potential economic value. However, little guidance is available regarding how business model concept can be used in order to manage the front end of innovation challenges when network of companies are collaborating. This study aims to identify how the use of business model concept in the front end of technology driven innovation in a networked business environment manages the challenges in the FEI. This study raises a challenging research question: How should business models be developed and evaluated in the front end of technology driven, networked R&D projects in order to manage challenges in the FEI? The main goals of this research is to identify the front end of innovation critical success factors that influence the development of the Business Model and based on what evaluation criteria the viability of such BM can be evaluated. The approach to achieve these goals had two main directions – theoretical and practical. First, based on theory, the challenges and the success factors of the front end of innovation were identified. The evaluation factors for Business Model Viability were also studied. Second, the same factors were studied during a case study, performed on two collaborative projects. The findings were analysed by the Analytic Hierarchy Process Methodology. The results of the survey reveal the most important factors for the front end of innovation and the most important factors for evaluating a Business model developed in this phase. Third, the influence of the Business model concept on the front end of innovation phase was studied by interviewing experts during the case study and by questioning experts in the survey. With regard to front end of innovation critical success factors that influence the development of the Business Model, four factors are relatively more important - Compelling Value proposition, Acceptable Profit Potential, Adaptability, and Acceptable quality of service delivery. Interesting finding is that factors related to technology were not among the most important for the early stage of the innovation process. Furthermore, there were significant differences in the ranking order among the various respondent groups, which might be caused by the specification of their work or the low respondent level. With regard to the criteria based on which a Business model can be evaluated in the FEI phase, four criteria are relatively more important – Compelling Value proposition, Acceptable Profit potential, Adaptability, and Acceptable quality of service delivery. Evaluation criteria like Novelty, Imitability, and Uniqueness are ranked as least important for evaluating such Business model. Most of the factors have very close weights, which suggests that they might be considered as equally important. Furthermore, there is a difference in the rank order of the criteria with respect to respondents’ experience with Business Model concept. Finally, it was concluded that the use of Business Model concept in the Front end of innovation, when network of companies collaborate, helps to structure the innovation and working process, to consider different aspects that might normally be out of the scope, and to communicate the gathered business and market insights with the technology developers.","Business Model; Front end of Innovation; Technology innovation; Success factors; Evaluation criteria","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","ICT","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:583e26ab-fbd9-44bc-ac86-7aa6cabdcf55","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:583e26ab-fbd9-44bc-ac86-7aa6cabdcf55","Building the future with FRP composites","Roosenboom, F.G.","Homans, T.C. (mentor); Smits, J.E.P. (mentor)","2014","This paper focuses on the state-of-the-art research that has been done on fibre-reinforced polymer composites that are used to design a rapidly constructed building with an all-in-one skin. The past few hundred years, buildings have only been made from a small selection of materials. Mankind’s search for new building materials has produced many innovative solutions in all fields of technology. Composites are already being used in civil engineering and aerospace technology as bridge decks and aeroplane parts, but have not yet been fully integrated in the field of architecture. These fields have shown that composite material – or more specifically, fibre-reinforced polymer – offers a great potential for applications in buildings, because of their favourable material properties compared to traditional building materials. Literature and a number of case studies prove that sandwich elements, which consist out of glass-fibre-reinforced polymer with a polyurethane core, can be load carrying and be used to waterproof and thermally insulate a building simultaneously as an all-in-one skin. Furthermore, sandwich elements can also be used to design a rapidly constructed building. Because there is a lot of research still to be done on fibre-reinforced composites and their applications to building sciences, there is even more potential for the future.","architectural engineering; fibre-reinforced polymer; FRP composite; rapid building construction; future technology; material science; all-in-one skin; sandwich elements; state-of-the-art research","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2014-04-08","Architecture and The Built Environment","Architecture","","Architectural Engineering","",""
"uuid:27cf8f41-daa1-48c2-ad43-3a516e11c4ea","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:27cf8f41-daa1-48c2-ad43-3a516e11c4ea","Acceptance of Operational Business Intelligence in Organisations - Developing a framework describing the context and powers at play involved in achieving OpBI acceptance in organisations","Oei, M.H.H.","Van der Voort, H.G. (mentor); Van den Berg, J. (mentor); Hadiosmanovi?, D. (mentor); Zandvliet, L. (mentor); Kuling, W.P.J. (mentor)","2014","Operational Business Intelligence systems have a great potential for organisations make use of to differentiate themselves. This research aims to find factors that influence the acceptance of such a system in an organisational context. Special attention is given to the several perspectives of the involved stakeholders. Through a literature research combined with a case study, a framework has been set up exploring OpBI acceptance. The framework shows a required context that should be created in order to achieve acceptance. This framework provides a starting point for a discussion about acceptance of OpBI systems in a complex organisational context.","technology acceptance; business intelligence; operational business intelligence; big data; organisational design; framework; contextual requirements; acceptance forces","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2014-04-11","Technology, Policy and Management","Engineering Systems and Services","","Information and Communication Technology","",""
"uuid:0c4bc6a3-b362-4c48-9b5b-54556a6bc52b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0c4bc6a3-b362-4c48-9b5b-54556a6bc52b","An Information Tool to Understand Innovation System and Technological Change in a Country","Yogamaya, N.","Van Geenhuizen, M. (mentor); Kamp, L. (mentor); Cunningham, S. (mentor)","2014","Innovation is considered to be the major force in economic growth. However, the processes are extremely complex and characterized with high level of uncertainty. How can we increase our understanding about innovation process? The core of modern thinking about innovation process is to understand what factors shaping and influencing innovation. The study attempts to design an information tool consists of a common set of explanatory factors which can be used to carry out descriptive and explanatory analysis of a specific technology in a country. Main concepts from two major strands of innovation literatures: systems of innovation approaches and technological transition were used as the base to design the tool. The tool consists of indicator data for two main components of innovation system: structural and system components. The tool suggests using multiple methods of data collection (methodological triangulation) including: desk research, interview, and observation. However, for the current study, most of the information about innovation components can be collected through desk research by providing possible data sources that were chosen based on reliability and trustworthiness level. After mapping the information for every component, an analyst needs to map the interaction pattern between the components and identifies the motors of innovation which are important steps to understand the dynamics of the innovation system including the blocking and inducement mechanism. The tool was implemented to investigate PEMFC innovation system for transport sector in Japan and the Netherlands. The insight derived from the tool implementation is the ability to see how an innovation system is developed based on local social and economic condition. However, though part of the innovations are genuinely domestic; every country has the ability to adapt, diffuse, and utilize the product, process, be part of organization, and even got influenced by institutions developed abroad. With the information tool, innovation system can be studied in a more comprehensive way and the comparison between innovation systems in different countries becomes easier. However, the content of the information tool still need to be strengthened through interview or Delphi method with Policy Study experts and more case studies still need to be done to test the tool.","innovation; systems of innovation approach; technological transition; multi level perspective; functions of innovation system; fuel cell","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:5079fbee-57ee-4819-a5c7-b4900e4030b7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5079fbee-57ee-4819-a5c7-b4900e4030b7","A Framework of Technologies and Security Controls towards the Support of 'Bring Your Own Device Programmes' in Organizations","Bougioukos, D.","Pieters, W. (mentor); Van Eeten, M.J.G. (mentor); Broekhans, B. (mentor); Westerlaken, R. (mentor)","2013","The diffusion of mobile devices in the market place has been tremendous in the last several years. Devices such as smartphones and tablets have become a must-have for contemporary consumers. This development has not left enterprises and organizations unaffected as employees express the desire of using the same devices and consumer technologies at their workplace. As such, organizations have started adopting ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) policies. Employees are allowed to bring their personal mobile devices and use them to access critical information or services in the corporate network. The introduction of BYOD programmes stands to deliver several benefits to organizations. However, it presents certain challenges notably in the area of technology and information security. Currently, there are a lot of propositions in industrial literature while fewer in the scientific literature with respect to tackling the technology and information security implications of the trend. It is identified that these propositions are mostly unsystematic while also taking a solution proposing approach. In this sense, decision making efforts of organizations based on lightweight approaches might fail to capture distinct aspects of BYOD supporting technologies and security controls. As such, in this thesis we develop a framework of technologies and security controls to support the content of the decision making process of interested organizations to introduce BYOD programmes. Namely, we investigate the BYOD trend with a desk research shedding light on its origins, the drivers pushing it, the beneficial opportunities and the key challenge areas that are posed to interested organizations. Focusing on the security challenges we investigate the advancements in the threat landscape of mobile devices by reviewing relevant literature and asking the opinion of security experts. Subsequently, we collect from literature the technologies that stand to support employee-owned devices in the corporate network while also the security controls that can assure the protection of sensitive information manipulated over them. Based on this identification we embark on gathering empirical insight to establish a picture on the effectiveness of proposed technologies and residual risks underlying the proposed security controls. For this purpose, we perform semi-structured interviews with security experts and we obtain results from security audits. Next, we consolidate the information gathered for the development of the framework. The framework constitutes a systematic approach comprised of four layers. The layers entail the important areas for decision making, particularly in the area of technologies and security controls, towards the allowance of employee-owned devices for business use. The framework is addressed to practitioners coming from various types of organizations while also researchers in the field of BYOD. Finally, we attempt to evaluate the quality and usability of the framework by asking the opinion of experts. The expert assessment reveals the strong points and shortcomings of the developed framework. Concluding we reflect on the research results, the artifact built and we discuss the limitations while suggesting ideas for future work.","Bring Your Own Device; Mobile Security; Mobile Threats; Mobile Device Management Technologies; BYOD Framework","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2015-10-07","Technology, Policy and Management","ICT","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:280478eb-b754-4b66-9eeb-423ec3a17441","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:280478eb-b754-4b66-9eeb-423ec3a17441","Car as Power Plant: Assessing Vehicle Technology Acceptance and its implications for the Business Model design.","Allison Ojeda, E.","Van Beers, C.P. (mentor); Hartmann, L. (mentor); Van Wijk, A. (mentor); Verhoef, L. (mentor)","2013","Vehicle to Grid (V2G) has been proposed as an alternative way to cope with the electricity demands of the future by integrating the electric and transportation system infrastructures. In this way, the vehicle fleet will be used as a mobile storage system, enabling a higher penetration level for renewable energy sources. As an example, with the current personal transportation fleet of Europe, 2,390 GW of electric capacity could be fed into the grid. Currently, V2G is in the Research and Development stage and several institutions around the world are testing its capabilities in pilot projects. The Car as Power Plant (CaPP) concept emerged as one of the projects from The Green Village, which is an initiative of Delft University of Technology. Similar to the V2G technology, the Car as Power Plant's main aim is to deliver electricity to the grid. However, there are significant differences among them. In the case of the CaPP it uses Fuel Cell Vehicles to generate not only electricity but also water and heat. Therefore, the CaPP concept can be considered as a small multi-product power plant. There are additional elements that make the CaPP concept not only a way to deliver electricity to the grid, but a whole paradigm shift by using our cars to replace the electric system. The focus of this report is precisely in this technological concept. In the past, the studies about the CaPP concept have concentrated mainly on the technical feasibility and economic estimations of the project. One of the studies examined the technological gaps and opportunities for the CaPP, while the other assessed the ancillary services delivered to the grid by the Fuel Cell vehicles. Nevertheless, the technology evolves and emerges into society as a technological system due to the alignment of several socio-technical factors. Some of these include user practices, market conditions, consumer perceptions or a merely functional basis. For this reason, it is relevant to go one step further and not only understand the technical conditions of the system, but also the perceived benefits and concerns by the potential users. On this way it would be possible to incorporate into the Research and Development stage some elements that could be of interest for society, to ease the adoption of the technology in the future. The objective of this study is to bridge the gap between the technology development and the society's perception by assessing the vehicle technology acceptance and its implications for the business model design in the Netherlands. A model extended from the Car Technology Acceptance Model is proposed to conduct the study. This model is formed by eight independent, three moderating and one dependant variables. To have a better impression about the user's context, mixed research methods are employed. The application is done by individual in-depth structured interviews as the preferred data collection method with a reduced amount of participants. The sample comprises 20 participants, classified in 3 groups: 1) Students that do not own a car, 2) Professionals who own an internal combustion based car, and 3) Persons who own and electric based cars. From the total participants, 7 are students, 8 are gasoline car owners, and 5 are electric car drivers. Considering two different measurements instruments are used, the data analysis follows the same structure. The quantitative instrument uses descriptive statistics and then a correlation analysis using the SPSS software. The qualitative data is analysed using content analysis by grouping information together into category clusters and then comparing it with the group of participants. The results show the technology acceptance levels about the CaPP concept are in general above average, this is true in both the quantitative and qualitative sections. The most relevant factors to foster the technology adoption are grouped in 6 categories: price, incentives, information access, infrastructure, technology and values. The perceived benefits are classified in two categories: for the user and for society. The benefits for the user include: monetary incentives, guilt reduction, and increase in consumer power. The benefits for society are: environmental benefits, integration of services, and reducing the variation from renewable sources. The concerns are classified in two: car technology and the system. The concerns identified about car technology are: dangers of using hydrogen, degradation of the Fuel Cell, and lack of flexibility when the car is plugged-in. On the system side the concerns are: the lack of infrastructure, long distances from CaPP facilities to the final destination, and the risks involved in decentralizing the power generation. The semi-lease is determined to be the best business model structure to adopt the CaPP as it transfers the associated risks from the users to the provider and keeps the customer as the proprietary of the vehicle. Some of the policy recommendations to develop the niche include: continue funding the Fuel Cells R&D related activities, define an annual amount of energy that should be delivered to the grid with the CaPP technology, incentivize an open innovation scheme where different industry, governmental and academia actors come together under a joint venture to develop the technology, unify the development of the communication standards being used in the V2G projects around the world as they may influence the ones to be adopted in the future for the CaPP.","technology acceptance; car as power plant; business model design; strategic niche management","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:04c9c3e0-8e98-4c16-95eb-ea914747036c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:04c9c3e0-8e98-4c16-95eb-ea914747036c","Technology Assessment of sustainable options for the Dutch gas sector: A refined methodology combining Multi-Criteria-Decision Making with Pathway Analysis","Budelmann, L.T.","Quist, J. (mentor); Cunningham, S. (mentor); Mulder, K. (mentor)","2013","","technology assessment; sustainability; Dutch gas sector","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology Dynamics and Sustainable Development","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:3e016968-2891-4efd-9360-1c779ea8d4a1","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3e016968-2891-4efd-9360-1c779ea8d4a1","Development of Biofuel Technology in Indonesia","Panjaitan, N.","Kamp, L. (mentor)","2013","Indonesia has appeared to be an oil dependent society in the last four decades. However, Indonesia experienced a status change from oil net exporter to net importer in 2004. These factors created awareness in Indonesia to develop renewable energy sources. Biofuel is one of the most potential renewable resources in the country. The development of biofuel technology in Indonesia has experienced dynamics in a relatively short period of time. The acknowledgement of biofuel technology in the country started in the year 2006, the technology was developed and had its peak on the year 2008, and has slowed down since 2009. Many companies closed down their production activities, leaving the production of biofuel technology in Indonesia to half of the installed capacity. The main objective of this research is to analyse the development of biofuel technology in Indonesia. The defined research question is: What are the factors that hamper and boost the biofuel technology development in Indonesia? The Multilevel Perspective and the Functions of Innovation System approach were chosen to be the theoretical frameworks. The framework Multilevel Perspective (MLP) is utilised to analyse the level of entrenchment of the technology in regards to its development in the technical and social context. The Functions of Innovation System (FIS) is utilised to capture and analyse the dynamics that occur in the process of technology development. The FIS functions that are utilised are: Creating adaptive capacity, Knowledge diffusion through networks and Knowledge development, Guidance of the search, Creation of legitimacy, Resource mobilisation, Market formation, and Entrepreneurial activity. Furthermore, the two frameworks are combined. The purpose of this combined framework is to analyse how the dynamics of the technology development process influence the interaction between the embedded technology and the surrounding and to analyse the dynamics within the technology and its environment influence the development of the technology. There are three different stages of development can be defined for biofuel technology: commercial production, agriculture development, and research and development stages. Biodiesel from palm oil is the type of biofuel technology that exists at a commercial stage in Indonesia. Biodiesel from Jatropha as well as first generation bioethanol are currently in the agriculture development stages. Lastly, the second generation of bioethanol and biodiesel are still in the research and development stages. Government, research institutes, NGOs and companies are involved in the development of biofuel technology. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources through the Directorate General of New Energy, Renewable Energy, and Energy Conservation is the main governmental actor to define and impose policies and regulations regarding biofuel technology in Indonesia. The utilisation of MLP framework in the analysis reveals that biofuel technology is still in the niche level of development. However, depending on the level of development, some types or generations of biofuel technology have to interact with actors from the agriculture and the energy regime. Biodiesel from palm oil, however, has reached the agriculture regime and furthermore the development of the technology has required interactions from the energy regime. Biodiesel from Jatropha as well as the first generation of bioethanol has developed to the stage where interaction with agriculture regime is necessary. Furthermore, the second generation bioethanol and biodiesel is currently in the niches, where the technology is being developed in protected spaces created mainly by researchers and scientists. The FIS analysis suggests that all FIS functions are available in Indonesia, with different levels of fulfilment. The existence of all functions contributes to the development of biofuel technology in Indonesia. The only significant flaw from the performed functions is the Resource Mobilisation that fails to mobilise the feedstock from agriculture sector to the biofuel producers. Furthermore, interactions between the FIS function are not well developed. Because of these weak interactions, the issue of sustainability in general and of biofuels in particular is not constantly on the political agenda, which causes inconsistencies in policies and the rise of negative views on the technology. These negative views, which are related to function Creation of Legitimacy, and the policy inconsistencies, which is related to function Market Formation hamper the technology development. The application of combined framework indicates that regarding biofuel technology development in Indonesia the FIS functions Knowledge Diffusion through Networks and Knowledge Development, Creation of Legitimacy, and Guidance of the Search are performed mainly only in the niches. The FIS functions Creating Adaptive Capacity and Resource Mobilisation are mainly related to the agriculture regime. The FIS functions Market Formation and Entrepreneurial Activity are mainly related to the energy regime. Lastly, the main recommendation for companies and governments is to ensure that all aspects related to biofuel are assessed and taken into account in all functions they performed. This would help the connection between one function and another to become more aligned. If the interactions between the functions are strong, the system can develop a stronger virtuous cycle that would enable a greater technology development.","biofuel; innovation system; multi-level perspective; functions of innovation system; Indonesia; technology development","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Management of Technology","","Technology Dynamics & Sustainable Development","",""
