Jaargang 8, nr. 2, september 2012
“As a PhD, you’ve got to LOVE your job” Elina Iervolino wrote her thesis during maternity leave
Johan Pouwelse’s team creates ‘upcoming Internet standard’
Peer-to-peer streaming protocol tested by the BBC
Electrical Engineering students build their own ‘KITT’
Photos Annelies te Selle/Image on TV screen: Internet
Inhoud Content
Qua decaan Rob Fastenau
lies te Selle Photo Anne
Let’s be proud
Peer-to-peer streaming protocol tested by the BBC
3 Where are we and where are we going? The ‘tritalks’ by dean Rob Fastenau
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Microwave Sensing, Systems and Signals A renewed introduction
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“We zijn nog lang niet klaar!” Nieuwe studiezaal forse stap in verbetering studentenwerkomgeving
10 CrowdSense presenteert: de Twitcident Event Monitor Hulpdiensten helpen door Twitter te filteren
13 “As a PhD, you’ve got to LOVE your job”
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Elina Iervolino wrote her thesis during maternity leave
Electrical Engineering students build their own ‘KITT’
The launch of the new integrated EPO-4 project was a success
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En verder: 2 Quadecaan | 7 Komen | 12 Gaan 18 Qort | 19 Qiekjes | 20 EEMCS develops new MEMS packaging method
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Since the launch of Rita Verdonk’s party ‘Trots op Nederland’, it has become somewhat dubious to show any pride in the Netherlands. With the lingering turmoil surrounding the euro, the same goes for Europe. But let’s look at some recent facts. Royal Dutch (!) Shell is now the largest global company in the Fortune Global 500 ranking - a fact that’s hard to find on the internet, as American arrogance means only US companies are listed (go to shell.com and read about TANIA (‘There Are No Ideal Answers’) and Shell’s excellent 2050 energy scenarios!) With 12 Dutch companies in the Fortune 500, Holland ranks 9th in the world and 4th in Europe. As regional economic ecosystems are a driving force for growth, it’s nice to know Randstad ranks 7th globally. The EU has 148 companies listed, while the US has 132. And what about #1 ASML, pulling off a significant investment by #1 Intel in order to accelerate the development of EUV and 450 mm? ASML got it right by focusing tightly on innovation in an industry niche. Then there’s VDL, rescuing Nedcar and getting BMW on board for manufacturing Minis. Wim van der Leegte is getting it right by his timely buying of stressed-out companies, creating lean and vertically integrated organisations with motivated employees that are proud of the company they work for. On top of that, Europe saw the discovery of the Higgs particle, providing us with the theoretical proof that we have mass, plus the discovery of the Majorana particle! Leo Kouwenhoven called it ‘a big nothing’, but it could be part of the dark matter mass. What does this all mean for our faculty? I am getting more and more calls from Brainport. How can we get Delft MScs and PhDs to work in Brabant? So far, it looks like 50% of the new Bachelor students in EE, CS and M will start in Delft. Let’s make TU Delft the place to study and be proud of this number-one top-talent provider! n ‘Trots op Nederland’ zijn is verdacht sinds Verdonk’s ToN, en wie is trots op Europa sinds de eurocrisis? Maar de feiten spreken: in de Fortune Global 500 is Shell nu het grootste bedrijf ter wereld. Qua aantal grote bedrijven staat Nederland wereldwijd op plaats 9, terwijl Europa hoger staat dan de VS. ASML sluit een slimme deal met Intel en VDL redt Nedcar. En in Europa worden het Higgs-deeltje en het Majoranadeeltje ontdekt. Onze afgestudeerden raken hierdoor steeds meer in trek. Laten we van de TU Delft dé universiteit maken en trots zijn op deze nummer 1-leverancier van toptalent! n
Johan Pouwelse’s team creates ‘upcoming Internet standard’ Peer-to-peer streaming protocol tested by the BBC Johan Pouwelse, assistant professor in the Parallel and Distributed Systems section, is technical director of P2P-Next and QLective, European projects with a budget of €26 million in total. He reports on a recent success.
The Peer-to-Peer Systems group, famous for Tribler, has reached a milestone. Their P2P streaming protocol (‘Generic Multiparty Transport Protocol’ or ‘swift’) has been granted ‘upcoming internet standard’ status by the Internet Engineering Taskforce. “I could never have dreamt it possible”, Johan Pouwelse begins. “It’s remarkable for an academic group to come this close to creating an Internet standard, as it takes a lot of resources to make industrial-grade software. After all, it’s got to work in the real world.”
Relay race
Johan, a doctor in Computer Science, is an experimental scientist who calls himself a ‘man of practice’. “My first school diploma was in welding: I’ve always enjoyed ‘making the pieces fit’.” Thanks to European funding he has been able to build a large multidisciplinary team, although he’s still looking for additional financial means. “It’s much harder to build self-organising systems than centralised systems”, he explains. “Besides, we have to put much effort into marketing. Tribler is based on the idea that people share bandwidth: while you’re downloading content, you’re leaving your connection available for others to upload the same data. It’s like passing the baton in a relay race. Such a trust-based collaborative environment can’t be established overnight. Achieving ‘upcoming internet standard’ status is a big step forwards: the BBC is now testing our innovation in a number of British households. The protocol can be used for streaming on-demand and live video content to TV sets and mobile devices, as well as for conventional downloading.“
september 2012 | 3
Ineke Temming
Johan Pouwelse’s team creates ‘upcoming Internet standard’
Where are we and where are we going? The ‘tritalks’ by dean Rob Fastenau
For ‘swift’ to become an official Internet standard, it needs another implementation, it has to show a high degree of technical maturity and it has to provide significant benefit to the Internet community. “Tribler has proven its value
these systems. “Compared to centralised systems we lag ten years behind. For example: Tribler’s search engine is rather primitive compared to Google’s, but nevertheless: it’s working and it’s the fastest, fully decentralised search engine in the world. It’s not surprising that many of our PhDs find jobs at Google. The application also has
“According to the ‘rules of happiness’ people enjoy helping others” through one million successful installs in six years”, Johan comments. “However, we’re not yet good enough to attract a larger audience. But we’re working on it, because we believe in it! P2P file sharing systems have many advantages, like efficiency, reliability and cost-effectivity. Their biggest plus-point is that they are independent of unreliable central servers, so their scalability is unlimited. Note that Tribler’s core has never been down. And because ‘no coordinating server’ means ‘no centralised control’, P2P systems have substantial economic and social benefits. The BBC can start Internet TV channels without interference from service providers, while people in totalitarian regimes can use P2P to bypass media censorship. With Tribler people are free to download and share whatever they like. As it’s an open source project, anyone can utilise it.”
