For the degree of Doctor of Engineering Sciences and Technology Birds have always been a source of inspiration for humans. From the record distances crossed by the bar-tailed godwit during its migrations, to swifts staying aloft continuously for up to ten months, they are capable of achievements that artificial devices are still far from reproducing.

For the degree of Doctor of Engineering Sciences and Technology Semi-crystalline polymers exhibit performances that are highly dependent on their micro-structure as induced by the thermo-mechanical processes they are subjected to.

The Vortex Position Estimator used for the Airbus fello'fly Transatlantic Crossing In November 2021 the Airbus fello’fly project completed two transatlantic formation flights demonstrating a reduction of fuel consumption of 5% trip fuel for the follower. The follower achieved this by maintaining an optimum lateral position relative to the wake vortices generated by the leader.

This talk will present modeling approaches for problems where the dissipative (far-from equilibrium) processes operating at the microscope are tightly coupled with the response of the macro scale, thereby prohibiting asymptotic homogenization and scale separation to be valid.

Robots require a generic action representation in order to recognize, learn, and imitate observed tasks without any human intervention. Defining such a representation is a challenging problem due to the high inter-individual variability that emerges during the execution of actions.

This presentation discusses research that sits between engineering design and biomechanical analysis of animal movement. These two fields have contributed tools and methods that have complemented each other – such as automated motion capture and motion planning. So from an academic standpoint there is much to be gained from shared research between these disciplines.

Natural gas and biogas are both consisting of large amounts of methane and are predominantly used for energetic usage, while around 5 % are used for chemical conversion in chemical industry. The methane usage will continue for many years to come, while both conversions take place with non-optimal efficiencies.

For the degree of  Doctor of Engineering Sciences and Technology High entropy alloys (HEAs) have attracted a lot of attention in recent years, with the promise of new alloy systems with outstanding (combinations of) structural (and functional) properties. However, in-depth investigations of HEAs mechanical properties in direct comparison to conventional alloys have been seldom reported.

For the degree of Doctor of Engineering Sciences and Technology The control and characterization of the fracture behavior of thin films and 2D materials, in the era of continuous device miniaturization, are of paramount importance for the design and integrity assessment of many coatings and microelectronics devices towards more reliable devices.

For the defree of Doctor of Engineering Sciences and Technology   The present thesis investigates the influence of 7XXX aluminium alloys microstructure on damage mechanisms. 7XXX alloys are widely used as structural materials due to their high strength and low density.