Shaping the future during the TU/e Research Day 2024

The Research Day began with an inspiring interactive keynote entitled "Shaping the Future with AI," by Carlo van de Weijer, managing director of the Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute (EAISI). This captivating hour was dedicated to showcasing the groundbreaking articifical intelligence research taking place at our university, and to celebrating the fifth anniversary of research institute EAISI.

AND THE WINNERS OF THE TU/E SCIENCE AWARDS 2024 ARE....

The redeeming word is out for the nominated researchers. The proud winners of the six TU/e Science Awards 2024 were announced by Max Birk, who himself received the award for Young Researcher last year. Here we present our top winners from this year.

YOUNG RESEARCHER: Francesca Grisoni

Dr. Francesca Grisoni from the department of Biomediacal Engineering has a mission to stretch the limits of AI in drug discovery and to create innovative technology that can augment human creativity in the discovery of next-generation therapeutics. Congrats Francesca! 

GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCHER: Tugce Martagan

Tugce Martagan from the department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences focuses on improving patient access to affordable medicines. Her research combines artificial intelligence, life sciences and operations research to improve pharmaceutical manufacturing and supply chains. Well done Tugce! 

LEADERSHIP IN EXCELLENCE AWARD: Marc Geers

Prof. Dr. Ir. Marc Geers of the department of Mechanical Engineering kept it short, but powerful in his speech. “In the end, every device fails through mechanics. That is why we need to unravel, master and control it across the scales.” We congratulate Marc Geers on his Leadership in Excellence Award! 

BEST ENGD THESIS: Beatrice Federici

With her thesis on Real-time Cloud-based Ultrasound System for Advanced Image Formation and Image Settings Autotuning, Beatrice Federici (EngD course Design of Electrical Engineering Systems) wins the TU/e Science Award for best EngD thesis. Congratulations Beatrice!

BEST PHD THESIS: Vincent Debets

“Education is experience, and the essence of experience is self-reliance," said Vincent Debets, winner of the TU/e Science Award for best thesis. He conducted research at the department of Applied Physics & Science Education on glassy dynamics in dense active matter. Congratulations Vincent!

HONORARY DOCTORATE AWARDED TO KAREN SCRIVENER (EPFL) AND MARTIN VAN DEN BRINK (ASML)  

No fewer than two honorary doctorates were awarded on the Blauwe Zaal stage. Martin van den Brink (ASML) and Karen Scrivener (EPFL) received these special recognitions for their scientific contributions in their fields. It is an annual tradition to honor people outside the university for their major scientific contributions and pioneering work.

ASML owes its technological successes primarily to the visionary leadership of Van den Brink, who joined the company in 1984. Van den Brink – until recently, the former CTO and former president of ASML – is a leader in systems engineering with an inspiring style that demands the very best from himself and his employees.

He made a crucial contribution to the production of the latest generation of (EUV) semiconductor manufacturing machines when almost no one believed that it could succeed. His work and vision continue to have a profound influence on the entire manner in which ASML innovates and will continue to be the guiding force with which the chip machine manufacturer maintains its lead over the competition.

Karen Scrivener

As a professor and the head of the Laboratory of Construction Materials at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Karen Scrivener is one of the most prominent and influential researchers in the field of cement and concrete with more than 300 scientific publications.

Her most important contributions are an understanding of the microstructure, hydration mechanisms and durability of cementitious materials and, in particular, the invention of LC3 technology (limestone calcined clay cement) that enables a reduction of the CO2 intensity of cement by up to 40 percent. This technology is now being deployed by companies in over 50 countries.

TU/e Research Expo – meet & mingle with our researchers

In the afternoon, you could immerse yourself in the wonders of our Research Expo in the Auditorium. Our esteemed research institutes unveiled their latest discoveries and innovations. 

Calum Ryan winner of Talking Science 2024

On the evening of Tuesday June 11^th, the second edition of Talking Science took place in the Blauwe Zaal in the Auditorium building on the TU/e campus. Ten PhD and EngD researchers from several TU/e departments delivered engaging, inspiring, and fun three-minute pitches about their research. Unlike a typical presentation, the researchers were not allowed to use slides, but they could use props to help support their pitch.

In the end there could only be one winner and that person was Calum Ryan, PhD researcher at the Department of Applied Physics and Science Education. In his pitch “Going with the Flow Using ‘Super-Water’”, Ryan introduced the concept of plasma-activated water, which he referred to as ‘super-water’. This can be created via a reaction between water and a plasma. While ‘super-water’ is used in many applications, very little is known about how the water flows and what goes on during its production. This is the basis of Ryan’s research at the moment. During the Research Day, Ryan gave his presentation again.