Videos

"Top presentation yesterday! 👏 But that one slide with all those numbers could be slightly clearer." Feedback at work is crucial to your professional growth. But asking for it and giving it isn't always easy. Shana Mertens looks at how organizations can ensure that asking, giving, receiving, and using feedback becomes natural.

Imagine a world where planes aren't just checked, but they can actually tell us how they're doing! VUB researcher Zoé Jardon wants to turn this dream into reality by developing smart metal parts. Such smart components can tell by themselves if they are in good condition or not, and inform us about a problem and where it is occurring.

Managers of large companies get bonuses for achieving financial goals, such as increasing profits. But what do shareholders think about giving these managers a bonus for environmental and social goals, such as reducing emissions or improving employee well-being? This is what Bettina De Ruyck looked into. "Bonuses for non-financial objectives are twice as common in managers' pay compared to ten years ago."

Do you own an electric car? Then you know how difficult it can be to find available charging spots. But what if we cover electric cars with solar panels so that they can charge themselves with the power of the sun? Well, that's not easy because conventional solar panels used on roofs can't be integrated into our cars. Electrical engineer Bin Luo is looking at new solar panels suitable for our cars.

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. 

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. 

Did you know that the earth is continuously monitored to detect clandestine nuclear weapons testing? Unfortunately, hospitals and other civilian installations throw a spanner in the works. These also emit radioactive xenon gas in very small & harmless quantities, but this turns out to be enough to disturb the detection. Christophe Gueibe explores how to help solve this problem so that we can better detect clandestine nuclear weapons tests.

"Freeze your eggs, free your career". This was the headline on the cover of the business magazine Bloomberg Business a few years ago. The reasoning: women could freeze their eggs, to focus on their careers and then maybe have a child later. Sounds good for women's emancipation, but how do women themselves feel about it? Philosopher Michiel De Proost sat down with 21 women to find out.

Picture two senior auditors: one is very meticulous in his work and always follows the rules. The other likes making shortcuts, by not closely following the rules. Which of these two will a junior auditor then imitate? And how does this affect his or her work quality? That's what Viola Darmawan (Vlerick Business School) is investigating. Find out more in the video. 

In her PhD, Annelies De wael studied nanomaterials - materials so small that you need an incredibly powerful microscope to see them. And even then you only see a fraction of them. That is why Annelies worked on mathematical models and simulations to be able to see the entire nanomaterial based on the incomplete picture. And that can help researchers develop the most diverse applications: from a ketchup bottle that empties easily to solar panels that produce even more renewable energy!

Lasers are not just toys to entertain cats. They can be found in many applications, such as scanners in supermarkets or for facial recognition on your latest smartphone. But there are even more fascinating innovations ahead of us ... if we can build even better lasers. That's what Iakov Goldberg (KU Leuven - Imec) is hoping to achieve. Can you believe that some of these novel perovskite lasers are assembled very similar to how you prepare your breakfast sandwich? 🥪 

Do you remember Pac-Man, from that old skool computer game? Well, did you know that there are Pac-Mans in every single cell of our body? They're called enzymes. Some of these enzymes work too fast or too slow, and this can cause severe diseases. Michaela Prothiwa (KU Leuven) explains how she wants to track down these malfunctioning enzymes using a clever piece of chemistry.