"uuid:ff04cbf1-e0a3-4cd3-b10d-b8a74fd383b7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ff04cbf1-e0a3-4cd3-b10d-b8a74fd383b7","TiPi smartphone application: Designing with InterPersonal Informatics to support elderly rehabilitating from Total Hip Replacement","Kroon, D.J.","Jimenez Garcia, J.C. (mentor)","2013","Designing a smartphone application for elderly rehabilitating from total hip replacement. The theoretical background of this project lies in the fields of Personal Informatics, InterPersonal Informatics, Persuasive Technology and Social Sciences. The product context, the ADL of elderly rehabilitating at home, has been researched with sensitizing materials and interviews. This is followed by iterative design cycles and concept development leading to a final design. The final chapters contain the prototype testing, conclusions and recommendations.","InterPersonal Informatics; Persuasive Technology; Total Hip Replacement; rehabilitation; smartphone application","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Design Conceptualization and Communication","",""
"uuid:2054c56b-1f09-4a1e-8475-7d9344b32742","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2054c56b-1f09-4a1e-8475-7d9344b32742","B&O PLAY Beolit 14: Using technology to improve usability","Ouborg, J.","Tempelman, E. (mentor); Verwaal, M. (mentor)","2013","Recently, Bang & Olufsen (B&O), manufacturer of a highly distinctive and exclusive range of quality audio, video and multimedia home equipment (Chapter 1.3), launched their subbrand B&O PLAY to address the Urban Creative Professional (UCP), an audience that lives life actively and is able to make large individual purchases to radiate an image of intellectuality (Chapter 2.1). The first product to be presented under the wings of B&O PLAY was the Beolit 12, a speaker marketed as portable. However, with its WiFi demanding AirPlay protocol to wirelessly amplify music and a rather weighty cabinet, the product turned out to perform best as moveable in home (Chapter 2.1). With their vision “Courage to constantly question the ordinary in search of surprising, long-lasting experiences”, B&O aimed to take today’s portable speaker to the next level. They wanted it to perform better in portability and ease of use, while maintaining the high quality standard of their acoustics. In other words, the goal was to improve product usability (Chapter 1.1). However, their ideal to move its customer with enduring magical experiences drives the company in a constant search for technological excellence. As a result, the company found interest in an user interface technology, supplied by Aito. This supplier’s piezo technology allows the seamless integration of an interface without losing its intuitivity, due to the inverse piezoelectric tactile feedback (Chapter 3). With this potentially game changing capabilities they aspire to change the perception of touch switches from simple ‘input tools’ to a rich, intuitive and powerful experience (Chapter 1.3) By implementing the Aito technology in the desired B&O speaker, the improvement of product usability could become even stronger. Therefore the design assignment became: “Design the next level high-end portable speaker by implementing the Aito technology, which should contribute to the improvement of product usability” (Chapter 1.2). With the awareness of today’s acceleration of technology development and the approaching saturation of the portable speaker’s market (Chapter 2.1), B&O aims to launch this new design in spring 2014. Therefore, it was desired to finalize the assignment with a visual prototype with working Aito technology. The assignment was divided into the following three design objectives in order to simplify the attempt to a successful completion: Integration of the Aito technology, improvement of usability in terms of the user interface and improvement of usability regarding outdoor use (Chapter 1.2). The introduction of the new technology created the possibility to approach the design process differently than IDE students are normally accustomed to (Chapter 1.4). Roberto Verganti’s ‘technology epiphany’ theory was applied to search for an innovative meaning that could radically differentiate this speaker from its predecessor. Initially, a design-driven approach was taken to explore the design context and companies’ values as well as to see what might be beyond those boundaries (Chapter 2). To achieve the latter, interpreters were addressed to discuss what meaning people could give to the evolving life context. The designer used the interpreter’s input to envision a meaning. In parallel, the technology-push approach was carried out to uncover possibly hidden meanings of the Aito technology, which could contribute to the designer’s envisioned meaning (Chapter 3). The technology’s capabilities and criteria, helpful in achieving the first objective of Aito’s technology integration, were used in combination with the already found boundaries of the design-drivers to capture the envisioned meaning into a more realistic design direction for a speaker (Chapter 4): “Design a weatherproof portable speaker that encourages the UCPs to live their life actively outside home, by providing them with the ability to take along their home comfort of socially sharing music, enabling the enduring magical experience due to social affirmation.” Moreover, a sound concept proposed by the B&O acoustic department was analysed to reveal specific product constraints that set the foundation of the product regarding dimensions and weight (Chapter 3.4). Subsequently, use-cases were addressed with the design direction in order to define the product functionalities and additional technical specifications (Chapter 5). Outdoor related functionalities ‘portability’, ‘protection’ and ‘product placement’ required a design approach to explore how they could be achieved. This contributed to the addressing of the third objective on product usability with regard to outdoor use. Moreover, B&O’s design language was elaborated to be able to still ensure a premium look (Chapter 6.3). The second objective was addressed in the design phase as well. The target audience had been interviewed in the analysis phase to discover their listening behaviour. (Chapter 2.1) The concluding requirements in combination with the capabilities of Aito’s technology resulted in several innovative user interface ideas, designed for the given time-to-market and aimed to contribute to the improvement of usability (Chapter 6.2). All knowledge and requirements resulted from the execution of the design objectives were taken into account in the ideation phase (Chapter 6.5), in which integrated design ideas were sketched. These were converted into more elaborated concepts (Chapter 6.6) which were qualitatively validated by the designer and his B&O colleagues. Parts of concepts were combined and redesigned into a final design on the basis of comments given by B&O (Chapter 6.8). The final design was embodied in a visual prototype (Chapter 8). Eventually, the development process was evaluated to verify the success of Verganti’s design approach. The conclusion was drawn that Verganti’s method did not support enough in achieving a radical innovation. The analysis of the Aito technology taught us it has the potential to become the game-changer in product user-interfaces. Therefore the technology is considered radical in itself, enabling a radical change in usability, as opposed to a radical change of the entire product meaning. Furthermore, an product evaluation on the basis of the target audience’s requirements to verify the success of the product with these critical people, concluded very positive. (Chapter 10). The thesis concludes with recommendations.","design; usability; technology integration; user interface; interaction; consumer electronics; audio","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2014-07-05","Industrial Design Engineering","Design Engineering","","","",""
"uuid:77b8c7b5-fb5b-4a33-b4ce-70f272efc740","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:77b8c7b5-fb5b-4a33-b4ce-70f272efc740","The Lobby of the Metropole","Loer, F.","Pimlott, M. (mentor); Van der Zaag, E. (mentor); Madrazo, F. (mentor)","2013","The lobby of the Metropole, a habitable bridge in Rotterdam In our mobilized epoch considered as the network era, hubs are crucial devices for the orchestration of our cities. Road and building mediate in the quality of our cityscapes like the Randstad in which we live as continuous commuters. The habitable bridge is used as the ultimate typology for the examination of a new form of architecture in which a multitude of urban functions are brought together. The province meets the city, the artificial meets the natural, architecture meets infrastructure. Despite a strong belief in the capacities of architecture and infrastructure, Rotterdam did not manage to merge these two paradigms after the Second World War. Although the ambition is there to merge the boulevard with the river, the south with the north, the street with the building, significant proposals are lacking. Through the use of historical precedents like the multifunctional Boompjes of the Golden Age, the reintroduction of the river as valuable public space is envisioned. The fascination for a multifunctional bridge, merged with the ambitions of Rotterdam, catalyzed by the architectural needs of a new era forms the base for my proposal ‘The Lobby of the Metropole: the Fusion of Architecture and Infrastructure in Tomorrow’s Megalopolis’. METABOLISTIC COLLECTIVE FORM AND THE POTENTIAL OF CONGESTION The city is approached as an organism that comes to life through a multitude of streams. The careful orchestration of urban flows is considered as the main challenge of the urban fabric. The integral design of landscape, architecture and infrastructure could catalyze the quality of our future cities. Previous to my design ‘The Lobby of the Metropole’, I did an extensive research into the ideas of the Japanes Metabolists and the history of Rotterdam. Through a written report called ‘The fusion of architecture and infrastructure in tomorrow’s Megalopolis - The Relevance of the Metabolistic Collective Form in the Network Era’ I have laid the foundation for my design. The acknowledgement of different speeds in the city is integrated in the design of a habitable bridge in which a variety of streams are accomodated, among other: walking, biking, living, working, commuting (tram) and driving (car). The resulting proposal for a multimodal hub exploits densification in favour of urban sprawl. The design acknowledges the potential of metropolitan accumalation instead of considering a new realm as unmanageable congestion. Approaching the infrastructure of the city as architectural challenge provides a new attitude in which landscape (public space), architecture (buildings) and infrastructure (roads) are considered as equal mediators in the city. To improve the quality of Rotterdam, the ground floor of the design is kept free for pedestrians, bikers and public transport. Favouring slow traffic at the expense of cars will improve the habitable quality of the city. The large open ended steel structure accomodates public and private program. Future transformations can easily be processed through the use of a flexible system in which ventilation, data, energy and walls are easily accessible. Programs work through a ‘plug and play’ method.","lobby; Metropole; habitable bridge; architecture infrastructure; architecture; infrastructure; bridge; megalopolis; metabolism; Rotterdam; Multimodal; Hub; Terminal; New era; Flexibility; Sustainability; Technology; Domestication; Collective Form; Fumihiko Maki; Havenstad; Harbor; Harbour; Riverside; River; Urbanism; Plinth; Groundscraper; Living Bridge","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2016-07-05","Architecture","Explore Lab","","","",""
"uuid:2f4b9cb3-655e-4647-8abb-99c5ad33d6ce","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2f4b9cb3-655e-4647-8abb-99c5ad33d6ce","Hypercraft","Van der Linden, P.J.A.","Nottrot, R. (mentor); Bilow, M. (mentor); Van de Voort, J. (mentor)","2013","This Master Thesis as presented to the chair of Explore Lab 14 of the TU Delft, deals with the issue of perspective. The problem that architecture is all too often drawn out of a singular perspective and even opposes different modes of perception, is an issue which influences the role of the architect. This problem, generated at the hand of massmedia, assists in the construction of perspectives on life that in certain pataphysical instances make such an ‘activity of living’ into a completely absurd experience. A sort of ‘Hyperculture’ is constructed as tradition are denounced and embraced in society. This phenomenon is catalyzed by rapidly evolving technologies and methods of communication, and poses a problem whether a Hyperculture is absolute or not. To what extend are we dependend on traditions, and to what extend are these traditions a threath to the survival of our species? To generate architecture that facilitates both the current zeitgeist as well as a localized identity, is the imperative for the architecture of the 21st century. Not just subcultures struggle at the hand of hyperculture, but also certain professions, as economic and political life changes from day to day. In this contemporary context of hypermodernity, an entirely new generation of architects is emerging with seemingly unlimited technological possibilities. But is the current generation of architects ready to introduce them into this profession, or must we seek others to do so? The research concludes that the architects can do nothing but observe, and as such the problem of hyperculture transcends onto other actors involved in the architectural construction process: the hypercraftsman. The individual who wields these new technologies has the upperhand in deciding which traditions fuel his professional ability, and which traditions pose a threath not only to his profession, but also to the quality of the products of his making and a quality of life that these products generate. ‘How is hypermodernization apparent in professions that contribute to a broadening of design possibilities in Dutch architectural design and what is the added value of these possibilities?’ is the research question that is propoosed for this thesis. The conclusions of this research implies changes for the role of the architect as the rapid emergence of new design and manufacturing possibilities requires cooperation to a much greater extend than in contemporary architectural design. By introducing new stakeholders in the design process hyperculture may be deflected. Leading to a much greater degree of freedom for both the user and the maker-designer. This work adresses contemporary manufacturing methods and technologies and may contribute to the evolution of positive anomalies in socio-technical regimes.","hypercraft; technology; craftsmanship; philosophy; industrial ecology; architecture","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Architecture","Explore Lab","","","",""
"uuid:fe89ce25-a63a-4f1f-aed5-a121116c91ca","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fe89ce25-a63a-4f1f-aed5-a121116c91ca","Developing a business opportunity assessment framework: The case of the Prodrive Automated Electrical Tester","Haagen, R.A.G.M.","Scholten, V.E. (mentor)","2013","A framework to assess business opportunities is being developed in this document. The framework is designed to solve the problem that the decision of managers to exploit a certain technology by means of a certain strategy is often based upon a feeling rather than a set of rational criteria. Therefore these decisions are hard to codify, discuss and defend. The framework is developed by analyzing the factors that a role in making these decisions. This is done by means of qualitative research within Prodrive B.V., a manufacturer and innovator of electronic products and systems, established in Son (the Netherlands).","business opportunity; opportunity recognition; entrepreneurship; management of technology; framework; assessment","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2014-06-28","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:6318b4ec-7e5e-41ff-8f21-8e323bc25e73","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6318b4ec-7e5e-41ff-8f21-8e323bc25e73","Searching for the Expression of Monumentality in Present Time: Environmental Council United Nations Design","Fang, X.","Korpershoek, M. (mentor); Meijs, M. (mentor)","2013","The UNEC plot is located on the north loan of existing UN headquarter. The primary idea for UN headquarter was to design extreme monumentality buildings. Therefore, UNEC has a great symbolic and geographical significance, which was determined from the very beginning that, it, has to be to a monument, a modern monument in the context of modernity. By integrating of its own context and circumstance, the UNEC monumentality can be expressed in three levels. The level of visualization, which transformed from abstract and symbolic elements by the architect; and the level of its meaning, implied both urban sphere and the collective force – the people; finally, the level of sustainability, servers the concept as a whole. Water, as the vital element, is responsible for connecting the three levels with UNEC monumentality.","monumentality; expression; visualization; meaning; technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2013-06-29","Architecture","Materializaiton","","SADD, UNEC Headquarters","",""
"uuid:ea3d6c2b-e8d7-4995-b7f9-e9efa0da3863","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ea3d6c2b-e8d7-4995-b7f9-e9efa0da3863","Ik ben ster(k): A peer-to-peer talent development platform empowering young adults","Pucci, E.L.","Mulder, I. (mentor)","2013","Globalization and the boom of new media technologies have rapidly changed the social dynamics of contemporary cities: increased mobility and migration waves determine new relationships between diverse ethnic groups who now share common urban spaces and facilities, while new mobile technologies allow the formation of hybrid (between virtual and physical) communities (Pucci & Mulder, 2013). Within these new multicultural and information rich environments, new forms of social cohesion are constantly formed and challenged; an interesting opportunity lies in designing new ways to leverage local social capital. Afrikaanderwijk is a highly multicultural neighbourhood in Rotterdam South. Although it has a low social index compared to the rest of Rotterdam (and of The Netherlands) it is considered a neighbourhood with opportunities. Consequently, many initiatives have spurred in the last years as part of a National action plan to improve the relatively disadvantaged conditions of the inhabitants, leveraging the unique characteristics it withholds. The ethnic diversity of the neighbourhood is treated in a polarized way: on one hand, it is seen as an important element of richness in a rapidly changing society as the one of Rotterdam, a living lab for new social practices; on the other, the generally low level of education of the inhabitants and their different ethnic background are somewhat stigmatizing them, relegating them in a lower level of society, with slim opportunities given by the local work and social environment to improve their condition. An especially crude situation is observed within the Afrikaander youth. Despite incentives given to initiatives for children, women, and elderly, youngsters seem completely neglected by policy makers. These youth usually attend lower education institutions and have little or no initiatives promoted by the neighbourhood to stimulate their passions and talents after school hours. Furthermore, they are frequently stigmatized as problematic; a common observation regarding young Turkish/Moroccan boys who hang around in groups in public spaces, doing nothing or worse. They often do not have anything better to do than hang around, a practice more common to Mediterranean or Latin cultures, but seen with a certain degree of suspicion within Dutch society. The lack of initiatives within their own local society is aggravated by their poor education level; an immigrant with a low education level (or even no diploma at all) is not attractive to employers, therefore the chances of these youngsters to fulfil their dreams to become better citizens and gain success is very slim. Yet these young adults do have passions, interests, and talents. However, local institutions do not seem to understand the potential of uncovering and exploiting these qualities for societal benefit. The current project, therefore, proposes a more viral, decentralized way of stimulating youth’s self-organization using social media and mobile technologies. Interestingly, young adults interviewed displayed a natural fluency in their relationship with new technologies: smart phones, game consoles and social media are embedded in their everyday life. Obviously belonging to the first generation of digital natives, who “think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors” (Premsky, 2001). They withhold an inherent potential that can be unlocked in innovative ways, stirring educators and policy makers towards future-oriented talent development programs. Inspired by the contemporary Open Design movement, the current project exploits young digital natives’ potential by co-creating with them a means for their empowerment through a peer-to-peer talent development platform. The corresponding step-by-step workshop concept IK BEN STER(K) was proposed and co-designed with Sophie, a coach from the Wijkschool Feijenoord Rotterdam Offensief and performed with the Wijkschool students on a weekly basis over a period of a month. During six workshop steps the students were progressively made familiar with different open source tools such as: Thingiverse, an crowd sourced collection of open designs created for 3D printing and laser cutting, Tinkercad an open online 3D modeling tool to create personal designs for 3D printing and laser cutting, Instructables, an online How To and DIY community where people share their inspiring projects and inventions, the Ultimaker an open source 3D printing machine available at CityLab Rotterdam. The workshop inspired the design of a new interaction scenario for the workshop experience, with a Facebook group as the digital platform for the resulting hybrid community, and two sets of ubiquitous devices as the intermediaries between the digital and physical interactions of the participants. The touch points and the wireframe of the new product service system have been designed optimizing the steps of the workshop, and evaluated with the students during a new workshop on laser cutting. A refinement of the entire product service system (both the digital Facebook page and the ubiquitous devices) followed the workshop evaluation and tested again to verify its acceptance in the student community of the Wijkschool. The final workshop platform is envisioned as a product service system using the Open Data released by the young adults through the documented workshops (via Instructables or similar means of knowledge sharing), and identifying each contribution as a valuable piece of his/her own skills’ portfolio. Members of the community have their own interactive “community membership ID”, a RFID connected token which enables them to personalize and to be recognized in multiple access points of the neighbourhood (e.g., clubs or cultural centres). A more active member will benefit more and will be recognized as a valuable citizen. Other challenges exist, especially on the level of the young adults’ acceptance to be visible to their local community. A reward system could be a possible solution, in terms of enhanced work opportunities or special treats in local stores or cultural centres. The relevance of the project is two-folded: on one hand to increase the level of participation of the youth in their neighbourhood, on the other to allow them to self-promote their value within their own community using new open technologies. Fostering their skills and talents enabled them to contribute to increased social capital of the Afrikaanderwijk, and desirably, of the wider context of Rotterdam. The current pilot serves as a “best practice”, inspiring future social interventions with similar socio-cultural characteristics and affordances.","product service system; talent empowerment; ubiquitous technology; hybrid community platform; social innovation; disadvantaged neighbourhood; young adults","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:1927af05-c726-4da4-9c09-b5fca54884bc","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1927af05-c726-4da4-9c09-b5fca54884bc","A Technology Roadmap for Software Platform Products","Sugavanam, S.","Van den Berg, J. (mentor); Scholten, V. (mentor); Van Vuren, P. (mentor)","2013","This research project presents the technology roadmap for software product platforms covering all the aspects of software engineering choices including functional features, technology choices, architecture changes, operational requirements and software process improvements. The developed technology roadmap facilitates the decision making on prioritizing the content for the strategic release planning activities. In order to develop the technology roadmap, different research phases have been accomplished, including investigating a wide range of scientific and industry papers, asking platform management & product managers about their needs regarding roadmap, integrating the received information in the roadmap, and undertaking an evaluation process of the developed roadmap and approach.","Technology Roadmap; Software Platforms; Software Engineering","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2014-08-31","Technology, Policy and Management","Management of Technology","","","",""
