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Quarterly • September-October-November-December 2021 • Delivery Office 3000 Leuven 1 • PB919663<br />
Magazine of the Faculty of<br />
Engineering Technology<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
Special <strong>edition</strong><br />
December 2021<br />
Birgit Peeters<br />
AGORIA SOLAR TEAM<br />
WORLD CHAMPIONS<br />
WIN 2 ND EUROPEAN TITLE<br />
• Technovation Hub Academy<br />
• Job fairs 2021<br />
• Formula Electric Belgium<br />
• Microdegrees Health Technology<br />
• Robot-assisted eye surgery<br />
• Window printing in 3D<br />
• Student Ambassadors<br />
• First Alumni Award<br />
1
GOLD IN EUROPE, SILVER IN MOROCCO<br />
The engineering students of the Agoria Solar Team won the iLumen European Solar Challenge on Sunday, 19 September 2021, making them<br />
European champions for the second time in a row. The KU Leuven team participated with the 2019 solar car with which they won the world title in<br />
Australia. The Bluepoint Atlas, the newest solar car, finished second in the Solar Challenge Morocco in October 2021.<br />
CONTENT<br />
• Editorial 3<br />
• Faculty news 4<br />
• Educational development in focus 13<br />
• Students in focus 20<br />
• Professor in focus 18<br />
• Researcher in focus 16<br />
• Faculty worldwide 20<br />
• Alumni in focus 26<br />
• Alumni news 26<br />
COLOPHON<br />
<strong>ConnectING</strong> is the magazine of the Faculty of Engineering Technology of KU Leuven.<br />
It is published three times a year and is intended for all students and staff of the faculty<br />
and its 7 campuses, alumni, external relations and the broad social field with which<br />
the faculty maintains a network.<br />
Responsible publisher: Prof. Bert Lauwers, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering<br />
Technology | Editorial Board: Anja Huysmans (Madam Chairman), (Hilde Bonte)<br />
Kris Henrioulle a.i., Dorine Bruneel, Niels De Brier, Ellen Demarsin, Koen Eneman,<br />
Hilde Lauwereys, Yves Persoons, Inge Van Cauter, Louis van Hoye, Bart Vanrumste,<br />
Rens Vervaeke<br />
Editor: Yves Persoons | Editorial Secretariat: Inge Van Cauter<br />
Editorial Adress:<br />
<strong>ConnectING</strong><br />
Faculty of Engineering Technology<br />
Willem de Croylaan 56, building E, bus 2203<br />
3001 Heverlee (Belgium)<br />
+00 32 53 72 71 86 (Secretariat)<br />
connecting@kuleuven.be<br />
www.fet.kuleuven.be<br />
Photos: Joren De Weerdt, Julie Feyaerts, Tom Talloen and Filip Van Loock.<br />
Layout and printing Office:<br />
artoos group – www.artoosgroup.eu<br />
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KLIMAATNEUTRAAL GEDRUKT CERT. NUMMER: 53520-2009-1003<br />
2
EDITORIAL<br />
WELL-CONNECTED<br />
THROUGH THE CRISIS<br />
What do the coronavirus pandemic and global warming<br />
have in common? More than you might think. Both are<br />
global hot topics, with believers and non-believers,<br />
proponents, and deniers, creating daily polemics about what is<br />
right or wrong.<br />
Meanwhile, scientists and engineers worldwide continue to<br />
search for solutions, knowing that there is no miracle cure.<br />
Moreover, it is also clear that no individual, country, or continent<br />
can unravel this tangle on its own.<br />
People and nations depend on cooperation, willingly or not. This<br />
requires not only good will but also good connections to build<br />
on. Connecting and developing offer ways out of the crises, they<br />
are building blocks for the future.<br />
This magazine is called ‘<strong>ConnectING</strong>’. Our faculty is the product<br />
of connecting & developing. It is our daily work. This magazine<br />
shows the results of that work. A good example is the<br />
Technovation Hub Academy that was launched in the spring.<br />
Academia and industry are working together to stimulate the<br />
creativity and entrepreneurship of future engineers. A highlight of<br />
connectivity were the job fairs on our campuses. In their virtual<br />
form, they were on par with the live <strong>edition</strong>s from the pre-Corona<br />
era.<br />
Technovation Hub groups, coordinates, and supports our<br />
faculty’s showpieces: the student teams. Future engineers put<br />
their shoulders to an ambitious project in which they can prove<br />
their technological and entrepreneurial skills. This issue contains<br />
the exploits of the Solar Team in the iLumen Solar Race and the<br />
Moroccan Solar Challenge as well as the performance of the<br />
Formula Belgium Electric Team during the <strong>international</strong> Formula<br />
Student Competition in the summer. Both teams are closely<br />
linked with business and industry. Together, they also share a<br />
higher goal: making the public and young people aware of<br />
renewable energy and carbon-free mobility.<br />
A man who has made the fight for climate his life’s work is Serge<br />
de Gheldere, alumnus of our faculty. He was Al Gore’s first<br />
European climate ambassador. He has already advised dozens<br />
of governments, cities, and regions in the transition to sustainable<br />
energy. The fact that he won the first Award of Alumni Engineers<br />
KU Leuven makes us particularly proud.<br />
From climate to health is only a small step. After all, both are also<br />
connected. In this issue, we look at what our researchers have<br />
achieved in the field of robot eye surgery, personal health care<br />
systems and safeguarding privacy in the health sector.<br />
Our connections transcend the boundaries of countries and<br />
continents. Despite the corona pandemic, the number of new<br />
<strong>international</strong> students in the bachelor’s program increased by<br />
30% this year. In the master’s programs, it even doubled. In this<br />
issue we highlight Indian and Thai students from the twinning<br />
and dual degree programmes.<br />
In times of crisis, people and nations tend to turn in on themselves.<br />
This is understandable but it does not ensure sustainable<br />
solutions. In the spirit of never waste a good crisis, the actual<br />
challenges and difficulties should be considered as opportunities<br />
to rethink, re-imagine, and recreate our daily routines. A good<br />
connectivity can be a golden service in this respect.<br />
Professor Bert Lauwers<br />
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Technology<br />
CONNECTING<br />
3
FACULTY NEWS<br />
Ellen Demarsin<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
TECHNOVATION HUB:<br />
THE CHALLENGE OF (GLOBAL)<br />
NETWORKED ENGINEERING<br />
COMMUNITIES<br />
4
On 6 May 2021, Technovation Hub organised its third Innovation & Networking Evening,<br />
for the first time entirely online. For the student teams, it was a ‘moment de gloire’ to<br />
show off their achievements and to share expertise with the participants and with each<br />
other. Ellen Demarsin made her widely acclaimed entrance as the new Executive<br />
Committee member of Technovation Hub.<br />
E<br />
llen inherits one of the faculty’s<br />
showpieces from her predecessor<br />
Chrisje Haenen. Since 2016,<br />
Technovation Hub has been the<br />
breeding ground in which engineering<br />
talent and entrepreneurship merge and<br />
result in innovative projects set up by<br />
ambitious student teams. These teams<br />
in turn attract other students, take part<br />
in <strong>international</strong> competitions and have<br />
themselves become examples of<br />
networked engineering communities.<br />
Excellent mix<br />
“The COVID-19 restrictions and lack of<br />
direct contact did not negatively affect<br />
attendance”, Ellen noted. “With more<br />
than 100 participants we remained at<br />
the same level of the previous live<br />
<strong>edition</strong>s. In terms of audience diversity,<br />
we are doing even better: 21%<br />
students, 42% professionals from<br />
companies and 37% professors and<br />
researchers. An excellent mix of profiles<br />
and backgrounds for cross-fertilisation<br />
and networking”.<br />
The programme contained the by now<br />
classic ingredients: a welcome by the<br />
dean, a prominent guest speaker, a<br />
panel discussion, workshops by the<br />
student teams and a networking<br />
moment at the end. Prof. Bert Lauwers,<br />
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering<br />
Technology opened the event with a<br />
comparison: “Our multicampus faculty<br />
in itself is a model of a networked<br />
engineering community. The<br />
cooperation between seven campuses<br />
has led to a new engineering curriculum,<br />
intense involvement of the business<br />
world, participation in the <strong>international</strong><br />
Design Factory Global Network, joining<br />
the Siemens Industry Academy and<br />
much more. Technovation Hub can be<br />
called the emanation of the profile of<br />
our education and the mission of our<br />
faculty”.<br />
T-shaped engineers<br />
Further in his speech, Prof. Lauwers<br />
called interdisciplinary cooperation the<br />
engine of innovation. “The increasing<br />
complexity of engineering has torn<br />
down the fences between disciplines.<br />
Therefore, engineers are required to<br />
master knowledge, skills and attitudes<br />
outside their traditional comfort zone.<br />
This has led to the rise of what is<br />
known as the ‘T-shaped engineer’.<br />
Essentially, the T-shaped concept is a<br />
metaphor for the depth and the breadth<br />
that a professional needs in his/her<br />
competence. The vertical bar<br />
represents the depth of related skills<br />
and expertise in a single field, whereas<br />
the horizontal bar represents the<br />
breadth of skills and the ability to<br />
collaborate across disciplines with<br />
experts in other areas. For engineers,<br />
this means not only possessing deep<br />
technical skills, but also having broader<br />
attitudes such as empathy,<br />
entrepreneurial and communication<br />
skills, team spirit and the ability to<br />
collaborate. Characteristic of the<br />
T-shaped engineers is their dynamic<br />
versatility: the continuous alternation of<br />
deepening and broadening. The<br />
T-shaped concept is the success<br />
formula of each of our student teams”.<br />
Enabling breakthrough<br />
Koen Verhaert, CEO of Verhaert<br />
Masters in Innovation, was the keynote<br />
speaker. He runs a group of product<br />
innovation companies helping other<br />
companies and entrepreneurs to<br />
innovate, creating new products,<br />
business and services. According to<br />
Koen Verhaert, innovation must meet<br />
the following criteria: user-centred,<br />
business-driven, multidisciplinary and<br />
enabled by technology. Only an<br />
integrated approach allows you to align<br />
products, markets and investments in<br />
the most optimal way. “Innovation is<br />
possible on different levels and in<br />
different phases. To start with, you can<br />
inject innovation into your core business<br />
by attracting specialists or calling in<br />
external experts. When it comes to<br />
adjacent innovation, you move into<br />
other areas and have to introduce new<br />
technologies. A third option is the<br />
disruptive approach, in which you<br />
resolutely take a completely different<br />
path. Each of these formulas has its<br />
own approach and methodology”.<br />
After the innovative workshops<br />
traditionally provided by the student<br />
teams, Prof. Gerard Govers, Vice<br />
Rector Science, Engineering and<br />
Technology of KU Leuven, pronounced<br />
the closing words. He emphasised the<br />
educational added value of the student<br />
projects and the exemplary role of<br />
Technovation Hub in creating and<br />
supporting so much innovation and<br />
entrepreneurship.<br />
And Ellen? She could not wish for a<br />
better total immersion in her new job<br />
and professional environment. Grateful<br />
for the preparatory work of her<br />
predecessor and her colleagues, she<br />
takes up the torch, determined to<br />
tackle the challenge of (global)<br />
networked engineering communities.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.technovationhub.be<br />
CONNECTING<br />
5
CAMPUS NEWS<br />
MAKERSPACE LEUVEN:<br />
CREATING THE<br />
FUTURE TOGETHER<br />
In the old industrial heart of Europe’s most innovative city, a ‘making & learning space’ has<br />
recently been set up. Those who expect a studio for technicians, hobbyists or do-ityourselvers<br />
should revise their opinion. The building is more than just a space. The Leuven<br />
making & learning space presents itself as an innovation mindset that relies on the potential of<br />
multidisciplinary collaboration and co-creation. Group T Campus is present with a High-Tech<br />
Lab and a STEAM studio. Coordinators Jeroen Buijs and Stijn De Jonge tell the story.<br />
The Vaartkom area in Leuven has<br />
undergone a complete transformation<br />
in just a few years. “It<br />
seems as if from the first industrial<br />
revolution we have immediately moved<br />
on to Industry 4.0”, Jeroen believes.<br />
“The technological revolution that the<br />
making processes have recently<br />
undergone puts building and making<br />
back in the spotlight. All over the world,<br />
makerspaces are popping up like<br />
mushrooms as centres of innovation and<br />
out-of-the-box thinking. In Leuven, the<br />
city has taken the initiative to bring<br />
together a wide range of actors. These<br />
are certainly not only knowledge<br />
institutions and businesses, but also<br />
social organisations, youth centres,<br />
artists, ... in short, everyone who has<br />
made the city what it is and contributes<br />
to what it will become. The Faculty of<br />
Engineering Technology will also be<br />
present with its Leuven campus, but<br />
also with Technovation Hub and CORE,<br />
the cooperative of engineering students<br />
that develops concepts around rational<br />
energy use and the circular economy.<br />
Practices<br />
“You can best compare the making &<br />
learning space to an ecosystem where<br />
across all ages, backgrounds, disciplines<br />
and sectors people work together on the<br />
challenges of today and tomorrow,” Stijn<br />
continues. “The participants not only<br />
share the space, but also ideas, materials<br />
and expertise. In this way, they help<br />
shape and give substance to practices<br />
where everyone learns from each other.”<br />
“To realize such practices, you obviously<br />
need materials,” Jeroen notes. “We work<br />
with four essential raw materials. These<br />
are ‘people-in-relation’ with other people<br />
and the environment, ‘materials’ (from<br />
wood to vegetables), ‘energy’ (gas and<br />
electricity but also muscle power) and<br />
finally ‘knowledge and skills’. These raw<br />
materials must not only be used<br />
sustainably, but also in a circular manner.<br />
In other words, nothing must go to waste.<br />
What is used is reused or given a new<br />
purpose. This also applies to the spaces<br />
in the building. The layout of these spaces<br />
can change according to the needs and<br />
circumstances. That is why there is also<br />
a ‘white space’ with which you can<br />
figuratively go in all directions”.<br />
Subspaces<br />
The making & learning space is located in<br />
the mills of Orshoven and the silos of the<br />
old Stella Artois brewery. “There you will<br />
find eight so-called sharing places,”<br />
explains Stijn. “These are art studios, a<br />
co-working space, a Low-Tech Lab for<br />
tinkerers and repairers, a New Media Lab<br />
for beginners and professionals, a<br />
vegetable garden and of course a<br />
canteen, the beating art of the building”.<br />
