Progress Report 2015 (englisch) by TU Darmstadt

Progress Report 2015

Progress Report 2015 TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

This is the university that invented the Electrical Engineer. And much more since then.

Superconducting electron linear accelerator, Department of Physics

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Content

Summary by Executive Board

16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Academic Affairs Marrying tradition with modernity Well positioned Inspiring locations Guests from the United States Synthetic biology practically applied For the schools of tomorrow A completely different take on maths Thorough research Intensive survey Reaching for the stars Orientation for refugees keen to learn Courses offered by TU Darmstadt

34 37 38 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Research Research funding Cognitive expertise Peering into the universe The digital day to day Driverless vehicles Environmentally friendly mobility Researching flight Bio-research highlights Digital navigation for the fire service Efficient building protection Interview with Tobias Meckel Excellence in equality Top-Level Research

University research profile

64 67 68 70 71 72 73 74 75

Knowledge and technology transfer High-performance research region Diverse groups Focus on SMEs Strong partner in Israel On the same wavelength Frozen and split water Biochemists with entrepreneurial genes Construction and transport

76 79 80 82 84 85 88 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 100 102 104 105 106

Life on campus For the next generation A life of music International university groups The mail has arrived Going up against the competition Awards Competence centre for cybersecurity Jury unanimous Interview with Paul Anastas Double degree doctorate Teaching excellence To whom credit is due Outstanding Alumni and former staff members The maximum Truly magnificent volumes Praise and prizes Special achievements Foundation Professorships

108 Location

22 Guests from U.S. Why exchange students are keen to explore the research work being conducted at their partner university.

38 Cognitive capacity How artificial systems understand and process information, learn new things and interact with humans.

54 Focal areas of research profile Future energy systems and IT security, the internet, Industry 4.0, and new dimensions of nuclear physics: research expertise of TU Darmstadt.

72 On the same wavelengt How the strategic partnership with Tongji University, Shanghai works in practice.

80 Living for music How an orchestra, a big band and a choir are enriching cultural life on campus.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Summary by Executive Board

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Summary by Executive Board

Cross-border alliance

Cyber security centre

TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz established the strategic Rhine-Main Universities alliance in 2015. In so doing, they have strengthened a longstanding, growing network of project and specialist partnerships, expanding its activities beyond teaching and research to incorporate administrative activities, continuing academic training and promotion of early career researchers. Working within the alliance, the universities can tackle major scientific challenges more effectively by taking a forwardlooking approach and combining their specific strengths in areas such as medicine and engineering, or computer science and the humanities. The agreement sees the three partners pooling their strengths, working together to expand their complementary profiles, and broadening their range of study opportunities. The alliance also raises the international profile of the Rhine-Main region and boosts its appeal as a knowledge hub. And it benefits students by making it easy for them to use the infrastructure of all three universities, such as the libraries, simplifying the process of earning degree credits and taking exams at the other institutions, and increasing the range of joint degree programmes on offer.

The opening of the new Center for Research in Security and Privacy (CRISP) at TU Darmstadt in November 2015, attended by the German Federal Minister of Education and Research and the Minister President of Hesse, lends further weight to Darmstadt’s long-standing proverbial title of “capital of IT security research”. As the largest partner within the CRISP alliance, TU Darmstadt is providing the extensive expertise of its highly respected Department of Computer Science, which has worked systematically over many years to establish a strong profile in cryptography and IT security research. Over half of the university’s departments are now involved with cyber security research topics. With considerable German Government and federal state funding, CRISP also brings together the Fraunhofer Institutes SIT and IGD, and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, all high-profile partners with a strong research background.

Cognitive science Technology is not the only thing that is getting smarter all the time; intuitive interaction between humans and technology is also becoming more sophisticated. This can be seen in the way people use their smartphones and in the way development and manufacturing processes are being automated and semi-automated in the workplace. Robots, cars and even entire factories are set to have cognitive skills in future, perceiving their environment, acting in a targeted manner and interacting flexibly with humans. The interdisciplinary field in which research is carried out into the cognitive capacities of humans and technical systems is known as cognitive science. This new discipline is highly relevant to engineering. In several of its departments, TU Darmstadt already has excellent foundations and core knowledge for focusing work in the highly dynamic field of cognitive science within an interdisciplinary centre and providing impetus at national and international level for cognitive science research.

Take a look into the future: Cognitive science.

Summary by Executive Board

Learning centre, department of architecture.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Improvements in teaching and learning An ambitious programme being run by the university under the “Quality Pact for Teaching” programme is set to continue receiving substantial funding from the German Government over the next few years. The package of measures focuses in particular on the study entry phase as the decisive time for students to find their bearings and develop motivation for the rest of their study period. It also seeks to promote mathematical skills on all technical and scientific degree courses and includes a fund for visiting professors designed to inject further innovative impetus into teaching. Additionally, teaching and learning were further enhanced in 2015 through the opening of new buildings and the renovation of existing ones. Users praise the quality of lecture rooms and learning centres in the Department of Architecture and

the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. Renovation work on the historic lecture room in the clock tower building on Hochschulstraße has created a new jewel in the campus’ crown.

Start-up culture TU Darmstadt is on the way to establishing itself as one of the top entrepreneurial universities in Germany. The Donors' Association for the Promotion of Humanities and Sciences in Germany (Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft) places TU Darmstadt near the top of its “Gründungsradar” list for entrepreneurial universities. The HIGHEST Startup Centre provides a wide range of teaching, training, advisory and support services. A professorship

Talking about university autonomy: Universities, which take their own decisions, are successful.

post in start-up management was filled in 2015. TU Darmstadt’s success with “EXIST Transfer of Research”, a funding line set up by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy for start-up initiatives with particularly ambitious technical goals, is an indicator of both the university’s great potential and the high quality of its start-ups and start-up consultancy services.

Future of autonomy At a symposium organised by TU Darmstadt to mark “ten years of autonomy” for the university, highprofile leaders from the worlds of policy-making and research analysed the tension that exists between research policy and university autonomy and clearly identified future challenges with regard to ensuring

and maintaining autonomy. The TU is the ideal place for this debate, having operated as a highperforming autonomous public university since 2005 and showing in the process that there are other requirements besides legal conditions to fulfil in order to become truly autonomous. A university needs to have the will and, ultimately, the ability to operate autonomously. It must also be prepared to engage in a process of learning and organising that bears long-term fruit. TU Darmstadt has succeeded on all these fronts.

Responsibility for historical heritage 2015 saw the completion of a project key to the university’s identity and self-assurance: Technische Universität Darmstadt conducted extensive

research into its operations during and after the National Socialist era. Supervised by Professor Christof Dipper, two doctoral candidates began in 2009 to research the history of TH Darmstadt between 1930 and 1960, drawing on a wide range of sources. The project intentionally went beyond the caesura of 1945 to also examine the post-war period and the legacy of National Socialism, which still makes it unique within Germany. Additionally, an official event was held at which doctoral and honorary degrees revoked for racist and political reasons under the National Socialist regime were returned posthumously and forced de-registrations of students declared null and void. Examining its own past also affects how the university operates in the present day. For the TU today, “learning from the past” means actively assuming special social and political responsibility. This includes training students to think critically, adopt an international mindset and show tolerance to all people, regardless of their background or world view.

Responsibility for those seeking help 2015 was a year of tremendous anxiety, with immeasurable suffering resulting from major crises in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and even Europe. Millions of people fled their homes in an effort to escape war, violence and poverty. TU Darmstadt also has a role to play in this context. As a university with a tradition of open-mindedness and international engagement, it has a responsibility to actively promote and practise values and principles of peaceful, non-prejudiced coexistence, mutual respect and the recognition of cultural diversity. By providing specific training for voluntary language assistants, the TU’s Language Resource Centre (Studienkolleg) is showing its commitment to supporting civil society. A large group consisting of the Directorate for International Affairs, the Language Resource Centre, the Students’ Union, several student groups and other administrative units is doing an exemplary job of helping refugees interested in and eligible to study to access the relevant services at the university.

Campus city centre.

Executive Board University leadership team

Members President Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Prömel University strategy and structure, appointment of new professors, quality management and international relations, external representation Vice President Dr. Manfred Efinger Administration and financial affairs Vice President Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralph Bruder Academic affairs Vice President Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rödel Research Vice President Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mira Mezini Knowledge and technology transfer, alumni relations

University Council

University Assembly

Senate

Initiatives on fundamental issues, esp. university development, involvement in management of resources and appointment of new professors, proposal of predential candidates

Statements on fundamental questions of university development, teaching, studies and early career researchers, election and dismissal of the Executive Board

Provision of advice on matters of structure, development planning and construction planning, budget, research, teaching and studies, approval of university regulations, professorial appointments, honours

Members Members Prof. Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus University of Bielefeld, Department of Chemistry/Physical Chemistry Ilona Moog Lawyer, member of the board of Deutscher Frauenring, Darmstadt Prof. Burkhard Rauhut Rector, German University of Technology, Oman (until 2013) Dr. Karl-Friedrich Rausch Member of the Management Board, Deutsche Bahn (until 2015) Prof. Bernd Reckmann Member of the Executive Board, Merck Marion Schmidt Head of Higher Education Development and Communications, Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Cognos AG Prof. Wolfgang Wahlster Saarland University, Department of Computer Science, Director and CEO of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DKFI) Prof. Margret Wintermantel President of the German Academic Exchange Service, Professor of Psychology Prof. Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach Rector, ETH Zurich (until 2012), Professor of Biopharmacy Dr. Holger Zinke Deputy Chairman, Supervisory Board, Brain AG

31 15 10 5

professors students research associates administrative/technical staff

Members Executive Board 10 professors 4 students 3 research associates 3 administrative/technical staff

Summary by Executive Board

Facts and figures

1 Participation in Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Orders”

2 Graduate Schools within the Excellence Initiative: Computational Engineering Energy Science and Engineering

3 LOEWE Research Centres of Excellence in Hesse

4 LOEWE Research Clusters in Hesse 10 DFG Collaborative Research Centres/Transfer Units

EUR 241.2 million basic funds from the State of Hesse (excl. LOEWE)

EUR 41.4 million from Bund-Länder-Hochschulpakt (Phase II)

EUR 6.5 million other funds EUR 154.4 million third-party

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

funds (incl. LOEWE)

250 hectares of property 161 buildings (incl. 15 rented) 306,000 square metres of usable space (incl. 17,600 rented)

5 Campuses City Centre Lichtwiese Botanical Gardens University Stadium August-Euler-Airfield (with wind tunnel)

Centre of lecture rooms and university library on Lichtwiese Campus.

303 professors 257 male professors (incl. 13 junior professors)

46 female professors (incl. 11 junior professors)

2,400 academic employees (incl. 620 female)

1,840 non-academic employees (incl. 1,100 female) 112 degree programmes 13 departments and 5 fields of study 26,500 students 4,300 Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s students in first subject-related semester 2,560 Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s students in first subject-related semester 4,140 graduates and 440 doctorates

162 trainees (incl. 42 female)

200 graduate assistants (incl. 65 female)

2,950 student assistants (incl. 860 female)

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Academic Affairs

Highlights 2015 1st place in the “propeller-driven aircraft” category of the “Steel Flies” competition for students from the Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines. Fifteen teams from six German universities took part in the contest. The Darmstadt 3 team’s “Speeding Falcon” achieved an average flight time of 6.7 seconds.

Top spot in the Akaflieg Green Speed Cup for the

“Akademische Fliegergruppe Darmstadt” (university

professors are working as

120

refugees from war-torn and

crisis-hit regions interested

internationalisation officers

in university study took part

in their departments to

in the information tours of

expand overseas connections

the campus, with 70 of them

in teaching and research.

applying for guest student status.

flying group) for fastest and most energy-efficient flight. Managing 100 kilometres on 2.9 litres of fuel, they won the day’s event and first place overall.

3 months after completing their Master’s degree, TU graduates find their first job matching their qualifications.

1,268 places on foreign exchange programmes for TU Darmstadt students.

1st virtual time tunnel: Students from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering used corrugated cardboard to build a booth in which they could hold video chats with fellow students at international partner universities without being disturbed. The modern phone box holds together without glue.

Marrying tradition with modernity

It was here that the world’s first professor of electrical engineering taught some 110 years ago.

Following painstaking interior renovation work, the university reopened the jewel in the crown of the “clock tower building” on Hochschulstraße 4: the room in which Erasmus Kittler, the world’s first professor of electrical engineering, gave his lectures now once again reflects the atmosphere of 1904. The EUR 3.4 million project has been implemented with funding from the German Government and the federal state of Hesse. The renovation work took two years, taking into account the building’s historical structure and the latest technical requirements. The lecture room, which can now seat 198 individuals for lectures and public events, is an integral part of the clock tower built by Friedrich Pützer (1871–1922) between 1901 and 1904. This tower was the first annex building to be added to the then TH Darmstadt, which underwent major expansion work in the early 20th century. After the Second World War, the damaged building was repaired to a basic level. This was followed in the late 1970s by

alteration work to the building and its repurposing as the Department of Physics library. Now the interior boasts original and restored elements, such as the art nouveau cast-iron staircase, the terazzo and mosaic flooring, and the stucco decorations. The art nouveau entrance gate has also been given a new lease of life thanks to a donation.

“You rarely see projects combine architecture, academia and aspects of preservation orders the way that this one does. It has created a space that blends tradition and modernity – it will be a fun place for teaching and learning!” Ingmar Jung, State Secretary at the Hesse State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts

Well positioned

“The evaluation and continued funding of our approach to teaching quality cement our status as an attractive, performance-focused technical university.” Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel, President of TU Darmstadt

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Challenging first-semester projects boost motivation.

Teaching quality rewarded once again

The elegance of the sixties

With its strategy for improving studying conditions and teaching quality, the TU has once again proven successful in Germany’s nationwide “Quality Pact for Teaching” programme. The university made a strong impression with its follow-up application for the “Competence development through interdisciplinary cooperation from the very outset” project. In this application, TU Darmstadt identifies the beginning of a degree course as the decisive phase in terms of students finding their bearings and developing motivation. The university has applied for EUR 13 million to fund the project’s implementation. The programme is set to fund projects from October 2016 to the end of 2020. Students were closely involved in the process of drafting the strategy.

Constructed between 1967 and 1969 on a reinforced concrete skeleton in accordance with the “Darmstadt building system”, the complex was the first new building on what was then the recently opened “Lichtwiese” campus. The east section of the Department of Architecture is now under a preservation order and has undergone EUR 4.4 million of comprehensive modernisation work, which involved the renovation of three lecture rooms and the transformation of the former departmental library into a learning centre. The sophisticated layout also left space for a seminar room with capacity for 60 people.

Emphasis is placed on interdisciplinarity, internationality, gender and diversity under the six priority topics of mathematical skills, visiting professorships, study-programme and examination offices, tutor training, student projects and interdisciplinarity.

“Lecture Room 93” has traditionally played a key role in the architects’ events programmes. The room at ElLissitzky-Straße 1 has already played host to many great international figures at the Wednesday evening lectures that have been given since 1968. The 300-seat renovated facility, with its characteristic black wooden folding seats having been painstakingly restored, will in future bear the name of professor and town planner Max Guther, who once lectured here.

Inspiring locations

Work on three major construction projects in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at TU Darmstadt has been completed. A new EUR 5.34 million facility with offices for researchers and professors, seminar and meeting rooms, and student workstations has been constructed in the Tiefhof courtyard of the High Voltage Lab on the “Stadtmitte” campus. Three lecture rooms on the corner of Merckstraße and Landgraf-Georg-Straße have been fully renovated, with the largest now seating 286 people and the others 103 and 81 respectively. The original rows of seats have been refurbished and new media technology has been installed. Constructed between 1964 and 1973, the Institute building forms part of the complex of buildings designed by Professor Ernst Neufert and enjoys cultural heritage status. As well as replacing the roof, the work also involved redesigning technical equipment, fire safety installations and escape routes. A new staircase and lift have been installed in the foyer, close to the legendary “Rennbahn” learning centre, which has now reopened with facilities designed heavily in accordance with student requests. The building costs totalled EUR 5.5 million.

