WINNER . Smart Mobility Award 2025

10 questions for Tanya Spee (27)

What fascinates you about aerospace?

Tanya: “Even as a child, I found space magical. I’d look up at the blue sky or at the moon, and the idea that someone could walk around up there struck me as incredibly cool. Humans are a tiny speck of dust in the universe, a cluster of atoms that just happened to come together. There is so much beyond our world that we know next to nothing about. How did the universe come into being? What do stars look like? I wanted to explore that.”

What course did you decide to do?

“When I had to choose which degree programme to study, I thought aerospace would be too much of a niche subject; more of a childhood dream than a career path. That’s why I did a Bachelor’s in Structural Engineering at TU Delft, followed by a master’s in Robotics. Meanwhile, the thought kept nagging at me: I really wanted to combine my fascination with space with the more practical aspect of sending humans to Mars or the moon. That led me to do a master’s in Space as well.”

And what was your final-year project about?

“Ensuring that robots can avoid obstacles during missions on other planets. These ‘Rovers’ are mainly controlled manually from earth or via simple algorithms, which means they cannot navigate difficult terrain. If they encounter an obstacle – almost always a rock – that signal only reaches the operators half an hour later. So immediate intervention is not possible. My project was about making the robot smart enough to travel from A to B as quickly as possible without crashing.”

How do you go about making a robot smarter?

“As my studies have given me knowledge of both aerospace and robotics, I wanted to bridge the gap between the two fields. First, I drew up a list of requirements that a robot must meet. For example: how high is a stone it needs to avoid, and what size pebbles can it drive over? And how high do the wheels need to be to prevent the robot from sliding across the ground?

Conditions in space are harsh, with extreme temperature fluctuations, pressure differences and extremely intense radiation. Only the most robust, quite primitive hardware can survive out there. I had to take this into account during the second part of my project: developing an AI model to teach the robot which rocks to avoid. AI models require a lot of computing power, and that is difficult to combine with primitive hardware. My task was to make the AI model simple enough that it requires little energy, yet still allows the robot to perform its tasks autonomously and communicate with the operators on earth.”

How did you check whether your model worked?

“As it so happened, the European Space Agency wanted to start working on a deep learning model for obstacle detection on Mars at their facility in Noordwijk. I was allowed to train my robot there for six months in their Mars test site – a ten-by-ten-metre sandpit.”

How did your project find its way the NLF?

“When I was in the middle of my project, I didn’t necessarily think it was all that impressive. After all, logically speaking, all sorts of things go wrong during a testing phase. You’re, after all, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. But because both my supervisors and others involved gave such positive reviews at the end, my confidence grew. I got a high mark for my final project. That got me thinking: how could I share the results more widely, so that others could benefit from them too? While googling, I came across the NLF and that’s when I applied.”

What was it like to be on stage as a winner?

“Overwhelming! Every participant hopes to win, but you know there are fourteen people competing for just a handful of prizes. My parents were also at the gala ceremony. I’d told them to expect a fun evening, but I’d played down their expectations. After the two awards for aerospace had been presented, I relaxed: winning clearly wasn’t on the cards, and just taking part had been great fun. And then I won the Smart Mobility Award! In hindsight, perhaps it made sense, but I was so deep in my bubble that I was completely taken by surprise. I walked up to the stage, full of nerves, to give my presentation. After a few sentences, the tension faded, because of course I know exactly what my project is about.”

Winning an award is often the starting point for an internship, a job and/or contacts within the industry. How did it work out for you?

“After the ceremony, lots of people came up to me to congratulate me and ask questions about my project. The compliments from CEOs in the industry, representatives of the Royal Netherlands Air Force and Dutch astronaut André Kuipers mean a great deal to me. I never dared to dream it would turn out like this!”

Where are you currently working?

“Since graduating, I’ve been working on a temporary basis for the Dutch Military Police in the field of robotics. My boyfriend is also about to graduate, and we want to go travelling, before we both look for full-time jobs. Ideally, I’d like to become an astronaut. With my master’s degree, I meet the basic requirements, but I have no idea if it’s a realistic plan. So many people apply – if there’s even a vacancy. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sure something else challenging will come my way.”

What advice would you give to other students considering applying for an NLF award?

“It’s helped me make lots of connections in the industry. That’s why I say: don’t overthink it, just give it a go, even if you think your project isn’t good enough. Because that’s exactly what I thought. And yes, it takes time, but far less than the effort you put into your project. It’s also useful to have a letter of recommendation from your supervisor. That way, it’s not just your word, but others are saying your work is good too.”