For the fifth year, KIJK magazine was looking for the best Dutch tech idea. Several Brainport nominees are in the list!
Numerous Dutch students and start-ups are busy with innovative technology. The editors have nominated twenty inspiring tech ideas from Dutch soil, no less than five of which come from this Brainport region. The list came about in consultation with independent experts, technical universities and agencies that give start-ups a place. The public vote is behind us; the jury will be considering the vote in the coming period. The winner will be announced at the end of the year, exciting! Good luck to all nominees.
The nominees from this Brainport region:
Battery-free
Powering sensors without batteries impossible? No way. Powering small devices, such as sensors, without batteries sounds challenging, to say the least. Yet Daniel Vakulov, who received his PhD from TU Eindhoven on this research, succeeded. He devised a microgenerator that uses the heat difference between the surface on which the sensor is mounted and its surroundings - the so-called thermoelectric effect - to generate electricity.
Each generator contains roughly one million nanowires, made of a conductive material, that stick up like blades of grass. These nanowires generate energy very efficiently. This is because they are too thin to vibrate (and therefore lose no heat energy through movement), but thick enough to conduct electricity. Read more about Batterloos here: learn more.
Point of Light
Researchers at TU Eindhoven succeed in making silicon emit light. Lasers used in optical chips are usually made of indium phosphide or gallium arsenide. However, the raw materials for these exotic materials are scarce and expensive. Much more efficient is to develop a laser made of silicon. Something that has been considered the Holy Grail in the microelectronics industry for years. Material scientists at TU Eindhoven have now finally succeeded in this. They developed a silicon alloy that can emit light. In the future, chips can be made much faster with this. More info can be found here.
Goal 3 with the Baby Monitor
This affordable monitor should prevent African babies from dying unnecessarily. In many African hospitals, the baby wards are packed due to a shortage of funds, which means there is not enough medical equipment and care staff. The few doctors and nurses working there are so busy that they do not have time to also perform blood pressure and heart rate checks on babies. As a result, a number of infants die unnecessarily. Goal 3 wants to put an end to this misery. They have developed an affordable monitor that measures babies' breathing and heart rate. The device transmits the data directly to a tablet that, thanks to an algorithm, recognizes if something is wrong. By detecting it in time, children's lives can be saved. More info can be found here.
Incooling
Data centers are among the biggest energy guzzlers in the world. That has everything to do with cooling the hundreds of servers stored there, which is usually done with cold air. Incooling is working on a cooling technique that uses half as much energy. The method works as follows: coolant is pumped under high pressure through tiny channels. Those channels are attached to a metal plate, which is screwed on top of the chip. The heat generated by the chip brings the coolant to a boil, changing it from a liquid to a gas. This phase change extracts heat from the chip, similar to the process of perspiration. This cooling technique would save a lot of energy. Read more: incooling.com/
Yiqian Bao with behelpful parasites
Small devices we use in our household lose a lot of heat. For example, adapters for smartphones or laptops get quite warm while charging. That heat is a useless byproduct and thus goes to waste. This is what Yiqian Bao, who graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven, wants to change. Bao developed "parasites" that live off residual heat. Take the Thermo Cactus, a coaster on which you can place a hot cup of coffee. Thanks to thermoelectric plates, the Cactus converts the cup's residual heat to electricity, allowing you to use a USB cable to charge a phone, for example. Other members of the Thermos family apply the same technology, but for ovens, adapters or system cabinets. Read more: www.designacademy.nl.
Other nominees are:
FORU Solution, ESTEC Noordwijk, WordProof, FiberSort + Wieland Textiles, Allseas, STIL, Zoi Meet, Dawn Aerospace, Alex van Silfhout + research group (Utrecht University, Radboud University), Heike Vallery + research group (TU Delft), Unpluq, Ipadic, GDP Shaker, De Warmte and DeNoize (TU Delft).