“Group T Leuven Campus has committed<br />
to two sub-places,” Jeroen adds. “The<br />
first is the High-Tech Lab. There we are<br />
tackling the problem of plastic pollution.<br />
Our goal is to install a circular<br />
manufacturing lab where plastic waste<br />
serves as a raw material for innovative<br />
materials and products. We are also<br />
going to build a recycling machine for<br />
plastic there”.<br />
“Our second subplot is the STEAM studio.<br />
STEAM is STEM with the A of ‘arts’<br />
added. This totally matches our vision of<br />
linking sciences, technology, and maths<br />
with the creative and the artistic. There is<br />
also a perfect connection with the<br />
location. The Vaartkom has grown into<br />
the creative hotspot of Leuven, with<br />
numerous creative businesses and art<br />
studios. It is a biotope where our students,<br />
teachers and researchers immediately<br />
feel at home”.<br />
Two-way traffic<br />
The partners of the Leuven making &<br />
learning space also do not recoil to<br />
question the concept of the makerspace<br />
itself. “We want to break the traditional<br />
pattern of ‘citizen science’ or even turn it<br />
around completely,” Stijn confirms.<br />
“Usually, it is scientists who involve<br />
citizens in their research, just think of<br />
counting birds or capturing fine dust. Our<br />
space wants to challenge citizens and<br />
young people, to come up with their own<br />
research questions. They do not have to<br />
look far. Mobility, traffic safety, noise<br />
pollution, health, energy use, food safety,<br />
... the topics are up for grabs.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.maakleerplekleuven.be<br />
6
Andreas Monsieur, Mostafa Elkhouly, Hannah Gunsch, Bram Van Bogaert & Antoine Devroe<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
CONNECTING<br />
7
CAMPUS NEWS<br />
GREAT APPRECIATION<br />
FOR CALL ACTION<br />
INTERNATIONAL OFFICE<br />
GROUP T LEUVEN CAMPUS<br />
8<br />
Ranjini Mayichery, Zhibin Sun, Arnoud Martens, Vera Psarogianni and Wim Polet<br />
© Julie Feyaerts
If the Belgian students already have a hard time during the corona pandemic, the problems<br />
of the <strong>international</strong> students are sometimes even bigger. Especially, first-year students report<br />
a lack of social contact and motivating support of their fellow students and professors.<br />
During March 2021, Group T Leuven Campus International Office organised a telephone call<br />
among its foreign students. The initiative was highly appreciated by the students and by the<br />
Task Force International Students of KU Leuven.<br />
Group T Leuven Campus is the<br />
faculty’s most <strong>international</strong><br />
campus. Over 25% of the 2,400<br />
engineering students are foreign and<br />
study in the English-language bachelor’s<br />
and master’s programmes. Together they<br />
represent over 60 nationalities. This<br />
academic year, more than 150 foreigners<br />
enrolled directly in the first bachelor of<br />
Engineering Technology.<br />
“That it would be a difficult year, we<br />
already knew after the experience with<br />
COVID-19 in the second semester of last<br />
year”, says Wim Polet, Director of the<br />
International Office. “That is why over this<br />
academic year we already organised a<br />
survey on well-being and digital education,<br />
information sessions for worried parents<br />
and family at home and relaxation<br />
activities during the Christmas holidays.<br />
We also offered so called ‘walking talkies’<br />
Well-being<br />
“These activities have all proven useful,<br />
but we were nevertheless left with an<br />
uneasy feeling that we still knew too little<br />
about the individual well-being of the<br />
<strong>international</strong> students”, Wim continues.<br />
“We know from experience that students<br />
do not always take the first step<br />
themselves, so we decided to contact<br />
them directly by phone. Not for a formal<br />
interview, but for an informal personal<br />
talk”.<br />
In March, the International Office staff,<br />
together with the student counsellors and<br />
the mentors, started the call round. “It<br />
was not always easy”, Wim confirms. “We<br />
did not have the phone number of all<br />
students and not everyone was equally<br />
eager to cooperate. In the end, we<br />
succeeded in speaking to 200 students.<br />
On the average, a call lasted about 30<br />
minutes. But some talks took more than<br />
an hour. It is no coincidence that most of<br />
these were first-year students”.<br />
Peers<br />
During the calls, open questions were<br />
asked so that the students could tell end<br />
ventilate their stories. Can they still cope<br />
with the study? Do they need more or<br />
different social contacts? What do they<br />
think of the past semester? What can the<br />
campus do to make life and study more<br />
comfortable, etc. “The calls confirmed<br />
that the first-year students are having a<br />
hard time”, Wim says. “They are studying<br />
in a new environment in a foreign country.<br />
They have not built a network yet and they<br />
miss the opportunity to compare<br />
themselves with peers because of the<br />
online education. Many students are<br />
afraid to ask for help. The invisibility of<br />
fellow students increases this uncertainty.<br />
Added to this is the corona pandemic, the<br />
fear of contamination, the concern for<br />
their parents and relatives far away and<br />
living in a lockdown and deserted city. In<br />
18% of the students, we found that<br />
permanent monitoring or even professional<br />
help was needed. These students were<br />
referred to the university health centres.<br />
With the older students, we got a very<br />
different picture. They already have a<br />
network and connections and are<br />
therefore more resilient”.<br />
Student-friendly<br />
“The students we spoke, all appreciated<br />
our initiative”, Wim concludes. “It gave<br />
them a feeling of recognition, of<br />
reassurance that the university cares<br />
about them. It contributed to the support<br />
and the self-confidence they need to get<br />
through this difficult period. In that respect<br />
our action has been successful. However,<br />
it required a considerable investment of<br />
time and energy on the part of the staff.<br />
But if we are serious about<br />
<strong>international</strong>isation, we owe it to our<br />
<strong>international</strong> students. Moreover, we<br />
profile our campus, our faculty and the<br />
university as a customer-oriented and<br />
student-friendly environment. This, in<br />
turn, enhances our <strong>international</strong> imago. In<br />
short, everyone benefits from our call<br />
action”.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
CONNECTING<br />
9
CAMPUS NEWS<br />
JOB FAIRS 2021:<br />
ENGINEERS REMAIN<br />
IN DEMAND<br />
Online recruitment and application were the standard this year. The transition from live to<br />
virtual went fast and smooth on all campuses of the Faculty of Engineering Technology.<br />
Against all expectations, the virtual job fairs had a high turnout and in many respects were not<br />
inferior to the live <strong>edition</strong>s in the pre-coronation era. The pandemic has not affected the<br />
demand for engineers, that much is clear.<br />
Organising a job fair amid the<br />
COVID 19 crisis, did not create<br />
high expectations on the campuses.<br />
De Nayer Campus and the<br />
Thomas More college, which traditionally<br />
organise the largest job fair, opened a<br />
joint platform with their colleagues at Geel<br />
Campus to make sure there were enough<br />
companies and vacancies. Lieze<br />
Rombauts, communication manager at<br />
De Nayer Campus, speaks of a good decision.<br />
“With 245 companies, we are<br />
approaching the number we had at the<br />
physical job fair last year. The online formula<br />
has not deterred our loyal customers<br />
from registering again. Together they offered<br />
930 vacancies, not only for<br />
technology engineers but also for professional<br />
bachelors”.<br />
“The success of the joint exhibition is also<br />
evident from the other figures,” says Ellen<br />
Mostmans, communication manager at<br />
Geel Campus “For example, 2500 final-year<br />
students were uploaded to the<br />
system. 940 penultimate year students,<br />
lecturers and external visitors registered.<br />
This resulted in 35,000 visits to the<br />
stands, 8,600 job consultations, 435 direct<br />
applications, 1,780 chat<br />
conversations and 660 direct messages<br />
sent by visitors.<br />
The joint job fair of the De Nayer and Geel<br />
campuses also provided online job application<br />
training and sessions on topics<br />
such as a doctorate, innovative entrepreneurship,<br />
further study at the faculty and<br />
KU Leuven and the educational master’s<br />
for engineers. One-on-one interviews with<br />
Organisational Psychology students were<br />
possible.<br />
Panel discussion<br />
At the opening of the fair on 9 March, a<br />
panel discussion in collaboration with<br />
Kanaal Z was scheduled with Martine<br />
Reynaerts, CEO of Reynaerts Aluminium,<br />
Hans Maertens, managing director of<br />
VOKA, Prof. Luc Sels, Rector of KU<br />
Leuven and Stijn Coenen, General Director<br />
of Thomas More. The speakers stressed<br />
the crucial importance of innovation, entrepreneurship<br />
and multidisciplinarity for<br />
the graduated engineers. Besides a solid<br />
technical knowledge, professional skills<br />
are also indispensable for a young professional.<br />
And if you want to be successful in<br />
your career, lifelong learning is a natural<br />
attitude. After the panel discussion, Hilde<br />
Crevits, Vice-Minister-President and<br />
Flemish Minister for Economy, Innovation<br />
and Employment opened the joint virtual<br />
fair.<br />
Primeur<br />
This year, Ghent Technology Campus organised<br />
a completely virtual fair for the<br />
first time and joined forces with Odisee<br />
University College. “With 75 companies<br />
we did not reach the 130 of previous<br />
years, but with 860 vacancies we more<br />
than made up for it,” says communications<br />
manager Laura Taelman. “The 254<br />
final-year students who visited the fair<br />
participated in 1,878 job consultations<br />
and 110 direct applications. 178 students<br />
participated in the chat sessions and 450<br />
sent a message to a company. During the<br />
job fair, the students could have their CVs<br />
screened at Randstad and the Student<br />
Career Centre. There were also information<br />
sessions on topics such as doctoral<br />
studies, further studies, and innovative<br />
entrepreneurship.<br />
Bruges Campus opted for a small-scale<br />
initiative to replace the physical job fair.<br />
For half a day, parallel online sessions of<br />
30 minutes each were organised, during<br />
which students could choose from four<br />
sessions scheduled at the same time,”<br />
says organizer Isabelle Vervenne. “This<br />
way, each student could get to know at<br />
least eight companies. In total, 30 com-<br />
10
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
panies were involved, and 125 students<br />
took part, including final-year professional<br />
bachelor students from Vives University<br />
College”.<br />
“The students were quite satisfied with<br />
the format”, continues Isabelle. Many<br />
questions were asked during the sessions.<br />
But everyone agreed that a physical<br />
fair is preferable to an online version”.<br />
Career Days<br />
The same message can be heard at<br />
Group T Campus in Leuven. The virtual<br />
fair opened its doors on 10 February with<br />
87 exhibitors. “That was considerably less<br />
than the 150 we had last year, but the<br />
virtual fair stands up to comparison when<br />
it comes to job vacancies,” says Vanessa<br />
Elsen, Communication & Events staff<br />
member. “The 419 vacancies have been<br />
consulted 6,046 times so far, resulting in<br />
506 applications. The stands themselves<br />
were visited 15,284 times. Students and<br />
exhibitors together initiated 653 conversations.<br />
The students themselves took<br />
the initiative 564 times. At the same time,<br />
a lot of messages were exchanged: 2421<br />
by the exhibitors and 1002 by the students.<br />
These figures date from the end of<br />
April. The virtual fair runs until the end of<br />
September. We expect a new wave of<br />
registrations after the exam period”.<br />
At Group T Leuven Campus, too, the virtual<br />
fair was accompanied by flanking and<br />
complementary activities, including the<br />
Online Career Days organized by the student<br />
organization Industria. These<br />
consisted of company presentations and<br />
meetings for final-year students and recruiters.<br />
Second Life<br />
While virtual fairs may not be able to<br />
match their physical counterparts, they<br />
are not limited to a one-day event. The<br />
fairs on most campuses remain online<br />
until autumn. Now that it appears that<br />
business confidence is on the rise again,<br />
this could well be an important asset.<br />
According to the World Trade<br />
Organisation, global trade is recovering<br />
better than expected from the pandemic,<br />
with trade volumes expected to increase<br />
by 8% in 2021. In addition, the WHO is<br />
also forecasting global growth of 5.1%<br />
after a 3.8% drop in 2020. The figures of<br />
the Starters Atlas, published on 21 April<br />
by Graydon together with the employers’<br />
organisation Unizo show that never so<br />
many Flemings have taken the step towards<br />
entrepreneurship. A total of 65,555,<br />
1.1% more than in 2019.<br />
If, because of vaccination and falling infections,<br />
business and consumer<br />
confidence returns, the virtual job fairs on<br />
the campuses may be in for a second life.<br />
If engineers were still very much in demand<br />
even at the height of the coronary<br />
crisis, they will be even more so when the<br />
economy starts to recover.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
CONNECTING<br />
11
EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN FOCUS<br />
Prof. Paul Leroux<br />
© Joren De Weerdt<br />
12
RADMEP: FROM RESEARCH<br />
PROJECT TO INTERNATIONAL<br />
MASTER’S PROGRAMME<br />
At Geel Campus, the ADVISE research group is involved in the development of chips that are<br />
able to withstand ionizing radiation. During meetings with the European Laboratory for Particle<br />
Physics, CERN, in Geneva, the idea arose for establishing a research network in this field. This<br />
became RADSAGA, a successful Horizon 2020 ITN network on radiation effects in microchips.<br />
The project includes top institutes such as ESA and CNES, renowned companies such as<br />
Airbus and Intel, and partner universities. The RADMEP partners all come from this network.<br />
Fifteen PhD tracks at different institutes<br />
in Europe have been supported<br />
through the RADSAGA project. Prof.<br />
Paul Leroux, chair of Geel Campus, has<br />
been promoting six RADSAGA PhDs and<br />
served as RADSAGA coordinator for<br />
outreach, communication and training in<br />
the network. “One of the RADSGA dreams<br />
was to establish an <strong>international</strong> school on<br />
radiation effects in electronics as a<br />
RADSAGA legacy“, explains Prof. Leroux.<br />
“This ambition remained active during the<br />
course of the project. With four RADSAGA<br />
protagonists, we decided that the best<br />
way forward is an Erasmus Mundus<br />
Master’s application under the lead of<br />
