Progress Report 2017 by TU Darmstadt

Progress Report 2017

4 Summary by Executive Board 14 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Academic Affairs Honest insight Degree taster Journey into the future of technology Thoughts control machines Exceptional “Argonaut” Ten years of Mundus Urbano Printing in the third dimension Launching careers Courses offered by TU Darmstadt Facts and figures

30 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

Research Of neutron stars and supercomputers Enzymes for green chemistry Mathematics and computer science United against organised hackers Three questions for Thomas Weitin Serving the environment Three questions for Susanne Lackner From the insect and plant kingdom Critical urban infrastructure Tiny structures Buttons from a printing machine Perfectly insulated Optimised technology Top-Level Research

Content

50 The young generation 60 63 64 66 67 68 69 70 72

Cooperation and transfer Measuring heavy ions Exciting matter Tactile surgical robot Applied cybersecurity Researching transformation Of cyber attacks and nanobodies Perfect climate for start-ups Global cooperation

74 77 78 80 81 82 84

Life on campus Buildings for the next decade Karl Plagge House opened Art and ability Green meeting point Changing the world, just like that Facts and figures

86 89 90 92 93 94 96 97 98 100

Awards Honorary doctorate for Francesco Iachello Positive signals from Brussels Sponsors’ motives Presentable qualifications Discovered after all this time Humanitarian sign Best choice 450 years of storing knowledge Facts and figures

102 Campus impressions / Imprint

Academic affairs Degree taster: International young people attending overseas German schools in 17 different countries were hosted by the university.

Cooperation and transfer Positive cooperation between two universities: Robots for minimally invasive surgery to treat tumours.

Life on campus Getting on well: The University IT-Service and Computing Centre and a commercial student cafĂŠ and events business have both moved into the same new building.

Research Clean engines: A sensor developed by the Institute for Reactive Flows and Diagnostics could bring about improvements in diesel catalysts.

Outstanding First-class knowledge resource: The University and State Library has put its valuable collections on display to mark its 450th anniversary.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2017

Summary by Executive Board

Excellence strategy

Summary by Executive Board

TU Darmstadt successfully entered the German Government and federal states’ Excellence Strategy competition in 2017: It was asked to develop full proposals for its “Centre for Predictive Thermofluids – Accelerating the Energiewende” and “Data Analytics for the Humanities” projects as part of the “Clusters of Excellence” funding line. A committee of international experts had reviewed a total of 195 cluster draft proposals from universities throughout Germany and nominated 88 of them for the next selection round. TU Darmstadt submitted both full proposals in March 2018.

At the same time, the TU made preparations for an application in the “Universities of Excellence” funding line. This decision to apply was weighed up carefully – especially since the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance within which TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz work together had previously agreed not to draft any joint “Universities of Excellence” proposals, but instead to focus on expanding long-term strategic cooperation activities in the areas of research, degree programmes, teaching and administration.

Rhine-Main Universities Established in late 2015, the RMU alliance has already made a great deal of progress in this regard, strengthening the Rhine-Main research region and raising the international profile of the universities at the same time. A dense network of 25 major research alliances and research platforms has since arisen, for example in the form of collaborative research centres with funding volumes in the twodigit million range. Some ten innovative alliance activities were financed by the RMU Initiative Fund in 2017. A new RMU Initiative Fund was added for teaching, supporting cooperation-based development of attractive new degree courses, refinement of the existing curricula on offer and trialling of innovative teaching and learning platforms.

Quality seal for system accreditation TU Darmstadt has held the quality seal of a systemaccredited university since 2017. The certificate, issued by the Swiss Agency of Accreditation and Quality Assurance (AAQ), is linked to the TU’s right to accredit its own degree courses. The system accreditation sees the university take the logical step of assuming even greater responsibility for its own quality development as an autonomous institution. The quality seal certifies that TU Darmstadt’s integrated quality management process meets the clear, external criteria for establishing and reforming degree courses and that the university is capable of reviewing and scrutinising its own quality goals and giving them fresh perspectives. TU Darmstadt’s quality management process has been based on an integrated approach for almost a decade now: Degree courses are introduced or refined as part of the institutional evaluation, with consideration given to the respective department’s strategic goals in order to ensure a close link between research and teaching. External expertise is called upon in this context from the relevant academic discipline.

TU Darmstadt’s degree programmes and teaching activities meet high quality standards. Page 4 and 5 The Executive Board of TU Darmstadt (left to right): Vice Presidents Dr. Manfred Efinger, Prof. Mira Mezini, Prof. Matthias Rehahn, President Prof. Hans Jürgen Prömel, Vice Presidents Prof. Ralph Bruder, Prof. Andrea Rapp

Summary by Executive Board

In dialogue with policy-makers Each year, the President and the Chair of the University Council report in detail to the Hessian State Parliament on the development of TU Darmstadt. The thematic focus in 2017 was on the contribution made by the university to promoting industrial innovation in Hesse through its cutting-edge research work. The TU is tapping new fields of research such as medical technology and cognitive science, strongly supporting start-up companies, closely cooperating with well-established companies and training highly-qualified graduates. Numerous startups have since emerged from TU Darmstadt and established themselves on the market; many of them have received awards and are setting key trends in industrial sectors, for instance with products such as the development of antennae for stable WiFi connections on different forms of transport. As part of a “Parliamentary Evening” put on at the Hessian State Parliament by the TU, the university’s Executive Board engaged in discussion with MPs from all the political groups on the question “Digital and connected – how 4.0 do we want to be?”. TU Darmstadt considers itself part of the accelerated societal transformation and sees in-depth research into the challenges of the future, such as energy systems, cybersecurity and digitalisation, as a key task. Through its research, teaching and transfer activities, the TU is taking an in-depth look at the trends on the Industry 4.0 and digital transformation front, which are being accelerated by information and communication technology, as well as the dynamic business models concerning the Internet of Things,

services and data. And the university is also taking account of the relevance of the “digital humanities” in research, culture and society through systematic analysis and evaluation of the new technologies that are emerging. Once again parliamentarians and ministerial representatives accepted TU Darmstadt’s invitation to visit the university’s ETA Factory, a unique facility in Germany which demonstrates sustainable, energyefficient production under real-life conditions and is embedded in the Future Energy Systems profile area.

Visits to start-ups During several different visits in 2017, ministers and policy-makers from the German Government and the federal state of Hesse once again witnessed how TU Darmstadt serves as a key incubator for entrepreneurial individuals and innovative start-up projects: They familiarised themselves on numerous occasions with the activities of the HIGHEST Innovation and Start-up Centre, had the business idea of employing a resource-efficient process for peptide manufacture explained to them at spin-off Sulfotools GmbH, and became acquainted at the Institute for Mechatronic Systems with the way research findings were successfully transferred to the company Compredict. Research associates developed software that identifies wear and tear and maintenance requirements for car components in everyday vehicle use without the need to install additional sensors. Finally, start-up Privalino generated a great deal of interest among policy-makers: Using its own expertise in the area of machine learning and bots, the team makes instant messaging safer for children and young people in particular.

TU Darmstadt is characterised by a well-established start-up culture.

Summary by Executive Board

“For Technische Universität Darmstadt, the project is a logical continuation of the process of self-critically reflecting on its own history. We’ve brought the knowledge about our institution right up to date and thus created an opportunity to better understand ourselves in the present.”

A close look at the recent past 2017 also provided TU Darmstadt with occasion to celebrate its 140th anniversary: A publication compiled at the initiative of the Executive Board systematically and scientifically documents the university’s more recent history, in particular from the 1970s onwards, a period marked by a “new epoch in scientific investigation”. Some 35 authors from the university and experts from Germany and abroad contributed high-quality articles to the detailed compendium

Systematically processed:

Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel,

Four decades of

President of TU Darmstadt

university history.

Organisation

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.-Ing. Mira Mezini Research and innovation Vice President Prof. Dr. Andrea Rapp Scientific infrastructure Vice President Prof. Dr. Matthias Rehahn Knowledge and technology transfer, alumni activities, fundraising

University Council Initiatives on fundamental issues, esp. university development, involvement in management of resources and appointment of new professors, proposal of predential candidates Members Dr. Horst J. Kayser Chief Strategy Officer/Head of Corporate Development Siemens Prof. Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus University of Bielefeld, Department of Chemistry/Physical Chemistry

University Assembly

Senate

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

31 15 10 5

professors students research associates administrative/technical staff

President 10 professors 4 students 3 research associates 3 administrative/technical staff

Prof. Bernd Reckmann Member of the Executive Board, Merck (until 2016) Prof. Ferdi Schüth Director at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, since 2014 Vice President of the Max-Planck-Society 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 Dr. Marie-Luise Wolff Chief Executive Officer ENTEGA AG Darmstadt Prof. Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach Rector, ETH Zurich (until 2012), Professor of Biopharmacy Dr. Holger Zinke Deputy Chairman, Supervisory Board, Brain AG

Summary by Executive Board Facts and figures

People

Research profile

25,840 students (of which 7,650 female)

6 Profile Areas: Cybersecurity

3,924 first-semester undergraduate students

Internet and Digitisation

2,717 first-semester Master’s students

From Material to Product Innovation

256 male professors (of which 15 assistant professors)

Thermo-Fluids & Interfaces

56 female professors (of which 7 assistant professors)

Future Energy Systems

2,557 academic employees (of which 656 female)

Matter and Radiation Science

1,872 non-academic employees (of which 1,131 female) 171 trainees (of which 53 female) 147 graduate assistants (of which 50 female)

1 Profile Topic: Computational Engineering 2 Excellence Graduate Schools:

2,896 student assistants (of which 879 female)

“Computational Engineering” “Energy Science and Engineering”

Campus

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

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

250 hectares of property 164 buildings (incl. 14 rented)

6 LOEWE Clusters of Excellence 11 DFG Collaborative Research Centres/

311,688 square metres of usable space (incl. 17,537 rented)

Transfer Units

Budget EUR 246.5 million basic funds from the State of Hesse (excl. LOEWE) EUR 33.9 million from Bund-Länder-Hochschulpakt (Phase II) EUR 8.1 million other funds EUR 164.7 million third-party funds (incl. LOEWE) Upgrowth of third-party funds

Sources of third-party funds

(in mio EUR)

(in %)

Figures rounded

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2017

Academic Affairs

Highlights 2017 TU Darmstadt opens

fourth school lab: The DLR-School Lab houses experiment rooms for aerospace engineering, information technology, robotics and high-tech materials.

One of the world’s top

100 universities in engineering: TU Darmstadt as rated in the 2017 QS subject ranking.

Number 2: TU graduates are highly valued by employers in Germany and abroad: The QS Graduate Employability Rankings place TU Darmstadt at number 68 worldwide and number 2 among German universities.

2,750 square metres of space for 320 students and 4 research groups: The new “Gerhard Pahl Centre” multifunctional building in the Department

Academic Affairs

of Mechanical Engineering.

30-year tradition: The “What’s behind all this?” lecture series is organised by 6 professors and offers 14 topics each summer semester.

Honest insight

They choose TU Darmstadt because of its reputation and praise the quality of teaching. These are some of the findings of the central survey of all TU students conducted in the summer semester of 2017. Around 21% of them took part in the representative study. Four out of five respondents indicated that the good reputation of their degree programme was the decisive factor in their choice to study at the TU. Nine out of ten students had also received letters of admission from other universities. Almost all of them wish to obtain a Master’s degree, preferably at TU Darmstadt. Two thirds of those surveyed stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the studying conditions. Almost 90% rated the quality of the courses as good or very good. There is room for improvement in the satisfaction ratings with regard to teaching methods. Over half of the students rated the individual design of the study programmes as good or very good. A third of respondents considered there to be an effective link between theory and practice, while another third felt there was room for improvement in this area. 84% of those surveyed said that their degree course helped them become more autonomous and independent; over 60% of students in each case considered their teamwork, cooperation and critical-thinking skills to have been strengthened. 70% “usually really enjoy” taking in the course content. At the same time, one third admit to struggling with motivation. Exam pressure plays a major role here. 80 to 90% of respondents praised the digital infrastructure and the services of the University and State Library.

Preferably a Master’s degree – at TU Darmstadt.

Degree taster

Academic Affairs

A guest of TU Darmstadt today, perhaps enrolled here tomorrow.

They came from all over the world, but there were no language problems. Most of them had attended an overseas German school since Kindergarten. TU Darmstadt hosted 20 young people from 17 countries for its degree taster week. The exchange is hosted each year by one of the TU9 Universities and is geared towards young people who are interested in studying technology and engineering courses. Both sides benefit: The young people get to know the study location and subsequently become ambassadors for Darmstadt and Germany after returning home.

“I like the international aspect, the language, the university, the library. I think Germany’s great.” Edgar from San Salvador

Catalina from Colombia is one such person. Her mum went to German school too. The 17-year-old wants to study mechanical engineering and Darmstadt is on her short-list. Edgar (18) also wishes to study in Germany. He lives in San Salvador and is interested in chemistry. Computer Science Professor Stefan Roth showed the group how computer games can be used in research, for example, in driverless vehicles. Manuel from Bogotá is fascinated with games development and wants to study computer science at one of the TU9 Universities. Tim Neubacher, Specialist Academic Advisor in the Department of Computer Science, explained to the guests the criteria they needed to meet. Finally, the group had “work experience” at Akaflieg – the university flying group. Students presented gliders currently under construction in their workshop.

Journey into the future of technology

How do I control an environmental satellite in space and what do marshmallows have to do with the earth’s atmosphere? These questions are answered for the school classes at the “DLR_School_Lab TU Darmstadt”. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the university worked together to set up the new lab, which has its organisational home at TU Darmstadt’s Centre for Teacher Training (ZfL). Here, young people can experience the exciting world of natural and engineering sciences. Experiments introduce them in a fun way to research in aerospace engineering, information technology and robotics, and to high-tech materials. The control room developed by the European Space Agency’s ESOC satellite control centre, where the students can work as multinational aerospace teams and, for example, guide a robot to a distant celestial body, is a particular highlight. Several TU departments have contributed ideas for experiments: The Department of Materials Science is represented with a furnace for shape memory alloys, the Department of Mechanical Engineering has provided a wind and flow tunnel, and the ESA earth observation programme has supplied measuring equipment from environmental satellites which record changes in vegetation and ocean temperature. Trainee teachers use the didactic concept of inquirybased learning to introduce the young people to complex scientific topics. The lab will also offer in-service training to teachers in future.

School in space: A new lab offers fascinating experiments.

“Technology will become even more important in future, and the digital and analogue worlds will become increasingly integrated. The opening of the DLR_School_Labs at TU Darmstadt marks the beginning of our journey into this future.” Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel, President of TU Darmstadt

“In order to boost Germany’s standing in the long term as a place to do business, we need to get the young people of today excited about the technological developments and challenges of tomorrow. This is precisely where the DLR and TU Darmstadt come in.” German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Brigitte Zypries

Thoughts control machines

Computer science student Karl-Heinz Fiebig.

Academic Affairs

The international Cybathlon championship sees people with physical disabilities complete tasks using advanced assistive devices. To this end, computer science student Karl-Heinz Fiebig and his team developed a system for controlling computers via thought transmission. He wrote his Bachelor’s dissertation on the topic as a result of the hurdles he encountered in the data collection process.

One of the problems is the lengthy nature of the calibration sessions. These sessions pose a challenge when working with brain-computer interfaces. In order to use the EEG cap, which has 128 electrodes for measuring the test person’s brainwave patterns, it is necessary to collect corresponding data for training a learning algorithm. The sessions are designed to record the current status of the brain to allow proper analysis of the collected data. However, set-up can take anything up to three hours. Fiebig developed a statistical approach in order to shorten these time-consuming sessions. In this way,

he not only took research on the subject to a new level, but also made a name for himself at the workshop of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the largest professional association of its kind in the world, in Budapest. He won the IEEE Brain Initiative Best Paper Award for his article “Multi-Task Logistic Regression in BrainComputer Interfaces”, which is based on his Bachelor’s dissertation.

Exceptional “Argonaut”

“That was precisely the appeal of it: Attempting to solve impossible problems in the science and research worlds.” Computer Science Professor Oskar von Stryk Proven capabilities in harsh working realities: TU’s intelligent service robot.