Looks good: part of the electrical engineering complex.

The listed Dolivo building has also been renovated, with new fire prevention areas, room partitioning, windows, sun-shade systems and technical facilities. Structural deficiencies have also been rectified and the terazzo flooring, typical of the 1950s, has been retained. Building costs came to EUR 9.66 million. The new and re-purposed buildings now provide students with an excellent and varied working environment in learning and advisory centres capable of holding over 250 people.

“The underlying principle of the ‘Rennbahn’ learning centre is to ‘recap basic knowledge’: after they have completed their basic lectures, students can ask tutors and researchers to go over with them those things that they have not or not fully understood. This should ideally lead to the formation of ad hoc learning groups.” Karl Ulrich Saß, Head of Department Management, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.

Guests from the United States

The International Research Experience Program (IREP) provides an opportunity for students from North American and Australian partner universities to take part in a three-month research project in one of TU’s institutes or departments. The programme includes language and induction classes, a grant and the issuing of credits. This is what the young guests from the United States had to say:

Przemyslaw Krol

Rajarshi Biswas is studying for an MA in Mechanical Engineering at the University at Buffalo. He values the IREP because, as well as gaining a direct insight into the real world of research, he benefited from the warm, student-friendly atmosphere at the TU.

is studying for a BA in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois: “I really like the fact that there’s always something to do, whether it’s uni or student-association events, sports activities or things going on in Darmstadt.”

Andrew Nelson,

Judson Abraham is studying for an MA in Politics at Virginia Tech and is examining the role of coal miners’ unions in the Ruhr region of Germany and the Appalachia region of the United States during the transition from coal power to renewable energy. He is fascinated by the intensive discussions of new policy ideas at the TU.

majoring in Nuclear Physics (BA) at the University of Colorado, is assisting with practical experiments at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research. He is excited about having “the incredible opportunity to experience real-life research work at a highly respected research institution”. He enthuses that the TU has it all, from fantastic support provision for international students to a wide range of opportunities for getting involved in campus life and thereby learning more about German culture.

Synthetic biology practically applied

It all began with plastic waste. The TU Darmstadt iGEM team is an interdisciplinary project that has been operating out of the Department of Biology since 2012. The students are working on plastic degradation, toxin detectors and solar cells. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is part and parcel of our everyday lives; the plastic is used in packaging, textiles and plastic bottles. Despite being recyclable, tonnes of plastic waste are discarded in the outdoors all around the world. PET breaks down into progressively smaller components, which then end up in the foot chains of many animals. Enzymes already exist that can digest materials similar to PET. The students carried out a project in which they attempted to combine the DNA of bacteria in such a way as to create PET degradation enzymes and then use the degradation products to create new products. Such projects do not always lead to implementable concepts that change the world. Setbacks are also part of the learning process, and there are plenty of them in the world of research. In this case too, the students failed in their attempt to modify bacteria to identify mould toxins by emitting a light signal that can be transmitted to a smartphone using an app. But the team also made a major breakthrough; the students managed to design bacteria that produce a plant pigment which can be used to power a solar cell. As a result, they achieved third place in an international competition in Boston.

Driven by a desire to find biological solutions to everyday problems.

“iGEM gives you the chance to gain practical experience that will be highly beneficial to you in your Bachelor’s or Master’s dissertation, if not earlier. This is a unique opportunity to put your own ideas into practice in the lab while you’re still studying.” Bastian Wagner, fifth semester of BSc in Biomolecular Engineering

Academic Affairs

For the schools of tomorrow

Off to a perfect start Christine Preuß has hit the ground running as the new Managing Director of the TU’s Zentrum für Lehrerbildung (teacher training centre). She was involved in putting together an application for teaching training reform that was successful in the Quality Offensive in Teacher Training initiative run by the German Government and the country’s federal states. The Zentrum für Lehrerbildung intends to strengthen the provision of counselling services to students right at the beginning of their degree programmes. Preuß studied German and Social Sciences to Master’s level, including a teaching qualification in the subjects, at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, before going on to work as a teacher. She is familiar with the “reality shock” experienced by students when they enter higher education and gain new perspectives after 12 or 13 years at school. Before joining the TU, the school education specialist examined in detail the practical experiences of student teachers and the initial and in-service teacher training system through her work in the Teacher Training Centre at the University of Münster, in district government and in the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of School and Further Education.

“There’s a new focus on the Zentrum für Lehrerbildung and an excitement about the future here.”

An experienced school education practitioner: Christine Preuß.

Christine Preuß, Managing Director of the Zentrum für

MINTplus makes its mark

Lehrerbildung at the TU

The TU project “MINT plus: systematic and integrated skills development in teacher training” is being funded by the Quality Offensive in Teacher Training initiative, a EUR 500 million programme of the German Government and the federal states designed to improve teacher training. Of the 80 projects

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

submitted, 19 are being funded in the first round. The TU’s strategy is focused on degree courses for teaching in German grammar schools (Gymnasien) and vocational secondary schools (Berufliche Schulen), and aims to raise the profile of training for future teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

A completely different take on maths

Those who think maths is dry and out of touch with reality will be set straight by “Math on Demand”. What has maths won an Oscar for? Why are prime numbers among the most mysterious mathematical objects? How are the latest encryption technologies informed by 350-year-old theories? These are just some of the questions addressed in a series of twelve on-demand lectures that teachers can book at the Department of Mathematics. Arrangements can either be made for school classes to visit the TU or for researchers to visit the schools, as Anna von Pippich, Junior Professor for Algebra and Number Theory, is doing as she tours classrooms with her presentation entitled “Lauschen zwecklos!” (“Nothing to be gained by eavesdropping!”). She created “Math on Demand” with Alexandra Schwartz and Benjamin Seyfferth. The series is designed as a supplementary resource for teachers who wish to show their sixth-form classes how maths is applied in real life and used in research. Von Pippich explains, for instance, the mathematical principles behind SSL encryption for mobile phone communication. “Our heroes today are Pierre de Fermat and Leonhard Euler from the 17th and 18th centuries,” she says. For centuries, their findings remained in an ivory tower and no-one ever thought they might be useful one day. Of course, in addition to the presentations, the school visits also offer pupils an opportunity to talk to the TU researchers and ask any burning questions they have about university study. Math on Demand – bridging the gap between school and university.

Maths has its heroes too.

“Without external input, it’s often hard to think of fun things you can do with maths.” Benjamin Seyfferth, Study Coordinator

“We’ve found that these kinds of events enable us to help bridge the gap between school and university.” Werner Kassenbrock, teacher at the Berufliches Schulzentrum Odenwaldkreis (vocational school) in Michelstadt

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Academic Affairs

Thorough research

Mathilde Merck’s possessions.

Diaries of Mathilde Merck

Using technology to promote health

History students have examined the diaries of Mathilde Merck (1864–1958) as part of a training research project. The wife of an industrialist, the Darmstadt resident kept a diary her whole life, writing about family and political events alike, as well as reporting on her travels. This 170-volume body of work was made available to the Department of History for the course by the Merck KGaA company archive.

Those who do not drink enough risk developing headaches and circulation problems. Students from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology have found a solution. With the “Sip It!” device, users can quickly and easily check their water intake. The small black box is fitted with electrodes. When the user puts his or her hand on this box, it measures the body’s AC resistance and provides a visual and audible warning if he or she is dehydrated. The team took first place with their innovation in the Competition of Students in Microsystems Applications (COSIMA).

The Master’s students created their own index, using a jointly developed matrix for some of the diaries in which they listed individual entries, outlined content and individuals, and added keywords. They also researched individual topics. While diaries provide an insight into the personal views of their author, these views are influenced by societal conventions and the available means of interpretation. Some of the issues explored included the options that Mathilde Merck had for resolving puberty conflicts with her youngest daughter and the factors that influenced her attitude to war and National Socialism.

Climbing robots Many roads lead upwards, as proven by seven student teams from the TU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. The climbing robots they built battled it out in a contest of speed and precision. The EMKletter-Cup rounded off the “Practical development methodology” project seminar and was conducted under conditions similar to those that students will face in their subsequent professional lives. They were required to work under time and budget constraints and comply with a wide range of requirements. In just three months and on a mere EUR 75 budget, they had to go from viewing the task to presenting the prototype.

Intensive survey

Positive verdict In most cases, students quickly enter a profession after completing their Master’s degree, and many TU graduates are happy with their degree and the skills they learned on it. These were the findings of an online survey conducted by the TU’s Centre for Educational Development. Each year, on behalf of the Executive Board, the centre asks graduates to look back on their degree course one and a half years after completing it. The university summarised the data, provided by Master’s students who graduated in 2013, in the latest report. According to this report, the TU plays a key role as a higher education institution in Darmstadt and the surrounding metropolitan regions. 68 % of respondents are working in the region after graduating. 80 % of respondents are satisfied with their degree today. 84 % of respondents would choose the same degree course again and 75 % would choose to study at TU Darmstadt again.

Top marks for maths and computer science

TU graduates are satisfied.

WiWo ranking, mechanical engineering German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche placed the TU in the top five universities for four subjects in its career ranking. It achieved its highest score for mechanical engineering, coming in third. For this ranking, 540 human resources managers in Germany were asked to indicate which universities best prepared students for the real world of work. 19.1% of these managers expressed particular confidence in graduates from TU Darmstadt. Only RWTH Aachen and Technical University of Munich achieved a higher score. Darmstadt came fourth for business engineering and fifth for electrical engineering and business informatics.

The TU’s Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics are among the leading German university departments in the Centre for Higher Education University Ranking when it comes to study situation, courses offered, library facilities and third-party funding per academic. The Department of Computer Science also achieved very good results for its IT infrastructure and support provision for studying abroad, and the Department of Mathematics for the number of PhDs per professor. The Bachelor of Arts in Political Science gets top marks in the “practical relevance” category and the Department of Physics in the “study entry phase” category.

Reaching for the stars

Academic Affairs

A few seconds of zero gravity Anja Schuster has always been fascinated by distant galaxies and black holes. Even in secondary school, her classmates wished her luck on her “road to the stars”, and, as a child, she would bombard her parents with questions about outer space. No surprise then that the young woman chose to study physics at the TU. Schuster wrote her Bachelor’s thesis on the best way to send the BepiColombo satellite into Mercuy’s orbit – a mission planned by the European Space Agency (ESA) for 2016. She produced her Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis in cooperation with ESOC, Europe's centre of excellence for satellite operation based in Darmstadt. She spent a semester abroad in Berkeley, having obtained one of two sought-after places on the TU Department of Physics’ exchange programme with the University of California. The TU student also secured a place on the Space Studies Program of the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, where she was involved with experiments for a zero-gravity flight. In Spain, she went up in an aerobatic aircraft, experiencing eight seconds of weightlessness like an astronaut while the plane was in parabolic flight.

Energy for the Red Planet

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Experienced in parabolic flight: Anja Schuster.

“Later on, I’d like to work for the European Space Agency.” Anja Schuster, Physicist

Surviving and thriving on the Red Planet? It was only a few years ago that the idea of a habitat on Mars sounded like science fiction, but it is set to become a reality in the not too distant future. Asja Thielking, Joachim Bohn and Susanne Hanesch addressed the issue of how to supply such a habitat with energy on a sustainable basis as part of the interdisciplinary energy project conducted by the Master’s degree programmes in Energy Science and Engineering and Applied Geosciences. They identified photovoltaic systems as the most effective energy source, provided they are used in conjunction with a fuel storage system and dynamometers to take account of several months of sandstorms, which impair the security of supply.

Orientation for refugees keen to learn

First visit to the university library.

Over the course of the year, Darmstadt has welcomed 1,500 refugees from crisis-hit regions around the world, including young people wishing to commence or continue their studies. TU staff, student initiatives and volunteers offer campus tours to familiarise refugees with the university’s key facilities and to introduce them to the different departments and degree programmes. Interested refugees can apply for guest student status. Student tandem teams provide assistance with the application and registration process, while the mandatory guest student fees are covered by the Association of Friends of the Technische Universität Darmstadt. Guest student status allows the refugees to attend numerous lectures and gives them the option of

applying for the intensive “German as a foreign language” course in preparation for studying at the university. The TU wishes to provide access to degree courses without red tape. The refugees’ existing language skills and subject knowledge will be recognised on an individual basis. Buddy programmes are being developed in cooperation with students to facilitate the swift and lasting integration of refugees into university life. The Student Services (Studierendenwerk) has also set up a contact point; its Intercultural Tutors Team is opening its events up to guests. The TU’s Language Resource Centre is training volunteer German teachers to provide lessons for refugees.

Academic Affairs

Courses offered by TU Darmstadt

Bachelor

Master

Angewandte Geowissenschaften Angewandte Mechanik Architektur Bauingenieurwesen und Geodäsie Biologie Biomolecular Engineering Chemie Computational Engineering Digital Philology Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Geschichte mit Schwerpunkt Moderne Informatik Informationssystemtechnik Maschinenbau – Mechanical and Process Engineering Materialwissenschaft Mathematik Mechatronik Pädagogik Physik Politikwissenschaft Psychologie Psychologie in IT Soziologie Sportwissenschaft und Informatik Umweltingenieurwissenschaften Wirtschaftsinformatik Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen technische Fachrichtung • Bauingenieurwesen • Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik • Maschinenbau Bachelor of Education Bautechnik Chemietechnik Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Informatik Körperpflege Metalltechnik Joint Bachelor of Arts Digital Philology Germanistik Geschichte Informatik Musikalische Kultur (Kooperation Akademie für Tonkunst) Philosophie Politikwissenschaft Soziologie Sportwissenschaft Wirtschaftswissenschaften

Angewandte Geowissenschaften Architektur Autonome Systeme Bauingenieurwesen Bildungswissenschaften – Bildung in globalen Technisierungsprozessen Biomolecular Engineering – Molekulare Biotechnologie Chemie Computational Engineering Distributed Software Systems Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Energy Science and Engineering Geodäsie und Geoinformation Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft Geschichte Informatik Information and Communication Engineering Informationssystemtechnik International Cooperation and Urban Development Internet und Web-basierte Systeme IT-Security Linguistic and Literary Computing Maschinenbau – Mechanical and Process Engineering Materials Science Mathematik Mechanik Mechatronik Paper Science and Technology – Papiertechnik und bio-basierte Faserwerkstoffe Philosophie Physik Governance und Public Policy Internationale Studien/Friedens- und Konfliktforschung Politische Theorie Psychologie Psychologie in IT Soziologie Sportmanagement Sportwissenschaft und Informatik Technik und Philosophie Technische Biologie Traffic and Transport Tropical Hydrogeology and Environmental Engineering Umweltingenieurwissenschaften Visual Computing Wirtschaftsinformatik Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen technische Fachrichtung • Bauingenieurwesen • Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik • Maschinenbau

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Lehramt an Gymnasien Biologie Chemie Deutsch Geschichte Informatik Mathematik Philosophie/Ethik Physik Politik und Wirtschaft Sport

Master of Education Deutsch Ethik Evangelische Religion Geschichte Informatik Katholische Religion Mathematik Physik Politik und Wirtschaft Sportwissenschaft Last revised: February 2016

31 1.985

860

Europe Asia

Facts and figures 249 351

America Africa

351

International students at TU Darmstadt

Australia und Oceania

Afrika

Total of 3,449 from 121 countries, including ... China India Pakistan Iran Tunisia Turkey Bulgaria Brazil Cameroon Russian Fed. Ukraine Syria Spain Vietnam Colombia

832 387 172 158 119 112 91 90 87 85 67 Foreign nationals who obtained 67 their university entrance qualifications outside of Germany, 60 winter semester 2015/16 57 53

Degree courses in highest demand Top 5 Bachelor’s degree courses Subject

Number of students

Computer Science

1,948

Mechanical Engineering – Mech. and Proc. Eng. 1,691 Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

1,044

Civil Engineering and Geodesy

981

Architecture

779

Top 5 Master’s degree courses Subject

Number of students

Mechanical Engineering – Mech. and Proc. Eng. 1,144 Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

516

Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

491

Architecture

464

Distributed Software Systems

448

Top 5 Bachelor’s degree courses for international students*

Proportion of Bachelor’s students who obtained their university entrance qualifications outside of Germany

Subject

Number of students

Mechanical Engineering - Mech. and Proc. Eng. 141 Computer Science

139

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

125

Architecture

Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

Top 5 Master’s degree courses for international students*

Proportion of Master’s students who obtained their university entrance qualifications outside of Germany

23 %

Source: Data Warehouse; excludes individuals with leave of absence Bachelor’s = Bachelor + Joint Bachelor, excludes Bachelor of Education Master’s = all except Master of Education

Subject

Number of students

Distributed Software Systems

441

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

256

Mechanical Engineering – Mech. and Proc. Eng.

