Progress Report 2016

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4 Summary by Executive Board

14 Academic Affairs17 Best possible start18 Successful operation19 Starting your studies with a difference20 A warm welcome21 Young input22 Joint pioneering work23 The latest from the natural sciences24 Acting responsibility25 Courses offered by TU Darmstadt26 Facts and figures

30 Research33 Strong collaborative research centres34 LOEWE promotes excellence35 Into and out of the city36 Developing brain software37 Turbo boost for broadband network38 Gaps in the system40 Aspects of health41 Safe cars of the future42 Orientation in the textual world43 Responsive plastics44 Sustainable construction and driving45 State and society46 Secure prospects47 Better living and working conditions48 Top-Level Research

52 Focus on entrepreneurial atmosphere

62 Cooperation and transfer65 Driving energy research66 Fit for Industry 4.068 Efficient and low-emission flight69 Hand in hand70 Mobility of tomorrow71 Terahertz waves and therapies72 The world on a large and small scale73 Good neighbours

74 Life on campus77 Student creativity78 Wide awake79 Flourishing landscapes80 Mosaics shine once again81 Art Forum opened82 Course set83 Staying healthy84 Facts and figures

86 Awards89 Noble gesture90 Architecture and education91 Milestones in sight92 Multiple awards93 Generous foundation94 Top performances95 Closely linked96 Excellent dissertations97 Excellent reputation 98 Water is her element99 Biologist, anatomist and artist

100 Facts and figures

102 Campus impressions / Imprint

30 ResearchA new generation of laser diodes developed at TU Darmstadt increase the performance range of fibre-optic networks.

14 Academic AffairsThe student competition at the Institute of Electromechanical Design is always fascinating: This year the entrants had to build diving robots.

62 Cooperation and knowledge transferSatellite information for all: An EU network enables Earth observation data to be used for innovative applications.

74 Life on campusTake part and gain understanding, join the discussion and get to know the laboratories: The public were enthralled by the “hellwach!” Science Day at the university.

86 Awards The reward for exceptional work in a Bachelor or Master’s degree: awards and a special public event.

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Summary by Executive Board

Highly dynamicTU Darmstadt has seen particularly dynamic develop-ment in the areas of research, innovation and transfer in 2016. The university is playing a significant role in three “Kopernikus Projects for the Energy Transition”, which are receiving priority funding from the German Government. The ETA model factory for energy efficiency on the Lichtwiese campus is up and running and is receiving international acclaim. The factory demonstrates the enormous savings potential that can be created through the intelligent connection of industrial production processes and their combination with sophisticated building construction and building technology. The neighbouring “SMEs 4.0 – Darmstadt Competence Centre”, also now open, represents another building block in TU Darmstadt’s efforts to sharpen its profile.

Furthermore, in 2016, the German Research Foun-dation (DFG) approved another collaborative research centre in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, this time on the “Interaction between Transport and Wetting Processes”, as well as the research training groups “Privacy and Trust for Mobile Users” and “Critical Infrastructures: Construction, Function Failures, and Protection in Cities (CRITIS)”. The federal state of Hesse is funding the new LOEWE Research Cluster “Building with Paper”. The strategic development of cognitive science as a research cluster is proceeding apace – the appointment procedures for four new professors are at an advanced stage.

Cooperation with companiesIn Siemens, TU Darmstadt has brought another DAX 30 company on board with its programme for strategic partnerships with industry. An agreement on IT secur-ity research is strengthening the university’s existing close relationship with Deutsche Bahn. And the Department of Mechanical Engineering celebrated the ten-year anniversary of its research laboratory with Rolls-Royce, a unique facility at international level.

TU Darmstadt is working closely with the private sector as part of trust-based partnerships, pursuing in the process its own understanding that research should always focus on issues highly relevant to

Energy-efficient production in the ETA-Factory.

society and everyday business operations. By acceler-ating specific strategic partnerships, the university is helping to exploit all the available research potential. These partnerships are long term in nature and incorporate a range of cooperation issues and several departments. They are dynamic and make it possible to adapt repeatedly to the needs of partners.

This project-independent, institutional and highly interdisciplinary cooperation improves the chances of identifying new ideas and unconventional solutions that lead to innovative products or processes and give companies and the university a competitive edge. Strategic partnerships also provide impetus for training and open doors for students, enabling them to familiarise themselves with companies and find a career entry point through internships, part-time jobs alongside their studies and interesting dissertations.

Start-up cultureThis environment of cooperation is also increasingly strengthening the TU’s start-up culture. Over 80 know-ledge and technology-based companies have been set up in and around the university since 2013. Some 50 awards were presented to start-ups with a TU connection during the same period. The annual Startup & Innovation Day is one of the most spectacular events organised by the TU’s HIGHEST Start-up Centre. The Centre is highly renowned and is set to continue receiving German Government funding over the next few years.

Optimum transitionsThe quality of teaching and learning remains a high priority for TU Darmstadt. With the KI²VA project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the university is setting standards in Germany and abroad. For example, the TU’s successful model for students commencing their studies has become a trademark of the institution. Seven projects were run in the 2016/17 academic year, involving some 2,400 students.

TU Darmstadt is also effective at helping students to transition from Bachelor’s to Master’s courses. Thanks to its profile, it attracts a considerable number of

Good transitions from Bachelor’s to Master’s courses.

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first-time Master’s students from other universities in Germany and abroad. Consequently, the number of places it offers for first-time Master’s students significantly exceeds the number of its own Bach-elor’s graduates.

International networkThe Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univer-sity (Blacksburg, United States) is now officially TU Darmstadt’s second bilateral strategic university partner after Tongji University in Shanghai. The US university is one of the leading research universities in the country when it comes to engineering and the natural sciences. It has extensive links with TU Darmstadt, including regular dialogue between students and lecturers, attractive summer schools and double-degree programmes at Bachelor’s level and, soon, at Master’s level.

In accordance with its internationalisation strategy, TU Darmstadt is developing strategic partnerships with a small number of selected universities in order to institutionalise long-term and particularly close partnerships, strengthen its international profile and reputation, and become more visible.

It signed a memorandum of understanding with TRIUMF National Laboratory (Vancouver, Canada) in 2016. The TRIUMF research institute is a joint venture involving 12 leading Canadian research universities, including the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. The agreement is based on long-standing cooperation in theoretical astrophysics, nuclear physics and experimental atomic physics.

Another agreement was signed in 2016, safe-guarding closer cooperation with the Korea Ad-vanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). KAIST is one of Asia’s leading technical universities and has forged a wide range of research partner-ships with TU Darmstadt in the fields of materials science, mechanical engineering, mathematics, chemistry, biology and electrical engineering. The agreement refers to new exchange programmes, the long-term development of double-degree

programmes, and the expansion of research con-tacts, for example, in the areas of energy science and computer science.

Ambassadors around the worldAlumni of TU Darmstadt now living all over the world will serve as voluntary ambassadors in future, functioning as good 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 at international level through regional groups. The Alumni Am-bassador Programme is being funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation at TU Darmstadt.

University allianceSet up by TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frank-furt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the strategic Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance brought a great deal of additional research ex-cellence to the Rhine-Main region in its first year of existence. The goal is to place this extremely strong and innovative region more prominently on the research map and further build on the good inter-national reputation of the three universities. The alliance was officially launched in late 2015 with a portfolio of some 70 specialist partnerships, Colla-borative Research Centres and research train-ing groups, and involvement with non-university research institutions and cooperation projects. One year on, the list has grown significantly longer. At the beginning of 2016, for example, the research training group for energy-efficient particle acceler-ators, funded by the DFG to the tune of EUR 4.7 mil-lion, commenced its work. It sees nuclear physicists from Darmstadt and Mainz working together.

The DFG is also working through the “Performance Engineering for Scientific Software” programme to promote an extensive high-performance computing project of the RMU, coordinated by TU Darmstadt. A Mercator Science Policy Fellowship Programme of the RMU initiated by Goethe University is helping to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and decision-making processes. TU Darmstadt and

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz’s Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence deals with the topic of the EU in Global Dialogue and celebrated its one-year anniversary in December 2016. Researchers from the fields of archaeology, Africa studies, digital humanities and neuroscience have also pushed ahead with their networking activities.

One unique feature is the jointly created initiative fund, which is stocked up with EUR 500,000 each

year and offers an additional incentive to forward-looking research associations at the three partner universities. Partnerships in the fields of medical technology and the digital humanities made their mark in the first call for applications and are now receiving financial support.

Technology is at the heart of all disciplines at TU Darmstadt.

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

Members

Prof. Katharina Kohse-HöinghausUniversity of Bielefeld, Department of Chemistry/Physical Chemistry

Ilona MoogLawyer, member of the board of Deutscher Frauenring, Darmstadt

Prof. Burkhard RauhutRector, German University of Technology, Oman (until 2013)

Dr. Karl-Friedrich RauschMember of the Management Board, Deutsche Bahn (until 2015)

Prof. Bernd ReckmannMember of the Executive Board, Merck (until 2016)

Marion SchmidtHead of Higher Education Development and Com-munications, Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Cognos AG

Prof. Wolfgang Wahlster Saarland University, Department of Computer Science, Director and CEO of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DKFI)

Prof. Margret WintermantelPresident of the German Academic Exchange Service, Professor of Psychology

Prof. Heidi Wunderli-AllenspachRector, ETH Zurich (until 2012), Professor of Biopharmacy

Dr. Holger Zinke Deputy Chairman, Supervisory Board, Brain AG

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

Members

President10 professors4 students 3 research associates 3 administrative/technical staff

Executive Board University leadership team

Members

President Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen PrömelUniversity strategy and structure, appointment of new professors, quality management and international relations, external representation

Vice President Dr. Manfred EfingerAdministration and financial affairs

Vice President Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralph BruderAcademic affairs

Vice President Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mira MeziniResearch and innovation

Vice President Prof. Dr.Andrea RappScientific infrastructure

Vice President Prof. Dr. Matthias RehahnKnowledge and technology transfer, alumni activities, fundraising

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

Members

31 professors15 students10 research associates 5 administrative/technical staff

Organisation

Vice President

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Mira Mezini

Vice President

Prof. Dr.Andrea Rapp

Vice President

Prof. Dr. Matthias Rehahn

President

Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Prömel

Vice President

Dr. Manfred Efinger

Vice President

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralph Bruder

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

2 Excellence Graduate Schools: “Computational Engineering” and “Energy Science and

Engineering”

1 LOEWE Centre of Excellence

6 LOEWE Clusters of Excellence

11 DFG Collaborative Research Centres/ Transfer Units

Campus5 locations: City Centre, Lichtwiese, Botanical Gardens, University Stadium, August-Euler Airfield (with wind tunnel)

250 hectares of property

159 buildings (incl. 13 rented)

305,000 square metres of usable space (incl. 17,000 rented)

People26,350 students (of which 7,750 female)

4,200 first-semester undergraduate students

2,800 first-semester Master’s students

254 male professors (of which 14 assistant professors)

52 female professors (of which 8 assistant professors)

2,450 academic employees (of which 640 female)

1,860 non-academic employees (of which 1,120 female)

154 trainees (of which 45 female)

154 graduate assistants (of which 53 female)

2,860 student assistants (of which 820 female)

BudgetEUR 245.2 million basic funds from the State of Hesse (excl. LOEWE)

EUR 35.3 million from Bund-Länder-Hochschulpakt (Phase II)

EUR 7.9 million other funds

EUR 163.5 million third-party funds (incl. LOEWE)

Figures rounded

Upgrowth of third-party funds(in mio EUR)

Sources of third-party funds(in %)

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Highlights 2016A

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Best possible start

A TU degree is highly valuableEmployers in Germany and abroad value TU Darm-stadt graduates for their high level of education and employability. The QS Graduate Employability Rankings place TU Darmstadt at number 30 out of 200 universities worldwide, and number 2 among the 15 German universities rated.

The TU fares equally well in German business maga-zine WirtschaftsWoche’s 2016 University Ranking, making it into the leading group of institutions in five subjects, and even achieving top spot in business informatics. Each year, human resources managers rate universities to determine which ones most effectively prepare students for the real working world and the requirements of companies.

This reputation is also reflected later in graduates’ salaries. According to the 2016 salary report (“Gehaltsreport”), TU students with a Master’s in engineering and information technology leave the competition from all other renowned German universities far behind when starting their career.

Highly satisfiedThe CHE University Ranking has awarded good marks to the TU for its engineering and natural science courses. It reports that students in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Chemistry are “highly satisfied” with their study situation. The university also made it into the top group in other categories. For example, biology degrees were rated as highly recommend-able for their length and quality of teaching. The CHE University Ranking examines more than 300 higher education institutions and is considered the most comprehensive and detailed ranking of its kind in the German-speaking world.

Discussion outside the old main building.

“We are recognised nationally and internationally for the quality of our teaching and research-oriented courses. For our students, their time here literally pays off.”

TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel

The University and State Library was open 147 hours a week and 351 days in 2016.

