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Pre-seed funding and new office for Emergent Swarm Solutions!

2024-12-02T12:11:23+01:00December 2nd, 2024|Uncategorized|

We have two exciting updates to share from Emergent Swarm Solutions!

Emergent has secured its pre-seed funding! This investment marks a critical step in advancing their vision for scalable, platform independent autonomy and swarming technology.

The company has also relocated to a new office on the 12th floor of the Aerospace Innovation Hub. This upgraded space provides the room and resources needed to continue developing software for the next generation of unmanned systems. Exciting times lie ahead as the team is currently building a few new development drones!

Congratulations to the team on the fund and the new office!

Dawn Aerospace reaches new heights with the MK-II Aurora!

2024-12-02T12:13:06+01:00November 28th, 2024|Uncategorized|

The MK-II Aurora, a prototype spaceplane designed by TU Delft alumni Tobias Knop and Jeroen Wink, recently broke the sound barrier for the first time. Developed by their company Dawn Aerospace, the MK-II Aurora aims to revolutionize space travel with its reusable, runway-launched design.

Unlike traditional rockets, the Aurora combines rocket propulsion with aircraft-like versatility, capable of taking off from standard runways. During a test in New Zealand, the five-meter-long craft reached supersonic speeds at an altitude of 25 kilometers. Future plans include a larger version capable of delivering satellites into space and returning to Earth.

Congratulations to the team for reaching this milestone! We are excited to see what the future brings!

For information go here.

Revolv Space announces In-Orbit Demonstration mission of SARA

2024-12-02T12:13:54+01:00November 28th, 2024|Uncategorized|

Revolv Space announced that SARA, its space-qualified Solar Array Drive Assembly, has successfully completed integration and testing on DPhi Space’s Clustergate-1 platform and D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier.

This significant milestone marks a major step toward SARA’s first in-orbit demonstration, scheduled for the first half of 2025. Leveraging the robust capabilities of Clustergate-1, the mission will demonstrate SARA’s effectiveness in unlocking the power generation potential of SmallSats by deploying and autonomously orienting a solar array under space conditions.

Read the full press release here.

Arceon receives an investment!

2024-11-02T11:42:26+01:00November 2nd, 2024|Uncategorized|

Tenzing Alpha invests in material science startup Arceon, founded by TU Delft alumni, to support the development of their advanced materials for extreme environments.

Amsterdam, October 25, 2024 – Tenzing Alpha has invested in Arceon, an emerging leader in advanced engineering materials designed for extreme environments. The investment highlights Tenzing Alpha’s confidence in Arceon’s future potential as they develop groundbreaking technologies. A follow-on investment is also being considered to support Arceon’s next phase of growth.

Arceon’s technical strength lies in its team’s deep expertise in creating advanced materials for extreme and harsh environments, such as aerospace and high-performance industries. With Tenzing Alpha’s assistance, the company will focus on expanding its commercial capabilities, market reach, and operational efficiency to transform its technical success into a strong business presence.

About Arceon
Arceon specializes in creating advanced materials designed to withstand extreme environments. Their team is dedicated to pioneering technologies that address complex engineering challenges, setting the stage for future leadership in their sector.

About Tenzing Alpha
Tenzing Alpha is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage and high-growth companies. With a focus on providing both financial capital and strategic guidance, they aim to help promising startups like Arceon reach their full commercial potential and become industry leaders. 

 

DEMOday 2024!

2024-10-29T11:36:58+01:00October 29th, 2024|Uncategorized|

DEMOday 2024! 🚀

Last week we hosted our very first DEMOday and it was a huge success! Over 200 participants registered for a day filled with exciting events. We had a very diverse group of participants, consisting of industry professionals, TU Delft employees, government representatives, and students, not only from TU Delft, but als Rotterdam School of Management, Hogeschool van Amsterdam and InHolland! It was an awesome way of celebrating our fifth anniversary. 🎉

The Aerospace Innovation Hub’s DEMOday was all about innovation and connection! 🚀 We started strong with pitches from Team Tumbleweed, Ubotica Technologies, Emergent Swarm Solutions, ParaPy, Fiducial, VÆRIDION, and zepp.solutions. Next up, the innovation floor opened which created an inspiring space where even more (23 of 50!) entrepreneurs showcased their work and connected with participants. For those looking to dive deeper, the speed-date sessions offered a chance for one-on-one conversations. The day also featured an inspiring keynote on innovation by Maaike Zwart from Gemeente Delft and Robert van Tilborg from Airbus Defence and Space and was closed off with a networking drink. Take a look at the after movie to relive the highlights of the day or to see what you have missed!