209

Information and Communication Engineering

138

Architecture

108

Source: Data Warehouse; excludes individuals with leave of absence and those on second degree courses, winter semester 2015/16 *Foreign nationals who obtained their university entrance qualifications outside of Germany, winter semester 2015/16

Facts and figures

Academic Affairs

Graduates and Doctorates Graduates

Doctorates

Departments

Total

Women in % Foreigners* in %

Total

Women in % Foreigners* in %

Law and Economics

607

16 %

22 %

History and Social Sciences

449

62 %

52 %

19 %

Human Sciences

210

66 %

67 %

17 %

Mathematics

204

34 %

11 %

43 %

Physics

199

17 %

14 %

Chemistry

182

36 %

38 %

17 %

Biology

159

62 %

61 %

13 %

Materials and Earth Sciences

134

28 %

29 %

18 %

Civil and Environmental Engineering

381

32 %

13 %

17 %

13 %

Architecture

220

63 %

25 %

33 %

50 %

Mechanical Engineering

665

10 %

13 %

108

16 %

17 %

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology

331

12 %

47 %

12 %

35 %

Computer Science

285

11 %

12 %

21 %

Mechanics

28 %

Computational Engineering

10 %

Information Systems Engineering Mechatronics

32 20

6% 0%

22 % 25 %

Energy Science and Engineering

25 %

Total

4,138

29 %

13 %

440

25 %

18 %

Fields of Study

Source: Data Warehouse / data: graduation in 2014 calendar year; “heads”, i.e. first subject only (individuals assigned to departments and fields of study based on first subject). * Foreigners refer here to all individuals with foreign citizenship, even if they obtained their university entrance qualifications in Germany.

Students Departments

Total

Women in %

Foreigners* in %

of which Master’s**

of which Master’s** in %

Law and Economics

3,146

19 %

12 %

893

28 %

History and Social Sciences

3,220

52 %

10 %

908

28 %

Human Sciences

1,375

61 %

10 %

315

23 %

Mathematics

971

33 %

10 %

293

30 %

Physics

1,179

19 %

246

21 %

Chemistry

1,088

37 %

222

20 %

Biology

791

61 %

147

19 %

Materials and Earth Sciences

1,195

30 %

22 %

395

33 %

Civil and Environmental Engineering

2,496

36 %

17 %

755

30 %

Architecture

1,441

55 %

27 %

502

35 %

Mechanical Engineering

3,243

11 %

18 %

1,161

36 %

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology

2,055

12 %

38 %

682

33 %

Computer Science

3,405

12 %

27 %

1,157

34 %

Mechanics

210

20 %

17 %

40 %

Computational Engineering

223

20 %

13 %

34 %

Information Systems Engineering

240

15 %

22 %

Mechatronics

134

40 %

134

100 %

Energy Science and Engineering

30 %

23 %

100 %

Total

26,504

29 %

18 %

8,115

31 %

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Fields of Study

Source: Data Warehouse / Excludes individuals with leave of absence, includes doctoral students, excludes those on second degree courses. Assignment based on first subject, winter semester 2015/16. / * Foreigners refer here to all individuals with foreign citizenship, even if they obtained their university entrance qualifications in Germany./ ** Master’s = all except Master of Education

Students in first subject-related semester Undergraduate degree courses

Master’s degree courses

(Bachelor’s at university, Bachelor of Education, Joint Bachelor, programme for teaching in German grammar schools)

(Master’s at university, Master of Education)

Departments

Total

Women in %

Foreigners* in %

Total

Women in %

Foreigners* in %

Law and Economics

564

19 %

260

14 %

History and Social Sciences

528

45 %

282

60 %

10 %

Human Sciences

205

69 %

11 %

117

59 %

Mathematics

132

36 %

33 %

14 %

Physics

329

30 %

18 %

17 %

Chemistry

210

37 %

34 %

Biology

142

64 %

69 %

Materials and Earth Sciences

165

35 %

13 %

146

33 %

26 %

Civil and Environmental Engineering

460

36 %

13 %

196

36 %

13 %

Architecture

201

59 %

14 %

223

56 %

43 %

Mechanical Engineering

371

11 %

15 %

318

12 %

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology

294

10 %

22 %

217

14 %

57 %

Computer Science

571

12 %

13 %

331

14 %

51 %

Mechanics

34 %

27 %

Computational Engineering

17 %

13 %

23 %

Information Systems Engineering

11 %

13 %

14 %

21 %

17 %

46 %

30 %

2,561

30 %

24 %

Fields of Study

Mechatronics Energy Science and Engineering Total

4,299

30 %

12 %

Source: Data Warehouse / excludes individuals with leave of absence, doctoral students, and those on second degree courses. Assignment based on first subject. Summer semester 2015+ winter semester / 2015/16. / * Foreigners refer here to all individuals with foreign citizenship, even if they obtained their university entrance qualifications in Germany.

University and State Library Collection

2013

2014

2015

Total collection of printed works

4,344,001

4,356,927

4,372,217

of which books and journals

2,228,341

2,240,295

2,255,035

Micromaterials/AV media

206,293

206,361

206,453

Electronic collection

434,789

443,753

452,852

Manuscripts

13,690

13,691

13,693

Current journals (conventional and electronic)

27,294

27,953

28,054

of which conventional

2,533

2,840

2,749

of which electronic

24,761

25,113

25,305

Additions in period under review (physical items)

34,585

25,730

24,626

Additions in period under review (electronic)

4,724

8,964

9,099

Use of conventional print media

550,001

689,526

728,719

Loans

250,785

268,952

315,061

Use of online media (e-books, e-dissertations, e-journals)

1,715,877

2,441,611

2,720,235

Library visits

1,023,640

957,431

1,094,345

Use of reading room

503,973

521,424

596,199

Usage

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Research

Highlights 2015 The German Research Foundation is providing

EUR 11.1 million in funding for the new collaborative

months: The demonstration centre for electric and hybrid vehicles at the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Powertrain Systems took four months to build. In the hall, researchers test low-emission powertrain technologies.

research centre “Nuclei: from fundamental interactions to structure and stars”.

professors are associated with TU Darmstadt’s new Cognitive Science Centre.

414

pages: Published in book form, Dagmar Bellmann’s doctoral thesis is 414 pages long. With a German title which translates as “From hellish voyages to floating palaces”, it sees the historian and German scholar examining the history of transatlantic passenger ship travel between 1840 and 1930.

Covering

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

500 square metres, TU Darmstadt’s railway research centre (Eisenbahnbetriebsfeld) simulates rail operations, with 13 stations, a range of interlocking systems and extra features such as a ferry railway station, an international route to France and a tramway section. The 1:87 scale model railway is digitally operated and boasts a 90-kilometre track network.

40 years The Department of Computer Science’s Interactive Graphics Systems Group turns 40. Six working groups are examining various aspects of visual computing, from 3D modelling to medical image processing.

TU Darmstadt contributed

1.252

publications

to the academic discourse in 2015 (according to Web of Science).

Research funding

Encyclopaedia of university performance: DFG Funding Atlas 2015.

The German Research Foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (DFG) Funding Atlas 2015 shows TU Darmstadt performing strongly. When it comes to DFG-approved funding for engineering at all German universities, the TU is in second place. The Department of Mathematics achieves a notable fourth place in absolute terms, the natural sciences see a major improvement, moving up to eighth place for the amount of funding approved per researcher. Looking at the amount of funding per professor, TU Darmstadt ranks ninth among all German universities and first in the federal state of Hesse. Between 2011 and 2013, the TU received a total of EUR 145.3 million from the DFG, of which EUR 88 million were earmarked for engineering subjects.

Visiting researchers from abroad also value TU Darmstadt, with the DFG Funding Atlas revealing that it was given a number one rating by those funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and a number six rating by those funded by the German Academic Exchange Service.

Research

Cognitive expertise

Lively discussion with Heinz Köppl, Professor of Bioinspired Communication Systems (2nd to the right).

Intelligent pooling

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Human perception, attentiveness, memory, reasoning, decision-making, action and learning can all be understood and described as the processing of information, and transferred to artificial cognitive systems. TU Darmstadt is pooling its existing expertise in the fields of psychology, computer science, sports science and biology in a Cognitive Science Centre, thereby adopting a promising research approach for the future.

“We already have a number of very active clusters, especially in the humanities and computer science. And there are also several outstanding examples of engineering applications.” Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel, President of TU Darmstadt

Suitable projects are already being tackled, from intelligent prostheses to the use of mathematical algorithms to describe human navigation decisions, and virtual reality perception. Of course, many research issues, such as planning in the midst of uncertainty, have yet to be resolved. This is a complex challenge in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Cognitive science is exerting a growing influence on the technology development process – we are already at the point where cameras can use facial recognition, software is capable of learning user habits, vehicles are attempting to predict driver behaviour, and smart management systems are proposing complex sequences of action at home.

Learning robots Jan Peters, a computer science professor at the TU and one of Europe’s leading robotics experts, has received a EUR 1.41 million Starting Grant from the European Research Council for the SKILLS4ROBOTS project. Peters intends to train robots to learn motion sequences, thereby removing the need for expensive programming.

A third helping hand As part of the EU project “3rd Hand”, the professor and his team of computer scientists from the TU are developing a self-learning robotic arm that can lift heavy objects, grip things tightly and hold items for a long period. It is designed to assist older employees at work, as well as to relieve other employees of strength-sapping and inanely repetitive movements, while also enriching the workplace environment. Within the European project, the Darmstadt researchers are responsible for optimising motion control. The artificial arm learns by copying humans and being guided by them and has already shown what it can do in putting together an Ikea chair.

Professor Jan Peters.

Peering into the universe

The origins of heavy elements Almudena Arcones, appointed as Junior Professor of Physics at TU Darmstadt in 2012, will receive a total of EUR 1.5 million in funding from the European Research Council over a five-year period. Working in partnership with the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, Arcones is leading a group of early career researchers and putting together a team to decode the origins of heavy elements, such as gold and platinum, in the universe. These metals, which we also encounter on earth, are produced, for example, in stellar explosions and when neutron stars collide. During the complex core reaction paths, thousands of unstable, largely unknown isotopes occur as intermediate elements. Arcones is looking to simulate the reaction processes and test them in

Nuclei and stars

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Professor Almudena Arcones.

“The new collaborative research centre will take our understanding of atomic nuclei and nuclear physics in stars to a new level.” Professor Achim Schwenk, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics

A new collaborative research centre at TU Darmstadt is helping to improve our understanding of atomic nuclei and the nuclear physics of stars. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is providing more than EUR 11 million in funding for the research programme, based at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, over a four-year period. Entitled “Nuclei: from fundamental interactions to structure and stars”, the programme comprises 13 sub-projects. The researchers plan to conduct key experiments at TU Darmstadt’s S-DALINAC accelerator and other leading international research facilities, as well as to carry out theoretical studies. TU Darmstadt is regarded as one of Germany’s leading higher education centres when it comes to experimental and theoretical nuclear structure physics and nuclear astrophysics. The university recently appointed ten new professors to work in this field. The new collaborative research centre is an ideal fit for TU Darmstadt’s research profile, as it strengthens investigative work in the field of “Matter and Radiation Science”, one of six profile areas defined by the TU.

The digital day to day

Always online A team headed by Professor Ruth Stock-Homburg, Head of the Institute of Marketing & Human Resource Management, is looking at what it means to be available around the clock via smartphones and other devices. A survey revealed that mobile communication constantly interrupts respondents’ activities thus causing stress. However, respondents consider the flexibility it creates to be a clear advantage. On balance, it seems that the benefits of being constantly available outweigh the disadvantages, especially given that it enables people to be more flexible in the way they organise their professional and private lives.

No online queuing

Professor Ralf Steinmetz.

With a view to keeping the internet running at full speed, the collaborative research centre “MultiMechanisms Adaptation for the Future Internet” is developing dynamic communication mechanisms. The centre’s spokesman Professor Ralf Steinmetz and the various teams have adopted the transition principle, for instance to prevent the internet crashing during major public events. Switching entire communication mechanisms “during live operation” should save on resources, ease the strain on infrastructure and improve transmission quality.

NoPhish app More online privacy “Privacy and Trust for Mobile Users” is the title of the Doctoral College at TU Darmstadt approved by the German Research Foundation in May 2015. Early career researchers from the fields of computer science, sociology, law and economics are working in this context to develop among other things a personal mobile device that provides users with greater privacy and transparency. This new device should enable users to better control their ad hoc networking activities, for example.

Computer scientists at TU Darmstadt have developed an app with a game that teaches users to identify the fraudulent internet activity known as phishing. The app shows them what they can do to prevent passwords, account numbers and other data from being accessed by fraudulent websites and e-mails.

“Survey respondents felt that having the flexibility to use their smartphone while in a meeting to check arrangements with the tradespersons at home was extremely positive.” Professor Ruth Stock-Homburg, Institute of Marketing & Human Resource Management, Department of Law and Economics

Research

Driverless vehicles

Testing their driverless vehicle simulation platform: Hermann Winner (right) and Walther Wachenfeld.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

The digital transformation is also changing business models in the automotive sector. One of the mega topics in this context is driverless vehicles. Professor Hermann Winner, Director of the Institute of Automotive Engineering at TU Darmstadt, and his colleague Walther Wachenfeld believe that, at the very least, we will soon see highly automated vehicles on selected roads. They consider safety to be one of the arguments for using driverless vehicles. At the same time, the two experts are convinced that the technology will also help individuals who are currently unable to enjoy the benefits of personal mobility. It also provides an opportunity to rethink what vehicles can be; cars could even become mobile offices or spaces for rest and relaxation.

One major challenge in achieving the necessary machine driver intelligence is the further refinement of sensors, radar and camera systems, and the development of new testing procedures. But driverless vehicles also raise non-technological questions, such as how a driving computer would respond when faced with a dilemma. At present, machines are incapable of reliably recognising such situations.

Environmentally friendly mobility

Technology centre for cars with combined petrol engine and electric motor drive systems.

Electric cars are economical, quiet and environmentally friendly, and they can now be tested even more effectively at TU Darmstadt. After four months of construction work, a new centre for developing the next generation of electric and hybrid vehicles was opened at the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Powertrain Systems in late 2015. At the demonstration centre, Professor Christian Beidl and his team of researchers are carrying out a range of tests, for example, on a plug-in hybrid drive unit for small vehicles that they developed in cooperation with an industrial partner, and on a hybrid system for heavy goods vehicles. The researchers have been working with hybrid powertrain systems since 2004 and are regarded as being among the pioneers in this field. One of the goals of their work is to optimise the operating strategy for hybrid vehicles, which decides when the vehicle is powered by its combustion engine and when by its electric engine.

Located right next to the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Powertrain Systemsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; classic engine and hybrid test stands, the centre has around 160 square metres of floor space, several entrance gates and a pit for assembly work.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Policy-makers have been championing electromobility for years. We are researching marketable solutions.â&#x20AC;? Professor Christian Beidl, Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Powertrain Systems, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Researching flight

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

In tow: quiet service vehicles at the airport.

