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Kelp Blue is a company whose top priority is the well-being of the planet. Through the cultivation of giant kelp on offshore farms, they create several sustainable products, new job opportunities in regions where they are needed, enhance biodiversity in the water, and above all, sequester tons of CO2 from the air. The start-up is still in its research and development phase, but plans to be building farms on a large scale in just a few years. Despite their knowledge in engineering, the company still needs consulting on certain elements. Therefore the company invited a group of students from the Delft University of Technology to Lüderitz, Namibia for a consultancy project. The project involved creating a procedure for the company to scale up in a sustainable manner. The students decided that this complex problem should be divided into sub-problems. One workstream focused on reducing the carbon emissions during upscaling, while the other workstream focused on analyzing and improving the company’s current design and installation of the farms. Following, both parts of the project are shortly summarized: Part I: Improving the company’s current design Kelp Blue is currently in the pilot phase, in which they’re installing their first large giant kelp farms. Before, they were focusing on the complete installation, including planting the kelp on the submerged netting structure, and the review of this. For the company’s commercial phase, where they want to be able to place farms daily on a large scale, designs were still developed and analyzed. For the commercial phase, this workstream made a new design and installation method. It required an installation where buoys would need to be submerged, the structure locked in place at the desired depth, without the use of scuba divers or remote operated vehicles. Despite the fact that these requirements were challenging, an outstanding result was achieved. The main problem was divided into subproblems, and for each of those a suitable solution was created. Hopes are that the company will consider the given advice as helpful and maybe implement some parts of (or the whole) new design. Part II: Reducing carbon emissions during upscaling First, interviews and desk research were conducted to get a good idea of the challenge of sustainability. This included reading reports, speaking with employees, policy makers and experts with experience within the area. With this information, the challenge could be mapped out and the solution space became clear in terms of legislation and technical possibilities. Climate information was also requested that could later be used to run simulations. During the determination of the possible solutions, research was done on the realistic possibilities, where eventually the use of either solar or wind energy was most appropriate. After conducting a multi-criteria analysis that was put together with the management of Kelp Blue, investing in a solar plant proved to be the most appropriate solution. ...

Providing safe water to households in Addis-Ababa with a new jerrycan cap

Master thesis (2022) - M. Thissen, H. Kuipers, T.J. Jaśkiewicz, R. Linkers
For many people around the world, water access is a major problem and a daily struggle. Today, up to almost one billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking-water. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa this remains a major issue for many countries. With this project, Quooker wants to help people in these regions gain access to safe drinking-water and help improve the quality of life.

To limit the scope, and make the project more manageable, the focal point is the urban areas of Ethiopia, and in particular Addis-Ababa. In urban areas, the concern surrounding drinking water is the degrading water quality rather than access to water. Improving the water quality is an area in which Quooker can use its expertise.

In Addis-Ababa, people have access to water from a tap point outside their homes. On average, people can get water from these tap points once a week. To bridge the periods of intermittence in the water supply, people store the water in jerrycans at home. During this ‘Water-Journey’ the water quality degrades due to user interactions and poor sanitation. In the end, only 24% of the water consumed by people can be considered safe to drink.

During this project, I developed a product that helps the people in Addis-Ababa treat their water at home by building on and using the expertises of Quooker. The design process focused on providing people in Addis-Ababa with an affordable, reliable and long-lasting product. To achieve this, different water treatment methods were analysed. UV-C was chosen as the preferred method due to its long lifespan and potential to innovate. Because UV-C is a novel technology in the context, this project became a feasibility study for the implementation of UV-C as a water treatment method in Addis-Ababa.