1,500 first semester students

attended the official welcome

for new students in the

Lecture Hall and Media

Centre on the Lichtwiese

campus in October 2016.

Jens Steffek works across

2 study locations. The Professor of Transnational Governance at

TU Darmstadt and Principal Investigator in an

excellence cluster at Goethe University Frankfurt

teaches and researches at both institutions, which

offer joint degree programmes in “International

Studies/Peace and Conflict Research” and “Political

Theory”.

390 school students had their appetites

whet for basic research and the

subject of physics during the Saturday Morning

Physics lecture and excursion series.

All 13 departments

and all fields of study

offer part-time degrees:

students can choose from

41 Bachelor’s and

51 Master’s courses.

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Starting your studies with a difference

Flying doctorsAn extremely infectious disease with a high mortality rate is giving rise to an epidemic in a South East Asian country. The quality of medical care for the population is poor and conventional methods of treatment are no longer working due to the heightened security risk for helpers. Assistance could come from the air, in the form of bloodsucking insects that transmit molecules into the human host through their saliva which specifically combat the pathogen. These flying doctors serve to vaccinate and treat their hosts.

A total of 109 biology, philosophy and sociology students worked in twelve interdisciplinary groups to examine this hypothetical scenario during a KIVA project week. They had to put together a case study for a specific pathogen, develop a suitable vaccine or treatment and use genetic methods to identify a flying insect to transmit that vaccine or treatment. This insect had to be retrievable to allow its activity to be monitored. The teams were also required to complete the necessary steps for educating

The key to success: compelling presentation.

“One of the aims is to show students that these questions cannot be solved by one discipline alone. Biologists, sociologists and philosophers work well together. Indeed, they complement each other excellently.”

Professor of Biology

Heribert Warzecha

the population. The philosophical task involved critically reflecting on the ethical side of all decisions and weighing up opportunities and risks.

“We initially thought that the concept wasn’t feasible. How could you defend it from an ethical standpoint? Would the mosquitoes transmit diseases? Could they deliver enough vaccine? But we found a strategy that worked,” said biology student Linda Paul, summing up. “It was the first time that I’d taken on the role of a humanities scholar within a team. I saw how difficult it is to gain a sufficient hearing for your opinion as an expert, but that it’s possible,” said philosophy student Bernd Liebenau.

First place went to the team that used the Aedes vexans mosquito in a virtual scenario to fight typhus in the Philippines.

Successful operation

For one week, 351 mechanical engineering, sociol-ogy and medical students from Mainz became medi-cal technicians. Their task during the KIVA project week “Introduction to Mechanical Engineering” was to evolve a system for laparoscopic operations to be used in developing countries.

Laparoscopy, a form of keyhole surgery, is now standard practice in abdomen operations in Germany. It requires only small incisions to be made in order to allow the instruments to be inserted into the body and operated from outside. This method promotes the healing of wounds and entails fewer risks, but it is expensive. The teams were tasked with developing an innovative and cost-effective system for these kinds of operations in South-East Asia. The profitability, sustainability and feasibility of spare parts procurement was just as important as the general medical and social conditions.

For the first time, the TU students, 318 studying mechanical engineering and 15 sociology, received support from another university. 18 medical students from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz took part in the project week as specialists.

First place went to a group that developed an innovative gripping system with a pistol-like locking mechanism and locking slots for setting different gripping angles, and safe scalpels and knives to reduce the risk of stab wounds.

The moment of truth before the jury.

“It quickly became apparent upon delving into the topic that medical technology is a fascinat-ing world for engineers and medical students. Communi-cation between the disciplines of mechanical engineering, medicine and sociology has been very effective.”

Professor Samuel Schabel, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Introducing KIVAKIVA is a German acronym which stands for “Competence development through interdisciplinary cooperation from the very outset”. By employing interdisci-plinary projects with a focus on technical questions at the be-ginning of the degree course, the TU has set the standard throughout Germany for improving studying conditions and teaching quality. Seven projects are being run in the 2016/17 academic year, involving 22 partners and 2,400 students.

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A warm welcome

They come from over 30 countries and are complet-ing their Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral studies at the TU: some 200 exchange students came to Darm-stadt for the first semester of 2016/17. To help them get off to a good start, the TU invited them to attend experience weeks, including information events and excursions, in different languages. The students from the Erasmus and other exchange programmes familiarised themselves with details of the university and its facilities, including the University and State Library, and found out about language courses.

Paulina Kusztal from Poland was glad to attend the week. She chose to study a Master’s in Linguistic

Quickly integrated into everyday life: student Yunzhe Zou.

“The numerous TU events and contacts with international students have really helped me expand my intercultural skills.”

Yunzhe Zou, Bachelor’s student

and Literary Computing at the TU. “From the first day, I received support from TU staff and was given lots of tips.” Mechanical engineering student Yunzhe Zou also felt warmly welcomed. The 21 year old from the Shanghai area liked the academic atmosphere. “Many events are offered in German, which helped me improve my skills in the language in just a few weeks.”

But every new beginning has its challenges: “Nonetheless, the Directorate for International Affairs offers excellent assistance,” stressed Zou, who had, for example, received support with obtaining documents for his home university.

Young input

Reinforcement from the United StatesRiley Davis spent almost three months at the In-stitute for Fluid Systems on the Lichtwiese campus. The American is studying mechanical engineering and German at the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge and opted to complete her summer internship at the TU. She worked in collaborative research centre 805 on the development of a low-cost data logger, a mini-computer that automatically records measure-ment data in an active air spring. Davis was impressed by her time in Darmstadt. The US student was the third female exchange student to visit the TU from MIT. Contact was made via the German Research Foundation.

Diving robotsThe requirements were strict: the robots should be able to move vertically in water at high speed and with great precision. Water displacement, height, development time and budget were all specified, and the diving process had to be fully automated. 27 students, organised into six teams, took on the

Greetings from the Ivy League: visiting student Riley Davis.

challenge in the final “Practical Development Methodology” competition at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology’s Institute for Electromechanical Design.

The project seminar, which has received the Hessian Award for Excellence in University Teaching, has been running since 1965. Students are required to develop their own solutions to a technical problem, enabling them to gain experience early on that they can apply immediately in an industrial context.

The teams in the robot diving competition had come up with a wide range of methods for forward movement, buoyancy and downforce, including propellers and pumping mechanisms. The biggest challenge was preventing water from seeping into the sensitive electronics. Ultimately, Philipp Mattfeldt, David Dahlem, Christoph Jung, Weiyan Yang and Xiaoyi Zhang’s “MFTorpedo” was selected as the winner.

“People here are very open and positive towards international students, so you can get to know them quickly.”

Paulina Kusztal, Master’s student

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The latest from the natural sciences

Changes in chemistryControlled explosions, fire and smoke, molecular food and guided tours: the TU really got creative to celebrate a successful building renovation. As one of the largest connected building complexes at the TU, the Department of Chemistry’s facility on the Licht-wiese campus has been undergoing fundamental renovation work for a number of years. Cost: EUR 38 million. The complex was constructed be-tween 1969 and 1974 using the “Darmstadt build-ing system”, a prefabricated construction method typical of the time. After decades of intensive use, it was time for a general overhaul. The first state-of-the-art building section was commissioned in summer 2016.

With six floors and 6,600 square metres of usable space, chemistry building L2|04 was initially returned to its shell structure in order to adapt it to the latest construction, physical and technical requirements and the needs of modern research and teaching. Its distinctive external appearance was retained.

In order to allow the university to continue its activities, the renovation work is being carried out in several sections. The next step involves refitting the organic chemistry area, the lecture theatre and the entrance area to make them more represen-tative, and converting the library into a modern learning centre.

Ceremony in the newly renovated chemistry building.

“Getting school students excited about natural and technical science topics is very important to us here at TU Darmstadt.”

Professor Ralph Bruder, TU Vice President, Academic Affairs

Joint pioneering work

It is the only degree course of its kind in Germany: for ten years, students at TU Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt have had the opportunity to complete the joint Master’s in International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research. It took some pioneering work to pave the way for the inter-institutional, interdisciplinary project, which was launched in cooperation with the Peace Research Institute Frank-furt (PRIF) in 2007. The project’s initiators included Klaus Dieter Wolf, Professor for International Politics at the TU for four years, and political scientist Tanja Brühl, now Vice President of Goethe University Frankfurt.

Demand for the 60 places on the Master’s in International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research and for the other joint degree in Political Theory is growing rapidly. Some 600 applications are now received from all over Germany. The TU and Goethe University Frankfurt each contribute their own unique content and students can make equal use of the offerings in Darmstadt and Frankfurt. The TU focuses on the natural science and technical dimension and on international cooperation.

One of the highlights are the excursions to New York and Geneva to witness disarmament talks at the United Nations and UN simulations. “This involves a great deal of research, but it’s exciting,” says Jan Dannheisig approvingly, who had previously studied political science and American studies in Göttingen. The technical side of his Master’s degree is what fas-cinates him most. Fellow student Jens Stappenbeck is interested in empirical peace research and human rights organisations. A number of modules at the TU tie in very well with these topics. He pools his lectures and seminars to take account of the fact that he has to commute from Frankfurt to Darmstadt: “I’m very pleased with the course content overall.”

Jens Stappenbeck.

“I’d like to help to identify conflicts in good time and perhaps even prevent them occurring in the first place.”

Jens Stappenbeck, Master’s student

Junior biology labThe TU and the company Merck are running a new experimental lab for young researchers, teachers and students in the Department of Biology. In so doing, the partners are stepping up their activities to support schools and expand their long-standing partnership. In the BioLab, students can conduct their own experi-ments using research apparatus not available in schools. The high-quality equipment, which includes a digital 3D microscope, was jointly funded. Teachers and trainee teachers can also participate in training on current issues. The lab was modelled on the junior lab in the Department of Chemistry.

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Acting responsibility

Initial orientation for studying in Germany.

“Integration is the foundation’s watchword when it comes to funding activities, and inte-gration starts with language.”

Dr. Armin Neher, Site Manager, Evonik

Help for refugeesIn order to provide opportunities and prospects for refugees capable of studying to (re)commence a degree course and support them in this endeavour, the TU has turned its Central Coordination Office for refugee integration, set up in 2015, into a Com-petence Centre. It offers a wide range of assistance. A total of 385 refugees were informed about admis-sion criteria, language courses and study oppor-tunities at the TU by summer 2016 alone as part of campus orientation courses run in collaboration with Tutor International. Some 740 individuals received advice in person or over the phone and the centre answered countless e-mail queries.

Language courses are being run at the Language Resource Centre and as part of Academic Bridging Courses to prepare refugees for study. The first participants completed the necessary language exam in July and began or resumed their studies at the TU in semester one. The Competence Centre often provides assistance with new questions and challenges, for example in regard to financing opportunities during a course of study.

Recognising that linguistic and cultural knowledge are absolutely fundamental, the Language Resource Centre and the multilingualism research group at the TU work with the Bürgerstiftung Darmstadt to provide further training to volunteer German teach-ers. One of these teachers is Master’s student Yasin Turkac. He volunteers because he comes from a migrant family himself and knows “how hard it is to find your feet in a new country if you don’t speak the language”.

Donations for language coursesThanks to an appeal, the TU collected EUR 40,000 in donations to finance language courses for refugees. The money was used to pay teachers’ fees and buy teaching resources. The Evonik Foundation made the largest donation at EUR 30,000. This enabled 18 young people to take part in a German language course, a requirement for their course of study. A party was held to enable donors and course participants to get to know each other.

