Every year it takes thousands of final year students with blood, sweat and tears to write a bachelor’s or master’s thesis. These theses are often lost in dusty cupboards and never read again. The Flemish Thesis Prize wants to save the thesis from this sad fate, because any strong and relevant research deserves a wider audience!
Students who write a thesis on the exact sciences trend, you have a chance to win eos-price. On this page you will find five candidates. Who do you think wrote the best thesis? Cast your vote in the poll at the bottom of this page!
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Florin Janssens – MD
Florine Janssens has researched the personal prevention of kidney stones.
Researchers are increasingly understanding how kidney stones form. There are different types and blood samples, urine collection and a CT scan of the kidneys can be used to see what measures can help the patient prevent stone formation again. Very few patients, but doctors also know that personal prevention of kidney stones exists. Florine Janssens investigated the effect of a combination of preventive measures in 835 patients followed between 2004 and 2020 at the Kidney Stone Prevention Clinic at UZ Brussels. Patients underwent prevention over a ten year period from an average of four episodes of colic or pain and six operations, to two additional colic and one postoperative operation. The biggest obstacle is keeping the patient motivated to follow the diet, attend consultations, and check up, because at least 20-38% of patients drop out of school every year.
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Tobias Cornell – MSc Engineering
Tobias Cornille has developed a neural network that helps people with speech disabilities speak more expressively.
Patients with severe speech disorders use speech computers to communicate. But this artificial voice allows only a little expression. Often feelings of happiness, sadness, or things like sarcasm missing in translation.
Building on the existing architecture, Tobias Cornille developed a neural network for speech synthesis. This network creates a part of speech in a speaking style that the user can preselect. Users can also set offers. After all, the grid allows you to adjust the intonation, tension, and rhythm. The first series of experiments showed that the model yielded good results.
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Jeffrey Jorisin – MSc in Industrial Science
Jeffrey Gorison contributed to the unit to more accurately map the Earth’s magnetic field.
Earth’s atmosphere is surrounded by a magnetic field that protects the planet from solar wind radiation. In order to be able to measure the Earth’s magnetic field in more detail, Jeffrey Gorison and a team of students developed a magnetometer that can record the magnetic field in all directions.
The device has a diamond core with small inclusions in the crystal lattice. By irradiating a diamond remotely with microwaves and laser beams, a red light is generated. This small change in light corresponds to a change in the magnetic field.
The magnetometer was launched in late August as a payload on a SpaceX rocket, bound for the International Space Station. The device was installed there in early September by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Bisquet. Jorissen and his team have been able to measure parts of the Earth with measurement data. Its purpose is to study, among other things, solar storms and navigational techniques.
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Arne Chantrain – Master in Applied Engineering
Arne Chantrain shows that asphalt can purify soot.
Applied Engineering In the fight for cleaner air, help sometimes comes from unexpected sources. For example, asphalt can acquire air purifying properties by adding substances to it. Engineering student Arne Chantrain studies the effects of this substance: titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is able to break down soot under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. Soot is a hazardous substance that results from incomplete combustion of carbon fuels such as wood or coal, as well as gasoline and diesel. Although more research remains to be done, Chantrain has shown that bitumen with titanium dioxide in the processed soot can be degraded to less harmful substances. Asphalt also maintains its quality.
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Karl Victor Dewer – MSc in Veterinary Medicine
Carl-Victor Deweer wanted to use the larvae to remove chicken coops (and then turn them into a food source).
Insects are an attractive food source for livestock. Black army fly larvae, for example, contain a lot of fat and protein, they reproduce at lightning speed and can feed on waste. However, today the larvae are fed … grain. this is a shame. Agronomist Karl Victor Deuer devised an alternative breeding method: using larvae to treat manure in (emptied) chicken coops. Larvae can be harvested for processing and turned into animal feed, and trucks no longer have to commute to dispose of chicken manure.
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“Zombies fan. Evil pop culture guru. Student. Future teen idol. Passionate TV expert. Analyst.”
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