The “Argonauts” team won the ARGOS Challenge for intelligent inspection robots on oil and gas platforms, taking home EUR 500,000 as a result. The group, comprising a team of computer scientists from TU Darmstadt and Vienna-based robotics firm taurob GmbH, beat off competition from Japan, France, Spain and Switzerland with what was the culmination of two and a half years’ intensive development work. Oil company TOTAL had put out a call to develop a special remote-inspection robot to reduce the risk to employees on platform assignments. Professor Oskar von Stryk, project manager for the Darmstadt developer group and Head of the Simulation, Systems Optimization and Robotics Group, had been working on the Argonaut with colleagues and students since September 2014. It was the most complex task to date set for an intelligent service robot in an industrial environment.

An oil and gas platform is exposed to extreme weather conditions. It had to be possible for a human being to take remote control at any time and then for the robot to subsequently continue autonomous operation without any problems. This kind of autonomous model had not previously existed in research or on the market. At the competition in France, the Argonaut took on the multi-storey test facility and proved its ability to check measuring equipment and valves using its cameras and sensors, deal with unexpected obstacles and problems and a platform alarm, and transmit the results to a human operator. The Argonaut could also be employed in the chemical industry or to save human lives. The prize money will be used for future research projects.

Ten years of Mundus Urbano

Academic Affairs

International, of course: Excursion to Athens.

The “International Cooperation in Urban Development – Mundus Urbano” is a Master’s degree programme characterised by internationality, interdisciplinarity and a unique structure. The English-language postgraduate course is jointly offered by a consortium of European universities and leads to a double degree. It is offered in Darmstadt by the Department of Architecture and funded by the “Urban Planning and Development” research group. The goal is to train experts for development cooperation in countries undergoing rapid urbanisation. In the first year of study at the TU, international visiting professors introduce students to the basics of urban planning, urban development, management and international cooperation. For the second year of study, students transfer to one of the partner universities, based on their chosen specialisation. Development economics at the Università degli

Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, disaster assistance and rebuilding at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC) in Barcelona, and urban planning at the Université Grenoble Alpes in Grenoble. This is made possible through admission to the European Union’s prestigious Erasmus Mundus study programme. Mundus Urbano students were part of the TU Darmstadt team that won the international Designing Resilience In Asia competition for the third successive time, beating teams from ten other universities. The Urban Design Excellence Award, presented annually by the National University of Singapore, challenges architecture and urban planning students to develop planning solutions for regions of Asia heavily affected by natural disasters in order to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Printing in the third dimension

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have a problem: Too much gas is escaping from an oxygen valve. The valve needs to be shut off as quickly as possible, but there is no adjustment knob or torque wrench to be found. Fortunately, there are a 3D scanner and a 3D printer on board. This was the scenario faced by eight students from the 3D printing tutorial at the Institute of Printing Science and Technology within the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

3D printers can be used to produce adapted, complex components quickly and at relatively low cost. Nonetheless, “you can’t just print anything you want with a 3D printer. You also have to be able to build it,” stresses course leader Vinzenz Nienhaus. One option is to use 3D scanners. However, these are not easy to operate, which is why the tutorial timetable includes instruction on how to use the different models.

The tutorial teaches three different 3D printing processes and their unique features – selective laser sintering uses a laser to sinter powdered material, fused filament fabrication fuses plastic filament, and stereolithography solidifies resin. Fields of application range from printing ceramic teeth to intricate plastic components.

“Through our tutorial, we want to help familiarise future engineers with the strengths of this technology.” Vinzenz Nienhaus, Course Leader and doctoral candidate

Student tinkering: Build first, then print.

Launching careers

Job shadowing is effective.

Shadowing for a day In order to provide students with clarity regarding their career choices and put them in touch with potential employers, former TU students are sharing their experience as part of a new job shadowing programme. Students shadow alumni for one day at their workplace. Through observation and personal dialogue, they become familiar with a particular working environment in a short space of time. The tandems are arranged by the TU’s central Alumni Management service.

“The time spent together was extremely positive. We provided a comprehensive overview of the company.” Frank Schulz, alumnus of the Department of Mathematics

Academic Affairs

and software engineer at the PTV Group

“For me, the day was a complete success. Even in such a short space of time, I was able to gain quite a good idea of the tasks involved in the project.” Job shadow

Straight to a meeting Career Days provide students with an initial opportunity to meet and talk with companies. The new format offers a relaxed atmosphere for students and doctoral candidates to network with experts and managers. Staff from a range of business sectors are on hand to answer questions and provide information. The first Career Days were designed by the firms Essity and Opel.

Double points TU Darmstadt now offers some 40 double degree programmes in cooperation with partner universities worldwide. These programmes allow students to obtain two qualifications in parallel and get to know two academic systems, languages and cultures. They are a stepping stone to international careers. Double degree programmes are a key part of TU Darmstadt’s internationalisation strategy.

Finding a job quickly A third of them have gained experience abroad as part of their studies and, on average, it takes them just three to four months of searching to find their first permanent full-time position that fits their skills profile: These are the findings of the survey of graduates who left TU Darmstadt in 2015 with a Master’s degree in engineering or the sciences. Four in five science alumni and three in four engineering alumni would study at the TU again.

Courses offered by TU Darmstadt

111

degree programmes

departments

fields of study

Bachelor

Master

Applied Geosciences Applied Mechanics Architecture Building Technology Biology Biomolecular Engineering Business Engineering – Technical Field of Studies • Civil Engineering • Electrical Engineering and Information Technology • Mechanical Engineering Business Information Systems Chemistry Civil Engineering and Geodesy Computational Engineering Computer Science Digital Philology Electrical Engineering and Information Technology History with a Focus on Modern History Information Systems Technology Materials Science Mathematics Mechanical Engineering – Mechanical and Process Eng. Mechatronics Pedagogy Physics Political Science Psychology Psychology in IT Sociology Sports Science and Computer Science Bachelor of Education Building Technology Body Care Chemical Engineering Computer Science Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Metal Engineering Joint Bachelor of Arts Business Administration and Economics Computer Science Digital Philology German Studies History Musical Culture Philosophy Political Science Sociology Sports Science

Applied Geosciences Architecture Autonomous Systems Biomolecular Engineering Business Engineering – Technical Field of Studies • Civil Engineering • Electrical Engineering and Information Technology • Mechanical Engineering Business Information Systems Chemistry Civil Engineering Computational Engineering Computer Science Distributed Software Systems Educational Sciences – Education in Processes of Global Technologicalisation Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Energy Science and Engineering Environmental Engineering German Linguistics Geodesy and Geoinformation Governance and Public Policy History Information and Communication Engineering Information Systems Technology International Cooperation in Urban Development International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research Internet and Web-based Systems IT Security Linguistic and Literary Computing Materials Science Mathematics Mechanical Engineering – Mechanical and Process Eng. Mechanics Mechatronics Paper Science and Technology – paper technology and biobased fiber materials Philosophy Physics Political Therory Psychology Psychology in IT Sociology Sports Management Sports Science and Computer Science Technology and Philosophy Technical Biology Traffic and Transport Tropical Hydrogeology and Environmental Engineering (TropHEE) Visual Computing

Lehramt an Gymnasien Biology Chemistry Computer Science German Studies History Mathematics Philosophy/Ethics Physics Sports

Master of Education Catholic Religion Computer Science Ethics German History Mathematics Physics Politics and Economics Protestant Religion Sports Science winter semester 2017/18

25,840

6,641

8,679

Students

Students in first subject-related semester in 2017

Master’s students

Students Departments

Total

Women in %

Foreigners * in %

of which Master’s **

of which Master’s in %

Law and Economics

3,338

20 %

13 %

954

29 %

History and Social Sciences

2,815

52 %

886

31 %

Human Sciences

1,356

62 %

430

32 %

Mathematics

889

34 %

265

30 %

Physics

1,163

21 %

216

19 %

Chemistry

1,093

38 %

280

26 %

Biology

831

60 %

196

24 %

Materials and Earth Sciences

1,121

30 %

26 %

431

38 %

Civil and Environmental Engineering

2,347

37 %

17 %

777

33 %

Architecture

1,401

55 %

28 %

637

45 %

Mechanical Engineering

2,958

13 %

19 %

1,113

38 %

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology

1,969

13 %

38 %

695

35 %

Computer Science

3,578

13 %

25 %

1,261

35 %

Mechanics

194

19%

21 %

45 %

Computational Engineering

258

17 %

14 %

38 %

Information Systems Engineering

247

10 %

14 %

28 %

Mechatronics

160

34 %

160

100 %

Energy Science and Engineering

122

30 %

24 %

122

100 %

Total

25,840

30 %

18 %

8,679

34 %

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 2017/18. / * 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

Academic Affairs Facts and figures

Students in first subject-related semester

Undergraduate degree courses*

Master’s degree courses **

Departments

Total

Women in %

Foreigners *** in %

Total

Women in %

Foreigners. *** in %

Law and Economics

681

20 %

10 %

299

24 %

History and Social Sciences

386

51 %

282

60 %

14 %

Human Sciences

165

75 %

13 %

136

53 %

Mathematics

127

38 %

37 %

10 %

Physics

339

38 %

12 %

Chemistry

144

33 %

39 %

Biology

165

59 %

68 %

Materials and Earth Sciences

117

31 %

10 %

125

38 %

Civil and Environmental Engineering

390

34 %

16 %

247

42 %

15 %

Architecture

159

60 %

13 %

224

52 %

29 %

Mechanical Engineering

267

15 %

22 %

344

17 %

22 %

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology

297

11 %

20 %

244

20 %

63 %

Computer Science

570

16 %

14 %

303

14 %

19 %

Mechanics

20 %

Computational Engineering

17 %

18 %

27 %

Information Systems Engineering

22 %

11 %

24 %

Mechatronics

31 %

Energy Science and Engineering Total

38 %

26 %

2.717

33 %

21 %

Fields of Study

3.924

31 %

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 2017 + winter semester 2017/18. / * Bachelor’s at university, Bachelor of Education, Joint Bachelor, Lehramt an Gymnasien **Master’s at university, Master of Education ***Foreigners refer here to all individuals with foreign citizenship, even if they obtained their university entrance qualifications in Germany.

University and State Library 2017

1.38 million visitors 592,000 users of the reading room

537,700 items borrowed 18,100 requests for information Around 4.66 million: the number of individual pages of the digital collection accessed Around 1.1 million: the number of times the library's publication service (TUprints) was accessed

Collection: 4.6 million printed works, of which 2.29 million are books and journals

500,000 electronic media (excluding magazines)

27,900 continuously published journals, of which 25,300 are electronic

13,695 manuscripts 3.51 million euros of expenditure on acquisitions, of which almost three quarters on electronic media

211 books and 137 graphics restored 27

International students* at TU Darmstadt Total of 3,452 from 118 countries in winter semester 2017/18, including ... China India Pakistan Iran Tunesia Turkey Syria Cameroon Russian Fed. Bulgaria Brazil Colombia Vietnam Egypt South Korea

826 337 185 145 135 118

2,004

94 84 80 74 69 64 63 57 54

793

Europe Asia

389

262 America

Africa

Australia

* Students who obtained their university entrance qualifications outside of Germany.

Degree courses in highest demand Top 5 Bachelor’s degree courses for international students*

Top 5 Bachelor’s degree courses Subject

Number of students

Subject

Number of students

Computer Science

2,060

Mechanical Engineering

163

Mechanical Engineering

1,498

Computer Science

140

Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

1,101

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

123

Civil Engineering and Geodesy

981

Architecture

680

Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

Academic Affairs Facts and figures

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Top 5 Master’s degree courses for international students*

Top 5 Master’s degree courses Subject

Number of students

Subject

Number of students

Mechanical Engineering

1,098

Distributed Software Systems

405

Architecture

587

238

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

527

Mechanical Engineering

188

Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

519

Information and Communication Engineering

164

Computer Science

509

Architecture

139

Source: Data Warehouse; excludes individuals with leave of absence and those on second degree courses, winter semester 2017/18.

4,313

Doctorates total: 440 / Women: 23 % / Foreigners*: 18 %

graduates in 2016

Departments Law and Economics total: 30 / Women: 17 % / Foreigners: 0 % History and Social Sciences total: 23 / Women: 57 % / Foreigners: 13 %

12%

Human Sciences total: 5 / Women: 80 % / Foreigners: 0 %

of students studying for Bachelor degrees are foreign nationals.

Mathematics total: 14 / Women: 21 % / Foreigners: 14 % Physics total: 36 / Women: 17 % / Foreigners: 19 %

3,578

Chemistry total: 57 / Women: 32 % / Foreigners: 23 %

With students, Computer Science is the most popular department at TU Darmstadt.

Biology total: 17 / Women: 41 % / Foreigners: 12 %

Source: Data Warehouse /data: graduation in 2016 calendar year; â&#x20AC;&#x153;headsâ&#x20AC;?, 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. **Excluding PhD graduates. The diagram still contains Diploma and Magister qualifications so that the number may be larger than the sum of the Bachelor, Masters and teaching qualifications *** includes Joint Bachelor, except Bachelor of Education **** except Master of Education ***** Lehramt an Gymnasien, Bachelor of Education, Master of Education

Materials and Earth Sciences total: 41 / Women: 34 % / Foreigners: 27 % Civil and Environmental Engineering total: 32 / Women: 31 % / Foreigners: 9 % Architecture total: 6 / Women: 33 % / Foreigners: 0 %

38%

Mechanical Engineering total: 96 / Women: 9 % / Foreigners: 15 %

of students in the department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology are foreign nationals.

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology total: 42 / Women: 12 % / Foreigners: 26 % Computer Science total: 41 / Women: 10 % / Foreigners: 34 %

25%

of students studying for Master's degrees are foreign nationals.

Graduations Graduates (total)**

Graduates (Bachelor)***

Graduates (Master)****

Graduates (teaching degrees)*****

Departments

total

Women Foreigners* in % in %

total

Women Foreigners* in % in %

total

Women Foreigners* in % in %

total

Women Foreign.* in % in %

Law and Economics

465

18 %

275

20 %

190

15 %

10 %

History and Social Sciences

464

59 %

169

57 %

12 %

178

57 %

10 %

63 %

Human Sciences

248

65 %

11 %

71 %

10 %

66 %

10 %

70 %

Mathematics

186

33 %

11 %

28 %

62 %

Physics

199

13 %

104

12 %

33 %

11 %

Chemistry

185

41 %

45 %

32 %

60 %

Biology

115

60 %

62 %

56 %

72 %

Materials and Earth Sciences

162

29 %

21 %

29 %

106

29 %

31 %

Civil and Environmental Engineering

444

37 %

13 %

219

37 %

10 %

207

37 %

15 %

Architecture

325

61 %

22 %

160

57 %

17 %

149

67 %

30 %

33 %

Mechanical Engineering

664

13 %

16 %

305

15 %

11 %

342

11 %

20 %

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology 320

12 %

41 %

139

21 %

173

15 %

59 %

Computer Science

375

12 %

27 %

137

236

14 %

38 %

Mechanics

22 %

15 %

15%

15 %

29 %

14 %

Computational Engineering

27 %

10 %

29 %

23 %

15 %

Information Systems Engineering

0% 10 %

14 %

Mechatronics

36 30

30 %

10 %

30 %

Energy Science and Engineering

17 %

Total

4,313

31 %

15 %

2,051

28 %

21 %

210

61 %

Fields of Study

1,904

31 %

10 %

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2017

Research

Highlights 2017 EUR 4 million Construction costs for new demonstration labs in the Department of Computer Science: The old main building is home to the research activities of the Telecooperation Group, the Simulation, Systems Optimization and Robotics Group, the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group, the Visual Inference Lab and the collaborative research centre “Multi-MechanismAdaptation for the Future Internet”.

4 years: The German

48 months: The “TRR 129 Oxyflame”

Research Foundation continues to fund the transregional collaborative

collaborative research centre will continue to be

research centre “Droplet Dynamics Under Extreme

funded by the German

Ambient Conditions”.

Research Foundation. It

As part of its research work,

focuses on finding highly

the centre examines the impact of supercooled

efficient, environmentally friendly ways of burning coal and biomass.

droplets on aircraft components and the behaviour of fuel sprays in new combustion systems.

