Engineering

In this VR game, you control an owl with head movements: just tilt your head forward and the owl makes a nosedive. Meanwhile, you’re actually doing neck exercises. Elisabeth Wilhelm and her PhD-student Luís Felipe García Arias developed this game together with Marina de Koning-Tijssen, a neurologist at the University Medical Center Groningen. The game was developed for patients who experience abnormal movements and postures of the neck due to a neurological disorder called cervical dystonia.

From tailor-made shaving tools to personalized healthcare: the potential of autonomous robots, especially when they work in teams, is huge. How do we control the decisions these complex systems make so that they can operate safely and efficiently? Professor of Networks and Robotics, Ming Cao (Faculty of Science and Engineering), and his team are working hard to find out.

Loi will receive the grant for developing safe, highly sensitive and fast  infrared detectors for use in advanced sensor technology.

Maria Antonietta Loi, creates new materials that turn light into electricity or electricity into light. She works with led/tin perovskites for solar cells, and quantum dots for various technological applications.

Prof. David Lentink is a partner in the NaviSense project awarded 54.7 million euros by the German government to research the mechanisms animals use to navigate and how these mechanisms can inspire technology.

Dr. Vassilis Kyriakou has received a EUR 400,000 grant of the NWO to develop an innovative electrochemical reactor for sustainable ammonia production.

Dynamical systems, i.e. mathematical models that describe how things evolve over time, are at the heart of much of the modern world. The real challenge, however, lies in shaping the systems’ behaviour to achieve a specific goal.

Nathalie Katsonis has won the Ammodo Science Award for Fundamental Research. She develops adaptive molecular materials and studies the chemical origins of life, which in turn yield insights for vaccines and clearing up oil spills at sea.

Two student teams from the University of Groningen and Hanze University of Applied Sciences will test two self-built mini-satellites in the municipality of Oldambt on April 24.

Paolo Pescarmona designs and builds catalysts, for example to turn carbon dioxide into polymers.