Université Jean-Monnet of Saint-Etienne in<br />
France. One year later we have the<br />
RADMEP programme granted with a<br />
substantial European funding for the<br />
coming five years”.<br />
Implementation<br />
The students in RADMEP will start their<br />
first semester at the University of Jyvaskyla<br />
in Finland. In the second semester of the<br />
programme, they will travel to our Faculty<br />
of Engineering Technology at Geel Campus<br />
for a full semester of courses.<br />
“Microelectronics is the main focus, ranging<br />
from basic to advanced imple men -<br />
tation courses”, Prof. Leroux continues.<br />
“Also a workshop in photonics will be<br />
included in the programme, partly with<br />
external specialised lecturers. In the third<br />
semester, the students who specialise in<br />
Microelectronics will continue their study<br />
at the University of Montpellier. Those<br />
who specialize in photonics will move to<br />
the University of Saint-Etienne”.<br />
KU Leuven will also play an important role<br />
in the quality assurance board in<br />
RADMEP, as this will be coordinated by<br />
Prof. Wim Van Petegem.<br />
The preparation for next year’s first <strong>edition</strong><br />
of the master programme at KU Leuven is<br />
already in full swing. The timetable of some<br />
courses on Geel Campus has been<br />
adapted to fit with the new RADMEP<br />
master. Some courses are already taught<br />
in English and recorded, such that they<br />
can be offered in a blended format next<br />
year. Meanwhile no less than 62 students<br />
have applied. The screening and selection<br />
of applicants is currently ongoing.<br />
The academic course team in Geel also<br />
includes academics such as Jeffrey<br />
Prinzie, Guy Meynants, Valentijn De<br />
Smedt, Peter Karsmakers and Mariya<br />
Ishteva. Together they will offer 22 credits<br />
of mandatory courses and five optional<br />
courses with each 4 ECTS from which the<br />
students will select two modules.<br />
IMPACT<br />
The most obvious impact will be visible on<br />
Geel Campus, where a tradition of <strong>international</strong><br />
PhD researcher already exists,<br />
but an <strong>international</strong> master’s programme<br />
is new. Moreover, RADMEP is expected<br />
to give an impulse for outgoing <strong>international</strong><br />
mobility. According to Prof. Leroux,<br />
RADMEP will be a challenge for the<br />
administrative services, but the enthusiasm<br />
is great and obviously the campus<br />
can rely on the experience of the faculty’s<br />
<strong>international</strong> team.<br />
“The relation to research is also selfevident”,<br />
says Prof. Leroux. “The students<br />
are trained in the core of our research<br />
field, and hopefully several of them will be<br />
motivated to start a PhD after completing<br />
the RADMEP master. Moreover, these<br />
students are already screened beforehand,<br />
so they will have a good starting<br />
level. The intention is to create a fruitful<br />
interaction between education, research<br />
and relevant industries.”<br />
The early dream of “an <strong>international</strong><br />
school of radiation to electronics” thus<br />
takes shape.<br />
How does this fit in the career path of<br />
Prof. Leroux? “I feel very honoured to be<br />
a part of this project. Even though<br />
developing a new master’s programme is<br />
a lot of work. Fifteen years ago, I started<br />
with a research group, five years ago this<br />
resulted in a two-person spin-off company<br />
(MAGICS Instruments), which has already<br />
grown to over 20 people in size, and now<br />
a third aspect is to start, a new master’s<br />
programme. Summarizing: what started<br />
with a small seed, is now a big tree with<br />
growing branches in research, industry<br />
and education.”<br />
Hilde Lauwereys<br />
CONNECTING<br />
13
STUDENT IN FOCUS<br />
14
IF WE CAN’T DO IT<br />
IN AUSTRALIA,<br />
WE’LL RACE IN AFRICA<br />
On 2 August, 2021 the Agoria Solar Team presented the Bluepoint Atlas. It is the ninth<br />
Belgian solar car that engineering students from Leuven have designed and built since<br />
2005. After the cancellation of the World Solar Challenge 2021 in Australia, the world<br />
champions went looking for a new challenge. At the end of October, they finished<br />
second in the Morocco Solar Challenge.<br />
Redefining Possibilities’. Under<br />
that motto, the ninth Solar Team<br />
rethought the concept, the design,<br />
and the technology of the solar<br />
car down to the smallest detail. “We<br />
did our utmost to build the highest performing<br />
solar car”, confirms team<br />
manager Victor Verhaert. “The<br />
Bluepoint Atlas therefore does not only<br />
look different, also the interior differs in<br />
many ways from its predecessors.”<br />
The most striking feature is the socalled<br />
‘bullet design’ or the pointed<br />
hyper-streamline shape. “This ensures<br />
minimal air pressure resistance during<br />
driving, which ultimately results in<br />
greatly reduced energy consumption,”<br />
says Gilles De Baets, aerodynamics<br />
engineer. “When designing, we were<br />
inspired by nature, especially birds and<br />
fish. In the pointed nose of the car, you<br />
recognise the head of a shark and from<br />
the back, the car looks like the wings<br />
of a falcon. Both animals are masters<br />
of speed, resilience and efficiency”.<br />
In addition to its unique shape, the<br />
solar car also has one less wheel than<br />
its predecessors. “With a threewheeler,<br />
there is less contact surface<br />
with the ground, which results in less<br />
friction. Nevertheless, to maintain<br />
stability, we equipped the car with two<br />
wheels at the front and one central<br />
wheel at the back,” said Elliot Coone of<br />
the Energy & Electronics Department.<br />
Sustainable solar cells<br />
Another innovation in the Bluepoint<br />
Atlas is the solar panel, made from<br />
high-performance silicon solar cells.<br />
“While these cells have a lower<br />
efficiency than the multijunction solar<br />
cells on the previous solar cars, they<br />
are much more durable in production,”<br />
says Pieter Janssen of the Electrical<br />
Engineering Department. “The solar<br />
cells are cut into perfect squares to fit<br />
as many units as possible in a limited<br />
area, allowing us to build a smaller<br />
solar car. At the edges of the car, the<br />
solar cells have been slightly bent using<br />
a special technique to save space. The<br />
entire solar panel contains 292 silicon<br />
cells, which together deliver almost<br />
1000 watts of power”.<br />
Completely new is the motor. For the<br />
first time, the Solar Team has built its<br />
own electric motor. “Our motor is<br />
specially designed for the solar car”,<br />
explains electrical engineer Arne<br />
Cambien. “That means it has an<br />
efficiency of over 97%, which is much<br />
better than any motor you can buy on<br />
the market. To compare: the electric<br />
motor of a Tesla has a peak efficiency<br />
of 94%. A classic combustion engine<br />
doesn’t even reach 50%”. The new<br />
battery pack is also worth mentioning.<br />
This gives the Bluepoint Atlas a range<br />
of 700 km without having to ‘refuel’<br />
with solar energy.<br />
Sahara<br />
At the end of October, the team<br />
participated in the Solar Challenge<br />
Morocco, a new race through the<br />
Moroccan Sahara and the Atlas<br />
Mountains. “The Bluepoint Atlas<br />
covered some 2,500 km in five days in<br />
difficult conditions and terrain,” says<br />
Birgitt Peeters, pilot and Head of<br />
Marketing. “We won two of the five<br />
rides, but that was just not enough for<br />
a first place. We are quite satisfied with<br />
the silver medal. It is a good run-up to<br />
the next world championships in<br />
Australia”.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.solarteam.be<br />
CONNECTING<br />
15
STUDENT IN FOCUS<br />
CHECKR TEAM WINS<br />
UNIVERSITAS 21 MOST<br />
INNNOVATIVE RISE AWARD<br />
After two top prizes in the KU Leuven KICK Challenge 2020, Nikte Van<br />
Landeghem’s team continues to pile up the victories. Their record of<br />
achievements now includes the Most Innovative RISE Award of Universitas<br />
21, a select network of 27 world-class universities whose students,<br />
researchers and staff are committed to sharing excellence, collaborating<br />
across borders and disciplines and nurturing <strong>international</strong> knowledge and<br />
exchange.<br />
Nikte graduated in 2020 at Group T Leuven<br />
Campus with a master’s degree in<br />
Electromechanical Engineering Technology.<br />
Afterwards, she followed the postgraduate<br />
programme in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in<br />
Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering<br />
Technology. “During the KICK Challenge, I became<br />
fascinated with entrepreneurship and innovation”,<br />
Nikte says. “We developed and built an original<br />
CheckR kit. The next logical step was to take it to<br />
the market”.<br />
What makes Nikte’s product unique, is the idea of<br />
involving pharmacists in the detection of potential<br />
high-risk patients. During their visit to the pharmacy,<br />
customers can test in a simple and fun way whether<br />
or not they are at risk of contracting conditions that<br />
could be avoided if they are detected in time. This<br />
is done using a kit consisting of a VR headset, a<br />
controller and a heart sensor to measure several<br />
cognitive, muscular and cardiovascular parameters<br />
such as heart rhythm, blood pressure, memory and<br />
vision as well as motoric skills. The game lasts<br />
barely five minutes, but it provides the pharmacists<br />
with sufficient information to determine whether<br />
there is a health risk and a referral to a doctor or<br />
hospital is necessary. “Both the customer and the<br />
pharmacist benefit from the test”, says Nikte. “The<br />
former prevents health problems and the latter can<br />
offer an extra service to the client”.<br />
Final round<br />
In April 2021, the CheckR project was selected by<br />
KU Leuven for the final round of the RISE 2021<br />
Awards of Universitas 21, an <strong>international</strong> competition<br />
for student projects with a Real Impact on Society<br />
and Environment. The Leuven team had to compete<br />
against 55 projects, representing more than 200<br />
students from 23 universities.<br />
All projects were showcased on U21’s website and<br />
social media channels and shared with a network of<br />
experts in academia and industry. In addition, all the<br />
students involved had the opportunity to take part in<br />
a preparatory training programme whilst gaining<br />
exposure to U21’s <strong>international</strong> audience of<br />
supporters. Finalists competed in four categories to<br />
win USD 2,000 seed funding to further their projects,<br />
with awards given for Most Innovative, Most<br />
Collaborative, Most Impact and Most Potential.<br />
Sustainable Development Goals<br />
Nikte and her team mates look back with pride on<br />
their participation in the RISE 2020/21 Competition.<br />
“Being part of it has been very inspiring. We had the<br />
opportunity to follow three workshops to help further<br />
our project, but the most impactful experience was<br />
hearing about the other projects around the world.<br />
It was great to hear about the inspiring work that<br />
fellow students were doing to contribute in one way<br />
or another to the Sustainable Development Goals.<br />
Having the opportunity to connect with such<br />
<strong>international</strong> community of students all working<br />
together for social impact is an invaluable<br />
experience”.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.universitas21.com/Rise-202021-showcase<br />
16
Nikte Van Landeghem and Salma Nachi<br />
© Filip Van Loock<br />
CONNECTING<br />
17
STUDENT IN FOCUS<br />
THE SUMMER OF<br />
FORMULA ELECTRIC<br />
BELGIUM<br />
The Aurora Mikir, the thirteenth electric car of the Formula<br />
Electric Belgium team, survived its baptism of fire on the<br />
European racetracks well. In the Czech Republic, there was<br />
even a podium finish. “A great performance for a car full of<br />
untried high tech”, says team leader Remko Schippers.<br />
In spring, the 29 Formula Electric<br />
Belgium engineering students unveiled<br />
their latest creation. A racing car<br />
equipped with a completely new aerodynamic<br />
package, super-light rims, more<br />
efficient cooling of the batteries and the<br />
motors, 11% more electrical power, the<br />
latest glass reinforced composites, an innovative<br />
suspension, ingenious control<br />
systems, ... together accounting for 200<br />
kg of high-tech with an acceleration capacity<br />
of 2.6 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h.<br />
With this car, the team participated last<br />
summer in the <strong>international</strong> Formula<br />
Student Competition 2021, a series of<br />
competitions in which student teams from<br />
all over the world compete against each<br />
other with self-built electric racing cars.<br />
Static and dynamic<br />
“Unlike F1 races or similar, the Formula<br />
Student Competition is not a classic<br />
race,” Remko explains. “Not only the<br />
performance of the car, but also the<br />
qualities of the team are tested and<br />
judged in two series of tests or ‘events’.<br />
During the dynamic ‘events’, the<br />
acceleration capacity of the car, the road<br />
holding and the endurance, among other<br />
things, are examined. The static ‘events’<br />
are used to evaluate the design, the cost,<br />
and the business plan. During the<br />
presentation of your plan, you must be<br />
able to convince the jury to invest in your<br />
project. In the previous <strong>edition</strong>s of the<br />
competition, we always scored well on<br />
design, acceleration and business plan<br />
because we design and build our cars<br />
ourselves”.<br />
To be admitted to the dynamic tests, the<br />
car is first subjected to a thorough<br />
scrutineering. “You can consider it as an<br />
entrance exam or -better still- as a highly<br />
technical inspection that takes up two to<br />
three days of the competition week. After<br />
each test, it is nail-biting waiting for the<br />
verdict of the jury”, says Remko.<br />
Podium place<br />
On the circuit of Most in the Czech<br />
Republic, the team from Leuven took on<br />
45 other teams from ten countries. The<br />
dreaded scrutineering went off without a<br />
hitch, as did the static tests. Result: two<br />
second places in Engineering Design and<br />
Cost & Manufacturing. The dynamic<br />
events started promising with a third<br />
place in the Autocross and a place in the<br />
top 5 of the Skid Pad Test and the<br />
Acceleration Test.<br />
“We could have done even better, had we<br />
been able to complete the 22 km long<br />
Endurance”, Remko remarks.<br />
“Unfortunately, when we changed pilots<br />
halfway through the race, the battery<br />
suddenly failed. Without that setback, we<br />
would have finished near the top. As is<br />
often the case, the devil was in the tail.<br />
From the Czech Republic, the team<br />
travelled on to Hungary for the Formula<br />
Student Competition East at the<br />
Hungaroring racetrack. “It promised to be<br />
even more exciting”, says Remko. “The<br />
scrutineering had been reduced by one<br />
18
day for organisational reasons, so even<br />
more pressure of time. And on the<br />
participants list there were all the top<br />
teams of the moment, each with solid<br />
