Name: Chajoong Kim (37)
Nationality: South Korean
Supervisor: Dr Henri Christiaans (Faculty of Industrial Design)
Subject: Usability problems: The influence of user diversity
Thesis defence: Next year

“Despite the enormous progress over the last decades in technology and design, consumers are complaining more and more about electronic products.

To be buried, burnt or dissolved. What’s the greenest way to go?
Last week an old discussion was reignited following the publication of a TNO report claiming that modern ways of decomposing bodies, such as freezing or chemical dissolving, were more environmentally-friendly than burial or cremation.

C2C LAB
Some 25 students from various faculties assembled last Tuesday with recycle guru, Professor Michael Braungart, for what has been baptised ‘cradle-to-cradle lab’.

In order to ensure implementation processes run more smoothly, policymakers must invest less time in formulating policy, so that they will then have more time to spend on supporting those who implement policy.

Physics student Leon van Kouwen built a 10-centimetre working prototype of an electron microscope as his graduation project.
Typically the beam of an electron microscope is formed within a long tube – up to several meters long.

Name: Eva Lantsoght (26)

Nationality: Belgian
Supervisors: Professor Joost Walraven and Dr Cor van der Veen (Concrete Structures section; Civil Engineering faculty)
Subject: Shear capacity of reinforced concrete slabs under concentrated loads close to the support
Thesis defence: In two years

“During the last two years I’ve been testing big concrete slabs.

Name: Felix Hol (27)
Nationality: Dutch
Supervisors: Dr Juan Keymer and Professor Cees Dekker (faculty of Applied Sciences, department Bionanoscience)
Subject: Evolution of bacteria in on-chip ecosystems 
Thesis defense: In two years

“Most experiments to study the evolution of bacteria and their population dynamics are performed with well-stirred test tubes.

Patijn had iedereen binnen Bouwkunde bijeengeroepen, omdat het zijn ‘laatste seizoen als decaan’ is en juist de komende maanden belangrijke beslissingen worden genomen. Behalve de herijking noemde hij ook de numerus fixus, een onderzoeksvisitatie en een vereenvoudiging van het onderwijsprogramma. “Het onderwijsprogramma is nu ongelooflijk ingewikkeld. Er is een wildgroei aan keuzes. Organisatorisch moeten we…

The solar-powered racing car Nuna 6 was presented to the press this week. Will it be faster than its predecessors? New regulations on the type of solar cells allowed have turned the race into a whole new ball game.