The recent first financial commitment for infrastructure (roads, transport, etc.) is proof of this. On the issue of talent, all educational institutes are making plans to grow (double) the number of students; see, for example, the recent plans announced by TU/e. In addition, the growth will also affect the innovation power of our region and it will enforce the role of valorization and the interplay between knowledge institutes, industry and society.

Growth of activities at Eindhoven Engine

We also foresee a potential growth for the activities of Eindhoven Engine as an accelerator for innovation. For this reason, we are already working on plans for the next phase of Eindhoven Engine to continue as a public/private partnership. We also started activities for scale-ups in our region in the form of funding scans by ScaleUpNation. We are working on a plan for industrial and societal residents to join our community starting next year. Finally, the growth of our region might also bring more tension regarding diversity within the region. This is why we will further strengthen the Emergence Lab for low literacy over the coming year. With all of these activities, we hope that we can further strengthen our role as Innovation Accelerator for the years to come.

Photo: Angelique Swinkels

Source: commons.wikimedia.com (edited by K. Chamilothori)

The IntelLight+ project focuses on human-centric lighting. It takes an integrative approach to developing algorithms to infer and even predict user context to accommodate user needs and preferences. In his sub-research, Sietse is working on a photorealistic simulation of dynamic natural light for perception in virtual reality (VR). Light is an environmental factor that directly and indirectly impacts human health and well-being through processes affecting circadian rhythm, arousal and alertness, as well as comfort and visual interest. Current insights in lighting research show that eyes need high (blue-enhanced) light levels in buildings to support a healthy circadian rhythm and the associated good sleep. However, when delivered by traditional lighting fixtures, these high light levels challenge visual comfort and user acceptance. At the same time, recent studies suggest that ambient light distributions can affect attention, visual interest, alertness and relaxation. The question that emerges is whether these positive psychological effects, driven by spatial and temporal dynamics of illumination, could be used to increase the user acceptance of lighting solutions aimed at supporting circadian effects. 

Applicability of dynamic light in nature

Theories from environmental psychology suggest that nature and natural elements can be restorative for humans. The biophilia hypothesis explains this via humans’ innate and evolutionary connection with nature. By recreating the spatial and temporal characteristics of natural light patterns with artificial lighting, the positive qualities of daylight and the restorative effects of nature may be brought indoors. As a novelty, the applicability of dynamic light patterns that are prevalent in nature, such as dappled light, is being researched. 

“The tool will provide researchers with a fast and flexible method to conduct experiments on the perception of such patterns in a space independent of location or external conditions.”

Sietse de Vries

Simulation tool for photorealistic indoor environments

To identify the impact and perception of certain dynamic patterns of natural light, experiments are necessary. Due to the complexity of controlling natural light during such experiments, immersive virtual environments have been identified as a suitable alternative. The goal of the EngD project is to create a simulation tool that generates photorealistic indoor environments with customizable dynamic patterns of natural light to be viewed using virtual reality headsets. The tool will provide researchers with a fast and flexible method to conduct experiments on the perception of such patterns in a space independent of location or external conditions.

Dappled natural light

Recently, proof of concepts of all parts of the simulation tool have been produced, allowing early testing. The current focus is on optimizing simulation efficiency and closely reproducing the properties of dynamic patterns of dappled natural light. When finished, the simulation tool will facilitate research that is needed to advance the development of innovative lighting scenarios that maximally benefit human functioning, ensuring high visual comfort and satisfaction and support for circadian and restorative effects.

After the summer, we also introduced the project updates on Thursday mornings every five weeks, the ‘Every 5 weeks update’. These offer an informal moment to update and learn from each other and some valuable new connections have been made. From students to research to project leaders, all were present to provide mind-challenging presentations. We invite you to join these meetings as well; the time investment is low and the energy high!

As always, we will keep growing and gaining momentum with our community! If you would like to participate or be involved in any way, please contact us via community@eindhovenengine.nl!

Jasmijn, succesor to Joris

Meet also our new community manager Jasmijn Schol as the successor to Joris Dufils. Questions and advice about how to join the community or about community building, please contact her via community@eindhovenengine.nl

 

“I look foward to continuing to build the community of Eindhoven Engine. You can find me from Monday to Thursday in House of Disruption or 0.44 in building Disruptor.”

Low Literacy project

Within the Emergence Lab at Eindhoven Engine, I am doing my research project around low literacy. More specifically, I am looking to identify the touchpoints that helped people who have had low literacy to overcome the difficulty they have in reading and writing. These touchpoints can then form the basis for future design interventions that can either stimulate or lower the threshold for people to work on their low literacy.