racing experience and several victories on<br />
their record”.<br />
For the Belgian team, the race in Hungary<br />
was almost a copy of the race in the<br />
Czech Republic. Everything went<br />
according to plan until, during the<br />
Endurance Test, a stray cone on the road<br />
blocked the passage. Since the<br />
competition rules do not allow technical<br />
interventions during the race, the Aurora<br />
MkII had to pull over irrevocably. “Bad<br />
luck, otherwise, we would have had a<br />
clear round”, Remko regrets.<br />
Reliable<br />
After the summer competitions, the team<br />
members still look back on the European<br />
adventure with satisfaction. “We have<br />
mainly gained a lot of experience and<br />
have also grown as a team,” Remko puts<br />
into perspective. “That is why we are<br />
convinced that we will be better prepared<br />
in 2022. Over the next few months, we<br />
will be working hard to perfect the<br />
reliability of the new car. This means that<br />
we will be scrutinising each part of the car<br />
and building on these innovations. A year<br />
of innovation, then 2022 will be a year of<br />
consolidation. And targeting a place in the<br />
top five”.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.formulaelectricbelgium.be<br />
19
STUDENT IN FOCUS<br />
STUDENT UNION<br />
INTERNATIONALISES<br />
AT A RAPID PACE<br />
Industria, Group T Leuven Campus’s student association,<br />
does not just provide entertainment and fun events. The<br />
association also plays an active role in the further<br />
<strong>international</strong>isation of the campus. Remarkably, two female<br />
presidium members take the lead. A portrait of Margaux at<br />
Business Relations and Rosário, Industria’s communications<br />
officer.<br />
Margaux Devos is of Spanish origin<br />
and went to school in France.<br />
And Maria do Rosário Quintas<br />
Baylina (Rosário to the friends) is from<br />
Porto, the second largest city of Portugal,<br />
on the Costa Verde. Margaux is studying<br />
Chemical Engineering Technology and<br />
Rosário is a master student of Electromechanical<br />
Engineering Technology.<br />
Both have known each other since their<br />
arrival in Leuven. Together they engaged<br />
in the student association Industria and<br />
were key figures in the bachelor presidium.<br />
In the current team, they have grown<br />
into true role models for the <strong>international</strong><br />
student population on campus. But also,<br />
the Belgian students can take an example<br />
from their open mind and willingness to<br />
learn from each other.<br />
Entrepreneurs’ day<br />
Business Relations is a relatively recent<br />
department of Industria. Margaux<br />
participates in one of the top events: the<br />
annual Job Fair. “On our campus, we call<br />
it the Entrepreneurs’ Day,” she explains.<br />
“After all, it’s about more than jobs and<br />
vacancies. The companies also offer<br />
master’s theses, research projects or<br />
other forms of collaboration. On 24<br />
February, we will once again be organizing<br />
a physical fair in a large sports hall. We<br />
expect at least 100 companies. To give<br />
an idea of the size: during the virtual fair<br />
of 2021, there were 419 online vacancies<br />
offered. These were consulted more than<br />
6,000 times, resulting in 506 applications.<br />
The stands themselves were visited more<br />
than 15,000 times”.<br />
Margaux concentrates on preparing the<br />
students. To this end, she organises<br />
workshops on job application skills<br />
provided by selection and recruitment<br />
agencies. The CVs of the final year<br />
students are placed online and bundled in<br />
a ‘Talent Catalogue’ that is sent to the<br />
companies. Conversely, Margaux also<br />
provides a Job Guide for the students<br />
with the company profiles. This way, all<br />
parties can optimally prepare for the<br />
Entrepreneurs’ Day. She considers the<br />
matching of supply and demand to be the<br />
essence of her job.<br />
20
Communication mix<br />
Rosário started at the Sport department<br />
of Industria. She quickly realised that it<br />
was not enough to organise good<br />
activities. You also must communicate<br />
them properly to be successful. So now<br />
she uses all the channels Industria has at<br />
its disposal to communicate about its<br />
offerings. Website, social media, flyers,<br />
folders, posters, eye-catchers, etc. She<br />
devises the most effective communication<br />
mix for each event.<br />
“The formula for success does not exist,”<br />
Rosário says. “The student population on<br />
campus is too diverse, both among<br />
Belgians and <strong>international</strong> students. You<br />
cannot lump 80 different nationalities<br />
together.<br />
A group that deserves special attention,<br />
according to Rosário, are the students<br />
from the Asian partner universities. “They<br />
only arrive in Leuven in the second<br />
bachelor year, when most students have<br />
already settled in. Moreover, they usually<br />
come as a group and tend to clump<br />
together, and are less interested in getting<br />
closer to the others. This is unfortunate<br />
for everyone. This group deserves special<br />
attention”.<br />
Point of no return<br />
Despite the practical difficulties, Margaux<br />
and Rosário see the future evolving<br />
favourably. “The <strong>international</strong> student<br />
population is growing significantly faster<br />
than the Belgian one. With a share of<br />
30%, the point of no return has long been<br />
passed. We must work and live together,<br />
there is no other option. We can see a<br />
striking example of how this can work at<br />
Industria. Since a year, all staff meetings<br />
are held in English. The rest of the campus<br />
can learn a lot from this.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
JMaria do Rosário Quintas Baylina and Margaux Devos<br />
CONNECTING<br />
21
PROFESSOR IN FOCUS<br />
MICRO DEGREES IN<br />
INNOVATIVE HEALTH<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
This academic year, the six partner institutions of the KU Leuven Association, in collaboration<br />
with the healthcare sector, started two interdisciplinary, modular courses via blended<br />
learning: a micro degree Health Innovation Facilitation and a micro degree Health Innovation<br />
Management. Hannelore Strauven (e-Media Research Lab – Group T Leuven Campus)<br />
coordinates the micro degree Management for executives.<br />
A<br />
micro degree stands for a compact, diploma-oriented<br />
program”, says Hannelore. “It is not a degree programme<br />
like a bachelor or a master, but the credits you obtain can<br />
be used in a regular programme, hence the name ‘diploma<br />
oriented’. A micro degree counts 20 to 30 credits, which<br />
corresponds with one third to half of a bachelor or master year”.<br />
“<br />
“The great advantage of a micro degree is its flexibility,” continues<br />
Hannelore. “Our target audience are professionals in the care<br />
and welfare sector. These people usually have irregular working<br />
hours. To enable them to combine work and education, the<br />
programme is modular and can be followed via blended learning.<br />
The student can choose between one or more modules or go<br />
for the full programme”.<br />
Work field<br />
The healthcare sector was actively involved in the development<br />
of both micro degrees. “In our case, they were the Vlaams<br />
Welzijnsverbond (Flemish Welfare Association), In4care and<br />
Zorgnet Icuro (Care network Icuro), each representing numerous<br />
care institutions”, says Hannelore. “The COVID-19 pandemic has<br />
ensured that, among other things, in the care of the elderly, youth<br />
care, care for the disabled and childcare, digitisation has<br />
penetrated at a rapid pace. The digital competencies of the<br />
employees have not evolved to the same extent everywhere. As<br />
a result, there is a great need for training and retraining in the<br />
field. But that is not all. The pandemic has exposed a general<br />
need for professionalisation throughout the sector. Microdegrees<br />
have therefore been launched at the right time.<br />
Both programmes aim at their own target group. The micro<br />
degree Facilitation focuses on employees with a care, welfare,<br />
or technology profile. The micro degree Management focuses<br />
on professionals with a (strategic) policy function. “The first<br />
programme was developed by the five university colleges of the<br />
KU Leuven Association,” says Hannelore. “They have pooled<br />
their expertise to train employees to initiate or facilitate innovation<br />
projects or pathways. They are expected to fulfil a bridging<br />
function between the developers and the users. After all, it still<br />
takes too long before innovations penetrate professional practice<br />
and are used in the right place. The program of this micro degree<br />
consists of a common part and two clusters ‘Care & Welfare’<br />
and ‘Technology’. The final piece is the development of a<br />
concrete case from practice”.<br />
Two faculties<br />
While the first micro degree initially targets mainly professional<br />
bachelors, the micro degree Management targets employees<br />
with a master’s degree. “This program is the product of the<br />
collaboration between the faculties of Medicine and Engineering<br />
Technology of KU Leuven,” explains Luc Geurts (e-Media<br />
Research Lab). “The students choose course units from the<br />
Master in Management and Policy of the health care, set up by<br />
the Faculty of Medicine, which they combine with the project<br />
subject Health Engineering Experience from the Advanced<br />
Master in Innovative Health Technology at Group T Leuven<br />
Campus, of which I am also the programme director. This<br />
Advanced Master is an <strong>international</strong> programme that focuses on<br />
the integration of technologies and methodologies into usable<br />
systems in the health sector.”<br />
For those who already have an engineering degree, Luc has<br />
some good news: “He or she can select courses from the entire<br />
curriculum of the Advanced Master”.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
22
Hannelore Strauven and Prof. Luc Geurts<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
CONNECTING 23
RESEARCH IN FOCUS<br />
Mirko Sinico<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
24
THE ADDED VALUE<br />
OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING<br />
Under the motto ‘Additive is Addictive’, the technology federation Agoria and<br />
the Sirris technology centre organised the first 3D-Printing Student & Young<br />
Potentials Challenge in 2020. Mirko Sinico, doctoral researcher from Group T<br />
Leuven Campus and his team ‘Bionic-A-Mold’ won the award in the category<br />
‘Tackle a company-owned challenge’ with brio.<br />
Agoria and Sirris launched the<br />
3D-Printing Challenge to stimulate<br />
the creativity of young researchers<br />
and professionals while embracing<br />
3D-printing techniques. The challenge<br />
was to design and create an object<br />
composed exclusively from 3D-printed<br />
material. “Different 3D-printing techniques<br />
are at the basis of the Additive<br />
Manufacturing (AM) world”, explains<br />
Mirko. “AM refers to a group of production<br />
techniques in which parts are made from<br />
3D-model data, by joining materials layer<br />
by layer. AM offers many advantages<br />
compared to traditional subtractive manufacturing,<br />
such as its almost unlimited<br />
design freedom, enabling unprecedented<br />
levels of functional shapes, and the<br />
capability to produce personalised parts<br />
with improved material usage. This has<br />
evoked a true revolution in manufacturing<br />
and a rapid growth of the AM sector,<br />
representing a unique opportunity for the<br />
strongly-needed return of the manufacturing<br />
industry to Europe”.<br />
“Few people know that Belgium is actually<br />
a pioneer and a frontrunner in the<br />
development of 3D-printing, as quite a lot<br />
of early adopters are situated here”, Mirko<br />
continues. “It is therefore no coincidence<br />
that my interest in AM brought me to<br />
Belgium three years ago”.<br />
Doctoral research<br />
Mirko studied Materials Engineering at the<br />
University of Padova (Italy) and then<br />
specialized in AM at the Italian National<br />
Institute of Nuclear Physics. In 2017, he<br />
came to Leuven to work as a research<br />
associate on the project PAM² coordinated<br />
by Dr. Ir. Ann Witvrouw, Research &<br />
Innovation Manager at the KU Leuven<br />
Department of Mechanical Engineering.<br />
“PAM² stands for Precision Additive Metal<br />
Manufacturing”, says Mirko. “It was a<br />
three-year project that has now ended,<br />
funded by the EU Programme for<br />
Research and Innovation – Horizon 2020,<br />
in which a consortium of academic and<br />
industrial partners collaborated. The<br />
overall objective of PAM² was to ensure<br />
the availability of high-precision AM<br />
processes and computational design<br />
procedures. You have to know that AM of<br />
metals is a complex process with dozens<br />
of sensitive and interrelated process<br />
parameters, making it susceptible to<br />
thermal distor tions, defects and process<br />
drift. The agile modelling of those<br />
processes is beyond current<br />
computational power and new methods<br />
are needed to practically predict<br />
performance and inform design. In<br />
addition, metal AM produces highly<br />
textured surfaces and complex surface<br />
features that stretch the limits of<br />
contemporary metrology. The aim of<br />
PAM² was to improve precision by<br />
enhancing robustness, predictability and<br />
metrology and by developing CAE<br />
methods that empower rather than limit<br />
AM design”.<br />
During his work as research associate at<br />
PAM², Mirko joined the ‘Additive<br />
Manufacturing’ and the ‘Manufacturing<br />
Metrology’ research groups in the<br />
Department of Mechanical Engineering,<br />
under the supervision of prof. Wim Dewulf<br />
at Group T Leuven Campus and Dr. ir.<br />
Ann Witvrouw. He is preparing a PhD on<br />
improving the surface quality and<br />
inspection of selective laser melted tool<br />
steel parts, with a focus on industrial<br />
tooling and molding components.<br />
Video pitch<br />
For the 3D-Printing Challenge, a 5-minutes<br />
video pitch was required from the<br />
candidates, with a presentation of the<br />
3D-object and an explanation of the<br />
design process and its usability for the<br />
3D-printing manufacturing industry.<br />
Mirko and his team mates Ranjan Rajit<br />
and Moshiri Mandaná presented an<br />
original topology-optimised mold insert<br />
for an injection molding machine. In this<br />
device, heated liquid plastic is injected at<br />
high pressure into the mold where the<br />
material is given its final shape. “Thanks<br />
to the employment of a Design for<br />
AM-approach, our insert was significantly<br />
lighter and yet robust”, says Mirko. “We<br />
saved up to 50% of the material cost and<br />
gained more than 40% in production time<br />
considering a standard selective laser<br />
melting machine”. The jury praised the<br />
originality of the work, the creativity of the<br />
researchers and the market opportunity<br />
of the product. Prof. Wim Dewulf, Mirko’s<br />
promotor, was also quite impressed:<br />
“Rightful recognition for excellent and<br />
passionate academics with strong affinity<br />
for industrial application. A true ambassador<br />
