Building on Complex Adaptive Systems theory and basic Agent Based Modeling knowledge presented in SPM4530, the Advanced course will focus on the model development process. The students are expected to conceptualize, develop and verify a model during the course, individually or in a group. The modeling tasks will be, as much as possible, based on real life research problems, formulated by various research groups from within and outside the faculty.
Study Goals The main goal of the course is to learn how to form a modeling question, perform a system decomposition, conceptualize and formalize the system elements, implement and verify the simulation and validate an Agent Based Model of a socio-technical system.

Our human society consists of many intertwined Large Scale Socio-Technical Systems (LSSTS), such as infrastructures, industrial networks, the financial systems etc. Environmental pressures created by these systems on Earth‰ŰŞs carrying capacity are leading to exhaustion of natural resources, loss of habitats and biodiversity, and are causing a resource and climate crisis. To avoid this sustainability crisis, we urgently need to transform our production and consumption patterns. Given that we, as inhabitants of this planet, are part of a complex and integrated global system, where and how should we begin this transformation? And how can we also ensure that our transformation efforts will lead to a sustainable world? LSSTS and the ecosystems that they are embedded in are known to be Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). According to John Holland CAS are "...a dynamic network of many agents (which may represent cells, species, individuals, firms, nations) acting in parallel, constantly acting and reacting to what the other agents are doing. The control of a CAS tends to be highly dispersed and decentralized. If there is to be any coherent behavior in the system, it will have to to arise from competition and cooperation among the agents themselves. The overall behavior of the system is the result of a huge number of decisions made every moment" by many individual agents. Understanding Complex Adaptive Systems requires tools that themselves are complex to create and understand. Shalizi defines Agent Based Modeling as "An agent is a persistent thing which has some state we find worth representing, and which interacts with other agents, mutually modifying each other‰ŰŞs states. The components of an agent-based model are a collection of agents and their states, the rules governing the interactions of the agents and the environment within which they live." This course will explore the theory of CAS and their main properties. It will also teach you how to work with Agent Based Models in order to model and understand CAS.

Design of shoreline protection along rivers, canals and the sea; load on bed and shoreline by currents, wind waves and ship motion; stability of elements under current and wave conditions; stability of shore protection elements; design methods, construction methods. Flow: recapitulation of basics from fluid mechanics (flow, turbulence), stability of individual grains (sand, but also rock) in different type of flow conditions (weirs, jets), scour and erosion. Porous Media: basic equation, pressures and velocities on the stability on the boundary layer; groundwater flow with impermeable and semi-impermeable structures; granular filters and geotextiles. Waves: recapitulation of the basics of waves, focus on wave forces on the land-water boundary, specific aspects of ship induced waves, stability of elements under wave action (loose rock, placed blocks, impermeable layers) Design: overview of the various types of protections, construction and maintenance; design requirements, deterministic and probabilistic design; case studies, examples Materials and environment: overview of materials to be used, interaction with the aquatic environment, role of the land-water boundary as part of the ecosystem; environmentally sound shoreline design.

Design and construction of breakwaters and closure dams in estuaries and rivers. Functional requirements, determination of boundary conditions, spatial and constructional design and construction aspects of breakwaters and dams consisting of rock, sand and caissons.

Building construction is one of the most waste producing sectors. In the European Union, construction alone accounts for approximately 30% of the raw material input. In addition, the different life-cycle stages of buildings, from construction to end-of-life, cause a significant environmental impact related to energy consumption, waste generation and direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.

The Circular Economy model offers guidelines and principles for promoting more sustainable building construction and reducing the impact on our environment. If you are interested in taking your first steps in transitioning to a more sustainable manner of construction, then this course is for you!

In this course you will become familiar with circularity as a systemic, multi-disciplinary approach, concerned with the different scales, from material to product, building, city, and region.

Some aspects of circularity that will be included in this course are maximizing reuse and recycle levels by closing the material loops. You will also learn how the Circular Economy can help to realign business incentives in supply chains, and how consumers can be engaged and contribute to the transition through new business models enabling circular design, reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling of building components.

In addition, you will learn how architecture and urban design can be adapted according to the principles of the Circular Economy and ensure that construction is more sustainable. You will also learn from case studies how companies already profitably incorporate this new theory into the design, construction and operation of the built environment.