Privacy
But now for the bad news: according to Johan we hardly know how to build
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features like relevance ranking and filtering, as well as social networking aspects like rating and commenting.” In P2P it’s also quite a challenge to preserve the privacy of the users. “We have made some progress in providing anonymity, but it’s still hard. The best solution available is central coordination”, he says, chuckling. “But then you lose a dramatic 98% of your performance: fast Internet and privacy still don’t go together. We hope to change that, through collaboration!”
Free riding
Then it turns out that Johan is not only a man of practice, but also an idealist. “It’s my scientific dream to demonstrate that our P2P system promotes cooperative behaviour. In that case, we will have better understood the implicit rules of human collaboration, paving the way for revolutionary concepts like P2P bankruptcy proof banks. The biggest threat to all collaborative systems based on sharing resources, is free riding. This is when people only enjoy the benefits, without making
contributions themselves, like ‘leeches’ in file sharing systems who download a lot, but intentionally avoid uploading.” According to Johan most of the original researchers on P2P have given up on this problem - generally known as ‘the tragedy of the commons’ - because it’s hard to solve without central coordination. “But we think ‘something magical’ may happen if users are given the right incentives”, he says with irony. “After all, according to the ‘rules of happiness’ people enjoy helping others. There’s still hope for mankind.” n
Dean Rob Fastenau during the tritalk on 20 June 2012. Photo Annelies te Selle
The tri in tritalk stands for: 1 triple; 3x per year: Rob gives the talk during the New Year meeting, and in the spring and autumn. 2 trying (sounds like tri :-): “We’ll never give up”. 3 a try (from rugby): “We want to score points”.
Het peer-to-peer streaming protocol van Tribler is verheven tot ‘upcoming’ internetstandaard en wordt nu getest door de BBC. Volgens Johan Pouwelse is de onafhankelijkheid van een centrale server het grootste voordeel van zelforganiserende systemen. Daardoor zijn ze onbegrensd schaalbaar en is er geen centrale controle mogelijk. Helaas zijn ze notoir moeilijk te bouwen. Tribler beschikt over ’s werelds snelste, volledig gedecentraliseerde zoekmachine. Aan privacybescherming wordt gewerkt. Johans droom is een P2P-systeem dat aantoonbaar meer coöperatief gedrag oproept. Dan zijn de ongeschreven regels van menselijke samenwerking beter doorgrond en wordt zelfs een veilige P2P-bank mogelijk. n
What has been achieved? Which staff have recently won prizes or secured grants and who has appeared in the media? What is happening around us? What is going on within government, the world of business and internationally? This is the basis on which the University sets its goals and records them in the performance targets it agrees with the Ministry*). The faculty does this too, but with the Executive Board. Against this background, Rob examines where we are now and what efforts will be needed to move forward. Rob starts with a joke: “We normally do this in the Ampèrezaal, where we attract a bigger audience”. There will be a few more jokes for careful listeners to spot, but basically this is serious business.
Deliver or die
The performance targets are ambitious, including, for example, an improvement in the TU Delft BSc pass rate in four years, from 22% now to 55% by 2015 and 70% by 2020. And for EEMCS, an increase in the number of first-year students from 320 now to 370 in 2015 and 400 in 2020, plus an increase in the number of ISI publications from 383 to 410. Other goals include increasing the percentage of students who achieve the Master in three years and the number of students completing their PhDs within five years,
and appointing more women to higher academic positions. President of the Executive Board Dirk-Jan van den Berg says it is a question of ‘deliver or die’, and we have ten years of uncertainty ahead. The performance targets are realistic and Rob is upbeat about them: “I am happy that the trends are right. We have improved our performance a lot, and need to do even better”.
“I am happy that the trends are right” *) downloadable from vsnu.nl
september 2012 | 5
Diane Vedder
No centralised control
More engineers
All of this is vital because of the urgent need for engineers and the imminent shortage. Platform Bèta show we need to educate 60% more students because society needs the market share of engineers and science graduates to increase from 25% to 40%. Rob illustrates this with a picture of our strategic position, at the heart of industrial innovations, the ICT road map of the top sector policy, the EU horizon 2020 and societal challenges. “We are in a great field of research and education with a huge need for talented people.”
“Our field of research and education is hot” ICT profile
Rob hesitates to use ICT as a label for the faculty because this suggests electrical engineering and mathematics are less important. Nothing is further from the truth: the faculty’s ICT
Wat zijn de facultaire doelen en prestatieafspraken met het CvB, en hoe hangen die samen met de universitaire doelen en de prestatieafspraken van de TUD met het ministerie? Dat was het voornaamste onderwerp van de laatste ‘Tritalk’ van decaan Rob Fastenau. De prestatieafspraken rondom o.a. studierendementen en studenteninstroom zijn ambitieus, want er dreigt een tekort aan ingenieurs. Gezien de huidige trends acht Rob de targets haalbaar.
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profile is actually based on the combined knowledge of electrical engineering, mathematics and computer science. What has changed is the perspective on innovation. We are used to innovation coming from the components, the individual parts. But we are moving towards innovation that comes from complex systems and a big data perspective. Today’s issues demand an integrated approach. This is also reflected in TU Delft’s focus on institutes, such as the Climate Institute, and in the multidisciplinary projects within the faculty. Two projects have already been funded: My shared world and Powerweb 2.0, and new investments are expected in complexity, peta-analytics and biomedical electronics.