The end-result is the UV-Tap (figure 1), a jerrycan cap with an integrated disinfection system. It disinfects the water with UV-C light at the same time as it dispenses it., which kills the pathogens present in the water. With the UV-Tap a household can treat up to 15.000 L of water before components need to be replaced. This equals to approximately 3.5 years of drinking water for a household of 4 people.
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A toolbox and usecases for local circular waste processing

Master thesis (2021) - S.P. Kruimer, H. Kuipers, F.P.A.M. Taminiau, Joris Kramer
In the Bijlmer H-Buurt in Amsterdam, a new way of living is being developed, based on co-ownership of the property and collaboration with the neighborhood and municipality. It is called a Community Land Trust (CLT) and for the Netherlands it will be the first. The City of Amsterdam strives to be a fully circular city by 2050, so the CLT has to comply. Waste is a main topic within the circular economy, so the goal of the project is: ‘How to enable and show the residents of the CLT Bijlmer that they themselves can create value from waste and by doing so support the (local) circular economy?’. With the following criteria to evaluate the final design: Is it reducing waste locally? Does it create value or products out of the waste? Does it help the community financially or socially? The project started with reviewing the goals and challenges followed by an exploration of the context. This was sprint 0. Sprint 1 focused on exploration of opportunities and looking for directions for development. The exploration ended with multiple directions focused on: organic-, plastic-, textile- and bulk waste. Sprint 2 focused on developing these directions into initial concepts, researching about and with the community. This provided the insight that knowledge on circular opportunities was lacking. At the end of sprint 2, two concepts were selected for development. One concept focused on organic waste, with composting and a vegetable garden at its core. The second concept focused on textile waste and included a sewing atelier and recycling, upcycling and reusing textile waste locally. Sprint 3 focused on developing these concepts further and provide the community with clear steps to realise these. The current situation at the CLT community was analysed and the community was involved again. Researching the current situation provided information on operation and plans of the vegetable garden and sewing group used the CLT. These provided starting points for realizing the concepts. Also, some struggles were discovered. The vegetable garden lacked a good compost facility. Also, both initiatives had an individualistic approach. The second session with the CLT community found that both concepts were perceived valuable, but put more focus on details. Also, the lack of knowledge was highlighted again. They required more information on the process and wanted to know what specific products would result from it. Based on the feedback of sprint 3, sprint 4 was initiated. The goal was to develop specific interventions for the vegetable garden and sewing group focused on the value to the community and product. Also, a solution was developed for the lack of knowledge. So a toolbox with all the knowledge required was created. Consisting of methods to separate waste, ways to create value from waste with and providing the first steps to do so. Finally, the plans for the solutions for textile waste and organic waste were finalized. These were respectively a clothing swap closet and a compost facility with emphasis on the community. ...
Master thesis (2021) - Q. FAN, H. Kuipers, S.R. Dehli, Nikolas Fahlskog
Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is one typical type of chronic Neuromuscular Dystrophy. This type of disease necessitates network care because it is complex and necessitates a network of diverse healthcare expertise to reduce the negative effects of the disease and rehabilitate the patient to live a more normal life. As a result, effective communication and collaboration among various healthcare members become an important part of the overall patient experience.
Based on the user research, it can be found that patients often encounter problems during their treatment, but they often cannot get proper help quickly due to the slow reply time of the healthcare professionals. Also, because of the difference in the know-how of the disease, the communication towards the patient is not summarized as one diagnosis and support session and in the end, they cannot get a complete answer from the healthcare team. Therefore, I want to design an online support platform to help FSHD patients get the right help in time during the treatment of their disease.
The final design is an online support platform that aims to help patients solve their problems during the treatment and facilitate effective communications between patients and the healthcare network. The core of this service platform is to introduce a personalized coach to bridge the gap between the two sides. The platform has two main functions, treatment, and chat, which can meet most of the needs of a patient during the treatment process. In the treatment session, patients can follow the exercise videos based on their treatment plan made by the healthcare professionals. After they complete one exercise, the platform enables users to make a self-evaluation of their performance. When patients feel negative about the training, they can quickly inform this situation to the coach and the healthcare team by using the share function. Then they will receive comments on their recordings from the healthcare professionals so that they know how to adjust their actions. The chat function allows the patient to quickly ask questions and express their need when they encounter problems with their personalized coach. The coach will help to filter the question and inform the related healthcare professionals to discuss it in a chat group when needed. When the discussion ends, patients can get a summarized answer from the coach.
