University of Twente

13/10/2026

Empty supermarket shelves, online services that suddenly stop working... Cybercrime can become very physical quick.

The current problems at Albert Heijn show just how dependent everyday life has become on digital systems. What exactly caused the incident is still under investigation.

However, it raises many questions about the digital infrastructure behind cybercrime. That's why UT works together with the Dutch police and other knowledge institutions to understand how criminal infrastructure can be identified, and which police interventions actually work.

One focus of this new PRIME programme is bulletproof hosting: hosting services that deliberately facilitate criminal activities such as ransomware and DDoS attacks while trying to stay out of reach of law enforcement. UT researcher Aaron van Santen studies how these hosting services can be identified to target individual cybercriminals, but also the infrastructure that enables their activities.

Learn more about how UT research is helping the police build a more effective approach to cybercrime here 👉 https://ut.onl/mqiwi10

Politie Nederland

06/10/2026

Could a robot make a colonoscopy more comfortable? 🤔

In the Netherlands, everyone aged 55 to 75 gets a home test for bowel cancer every two years. An abnormal result leads to a colonoscopy, in which a doctor steers a long tube with a camera through your large intestine. A labour-intensive procedure for surgeons, which requires sedation for patients. But what if a robot could make this procedure both easier and gentler for doctors and patients?

At UT, the Robotics and Mechatronics group is testing a robotic colonoscope that is promised to do exactly that. How that works? Learn more in the article below. 👇

🇬🇧 https://ut.onl/fo1of8w
🇳🇱 https://ut.onl/9okupf9

04/10/2026

We love animals on campus! On and around our big, green UT campus, we are frequently visited by dogs, birds, squirrels, cows, hedgehogs, geese, ducklings, hares and even deer! What's been your most memorable encounter with an animal on or around campus? Let us know! 🙌

Happy dierendag everybody! 🫶🐄

02/10/2026

Most bridges in the Netherlands date from the 1960s and 1970s. With thousands of vehicles passing them every single day, many of them are now scheduled for repair or replacement. But how do we decide whether a bridge needs replacement?

Age is definitely not the only important factor, according to Andreas Hartmann, associate professor of infrastructure management. Many different things play into the load-bearing capacity of bridges, which requires insight into the behaviour of existing bridges through close inspection and monitoring. In the article below, he explains how that works. 👇

🇬🇧 https://ut.onl/lf7ryho
🇳🇱 https://ut.onl/bnkojjd

30/09/2026

𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘀! 👋

Recently, we had the pleasure of welcoming our newest group of employees to the UT community. We hope you'll have a great time here. 🤩

29/09/2026

𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝟔𝟓𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐲!

Every five years, UT awards honorary doctorates to people who have made an outstanding contribution to science and society. This year, the honour goes to Molly Stevens, Klaus Deininger, Marjolein Demmers and Martin van den Brink. Congratulations, all! 🙌

𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘀 develops materials that can help the body repair itself, as well as sensors that can detect disease earlier. Her research combines medicine, materials science and nanotechnology.

At the World Bank, 𝗞𝗹𝗮𝘂𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 has spent decades studying land rights. Clear land registration can make a real difference: it can give people access to credit, help governments respond after disasters, and reduce uncertainty that can lead to conflict.

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗷𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 has been director of Natuur & Milieu since 2017. She works on issues where climate, business and policy come together, including nitrogen emissions and sustainable agriculture.

UT alumnus 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗸 spent almost his entire career at ASML. As President and CTO, he played a central role in the development of EUV lithography, which enables increasingly advanced chip production.

Their work reflects four areas in which we want to make a difference: health, safety, climate and chip technology.

The honorary doctorates will be conferred on 27 November during the Dies Natalis, the highlight of our 65th anniversary year.

25/09/2026

It's good to see you back everybody! 🙌
Campus is not the same without you 🤍

23/09/2026

Did you know that many everyday technologies, like smart energy meters and elevators, still run on 2G – a network older than most smartphones? For years, the 2G network has served us well: it was cheap, reliable and worked worldwide. However, modern mobile networks call for more energy efficiency.

That's why in the Netherlands, 2G is currently being phased out, and researchers are working on the next generation of mobile networks. Among them are Twan Birnie and Erwin Hardeveld from the Integrated Circuit Design group. They work on the wireless synchronisation of network masts and designing the next generation of affordable, low-energy chips for millions of sensors.

How? Read on through the links below. 👇

🇬🇧 https://ut.onl/p90onrb
🇳🇱 https://ut.onl/ah8b0mm

Your energy meter sends its readings over a network older than most smartphones. Your lift reports faults over that same connection. They communicate via 2G, the quiet backbone of the Internet of Things. KPN is the last provider to start phasing the network out. By December 2027 it will be gone for....

21/09/2026

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞. 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐧 🙌

A team of former Solar Team Twente members has won the 24-hour iLumen European Solar Challenge at Circuit Zolder in Belgium.

Driving RED E, the solar car built in 2019, the team completed 320 laps in the Challenger class, Innoptus Leuven finished second with 310 laps, Top Dutch Solar Racing from Groningen third with 287.

It was anything but straightforward. For hours, the lead changed hands between Solar Team Twente, Germany's Sonnenwagen Aachen and Belgium's Innoptus Solar Team. Two teams dropped out along the way, much of the race was driven in the rain, and careful battery management was crucial throughout. RED E's four-wheel design proved especially useful in the wet, helping the team stay stable while others battled the conditions.

A fitting detail: four members of the new Solar Team Twente travelled to Zolder to experience the racing spirit up close, a bridge between the team's rich history and its next chapter.

And that next chapter is already taking shape. This was Solar Team Twente's final solar race. From next season onwards, the team will turn its attention to electric rally racing.

Congratulations to everyone involved. What a way to close this chapter! 🤩

18/09/2026

The Netherlands receives more rainfall on average than it used to. Still, groundwater levels are falling, and vegetation is drying up. The explanation for this is evaporation, due to warmer summers. Unfortunately, though, measuring evaporation from the ground is almost impossible.

That's why researchers like Christiaan van der Tol work on remote sensing of vegetation in space. To measure how much water evaporates back into the air, as well as how much a plant photosynthesises, which can serve as an early warning for drying crops.

How does that work? Christiaan explains. 👇

🇬🇧 https://ut.onl/92ydvf0
🇳🇱 https://ut.onl/jvntls2

A meadow that still looks green from the road can have been thirsty for days. Plants give that away in light the naked eye cannot see. A European satellite has been circling the Earth since this week, measuring exactly that light, and part of the research behind it comes from Enschede.