Number 3 in Europe: The Department of Law and Economics was

Combustion Engines

rated number 3 in Europe

and Powertrain Systems

and number 16 in the

Research

has published

publication activities in the

10 academic articles

Research Ranking of the

on oxymethylene ethers

Association for Information

(OMEs) since 2015.

world for its research and

The Institute for Internal

Systems.

Of neutron stars and supercomputers

Puzzle pieces in cosmic jigsaw Gold and silver are a mystery to physicists such as Professor Robert Roth from the Institute for Nuclear Physics. They do not know how the valuable materials came into existence. After all, elements cannot grow on the inside of stars if they are heavier than iron. While cosmic disasters such as supernovae release sufficient neutrons to form heavy nuclei, physicists do not yet understand what holds smaller groups of neutrons together to allow them to subsequently form a nucleus. “We need to know how neutrons interact with each other under such extreme conditions,” says Roth. Some initial progress has been made: Using computer simulations, the Darmstadt team was able to explain why a cluster of four neutrons, known as a tetraneutron, could exist for a short period of time. The physicists are now investigating other exotic nuclei, such as hypernuclei, which contain hyperons in addition to neutrons and protons. In this way, they are attempting to understand how neutron stars, that is, collections of neutrons the size of planets, arise.

Professor of Physics Robert Roth.

Top processing power TU Darmstadt is using EUR 15 million from the German Government and Länder programme for research buildings to expand the Lichtenberg High Performance Computer. The computer will primarily be used to investigate complex engineering applications and natural phenomena, the modelling, analysis and simulation of which require high processing power. One quarter of the existing processing time is available to applicants throughout Germany. During the first stage of expansion, the processing power of the existing Lichtenberg High Performance Computer will be more than doubled and its energy efficiency reviewed. Lichtenberg II will contribute to energy-efficient development on the Lichtwiese campus, which will use the waste heat from the computer.

Enzymes for green chemistry

Classic chemical processes involve organic solvents, high temperatures, excess pressure in some cases and precious metal catalysts in many cases. WolfDieter Fessner, Professor of Organic Chemistry at TU Darmstadt, and his team show that things can also work differently: They are developing enzymes for the chemical industry. These natural catalysts can even facilitate complex syntheses under mild conditions in water and at room temperature. Fessner coordinates the EU CarbaZymes project, which involves a total of 14 research institutions and companies from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Croatia and England. The partners in the consortium project are focusing on enzymes for forming carbon-carbon bonds, an area of industrial biocatalyst research that Fessner says is still underdeveloped: “For a long time, the required enzymes were considered to be too specific and therefore not applicable in industrial contexts.” Fessner and his colleagues are looking for versatile enzymes. They extract them by fermentation from coliform bacteria and can change and optimise them using molecular biology methods such as artificial gene sequence implantation.

Research

Biocatalysts, which do not occur naturally in coliform bacteria, can also be produced in this way. Fessner already holds several patents for enzymatic processes, and two patent applications have also been submitted from the CarbaZymes project.

“Nature has chemistry under control. It performs optimal catalysis.” Wolf-Dieter Fessner, Professor of Organic Chemistry

Professor of Chemistry Wolf-Dieter Fessner.

Mathematics and computer science

Reducing complexity for new applications Mathematicians are constantly looking for ways of reducing particularly tricky problems to simpler ones. This is the goal of the new LOEWE research focus “Uniformized Structures in Arithmetic and Geometry”, which sees mathematics teams from TU Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt combining their expertise. The researchers are simplifying geometric shapes, for example by unfolding doughnuts into a single plane. This is a promising approach, as threedimensional shapes represent the solutions to complicated equations. Simplifying the geometry also simplifies the solution to the equation. The complexity of the geometrics under investigation knows no bounds. For example, the number of their dimensions is not limited to the three spatial directions. “We’re carrying out basic research and are still a stage away from application,” stressed Professor Jan Hendrik Bruinier, the research unit’s spokesman. “However, our research could also be put to practical use,” says Bruinier, for example in the encryption of data or in error detection and correction during data transmission. Mathematics Professor Jan Hendrik Bruinier.

Software for industry Having high-quality software available when you need it is a key success factor for companies and economic areas and is also necessary for everyday life in modern societies. Radical changes in industrial production processes (think Industry 4.0) and the electronic processing of information (think big data) require the development of suitable software systems.

Correspondingly, the LOEWE research focus „Software-Factory 4.0” is pursuing a complementary approach: The targeted and largely automated adaptation of existing software to new requirements and a changed technical framework unlocks the possibility of offering suitable software more quickly. The LOEWE research focus is coordinated by Computer Science Professor Heiko Mantel and is being funded to the tune of EUR 4.8 million.

United against organised hackers

Casting the nets In order to better understand the tactics of cybercriminals, Professor Max Mühlhäuser and his team put out bait in the form of computers that record digital attacks. Analysing this information should help to level the playing field. While criminals use a well organised infrastructure of botnets comprising thousands of hijacked computers to conduct mass, distributed attacks, victims are often left isolated, as they keep the attacks to themselves. “If patterns of attack were discussed more often, then this would allow the next victim to respond early on and prevent damage,” says Florian Volk from TU Darmstadt’s cybersecurity profile area team. The researchers are now developing a tool to enable companies to share information with one another on attacks without disclosing knowledge about their own IT infrastructure. The tool creates a type of digital fingerprint of the attack, which the companies share and which warns them if they become a target themselves. This would provide for a defensive approach that is as broadly based as the offensive approach.

Research

Future encryption

In mid-2017, over 150 IT security experts came together in Germany at the invitation of the TU’s collaborative research centre CROSSING. Attendees included companies such as Cisco, Google, Intel and Snapchat, as well as leading researchers in the field of IT security. The conference focused on new encryption techniques. Such techniques are urgently required, as advancing digitalisation means that humans and the systems they use are increasingly becoming targets of cyber-criminals, who conduct their attacks from far away and automatically. The problem is intensifying with the development of quantum computers, for which many of the encryption technologies used at present are no longer effective. The researchers involved in CROSSING are examining alternative cryptographic methods.

Clearly visible: Global hacking attacks every second.

Emergency communication The federal state of Hesse is providing another EUR 700,000 in funding for the LOEWE research cluster NICER (Networked Infrastructureless Cooperation for Emergency Response). The teams are researching how infrastructureless information and communication technology can connect affected parties and support staff in the event of a crisis.

Three questions for ...

... Thomas Weitin, Professor for German Studies and Digital Philology, and Head of a lab for digital text analysis and cognitive research experiments. What are you investigating in the Reading at Scale project? Our approach attempts to overcome the unproductive animosity between traditional humanities scholars and those working in the digital sphere. People imagine that you can switch back and forth continuously between human reading and computer analysis of large amounts of text. This contradicts our experience. We believe that, when it comes to text analysis, you always need to opt for a specific scale or level of abstraction. However, there is a cost to this. For example, if I only represent texts in terms of their word frequency, while I may be able to compare many texts, I lose almost all connection between word and text. How then can traditional reading be combined with digital analysis? There is no silver bullet here. Those who have achieved philological breakthroughs thanks to specific quantitative approaches always knew a great deal about the respective texts and corpora. This has helped us a great deal. In joint interdisciplinary work on medium-sized text volumes, we can very effectively link together a range of abstract text representations in a complementary way.

Experiment headed up by Professor Thomas Weitin.

Who will benefit from your research? I believe that our project will help to narrow the yawning gap between expertise in text analysis and expertise in data analysis, something I consider a major societal problem.

Serving the environment

Better diesel catalysts As part of her Master’s dissertation, Anna Schmidt, now a doctoral candidate in the Institute for Reactive Flows and Diagnostics, developed a sensor to aid the development of improved diesel catalysts. There is a problem that results here from the urea solution AdBlue, a diesel exhaust fluid which is injected to detoxify the nitrogen oxide. The solution collects opposite the injection point, evaporates due to the high temperatures and then forms solid deposits, reducing the effect of the catalyst. In extreme cases, this even leads to the channels of the subsequent catalyst chambers becoming blocked. It has not been possible until now to investigate how the AdBlue film develops, how thick it is and what injection technique can be used to prevent it developing. For the first time, Schmidt’s sensor measures the thickness of the film in the flue. It works perfectly in the model system and is now set to be tested on a rig. While the sensor will not be used directly in the car in future, it should help to optimise the injection technology for catalyst development.

Results-oriented: Doctoral candidate Anna Schmidt.

Research

Option for diesel Professor Christian Beidl, Head of the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Powertrain Systems at TU Darmstadt, is convinced that synthetic fuels such as oxymethylene ethers (OMEs) could give diesel engines a viable future. His team has found that, while OMEs reduce energy density, they enable soot-free combustion and increase engine efficiency. The expert sees two scenarios for use, the first as an additive for comprehensive use on the market and within the existing infrastructure, and the second for niche application on ships and trains and in agricultural vehicles.

“We now know that oxymethylene ethers have exceptional properties.” Professor Christian Beidl, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Three questions for ...

... Professor Susanne Lackner. Professor Lackner heads up the Institute of Wastewater Engineering at TU Darmstadt. Her goal is to sustainably protect water resources through interdisciplinary research. Professor Lackner, what are the challenges facing your research group at present? We still have a great deal to do in terms of basic research. We do not yet have sufficient knowledge of the microbiological population in our wastewater treatment plants. These complex, diverse communities ensure that pollutants are eliminated from the water. We are particularly concerned with achieving a deeper understanding of nitrogen decomposition. Ultimately, the goal is to engineer these processes in such a way that they minimise pollution in wastewater.

Susanne Lackner, Professor and Environmental Engineer.

What topics are still at the forefront of wastewater treatment? In Germany, discussion of the elimination of trace substances is becoming increasingly concrete. The state of Hesse has already pushed ahead with further measures for phosphate elimination. And microplastics and resistant germs are now a major topic. We are currently investigating the most suitable process technologies for use in addressing these issues. On an overall level, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m also seeing a paradigm shift right now in the wastewater industry towards water reuse and resource recycling. You also conduct research on this topic in developing countries. Yes, in Namibia, for example. When it comes to water management, these countries have far more existential problems to address than we do. There is a need for individual solutions here. We should conduct interdisciplinary discussion at international level of the situations for which we treat wastewater and the time and effort involved in the process. And we should also involve local people in such a way that they can subsequently take ownership of their own water management processes.

From the insect and plant kingdom

Research

Skilled: The newly discovered Nymphister kronaueri species of beetle allows itself to be transported on the back of the army ant.

Hitching a lift on ants

Assisting the ecosystem

Biologists from TU Darmstadt and researchers from the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. have together discovered a new species of beetle: Nymphister kronaueri can be transported on the back of the army ant, having a deceptively similar appearance to the antâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s abdomen. Published in the journal BMC Zoology, the study shows that the beetles primarily use their powerful mandibles to attach themselves to medium-sized ants and thus hitch a ride on them. The newly discovered beetles were only observed on a single species of army ant. However, they are in good company, as silverfish, mites, flies and many other small animals also allow themselves to be transported by the ant.

More flowers, better pollination, larger fruit: The removal of invading exotic plants as part of ecosystem restoration work has a deeper impact than was previously thought. After just a short period of time, the plant-pollinator network becomes more robust. This has been shown by a large field study on the Seychelles, which was published by TU Darmstadt biologists in the journal Nature.

The study was conducted in a tropical rainforest region of Costa Rica. The new species was named after army ant researcher Daniel Kronauer.

Mite defends itself with hydrogen cyanide As explained in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America by an interdisciplinary team coordinated by TU Darmstadt, the domestic oribatid mite is a skilled poisoner: It uses hydrogen cyanide to defend itself against predators â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a small sensation, as the poison is not otherwise found in the arsenal of the 80,000 known species of arachnid and is in any case a rarity in the animal kingdom.

Critical urban infrastructure

Electronic markets

Cities rely on electricity and water supplies, information and communication technology, public transport and many other kinds of infrastructure. External hazards such as natural disasters, terror attacks and cyber attacks are not the only triggers for malfunction and, by extension, serious crises. The growing complexity and connectivity of the systems also pose risks.

The German Research Foundation is providing EUR 560,000 in funding for two projects in the Department of Law and Economics. Professor Alexander Benlian is investigating the impact of re-regulated access to crowdfunding platforms on the digital ecosystem and whether IT certificates reduce buyer uncertainty on electronic markets.

Early career researchers in the interdisciplinary Research Training Group KRITIS â&#x20AC;&#x153;Critical Infrastructures: Construction, Function Failures, and Protection in Citiesâ&#x20AC;? are investigating critical urban infrastructures and ways of preventing functional interruptions and preparing for crises. How do we identify which infrastructures are critical? What factors pose a risk to such infrastructures? And how can they be protected? These and similar questions are being examined by 12 doctoral candidates from the humanities, social sciences and engineering sciences. KRITIS is focused on all systems for supply, waste disposal, communication and transport, taking account of technical, political, social and cultural aspects. It places particular attention on spatial and temporal correlations and has a strong practical emphasis.

Cities are vulnerable to crises: A case for research.

Tiny structures

Stop and go in potassium channels Cells require closable channels in order to interact with the environment. Dr. Indra Schröder from the Department of Membrane Biophysics at TU Darmstadt has discovered a surprisingly simple closing mechanism. She investigated two potassium channels with a similar structure, but different opening probabilities. One channel is almost always closed, the other almost always open. The potassium channel with the low opening probability possesses the amino acid serine at a critical point. This amino acid interacts with a remote amino acid, which forces the channel pore to bend. This curve folds another amino acid into the transport route that closes the tunnel. For the potassium channel with the high opening probability, the amino acid serine was replaced by the amino acid glycine. Glycine does not force the channel pore to bend. “So the closing mechanism consists only of two amino acids,” explains Schröder. “One amino acid closes the channel, the other controls the process. We had been expecting a far more complicated closing mechanism.”

Embossing with diamonds

Research

Dr. Indra Schröder in the lab.

“The embossing process makes it possible to produce finer structures on metallic surfaces than would be possible with laser techniques.” Professor Karsten Durst, research group Physical Metallurgy

A team of materials scientists headed by TU Professor Karsten Durst from the research group Physical Metallurgy is embossing nano-patterns in metals. The researchers produce the structures, invisible to the naked eye, using a tiny stamp made of diamond clamped in a special device known as a nanoindenter. A similar technique is already used to equip plastic chips with microscopic channels and other structures. By contrast, metal embossing has so far only been used at far larger scales for things such as minting coins. Durst and his colleagues are developing suitably hard and finely structured stamps. The microstructure of the metal has to be just right to ensure that it can be properly embossed. The technique is not yet ready for industrial application, but it could be used in future for such purposes as giving metallic surfaces permanent functionality, for example a lotus effect.

Buttons from a printing machine

Fully charged

Printing pads are used to transfer individual layers of the illuminating symbol to three-dimensional surfaces.

The illuminated buttons on bus doors can be difficult for older passengers to see at night. As part of the “Electroluminescence display in capacitive sensor technology (ELSE)” project, a team headed by Dr. Martin Sauer from TU Darmstadt’s Institute of Printing Science and Technology (IDD) developed an innovative process for printing luminescent materials that light up gently when voltage is applied. The project was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the initiative “KMU-innovativ: Photonik/Optische Technologien”. Partners included the company EvoBus. The challenge was to apply the luminescent material as evenly as possible so that the layer acts as a capacitor. The researchers opted for the pad printing technique, which is well suited to products with

Germany’s first test route with an overhead contact line for hybrid HGVs runs for five kilometres along the A5 Autobahn between Darmstadt and Frankfurt am Main. The TU’s Institute of Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering will provide research support for the field experiment, which is being conducted by the federal state of Hesse with funding from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. The overhead contact line allows road freight vehicles to charge their batteries for electric drive.

uneven surfaces. An elastic pad made of silicone rubber absorbs colour from a print form and transfers it to the object. The only thing was that nobody had attempted this with luminescent material before. “We converted a conventional printing press and fitted it with an electric precision drive and measuring probes,” says Sauer. Furthermore, the finished button is intended to last for ten years on the buses – without the brightness changing greatly during this time. Additionally, the flexibility of the process means that buttons can be printed for other applications, for instance in hospitals, without adjusting the system.