Energising
“This doesn’t mean everybody has to be connected to everybody. The multidisciplinary projects are seen as breeding grounds and catalysts. It is about working together on matter, something that is energising and inspiring. Our field of research and education is hot.” n
Het ICT-profiel van de faculteit wordt gedragen door Elektrotechniek, Wiskunde en Informatica. We moeten innoveren vanuit het perspectief van complexe sytemen en ‘big data’, wat een integrale aanpak vereist. De multidisciplinaire projecten ‘My shared world’ en Powerweb 2.0 zijn de eerste voorbeelden van deze inhoudelijke samenwerking. “Ons onderzoek & onderwijs zijn hot.” n
Trudy Middendorp
Hoe enthousiaster Frans wordt, hoe sneller hij gaat praten. En enthousiast is hij. Vooral over ICT, een hobby waar hij zijn werk van heeft gemaakt. Dat doet hij al 32 jaar bij de TU, en vanaf 7 uur ’s ochtends! Voor Frans is het simpel: “Basis ICT-voorzieningen moeten gewoon werken, als water uit de kraan, en
Drie stageplekken en drie keer een baan. Overal waar Trudy komt, mag ze blijven. Boffen wij even dat ze onze vacature (en ons :-) leuk genoeg vond. Wat haar wint voor deze baan, zijn het contact met het studententeam en de vele, verschillende evenementen. En die doet ze met Westlandse nuchterheid: “Ik laat me niet gek maken”.
IS Manager ICT Frans Broos Foto Annelies te Selle
The faculty’s ICT profile is based on the combined knowledge of electrical engineering, mathematics and computer science. Original slide from Rob’s presentation.
Frans Broos
“Ik wil het iedereen naar de zin maken. Ik ben een ongelooflijke polderaar.” van goede kwaliteit zijn. Je moet erop kunnen vertrouwen.” Wat hem drijft, is dat medewerkers en studenten optimaal gebruik kunnen maken van ICT-diensten. Hij houdt ervan om de grenzen op te zoeken van wat mogelijk is. “Ik wil het iedereen naar de zin maken. Ik ben een ongelooflijke polderaar.” In zijn vrije tijd vind je Frans lezend, luisterend naar muziek of langs de lijn. n
For new ICT manager Frans Broos, who has 32 years of experience in this field at TU Delft, his work is his hobby. Basic ICT facilities must be reliable, he says enthusiastically. What motivates him is to give staff and students the opportunity to make optimal use of ICT services. He enjoys exploring the boundaries of what is possible. “I want to please everybody. I am very much a consensus builder.” In leisure time he reads, listens to music and attends football matches. n
IS medewerker Marketing & Communicatie
“Ik laat me niet gek maken”. Goud voor zo’n stressy baan. Privé woont ze onder één dak met vijf studenten. Tenminste, haar vader verhuurt het voorhuis en ze wonen zelf achter, in de verbouwde stal. For the time being, want Trudy gaat binnenkort samenwonen verderop in Schipluiden. Ze komt elke dag met de fiets naar EWI, maakt nog meer kilometers op de racefiets, skeelert en doet aan showdansen. n
All of Trudy’s internships were followed by a job offer, so Marketing & Communication is lucky to have caught her interest. With her level-headedness, typical for the people from the Westland, she’s the perfect woman for the stressful job of coordinating information events for prospective students. “Nothing gets to me.” Trudy cycles daily to EEMCS, swallows up even more kilometers on her racing bike, and she likes inline skating and show dancing. n
september 2012 | 7
Trudy Middendorp Foto Annelies te Selle
Diane Vedder
KOMENen gaan
Photo Annelies te Selle
Microwave Sensing, Systems and Signals A renewed introduction
Ineke Temming
As a result of the review process, part of the Microwave Technology and Systems for Radar group has moved to the Microelectronics Department as of 1 September. As the main research focus will be on advanced sensing methods, the section name will be changed to Microwave Sensing, Systems and Signals (MS3). Section leader Alexander Yarovoy1 explains what this field is about.
On hearing the word ‘radar’, most people probably think of the blips on air-traffic control screens, or of precipitation forecasts. Not many know that radar technology has advanced significantly over the years, opening the door to new applications. For example, all new cars in Europe will soon be equipped with radar sensors to help drivers arrive home safely. Considerable progress has also been made in medical imaging, Alexander Yarovoy’s favourite application. “It allows me not only to work on complex physics problems but also to improve people’s lives”, he explains.
Ground penetrating radar Before Alexander came to Delft in 1999, he already had a shining scientific career in his home country Ukraine. When appointed at the University of Kharkov, he was the country’s youngest physics and maths professor. His PhD work had been successfully applied in a Soviet space-based system for remote sensing of ice, providing real-time information to Arctic icebreakers. “I was invited to Delft to participate in a project on ground penetrating radar. As the research centre here soon became one of the most recognised players in this field, I decided to stay.”
Business case Ground penetrating radar can be used for many purposes, such as geophysical
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imaging or road inspection, but the most challenging application the Delft researchers worked on was landmine detection. “We’ve greatly improved this technology”, says Alexander. “While other systems produce many false alarms, our radar only sees true objects. Sad to say, our proposal to build a landmine detection system with industry was not successful.” Their next project however, on concealed weapon detection, was a business case. “Due to terrorist threats there’s a growing need for such technology. We’ve developed a system that can see in real time what’s hidden on someone’s body. The resolution is not as high as with millimetre or Terahertz waves, but it’s sufficient. And ethically it’s more acceptable, because it doesn’t show the naked body.”
from the environment. The next generation radar could see smaller objects with smaller contrast, while the latest technology is meant to detect very weak scatterers that are masked by strong scatterers. To make this possible, radar research has undergone a huge paradigm shift: instead of looking for strong scattering, we’re now looking for the features of an object, like shape or material properties, which we extract from the scattered field. The problem with the human body is that the electromagnetic properties change during the day, and from person to person. So when you try to detect a tumour, you’re looking for something you don’t know in an environment you don’t know. This makes a tumour harder to find than the proverbial needle in a haystack.”