Based on the usability test, it can be validated that the design can bring benefits to people. The two main features of the online platform (chat and treatment) were useful to the test subjects, and they expressed a willingness to use the platform if it will be developed in the future. However, there is still room for improvement. In the future, we can further think about enlarging the user group, such as involving more patients of other neuromuscular diseases and expanding the service, such as helping the customer to build their healthcare team to add more value to more people. ...
Master thesis (2021) - Fauza Karomatul Masyhuroh, H. Kuipers, H. Goss
FAO reported that one-third of all food produced for human consumption is thrown away (FAO, 2013). Food waste is a wicked problem that causes environmental deterioration and the socio-economic food gap. At the EU level, disposing of 89 million tons of food waste per year consumes 261 million tons of resources, equal to 170 million tons of CO2 emission (FAO, 2013). If this food is distributed and used properly, 1.3 billion tons of food waste in 2011 is estimated could feed up to 868 million people worldwide (FAO, 2011). In the Netherlands, approximately 2 million tons of food waste are produced annually, of which households as the highest contributor share 37% (Netherlands Nutrition Centre, 2019). To understand food waste prevention problems in Dutch households, the project started by conducting user research. The research concluded that forgetfulness due to low visibility, laziness to check the fridge regularly, and a messy food storage arrangement are why people discard food. People have tried to tackle those issues by displaying fruits and a few vegetables in a bowl or putting them on the kitchen counter. However, sometimes some food is still hidden at the bottom of the bowl and gets rotten before being consumed. By knowing the most discarded food by the participants, the scope of this project was narrowed down to save fruits, vegetables and food leftovers. Based on the insight from the photo diary and follow-up interview, a problem statement was formulated: "How might we minimise forgotten and overlooked food at home for people who live in the Netherlands so that as to reduce food waste at the consumer level?" After determining the design challenge, exploration to find solution ideas began. In this phase, four initial concepts came up. They were analysed, and the most promising idea for each concept was combined, resulting in a particular design concept called FooDi. FooDi is storage to display fruits and partly used vegetables usually hidden and forgotten in the fridge (e.g. half onion, half paprika or other cut vegetables). This product encourages the user to eat fruits they purchase in a daily portion and reuse the raw vegetable leftovers as soon as possible. A transparent lid is implemented to see through the cabinet and not miss any food to enhance food visibility. In addition, the quantity of food to show is limited to prevent food stacking that could lower visibility. FooDi was designed as short term storage (only for 1-2 days). However, a few possible risks were considered to slow down food deterioration. FooDi prevents quick overripening by splitting ethylene gas producers and absorbers. Moreover, a lid with natural ventilation was applied to keep the stored fruits and vegetables fresh (avoid rapid ageing). At the end of the project, the impact of using FooDi to support people in reducing food waste at home was measured. Thanks to FooDi, households' share in food waste decreased from 37% to 29%. In addition, the user could be able to save edible food worth €120 per year.
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Master thesis (2021) - Z. SHI, H. Kuipers, T.T.W. Essers
The start point of the graduation project was including the RICE method inside the first aid kit, which was shifted to designing a first aid kit for outdoor sports. The new design focus is more valuable to develop a new product solving practical problems.
During the research phase, the literature research provides basic understanding of first aid kits, as well as the injury knowledge of the human body. It guides the project how and what the product should include and treat, making it sufficient and convenient for emergencies.
The interview and observation about outdoor sports are keys of scenario analysis. Helpful insights were obtained from videos and participants. The first design focus was found on how to apply treatment alone when one arm is injured and dysfunctional. Users have to apply treatment themselves with only one hand.
The second design focus comes from the evaluation of current first aid kit evaluation by going through all steps of treatments where all supplies are simply stacked and only designed to be used by two hands. The information obtained by users should be well arranged to improve the use efficiency.
To achieve the design goals, design focuses were detailed as a requirement list based on research insights. The whole product was divided into a few independent parameters, in which a few requirements should be fulfilled. Ideas were generated, compared and selected in each parameter and were integrated into a complete concept.
The concept was theoretically workable to be further developed in the next stage: concept validation. In this stage the concept was divided into different parts again, aiming to make cardboard or 3D printed prototypes for each parameter and help validate the concept through iterations respectively. The final design for each parameter was integrated into a complete product. The final prototype is a realistic and satisfying product, as proof of the concept that fulfils all design goals.
User tests and discussion were conducted as the last step of the project. Participants were observed if they can quickly understand the design and use it smoothly. They pointed out the defects of design and gave advice for further development. ...
Master thesis (2020) - Chieh-Hao Shang, H. Kuipers, H.N.J. Schifferstein, Emil Goosen
In Tanzania, catching dagaa is one of the main activities around Lake Victoria to earn a livelihood. However, the process of dagaa preservation was not entirely secure, which has led to issues of insufficient income and food waste. Therefore, Sagar Energy Solutions (SES) is developing a greenhouse dryer "Upepo" to prevent post-harvest loss and improve the quality.
