Four scientists from the VUB are showing their skills at the successful science festival Nerdland this weekend. Last year, as many as 20,000 paying visitors visited the Domein Puyenbroeck to immerse themselves in science and technology. Scientists from our uni will entertain the audience with sliding glaciers, tiny microbes and wonderful mathematics. They will also address the question of whether heritage can make people with Alzheimer's happy.
Lander Van Tricht: The effects of glacial melt - Focus Talk - Saturday at The Cube
Discover with Lander Van Tricht what impact climate change is having on glaciers and water supplies. Find out how the melting of glaciers not only threatens breathtaking landscapes, but also mankind's vital water supply. Follow the evolution with drones, radar systems and advanced 3D simulations. How will water supplies change during dry summers as these ice giants melt?
Brendan Schroyen: Tiny Titans: masters of extremes - Focus Talk - Saturday at The Cube
Microbial life is everywhere, even in extreme conditions like ice craters and volcanic hot springs. Explore with Brendan Schroyen the amazing biodiversity of microbes and how they offer insights into the past, present and future. Fasten your seatbelts for an expedition past the most extreme places on earth!
Researchers and academics from the VUB & imec won a place in the Guinness World Records (the former Guinness Book of Records) at Nerdland last year. Together with visitors to the Nerdland Festival, they made the longest chain of robots ever, which also responded to light. They set their record with a chain of 334 self-designed robots. With its record, the VUB research group BruBotics wants to bring robots closer to people. ‘Our objective was mainly to introduce participants to robots in an interactive way,’ said professor Bram Vanderborght. ‘And we are proud that we succeeded.’
Astrid Luypaert: Alzheimer's, strawberries and artists - Focus Talk - Sunday in The Voyager
In Belgium, 140,000 people live with alzheimer's, a disease that causes complex processes in our brain and therefore our behaviour. Can art help us better understand dementia? Can heritage make people with Alzheimer's happier? And perhaps more intriguingly, what do strawberries have to do with all this? Together with Astrid Luypaert, dive into art history and the workings of our brains, and get to work with unique objects yourself!
VUB researcher Astrid Luypaert during her master's research on Alzheimer's patients.
Doryan Temmerman: Inside the head of a mathematician - Focus Talk - Sunday at The Cube
Throughout an ordinary working day, we all encounter special symmetries and counting systems, but we don't often dwell on them for long. Doryan Temmerman shows what twists of thought this all brings about for a mathematician, shining a light on the daily life of these strange creatures (i.e. mathematicians) and the usefulness of abstraction. Doryan invites us to look at the world around us with new eyes, to recognise the beauty of mathematics in the structures and patterns that surround us, and to appreciate how this science enriches our lives in unexpected ways. And: once you see it, you can't unsee it!
VIB, Imec, VITO and Flanders Make: The Invisible World
This experience is all about silent heroes: all around us, but rarely visible. Search for satellites, venture into the microworld of microbes, dive into a microchip with VR glasses or challenge an AI-powered robotic arm in an epic game of four in a row. Come along for a unique look behind the scenes at VIB, Imec, VITO and Flanders Make.