“We want to develop a kind of Lego set to build sensors on demand” Needle in a haystack
Distributed sensing
Then Alexander explains why all these applications are ‘children’s games’ compared to medical imaging. “Radar operates by transmitting an electromagnetic field that is scattered in different directions by the targets. By measuring the scattered field it’s possible to identify the ‘scatterer’. The first radars were built to detect ships and airplanes, big structures that were very different
A solution to extract features is distributed sensing, an innovative technology in which Delft plays a leading role worldwide. Alexander: “It’s is an approach where multiple transmitters and multiple receivers are used to simultaneously look at the same scene from different points of view. The results are later synthesised into one scene. It’s the same principle as when
Concealed weapon detection. Image obtained from tests on a mannequin carrying a gun under its jacket (Image Pascal Aubry, MS3)
the police photographs a criminal from different angles for identification purposes. The novel radar system uses a large frequency band, as different targets respond differently to different frequencies. So a distributed sensor system is like a choir of voices, each producing its own distinctive characteristic waveforms; and we are the conductors that make sure the system operates in unison.”
STARS To conclude, Alexander explains the section’s participation in STARS: Sensor Technology Applied in Reconfigurable Systems for Sustainable Security. “STARS is a joint university-industry project aimed at building sensor networks that can quickly adapt to the changing nature of security threats. We want to develop a kind of Lego set to build sensors on demand. An example: during an outdoor event a sensor system has been set up to detect unmanned aerial vehicles. Then something unexpected happens: bad guys have shut down all mobile services with a GSM jammer. Immediately the functionality of the sensors is changed to initiate communication capability for emergency services, while a system is switched on to detect the jammer’s position. This type of flexible sensor technology is still in the future, but it will become reality.” n 1 Or ‘Olexander Yarovyi’, as is his given Ukrainian name. In the Soviet Union the scientific language and spelling was Russian, hence ‘Alexander Yarovoy’.
Als gevolg van de herijking maakt de sectie Microwave Technology and Systems for Radar per 1 september deel uit van de afdeling Microelektronica. De nieuwe sectienaam wordt Microwave Sensing, Systems and Signals (MS3). Het onderzoek richt zich op de detectie van zeer kleine objecten die nauwelijks contrasteren met hun omgeving. De groep heeft sterk verbeterde technologie voor landmijndetectie ontwikkeld; er loopt nu een project op het gebied van verborgen wapen-detectie. De favoriete applicatie van sectieleider Alexander Yarovoy is ‘medical imaging’. In het STARS-project wordt flexibele beveiligingstechnologie ontwikkeld: sensornetwerken die zich in real time aan nieuwe dreigingen kunnen aanpassen. n
september 2012 | 9
Toni Budimir (l), Joost van den Linden Foto Annelies te Selle
Marco Westhoff (l), Erik de Vos Foto Annelies te Selle
Nieuwe studiezaal forse stap in verbetering studentenwerkomgeving
Ineke Temming
“We zijn nog lang niet klaar!” De voormalige bibliotheek van EWI is verbouwd tot een fraai ‘studielandschap’. Quadraad sprak met initiatiefnemers en realisators Erik de Vos (Facilitair Manager) en Marco Westhoff (Coördinator Services). Studenten Joost van der Linden en Toni Budimir vertellen hoe de Facultaire Studentenraad (FSR) bij het proces betrokken was. Het interview vindt plaats vlak voor een tentamenweek. Studenten zoeken dan de studieplekken op waar ze zich het best kunnen concentreren. Dat de nieuwe studiezaal bomvol zit, is een compliment aan iedereen die bij de realisatie betrokken is geweest. “Toen ik gisteren terugkwam van de lunch, had ik geen plek meer”, zegt Toni. Erik kijkt bedenkelijk: “De zaal is nu alweer te klein.”
Huisvestingsbeleid
Toen de ruimte van de faculteitsbibliotheek vorig jaar leegkwam, was de vraag ‘wat nu?’ snel beantwoord. “Ik vond de studentenvoorzieningen hier erg karig en van slechte kwaliteit”, zegt Erik. Hij en Marco waren gelijk met de nieuwe decaan binnengekomen, waardoor zij eerst eens rustig hadden kunnen rondkijken. “Ik werk al 25 jaar bij de TU Delft, waarvan de laatste acht als facilitair manager”, vervolgt hij. “Wat ik ook hier weer tegenkwam, is dat medewerkers
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zich vooral druk maken om hun eigen werkplek. Maar de TU is er voor de studenten, en dat moet ook blijken uit het huisvestingsbeleid. Die ruimte moest dus een studiezaal worden, vonden wij. Verder maakte de faculteit een introverte indruk; ook daar wilden we iets aan doen.”
Eisenpakket
Onder leiding van (externe) projectleider Lysbet Sijtsma ging het project Study 2.0 rap van start. Facility Management had er zin in. Erik: “Er gaat elke dag iets stuk en er wordt elke dag iets vuil - dit soort projecten zijn de krenten in de pap.” Volgens Marco sprak het vanzelf om de FSR erbij te betrekken. “Je moet niet iets bouwen en daarna pas vragen hoe het bevalt. En als je gebruikers laat participeren, creëer je ook draagvlak.” De FSR werkte graag mee. De studenten legden een eisenpakket op tafel dat er volgens Joost en Toni ongeveer zo uitzag: ‘drie projectruimtes, voldoende flexibele werkplekken, veel computers, geen vergadertafels middenin de ruimte, en het moet er mooi uitzien.’
Duurzame energie
De mededingende leveranciers kregen ook de opdracht technische innovaties in hun ontwerp te verwerken. “Wij wilden in deze ruimte laten zien wat EWI kan, vooral op het gebied van duurzaamheid”, legt Erik uit. Niet alle ideeën
haalden het. Er kwam geen tafelbladverwarming, een vinding om op centrale verwarming te besparen, en ook geen hometrainer waarmee studenten zelf elektriciteit konden opwekken. “We hebben daar erg om gelachen”, vertelt Toni, “we dachten dat die bedoeld was om ons in beweging te krijgen.” Wel wordt er efficiënt omgesprongen met licht. De armaturen langs de gevels schakelen vanzelf uit als er genoeg licht op de tafelbladen valt. En er wordt gebruik gemaakt van ledlampen en energiezuinige tl-verlichting.
bekabeling zichtbaar. “Een verlaagd plafond zou de ruimtelijke werking teniet doen”, licht Erik toe. “En de techniek mag gezien mag worden. Om de gaten weg te werken is alles zwart gespoten.” Er waren wel akoestische maatregelen nodig om de galm te verminderen, zoals geluiddempend tapijt en gestoffeerde tussenwandjes. Overigens hebben veel studenten een koptelefoon op. Er wordt ook gegeten en gedronken. “Dat mag”, zegt Erik, “mits ze hun rommel opruimen en ongelukjes direct melden. Wat mooi is, moet mooi blijven.”