Looking for order in the midst of chaos

Taxiing quietly onto the runway

When it comes to aircraft and cars alike, noise and drag are a nuisance. They are caused by the wild dance of air vortices, or turbulence, on the shell of the vehicles. Researchers use computers to simulate turbulence in order to better understand and, ultimately, eliminate it, for example, by using intelligent contouring. But turbulence is so complex that even the most powerful supercomputers can only provide an imprecise simulation of it, too imprecise in fact.

Aircraft noise issues mainly concern fly-over noise. However, the Airport eMove project, based at TU Darmstadt’s Institute of Flight Systems and Automatic Control, is seeking to reduce ground noise. For example, researchers have developed a hybrid tug to pull aircraft. It reduces taxiing noise prior to take-off from 102 decibels to 86 decibels, an impressive achievement, given that a reduction of just ten decibels halves the level of noise people perceive.

Professor Martin Oberlack and his team from the Institute of Fluid Dynamics intend to simplify the mathematical description of turbulence to such an extent that they are able to produce far more accurate simulations. To this end, they are looking for order, or symmetries, or to put it more simply, regular lulls, in the chaotic world of air turbulence. The team now plans to integrate their initial findings into simulation models. At the same time, they are continuing to search for further symmetries that could make the Darmstadt method more powerful and therefore interesting for complex industrial applications.

“We are investigating whether the reduction in airport noise is having an impact on people’s quality of life in the region.” Katja Hein, doctoral candidate at the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Institute of Flight Systems and Automatic Control

Bio-research highlights

Controlling ion channels with blue light Working with researchers from the universities of Milan, Glasgow and Nebraska-Lincoln, Professor Gerhard Thiel and his team from the Department of Biology connected an ion channel to a blue-light receptor and used it to control the channel, as reported by the researchers in the journal “Science” in May 2015. The synthetic channel could serve as a key tool in bio-research. Such channels regulate the flow of potassium ions in cell membranes, thereby controlling nerve and muscle activity.

Back to your cells How can large compounds be implanted in cells? This is what biology professor M. Cristina Cardoso from the TU, physics professor Henry D. Herce from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (United States) and their teams are researching in collaboration with colleagues from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin. They have found that certain peptides open tunnels in the cell membrane and act as ferries. The researchers decoded the transport mechanism and used it to create a new approach to developing medications to treat cancer and other illnesses.

Biotechnology from the rumen Microbiologists from TU Darmstadt and biochemists from the University of Freiburg have determined the three-dimensional structure of a sulphate-reducing enzyme and decoded the reaction mechanism. The enzyme occurs naturally in bacteria within the rumen of ruminants. The researchers published their work in the journal “Nature” in February 2015. This work is of great interest in the biotechnology field, for instance when it comes to developing micro-organisms for flue gas desulpherisation purposes.

Biology professor Gerhard Thiel researching ion channels.

compared this with their theoretical model predictions. This kind of experimental data, which had not previously been available, is important for planning the ion-beam cancer therapies carried out in Heidelberg, Marburg, Pavia and Shanghai.

Using ion beams to beat cancer Ion beams destroy tumours, but they also destroy healthy cells. Biology professor Markus Löbrich from the TU, biophysics professor Marco Durante from the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and their teams examined the lesion distribution induced by high energy ion beams in biological tissue and

“We’re interested in therapies of the future, such as the use of creams to administer drugs locally through the skin.” Professor M. Cristina Cardoso, Cell Biology and Epigenetics, Department of Biology

Research

Digital navigation for the fire service

Simulating a fire within a virtual building model.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

If only for fire safety improvement purposes, it would be great to have a system for navigating the inside of buildings. Smoke in burning buildings often makes it very difficult for firefighters to find their way around, and, when their path is obstructed by locked doors, they are many times unable to identify an alternative route to the source of the blaze. Uwe Rüppel, Professor of Informatics in Civil Engineering at TU Darmstadt, and his team are using existing building system technology to compensate for the fact that GPS satellite navigation does not work indoors. It is possible to determine the distance from a WiFi router based on the strength of the wireless signal. By combining this signal with other signals, like those from Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, which are increasingly being fitted to building components such as window frames, it is possible to estimate the position of a receiver in the building. This method is very similar to that employed by a GPS device, which uses signals from several different satellites to calculate its position.

Just as a car’s sat-nav system is of little use without an up-to-date digital road map, so an indoor navigation system also requires a digital building model. Here too, the latest technical developments are also proving useful to Rüppel’s team. Virtual 3D models are being produced for an increasing number of buildings using the Building Information Modelling (BIM) technique. This provides the required digital map. BIM and modern wireless technology can also be utilised to provide indoor navigation in existing buildings.

Efficient building protection

“Many home owners don’t know which renovation measures are most suitable for their properties. We intend to help them make sense of the confusion.” Dr.-Ing. Nikolas Müller, Institute of Real Estate Management and Construction Management, Department of Law and Economics

A handbook by TU researchers advises on worthwhile renovation work.

Home renovation guide

Catching lightning

Exterior insulation, a new heating system, better windows: not all energy-efficient building renovation work is worthwhile. Some measures may even create an unpleasant indoor climate or encourage the growth of mould. As well as examining the energy consumption and investment costs of renovation work, an interdisciplinary study by TU Darmstadt is addressing issues such as comfort in living areas and the impact of the different materials on a home’s carbon footprint. The study uses example properties to illustrate specific renovation measures that are kind to wallets and the environment alike.

Researchers from the High Voltage Laboratories are waiting for lightning to strike. Martin Hannig, a doctoral candidate in Professor Volker Hinrichsen’s research group, has developed a special device for measuring lightning bolts. The first instrument has been installed on the TU campus, and there are plans to fit additional ones to lighting towers and in other exposed locations. This research into lightning strikes is useful for developing better lightning rods. Lightning bolts are too intense to simulate in a lab.

Dr.-Ing. Nikolas Müller from the Department of Law and Economics stresses that policy in this area does not necessarily promote the best options. In practice, the energy savings gained are often not enough to refinance the investment costs for the renovation work. The researchers are currently working on a handbook that will bring some objectivity to the discussion about the benefits of energy-efficient renovations and provide guidance to home owners.

Interview Three questions for...

PD Dr. Tobias Meckel, Reader in the Department of Biology What role does movement play in the development of somatic cells?

A cellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development is influenced by its movement. Heart cells, for instance, must be cultured under certain movement stimuli, otherwise you will simply end up with connective tissue. You are developing a device that can be used to move cells while viewing them under a microscope. What do you intend to use it for?

So far, cell research has given barely any consideration to the influence of movement. This is something we intend to change. We will test our demonstrator on heart-muscle and connective-tissue cells, as well as on endothelial cells, which line our blood vessels. In so doing, we will Tobias Meckel and Ljubomira Schmitt in the lab.

seek to ascertain how they withstand elongation as the heart beats and why they do not tear. Is there any industrial interest in your idea?

Absolutely. Pharmaceutical companies always test new drugs on cell cultures first. Our system simulates the bodily environment more effectively and so provides more meaningful results. This makes it possible to identify unsuitable substances more quickly. I am developing the device A lead-free future

with materials scientist Ljubomira Schmitt, and

Piezo elements aid with fuel injection and the positioning

we are now working on raising the seed capital

of cars. However, all standard technical solutions use lead-

for starting a company.

containing ceramics. This means there is considerable environmental policy pressure to find lead-free alternatives. Professor

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Karsten Albe and his teams have developed lead-free ceramics that use bismuth sodium titanate or potassium niobate as a base compound. Work was carried out in a collaborative research centre to explore possible and effective substitutions and identify the resulting structural, thermodynamic, electromechanical and electrical properties.

Excellence in equality

Good, but could be better: the proportion of female researchers at the university.

TU Darmstadt performed superbly in the Center of Excellence Women and Scienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (CEWS) 2015 ranking of German universities on the basis of gender equality indicators. The TU is ranked number one in the federal state of Hesse, and is among the leading institutions nationally when it comes to postdocs and professors. Using figures from 2013, which are based on data from the German Federal Statistical Office, the ranking shows that almost half of the junior professorships at TU Darmstadt that year were held by women. The proportion of women holding professorships increased from 11.4 % in 2008 to 14.1 % in 2013. Over 28 % of TU students are female, though the proportion of women decreases significantly when moving from PhD level (23.6 %) to the level of individuals with a post-doctoral qualification to teach at professorial level (17.2 %).

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Analysis shows that universities that have strategic equality concepts, use relevant instruments and perform well in programmes and certifications achieve measurably better results in the ranking.â&#x20AC;? Dr. Uta Zybell, Gender Equality Officer at TU Darmstadt

Research

Top-Level Research

Federal Government

Excellence Initiative

Leading Edge Cluster

Cluster of Excellence The Formation of Normative Orders Coordinator: Goethe University Frankfurt Participation of the Institute of Political Science and Economy of TU Darmstadt

Software Innovations for the Digital Enterprise

Graduate Schools Computational Engineering – Beyond Traditional Sciences Coordinator: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Michael Schäfer

BMBF-Programme for Collaborative Research

Darmstadt Graduate School of Energy and Energy Science Coordinators: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Janicka, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Wolfram Jaegermann

BMBF-Funding

LOEWE LOEWE-Centres Center of Advanced Security Research Darmstadt Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Michael Waidner Helmholtz-International Center for FAIR Local Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Norbert Pietralla Adaptronics Centre – Research, Innovation, Application Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tobias Melz LOEWE Research Focus Sensors towards Terahertz Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rolf Jakoby Resource-Efficient Permanent Magnets by Optimized Use of Rare Earths Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Oliver Gutfleisch

BMBF-Competence Centre European Center for Security and Privacy by Design (EC-Spride)

FAIR-NuStar3

CLIENT China Joint Research Project Semizentral – Resource Efficient and Flexible Supply and Treatment Infrastructure Systems for Fast Growing Cities of the Future

BMWI-Funding HIGHEST – Home of Innovation, GrowtH, EntrepreneurShip and Technology Management ETA-Factory – The Energy Efficient Model Factory of the Future

The Academies’ Programme Academy of Sciences Mainz: The Digital Dictionary of Surnames in Germany Ancient Egyptian Cursive Scripts

Interconnection with Non-University Research Helmholtz-Alliance Extreme Matter Institute (EMMI) Helmholtz-Graduate School for Hadron and Ion Research (HGS HIRE)

Networked Infrastructureless Cooperation of Emergency Response Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hollick Always Online? Local Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Steinmetz

Emmy Noether Early Career Research Groups Provably Secure Program Executions Through Declaratively Defined Dynamic Program Analyses Head: Prof. Dr. Eric Bodden Research Group Secure Software Engineering, Department of Computer Science

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

The Influence of Mechanical Loads on the Functional Properties of Perovskite Oxides Head: Jun. Prof. Dr. Kyle Grant Webber Research Group Nonmetallic-Inorganic Materials, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences One-Sided and Two-Sided Exit Problems for Stochastic Processes Head: Prof. Dr. Frank Aurzada Research Group Stochastics, Department of Mathematics ConcSys: Reliable and Efficient Complex, Concurrent Software Systems Head: Dr. Michael Pradel Department of Computer Science

Sources of third-party funds (in %)

The German Federation of Industrial Research Associations - AiF LOEWE EU

other funds

German Research Foundation DFG

26.22

2.82 5.42 8.12

24.62

8,30 24.50 Industry Federal Government

European Union (EU)

European Research Council (ERC)

Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN)

ERC Starting Grant EUROPIUM – The origin of heavy elements: a nuclear physics and astrophysics challenge Prof. Dr. Almudena Arcones Research Group Theoretical Astrophysics, Department of Physics

HICONO – High Intensity Coherent Nonlinear Optics Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Thomas Halfmann Research Group Nonlinear/Quantum Optics, Department of Physics CoWet – Complex Wetting Phenomena Coordinator: Apl.Prof. Dr. Sc. Tatiana Gambaryan-Roisman Thermo-Fluids and Interfaces, Department of Mechanical Engineering

ERC Consolidator Grant LIVESOFT – Lightweight Verification of Software Prof. Dr.-Ing. Patrick T. Eugster Research Group Distributed Systems Programming, Department of Computer Science

FUNEA – Functional Nitrides for Energy Applications Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Ralf Riedel Research Group Dispersive Solids, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences

ERC Starting Grant VISLIM – Visual Learning and Inference in Joint Scene Models Prof. Stefan Roth, Ph.D. Research Group Interactive Graphics Systems, Department of Computer Science

CIPRIS – Coherent Information Processing in Rare-earth Ion doped Solids Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Thomas Halfmann Research Group Nonlinear/Quantum Optics, Department of Physics

ERC Consolidator Grant STRONGINT – The strong interaction at neutron rich extremes Prof. Ph.D. Achim Schwenk EMMI Professor of Theoretical Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics

Joint Research Projects

ERC Advanced Grant PACE – Programming Abstractions for Applications in Cloud Environments Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mira Mezini Research Group Software Technology, Department of Computer Science ERC Starting Grant RDC@Catalysis Prof. Dr. Christina Marie Thiele Clemens-Schöpf Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry

(in mio EUR) 2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

160,3

160 150

150,8

140

139,1

130

119,0

120 110 100

95,0

82,2

80 70 60

67,4

74,8

MARSOL – Demonstrating Managed Aquifer Recharge as a Solution to Water Scarcity and Drought Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Christoph Schüth Institute of Applied Geosciences – Hydrogeology, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences CarbaZymes – Sustainable Industrial Processes based on a C-C bond-forming Enzyme Platform Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Fessner Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry

Upgrowth of third-party funds (incl. LOEWE) 170

SCARLET – Scale-up of Calcium Carbonate Looping Technology for Efficient CO2 Capture from Power and Industrial Plants Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Epple Institute for Energy Systems and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering

144,8

2014

2015

156,9 154,4

Mundus URBANO Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Rudolph-Cleff Research Group Urban Design and Development, Department of Architecture

Research

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) German Research Foundation Collaborative Research Centres 634 Nuclear Structure, Nuclear Astrophysics and Fundamental Experiments at Low Momentum Transfer at the Superconducting Darmstadt Accelerator S-DALINAC Speaker: Prof. Dr. Norbert Pietralla Institute of Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics 666 Integral Sheet Metal Design with Higher Order Bifurcations Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wirtsch.-Ing. Peter Groche Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines, Department of Mechanical Engineering 805 Control of Uncertainty in Load-Carrying Structures in Mechanical Engineering Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Pelz Institute for Fluid Systems, Department of Mechanical Engineering 1053 MAKI – Multi-Mechanisms Adaptation for the Future Internet Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Steinmetz Multimedia Communications Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology 1119 CROSSING – Cryptography-Based Security Solutions: Enabling Trust in New and Next Generation Computing Environments Speaker: Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchmann Research Group Theoretical Computer Science, Department of Computer Science TRR 75 Droplet Dynamics Under Extreme Ambient Conditions Speaker: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Weigand University of Stuttgart,Institute of Aerospace Thermodynamics Deputy Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Cameron Tropea TU Darmstadt, Institute for Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics, Department of Mechanical Engineering

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

TRR 129 Oxyflame – Development of Methods and Models to Describe Solid Fuel Reactions Within an Oxy-Fuel Atmosphere Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reinhold Kneer RWTH Aachen, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Deputy Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Janicka TU Darmstadt, Institute of Energy and Power Plant Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering TRR 146 Multiscale Simulation Methods for Soft Matter Systems Speaker: Prof. Dr. Friederike Schmid University Mainz, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science Deputy Speaker: Prof. Dr. Nico van der Vegt TU Darmstadt, Research Group Computational Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry

