Physics with Industry: Four industrial problems, one week
Thirty physicists were given one week to solve four industrial problems during the workshop Physics with Industry. FOM and Technology Foundation STW organised the study week for the sixth time. This year, the participants were received at the Lorentz Cent er of Leiden University . At the end of the week, the participants presented their solutions to the companies.
Both the participants and the companies were pleased with the results. "I am pleasantly surprised by the fact a group of physicists with various backgrounds can work together so easily on problems from everyday life", said one of the participants. The companies also saw the workshop as a very good investment and have gained new inspiration. One of the ideas for the workshop might result in a patent. Agreements were also reached for more structural collaboration between the physicists present and the companies.
The workshop started on Monday, 23 November 2015 with a plenary session, during which the companies presented their questions. After that, the physicists started working in groups. Pieter de Witte, head Research & Industry at FOM, opened the week. He wished the participants pleasure and inspiration : "From previous years, I know how pleasant the week is and how quickly you can solve challenging problems with a lot of social interaction."
The concept of the workshop is based on the study week Mathematics with Industry that has been held since 1968. That study week has the same tried and tested pressure cooker approach: under considerable time pressure, a group of experts forces a breakthrough for an industrial problem. In 2010, FOM and STW decided to use this concept for physical questions from industry: Physics with Industry was born. Other disciplines now use the concept as well. In November 2015, STW organised Life Sciences with Industry and a month later NWO organised ICT with Industry.
Four companies submitted a problem for this sixth edition of Physics with Industry. The Antea Group asked the physicists to come up with a good way of detecting low concentrations of asbestos in the air. The company also wanted to be able to distinguish different types of asbestos.
The innovation centre of Friesland Campina is looking for a more efficient way of separating two components from butterfat. The company already separates the fractions of oleic acid and stearin from butterfat, but the separation is not perfect: some stearin remains in the oleic acid and vice versa. Friesland Campina also wants to optimise the separation process. Purer products have a higher market value. These fatty acids are used in a wide range of products, from baby nutrition to chocolate.
Sensortag Solutions develops sensors for the glasshouse industry, among other things. The company is working on a device that measures water and nutrient levels in the substrate the plants grown on. The growth of the plant strongly depends on the quantity of water and nutrients present: not enough nutrients means the plant will not grow, and too much means it will die. To provide the optimum amount of water and nutrients, market gardeners must be able to measure how much of both are still in the substrate.
Vycap develops technology to measure and identify biological cells in liquids, such as blood. The company asked the physicists for advice on a complex problem: the detection of cancer cells in blood. The small number of cancer cells in the samples makes it difficult. To provide an impression of the problem: one millilitre of blood contains about 109 red blood cells, 106 white blood cells and at most 5 cancer cells. Furthermore, the cancer cells are difficult to distinguish from ordinary cells.
The participants were young researchers, PhDs and postdocs. They experienced Physics with Industry as an exciting challenge. "I work in quantum mechanics, and this is a completely different discipline", said Sebas Eliens (University of Amsterdam) about the asbestos problem. Longfei Wu, PhD student at Eindhoven University of Technology, saw the week as an opportunity to gain a better idea of the type of physics problems that industry works on. He chose to work on the Vycap problem, because he worked on cancer cell detection during the last year of his degree. "Several companies are working on the detection of cancer cells in blood. I'm working in a different discipline now, but I was curious about the developments." For Yu Pan (University of Amsterdam), the week was also an opportunity to get to know industry better. "I still don't know what I want to do after my postdoc. Working in industry is an option."
The participants will report their findings in Proceedings of the Physics with Industry Week.
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