BachelorApplied GeosciencesApplied MechanicsArchitectureBuilding TechnologyBiologyBiomolecular Engineering Business Engineering – Technical Field of Studies • Civil Engineering • Electrical Engineering and Information Technology • Mechanical Engineering Business Information SystemsChemistryCivil Engineering and GeodesyComputational EngineeringComputer ScienceDigital PhilologyElectrical Engineering and Information TechnologyHistory with a Focus on Modern HistoryInformation Systems TechnologyMaterials ScienceMathematicsMechanical Engineering – Mechanical and Process Eng.MechatronicsPedagogy PhysicsPolitical Science PsychologyPsychology in ITSociologySports Science and Computer Science Bachelor of Education Building TechnologyBody CareChemical EngineeringComputer ScienceElectrical Engineering and Information TechnologyMetal EngineeringJoint Bachelor of ArtsBusiness Administration and EconomicsComputer ScienceDigital PhilologyGerman StudiesHistoryMusical Culture PhilosophyPolitical ScienceSociologySports Science

Lehramt an GymnasienBiologyChemistryComputer ScienceGerman StudiesHistoryMathematicsPhilosophy/EthicsPhysicsPolitics and EconomicsSports

MasterApplied GeosciencesArchitectureAutonomous SystemsBiomolecular EngineeringBusiness Engineering – Technical Field of Studies • Civil Engineering • Electrical Engineering and Information Technology • Mechanical Engineering Business Information SystemsChemistryCivil EngineeringComputational EngineeringComputer ScienceDistributed Software SystemsEducational Sciences – Education in Processes of Global TechnologicalisationElectrical Engineering and Information TechnologyEnergy Science and EngineeringEnvironmental EngineeringGerman Linguistics Geodesy and GeoinformationGovernance and Public PolicyHistoryInformation and Communication EngineeringInformation Systems TechnologyInternational Cooperation in Urban DevelopmentInternationale Studies/Peace and Conflict ResearchInternet and Web-based SystemsIT SecurityLinguistic and Literary Computing Materials ScienceMathematicsMechanical Engineering – Mechanical and Process Eng.MechanicsMechatronics Paper Science and Technology – paper technology and biobased fiber materialsPhilosophy PhysicsPolitical Therory PsychologyPsychology in ITSociologySports Management Sports Science and Computer ScienceTechnology and Philosophy Technical BiologyTraffic and TransportTropical Hydrogeology and Environmental Engineering Visual Computing

Master of Education Catholic ReligionComputer ScienceEthicsGermanHistoryMathematicsPhysicsPolitics and EconomicsProtestant ReligionSports Science

Courses offered by TU Darmstadt

winter semester 2016/17

112degree programmes

13departments

5fields of study

2727

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Students in first subject-related semester

Departments

Law and Economics

History and Social Sciences

Human Sciences

Mathematics

Physics

Chemistry

Biology

Materials and Earth Sciences

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Architecture

Mechanical Engineering

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology

Computer Science

Fields of Study

Mechanics

Computational Engineering

Information Systems Engineering

Mechatronics

Energy Science and EngineeringTotal

Source: Data Warehouse / Excludes individuals with leave of absence, doctoral students, and those on second degree courses. Assignment based on first subject. Summer semester 2016+ winter semester 2016/17. / * 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.

Undergraduate degree courses*

Total

561

469

212

139

397

183

138

134

439

155

341

315

578

48

52

63

4,224

Women in %

19 %

49 %

71 %

33 %

30 %

43 %

57 %

29 %

32 %

59 %

12 %

10 %

17 %

33 %

19 %

13 %

30 %

Foreigners *** in %

13 %

4 %

8 %

3 %

14 %

8 %

5 %

7 %

14 %

9 %

14 %

19 %

12 %

6 %

13 %

8 %

11 %

Master’s degree courses **

Total

314

304

158

85

78

106

56

125

235

204

320

256

370

30

43

18

47

34

2,783

Women in %

21 %

56 %

53 %

39 %

14 %

41 %

63 %

30 %

37 %

55 %

15 %

18 %

14 %

13 %

26 %

0 %

9 %

15 %

31 %

Foreigners. *** in %

8 %

10 %

5 %

16 %

8 %

8 %

7 %

34 %

14 %

35 %

14 %

61 %

41 %

27 %

21 %

17 %

38 %

18 %

23 %

26,362Students

7,007 Students in

first subject-related semesterin 2016

8,498Master’s students

Students

Departments

Law and Economics

History and Social Sciences

Human Sciences

Mathematics

Physics

Chemistry

Biology

Materials and Earth Sciences

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Architecture

Mechanical Engineering

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology

Computer Science

Fields of Study

Mechanics

Computational Engineering

Information Systems Engineering

Mechatronics

Energy Science and Engineering

TotalSource: Data Warehouse / Excludes individuals with leave of absence, includes doctoral students, excludes those on second degree courses. Assignment based on first subject, winter semester 2016/17. / * 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

Total

3,188

3,076

1,371

936

1,216

1,135

788

1,169

2,475

1,387

3,083

2,029

3,547

232

251

239

145

95

26,362

Women in %

20 %

52 %

62 %

33 %

21 %

39 %

61 %

29 %

35 %

55 %

11 %

12 %

12 %

19%

18 %

9 %

9 %

28 %

29 %

Foreigners * in %

13 %

9 %

9 %

10 %

8 %

9 %

7 %

24 %

17 %

28 %

17 %

37 %

27 %

22 %

15 %

14 %

38 %

26 %

18 %

of which Master’s **

937

895

401

277

240

269

160

426

785

557

1,098

694

1,272

96

99

52

145

95

8,498

of which Master’s in %

29 %

29 %

29 %

30 %

20 %

24 %

20 %

36 %

32 %

40 %

36 %

34 %

36 %

41 %

39 %

22 %

100 %

100 %

32 %

University and State Library 2016

1.3 million visitors

575,800 users of the reading room

586,350 items borrowed

20,900 requests for information

Around 4.5 million: the number of individual pages of the digital collection accessed

Around 1 million: the number of times the library's publication service (TUprints) was accessed

Collection:

4.6 million printed works, of which 2.27 million are books and journals

493,000 electronic media (excluding magazines)

28,550 continuously published journals, of which 25,800 are electronic

13,694 manuscripts

4.05 million euros of expenditure on acquisitions, of which almost three quarters on electronic media

213 books and 171 graphics restored

29

Ac

ad

em

ic A

ffa

irs

Fa

cts

an

d f

igu

res

28

Graduations

Departments

Law and Economics

History and Social Sciences

Human Sciences

Mathematics

Physics

Chemistry

Biology

Materials and Earth Sciences

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Architecture

Mechanical Engineering

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technology

Computer Science

Fields of Study

Mechanics

Computational Engineering

Information Systems Engineering

Mechatronics

Energy Science and Engineering

Total

Graduates (total)**

total

545

434

194

196

152

146

127

166

398

279

699

336

302

46

31

3325

18

4,127

Women in %

16 %

57 %

72 %

37 %

16 %

39 %

67 %

31 %

42 %

56 %

12 %

7 %

6 %

17 %

6 %

6 %8 %

22 %

30 %

Foreigners* in %

5 %

10 %

6 %

10 %

3 %

3 %

6 %

18 %

10 %

26 %

15 %

38 %

17 %

15 %

10 %

9 %

48 %

17 %

14 %

Graduates (Bachelor)***

total

335

160

78

90

90

71

63

78

231

131

346

157

125

26

20

17

2,018

Women in %

16 %

53 %

77 %

33 %

12 %

28 %

76 %

29 %

38 %

51 %

10 %

3 %

9 %

15 %

5 %

12 %

27 %

Foreigners* in %

6 %

9 %

12 %

11 %

3 %

3 %

6 %

5 %

6 %

20 %

8 %

15 %

13 %

12 %

10 %

12 %

9 %

Graduates (Master)****

total

209

156

48

68

57

59

37

83

145

108

340

169

171

19

11

16

25

18

1,739

Women in %

17 %

57 %

85 %

35 %

21 %

44 %

62 %

35 %

48 %

64 %

13 %

11 %

5 %

16 %

9 %

0 %

8 %

22 %

29 %

Foreigners* in %

5 %

12 %

4 %

10 %

2 %

3 %

5 %

31 %

15 %

36 %

22 %

60 %

19 %

21 %

9 %

6 %

48 %

17 %

21 %

Graduates (teaching degrees)*****

total

78

44

25

4

13

20

8

3

2

197

Women in %

68 %

50 %

48 %

50 %

69 %

55 %

13 %

67 %

0 %

57 %

Foreign.* in %

8 %

2 %

4 %

0 %

0 %

5 %

25 %

0 %

0 %

6 %

Source: Data Warehouse /data: graduation in 2015 calendar year; “heads”, i.e. first subject only (individuals assigned to departments and fields of study based on first subject). * Foreigners refer here to all

individuals with foreign citizenship, even if they obtained their university entrance qualifications in Germany.

**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 qualifi-cations

*** includes Joint Bachelor, except Bachelor of Education

**** except Master of Education***** Lehramt an Gymnasien,

Bachelor of Education, Master of Education

Australia and Oceania 7

America

248

Europe

830

Africa

365

Asia

2,041

Total of 3,491 from 120 countries in winter semester 2016/17, including ...

TunesiaTurkey

Russian Fed.

China 789

Pakistan 199

125111

India 398

Iran 161

83

Bulgaria 82

Brazil 68Syria 81

Spain

UkraineIndonesia

Cameroon 83

61

59Vietnam 61

59

International students* at TU Darmstadt

Top 5 Bachelor’s degree courses

Subject

Computer Science

Mechanical Engineering – Mech. and Proc. Eng.

Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

Civil Engineering and Geodesy

Architecture

Top 5 Master’s degree courses

Subject

Mechanical Engineering – Mech. and Proc. Eng.

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

Architecture

Distributed Software Systems

Number of students

1,992

1,632

1,041

1,019

723

Number of students

1,083

525

523

503

497

Top 5 Bachelor’s degree courses for international students*

Subject

Mechanical Engineering – Mech. and Proc. Eng.

Computer Science

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Architecture

Business Engineering – technical field of studies Mechanical Engineering

Top 5 Master’s degree courses for international students*

Subject

Distributed Software Systems

Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

Mechanical Engineering – Mech. and Proc. Eng.

Information and Communication Engineering

Architecture

Number of students

145

117

114

71

62

Number of students

495

244

173

161

123

Degree courses in highest demand

Source: Data Warehouse; excludes individuals with leave of absence and those on second degree courses, winter semester 2016/17.

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

29

4.127graduates in 2015

12% of students studying for Bachelor degrees are foreign nationals.

With 3,547students, Computer Science is the most popular department at TU Darmstadt.

37%of students in the department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology are foreign nationals.

26% of students studying for Master's degrees are foreign nationals.

Doctoratestotal: 407 / Women: 26 % / Foreigners*: 20 %

Departments

Law and Economicstotal:28 / Women: 29 % / Foreigners: 11 %

History and Social Sciencestotal: 22 / Women: 64 % / Foreigners: 14 %

Human Sciencestotal: 8 / Women: 63 % / Foreigners: 13 %

Mathematicstotal: 14 / Women: 64 % / Foreigners: 0 %

Physicstotal: 29 / Women: 14 % / Foreigners: 24 %

Chemistrytotal: 41 / Women: 32 % / Foreigners: 17 %

Biologytotal: 27 / Women: 63 % / Foreigners: 11 %

Materials and Earth Sciencestotal: 31 / Women: 35 % / Foreigners: 39 %

Civil and Environmental Engineeringtotal: 27 / Women: 30 % / Foreigners: 26 %

Architecturetotal: 6 / Women: 33 % / Foreigners: 17 %

Mechanical Engineeringtotal: 84 / Women: 12 % / Foreigners: 14 %

Electrical Engineering and Inf. Technologytotal: 48 / Women: 6 % / Foreigners: 33 %

Computer Sciencetotal: 42 / Women: 7 % / Foreigners: 24 %

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TU D

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Highlights 2016R

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10 research groups from the fields

of mechanical engineering, computer

science, economics and human

sciences are working together to use data mining to

develop a knowledge base for the ongoing improvement

of vehicle characteristics.

Strong collaborative research centres

Liquid meets interfacesInterface wetting plays a key role in many technical processes. For example, the manufacture of organic light emitting diodes involves applying an emulsion to a glass sheet. Once dry, it forms a clearly defined, uniform semiconductor film. And blood droplets, which spread in a substrate and leave a char-acteristic pattern following evaporation, could aid diagnosis of diseases.

A new collaborative research centre on this and other transport and wetting processes was launched at TU Darmstadt in July 2016. It is strengthening the TU’s profile area “Thermo-Fluids & Interfaces” and is receiving some EUR 11 million in funding from the German Research Foundation for an initial period of four years. Its spokesperson is TU Darm-stadt Professor of Mechanical Engineering Peter Stephan. The Max Planck Institute for Polymer Re-search in Mainz is involved as the research partner.

Stable internetThe second phase of the collaborative research centre “MAKI –Multi-Mechanisms Adaptation for the Future Internet” aims to boost the flexibility of communications networks. The German Research Foundation is providing the centre with around EUR 11 million in funding for another four years. Researchers from TU Darmstadt are joined in the project by colleagues from Aachen, Mannheim and Illinois.

Controllable uncertaintyThe German Research Foundation is providing a total of EUR 12 million in funding to TU-based collaborative research centre 805 “Control of Uncertainties in Load-Carrying Structures in Mechanical Engineering” for another four years. The participating teams from the fields of mechanical engineering, mathematics and jurisprudence are developing methods for identifying data conflicts and model uncertainties.

A new collaborative research centre combines fluid dynamics with heat and mass transfer.

“It is possible to control uncertainties in technology. Taking a methodical approach to what we do not know is key in our research work.” Professor Peter Pelz, Spokesperson for collaborative research centre 805

EUR 4.6 millionof funding is being channelled into the new LOEWE Research Cluster

“Building with Paper”.

60

One particularly exquisite type of cheese is home to

millions of mites. Researchers from the Department of Biology have managed to unearth the secret coherence between the citrus aroma and the mites.

25,000 Using a new procedure, Computer

Science Professor Stefan Roth and his

team analysed 25,000 images from

a computer game in the space

of 49 hours and processed the data

for the automatic detection and

recognition of visual scenes – an

important step in the development

of driverless vehicles and smart

assistants.

