Written by Niek & Renate
University & company day! Today we had the privilege to visit the Kyushu University and the Kyulux startup. Now you might think, how is that related to beer? We’ll get there!
Because it was quite a long trip, it meant getting up very early to be on time. Unfortunately, it was a very humid day so despite the early morning, we were soaked with sweat when we arrived.
We were welcomed at the ISEE [1] department with a presentation after which we had three tours through labs focusing on research into:
- bioelectronics, developing sensors to be used on people’s body (e.g. skin) with innovations to avoid misplacements
- gas sensors, of which some were printed with an ordinary printer (with special ink)
- sensors to measure human senses, such as smelling and tasting.
And the last one is where the beer comes in; the group experimented on many different beers from all over the world to classify them on a scale of bitterness and sourness. Of course, Heineken lacked all taste and was rated low on both scales. Grolsch and Bavaria were also tested and scored significantly better.
We continued at the OPERA [2] lab, where the next generation OLED is researched. Very interesting to see, their technology might be found in many devices in the future! In the lab tour, we saw the process of material synthesis and analysis, and the device manufacturing and analysis. In addition, some examples were shown of technology making use of flexible OLED screens.
After lunch, we continued at the Kyulux company, who will bring the next generation of OLED to the industry. Very nice to see!
When we left, the weather had done a full 180. Again we were soaked, but this time it was rain instead of sweat. Our last destination of the day fortunately allowed us to admire the incoming thunderstorm from a safe and dry place with a very nice view: Fukuoka tower. This is a hollow tall building with the sole purpose of entertaining tourists. It could be considered a bit of a waste of steel and space when it is built like that, but the view was good!
Now it is time to bring theory into practice, so we will taste some beers ourselves 🙂
[1] ISEE: Information Sciences & Electrical Engineering
[2] OPERA:
Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research
TLDR;
Beer and OLED