Improving quality of life

I have chosen this project because, as a designer, I want to improve quality of life. Since reading and writing is so very important today, I wanted to take up the challenge of low literacy. I hope to lay the foundations for future design interventions in such a way that these interventions are tailored to the wishes and needs of the people they are designed for.

The Festival of Disruption was a full day of inspiration, innovations and positive energy. Throughout the day, we showed our way of working and the latest developments of our innovation projects. We can look back on a very successful day.

Did you miss out on the festival or do you want to relive the day?

Together with the shareholders of Eindhoven Engine (TU/e, TNO and Fontys) and the Supervisory Board, we will ensure a fitting succession. Until the full management team of Eindhoven Engine is operational again, Maarten Steinbuch will be your contact person.

We are proud of the results achieved so far with Eindhoven Engine and how it has become embedded within the ecosystem. We are especially grateful to Katja for her important contribution to this: she has been a major factor in building up the organization, inspiring our team and engaging all shareholders in an outstanding manner. As Eindhoven Engine, we have an important role to play in our ecosystem, which we do with full responsibility and with the energy and vigor of our motivated team.

We are glad that Katja remains at the heart of our Brainport region. If you personally want to reach out to Katja, you can send her a message at katja.pahnke@prodrive-technologies.com. She will appreciate it!

Stricter regulations

Air handling units (AHUs) are highly customized equipment. The regulations concerning AHUs are becoming increasingly strict to meet higher energy efficiency and ventilation goals, which adds to the complexity inherent within customized equipment. This upsurge in complexity increases the need for the continuous maintenance and monitoring of AHUs. However, such programs are difficult to implement due to the shortage of skilled personnel. Therefore, continuous monitoring and fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) processes need to be automated, which is referred to as AFDD. Despite the plethora of research on AFDD, there are limited real-life applications. Adding to this, the available solutions are either unreliable, unaffordable and/or unscalable.

FDD tools

A survey of the literature on FDD tools (commercially deployed or under development) revealed that these tools rely on a combination of expert rules or first principles. These approaches are inherently reliant on sensed information and/or expert knowledge, which makes their sustainment untenable post-deployment. Moreover, such tools have a very limited ability to prevent significant energy wastage. It is estimated that up to 30% of energy could be saved by effectively using data collected with continuous monitoring systems.

Artificial Intelligence

To realize this potential, highly sensitive fault diagnosis models can be trained with Artificial Intelligence (AI) based approaches that are scalable and have less reliance on expert knowledge and sensors. Through this project, an AFDD tool that incorporates these approaches has been developed and tested at two buildings. Within the AI domain, gradient boosting techniques have been employed for fault detection and its diagnosis is handled using Bayesian networks. Through experimental validation, a diagnosis specificity exceeding 90% has been realized. Importantly, it has been observed that the prototyped AFDD tool could reduce the energy consumed in the deployed chiller by 33%.

*Continuous Monitoring and Fault Detection Diagnosis of large Heat Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems.

We are proud of the results achieved so far with Eindhoven Engine and how it has become embedded within the ecosystem. We are especially grateful to Katja for her important contribution in this: she has been a major factor in building up the organization, inspiring our team and engaging all shareholders in an outstanding manner. As Eindhoven Engine, we have an important role to play in our ecosystem, which we do so with full responsibility and with the energy and vigor of our motivated team.

On behalf of Eindhoven Engine BV,

Maarten Steinbuch (scientific director)
Bert Pauli (chair of the Supervisory Board)

Eindhoven Engine and the TU/e department Industrial Design is offering a fully funded 2-year position to master graduates leading to the award of an EngD (Engineering Doctorate) degree in Designing Human- System Interaction. Start date: as soon as possible.

About the assignment

In this assignment you contribute to a deeper understanding and the design of a few meaningful interventions, addressing the huge societal challenge of non-inclusiveness. In particular, while the Brainport region is a highly intellectual region, at the same time 15% of the population is low literate, which excludes them from part of the possibilities available in the region. With that purpose in mind, Eindhoven Engine will bring together an ecosystem of students, researchers, start-ups and corporates to co-create, in an open innovation mindset, meaningful technology-based solutions with a strong human dimension. Are you creative, innovative and open minded? You are someone who can take responsibility for steering the ecosystem and leading the design of the possible solutions, for instance with student teams? For you no roads are impossible, as long as the impact is clear and it contributes to a solution of a real problem? ​For obvious reasons we require  a B2 level of the Dutch language. 

Do you have questions about this traineeship? You can also contact Walter Baets, Learning Officer @ Eindhoven Engine, via w.r.j.baets@tue.nl or Lotte Geertsen, Project Leader Emergence Lab @ Eindhoven Engine, via c.h.e.geertsen@tue.nl