Golden Gate Bridge
De hoofdkleur rood is vooral te danken aan de FSR, die hechtte aan de huisstijlkleur van EWI. Bij de keuze van het meubilair waren twee criteria leidend: het moest een technische uitstraling hebben en van duurzame materialen zijn gemaakt. “Dat is goed gelukt bij de bureaustoelen”, vindt Marco, “die zijn geïnspireerd op de Golden Gate Bridge en bijna volledig recyclebaar.” Volgens Joost kun je bijvoorbeeld aan de beweegbare monitorarmen zien dat er geen concessie is gedaan aan de kwaliteit van de materialen. “Dat waren de beste die we konden krijgen”, glundert Erik. En Marco roept lachend: “We weten dat TU-studenten altijd uitproberen hoeveel kracht er nodig is om iets af te breken!”
Ongelukjes
Tijd voor een bezoek. De zaal blijkt ruim, licht en sfeervol; door de open structuur is van introvertie geen sprake. Veel computers, maar ook veel flexibele werkplekken met laptopvoorzieningen. Een tafel met poten als stapels boeken herinnert aan de voormalige bibliotheek. Bovenin is de
The former faculty library has been transformed into an inspiring reading room equipped with plenty of computers and flexible workstations. The renovations are part of Facility Management’s mission to improve student facilities at EEMCS. The Faculty Student Council was involved in the selection of the best supplier. A characteristic feature of the room and its furnishings is the use of sustainable materials
“De TU is er voor de studenten; dat moet ook blijken uit het huisvestingsbeleid” Brug
Maar niet alles is perfect: de luchtbehandeling blijkt niet berekend op 100 mensen. “Het is te duur om dat nu te verhelpen”, zegt Marco, “en het gebouw wordt toch nog gerenoveerd. Daarom konden we ook de brug tussen de hoog- en de laagbouw niet bij de zaal betrekken. Het wordt daar erg warm, en dat is niet simpel op te lossen.” Ook een eis van de FSR is niet volledig ingewilligd: er zijn maar twee projectruimtes. “Dat komt goed”, sust Erik. “Het pand is groot genoeg en we blijven continu op zoek naar oplossingen. We zijn nog lang niet klaar!” n
and techniques. Its open structure is also based on the policy of making EEMCS more extraverted. The reading room is a success: it’s always packed. Future renovations will include improving the air conditioning, integrating the bridge, and the creation of a third project room. “We’re not done by a long shot!”, Facility Manager Erik de Vos concludes. n
september 2012 | 11
Ga je gang, het woord is aan jou…
DE PITCH!
KOMEN EN
Foto Annelies te Selle
GAAN
Diane Vedder
Ton Reiber
Eric Cator
“Elektro was één grote familie en het is nu een managementfaculteit”. Ton gaat al langer mee dan het gebouw. Hij begon in 1965 als leerling-instrumentmaker waar nu DEMO zit en heeft de hoogbouw langzaam zien verschijnen. Reorganisaties overleefd, chef geworden en weer chef af, en intussen zijn kantooromgeving geautomatiseerd en drie magazijnlocaties samengevoegd. “Je
Met een dubbele BSc én MSc avant la lettre. Want Eric begon met Natuurkunde, omdat hij dat op het VWO uitdagender vond. Hij is nu een soort allrounder geworden met een promotie in potentiaaltheorie en functionaalanalyse en zijn latere switch naar statistiek en kansrekening. “Bij statistiek gaat het om de essentie vangen, anders wordt het ‘noise fitting’, een soort
moet meegaan, anders red je het niet”. Met een nieuwe heup en een nieuwe knie kan Ton er weer tegenaan. Eropuit met zijn fiets, vakantie vieren, knutselen aan zijn computer, en misschien zoekt hij het hogerop in de bewonerscommissie. “Ik heb het 47 jaar kunnen volhouden, door mezelf en door mijn omgeving. Ik heb prettig samengewerkt. En, je moet er zelf voor zorgen dat je het naar je zin hebt”. n
Ton Reiber, a former Facility Management employee, is leaving TU Delft after 47 years of service. Over time, he has seen EEMCS change from one big family into a management faculty. He has been able to keep going thanks to the pleasant working environment, but also thanks to himself: “Job satisfaction is your own responsibility.” Now he is going to ride his bike, enjoy holidays, tinker with his computer or maybe take a more prominent role in the residents’ association. n
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“Statistiek is de essentie vangen, anders wordt het ‘noise fitting’”. wiskundige ruis.” In kansrekening en statistiek wordt hij nu ook hoogleraar aan de Radboud Universiteit, op de oude stoel van Frank Redig. Eric mag voor zijn sectie nieuwe mensen aantrekken en gaat de samenwerking met andere faculteiten uitbreiden. Voorlopig pendelt hij tussen Nijmegen en zijn nieuwe huis in Ypenburg. Wie weet zit er dan af en toe toch nog een potje tennis in met Rik Lopuhaä. n
Former lecturer of Statistics Eric Cator, a mathematical all-rounder with a background in Physics, has been appointed professor of Probability and Statistics at Radboud University. “In statistics it’s all about capturing the essence, avoiding noise fitting”, he says. He is being given the opportunity to employ new staff while strengthening collaboration with other faculties. As he’s not yet moving to Nijmegen, the occasional game of tennis with Rik Lopuhaä remains possible. n
De Twitcident Event Monitor Hulpdiensten helpen door Twitter te filteren Richard Stronkman, oprichter van de EWI spin-off CrowdSense, over een nieuwe manier om tijdens incidenten de meest bruikbare ooggetuigentweets te filteren. “Vorig jaar werd het festival Pukkelpop getroffen door een zware storm, waarbij vijf doden vielen. In vier uur tijd werden er vanaf het terrein 81.000 tweets verzonden. Die berichten bleken achteraf belangrijke informatie te bevatten voor hulpdiensten. Zo is van minuut tot minuut te volgen hoe mensen dekking zochten tegen de hagel onder een tent die even later instortte. Bij incidenten is Twitter dus een waardevolle bron van real-time ooggetuigeverslagen. Maar hoe vind je snel de meest relevante tweets? Antwoord: Twitcident!”