The Lightning Technology research group, which has been around for

years now, develops efficient and safe lighting systems for cars and researches the impact of LED light on people.

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Into and out of the city

No more commutingThe Institute for Fluid Systems at TU Darmstadt has completely relocated from the city centre to the Lichtwiese campus. A number of the Institute’s working groups had already been based at Lich-twiese for several years. Now, all the teams, consist-ing of a total of 35 individuals, are housed together in a modern mechanical engineering facility in Otto-Berndt-Straße. As part of their work, they examine vehicle suspension and even conduct basic research into gas bubbles in liquids, for example.

Vulnerable infrastructureComplex supply and waste pipelines, communi-cation networks and transport systems form the nervous system of modern cities. Disruption to this infrastructure, for example from natural disasters, and terror or cyber attacks, can trigger dramatic

crises. The new Research Training Group CRITIS, approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG), involves ten professors from five of TU Darmstadt’s departments. It is seeking to under-stand the spatial and temporal correlations involved in the failure of these complex systems and to learn how we can protect ourselves against or prepare for infrastructural crises. History Professor Jens Ivo Engels (TU Darmstadt) and Spatial Planning Professor Jochen Monstadt (Utrecht University) are the spokespersons for the group, which is receiving EUR 4.8 million in funding from the DFG for an initial four-and-a-half-year period. There are plans for partnerships with practitioners and with four research institutes in other European countries.

LOEWE promotes excellence

Building with paperPaper is an ideal building material. It is low-cost, made from renewable raw materials and offers a high degree of rigidity for its weight. It can be used in its flat form, as a porous material or even as foam, and is relatively easy to functionalise from a chemi-cal point of view. Paper is a particularly suitable building material for temporary structures such as emergency accommodation, trade fair buildings and micro homes.

As part of the new Research Cluster “Building with Paper” (BAMP!), which the Hessian State Offensive for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence (LOEWE) is funding to the tune of some EUR 4.6 million for four years, researchers from TU Darmstadt, the Hochschule Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences are seeking to optimise the construction properties of paper. TU Professor Samuel Schabel, Head of the Institute of Paper Technology and Mechanical Process Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is coordinating the new LOEWE Research Cluster.

Environmentally friendly magnetsTeams from the fields of materials science, chemis-try and mechanical engineering at TU Darmstadt are working together in the LOEWE Research Cluster RESPONSE to research permanent magnets for wind turbines, electric motors and other high-tech applications. They are looking to reduce the content of rare earths in magnet material or even replace them entirely, and will receive EUR 1 million from the LOEWE programme of the federal state of Hesse for 2017.

A lot of properties: paper as a building material.

New testing facilities at the Institute for Fluid Systems.

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Turbo boost for broadband network

Laying new fibre optic lines is expensive. Con-sequently, network operators want to make better use of existing capacity. A new type of laser diode from Darmstadt could help. The innovation, known as a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL), was developed by Professor Franko Küppers from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and his team in collabor-ation with an industrial consortium as part of the VCSEL-TRX project.

Unlike normal laser diodes, VCSELs can vary the wavelength of the emitted light by means of electric voltage. This is advantageous if it is necessary to emit several wavelengths of light simultaneously from a single optical fibre in order to significantly increase the bandwidth. Up to 80 different laser diodes, one for each wavelength, are normally required for this purpose.

The process of manufacturing these customised diodes produces a great deal of waste and it is also necessary to store replacement parts for each wavelength. VCSELs mitigate both of these problems and also make networks more flexible, as the bandwidth for each wavelength can be constantly adjusted to current demand. In the optical lab: Professor Franko Küppers.

Developing brain software

Professor Constantin Rothkopf from the Centre for Cognitive Science at TU Darmstadt is seeking to understand the interrelationship between sight and action, and find ways of using algorithms to simulate these processes. In order to do so, he needs to understand how nerve cells collect, encode and calculate data, and how they then use this information to derive solutions for their activities. He is looking to develop software that thinks and acts a little like a human being.

For Rothkopf, behaviour is the result of a com-putation process in the brain. The brain calculates all impressions, experiences and desires, factors in uncertainties and then makes the best decision possible under the circumstances in a given moment.

More precise mathematical models of human perception: Professor Constantin A. Rothkopf (left), David Hoppe.

He even goes one step further. For Rothkopf, what psychologists have for decades interpreted as a character trait is also a rational response to the calculation of all the information and represen-tations. A number of mental illnesses could also be the result of computation in the brain. Rothkopf explains: “Individuals who keep finding that, no matter what they do, nothing changes in their life may conclude upon computation that everything is meaningless, and this may be diagnosed as depression.”

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Gaps in the system

Together for data securityPrivate user data is a hot commodity. Companies attempt to get hold of it and it can also be misused by criminal gangs and intelligence services. In order to protect people from the increasingly complex risks, TU Darmstadt brought together three international expert conferences at Security & Privacy Week (SPW) 2016. 400 IT researchers from 25 countries presented their research findings on online privacy and trust. Social and economic issues were also discussed.

Guarding the gatewayTime and again, government agencies manage to pinpoint the identity of users of the Tor Browser. Professor Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi and his team of security researchers have developed the “selfrando” tool, which allocates all functions at random when the browsers is launched and stops hackers from attacking all Tor Browsers at once.

iOS with gapsTU researchers have found security gaps in Apple’s iOS operating system. They worked with colleagues from North Carolina State University and the University Politehnica of Bucharest to examine Sandbox, an interface between apps and the operating system that determines which in-formation the apps are able to access. They found that third-party apps could uncover data, for example by circumventing the security settings for contacts. Apple promised to introduce im-provementsg.

One of many IT security experts at TU Darmstadt: Computer Science Professor Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi.

Trackers are unfitFitness trackers collect information on the lifestyle of their users. While all cloud-based tracking sys-tems protect data transmission using the encrypted HTTPS protocol, TU researchers from the CYSEC cybersecurity profile area managed to manipulate the data on the devices. They said that the gaps could be closed using recognised technology.

Weak top 100TU Darmstadt’s Software Lab set out to test the top 100 websites and found a range of weaknesses in their underlying scripts. The researchers are developing automated analysis procedures to enable them to test a large number of websites. Most of the errors are harmless, but some jeopardise user security. The operators of the top 100 websites have been informed of the findings. Simple encryptionEncryption processes provide a certain degree of security online, but only if they are implemented correctly. Based within the collaborative research centre CROSSING at TU Darmstadt, an inter-disciplinary team is developing security solutions to simplify the integration of procedures in application programme codes. A smart encryption library with two interfaces will be used to ensure that the procedures are implemented in a correct and up-to-date manner.

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Safe cars of the future

With big data to Vehicle 5.0Data mining is a controversial process, but it offers tremendous potential for the optimisation and development of vehicles. The interdisciplinary research consortium “Vehicle 5.0” at TU Darmstadt intends to exploit these technical opportunities without neglecting data privacy, internet security and user interests.

Under the coordination of the Institute for Mechatronic Systems in Mechanical Engineering, Professor Stephan Rinderknecht and his research team are focusing on the top issues in vehicle research: software-based lightweight construction, drive systems optimised for real driving, and accepted driverless travel”.

Their approach is unique in that it links these issues and the topic of big data with aspects of data protection and cyber security, and with human factors as part of a holistic analysis.

Protecting against car hackingIt is every driver’s nightmare: a child runs out in front of his or her vehicle and the brakes fail. In modern cars, this could have another cause other than a technical defect – the deactivation of the brakes by hackers. Researchers at the collaborative research centre CROSSING are working on preventing this happening. They have created a security architecture in collaboration with processor manufacturer Intel. The solution is set to be put into practice shortly in cooperation with industrial partners.

Learning from computer gamesDriverless vehicles need to identify objects in their surroundings. TU Computer Science Professor Stefan Roth and doctoral candidate Stephan Richter worked with Intel Labs to develop a process that obtains the necessary data from computer games rather than through the laborious marking of objects in photos. Algorithms fed with artificial data analyse visual scenes with similar effectiveness.

Experts on mobilty: Professors Hermann Winner, Stephan Rinderknecht, Christian Beidl (from left).

Aspects of health

Protecting genome data: Professor Stefan Katzenbeisser.

Masked genomesA person’s genome data can tell us whether they have a higher risk of contracting illnesses such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease. The genetic in-formation also forms the basis for personalised healthcare in the future, which promises to provide individually customised forms of treatment. There is however a high risk of the data being misused, for example by insurance companies. Consequently, Kay Hamacher and Stefan Katzenbeisser from the TU’s CYSEC cybersecurity profile area are devel-oping methods to better protect this data.

IT service providers will then be able to use homo-morphic encryption to carry out complex calcu-lations with the genome data, but without viewing it themselves. Another method, Oblivious RAM, masks data access to prevent the intentions of an enquiry being identified. The research is being conducted as part of the collaborative research centre CROSSING, which is being funded by the German Research Foundation.

An insight into the nucleusFor the first time, TU Biology Professor M. Cristina Cardoso and her team were able to observe the start of the DNA replication process in humans and mice under the microscope. Working with TU Physics Professor Barbara Drossel and her team, they developed a computer model that depicts the spatial and temporal distribution of the replication sites. The researchers published their results in two ar-ticles in respected journal Nature Communications.

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Responsive plastics

Switchable polymers that respond to light, pressure, temperature or other chemical or physical stimuli would be interesting for many applications, such as smart filters and sensors. Two research groups are working on this topic at TU Darmstadt.

Assistant Professor Dr. Annette Andrieu-Brunsen from the Department of Chemistry makes the nano-metre-sized pores of a ceramic membrane func-tional with ultra-thin layers of switchable polymers, which she uses to control the transport of ions and tiny molecules. To this end, she initiates the poly-merisation process in the tiny mesopores and uses a range of detection methods to check for the correct result. Dr. Markus Gallei, the Head of the Early Career Research Group at the Ernst-Berl-Institute

Taking new approaches to chemistry research: Assistant Professor Annette Andrieu-Brunsen and Dr. Markus Gallei.

for Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, takes a different approach. He turns to switchable polymers and allows photonic crystals and porous membranes to be produced via self-organisation. He determines the switchable properties by his choice of source materials. His lattice structures and pores are between 50 and 600 nanometres in size.

Andrieu-Brunsen’s technology platform could be used for the detection and removal of heavy metal ions. Gallei's platform is suitable for the detection and removal of impurities from drinking water and for optical security features.

Orientation in the textual world

Text mining: Professor Iryna Gurevych and team.

For strong argumentsFor almost every controversial issue, experts and laypeople now offer advice online, yet these con-tributions are rarely validated. For this reason, the research team in the Ubiquitous Knowledge Process-ing (UKP) Lab at TU Darmstadt are working under the leadership of Professor Iryna Gurevych to develop software instruments that not only identify arguments in texts, but also check their quality.

This automated analysis is demanding. The sources are just as diverse and complex as the questions, and the researchers need a vast amount of data in order to develop the algorithms, methods and prototypes for the search engines of the future. With their new UKPConArg2 database, they are providing the research community with an instrument that effectively scans the quality of arguments and offers a basis for further research.

Bridging the gap Media editors are confronted in their research with an ever growing volume of information and elec-tronic data from a wide range of sources which they are required to check and analyse in a short space of time. Without technical support, this is an im-possible task. The Research Training Group “Adap-tive Preparation of Information from Heterogeneous Sources” (AIPHES) based at TU Darmstadt intends to use new tools for the editorial compilation of in-formation and its automated analysis and summary. Feedback from the “Journalism meets Computer Science” workshop showed the team from TU Darm-stadt, Heidelberg University and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies that closer examin-ation of the work of editorial staff and in-depth dialogue with practitioners is beneficial to their applied research work.

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State and society

Getting out of the interdependence trapHow can federal systems be stabilised? TU Professor Arthur Benz and his team from the Institute for Political Science are answering this question by re-searching constitutional reforms in federal systems. Constitutional amendments in Germany such as the “debt brake” are giving rise to interdependencies of responsibility between the German Government and the federal states that are adversely affecting their ability to act. In nations such as Switzerland and Canada, constitutional politics are less dominated by party politics, and there is greater involvement on the part of associations and civil society.

The study concluded that complex processes in constitutional politics that take into account a wide range of interests and opinions do more to stabilise federal systems than processes in which only governments and party leaders have a seat at the negotiating table.

Precarious care marketMembers of German families in need of care are increasingly being looked after by female migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe who ensure that they receive all-round care at low prices. Sociologist Karina Becker from TU Darmstadt examined their precarious situation in her study “Migrant care workers in German households between structural powerlessness and individual primary power”. Becker’s research shows how unregulated the “grey area of care” is with regard to working hours, health protection and job security.

Living on the roofHomes are in short supply in Germany’s urban centres. According to a study by the “Research Group for Structural Engineering and Building Physics”, over 1.5 million homes could be constructed on top of existing buildings – a cost-effective solution, as it eliminates land and infrastructure costs.

Professor of Political Science: Arthur Benz.