"uuid:78581d92-b290-41b6-b1a7-8f03b215f605","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:78581d92-b290-41b6-b1a7-8f03b215f605","The impact of IT and Open Innovation tools on the New Product Development Process","Blomberg, F.L.","Hultink, H.J. (mentor); Govers, P. (mentor)","2013","The process of New Product Development is one of the most important competitive factors in today’s market environment. Nevertheless, it remains an risky and uncertain business and both the academic field as companies try to identify best practices to improve this process. In the past two decades, firms have increasingly adopted Information Technology (IT) tools and services to improve NPD effectiveness and efficiency. Such IT tools can support knowledge and information management, collaboration and communication, but also in the design and engineering of the product. Developments in technology, like the emergence of Web2.0, and the shift from closed innovation to a more open innovation system has caused firms to gain interest in using open innovation and new media tools in NPD activities. New tools emerge or are added to existing software, which makes IT pervasive in all phases of NPD. To improve the process of NPD and to justify investments in IT, it is important for firms to understand the impact of these tools on NPD outcomes. Since these tools are relatively new, as is their use, little empirical research exists that investigates these relationships. The main goal of this study is therefore to investigate the use of IT and open innovation tools in the New Product Development process and its impact on NPD outcomes. The study is part of a cross-national study in the United States, Australia and The Netherlands. This thesis is concerned with the Dutch part. An online survey was distributed to 209 project-level NPD team members. The survey asked the respondents to evaluate the extent of usage of 18 IT tools for each major phase in the NPD process; the discovery, development and commercialization phase. Respondents also had to evaluate project outcomes for each phase, and indicate which external partners were involved per phase. Important controls and antecedents include product complexity, competitive intensity, open innovation climate, IT infrastructure, IT embeddedness and IT champion. The final sample of The Netherlands consisted of 104 respondents which results in a 50% response rate. The functional area of the participants is balanced between R&D (35%), Sales and Marketing (24%) and ‘Other’ (31%) representing CEO’s or directors. The firms of the respondents are either quite small (51% has less than 500 employees) or quite big (25% has more than 10,000 employees), predominantly established (68% is older than 20 years) and multinational (82%). The findings suggest that most companies involve customers and suppliers in their NPD activities. The extent of usage of new media and social media open innovation tools is lower than traditional tools (e.g. Email). Next to that, IT tool usage differs across phases. Total IT usage appears to be higher in the discovery and development phase compared to the commercialization phase. The antecedent IT infrastructure was found to have most significant effect on the use of IT, though not always as expected. While a better IT infrastructure has a positive impact Process & Project Management tools and Social Media Tools, it has a negative effect on Traditional Tools. This suggests that a better IT infrastructure causes a shift in the type of tools used in a company. Furthermore, Social Media tools (e.g. Social Networking tools) have a positive impact on Process Performance, while using Traditional tools in the commercialization phase can negatively influence Process Performance. This study provides a snapshot of the use and impact of a set of IT and open innovation tools. To understand its developments and impact over time, the use of specific IT tools by phase should be examined again in a few years. The impact of IT infrastructure on the use of specific IT tools also needs further investigation as well as the impact of Social Media on NPD outcomes.","Information Technology; Open Innovation; New Product Development; Social Media","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","","",""
"uuid:5ef6d4bb-a1eb-4172-ba34-4bac612157c8","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5ef6d4bb-a1eb-4172-ba34-4bac612157c8","Mediator tool to increase the acceptance of technologies among seniors","Ascencio, G.","Pohlmeyer, A. (mentor); Romero, N. (mentor)","2013","This report presents the Graduation Project: “Mediator tool to increase the acceptance of technologies among seniors”. The project is the culmination of the MSc Programme in Design for Interaction at the Faculty of Industrial Design at Delft University of Technology. Several technologies have been developed to support seniors to live independently at home by enabling them to stay active and productive for longer, to keep a good health, to maintain social networks or to increase personal security to give some examples. Even though technologies to enable an independent living exist, seniors still face barriers in exploiting such technologies to their full potential. The report presents a tool to increase the acceptance of technologies for independent living among seniors. The focus was on motivating seniors to interact with technologies through a tool that is an intermediate step among seniors and technologies. The mediator tool should be implemented before seniors had the first contact with the technology and would encourage them to interacting with it. At the same time the mediator tool should be external to the technology itself. An innovative technology that supports seniors independent living based on a TV platform, the Care@Home system, was taken as case study. The graduation project was supported by one of the stakeholders in the development of the Care@home system, the Interactive Intelligence Group of Delft University of technology. In a literature research, factors that influence the acceptance of technologies were studied. Analysis of qualitative interviews among seniors was done to further explore the factors that influence the acceptance of technologies for independent living in a real context. The research indicated that seniors are motivated to accept new technologies when the clearly perceive the benefits that they can provide into own lives. The goal of the project was on arise awareness about possible gains to be obtained through the use of the technology by enabling seniors to discover by themselves if they could benefit from such technology. The mediator tool is a communication tool to go beyond informing seniors the gains that they could obtain; it allows seniors to create their own experience. This goal was used to develop design ideas. Three ideas were presented to seniors to research what elements of the designs would motivate them to encounter for the first time a technology for independent living. Seniors feedback was used to identify areas of opportunity for the mediator tool. It was found that seniors are motivated by trying new technologies in familiar social settings where they can interact with peers. These two elements were incorporated in the design concept, the Realization Pathway. In order to verify if the Realization Pathway reached its goal, enabling seniors to discover by themselves if they could benefit from a technology for independent living, a prototype was built and tested among nine seniors. The prototype was a low-tech version of the design concept developed that emulated the intended interactions. The participant in the user test confirmed the value of the design: The Realization Pathway aroused awareness about the possibilities of technologies for independent living. The Realization Pathway enabled to gain knowledge and then decide if one can benefit from the technology or not. The Realization Pathway enabled to meet a new technology in an positive social experience. A larger study with a diverse group of seniors with diverse needs is necessary. Most of participants recognized the gains that they could get but did not think that they could benefit from the technology. Participants value to be aware about what new technologies offer and the social side of the experience provided by the Realization Pathway. These preliminary findings suggest that using communication tools in social familiar settings could motivate seniors to approach technologies for independent living.","technology; acceptance; senior","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Design Engineering","","Master of Science Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:32867c96-b885-4628-8aee-01e0a5695dfa","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:32867c96-b885-4628-8aee-01e0a5695dfa","Transition to Renewable Energy in the Small Island Developing States of the Caribbean.","Arenas Castellanos, D.","Mulder, K.F. (mentor)","2013","Society faces the compelling need to change the current ways of producing energy due to the environmental burden of fossil-based energy technologies along with the scarcity of fossil resources. Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) appear as an option for sustainable energy generation. Small Island Developing States, SIDS, are a particular group of nations that face remoteness, isolation and geographic dispersion, poor connectivity and limited human and technological capacity. SIDS and are not strangers to the challenge of adopting sustainable energy technologies, but as a matter of fact their penetration, particularly in the SIDS of the Caribbean remains rather small. In order to understand why is this the case, this research frames the adoption of RETs as an Innovation for the Caribbean region. Innovation can be considered in several ways, such as product innovation; systems innovation; innovation can be studied from the perspective of firms or regions. In this context it refers to the process of introduction of new technologies in the energy generation system of the Caribbean. Hence, a the theoretical approach of this research combines the theories of Technological Transitions, particularly Geel’s Multi Level Perspective (MLP), which helps to understand the factors that influence technological change; and the theories of Innovation Systems (IS), focusing on Hekkert’s Functions of Innovation Systems (FIS), which provide a toolset to understand the capacity of a system to innovate. This framework focuses on the factors that explain why is the region struggling to adopt RETs. Regardless of the wide availability of renewable energy resources and the attractive economic conditions for the adoption of RETs, the legislation, the lack of regulation, longstanding utility monopolies and international commitments represent major institutional barriers for the energy transition in the region and the emergence of an IS that support their adoption. Furthermore, it is clear from the analysis that more effort is needed to strengthen the capacity of the region to innovate, by supporting the creation, transfer and diffusion of knowledge; by encouraging entrepreneurship and creating a fair market for the RE industry in the region; by increasing awareness and securing political commitment to the energy transition. Finally, some opportunities for market development were identified including adoption of RET by the Travel & Tourism industry; advisory services; financing and funding scanning of the market for business and government; and early introduction of retail and service companies.","technological transitions; functions of innovation systems; renewable energy; small island developing states; Caribbean","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","Values, Technology and Innovation","","Technology Dynamics and Sustainable Development","",""
"uuid:fcec7f2a-3d23-4906-94ce-86c61d66ca0c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fcec7f2a-3d23-4906-94ce-86c61d66ca0c","Cleo: The Hands-on Design Tool for Conceptualizing Interactive Spaces","Eng, M.","Giaccardi, E. (mentor); Van der Helm, A. (mentor); Aprile, W. (mentor)","2013","PLATFORM------- Interactive (technology-enhanced) spaces are becoming omnipresent in our modern world. Designers and companies alike are learning that technology can change people?s impression of a sample of physical space in such a way that yields profit and creates meaning. In the business of designing interactive spaces, there is a dependency on experts to design and help realize these installations. The reliance is due to the many specialized and multidisciplinary skills required to create these interactive exhibitions, including industrial design, electrical and mechanical engineering, programming, and architecture. Industry tackles this problem by creating companies with mixtures of skilled people. In academia, experts with years of experience are assigned to groups of students. This project aims to create a tool to lower this dependency on experts. The tool aims to do this by sharing and restructuring information about design, engineering, and technology to make the design of well thought out interactive spaces more accessible to beginners. The tool is intended to be used both commercially within companies and academically among students across various design backgrounds. It is a go-to tool catering to both practical and academic needs in the process of creating interactive spaces, helping to guide and inspire beginners at the design table while also acting as a great general creativity tool for experts. The target users of the tool include: students in interactive technologies design courses entry-level product designers and interaction designers, entry-level architects and interior designers, and expert-level project managers (and designers). The purpose of the tool is not to replace experts, but to lower beginner?s reliance on these experts by giving them the tools to make some educated decisions in the first few phases of conceptualizing an interactive space before involving experts in later phases. ------- DESIGN BRIEF------- The design goal of this thesis project is to create a tangible manifestation of a toolkit through a four (4) cycle iterative embodiment development process that empowers inexperienced designers with the knowledge to create concepts for meaningful and creative interactive spaces. For further information on how we define interactive spaces or distinguish experts from beginners in this study, refer the project's use of terminology. Tangibility and accessibility are a few of the major design requirements for this project (see project's design requirements). The design required physical elements that were easy and inexpensive to acquire for users and easy to populate with new information, so materials used for the design consisted of papers, woods, acrylics, and compressed fibers, mostly materials that would allow users immediate access to the toolkit through a printer and a laser cutter. ------- DESIGN RESULT------- The project concludes with the design of Cleo: The Hands-on Design Tool for Conceptualizing Interactive Spaces. Cleo divides the entire process of designing interactive spaces into three (3) stages: Context, Concept, and Refinement; and five (7) creativity categories: Actionable Moments, Sensables, Technology, Design of Spaces, Ideation Strategies, Interactive Cases, and Energizers. The tangible design consists of four (4) custom-designed wooden containers that rest on a storage dock with 180+ specially designed cards and an smaller inspiration dock that sits at designers’ desks. ------- EVALUATION SUMMARY------- Cleo was tested in a series of eight (8) use cases with students and designers in academia in both individual and collaborative contexts and reviewed by two well-known design firms in industry. Results demonstrated a high level of flexibility in how designers can interact with the tool, indicating that the tool is adaptable to various project and design situations and highly appropriate for facilitating creative sessions. The depth and specialization of the tool makes it especially suited to the design of interactive spaces. Participants in all studies indicated an overall increase in productivity and creativity. Cleo is designed to be used without facilitation by researchers of this project to facilitate structure, creativity, and organization throughout any design period. This was successfully supported by the results of all single-user test cases and one multi-user test case. The remainder of the multi-user test cases indicate that the proactivity and team management skills of a designers are directly correlated to how effectively Cleo can be used. The double-sided design of every card effectively accommodated both visual thinkings and information-driven thinkers. Despite ten (10) decks of card tools, all participants found amount of content to be manageable, inspiring, and not intimating. ------- FUTURE OF CLEO------- Cleo is a design tool that designers can learn in advance or learn to use as they go, meaning that the way designers use the tool the first time is likely to be different from subsequent times. We suggest conducting longitudinal studies with specialized design firms or users tests with repeat participants to observe these effects. Cleo has proven to be a successful design toolkit for the creating interactive spaces both by function, form, and interaction. However, there are a few issues with Cleo that need to be addressed in future developments prior to introducing the tool to the commercial market. The issues include (1) creating a digital platform for updating content, (2) building a credible reputation for Cleo by way of either more user tests, or partnering with notable names in design, and (3) developing a sustainable business and distribution model that ensures the continued success of the tool.","interactive spaces; interactive; interactive technology; thinking tool; card tool; design tool; tangible; hands-on; conceptualization; interaction design; iterative design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Integrated Product Design Master","",""
"uuid:8bbf0acf-a992-4835-b2d3-f7fe373c1634","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8bbf0acf-a992-4835-b2d3-f7fe373c1634","DE-XRT method to separate platinum ore","Klifman, E.H.A.","Buxton, M.W.N. (mentor)","2013","The Potgietersus Platinum mine is an open pit mine in the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. During the mining different rock types are mined, some of these are detrimental. The goal of the research done in this project is to assess the feasibility of Dual Energy X-ray Transmission (DE-XRT) to distinguish the detrimental ore types from the rest of the ore. There are two types of rock that contain the most platinum and Platinum Group Elements (PGE's): pyroxenite and pyroxenite B. The detrimental rock types are serpentinite, norite, calc- silicate and oxidized material. Detrimental rock types cause a lower recovery of the processing of the minerals. By removing the detrimental rock types the recovery could increase. DE-XRT is a sensor based sorting method based on density differences of the materials that have to be distinguished from each other. Samples of the different rock types have been scanned with a DE-XRT scanner and the pictures of these samples consist of pixels. Of each pixel the High Energy Absorption (HEA) and Low Energy Absorption (LEA) are known. With this data a color is allocated to each pixel. Ratios of these colors are plotted in graphs. From these graphs it can be concluded that a seperation can be made by using the ratio between the number of green and blue pixels. By using the green/blue ratio more than 60% of the calc silicate, 30% of the norite, 100% of the oxidized material and 60% of the serpentinite are removed. There is no loss of pyroxenite and pyroxenite B. It is recommended to do further research on other software or to improve the now used software. Also large scale experiments have to be conducted to find out if this method can be used in the mine itself. And a feasibility study has to be performed to see if a large enough percentage of the detrimental rock is removed to make the investment profitable.","DE-XRT; platinum ore; x-ray; sensor; sorting technology; Bushveld complex","en","bachelor thesis","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering and Geosciences","Geoscience & Engineering","","Resources Engineering","",""
"uuid:739b8719-4aa6-4df6-bd91-9f2d9e513876","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:739b8719-4aa6-4df6-bd91-9f2d9e513876","Functional mapping of nanoscience to industrial engineering products and capabilities","De Koning, J.","","2013","At some point in time all incumbent firms have to decide how to deal with radically new technologies. Due to the high uncertainty of return from such technologies companies might refrain from investing in such technologies early on. The threat of missing out on opportunities forces firms to make poorly based decisions. Within this thesis an improved method is constructed and tested that provides firms with better understanding of the radically new technology field. This better understanding is achieved by confronting the technology field with the applied technologies existing within a firm through the use of a matrix representation. The technologies are rated by their potential which depends on their link to strategies and technologies provided by the case company. At the basis for this method is the of usage of matrices to provide overview of a field, which could be used conjointly with so called resource-product matrices introduced by Wernerfelt (part of the Resource Based View). Nanotechnology is chosen as the radically new technology to be applied in this thesis due to the interest in literature and due to the specific interest expressed by the case firm.","Radical Technology; Innovation Management; Nanotechnology; Technogy Assessment","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Policy Analysis","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:3860085d-69d8-4a10-9ca9-db497adfef37","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3860085d-69d8-4a10-9ca9-db497adfef37","Technology forecasting of electric vehicles using data envelopment analysis","Tudorie, A.A.","Cunningham, S. (mentor)","2012","This research performed technology forecasting (TF) of electric vehicles (EV) using data envelopment analysis (DEA) with the purpose to determine to what extent TFDEA can be applied to predict the technological progress of electric vehicles. This study was commissioned by SKF, who is interested in having a useful forecasting tool to analyze EV technological advancements and identify whether one of the existing EV configurations has potential to become the dominant design in the future. SKF dedicates a major part of its resources to supplying the car industry; therefore changes in the automotive industry may impose technological changes on their current development projects and state of affairs. New market opportunities or threats brought about by the introduction of electric vehicles need to be signaled in due time to be able to adjust corporate and research activities to better serve the car industry and maintain a strong market position. Electric vehicles are available in several configurations: battery electric (BEVs), hybrid electric (HEVs), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), and extended-range electric vehicles (EREV). This indicates that electric vehicles represent a heterogeneous class of products with different technical and performance specifications. Therefore, two aspects need to be accommodated by the forecasting technique used to produce electric vehicle forecasts: ? EV technology is not homogeneous, therefore the forecasting method should allow for the simultaneous analysis of different EV configurations in order to measure and predict technological change over the whole class of EV technology. ? EVs are characterized by several performance attributes which may be differently valued by different user categories, therefore the forecasting method should allow for multi-criteria evaluation of the technology performance and technological progress. This research used TFDEA to forecast the technological progress of electric vehicles. The reason is that TFDEA appeared to have significant advantages over conventional trend extrapolation methods. Unlike conventional techniques, TFDEA can simultaneously evaluate multiple technologies using multiple variables. Furthermore, TFDEA is an extreme point method which means that it can calculate the individual performance of an observation instead of calculating the average performance over the data set. For this reason TFDEA is able to identify the state-of-of the art frontier (i.e. the best performing technologies at a given time). In addition, TFDEA can determine rates of technological change without assuming non-correlated attributes and can account for dynamic trade-offs between performance parameters. The description of TFDEA fits the requirements identified for the forecasting method needed for EV technology. Remaining concerns about the usefulness of the method were related to the amount of data needed for the model to produce reliable results and the inherent assumptions of TFDEA listed below: 1. Technology performance is a linear function of the technology inputs. 