TRR 150 Near-Wall Turbulent Chemically Reacting Multiphase Flows Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Janicka Institute of Energy and Power Plant Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering Deputy Speaker: Prof. Dr. Andreas Dreizler Research Group Reactive Flows and Diagnostics, Department of Mechanical Engineering Prof. Dr. Olaf Deutschmann Institute for Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology TRR 154 Mathematical Modelling, Simulation and Optimization Using the Example of Gas Networks Speaker: Prof. Dr. Alexander Martin University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Mathematical Economics Deputy Speaker: Prof. Dr. Jens Lang TU Darmstadt, Research Group Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, Department of Mathematics

Research Training Groups 1114 Optical Measuring Techniques for the Characterisation of Transport Processes at Interfaces Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Cameron Tropea Institute for Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics, Department of Mechanical Engineering 1343 Topology of Technology Speaker: Prof. Dr. phil. Petra Gehring Institute of Philosophy, Department of History and Social Sciences Prof. Dr. phil. Mikael Hård Institute of History, Department of History and Social Sciences 1344 Transient System Modelling of Aircraft Engines Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Janicka Institute of Energy and Power Plant Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering 1362 Cooperative, Adaptive and Responsive Monitoring in Mixed Environments Speaker: Prof. Dr. Oskar von Stryk Research Group Simulation, Systems Optimization and Robotics, Department of Computer Science 1529 Mathematical Fluid Dynamics – International Graduate School Speaker: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hieber Working Group Analysis, Department of Mathematics

Priority Programmes 1657 Molecular and Cellular Responses to Ionizing Radiation Speaker: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Thiel Institute of Botany, Department of Biology Prof. Dr. Markus Löbrich Institute of Zoology, Department of Biology 1994 Adaptive Preparation of Information from Heterogeneous Sources Speaker: Prof. Dr. Iryna Gurevych Ubiquitous Knowledge Processing Lab, Department of Computer Science 2050 Privacy and Trust for Mobile Users Speaker: Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser Research Group Telecooperation, Department of Computer Science

Research Units 934 Relative and absolute configurations of dissolved molecules by NMR-spectroscopy in orienting media Speaker: Prof. Dr. Michael Reggelin Clemens-Schöpf Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry 1583 Hydrogen-Bonded Liquids Subject to Interfaces of Various Hydroaffinities Speaker: Prof. Dr. Michael Vogel Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics 1730 Local Formation of Knowledge Relevant for Choosing Specific Local Strategies and Measures Against Climate Change Speaker: Prof. Dr. Hubert Heinelt Institute of Political Science, Department of History and Social Sciences 1748 Networks on Networks: The Interplay of Structure and Dynamics in Spatial Ecological Networks Speaker: Prof. Dr. Barbara Drossel Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics

1369 Polymer Solid Contacts: Interfaces and Interphases Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Florian Müller-Plathe Eduard-Zintl Institute for Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry 1496 Reliably Secure Software Systems Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Heiko Mantel Research Group Modeling and Analysis of Information Systems, Department of Computer Science 1506 Transport Processes at Fluidic Interfaces Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Dieter Bothe Center of Smart Interfaces, Department of Mechanical Engineering 1613 Fuels Produced Regeneratively Through Light-Driven Water Splitting: Clarification of the Elemental Processes Involved and Prospects for Implementation in Technological Concepts Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Wolfram Jaegermann Research Group Surface Science, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences 1640 Joining by Plastic Deformation Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Peter Groche Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines, Department of Mechanical Engineering 1857 ESSENCE – Electromagnetic Sensors for Life Sciences: New Sensor Concepts and Technologies for Biomedical Analysis and Diagnostics, Process- and Environmental Monitoring Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rolf Jakoby Institute for Microwave Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

University research profile

CYBER SECURITY

INTERNET AND DIGITISATION

FROM MATERIAL TO PRODUCT INNOVATION

THERMO-FLUIDS & INTERFACES

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

FUTURE ENERGY SYSTEMS

MATTER AND RADIATION SCIENCE

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TU DARMSTADT’S PROFILE AREAS Over the next five years, TU Darmstadt’s research profile will consist of six profile areas, all of which will be characterised by nationally and internationally visible expertise and a high degree of thematic relevance to society and industry.

Dual perspective The infographic shows two dimensions: Which profile areas is a department integrated into and to what degree? Which departments are involved in each profile area?

CYBER SECURITY CYSEC is home to some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading research activities into cyber security and privacy protection, topics which will help shape the future. IT security expert training and technology transfer via national and international cooperation arrangements with non-university research institutions and industrial partners complete CYSECâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile.

Research Area Secure

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Smart Infrastructures.

Point of view: mobile security and embedded security.

INTERNET AND DIGITISATION

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

As digitisation continues apace, the internet of the future, an intelligent network of reliable, high-speed communication channels will become increasingly interwoven with traditional infrastructure â&#x20AC;&#x201C; keyword Industry 4.0 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; giving rise to brand new services. If the internet is to serve as a driver of innovation, it needs to rely on secure, efficient, high-performance technologies and applications. Numerous departments and institutes at TU Darmstadt are working to meet this challenge.

Sharing the experiences at the Institute of Material Flow Management and Resource Economy.

59 Peer-to-peer videostreaming.

Computer integrated design.

FROM MATERIAL TO PRODUCT INNOVATION The core topic of this profile area is the successful development of new materials and their use in innovative products. This first requires detailed analysis of the underlying value chains. The emphasis is on the functionality and efficiency of new materials, and on their synthesis, processing, design and refinement with a view to turning them into marketable products. Priority is given to ensuring the resource-efficient manufacture and sustainability of the materials and processes

Experiment set-up at the Institute of Printing Science and Technology.

THERMO-FLUIDS & INTERFACES

University research profile

Research in this profile area is paving the way for the development of new energy-related and procedural products and processes, as well as energy-efficient machines. The researchers contribute their expertise in fluid dynamics, combustion, and heat and mass transfer. They combine methods from several different disciplines and devise solutions in cooperation with external partners from the worlds of research and industry.

Laboratory at the Institute Reactive Flows

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

and Diagnostics.

Operational test-measurement at the wind tunnel, Institute for Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics.

FUTURE ENERGY SYSTEMS This profile area is characterised by a multidisciplinary approach to the complex transformation process taking place in our energy system. It links and coordinates energy research work in the disciplines relevant to this cross-cutting topic. To this end, it addresses essential basic technologies, such as chemical energy storage, the integration of technologies (for example, using smart energy grids and energy-efficient factories), and questions of cost-effectiveness, environmental-friendliness, social acceptance and political management.

Test facility

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

University research profile

at State Materials Testing Institute.

Laser spectroscopy in nuclear physics.

63 Glass machining in chemistry.

MATTER AND RADIATION SCIENCE This profile area pools expertise in the scientific exploitation of particle beams within major research infrastructures, such as Darmstadtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GSI Helmholtz Centre, the international FAIR facility (currently under construction), and the S-DALINAC electron accelerator operated at TU Darmstadt. The emphasis is on accelerator technology, experimental and theoretical nuclear physics, radiation biology, and materials science applications.

Test facility in nuclear physics: Galatea detector array.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Knowledge and technology transfer

Highlights 2015 5 60 start-ups: The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Business Incubation Centre (BIC) in Darmstadt has readied over 60 start-ups for the market, many of which have connections to TU Darmstadt. The TU and the BIC intend to step up their efforts to support more new businesses. There are also plans to intensify teaching and research cooperation in aerospace engineering. Leaves measuring

square metres and the largest fruit of any plant: researchers from ETH Zurich, the Seychelles Islands Foundation and TU Darmstadt studied the remarkable coco de mer palm tree to find out how it flourishes in the barren environment of the Seychelles.

departments are involved in the new DB RailLab at TU Darmstadt. Research is being conducted into processcontrol and safety technology, mobility management and noise protection as part of the innovation alliance with Deutsche Bahn.

The PRORETA research project, a partnership between automotive supplier Continental and TU Darmstadt, is entering its 4th round. It is examining learning systems for preventing traffic accidents.

95 invention disclosures, 37 new patent applications, 184 active patent applications, 43 patents issued. 11 new start-ups, 14 TU-IP start-up projects, 195 initial and follow-up consultations and 8

EXIST-funded projects have been supported by the TU’s HIGHEST Start-up Centre.

44%

on average Trade volume increases by when buyers and sellers from different countries speak the same language. The finding that similar dialects promote trade relations was the result of work by a team from TU Darmstadt’s Institute of International Economics. The study was conducted with the involvement of the universities of Marburg and Düsseldorf, and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

2,200

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

4th round:

examples: Digital information on more than 2,200 German and Austrian synagogues is kept in a public internet archive managed by the Department of Architecture at TU Darmstadt. Virtual reconstructions also allow users to look back at synagogues that were destroyed in Germany. The cultural memory project, which has been on display at the Holocaust Museum in Farmington Hills (United States), forms part of the permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin.

High-performance research region

This way please: TU President Hans Jürgen Prömel, President Birgitta Wolff (Goethe University Frankfurt) and President Georg Krausch (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) (left to right).

Rhine-Main Universities alliance TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have formed a strategic alliance to strengthen the Rhine-Main research region. With a total of 107,000 students and 1,440 professors between them, the three institutions play a significant role in the Rhine-Main region, one of Germany’s leading research regions. The three universities have already gained a wealth of experience of working together, having collaborated on over 70 projects, with more joint research initiatives and strategic partnerships set to follow. Teachers at a Rhine-Main university can now teach and conduct examinations at partner universities. Early career researchers will also benefit from joint, third party-funded graduate programmes; students can use the infrastructure of all three universities, such as the libraries. It will also be easier to achieve credits and take exams at one of the other universities, and there are plans for joint degree programmes.

“The alliance brings together partners who are a good fit for one another and know each other well – internationally renowned research universities in the Rhine-Main region with complementary subject ranges and effective partnerships.” Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel, President of TU Darmstadt

Knowledge and technology transfer

Diverse groups

Professor Martin Ebert (left) and Konrad Kandler document particle samples.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Ice-cold atmospheric research TU researchers are working with researchers from Frankfurt, Mainz, Leipzig, Karlsruhe, Bielefeld and Tel Aviv to examine aerosols and ice nuclei in the atmosphere. For the second time now, the German Research Foundation is providing the group, which is known as the Ice Nuclei Research Unit (INUIT), with some EUR 3 million in total funding. Professor Martin Ebert, Professor Stephan Weinbruch and their team of geoscientists are involved in an INUIT sub-project in which they are working with meteorologists from Goethe University Frankfurt to investigate seasonal and geographic variation in ice nuclei. In the natural world, these ice nuclei result in hail, snow and other types of precipitation. Air samples are taken from different locations, such as the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland and the Taunus mountains near Frankfurt. The findings of INUIT should help scientists better understand climatic changes.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;INUIT pools expertise very efficiently, making it possible to carry out highly complex measurements. The unit is unique internationally in the way it concentrates activities with regard to ice nuclei in the atmosphere.â&#x20AC;? Joachim Curtius, coordinator of the INUIT project and Professor for Experimental Atmospheric Research at Goethe University Frankfurt

15,000 graduates 107,400 students

1,860 PhD graduates

54 % women, 46 % men (2014)

47 % women, 53 % men (2014)

51 % women, 49 % men (winter semester 2014/15)

Johannes GutenbergUniversity Mainz

27 Collaborative Research Centres

GoetheUniversity Frankfurt

31 ERC grants awarded to outstanding researchers by the European Research Council (ERC) (2007-2013)

of which 19 are coordinated by the Rhine-Main Universities (2015; CRC plus CRC-Transregio)

Technische Universität Darmstadt

EUR 450 million of third-party funding

16 DFG Research Training Groups

(2014)

coordinated by the Rhine-Main Universities (2015)

Rank 5 in DFG funding 20 non-university research institutions

One of the five leading research regions in Germany based on DFG funding in all research fields (source: DFG Funding Atlas 2015; own evaluation according to region)

Independent institutes run by the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association, the Fraunhofer Society, the Leibnitz Association and the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities (2015)

New particle accelerators

Europe in global dialogue

TU Darmstadt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have launched a research training group for studying energy-efficient particle accelerators. With EUR 4.7 million in funding from the German Research Foundation until the end of 2020, the group is geared towards the next generation of researchers in the fields of accelerator physics and electrical engineering. Particle accelerators of this new type are currently being developed at the TU and in Mainz.

In a multi-polar world order, European politicians have to be prepared to start a dialogue with a wide range of partners. The topic of the EU in global dialogue is the focus of the work of the new Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, an interdisciplinary partnership between TU Darmstadt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The researchers are studying a range of issues, including the external dimension of EU policy on energy, migration and democracy promotion. There are plans for annual conferences, workshops and many other events.

Online dictionary of surnames “The Digital Dictionary of Surnames in Germany” is a joint project of TU Darmstadt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz. Over the next 24 years, it intends to research and map some 200,000 German surnames, and explain them in an online dictionary. The TU researchers are contributing their expertise at the interface between information technology and humanities, while their counterparts in Mainz are providing their specialist knowledge of onomatology.

Africa’s megacities As part of a joint graduate programme, TU Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt are researching structural change in African megacities, whose populations are growing by several hundred thousand people each year. Programme participants are studying a number of topics, including the influence of the internet and mobile phones on society, and the water-supply and sewerage systems of cities such as Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Nairobi in Kenya. The researchers have already been working with the universities in these two cities for several years.

Rhine-Main Universities – facts and figures.

Focus on SMEs

“We can feel justifiably proud that Hesse succeeded against other strong contenders in the national competition for the five tendered Industry 4.0 competence centres.” Tarek Al-Wazir, Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development The TU is introducing businesses to the world of digitisation.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Industry 4.0: an opportunity TU Darmstadt is becoming the first port of call for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) when it comes to Industry 4.0. Based in the TU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools is overseeing the establishment in Darmstadt of one of five “SME 4.0 competence centres” in Germany. The Institute of Computer Integrated Design, the Institute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines, and the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors are the partners from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Two Fraunhofer Institutes are also involved in the competence centre, as are the Darmstadt Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Chamber of Skilled Crafts FrankfurtRhein-Main. The centre is primarily intended to show small and medium-sized enterprises the opportunities that are created through the digitisation of

products and processes. There are plans among other things to hold training events in the learning factories and training centres of the consortial partners. The competence centre also provides support for the digitisation of production systems in order to assist companies as they improve the efficiency of their processes and introduce new offerings.

Improving IT security TU Darmstadt and Neu-Isenburg consulting firm usd have launched the KMU AWARE project, which raises awareness among small and medium-sized enterprises of gaps in their IT security and equips them to fend off cyber-attacks. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is providing EUR 1.1 million in funding to the three-year project as part of its “IT security in business” initiative.

Strong partner in Israel

The Israel Institute of Technology enjoys an excellent reputation.

TU Darmstadt and the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) in Haifa will be collaborating closely in future in the areas of research and start-up management. “Around one in four Technion graduates launches his or her own start-up at some stage in his or her career,” says Professor Mira Mezini, TU Vice President for Knowledge and Technology Transfer. Joined by Professor Jürgen Rödel, TU Vice President for Research, she travelled to Israel’s leading university in December. During this visit, the two TU representatives signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding (MoU), which, among other things, will see the TU’s HIGHEST Start-up Centre integrated into the network of Technion’s transfer office, which includes universities in France, South Korea and Italy. Fields identified for joint research projects include materials

science, the future topics of water, energy technology and quantum physics, and neuroscience. TU and Technion also intend to establish a dual PhD degree programme in computer science and expand the range of their research cooperation in the field of IT security. Last but not least, the MoU will also benefit the next generation of researchers, with plans for an exchange programme for Master’s students and funding from the Erasmus+ programme.

“We have identified some very exciting fields of research which are well suited to cooperation and have good funding prospects.” Professor Jürgen Rödel, Vice President for Research at TU Darmstadt

On the same wavelength

With a relationship that goes back many years, TU Darmstadt and Tongji University in Shanghai have now forged a strategic partnership. The recent time spent in Darmstadt by visiting professors Yungsheng Su and Tongquing Yang shows just how fruitful the partnership is proving to be.