Ondernemerservaring “Twitcident is ontstaan uit mijn afstudeeronderzoek bij TNO en de sectie Web Information Systems (WIS) van Geert-Jan Houben. Daarvoor was ik 5 jaar COO van Greetinq. Die ondernemerservaring kwam goed van pas toen TNO, TU Delft en ikzelf besloten om gezamenlijk onze opgedane kennis te valoriseren. In augustus 2011 ben ik
vanuit een nieuw bedrijf, CrowdSense, gestart met de ontwikkeling van de ‘Twitcident Event Monitor’. Niet veel later konden we de eerste klant bedienen: tijdens oud en nieuw heeft de monitor 24 uur gedraaid voor Politie Haaglanden. Ik heb toen zelf op het bureau gezeten - dé ultieme leerervaring. Je ziet direct wat er gebeurt en hoe je daar beter op kunt inspelen.”
“Het succes van Twitcident is géén incident”
krijgen hulpdiensten een goed beeld van de aard en omvang van het incident.”
Sterke partners “Social media monitoring is niet nieuw, maar wat Twitcident doet is uniek. De monitor sluit naadloos aan op de informatiebehoeften van hulpdiensten. Wij onderscheiden ons door snelle prototyping, intensieve R&D en maatwerk. Dankzij de samenwerking met TU Delft en TNO worden we vanaf het eerste gesprek serieus genomen. Er is veel belangstelling voor Twitcident, ook vanuit het buitenland. Kortom: het succes van Twitcident is géén incident.” n
Opgetekend door Ineke Temming
“Je moet er zelf voor zorgen dat je het naar je zin hebt”.
WAS universitair docent Statistiek Eric Cator Foto Annelies te Selle
Ton Reiber Foto Annelies te Selle
WAS medewerker facilitair management
Slimme filters “Twitcident is bedoeld voor vroegsignalering van incidenten en informatiegaring tijdens incidenten. In het eerste geval leid je uit tweets af dat er iets mis is nog vóórdat het is gemeld. Zo is de plaatselijke recherche, dankzij onze monitor, op Koninginnedag tijdig een aantal potentiële bedreigingen op het spoor gekomen. En als het incident aan de gang is, wordt de Twitterstroom met slimme filters ingedikt tot de meest informatieve en betrouwbare tweets. Ook relevante foto’s, video’s, kaarten en statistieken worden getoond. Zo
Twitcident is a collaborative research initiative by CrowdSense (founder Richard Stronkman), TNO and TU Delft (Web Information Systems group) aimed at helping emergency services extract the most relevant and reliable information from tweets during incidents. The Twitcident Event Monitor has already been applied several times by the Dutch police for early warning purposes. USPs are: a good product/market fit, fast prototyping, intensive R&D, and a strong consortium of research partners. n
september 2012 | 13
LOVE
Elina and her husband Fabio Santagata, both Neapolitans, came to TU Delft on an Erasmus scholarship in 2006. Upon completion of their master’s degrees, they decided to look for PhD positions in the Netherlands. “Fabio joined the ECTM group of Lina Sarro, but as there was no opening for me at TU Delft, I accepted a temporary job at Xensor Integration (XI), a TU Delft spin-off specialised in microsensors. Then as a stroke of luck, my boss submitted a PhD proposal that fitted me like a glove.” As a member of XI’s scientific board, Lina Sarro was asked to supervise the project, causing Elina and Fabio to become close colleagues. Because the couple both made sensors based on MEMS technology (Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems), they often worked together, even at home. “No problem”, Elina comments, “a PhD student works day and night anyhow. In this position you’ve got to LOVE your work, otherwise you won’t survive.”
I’m very proud that my device has been patented and has attracted market interest.” She’s now working as a design engineer at XI, while Fabio has accepted a postdoc position at ECTM (also see p. 20, ed.). Although they like it here, they also want to see other parts of the world. “It is said that Neapolitans just go elsewhere for economic reasons: ‘O napulitano nun pò viaggià, pò sulamente emigrà. But we feel like travellers, not emigrants: O napulitano viaggia!” n Illustration p. 14: artist’s impression of the MEMS TGA device, made by Elina Iervolino herself. Note that the sample area at the end of the paddle is only 128 micron x 38 micron in size (1 micron = one-thousandth of a millimetre). Insert: the device was fabricated by the Dimes Technology Centre
Escher
“A good MEMS design is contemporary art”
“As a PhD, you’ve got to LOVE your job” Ineke Temming
Elina Iervolino wrote her thesis during maternity leave In October 2011, Elina Iervolino had a baby, on 2 May 2012, she successfully defended her thesis on a ‘Fully Integrated MEMS Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis Device for Inspection of Nano-masses’. A remarkable achievement. The chip Elina Iervolino designed during her PhD project could easily play a role in a crime drama TV series like CSI. As it happens, it enables forensic scientists to inspect incredibly small amounts of materials left at a crime scene. In principle, just a few nanograms are enough to nail criminals. “I’m still amazed I’ve finished”, she says, smiling. “I dreaded writing the thesis, but fortunately I had a baby in the last year of my PhD.”
14 | Quadraad
Babies
It’s also one of the propositions accompanying Elina’s thesis: ‘Having a baby in the last year of the PhD helps to focus on the thesis writing.’ “I recommend anyone who wants to combine a PhD with having a family, to plan the baby for the last phase of the project”, she says. “The first three years you’re too busy doing research anyhow. But if you wait until you’ve finished, you’re likely to be caught up in the challenges of a new job, and then it’s never the right time. As new-born babies sleep a lot, I had plenty of time to write; the moments Salvatore was awake, he was such a joy that I was filled with energy. Often I was literally writing with one hand and feeding him with the other.” When she handed over the thesis draft to the beadle, she realised that her second baby, one she had been pregnant with for almost four years, was finally about to be born.