There were some problems with Upepo needed to be addressed. Consequently, this project was launched to fix its current issue of sustainability, functionality, and business aspects. Besides these aspects, some unexplored topics were also investigated to broaden up the opportunities.
As a result, a greenhouse dryer, “UpWind,” was designed. UpWind not only ensures the production of dried dagaa but also aims to improve its performance on drying capability, cost-efficiency, ergonomic, and sustainability and to fulfill the stakeholders' requirements.
This project delivered the result by systematic design methods. The development followed the basic design framework of Double Diamond. First of all, in the Discover phase, research and analyses were done based on two topics, drying methods and other preservation methods. Then, the results were concluded and integrated into a Design Vision and a List of Requirements in the Define phase. Next, through performing creative design methods, such as Brainstorming, Morphological Chart, etc., and evaluation methods, eventually, one concept stood out from the crowd. Finally, the concept was developed through Design Iterations. The components were separated into three groups for easier development management. Depending on the attributes of the group, some were developed through simulation, while the others were through prototyping.
As a closure of the project, the List of Requirements, sustainability, and Technology Readiness Level of the final design were evaluated to ensure the goals of this project were met. Moreover, this project provided technical information for future development, such as the Bill of Material, production method, business model, and a design roadmap, at the end of the report. ...
The aim of this project was to design a solution for the apron services of KLM that will relieve the ground crew from their physical burden and makes the handling of containers safer. Both with the goal to reduce the chance of getting injured while handling containers. Next to the reduction of injuries, the goal is to improve the efficiency of the handling of containers on the platform. The processes the platform where analysed and pushind and rotating container came out as the mayor causes of injuries among the personnel. The problem was solved by a powered rotation and a automatic push bar. The report concludes with a concept of the powered rotation and a fully defined and testen model of the push bar. ...
Master thesis (2020) - Yunsong Zhang, H. Kuipers, R. Mugge
Tons of residual waste is being produced during big events nowadays, which can be expensive to manage and negatively influence the environment. Insufficient waste separation is identified as the leading cause, which is feasible to tackle in the near future. To reduce the negative environmental and financial impact of the event's waste, this thesis mainly investigates the waste management process of events held by the Dutch convention center Rai Amsterdam. Through the qualitative research conducted with exhibitors and visitors, pain points that result in a lack of ability in waste separation were identified in three aspects, lacking the support on the waste sorting facilities, difficulties in managing time during busy hours, and knowledge gaps on waste sorting. Meanwhile, exhibitors expressed their wishes to reduce the high waste management cost. Based on the problems, the thesis proposes a product-service system that focuses on stimulating the event participants' waste separation behaviors. Seizing the "predictable" feature of the event waste, the design collects data of waste streams before the event for further enabling targeted recycling activity. Meanwhile, the data of visitor flow will be shared with exhibitors to help them on time-management. Additionally, cost reduction from waste sorting activity is used as an incentive to enhance exhibitors' participation. In the long term, the design will gradually increase the awareness of waste sorting and form the habit among the event participants, which eventually contribute to a more sustainable event. ...
Master thesis (2020) - Hannah Klunder, Henk Kuipers, Annemiek van Boeijen, Mart Veeken
This project was commissioned by Labl Fashion Group B.V. (Labl), a company which focuses on helping small fashion brands gain access to a social and sustainable supply chain, by connecting these brands to their (future) private factory in Kenya. During the first pilots Labl performed with other fashion suppliers in Kenya, the company stumbled upon some issues: the quality of the garments was not up to their expectations and the communication with the factory demanded a lot of time, effort and frustration. Labl wanted to know how to improve this course of events so that, by design, the process of ordering fashion can be improved. The aim of this graduation project was to design an intervention that would facilitate communication between brand and supplier in the fashion industry, in a way that leads to mutual understanding and will result in production of better-quality fashion over time. Therefore, interviews and context research were performed with Dutch brand owners, Kenyan artisans and factory owners to become aware of the issues that led to dissatisfaction in this collaboration. A cultural analysis was performed to find out how to bridge the Kenyan and Dutch culture, and come up with practices that are suitable for all stakeholders. Two creative sessions were performed to come up with solutions that could tackle this problem. The design intervention that was created was a digital platform design which is unique in the industry. It offers a solution that is aimed at: 1) enabling clear communication of instructions and feedback, 2) Creating transparency in the supply chain, and 3) Building trustworthy relationships between factory and brand. A prototype of the interface was developed and tested with Kenyan artisans. Afterwards, iterations were made, and a final concept of the digital platform is presented. Finally, the project closes with conclusions and recommendations for future development. ...