of the PhD programme of KU Leuven<br />
Faculty of Engineering Technology”.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
CONNECTING 25
RESEARCH IN FOCUS<br />
ROBOT-ASSISTED<br />
EYE SURGERY<br />
The eye is not only our most developed sense, but also by far the most fragile. Worldwide, an<br />
estimated 244 million people suffer from visual impairments and disorders for which there is<br />
currently no remedy. Many problems are related to the retina, the most sensitive part of the<br />
eye. Jonas Smits, researcher at Group T Leuven Campus, developed the technology that allows<br />
surgeons to perform eye operations with unprecedented precision. For his pioneering work, he<br />
was awarded the James Dyson Award.<br />
More than 1,700 young researchers<br />
and inventors from 27<br />
countries competed for the prestigious<br />
2020 James Dyson Awards,<br />
named after the famous British inventor,<br />
designer, and entrepreneur. From the entries,<br />
the jury selected 81 national finalists.<br />
The Belgian winner was Jonas Smits, at<br />
that time a PhD student at the Robotics,<br />
Automation and Mechatronics research<br />
unit under Prof. Peter Slaets.<br />
Jonas graduated in 2015 as a master in<br />
Electromechanical Engineering Technology,<br />
focus ‘Intelligent Mechanics’.<br />
Previously, he already obtained a professional<br />
bachelor’s degree at the then KH<br />
Kempen (now Thomas More - Geel).<br />
During his master thesis on hip prostheses,<br />
he discovered the wonderful world of<br />
biomechanics and Health Engineering<br />
and decided to delve deeper into it. Prof.<br />
Manu Vander Poorten of the RAM group<br />
promptly offered him a research project<br />
on robot-assisted surgery.<br />
Microsurgery<br />
“Eye surgery is by definition precision<br />
work,” says Jonas. “Retinal microsurgery<br />
is the best example of this. The retina<br />
consists of, among other things, 126<br />
million sensory cells that catch the light<br />
that enters through the eye. These cells<br />
are shaped like cones and rods. The<br />
cones are occupied by pigmentary cells<br />
to perceive colour differences. The rods<br />
are used to distinguish light and dark. If<br />
you would compare it to digital signals,<br />
the retina has a bandwidth of 8.75<br />
megabits per second. So, this is a very<br />
complex and delicate sense, which is why<br />
retinal surgery often reaches the limits of<br />
human precision.”<br />
“Vitreoretinal surgery is a very challenging<br />
subspecialty in ophthalmology,” Jonas<br />
continues. “It is performed with the aid of<br />
a microscope and via hands that are<br />
probably already among the most stable<br />
in the world. But even then, unintentional<br />
movements such as hand tremors or eye<br />
rotations can throw a spanner in the<br />
works. As a result, some treatments are<br />
still limited or simply impossible to carry<br />
out. So, there is a need for performanceenhancing<br />
technology.<br />
Challenge<br />
In his research into safer treatment<br />
methods, Jonas faced three challenges.<br />
“First of all, you have to be able to stabilize<br />
the eye during the operation. Furthermore,<br />
the surgical precision must be increased.<br />
And - finally - you must also be able to<br />
immobilise the instrument itself. During<br />
my research, I had the opportunity to help<br />
make a world first in the field of robotassisted<br />
retinal surgery possible. The<br />
surgeon succeeded in using a robot to<br />
insert a 30 micromillimetre infusion needle<br />
into a vein as thin as a hair”.<br />
Jonas’ research uses three methods to<br />
optimise retinal microsurgery. The first<br />
consists of correcting the surgeon’s hand<br />
movements, if necessary, by using<br />
opposing forces. The second method<br />
involves preventing unwanted eye<br />
movements. This is done by a clever<br />
combination of connections and<br />
couplings. During movement these<br />
maintain a fixed point in space, through<br />
which the instrument always passes.<br />
Once the eye is aligned with the surgical<br />
incision, it is held in a stable position<br />
throughout the procedure. The third<br />
method enables the surgeon to immobilise<br />
the instrument at any time using a foot<br />
pedal that locks the mechanism.”<br />
Promising<br />
On 23 September 2020 - just over a<br />
month after the James Dyson Award -<br />
Jonas defended his thesis in the KU<br />
Leuven doctoral hall. Once again, the jury<br />
made no bones about its praise. “This<br />
work represents an important step<br />
forward in robot-assisted retinal<br />
movement. The initial results are promising<br />
and encourage further clinical research”,<br />
was the final verdict.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
26
Jonas Smits<br />
© Filip Van Loock<br />
CONNECTING<br />
27
RESEARCH IN FOCUS<br />
Keivan Shariatmadar<br />
© Tom Talloen<br />
28
HOW CERTAIN<br />
IS UNCERTAINTY?<br />
We know how much certainty the Covid-19 vaccines offer in terms of protection against the<br />
virus. But who can confirm whether this percentage will still be valid next month? At that<br />
point, today’s fixed uncertainty suddenly becomes imprecise or undetermined. Researchers<br />
from the campuses Bruges and De Nayer are joining forces to find out how artificial<br />
intelligence can deal with this kind of uncertainty. Keivan Shariatmadar, senior researcher<br />
and mathematician at Bruges Campus, tells the story.<br />
e<br />
to the π is known as the first part of<br />
the most remarkable and beautiful<br />
identity in mathematics, named after<br />
the Swiss scholar Leonhard Euler, who<br />
invented it in 1748. However, E-pi also<br />
stands for Epistemic AI. That is the name<br />
of the European research project of Prof.<br />
Hans Hallez and Keivan Shariatmadar<br />
from the M-Group at Bruges Campus and<br />
Prof. David Moens from the LMSD group<br />
at De Nayer Campus. The other project<br />
partners are Oxford Brookes University<br />
and TU Delft.<br />
FET Open European project<br />
The Epistemic AI project is part of the<br />
prestigious European FET program,<br />
where FET stands for Future and<br />
Emerging Technologies. “FET’s mission is<br />
not only visionary but also very concrete”,<br />
explains Keivan. “How to turn Europe’s<br />
excellent science base into competitive<br />
advantage? FET projects are expected to<br />
initiate radically new lines in technology<br />
through unexplored collaborations<br />
between advanced multidisciplinary<br />
science and cutting-edge engineers. It all<br />
helps Europe grasp leadership in those<br />
promising future technology areas able to<br />
renew the basis for future European<br />
competiveness and growth”.<br />
The FET program has three complementary<br />
lines of action to address different<br />
methodologies and scales, from new<br />
ideas to long-term challenges. “Our<br />
project belongs to the FET Open<br />
category”, Keivan continues. “FET Open<br />
funds projects on new ideas for radically<br />
new future technologies at an early stage.<br />
FET Open calls for collaborative research<br />
and innovation actions (RIA) satisfy the<br />
FET Open ‘gatekeepers’, which are:<br />
radical vision, breakthrough technological<br />
target and ambitious interdisciplinary<br />
research.<br />
This may involve a wide range of new<br />
technological possibilities, inspired by<br />
cutting-edge science, unconventional<br />
collaboration or new research and<br />
innovation practices”.<br />
Next-generation AI<br />
“Reality is all about uncertainties”, says<br />
Keivan. “What if sensors are drifting away<br />
from calibration? What if a production<br />
process is very prone to the uncertainty<br />
of manual intervention? What if a trained<br />
model is not accurate enough and hard<br />
to learn from the uncertain data? Our<br />
project will investigate how the novel<br />
indeterministic uncertainty models can<br />
cope with these uncertainties”.<br />
“The main goal of E-pi is to create new<br />
methodologies and paradigms for a nextgeneration<br />
artificial intelligence, providing<br />
specific guaranties on its predictions<br />
through proper modelling of real-world<br />
uncertainties. Although artificial<br />
intelligence has improved remarkably over<br />
the last years, its inability to deal with<br />
fundamental uncertainty severely limits its<br />
applications. Our project will re-imagine AI<br />
with proper treatment of the uncertainty<br />
stemming from our forcibly partial<br />
knowledge of the world”.<br />
“As currently practiced, AI cannot<br />
confidently make predictions robust<br />
enough to stand the test of data generated<br />
different from those studied at training<br />
time. While recognising this issue under<br />
different names - e.g. ‘overfitting’ -<br />
traditional machine learning seems unable<br />
to address it in non-incremental ways. As<br />
a result, AI suffers from brittle behaviour<br />
and finds it difficult to operate in new<br />
situations, e.g. adapting to driving in<br />
heavy rain or to other road users’ different<br />
style of driving e.g. deriving from cultural<br />
traits. Our objective is to create a new<br />
paradigm providing worst-case guaranties<br />
on its predictions, thanks to a proper<br />
modelling of real-world uncertainties”.<br />
Ultimate Factory lab<br />
The Epistemic AI project has a duration of<br />
four years and will focus on the lab ‘The<br />
Ultimate Factory” to implement the results<br />
and techniques. To this end, the project<br />
has hired one post-doc and two PhD<br />
students within the departments of<br />
Computer Sciences and Mechanical<br />
Engineering at KU Leuven”.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
CONNECTING 29
RESEARCH IN FOCUS<br />
DOES E-HEALTH CARE<br />
ALSO TAKE CARE<br />
OF YOUR PRIVACY?<br />
“Trust in technology is failing”, recently warned Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of<br />
the European Commission, responsible for ‘A Europe Fit for the Digital Age’. She was referring<br />
to the risks associated with the growing impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in everyday life. The<br />
health sector is also in the danger zone. The Reinitialise project investigates how fundamental<br />
human rights may be safeguarded in e-health services. Prof. Bart Vanrumste and researcher<br />
Hannelore Strauven (Group T Leuven Campus) are members of the project consortium.<br />
Digital technologies based on AI<br />
have a cross-cutting impact in all<br />
areas of our life and especially in<br />
the domain of health. On the one hand,<br />
these technologies are the basis for<br />
innovation and growth, but on the other<br />
hand, they pose a threat to essential<br />
human rights such as privacy, data<br />
ownership, etc. “This problem does not<br />
only concern AI specialists”, says prof.<br />
Vanrumste. “Only an interdisciplinary<br />
approach may provide a solution where<br />
technology is designed in compliance<br />
with ethics and the preservation of<br />
human rights”.<br />
“Reinitialise stands for ‘preserving<br />
fundamental rights in the use of digital<br />
technologies for e-health services”,<br />
Hannelore explains. “The project is part of<br />
the European Horizon 2020 Training<br />
Programme. It aims to increase the<br />
capacity for the design and use of digital<br />
technologies in the sector of health, in<br />
order to integrate the potential of<br />
technology with the awareness of its<br />
ethical, legal and socio-economic<br />
dimensions. Within the extensive domain<br />
of e-health services, we focus on two<br />
sub-areas: technologies for active ageing<br />
and digital tools for prevention care in<br />
nutrition and dietetics”.<br />
Partnership<br />
“The initiative comes from the Marie<br />
Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin,<br />
Poland”, prof. Vanrumste continues. “The<br />
university has mobilised specialists from<br />
seven of its research institutes and<br />
departments for the design and use of<br />
digital technologies in the sector of health<br />
in a way that adheres to ethical principles.<br />
In order to strengthen its own expertise, it<br />
called on three leading institutes in<br />
Europe: KU Leuven, the University of<br />
Macerata (Italy) and Eurocentro S.r.l., an<br />
Italian institute that specialises in setting<br />
up interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral<br />
EU projects”.<br />
In addition to prof. Vanrumste and<br />
Hannelore Strauven, the multidisciplinary<br />
KU Leuven team consists of prof. Helder<br />
De Schutter (Social and Political<br />
Philosophy), prof. Jannique van Uffelen<br />
(Physical Activity, Sports and Health<br />
Research Group), prof. Elske Vrieze<br />
(University Psychiatric Centre), Marc Van<br />
Aken (lecturer Communication and<br />
Entrepreneurship at Group T Leuven<br />
Campus) and Greet Bilsen (valorisation<br />
coordinator at the LICT research<br />
centre on ICT).<br />
The project should result in a Knowledge<br />
Platform that brings together researchers<br />
and experts in experimental learning and<br />
co-creation of innovative e-health services<br />
and products. Its members may interact<br />
in joint activities and discussions and<br />
share knowledge, experience and<br />
resources.<br />
Knowledge transfer<br />
“The first phase of the project consists of<br />
giving a boost to the scientific expertise of<br />
the Marie Curie-Sklodowska University”,<br />
Hannelore says. “The knowledge transfer<br />
will take place through symposia and<br />
transnational staff exchange. Polish<br />
researchers will work together with their<br />
colleagues in Leuven and Macerata.<br />
Subsequently, Belgian and Italian<br />
experts will travel to Lublin to assist<br />
in the consolidation of knowledge<br />
and experience.”<br />
“In the second phase, attention will be<br />
paid to the transfer of research to the<br />
market and society. This will be done<br />
through showcases of best practices, a<br />
winter school on innovation in Lublin and<br />
a Venture Lab involving all relevant actors<br />
in jointly designing and implementing their<br />
experiences of collaboration in the field<br />
of e-health”.<br />
Mutual interests<br />
“At the end of the project, all partners<br />
should benefit”, concludes prof.<br />
Vanrumste. “Interesting business ideas<br />
and start-up proposals are just as useful<br />
elsewhere. This also applies to the Joint<br />
Research Roadmap. In time, it should<br />
serve as a model for cooperation in future<br />
<strong>international</strong> research projects”.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.reinitialise.eu<br />
30
Prof. Bart Vanrumste en Hannelore Strauven<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
CONNECTING 31
RESEARCH IN FOCUS<br />
DEVELOPING A SAFE<br />
PERSONAL HEALTH<br />
COACHING SYSTEM<br />
Current healthcare systems are under pressure due to a sharp increase in chronic diseases.<br />
Personal coaching programmes can prevent health problems by guiding people towards a<br />
healthier lifestyle. As part of the European HEART-project, a team of <strong>international</strong> researchers<br />
developed a system that is able to detect human activities from heterogeneous data while<br />
safeguarding the privacy. Chetanya Puri and Hee Reen Shim from the e-Media Research Lab<br />
(Group T Campus) and Koustabh Dolui from the imec DistriNet Research Group tell the story.<br />
HEART stands for ‘HEalth related<br />
Activity Recognition system based<br />