Sustainable construction and driving

Climate-friendly cement alternativeBuilding with concrete releases more carbon dioxide per year than global air travel. This is because the process for producing cement, the binder for concrete, requires a lot of energy and also removes the carbon dioxide from the limestone. TU Professor Eddie Koenders, Head of the Institute of Con-struction and Building Materials, and his team are developing geopolymers as an environmentally friendly alternative to cement.

Geopolymers consist of an activation solution and a reactive solid that contains silicon and aluminium oxide. Mixing the components produces a rock-hard material. The researchers are testing different raw materials, including volcanic rock from the Eifel region, and developing additives to make it easier to process

As well as being climate friendly, geopolymers are more resistant to chemicals and heat than conventional cement and concrete, thanks to their chemical structure.

Alternative to platinumResearchers from TU Darmstadt and the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin have developed a low-cost catalyst for fuel cells which could also be used for solar-based hydrogen production. It consists of iron-nitrogen complexes embedded in carbon structures. The material’s catalytic efficiency approaches that of platinum, the usual material used. Ulrike Kramm, Assistant Professor at TU Darmstadt, developed a purification process for this type of catalyst. It reduces the proportion of interfering substances and increases the catalytic effect.

There are still problems with its long-term stability. Kramm’s team is now investigating whether the catalyst functions for longer if it contains another metal instead of iron. Car manufacturers and other companies have already signalled their interest in the platinum alternative.

Professor Eddie Koenders (left), Dr. Neven Ukrainczyk.

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Secure prospects

War in Syria: bombs had been falling for months in Aleppo and Dr. Sallim Jallouf’s Christian family had already been threatened with death and kidnap when the engineering researcher found out about Scholars at Risk, an organisation that helps persecuted researchers abroad. TU Darmstadt has been a member of the organisation since 2016.

Jallouf, his wife and two young daughters arrived in Darmstadt by an indirect route in 2014. The one time Assistant Professor in the Institute of Industrial Engineering at the University of Aleppo had received an offer from Matthias Oechsner, Managing Director of the State Materials Testing Institute Darmstadt (MPA) and the Institute for Materials Technology (IfW). “That was the light at the end of my tunnel,” says Jallouf, looking back.

Supported by Scholars at Risk: Dr. Salim Jallouf (left) with mentor Professor Matthias Oechsner.

In Darmstadt, he finally had the opportunity to examine the mechanical properties and lifespan of materials instead of dealing with hostility and daily dangers. Jallouf received a one-year scholarship worth just over EUR 22,000 from the Scholar Rescue Fund, a partner organisation of Scholars at Risk. The MPA added the same amount again to enable Jallouf to pay his rent, private health insurance and the living costs for his family.

The funding period for the scholarship has ended, but Dr. Jallouf has managed to secure a full-time position. Since early 2017, he has been a research associate at the Institute for Lightweight Construction and Design.

Better living and working conditions

Robot colleaguesMore than 700 managers and employees from Germany and the United States took part in the Robots@work4.0 study conducted by TU Darmstadt and TU spin-off “leap in time” and headed up by Professor Ruth Stock-Homburg from the Institute of Marketing & Human Resource Management. Over 60 per cent of the office workers surveyed could imagine being assisted by a robot. 21 per cent would even trust a robot more than a human colleague. 15 per cent of Americans and 8 per cent of Germans would accept a robot as their boss.

Most of those surveyed said they had nothing against service robots, for example at hotel recep-tions. In an experiment with some 300 participants, a robot receptionist achieved almost the exact same level of customer satisfaction. Guests are also greeted by two robots at TU Darmstadt’s Future Innovation Lab.

The service robot is finding its way into our daily working lives.

“The robotisation process is giving rise to new jobs of a more conceptional nature. Companies should explore these jobs of the future and create new fields of work at an early stage before introducing robots in an unconsidered manner.”

Professorin Ruth Stock-Homburg, Institute of Marketing & Human Resource Management

Feel-good cityHeaded by TU Assistant Professor Martin Knöll, the Urban Health Games research group looks at where people feel comfortable or uncomfortable in cities. The study participants use an app to indicate whether they find the place they are currently in to be pleasant or stressful. Influencing factors include the size of their field of view, building density and the road network. The data is collected and fed into concepts for humane urban design. The feel-good factor can be increased quite easily in the urban planning process, for example, by adding greenery to create new visual axes. The German Academic Exchange Service is funding the project to the tune of EUR 350,000.

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Top-Level Research Federal Government

BMBF-Programme for Collaborative ResearchFAIR-NuStar3

Kopernikus-Projects for the Energy Transition:Project SynErgie – Manufacturing Engineering

Project ENavi – Energy Transition Navigation System

Project ENSURE – New Power Grid Structures

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

BMWI-FundingHIGHEST – Home of Innovation, GrowtH, EntrepreneurShipand Technology Management

ETA-Factory – The Energy Efficient Model Factory of the Future

Phi-Factory

The Academies’ ProgrammeAcademy of Sciences and Literature Mainz:The Digital Dictionary of Surnames in Germany

Ancient Egyptian Cursive Scripts

Interconnection with Non-University ResearchHelmholtz-Alliance Extreme Matter Institute (EMMI)

Helmholtz-Graduate School for Hadron and Ion Research(HGS HIRE)

Federal Government – Hessian StateCrisp – Center of Research in Security and Privacy

Excellence InitiativeCluster of ExcellenceThe Formation of Normative OrdersCoordinator: Goethe University FrankfurtParticipation of the Institute of Political Science and Economy of TU Darmstadt

Graduate SchoolsComputational EngineeringCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Michael Schäfer

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

LOEWELOEWE-CentresCenter of Advanced Security Research DarmstadtCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Michael Waidner

LOEWE Research FocusIon conducting NanoporesCoordinators: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Ensinger, Prof. Dr. Bodo Laube

Computer-assisted design methods for complex Genetic circuitsCoordinators: Prof. Dr. Beatrix Süß, Prof. Dr. Heinz Köppl

Sensors towards TerahertzCoordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rolf Jakoby

Resource-Efficient Permanent Magnets by Optimized Use of Rare EarthsCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Oliver Gutfleisch

Networked Infrastructureless Cooperationof Emergency ResponseCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hollick

Always Online?Local Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Steinmetz

Emmy Noether Early Career Research GroupsTopochemical fluorination in the context of fluoride ion batteries, tailored properties and for the modification of thin filmsHead: Dr. Oliver Clemens, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences

ConcSys: Reliable and Efficient Complex,Concurrent Software SystemsHead: Dr. Michael PradelDepartment of Computer Science

European Research Council (ERC)ERC Starting GrantEUROPIUM – The origin of heavy elements: a nuclear physics and astrophysics challengeProf. Dr. Almudena ArconesResearch Group Theoretical Astrophysics, Department of Physics

ERC Starting GrantSKILLS4ROBOTS – Policy Learning of Motor Skills for Humanoid RobotsProf. Dr. Jan PetersAutonomous Systems Labs, Department of Computer Science

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

ERC Consolidator GrantIl-E-Cat – Enhancing electrocatalysis in low temperature fuel cells by ionic liquid modificationProf. Dr.-Ing. Bastian Etzold, Department of Chemistry

ERC Consolidator GrantLIVESOFT – Lightweight Verification of SoftwareProf. Dr.-Ing. Patrick T. EugsterResearch Group Distributed Systems Programming,Department of Computer Science

ERC Consolidator GrantSTRONGINT – The strong interaction at neutron rich extremesProf. Achim Schwenk, Ph.D.EMMI Professor of Theoretical Nuclear Physics,Department of Physics

ERC Advanced GrantPACE – Programming Abstractions for Applications in Cloud EnvironmentsProf. Dr.-Ing. Mira MeziniResearch Group Software Technology,Department of Computer Science

European Union (EU)

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training NetworksHICONO – High Intensity Coherent Nonlinear OpticsCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Thomas HalfmannResearch Group Nonlinear/Quantum Optics,Department of Physics

CoWet – Complex Wetting PhenomenaCoordinator: Apl.Prof. Dr. Sc. Tatiana Gambaryan-RoismanThermo-Fluids and Interfaces, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Joint Research ProjectsSCARLET – Scale-up of Calcium Carbonate Looping Technology for Efficient CO2 Capture from Power and Industrial PlantsCoordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd EppleInstitute for Energy Systems and Technology,Department of Mechanical Engineering

MARSOL – Demonstrating Managed Aquifer Rechargeas a Solution to Water Scarcity and DroughtCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Christoph SchüthInstitute of Applied Geosciences –Hydrogeology, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences

CarbaZymes – Sustainable Industrial Processes basedon a C-C bond-forming Enzyme PlatformCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter FessnerOrganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry

SusFuelCat – Sustainable fuel production by aequeous phase reforming – understanding catalysis and hydrothermal stability of carbon supported noble metalsCoordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bastian EtzoldDepartment of Chemistry

Mundus URBANOCoordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Rudolph-CleffResearch Group Urban Design and Development,Department of Architecture

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Collaborative Research Centres666Integral Sheet Metal Design with Higher Order BifurcationsSpeaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wirtsch.-Ing. Peter GrocheInstitute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines,Department of Mechanical Engineering

805Control of Uncertainty in Load-CarryingStructures in Mechanical EngineeringSpeaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter PelzInstitute for Fluid Systems, Department of Mechanical Engineering

1053MAKI – Multi-Mechanisms Adaptationfor the Future InternetSpeaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf SteinmetzMultimedia Communications Lab,Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

1119CROSSING – Cryptography-Based Security Solutions:Enabling Trust in New and Next Generation Computing EnvironmentsSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Johannes BuchmannResearch Group Theoretical Computer Science, Department of Computer Science

1194Interaction between Transport and Wetting ProcessesSpeaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter StephanInstitute for Technical ThermodynamicsDepartment of Mechanical Engineering

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

TRR 75Droplet Dynamics Under Extreme Ambient ConditionsSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Bernhard WeigandUniversity of Stuttgart, Institute of Aerospace ThermodynamicsDeputy Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Cameron TropeaTU Darmstadt, Institute for Fluid Mechanics andAerodynamics, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research Training Groups1529Mathematical Fluid Dynamics – International Graduate SchoolSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Matthias HieberWorking Group Analysis, Department of Mathematics

1657Molecular and Cellular Responses to IonizingRadiationSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Markus LöbrichInstitute of Zoology, Department of BiologyDeputy Speaker: Prof. Dr. Gerhard ThielInstitute of Botany, Department of Biology

1994Adaptive Preparation of Information from Heterogeneous SourcesSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Iryna GurevychUbiquitous Knowledge Processing Lab,Department of Computer Science

2050Privacy and Trust for Mobile UsersSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Max MühlhäuserResearch Group Telecooperation, Department of Computer Science

2128AccelencE – Accelerator Science and Technology for Energy Recovery LinacsSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Norbert Pietralla Institute for Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics

2222KRITIS – Critical infrastructures: Social Construction,Function Failure and Protection in Urban SpacesSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Ivo EngelsInstitute of History, Department of History and Social SciencesProf. Dr. Jochen Monstadt Department of Architecture

Research Units1583Hydrogen-Bonded Liquids Subject to Interfacesof Various Hydroaffinities Speaker: Prof. Dr. Michael VogelInstitute for Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics

1748Networks on Networks: The Interplay of Structure andDynamics in Spatial Ecological NetworksSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Barbara DrosselInstitute for Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics

Priority Programmes1496Reliably Secure Software SystemsCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Heiko MantelResearch Group Modeling and Analysisof Information Systems, Department of Computer Science

1506Transport Processes at Fluidic InterfacesCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Dieter Bothe Mathematical Modelling and Analysis, Department of Mech-anical Engineering

1613Fuels Produced Regeneratively Through Light-Driven Water Splitting: Clarification of the Elemental Processes Involved and Prospects for Implementation in Technological ConceptsCoordinator: Prof. Dr. Wolfram JaegermannResearch Group Surface Science,Department of Materials and Earth Sciences

1640Joining by Plastic DeformationCoordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Peter GrocheInstitute for Production Engineering and Forming Machines,Department of Mechanical Engineering

1857ESSENCE – Electromagnetic Sensors for Life Sciences:New Sensor Concepts and Technologies for Biomedical Analysis and Diagnostics, Process- and Environmental Monitoring Coordinator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rolf JakobyInstitute for Microwave Engineering,Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

German Research Foundation

TRR 129Oxyflame – Development of Methods and Models toDescribe Solid Fuel Reactions Within an Oxy-Fuel Atmos-phereSpeaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reinhold KneerRWTH Aachen, Faculty of Mechanical EngineeringDeputy Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes JanickaTU Darmstadt, Institute of Energy andPower Plant Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineer-ing

TRR 146Multiscale Simulation Methods for Soft Matter SystemsSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Friederike SchmidUniversity Mainz, Physics, Mathematics and Computer ScienceDeputy Speaker: Prof. Dr. Nico van der VegtTU Darmstadt, Research Group Computational Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry

TRR 150 Near-Wall Turbulent Chemically Reacting MultiphaseFlowsSpeaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes JanickaInstitute of Energy and Power Plant Technology,Department of Mechanical EngineeringDeputy Speaker: Prof. Dr. Andreas DreizlerResearch Group Reactive Flows and Diagnostics,Department of Mechanical EngineeringDeputy Speaker: Prof. Dr. Olaf DeutschmannInstitute for Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

TRR 154Mathematical Modelling, Simulation and OptimizationUsing the Example of Gas NetworksSpeaker: Prof. Dr. Alexander MartinUniversity Erlangen-Nürnberg, Mathematical EconomicsDeputy Speaker: Prof. Dr. Jens LangTU Darmstadt, Research Group Numerical Methods for Par-tial Differential Equations, Department of Mathematics

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Successful start-ups

• 12 EXIST start-up grants since 2013

• 50 awards for start-ups since 2013

• 16 HIGHEST funding providers and sponsors

... Professor Carolin Bock, Head of the Institute for Start-up Management in the Department of Law and Economics.