A design for providing control to economy class passengers over their meals

Master thesis (2019) - Vysali Somanchi, Henk Kuipers, Ruud van Heur
The project brief was to redesign and improve economy class passengers’ dining experiences onboard. “Air travel has been growing as a commodity much more rapidly than it is visible. “Over the last 40 years global air travel has almost increased eightfold: In 1974 air planes carried 421 million people globally. In 2014 this number has increased to 3,21 billion passengers – that’s a billion more in just five years time.” (Schuttenhelm, 2016) Air travel is rapidly becoming easily accessible to almost everyone and everywhere in the world. Low budget carriers are also making it possible for low budget travellers to afford short / long haul trip(s) in a year. With the growing number of flights and connections, the demand and offering for onboard services is also increasing. The levels of these onboard services are different based on the seating arrangements in the air carrier. As of now there is less allowance of personalisation for economy class passengers, but it is expected for the onboard experience by 2025 to be different from what we know it today. To keep up with these growing trends, Safran, the project collaborator, as a world leader for Aviation equipment supply wants to work towards bringing continuous changes to enhance passengers’ journey experiences. To be able to understand what needs to be improved, passengers’ current problems had to be identified. The focus of this research was the younger generation (students in this case) of passengers as they are usually highly opinionated and tech savvy with a preference for personalised services. A participant research had been conducted with 15 participants from different nationalities. The research conveyed that currently passengers experience uncertainty in their onboard meal experience. They often have no information or choice on what they ate or when they ate. Moreover, they feel time pressured in their decision making between often only two options given by the crew in a short span of time. This project aims to reverse the uncertainty, the passengers feel, by providing them with information and allowing them to make choices about what they can eat and when they want to eat. The medium designed to enable passengers in making these choices can be accessed through the IFE screen. This medium / tool is a service application known as À la craft, which lets passengers to order their preferred meals (main course, salads, desserts, beverages) and choose when they wish to eat from the given time slots. In addition to this the service also offers passengers, a surprise cultural meal which is determined based on their destination. This new service may attempt to solve most of the passengers’ concerns but increases crew workload if the required technology does not support their tasks. When the passenger places an order from their seat, these orders are then sent to the galley. A screen in the galley will let the crew access the orders and it also instructs them to heat (prepare) the required number of meal items in each category of the meal course and place them in the trolley. Another screen on the trolley will help the crew in locating pax in the aisle and their order details. This service can be eventually implemented, part by part in the way of working for the cabin crew as it is a major step into improving pax’s dining experiences. This service has been tested for the target group alone, but it can be assumed that testing for all the other pax groups may bring in more changes in the pax’s requirements. The final test found that this service gives autonomy and control to those pax that need it but may give a decision paralysis to those pax that do not prefer making so many choices. Most importantly, if the service could have been tested in the real context, potential for improvement would have emerged for iterations in terms of the application operated in the aisle and supporting technology for the crew in the galley. In a brief research conducted over the crew’s concerns, it has been understood that they believe in letting economy class passengers choose their meal through the IFE as serving and repeating same information on meals to more than 15 rows of passengers is heavily exhausting. It is my assumption that this may increase the workload for the crew by a few more minutes spent in preparing the orders and also would require more coordination with each other to serve pax as per their choices but would ease their workload in the aisle. Based on the findings of this study it is recommended for Safran Group to conduct further research, test the design in the real context by involving the crew and caterers as well and further develop the design it as it has a high potential for improvement and implementation in the future. ...