Perfectly insulated

In addition to slowing the rate of heat transfer, building insulation should also be fireproof, cost-effective and sustainable. A mineral foam meeting all of these criteria has been developed by TU Professor Eddie Koenders and his team of researchers at the Institute of Construction and Building Materials. They churn water with a small amount of a surfactant in a generator and mix the foam with a cement paste to the required consistency. The mixture sets to create a light, mineral insulating material. It can be poured in liquid form directly into the building element requiring insulation or cast in a mould. Albrecht Gilka-Bötzow, a research associate in Koenders’ team, investigated the best methods and additives for producing the foam in his doctoral thesis. The material has also passed the practical test,

having been used to insulate the prefabricated components of the ETA Factory, an energy-efficient model factory on the Lichtwiese campus. The researchers now intend to replace the cement with geopolymers, which, in addition to being just as heat resistant as cement, are more environmentally friendly thanks to their lower global warming potential. Koenders advocates taking greater account of the entire life cycle of insulating material when designing buildings. In addition to operating cost savings, account should be taken of the energy used in the manufacture and disposal of the insulating material. From this point of view, mineral foam would become more competitive.

Research

All set for the future: liquid mineral foam.

“Statutory requirements for insulating materials still take insufficient account of sustainability considerations.” Professor Eddie Koenders, Institute of Construction and Building Materials

Optimised technology

Clean capture technology Greenhouse gas reduction is one of the key goals of climate-change mitigation. With the SCARLET project, Professor Bernd Epple from TU Darmstadt’s Institute for Energy Systems and Technology (EST) and his German and international partners have laid the foundations for industrial application of the carbonate looping process, which captures over 90% of the carbon emissions generated from fossil-fuel combustion. Using measurements from a 1 MW test facility, Epple and his team have developed scaling tools for industrial plants. They have shown that the process is more cost effective and energy efficient than conventional procedures. They even developed a full pilot facility with a 20 MW output for the Émile Huchet coal-fired power station in Saint-Avold, France. Epple is emphatic: “SCARLET has taken the carbonate looping process one big step closer to market readiness. Retrofitting existing power plants and industrial facilities with this technology would allow them to operate in a far more environmentally friendly way.”

More powerful magnets While samarium-cobalt-based permanent magnets containing iron and other additives were discovered over 50 years ago, their underlying atomic mechanism remained a mystery. TU Professor Oliver Gutfleisch and his colleagues from the Department of Functional Materials investigated the impact of iron content on the microstructure of the magnets. They showed that iron controls the formation of a diamond-like structure which is particularly effective in withstanding demagnetisation. The findings, which were published in the journal Nature Communications, are aiding the development of more powerful permanent magnets able to operate at high temperatures for technical application in sensors and satellite control.

Successful pollutant capture in the pilot facility.

Top-Level Research

Federal Government

Excellence Initiative

BMBF-Programme for Collaborative Research

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

FAIR-NuStar3

Graduate Schools Computational Engineering Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Michael Schäfer Darmstadt Graduate School of Energy Science and Engineering Coordinators: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Janicka, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Jaegermann

Kopernikus-Projects for the Energy Transition: Project SynErgie – Manufacturing Engineering Project ENavi – Energy Transition Navigation System Project ENSURE – New Power Grid Structures

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

LOEWE LOEWE Research Focuses Building with paper Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Samuel Schabel Ion conducting Nanopores Coordinators: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Ensinger, Prof. Dr. Bodo Laube Computer-assisted design methods for complex Genetic circuits Coordinators: Prof. Dr. Beatrix Süß, Prof. Dr. Heinz Koeppl Resource-Efficient Permanent Magnets by Optimized Use of Rare Earths Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Oliver Gutfleisch Networked Infrastructureless Cooperation of Emergency Response Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hollick Always Online? Local Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Steinmetz

Research Facts and figures

Emmy Noether Early Career Research Groups

Topochemical fluorination in the context of fluoride ion batteries, tailored properties and for the modification of thin films Head: Dr. Oliver Clemens, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences ConcSys: Reliable and Efficient Complex, Concurrent Software Systems Head: Dr. Michael Pradel Department of Computer Science

The Academies’ Programme Academy of Sciences and Literature 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)

Federal Government / Hessian State CRISP – Center of Research in Security and Privacy

European Union (EU)

European Research Council (ERC) 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 ERC Starting Grant SKILLS4ROBOTS – Policy Learning of Motor Skills for Humanoid Robots Prof. Dr. Jan Peters Autonomous Systems Labs, Department of Computer Science 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 ERC Starting Grant Pho-T-Lyze – Photonic Terahertz Signal Analyzers Prof. Dr. Sascha Preu Terahertz System Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology ERC Consolidator Grant Il-E-Cat – Enhancing electrocatalysis in low temperature fuel cells by ionic liquid modification Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bastian Etzold, Department of Chemistry ERC Consolidator Grant LIVESOFT – Lightweight Verification of Software Prof. Dr.-Ing. Patrick T. Eugster Research Group Distributed Systems Programming, Department of Computer Science

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks 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

Joint Research Projects 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 CarbaZymes – Sustainable Industrial Processes based on a C-C bond-forming Enzyme Platform Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Fessner Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry Mundus URBANO Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Rudolph-Cleff Research Group Urban Design and Development, Department of Architecture

ERC Consolidator Grant STRONGINT – The strong interaction at neutron rich extremes Prof. Achim Schwenk, Ph.D. EMMI Professor of Theoretical Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics 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 Advanced Grant GLOBAL-HOT – A Global History of Technology 1850-2000 Prof. Dr. Mikael Hård Institute of History, Department of History and Social Sciences ERC Advanced Grant cool innov – Turning the concept of magnetocaloric cooling on its head Prof. Dr. Oliver Gutfleisch Institute of Functional Materials, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences

German Research Foundation

Collaborative Research Centres 666 Integral Sheet Metal Design with Higher Order Bifurcations Spokesperson: 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 Spokesperson: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Pelz Institute for Fluid Systems, Department of Mechanical Engineering 1053 MAKI – Multi-Mechanisms Adaptation for the Future Internet Spokesperson: 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 Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchmann Research Group Theoretical Computer Science, Department of Computer Science 1194 Interaction between Transport and Wetting Processes Spokesperson: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Stephan Institute for Technical Thermodynamics Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research Facts and figures

1245 Nuclei: From fundamental Interactions to Structures and Stars Spokesperson: Prof. Achim Schwenk, Ph.D. Theory Centre, Department of Physics

TRR 75 Droplet Dynamics Under Extreme Ambient Conditions Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Weigand University of Stuttgart, Institute of Aerospace Thermodynamics Deputy Spokesperson: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Cameron Tropea TU Darmstadt, Institute for Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics, Department of Mechanical Engineering

TRR 129 Oxyflame – Development of Methods and Models to Describe Solid Fuel Reactions Within an Oxy-Fuel Atmosphere Spokesperson: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reinhold Kneer RWTH Aachen, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Deputy Spokesperson: 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 Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Friederike Schmid University Mainz, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science Deputy Spokesperson: 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 Spokesperson: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Janicka Institute of Energy and Power Plant Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering Deputy Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Andreas Dreizler Research Group Reactive Flows and Diagnostics, Department of Mechanical Engineering Deputy Spokesperson: 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 Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Alexander Martin University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Mathematical Economics Deputy Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Jens Lang TU Darmstadt, Research Group Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, Department of Mathematics TRR 211 Strong Interaction Matter under Extreme Conditions Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Dirk Rischke Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Theoretical Physics Deputy Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Jochen Wambach, TU Darmstadt, Institute for Nuclear Physics Deputy Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Frithjof Karsch, Bielefeld University, Faculty of Physics

Research Training Groups

Priority Programmes

1529 Mathematical Fluid Dynamics – International Research Training Group Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hieber Working Group Analysis, Department of Mathematics

1496 Reliably Secure Software Systems Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Heiko Mantel Research Group Modeling and Analysis of Information Systems, Department of Computer Science

1657 Molecular and Cellular Responses to Ionizing Radiation Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Markus Löbrich Institute of Zoology, Department of Biology Deputy Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Thiel Institute of Botany, Department of Biology

1506 Transport Processes at Fluidic Interfaces Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Dieter Bothe Mathematical Modelling and Analysis, Department of Mechanical Engineering

1994 Adaptive Preparation of Information from Heterogeneous Sources Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Iryna Gurevych Ubiquitous Knowledge Processing Lab, Department of Computer Science 2050 Privacy and Trust for Mobile Users Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser Research Group Telecooperation, Department of Computer Science 2128 AccelencE – Accelerator Science and Technology for Energy Recovery Linacs Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Norbert Pietralla Institute for Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics 2222 KRITIS – Critical infrastructures: Social Construction, Function Failure and Protection in Urban Spaces Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Ivo Engels Institute of History, Department of History and Social Sciences

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

Research Units 1583 Hydrogen-Bonded Liquids Subject to Interfaces of Various Hydroaffinities Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Michael Vogel Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics 1748 Networks on Networks: The Interplay of Structure and Dynamics in Spatial Ecological Networks Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Barbara Drossel Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics

“TU Darmstadt provides young researches with a clear and transparent picture of the career paths open to them and also ensures they can access these options.”

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2017

The young generation

TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel

Clear career paths all the way to professorship

Technische Universität Darmstadt has created a new strategic programme in which it mainstreams its approach to funding, supporting and shaping early career researchers at all qualification levels, from doctoral to postdoc to internationally competitive professor level. The focus is on providing young researchers with the best possible professional development to enable them to become exceptionally qualified researchers who assume a high degree of independence and responsibility early on. Compared with other higher-education institutions in Germany, TU Darmstadt offers special funding instruments for a wide range of career paths in research, business and society. For the doctoral phase, the university takes equal account of academic and nonacademic career goals, keeping an eye on labour market dynamics, especially given that most of our PhD students continue their careers in the industrial sector. During the postdoc phase, which prepares individuals for work in research or research management in particular, TU Darmstadt places an emphasis on international and interdisciplinary mobility.

The young generation

The subsequent training phase, in which researchers provide evidence of independent, internationally recognised research, a growing reputation and active teaching activities, paves the way to a professorship. “We’re setting our own priorities here with the Athene Young Investigator programme,” says TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel. The programme recruits young researchers from Germany and abroad. They are offered financially attractive working conditions for up to five years, can lead early career research groups, are afforded professorial rights and have responsibility for their own individual budget. TU Darmstadt was one of the first German universities to introduce and pilot the Tenure Track Programme for assistant professorships in 2011, expanding it in 2017 by establishing the assistant professorship with tenure track. “We guarantee our young professors personal monitoring support and a graded evaluation process, with particular emphasis on achieving compatibility between career and family planning,” says TU President Prömel.

“We want to provide impetus to enable young researchers to fully develop and realise their potential.” TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel

Three phases Doctoral studies Some 400 PhD candidates complete their doctoral studies at TU Darmstadt each year â&#x20AC;&#x201C; over half of them in engineering disciplines. According to the doctoral candidate survey in 2015, TU Darmstadt recruits just under half of its doctoral candidates from other universities in Germany and abroad. TU Darmstadt thrives on multiple career paths: 17% of doctoral candidates aim for an academic career at a university, 10% at a non-university research institution. The majority of respondents see their career prospects in industrial research and development or in a managerial position in a company. Since establishing its umbrella funding organisation Ingenium in 2011, TU Darmstadt has supported researchers in the doctoral and early postdoc phases with a wide range of funding measures.

Postdoc phase The Alexander von Humboldt Foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Humboldt Ranking 2017 revealed that TU Darmstadt was and remains the most attractive German university for foreign visiting researchers in engineering.

Around 35% of postdocs at TU Darmstadt have an international passport; the majority of the group comes from Europe, followed by Asia. The university awards the Adolf Messer Prize each year to postdocs who have demonstrated outstanding achievements. The winner receives 50,000 euros. Since 2016, the postdoc support programme at TU Darmstadt has promoted early academic independence and facilitated transitions between qualification phases.

Professorship qualification phase TU Darmstadt participates successfully in young-researcher programmes financed externally by actors such as the German Research Foundation, the German Government and the EU. The university provides a productive environment for many Emmy Noether Independent Junior Research Groups, Helmholtz Young Investigators Groups and groups of ERC Starting Grant recipients. Early career researchers at TU Darmstadt can also be found among the winners of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Award.

80% of former assistant professors at TU Darmstadt have been appointed to a professorship in Germany or overseas.

Athene Young Investigators

One thousand times faster New technologies such as the Internet of Things, ultra HD film streaming, augmented reality and driverless vehicles require tremendous volumes of data, and manufacturers and operators are looking for solutions for transferring this data to smartphones. Fibre optic cables are expensive and cannot be installed everywhere. Arash Asadi is researching wireless methods capable of transmitting several gigabits per second. The 34-yearold Iranian received his doctorate in telematics engineering from Carlos III University of Madrid and has been working as a researcher within the LOEWE research cluster NICER (Networked Infrastructureless Cooperation for Emergency Response) at TU Darmstadt since 2016, with a focus on millimetre-wave communication. Only mm-wave frequencies in the 30 to 300 gigahertz range are sufficient for transmitting massive volumes of data. Because their signals have a range of just 150 metres or so, the transmission network needs to be far more dense and effective than previous systems.

Arash Asadi

The young generation

Fortified against attacks

“When the quantum computer, which is already the subject of intensive research, arrives, current encryption technologies will no longer be fit for purpose,” says Juliane Krämer. Based at the Institute for Cryptography and Computer Algebra at TU Darmstadt, the econometrician is investigating ways of defending against attacks. The 33-year-old examines post-quantum cryptography in the collaborative research centre CROSSING in order to find encryption solutions for the future. She already began to research side-channel attacks during her doctoral studies. Rather than exploiting mathematical weaknesses in an algorithm, such attacks measure “When the quantum computer, things such as the electricity consumption of a device while calculating which is already the subject an encrypted operation. This can also of intensive research, arrives, serve as a basis for drawing conclusions about security-related data. Krämer is current encryption technonow working on new, effective and logies will no longer be fit for rapid protection measures. For example, a new encryption technology for smartpurpose.” phones must not take too long or slow Juliane Krämer the service down.

Juliane Krämer

Eric Grosse

Employee-friendly logistics Management science and ergonomics should complement each other, not least in the field of warehouse logistics. For Eric Grosse, process optimisation and warehouse management are about more than just costs and management considerations. “Human beings are always in the mix too.” Such an interdisciplinary approach has been neglected in the past. Grosse believes that, while it will initially take some getting used to for employees in large warehouse facilities, the learning effects will serve to save time and reduce error. How much sense does it make to store similar types of goods next to one another and to separate items vertically based on weight? The economist, who works in TU Darmstadt’s Production and Supply Chain Management research group, found that ergonomic working conditions make employees happier and reduce the number of workdays lost to illness. Grosse is researching the consequences of the digital transformation and developing strategies for employee-friendly, skills-based logistics.

Tremendous potential They were the first outstanding postdocs to be appointed Athene Young Investigators at TU Darmstadt: Left to right in the picture with Vice President Professor Mira Mezini (3rd from left): Dr. Amr Rizk (Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology), Dr. Alesia A. Tietze (Department of Chemistry), Dr. Christina Birkel (Department of Chemistry), Dr. Jurij Koruza (Department of Materials and Earth Sciences) and Dr. Philipp R. John (Department of Physics). Christina Birkel, who leads an early career research group, also received an EUR 80,000 Exploration Grant from the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation in 2017. The prize money is being put into a project on the synthesis of iron carbides, which promise fascinating magnetic properties and applications in the field of life and material sciences.

First cohort of Athene Young Investigators

Signal app for cardiac arrhythmia Michael Muma loves variety. He has been researching robust statistics in TU Darmstadt’s Signal Processing Group since 2009. The options for application range from audio and camera sensor networks to the automotive industry and medical technology. Traditional methods of signal processing are often based on the assumption that data and measurements that work perfectly during simulation can show a performance drop or total failure in practice. Robust statistics develops procedures for withstanding rogue results and model deviations. Muma’s research is focused on medical technology. For example, robust signal processing enables forecasts to be made of cerebral pressure using special measurements. This provides a key point of reference in the treatment of patients with severe brain damage. Muma and his team are working on acoustic sensor networks, which can improve the quality of hearing aids and transmit vital parameters such as heart rhythm, blood pressure and blood-vessel condition to optical sensors for watches and mobile phones.

