Our focus on societal challenges

OUR FOCUS ON

SOCIETAL CHALLENGES

In an unpredictable and rapidly changing world, we focus all of our education and research on finding relevant answers to societal challenges within the following themes:

#INTELLIGENTMANUFACTURING

Creating intelligent manufacturing systems and leading the way in combining production technology, ICT, supply chains, and business modelling to create a more circular economy.

#DIGITALSOCIETY

Engineering our digital society and helping society manage the shifts and shake-up caused by digitalisation, for example through reliable digital systems, well-informed decision-making, and explainable data analytics.

#SMARTMATERIALS

Shaping our world with smart materials that offer functionalities not yet found in the physical world, for example, by leading the way in nanotechnology and biomedical materials.

#RESILIENTWORLD

Engineering for a resilient world by combining three vital knowledge domains – data, technology, people – that can help us end poverty and sustainably manage climate change, production, and consumption.

#HEALTHTECH

Improving healthcare by personalised technologies, as illustrated by our pioneering role in early detection and targeted treatment of diseases and increased patient independence.

DR SARTHAK MISRAPROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOMECHANICAL ENGINEERING,

HEAD OF THE SURGICAL ROBOTICS LABORATORY

After studying Natural Sciences at the University of Twente, I did research at the University of California, Berkeley for a couple of years. I had a strong personal interest in controlling materials on various scales and wanted to do something innovative, contributing to a breakthrough on an important social issue. Energy is one such issue. In Twente, my research builds a bridge between fundamental research and practical applications with the hopes of adding my bit to renewable energy. I enjoy my work: every day I can come up with and manufacture the craziest combinations of materials – and in this way make discoveries that may be very important for us and our children.

DR MARK HUIJBEN

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR FOR NANOMATERIAL

FOR ENERGY CONVERSION & STORAGE

For a long time, technology has mainly focused on the basic form of speech recognition: on whát a person says. However, I feel automatic speech recognition

is ready for the next level. For me, the interesting part is the layer beyond words, the emotions or mental state of a speaker. Are both speakers on the same page? What is the meaning of a certain laugh? That’s important information because in communication it’s all about nuance. About silences, a sigh, or a laugh of a person. My ultimate goal is to have a normal conversation with a machine. As if talking to a human being. DR KHIET TRUONGASSISTANT PROFESSOR HUMAN MEDIA INTERACTION

What I did in space robotics at the macro level is the same

as what we do with surgical robots at the micro level: using

robotics to tackle seemingly unsolvable problems. For me, another thing the two fields have in common is the fact that you cannot make mistakes in either area. This makes my work

really challenging. The ability to cope with the pressure comes with time. I have learnt to sit quietly, think deeply and wait for the solution to present itself – even if weeks and months go by without anything visibly happening. Staying motivated is not always easy, but as the years go by you learn, and you grow in

confidence that the process will eventually bear fruit.