My name is Calvin Rans, and I am an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TUDelft. My passion is turning failures into learning successes — in research and in education.
Adapting to the pace and learning culture of university is a real challenge for many students. Many experience moments of failure for the first time but are not equipped to reflect upon and learn from these moments. The Student Flight Data Recorder project aims to turn students into learning failure investigators, focused on the prevention rather than apportioning blame.
No structure is indestructible. Time, environment, repeated use, and misuse all take their toll on everyday structures, bringing them closer to failure. This is the sobering challenge that aircraft structural designers must face, and the approach may surprise you! I was fortunate enough to produce a short video with the Universiteit van Nederland addressing just this topic. Check it out.
In some teaching scenarios, students find themselves studying primarily online and in isolation from their peers. For many students, this can be a recipe for motivational disaster...unless you can turn the situation around into a positive narrative for their learning journey!
The possible complexity of structures is rapidly increasing as they become smarter, more bio-inspired, multi-functional, more sustainable, and made with novel materials. With this added complexity comes added potential failure modes that must be considered and understood — particularly in the safety-driven aerospace sector. This is why my research focuses on safety through understanding.
