Luci Santema (24), a TU industrial design student, came up with a bicycle light that does not shine on the street, but on the cyclist. She deliberately kept her idea vague, to prevent a manufacturer from making off with it. Now she produces the Ziemi herself.

In early 2020, Luci Santema will be given the study assignment to design something for the bicycles of meal delivery workers in Los Angeles. 'Companies ask TU Delft to let students come up with something for a fee,' she explains. 'If a concept rolls out that they like, they have the contractual right to develop it further.' Because there is no good bicycle infrastructure in Los Angeles, and meals are mainly delivered at night, Santema immediately looks for safety solutions. She invents an extra bicycle light, which does not shine on the street, but on the moving (lower) legs of the courier. This makes them much more visible.

'I thought of a stage performer standing in the spotlight. And because the light makes the moving legs visible, fellow road users immediately see that this is a cyclist. That automatically makes them more attentive and cautious. It wasn't until I started driving myself six years ago that I noticed how you can suddenly be surprised by a cyclist at night.'

Santema quickly suspected that there was potential in the product she envisioned. 'I didn't want the client, a Mexican bicycle manufacturer, to run with it. So I deliberately kept my design vague. Too bad about the lower grade I got as a result. But at least my design was not chosen and so I could continue with my idea myself."

When her plan takes serious shape, she approaches the TU's legal department to claim intellectual property. After all, when students facilitated by the university come up with something, that lies, by definition, with the TU. 'That is done to protect the students. But they often don't know that for a specific invention it's best to ask for that back.'

Not wanting to embark on the adventure on her own, Santema found an enthusiastic partner in friend Elianne Koetzier, then an Industrial Product Design student at DeHaagseHogeschool. Their tinkering results in the first prototype of the Ziemi: a two-piece, rechargeable LED light in three strengths. The light is attached with a strap to the vertical tube at the front of the bicycle frame.

'The cyclist is thus visible 250 degrees,' says Santema. 'Without the light shining into his eyes, or hindering other road users.' With the final, rechargeable prototype, the pair are allowed to participate in Yes!Delft's Ready to Start-up program, in order to take a step toward a marketable product.

Within twelve weeks, they have a business plan and win a patent application from patent and trademark agency Arnold & Siedsma. 'That was actually a make-or-break moment for us, because it showed confidence in our design. And although an expensive patent is not sanctifying, investors do value it.'

So far Santema and Koetzier have been able to get by with their own savings, prize money, a loan and a successful crowdfunding campaign, which was immediately a validation test. They made the housings for the lights themselves, using a 3D printer they received as a gift. A young Delft company provided inexpensive circuit boards and the first three thousand Ziemi's were assembled in a sheltered workshop.

Almost all of those are now sold and interest is high. 'To meet the demand for more we are in talks with potential scale-up partners.' Secretly, Santema also hopes to collaborate with a major bicycle manufacturer to devise a variant of the Ziemi to be integrated into the frame.

 

https://fd.nl/tech-en-innovatie/1429451/ik-dacht-aan-een-artiest-in-de-spotlights