Master thesis (2019) - David Arellano Coria, Henk Kuipers, Barend Klitsie, Oya Ünlü
This thesis report represents the result of a graduation project for the master programme Strategic Product Design at the Delft University of Technology in collaboration with the Digital division of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
This project aimed at changing the Organizational Culture of KLM Digital. This due to the perceived lack of innovation, especially radical innovation, coming out of KLM Digital. The current workflow helped create this issue by separating the divisions responsible for the development of digital products. The current setup is known as the Digital Factory, which is mainly focused on developing incremental innovations. The way the change was attempted was by changing the structures, processes and organizational identity. All of that by using design methodologies and practices.
The design proposal consists of two big elements: the Final Destination and the Runway. The first one includes a future vision representing a scenario where KLM Digital achieves the changes team members wanted to see. As part of this scenario, a new Organizational Identity was created. This new Identity aims to bring the team members together under a shared beliefs and values system, working towards Digital’s Vision. The Runway is the collection of actions that Digital can take in the short-term to kick start the change process. More specifically, the Runway includes a number of activities that promote collaboration, creativity and communication among the people of Digital. This way, the proposal covers actions the organization can take in the near future to start testing ideas and learning from them, and a long-term vision to work towards.
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This project focuses on the integration of User Research in a Qualitative approach into an Agile work environment by conducting an in-house Case Study with Werkspot (Home improvement platform in the Netherlands). Customer expectations have hit an all-time high globally (Salesforce Research 2018) and as such, companies are expected to provide experiences beyond products (physical or digital). This has impacted the way companies must operate going forward, by recognizing and addressing customer involvement throughout the development process. The challenge relies in integrating two seemingly contradicting processes Agile development (fast-paced) and Qualitative Research practices (slow-paced) into a seamless operation. The objective is to include the end-users early in the development process. In this way, Werkspot is able to increase the chances of success of product features by implementing a validation phase prior to development process. This project makes a research distinction into Validative Research (concept or idea testing in an attitudinal level) and Explorative Research (learning from users on a behavioural level). Through the Research Case Studies (Section 04: ‘Research in practice’), Validative and Explorative research methods are tested and accelerated to operate under the Agile work setting from Werkspot. The result is a Qualitative Research Process for Werkspot, through this process, the company can continuously involve users in the development of the platform.
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Master thesis (2019) - Cedric van de Geer, Henk Kuipers, Jan-Carel Diehl, Antoine Cribellier, Florian Muijres
Malaria is a major problem in sub-Saharan Africa, with as a result over 400,000 deaths each year. With pesticide resistance on the rise, new methods have to be developed that will reduce malaria transmission. The mosquito trapping method, in combination with bed nets, has been proved to be effective. The M-Tego is a mosquito trap embodiment designed with the user, sustainability and performance in mind. ...