Michael Muma

The new generation of prostheses Philipp Beckerle does not have petrol in his blood. Instead, the Deputy Head of TU Darmstadt’s Institute for Mechatronic Systems in Mechanical Engineering is interested in medical technology and in particular the construction of prosthetic Philipp Beckerle legs. In this context, he considers not only the technical factors, but also the human ones. Beckerle investigates the influence of human needs and psychological aspects on technology. How does it feel to wear artificial limbs and how do phantom sensations come about? He has expanded his Athene Young Investigator research activities to include prosthetics, orthotics and exoskeletons. One of the focal areas of his work is the control of prosthetic legs. These systems should be intuitive and error-tolerant to allow elderly and disabled individuals to use them with confidence. Getting the prostheses to recognise users’ intentions and working on the control system are major challenges. The 34-year-old is working on systems that recognise the “It’s people who use prosthetic direction in which a person is heading and respond independently to errors. limbs and so it’s for them that

the technology must be made.” Philipp Beckerle

Determined and patient: Dr. Nikos Moraitakis.

The young generation

Sino-German double

Nikos Moraitakis has proven his stamina: He is the first young researcher to gain a double degree doctorate simultaneously at TU Darmstadt and Tongji University in Shanghai. For the industrial engineer, who specialises in mechanical engineering, the qualification is the fruit of five years’ work, most of it carried out at our Chinese partner university.

company Bosch, examined engineering plastics in the automotive industry and procurement strategies in global supply networks. Moraitakis explains that the doctorate period lasts that bit longer when you are required to get to grips with two academic systems. “You need patience, as well as an ability to cope with a certain amount of frustration.”

Moraitakis had already worked as a TU Darmstadt student at the Sino-German School of Postgraduate Studies (CDHK) at Tongji University in Shanghai in 2009. This was part of an independent research assignment on logistics systems in China. The Frankfurt native, whose family runs its own logistics firm, described his time there as “an incredibly exciting experience”. It was then that he gained initial knowledge of the Mandarin language, allowing him to find his feet in everyday Chinese life. The academic language during the study was English.

Moraitakis spent a total of three and a half years in Shanghai, only returning to Darmstadt to write his doctoral thesis – “just because I had more peace and quiet there,” explained the 31-year-old. He defended his thesis in Darmstadt. The Examinations Board comprised professors from the TU Darmstadt’s Department of Law and Economics and professors from Tongji University’s School of Economics and Management (SEM). The Chinese professors joined the proceedings via video conference.

The economist completed his Diplom degree in 2011, before transferring as a research associate to the BOSCH-Chair of Global Supply Chain Management at the CDHK of Tongji University in 2012. His doctoral thesis, produced in cooperation with the

Multiple award-winner: Dr. Lukas Kaltschnee.

Atomic-level discovery The 2017 Kurt Ruths Prize at TU Darmstadt was awarded to Dr. Lukas Kaltschnee. The chemist received the EUR 20,000 prize for his outstanding doctoral thesis, which sets new standards for high-resolution experiments in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This is a key area of basic chemical research when it comes, for example, to designing active ingredients and catalysts. It enables substances to be clearly identified, their atomic link understood by means of chemical bonding, and their three-dimensional structure analysed.

In 2017, Kaltschnee became the first researcher at TU Darmstadt to be admitted as a postdoc fellow to the German Academic Exchange Service’s renowned P.R.I.M.E programme. As part of this programme, he worked at the National Institutes of Health, a world leader in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in Bethesda, United States.

Lukas Kaltschnee studied chemistry at TU Darmstadt from 2006 to 2012, with temporary study periods at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz. From 2013 to 2014, he received a doctoral fellowship from the Merck’sche Gesellschaft für Kunst und Wissenschaft e.V. for his PhD in the Department of Chemistry at TU Darmstadt. He used this funding for a research stay at the University of Manchester (UK).

Honouring the prize-winner: Sponsor and Honorary Senator Stefan Messer (left).

Maths genius in mechanical engineering

The young generation

Developing your own, highly accurate algorithms for flow simulation will gain you international attention: Dr. Florian Kummer, an early career researcher at the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Institute of Fluid Dynamics, was awarded the 2017 Adolf Messer Foundation Prize, worth EUR 50,000.

Kummer’s field is numerical fluid dynamics, that is, the computer simulation of air and water currents. His research should help the industrial sector, which has so far had to rely on algorithms around five decades old. Today’s simulation technologies have to be increasingly precise in order to solve complex problems. For example, wind farms cost several billion euros to build. Consequently, there is a need to be able to reliably estimate how much electrical energy can be “harvested” in the end before making an investment decision. The issue is complicated by the fact that the individual wind turbines interact with one another – each row of turbines is affected by turbulence created by the row in front of it, which limits performance. As such the wind farm as a whole system is more complex than the sum of its parts. Kummer’s research is making a valuable con-

tribution to analysing complex fluid-mechanics machinery and systems more accurately and making corresponding improvements. The 36-year-old researcher passed his PhD summa cum laude at TU Darmstadt in 2011 and received a prize from the university’s Graduate School of Excellence Computational Engineering for his doctoral thesis. He made research visits to Stanford University and Rice University (Houston) in the United States. Kummer has headed up the Numerical Methods and Simulations research group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering since 2015.

Most highly endowed award The Adolf Messer Foundation Prize, presented annually, is the most highly endowed award for research at Technische Universität Darmstadt and recognises outstanding work by early career researchers.

New professors

Following the success of its strategy under the German Government and Länder’s Tenure Track Programme in 2017, TU Darmstadt can now fill 12 new assistant professorship positions. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is providing up to 1.4 million in funding each year. The university is one of 34 highereducation institutions in Germany to make it through the programme’s first round of applications. With the Tenure Track professorship instrument, TU Darmstadt already offers all of its early career researchers appointed to assistant professorships the opportunity to be appointed to tenured professorships after a temporary probation period and a quality-assured evaluation. Professor Stefan Roth was appointed to a professorship within the Department of Computer Science in 2013 as part of the first Tenure Track Programme. Among other things, Roth has received an ERC Starting Grant and the Adolf Messer Foundation Prize. Bai-Xiang Xu from TU Darmstadt’s Department of Materials and Earth Sciences is another professor who has successfully completed the Tenure Track Programme. She received the Adolf Messer Foundation Prize in 2015.

“I’m delighted that the selection committee has endorsed our innovative approach.” TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel

Almost one third of assistant professorships at TU Darmstadt currently contain a tenure track. In the medium term, the university intends to make around half of its appointments tenure track professorships, thus mainstreaming this new career path. The new professorships approved as part of the German Government and Länder’s Tenure Track Programme are geared towards innovative approaches, innovative topics and interdisciplinary cooperation arrangements in the engineering, natural and social sciences and the humanities.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2017

Cooperation and transfer

Highlights 2017 Deutsche Bahn AG is investing EUR

1 million per year in its Innovation Alliance with TU Darmstadt: The new “Operations” interdisciplinary working group conducts in-depth research on topics such as scheduling, incident management and energy-efficiency in rail travel.

362 patent applications had been submitted in the name of TU Darmstadt by late 2017 and 66 new inventions were registered in the same year.

Top 10: A 2017 study by the German Startups Association placed TU Darmstadt among Germany’s top start-up universities – more than 85 spin-off compa-

Cooperation and transfer

nies have come out of the institution since 2013.

700

sity gave his address at TU Darmstadt’s second Startup & Innovation Day.

4 3 partners:

young start-up companies from TU Darmstadt presented their technologically sophisticated

solutions and products at the Hannover Messe 2017.

TU Darmstadt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Purely metallic, ultra-stable nanocompounds that

and Mainz University of Applied Sciences are working

work like a velcro fastening, the first carbon motor

together as part of the “Humanist Computer Interaction on Trial” project, which is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Use is being made of TU software that links tools for digital text analysis with an interactive platform for joint work on research projects in the humanities field.

people listened intently as Nobel laureate

Dan Shechtman from Israel’s elite Technion univer-

spindle for the machine tool industry, a cool box for transporting sensitive medication, and software that controls vehicle transmissions without additional sensors.

Measuring heavy ions

Close links to the university: Professor Paolo Giubellino.

Versatile physicist: Paolo Giubellino

Interplay between nucleus and electron

In March 2017, Italian physicist Professor Paolo Giubellino was inaugurated as Scientific Managing Director of the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) and the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. He is responsible for safeguarding cutting-edge research at the existing facility and overseeing the construction of the new FAIR acceleration facility in cooperation with international partners. Additionally, Giubellino holds a professorship at TU Darmstadtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Institute for Nuclear Physics. His research is focused on high-energy heavy-ion collisions and the resulting material.

Only on the surface of huge neutron stars do we encounter magnetic fields as strong as those found on the surface of atomic nuclei of the element bismuth. Coordinated by TU Darmstadt, scientists from a total of 12 research institutions in Germany, the UK and Switzerland have investigated the behaviour of electrons in these fields. As they reported in the journal Nature Communications, they observed and took precise measurements of a special transition between energy levels of the lithium-like ions of bismuth at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. In the process, they noticed a striking discrepancy between theory and experimental practice. This points to an error in our understanding of the interplay between electrons and the inner nuclear structure. The cause of this deviation is not yet known and will be examined with further measurements.

Exciting matter

Professor Gabriel Martínez-Pinedo.

Cooperation and transfer

The origins of gold and platinum

“This is a unique process in the field of astrophysics. Astronomers usually observe a new phenomenon, which theorists then explain years later. We anticipated a new kind of astrophysical signal without any previous astronomical evidence. Our observations then confirmed this signal.” Professor Gabriel Martínez-Pinedo, Theoretical Nuclear Astrophysics Group

In October 2017, an international team of researchers, including members of laboratory collaborations at the Laser Interferometer GravitationalWave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States and the Virgo gravitational-wave interferometer in Italy, announced that they had for the first time observed gravitational and electromagnetic waves of merging neutron stars. In so doing, they confirmed the predictions made in 2010 by an international team headed up by TU Professor Gabriel Martínez-Pinedo and Brian Metzger from Columbia University in New York. At that time, the researchers pointed out that the synthesis of heavy elements in the merging of neutron stars should result in a clear electromagnetic signal being emitted. Observation of the signal has now shown that it has the characteristic pattern predicted by the scientists. As a result, the astrophysical source of heavy elements such as gold and platinum has at last been found and a major physics problem of the last 100 years solved.

Shortly after the big bang

What holds the atomic nucleus together

A new Transregio collaborative research centre brings together physicists from TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt and Bielefeld University. In 14 sub-projects, the researchers are investigating strong-interaction matter under extreme conditions, such as those created in the first millionth of a second after the big bang. This involves temperatures of several billion degrees Celsius and a density of several hundreds of millions of tons per cubic centimetre. TU Professor Jochen Wambach from the Research Group on Theoretical Nuclear and Hadron Physics is one of the research allianceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deputy spokespersons.

The strong nuclear energy operates on the inside of atomic nuclei and is crucial to the existence of matter in the visible universe. Physicists from TU Darmstadt and researchers from George Washington University in Washington, D. C., Paris-Sud University and the University of Arizona in Tucson explained what these nuclei consisted of in the journal Physical Review Letters in May 2017. The researchers achieved a very good approximation in their description of atomic nuclei consisting of up to four particles, such as helium. In so doing, they used a theoretical simplification, comparable with choosing larger pixels for large screens viewed from a distance, as observing things from a distance makes it easier to identify certain correlations. The approach can most likely be extended to heavy nuclei.

On the trail of dark matter Theoretical physicists from TU Darmstadt and their colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Tokyo are contributing to a more precise understanding of dark matter. While this matter is invisible, it should leave behind traces when it directly interacts with conventional matter. The researchers narrowed down the potential strength of the interaction between atomic nuclei and dark matter particles. With their study, which appeared in the journal Physical Review Letters, they reduced the uncertainties concerning the interaction between Higgs bosons and atomic nuclei. The researchers were able to more precisely define the coupling of Higgs bosons to protons and neutrons, both of which are core building blocks. According to certain models, Higgs bosons disintegrate into dark matter.

Model for describing changes in the position of atomic nuclei.

Tactile surgical robot

Cooperation and transfer

Special mini-robots for minimally invasive abdomen surgery.

Surgical robots ease the work of surgeons and increase the success of treatment. As part of the FLEXIMIN project, funded by the German Research Foundation, researchers from TU Darmstadt’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology are developing a robot capable of carrying out minimally invasive abdomen surgery, in particular the removal of tumours from the rectum. The surgical instruments and a mini camera will be introduced transanally.

„Robots allow procedures to be carried out that were not previously possible and are also winning over doctors with their functionality.” Professor Mario Kupnik, Measurement and Sensor Technology

The surgical robots will be operated remotely by the surgeon, who will sit at a control desk and view the procedure in enlarged form on a video screen, operating pencil-like sticks and grips with his or her hands to move the surgical instruments in the patient’s body. The system eliminates disruptive effects such as trembling hands. Special highlight: The Darmstadt researchers have developed sensors which give their surgical robot a sense of touch. The system even makes it possible to conduct specialist operations in crisis regions and in rural hospitals, since top surgeons could be linked in via a special data connection for complex procedures and control their robotic colleague from afar. Thanks to its tactile and sophisticated fine-motor capability, the robot will also be much in demand for the maintenance of industrial machinery and many other tasks, especially hazardous ones such as the repair of nuclear facilities. The Darmstadt teams are working with the University of Tübingen.

Applied cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is increasingly posing a challenge to Germany as a result of the digitalisation process. Accordingly, it was announced in September 2017 that the Darmstadt-based Center for Research in Security and Privacy (CRISP) is to be upgraded to become the National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity. It can continue to count on support from the German Government and the federal state of Hesse. CRISP is a partnership between TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer Society.

“The continuation of CRISP as a permanent national research centre is an endorsement of the excellent cybersecurity research carried out at TU Darmstadt.”

IT security expert: Professor Johannes Buchmann.

Professor Johannes Buchmann, Spokesperson for the TU cybersecurity profile area

Practical application

“As the largest partner within CRISP, we work with our partner institutions to make a significant contribution to the German Government and federal state of Hesse’s IT security research programme. We’re delighted at the future plans for CRISP. We can now focus our pooled research excellence in the field of cybersecurity more strongly on this key societal task of the future.”

Professor Ralf Steinmetz, Head of the Multimedia Communications Lab in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, has won the EUR 5,000 Athene Award for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at TU Darmstadt. The prize is presented to individuals who promote practical applications, start-up companies and successful partnerships with industry.

Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel, President of TU Darmstadt

Researching transformation

Digitalisation saves on resources The study “Resource Efficiency through Industry 4.0 – Potential for SMEs in Manufacturing” describes 11 digital transformation initiatives and recommends them to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) depending on their level of digitalisation. This study was produced by a team headed up by TU Professor Liselotte Schebek from the Department of Material Flow Management and Resource Economy in cooperation with the groups led by TU Professors Eberhard Abele and Reiner Anderl, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. Interviews with ten companies provided insights into the measures used to promote digitalisation and save company resources. By combining the case studies with literature research, the team established the ratio of savings to hardware and software costs.

Efficiency experts: Professors Reiner Anderl, Eberhard Abele

Cooperation and transfer

and Liselotte Schebek (left to right).

The researchers identified savings, for example, through a decrease in production errors, and analysed potential impacts on upstream and downstream processes. They found as a result that resource efficiency would increase. The study was commissioned by the VDI Center for Resource Efficiency in cooperation with ministries of the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate.

Calculated deformation As reported in the journal Nature, researchers from Darmstadt and California have calculated the precise deformation process of metallic materials down to the level of individual atoms. The scientists used mainframe computers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Helmholtz Research Centre in Jülich. The analysis software came from TU Darmstadt’s Department of Materials and Earth Sciences.

Of cyber attacks and nanobodies

IT security for Industry 4.0 As in all areas significantly affected by digitalisation, the question of IT security also arises for the connected factory of the future. IUNO, Germany’s national reference project for IT security in Industry 4.0, is seeking to answer this question. Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to the tune of EUR 33 million, the project involves 21 partners from the business and research sectors. Machinery in the connected factory, for example, could download new data sets from a kind of app store, but would need to be protected from cyber attacks and espionage in the process. TU Professor Reiner Anderl, one of the initiators of IUNO, explains that the project has the job of establishing a new security architecture for Industry 4.0. The participating researchers are examining the basic principles of IT security, such as identity management and anomaly detection, which are especially required for Industry 4.0. They are also ensuring that existing security technology is finding its way into the industrial sector. The scientists are using application scenarios to transfer their research results to real-life situations. By the time the project ends in September 2018, Industry 4.0 companies should have access to a toolkit for IT security.

