Projects
Decision making in the presence of uncertainty: Industry 4.0 enabled preventive maintenance KU Leuven
Decision making, accompanied by uncertainty in the quality of available information and the decision’s eventual outcome, plays a central role indaily life. In this dissertation, we explore the value of additional information in maintenance decision making and how best we can utilize available data to enhance such decisions. Specifically, we add to the state-of-the-art in maintenance optimization as facilitated by Industry 4.0 technologies. ...
Structural Health Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance of Complex Systems including Composites and 3D Printed Structures KU Leuven
Structural failure in the aerospace, civil and energy sectors can be life threatening for users/passengers and financially catastrophic for operators and the manufacturer. This is the main reason for which critical structures (i.e. aircrafts, wind turbines etc.) spend large part of their life cycle under inspection with the accompanied costs being significant. On-line detection and characterization of minor failures within complex (composite ...
Security Hardening Support during the Development and Maintenance of Embedded Devices KU Leuven
The Internet-of-Things has already proven valuable. Embedded devices are being connected to the internet, with plenty of potential applications and often a reduction in development costs. Moreover, devices are provisioned with multiple communication technologies and mobile devices are used to control these devices. Simple devices such as sensors, coffee machines, refrigerators and lights can now be controlled remotely through the smart phone. ...
Tomato chilling as postharvest loss reduction method in rural areas of Ethiopia KU Leuven
Project Summary Fruits and vegetables consumptions has been known as maintenance of health and prevention of several diseases. To maintain their physiological system, harvested fruit and vegetables continues their metabolic process afrere harvest till to a point where they become valueless. Tomatoes are popular grown fruit next to potato and sweets potatoes. Tomatoes are an important fruit crop and are a contributor of major health promoting ...
Design of Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting and Development of Low-Cost Water Treatment Technologies for Dairy Cattle and Farmers KU Leuven
The quality of drinking water for animals is rarely a concern for many dairy farmers but yet a vital component of dairy cattle's daily required intake. Rainwater harvesting can supplement other water sources and the operation and maintenance costs remain low after the initial investment to meet the increasing freshwater demand. Additionally, the drinking water quality standards of dairy cattle differ from those of humans, and this is not ...
Development of a Technology to Ensure Sufficient Quantity and Quality of Rainwater for Rural Households KU Leuven
The availability of safe drinking water is an increasing major concern for the international community, especially in light of the changing climate. Climate change presents major uncertainties in future safe water access especially in rural communities that are already faced with water insecurity. For developing countries like Uganda, achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) will require a paradigm shift from centralized public ...
Green roofs in context: Understanding the impact of the local and regional environment on the diversity and performance of extensive green roofs KU Leuven
The 21st century will be characterized by urbanization, as the number of people living in cities will continue to rise. As cities continue to expand, their impact on the environment does as well. Rising urban temperatures, increased risk of flooding and the loss of habitat of local plants and animals are just a few of the problems with which we will be faced. Nature, however, can also deliver solutions to these issues by providing benefits ...
Pharmacometric models to improve therapeutic drug monitoring of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases KU Leuven
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic, relapsing, inflammatory conditions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) are the primary subtypes of IBD. Although the etiology remains incompletely understood, it is generally accepted that IBD is the result of an inappropriate host response to environmental factors in genetically susceptible individuals. In Western Europe, prevalence of UC is ...
Spatio-temporal location-allocation modelling of the energetic valorisation of biomass from LIHiD-systems. KU Leuven
The depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the negative environmental impacts associated with their use are the driving forces towards the biobased economy. In analogy to today's oil refineries, biorefineries can process renewable biological resources into a range of value-added bioproducts (e.g., bioplastics, paper, transport fuels, electricity, heat). However, the discontinuous (in time) and geographically fragmented (in space) availability ...