on Internet of Things’. It is one of<br />
the very first industrial doctorates, founded<br />
under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie<br />
Actions, integrating information technology<br />
with social sciences and humanities. In the<br />
HEART project, not only the technological<br />
innovative power of IoT is investigated, but<br />
also the needs of the customer or user,<br />
including legal issues. The Activity<br />
Recognition System is expected to be<br />
applied in the wearable sensor technology<br />
business in order to personalise healthcoaching<br />
programmes. Moreover, HEART<br />
also defined a penetration strategy for the<br />
Chinese market that ensures both<br />
protection of personal information and<br />
adaptation to the needs of the Chinese<br />
customers.<br />
The HEART project covers six individual<br />
research projects, closely interrelated,<br />
concluded by six excellent young<br />
researchers: four PhD students in ICT, one<br />
in legal studies and one in <strong>international</strong><br />
business. Research was mainly conducted<br />
at KU Leuven and the University of<br />
Macerata (Italy) and at Philips, the leading<br />
multinational in the healthcare sector with<br />
the support of a network of European and<br />
Chinese partners, such as Fudan University<br />
(Shanghai) and the University of the<br />
Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).<br />
Early stage researchers<br />
Chetanya Puri enrolled in the HEARTproject<br />
as one of the six early stage<br />
researchers. He received a Master’s<br />
degree in Telecommunication Systems<br />
Engineering from the Indian Institute of<br />
Technology in Kharagpur (India). Then he<br />
joined the industry, where he was involved<br />
in building anomaly detection techniques<br />
for cardiac health estimation, using signals<br />
from wearables and other sensors linked<br />
to smartphones.<br />
Koustabh Dolui also has a background in<br />
engineering. He obtained his Master in<br />
Telecommunications Engineering at<br />
Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and has<br />
experience as research engineer in a<br />
European project. He was part of the<br />
development team for the EU Horizon<br />
2020 project AGILE, working on data<br />
collection, cloud integration and device<br />
management on the AGILE gateway.<br />
Koustabh is researcher with the<br />
Department of Computer Science and<br />
imec DistriNet.<br />
Hee Reen Shim obtained her Master’s<br />
degree in Electrical and Electronics<br />
Engineering from Chung-Ang University in<br />
Seoul (Korea). She worked as a researcher<br />
at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Korea<br />
Institute of Industrial Technology, where<br />
she focused on developing machinelearning<br />
algorithms and designing deep<br />
learning architecture. Currently, Hee Reen<br />
is a member of the e-Media Research<br />
Group at Group T Leuven Campus.<br />
Heterogeneous data<br />
Hee Reen’s PhD project consists in<br />
developing a health activity recognition<br />
system from heterogeneous data. “I<br />
worked on analysing the user’s feedback<br />
in language in order to verify his or her<br />
health condition. As sensors can only<br />
capture biophysical parameters, it is quite<br />
difficult to understand what the user<br />
exactly means, when he says he is<br />
experiencing a health problem. That is why<br />
I built a neural network to understand the<br />
people’s problems, based on their oral or<br />
written declarations. As I did a lot of my<br />
research at the Personal Health Department<br />
of Philips Research Europe, I had the<br />
advantage of investigating potential<br />
industrial applications”.<br />
Koustabh focused on IoT cloud platforms<br />
and middleware, privacy and aggregation<br />
for IoT and Edge computing. “I took the<br />
data and processing applications used by<br />
Hee Reen and Chetanya and looked for<br />
ways of transferring them from a traditional<br />
cloud platform to mobile devices, IoT<br />
gateways and even microcontrollers”.<br />
32
Labelling<br />
Chetanya concentrated on building<br />
machine learning algorithms that learn and<br />
classify daily activities from wearable and<br />
IoT devices. “This raises the problem of<br />
data labelling. Everyone experiences a<br />
health problem in a different way and<br />
names it differently. On the other hand, the<br />
industry is asking for solutions that are<br />
generally applicable to the entire<br />
population. My work consisted of<br />
developing an algorithm that is able to<br />
learn from limited labelled data and predict<br />
the condition as early as possible.<br />
Currently, I am working on weight gain<br />
data from pregnant women. The aim is to<br />
develop models that detect whether or not<br />
there is a risk of permanent obesity after<br />
pregnancy. This data is then passed on to<br />
doctors or health care providers, who can<br />
make appropriate recommendations”.<br />
Final conference<br />
The final conference of the project took<br />
place on 6 July 2021, where both the<br />
scientific findings and the training results<br />
were presented. The final event also<br />
provided an opportunity to highlight the<br />
innovative doctoral training with emphasis<br />
on interdisciplinarity, transversal skills, the<br />
<strong>international</strong> dimension and cooperation<br />
with industry.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.heart-itn.eu<br />
Chetanya Puri and Koustabh Dolui<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
CONNECTING 33
RESEARCH IN FOCUS<br />
WINDOW PRINTING<br />
IN 3D AT<br />
DE NAYER CAMPUS<br />
Golden earrings, plastic iPad cases, chocolate letters …<br />
the list of materials and objects that can be 3D-printed grows<br />
every day. Researchers from De Nayer Campus have managed<br />
to 3D-print a large window with curved shapes, integrated<br />
ventilation and LED lighting. Deceuninck, the company that<br />
designed the window, is delighted with the result. Prof.<br />
Eleonora<br />
“<br />
Ferraris, Ing. Loren De Vogelaer and PhD student<br />
Jie Zhang from the Advanced Manufacturing Lab De Nayer<br />
Campus, explain.<br />
3D<br />
printing technology, also<br />
referred to as Additive<br />
Manufacturing (AM), is an<br />
umbrella of manufacturing processes<br />
where layers of materials are built up to<br />
create a solid object”, says Prof. Ferraris.<br />
“There are countless 3D-printing<br />
techniques using varied types of principles<br />
to add materials to achieve the final<br />
product”.<br />
“Customer-driven production and the<br />
demand for time and cost savings have<br />
increased the interest in the agility of the<br />
manufacturing process. This has led to<br />
continuous improvement in rapid<br />
prototyping technologies. Given the size,<br />
the material and unusual shape of the<br />
window, we opted for a technology based<br />
on thermoplastic extrusion, specifically<br />
Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)”.<br />
Flaminco<br />
Prof. Ferraris’ Advanced Manufacturing<br />
Lab is one of seven research groups at<br />
De Nayer Campus. It is part of the division<br />
Manufacturing Processes and Systems<br />
(MaPS) of the Mechanical Engineering<br />
Department. Research topics include<br />
additive manufacturing, especially nozzlebased,<br />
including aerosol jet® printing,<br />
fused filament fabrication, and<br />
stereolithography. The Advanced<br />
Manufacturing Lab and Deceuninck, the<br />
Belgian market leader in the production of<br />
windows and doors, found each other in<br />
the SIM-ICON project Flaminco of<br />
Strategic Initiative Materials in Flanders<br />
(SIM).<br />
“Flaminco stands for Polymer Filaments<br />
for Additive Manufacturing of Individual<br />
Components”, continues Loren De<br />
Vogelaer. “The project focused on<br />
progressing the state-of-art of materials<br />
and extrusion 3Dprinting production chain<br />
based on the requirements of large<br />
applications. Besides Deceuninck and KU<br />
Leuven, the consortium included two<br />
other industrial partners: Materialise in<br />
Leuven and Proviron in Ostend, who<br />
specialise in respectively additive<br />
manufacturing and polymers. The<br />
research group of Prof. Brecht Van<br />
Hooreweder and Peter van Puyvelde<br />
(KUL) was also involved in the project. All<br />
together, we investigated the technical<br />
and economic feasibility of new materials<br />
and 3D-printing of larger thermoplastic<br />
products as an alternative to the small<br />
series extrusion and other standard<br />
production technologies avoiding high<br />
tooling costs and long lead times”.<br />
For Deceuninck, the project was an<br />
excellent opportunity to investigate<br />
whether 3D-printing technologies are<br />
suitable for the production of large<br />
windows with curved shapes equipped<br />
with built-in ventilation and LED lighting.<br />
Since such windows are custom-made,<br />
they cannot be mass-produced, which<br />
means that the costs must be kept under<br />
control. “Sustainability is another<br />
important criterion for the company”,<br />
Loren De Vogelaer adds. “At Deceuninck,<br />
special attention is paid to the rational use<br />
of materials and energy, anticipating the<br />
legal requirements that by 2050, every<br />
home in Flanders must be as energyefficient<br />
as an energy-performing new<br />
house”.<br />
Big size printing<br />
As mentioned earlier, the researchers<br />
opted for the Fused Filament Fabrication<br />
34
Joren De Vogelaer, prof. Eleonora Ferraris and Jie Zhang<br />
© Joren De Weerdt<br />
technology. Jie Zhang, PhD student at De<br />
Nayer Campus explains: “FFF is a<br />
3D-printing process that uses a<br />
continuous filament of thermoplastic<br />
material. The object is built by disposing<br />
melted material layer-by-layer. Typically,<br />
the extruder head moves in two<br />
dimensions, creating a layer at a time<br />
before adjusting vertically to begin a new<br />
layer. FFF benefits include having a large<br />
variety of materials to choose from, fast<br />
printing from ideas to prototypes and<br />
multiple printer manufacturers. In our lab,<br />
we have the equipment to print large<br />
pieces. It is a Discovery 3D-printer,<br />
financed by De Nayer foundation. This<br />
means we can be more economical with<br />
materials and, by extension, produce<br />
more cheaply. The quality and the integrity<br />
of the manufactured parts, i.e. the finish,<br />
the mechanical strength and the porosity,<br />
are the result of the temperature profile of<br />
the polymer deposits when in contact<br />
with the underlying layers. In the Flaminco<br />
project, I was testing the newly developed<br />
PVC filaments, and one of the objectives<br />
of my PhD research is to develop new<br />
strategies that optimally control the local<br />
temperatures during the process”.<br />
“It takes about 11 to 12 days to produce<br />
a whole window with high surface quality”,<br />
prof. Ferraris continues. “The window is<br />
1.5 m high, and we produced it in multiple<br />
pieces that were assembled afterward.<br />
The NGen material from Colorfab was<br />
used at the first side. Now we are<br />
producing the window in the newly<br />
developed PVC filament provided by<br />
Deceunick too. The biggest challenge<br />
was warping of the long pieces and to<br />
ensure continuous printing with no<br />
failure”.<br />
In the meantime, the Advanced<br />
Manufacturing Lab has finished two<br />
prototypes of the window. They can be<br />
seen at De Nayer Campus in Sint-<br />
Katelijne-Waver and at Deceuninck in<br />
Hooglede-Gits.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
CONNECTING<br />
35
FACULTY WORLDWIDE<br />
TWINNING AND DUAL<br />
DEGREE PROGRAMMES<br />
IN INDIA & THAILAND<br />
Group T Leuven Campus has a 20-year long tradition in dual undergraduate degree<br />
programmes with several renowned Chinese universities. For years, hundreds of students<br />
from China have populated the English-taught bachelor programme in Engineering<br />
Technology. The strategic target regions for <strong>international</strong> students also include Thailand and<br />
India. In October 2020, the first group of undergraduate students from Vellore Institute of<br />
Technology (India) and Thammassat University (Thailand) started their study in Leuven.<br />
In January 2020, KU Leuven and Vellore<br />
Institute of Technology signed a cooperation<br />
agreement for the establishment of<br />
a twinning degree programme in<br />
Engineering Technology. An intensive<br />
campaign was then launched at VIT to<br />
promote the programme to their students.<br />
Ranjini Mayichery of the Group T International<br />
Office, active in the field of<br />
admissions and recruitment and contact<br />
person for India, welcomed the first three<br />
students and guaranteed a smooth<br />
start-up. Arvind Giridhar, Sanat Kumar<br />
and Arfaat Ahmed Peer Iftequar arrived in<br />
Leuven last August. They are still getting<br />
used to the cold temperatures in Belgium,<br />
as the south of India has quite a different<br />
climate with temperatures of more than<br />
40 degrees in summer.<br />
Arvind Giridhar, Sanat Kumar and Arfaat Ahmed Peer Iftequar<br />
(Vellore Institute of Technology – India)<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
Arvind, Sanat and Arfaat were already<br />
planning to go abroad after their bachelor<br />
study, but the new possibilities changed<br />
these plans. Arvind remarks: “The<br />
information came close to the deadline for<br />
application, so we had to decide quickly.<br />
Of course, our parents also came into the<br />
story, because their support is essential in<br />
carrying out our plans. Months later, I can<br />
now recommend everyone to study<br />
abroad and take on an <strong>international</strong><br />
programme”.<br />
36
Naphrut Wandee, Chutkaew Girdpra and Kawin Sirichantakul<br />
(Thammasat University – Thailand)<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
“One advantage is that many Indian<br />
students already have an <strong>international</strong><br />
outlook”, adds Sanat. ”Still, the KU<br />
Leuven system of study proved to be<br />
challenging. The focus on student<br />
autonomy and guided self-study is new to<br />
many <strong>international</strong> students. Time<br />
management is an important skill in<br />
planning your study at KU Leuven.”<br />
“The first days were not easy, with no<br />
other Indian students around, so there<br />
was no other option than to socialise with<br />
Belgian students. The WhatsApp group<br />
set up by Group T Leuven Campus<br />
proved to be extremely useful, but still it<br />
was so cold”, shivers Arvind. “Moreover,<br />
on Sunday, everything is closed. The<br />
campus life is also radically different. VIT<br />
is a community with everything present<br />
on-campus; in Leuven, the university is a<br />
city with a large city campus.<br />
Nevertheless, the message to future<br />
candidates for the twinning programme<br />
VIT–KU Leuven is unanimous. “Go for it!”,<br />
Ahmed confirms . “If you want to improve<br />
your CV as an engineer, KU Leuven is a<br />
very good place to go”. The students plan<br />
to do a master’s course also in Leuven,<br />
Ahmed sees a future in <strong>international</strong><br />
business. “This way, our study is a<br />
stepping stone for our future career as an<br />
engineer, be it in R&D or in business.”<br />
Dual degree<br />
At Thammasat University, information<br />