The artist’s impression she made for the cover of her thesis was inspired by the work of the Dutch painter M.C. Escher. It supports her 7th proposition that ‘a good MEMS design is contemporary art’. In the drawing one easily recognises the basic shape of the device: a paddle with two blocks arranged symmetrically on both sides. “It is meant for TGA, that is, thermogravimetric analysis”, Elina explains. “This is a technique in which the mass of a sample is monitored during heating, providing fundamental information on the material properties of the sample. Existing instruments can measure milligram amounts of samples, but sometimes such amounts are not available, like at crime scenes, or too dangerous to handle, like with explosives. In those cases my MEMS TGA device is a good option. The advantage of such small samples is that they can be heated very fast, up to 1000 kelvin per second.” As the sample can be placed on either side, there is no front or back; this reminded Elina of Escher’s famous stairs where you cannot distinguish between top and bottom. The figures in the drawing refer to different functions of the device. The two jumping figures are the actuators that cause the paddle to resonate, while the figure on top is measuring the resonance frequency. Other figures represent the measurement of time, the heating, the temperature measurement and the sample weighing.
Travellers
In spite of all the hard work, Elina enjoyed her PhD research. “It’s a real challenge to solve problems that no one has tackled before. I also found it rewarding to do a full research project from start till end, from the first sketches to the completed device. And I liked the contacts with the potential users, chemists and pharmacists and the like, who informed me about what they wanted to measure.
Elina Iervolino schreef haar proefschrift tijdens haar zwangerschaps- en ouderschapsverlof. In die periode kon ze zich goed op het schrijven concentreren. Ze promoveerde bij Lina Sarro op een MEMS-sensor voor thermogravimetrische analyse, een techniek waarbij monstermassa’s worden gemeten terwijl ze worden verwarmd. Dit soort metingen wordt gedaan om informatie te verkrijgen over
Photo Annelies te Selle
materiaaleigenschappen. Aangezien met haar device hoeveelheden van enige nanogrammen kunnen worden gemeten, komt het o.a. van pas bij forensich onderzoek en bij explosievenonderzoek. Elina werkt nu als design engineer bij Xensor Integration; haar man Fabio is postdoc bij Lina Sarro. Misschien trekken ze nog verder. Napolitanen reizen wél! n
september 2012 | 15
Pavol Bauer
Photos Annelies te Selle
Electrical Engineering students build their own ‘KITT’ The launch of the new integrated EPO-4 project was a success
This year saw the launch of the EPO-4 project ‘KITT’ (Elektrisch vervoer 2020). Out of 61 second-year students, 57 successfully completed the assignment and demonstrated the abilities of their cars during the final competition.
KITT
In traditional education, students follow a huge number of high-level courses, supplemented with one or two small practicals or projects. Although they obtain very good knowledge of the individual disciplines, what’s missing is the integration of knowledge and skills across the disciplines. Therefore, EEMCS decided to create a broad range of integrating projects that provide a clear view on the societal context of electrical engineering. The aim is to link theory to practice, integrate theory between subjects and encourage students to practice with the theory. The projects are also intended to get students to develop and practice general and academic skills, such as oral presentation, team work, problem description and analysis, as well as professional and engineering skills, such as soldering and Matlab/Simulink.
16 | Quadraad
An example of such an integrated project is the EPO-4 project Elektrisch vervoer 2020 (or ‘KITT’, named after the intelligent talking car in the TV series Knight Rider) for second-year students, which was launched this year. It is designed to motivate students by showing them as early as possible what electrical engineering entails, and by displaying the width and beauty of the field. It is strongly connected to related theoretical topics including electronic power conversion and processing, signal processing, telecommunications and dynamic/control systems. These courses allow students to experiment
to the tutorial tasks and a discussion with a consultant, who grades the work. Each module runs for two to three weeks. The total duration of the project is 14 weeks; each week consists of two mornings in the lab and two mornings of self-study, preparations for the lab assignments, homework and report writing.
Design requirements In the project, students build a contactless charging system and remotely operate a smart and ‘green’ electric toy car. Here, ’green’ does not just refer to ‘electric’, but also implies maximising the efficiency of the energy
“These kids know how to design the KITTS of the 21st century” with modern traffic systems concepts, such as connectivity and autonomy.
Modules The project is split into six independent modules (see insert). They run sequentially and each contributes to the overall goal. Each module is completed by a milestone. A milestone specifies goals to be achieved by a specific date, and typically involves some amount of report writing, handing in the answers
utilisation and employing renewable energy sources for generating electrical power. Speed and energy management are important, as is the tracking accuracy. The overall goal of the project is to take a standard toy car and add such functionalities that it can be charged at a contactless charging point (to be built by the students) using renewable energy sources such as solar cells and wind. It is to be remotely operated, to
be easily located and to be able to detect obstacles in front of it. Finally, it must be able to communicate with a base station (PC) that performs calculations such as location estimation, trajectory tracking and collision avoidance.
Final competition
actuation instructions (motor control and control of the equipment in the car). As can be seen in the pictures on these pages, the students participated in the project with great enthusiasm and dedication. And what’s more, we were very impressed with their results: these kids know how to design the KITTs of the 21st century! n
During the final competition, the students demonstrated their achievements in several races of increasing difficulty. At the start, the car is positioned at a charging station and charges itself using contactless transfer. After charging, the car should go as quickly as possible to one of the targets, while avoiding obstacles such as cones and competing cars. The car is equipped with an anti-collision sensor and a localisation beacon. A bidirectional RF link provides a connection to a base station (PC) that allows the transfer of the anti-collision ranging measurements and the receiving of
Het EPO-4 project Elektrisch Vervoer (‘KITT’) werd dit jaar voor het eerst gehouden. Het werd door 57 van de 61 tweedejaars succesvol afgerond. KITT is een integratieproject: het algemene leerdoel is om verschillende technische disciplines op het
EPO-4th semester: KITT (Electric Transportation 2020) General learning objective: the integration of different technical areas related to electro-mobility and electric cars Educational objectives: • Increased skills in building electronic systems; • Hardware and software skills involving the integration of various programming environments (e.g. MATLAB, Simulink, C) on a combination of platforms (PC, microcontrollers); • Increased skills in measurement techniques, e.g. wireless channel measurements; • Application of course material from energy conversion, control systems, electrical power systems, renewable energy linear algebra, signal transformations, digital signal processing, random signals and telecommunication; • Increased academic skills related to project management: managing an open and complex assignment, planning, acquiring background literature, working in teams, reporting. Modules • Contactless charging • Remote sensing & obstacles detection • Trajectory tracking • Charging from renewable energy sources • Localisation using audio communication signals • System integration, which includes using an RF communication link using Zigbee modules, an ultrasonic anti-collision sensor, etc.