Visions for cities

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Visionary urban planner Yungsheng Su wants to move cities into a green future and shares many of the same views as TU Professor Annette RudolphCleff, Head of the Urban Design and Development Unit, Department of Architecture. With the support of Su and Rudolph-Cleff, a group of Darmstadt students took part in the Designing Resilience in Asia competition held by the National University of Singapore. The team won the prize for Overall Design Excellence with their strategy for protecting an island against typhoons. Yungsheng Su and Annette Rudolph-Cleff discussing

Prospects for materials scientists

specialist issues.

Tongquing Yang worked with Professor Andreas Klein from the Department of Materials and Earth Sciences to research electroceramics. Their working relationship was so successful that it is now set to be expanded into a partnership between the relevant departments of Tongji University and TU Darmstadt. Klein visited Shanghai in autumn, where he met Yang’s colleagues and gave a lecture. Now, the materials scientists from Darmstadt and Shanghai are planning a joint research project and a student exchange programme.

“The partnership with Tongji University is broadening all of our horizons and leading to a recognition that, for joint research work to be effective, there is a need for intercultural skills as well as specialist knowledge.” Corinna Caspar-Terizakis, Coordinator of the Strategic Partnership with Tongji University

Frozen and split water

Markus Schremb (left) and Daniel Kintea conducting experiments into safe flight.

Ice is in the air Markus Schremb and Daniel Kintea from the Institute for Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics are studying the causes of ice formation on aircraft during flight. Their experiments and realistic mathematical models aim to reduce risks and costs when certifying new types of aircraft. Schremb is focusing on wing icing caused by supercooled water droplets during climbing and descent, while Kintea is researching the accumulation of ice in engines and on sensors when flying through ice crystal clouds at cruising altitude.

75 collaborative research centre “Droplet Dynamics Under Extreme Ambient Conditions” at TU Darmstadt, the University of Stuttgart and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) site at Lampoldshausen.

Using solar light to produce hydrogen

Without counter-measures, both types of ice accumulation would have dramatic consequences for flight safety. They are conducting their research as part of an EU project funded by a consortium of aircraft and jet-engine manufacturers, universities and research institutions, and are working within the Transregio

Hydrogen is considered to be an energy source of the future. TU Darmstadt is coordinating the German Research Foundation’s SolarH2 Priority Program, which involves 30 working groups throughout Germany. They are examining ways of using solar energy to split water and thereby produce hydrogen. The programme entered its second phase in the autumn of 2015.

Knowledge and technology transfer

Biochemists with entrepreneurial genes

Biochemists Sascha Knauer and Christina Uth are taking the leap from the university lab into their own company, working with their doctoral supervisor Professor Harald Kolmar to launch Sulfotools GmbH. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is providing Sulfotools with EUR 600,000 in funding as part of its EXIST programme. The HIGHEST Start-up Centre at TU Darmstadt actively supported the Sulfotools team with their application and in many other issues relating to launching a company. Knauer stumbled upon the business idea during his time as a doctoral student in the Division of Biochemistry, inadvertently discovering a new, environmentally friendly method for producing peptides. Consisting of amino acids, these chain-shaped biomolecules are found in foodstuffs, cosmetics and medication. This new method is promising, as the conventional manufacture of peptides is expensive and uses large quantities of the toxic solvent dimethylformamide. The process developed by Sulfotools uses water instead of this hazardous solvent. Using fewer chemicals overall and yielding products that are easier to clean, it could also reduce the cost of peptide synthesis by up to 50 %. Knauer and Uth have already provided Proof of Principle and now intend to focus on peptides with commercial potential.

Keen entrepreneurs: Professor Harald Kolmar, Sascha Knauer

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

and Christina Uth (left to right).

Construction and transport

Why construction projects fail

Test rig for driverless cars

Even if they have many years of experience in major construction projects, real estate managers can still overestimate themselves. This was the verdict of a study conducted by Andreas Pfnür and Kevin Meyer from the TU’s Institute of Real Estate Management and Construction Management, Department of Law and Economics, in cooperation with the Institut der Deutschen Immobilienwirtschaft e. V. and the Bundesverband (Federal Association) Public Private Partnership. Surveying 240 managers from the real estate sector, the researchers noted cognitive bias in areas such as perception and judgement, which can result in projects going over budget and deadlines being missed. It was found that decision-makers in the public sector were susceptible to greater cognitive bias than managers in the private sector. The researchers concluded that managers in the construction sector needed to recognise that they are not always rational in their decisions, critically examine these decisions and solicit other opinions more frequently, including those of less experienced individuals.

Dr.-Ing. Rafael Fietzek, Dr.-Ing. Stéphane Foulard and their team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering have developed a test rig for driverless cars. It simulates the loads exerted on the powertrain, steering and suspension while driving. The rig can be used to test tracking systems and other driver assistance systems, operational stability and comfort. With a growing market for such test rigs, Fietzek and Foulard plan to launch a start-up.

Stéphane Foulard (left) and Rafael Fietzek building the garage of the future.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Life on campus

Highlights 2015 10

new double rooms in the TU’s guest house, now known as Darmstädter House, in Kleinwalsertal (Austria).

2,000 drawstring bags handed out as welcome gifts to first-semester students.

500

6,000

people enjoyed taking part in the TU’s “meet and move” campus festival.

TU members celebrate “ten years of autonomy” for the university in unconventional style on the August Euler Airfield campus.

Over 150 singers actively involved in the TU choir, 18 regular members in the TU big band, and up to 100 instrumentalists in the TU orchestra.

2,200 TU staff members use the Mobility Card, which combines a monthly bus and rail pass with a campus parking permit.

An exhibition about architect and university teacher Friedrich Pützer

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

(1871–1922) went on display for

5 weeks to celebrate the renovation of the lecture theatre on Hochschulstraße, built according to his specifications in 1904.

For the next generation

Support for young parents.

Family-friendly university

Childcare subsidies

For the fourth time now, TU Darmstadt has been certified as a “family-friendly university”. The TU has taken part in the national German audit since 2008. Special mention was made when issuing the certificate to the university of the exemplary way in which it organises its courses to provide flexibility for students with families. TU Vice President for Administration and Financial Affairs Dr. Manfred Efinger said that the university was one of the most experienced higher education institutions with regard to balancing family life with work and study, something it would continue to promote.

Studying while working to make ends meet and pay for childcare can be exhausting. The new Prof. Sorin Huss Fund provides subsidies to parents to help them with childcare costs. Students and doctoral candidates with children may apply to the TU’s Family Service for the subsidy. They can receive up to EUR 1,800 per year.

“I know of few universities that have so systematically and impressively geared their structures to being family-friendly and are so committed to pursuing this approach as TU Darmstadt.” Auditor Dr. Georg Barzel

Life on campus

A life of music

Dedicated to music: Renate Woernle.

Large ensemble

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

They say music is in the air. That is certainly true at TU Darmstadt, and has been for a long time. Consisting of around 30 instrumentalists when it was established by Karl Marguerre back in 1947, the TU orchestra now has between 60 and 100 members who have developed a broad repertoire and perform concerts in Germany and abroad. In addition to students and staff past and present, the musicians also include people from outside the university who enjoy being part of an orchestra. For some members,

such as Renate Woernle, music has been a life-long passion. She has played viola in the orchestra since her days as a pedagogy student 60 years ago. Now 80 years old, she remains a committed member of the ensemble. The TU choir, another initiative of Karl Marguerre, has also been around for over six decades. It now draws between 150 and 180 singers to its weekly rehearsals and boasts a repertoire ranging from Renaissance works to modern-day compositions.

Sounding good: TU big band.

Grooving for 30 years The TU big band, which is “only” 30 years old, was originally put together for a one-off performance. As with the orchestra and choir, many of the band’s 18 regular members plus stand-in musicians are TU alumni and former staff members. It would seem that music just keeps people coming back.

Musical culture Since the 2015/16 winter semester, TU Darmstadt has been offering the new Bachelor’s degree component “Musical Culture” in cooperation with the Akademie für Tonkunst (Academy of Musical Arts) in Darmstadt. This component is designed to combine theory and practice. The agreement, which is seen as an unconventional experiment, has an initial five-year term.

Life on campus

International university groups

Support without limits The university group “Studies Without Borders” is working to remove limits on studying at TU Darmstadt. The group provides scholarships and other types of funding to support students in war-torn and crisis-hit regions who are running creative projects in their home countries to rebuild their communities. Almost 200 scholarships have been awarded to date. The Darmstadt local group is currently supporting two projects: a scholarship programme presently being developed in the African nation of Burundi and an initiative for rebuilding university libraries in Grozny, Chechen Republic. The university libraries in Grozny have a shortage of up-to-date specialist literature following two devastating civil wars. Since 2012, around 1,000 Russian-language text books have been sent to Grozny from Darmstadt in order to bring the libraries’ collections up to date.

Forging links with global companies

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

The university group International Placement Center (IPC) has arranged more than 800 internships abroad since it was set up 25 years ago. All students enrolled at a German university are eligible to apply for the internships at global companies, provided they are studying business engineering, business information systems or mathematical economics and have already earned 120 credits in the Bachelor’s phase.

A student initiative: books for Grozny.

The IPC currently has 25 members who all work on a voluntary basis and come together for a weekly team meeting on campus. The IPC is structured like a small company, with a management board, a finance department and a marketing department.

“Diversity in action – from you to US” With financial support from Stiftung Mercator, Darmstadt’s Student Services is running a project to motivate more young people with a migrant background to enroll in and complete a degree course. The “Diversity in action” team is getting

out and meeting people, engaging in dialogue, holding information events in schools, bringing facilitators on board and running inter-cultural training events.

The mail has arrived

The fact that TU Darmstadt’s Vice President for Administration and Financial Affairs can read his newspaper shortly after 6.00 a.m. is due to Wilhelm Brötz. The 56 year old has been working at the university since 1989 and has been managing the mail office at the administrative building at Karolinenplatz for several years. His team follows a very strict daily routine: Mailboxes have to be emptied and internal mail has to be deposited in the pigeonholes for institutes and administrative offices before the external mail is delivered at around 7.30 a.m. This mail must also be sorted into the pigeonholes, not always an easy task given that some addresses are rather cryptic. The team delivers the mail to recipients five or six times a day. Brötz sticks on some EUR 120,000 worth of stamps every year, as franking is also one of the mail office’s tasks. The office handles some 2,000 letters a day and sometimes as much as ten times this amount during the student re-registration period. And once there was almost a bomb alert when a parcel was making a suspicious ticking noise. But it turned out to be an alarm clock ...

“I know the names of all the staff, but I used to know their faces too. People communicate a lot by e-mail these days and so they don’t come into the mail office as often.” Wilhelm Brötz, TU mail office manager Man of letters: Wilhelm Brötz.

Going up against the competition

Committed to their studies and to high-level sports competition: Hiroyuki Ohno (left) and Lissa Meinberg.

Part-time samurai 2015 saw three students and a TU graduate compete under strict regulations in front of three referees. They were taking part in the World Kendo Championships in Tokyo. Kendo is a traditional Japanese martial art involving sword-fighting. Marina Hokari and Lissa Meinberg made it into the quarter finals against South Korea, while Hiroyuki Ohno and Robert Kumpf went out in the first round against the incredibly strong Brazilians. Nonetheless, for all four, it was the experience they gained that counted, given that Kendo is a fringe sport in Europe with barely any funding.

Runner covers almost 264 kilometres At 263.9 km, Florian Reus, sports science student at TU Darmstadt, covered the greatest distance in the IAU 24 Hour World Championship in Turin, beating 340 runners from 41 nations to become World and

European Champion, the latter for the third time now. He also came third in the team ranking.

One of the top eight in Germany Peter Bitsch, chemistry student at TU Darmstadt, won bronze in fencing at the Junior European Championships and gold with his team at the Junior World Championships. His passion for fencing goes back to his childhood, when his heroes were The Three Musketeers. Today, the 19 year old is one of the top eight fencers in Germany, which is the prerequisite for gaining a place in the national team. He had actually wanted to become a professional sportsman, but fencers in Germany earn very little. Consequently, he chose to study chemistry at the TU, which supports him in his sport of choice. In future, he hopes to work in the pharmaceutical industry and also to win a gold medal.

Life on campus

“I’m not here to teach the canteen staff how to cook, but rather to motivate them to venture into vegan cuisine.” Björn Moschinski, expert in healthy and sustainable eating

“Demand for vegetarian and vegan food is growing as canteen users’ attitudes are changing.”

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Christoph Löwel, Kitchen Manager in the Lichtwiese canteen

“We’re following the current discussions about nutrition and are convinced that this is the right way to go. We’re also offering far more fresh food, fruit and vegetables from the region.” Ulrike Laux, General Manager of Student Services, Darmstadt

Facts and figures

Assistance

599 students sought advice and support from Student Services counsellors in relation to difficult circumstances they were facing.

418 students contacted the Student Services psychotherapy counselling unit about crises they were facing, issues they were having with partners, parents and other individuals, and setbacks they had experienced. Good old money

EUR 15.09 million in BAfรถG funding were paid by the Student Services student finance department to students at TU Darmstadt.

4,375 applications for student finance (new and renewal) were processed. Accommodation

1,913 TU students were living Food & drink

1.458 million meals were eaten

in the halls of residence run by Student Services at the end of 2015. Exercise

in 2015 in the canteens run by Student Services on the Stadtmitte and Lichtwiese campuses. Almost one quarter of the meals sold were vegetarian.

35,000 places were booked in university sports classes in 2015.

250,000 processed organic eggs

every week.

are sold each year in the Student Services canteens at TU Darmstadt.

57,662 tickets were sold for the university

240 qualified instructors deliver 274 sports classes

swimming pool.

Sustainable and environmentally sensitive nutrition is the order of the day. It is also something Student Services is keen to promote, which is why it invited celebrity chef Bjรถrn Moschinski to spend a few days in its kitchens.

338 young people took advantage of the new sports offerings for international students. Over 90 % of spaces on the lunchtime power walk and the back strength training class were filled in 2015. These classes are part of the workplace health scheme and are open to TU staff during working hours.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Awards

Highlights 2015 12

students received prizes for their outstanding final theses at the “Ausgezeichnet!” award ceremony, which was sponsored by six companies and foundations.

German financial daily “Handelsblatt” ranks four professors from the Department of Law and Economics among the

top 30 German-speaking academic researchers in business administration. The main indicator is the number of publications in reputable international journals.

Created by artist Franz Bernhard in

2013 and measuring almost four metres in height, the steel sculpture “Büste” (“Bust”) now stands in the space between the library and the canteen.

volumes of the Flora Graeca have been rediscovered in the University and State Library. The work is one

of the world’s most magnificent sets of botanical illustrations.

For

400 scientists from

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

47 countries are conducting interdisciplinary research in Darmstadt into the topics of IT security and privacy.

years, TU Darmstadt

and the company Merck have awarded the Emanuel Merck Lectureship to internationally renowned natural scientists in recognition of their outstanding contribution to chemical and pharmaceutical research.

Competence centre for cybersecurity

Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka and Minister President of Hesse Volker Bouffier opened the Center for Research in Security and Privacy (CRISP) at TU Darmstadt in November 2015. CRISP brings existing centres under one roof, thereby supporting top-level research at Darmstadt in the long term. The German Government will provide EUR 17 million in funding to the centre over the next four years, with the federal state of Hesse investing almost EUR 9 million until 2018. Research at CRISP will focus on security at large. Cybersecurity studies to date have largely concentrated on isolated characteristics and moderately sized systems. It is possible for each of these sub-systems to be secure on their own and yet fail when combined. CRISP is tasked with looking into security for large systems. Partnering with the centre are the TU, the Fraunhofer Institutes SIT and IGD, and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.

“IT security is one of TU Darmstadt’s most outstanding areas of research.” Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel, President of TU Darmstadt

Funding secured: Johanna Wanka, Volker Bouffier and Hans Jürgen Prömel (right to left).

