TU/e BSc academic award nominees

Mean Field Approximations for Heterogeneous Supermarket Models on Graphs

APPLIED MATHEMATICS

Queues exist everywhere in life, even on the internet where data packets must queue to be processed. Efficient queueing algorithms may yield performance improvements at no cost. However, analysing these algorithms becomes difficult when the queues each behave differently. In my work, I looked to theoretically analyse one of these queues.

Queueing is a universal pass time.

Finley Devlin BSc

Jolijn Dellevoet BSc

Classical Force Fields for Doped Hematites

APPLIED PHYSICS

Doped hematites are promising materials for the production of hydrogen using solar power. This project investigates the water-hematite interactions by building a classical interaction model based on quantum mechanical calculations. Since the classical model allows for larger simulations, it can be used to explore the suitability of the doped hematites.  

Even the smallest steps can lead to a better future.

Coarcervate-based protocells as a method for 14-3-3/tau stabilizer screening

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Gaining insights into how proteins interact within cells is crucial for advancing drug discovery. This research aims to enhance our understanding of how protein-protein-interactions can be modulated in a cell-like environment, making use of a bottom-up cell model that mimics the crowded environment of the cell. 

Artificial cells are still unexplored for chemical biology research and have great potential for advancing drug discovery to treat diseases.

Merel van den Bosch BSc

Sofia Ghigliani BSc

Design of a performance centre in the vacant industrial site of De Vries Robbè Staalfabriek

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Every time a building is constructed, there is a past in the site that is left behind. This thesis proposes a research based design method that can result in a building that sparks memories of that past to its users, this can be done through the tools of haptic design. 

Research in the user’s experience in built and unbuilt environments has the potential to promote the creation of healthier and richer places for humans.

Triplet-triplet Annihilation Upconversion in Single-Chain Polymeric Nanoparticles for Photocatalysis in Aqueous Media

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND CHEMISTRY

In this project we used water-soluble, folded polymers to perform triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion. Herein we can combine two low energy photons (light particles) to create one high energy photon which can perform chemical reactions. This method will reduce the usage of wasteful organic solvents and may enable light initiated reactions in living tissue. 

The difference between theory and experiment: in theory it should work.

Willem Verheijen BSc

Renate Debets BSc

Pruning of RPA Decoders for Reed-Muller Codes Based on Projection Effectiveness and Uniqueness

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

How can we ensure reliability when life-critical systems depend on wireless communications? To prevent bit errors from corrupting transmitted data, we use error correction coding schemes. My thesis dives into optimizing a decoder for this, that uses projections and recursion to its advantage. The result makes a decoder faster, cheaper, and more energy efficient! 

Reed-Muller codes can enable the utilization of wireless communication in situations where ultra-reliable low-latency communication is required.

Whitespace - an explorative inquiry into value-sensitive design and postphenomenology

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Whitespace is my personal exploration into the morality of design and technology. I live with the fear that technology creates distance between us and between us and the world. Could we create a framework for design that respects our relational nature? My participatory research has taken me from value-sensitive design to embracing complexity, and is an example of how we can incorporate art into our work helping us make sense of the incomprehensible.

Let us create space for art in science.

Daan Rozinga BSc

Oisin van Lier BSc

Identification of Opportunities and Optimization of Longer and Heavier Vehicle Implementation in a Transportation Business

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

My research focused on the implementation of Longer and Heavier Vehicles (LHVs) at a logistics service provider, by finding opportunities at clients and rescheduling the vehicle allocation. LHVs were proven to provide significant CO2 emission savings and therefore are an important step in making transportation more sustainable.

Our current transportation practices provide much room for improvements. With the help of optimization models and advanced heuristics we can redesign our transportation to become more efficient and sustainable.

Comparison of Robotic Simulation Environments

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Autonomous robots are increasingly used in today's society. Using simulation environments to validate their autonomous behaviour is crucial during the design process and to ensure the robots operate safely in human environments. In this study two simulation environments were compared, utilizing the results to optimize a perception algorithm for an autonomous medical Image-Guided Therapy robot. 

Autonomous robots have enormous potential to change our lives, validating the safety of their behaviour is crucial.

Guido Wolfs BSc