gebied van elektromobiliteit en elektrische auto’s te integreren. Studenten doen allerlei vakspecifieke en algemene kennis en vaardigheden op, variërend van het leren bouwen van elektronische systemen en het doen van metingen tot projectmanagement en rapporteren.
Ze bouwen een elektrisch aangedreven draadloos bestuurbare modelauto met een efficiënte contactloze oplader, een anti-botsingsradar en een plaatsbepalingssysteem. De eindcompetitie was een groot succes. n
september 2012 | 17
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Op de cryptofilippine zijn zes, alleen maar goede, inzendingen binnengekomen. Onder de inzenders - Fokko van de Bult, Cees Dekker, Paul van der Geest, Marleen Keijzer, Huib Lincklaen Arriëns en Bernard Meulenbroek - is het boek ‘Ik was altijd heel slecht in wiskunde’ van Wiskundemeisjes Jeanine Daems en Ionica Smeets verloot. De gelukkige winnaar is: Cees Dekker. n
Kunst met een grote of kleine k Volgende keer: Twaalfuurtje Iets anders dan Sodexo? Maak een foto van een collega tijdens zijn of haar alternatieve lunch (-activiteit) en mail de foto voor 15 oktober naar
[email protected].
Art or ‘art’ Next time: Midday snacks or activities Something else than Sodexo? Photograph a colleague during his or her alternative lunch (activities) and e-mail your picture before 15 October to
[email protected].
Uit haar eigen oeuvre: een schilderij in pastelkrijt van kunstschilder/docent en secretaresse Noortje Fousert
SYMPOSIUM
Te groot voor thuis: een schilderij met een herinnering van Laura Bruns. En van thuis: een schets van een kunstenaar in de dop.
16th of November Faculty of EEMCS
Miro Zeman met Miro in toga; grapje van een bevriende fotograaf. Ga voor Kunst naar zijn Galerie Nova in Slowakije: www.galeria-nova.sk.
Speakers: Andrea Ferrari >> Graphene Technology
Cambridge University
Dmitri Strukov >> Memristor Architectures UC Santa Barbara
and Applications
John Martinis >> Design of a Superconducting Quantum Computer
Jan van der Lubbe heeft alles met kunst: van huis uit, in zijn onderzoek (naar de echte Van Gogh onder de Van Gogh die we nu zien), en als verzamelaar. Hier: drie uit 1000.
UC Santa Barbara
Anatoly Zayats >> Optical Computing King’s College London And others...
18 | Quadraad
www.futurecomputing.nl
Qolofon
Quadraad is een Nederlands-Engelse uitgave van de Faculteit Elektrotechniek, Wiskunde en Informatica/TU Delft voor EWI-medewerkers. Het blad verschijnt 3 keer per jaar (oplage: 1200). Quadraad is a Dutch-English magazine for EEMCS personnel. It is published 3 times a year (print run: 1200) n Redactie: Emiel van Elderen, Stephanie Hessing, Anna Hoek, Geerlinge Pessers-van Reeuwijk, Dagmar Stadler, Ineke Temming, Diane Vedder, Cassan Visser n Aan dit nummer werkten mee: UvA Talen, Pavol Bauer, Rob Fastenau, André
Hensbergen, Fabio Santagata n Eindredactie: Ineke Temming, Diane Vedder n Coördinatie: Temming Tekstproducties, Delft (www.temmingtekst.nl) n Fotografie: Annelies te Selle, Delft (www.anneliesteselle.nl) n Ontwerp en layout: Scheepens reclame adviseurs, Tilburg n Druk: Printadvise bv, Ulvenhout n Redactieadres: Postbus 5031, 2600 GA Delft,
[email protected]. Niet door ons achterhaalde rechthebbenden van foto’s kunnen zichzelf bekend maken via dit e-mailadres.
september 2012 | 19
Foto’s Cassan Visser
Oplossing cryptofilippine
Qiekjes
Qandid Qamera
EEMCS develops new MEMS packaging method A fine example of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) designed at EEMCS/Dimes. It’s a micromachined ‘Pirani gauge’, an instrument used for pressure measurement in vacuum systems. The tube-shaped resistor is buried in the silicon substrate, a real accomplishment in itself. MEMS are used everywhere, from cars to blood pressure meters. They combine sensing & actuating with signal processing. The delicate device is protected from adverse outside influences by a package that has to be mechanically
robust and hermetically sealed, but also small and cost-effective. Fabio Santagata developed a packaging method based on thin-film technology that better meets these requirements than existing approaches. The micro Pirani gauge is used for in situ testing of the package’s hermeticity. Microelektromechanische systemen (MEMS) worden beschermd door een omhulsel dat mechanisch robuust en luchtdicht moet zijn, maar ook klein en goedkoop. EWI heeft een packaging methode ontwikkeld op basis van dunnefilmtechnologie dat beter aan deze eisen voldoet. Een buisvormige micro-Piranimeter in het siliciumsubstraat controleert het vacuum.
Delft University of Technology Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science Mekelweg 4 2628 CD Delft T: +31 (0)15-27 89252 E:
[email protected] Micro Pirani gauge designed and manufactured by Fabio Santagata during his PhD research on ‘Mechanical Robustness and Hermeticity Monitoring for MEMS Thin Film Encapsulation’. Insert: schematic flowchart of the Pirani tube fabrication and the thin-film encapsulation process. Images Fabio Santagata
www.ewi.tudelft.nl
