This NIfTI project is what Nigel Hussey at Radboud University is working on in an unprecedented large-scale multidisciplinary collaboration with about sixty students from both Radboud University and HAN University of Applied Sciences. The collaboration encompasses no fewer than eight Radboud faculties and two HAN departments*. Nigel Hussey is a physicist by training and specialises in magnetism. He is Group Leader of Strongly Correlated Electron Systems at Radboud University, where he leads this experiment at the High Field Magnet Laboratory. The Englishman Nigel Hussey is also a part-time professor at the University of Bristol, where students are also contributing to this development.
Car of the future?
Nigel Hussey had the idea of transport using magnetic fields several years ago and saw an opportunity to implement it at Radboud University in 2019. 'I started by assigning a student to research an energy-saving transport method based on magnetism. One thing led to another and more and more disciplines joined in. This is different from anything known so far. We're already familiar with the magnetic levitation train in Japan, and Elon Musk is currently working on a hyperloop. Those are public transport systems. This initiative, NIfTI (National Individual floating Transport Infrastructure), is specifically about individual transport. The car of the future. Who knows.'
Language specialists
In his presentations, Nigel Hussey sometimes uses images from the Jetsons comic books, showing them flying around in their space cars, he says with a wink. 'The big difference with NIfTI, however, is that you don't have to steer; you give a voice command and the vehicle takes you there. This is where one of the affiliated disciplines comes in: Radboud's language specialists. From the Faculty of Arts. They're working on programming the speech tool. And similarly, HAN students have worked on the mechanical engineering aspects and programming.'
Applied science at its finest
Each of the affiliated disciplines – and this is what makes this project so special and so educational for the students – contributes from its own expertise, which gains added value through collaboration. Every question leads to a follow-up question. Nigel Hussey: 'That's what I consider applied science at its finest.' Currently, Nigel Hussey is setting up a next phase, expanding the prototype with curves and an incline. 'A major advantage of NIfTI is that it's very safe and especially very clean. We're seeing more and more city centres becoming emission-free. This is the answer to that.'
NWO Team Science Award
NIfTI has already won a prestigious award for this approach: the NWO Team Science Award, which is presented to researchers from different disciplines who tackle a scientific challenge together, where their individual strengths and expertise demonstrably reinforce each other.
This article was previously published (in Dutch) on journalistic platform TechGelderland.
*The following disciplines from Radboud University are participating: Magnetic Simulations (Nigel Hussey), Social Acceptance & Implementation of New Technologies (Lotte Krabbenborg), Artificial Intelligence & Automation (Tom Heskes), Environmental Analysis (Rosalie van Zelm), Business Cases (Nanne Migchels), Mobility Ecosystems (Arnoud Lagendijk), Transport & Urban Planning (Erwin van der Krabben), Decision Making (Alan Sanfey) and Language & Speech Technology (Henk van den Heuvel). HAN University of Applied Sciences is participating through Power Electronics (Stefan van Sterkenburg) and Marketing & Communication (Mario de Vries).