Sensitive issue: Data security in connected factories.

Implanting nano antibodies

“The digitalisation process is giving rise to highly sensitive data on new, innovative products in connected industrial facilities – it would be disastrous if this data were to be stolen through cyber attacks or espionage.”

Researchers from TU Darmstadt, LudwigMaximilians-Universität in Munich and the Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology have for the first time implanted tiny antibodies in living cells. The scientists reported on the synthesis and wideranging use of these nanobodies, for example in the transportation of active pharmaceutical ingredients, in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Professor Reiner Anderl, Institute of Computer Integrated Design

Perfect climate for start-ups

Supporting pioneers There is no shortage of good business ideas among students and research groups at TU Darmstadt. TU Darmstadt offers a wide range of support initiatives to ensure that these ideas are implemented successfully. One young funding instrument is the Pioneer Fund set up jointly with the NATURpur Institute of energy provider ENTEGA and endowed with EUR 300,000 per year. During the first round, four projects were approved for up to 18 months of funding.

Cooperation and transfer

TU Professor Katja Schmitz and doctoral candidate Veysel Erdel from the Department of Chemistry intend to work with Reader Dr. Joachim Hönes to develop a quick test for determining the coagulation factor of fibrinogen. The test should aid the rapid delivery of information on the fibrinogen content in the blood of accident victims, for example. The targeted administration of fibrinogen based on this information could save lives.

For their part, Reader Dr. Tobias Meckel from the Department of Biology and Dr. Ljuba Schmitt from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry and Paper Chemistry are making cell culture experiments (for active substance tests in the pharmaceutical industry, for instance) more true to life and therefore more reliable. To this end, they are cultivating cells in special support structures to expose them to motion stimuli, which also constantly affect cells in the human body. This should help to reduce the amount of testing done on animals as well as the costs of clinical trials.

With financial support from the Pioneer Fund, Reader Dr. Oktay Yilmazoglu, doctoral candidate Ahid Hajo and Dr. Shihab Al-Daffaie from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology are developing the prototype of a high-frequency source for terahertz radiation. Terahertz light has less energy than x-rays, meaning it is not harmful to health. Nonetheless, it penetrates a whole range of materials, making it highly versatile and suitable, for example, for use in scanners for food and material control and in the medical sector. The fourth project is concerned with decentralised, volatile feed-in systems in electrical power generation. Since the stability of the electricity supply system requires the generation and consumption of electrical power to be in balance at all times, it is necessary to coordinate the individual plants, for example, by pooling them together to form a virtual power plant. To this end, Thomas Weber, doctoral candidate under the supervision of TU Professor Eberhard Abele in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is creating regulatory software which safeguards supply as well as optimising costefficiency.

The blessing and curse of capital gains tax Capital gains tax has both a positive and a negative impact on investment in start-ups. This is the conclusion of a study by economists from TU Darmstadt and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich who examined the decisions of venture capital donors in 32 countries. When capital gains tax is high, venture capitalists support fewer start-ups. Nonetheless, the proportion of successful start-ups increases at the same time – it would thus appear that investors are good at assessing the prospects of start-ups.

Interdisciplinary work to improve the accuracy of active substance tests: Dr. Ljuba Schmitt and Reader Dr. Tobias Meckel.

“The Pioneer Fund is part and parcel of the vibrant innovation environment at TU Darmstadt. The initiative doesn’t wait until application-specific results are on the table before providing support. Instead, it helps to bridge the so-called valley of death between basic research and application.” Professor Mira Mezini, Vice-President, Research and Innovation, TU Darmstadt

Global cooperation

Strategic partnership with Graz University of Technology In July 2017, TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel and his counterpart at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), Rector Professor Harald Kainz, formally signed an agreement on a long-term strategic partnership between the two universities. This serves to consolidate the working relationship established in 1985, which has long involved many departments and all levels of both institutions.

Cooperation and transfer

The cooperation network between the two universities is already impressively dense, covering joint projects and publications in a whole range of fields, from architecture and materials science to philosophy. The similarities in the research profile of both universities make mutual exchanges an interesting prospect for students. A research agreement on cybersecurity, regular exchange between lecturers, joint winter schools and intensive cooperation between the administrative units round off the partnership. The signing of the strategy agreement is linked to the establishment of a steering committee with equal representation for the two institutions: The committee advises on all partnership activities, ensures they are implemented successfully, explores opportunities for grant applications and proposes new initiatives.

and Kainz (right).

“The challenges facing technical universities are related to the need to link classic engineering disciplines with modern information technologies, that is, the process of integrating the fields of civil, mechanical and electrical engineering with topics such as big data, cybersecurity and image processing. These are the priority areas of both universities and the areas in which we intend to work together to help shape the future of European industry.” Professor Harald Kainz, Rector of TU Graz

Mutual understanding: University Presidents Prömel

TU Graz is TU Darmstadt’s third international strategic partner alongside Tongji University in Shanghai, China and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, United States.

Honorary Athene Award for Harald Kainz Professor Harald Kainz, Rector of TU Graz, was awarded the Honorary Athene Award in grateful recognition of his efforts in expanding cooperation between the two universities. The prize was awarded at the signing of the agreement on the strategic partnership. Kainz, a civil and industrial engineer, accepted a professorship at TU Graz in 2000 and has served as Rector since 2011.

Turbo partnership with San Antonio The young sister city agreement between Darmstadt and San Antonio, United States has borne fruit very quickly: In late October, TU President Hans Jürgen Prömel and Dr. Mauli Agrawal, Vice President for Academic Affairs at The University of Texas at San Antonio, signed a cooperation agreement. This has now paved the way for getting student exchanges and joint research projects off the ground. There is also a great deal of interest in initiating a dual PhD programme in cybersecurity.

Exchange with New Zealand and Thailand TU President Hans Jürgen Prömel signed a partnership agreement in March on a student exchange programme with the University of Otago in New Zealand. Previously, the group led by Prömel had visited research institutions in Thailand.

Trip to Australia TU Darmstadt concluded an agreement in March on the development of a partnership with the University of Technology in Sydney. The TU delegation also visited long-standing partners Queensland University of Technology and the University of New South Wales.

The TU’s international network is becoming increasingly dense.

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2017

Life on campus

Highlights 2017 Since 2002, the

EUR 1,000:

annual Christmas lecture

First established in 1954,

at the Department of Chemistry has been the

TU Darmstadt e.V.’s

scene of some crazy

Student Movie Group

happenings. A team

has won a prize at

headed by two profes-

the Hesse Film and

sors traditionally enter-

Cinema Awards.

tains a loyal audience with their brilliant experimental shows.

guided tours

of the Stadtmitte and Lichtwiese campuses in cooperation with the City of Science, Darmstadt.

580 international students and 330 visiting researchers from abroad received support from TU Darmstadt’s Housing Services in 2017.

300 young people were supported by the

Life on campus

Exchange Student Housing Services office.

400 metres is the length of the new section of road alongside the Department of Mechanical Engineering. It serves to redirect traffic, thus turning the centre of the Lichtwiese campus into a car-free green zone.

300

athletic students

emerged victorious in TU Darmstadt’s first time participating in the Sportabzeichen-UniChallenge, beating four Northern German universities in the competition, which took place simultaneously in all locations.

Buildings for the next decade

Laying the foundation for cybersecurity The new building for IT security research at TU Darmstadt is taking shape and will in future house the cybersecurity profile area (CYSEC) and its research activities. Costing a considerable EUR 18.4 million, the centre is being funded by the Federal Government, Länder Governments and TU Darmstadt. It is due to be completed in summer 2019. An extension of the university’s Stadtmitte campus, the four-storey, 2,100-square-metre building in Kantplatz houses labs, offices and seminar rooms. The basement plays host to the E-Campus, providing server space for a range of research groups. The architectural design was chosen as part of a Europewide competition and comprises two intelligently overlaid rectangular bodies that form a bright inner courtyard. Hessian Minister for Sciences and Arts Boris Rhein said that the new building would allow TU Darmstadt to continue enhancing its internationally recognised expertise in IT security and to contribute this expertise as effectively as possible to the Center for Research in Security and Privacy, which is funded by the federal state of Hesse and the German Government.

Heating and cooling A new building is being erected at the Energy Center on the Lichtwiese campus, with the foundation already having been laid. The building is set to house a highly efficient combined heat and power unit and a supply system that uses a particularly environmentally friendly method of producing cooling air. Since 2016, the university has been supplied with its heating, cooling and electricity services by ENTEGA STEAG Wärme GmbH.

Basis for the new IT security research centre.

The contract covers the expansion of TU Darmstadt’s energy systems, the modernisation of the existing combined heat and power units, and the recently commenced construction of the technical building. The company is investing some EUR 14 million in the heating and cooling infrastructure in 2017/2018, the total investment volume being EUR 17 million. As part of the new building, the university’s district heating network will be connected to the Darmstadt-Nord district heating network.

“The construction project is another milestone in the environmentally and economically responsible expansion of the university’s infrastructure.” TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel

Karl Plagge House opened

The building is named after the TU alumnus who saved the lives of several hundred Jewish forced labourers during the Second World War: Following a two-year construction period, the university has opened Karl Plagge House. The new five-storey building on Alexanderstraße 2 offers 3,770 square metres of usable space for one hundred staff members of the University IT-Service and Computing Centre (HRZ), a research group of the Department of Computer Science, and a learning centre with at least 30 places for students.

continues a tradition, as the old Stoeferlehalle, demolished in 2014, housed “603 qm”, a selfmanaged café and events business, on this plot of land.

The new building cost some EUR 14.4 million. The ground floor and basement have been formed as a closed base, distinct from the upper office floors, which create a clear pattern of windows and bronzecoloured metal elements. The café’s main entrance faces the road, while the learning centre is located in the quiet rear section of the building. A bridge It also houses a café on the ground floor, which is run over the ramp to the underground car park connects by the Students’ Union Executive Committee (AStA). Karl Plagge House to the central area between the Space in the basement has been given to the commer- Universitätszentrum building, the canteen and the cial student café and events business for concerts and library. events, which will enrich life on campus. The first concert, featuring a Swedish-Finnish music and sound artist from Turku, took place in October. This

President Hans Jürgen Prömel, AStA spokesperson Jan Priess, Simon Malkès, Holocaust survivor thanks to Plagge, Darmstadt Mayor Jochen

Life on campus

Partsch, Vice President Manfred Efinger (left to right).

“This location, interesting as it is from an urban development perspective, should become a place for members of TU Darmstadt and the city’s residents to meet and get into conversation. We’re proud that the building carries Karl Plagge’s name and thus keeps his memory alive at the university and in the city.” TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel

“We’re delighted with the location. Our commercial operation will be called “806 qm” in future, given that we will have 203 more square metres for cultural activities in Darmstadt than we did before.” Jan Priess, Students’ Union Executive Committee

Prominent structure in prominent location: Karl Plagge House.

Art and ability

Master of geometric shapes A voluminous work of art made of corten steel, a well-proportioned, angle-defined composition of pointed and blunt rhombohedra: “Hammerrad” [“Hammer Wheel”] is the name of the sculpture. Created in 2000 by sculptor Hagen Hilderhof, it has found a permanent new exhibition site on the Lichtwiese campus. Hilderhof, who was born in Heidelberg in 1937, is one of the principal exponents of contemporary constructivism. He loves to combine mathematical and physical shapes, structures and principles of order with aesthetic expression.

Swaying gently in the wind

“Hammerrad” sculpture

TU Darmstadt is one art location richer: A kinaesthetic installation comprising multiple parts and created by artist Hans-Michael Kissel sways gently in the wind outside the entrance to the University Stadium. The six metal wing elements respond to every gentle breeze, creating a calming interplay with nature ten metres up in the air. From Kissel’s perspective, “technology creates the poetry of floating movement”. The sculpture joins a long list of works of art at the university, including the Lichtwiese Sculpture Garden and the objects outside the University and State Library.

Life on campus

A 275th birthday sculpture

275 years ago, the physicist and writer Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was born in Ober-Ramstadt near Darmstadt. On the occasion of his 275th birthday, the university put on an open day at the Georg Christoph Lichtenberg-Haus, its guest house for international visiting academics, where it officially unveiled the new Lichtenberg sculpture by Darmstadt artist Detlef Kraft. The figure will greet future guests at the entrance to the house.

Green meeting point

Based on a design by a Chinese student: New information pavilion.

The TU Botanical Gardens have a new attraction in the form of the information pavilion. The structure will serve as a meeting place for tours of the gardens and an information point. The service building will house an accessible toilet and baby changing table, and will provide a welcome place to go when it is raining and on Sundays and public holidays, when the other buildings are closed. The pavilion is situated centrally at the entrance to the gardens, between the institute building and the greenhouses, and provides guests with an initial point of orientation. It was financed largely by a bequest from Gisela and Wolfgang Kaiser, who lived near the gardens and visited them every day. They left EUR 100,000 to the Friends of the Botanical Gardens. The Friends decided to use the money for the pavilion, which now bears the names of the benefactors. The total cost came to around EUR 160,000.

The design was selected as part of a Stegreif competitive tender put out jointly by the Friends board and the Department of Architecture (Design and Building Studies research group). Chinese student Zhengxiao Wang won over the jury with his design.

“We’re delighted that the bequest from the Kaisers, who considered TU Darmstadt’s Botanical Gardens to be their own, has made it possible to establish a valuable meeting and service point for all our visitors.” TU Vice President Dr. Manfred Efinger

Changing the world, just like that

Passion on the dance floor “SalsaTUDe” is TU Darmstadt’s Salsa group, which thrives on dance competitions. The university has offered Salsa classes since 2008, adding Rueda de Casino dancing in 2014. The team of 40-plus volunteer assistants and teachers look after the 400 dance-loving students who register each semester. Members come from Peru, Brazil, France, Cuba, Poland, Russia, China and Germany. The Agua performing group developed out of the Rueda course in 2015. Its activities include performances, workshops and the Salsa Sunday party nights in the Schlosskeller. Agua travels to student Salsa festivals all over Germany. 2016 saw the group make 18 dazzling appearances and even take the title at the Rueda de Casino European Championship in Stuttgart.

“Our participants often have roots in a whole range of different countries. This international diversity is an asset to our Salsa group.”

Life on campus

Trainer Christoph Loytved

International exchange through Salsa music.

Working to promote the source of life Water scarcity is one the greatest challenges of the 21st century. The members of the university’s “Viva con Agua!” group have been addressing this issue since 2014. The group is a branch of the non-profit organisation founded in Hamburg in 2006 and works to make people aware of the fact that “there are over 2.5 billion people without adequate basic sanitation facilities”. The local group maintains contact with activists in Bremen, Mainz/Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. In addition to regular meetings, they also engage in active dialogue on social media. The university group campaigners represent a range of study disciplines. They take part in festivals in order to collect the deposits from returned cups, donating the proceeds to aid projects that are implemented in cooperation with partners such as Welthungerhilfe. The money has so far gone to fund hygiene training in Nepal and facilitate access to clean drinking water in Ethiopia.

Powerful model from the Akademische Motosportgruppe.

Willing ambassadors The need for speed You do need to have petrol running in your veins to some extent: Since 2015, the Akademische Motorsportgruppe Darmstadt (university motor sports group) has brought together students who love motor sport. Registered as an association, the group has around 50 members. In its own garage, it tests construction proposals for its racing car models. The motor sports enthusiasts then put the pedal to the metal on the August-Euler Airfield in Grisheim. “We started the engine of our first racing car back in August 2016,” says student Sebastian Rieß. The motor sports group is keen to keep moving forward with its development activities: It uses its own findings, for example, to validate simulation models. Unlike Dart Racing, another TU Darmstadt university group, the Akademische Motorsportgruppe uses a combustion motor. “Right now, we’re working on a hybrid concept,” says member Felix Roth. The students can seek advice from the university’s Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Powertrain Systems.