Why do many good ideas fail to make the leap from university to the outside world?Many researchers are risk averse. Another key reason that ground-breaking research findings rarely give rise to start-ups is that good researchers do not always make good salespeople. Many of them prefer to remain in the lab and work on developing their baby, that is, their product.

How can a university promote start-ups?You need the right climate in the institution as a whole and within its individual research groups. I certainly know of cases where researchers looking to establish a start-up have had to justify their plans to colleagues who have accused them of wanting to turn their research into money. This kind of limited thinking is a major obstacle. TU Darmstadt has a very good start-up climate in many of its departments. The knowledge transfer concept is on the Executive Board’s programme and we have the HIGHEST Innovation and Start-up Centre, which we need to promote as a contact point. When students get an idea for a product at a party with their flatmates, they should know straight away who to go to for help.

What does it take to make a start-up successful?The team is often more important than the idea itself. It is not uncommon for a start-up to only get going with the second idea, but the same team. Passion and perseverance are also key. There is a lot of truth in the saying “What you want to ignite in others must first burn inside yourself”.

Three questions for ...

“The HIGHEST Innovation and Start-up Centre offers all those interested in starting their own companies in the region a comprehensive range of services for all phases of setting up a business. Combining TU Darmstadt’s expertise in the STEM subjects with entrepreneurial thinking should help to further leverage our potential in the area of start-ups and innovation.”

Professor Peter Buxmann, Head of HIGHEST Centre

Well advised by HIGHEST

Advisory services, networking, contacts and regular events

for young, up-and-coming entrepreneurs: The TU’s HIGHEST

(Home of Innovation, GrowtH, EntrepreneurShip and Tech-

nology Management) Innovation and Start-Up Centre under-

takes a wide range of activities to support start-ups from the

university and the region. The jury of the EXIST programme

of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and

Energy recognised the HIGHEST strategy as being “coherent,

with strong content”. This means that HIGHEST will receive

further funding from the EXIST programme until 2018.

Since funding was introduced in 2013, over 80 start-ups

have emerged in and around TU Darmstadt alone, with the

number rising each year. The HIGHEST team have provided

over 650 advisory sessions, showing that there is a high de-

mand for support. The successful young companies funded

by HIGHEST include vertical cloud solutions GmbH, Con-

senses GmbH and the start-up Sulfotools.

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Support from

the German

Governmentd

The German Govern-ment’s EXIST grant programme assists with turning a technology or knowledge-based idea into a business plan. EXIST research transfer in turn supports start-up projects which involve complex, high-risk development activity. The VIP+ initiative is aimed at anyone who would like to begin examining the innovative potential of their research findings and possible areas of application.

Young and determined

NanoWired: small but powerful

The start-up NanoWired covers interfaces with a lawn of nanowires. Electrodes, chips and other components can be directly coated. The process was developed by Florian Dassinger, Dr. Sebastian Quednau and Farough Roustaie at TU Darmstadt’s Laboratory for Microtechnology and Electromech-anical Systems, in close cooperation with the Department of Materials and Earth Sciences. The researchers are now venturing onto the market, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy’s EXIST programme.

NanoWired got the business idea from examining the gecko. The lizard can run up walls thanks to the lamellae on the soles of its feet, which increase its grip. Based on a similar principle, two pads with a lawn of nanowires stick together extremely well when compressed. The connection conducts electricity, can withstand high temperatures and is considerably durable: you can hang 25 kilograms of weight on one square centimetre and there would appear to be even greater potential with the further development of the technology. A great deal of space can be saved in smartphones and other devices by connecting chips with nanowires. Because, unlike soldering, compression does not require any heat, the components are not damaged.

NanoWired already recorded a number of achieve-ments during the start-up phase in which it received support from the TU’s HIGHEST Start-up and Innovation Centre: it won the TU Idea Competition and the Business Plan Competition Science4Life Venture Cup 2016, in which almost 130 teams from Germany, Austria and Luxembourg competed. It has since registered as a limited liability company (GmbH).

IT-Seal: specialist cyber attacks on demand

Cyber criminals are increasingly attacking companies through their employees, for example, via phishing e-mails. Established by Alex Wyllie, David Kelm and Yannic Ambach, Darmstadt cyber-security start-up IT-Seal simulates these kinds of attacks on employees in a safe setting in order to identify weaknesses in companies’ IT security systems and provide targeted training to their staff. The innovation is based on the automated and dynamic integration of publicly available in-formation, for example from social media channels, which enables it to simulate realistic spear phishing attacks. IT-Seal has thus standardised and auto-mated the social engineering audit to make it available to the mass market.

IT-Seal is commissioned by companies and organi-sations to send phishing e-mails to their employees and then record, for example, how many times these employees click on links and attachments. The results are exclusively group-based and non-personalised. The start-up also audits companies’ IT security policies and derives recommendations for action for their managing directors.

IT-Seal has been trading as a limited liability company (GmbH) since August 2016. The firm received assistance getting off the ground from TU’s HIGHEST Start-up and Innovation Centre and an EXIST start-up grant. It all began with a Master’s dissertation in TU Darmstadt’s SECUSO research group in 2014.

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re“TU Darmstadt and ENTEGA are the best partners you could think of when it comes to jointly promoting good ideas and techno-

logical innovation in the field of energy technology.”

Dr. Marie-Luise Wolff-Hertwig,

CEO of ENTEGA AG

A new funding programme from TU Darmstadt is seeking to convert promising research findings into applications more quickly. Darmstadt-based energy provider ENTEGA and the ENTEGA NATURpur Institut are helping to drive the programme. ENTEGA CEO Dr. Marie-Luise Wolff-Hertwig and TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel signed a cooperation agreement on the “Pioneer fund for promoting innovation” in 2016. The TU and the NATURpur Institut will each endow the fund with EUR 300,000 for an initial five-year period.

The programme supports individuals interested in making use of their research findings to establish a start-up. The funding is aimed at students and researchers who wish to apply their research in a commercial or social context, but whose findings are still too unrefined for immediate commercialisation. Wolff-Hertwig pointed out that the Pioneer Fund would support products, processes and services that were also directly beneficial to ENTEGA customers.

Boosting innovation Three questions for ...

... Professor Mira Mezini, Vice President, Knowledge and Technology Transfer (2016), now Vice President, Research and Innovation.

Why are the topics of innovation and transfer becoming increasingly significant in the scientific system?The ability to innovate is essential if the private sector is not to lose touch with key cutting-edge fields and Germany is to maintain its high standard of living in future. Excellence in basic research is vital to the innovative capacity of our economy. However, investment in cutting-edge research alone will not suffice; ideas and inventions need to establish themselves effectively on the market.

What are TU Darmstadt’s strengths in terms of transfer?For many years now, TU Darmstadt has been engaged in successful cooperation with organisations from the private sector and civil society. This provides a boost to our research work and ensures that our work is transferred into a practical context. We have also provided significant impetus in recent years with regard to transfer by means of start-ups. Through the HIGHEST Innovation and Start-up Centre, we offer systematic support to individuals interested in establishing start-ups to enable them to implement their ideas. We are now one of the leading institutions when it comes to assigning funds from the “EXIST Transfer of Research” programme.

How can TU Darmstadt become even more innovation friendly?The initiatives need to take effect earlier on in order to avoid the “valley of death” period between the basic research work and its application. One way of achieving this is for us to assist researchers to identify findings with innovative potential. Training also provides another key starting point. We have already introduced “Entrepreneurship & innovation” as a minor subject in computer science. The aim is for all TU students to be able to take it as an elective subject at the very least in future.

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Privalino: child protection online

The United Nations and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimate that, every second, there are over 750,000 paedo-phile offenders online worldwide. Start-up Privalino, which has received an EXIST start-up grant, developed a programme that uses an automated method of analysing writing style to expose paedophiles. If, upon checking sentence structure, vocabulary and other features, the programme indicates that a child’s chat partner is using a writing style that resembles one of the chat records of paedophile offenders saved in the database, then it will ask the child if they know the person. If the child replies with “No”, the child’s parents will be informed.

Privalino founder Dr. Nicolai Erbs and his colleagues Kolja Lubitz and Patrick Schneider work with youth welfare offices and in-formation centres to find out how paedophiles talk to children. Privalino also hopes to obtain data from major chat service providers in order to train its algorithm.

The programme is currently being tested with pilot customer kidztest.de and will be released onto the market as an instant messenger app in January 2018.

Ideas with business potential

Start-ups at trade fairs

Four start-ups and a team from TU Darmstadt’s Department of Mechanical Engineering showcased a mobile ordering platform, communication encryption software, a user-friendly 3D printer and more at CeBIT in March 2016. Additionally, four TU computer science students presented their Simpsons Quiz App as part of the IBM Watson University Program. TU Darmstadt also played a prominent role in the Hannover Messe 2016. It demonstrated its strength in the area of research by providing six of the ten exhibits at the shared stand of the Hessian universities.

Premiere awards

Two of the four prize-winners of the Hessian Idea Competition, held for the first time in 2016, came from TU Darmstadt: the TU team Nelumbox won second prize for an air-conditioning system for transporting and storing cold-chain medication and samples. A special award was presented to TU Darmstadt start-up NanoWired for its nanowire production technology.

Award for spray testing method

The start-up AOM Systems won the DIN Innovation Award 2016 for its method for real-time measure-ment of technical sprays. The entrepreneurs received support from HIGHEST and the EXIST Transfer of Research programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

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Startup and Innovation Day

Networking, dialogue and presentation of innovations: Over 300 participants attended the Startup & Innovation Day in February 2016. Organised by the HIGHEST Innovation and Start-up Centre, the event gave them an opportunity to find out about the potential for establishing start-ups at TU Darmstadt. It was also the place where the winners of the TU Idea Competition were announced: first prize went to the start-up NanoWired, second prize to CodeInspect and third prize to Privalino. The three start-ups showed in their contributions what a major impact the national and regional start-up culture can have.

Panel discussion participants, who included busi-ness representatives, Darmstadt Mayor Jochen Partsch and TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel, concluded that the Darmstadt region was an attractive place for entrepreneurs to do business. The region has particularly great opportunities for start-ups in the area of business-to-business.

Ecosystem for entrepreneurs

“We use the Startup & Innovation Day to make visible the great potential for innovation and start-ups at TU Darmstadt.”

Professor Mira Mezini, TU Vice President

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91 invention disclosures,

38 Priority patent appli-cations in Germany,

57 Priority patent applications overall.

Driving energy research

With the “Kopernikus Projects for the Energy Transi-tion”, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has initiated the largest funding initi-ative for this socio-political challenge to date. The selected projects, set to receive a total of up to EUR 400 million in funding over the next ten years, were presented in April 2016. TU Darmstadt is participating in three of the four Kopernikus projects, one of which it is running.

Funding in the field of industrial processes was awarded to the SynErgie project, led by Professor Eberhard Abele from TU Darmstadt’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The consortium, consisting of 83 partners, intends to show how energy-intensive production processes can be adapted to a fluctuating energy supply on a cross-sectoral basis. This could cut industrial energy supply costs by over EUR 10 billion by 2020 while significantly reducing carbon emissions

TU Darmstadt is also contributing its expertise to the Kopernikus project on system integration through several research groups. Political scientist and TU Professor Michèle Knodt is a member of the Management Committee for the ENavi project, which has 64 partners. ENavi views the energy transition (Energiewende) as a macrosocial change process, which the project partners intend to drive on the assumption that it will be widely accepted. TU Professor Jutta Hanson from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology is involved in examining new network structures as part of the ENSURE project, which has 21 partners. The consortium impressively illustrated in its ap-plication how grid restructuring costs could be sig-nificantly reduced through using a combination of locally and centrally generated electricity.

Ready for the energy transition: Lichtwiese campus.

“With this fantastic achievement, TU Darmstadt has once again shown that it is working intensively to help ensure the successful implementation of the energy transition. This makes the TU one of the key players in university energy research.”

Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel, President of TU Darmstadt

17 renowned

professors from United

States universities and

representatives of

the National Science

Foundation visited

the Department of

Mechanical Engineering.