 

A big thank you to all the entrepreneurs who showcased their work, to everyone who joined us, and to our sponsors for making it possible! Let’s keep innovating and building the future together! 🚀

This event was made possible by: Gemeente Delft, InnovationQuarter, Provincie Zuid-Holland, Nederlandse Lucht- en Ruimtevaartcentrum (NLR), TU Delft AE, and TU Delft Campus.

‘Kansen voor West’ Voucher Programme

2024-09-23T13:56:17+02:00September 23rd, 2024|Uncategorized|

As part of the ‘Kansen voor West’ programme, TU Delft Campus and residing field labs offer a variety of vouchers that grant access to knowledge, facilities and networks.

Whether you need advice, want to conduct a pilot project, or are considering setting up shop in Delft, there is a voucher that can help you move forward. The Aerospace Innovation Hub has one voucher possibility, the establishment voucher.

Establishment Voucher
This voucher refers to financial support for covering the rent of an SME that wishes to establish itself in one of the fieldlabs or innovation clusters on the TU Delft Campus. This subsidy amounts to a maximum of €15,000. The amount is subsidized at 50%, and for the remaining 50%, a personal contribution is required.

TU Delft Field labs
In addition to  Aerospace Innovation Hub, The Green Village, VPdelta, RoboHouse, Smart Advanced Manufacturing XL, Mondai House of AI, and Delft on Internet of Things (DoIoT) are also participating.

Contact
Are you interested? Learn more about the voucher programme and contact us by sending an email to ae-innovationhub@tudelft.nl.
Seize this opportunity to strengthen your innovation power!

The first Demo Day of the Aerospace Innovation Hub!

2024-09-02T16:53:30+02:00September 2nd, 2024|Uncategorized|

The first Demo Day of the Aerospace Innovation Hub!

🚀 Exciting News! Join us for the Aerospace Innovation Hub’s first Demo Day on October 8, 2024, 12:00-18:00!🌟

Don’t miss a day filled with:
✨ Inspiring lectures
🤝 Rapid speed dates
💡 Diverse innovation floor
🥂 Networking drink
Whether you’re a student, expert, investor, or government official, this is your chance to connect and collaborate with innovative aerospace community!

📅 Save the date and register through the following links as soon as possible! This ensures you get the latest information while we get closer and stay tuned for more details!

Register as participant

Register as community member

OneSpaceHub to strengthen the entrepreneurial journey in the Dutch space ecosystem

2023-02-07T21:33:48+01:00February 8th, 2023|Uncategorized|

OneSpaceHub to strengthen the entrepreneurial journey in the Dutch space ecosystem

A new consortium of stakeholders within the Dutch space ecosystem is working together with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO) to further exploit the potential of the space sector. With its winning proposal, the consortium has been awarded a two-year subsidy to roll out a campaign optimising the early stages of the entrepreneurial journey in the Dutch space sector, from idea to start-up and scale-up. Starting in 2023, the OneSpaceHub programme will expand and strengthen the network in the Netherlands to set out a trajectory geared towards excelling space related talent and entrepreneurship.

A national partnership

RVO’s One Single Hub programme focuses on partnerships of organisations such as incubators and accelerators as well as universities in the Netherlands that aim to improve facilities for innovative entrepreneurship. OneSpaceHub is a joint effort that was awarded a grant under this initiative. The project team led by NL Space Campus consists of Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk, University of Twente, PLNT Leiden Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Aerospace Innovation Hub @TU Delft, Hogeschool Inholland, Radboud University, and Leidse instrumentmakers School. The consortium will lay the foundation for a permanent national partnership where talents from provincial programmes and different educational levels flow towards a strong space-tech and data-driven ecosystem.