“When it comes to IT security, Darmstadt is one of the leading education and research centres in Germany and internationally. This is a place where people think and work in an integrated manner, conducting interdisciplinary, cross-border research with the bigger picture in mind.” Volker Bouffier, Minister President of Hesse

“Darmstadt has established itself as the largest centre for IT security research in Germany and Europe, developing an outstanding reputation in the field.” Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research

Jury unanimous

Awards

Adolf Messer Prize for Bai-Xiang Xu Junior Professor Bai-Xiang Xu, Head of the research group Mechanics of Functional Materials at TU Darmstadt, was awarded the 2015 Adolf Messer Prize. Worth EUR 50,000, it is the most highly endowed award for research work at the TU. Bai-Xiang Xu is in the process of researching ways to optimise nanostructured electrodes for the long-life lithium batteries that are typically fitted in electric vehicles and electronic devices. The 35 year old is a world renowned expert in micromechanics and methods for investigating functional materials and systems. Bai-Xiang Xu completed her PhD in Solid Mechanics at Peking University in 2008. Prior to this, she had become well acquainted with TU Darmstadt during a two-year scholarship period at the university.

Kurt Ruths Prize for Udo Gleim

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Professor Bai-Xiang Xu.

Dipl.-Ing. Udo Gleim, mechanical engineer and research associate in the Department of Architecture at TU Darmstadt, has been awarded the 2015 Kurt Ruths Prize for his dissertation entitled “The International Building Exhibition Emscher Park”. Gleim studied the intellectual background and history of this international programme, behind which is a strategy that has been informed by a wide range of experience in improving living conditions in Germany’s Ruhr region. In so doing, he was able to make visible the pre-requisites and consequences of the strategy for revitalising old industrial regions. Gleim studied architecture at TU Darmstadt from 1994 to 2004 and has been lecturing part time at the university since December 2013.

Interview Three questions for...

Professor Paul T. Anastas from Yale University in New Haven (United States). TU Darmstadt and the company Merck recognised the achievements of the “father of green chemistry” by awarding him the 2015 Emanuel Merck Lectureship; he delivered the lecture at the TU on 11 May 2015. How is industry adopting your green chemistry strategy?

There has already been some tremendous progress, for example, with regard to waste reduction and the biodegradability of materials. There is no longer any talk of green chemistry costing more or not being very effective. In fact, green processes often work better and are more profitable. However, all achievements to date are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential of green chemistry.

He stands for green chemistry: Professor Paul T. Anastas.

What obstacles still need to be overcome?

The first obstacle is a lack of awareness about all the possibilities of green chemistry, but inertia is also an issue. Convincing experts to change the way they do things is no small task. You prefer the term “green chemistry” to “sustainable chemistry”. Why is that?

In the past, whenever people heard the word “chemistry” or “chemicals”, they immediately thought of toxins, and so the term “green chemistry” grabbed people’s attention. “Green” denotes the environment, but it is also the colour of money in the United States. Green is also associated with youth, freshness and that which is new.

Junior biology lab

And that’s what it’s all about. Green chemistry is

The TU and the company Merck are expanding their long-

not simply a slightly more efficient approach and

standing partnership. There are plans to open a junior experimental laboratory within the Department of Biology

it’s by no means the lesser of two evils. Rather,

that will allow school pupils from year four to sixth form

green chemistry is a new kind of chemistry.

to try out many things for themselves, under intensive guidance, and build on their knowledge from school lessons.

Awards

Double degree doctorate

Stéphane Foulard at the mechanical engineering test rig.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

29 year old mechanical engineer Stéphane Foulard is the first person to hold a double degree doctorate from TU Darmstadt and École Centrale de Lyon. Specialising in automotive engineering and mechatronics, the early career researcher completed his PhD in “Online and Real-Time Load Monitoring for Remaining Service Life Prediction of Automotive Transmissions” at the TU’s Institute for Mechatronic Systems in Mechanical Engineering and the École Centrale de Lyon’s Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes.

He developed a system for monitoring the remaining service life of automotive transmission components which makes it possible to calculate the usage profile online in real time and to predict the remaining service life of mechanical components. He has already secured a number of initial projects with automotive manufacturers. Foulard completed his parallel Master’s degree in general engineering and mechanical engineering in Lyon and Darmstadt in 2011, graduating with an engineering degree (Ingenieurdiplom) and an MSc.

Teaching excellence Worth a total of EUR 40,000, the Athene Prize for Good Teaching is awarded annually by the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation, based at TU Darmstadt, in recognition of significant achievements in teaching by individuals, institutes and research groups. The main Athene Prize (EUR 2,000) in 2015 went to Sabine Ogrin, Sylvana Silber, Anne-Kathrin Scheibe and Anne Roth for their “Consultancy and coaching” module. The Special Prize for Interdisciplinary Teaching (EUR 3,000) was awarded to Moritz Kütt from the IANUS working group within the Department of Physics for his contributions to interdisciplinary teaching, especially with regard to initiating and implementing courses on various aspects of nuclear energy and the extraordinary combination of teaching and research as part of the project seminar “Hacking of measurement electronics” in the context of disarmament and the ban on the proliferation of weapons systems. The jury awarded the Special Prize for Study Projects, also

Benefactor Carlo Giersch congratulates Professors Jörg Simon and Heribert Warzecha

worth EUR 3,000, to Prof. Jörg Simon and Prof. Heribert

(left to right).

Warzecha in recognition of their outstanding commitment to designing and supporting the interdisciplinary study project iGEM over several years.

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Rudolph-Cleff, Dr.-Ing. Nebojša Èamprag, Dipl.-Ing. Britta Eiermann and Dipl.-Ing. Simon Gehrmann, Architecture

The Special STEM Teaching Prize, worth EUR 3,000, went to Prof. Rudolf Feile from the Department of Physics for his ground-breaking work in designing teacher training courses.

• Elisabeth Steckner, Daniel Franke, Barbara Seifert and Kornelia Kerber-Hock, Mechanical Engineering

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Helmut F. Schlaak and Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Roland Werthschützky, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

The EUR 3,000 Special Prize for Gender-Sensitive and Pro-

• Prof. Matthias Hollick, Computer Science

Diversity Teaching was awarded to Dr. Olga Zitzelsberger, Insa Curic and Lisa Freieck in recognition of their work in designing and implementing the seminar “Diversity in school teaching”.

E-teaching in architecture The EUR 8,000 E-teaching Award for 2015 was shared by Dr. Marion Bolder-Boos, Gabriel Dette and Stefanie Müller from the Department of Architecture for their work

Departmental projects (EUR 2,000 each)

• Jun. Prof. Nicolas Zacharias, Law and Economics • Robert Christian Eydam, Joy-Antoinette Aselmann,

in developing the ToyBlocks online learning environment as part of the introductory course “Basic principles and methods of architectural history”. ToyBlocks was designed by an inter-disciplinary working group comprising individuals from the research groups

Christina Heeb and Stefanie Theuerkauf, History and Social

on architectural history and theory, art history, and classic archaeology. It provides

Sciences

a range of different game-based tasks that enable users to acquire basic knowledge.

• Sabine Ogrin, Sylvana Silber, Anne-Kathrin Scheibe and Anne Roth, Human Sciences

• Prof. Ulrich Reif, Mathematics • Dr. habil. Thomas Blochowicz, Physics • Hans-Jürgen Bär, Chemistry • Prof. Heribert Warzecha, Biology • Prof. Wolfgang Ensinger, Materials and Earth Sciences • Dipl.-Ing. Melanie Fiedler, Civil and Environmental Engineering

The jury awarded a EUR 4,000 prize to Barbara Stolarczyk from the Language Resource Centre for her German-Polish e-tandem course “Virtual stroll through Darmstadt and Poznán”, run jointly at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznán and TU Darmstadt.

Awards

To whom credit is due

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Honorary Doctor at the TU: Professor Peter Wriggers.

Honorary doctorate for Peter Wriggers

25 years of the Giersch Foundation

TU Darmstadt has awarded an honorary doctorate to Professor Dr.-Ing. Peter Wriggers. The 64 year old is considered one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of computational mechanics, contact mechanics and approaches to dealing with multi-scale problems. Wriggers has been Head of the Institute of Continuum Mechanics within the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Leibniz Universität Hannover since 2008. He served as Professor for Mechanics at the then TH Darmstadt from 1990 to 1998, the year in which he accepted the offer of a professorship within the Institute of Mechanics and Computational Mechanics at Leibniz Universität Hannover. Wriggers holds high-level positions in German and international research associations and has been awarded a number of international prizes.

2015 saw the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation celebrate its 25-year anniversary at TU Darmstadt. It was established as a non-profit foundation under civil law by the Frankfurt couple, who have endowed it with over EUR 10 million to date. The foundation has also issued EUR 5.5 million in funding. In this way, the Gierschs facilitated the purchase of a chalet in the Alps, which provides a venue for groups from the TU to hold academic and sports events. The foundation also financed the office building in Darmstadt which is home to the Technologie- und Innovationszentrum (TIZ). Another focus of the foundation’s work is the provision of funding to early career researchers, not least by regularly awarding a range of prizes.

Outstanding

TU Idea Competition: Prof. Markus Biesalski and Michael Jocher (first prize: EUR 3,000); Matias Acosta, Sasan Hassanzadeh, Lukas Porz and Rogério Salloum (second prize: EUR 2,000); Martin Klimach and Jacob Katz (third prize: EUR 1,000). Prizes awarded by the Association of Friends of Technische Universität Darmstadt for outstanding research work: Dr. Johannes Rode, Law and Economics; Dr. Angela Graf, History and Social Sciences; Dr. Susanne Bartels, Human Sciences; Dr. Jane Ghiglieri, Mathematics; Dr. Christopher Walz, Physics; Dr. Constantin Voss, Chemistry; Dr. Julian Spies, Biology; Dr. Maged Bekheet, Materials and Earth Sciences; Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Schula, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Dr.-Ing. Nebojša Èamprag, Architecture; Dr.-Ing. Elias Baum, Mechanical Engineering; Dr.-Ing. Christian Mandel, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology; Dr.-Ing. Katayon Radkhah and Dr.-Ing. Katharina Mülling, Computer Science (EUR 2,500 each). August Euler Prize: Peter Poschmann, Business Engineering, subject area Mechanical Engineering (EUR 2,000). Doctoral Prize awarded by the Familie Bottling Foundation: Dr.-Ing. Nicole Kolmer-Anderl, Chemistry (EUR 3,500) Dr. Anton Keller Foundation Prize for the best graduates in the Department of Chemistry: Julian Barnyai, Sebastian Barthel, Hanna M. Frühauf, Max Hirschmann, Theresa Kissel and Patrick Ober, and Lucien Beißwenger, Aileen Ebenig, David A. Fiebig and Laura Schmidt (EUR 650 each). Datenlotsen Prize: Christoph Dann and Milan Schmittner, Computer Science; Patrick Holzer, Mathematics; Maria Pelevina, Computer Science (EUR 2,500 for each final thesis). ISRA Machine Vision Prize: Omair Ghori and Daniel Hueske, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (up to EUR 2,500 each for each final thesis).

First Harold Rose Prize-Winner: Daniel Ohl de Mello (right).

Lotte Köhler Study Prize: Madeleine Geort, Human Sciences; Judith Mathis, History and Social Sciences (up to EUR 2,500 for each fianl thesis).

Harald Rose Prize

Heinrich and Margarete Liebig Prize: Yvonne Späck-Leigsnering, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (EUR 2,000). Dreßler Bau Prize: Max Fritzsche and Alexander Weiß, Civil and Environmental Engineering (EUR 1,500 each). Jakob Wilhelm Mengler Prize: Fabian Strebel and Tobias Wagner, Architecture (EUR 1,500 each); Katharina Herzog and Melanie Nathan, and Stefan Zimmermann, Patrick Frey and Cornelius Dormann, Architecture (EUR 750 per group). CAST Sponsorship Prize: Kevin Bouhsard, Computer Science (first prize in category final examination to IT specialists, professional development (EUR 1,000). Georg Moller Prize: Dimitra Kandyli, Leonie Keicher, Timon Peters, Teodor Rusanov and Tobias Wowra, Architecture (EUR 500 each). Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin Prize: Annika Runkel, Theresa Dorsam and Melanie Perlitz, Department of History.

The newly endowed Harald Rose Prize will in future be awarded annually to outstanding students at the universities of Darmstadt and Ulm. The company CEOS GmbH has provided EUR 30,000 in prize money. EUR 3,000 will be awarded for each Master’s dissertation in the fields of imaging/analytical methods, applied physics, materials science or chemistry with a link to electron microscopy. The first prize-winner is Daniel Ohl de Mello from the Department of Physics.

Scholarships from the Weiland Foundation Established at TU Darmstadt in 2014, the Thomas Weiland Foundation awards up to four Master’s scholarships. These scholarships are aimed at candidates who have achieved a first-class Bachelor’s degree in a STEM-related subject and are now embarking on a Master’s degree course at TU Darmstadt with a technical/engineering component. The foundation provides a total of EUR 48,000 in financial support, which works out at EUR 500 per month for each scholarship holder.

Awards

Alumni and former staff members

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

TU alumna Laura Bohne at work.

Laura Bohne

Holger Müller

She has forged a successful career in a field where the goal is to achieve the greatest possible impact in the smallest possible space – micromechanics and sensor technology. Having studied at TU Darmstadt, Laura Bohne is now a project manager at Bosch Sensortec in Reutlingen. Half of the world’s current smartphones contain sensors designed in Reutlingen. Bohne is presently involved in developing the next generation of accelerometers, which are set to be particularly energy efficient. She describes herself as working at the interface between development, manufacturing, marketing and sales. It was her internship at Bosch that introduced her to the field of sensor and measurement technology. She also completed her doctoral studies in electrochemistry at Bosch.

Holger Müller heads up the strategic network planning department at Siemens in Erlangen. He and his team design smart energy supply systems. Müller completed his PhD in electrical energy supply at the TU. The 41 year old specialises among other things in renewable energies and advises energy providers on how they can use smart management, communication technology and data measurement technology to improve performance.

Olaf Kirch A former mathematics student at TU Darmstadt, Olaf Kirch wrote one of the first books on the operating system Linux. He is now Director of SUSE Linux Enterprise, Research & Development, where he is driving the ongoing development of SUSE Linux. His first book quickly became a standard work, making the open-source operating system Linux, which was still relatively new at the time, accessible to a wider public.

Association of Friends of Technische Universität Darmstadt Established as the Ernst-Ludwigs-Hochschulgesellschaft in 1918, the association uses membership fees, donations and investment income to fund scientific and research work and teaching at TU Darmstadt. Since 1948, the TU Darmstadt association has provided over EUR 10 million in funding for research and teaching activities. It also awards prizes each year for outstanding research work, having presented some 120 prizes worth a total of over EUR 450,000 to date. It has been involved in the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship since 2013 and now supports three students each year. Another of the association’s key tasks is the administration

of foundations. For example, the Punga Foundation supports students who are ill and in need to enable them to complete their studies. Assisted by the Klein Schanzlin & Becker Foundation and the Bundesbank, the association provides funding to early career researchers who have been invited to give presentations at national and international conferences. The association also manages donations that are made to departments, institutes and research groups at TU Darmstadt. Moreover, it offers tailored reunions, campus tours, tours

of the new University and State Library and lecture rooms, opportunities to visit former departments and many other events to enable TU alumni and former staff members to keep in touch with their alma mater/former place of work. Association members receive invitations to events at TU Darmstadt and can apply to set up an account at the University IT-Service and Computing Centre (HRZ) for a range of services. They also enjoy discounted admission to the university swimming pool and sports stadium.