sessions were set up by Kantima<br />
Thongkhao, who since 2018 has been the<br />
KU Leuven internatonal liason in Thailand<br />
and is involved in the KU Leuven alumni<br />
chapter for Thailand. Kawin Sirichantakul,<br />
Naphrut Wandee, Chutkaew Girdpra are<br />
the first Thai students from Thammasat<br />
University in the dual degree programme<br />
in Engineering Technology at Group T<br />
Leuven Campus.<br />
The engineering programme at<br />
Thammasat has two study tracks, one of<br />
which is taught in English, geared towards<br />
<strong>international</strong> mobility during the<br />
undergraduate study phase. Kawin,<br />
Chutkaew and Naphrut were all three in<br />
this study track, with <strong>international</strong> mobility<br />
to the UK or Australia in mind. The<br />
<strong>international</strong> perspective already implies a<br />
thorough knowledge of English as well as<br />
an <strong>international</strong> outlook.<br />
Chutkaew admits: “It was the first time<br />
that we heard about the possibility of<br />
study at KU Leuven. I did some research<br />
and found that KU Leuven has a very<br />
good reputation for research and<br />
technology. Moreover, the quality of life in<br />
a small city like Leuven is high. The<br />
facilities for students are very affordable<br />
and of high level. ”<br />
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the<br />
preparation happened in an untypical<br />
way. The visa processing and preparation<br />
was compressed into a three-week<br />
period just before the start of the<br />
academic year. On 7 October, the<br />
students could finally start their study,<br />
with specific guidance to catch up within<br />
the first few weeks of the academic year.<br />
The International Office on Group T<br />
Leuven Campus supported and advised<br />
them on how to get organised.<br />
Naphrut explains: “The start was<br />
overwhelming; the way of working is<br />
totally different at KU Leuven. The<br />
welcome was warm, with a Thai buddy<br />
guiding us, even cooking for us every<br />
week”.<br />
About the engineering programmes at<br />
Group T Campus, Kawin says: “The<br />
engineering programme here is more<br />
hands-on, you need to conceive and<br />
design things, e.g. running an actual<br />
programme to make a robot move. In<br />
Thammasat, a system of mid-term and<br />
end of term exams is used, so this will<br />
also put some flexibility in our study<br />
approach”, according to Chutkaew.<br />
“Self-discipline is essential for students<br />
coming to KU Leuven”, says Naphrut,<br />
“Students have to work independently,<br />
which obviously is also strengthened by<br />
the COVID-19 situation”.<br />
The Thai trio has no doubt about it:<br />
“COVID-19 or not, by the time we<br />
graduate, we will be global engineers”.<br />
Hilde Lauwereys<br />
CONNECTING 37
FACULTY WORLDWIDE<br />
STUDENT AMBASSADORS<br />
PROMOTE OUR FACULTY<br />
WORLDWIDE<br />
Chimene El Boustany and Philip Lepoutre are two of the team of seven student ambassadors<br />
of the Faculty of Engineering Technology. In normal circumstances, they would now be in<br />
the middle of their Erasmus exchange semester, but COVID-19 decided otherwise. This does<br />
not mean that they are not <strong>international</strong>ly engaged; as student ambassadors they coach<br />
prospective <strong>international</strong> students.<br />
Philip Lepoutre was born in the UK,<br />
lived in Romania, studied in a<br />
Romanian-Turkish High-School,<br />
and then decided to join KU Leuven’s<br />
community at the Group T Campus. He<br />
joined a wide range of student activities<br />
ranging from chess, gliding, to being a<br />
radio presenter and a volunteer in Aether,<br />
a brand new team of the postgraduate<br />
programme of entrepreneurship for engineers.<br />
Very early in his student career, he<br />
also became our faculty’s first student<br />
ambassador.<br />
Chimene El Boustany is from Lebanon<br />
and choose KU Leuven to be close to her<br />
friend who studies medicine. She is active<br />
in AEISEC and is vice-president in an<br />
association for spacecraft students.<br />
Philip set up the student ambassador<br />
team at Group T Campus and invited<br />
Chimene to join. The student ambassador<br />
programme of KU Leuven has become<br />
quite popular among <strong>international</strong><br />
students who are happy to represent and<br />
to promote their alma mater and their<br />
faculty to potentially new <strong>international</strong>s.<br />
Chimene specifies: “as a student<br />
ambassador, you are expected to spend<br />
some time each week chatting with<br />
interested candidates” , and Philip adds<br />
that “a list of FAQ was provided by the<br />
marketing service and guidance sessions<br />
were aimed at preparing the student<br />
ambassadors for being able to highlight<br />
distinctive features of KU Leuven”. This<br />
takes up a few hours each week, with a<br />
busier period just before the application<br />
deadlines. Philip regularly asks students<br />
during the chat to set up a Zoom or<br />
Skype meeting. The marketing office also<br />
organises two ‘student ambassador<br />
events’ each year, where they bring all<br />
student ambassadors together to learn<br />
from each other and to network.<br />
The chat sessions may lead to funny<br />
anecdotes, like the time a student tried to<br />
convince Chimene to skip the application<br />
deadline by offering her some bribe<br />
presents… or the Albanian girl who<br />
confused the student ambassador<br />
platform with Tinder and started flirting<br />
with Philip.<br />
Being <strong>international</strong> students themselves<br />
has helped both Chimene and Philip to be<br />
better student ambassadors. Chimene:<br />
“We’ve been there, we’ve been in their<br />
shoes, and we know which advice they<br />
need.”<br />
“What advice would you give to your<br />
former self, is a good guideline”, Philip<br />
adds.<br />
Volunteering work, social engagement, or<br />
social engineering are some of the names<br />
used to describe co-curricular activities<br />
such as student ambassadors. Both<br />
Philip and Chimene confirm that being a<br />
student ambassador has provided them<br />
with essential skills to become better<br />
engineers: “engineering is all about<br />
people”, Chimene quotes one of her<br />
Group T lecturers. Their interpersonal<br />
skills, presentation skills, service attitude,<br />
communication skills were developed by<br />
being a student ambassador.<br />
Philip: “It also makes you culturally aware,<br />
you can adapt your communication<br />
depending on the audience, you learn to<br />
work on skills such as how to communicate<br />
a message clearly and effectively”.<br />
When Chimene and Philip started their<br />
student career three years ago, student<br />
ambassadors did not exist and so they<br />
had to get their information in a different<br />
way: Chimene actually travelled to<br />
Group T Campus during the Christmas<br />
holidays before deciding to apply.<br />
Philip was attracted to KU Leuven and<br />
later Group T Campus, and notes that in<br />
recent years, the campus info has focused<br />
strongly on promotional videos and a lot<br />
of activity on social media. Many initiatives<br />
now exist to involve <strong>international</strong> students<br />
in the student life.<br />
Personal development<br />
“Creative thinking, teambuilding skills,<br />
leadership skills have all benefited from<br />
my engagement as a student<br />
ambassador”, confirms Philip. “The<br />
student ambassadors complement very<br />
well with the engineering training we get,<br />
38
Chimene El Boustany and Philip Lepoutre<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
the theoretical concepts we learn in our<br />
soft skills courses can be implemented in<br />
a real life context.”<br />
Chimene: “The activities as a student<br />
ambassador help me on a larger scale,<br />
realising that “experience is simply a<br />
name we give to our mistakes” (dixit<br />
Oscar Wilde) to become a better engineer.<br />
They are learning labs for skills we need<br />
in our later career.”<br />
Recently, Philip spoke to a student from<br />
Poland who doubted whether to apply to<br />
TU Delft or to KU Leuven, and in the end,<br />
the student decided to apply to KU<br />
Leuven. “Knowing that your advice is<br />
valued by a prospective student is very<br />
rewarding and fulfilling. Being a student<br />
ambassador actually it doesn’t feel like<br />
work, it is a fun activity and it looks great<br />
on your cv.”<br />
Both students don’t stop at this<br />
engagement: they both aspire a future job<br />
in the field of aerospace industry.<br />
Hilde Lauwereys<br />
39
FACULTY WORLDWIDE<br />
UNA.FUTURA:<br />
DESIGNING THE DIGITAL FUTURE<br />
OF EUROPE<br />
Throughout June and July 2021, the eight leading European universities of the UNA<br />
Europa 2030 alliance offered their students a unique experience: tackling real life<br />
challenges in cross-European teams. Set up as an open innovation design event, Una.<br />
Futura took students on a journey developing solutions to the challenges arising from<br />
the digital revolution. Arnoud Martens, International Officer at Group T Leuven Campus,<br />
was facilitator of one team.<br />
In 2018, seven prominent research<br />
universities joined forces to create<br />
UNA Europa 2030, an alliance that<br />
aims to lay the foundation of the<br />
European University of the Future. The<br />
partners -including KU Leuven- are<br />
committed to establish a profound collaboration<br />
with a focus on qualitative<br />
and innovative education and research<br />
that stimulate the <strong>international</strong> opportunities<br />
for students, staff and<br />
researchers.<br />
“The seven partners -there are now<br />
eight of them- have been at the heart<br />
of Europe’s intellectual tradition for<br />
almost 1,000 years”, Arnoud explains.<br />
“They have a rich cultural heritage and<br />
the ambition to shape the Europe of<br />
the future. Together, they count almost<br />
half a million students and staff and<br />
reach millions more online”.<br />
Challenges<br />
In spring 2021, a digital platform was<br />
set up where students and staff could<br />
share ideas and discuss with<br />
colleagues from across the whole UNA<br />
Europa 2030 community. Teamed up<br />
with facilitators and experts, they<br />
worked on jointly finding solutions to<br />
six challenges that all relate with the<br />
exponential advance of digitisation in<br />
all aspects of everyday life, be it in<br />
education, at work, in social interaction,<br />
communication, health and many<br />
others. The six challenges were:<br />
1. Digital empowerment, 2. Digital<br />
citizenship, 3. Digital economy,<br />
4. Augmented human, 5. Cyber threats<br />
and 6. Mental well-being and social<br />
relations in the digital work.<br />
“Each challenge was assigned to one<br />
or more <strong>international</strong> teams”, Arnoud<br />
continues. “Our team got ‘Digital<br />
citizenship’ with the task of developing<br />
an e-voting system. Six students had<br />
signed up for this. The entire design<br />
process took two weeks. After the<br />
kick-off with an expert talk on the<br />
theme, the team got down to work.<br />
The first week was entirely reserved for<br />
gathering documents and information<br />
on e-government systems and good<br />
practices. It quickly became apparent<br />
that Estonia is a frontrunner in the EU<br />
that can serve as a model for the<br />
digitisation of public services and<br />
administration. Other countries are<br />
clearly less advanced; some do not<br />
even have electronic identity cards yet.<br />
Equalising the situation in the EU will<br />
be the first major work to do”.<br />
Young people<br />
During the second week, the team<br />
concentrated on designing a European<br />
e-voting system. “We initially aimed at<br />
young people as the target group<br />
because they are most familiar with<br />
digitisation”, says Arnoud. “The<br />
complexity of the task soon became<br />
apparent. Not only technologically, but<br />
also in terms of security and privacy.<br />
Fortunately, the team also included a<br />
PhD student in law who was well<br />
versed in legal and juridical matters.<br />
Twenty-four students of KU Leuven<br />
took part in Una.Futura 2021, including<br />
seven engineering students from<br />
Group T Campus. Arnoud is proud of<br />
their commitment, especially since<br />
most of them are from outside the EU.<br />
The platform was closed mid-July. The<br />
collected ideas and ensuing<br />
discussions will form the groundwork<br />
for building a joint strategy for UNA<br />
Europa 2030. The analysis of the ideas<br />
was shared with the community in<br />
November 2021. Subsequently, the<br />
second phase of the process will start<br />
at policy level. The new strategy is<br />
expected to be ready for action by<br />
May 2022.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.una-europa.eu<br />
40
Arnoud Martens<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
CONNECTING<br />
41
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION<br />
SOLAR OLYMPIAD 2021:<br />
EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENTS<br />
IN UNUSUAL TIMES<br />
On 6 May, the Agoria Solar Team organised the sixteenth <strong>edition</strong> of the Solar Olympics. This is<br />
an annual event in which secondary school students from all over Flanders are challenged to<br />
build a mini solar car or an original gadget that runs on solar energy. The 2021 <strong>edition</strong> presented<br />
itself as a Solar Olympiad and went entirely online for the first time. Ministers Ben Weyts and<br />
Benjamin Dalle encouraged the 150 participants.<br />
Both excellencies did not hide their<br />
admiration for the initiative and the<br />
results. “This is STEM made visible,<br />
tangible and palpable,” said Flemish<br />
education minister Ben Weyts. “Here you<br />
can see that STEM is damned enjoyable.<br />
The projects radiate a love for science<br />
and technology”. Flemish Minister for<br />
Brussels, Youth and Nature Benjamin<br />
Dalle confirmed: “I think it is incredibly<br />
clever how the participating young people<br />
were able to bring their challenging<br />
projects to a successful conclusion in this<br />
unusual year”.<br />
Finalists<br />
In September 2020, 50 teams registered<br />
for the solar competition. Out of their<br />
concepts, 28 were chosen from 16<br />
schools for the finals. These teams were<br />
each assigned a coach from the Agoria<br />
Solar Team. Each team also received a<br />
solar panel with which to build either a<br />
mini solar car or a creative gadget.<br />
Whoever opted for the gadget had to be<br />
able to convince the competition jury that<br />
the invention was not only original, but<br />
also sustainable and would eventually find<br />
its way to the market. This resulted in<br />
highly original but also very topical<br />
realisations, such as an electric alternative<br />
for convex traffic mirrors and a smart<br />
measuring system for the ventilation of<br />
classrooms. The teams that built a mini<br />
solar car had to compete against each<br />
other in a small but very competitive<br />
speed race.<br />
Digital platform<br />
The final of the competition is always a<br />
real happening at the Leuven campus or<br />
at Technopolis in Mechelen. “Due to the<br />
ongoing problems with the corona, we<br />
were forced to look for an online<br />
alternative,” says Ruben Holsbeekx, event<br />