Boosting entrepreneurship

The space sector is growing rapidly on a global scale. With an increasing amount of technology transfers, commercialisation, and data driven solutions flowing to other industries, the space sector has gained importance for the wider economy.

Across the Netherlands there are various programmes in the field supporting entrepreneurship covering different aspects such as financing, valorisation, talent, and marketing. OneSpaceHub aims to make “a selection of excellent programmes” better aligned, more visible, and in particular broadly accessible. This will be achieved by bringing together the expertise coming from some of the best performing programmes in the most important early phases of entrepreneurship: education, activation, pre-incubation and incubation. To this end it will link, reinforce, and extend initiatives already in place to make this support accessible in the whole country. A uniform, efficient and accessible OneSpaceHub trajectory will be offered locally, hybrid (online and in-person), and eventually from every province to better facilitate and stimulate entrepreneurs along their growth path. The selection of complementary programmes will increase the chances of success for space related start-ups and scale-ups, and create an even bigger pull to attract new talent, ideas, business and knowhow. By connecting several local hotspots, entrepreneurs will have access to new collaborations and will be in a better position to grow, diversify, and reach new markets on a national and international scale.

The mission of OneSpaceHub is to better facilitate and stimulate the entrepreneurial journey from education and pre-incubation to start-up and scale-up and to generate more space related start-ups and scale-ups in the Netherlands.
Contact: Femke Verdegaal (ae-innovationhub@tudelft.nl)

EmbraerX opens office at the Aerospace Innovation Hub @TU Delft

2022-07-15T14:17:27+02:00July 15th, 2022|Uncategorized|

EmbraerX opens office at the Aerospace Innovation Hub @TU Delft

The Netherlands has been a core partner for Embraer’s efforts in the development of innovative and sustainable aviation technology. And now, EmbraerX, a disruptive innovation subsidiary of the Embraer Group, will also strengthen this collaborative journey by opening an office at the Aerospace Innovation Hub @TU Delft.

Embraer has identified the TU Delft Campus as a high potential ecosystem where innovation is accelerated and thrives. Specifically, the faculty of Aerospace Engineering and the Aerospace Innovation Hub are relevant for the Brazilian aviation giant. Opening an office for its disruptive innovation subsidiary EmbraerX is a logical step in the close collaboration that is needed to realise the innovation ambitions of the aviation industry.
“EmbraerX’s physical presence at the Aerospace Innovation Hub enables, amongst other possibilities, a way to accelerate new partnerships to co-explore the application of disruptive technologies for new businesses. Being here, we will be able to develop joint educational, research, and innovation projects that will create a vision for a greener future when it comes to mobility,” said Daniel Moczydlower, CEO of EmbraerX.

About EmbraerX

EmbraerX is a market accelerator committed to developing solutions that transform life’s experiences. This Embraer S.A. disruptive innovation subsidiary is based on Florida’s Space Coast in Melbourne, integrated with the Company’s engineering team in Brazil, and dedicated to collaborating with global innovation communities. The EmbraerX team of innovators, creators, thought-leaders, and designers combines human-centered design thinking with business-building and engineering expertise to tackle some of the biggest mobility problems facing humanity today. For more information, visit EmbraerX.com

Closing

At the Aerospace Innovation Hub, we believe collaboration on all levels is integral in creating innovation with impact in the aerospace industry. Our community members consist of startups, student teams, mature companies, and corporates. We are proud to be adding EmbraerX’ name to our list of corporate community members. By connecting industry experts with our young entrepreneurs, our research and student communities at the university, we hope to accelerate innovation to bring sustainable aviation closer to reality.

Learning to lead as a young woman in aviation

2022-06-28T15:18:10+02:00June 28th, 2022|Uncategorized|

Learning to lead as a young woman in aviation

It takes guts to pursue your dreams, but having good role models and mentors can make a difference. These are things that have helped Leanne van Dam, a master’s student at TU Delft’s Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, on her journey to becoming a leader. As a recipient of the 2021 International Aviation Women’s Association (IAWA) scholarship, she hopes her example will inspire others to follow their dreams.