2. The inputs of technology remain constant over time. 3. The rate of technological change remains constant over time. The focus of this study was to identify the impact of these assumptions on the accuracy and validity of the EV forecasts. A technical system analysis of electric vehicles was performed to provide understanding of the basic operation mechanisms of EV systems and of the relations between different EV design variables. Such information was necessary in order to properly identify and select those design parameters that are responsible for the EV performance and which can pose limitations to further technological advancements. For both families of vehicles, the output power of the propulsion unit, the charge storage capacity of the battery and the vehicle weight were found to be the main determinants for EV performance. In this study, the performance of BEVs was expressed in terms of acceleration possibilities and driving range, while for HEVs fuel economy, CO2 emissions and acceleration were selected as key performance indicators. The technical and performance attributes of EVs were used as inputs and outputs respectively in three TFDEA models. Two of the models ware applied on BEVs or HEVs only and were used to evaluate the individual technological progress of BEVs and HEVs as homogeneous products, while the third model was used to determine the rate of technological change over the full class of EVs. Each model was used to produce a forecast for yearly EV performance levels until 2020. These forecasts were verified for accuracy against a set of existing products. Then, it was analyzed how the data availability and the assumptions of the TFDEA model impact the reliability and validity of the forecast. The results of the analysis are shown below: For the first 11-12 time periods all vehicles in the data set were ranked as SOA, therefore no rate of change could be calculated, which reduced significantly the possibility to analyze whether there is a visible pattern of constant progress. This was caused by the large number of attributes included in the model, combined with a low number of products released over a relatively short time window. TFDEA assumes linear relations between technology inputs and technology performance. For electric vehicles, this assumption is realistic to a limited extent. The results showed that in the case of battery electric vehicles there seems to be a linear relation between battery capacity and electric range. It was shown that TFDEA models consistently underestimated the performance parameters subjected to regulation. This indicates that the method is very sensitive to exogenous drivers of technological change. The EV case study shows that the approach to evaluate the performance of a technology as a linear function of its inputs may be an oversimplification. The results of the three models show that the TFDEA cannot anticipate the introduction of potentially disruptive technologies, such as the PHV and the EREV. This is due to the fact that the forecasts produced with TFDEA indentify what may be feasible in the future based only on what exists today. TFDEA assumes that inputs remain constant over time and has no mechanism to identify future re-configurations of inputs which could lead to better performance. The present study has concluded that TFDEA is not a suitable method for analyzing technological progress of electric vehicle technologies. This is due to the high sensitivity to exogenous drivers and its limited capability to anticipate the introduction of potentially disruptive design configurations. These limitations are mostly a result of the assumptions that inputs and the rate of change remain constant over time. As a general note on TFDEA, it was observed that TFDEA would not be a useful forecasting tool for emerging technologies with significant economic and socio-political implications. The model could be used for mature technologies which have shown constant progress over time, given that no exogenous forces are expected to influence the technological change. Furthermore, TFDEA could be used for forecasting emerging technologies whose performance can be expressed with very few attributes (at most three times less than the number of products available), and whose performance is not targeted by governmental regulation. With respect to EV forecasting, this study identified that a simple analysis of technological progress is not sufficient to determine the evolution of EV technology. Due to the economic, environmental and political consequences, it is expected that the adoption of electric vehicles will not depend solely on performance, but also on different technological and context factors, such as battery technologies, available infrastructures, standardization opportunities, consumer acceptance, national interests and governmental support. To better understand the development possibilities of EV technology, this study recommends the use of technology forecasting and market shift indicators analysis to identify possible innovations in EV-supporting technologies, such as battery charging stations and smart grit technologies. Furthermore, combined analysis of consumer research and market structure analysis can help identify the market forces expected to affect further advancements of electric vehicles. In addition, monitoring government and industry plans can provide information on potential standardization opportunities and strategies meant to accelerate the adoption of BEVs.","TFDEA; electric vehicles; technology forecasting; technological progress","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Policy Analysis","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:a1ae3370-4a7a-43d8-af06-cefccfe6dec3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a1ae3370-4a7a-43d8-af06-cefccfe6dec3","The value of a Strategic IT analysis in the pre- Merger & Acquisition phase","Ester, F.P.F.","Bouwman, H. (mentor)","2012","This thesis research aimed to improve M&A preperation processes related wit IT. By combining IT process and IT value driven components with the aim to complement current IT Due Diligence analysis by providing more insights in IT integration issues. Thereby contributing to the feasibility of the IT integration phase.","Information Technology; Merger & Acquisition; IT integration; IT Due Diligence; IT Maturity; Luftman; CobiT","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2010-10-05","Technology, Policy and Management","Infrastructure Systems & Services","","Information Communication and Technology","",""
"uuid:492d2d6c-af11-475d-b2c9-272d220ecc94","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:492d2d6c-af11-475d-b2c9-272d220ecc94","Business opportunities for breakthrough technologies in the future medium voltage networks","Huijbens, A.","Herder, P.M. (mentor); Lukszo, Z. (mentor); Van der Voort, H.G. (mentor)","2012","The electric power network has to be able to cope with extensive changes in the near future, like distributed generation (DG) and electricity produced from renewable energy sources (RES). The conventional technologies, which are used in the electric power network of the Netherlands, are not sufficient to cope with these changes. This research looks into the business opportunities of a possible breakthrough technology, power electronic technology (PE), which can cope with the changes in the Dutch electricity market. The possibilities of power electronic technology are explored by combining several theoretical methods, to make an ex-ante judgement on the adoption. The main results are the business opportunities for TNO, substantiated by the needed changes to enable the deployment of power electronic technology by distribution system operators (DSOs). The next step for TNO, to take a closer look at each of the possibilities and act accordingly.","power electronic technology; future medium voltage network; (dis) incentives; needed changes; TIP framework","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2014-09-14","Technology, Policy and Management","Systems Engineering, Polocy Analysis and Management","","Energy and Industry","",""
"uuid:f4516fb0-d7cf-493a-b3c0-d8a0423038e2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f4516fb0-d7cf-493a-b3c0-d8a0423038e2","A system dynamics model for knowledge and technology of enterprises in the open innovative environment","Wei, D.","Zou, B. (mentor); Van Daalen, E. (mentor); Ravesteijn, W. (mentor)","2012","In the fast developing knowledge economy age, the internal resources of an enterprise are usually not enough for proper development, and cooperation with external organizations becomes a popular approach for many enterprises to improve their knowledge storage and technology level, the background of which is called open innovative environment. The knowledge and technology development of Chinese enterprises in the open innovative environment is the research focus of this paper. This research is about the mechanisms and development of knowledge and technology of Chinese enterprises through cooperating with external organizations in the open innovative environment. System Dynamics, a method to provide model analysis and dynamic simulation of large and complex social problems, is applied to model this case and answer the following questions: -What factors can influence knowledge absorption and technological innovation in a Chinese enterprise? -What are the relationships among the key factors in the system? -How to explain the dynamic process of knowledge flow from external sources through organizational cooperation and technology changes in the inner organization? -What policy alternatives can be implemented to improve the system behaviour of the enterprise? And what are the consequences of the alternatives? The complex phenomenon is structured and explained and the above questions are answered by following the classic steps of System Dynamics modelling, i.e. conceptualization, formulation, verification and validation and system behaviour analysis. The conclusion is that, in the open innovative environment, the process of organizational cooperation and knowledge absorption indeed has a strong influence on the development of knowledge storage and technology innovation in a certain time period, through interacting of various factors and relationships. And the influence can be effectively measured and actively controlled. Then, several policy alternatives to improve the system behaviour are proposed as follows: -Alternative 1 of “Consideration of external cooperating organization” means in the beginning of the cooperation, investigation of the external partner from many aspects is necessary and important. -Alternative 2 of “Emphasis on self-development” means to improve the knowledge absorptive capacity of the enterprise in order to make knowledge absorption more feasible and effective, and to prepare the proper basis for internal technological innovation. -Alternative 3 of “Increase in market sensitivity” means the enterprise should speed up the process of market investigation, strategies planning, decision making and policy implementation, in order to be more flexible in market competition. Based on specific analysis and simulation results, there are both advantages and disadvantages in each of the alternatives. Alternative 1 is a necessity and can improve the knowledge storage in the enterprise to a high level in the long term, but an incorrect application of it has the risk of rushing into the “cooperation trap” that seems profitable in a short period while is actually not suitable or even harmful to the long-term development. Alternative 2 is the most sustainable policy and its effect can be obvious from at least five years on, while the price is that it requires high and continuous investment. The effect of Alternative 3 is obvious for both knowledge and technology of the enterprise, even in a short period of time; but the effort cost is also large, in human resource, financial input and policy design. Therefore, a kind of combination of the three policies is recommended based on the above idea. With proper and allowable budgets and conditions, an objective selection of external resources goes first, and then special efforts should be put into increasing market sensitivity and continuous and stable self-development, instead of sharp and intensive.","knowledge absorption; technological innovation; open innovative environment; system dynamics model","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","Department of Technology, Dynamics and Sustainable Development","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:927359b0-3657-4edf-b4ce-8e6a15f07b65","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:927359b0-3657-4edf-b4ce-8e6a15f07b65","Socio-Cultural Factors Influencing the Success of Technology-Driven Acquisitions: An exploratory study of 10 selected Philips acquisitions","Bour, I.A.","Scholten, V. (mentor); De Jong, M. (mentor); Van Beers, C. (mentor); Elmorsi, K. (mentor)","2012","Various authors propose that half of the national and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) fail to achieve their prior-set targets. One of the most cited cause of failures is ‘culture clashes’. The ‘socio-cultural issues’, as they are in mostly cited, are believed to influence the integration of acquisitions and the overall success of the combined organizations. However, the direction of influence is not always clear for all the identified factors. This research is focusing on technology-driven acquisitions and on the socio-cultural issues that appear during the integration period of such firms into the acquiring large organization. The sponsor of the research is Philips International, through its New Venture Integration department. The research was organized as follows: firstly, a literature review was conducted, in order to identify the most important socio-cultural issues that appear in the post-acquisition period and their influence on acquisitions’ success. Then, a conceptual model of factors and interrelations was developed. This draft model tackles acquisitions in general, not only technology-driven deals, due to insufficient literature on socio-cultural dynamics characterizing the latter. The initial model was further improved after collecting empirical data in ten Philips’ technology-driven acquisitions. The empirical data was analyzed after being transcribed and coded with the help of the MAXQDA software package. The findings helped the researcher improve the initial conceptual model, as technology-driven characteristics are taken into considerations. Finally, the improved scheme of socio-cultural factors and interrelations was tested against the opinions of various external and internal experts: post-acquisition managers from Philips, two other corporations and two consultancy firms. The resulting model proposes that, among the socio-cultural factors that appear in the post-acquisition period, organizational commitment has a central role: all the other identified socio-cultural factors should be tackled in the direction of improving organizational commitment (i.e. changing the employees’ psychological contract towards the new organization). This offsets the role of cultural differences in the post-acquisition period. In other words, this research proposes that it is not the cultural fit that makes or breaks the deal, but the commitment of the resulting organization, towards achieving its vision of the future. Other important factors identified in the model were: communication, leadership commitment & skills, a shared vision of the future and cultural awareness. Cultural factors cannot easily be disentangled in practice from other social factors. Also, solving various cultural issues in the post-acquisition period is possible only after accounting for these other factors. Another insight is that the so-called ‘cultural clashes’ can originate, not from the existing cultural differences themselves, but from exercises of power from the acquirer’s side.","technology-driven acquisitions; post-acquisition management; integration of acquisitions; socio-cultural integration; socio-cultural factors; organizational commitment; cultural awareness; communication; leadership; shared vision of the future","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2013-07-23","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:58eb0876-ab4d-4b49-bf27-84342acdfd8e","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:58eb0876-ab4d-4b49-bf27-84342acdfd8e","Visible Cities: Home in the City","Hans, E.","Colombo, F.F. (mentor); Calabrese, L.M. (mentor)","2012","A project that is exploring a public space in which digital media application leads to a collaboratively programmed and configured environment, pulsating public life in Rotterdam.","Rotterdam; De Boompjes; public space; digital technologies; ubiquitous computing; social media; digital media","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Architecture","Urbanism","","Complex Cities","",""
"uuid:fc8f8c1f-2b4d-4c39-8fad-ba0a6dba0dc7","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fc8f8c1f-2b4d-4c39-8fad-ba0a6dba0dc7","United Nations Environmental Council","Li, Q.","Van der Zaag, E.J. (mentor); Van der Meel, H.L. (mentor); Koorsta, P. (mentor)","2012","United Nations Environment Council plays an important role as the connection from urban to costline in New York city. ZIGZAG concept solves the 7meter height difference on site with a staircase combining landscape, seatings, tourism functions. It is the collective space inside new UNEC. Vertically the building is divided into three parts, upper part is UNEC private office zone, middle is collective space, bottom is the UNEC council and auditoriums. With ZIGZAG shape, each part can enjoy an unique view either to the city or the ocean. With a strong identical shape, the new UNEC corresponds to the United Nations Headquater designed by Le Corbusier, and will be a new icon for Manhattan costline.","masterialization; urban context; building technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2016-01-31","Architecture and The Built Environment","SADD","","SADD Graduation Studio","",""
"uuid:8232c5fb-21ba-4ec8-a8c3-bf66e8cd9118","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8232c5fb-21ba-4ec8-a8c3-bf66e8cd9118","The open source technology agent: An agent concept for the explorative economic evaluation of process technology","Veltman, J.J.","Herder, P.M. (mentor); Van der Lei, T.E. (mentor); De Bruijne, M.L.C. (mentor); Stikkelman, R.M. (mentor)","2012","Process technology is in development for the long term. This thesis presents an agent concept, part of an agent-based model, specified to the conceptual level, that deals with technical complexity of process technology, and can help to assess the economic value of combinations of connected process technology.","agent; process technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2014-05-14","Technology, Policy and Management","SEPAM","","Energy & Industry","",""
"uuid:4843c413-fcf6-4569-aaa2-1a074664cce2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4843c413-fcf6-4569-aaa2-1a074664cce2","Design study for the Measurement Section & Diffuser optimisation for the TU Delft cavitation tunnel","De Jonge, A.P.","Delfos, R. (mentor); Zverkhovskyi, O. (mentor)","2012","A too small optical accessible area of the old Measurement Section of the Cavitation tunnel made monitoring the upcoming experiments, with for instance high speed cameras, impossible. This was its main imperfection. A proper amount of optical accessible area needed lead too this conversion. The new Measurement Section designed has an optical accessible area which is sufficient for the experiments. It was needed to have a zero velocity-, and pressure gradient over the new Measurement Section. The displacement thickness of the boundary layer which narrows effectively the inner of the Measurement Section would lead to acceleration of the flow and therefore needed to be compensated. This was done by gradually descending the bottom plate of the new Measurement Section over its length, since the side walls of the new Measurement Section had to be parallel for a constant distance of the camera to the side walls over its total length.","Redesign of the Cavitation tunnel present at the Maritime Technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering","Solid & Fluid Mechanics","","Fluid Mechanics","",""
"uuid:cb1d932a-985d-4e85-a204-f7c99c1554e9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cb1d932a-985d-4e85-a204-f7c99c1554e9","H2 Architecture","Aukema, B.","Van den Dobbelsteen, A.A.J.F. (mentor); Engels, J.F. (mentor)","2012","Hydrogen Technology integrated in an architectural design.","hydrogen; architecture; research; waterstof; architectural engineering; sustainability; sustainable; energy; experimental; NDSM; Amsterdam; hydrogen technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2013-01-01","Architecture","Architecture","","Architectural Engineering","",""
"uuid:b3e11810-8c9c-48f2-8130-898c075513b5","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b3e11810-8c9c-48f2-8130-898c075513b5","The United Nations Environmental Council: Towards a sustainable future!","Evers, M.","Bollen, R. (mentor); Meijs, M. (mentor)","2012","","united nations; sustainability; duurzaamheid; durability; adaptability; aanpasbaarheid; showcase; technology; green; ecological; expandable; extendable; new york; manhattan; verenigde naties","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2012-02-04","Architecture","Architecture","","Chair of Materialisation and Design Development","",""
"uuid:d857e112-b607-402b-9709-afcc9e14d700","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d857e112-b607-402b-9709-afcc9e14d700","Cost and benefit analysis of storage technology opportunities in wind power curtailment and time-shift benefit for wind farms","Yousafzai, S.","Gomez, T. (mentor)","2012","The integration of renewables in electricity systems and urban areas loads have resulted in a wide daily price variation with overnight and off-peak prices which are far less than the prices in peak times or high demand period. The high difference in electricity prices makes it desirable to capture through some storage (technological) solution by storing cheap electricity at off-peak hours and sell that in high demand or peak hours. Different storage technologies provide this solution currently with a reasonably high initial/capital cost, minimal operation & maintenance cost along with low environmental impacts. As the cost of solar panels and wind turbines continues to come down, the return on investment (ROI) and payback period paradigms looks more promising for adding renewables which still is not the case of large (utility) scale storage technologies, despite its potential role and benefits in the electricity supply chain. This study highlights the important aspects of storage technology implementation in renewable energy sector of Spanish electricity market especially in the presence of special regime prices, to evaluate it economic justification for different applications particularly the time-shift benefit in contrast with the market prices. For this purpose the outcomes of a custom build model are analysed which are based on several inputs from the electricity market i.e. production data, different electricity prices and observed cost ranges with respect to different storage technologies (most of which are based on the previous studies in this field. The pumped hydro option was analysed to check how much gain the storage technologies are not obtaining in operational integration with wind farms. Based on these results it was found that due to (mostly) economic (high capital costs and FiT pricing) barriers the storage technologies are far from achieving the breakeven at large scale utility applications especially in time-shifting mechanism and renewables. There are some progressing technologies with better technical and future cost reduction likelihood which can achieve the breakeven or pay back within its life time but that mostly depends on the drastic reduction in cost through market competition, innovation and regulatory and monetary support from governments. Without these factors the progress in making storage as a permanent part of electricity infrastructure might not be realized in short or medium term.","electricity storage technologies; wind energy; time-shift application","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","Multi Actor Systems","","Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:7695851f-0576-48f9-89cc-f0d7d16db7b2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7695851f-0576-48f9-89cc-f0d7d16db7b2","Insight Studio","Van der Male, J.A.","Willekens, L.A.M. (mentor); Van Dooren, E.J.G.C. (mentor)","2012","This project is about finding the ""ideal"" studio conditions for design education. The research describes the basic needs for accommodating design education through studio spaces. The final design of the project is a new building for the faculty of Architecture. It can be seen as a late submission for the contest ""building for Bouwkunde"" which was held after the fire of the old building. The goal of this graduation was to question the current conditions of the studio spaces used in the current faculty building.","studio; education; design; reslilience; Explorelab; flexibility; safety; atrium; core; Bouwpub; identity; technology; industrial","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2012-02-06","Architecture","Architecture","","Explorelab","",""