An enhanced professional experience based on a service design approach

Master thesis (2019) - Sandra Mendoza Villaneda, Henk Kuipers, Anne Kranzbühler, Anne-Marie Jentsch
Out of Office Workations is a Dutch startup that focuses on organizing and planning unique group experiences outside the usual work environment, called workations. This service provides a right balance between work and leisure inspired by the nomad lifestyle which combines their ability to work remotely dominated by an attractive location offering a variety of leisure activities. While Out of Office Workations primary target is the digital nomad community, this master thesis focuses on identifying different areas of opportunity for a goal-oriented retreat in new potential market segments since their ambition is to become Europe’s customer-centric, innovative and sustainable retreat solution. To achieve this ambition, Out of Office Workations must discover how to fit their offer to new market segments to create a long term sustainable growth with their workation service by stimulating a work-time-balance setting. First, to gain a holistic understanding of what is a workation and what are the factors associated with this service highly exploratory research, website content analysis, semi-structured interviews with workation providers helped clarified the context, the target audience, and the different value propositions behind the offer of workations. Next, interviews with potential clients are executed to find new market segments for Out of Office. I identified three customer profiles in these interviews, two being addressed by the competitors and one remains relatively uncharted: the consulting segment. I have chosen this customer profile as this new market segment is not being forwarded by the competitors representing a valuable opportunity for Out of Office to scale their workation to a new unexplored direction. To properly fit the workation offer to the consulting segment, ten interviews with consultants from a variety of consulting firms were scheduled to understand this customer profile. Once gaining a more detailed and structured view of the consultants’ professional and personal life, the design solution “Out of Office Professional Services” is created to meet their needs, aspirations and frustrations. The presented solution is intentionally transformed as a quotation form to integrate it into the Out of Office website. This quotation form enables consultants to know what value proposition is suitable for their needs and facilitates the construction of their own workation. Once having the answers from the quotation form, Out of Office can create a personal and tailored-made experience for them. These four value propositions have been validated with the CoFounder of Out of Office Workations, however, to verify fully the effect of them Out of Office should test them in real-life projects with the stipulated target market. ...
Master thesis (2019) - Fermin Espin Franco, Henk Kuipers, Erik Thomassen, Arjan Vonk
To develop a new wet cleaning function that can be applied to (but not limited) robot vacuum cleaners, this function must offer an equal or higher performance than current solutions being able to perform dry and wet cleaning in one stroke.
This function must be based on the previous research and analysis stage performed during the internship. ...
Master thesis (2018) - Tjerk Alewijn, Henk Kuipers, David Klein
On a yearly bases approximately 1,5 million mattresses are discarded in the Netherlands. Matras Recycling Europe (MRE) is an Utrecht based company that specialises in disassembling mattresses. MRE is able to recycle 250.000 to 300.000 of the 1,5 million mattresses. Most of the pieces that are separated from these mattresses can be re-used in other applications. The outside layer of a mattress, known as ticking, has not found a useful application yet. In this thesis, the possibilities are researched for the application of mattress ticking. The main research question is therefore: How can recycled mattress ticking be treated to design useful applications? At the start of this thesis the common solution for the re-use of ticking waste is to shred the material and press it into sheets. The name for these sheets is TEPA. It can be used as insulation in renovated or new floors in buildings. However, the amount of ticking waste is greater than the amount of TEPA used. This is also a reason to find another application for ticking waste. For recycling purposes it would be desirable to be able to separate the different materials For the most part it is made of polyesters, cotton and other natural fibres. At the moment this is hard and too expensive to separate these materials. Several other processing techniques where analysed to find a useful one for ticking waste. An adjustment is made to the existing processing technique by pulverizing the waste material into smaller pieces to create a material that is more homogeneous than TEPA. After the waste material is pulverized, a sheet can be pressed and a product proposal can be made. Acoustic wall panels are designed called Acoustic Ticking. During the production process several shapes and surface finishes can be pressed into the sheets. There are however a few factors to take into account. The flammability of the untreated Acoustic Ticking, just like TEPA, is high. This can be reduced by treating them with a solution that is also used for curtains and furniture. The other factor to take into account are the dimensions of the fibres to not be hazardous for people. The dimensions of polyester and natural fibres however are large enough for the human body to safely dispose of.

The design of the Acoustic Ticking could be improved by looking into other hanging systems for the panels, see what other shapes can be manufactured and if it in some way can be used as a construction material.
The final result of this thesis is an acoustic panel that extends the life-cycle of ticking waste materials. This solution uses no virgin materials and fits the circular economy diagram made by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Also, the manufacturing of the acoustic panels has the possibility to process a large amount of ticking waste that would otherwise be incinerated. ...

Design of an innovative high performance odour baited mosquito trap for use as a healthcare tool for prevention of transmission of malaria and reduction in local vector population.