28 dissertations

and

60 other academic publi-

cations were produced as part

of the joint technology centre of

Rolls-Royce and TU Darmstadt.

30 industrial partners are involved in the ETA model factory,

the university’s flagship energy-efficiency project.

102 is the atomic number

of Nobelium –

TU physicists used

this element to gain

an insight into

the internal structure

of very heavy

atoms.

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Fit for Industry 4.0

ETA-Factory: 810 square metres of efficiencyFollowing a 16-month construction phase, it was time for the unveiling on 2 March 2016: The ETA model factory was opened on TU Darmstadt’s Licht-wiese campus in the presence of State Secretary Brigitte Zypries (Federal Ministry for Economic Af-fairs and Energy) and the Hessian Minister of Econ-omics Tarek Al-Wazir. This 810 square metre facility will play host to research work under real condi-tions into ways to increase the energy efficiency of industrial processes through the intelligent connec-tion of building and production components.

The ETA-Factory generates innovations at the inter-face between the disciplines as well as between research and practice. Researchers from the Depart-ment of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Architecture are involved in the work, along with over 30 partner companies from

ETA-Factory: home to real production processes.

“The ETA-Factory will make visible the future of high- efficiency, energy- efficient, resource- efficient and highly interconnected production technology in Hesse, Germany and far beyond.”

Tarek Al-Wazir, Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development

the industrial sector. The project is being coordinated by TU Darmstadt’s Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools.

The ETA-Factory covers all stages of industrial produc-tion, from blanks to finished parts, and is designed to have minimal energy requirements. The machine and technical infrastructure subsystems and the building have been optimised in terms of energy efficiency. For example, the waste heat from the machine tools supplies heat to other systems and heats the hall. The façades have also been fitted with capillary mats to either heat or cool the building depending on the season. Additionally, the building has been constructed virtually entirely out of recyclable materials.

The ETA-Factory cost around EUR 15 million to build. EUR 8 million of this amount came from the German Government, EUR 1.2 million from the federal state of Hesse, and around EUR 4 million from industrial

partners. Some EUR 2 million was provided from TU Darmstadt’s budget, into which the research profile of the ETA-Factory fits exceptionally well.

Digitised productionThe Center for Industrial Productivity (CiP), TU Darmstadt’s process learning factory, has expanded its range of services on the topic of Industry 4.0. From the component with an integrated RFID chip which registers itself with the machine, to the elec-tronic control system for automatically recording process and machine data, the learning factory makes digitisation potential tangible. The newly designed courses are aimed at students and, in particular, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Expertise for small and medium-sized enterprisesFunded by the German Federal Ministry for Econ-omic Affairs and Energy, the SMEs 4.0 – Darmstadt Competence Centre was launched at the TU’s CiP

“We aim to share expertise in methodical ways of dealing with the digitisation of production processes.” Professor Joachim Metternich, Head of TU Darmstadt’s

Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools

Launch of research activities at the ETA model factory.

learning factory in March 2016. It intends to sup-port companies and craft businesses as they transi-tion to Industry 4.0. The consortium behind the Competence Centre consists of TU Darmstadt, the Rhine-Main-Neckar Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Chamber of Skilled Crafts Frankfurt-Rhine-Main and two Fraunhofer Institutes.

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Hand in hand

Switching direct currentThe energy transition (Energiewende) requires that we restructure the energy supply: photovoltaic systems and other decentralised energy systems need to be connected and existing overhead power lines replaced with underground cable lines. Supply security could be increased if direct current were transmitted instead of the previously typical practice of transmitting alternating current. However, switching DC circuits, essential for developing a grid, is a challenge, as it requires additional components as well as switching contact.

High voltage technicians Professor Volker Hin-richsen and doctoral candidate Peter Hock are work-ing with Siemens to investigate DC circuit switch-ing. Their project has an initial five-year term and should create a basis for manufacturing switch modules for a future medium-voltage DC level. Such modules could already be used in international rail transportation.

Cooperation strengthenedSimulations, human-machine interaction, high-temperature materials, turbo engines and vacuum switching technology are all areas in which Siemens and TU Darmstadt are already working closely together. Their cooperation activities are now being expanded into a strategic partnership. A cor-responding agreement was signed in February 2016. This is providing the basis for other points of contact in business engineering, material sciences and energy research.

Springboard to industrySiemens is building with talent from TU Darmstadt. Verena Klapdor, Team Leader in Siemens’ devel-opment department, laid the foundations for her career at the Department of Mechanical Engin-

Focus on electrical engineering: Professor Volker Hinrichsen (right) and Peter Hock.

eering’s research centre “Combustor and Turbine Aerothermal Interaction”. It was here, during her doctoral thesis, that she gained an insight into how her research could be applied. By combining research and industrial expertise, the research centre provides TU graduates with the best possible preparation for their future jobs.

Efficient and low-emission flight

Since 2006, Rolls-Royce and TU Darmstadt have been working at their joint research centre “Combustor and Turbine Aerothermal Interaction” (CTI) to drive the development of aircraft engines. Jet engines of the future are set to become more environmentally friendly and efficient at the same time. This can only be achieved by using new combustion technologies and an optimised turbine design. The trick is to reduce the temperature of the combustion chamber to a level low enough to produce fewer harmful emissions and at the same time increase the efficiency of the turbine. The researchers are making use in their work of the Large Scale Turbine Rig (LSTR), the only one of its kind in the world, to conduct a number of experi-ments, including ones on the interactions between the combustion chamber and the turbine. At the

Test evaluation on the Large Scale Turbine Rig.

same time, they are employing computerised simulations to aid and further develop their understanding of the combustion process.

The CTI, in which TU Darmstadt’s Institute of Gas Turbines and Aerospace Propulsion (GLR), its Department of Energy and Power Plant Technology (EKT), its Institute for Reactive Flows and Diagnostics (RSM) and its Institute for Mechatronic Systems in Mechanical Engineering (IMS) are involved, is one of 31 Rolls-Royce University Technology Centres worldwide. As well as produ-cing ten percent of Rolls-Royce’s annual patents, the CTI is also a launchpad for many careers in research and industry.

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Terahertz waves and therapies

Electromagnetic sensors meet biomedicineThey can open doors, park cars and indicate filling levels. Why should we not also use electromagnetic sensors to detect, investigate and treat molecules, cells and tumours? The project partners participat-ing in the nationwide German priority programme ESSENCE investigate how electromagnetic waves in the microwave, millimetre wave and terahertz wave ranges impact on molecules, cells and groups of cells and what uses can be derived therefrom for the life sciences.

Ideas range from rapid and contact-free diagnosis at hospital bedsides to cancer and vascular-disease therapies. The project is being coordinated by Pro-fessor Rolf Jakoby, Professor Christian Damm and Professor H. Ulrich Göringer from TU Darmstadt.

What is so interesting about electromagnetic sen-sors? They operate wirelessly, contactlessly and in real time. Measurement is based on the interaction between the electromagnetic field of the sensor and the materials, tissues and cells under investigation. The water content of diseased tissue, for example, is different to that of healthy tissue. This is registered as a change in the high-frequency signal. The priority programme is funding ten sub-projects, three of which are being significantly shaped by TU Darmstadt.

Anti-cancer enzymeWorking with colleagues from the University of Cali-fornia in Davis, Professor Markus Löbrich, Dr. Julian Spies and their team of biologists at TU Darmstadt have identified an enzyme that promotes DNA repair and separates it in time from replication. The discovery could aid the development of new tumour therapies. The researchers published their findings in respected journal Molecular Cell.

Microwave test probes for the medical sector.

Innovative terahertz technologyEU project ITN CELTA is providing some EUR 750,000 in funding for terahertz research at TU Darmstadt. ITN CELTA bridges the gap between optical and electronic high-frequency technology, thereby facilitating new applications of terahertz technology. The project focuses on imaging and spectroscopic procedures, sensors and communi-cation technology.

Mobility of tomorrow

No cyber attacks on the trainThe digitisation of the railway is leaving train travel vulnerable to cyber attacks. The working group “Cyber-security for security-critical infrastructure” (CYSIS) was established as part of the DB RailLab and the innovation alliance between TU Darmstadt and Deutsche Bahn (DB). CYSEC, the profile area for cyber-security research, is the research partner at TU Darmstadt.

Uninterrupted rail transport: TU computer scientists work on security solutions.

“I’m delighted that we can now work together with TU Darmstadt and the CYSIS start-up to further develop the topic of cyber-security.”

Frank Sennhenn, Chairman and CEO of DB Netz AG

It involves over 30 research groups from seven TU departments which research key topics of cyber security and privacy protection. The core competencies of CYSEC include the training of IT security experts and cutting-edge cyber-security research. Technology transfer takes place by means of national and international partnerships with companies and non-university research institutions.

More electric cars?German Government pays EUR 4,000 to buyers of electric cars. However, according to a study by computer science Professor Oliver Hinz and Wenyan Zhou from TU Darmstadt and Professor Christian Schlereth from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, this has only increased demand by around one per cent. This is regrettable, as electric cars could serve as mobile storage devices within the electricity grid, thereby facilitating the energy transition (Energiewende). This was the conclusion of the Well2Wheel project of energy provider ENTEGA and the TU’s “Research Group for Electrical Power Supply with Integration of Renewable Energies”.

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Good neighbours

German Poland Institute in the palaceTU Darmstadt is renovating the Darmstädter Residenzschloss, a palace it owns. The first rooms are already fit for occupancy. The German Poland Institute (DPI) has moved into the oldest section of the facility as a tenant. As part of the official inaug-uration of its new headquarters in June 2016, a new version of the cooperation agreement between the DPI and the TU was signed.

A prime example of a successful and inspiring partnership: Komet Lem Festival.

“The location in the heart of the city and the geographical connection to TU departments with related disciplines, especially history and the social sciences, will serve to provide mutual inspiration.”

Professor Dieter Bingen,

Director of the German Poland Institute

TU Darmstadt and the DPI have been in a contractual relationship with one another since 2006 and are well versed in all areas, for example, as a result of courses in history and social sciences and of projects with the TU’s Language Resource Centre. Due to the recent reinforcement of the agreement, teachers and students from TU Darmstadt can use the DPI’s library and archive, for instance. Both partners also intend to coordinate their activities when planning research projects which lend themselves to cooperation.

Komet Lem FestivalThe Komet Lem Festival was organised by TU Darm-stadt and the DPI from October 2016 to March 2017 in honour of pioneering Polish thinker Stanislaw Lem (1921 to 2006). A range of formats, including lectures, films, concerts, a party, a conference and more, shed fresh light on the author, who foresaw the tablet computer and warned against the all-pervading power of the internet.

The world on a large and small scale

Satellite data for allTU Darmstadt is the consortium partner to the EU project FabSpace 2.0, which develops new creative applications for earth observation data. The centre-piece of the project is the FabSpace Lab, which has been set up at the TU’s Institute of Geodesy. It gives TU staff members and external users access to satellite data from the European COPERNICUS programme, and offers the necessary hardware and software, including a server system with geographi-cal information. The lab also provides advisory services, support and courses. There are also plans to run competitions to promote start-ups. The EU is providing EUR 3.5 million in funding to support the FabSpace 2.0 project.

The Institute of Geodesy’s long tradition in the use of satellite data and its close contacts with the ESA and the ESOC in Darmstadt and with the DLR institutes in Oberpfaffenhofen make TU Darmstadt an ideal environment for the FabSpace Lab.

Welcome to the FabSpace Lab, the portal for satellite data.

Atoms and speciesTU physicists are working in international teams to explore the world of atoms. They collaborated with quantum physicists from Tokyo to investigate the formation of atoms and helped make it possible to calculate their shape – sphere, disc, rugby ball. They used the element Nobelium to decipher the structure of heavy atoms and, in collaboration with nuclear physicists from Darmstadt, Heidelberg and the United States, found, contrary to all theories, an enormous swelling of the charge radii of calcium isotopes with increasing mass. A project showing the transition from solid to liquid carbon and from graphite to a presently speculative diamond structure also attracted attention.

TU biologists are examining the plant and animal world. Together with colleagues from Munich, they discovered that the stability of an ecosystem depends primarily on inter-species diversity and only secondarily on biodiversity.

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30 students and

doctoral

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Professor Sorin Huss

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Student creativity

Innovative drone technologyIt is said to fly faster, longer and further than con-ventional drones while also having vertical take-off and landing capability. “Wingcopter” is the name of the hybrid drone that has been developed by mechanical engineering student Jonathan Hesselbarth. A prototype was produced in the work-shop of the “Akademische Fliegergruppe Darmstadt” (Akaflieg – the university flying group), where student aviation enthusiasts have been working away on innovative technology since the group was founded around 100 years ago. This provides an ideal environment for new ideas such as that of Hesselbarth, who established a start-up with Tom Plümmer in order to bring the wingcopter to the market. The drone is a combination of a quad-rocopter and a fixed-wing aircraft, connected with a self-developed tilting rotor. It has a 100-kilometre range and can fly at up to 150 kilometres per hour, as well as being able to take off vertically and hover.

