The award ceremony, organized by IMDI, was a great experience! The IMDI, the Innovative Medical Device Initiative, is an organization founded to support and enhance the Dutch field of medical devices. The prize was awarded at ZonMw in The Hague during a short talent award symposium, where guests from the government, industry and academia were present. The director of ZonMw (organization that stimulates healthcare research) opened the symposium and explained that the award was introduced to stimulate young talent in the field of medical devices. Secondly a comprehensive overview of the history, goals and current impact of IMDI was presented by the scientific director of IMDI.

Next the runner-up was allowed to present his research. But because he was unable to attend the symposium, his supervisor gave the presentation (topic: new surgical tool to cut high density bone), which she did great. In the short coffee break the organization of the symposium very subtly increased the pressure by telling me that they really enjoyed the great presentation of the runner-up and that they were very interested to see how the winner would perform… Then it was my turn to give a 20 min presentation. Since the public was quite ‘high profile’ and the runner-up gave a great presentation I was slightly nervous at the beginning and very happy with the prototype of the implant that was safely there in the pocket of my jacket. This ‘element of surprise’ of my presentation was delivered to INCAS3 the afternoon before, JUST in time.

As I started to talk I quickly felt relaxed again. This even turned out to become one of the most fun presentations I held so far; people were sincerely interested in the topic, I got many questions following the presentation and nice feedback during the drinks afterwards. I also used this opportunity to shortly introduce my current research project (the SPRINT project), which yielded some interesting conversations afterwards.

After my presentation I was awarded the prize by the head of the jury Cathy van Beek; €1500 and a beautiful piece of art, which is now standing on my desk and works as a nice source of inspiration. To be awarded this prize by this jury of experts (member of the Board of the Radboud University Hospital, VP of Philips Research and a chief healthcare inspector) was an honor and truly an experience to remember.

Mike van Diest MSc

As you might be aware INCAS³ and its Canadian partner institute PTRC are setting up a program to chart the structure of CHOPS (heavy oil) reservoirs in Canada. As the devil is in the detail we met up with representatives from two large oil companies to discuss facts and fiction on these reservoirs. The basic idea is to use micro sensors to chart these reservoirs. Now, as far as is known only artifacts smaller than two millimeters have passed through a reservoir; thus size matters! Just one more detail to illustrate the challenge. It gets freezing cold where these fields are, down to -40 degrees Celsius. So, either we have to stick to the summer or we need really warm coats. The next day we met up with Malcolm Wilson, the director of PTRC, and his colleagues and we continued our discussion how to tackle the challenge of charting the CHOPS reservoirs. We outlined the next steps and at the end of the meeting, renewed our existing agreement.

The Netherlands might be wet, but also the Canadians have their challenges. Frequently they have large storms and the cities can’t also ways cope with all the water. Therefor they created storm ponds, shallow basins of a couple of hectares with the function to buffer large amounts of water, to avoid flooding of the river. Furthermore, the idea is that the water during its stay in the ponds gets rid of its pollution. The structure of these ponds has been based on models but no detailed measurements have taken place on the effectiveness of the ponds as well to avoid flooding as the purification function. Regional expertise like Medusa Explorations has, could play an important role here, so we are investigating the possibilities to setup a new project in this area.

Now, for something completely different. The timing of our visit was such that it coincided with a MLA reception hosted by the Dutch Ambassador to Canada, Mr. Geerts. The evening prior to this, Heinrich and I were invited to join a dinner with the Ambassador Geerts and Saskatchewan minister responsible for innovation and education Norris. This was a very interesting experience. Both gentlemen started out with exchanging recent developments in Saskatchewan and Europe, slowly moving into opportunities that the combination of both countries offers. Halfway through, we got the opportunity to pitch INCAS³ and our vision on research, science and innovation. Our positioning between science and industry as well as our approach to offer PhD candidates the option to stay with us for half a year to write their own PhD proposal, clearly got their attention. Who could have imagined this three years ago, INCAS³ as a unique selling point for the Netherlands.

Finally on Wednesday evening the reception took place. As a side activity we arranged to meet Peter Vanriel (director of CanNorth) at the reception to sign our newly established collaboration agreement. With CanNorth we are going to collaborate on the development of robust, reliable and autonomous sensor systems suitable for all year monitoring of surface water. Peter and I ended up signing this agreement in front of a camera with the Ambassador and Consul General of Vancouver standing behind us (see video). So, at least there is proof we were there (-: Just a final comment relating to the meeting with Minister Norris. He was also at the reception and so kind to introduce us with Saskatchewan’s prime minister, explaining in highlights our way of working. Nice!

There is not much more we could have wished for this visit. We signed two agreements, we foresee at least one additional project, we met the prime minister and the minister of innovation of Saskatchewan and last but not least we had a couple of meetings with the Dutch Ambassador. WOW.

Assuming this is the last blog, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

-John

Given that sensor technology has applications in all these fields and that INCAS³ aims to be a global player, we are travelling around the Netherlands (and obviously the rest of the world) to connect to all these valleys and ports. This time we ended up in Eindhoven.