"uuid:626256e0-7284-4517-a6dd-44d44ac03928","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:626256e0-7284-4517-a6dd-44d44ac03928","Consumer education in a market activation strategy for Philips LED lamps in Asia Pacific","Nacken, M.P.H.","Hultink, E.J. (mentor); Mooy, S. (mentor); De Schepper, M. (mentor)","2011","In this project a market activation strategy is developed for launch of Philips LED lamps in Asia Pacific. LED lamps are seen as the digital replacement of the incandescent lamp as invented by Edison 130 years ago. At the moment of writing LED lamps are ready for use in households. LED lamps can be considered as high technology products, dealing with high price and a fast development cycle. Although the technology is not at a top level yet, the market already asks for it. It is Philips strategy to enter the market now and claim consumers’ mind space to prepare consumer and channel for products to come in the future. The consumer is currently rather unaware of what LED lamps can do for them and since the products to launch are not at top level yet, consumer education is key in the market activation strategy to take. In this project a draft market activation strategy has been developed and tested during launch in Korea and China. The results show that market activation by providing ‘education by trial’ with a positioning focused on the emotional benefits of LED lamps, leads to the best consumer value-perception and activates consumers for now and in the future.","marketing; high technology products","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2013-10-23","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","Master of Science Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:24342118-2b2a-4fb6-9b51-18c8fb87b42d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:24342118-2b2a-4fb6-9b51-18c8fb87b42d","Factors influencing photovoltiac technology selection","De Winter, A.A.L.","Van de Kaa, G. (mentor); Kamp, L.M. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor)","2011","The unlimited availability of sunlight and the ability of photovoltaic (PV) cells to directly convert this radiation into electricity, makes PV a promising renewable energy technology. Five PV technologies are currently commercially available, however because the PV market is characterised by increasing returns to adoption, it is expected one dominant design will eventually emerge. This research is the first to study the factors that affect technology selection in the PV market. In the first part of this research existing frameworks on dominant designs, expert interviews and (non-)scientific literature are used to arrive at a list of 20 factors influencing technology selection in the PV market. Moreover, four additional factors were found that are in favour of the coexistence of multiple designs. In the second part, from the list of 20 factors, 13 were selected to be analysed via a questionnaire on their importance in the technology selection process of PV manufactures. Also the current status of PV technologies regarding these factors was analysed using a questionnaire. The questionnaires were structured using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and filled in by industry experts; data was analysed using the crisp and fuzzy (logarithmic fuzzy preference programming) AHP method. Results indicate that there are only minor differences between the two data analysis methods; in both methods the category of factors standard support strategy is most important (with a relative importance of ±47%), followed by characteristics of the standard (±29%), characteristics of the standard supporter (±18%) and other stakeholders (±6%). Similarly, pricing and technological superiority are the most influential factors (±20%), and mono-crystalline silicon has the best chance to become the future dominant design (a chance of 30%). The outcomes also show that existing frameworks do not fully describe selection in the PV market, since the factors policy and law needed to be introduced.","dominant designs; technology selection; photovoltaic technologies; analytic hierarchy process","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2011-11-05","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship","","Management of technology","",""
"uuid:7d03b5aa-a512-45f1-9b62-155751064519","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7d03b5aa-a512-45f1-9b62-155751064519","Energy-efficient capacitive-sensor interface based on an incremental Delta-Sigma modulator employing current-starved inverter-based OTAs","Guo, F.","Pertijs, M. (mentor); Zhichao, T. (mentor)","2011","An interface circuit for a fully-integrated capacitive humidity-sensor is implemented using 0.16?m standard CMOS technology. This interface circuit is intended to be used in a smart RFID sensor platform. This thesis focuses on improving the energy-efficiency of the interface circuit. A third-order incremental delta-sigma converter based on switched-capacitor integrators is presented. Due to the fact that the operational trans-conductance amplifier (OTA), as a major building block for an integrator, consumes most of the power in the whole interface circuit, this work mainly concentrates on improving the energy-efficiency of the OTAs in the three integrators. A fully-differential current-starved inverter-based OTA structure is proposed for the integrator. A dynamic power-down scenario is applied to reduce the power consumption by approximately 20%. Detailed analysis and design optimizations are also provided. The interface achieves 13-bit capacitance-to-digital conversion while consuming 6.8?W from a 1.2V supply, resulting in a figure-of-merit (F.o.M) around 0.17pJ/Step. The circuit design and layout of a test chip are presented. Simulation results confirm the expected improvement in energy-efficiency.","RFID; humidity-sensor; delta-sigma modulator; switched-capacitor circuits; operational trans-conductance amplifier; power-down technique; energy-efficient; standard CMOS technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2012-11-29","Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science","Electrical Engineering-Microelectronics","","Electronic Instrumentation Lab","",""
"uuid:c7b1d00f-dd61-4615-8833-9304eaf2033b","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c7b1d00f-dd61-4615-8833-9304eaf2033b","To what extent does electronic database information reflect the process of innovation?","Van der Kleij, D.W.","Ortt, R.J. (mentor); Cunningham, S. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor)","2011","This research aims to investigate whether adding electronic database information with the technology life cycle reflects the process of innovation. The chances of successfully market a news product are dramatically low, resulting in the need for methods to forecast the process of innovation. A well-known method is the use of market research. However, for specific cases, there is reason to doubt the validity of market research, since firms are not able to meet all the required conditions. (Ortt et al., 2007) This research aims to investigate whether the use of electronic databases can be used to reduce the risk in the process of innovation. An analysis between the various exiting Technology Life Cycle (TLC) models, the TLC model of (Ortt and Schoormans, 2004), appeared to be in the product category unit of analysis, while other innovation theories analyze the process on product or technology level. This model would constitute to best model to use for forecasting, seen the scope, the valid y-axis presentation (industry rate of adoption) and the use of hallmarks. For the theoretical scientific activity over the TLC, many scholars assume a scientific and patent double boom cycle. (e.g. (Schmoch, 2007)) Remarkable little attempt have been found regarding the theoretical news distribution over a technology life cycle. When defining a methodology in order to find consistencies, it is recognized that every quantification of a process with humans involved displays an erratic pattern. This vision results from the fact that the current stage of evolution cannot understand (or to a limited extent) the decision making model of a human brain. The methodologies to analyze the data quantitatively are formulated taking the expected erratic pattern in mind. The technology life cycle combined with the news, scientific and patent distribution is, in this thesis, defined as the innovation diffusion graph. Two types of analysis were performed for this research: qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative propositions are derived on the basis of the innovation diffusion graphs, while the quantitative propositions are derived on the basis of the average level, dispersion and slope. Defining the statements on the basis of every graph and data prevents neglecting of important results. It was found that scientific activity diffuses faster than patents (78%), were the uptake in patents was later than the uptake in scientific research (64%). In 71% of the cases, scientific research diffused before the hallmark large scale diffusion. A counter intuitive result came from the uptake in patent with respect to sales, were in 57,1% of the cases the patent uptake was later than sales (28,6% equal uptake; 7,1% patent before sales and 7,1% undetermined). For the pharmaceutical industry the news followed a parabolic trend, with its highest point in the market adaptation phase. The average level of news (material), scientific (both industries) and patent (both industries) all followed a linear upward trend in the majority of the cases. No evidence of the in the literature assumed double boom cycle for the patents and scientific activity is found. Furthermore, (Tushman and Anderson, 1986) found a significant increased uncertainty after a technological discontinuity. No evidence of an increased uncertainty was found.","patent; scientific articles; news; technology life cycle; forecasting; prediction","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy and Entrepeneurship","","","",""
"uuid:bf53169e-2c5c-44b3-8918-7a7b250ff911","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bf53169e-2c5c-44b3-8918-7a7b250ff911","A Firm’s Strategic Behaviour in Networks: How Strategic Behaviour and Network Positions of the Focal Firm Influence the Firm’s Performance","Mahabier, G.V.","Den Hartigh, E. (mentor)","2011","Many firms are nowadays engaged in strategic alliances for their success and survival and are therefore determined to maintain or even increase their performance. Various strategy scholars focused on the impact of business strategies on performance; whereas network scholars examined the impact of the network position of the firm on its performance. However, there is a need to integrate both research streams to gain an in-depth insight in the strategic behaviour of firms, network position and firm performance and in how they are related to each other. This may help firms mainly operating in networks within high tech industry sectors to achieve competitive advantage over competitors. This indicates that research aimed at gaining and providing insight in how to investigate or determine if and how strategic behaviour and network position are related and influence the firm performance is needed first. The motivation for this case study research came from that need. The first objective of the research is to focus on whether insight in the strategic behaviour, network position and performance of a focal firm can be obtained from case studies; and if and how strategic behaviour and network position are related and impact the firm performance over time. The second objective is to determine and propose a comprehensive research design for future researchers who may attempt to conduct a case study research to into the possible relationships between strategic behaviour, network position and performance of the firm. To meet the research objectives, a case study approach has been undertaken. A multiple-case study design was chosen, since it allows cross-case analysis and may also enhance the validity of a study. The two sources of evidence included documents and archival records. From the preliminary analysis of available cases for the course MOT9592, two cases were selected based on the selection criteria for cases. The two cases were: (1) Apple iPod vs. Microsoft Zune; and (2) SACS vs. DVD-A. Both cases were about high tech firms within their networks, engaged in technology standards battles with competitors during the technological life cycle of a high tech product category. The aspects of strategic behaviour, network position and firm performance that had to be obtained from the case studies were established after the literature review. From the results obtained from the case studies it became evident that the research outcomes were influenced by practical difficulties, such as research approach, data limitation, bias and theory problem. Therefore the research focus shifted towards determining and proposing a comprehensive research design (research protocol, research scenario and “stylesheet”). This research design includes all recommended steps for successfully undertaking a case study research. From an academic perspective this exploratory case study research contributes to an increase in knowledge, by providing valuable insights in the core concepts strategic behaviour, network positions and firm performance and the possible relationships between those concepts. This research also has social relevance, since it determined and proposed a comprehensive research design, including a research “stylesheet”, which can be used by future researchers who may attempt to conduct a case study research to into the possible relationships between strategic behaviour, network position and performance of the firm. Nevertheless, there were also limitations in this research, which were all related to the research design. Therefore, in further research it is recommended to use the proposed research design.","strategic behaviour; network position; performance; technology life cycle; case study research; research design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2011-09-28","Technology, Policy and Management","Technology, Strategy & Entrepreneurship","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:6df62e42-5ce0-4335-a880-3c1bf040dfd2","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6df62e42-5ce0-4335-a880-3c1bf040dfd2","Applicability of near-infrared spectroscopy for sensor based sorting of mill pebbles from the Los Bronces copper mine, Chile","Dalm, M.","Buxton, M.W.N. (mentor); Voncken, J.H.L. (mentor); Dalmijn, W.L. (mentor); Van Ruitenbeek, F.J.A. (mentor); De Ruiter, J.J. (mentor)","2011","Los Bronces is an open pit mine located on a large porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit near Santiago, Chile. Annual production is around 240 000 tonnes of copper and 2 700 tonnes of molybdenum. The extracted ore has a relatively low average copper grade of around 0.6%. This results in relatively high processing costs and creates the need to search for solutions to reduce the costs for ore processing at Los Bronces. Sorting by sensor technology may be a solution to decrease these processing costs. Sensor based sorting is a technique where singular particles are mechanically separated on certain physical properties after determining these properties by a sensor or detector. Sensor based sorting is of relatively low cost compared to other concentration methods. It is an evolving technology that is reaching the requirements for implementation in ore processing operations. However, sensor based sorting is completely dependant on an appropriate sensor that allows distinguishing between sub-economic and economic ore material. The applicability of a near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic sensor was investigated on a set of 150 mill pebbles from the Los Bronces processing plant to asses the feasibility of sensor based sorting. The NIR spectroscopic sensor allows characterisation of the reflected electromagnetic radiation from solids along the NIR wavelength regions of the electromagnetic spectrum (350-2500 nm). Mainly due to the vibrational effects of certain molecule bonds in these solids, absorption bands of lower reflected radiation are present around characteristic wavelength locations. These absorption bands can therefore be diagnostic for certain mineral presences in a solid. Copper minerals do not cause any characteristic absorption bands in the NIR region. Various hydrothermal alteration minerals that are associated with the formation of porphyry copper systems on the other hand do. These minerals include muscovite, illite, chlorite, tourmaline and kaolinite. Assessing the applicability of NIR spectroscopy for sensor based sorting of the Los Bronces mill pebbles was therefore focused on finding a relation between the copper grade and these alteration minerals. From general geological models it is known that copper mineralisation can be associated with certain zones of hydrothermal alteration. However, in practice the alteration zones and copper mineralisation usually form very complex systems due to several periods of intrusion, brecciation and overprinting of the pre-existing hydrothermal alterations. The test work showed that no direct correlation between the copper grade and a NIR spectral characteristic was present. However, it did prove to be possible to classify the mill pebbles based on the NIR spectral response and mineralogy determined from petrography and x-ray diffraction. This resulted in several groups of pebbles that proved to be identifiable by NIR spectroscopy and contained different average copper grades. One group of low grade pebbles was particularly interesting. This group contains 30% of all pebble samples with an average copper grade of 0.29%. This group can be easily identified with NIR spectroscopy by a high depth ratio between the 1900 and 2200 nm absorption feature and presence of an absorption feature around 2350 nm. These spectral features are caused by a low crystallinity of mica minerals and presence of chlorite respectively. It was shown that it is technically feasible to make some discrimination on the copper grade of the Los Bronces mill pebbles by the response from a NIR spectroscopic sensor. However, because the discrimination possibilities are limited to only one group of pebbles, a detailed economical analysis still has to prove the economical feasibility of NIR spectroscopy as a sensor sorting application for the Los Bronces mill pebbles. A preliminary economical analysis already showed that the economical feasibility is mainly dependant on the copper price and the processing costs of the ore.","Los Bronces; NIR spectroscopy; sensor; based; sorting technology; copper ore","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2012-09-13","Civil Engineering and Geosciences","Section Resource Engineering","","","",""
"uuid:dfe7420f-8504-427e-bbd9-f0f62e973ad1","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:dfe7420f-8504-427e-bbd9-f0f62e973ad1","Choosing market segments and digital printing technologies for package printing industry: a case study with Océ Technologies","Zulkifli, R.","Kleinknecht, A.H. (mentor); Van de Kaa, G. (mentor); Gerrits, T. (mentor)","2011","The aim of this research is to investigate the overall package printing market and analyze it using theoretical market and technology models to find out the most likely segments that document printer manufacturers can enter and which digital technologies are the most suitable for printing packages. This study then raised two main research questions that need to be answered, ""Why should document printer manufacturers consider entering the package printing market and how will these manufacturers enter the market segments in terms of entry strategy and why digital is used as the preferred technology?"" And, ""What is the most attractive market segment on which document printer manufacturers can focus while entering the package printing market and what are the preferred digital printing technologies to enter this segment?"" Based on the analysis, there are five segments in the digital package printing market that Océ can enter. These are label printing, folding cartons, flexible plastics, rigid plastics, and metal package printing segments. From these segments, label and folding cartons package printings are the most interesting segments for printer manufacturers similar to Océ to enter. The market for folding cartons packaging segment is steadily growing alongside label printing thanks to the increasing demand for short run printing, customization and personalization, market tests, sales samples, and prototypes. The digital technology of inkjet should be the first choice for package printing. Inkjet printing still has more opportunities to develop the technology further compared to electrophotography (toner). Inkjet technology enables printing on non-flat surfaces e.g. already folded packaging because the print heads do not make contact with the surface, meaning more flexibility on printing surfaces that inkjet can handle. In the overall package printing industry, digital technologies are still in the early stages of their life-cycle. The market for conventional technologies is already quite a competitive market where with poorer growth opportunities. The digital technologies are still in the introduction phase. Their adoption rate is still limited to early adopters and niche markets. In the digital package printing market, electrophotography is now becoming the dominant design of digital in package printing with a large market share. However, the development of electrophotography will be less since it is already mature compared to inkjet, which is still growing, catching up with electrophotography. Nevertheless this study has some limitations. This analysis is based on information that depicts the current situation in the digital package printing. Years from now, the trends, dominant technologies, attractive segments and other aspects will develop and change. Since this study is done for possible markets that printer manufacturers can enter in the future there will always of course uncertainty and unpredictable actions of competitors.","packaging; package printing; technology life cycle; digital printing; offset printing; entry strategy; market segments; printing technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","Innovation Systems","","Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship","",""