Master thesis (2018) - Henry Fairbairn, Jan-Carel Diehl, Henk Kuipers
If used alongside insecticide treated bed nets, an innovative odour baited mosquito trap with a high capture performance could contribute massively to the prevention of malaria in Africa and the eradication of the disease. This report outlines the research and design processes carried out by Henry Fairbairn, with the support of a supervisory team from consisting of members from the Technical University of Delft and Wageningen University and Research. The SolarMal Project was the first trial to investigate the impact of odour baited mosquito suction traps as a tool for vector control and malaria prevention. Results from the clinical study show that the implementation of mosquito traps across the island of Rusinga, Kenya, lead to a 30% reduction in cases of malaria and 70% reduction in the Anopheles population (Homan et al. 2016). However, further research into mosquito escape behaviour showed the Suna-Trap, used in the SolarMal Trial, had a poor capture performance with less than 4% of approach flights resulting in capture (Cribellier et al. 2018). A study by N.Tubben found that the majority users in were unable to maintain the Solar powered mosquito trapping systems after the project. To be an effective tool for prevention of malaria, it must be possible for users in Africa to sustain the working condition of the trap to continue to reduce biting and even prevent resurgence. Based on findings from this research and an iterative R&D process outlined in this report, it was possible to design an concept for an innovative mosquito trap with a high capture performance which is suitable for further lab testing and field testing. A number if concepts were tested in order to highlight how variant factor effect performance compared to the Suna-Trap. Each concept tested should include as few variables compared to the benchmark Suna-Trap to clearly conclude on how the variant effects performance. Although the testing is not thorough enough to make any scientific conclusions, there is enough data to make a conclusion as to whether incorporating the feature into a new design will increase the capture rate. High performing principals can be further tested in the future. From evaluations of the hypotheses it can be concluded that the additions of heat and moisture increase the capture rate in comparison to a standard Suna-Trap under lab conditions. The addition of hot water and a heating element above the trap canopy showed the most notable improvement compared to the BG Suna-Trap in terms of capture performance. It is thought that the additional heat and moisture in the trap prove more attractive to the target vectors increasing the number of approach flights resulting in more flights into the capture zone. Considering the context factors as well as performance factors highlighted in the research, the final design aims to provide a high performance mosquito trapping solution of which is suitable for use in Africa. ...
Master thesis (2018) - Yiyun Zhang, Henk Kuipers, Frans Taminiau
Aquaponics is the combination of two existing techniques, hydroponics (soilless farming), and aquaculture(aquatic animals growing). This symbiosis process of recycling wastes and recirculating water creates potentials for aquaponics in future vegetable and aquaculture produce. The vision of Riverfood (client company) is to make aquaponics accepted as a food production method for urban dwellers. This project analyzed the current aquaponics status and seek an opportunity for Riverfood to execute that aligns with its vision. A business-to-business strategy was proposing involving two external parties, revolving the construction and the service of a modular aquaponics system in company canteens. Insights from the user analysis and technical demands were synthesized into the design vision of an inviting functional and educational system. The concept of combing a curved aquarium with vertical farming was chosen for detailing. The results of this project include the system design and the accompanied services, complimenting the demands for collaborations with companies. Considering the relative cost price for a functional system, the modular design was decided to be prototyped as a quarter-size model.
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A strategic model to develop deteriorating rural areas towards a sustainable paradigm

Master thesis (2018) - Arno Wilting, Henk Kuipers, Caroline Kroon
In this project a strategic model for sustainable community development through tourism is designed.
A pilot research in Ljusnarsberg, a deteriorating rural community in Sweden, is performed to develop the strategic model to come to a final concept. The result is a final strategic model based on literature research, insights from the pilot research area’s context analysis and experiences of implementing the strategic model in the pilot community.
The final concept of the strategic model presents a local organization that connects its community to the
ecotourism market to change the economical, socio- cultural and environmental deterioration into sustainable development. The organization facilitates active tourism development and reactive community development towards a strongly sustainable paradigm. In this paradigm all development is done within planetary boundaries.
Though still highly developmental, the strategic model could turn a deteriorating rural area into a developing
community that is attractive to live and sustainable for the future. Next to that can the model make rural living a more viable option, combating not only rural deterioration, but also the negative effects of urbanization. ...