We started off at the Centre for Wireless Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology. The director, Peter Baltus, attended our MoreWise workshop and we are looking at the possibilities for a joint research program. CWT’s ambitions, our common areas of interest and current budget cuts at Dutch universities create an excellent opportunity to collaborate. With an INCAS³ PhD candidate in an overlapping field a first projects appears on the horizon.

From the university, we went to NXP at the High Tech Campus. NXP would be an excellent partner if it comes to large scale implementation of wireless sensor systems. They have the technology and expertise to design and manufacture highly integrated chips including sensors, we have connections to the markets that are interested in this technology. At our first meeting a mutual interest was established and we agreed to have a follow meeting very soon.

At the end of the day we met the directors of the Embedded Systems Institute, who are currently involved in writing the road map for the Embedded Systems part of the Dutch ‘Top sector’ High Tech Systems and Materials. We were invited to review the draft road map and give an overview of all the sensor projects we are aware off. This resulted in an impressive list, as well in partners as in financial volume.

It was a long, but interesting and inspiring day.

-John van Pol

There were eight Canadian participants (PTRC, University of Regina and the Saskatchewan Research Council) presenting the case and representatives from the Universities of Delft, Eindhoven and Groningen, the Irish Tyndall Institute and of course INCAS³ sketching the state of the art in potentially useable technologies.

The first morning was dedicated to learning everything we also wanted to know about the oil reservoirs. In the afternoon of the first day this was matched with very interesting presentations on all the relevant technologies to tackle the problem.

During the second day challenges and solutions were confronted, resulting in a research road map for the coming two years.

The directors of PTRC and INCAS³ will meet in the middle of December to work out the details and make arrangements on the funding, making sure that the activities can start in 2012.

-John van Pol

The newly appointed vice director of Sensor Universe, Leo van Buiten, joint me on the trip to promote the Drenthe activities not only at the conference but also with the municipality. We had meetings with a number of representatives from Poznań among whom, one of the deputy mayors. They were very interested in the Assen Sensor City initiative.

Poznań already has an advanced system for monitoring the public transport and they are also working on a dynamic traffic management systems. Specifically the mobility project within Sensor City drew there attention and a return visit to Assen is scheduled for January 2012.

Just a side note for the tourist within us: Poznań is a very beautiful city with a historic well maintained city center. Definitely worthwhile visiting, when in Poland.

-John van Pol

Last week however I was asked to come over, at free admission, to the annual conference of the ISPO (International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics) NL in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht because I was nominated for their thesis prize (afstudeerprijs) 2011, a competition I joined a few months ago with my master’s thesis: ‘The design of an osseo-integrated upper leg prosthesis fixation system’. The organization also asked to prepare some slides to give a 4 minute pitch on the topic, which only the winner was allowed to present. Of course I responded to the invitation and only 3 days later I went to visit the conference, which was about orthotics for the foot and ankle and turned out to be very interesting. There were 200-300 attendees and the presentations were given by medical doctors, movement scientists and others involved in this field.

There appeared to be three other nominees; two from universities of applied sciences and two from universities. Since master students usually are allowed to invest more time in their research than students from universities of applied sciences, there were two awards. My direct opponent was a student from the Technical University Delft, who worked on measuring proprioceptive feedback in arm prostheses, a very interesting and relevant topic. My research was more theoretical; I developed a prosthesis fixation system which holds interesting advantages for upper leg amputees. I tested it using a finite element model, optimized the design and a prototype was produced and tested in vitro. The results were promising and at this moment the prosthesis is being tested in an animal study. (details can be found on the ISPO website)

Just before the lunch break the award ceremony commenced. The chairman of the jury explained which criteria were used to assess the work and he gave a short introduction in the topics of each of the nominees. Subsequently he read some lines from the jury report and told that all of the nominees performed really well and that the scores were close together. Then the moment where the winner was announced was there…The jury decided unanimously that…I won!

My first academic award! I was called to the stage and awarded a certificate, a 1-year membership of the ISPO and an envelope. It was a great sensation to have my research appreciated by this group of experts! I always considered my main drive to be intrinsic motivation, but I have to confess that this kind of extrinsic motivation can also give quite a boost to the morale. Additionally I was allowed to give a pitch for all of the 200-300 attendees in the Irene hall. Immediately. So off I went to the lectern, where I tried to crush my 6 months of research into a 4-minute talk which was interesting to engineers, appealing to medical doctors and comprehensible for orthopedic shoemakers, physiotherapists etc. Quite a challenge, which I hope I succeeded in. It was at least an impressive experience and a perfect start of an academic career full of surprises!

Mike van Diest works as a Ph.D. student in the research group Health and Sports.

In MeMachine, the name of the project, two young participants will be monitored real time for 72 hours at Lowlands 2012 and their information will be shared with the audience. All their personal information such as body temperature, heart rate, location, behavior, as well as photos, videos and tweets, will be registered by means of a suit equipped with sensors and video recorded and shown on two screens at the festival site. The audience can respond to the behavior of the participants through social media. These reactions are in turn also made public and can be viewed on both the festival site and the wider community (through the smartphone, PC).