This economics course provides an introduction to the field of cybersecurity through the lens of economic principles. Delivered by four leading research teams, it will provide you with the economic concepts, measurement approaches and data analytics to make better security and IT decisions, as well as understand the forces that shape the security decisions of other actors in the ecosystem of information goods and services.

Systems often fail because the organizations that defend them do not bear the full costs of failure. In order to solve the problems of growing vulnerability to computer hackers and increasing crime, solutions must coherently allocate responsibilities and liabilities so that the parties in a position to fix problems have an incentive to do so. This requires a technical comprehension of security threats combined with an economic perspective to uncover the strategies employed by cyber hackers, attackers and defenders.

In an increasingly data-driven world, data and its use aren’t always all it’s cracked up to be. This course aims to address the critical lack of any or appropriate data in many areas where complex decisions need to be made.

For instance, how can you predict volcano activity when no eruptions have been recorded over a long period of time? Or how can you predict how many people will be resistant to antibiotics in a country where there is no available data at national level? Or how about estimating the time needed to evacuate people in flood risk areas?

In situations like these, expert opinions are needed to address complex decision-making problems. This course, aimed at researchers and professionals from any academic background, will show you how expert opinion can be used for uncertainty quantification in a rigorous manner.

Various techniques are used in practice. They vary from the informal and undocumented opinion of one expert to a fully documented and formal elicitation of a panel of experts, whose uncertainty assessments can be aggregated to provide support for complex decision making.

In this course you will be introduced to state-of-the-art expert judgment methods, particularly the Classical Model (CM) or Cooke’s method, which is arguably the most rigorous method for performing Structured Expert Judgment.

CM, developed at TU Delft by Roger Cooke, has been successfully applied for over 30 years in areas as diverse as climate change, disaster management, epidemiology, public and global health, ecology, aeronautics/aerospace, nuclear safety, environment and ecology, engineering and many others.

Electric cars are more than a novel means of mobility. They have been recognized as an essential building block of the energy transition. Fulfilling their promise will imply a significant change in the technical, digital and social dimensions of transport and energy infrastructure. If you want to explore the business opportunities this new market offers, then this is the course for you!

This course explains how electric mobility can work for various businesses, including fleet managers, automobile manufacturers and charging infrastructure providers. The experts of TU Delft, together with other knowledge institutes and companies in the Netherlands, will provide insights into and examples of how innovations have disrupted conventional businesses and created new businesses altogether. This will be explained through various concepts and models, including total cost of ownership models, lean mass production, value chain thinking and business integration.

After completing this course, you will be able to create e-mobility business models and develop a new strategy for your company which includes transition to or incorporation of e-mobility.

The course includes video lectures, presentations and exercises, which are all illustrated with real-world case studies from projects that were implemented in the Netherlands.

Electric vehicles are the future of transportation. Electric mobility has become an essential part of the energy transition, and will imply significant changes for vehicle manufacturers, governments, companies and individuals.

If you are interested in learning about the electric vehicle technology and how it can work for your business or create societal impact, then this is the course for you.

The experts of TU Delft, together with other knowledge institutes and companies in the Netherlands, will prepare you for upcoming developments amid the transition to electric vehicles.

You’ll explore the most important aspects of this new market, including state-of-the-art technology of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure; profitable business models for electric mobility; and effective policies for governmental bodies, which will accelerate the uptake of electric mobility.

The course includes video lectures, presentations and exercises, which are all reinforced with real-world case studies from projects that were implemented in the Netherlands.

Electric cars are more than a novel means of mobility. They have been recognized as an essential building block of the energy transition. Fulfilling their promise will imply a significant change in the technical, digital and social dimensions of transport and energy infrastructure. If you are interested in learning about the state-of-the-art technology behind electric cars, then this is the course for you!

This course focuses on the technology behind electric cars. You will explore the working principle of electric vehicles, delve into the key roles played by motors and power electronics, learn about battery technology, EV charging, smart charging and about future trends in the development of electric cars.

The course includes video lectures, presentations and exercises, which are all illustrated with real-world case studies from projects that were implemented in the Netherlands.