The motor sports enthusiasts take part in the Formula Student Combustion competition in Germany and the Formula Student Germany event at the Hockenheimring. They also participate in Formula Student in Austria. Additionally, the students have shown what they can do at Formula Student East in Hungary.

“The motor sports enthusiasts can apply their theoretical knowledge and thereby gain valuable experience.”

13 alumni now living all over the world will in future serve as voluntary ambassadors and contacts for individuals from abroad interested in studying at the TU, for TU students who wish to spend a semester abroad, and for alumni looking to network in regional groups. The Alumni Ambassador Programme is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation at TU Darmstadt.

Sebastian Fischer, research associate.

Assistance 532 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 and parents, and other similar setbacks they had experienced.

Exercise 67,100 places were booked in university sports classes in 2017.

45,918 guests visited the university swimming pool (of which 23,000 were students and almost 1,500 staff members).

27,000 litres of water were used to fill up the university swimming pool. The university swimming pool was open for a total of 1,494 hours in the 2017 season.

50 Unifit classes were held per quarter in 2017.

127 employees per quarter took advantage of Office Fresh Up training during their breaks.

Life on campus Facts and figures

On 14 occasions, TU students made

it into the top three at the German University Championships â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in ju-jitsu, taekwondo and karate.

Up to 200 people per week attended courses in the new cross-training facility at the University Stadium.

286 people participated in sports excursions.

379 international students took advantage of sports activities tailored to their needs.

Accommodation There were 1,857 TU students living in the halls of residence run by Student Services at the end of 2017. The hall of residence in Nieder-Ramstädter Straße will offer 340 places. Student Services is able to build this new hall thanks to a promotional loan from the federal state of Hesse and the lease holding of the land free of charge from TU Darmstadt. Building costs: around EUR 21 million. Total residential space: 6,970 square metres. First occupation: autumn 2020 (expected)

Energy & sustainability TU Darmstadt used 58,200 megawatt hours of district heat in 2017. This is the equivalent used to heat 2,330 detached family homes for one year. TU Darmstadt used 56,800 megawatt hours of electricity in 2017. Of this, 35,300 megawatt hours were provided by means of cogeneration (generated by TU’s own cogeneration plant), with the rest bought in as green electricity. The university used 174,300 cubic metres of drinking water in 2017, demonstrating its environmental awareness in the process, since this is less than the 200,140 cubic metres used the year before.

40% energy saving: The 2,000 or so LED lights newly installed in the Lecture Hall and Media Centre on the Lichtwiese campus use significantly less electricity than the previous models, thus cutting carbon emissions by 119 tons per year.

1 new sustainability management office was created within Student Services in 2017. The primary focus is on further developing the university’s vegan, organic and eco-friendly catering services and using renewable energies in halls of residence.

Good old money The Student Services student finance department paid EUR 17.59 million in BAföG funding to students at TU Darmstadt in 2017.

Food & drink 1.47 million warm meals were served in the Stadtmitte and Lichtwiese canteens in 2017. 85

TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2017

Awards

Highlights 2017 130 former students came together for the central alumni festival in TU Darmstadt’s Botanical Gardens. The address was given by Dr. Jürgen Eck, CEO of BRAIN AG.

90 students from 21 nations: The Model European Union game saw students from TU Darmstadt and other universities take on the role of Members of the European Parliament. The preparation seminar was awarded the main Athene Prize for Good Teaching 2017 and EUR 2,000.

550 donors: As owner of Darmstadt Palace, the university has opened another redeveloped section of the palace garden, thanks not least to the contributions of citizens, who donated EUR 231,000.

University turns 50: With a brilliant lecture

Awards

EUR 45,000

was used to restore the Palace’s historical sandstone statues. Thanks goes to the donors, including several rotary clubs, Doctors Ingrid and Horst Wagner, the Merck’sche Gesellschaft für Kunst und Wissenschaft e. V. and the TU’s alumni network.

entitled “Rebellion and reflection. Building culture from 1967 onwards”, Professor Werner Durth bid farewell to the Department of Architecture, where he began his studies in autumn 1967. Durth had headed up the research group on architectural history and theory since 1998. He initiated the internationally acclaimed exhibitions of Otto Bartning’s work as a parting gift of sorts.

Honorary doctorate for Francesco Iachello

Guest of honour at the university: Professor Francesco Iachello.

TU Darmstadt has awarded an honorary physics doctorate to Professor Francesco Iachello. The world-renowned researcher has held the position of J.W. Gibbs Professor of Physics and Chemistry at Yale University, United States since 1991. He has had close links with the TU since the 1980s, working with the Department of Physics, giving guest lectures and taking time to encourage early career researchers. Born in Italy in 1942, he studied nuclear technology at the Politecnico di Torino, moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 to conduct research in the field of theoretical nuclear physics. The next step in his career took him to the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. 1971 saw him accept a position at the Politecnico di Torino. This was followed by appointments at the Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut in the Netherlands (1974) and the Univer-

sity of Groningen (1976). He has worked at Yale University since 1978. As a theorist, he researches the structure of quantum systems, maintaining close links with the TU’s Institute for Nuclear Physics. Iachello has repeatedly provided inspiration for successful experiments by TU Professors Achim Richter, Norbert Pietralla and their teams, and promoted discoveries. These studies further raised the international profile of the university’s nuclear structure physics work and informed two of the collaborative research centres funded by the German Research Foundation. Professor Iachello has also opened many doors for German high-school leavers: Research visits to Yale were one of the main prizes in the draw at the TU’s “Saturday Morning Physics” lecture series.

Awards

Positive signals from Brussels

Professor Mikael Hård.

Professor Heinz Koeppl.

Global history of technology

Synthetic genetic circuits

The European Research Council (ERC) has once again awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant to a researcher at TU Darmstadt: Professor Mikael Hård is receiving EUR 2.5 million in funding over five years for his project “A Global History of Technology, 1850 – 2000”. The historian is able to work with doctoral candidates and one postdoc on archive material from all around the world in order to embed the subject of technical history in a new global context. Hård is interested in the similarities and differences between industrialised nations and the “third world” or “global South”. Africa, Latin America and Asia are usually viewed from the perspective of being reliant on the “global North” or as passive recipients of “modern” technology, accompanied by a westernisation of their cultures. Through his research, Hård intends to highlight the creativity of the “global South”.

Professor Heinz Koeppl from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology has been awarded the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant and EUR 2 million in funding over a five-year period. The grant is linked to the research project “CONSYN – Contextualizing Biomolecular Circuits Models for Synthetic Biology”. The goal is to use modelling to make the process of designing synthetic genetic circuits more reliable and efficient. Synthetic biology is concerned with the integration of new molecular functionality into biological cells. In this way, it is possible to integrate a genetic logic circuit that can “decide” on the basis of intracellular markers whether or not a cell will develop into a cancer cell. Even in simple model organisms such as E. coli, integration of such circuits is a major challenge in an experimental context. Circuit behaviour is difficult to predict, as it is strongly influenced by intracellular conditions. CONSYN intends to map this context-dependency in computer models.

“The challenge is to rediscover local knowledge and expertise and present a truly global history of technology.” Professor Mikael Hård

Professor Oliver Gutfleisch.

Assistant Professor Sascha Preu.

Cool research

Turbo for terahertz systems

Professor Oliver Gutfleisch has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. His research into the substitution of critical raw and processed materials for energy technologies is being funded to the tune of EUR 2.5 million over a five-year period. The Head of Functional Materials in the Department of Materials and Earth Sciences is exploring the fundamental question of how the world's population can master the challenge of having to invest an increasing amount of energy in cooling operations. “The ability to use cooling technology is fundamental to a higher standard of living,” says the Professor. Many countries use unsustainable and inefficient cooling processes. Gutfleisch is researching new materials for innovative, solid-state-based cooling technologies. If the experiments in his “cool innov” project are successful, this could revolutionise cooling technology all the way down to product level and significantly reduce the amount of energy used around the world for cooling processes.

The European Research Council (ERC) has deemed a project by Sascha Preu, Assistant Professor for Terahertz Systems Technology at the TU, to be an excellent example of innovative basic and frontier research. The reward: The 36-year-old has received an ERC Starting Grant worth EUR 1.5 million over a five-year period. Preu and his team intend to combine optical and terahertz technologies in order to develop new types of photonic vector network analysers and photonic spectrum analysers that are significantly more powerful than previous electronic terahertz systems. Photonic circuits offer a variety of advantages over conventional metallic ones, for example, considerably fewer losses at high frequencies.

“Researchers estimate that the amount of energy we require for cooling will exceed that required for heating by 2070.” Professor Oliver Gutfleisch

List of sponsors • Airbus Defence & Space GmbH, Taufkirchen • ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH, Hanau • Arcadis Germany GmbH, Darmstadt • Atotech Deutschland GmbH, Berlin • BASF SE, Ludwigshafen • Berufsbildungswerk Philipp Jakob Wieland, Ulm

Sponsors’ motives

• Bickhardt Bau AG, Kirchheim • Bosch Gruppe, vertreten durch Bosch Rexroth AG, Lohr am Main • Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, Coburg • BSI Business Systems Integration Deutschland GmbH, Darmstadt

Awards

• KFT Chemieservice GmbH, Griesheim • KSB AG, Frankenthal • Kurt und Lilo Werner RC Darmstadt Stiftung, Darmstadt • KVL Bauconsult Frankfurt GmbH, Frankfurt am Main • LEONHARD WEISS GmbH & Co. KG, Satteldorf • Lufthansa Industry Solutions GmbH & Co. KG, Norderstedt • MAHLE International GmbH, Stuttgart • Merck KGaA, Darmstadt

• Clariant Produkte (Deutschland) GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

• MEWA Textil-Service AG & Co. Management OHG, Wiesbaden

• Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, Aachen

• Michelin Reifenwerke AG & Co. KGaA, Karlsruhe

• Datenlotsen Informationssysteme GmbH, Hamburg

• Miele & Cie. KG, Gütersloh

• d-fine GmbH, Frankfurt/Main • DS Smith Paper Deutschland GmbH, Aschaffenburg

• KAMAX Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Homberg(Ohm)

• Carlo und Karin Giersch-Stiftung an der TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt

• Döhler GmbH, Darmstadt

Around 72% of the surveyed companies considered the Deutschlandstipendium programme to be an effective and beneficial instrument for connecting businesses and researchers.

• Jökel Bau GmbH & Co. KG, Schlüchtern

• Lufthansa Technik AG, Hamburg

• Deutsche Bank AG Group Technology & Operations Strategic Management Services, Eschborn

Using a questionnaire he designed especially for the purpose, Klöckner contacted 107 sponsors, 34% of whom responded. He found that the primary motive was to establish targeted contact with high-performing students in subjects of interest to the companies. Sponsors wished to enhance their reputation, make contact with universities and researchers, and take on social responsibility. They selected partner universities based in the first instance on region and specific subject areas. 90% were satisfied with the strategy and 70% had secured grant recipients as employees.

• Jakob Wilhelm Mengler-Stiftung, Alsbach-Hähnlein

• campoint AG, Seligenstadt

• Deutsche Bahn Stiftung gGmbH, Berlin

TU Darmstadt awarded 362 Deutschlandstipendium scholarship certificates in 2017. EUR 1.3 million was acquired in funding, most of it from long-term sponsors. In his Bachelor’s dissertation, Maximilian Klöckner examined the reasons that private companies support the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship programme. The business engineering student is himself a scholarship holder.

• ITCatalysts GmbH, Kriftel

• CA Deutschland GmbH, Darmstadt

• Deloitte GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Düsseldorf

Networking with grant certificate in hand.

• Isra Vision AG, Darmstadt

• MLP Finanzberatung SE, Wiesloch • ENTEGA NATURpur Institut gGmbH, Darmstadt • Opel Automobile GmbH, Rüsselsheim • osd GmbH & Co. KG, Frankfurt • PASS IT-Consulting Dipl-Inf. G. Rienecker GmbH & Co. KG, Aschaffenburg • Poclain Hydraulics GmbH, Pfungstadt

• Ed. Züblin AG, Stuttgart

• PPI AG Informationstechnologie, Frankfurt am Main

• Endress + Hauser Messtechnik GmbH + Co.KG, Weil am Rhein

• Preh GmbH, Bad Neustadt a.d. Saale

• Energienetze Offenbach GmbH, Offenbach

• Qytera Software Testing Solutions GmbH, Eschborn

• Ernst & Young Stiftung e.V., Stuttgart

• Rauscher GmbH (Tochterfirma Codema), München

• Essity, Ismaning

• Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim

• Evonik Stiftung, Essen • Faber Bau GmbH, Alzey

• Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

• Förderverein der Freunde des Institutes für Geotechnik an der Technischen Universität Darmstadt e.V., Darmstadt

• SAP SE, Walldorf

• Fritz und Margot Faudi-Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main

• Sigi und Hans Meder Stiftung, Bad Soden a.Ts.

• GOLDBECK GmbH, Hirschberg a.d. Bergstraße

• SCHENCK RoTec GmbH, Darmstadt

• SolidLine AG, Walluf • Solvay GmbH, Hannover

• HAL Allergie GmbH, Düsseldorf

• sovanta AG, Heidelberg

• HEAG mobilo GmbH, Darmstadt

• Sparkasse Darmstadt, Darmstadt

• Heinrich Sauer & Josef Schmidt Stiftung, Gelnhausen

• STRABAG AG, Darmstadt

• Heraeus Holding GmbH, Hanau

• TRADUI Technologies GmbH, Frankfurt

• Herrhausen, Traudl, Bad Homburg

• TRUMPF GmbH & Co. KG, Ditzingen

• Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH, Offenbach

• UPM – The Biofore Company, Augsburg

• HORNBACH – Baumarkt AG, Bornheim

• Vereinigung von Freunden der TU zu Darmstadt e.V., Darmstadt

• Horst Görtz Stiftung, Neu Anspach

• Viessmann Werke Allendorf GmbH, Allendorf (Eder)

• Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik GmbH, Darmstadt

• Vössing Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Frankfurt am Main

• HPC AG, Kriftel

• von Ledebur, Ernst, Freiherr, Darmstadt

• HPP – Harnischfeger, Pietsch & Partner Strategie- und Marketingberatung GmbH, Frankfurt am Main • IBM Deutschland GmbH, Ehningen • Infraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG, Frankfurt • ING-DiBa AG, Frankfurt am Main • Ingenieursozietät Prof. Dr.-Ing. Katzenbach, Darmstadt

• vwd Vereinigte Wirtschaftsdienste GmbH, Kaiserslautern • Yatta Solutions GmbH, Frankfurt • ZES Zimmer Electronic Systems GmbH, Oberursel

Presentable qualifications

Total dedication to her studies and beyond: Olena Shevkova.

Maximum dedication

Solidarity between sponsors

The 2017 Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Award for Outstanding International Students at TU Darmstadt was presented to Olena Shevkova. The young woman from Ukraine achieved a first in both her Bachelor’s and her Master’s degrees in psychology at TU Darmstadt, and financed her studies entirely through part-time work, including as a research assistant at TU Darmstadt’s Institute of Psychology. She also impressed the decision-makers with her wide range of social and cultural activities. She served as Vice-President of an international student organisation in Darmstadt, was involved in an integrated-science project, participated in the “Living Future!” project of the German-Israeli Future Forum, maintained contact with a Ukrainian psychology department, and was an active member of the Ukrainian community in Frankfurt am Main. Furthermore, she provided voluntary support for events at Darmstadt’s Theater Moller Haus.

Working with prize sponsors Datenlotsen GmbH, Dreßler Bau GmbH, Liebig-Gruppe and CEOS GmbH, TU Darmstadt’s Executive Board presents awards to young students each year for excellent Bachelor’s and Master’s dissertations. This time round, topics included the lax attitude of smartphone owners to IT security, scenarios for using semi-automated robots and a digital approach to refugee integration in Germany. Datenlotsen Prizes, each worth EUR 2,500, were awarded to Bianca Löw and Len Cewa Williamson (Department of Law and Economics), and Hany Abdulsamad und Karim Barth (Department of Computer Science). Andreas Rosenberger and Dominik Hiesch (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) were awarded the Dreßler Bau Prize, each receiving EUR 1,500. The Heinrich and Margarete Liebig Prize (EUR 2,000) went to Moritz Bühler (field of study: mechatronics). Finally, Maximilian Trapp (Department of Materials and Earth Sciences) received the EUR 3,000 Harald Rose Prize for his Master’s dissertation.

