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Students design underwater drone

Mark Zwart, University of Twente Master’s student in Industrial Design Engineering and six of his fellow students founded the successful design company Estis Design, which is literally being inundated with work. The group designed accessories for drones and Mr Zwart even helped design an underwater drone.

‘I have always been interested in technology’, says Mark Zwart. ‘I particularly enjoy coming up with inventive solutions.’ The University of Twente programme appealed to him more than any of the other degree programmes in Industrial Design in the country. ‘Mainly because teaching at the University of Twente is small-scale with a personal touch.’

During his Bachelor’s degree course, Mr Zwart and six of his fellow students were doing so well, they yearned for more and greater challenges. ‘Some of us were taking a minor in entrepreneurship at the time. Together, we decided to start our own design business.’ Using our own networks to promote ourselves, jobs soon started pouring in. ‘We found that there is a pressing need for graphic design, but we also want to focus on product design. To gain more experience in that field, we decided to participate in a contest set up by the City of Breda to design a 3D object for the harbour.’ The enterprising students ended up winning the coveted first and second prizes in the competition for their designs.

Proud

Soon after, another of their designs went into production. ‘A company that is specialized in making accessories for drones requested a design for a drone hood, to make the drone easily identifiable for organizations such as the police or the fire department. We were given two weeks to complete the project and I’m proud to say we succeeded.’

Estis Design now receives a steady stream of design requests. The company also became a member of Hardstart, the Kennispark Twente Startup Association. ‘Thanks to Hardstart, we now have office space at the Bastille building. We also sometimes ask teachers to help us when we are not sure what the best course of action is for a specific problem’, says Mr Zwart.

Underwater drone

Mr Zwart designed an underwater drone for Robor Electronics in Bentelo and DRONExpert. This drone can help locate victims of drowning or explore dive sites. ‘Together with Robor, I designed a small lightweight vehicle that is lowered into the water by a quadcopter. The cable between the drone and the quadcopter functions as a communication cable and power cord at the same time. Wireless video streaming is impossible under water, and the quadcopter´s battery can also be used this way. At the moment the project is on hold, but we hope to soon continue development of the drone.´

In addition to Mark Zwart, Estis Design consists of Harro Engelen, Robin Vos, Joran van der Sluis, Wessel Fletterman, Jorik Ordelmans and Folkert Prins, all  University of Twente students.
More information is available at: www.estisdesign.com and www.markzwart.com