This course was co-developed by Dutch Innovation Centre for Electric Road Transport (Dutch-INCERT) and TU Delft and is taught by experts from both the industry and academia, who share their knowledge and insights.

Elementary Ergonomics is an introduction to basic physical ergonomics theory and practice for students of other - than Industrial Design Engineering of Delft University of Technology - institutes for higher learning, such as Dutch universities, universities of EU and non-EU countries, and universities of applied sciences. The course consists of the following topics: anthropometry (1D, 2D, 3D including digital human modelling), biomechanics, and comfort.

Furthermore, the role of user involvement in the design process (evaluation of existing products and environments and of created concepts, models and prototypes) will be explained. Moreover, the meaning and representation of use cues in product design will be highlighted.

Ontwerpen is een combinatie van logisch redeneren en het creatief combineren van bestaande technieken om tot nieuwe, innovatieve ideeen te komen. Een goede werktuigkundig ontwerper put zijn creativiteit uit kennis van een groot aantal bestaande werktuigbouwkundige systemen. Hoe groter die kennis, hoe groter de kans dat nieuwe, innovatieve ontwerpconcepten ontstaan. Vooral kennis over niet-conventionele techniek bevordert dit creatieve ontwerpproces.

Het doel van het vak Evolving Design is om studenten de onderhavige werkprincipes te tonen van een grote hoeveelheid niet-conventionele werktuigbouwkundige systemen. Er wordt hierbij zowel gekeken naar bijzondere ontdekkingen uit het verleden als uit het heden, met een blik op de toekomst. De ontwerpprincipes worden niet simpelweg opgesomd, maar geplaatst in hun fascinerende, historische ontwikkeling om te laten zien hoe de ontwerpers hun creativiteit en vernuft gebruik(t)en om goedwerkende oplossingen te vinden binnen de beperkingen van de beschikbare fabricageprocessen en beschermingsmogelijkheden (patenten). Veel oplossingen uit het verleden zijn klaar om te worden toegepast in de technologie van de toekomst!

Het vak richt zich primair op het kwalitatief beschrijven van de werkprincipes van bestaande technologieen, met de nadruk op bewegende mechanische constructies. Hoewel het kwantatief, in detail uitwerken van de kracht-bewegingsvergelijkingen niet het hoofddoel van het vak is, zijn mechanische vergelijkingen wel essentieel als zij leiden tot een beter begrip.

Geo-information has proven to be extremely helpful in many aspects of risk and disaster management: locational and situational awareness, monitoring of hazards, damage detection, sharing of information, defining vulnerability areas, etc. This course aims to provide knowledge on risk and disaster management activities, demonstrate use of geo-information technologies in emergency response, outline current challenges and motivate young geo-specialist to seek for advanced solutions. The course is organised as lectures and practicals. The practicals will be in the form of group assignments. Some excursions and guest lectures will be organised as well.

Are you interested in taking your first steps in robotics? Do you seek a practical approach and want to learn by doing? Join our course and learn how to program a complete real-world robotic system with ROS!

The Robot Operating System (ROS) enables you to quickly build robotic applications through access to a large set of open-source software and tools. Over the years, ROS has become the essential tool for roboticists. A large community surrounds ROS and there has been extensive input from industrial users in the development of these tools.

Many of the new advanced robot capabilities for manipulation, perception, and navigation have been developed using ROS. Companies such as Airbus and Boeing are using ROS for several of their applications. And Delft University of Technology’s Team Delft Robotic System won two challenges at the Amazon Robotics Challenge 2016 with robots developed with ROS.

In this course, you will learn to use different ROS tools to create a complete robotic application. You will be working with your own standalone Ubuntu-Linux installations and with industrial and mobile robots on the physics-based simulation engine, Gazebo. You will learn to program and configure basic robotic tasks such as pick-and-place objects, and navigate through obstacles. You will then integrate all this knowledge to build an industrial production line with two robotic arms and a mobile robot.

How do you design an aircraft or spacecraft? And in doing so, how do you keep the risk of failure minimal while bearing in mind that they will eventually fail?

In this course you will be taken on a journey through the structural and material design of aircraft. You will see and understand how aircraft and spacecraft are manufactured, and learn how safety is enshrined at every stage.