Discovered after all this time

Otto Bartning (second from left) in the “Aktives Bauatelier” of the State Technical University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Weimar, around 1928.

Awards

Architect of social modernism Displayed in three locations, each with its own focus, the “Otto Bartning – Architect of Social Modernism” exhibition showcased for the first time the architect’s complete work by means of blueprints, photographs, writings and models. Dr. Sandra Wagner-Conzelmann worked with students to design and curate this exhibition put on by the Academy of Arts in Berlin and the Wüstenrot Foundation in cooperation with the Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe, the Mathildenhöhe Institute Darmstadt and the Technische Universität Darmstadt. Otto Bartning had previously only been known among

He founded the revolutionary “Arbeitsrat für Kunst” (“Work Council for Art”) with Walter Gropius and Bruno Taut in 1918. He wanted to modernise teaching at art and architectural colleges and produced ground-breaking designs for church buildings. In 1926, he, Gropius and Peter Behrens formed the architects’ association “Der Ring” (“The Ring”) and built social housing developments in Berlin. He set up the State Technical University of

“Bartning was the true father of the Bauhaus movement.” Oskar Schlemmer

experts. However, his buildings, numbering over 250, reflect four periods of German history.

Architecture and Civil Engineering in Weimar, an innovative institution offering a practice-oriented degree programme. Dismissed as its Director by the National Socialists in 1930, he focused his attention on building churches in Germany and abroad. After 1945, Bartning came to shape the building culture of post-war modernism. As an architect unencumbered by politics, he became an authority on ethically-conscious urban planning. He took up residence at the Ernst-Ludwig-Haus from 1951 onwards at the invitation of the city of Darmstadt. He organised the “Darmstädter Gespräche” (“Darmstadt Discussions”) and was the guiding light of Darmstadt’s masterful architectonic creations. As an advisor to the federal State of Berlin, he played a key role in the “Interbau 1957” international building exhibition, which became a worldwide success with constructions by Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer. Bartning died in 1959 in Darmstadt.

Precious archive Otto Bartning’s extensive technical documentation is among the treasures of a collection kept and maintained at the TU. It includes drawings, photographs and a plaster model of the expressionist Sternkirche (Star Church), which Bartning developed between 1920 and 1922 but was never built. The Stahlkirche (Steel Church) in Cologne, erected in 1928 as a prefabricated construction, is documented in several forms, from sketches on the letterhead of a Cologne hotel to an album of construction photos. The wealth of material on the State Technical University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Weimar is another treasure. The large collection of photos provides unique insights into the teaching work and student life.

Asset research

TU Darmstadt has made Bartning’s legacy accessible.

assets of Bartning at the TU. All typescripts, notes, diaries, correspondence, photos and designs have been documented in a database specially developed for the purpose. The database, which contains over 11,000 entries, has been made available to researchers. The material formed the basis for the first comprehensive study of the architectural, programmatic and organisational work of Otto Bartning. This study also paved the way for the exhibition.

From 2011 to 2015, a research project funded by the German Research Foundation and headed up by Sandra Wagner-Conzelmann recorded the private

Humanitarian sign

Philipp Schwartz Initiative As holder of a Philipp Schwartz fellowship, Professor Hussain Al-Towaie has been hosted for two years by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The Yemeni engineer works with Professor Wilhelm J. F. Urban to research the use of renewable energy in the water treatment process. Up until 2013, Al-Towaie had been a professor of mechanical engineering in Aden. The Yemeni Government declared him an undesired person as a result of his warnings concerning water scarcity. He and his daughters took the very difficult step of leaving the civil war-torn country with assistance from the TU. Al-Towaie had already lived in Germany from 1983 to 1987, completing his doctoral studies in Dresden. He came to TU Darmstadt for a time on a DAAD scholarship in 2009. The Philipp Schwartz Initiative was established by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the German Federal Foreign Office. It is named after Jewish pathologist Philipp Schwartz, who fled the Nazis in 1933 and set up the “Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars”. Al-Towaie is one of two foreign scientists conducting research at the TU thanks to the initiative.

Studying in safety

Awards

The Horst Görtz Foundation is enabling two Syrian refugees to complete the Master's Degree in IT Security at TU Darmstadt. Benefactor Dr. Horst Görtz handed over the certificates in person. Aspiring IT security specialists Ahmad D. and Yasser S completed their Bachelor’s degrees in Syria, but had to flee Aleppo in 2015. They successfully participated in a language course for refugees at the TU. The foundation is supporting each of them with EUR 1,020 per month for the duration of their foursemester Master’s programme.

Contributing unique expertise: Professor Hussain Al-Towaie.

“Hussain Al-Towaie can offer exciting new insights into the water and energy supply situation in the Middle East and North Africa. He has a great deal of experience of which concepts and strategies are socially accepted in these regions and therefore easier to implement.” Professor Wilhelm J. F. Urban

Best choice

Outstanding

Athene Prize for Good Teaching

Prof. Reiner Anderl, Department of Mechanical Engineering: President of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz

The Athene Prizes are awarded each year by the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation at TU Darmstadt to members of the university who have demonstrated outstanding teaching practice. The prizes are worth EUR 40,000 in total. The main 2017 Athene Prize went to Professor Michèle Knodt, Anne Tews and Katharina Kleinschnitger from the Department of History and Social Sciences for their Master’s seminar “EU institutions and decisionmaking processes”. The project also received one of the departmental prizes. The Model European Union game saw students from TU Darmstadt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and other institutions take on the role of Members of the European Parliament and simulated decision-making on real draft legislation.

Prof. Petra Gehring, Department of +History and Social Sciences: Chair of the German Council for Scientific Information Infrastructures Prof. Johannes Buchmann, Department of Computer Science: Konrad Zuse Medal from the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. Prof. Jürgen Rödel, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences: Honorary Professor at University of Science and Technology, Beijing Prof. Achim Richter, Department of Physics: Johann-Heinrich-Merck Medal of the City of Science, Darmstadt. Prof. Manfred Boltze,Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Medal for the Cause of Education from the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training at the suggestion of the University of Transport and Communications (UTC), Hanoi Doctoral fellowship from the Merck’sche Gesellschaft für Kunst und Wissenschaft

Thomas Fuchs, Physical Chemistry DB Schenker Award from the Deutsche Bahn Foundation

Dr. Cora Bogusch, Department of Law and Economics (EUR 15,000) Erasmus Kittler Medal of TU Darmstadt

Prof. Dietmar K. Hennecke., Department of Mechanical Engineering Giersch Award for an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis

E-teaching made simple

Dr. Michaela Arnold, Department of Physics (EUR 6,000)

The EUR 6,000 E-Teaching-Award from the Giersch Foundation was presented to Professor Jörg Lange and Dr. Felicitas Rädel from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for a Master’s course employing the inverted classroom model. The use of a wiki on the “Selected chapter from composite and lightweight construction” course affords flexibility to students when preparing for actual meetings. In return, the number of tutorials during the attendance phase is increased. Two more prizes, each worth EUR 3,000, went to projects in civil and environmental engineering and computer science – to Melanie Fiedler for her online test trainer for the “Construction and building materials” course and to Professor Karsten Weihe and Thomas Lüdecke for an online platform.

Prizes of the Information Technology Society within the VDE

Prof. Ralf Steinmetz and Prof. Gerhard M. Sessler, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (ITG Fellow), Dr.-Ing. Michael Fauß, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (doctoral thesis prize) Rotary Sponsorship Prize:

Magdalena Wache, partment of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (EUR 10,000) Start-ups at TU Darmstadt Science4Life Energy Cup

Adaptive Balancing Power GmbH (EUR 10,000): Innovative flywheel and concept for dynamic network stabilisation Innovative Location in the Land of Ideas

NanoWired GmbH: Innovative bonding technology for assembling electrical components at room temperature Financing by consortium of companies

ALCAN Systems GmbH (EUR 7.5 million): Construction of smart satellite antennae that can be configured automatically in the direction of the satellite for optimum reception and enable comprehensive, stable internet access in vehicles, even at high speed Main prize in the Start-Up Competition of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

Friends you can rely on The Association of Friends of Technische Universität Darmstadt has awarded EUR 65,000 worth of prizes for outstanding research work. All 13 departments were represented with prize-winners for the best thesis of the previous year. The Department of Materials and Earth Sciences announced two prizewinners. The Association of Friends has 2,500 individuals and 100 companies among its members.

Meshcloud (EUR 32,000): Open-source cloud platform in Germany for consolidated management and billing of projects and data Main prize and special ‘big data’ award in the Digital Innovations Start-up Competition

Compredict GmbH (EUR 42,000): Software for sensor-based measurement of the condition and level of wear of vehicle components in the operating state Prizes in the “Hessen Ideen” ideas competition

F-Technologies project (EUR 3,500): High-performance applications for the technological infrastructure of the digitalisation process in order to allow higher processing speed and energy efficiency in computing processes Floating Office team (public choice award): Development of a height-adjustable desk of the future, secured to the ceiling with cables

Awards

450 years of storing knowledge

In the treasure trove of the University and State Library: Maiestas Domini from the Gero Codex, Reichenau, approx. 969.

Milestone in library history The TU marked the 450th anniversary of the opening of its University and State Library with exhibitions, a ceremony, a discussion event and a magnificent commemorative publication. Two impressive exhibitions provided insights into the history and collections of the library: The “Milestones in the Library’s History” exhibition painted a picture of the library’s historical collections. By contrast, the presentation in the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt illustrated how the book collection of Landgrave Georg I and the first expansion of the library’s collections with acquisitions integrated the “power of knowledge” and the “power of images” in 1568. One outstanding exhibit was the 33-volume manuscript collection “Thesaurus Picturarum” of Markus zum Lamm, a member of the Heidelberg consistory. This encyclopaedic collection is considered a key source for the transitional period in the Electoral Palatinate at the end of the 16th century. The exhibition also showed engravings of artistarchaeologist Giovanni Battista Piranesi from the 18th century, along with relief maps by cartographer Georg Michel Bauerkeller, who made threedimensional versions of his colour lithographic designs as early as the 1830s.

The joy of collection The exhibits bear witness to the artistic enthusiasm and quality-awareness of the landgraves and grand dukes of Hesse-Darmstadt. Over the centuries, their research interests, literary ardour and enjoyment of collecting historical treasures have given rise to a unique collection which today forms a valuable part of the federal state of Hesse’s cultural heritage. The Court Library (Hofbibliothek), later to become the State Library, has been making its impressive collection of manuscripts, prints, sheet music and maps available to the public since 1817.

cultural treasures found their way to Darmstadt from Westphalian cloisters, the Electorate of Cologne and the collection of Baron Hüpsch. This gave rise to a modern scholarly university library, which became the main provider of information in the Grand Dutchy and one of the leading libraries of the time. It has been known as the State Library since 1917. The scholarly media was first pooled together in 1948 under the pressure of wartime losses with the establishment of the Hessian State and University Library. Its integration in the TU in 2000 and its renaming as the University and State Library in 2004 were important stations on the way to it becoming a modern, increasingly digital university library which keeps sight of its regional importance and cultural heritage.

A goodbye and a new beginning He is one of the most high-profile figures on the university library scene in Germany. The European Court of Justice’s ground-breaking 2014 ruling on the Copyright Directive in relation to the digitalisation of textbooks is largely thanks to his work: Dr. HansGeorg Nolte-Fischer, Director of the University and State Library for 18 years, has entered retirement. He attached great importance to high service standards, extending lending periods and introducing Sunday and 24-hour opening at the library and driving electronic media services. Professor Thomas Stäcker is the new Executive Director of the University and State Library. He had previously served as Deputy Director of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel and is considered a pioneer of digitalisation in the German library sector. He identifies the process of adapting the library’s services and offerings to the rapidly changing general conditions of a research community and society characterised by digitalisation as a major challenge. He intends to focus on open-access-based publication models and expand digital offerings for students.

Its origins stretch back to the reign of Landgrave Georg I in the 16th century. His books form the nucleus of the library. Under Lud(e)wig X/I, unique 99

2 international* appointments

Foundation Professorships Deutsche Bahn Stiftung gGmbH:

Foundation Assistant Professorship Business Administration Multimodality and Logistics Technologies in the Department of Law and Economics Professorin Anne Lange

appointments in total * Appointments of foreign citizens or individuals abroad to professorships/assistant professorships

NATURpur Institut für Klima- und Umweltschutz und Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft:

Foundation Professorship Applied Geothermal Science and Technology in the Department of Materials and Earth Sciences Professor Ingo Sass

Deutsche Bahn Stiftung gGmbH:

New honorary professors Thomas Schütz Department of Mechanical Engineering Jan Hilligardt Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Foundation Professorship Railway Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Andreas Oetting

Goldbeck Stiftung:

Foundation Professorship Sustainable Building Design in the Department of Architecture Professor Christoph Kuhn

Institut Wohnen und Umwelt GmbH

Foundation Assistant Professorship Models of Housing and Energy Policy in the Department of History and Social Sciences Professor Kai Schulze

Awards Facts and figures

New Adjunct Professors (apl. Prof.)

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Andreas Boes Department of History and Social Sciences, Robert Haller-Dintelmann Department of Mathematics Ilia Roisman Department of Mechanical Engineering

New Professors Name

from

Department

Carsten Binnig

Brown University, USA

Computer Science

Sebastian Faust

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Computer Science

Paolo Giubellino

CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

Physics

Christian Hasse

Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg

Mechanical Engineering

Frank Jäkel

PSIORI GmbH, Wilhelmshaven

Human Sciences

Kristian Kersting

Technische Universität Dortmund

Computer Science

Ute Kolb

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Jakob Macke

Caesar (MPI), Bonn

Materials and Earth Sciences Human Sciences

Betty Mohler

Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen

Human Sciences

Markus Prechtl

Pädagogische Hochschule Weingarten

Chemistry

Christian Reuter

University Siegen

Computer Science

Marcus Rose

RWTH Aachen University

Chemistry

Christiane Salge

Freie Universität Berlin

Architecture

Eva Schill

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Materials and Earth Sciences

Florian Steinke

Siemens AG, Munich

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Regine von Klitzing

Technische Universität Berlin

Physics

Martin Votsmeier

Umicore AG, Hanau

Mechanical Engineering

New Assistant Professors Name

from

Department

Oliver Clemens

Technische Universität Darmstadt

Materials and Earth Sciences

Johannes Kabisch

University of Greifswald

Biology

Michael Pradel

Technische Universität Darmstadt

Computer Science

New KIVA-Professor Name

from

Department

Meral Apak Kaya

Boğaziçi University, Istanbul

Human Sciences

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Campus impressions

Lichtwiese

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Botanical Gardens

August-Euler Airfield (with wind tunnel) University Stadium

City Centre

Imprint Publisher President of TU Darmstadt Karolinenplatz 5 64289 Darmstadt Editor Jörg Feuck Corporate Communications, TU Darmstadt Copy TU Darmstadt, Astrid Ludwig, Uta Neubauer. Authors: Boris Hänßler, Hildegard Kaulen, Eva Keller, Christian Meier, Jutta Witte

Translation Lund Languages, Köln Photo Editor Patrick Bal Photography Cover: Jan-Christoph Hartung Katrin Binner (22) Jan-Christoph Hartung (18) Fernandes Felipe (11) Sandra Junker (6) Claus Völker (6) Patrick Bal (5) Gregor Rynkowski (5) Thomas Ott (3) Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt (2)

Otto-Bartning-Archiv (2) Bambach (2) Philipp Czechowski (1) SalsaTUDe (1) Akademische Motorsportgruppe Darmstadt (1) Andreas Arnold (1) Miguel Hahn (1) Gabriele Otto/GSI (1) Sebastian König / Hans Werner Hammer (1) Frithjof Kjer (1) Yohan Zerdoun (1) Natalie Wocko (1) Carlos Andres Lopez Franco (1) M. Maruyama (1) Axel Kindermann (1) Privat (1)

Concept and Design conclouso GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz www.conclouso.de Printing Druckerei Ph. Reinheimer GmbH Darmstadt Circulation (english): 500 May, 2018

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TU Darmstadt Progress Report 2017

Progress Report 2017