Why not join the Association of Friends of Technische Universität Darmstadt yourself and help support our alma mater? Office: Rundeturmstraße 10 64283 Darmstadt, Germany Phone: +49 (0)6151/16 4144 Fax: +49 (0)6151/16 4246 E-Mail: info@freunde.tu-darmstadt.de www.freunde.tu-darmstadt.de

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The maximum

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

They have our full confidence: students with Deutschlandstipendium scholarships.

A total of 377 Deutschlandstipendium scholarships were secured at TU Darmstadt in 2015, utilising the full quota allocated to the university by the German Government. As a result, TU students will receive a record level of EUR 1.3 million in total funding. The Deutschlandstipendium scholarship operates on the half and half principle, whereby one half of the monthly grant (EUR 150) is provided by the German Government and the other half (EUR 150) is financed with funding secured by the TU from entrepreneurs, private individuals and foundations. The German Government sets a quota for the maximum number of scholarships it will co-fund at each university. As in 2011 and 2012, TU Darmstadt was also able to attract private sponsors, allowing it to make full use of the German Government’s quota and making it one of the most successful universities taking part in the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship scheme.

“It is a great joy to see not only the financial results, but also the non-financial outcome of the Deutschlandstipendium over the last five years, and also to witness the wide-ranging interaction between students and sponsors. We have seen the emergence of the best kind of funding culture.” Dr. Manfred Efinger, Vice President for Administration and Financial Affairs, TU Darmstadt

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Map of sponsors

Hamburg 16 53

Airbus Defence & Space GmbH

Adam Opel AG

ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH

ASAP Engineering GmbH

Atotech Deutschland GmbH

BASF SE

Beirat des TU Darmstadt Energy Center e.V.

Berlin 5

Gütersloh 56 Bad Homburg

Gelsenkirchen 54

Bickhardt Bau AG

Bilfinger SE

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG

Bosch Rexroth AG Boschgruppe

CA Technologies

Carlo und Karin Giersch-Stiftung an der TU Darmstadt

Clariant Produkte (Deutschland) GmbH

COPiTOS GmbH

Datenlotsen Informationssysteme GmbH

Deutsche Bahn Stiftung gGmbH

Deutsche Bank AG Group Technology & Operations

Essen 24

29 Düsseldorf

Deutsche Telekom AG

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft

Kirchheim

Frankfurt 8

14 22 27 36 40

3 33 34

41 50 58 59 61 4

Ingelheim Mainz

Homberg (Ohm) 47

Bonn 19

Hanau

Lohr am Main

Rüsselsheim 6 Darmstadt

Aschaffenburg

7 12 13 25 26 30

Griesheim

31 38 42 43 44 45 48 55 63 66 67 70

Alsbach-Hähnlein Frankenthal

Breuberg

Ludwigshafen

9 60

Mannheim

Bornheim

Strategic Management Services

Kassel 28

64 Duisburg

Gelnhausen

Eschborn

57 Wiesloch

Satteldorf 65

Walldorf

Erlangen

Stuttgart 20 23

DS Smith Paper Deutschland GmbH

Ed. Züblin AG

Ernst & Young Stiftung e.V.

Evonik Stiftung

ENTEGA NATURpur Institut gGmbH

Ferchau Engineering GmbH Niederlassung Darmstadt

Fritz und Margot Faudi-Stiftung

GASCADE Gastransport GmbH

HAL Allergie GmbH

Familie Hatz

Familie Irmler

PPI AG Informationstechnologie

HEAG mobilo GmbH

Isra Vision AG

Roche Diagnostics GmbH

Heinrich Sauer & Josef Schmidt Stiftung

Jakob Wilhelm Mengler-Stiftung

Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH

Heraeus infosystems GmbH

KAMAX Holding GmbH & Co. KG

SAP SE

Heraeus Holding GmbH

Kurt und Lilo Werner RC Darmstadt Stiftung

SCHENCK RoTec GmbH

Herrhausen, Traudl

KSB AG

Siemens AG Power and Gas Division

HPP – Harnischfeger, Pietsch & Partner Strategie-

KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten BDA

Siemens AG Human Resources

und Marketingberatung GmbH

KFT Chemieservice GmbH

Sparkasse Darmstadt

HORNBACH – Baumarkt AG

LEONHARD WEISS GmbH & Co. KG

TIZ Darmstadt GmbH Technologie- und

Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik GmbH

Lufthansa Technik AG

IBM Deutschland GmbH

Masterflex SE

TrelleborgVibracoustic Group

ING-DiBa AG

Merck KGaA

UPM GmbH

Ingenieurbüro Dipl.-Ing. H. Vössing GmbH

Miele & Cie. KG

Vereinigung von Freunden der Technischen

Ingenieursozietät Prof. Dr.-Ing. Katzenbach

MLP Finanzdienstleistungen AG

Intel Collaborative Institute for Secure Computing

PASS IT-Consulting Dipl-Ing. G. Rienecker

TU Darmstadt ICRI-SC

Augsburg 69 1 15 Berg/Ravensburg

GmbH & Co. KG

Taufkirchen

Innovationszentrum

Universität zu Darmstadt e.V.

102

Awards

Truly magnificent volumes

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Flora Graeca – one of the most fascinating books on botany.

The painstaking task of restoring the first Darmstadt printing of the Flora Graeca Sibthorpiana has been completed. Produced in England between 1806 and 1840, this volume pools 966 magnificent illustrations of Greek Mediterranean flora. For decades, this treasure trove lay unnoticed in the stack of the University and State Library. The story of its rediscovery begins in the summer of 2014 at a conference that Stefan Schneckenburger, Head of the TU Botanical Gardens, organised in Darmstadt for colleagues.

It is the only first printing in Germany; the three other copies that have been preserved in the country are second or mixed printings. The Darmstadt edition is worth between EUR 1,000 and EUR 2,000 per hand-coloured copper engraving. The TU was able to have external conservator Vera Gunder work on it thanks to a donation of EUR 10,000 from Darmstadt’s three Rotary Clubs. Staff at the University and State Library’s Digitization Centre are working on a digital version of the Flora Graeca, which will be made available in due course.

When Berlin Professor of Botany and Flora Graeca expert Walter Lack asked to see the Darmstadt copy of the publication, staff at the University and State Library found that, rather than a single book, they had 20 volumes of the work in the stack, though they were in very poor condition. This is how Kirstin Schellhaas, Head of the Center of Conservation, first came into contact with the Flora Graeca.

It should be pointed out that the ten-volume Flora Graeca is considered to be the most beautiful, and most expensive, book on botany ever printed. The experts were all in agreement that the illustrations are unparalleled in their accuracy and brilliance.

103

“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful before.” Kirstin Schellhaas, Head of the Center of Conservation at the University and State Library

Carrying out careful restoration work: Kirstin Schellhaas (left) and Vera Gunder.

104

Awards

Praise and prizes

Prof. Alexander Benlian, Department of Law and Economics: Jackstädt Foundation Scholarship (around EUR 90,000). Jun. Prof. Annette Andrieu-Brunsen, Department of Chemistry: Exploration Grant from the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation (around EUR 80,000). Prof. Eric Bodden, Prof. Mira Mezini and team, Department of Computer Science: Oracle Research Collaboration Award (EUR 73,000). Prof. Gerhard Sessler, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology: Gold Medal of the Acoustical Society of America. Prof. Manfred Hegger, Department of Architecture: JohannHeinrich-Merck Honour of the City of Science, Darmstadt. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Weiland, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology: Member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), Germany. Prof. Achim Schwenk, Ph.D., Institute of Nuclear Physics: Max-Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg. Prof. Dietmar Hennecke, Department of Mechanical Engineering: Ludwig Prandtl Ring of the German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR)

Saving water and energy Embedded at the TU, the international research project SEMIZENTRAL has been recognised with one of the 2015 GreenTec Awards. Dr. Susanne Bieker and her team won the award in the urbanisation category. The strategy of SEMIZENTRAL makes it possible for the (waste) water and

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

waste infrastructure of each district to “grow” flexibly as the city expands and for water and energy savings to be made at the same time. The Sino-German research project also achieved second place in the research category of the 2015 German Sustainability Award. With five competitions and over 800 applicants in total, the award is the largest of its kind in Europe.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rolf Katzenbach, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering: KGS Lecture Award of the Korean Geotechnical Society. Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Petzet, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Willy Hager Prize (EUR 6,000). Dr.-Ing. Philipp Beckerle, Department of Mechanical Engineering: 2015 STEM Excellence Award for Doctoral Work from the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation (EUR 5,000). Prof. Horst Geschka, Department of Law and Economics: Honorary Professorship from the University Politehnica of Bucharest. Prof. Ralf Riedel, Group Dispersive Solids, Department of Materials Science: Fellow of the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. Simon Manschitz, Department of Computer Science: Odenwald Akademie Award (EUR 2,500). Christian Sledz, Hauke Radtki, Maximilian Hüttenrauch, Patrick Wenzel, Bastian Alt, Alaa Alameer and their supervisors Tim Schäck and Michael Muma, Signal Processing Crew Darmstadt team, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology: IEEE Signal Processing Cup 2015 (USD 5,000). Marco Degünther, Masih Fahim, Claas Hartmann and Luisa Pumplun, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology: First Place in the VDE Competition of Students in Microsystems Applications.

105

Special achievements

TU Darmstadt’s 2015 “Prize for special achievement during training” was awarded to Lukas Spallek. He is a trainee electrician for devices and systems at the Institute for Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics within the Department of Mechanical Engineering. While still in his first year of training, Spallek used his newly acquired knowledge to develop an adjustable petrol price display for a model-making club’s model garage. Towards the end of his second year, the trainee provided assistance to a friends’ association in the municipality of Stockstadt am Rhein. At the beginning of the open-air swimming pool season, he built a time-based system for controlling magnetic valves on play equipment in the children’s paddling pool and installed a programmable logo system for controlling the water flow on the stainless steel slide. In the workshop at TU Darmstadt, the control module developed by Spallek allows the institute’s own DC power packs to be set and monitored from a computer. The EUR 3,000 prize money is being split equally between the trainee and his department.

Art on campus Created by artist Franz Bernhard and measuring almost four metres in height, the steel sculpture “Bust” has been installed in the newly created space between the University and State Library and the canteen. This was Bernhard’s last major piece of work, which he finished shortly before his death in 2013. Using massive, heavy plastics, the artist sought to represent the human body in an abstract and formally austere light. The Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation at the TU provided the large sum of money required to purchase the sculpture.

Resourceful trainee: Lukas Spallek.

106

Awards

Foundation Professorships

NATURpur Institute for Climate and Environment Protection: Foundation Professorship Applied Geothermal Science and Technology in the Department of Materials and Earth Sciences, Professor Ingo Sass Deutsche Bahn Regio: Foundation Professorship Railway Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor Andreas Oetting Horst Gรถrtz Foundation: Horst Gรถrtz Foundation Professorship IT-Security focused on Security Engineering in the Department of Computer Science, Professor Stefan Katzenbeisser Deutsche Bahn Mobility Logistics AG: Foundation Professorship Business Administration Multimodality and Logistics Technologies in the Department of Law and Economics, Professor Anne Lange Deutsche Bahn Mobility Logistics AG: Foundation Professorship Business Administration Logistics Planning and Information Systems in the Department of Law and Economics, Professor Michael Schneider Goldbeck Foundation: Foundation Professorship Sustainable Building Design in the Department of Architecture, Professor Christoph Kuhn Carlo und Karin Giersch Foundation: Carlo und Karin Giersch Foundation Professorship Business Administration Industrial Management in the Department of Law and Economics, Professor Christoph Glock

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015

Volkswagen Foundation: Lichtenberg Professorship Educational Natural Language Processing (e-NLP) in the Department of Computer Science, Professor Iryna Gurevych

New Adjunct Professorships Name

Department

Martin Ziegler Reinhard Meusinger

Mathematics Chemistry

Tatiana Gambaryan-Roisman

Mechanical Engineering

New Honorary Professorships Name

Department

Matthias Vogler

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Uwe Ernstberger

Mechanical Engineering

Irina Munteanu

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Jรถrn Kohlhammer

Computer Science

International Appointments* total of appointments

international appointments

* appointments from abroad or of foreign national to professorships/assistant professorships

107

Facts and figures

New Professors Name

from

Department

Nationality

Carolin Bock

Technical University of Munich

Law and Economics

German

Winnifried Wollner

Universität Hamburg

Mathematics

German

Guy Moore

McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Physics

US-American

Bastian Etzold

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Chemistry

German

Alexander Loewer

Max Delbrück Center, Berlin

Biology

German

Katharina Immekus

Independent Artist

Architecture

German

Oliver Tessmann

Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

Architecture

German

Mario Kupnik

University of Technology Cottbus

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

German

Patrick Eugster

Technische Universität Darmstadt

Computer Science

US-American/Swiss

Arjan Kuijper

Fraunhofer IGD Darmstadt

Felix Wolf

RWTH Aachen

Computer Science Computer Science

Dutch German

New KIVA-Professors Name

from

Department

Nationality

Michael C. Sperberg-McQueen

Black Mesa Technologies

History and Social Sciences

US-American

Frank Fischer

Rutgers University, USA

History and Social Sciences

US-American

Susanne Weßnigk

Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematicsk

Physics

German

Josef Riese

Paderborn University

Physics

German

Sarah Harris

University of Nevada

Computer Science

US-American

New Assistant Professorships Name

from

Department

Ulrike Kramm

University of Technology Cottbus

Materials and Earth Sciences /Chemistry

Hongbin Zhang

Rutgers University, USA

Materials and Earth Sciences

108

Imprint

Publisher President of TU Darmstadt Karolinenplatz 5 64289 Darmstadt Editor Jörg Feuck Corporate Communications, TU Darmstadt Copy TU Darmstadt, Astrid Ludwig, Uta Neubauer, Hildegard Kaulen, Christian Meier, Jutta Witte Translation Lund Languages, Köln Photo Editor Patrick Bal Photography Title: Jan-Christoph Hartung Andreas Arnold: 1 Patrick Bal: 6 Katrin Binner: 16 Felipe Fernandes: 3 FG Digitales Gestalten: 1 Paul Glogowski: 4 Jan-Christoph Hartung: 30 Dennis Hansen: 1 Sandra Junker: 14 Lufthansa LEOS: 1 Jannes Lüdtke: 1 Jürgen Mai / ESA: 1 Madeleine Marx-Bentley: 1 Merck Archiv:1 NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll (ASU): 1 Thomas Ott: 7 Peter Pulkowski:1 Nadia Rückert: 2 Gregor Rynkowski: 3 Sibylle Scheibner: 1 Guido Schiek: 2 Sensortec: 1 Technicon: 1 Constanze Tillmann / Messe Düsseldorf: 1 Claus Völker: 7 Adrian Zimmermann: 1 Private: 1 Concept and Design conclouso GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz www.conclouso.de Printing Druckerei Ph. Reinheimer GmbH Darmstadt Circulation 1.000

April, 2016

City centre

•Administration, Audimax, karo5 •University and State Library •Law and Economics •History and Social Sciences •Human Sciences •Mathematics •Physics •Mechanical Engineering •Electrical Engineering and Information Technology •Computer Science •State Materials Testing Institute d t dti - centre t for f sciences, i conferences, f events t •darmstadtium

Botanical Gardens

•Biology •Earth Sciences

Lichtwiese

•Architecture •Civil and Environmental Engineering •Chemistry •Mechanical Engineering •Materials and Earth Sciences •Centre of lecture rooms and University Library •day-care centres

University Stadium

•sports hall •swimming bath

August Augu Au gust st Eul E Euler uler er Air A Airfield irfi fiel eld d wi with th win wind ind d tu tunn tunnel nnel el

•Automotive Engineering •Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics

“In my opinion, you definitely ought to go to Darmstadt. They have a good polytechnical school there.” Progress Report 2015

Albert Einstein, 1919

Getting started for the Collaborative Research Centre “Nuclei: From Fundamental Interactions to Structure and Stars”, Department of Physics.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2015