Foundation and inspiration

Growing up, Van Dam always enjoyed subjects like mathematics and physics, knowing that there is a finite answer to something. Her high school dream of becoming either a commercial airline pilot or flying for the Royal Dutch Air Force evolved after visiting TU Delft’s Faculty of Aerospace Engineering open day. She realised that building airplanes rather than flying them was a better fit for her.

As a bachelor’s student, Van Dam was inspired by two women she encountered at the Aerospace Women’s Day. One from the Royal Dutch Air Force and one from industry, she saw them as powerful examples of what she wanted to be in the future. One of them, she recalls, was a very reserved person. “I was that way as well, I wasn’t the one speaking up all the time,” said Van Dam. “I realised you can be like that and stand with power when you’re more on the introvert side. I hadn’t seen that and it inspired me.”

Being the first

Those examples influenced Van Dam to take on new challenges. After two years of committee work with the VSV ‘Leonardo da Vinci’, the study association at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, she was asked to be the president of the board for 2019-2020. “I thought it was a big challenge at first, but then I saw it more as an opportunity,” she said. As the first female president of the VSV, Van Dam was certainly in the spotlight. “I learned throughout that year that in a field like aerospace as a female you’re going to be in the spotlight anyway,” she said. “You should probably just take advantage of that and show your best capabilities so that’s what I tried to do.”

Promoting female leadership

Van Dam drew on those leadership lessons when she applied for the IAWA scholarship, which is awarded each year to a female student at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. In an essay about her personal experiences she described her vision about female leaders. On her role as VSV president, she wrote: “For the first time, I felt like I could have the opportunity to stand in the shoes of my role models. I could be the one to inspire others.”

The IAWA scholarship gave Van Dam the opportunity to connect with people from around the world, including the eleven other scholarship recipients. These interactions brought something to light for Van Dam. In the United States, she said, there is much more talk about empowering females, but you don’t hear those voices in the Netherlands as much. “I think we can help each other out more as women, even between students at the aerospace faculty,” said Van Dam. “Maybe something like a buddy system would help.”

“I have learned about my strengths and abilities and gained confidence in myself.”

Mentors matter

As part of the scholarship experience, Van Dam was also assigned a mentor, a former president of IAWA. “I think that it’s so immensely helpful to have a mentor, especially someone who is a bit older and already in their career,” she said. “It’s also good for making connections and networking.” For Van Dam that means participating on IAWA’s finance committee this year, where she will connect with and learn from experienced professionals like CFOs.

Prior to this, Van Dam already knew the value of having mentors. Through her board year at the VSV, she connected with a woman that advises the board who has since become a professional mentor. During a more difficult time in her life, Van Dam also reached out for a personal mentor. “I think it’s hard to ask for help. I saw it as a weakness, but I have learned in the past few years that it makes it a lot easier if you can, and maybe you can even be an example to others by doing so.”

Van Dam says both of these mentors helped her to grow tremendously. “I have learned about my strengths and abilities and gained confidence in myself,” she said. “I have come to realise that there were some things that I did because I subconsciously wanted to please others instead of myself. I have become more aware of that over the past year. And I have learned to choose to do things that I want to do instead of the things I think I am supposed to do, and to say no more often to things that I do not feel like doing; I choose for myself.”

Studying and other things

Now in the second year of a master’s in Control & Simulation, Van Dam is working on her thesis about sustainable aircraft trajectory optimisation. She’s investigating the possibilities of sending aircraft on a different flight path in order to minimise the environmental impact. For example, if the flight path goes into the wind, sometimes it’s smarter in terms of environmental impact to go around and fly a longer distance, but then have a lesser headwind.

In addition to her studies, Van Dam completed an internship with the Air Force where she designed the tactical control centre for a simulation involving six helicopters, each in different simulators. She also works as coordinator of the start-up voucher programme for the Aerospace Innovation Hub, which helps aerospace students launch their ideas through start-up funding and coaching.

As for advice for other students, she said it’s important not to forget things outside of academic life. “My time in Delft has been defined by everything I did besides my studies, like doing committees and being involved in associations,” said Van Dam. “Of course, I have learned a lot from my bachelor’s and master’s work, but from a personal side I have learned so much from working with people in other environments. I would encourage others to look beyond their studies and take part in extracurricular activities.”

This article was written by and for TU Delft Stories.