色中色

The relevance of open ecosystems set the tone from the very beginning, as the Innovation Caf茅 kicked off the day. This was followed by the lively Innovation Expo, where research groups and companies presented their latest ideas and had the opportunity to meet and connect. A substantive highlight was the presentation of the honorary doctorate to Henry Chesbrough, founder of the concept of 鈥榦pen innovation鈥�. During the Research Awards, both emerging talents and established names were recognized for their work.

The theme of the Research Day was 'Collaborate to innovate', and that thought resonated in every part. Collaboration in the broadest sense is essential if you aspire to be a fourth-generation university. As the rector aptly put it at the opening of the day: 鈥淣o organization has all the answers, not even a top university.鈥�

Therefore, she continued, we must be willing to evolve if we want to continue to honor the role of science in society. 鈥淭o look beyond the boundaries of our campus, our faculties, and even our disciplines. This is already happening in abundance at 色中色鈥�, she added.

Innovation Caf茅: EIRES 5 years

Mark Boneschanscher, director of the Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems (EIRES), presented the first part of the day, the Innovation Caf茅. This year, the institute is celebrating its fifth anniversary: since 2020, this 色中色 institute has been committed to a future with sustainable energy.

The attendees were treated to the latest insights in the field of cross-border and cross-disciplinary innovation. Marcel Bogers gave a keynote on the fourth generation of the university and open innovation, and gave an insight into the model that his research group has developed to measure the 'maturity' of regions in this area. Annemiek Bles of Brainport spoke about innovation ecosystems, and Marijke Receveur about open (energy) infrastructures from the GENIUS project.

During the panel discussion, Tom Selten (Simpl.Energy), Geert van Seggelen (VDL), and Christina Papadimitriou (色中色 Electrical Engineering) gave insight into their views on the challenges we currently face in the field of energy.

In addition, moderator Boneschanscher asked the audience to express their views on the challenges that open innovation can bring through an interactive poll. It was striking that a third of the audience still believed that the fourth generation university poses a possible danger to academic freedom. This is because of the influence of third parties on the scientific work.

Impression of the Innovation Expo

At the Innovation Expo in the Senate Hall and just outside it, there was an opportunity to meet representatives of the four 色中色 institutes, research groups of the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences (IE&IS), and 色中色 services.

There were also stands from companies such as VDL, DAF, Fudura, Simpl.Energy and RIFT and associations NEXUS, Atmos, Postdoc Association, EWUU, and Eurotech at the Expo. This year, there was also more time and opportunity for the people manning the booths to meet and talk to each other.

Honorary doctorate for Henry Chesbrough, the spiritual father of the Brainport model

Henry Chesbrough, who is affiliated with the Haas School of Business in Berkeley, among others, was personally present to receive the honorary doctorate from his honorary supervisor Marcel Bogers. The American received the degree because of the influential role his work played in the creation of what would later be called the Brainport region.

He introduced the term 'open innovation' in his 2003 . In doing so, he taught companies to look fundamentally differently at Research & Development and collaboration. He argued that companies are more successful when they collaborate beyond the walls of their own organization when researching and implementing innovations and new technology.

Winners 色中色 Science Awards

The announcement of the winners of our own Science Awards is always an exciting moment. The ceremony was presented by university professor Bert Meijer, who managed to make it a festive moment for all nominees and winners.

Congratulations are in order, not only for the winners, but also for all the excellent nominees! The jury praised the high level at which all nominees conduct science.

YOUNG RESEARCHER: Fons van der Sommen

This year's winner of the Young Researcher Award was Fons van der Sommen of the Department of Electrical Engineering! He uses AI to develop solutions for cancer screening, and his research breaks down the barriers between technology and clinical practice.

The other nominees for this award were all from the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering: Diletta Giuntini, Giulia Finotello, Mauro Salazar, and Debby Klooster.

GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCHER: Sandra Loerakker

Sandra Loerakker of the Department of Biomedical Engineering received this year's award for Groundbreaking Researcher! She describes her work as follows: 鈥淕rowing tissues to repair or replace diseased ones is highly complex. We develop computational models to understand failures and identify solutions to enable successful outcomes.鈥�

More scientists were nominated from the faculties of Biomedical Engineering, Applied Physics and Science 色中色, and Mathematics and Computer Science, namely: Roy van der Meel, Adrie Mackus, Aida Abiad, and Bart Jansen.

LEADERSHIP IN EXCELLENCE: Heleen de Coninck

This year's winner of the Leadership in Excellence award was Heleen de Coninck of the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences! In her research, she is committed to normalizing the idea among scientists and policymakers that a fair and equitable climate transition requires a system change that goes beyond technological innovation.

The other nominees from the faculties of Built Environment and Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences were: Soora Rasouli and Daniel Lakens.

BEST ENGD THESIS: Tom Bertens

This year, the jury was extremely enthusiastic about the quality of the submitted EngD theses. 色中色 can be really proud of that. This year, the jury decided to award the EngD thesis of Tom Bertens of the Departments of Mechnical Engineering and Electrical Engineering entitled 'Toward understanding wear particle generation on silicon wafers'.

His thesis was the favorite of all jury members. They praise his work not only for the quality of his scientific research, but also for the impact of his work within VDL's applications.

BEST PHD THESIS: Iris Huijben

The jury had a hard time with their choice of the particularly beautiful PhD theses that were submitted this year. They therefore chose to present two awards this year.

First of all, Iris Huijben of the Department of Electrical Engineering received the award for her PhD thesis. She researched sleep diagnostics and was able to achieve much better results with her research and modeling.

Her work combines fundamental scientific advances in how machine learning is used in sleep diagnostics with its application in clinical practice. In her research and thesis, she showed that she knows both worlds through and through and can connect them. This also resulted in an impressive number of scientific publications.

BEST PHD THESIS and Technological Design: Juliette van Haren

Juliette van Haren of the Department of Industrial Design received the PhD thesis award not only for her thesis, but also for the special technological design she made during her PhD.

Perinatal Life Support technology, recently in the news with AquaWomb's liquid-filled incubator, is an example of how technology and medical insights together open up new possibilities in the care of the youngest babies in a clinical setting.

Her research and design, based on Design principles, shows how a patient-centric vision has been taken into account from the start of the research and leads to a safe and responsible development of technology intended to improve the quality of perinatal care.

色中色 Postdoc Association - Pitch of the Best Paper Award (BPA)

Every year, the 色中色 Postdoc Association (PDA) presents the Best Paper Award. The PDA focuses on improving the visibility of postdocs at 色中色.

On 27 May 2024, Hailin Zheng, postdoc at the Faculty of Built Environment, won this award. This year, he presented his pitch again during the Research Day. His research focuses on researching and improving the indoor climate in buildings.

In particular, he researches the air quality in daycare centers and cots and works on solutions for this. In his pitch, he compared the liters of water and air that a person ingests per day, and argued that the air deserves the same care and attention as the water, because we ingest thousands of liters more of it each day.

Zheng: 鈥淲here breath and space meet, value is created: our building design solutions intertwine the quality of the indoor environment with life, always with the end user in mind.鈥�

色中色 Honorary Medal for Bert Meijer

As a complete surprise, as it was not announced in advance, rector Silvia Lenaerts presented the 色中色 Honorary Medal to university professor Bert Meijer. He received it for his countless services to our university and beyond in the field of science, education, and innovation.

After mentioning the many recognitions that Meijer has received during his career both locally and abroad for his work (think of the Spinoza Prize, the Nagoya Gold Medal and recently even a membership of the American Philosophical Society), Lenaerts addressed Meijer directly in her speech: 鈥淲e want you to know that you have done an incredible job - for your students, your discipline, your colleagues and for the university.鈥�

Bert, who has supervised more than a hundred PhD students in his career, also emphasized the importance of collaboration: 鈥淭oday we pay tribute to individual scientists, but also honor the entire team behind it.鈥