Examples of EngD projects
Johan Bucher, EngD Trainee Design for Agrifood & Ecological Systems (WUR)
Company: Project executed at Wageningen University
Traditional plant observation using time-lapse photography is limited by fixed angles, hiding parts of the plant. To address this, Johan Bucher developed BABETTE, a camera system capturing 3D representations of plants from all angles, including fine details.
Built during Johan’s EngD at WUR, BABETTE combines images into a 4D model, tracking plant growth over time with exceptional accuracy. Johan aims to make BABETTE available for plant science research and education worldwide.
Beatrice Federici, EngD trainee Design of Electrical Engineering Systems (TU/e)
Company: Philips
This project enables affordable premium ultrasound by moving computational processes to the cloud, reducing reliance on expensive hardware. A cloud-native prototype was developed with live data streaming, cloud-based image processing, and web-based controls. A local processor and smart rate controller ensure smooth performance, even with network interruptions.
This innovation, led by Beatrice Federici during her EngD, paves the way for a new generation of accessible, high-quality medical imaging systems.
Bodhi Buurman, EngD Trainee Maintenance (UTwente)
Company: SWARCO Netherlands
The Netherlands faces a major infrastructure renewal challenge due to aging assets, with €260 billion needed over 75 years. A key issue is the lack of feedback from maintenance contractors to asset managers, hindering long-term planning and increasing costs.
This project develops maintenance feedback loops at SWARCO by designing an information management procedure integrated into their system. These loops aim to improve maintenance efficiency and ensure critical data supports the renewal of Dutch infrastructure.
Bente de Leeuw, EngD trainee Civil and Environmental Engineering (TU Delft)
Company: ProRail
Accurately estimating the braking distance of trains is vital for safe operations, but current methods for measuring wheel-rail contact forces are either expensive or unreliable for passenger trains.
Bente de Leeuw applied an extended Kalman filter to estimate these forces, testing it through simulations and experiments on TU Delft's V-Track. This method aims to provide an accurate and affordable solution for continuous monitoring, helping ProRail improve railway safety and efficiency.