Experts from the Aerospace Structures and Materials Department of Delft University of Technology will help you explore and analyze the mechanical properties of materials; learning about manufacturing techniques, fatigue, loads and stresses, design considerations and more – all the scientific and engineering principles that structural and materials engineers face on a daily basis. By the end of the course, you will have learned to think like they do!

The course linear modeling delivers the skillset in linear or structural modeling that is required to solve structural problems from which you can develop finite element (FE) models for practical applications. It also teaches how results can be correctly interpreted. The course uses an open source FE package in a series of weekly practical sessions where models are constructed for sample problems and results are validated against simplified analytical models or open literature.

Mechatronic system design deals with the design of controlled motion systems by the integration of functional elements from a multitude of disciplines. It starts with thinking how the required function can be realised by the combination of different subsystems according to a Systems Engineering approach (V-model).

Some supporting disciplines, like power-electronics and electromechanics, are not part of the BSc program of mechanical engineers. For this reason this course introduces these disciplines in connection with PID-motion control principles to realise an optimally designed motion system.
The target application for the lectures are motion systems that combine high speed movements with extreme precision.
The course covers the following four main subjects:

Dynamics of motion systems in the time and frequency domain, including analytical frequency transfer functions that are represented in Bode and Nyquist plots.
Motion control with PID-feedback and model-based feed forward control-principles that effectively deal with the mechanical dynamic anomalies of the plant.
Electromechanical actuators, mainly based on the electromagnetic Lorentz principle. Reluctance force and piezoelectric actuators will be shortly presented to complete the overview.
Power electronics that are used for driving electromagnetic actuators.
The fifth relevant discipline, position measurement systems is dealt with in another course: WB2303, Electronics and measurement.
The most important educational element that will be addressed is the necessary knowledge of the physical phenomena that act on motion systems, to be able to critically judge results obtained with simulation software.
The lectures challenge the capability of students to match simulation models with reality, to translate a real system into a sufficiently simplified dynamic model and use the derived dynamic properties to design a suitable, practically realiseable controller.
This course increases the understanding what a position control system does in reality in terms of virtual mechanical properties like stiffness and damping that are added to the mechanical plant by a closed loop feedback controller.

It is shown how a motion system can be analysed and modelled top-down with approximating (scalar) calculations by hand, giving a sufficient feel of the problem to make valuable concept design decisions in an early stage.
With this method students learn to work more efficiently by starting their design with a quick and dirty global analysis to prove feasibility or direct further detailed modelling in specific problem areas.

Are you an engineer, scientist or technician? Are you dealing with measurements or big data, but are you unsure about how to proceed? This is the course that teaches you how to find the best estimates of the unknown parameters from noisy observations. You will also learn how to assess the quality of your results.

TU Delft’s approach to observation theory is world leading and based on decades of experience in research and teaching in geodesy and the wider geosciences. The theory, however, can be applied to all the engineering sciences where measurements are used to estimate unknown parameters.

The course introduces a standardized approach for parameter estimation, using a functional model (relating the observations to the unknown parameters) and a stochastic model (describing the quality of the observations). Using the concepts of least squares and best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE), parameters are estimated and analyzed in terms of precision and significance.

The course ends with the concept of overall model test, to check the validity of the parameter estimation results using hypothesis testing. Emphasis is given to develop a standardized way to deal with estimation problems. Most of the course effort will be on examples and exercises from different engineering disciplines, especially in the domain of Earth Sciences.

This course is aimed towards Engineering and Earth Sciences students at Bachelor’s, Master’s and postgraduate level.

Part 2 of offshore hydromechanics (OE4630) involves the linear theory of calculating 1st order motions of floating structures in waves and all relevant subjects such as the concept of RAOs, response spectra and downtime/workability analysis.

The course is a survey of models for analyzing and supporting design and decision-making in multi-actor settings. Participants: will learn to recognize the difference between games and decisions, and will identify their occurrence in public policy. will be able to apply a principled technique for resolving dilemmas through the appropriate selection of policies. will learn to formulate, design and communicate games and decisions. will learn to implement by computer (and otherwise logically analyze) games and decisions.