manager of the Agoria Solar Team.<br />
“Together with Colruyt Group Technics,<br />
Group T Leuven Campus and Technopolis,<br />
we developed a digital platform for the<br />
final day with live streaming for the<br />
supporters.”<br />
During the live show on 6 May, the teams<br />
presented their creations to the jury and<br />
the public, who could vote for the public<br />
prize. More than 2,000 votes were cast<br />
during the final. Stephane Berghmans,<br />
CEO of Technopolis, Bart Bosmans of<br />
Colruyt Group Technics and Ruben<br />
Holsbeekx looked on from the studio in<br />
Mechelen and awarded eight prizes.<br />
“There were some really tough projects<br />
this year,” says Ruben. “Some of them<br />
were in no way inferior to the Engineering<br />
Experiences in the bachelor programme.<br />
But the other teams also manifested<br />
themselves as talented engineers-to-be.”<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
Still to be viewed at<br />
www.solar-olympiade.technopolis-events/nl/home<br />
42
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION<br />
INGENIOUS SUMMER CAMP<br />
IN LEUVEN, WITH SEPARATE GIRLS’ GROUP<br />
Even in corona times, ‘going to camp’ is spontaneously associated with playing games, romping<br />
around in the woods and meadows, and crackling campfires. The Engineers’ Summer Camp at<br />
Group T Campus has been held for the fifth time with growing success. From 5 to 10 July 2021,<br />
27 young participants indulged in science and technology. Almost half were girls.<br />
Getting young people interested in<br />
science, technology and engineering.<br />
That is what camp<br />
leaders Yuri Cauwerts and Karen<br />
Vanderloock of the Electronics-ICT department<br />
are aiming for. What started<br />
modestly in 2017 with a group of ten children<br />
aged 10 to 12, grew into a camp of<br />
27 10- to 14-year-olds, split into a boys’<br />
group and a girls’ team. At the same time,<br />
the number of activities also increased,<br />
other enthusiastic colleagues joined in<br />
and, in collaboration with Sporty, a package<br />
of twelve sports and games was<br />
introduced into the programme, ranging<br />
from gymnastics and speedminton to<br />
baseball and rope skipping. “A healthy<br />
scientific-technical mind also requires a<br />
good physical condition, especially for<br />
young people in full development,” confirms<br />
Yuri. “The formula still does the trick.<br />
In no time, the 2021 summer camp was<br />
full.”<br />
Riddle<br />
Karen lists the main ingredients of the<br />
STEM program. “Our offer included building<br />
mechanical structures with Lego,<br />
such as gear transmission, lever constructions<br />
and measuring slopes,<br />
colouring washcloths with Indigo in the<br />
Chemistry lab, soldering a pcb for a<br />
sound detector in the Electronics lab,<br />
making a dance mat with raspberry pi and<br />
finally examining bacteria with a microscope<br />
in the Biochemistry lab.”<br />
“There was a red wire running through all<br />
the week’s activities,” Yuri continued. “It<br />
consisted of solving a riddle to open a<br />
cryptex with a hidden key. On the last<br />
day, the participants found a supply of<br />
corn, which they used to make popcorn<br />
in the afternoon”.<br />
Gender<br />
In the first <strong>edition</strong>s of the summer camp,<br />
it was almost exclusively boys who were<br />
in action. That has changed completely<br />
now. The organizers have spared no effort<br />
to attract girls. That much, so they<br />
even set up a special girls’ group.<br />
“The girls’ camp is an attempt to address<br />
the gender imbalance in engineering education,”<br />
says Karen. “Research shows<br />
that girls at a young age are indeed interested<br />
in science and technology, but<br />
often lose that interest from the age of 12.<br />
One reason for this is that parents talk<br />
relatively little to their daughters about<br />
technology-related subjects. Moreover,<br />
there are still too few role models for<br />
young girls to emulate. By choosing the<br />
age group 10 to 14 years, we aim precisely<br />
at this critical phase.<br />
Karen has the following to say about the<br />
separate girls’ group: “If we had just<br />
opened up two ordinary groups as we did<br />
at the start of the initiative, they would<br />
have been filled initially with boys. Since<br />
we started reserving a group for girls two<br />
years ago, the picture has changed completely.<br />
Working together with boys at that<br />
age clearly has a barrier effect, that is the<br />
reality.”<br />
The organisers also varied the activities<br />
and assignments sufficiently, so they did<br />
not appear to be an exclusively boys’ affair.<br />
According to Karen, the presence of<br />
female coaches and facilitators also<br />
helped the girls feel more at ease. “If we<br />
can encourage the girls to develop their<br />
STEM skills in this way, this is a factor that<br />
should be taken into account in future<br />
activities,” concludes Karen.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
© Julie Feyaerts<br />
CONNECTING<br />
43
ALUMNUS IN FOCUS<br />
Serge de Gheldere<br />
© Filip Van Loock<br />
44
SERGE DE GHELDERE WINS<br />
THE FIRST ALUMNI ENGINEERS<br />
KU LEUVEN AWARD<br />
On 6 May 2021, the Alumni Awards were presented to a master of Engineering Science<br />
and a master of Engineering Technology, who have distinguished themselves nationally<br />
and <strong>international</strong>ly, within or outside their field of study. Winner Serge de Gheldere could in<br />
principle qualify for either of the two awards. He preferred to refer to his training as a master in<br />
Engineering Technology, where the foundations for his successful career as an entrepreneur<br />
and as the figurehead of the climate issue were laid.<br />
Serge is a three-time engineer<br />
(Group T University College, KU<br />
Leuven, and TU Delft) and a<br />
committed entrepreneur. His study, work<br />
and ambitions are completely devoted to<br />
the climate issue and the development of<br />
technologically and economically feasible<br />
solutions for companies, governments,<br />
and regions. He is considered an authority<br />
in this field and a role model for young<br />
engineers.<br />
Futureproofed<br />
As an engineer, Serge designed an online<br />
platform that uses an SDG framework to<br />
help cities and towns develop, implement,<br />
and monitor a climate plan. Futureproofed<br />
Cities helps cities to proceed to the<br />
implementation phase as soon as<br />
possible to reach the climate targets. All<br />
cities, large and small, frontrunners and<br />
doubters can join. By now, 136 cities are<br />
making use of it, with 2675 climate<br />
mitigation measures, accounting for 2.6<br />
billion euros in investments, a reduction of<br />
1 million tons of CO² emissions per year<br />
and annual savings of 375 million euros.<br />
As an entrepreneur, Serge founded<br />
Futureproofed in 1999 with the goal to<br />
support companies, organisations, and<br />
governments in the transition towards a<br />
sustainable and profitable business<br />
model. Futureproofed is convinced that<br />
accelerating towards a non-fossil,<br />
sustainable future is one of the biggest<br />
opportunities for companies. The step<br />
towards a non-fossil fuel future helps to<br />
save costs, reduce risks, develop new<br />
products and services, and strengthen<br />
the company’s image.<br />
Futureproofed has already carried out<br />
assignments for hundreds of companies,<br />
cities, and organisations, including DEME,<br />
Nike, Colruyt, the European Parliament,<br />
Leuven, Antwerp, Hasselt, etc.<br />
Climate activist<br />
Serge’s career as a climate ambassador<br />
began in 2006, when he was selected as<br />
the ‘Climate Ambassador’ of the then US<br />
Vice President Al Gore. With his<br />
presentation ‘The Inconvenient Truth’<br />
Serge gave hundreds of lectures at home<br />
and abroad, including Stanford, Yale,<br />
Tsinghua University (Beijing), India, Dubai,<br />
Togo, and many EU countries. Serge is<br />
still a much sought-after speaker at<br />
conferences, seminars and in the media.<br />
His latest achievement is the establishment<br />
of vzw Klimaatzaak, a pressure group that<br />
wants to urge four Belgian governments<br />
through legal means to comply with the<br />
climate agreements. The organisation<br />
aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions<br />
by at least 42% to 48% by 2025 and by<br />
65% by 2030, to reach zero emissions by<br />
2050. More than 68,000 Belgians have<br />
already signed up to this initiative. After six<br />
years of litigation, the process of the<br />
century has finally begun.<br />
Serge was also involved in the birth of the<br />
ambitious ‘Leuven Klimaatneutraal 2030’<br />
project, which has since been renamed<br />
‘Leuven 2030’. He is vice-chairman of the<br />
executive committee and a director. In<br />
Leuven 2030, more than 600 partners,<br />
authorities, the academic world,<br />
businesses, and citizens are working<br />
together to develop a roadmap and carry<br />
out strategic experiments in the field of<br />
climate neutrality. This project has helped<br />
to make Leuven the European Capital of<br />
Innovation this year. Leuven 2030 proves<br />
that even a small town can have a big<br />
impact in the global climate debate. It is<br />
no wonder that the city has awarded<br />
Serge the honorary title of ‘Hero of<br />
Leuven’.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
CONNECTING 45
ALUMNUS IN FOCUS<br />
QUPPA<br />
WANTS DISPOSABLE<br />
CUPS GONE<br />
Four million coffee cups are thrown away every year in Leuven. If you put them all together, you<br />
get a pile 23 km high, that is the distance between Brussels and Leuven. This massive waste<br />
has been a thorn in the flesh of the CORE team for some time. By founding Quppa, three CORE<br />
alumni want to get to the root of this problem. Co-founder Jeroen Diels tells the story.<br />
On 14 December 2020, Quppa was<br />
christened in Leuven. The new<br />
company is a spin-off of cvba-so<br />
CORE, a cooperative of engineering<br />
students from Group T Leuven Campus<br />
and associates who work towards an<br />
efficient and rational use of energy in a<br />
circular economy. As a Master’s student<br />
in Electromechanical Engineering<br />
Technology and a postgraduate in Innovative<br />
Entrepreneurship for Engineers,<br />
Jeroen was active at CORE for two years.<br />
First, he was involved in energy studies in<br />
schools, companies and government<br />
institutions. After that, he took care of the<br />
startup of fellow student Olivier Hendrickx.<br />
Together with two other students, Jeroen<br />
put the startup on the map as ‘Quppa’.<br />
Smart sharing system<br />
“At CORE, we learned to take a radical<br />
approach to things,” says Jeroen. “By<br />
radical I mean literally by the root (radix).<br />
We have developed a completely new<br />
solution to the problem of disposable<br />
cups. It is a clever system for sharing<br />
reusable coffee cups”.<br />
Jeroen explains. “We are introducing a<br />
universal, reusable cup for take-away<br />
coffee in the city. It can be borrowed<br />
without a deposit at different coffee bars.<br />
The first step is to register on the Quppa<br />
app. In the coffee shop you scan a QR<br />
code to link one or more cups to your<br />
account. To be clear: the cup does not<br />
become your property. You get it on loan.<br />
The app reminds you within three days to<br />
return your cup to one of the participating<br />
spots.<br />
The Quppa cup is a handy alternative to<br />
the disposable cup. You do not have to<br />
wash the cups yourself, but can simply<br />
‘drop’ them off dirty at one of the<br />
participating partners, who will take care<br />
of the washing up. Did you forget to bring<br />
your cup? No problem at all! You can<br />
borrow several at the same time. Quppa<br />
is currently free for coffee drinkers in Leuven.<br />
The coffee bars do pay a contribution for<br />
using the system, but they can easily recover<br />
that amount because they no longer need to<br />
buy new disposable cups”.<br />
Partners<br />
Fortunately, the three young entrepreneurs<br />
are not alone. They can count on the<br />
support of two business partners.<br />
“Our first partner is Flanders Circular,”<br />
Jeroen explains. “That is the consortium<br />
of government, companies, non-profit<br />
organisations and knowledge institutions<br />
that acts as an inspirer and matchmaker<br />
for the circular economy in Flanders. We<br />
received a grant from this consortium to<br />
develop the technological part of our<br />
project, such as the chips in the cups and<br />
the reading devices in the coffee bars.”<br />
The other partner is Borealis, the second<br />
largest producer of polyethylene and<br />
polypropylene in Europe. “The company<br />
is currently betting heavily on reuse<br />
systems to drive the transition to a circular<br />
economy,” continues Jeroen. “At the end<br />
of last year, Borealis launched a pilot<br />
project to replace 1.5 million plastic<br />
disposable cups with 30,000 reusable<br />
lightweight copies for reuse after recycling.<br />
The cups are produced in Belgium and<br />
are equipped with an RFID chip (Radio<br />
Frequency Identification), which enables<br />
to follow the entire route of the cup. Such<br />
data is very interesting for mapping the<br />
consumption behaviour of the customer<br />
and the life cycle of the product.<br />
Start<br />
The smart sharing system of Jeroen and<br />
co is in use in eight coffee bars in Leuven.<br />
500 customers have already registered<br />
and over 600 Quppa cups are in<br />
circulation. Not a bad result in corona<br />
times when most students are at home. It<br />
is encouraging that the City of Leuven has<br />
promised its support and cooperation. If<br />
now the largest potential customer, KU<br />
Leuven, also joins in, Quppa will be in a<br />
good position.<br />
Yves Persoons<br />
www.quppa.be<br />
46
Jeroen Diels, Wouter Meynendonckx and Thomas Holemans<br />
©Julie Feyaerts<br />
CONNECTING<br />
47
ENGINEERING<br />
THE FUTURE<br />
Study at the Faculty<br />
of Engineering Technology<br />
We make you feel at home in a globalised world. As an engineer<br />
without borders, you are committed to the major challenges<br />
of our time: climate, environment, health, mobility, poverty…<br />
Equipped with science, technology and professional skills,<br />
you are prepared to turn the tide.<br />
English programmes<br />
Bachelor’s programme<br />
• BSc in Engineering Technology<br />
- Electromechanical Engineering Technology<br />
- Electronics and ICT Engineering Technology<br />
- Chemical Engineering Technology<br />
Master’s programmes<br />
• MSc in Biochemical Engineering Technology<br />
• MSc in Chemical Engineering Technology<br />
• MSc in Civil Engineering Technology<br />
• MSc in Electromechanical Engineering Technology<br />
• MSc in Electronics and ICT Engineering Technology<br />
• European MSc in Sustainable Food Systems<br />
Engineering, Technology and Business<br />
• Erasmus Mundus Japan - MSc in Imaging and Light<br />
in Extended Reality<br />
• Erasmus Mundus - European Master in Radiation<br />
and its Effects on MicroElectronics and Photonics<br />
Technologies<br />
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• Advanced MSc in Innovative Health Technology<br />
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Industry<br />
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