Videos

Thijs
Vanden Nest
ILVO

Fresh green grass for our dairy cows

How can farmers feed their dairy cows fresh green grass without using kilos of fertilizer? 🐮 At ILVO, they are working on a new diet for cows, with clovers and narrow plantain on the menu alongside grass ☘️ Researcher Thijs Vanden Nest explains the benefits of sowing these plants.
Kobe
Coorevits
ILVO
KU Leuven

Smart measurement of emissions in dairy barns

Milk is a source of many delicacies, such as cheese and ice cream. Unfortunately, milk also has a smell to it... Cows produce ammonia and methane through their breath and manure. These harmful gases are mainly released when cows are in their stables. In his Ph.D., Kobe Coorevits is looking for a way to accurately and affordably monitor the emission of these gases in dairy barns.
Wout
Vierbergen
ILVO
KU Leuven

A peek under the peel of a potato

Making fries is something we Belgians are already very good at. But we can do even better, says Wout Vierbergen (ILVO - KU Leuven). He uses technology (Hyperspectral cameras! AI !) to detect black spots under the skin of a potato. In this way, he wants to help producers detect blistered potatoes so that they are left with only the finest ones to make our fries.
Julie
D'Haeyer
Arteveldehogeschool

How do you deal with problem behaviour at school?

Students constantly talking in class, making crazy noises or just walking around... Recognise this? As a teacher, it is often difficult to deal with problem behaviour in pupils. To support teachers in this, Julie D'haeyer and her colleagues developed 'Leerkracht Veerkracht' (Teacher Resilience). A programme that allows you, together with your school team, to look for a solution that works for your school.
Dimitri
Vrancken

Exercise during and after cancer

Every year, as many as 70,000 people in Belgium are told they have cancer. Studies show that exercise during treatment has a beneficial effect on the quality of life of cancer patients. And yet 70% of them move a lot less after the diagnosis than before. With 'Moving Cancer Care', Dimitri Vrancken and his colleagues tackle these questions and offer tools to get cancer patients to exercise more.
Lina
Silva-Rodriguez
VITO

Minimizing the impact of uncertainty in the electricity market

Did you know that the electricity generated today was traded yesterday by producers and retailers in the 'day-ahead' electricity market? ⚡️ 🤝 But what happens if we expect a windy day tomorrow 💨 but end up having much less wind, and thus less wind power, than anticipated? Lina Silva-Rodriguez explains how she uses math to help deal with this uncertainty.
Leonie
Hallemans
KU Leuven
VITO

From AC to DC: making our electricity grid future proof

Modern electrical devices, such as the smartphone or the electric cars, work with direct current (DC) while our power grid works with alternating current (AC). Therefore, you need e.g. a charger, which converts one type of current to the other. So shouldn't we switch to a DC electricity grid? In her PhD, Leonie Hallemans investigates how we can make such new DC grids as safe as our old AC grid.
Murih
Pusparum
UHasselt
VITO

From a general to a personalised diagnosis

Should you be worried if, for instance, your cholesterol level is above the normal value? Not necessarily. As Murih Pusparum (VITO - UHasselt) argues: test results are often compared to a standard range of normal values, while every person might have his or her own range depending on age, gender, and genetic or biological traits. That's why she is working on more personalised diagnosis.
Annelore
Aerts
VITO

Plastic reincarnation as a solution for plastic pollution

Less than 10%... That's how much of all the plastic is recycled today. The rest is incinerated or ends up in landfills or -worse- in our oceans... The problem is that with current recycling methods, the quality of the plastic decreases with each recycling cycle. So is there no method to recycle plastic repeatedly without losing quality? There is: chemical recycling, aka the 'reincarnation' of plastic. Annelore Aerts (VITO) explains how that works.
Michelle
Laeremans
VITO

Chemicals in the body mapped

To measure is to know. That is the credo of Michelle Laeremans (VITO). Together with a team of researchers, she monitors the health of 300 children in Mol, Dessel, and Retie (Belgium). They do this from pregnancy until the child reaches the age of 18. In this way, they map exposure to chemicals.
Nor
Kamariah
KU Leuven
VITO

Extraction of valuable metals from mine tailings

What if we could give mining waste a second life? Mining produces a lot of waste, so-called mine tailings. These tailings still contain some leftover valuable metals, Nor Kamariah is researching new approaches to extract these remaining metals from the mining waste, while cleaning these tailings all at once. These clean tailings can then be recycled as construction materials. 
Kevin
Van Daele
FWO
UAntwerpen
VITO

Recycling CO2: how can we do it?

Imagine that, instead of emitting harmful CO2 into the atmosphere, we could recycle it and use it to power your future laptop or smartphone. That's what Kevin Van Daele is researching. He is developing new catalysts to efficiently convert CO2 into formic acid, a valuable chemical that could one day power your future electronic devices.