With this extreme example Monique and Ruben want to address the impact of social media on human behavior and discuss the ethics involved. We were very interested to participate in the project, because of the technological challenge involved with the project as well as the ethical questions that play a role in the use of sensor systems.

Yesterday they presented their concept at Wireless Stories. Georges and Erik, two of our engineers, provided the technical support for their presentation. Monique presented in an Xsens sensor suit, she had a heart and voice monitor, an interactive t-shirt and both of them had camera’s that showed what they were looking at. The data was displayed on two screens while their pitch was presented on a third screen

It was impressive to see. Monique and Ruben made an excellent appearance and gave a clear insight what could be done at the Lowland festival next year. And…also our engineers did an excellent job because the sensors did what they were supposed to do. So, now it is matter of finding funding for the full project and Lowlands 2012 will be a festival as it has never been before.

John van Pol

The process of human categorization can be investigated through psychological experiments. By presenting people with a carefully selected group of sounds, and asking them questions about it, we can discover the attributes they use to categorize the sound, depending on different conditions. The agreement ánd the variation between people, and between their answers to different sounds give us indications of what is important in the decision to assign a sound to a certain category. A categorization decision can for example be based on properties the sound, such as the frequency content or duration of the sound, or on properties of the semantic category, such as whether a car is big or small.

But why in Toulouse? To design and run a psychological experiment we need several types of expertise. An experiment aimed to investigate categorization of environmental sounds requires expertise in acoustics, in psychology, and in the technical design of the experiment. Furthermore, it requires specialized equipment and programs, and of course, it requires participants. The people in the group Unité de Recherche Interdisciplinaire of the Université de Toulouse 2 have great expertise in these areas, which they for example apply in research about sound and speech perception. Pascal and Julien, two members of this group, collaborated in designing and running the categorization experiment. Thanks to them we are already able to analyze the first results, and we are making plans to collaborate on follow-up experiments.

A collaboration in Southern France has other advantages as well: Last week we, the Paris representatives of INCAS³ and a colleague from the LAM, drove down through the beautiful landscape of France to Toulouse. Not only did we get to enjoy the view of the countryside and all its castles, vineyards, and walnut trees, but also how welcome the people are. Pascal invited us for a dinner at his home, where we got to enjoy a perfect homemade ‘gateau au chocolat’, accompanied by Champagne. One might question the primary reason for this collaboration…

Maria Niessen
(The results of this experiment will be available on this website after publication.)

Anyway, as I mentioned five students of the Willem Lodewijk Gymnasium in Groningen visited INCAS³ as a part of their high school science orientation days. During these days high school students get the opportunity to visit scientific institutes and talk to researchers to get a feeling of what science is all about. We are pleased that the group of students chooses to visit INCAS³ and are happy to present some of our activities.

To start of Heinrich Wörtche gave them an overall introduction. He told the students a lot about INCAS³, sensor science going on at INCAS³ and the kind of people who work here. After that it was time to get the hands ‘dirty’. The students did a small experiment to measure the pH and temperature of different soft drinks with Laurens Hengeveld, one of our researchers, and discovered for example that all soft drinks are very acidic. The next item on the program was a presentation on how cars on a toy racetrack can be recognized by computers using a camera for license plates and measurements of the sound pattern and de magnetic spectrum of the cars. The demonstration was done by Georges and Dirkjan and later on Maria, one of our postdocs, and Hedde explained some of the scientific stuff behind it. The day ended with a question round for Heinrich Wörtche.

At the beginning the students weren’t really excited about science and working at INCAS³, but after this day they seriously saw it as an option to work here and had a totally different idea of working in a scientific institute as INCAS³.

-Anouk

The of UofS strategy has three focus areas: Innovation, Internationalization and the First Nations. The INCAS³ activities around the First Nations take place at the intersection of these three themes. Taking into account that Saskatchewan is an excellent testing ground for complex sensor systems placed in the open environment, INCAS³ has decided to investigate whether it’s feasible to establish a field lab in Saskatchewan. Two INCAS³ employees will stay at UofS over the summer to write a business plan for these activities.

The meeting with Lynda Haverstock was very interesting. With a track record in politics and being the former representative of the Queen in Saskatchewan, dr. Haverstock is very enthusiastic about the INCAS³ initiatives towards Saskatchewan and specifically the First Nations.

The tours around the facilities of the PTRC and ITC were very interesting. There is a great need for robust and reliable sensor technology as well for the oil business as for the further development of carbon capture methods. After the meeting, parties concluded that INCAS³ could probably make a good contribution on this research. This will be followed up in the coming months.

Finally we had meetings with Enterprise Saskatchewan, Innovation Saskatchewan and Communities Tomorrow. Saskatchewan faces a similar challenge as the Netherlands on the point of innovation. The before mentioned parties all play a role in stimulating and supporting innovation. They were very interested in the INCAS³ model of public-private collaboration and also here follow up discussions are planned.

To be continued…