"uuid:d9b9bddc-a999-44f5-9cc6-5a0971c418dd","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d9b9bddc-a999-44f5-9cc6-5a0971c418dd","Analyzing the transition towards alternative vehicles in advanced and emerging economies","Molina Perez, E.","Yücel, G. (mentor); Van Daalen, E. (mentor)","2011","This research analyzes the effect of market differences between advanced and emerging economies on the diffusion of alternative vehicle platforms (AVPs). A system dynamics simulation model was built and used to explore this transition case. This model considers two generic regions resembling advanced and emerging economies, and three generic vehicle platforms: incumbent platform (gasoline vehicles), hybrid platform (hybrid-gasoline vehicles) and radical platform (electrical vehicles). In addition, the model considers the interaction of several feedback mechanisms (Social Learning, R&D, Learning by Doing, Network Externalities and Scale Economies); as well as technical factors of the vehicle platforms, consumers’ preferences and car manufacturers’ behaviour. The analysis of several simulation experiments shows that market differences between advanced and emerging economies can influence diffusion patterns of AVPs in three main ways: First, the difference between the income level of consumers of advanced and emerging economies creates a systematic delay in the diffusion of AVPs in emerging economies. As a result, hybrid-gasoline vehicles diffuse earlier in advanced economies than in emerging economies. The diffusion of hybrid-gasoline vehicles in the advanced economies enhances its diffusion in the emerging region due to a global reduction in their purchasing prices and due to their technical improvement. Second, the difference in speed of growth of each region’s vehicle market has the potential of creating a strong market niche for electrical vehicles in the emerging region. In advanced economies, electrical vehicles find strong barriers. On the one hand, consumers driving gasoline or hybrid-gasoline vehicles are more reluctant to adopt the unknown developing electrical vehicles. On the other hand, the growth of the vehicle market is expected to hardly grow. Thus, in advanced economies most vehicle sales are replacement sales. In the emerging region, the opposite occurs, the vehicle market grows steadily and high number of vehicle sales are from consumers that for the first time purchase a vehicle. First time vehicle buyers do not favour any particular vehicle, thus there are greater chances that they adopt AVPs if these meet their economic and proficiency criteria. As a result, electrical vehicles find a strong market niche in emerging economies, which can compensate for the stagnation of the vehicle market in advanced economies. However, how this market niche is exploited depends significantly on consumers’ preferences and consumers’ familiarity with AVPs. In this regard, if consumers only consider the vehicle’s purchasing price in their adoption decisions, the transition towards AVPs becomes less likely, especially in emerging economies. On the contrary, if consumers consider in a more balanced way all the attributes of a vehicle (e.g. purchasing price, cost of fuel, fuel efficiency and driving range), the transition towards electrical vehicles becomes more likely in both regions. In this case, emerging economies can inject a strong impulse to the global diffusion of electrical vehicles. Third, differences in consumers’ preferences between both regions can significantly influence diffusion patterns. On the one hand, if consumers in advanced economies are interested in vehicles’ proficiency and consumers in emerging economies are only interested in vehicles’ purchasing price. Then, in advanced economies, hybrid-gasoline vehicles penetrate this market at high levels, but electrical vehicles stagnate. In emerging economies, the hybrid-gasoline vehicles penetrate at modest levels due to the impulse received by its diffusion in advanced economies, but electrical vehicles fail. In this case, conventional gasoline vehicles benefit from the growing vehicle market in emerging economies. On the other hand, if consumers in emerging economies are proficiency oriented and consumers in advanced economies have a purchasing price orientation. Then, advanced economies lag behind in the diffusion of AVPs. In emerging economies, the diffusion of AVPs is also delayed due to the lack of the initial impulse of advanced economies. However, in this case, electrical vehicles find a strong market niche in emerging economies and penetrate this market at high levels. It also has been found that if R&D resources are early allocated to AVPs, both the car manufacturers and the consumers discover earlier the potential of the each vehicle platform. This reduces the initial systematic disadvantages of AVPs against gasoline vehicles, increasing the possibilities of their global diffusion. It has also been found that if the development potential of the three vehicle platforms is comparable, then market differences have a strong influence in the diffusion of AVPs. However, the more unbalanced the development potential of the three vehicle platforms is, the less determinant market differences become. This research shows that the process of diffusion of AVPs can be enriched and strengthened if it is seen as a complementary process between advanced and emerging economies. Policy areas of concern are the support to the R&D of AVPs, the development of fuelling infrastructure for electrical vehicles and the encouragement of consumers to consider in a more balanced way all vehicle’s attributes in their adoption decisions.","Alternative Vehicles; Sustainability; Technology Transitions; System Dynamics","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2011-08-16","Technology, Policy and Management","Policy Analysis","","MSc Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:bedb48de-895c-4949-acc4-910e849594b3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bedb48de-895c-4949-acc4-910e849594b3","Pregnancy support for pregnant couples","Arrieta Odria, M.","","2011","This master thesis shows the design process of Kwiek, a product that supports child-wish-couples in their nutritional habits. Kwiek is a product service that consist of a physical product (hardware) and a web tool (software). Using RFID technology, couples will be able to track their nutrition easily and receive an online feedback.","Pregnancy; RFID technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Medesign","","","",""
"uuid:ab64f05b-a58a-411d-b0dd-b5287302ca42","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ab64f05b-a58a-411d-b0dd-b5287302ca42","Impact of Future Residential Loads on Medium Voltage Networks","Grond, M.O.W.","Gibescu, M. (mentor); Veldman, E. (mentor)","2011","This report describes the impact of future residential loads and generators on the loading of electricity grids by applying a new load modelling technique to a large set of existing medium voltage (MV) networks. Different future scenarios with resulting load profiles are tested on the MV networks.","medium voltage network; load profiles; network planning; future technologies; network simulation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science","Electrical Sustainable Energy | Electrical Power Systems","","Electrical Power Engineering","",""
"uuid:11b6f631-f4d7-4189-9ccb-bb023272d832","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:11b6f631-f4d7-4189-9ccb-bb023272d832","Direct feedback mobile tablet device: A teachers tool to ease interactive white board interaction","Van der Hulst, R.F.","Van Heur, R.J.H.G. (mentor); Van Helm, A.J.C. (mentor); Kurstjens, P.W.M. (mentor); Oberdorf, J.E. (mentor)","2011","During this user centered design project for Wacom Europe GmbH a new accessory for the Interactive White Board (IWB) was designed. This product for the educational market combines pressure sensitive reflective LCD technology with Wacom’s pen technology. Right at the start of this project users have been introduced to these technologies. They could experience them in first hand by using the Palette v1.0 prototype, which originated from a previous project for Wacom Europe GmbH. The Palette v1.0 prototype was used during 5 focus group sessions and during these session a total of 21 insights have been captured. After each session the insights were summarized in the form of insight cards in “cartoon style“. These insight cards were used as discussion guidelines and provided inspiration and structure throughout the separate focus group sessions. Based on the outcomes of the focus group sessions functional changes to the device setup were made and tested in an early prototype: Palette v1.1. This new design was validated and a high fidelity prototype was made: Palette v2.0. This prototype was also the end result of this project. Based on the insights gathered with Palette v1.0 & v1.1 a new product design was made and prototyped by using the SLS rapid prototyping technique. This prototype is fully functional, operates through a wireless interface and the functional components were integrated. The general look and feel, size, weight and functionality was as close to an engineering sample as possible. During the final user tests 5 participants evaluated the product in 3 separate controlled sessions. 3 participants were new to the Palette concept, but all the participants were enthusiastic about the new Palette v2.0. Its has opened a whole new world interactive possibilities for them. The teachers now have the instructive power of the IWB right in their hand.","User centered design; Wacom; Reflective LCD technology; Insight cards; Focus group; Interactive pen technology; Rapid prototype; Portable device; Interactive white board","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2012-06-16","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Master of Science Integrated Product Design","",""
"uuid:2f2fb381-97ef-4f39-a3ed-31e8eb9085a9","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2f2fb381-97ef-4f39-a3ed-31e8eb9085a9","Provotyping in the wild: A research project about provocative prototypes in the fuzzy front end of an innovation project","Botermans, B.A.M.","Aprile, W.A. (mentor); Sleeswijk Visser, F. (mentor); Donovan, J. (mentor)","2011","This report is about my final Design for Interaction master’s project I did at SPIRE research centre in Sønderborg about provotyping. This work is part of PhD candidate Laurens Boer’s promotion. Provotypes are provocative prototypes that are used at the fuzzy frontend of an innovation project to understand how people experience phenomena they earlier took for granted. Providing them with tools to interact with the phenomenon gives them a new experience. The difference with other methods that achieve user insight through artefacts is that in the provotype method people are made to reflect on a new experience they get with the provotype itself. The main research question is: what are the most important factors when creating a provotype that makes people reflect on an intangible phenomenon that was formerly taken for granted? Hypotheses are generated based on literature and earlier work: sensing, feedback, interaction, shape, time, ambiguity and reflection. The playground to test these hypotheses regarding provotyping as a method is the indoor climate and quality of life project. This project is a participatory design project that involves 2 universities and 5 business partners interested in acquiring a good insight of indoor climate comfort. The indoor climate project has been going on since August 2008. In this period ethnographic studies are done which resulted in comfort themes that may lead to innovation tracks. Based on these themes the direction for the project is decided. Bridging feeling and understanding is the one that showed to have to most opportunities to test the hypotheses. A range of provotypes is generated that aim to make people reflect on their indoor climate. These provotypes are made into scenarios for reviewing. From these reviews one final provotype is developed. The dominant indoor climate variables are combined in a lamp that shows the state of the indoor climate. Participants are asked to generate material during a review session to connect the state of the lamp to the activity that was going and how they felt at the time. By creating this material they get back to that moment and can reflect to connect feeling and understanding. Field studies have been performed with three families that were interested in their indoor climate: One Danish family that received an earlier vase provotype as a pilot test. One Danish family received the lamp provotype and one Dutch family also received the lamp provotype. From the studies it can be concluded that the lamp succeeded in giving people insight in their indoor climate by letting them explore their home environment, but failed in getting information about what people experienced as comfort. This failure leads to research opportunities to improve how to bridge this experience of the phenomenon with what is experienced with the provotype. When looking at the hypotheses, the only conclusion that can be drawn from the field studies is that a minimalistic shape works better for engaging with the provotype. The rest of the hypotheses are only pointers that had a positive effect. An output that encompasses multiple variables and showing them into one whole makes people aware that the bigger phenomenon consists of different smaller parts that are interconnected. Active participation and ability to change the output in real time helps to reflect on the phenomenon.","provotyping; prototype; interactive; technology; Denmark; user; research","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Master of Science Design for Interaction","",""
"uuid:fcc19d6c-ad6d-46ea-b1bd-41166416aa6f","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fcc19d6c-ad6d-46ea-b1bd-41166416aa6f","The surgical lighting problem: ‘Manipulation problems with the surgical lighting system during surgical procedures’","Mooijweer, R.","Knulst, A.J. (mentor)","2011","Ergonomic problems of surgical lighting systems have been indicated by surgeons; however, the underlying causes are not clear. The aim of this dissertation is to assess the problems in detail, and subsequently clarify the underlying causes. In the first stage of the research, the observation method was used to quantify the luminaire use during 46 hours of open routine surgical procedures in the field of general surgery. The location of the observation study was the Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis hospital in Delft, which employs the Berchtold Chromophare C series as the surgical lighting system. The results showed that every 7.5 minute a luminaire action takes place, intended to reposition the luminaire. Of these LAs, 74% was performed by surgeons and residents. For 64% of these LAs the surgical tasks of OR-staff were interrupted. Observed difficulties were collision of the luminaire against any object, or that the luminaire was out of reach for the surgeon in a sitting posture. The primary difficulty appeared in the kinetic relation during the SLS and user interaction, as manoeuvrability of the luminaire was cumbersome and in some situations the system was immovable. These problems primarily occur during the repositioning of the luminaire 2 dimensional plane of the pendant arms. In the second research stage a valid simulation model of the surgical lighting system was constructed in MSC Adams software to allow virtual experiments to analyse the system mechanics. The model showed that the required force during luminaire usage depends on the location of the luminaire its work field and are on average higher than ergonomically acceptable. Primary cause of this difficulty with the current systems is the two pendant arms construction as the highest forces were found when the luminaire was directly below the ceiling suspension or in the peripheral region of the work field. In those regions the pendant arms are either in parallel or serial alignment. The force spectrum for luminaire use showed a diffuse image, ranging from 14 Newton till unlimited quantities when the system is unmovable. The average required force is 136 Newton in the region where the observed luminaire use was primarily undertaken. In addition, the software engineering model which was constructed in this study is applicable as a test procedure to analyse surgical lighting systems. As a result, this dissertation stated novel insights into the OR lighting problem during open routine surgical procedures in the field of general surgery. And it presented a valid simulation model of a surgical lighting system Berchtold Chromophare C series. The protocol for the model construction can be user to analyse surgical lighting system of different brands using engineering software simulation. Furthermore, this dissertation presented a direction for future research and an improved user system interaction of the luminaire during surgical procedures.","ergonomics; equipment; operating room technology; surgical lighting; usability","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2012-01-01","Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering","Department Biomechanical Engineering (BMechE)","","Biomedical Engineering","",""
"uuid:6c4b0d6f-ae25-4dc2-afe5-5fd10d887775","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6c4b0d6f-ae25-4dc2-afe5-5fd10d887775","Wearable Trainer for Artistic Gymnastics","Moreno Soler, L.","Sonneveld, M.H. (mentor); Horvath, I. (mentor)","2011","This project is a case study focused on finding a way of integrating ubiquitous technology into a wearable appliance. This appliance assists artistic gymnasts for core position correction during practice on the balance Beam. It is expected that the correction of the core will help develop muscle memory for standing position on the beam and will assist in balance keeping. The final product is a four-way stretch leotard with fully integrated electronic elements. It contains four stretch sensors on shoulders, gluteus and abdomen and one bend sensor located in the lower back. As a feedback system, vibration motors are attached to those same areas. All the system is controlled with a Lilypad arduino mainboard and powered up with a Polymer Lithium Ion rechargeable battery.","ubiquitous; wearable technology; leotard; smart clothing; lilypad; stretch sensors; gymnastics; position; correction","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Computer Aided Design Engineering","","","",""
"uuid:381f7d06-e79b-46be-982a-a9afb0b96247","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:381f7d06-e79b-46be-982a-a9afb0b96247","Hierarchy in Meritocracy: Community Building and Code Production in The Apache Software Foundation","Castaneda, O.F.","Van Eeten, M.J.G. (mentor); Scholten, V.E. (mentor); Van Wendel de Joode, R. (mentor)","2010","This research is about code production in top-level open source communities of The Apache Software Foundation (ASF). We extensively analyzed Subversion repository logs from 70 top-level Apache open source projects in the ASF from 2004 to 2009. Based on interactions in code production during one-year periods we constructed networks of file co-authorship that gave us access to the organization of Apache open source communities. This allowed us to measure graph level properties, like hier- archy and clustering, and their influence on the outputs of code production. Apache communities are groups of individuals that organize their code production efforts in order to develop enterprise-grade open source software. The ASF explains the success of its communities and the software they produce by claiming to have instituted a meritocracy that brings contributors together in a way that significantly influences code production, namely by building communities instead of only focusing on technical properties of the source code like modularity. Self-organization theory has found that the role of institutions is minor. In this research we test and confirm the theory of self-organization, and find that the meritocracy institution does not influence code production.","open source; self-organization; institutionalization; management of innovation; management of technology; software management","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Policy, Organization, Law and Gaming","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:b6f85681-7cc9-498d-b101-424dee22bc81","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b6f85681-7cc9-498d-b101-424dee22bc81","Keep Your Eyes On The Prize: An assessment framework for the regulatory arrangement on the use of medical technology in hospitals","Tjong A Hung, G.A.","Koornneef, F.J.H. (mentor); Van der Voort, H.G. (mentor); De Haan, A.R.C. (mentor); Mertens, F.J.H. (mentor); Kraus, J.J.A.M. (mentor)","2010","Medical technology is evolving at a remarkable rate, prompted by its major role in health care services. The Health Care Inspectorate monitors this technological advance and should take action whenever the quality of care and/or patient safety is at risk. Regulation is therefore inevitable. However, as far as the use of medical technology in care institutions is concerned, there are still some gaps. This research explores how a regulatory arrangement specifically aimed at the use of medical technology in hospitals could complement the Inspectorate?s current regulatory arrangement and how it should take form. The 2006 Twenteborg accident, claiming the life of a patient, served as the motive for this research, as it is a typical example of the complexity entailed in regulating the use of medical technology in hospitals. The main research question was therefore: ‘What amendments can be made in the Health Care Inspectorate’s regulatory arrangement to enhance patient safety when using medical technology in hospitals?’ In order to find the answer, the research included an analysis of the current regulatory arrangement of the Inspectorate, an analysis of several theories on regulation, a field analysis, and an analysis on the specific complexities entailed in regulating the use of medical technology. The research also included a design & evaluation phase, to make an assessment framework for a regulatory arrangement specifically aimed at the use of medical technology in hospitals and assess the Inspectorate?s current regulatory arrangement. The Inspectorate?s current regulatory arrangement includes a cycle of enforcement and three inspection instruments, namely phased, thematic and incident-based supervision. Medical technology is regulated by means of the Medical Devices Act and the Care Institutions Quality Act. The first act regulates the production and trade of medical devices and is thus essentially meant for manufacturers, whereas the latter regulates the use of medical technology, thus essentially regulating care institutions. In this way a clear distinction is made between supervision on the production and trade of medical devices and supervision on the use of these medical devices. However, actual practice has shown that it is hardly feasible to keep these two apart. The cycle of enforcement and the inspection instruments are based on three regulation theories namely system-based, risk-based and responsive regulation. Fundamental to the system-based regulatory approach is that the regulatee should have a self-regulatory capacity and thus aims for regulation on the system-level. The risk-based approach aims for selective regulation and requires the regulator to pick important problems and fix them?. The responsive regulation approach focuses on interventionist response and tries to establish a synergy between punishment and persuasion. Each theory has a number of opportunities and risks that need to be considered when applying them. Many of the risks or complexities that were identified in the theory were confirmed by the field analysis. The field analysis also provided some additional insights into other (practical) complexities. An analysis of the complexities has revealed that they are mostly created by the multi-actor environment, by organizational and technical issues, or by the formal obligations the Inspectorate has to comply with. An adequate regulatory arrangement and thus the standards of the assessment framework should be designed in such a way that the opportunities and the risks identified in the analyses of the theories and the field analysis should be reckoned with, in that one should try to gain advantages from the opportunities and try to reduce or prevent the risks. Furthermore, as the Inspectorate?s current regulatory arrangement consists of a combination of different regulatory theories, the assessment framework should also provide standards which enable a practicable combination of theories. Keeping the above in mind, I have designed an assessment framework. It is intended to serve as an assessment tool for the Inspectorate and can be interpreted as a normative checklist or guideline to verify if and the extent to which the standards are imbedded in the regulatory arrangement. Upon assessing the Inspectorate?s current regulatory arrangement by means of the assessment framework, a number of shortcomings were identified including communication issues, accountability issues and issues regarding the content and focus of the actual inspections. The recommendations to the Inspectorate therefore also include suggestions as to how to improve on these aspects. The general conclusion of this research is that the Inspectorate?s current regulatory arrangement still has a number of gaps, especially with regard to the use of medical technology in hospitals. These gaps can be narrowed by a more meticulous design of the regulatory arrangement. The general complexity of regulating the use of medical technology is mainly due to the multiplicity of aspects, each of which should be given careful consideration. The title of this report was inspired in the light of this complexity. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize is a warning that one should not lose sight of the main objective, which is the quality of care, with the focus on patient safety. The main recommendation is therefore to use the designed assessment framework as a guideline to gain perspective on regulating the use of medical technology in hospitals. It should be noted, however, that the designed assessment framework still needs some finishing touches, as it was not feasible to include them in the limited time frame of this research. The finishing touches include the aspects of a measurable assessment, which should enable the user to obtain a valuable rating of the situation, and the terms of reference, which should specify the usage. As medical technology is now also increasingly used in nursing homes, it may be worthwhile finding out if the assessment framework can also be applied in a wider setting than just hospitals.","assessment framework; regulatory arrangement; medical technology; regulation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Safety Science Group","","Policy, Organization, Law & Gaming; Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:35d5136c-5039-4186-956b-6bfdd838f32c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:35d5136c-5039-4186-956b-6bfdd838f32c","Design a sustainable and future proof service-portfolio roadmap for I-Plus to adopt future technological and innovative developments in the next 5 years","Spikman, B.","De Bont, C.J.P.M. (mentor); Smulders, F.E.H.M. (mentor)","2010","In the world of communication a lot of developments are emerging and consumers have the need for faster communication. There are increasingly more ways of communicating with each other and the developments for these new ways of communicating are not stopping. What will be the way of communicating in the upcoming five years? That is a question many companies in the telecom sector are struggling with; should they proceed in offering telecommunication solutions for companies or should they focus on new markets? The main challenge of this research project is to find out what the telecom market will look like until 2015 and which services or technologies are expected to be important at that moment. As a case study, the company I-Plus is used, which is a company operating in the business to business communication sector. Therefore the main research question for this case study will be; how should the future service portfolio of I-Plus take shape in the next 5 years, taking into consideration the most relevant technological developments and what measures should I-Plus take to develop that future service portfolio? To answer the research questions, first the current and future service communication sectors have been analyzed, looking at the current and future market and technologies and their lifecycles, which is designed into a vision for the service communication sector until 2015. The communication market of 2015 will be focussing on large cooperations with a lot of niche companies or on the other hand a lot of medium sized companies which all provide the necessary wants on needs of the consumer. The IT sector will be in a high level of development, but can collapse at any moment when not being reliable and secure to the consumer. The vision of the market in 2015 shows that the future communication market will still be growing, but that the consumers trust will be doubtful in the future economy. Therefore a lot of research is needed in the future to keep analyzing what the consumer wants or needs. I-Plus’ current strategy aims at distinguishing itself from their competitors, because the company has a way of analyzing their clients problem in a simple and clear way. The experience from the CEO of I-Plus helps to analyze these problems even faster, which helps in staying ahead of the game. The current service portfolio of I-Plus provides their customers with national and international service numbers, which are both divided into two group, toll free and premium rate numbers. I-Plus offers different solutions to every company in the form of facilities to contact numbers to meet desired functionalities for their clients. According to I-Plus their benefits are: I-Plus offers connections with 100 different countries over the world. With I-Plus companies can generate worldwide revenue with their Premium Rate Number. I-Plus offers competitive pricing and automated solutions to reduce costs. The solutions I-Plus provides aim to deliver improvement to the client satisfaction. I-Plus’ IVR manager and real-time online dashboard provide their clients full control over all incoming calls. I-Plus gives its clients full control over all their services and provides them with the tools and solutions to maximize efficiency. Next to these benefits I-Plus works together with telecom carriers around the world, to ensure the highest possible uptime. In case a power outage or any other disruptions, I-Plus automatically reroutes the phone traffic to a pre-determined back up destination. In general I-Plus focuses on communication services and wants to expand its services. The medium and long-term goals show that I-Plus wants to discover new areas where they can offer their services and distinguish itself from competitors. I-Plus preferably wants to develop a completely new market and find other (eager and ambitious) people who can help them with this new direction. There are different types of technology roadmaps that can used to design a clear path for the future. The general roadmap that is used for these kind of research projects is the product technology roadmap, which is driven by product/process needs. But there is also another type of technology roadmap, which is the emerging technology roadmap. There are fourteen different types of emerging technology roadmaps that have been identified and that can be used to further develop the roadmaps for I-Plus and its future strategies. The emerging technology roadmap that is most suited for this research is the program planning roadmap with a multiple layers format, because this shows the technological developments separate from the project flow and therefore shows a clear overview of what steps I-Plus needs to take in the upcoming 5 years. The program planning roadmap with multiple layers has been further developed and integrated with the future possible scenarios in the telecom market of 2015. The roadmap that has been developed for the selected scenario 1 (vertical business model) for I-Plus to adopt their service portfolio in the period until 2015, focuses on a niche market. The steps I-Plus should take in this period are to consider whether they want to proceed in consulting. When I-Plus proceeds in consultancy, it should focus on providing different new services to their clients and divide their clients into specific categories, ranging from somewhat important to very important e.g. from bronze to gold. In this way different companies will be able to purchase different consultancy packages, which offer different kinds of services and support. Proceeding with establishing a new market for themselves, in scenario 2 (horizontal business model), with the green-IT and home health monitoring I-Plus should invest in innovation, employees and new partners. Considering that the health monitoring and green-IT sector are not that easy to target on your own, because I-Plus is does not possess the expertise on her own, it is recommended that I-Plus does research into finding a partner to start in these sectors. Both implementations include a lot of unreliable factors and risks, but when the research into these new areas is conducted properly I-Plus can start offering new innovative services. With the health care products I-Plus can establish a blue ocean market for herself, which she wants according to her future wishes.","communication; design; roadmap; future; telecommunications; service-portfolio; technological; developments","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2011-12-10","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","","",""
"uuid:06826546-aca0-4e62-8bcf-a23c7bfc6b1c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:06826546-aca0-4e62-8bcf-a23c7bfc6b1c","How to predict the development of breakthrough technologies with the help of electronic databases?","Verkruijsse, L.C.G.","Ortt, J.R. (mentor); Cunningham, S.W. (mentor); Van Beers, C.P. (mentor)","2010","Breakthrough technologies can be defined by ‘new-to-the-world’ or ‘radical (improved)’ technologies which have the capacity to change the behaviour of end-users. The journey these technologies practise towards the mainstream market can be regarded as a dynamic process with lots of uncertainties. Companies investing in the development of these technologies face some serious risks. For the managers of these companies it would be of tremendous value if they could, even in the slightest way, make strategic decisions supported by reliable forecasts. This research aims to investigate the added value of electronic databases in determining the chances of succeeding in the market. Different kinds of electronic databases can measure the activity on a specific topic, which subsequently can be used in forecasting whether the activity will increase or not. This information, in combination with current forecasting methods, can be applied in a business intelligence tool; a tool supporting the decision making process of managers. One of these databases, besides the scientific and patent databases, is offered by Google News and includes business press and news articles from many different sources. This database indicates the activity and popularity on a particular topic among future consumers. Because of its potential, this database is included in this research as well. To answer this challenging question about the added value of electronic databases, two analyses were performed using data from 14 breakthrough technologies in the material- and pharmaceutical industry. The first analysis included different viewpoints in literature on scientific-, technological-, and market activity and when the databases appear to show the highest activity over the life-cycle of a technology. Then, the analysis based on these 14 cases, is used as verification. As a result, it became clear that scientific and market activity increases over time in parallel. The second analysis focused on a completely different aspect. A further dive was made into the history of these technologies, looking for a correlation between the patterns generated by databases and the historical patterns. Remarkably, about 50% of the cases showed a correlation with the patterns generated by Google News. Although this result seems initially not significant, future research is proposed, where even higher results might be found. Then, this database might be of added value for future forecasting tools. This explorative study adds new and improved perspectives on scientific and managerial aspects. It contributes to the concept of forecasting the development of breakthrough technologies. Also, it clearly shows the added value of electronic databases and what they could mean for future research. Nevertheless, this study bears with some limitations. The small sample size, the focus on only two industries, noise in the data, and the lack of more effective queries during the search ensure an inevitably bias in the results. However, the explorative nature of this study does supply the first large building block on this topic, which will be used in future research.","prediction of technological diffusion; technology life-cycle; large-scale production and diffusion; breakthrough technologies; forecasting methods; business intelligence","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","TSE and PA","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:a8fa6e8e-b8c4-41ca-bebd-50250dda39b4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a8fa6e8e-b8c4-41ca-bebd-50250dda39b4","House for the city Haarlem","Selen, I.J.W.","Cuperus, Y. (mentor); Vollers, K. (mentor); Asselbergs, T. (mentor)","2010","Het ontwerp van een cultureel centrum binnen een nieuw masterplan voor de stad Haarlem en een uitgebreide bouwtechnisch uitwerking van het architectonische concept.","architectural engineering; architecture; building technology; Haarlem; parametric design tools; archiprix; cultureel centrum","nl","master thesis","","","","","","","","2011-02-25","Architecture","Architecture","","Architectural Engineering","",""
"uuid:608ac732-61b2-4fbd-96a0-2f341dfc2854","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:608ac732-61b2-4fbd-96a0-2f341dfc2854","Bridging the gap between ideas and implementation: A concept to improve the innovation process of the Ahold Innovation Team","Winters, M.","Smulders, F.E.H.M. (mentor); Van de Geer, S.G. (mentor)","2010","The Ahold Innovation Team (AIT) creates new technological applications for Albert Heijn, Etos, Gall&Gall, Hypernova and Albert. The most potential innovations are developed until ready to test on a small scale. Thereafter, the ideas need to be transferred to the business in order to implement them large scaled on the shopping floor. Over the last few years however not many ideas from the AIT have been successfully transferred. It can be stated that there is a gap between their ideas and the implementation. The main objective of this graduation project, therefore, was to develop a concept that can help bridge this gap. Analysis An analysis of the AIT, their way of working and other stakeholders that are involved, showed that symptoms of the gap appear in different phases of the innovation process. Insights into these topics were used as a starting point to held interviews with stakeholders and execute a competitor and a consumer analysis. Here from, a total of 38 symptoms of the gap between ideas and implementation resulted. These symptoms could be clustered in three main groups called ‘vision’, ‘selection’ and ‘collaboration’. The first cluster includes the AIT needing to first have a clearer vision of where they want to go to and then use technology in order to get there, instead of starting from a technological perspective. Secondly, more solid criteria should be used to select ideas that fit to the needs and wishes of the business. Finally, better collaboration with the other stakeholders of the innovation process can stimulate an easier transfer of the technological ideas into the implementation phase. Idea generation and concept development The three main clusters of symptoms that emerged from the analysis were used to generate concept ideas. A process of diverging and converging of new ideas showed that several elements could be combined to enlarge their solution areas. Finally, based on criteria from the AIT, the final concept was chosen: The scenario concept. The scenario concept was further developed to specifically fit the mission of the AIT by gaining more information about the possibilities of the scenario planning technique. From another in depth analysis it was concluded that the scenario concept is very well suited to execute in the form of a workshop in which several stakeholders can participate to stimulate collaboration. It also showed that the scenario planning technique actually offers a way to more continuously execute future thinking instead of only during the building of the scenarios itself, as it can provide guidelines for the search for environmental trends. The objective of the scenario concept can therefore be formulated as: Collaborative creation of a vision on the future in order to continuously generate and select successful technological innovations. The scenario concept was subsequently tested with the Etos. Insights from this test were then used to optimize the scenario concept into its final proposal as further described below. The final scenario concept The scenario concept provides a new way of innovating and consists of six phases, which are led and primarily executed by a project manager. The core of the concept consists of two one-day workshops (phases 3 and 5), facilitated by the project manager, in which three groups of participants work together. These three different groups are technology experts from the IM department of Ahold, employees from a certain business department, and external participants with a creative profession. The goal is to make use of the different insights of these participants in order to generate and select new ideas to finally create a roadmap (plan) of new technological innovations that fit the participants’ shared vision. Phase 1. Frame the search First, the project manager has to set parameters for the study which will make the end result more specific to the purposes of the business department that is involved. The topic must be selected, along with the time horizon and the geographical boundaries of the study. Phase 2. Analyze driving forces Within the boundaries that are set, the project manager executes a PESTED trend research. Phase 3. Determine main drivers & build scenarios In the first workshop the participants will be asked to score the PESTED trends on their impact on the store and the (un)certainty of happening within the determined time horizon. From the critical trends, two are determined as main drivers of the scenario matrix. The combination of the extremes of these drivers defines four different scenarios of the future. Creative techniques are then used to let the participants further enrich these scenarios. A final discussion at the end of this first workshop aims to find out how the participants imagine the future will evolve; their ‘shared’ vision. Phase 4. Take-home assignment To ensure more familiarity with the scenarios, a take-home assignment was created which the participants have to execute in between the two workshops. Phase 5. Experience scenarios & interpret consequences In the second workshop the scenarios, personas and potential technologies are used as input to come up with new technological innovations. The best ideas will collectively be selected based on their fit to the participants’ expected evolution of the future and, according to their assessed development in time, placed on a roadmap between now and the future time horizon. As this roadmap builds upon environmental trends, guidelines and examples for ‘early warning signals’ of possible trend shifts are provided. These need to be monitored after finishing the scenario concept and discussed every six months with the internal workshop participants in order to decided whether the roadmap of technological ideas need to be adjusted or can remain the same. Phase 6. Create projecta’s Finally, the input for the idea generation and selection can be used to create enriched visualizations of the ideas. These so called projecta’s are to be created by the AIT members in collaboration with external creatives that have joined the workshops. Implementation At the end of the project, an implementation plan was written to administer the scenario concept within the organization. For internal communication purposes a movie and a manual were created.","innovation; technology; scenario planning; vision; implementation","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2011-05-01","Industrial Design Engineering","Product Innovation Management","","Master of Science Strategic Product Design","",""
"uuid:6889c38d-5fad-44a2-9a42-eac54be1fc29","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6889c38d-5fad-44a2-9a42-eac54be1fc29","Upscaling the process for the collection, analysis, and delivery of information about emerging or existing technologies for enhanced decision making","Wilbers, W.","Thissen, W.A.H. (mentor); Cunningham, S.C. (mentor); De Bruijne, M.L.C. (mentor); Walde, P. (mentor)","2010","Standardized technology intelligence products nowadays have come within reach of almost any interested organization. The question remains how this can be applied on a large scale while maintaining on-time delivery and the quality of results. This paper develops and evaluates such a standardized TI process. The key elements for upscaling the technology intelligence are presented and the main characteristics, benefits, and challenges are discussed. A case, drawn upon corporate experiences in light of a project with more than 200 technology analyses is discussed. A new standardized technology intelligence process to enable upscaling and recommendations for the future best practices are related.","technology intelligence; TI; STIP; QTIP; technology analysis; agency theory; design","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2011-06-28","Technology, Policy and Management","Policy Analysis","","Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management","",""
"uuid:14806a2b-b5e1-43fe-9f99-8f9483693a02","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:14806a2b-b5e1-43fe-9f99-8f9483693a02","Dielectric Loss Estimation using Damped AC Voltages","Houtepen, S.A.A.","Gulski, E. (mentor)","2010","Insulation failures in HV components may be caused by lower dielectric strength due to aging processes and by internal defects in the insulation system. It is known, that unlike voltage testing, measurements of the dielectric loss may give an absolute indicator for the quality level of the cable insulation. For several years the application of damped ac voltages for testing and diagnosis of HV components like power cables and stator insulation is being applied. This thesis is focused on the application of dielectric loss measurements to the insulation of service components. In particular, to discuss the principles of dielectric loss estimation using damped AC voltages theoretical investigation, calculation procedures will be presented and verified on laboratory experiments and field measurements.","Dielectric Losses; High Voltage Technology; Damped AC; Condition Assessment","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2011-06-01","Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science","High Voltage Components and Power Systems","","Electrical Power Engineering","",""
"uuid:584964c7-cac7-44b5-bba2-43f98865d758","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:584964c7-cac7-44b5-bba2-43f98865d758","Conceptual Process Design and Techno-Economical Assessment of H2/CO2 Separation Using FricDiff Technology","De Jong, G.","Bardow, A. (mentor); Selvi, A. (mentor)","2010","The technology of FricDiff, an abbreviation of Frictional Diffusion, can be used to separate gases by adding a third gas, a so-called sweep gas, to the system. It is based on the diffusion difference of the feed molecules in the sweep gas. FricDiff is a proven principle and works at lab scale. The aim of the research is to study the technical and economical feasibility of separating H2 and CO2 with a FricDiff separation process at large scale. It includes the design of H2/CO2 separation unit for a medium size power plant using IGCC technology and a feasibility study. The results are compared with other separation methods that are used to capture and separation CO2 from H2","Frictional Diffusion Technology; H2/CO2 separation; Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS); Feasibility study","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering","Process and Energy","","IRS","",""
"uuid:01348554-9025-4f7c-9aa3-78ed6e5b5c76","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:01348554-9025-4f7c-9aa3-78ed6e5b5c76","Design of a product for affective communication in video consultations","De Groot, B.","Esser, P.E. (mentor); De Ridder, H. (mentor)","2010","Teleconsultation is a consultation between a doctor and a patient by means of video communication technology. It is a promising solution for the growing demand for health care. However, the medium has depersonalizing qualities. Emotions have an important role in doctor-patient relationship and are related to positive medical outcomes of consultations. Nonverbal behaviour is an important bearer of emotional messages. Nonverbal behaviour, like body posture and touching, are harder to distinguish. Therefore a product is designed for affective communication in teleconsultations, with focus on touch. A literature study has been performed on nonverbal affective communication in teleconsultations. Then a context analysis has been done by means of personas, interviews with specialists and an observational study on touching behaviour of patients during teleconsultations. The importance of the handshake at the beginning and end of a teleconsultation has been discovered and a virtual handshake has been developed. Different user studies gave a direction for the visualization of the handshake. Tactility, form and colour studies helped to design the input device and interface of the product. Finally the product is evaluated with a user test and evaluations with specialists. The product ‘Handmate’ is designed. The doctor and patient both have a pad. When the doctor and patient both put their hand on their pad, the screen will show a visualization of two figures shaking hands. The figures are designed for easy identification and friendly appearance. The doctor and patient can both initiate a handshake and decide on the duration of the handshake. The doctor can switch to the conversation mode, with a full screen webcam of the other person. The handshake product will give structure and clarity to the teleconsultation. It will help to establish rules of conduct for teleconsultations. The doctor and patient can greet each with the product. It will help to comfort the patient and it enables the doctor to show interest and empathy. The interaction between doctor and patient will become stronger and more personal.","design; video communication technology; teleconsultation; nonverbal communication; emotions; touch; handshake","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","Master of Science Design for Interaction - Medisign","",""
"uuid:fd6ba65d-ac0c-4cb7-a320-8776d70b4eb6","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fd6ba65d-ac0c-4cb7-a320-8776d70b4eb6","The Sustainable Highway: A realistic alternative?","Kroon, J.M.","Van Ham, J.C. (mentor); Van Wee, G.P. (mentor)","2010","The Sustainable Highway, consisting of a transparent canopy of cold bendable laminated glass, is a potential solution to negative effects of road traffic. It can be placed over the highway and uses several sub-systems to reduce noise nuisance, local air pollution as well as the emission of CO2. As a consequence of this reduction, spatial development in general and more specifically the construction of houses becomes possible alongside the highway, where this previously was prohibited by environmental regulations. This research project has investigated the technological and socio-economical feasibility of the concept in addition to possible implementation strategies by answering the following research question: To what extent can the concept of The Sustainable Highway provide a technologically and socio-economically feasible solution to the negative side effects of road traffic and how could The Sustainable Highway be successfully implemented given the institutional context? From a technological perspective, The Sustainable Highway is a feasible concept. Technological systems which are applied in the concept are to a large extent proven and an independent second opinion endorses the advantages which Movares claims to offer with this concept. Although several technological uncertainties remain, on the whole the concept provides a technologically feasible alternative to common practices such as a noise barriers or a tunnel. The socio-economic feasibility of the concept depends on the location in which it will be realised. The possibility for spatial development and the revenues from building land form a large component of the benefits the concept can achieve. Therefore, when The Sustainable Highway is realised on a highway running through a densely populated urban area, where local residents experience severe hindrance from noise and air pollution and where building land can be developed in the area, it is a socio economically feasible alternative. From an institutional perspective, there has to be a window of opportunity in order to successfully introduce the concept, and the institutional context should not pose additional limitations to the concept. Gaining the support of local parties and forming a consortium of private parties which is able to realise The Sustainable Highway are the first steps towards implementing the concept into its institutional context.","The Sustainable Highway; cost-benefit analysis; institutional analysis; technological feasibility; socio-economic feasibility","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Transport Policy and Logistics Organisation","","SEPAM","",""
"uuid:a973dcc6-5cb6-469b-9e3d-280272b9b81d","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a973dcc6-5cb6-469b-9e3d-280272b9b81d","Linkages between environmental innovation and policy measures in the EU15","Laparidou, K.","Cunningham, S. (mentor); Van Beers, C. (mentor)","2009","In March 2007, the European Commission presented the “Renewable Energy Roadmap”, a document establishing a binding target for all European Union’s Member States to increase their renewable energy consumption rates from sources such as wind, solar, hydro or biomass. The overall value (for all EU Members) was set at 20 percent and should be reached by the year 2020. The renewable energy production was introduced in the energy production sector just after the energy crises of the 1970s as private attempts of few countries to deal with prospective energy security issues. In addition, renewable energy technologies contributed in pollution abatement, which has been a challenging issue for the European Commission ever since, due to their non-depletable nature and the decreased amount of greenhouse gas emissions compared to the ones produced by fossil fuels. In December 2008 the European Union adopted the proposal of the Commission (2008), which stated each Member country’s target share of renewable energy consumption, calculated on the basis of per capita gross domestic product. The Directive included in-between targets (such as 25 percent of the overall target between 2011 and 2012) but no binding constraints on their implementation. Besides the increase of the Renewables share, another solution which has been proposed by the European Commission has been the concept of “energy efficiency”. This idea is defined as decreasing the energy consumption by 20% by the year 2020. In contrast to the renewable concept, energy efficiency has been implemented following regulations suggested by the European Commission. The general policy instruments which have been used remain the same with those of Renewables but they have been more clearly defined for all sectors (households, industries, transports and services). Despite the fact that the Renewables have proceeded as a concept, energy efficiency has been adopted widely and faster. These two trends have been the most representative concerning the energy changes which the European Union started promoting the last decades. Their effect is multi-oriented: prevention from energy depletion and dependence on foreign countries and pollution abatement, according to the directions of the Kyoto protocol. The success of the implementation of environmental friendly technologies has been related to the technological change in the energy field. Many researchers tried to connect environmental innovation with various characteristics, such as R&D expenditures or policy instruments, in order to suggest effective means for their promotion. Characteristic researches have been these of Popp (2005) with “lessons” over environmental innovation and connection of innovation to energy prices, Brunnermeier and Cohen (2003) who modeled, for the US industrial sector, the determinants of environmental innovation, Vries and Withagen (2005) who connected environmental innovation to stringency policies and Johnstone et al. (2008) who modelled the environmental innovation determinants and specified their research in policy instruments. Johnstone et al. (2008) tried to define a relation between environmental innovation and energy policies for the Renewables using an empirical model. The model included some general variables, such as electricity prices or energy consumption, and then defined binary variables to operationalise the policy measures. The environmental innovation was defined as the number of patent counts for specific classes of the International Patent Classification. The present study’s model is based on Johnstone’s et al (2008) model. It follows the main lines of their research by using the same innovation output, i.e. the patent counts, and by having two sets of variables: the general ones and the policy-related ones. The patent counts were considered to be the most appropriate output indicator for this empirical study, as well, as they provided the necessary information to modelling (such as priority date and country of application) and were widely available (from the European Patent Office - EPO). Johnstone et al. (2008) defined a simple “input-output” model for six renewable energy sources. For each one of the sources, they used a specific classification in order to gather all patent counts relevant to each source. They also included seven policy types which were implemented for the renewable energies for a specific time period. Finally, they included a set of “explanatory” variables, which were considered as input innovation indicators. This study based on their model also used patent counts as innovation output. The main “modelling” differences are the introduction of more explanatory variables, such as R&D personnel, international trade indicator or R&D intensity, the different policy instrument operationalisation (from binary to semi-quantitative) and the empirical analysis methods. Also, Johnstone’s model is implemented for a different set of countries and a different time period than the one we examine. Our focus is on the effects of policies on environmental innovation for the EU15. The reason for that is that it is interesting to measure the effects of policies within the borders of the European Union (for policy recommendations) and that the data collected are from the EPO. Johnstone et al (2008) mention that, when coming from non-European country it is less likely to patent at the EPO. Also, our information is set for a shorter period of time for practical reasons (there was no available information before 1990 for the renewable sector and, by definition the European Commission has not started yet promoting the Renewables). The new framework has been yet once modified in order to include the effects on energy efficiency energy trend. Using the same variables, we created a new output set in order to incorporate the policy measures implemented for this second energy trend. Using a logarithmic scale, we performed two types of regression analysis to model our data, the linear regression using the ordinal least squares, which provides a linear relationship between the dependent variable (our output) and the independent variables (our input) and gives the best-fitting relation by minimising the least squares error and the general linear regression, which takes into account possible attributes of the dataset, such as heteroscedasticity or correlation, and, is also more efficient in analysing datasets with cross sectional data (such as time series) included in our model. The model used for both energy trends several explanatory variables, determinants of patenting activities. From these we extracted valuable information concerning the R&D input, the energy consumption and the electricity prices. R&D was measured in two separate ways: the R&D intensity, which reflects the R&D expenditures ratio, spent on each energy trend and R&D personnel. Both of these variables showed a positive linkage to the output. Positive impact also came from energy consumption. As for the electricity ratio, a subsidy for the electricity prices for households and industries, the results diverged, depending on the energy sector. For the renewable energy, the electricity ratio had a negative impact denoting the importance of the industry electricity price as innovation determinant and for energy efficiency; the electricity ratio had a positive impact denoting the importance of household prices as innovation determinants. At the same time, we should mention the fact that policy instruments follow this observation: for energy efficiency, most measures are implemented in the household sector, while on renewable energy most measures affect the industry sector. The regression analyses showed interesting results concerning the policy instruments for both energy trends. While the renewables favour price based instruments, such as taxes and tariffs, the energy efficiency favours legislative (like quotas) and financial (like grants and subsidies). This observation is very important as it shows the tendencies of the last 17 years to promote different energy trends. For renewables, which were boosted right after the energy crises, the measures have a more obligatory character in order to succeed. This information combined with the fact that renewables were mostly promoted in the industry sector (which by definition consumes the largest amount of energy) links renewable innovation to stringency policies. On the contrary, energy efficiency has a more liberate character. This is also connected to the fact that it is mostly implemented in households. After the conclusions, the policy measures provide a clearer picture of how environmental innovation is linked to them. In conclusion, the environmental innovation is strongly related to existing policy measures, and, in fact, different policy instruments have greater effect on different environmental friendly energy trends than others. Price based measures are most effective in inducing innovation for renewable energy technologies, while legislative and financial measures are most effective on energy saving innovation. During the study, there were found no significant results on voluntary measures. In general, public policies are linked directly to these two energy trends. This conclusion could urge the promotion of the two trends in parallel so that the targets (pollution abatement and security of supply) of the European Commission are achieved as scheduled.","environmental innovation; policy clusters; renewable energy technologies; energy efficiency technologies","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2009-11-30","Technology, Policy and Management","Innovation Systems","","Engineering and Policy Analysis","",""
"uuid:ff5ad4e7-eeb4-4eb1-957c-36d5ecb7d79c","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ff5ad4e7-eeb4-4eb1-957c-36d5ecb7d79c","Tangible Interactions for Playing: Explorations on seamless integration of physical and virtual play elements","Van de Schepop, B.","Gielen, M.A. (mentor); Van Beek, H. (mentor); Stappers, P.J. (mentor)","2009","Next to a great physical experience with the world famous blocks, there is a push to explore new ways of integrate a virtual play experience with LEGO building activity. Tangible Interaction for Playing (TiP) explores possibilities for a search initiated by LEGO Concept Lab. The project aims to find a new play experience able to integrate seamlessly: the traditional LEGO play with virtual elements. To assess the play value – the worth of a play experience in the opinion of the child – the designer approaches the assignment with a Human-Centred Design mind-set, sustaining close contact with children from start to end. At first, the designer builds an emphatic understanding of children’s play and context by means a Contextmapping done with parents as co-researchers. The research resulted on a set of Personal Cards, reporting children’s play, their family and their social contexts. In a second moment, the designer involved children to play with prototypes, in a sequence of short iterative cycles. By receiving children in regular basis, the designer could adjust key ingredients of the experience until the toy was considered to offer a coherent set of tools that facilitates a worthy play. At last, an experiential prototype simulating the complete experience was introduced to children in a final iteration. An evaluation on this last session led to considerations and recommendations regarding the play experience created for LEGO. RESULTS: AugmentedCity is a concept that brings augmented reality technology into the LEGO play. By using augmented realty, the designer was able to create a new layer of meaning and interactions without loosing the original qualities of the building blocks. By adjusting the scale and iconicity of the models, and by offering a viewer as tool for playing, the concept brings a small interactive world to the children’s hand. All ingredients together prove to support children to move seamlessly between physical and virtual play. Above all, the play felicitated by those ingredients offered a respectful interaction – respect towards children’s as the one in control of the play. AugmentedCity offers a play experience that kept spatial reasoning and all qualities present in the traditionally LEGO building system, while integrating it with a new virtual layer. The final experiential prototype confirmed the value of the experience that is now been taken further by other designers in LEGO Concept Lab.","toys; human-centred design; contextmapping; informant-based design; children & technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","2010-10-27","Industrial Design Engineering","Industrial Design","","","",""
"uuid:39939681-a773-4580-8d62-ea3830e00a01","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:39939681-a773-4580-8d62-ea3830e00a01","""Structuring interactions in Constructive Technology Assessment workshops to enhance learning in technology context: A case of Wireless Sensor Networks in health care""","Byluppala, M.M.R.","Parandian, A. (mentor); Cunningham, S. (mentor); Mulder, K.F. (mentor)","2009","The thesis is about designing the structure for interactions among the workshop participants to enhance interactive learning among the participants. Two structures are designed in a multi stakeholder setting and tested whether these structures result in learning among the workshop participants","Constructive Technology Assessment","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","Engineering and Reflection","","Management of Technology","",""
"uuid:f03cd486-4d9c-49d5-b4f6-09ef4525d8b3","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f03cd486-4d9c-49d5-b4f6-09ef4525d8b3","Evaluation of dependability of MAC and routing protocols in personal networks","Hawas, M.","Vaziefehdan, J. (mentor)","2009","In this project we have investigated how to enable dependable routing inside personal network (PN )cluster.Dependable routing among different clusters is out of the scope of this thesis.In practice, personal network cluster is considered as mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) with heterogeneous radioaccess technologies and nodes with different capabilities(processingpower,batterylevel,etc.) Although a single proposal for dependable routing inside the personal networks cluster could span over all OSI layers, but we considered only the network and mediumaccess control (MAC)layrs.","routing protocols; personal network; MAC layer; IEEE 802.11 wireless technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2009-09-15","Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science","Telecommunications","","","",""
"uuid:cb213f3a-f6f5-41e0-b56f-07f13f37af22","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cb213f3a-f6f5-41e0-b56f-07f13f37af22","Technological support for distributed agile development","Dullemond, K.; Van Gameren, B.J.A.","Van Solingen, D.M. (mentor); Sodoyer, B.R. (mentor); Van Deursen, A. (mentor)","2009","Because of the distance between the dispersed development locations, Global Software Development (GSD) is confronted with challenges regarding communication, coordination and control of the development work. At the same time, agile software development is strongly built upon communication between engineers and has proven its benefits, although, mostly on one single site. As such, it might be advantageous to combine GSD with agile development. This blend however is not straightforward since the distributed and agile development approaches might have conflicting convictions. In this thesis we will discuss the advantages and challenges of combining GSD with agile development based on a literature-based research. The main results presented in the theoretical part of this thesis (Part I through V), are: (i) aspects of agile software development, (ii) benefits and challenges associated with these in relation to GSD, (iii) categories of technological support for agile GSD, (iv) a framework depicting the mutual relations among them and (v) a discussion regarding specific technologies that support collaborative development in relation to this framework. Based on one of the recommendations we make in the theoretical part of this thesis we also perform practical research (Part VI) in which we define a list of requirements for an Integrated Collaborative Development Environment (ICDE) and show the technical feasibility of a number of concepts which realize these.","global software development; agile software development; benefits; challenges; aspects of agile software development; categories of technological support for agile GSD; technology; Integrated Collaborative Development Environment; categories of technological support for GSD","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","2009-06-19","Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science","Software Technology","","","",""
"uuid:c9174083-4584-4074-be3b-2378bf8444e5","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c9174083-4584-4074-be3b-2378bf8444e5","Persuasive technology to motivate elderly individuals to walk: A case study","Merino Albaina, I.","Van der Mast, C.A.P.G. (mentor); Vastenburg, M.H. (mentor)","2008","The advent of context-aware technology enables new possibilities to stimulate physical exercise aimed at preventing age-related disabilities amongst an increasing elderly population. This study presents an innovative attempt to encourage seniors to walk by making them aware of their current physical activity levels. Our approach comprises an ubiquitous system that deploys a collection of persuasive principles within a user-friendly environment for the elderly. We focus on the iterative design process in which experts and potential users collaborated to produce a prototype that was tested in the field during two 11-day interventions. The insights gained throughout the design process and the exploratory evaluation are presented as a reference for future designs involving Persuasive Technology in preventive healthcare solutions.","persuasive technology; ubiquitous computing; behaviour modification; elderly users; physical activity","en","master thesis","TUI Delft, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Media and Knowledge Engineering","","","","","","","","Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science","","","","",""
"uuid:eb7b976f-2a89-44a5-8eee-431b8e7f0eae","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:eb7b976f-2a89-44a5-8eee-431b8e7f0eae","IT and firm performance: An analysis of the value creation process","Marques Da Cruz, E.F.","Zegveld, M. (mentor); Zand, F. (mentor); Van Beers, C. (mentor)","2007","","mot; information technology; firm performance; efficiency; ior","en","master thesis","","","","","","","Campus only","","Technology, Policy and Management","Economics of Innovation","","","",""
"uuid:841bb0d2-fa8f-4b9c-a5ec-4ad900c9ac0a","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:841bb0d2-fa8f-4b9c-a5ec-4ad900c9ac0a","A floating factory for the Masvlakte 2 caisson breakwater","Mann, S.","Tutuarima, W.H. (mentor); Horstmeier, T.H.W. (mentor); Lavooij, H.A. (mentor); Camerik, R. (mentor); Vrijling, J.K. (mentor)","1999","It is foreseen that the future expansion of the Port of Rotterdam will face the problem of lack of space. A typical Dutch solution to create the necessary area for harbour and industrial terrain, is reclamation of land from the sea. This can be achieved by expanding Maasvlakte I with Maasvlakte 2. The exact amount of required terrain is subject to many elements which are continuously changing such as political, economical, environmental and social views, and therefore is very difficult to predict accurately. A solution to meet this uncertainty, is to create the Maasvlakte 2 in several phases. By maintaining a flexible planning of the reclamation, the expansion works can be adapted to changed views if necessary. The construction works of the Maasv lakte 2 are very extensive, and consist of 3 main elements, the terrain itself which is to be created, sea-defence works which must protect the terrain against inundation and erosion, and a breakwater, which must reduce the height of the incoming waves from the North sea to an acceptable level in order to give access for shipping to the harbour under storm conditions and limit downtime of the harbour activities. For the phased execution of Maasvlakte 2, sections of the newly gained terrain must be protected against the sea by a breakwater during each phase. As breakwaters are very expensive structures, a flexible breakwater, a breakwater which can be reused several times, might be economical. Caissons are an ideal alternative for such a breakwater as these can be brought afloat again and repositioned at a new location. The caisson dimensions have been determined using the Goda design formulas to calculate the wave forces on vertical walls and the wave transmission over the caisson, and the formulas of rinchHanssen to calculate the bearing capacity of the soil layers. These formulas have been implemented in the computer program 'Outer Caisson Dimensions', (O.e.D. ) written in this study. This program indicates that for the conditions of the future Maasvlakte 2 breakwater site, slip of the subsoil is the decisive failure mode. Construction of the caissons will be on a floating construction yard moored in the Europe Harbour of the Maasvlakte I equipped with slip formwork. The main advantage of the floating caisson construction method is that there is no need of an expensive construction dock or specialised lifting equipment. When the caisson is completed, it is moored at a temporary location where it is trimmed for stability and prepared for transport to the breakwater site. The caissons are towed to the breakwater construction site by tugs, and are lowered onto the foundation by flooding the cells. Finally the cells are filled with sand, concrete capping plates are placed, and the rocks of the rubble mound bottom protection are placed. The caissons can be considered as building blocks, easily reusable components of the Maasvlakte 2 breakwater. For caisson reuse, the capping plates must be removed and the sand content of the cells replaced with ballast water. When the caisson is ready to be transported, the water is pumped from the cells and the caissons become buoyant. They can now be transported to their new destination. The construction method of caissons on a floating construction yard is technically feasible and financially competitive with other construction methods, such as the Dutch traditional construction method in a dock or the Japanese construction method on a yard located above the ground water level, with use of heavy lifting equipment. By designing the caisson in such a manner that it is capable to float on its own buoyancy, it is an ideal solution to form the components of a reusable breakwater.","reusable caissons; breakwater design; construction technology","en","master thesis","","","","","","","","","Civil Engineering and Geosciences","Hydraulic Engineering","","","",""
"uuid:4e498f9a-2502-49af-8fb3-c10eb9c0dff4","http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4e498f9a-2502-49af-8fb3-c10eb9c0dff4","De zoektocht naar een hogere meldingsbereidheid: Een analyse van de technische en bestuurlijke complexiteit omtrent de landelijke verwijsindex risicojongeren","Rusman, P.","Ubacht, J. (mentor)","","Een analyse van de technische en bestuurlijke complexiteit omtrent de landelijke verwijsindex risicojongeren, expliciet gericht op het gebruik van de verwijsindex en daarbinnen in het bijzonder op de meldingsbereidheid van meldingsbevoegden.","UTAUT; meldingsbereidheid; verwijsindex; VIR; Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology","nl","bachelor thesis","","","","","","","","","Technology, Policy and Management","Information & Communication","","","",""