The young entrepreneurs presented their develop-ment at the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin, where it attracted a great deal of interest from Brigitte Zypries in her role as Federal Government Co-ordinator of German Aerospace Policy and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy. And the drone drew attention in Abu Dhabi, where there are plans to use it in the fire service. It was also presented in Indonesia, Singapore, Kenya and Rwanda, where there is potential to set up a wingcopter network for delivering medication, blood samples and vaccinations.

EquestrianismThe student riding group combines leisure activities, tournaments and tradition. Members of the TU and Hochschule Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences team do not need to own their own horse. The group participates in up to 15 dressage, show-jumping and eventing tournaments, including the German University Championships (DHM), per season. It also holds its own tournament in the Kranichstein district of Darmstadt for equestrian groups from numerous university towns and cities.

Highly impressed: German Federal Minister Brigitte Zypries.

Full physical exertionThey fight for every point with full physical exer-tion, helmets and visors. Lacrosse is a demanding sport which has had its own student team at the TU since 2004. This ball sport originates from North America and already featured as an Olympic discipline back in 1904. It involves catching and throwing a hard rubber ball with a stick.

The new main cycle

path on the Lichtwiese

campus is

550 meters long.

The uniKITA associ-

ation celebrated its

30th

anniversary. It offers

all day childcare

to 80 children in

four toddler groups

and two outdoor

kindergartens.

The training course

of TU-Ruderriege,

the university’s

rowing club, covers

17 kilometres

of the River Rhine.

187

glass sheets and

182 glass cylinders make

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mosaic works of art in

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Media Centre.

199 employees used the

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The university

swimming pool

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Flourishing landscapes

Shakespeare in the Botanical GardensWhat do henbane, samphire and fragrant honey-suckle have to do with William Shakespeare? Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream not only involve nobles and intrigues, but also feature botany and botanical symbolism. The English playwright was a true plant connoisseur. Stefan Schnecken-burger, Head of the TU Botanical Gardens, organised an exhibition dedicated to the bard and his plant knowledge on the 400th anniversary of his death. “Garden = Theatre – Plants in Shakespeare’s World” was the title of the display by the Verband Botanischer Gärten e.V., which Schneckenburger de-signed and which was toured through 28 botanical gardens in Germany.

The exhibition also came to Darmstadt in early summer, along with guided tours and presentations. The botanist had spent two and a half years prepar-ing the exhibit, during which time he read many of Shakespeare’s plays in the original English. The bard used plants to symbolise sexuality, love and power, and to create moods and backdrops, and also employed them as everyday objects. Henbane, for instance, was used to murder Hamlet’s father.

New photo book on architectural historyAn illustrated book documents the reconstruction of the then TH Darmstadt between 1949 and the 1980s, following its destruction in the Second World War. The photographs provide little-known impres-sions of the city and the university sites. Following very positive public feedback on the selection of 13,000 images exhibited in 2014, the TU decided to publish the large-size photo book, entitled “Recon-struction and Expansion – The State University Building Authority in Darmstadt, 1949–1988.”

Specialist in biology, history and Shakespeare: Stefan Schneckenburger.

“I want to reactivate old knowledge and present modern botany.”

Stefan Schneckenburger, Head of the TU Botanical Gardens

Old maps digitised With the help of crowdsourcing, a georeferencing project was carried out at the University and State Library to locate 444 digitised maps. Thanks to the work of over 40 volunteers (the crowd), the project was completed within a week. The regionally valu-able map collection includes some 37,000 individual sheets dating from the 16th Century to the 20th Century. Of these, over 1,000 digital reproductions have been placed on the project’s online “tukart” platform. The project facilitates map-based re-search, for example, via the international portal Old Maps Online.

Wide awake

Have you ever watched a lightning bolt strike with force? Have you been inside the canteen’s large kitchen or seen what goes on in a tyre testing laboratory? Several thousand curious visitors got to experience all of this at Science Day 2016. Under the title “Wide awake!”, the TU offered tours of its City Centre and Lichtwiese campuses, invited guests into its laboratories and workshops and the Senate Hall, and opened rooms to the public which are usually closed to them.

Wide awake: science is fascinating.

In discussion sessions, researchers tackled current topics such as the energy transition (Energiewende) and IT security. 15 exhibitors presented hands-on research displays in the karo 5 reception building. And even the youngest visitors got to be explorers for the day: the Departments of Mathematics, Biology, Physics and Materials Science put on presentations and organised experiments.

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Art Forum opened

Her works of art are colourful, yet simple and strict in form. Like railings or fences, they enclose the world and scrutinise the way we perceive it. The TU opened its new Art Forum with the “out of order” exhibition by Cologne artist Carola Keitel. The Darmstadt Secession 2014 prize-winner presented her work in the old main building and, alongside a summer festival, in the Palace moat.

The artist sees the public space as reflective of society. Its fences, bushes and trees act as limitations, representing the attempt to get things under control. Or, like the two staircases that Keitel donated to the TU, they mislead people.

New space for discourse: TU Darmstadt’s Art Forum.

The TU’s Art Forum has its anchor point in the exhibition room of the old main building in Hoch-schulstraße 1, but also uses other TU locations. It sees itself as a meeting place and a space for interacting with art, whether paintings, installations, photography, video, performance, music or dance. The Forum will provide a public platform for young artists. The programme addresses relevant social issues and is designed to supplement the city’s art scene.

Mosaics shine once again

New home for valuable works of art: Lecture Hall and Media Centre.

The “Helio I” and “Helio II” façade mosaics by Darmstadt artist Bernd Krimmel had hung on the west façade of the student residence in Schloss-gartenstraße since 1957. They were by no means lost when the building was demolished. The 369 fine glass cylinders and sheets were measured, removed and cleaned by hand, with destroyed elements from the artist’s portfolio replaced. They found a spectacular new home on the staircase of the Lecture Hall and Media Centre, opened in 2013 on the Lichtwiese campus. This new setting accentuates the blues and reds in the mosaic. The ten metre high and four metre wide “Helio I” comes into its own there. “Helio II” adorns the wall between the Lecture Hall entry doors on the first floor. The reconstruction work was overseen by a specialist firm and the artist himself.

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Course set

Environmental and economic benefitsA consortium consisting of STEAG New Energies GmbH and ENTEGA AG is supplying the TU with heat, air-conditioning/refrigeration and electricity until the end of 2030. The consortium won a Europe-wide call for tenders and is fulfilling the TU’s sustain-ability strategy of reducing energy demand and pro-tecting the environment. Some 175,000 tonnes of harmful carbon emissions will be eliminated during the term of the agreement. Around 30,000 students and employees are engaged in research and learning on the Innenstadt, Lichtwiese and Stadion campuses and at the Botanical Gardens. Their energy require-ments are equivalent to those of a small town.

The new energy provider is investing EUR 17 million in the modernisation and expansion of the Energy Centre. There are plans to install a new combined heat and power unit and an absorption chiller, and to expand the supply grid. A three-kilometre refrigeration network is being installed on the Lichtwiese campus. It will serve among other things to cool the Hessian Lichtenberg High Performance Computer in an energy efficient manner.

Connecting the TU’s heating network to the ENTEGA district heating network is a key component of the work. The TU channels are already being used to supply an indoor swimming pool, numerous schools, authorities and the Congress Centre.

Dialogue with investors at the power plant.

“The project is making a major contribution to the university’s sustainability goals. As the City of Science, Darmstadt is also reducing its climate footprint.”

Dr. Marie-Luise Wolff-Hertwig,

CEO of ENTEGA AG

Policy to combat sexual violenceThrough new guidelines, the TU is taking a stand against sexual discrimination and assaults. The university is committed to actively combating such incidents, which can also occur in daily life at higher education institutions. Victims should be protected and encouraged to seek help. The idea came about in dialogue with the TU’s Advisory Board on Gender Equality in Research.

Staff from the university administration, advisory offices, the Personnel Council, AStA, the professorate and the office of the Gender Equality Officer are working together on the guidelines, which have been approved by the Executive Board. The advisory services have been condensed and procedures standardised in order to respond rapidly to calls for help. A dedicated website, stickers, flyers, information stands and training will serve to raise awareness of the topic and underscore the great importance that the TU attaches to respectful dealings, mutual regard and tolerance among its staff and students.

Staying healthy

Fresh impetusThe TU is expanding the range of health protection services it offers its employees. TU Vice President Dr. Manfred Efinger sees health management as a key quality criterion, not an end in itself. Health and well being are set to be mainstreamed as a strategic factor in the university’s development. This also means that corresponding general conditions need to be implemented for employees and students. New TU health manager Elke Böhme will col-laborate closely with the existing contact points to develop ideas, strategies and measures, and link up offerings.

By 2018, a health centre for employees will be established in the historic machine hall on the Stadtmitte campus. It will offer sports activities, counselling for psychological and workplace stress, and medical care. The university will work with the Techniker Krankenkasse health insurance fund as

Well-balanced: health care at the university.

“We want to create the best possible workplace conditions, thereby ensuring a healthy working atmosphere.”

Dr. Manfred Efinger,

Vice President, TU Darmstadt

Conscious eatingDr. Felix Prinz zu Lö-wenstein was invited to the Stadtmitte cam-pus canteen (Mensa Stadtmitte) where he gave a lecture on the problematic aspects of conventional farming methods and the growing significance of organic farming. The internationally re-spected agricultural researcher and or-ganic policy expert also supported Stu-dent Services by speaking at the “Sus-tainability in univer-sity gastronomy” workshop. part of a two-year project analysing resources and

main areas of stress for the TU’s 5,000 or so employees. There are plans to establish customised health projects.

Space to exerciseA sports room for TU employees has been opened 9 in the old main building on the Innenstadt cam-pus. The new uniGym sees the University Sports Centre offer exercise classes, high-intensity interval training and relaxation exercises from early morn-ing until evening on weekdays. The gym boasts 63 square metres of space equipped with indoor bikes, weight training equipment and a new traverse system for effective whole body training. A trainer is always present.

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Energy & sustainability72 LED lamps line the new cycle paths on the Lichtwiese campus, using 85 per cent less energy than the old lamps.

TU Darmstadt used 60,000 megawatt hours of district heat in 2016. This is the equivalent used to heat 2,400 detached family homes for one year.

The university’s district heating supply network is 20 kilometres long.

TU Darmstadt used 56,000 megawatt hours of electricity in 2016.

Of this, 31,700 megawatt hours were provided by means of cogeneration (generated by TU’s own cogeneration plant), with the rest bought in as green electricity.

1 combined heat and power unit on the TU campus supplies electricity to the university buildings via its own medium-voltage grid.

200,140 cubic metres of drinking water were used by the university in 2016.

Food & drink1,517 million warm meals were served in the Stadtmitte and Lichtwiese canteens in 2016.

Assistance556 students sought advice and support from Student Services counsellors in relation to difficult circumstances they were facing.

417 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.

Good old moneyThe Student Services student finance department paid EUR 12.64 million in BAföG funding to students at TU Darmstadt, processing 3,687 (new and renewal) applications.

AccommodationThere were 1,917 TU students living in the halls of residence run by Student Services at the end of 2016.

The new student hall of residence in Riedeselstraße 64 will provide accommodation for 294 students. The atrium building is due for completion in semester two of 2018. Thanks to funding from the German federal state of Hesse, 100 rooms can be offered for a socially responsible, all-inclusive rent.

Exercise

39,400 places were booked in university sports classes in 2016.

54,221 tickets were sold for the university swimming pool.

27,000 litres of water were used to fill up the university swimming pool.

48 Unifit classes were held per quarter in 2016.

On 20 occasions, TU students made it into the top three at the German University Championships – in ju-jitsu, taekwondo, rowing and swimming.

Up to 160 employees per quarter took advantage of Office Fresh Up training during their breaks.

212 people took part in the sports excursions.

494 international students took advantage of the sports activities, which were tailored to their needs.

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Noble gesture

Million donated for new institute buildingThomas Weiland, a TU professor since 1989, has donated several million Euros to the university for the construction of a new institute building. It will have 1,000 square metres of floor space and be built on the site of the current High Voltage Lab on Landgraf-Georg-Straße. The 1950s Lab is set to be demolished in the medium term and the research activities of the High Voltage Laboratories will be pooled in another location.

Weiland is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and has headed up the Institute for the Theory of Electromagnetic Fields for around 25 years now. He received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, Germany’s leading research award, in 1988. Ex-plaining his generous donation, he said that “TU Darmstadt is a place of freedom and almost limitless potential for personal development in research and teaching.’ He was not aware of any other university in Germany where staff had so much scope to shape their own work.

TU President Professor Hans Jürgen Prömel said he was “overwhelmed by this generous gesture towards the university.” He said it would enable the TU to “widen its scope for development”. The building is set to house all the research and working groups of the Institute for the Theory of Electromagnetic Fields’ six professorships.

Scholarships from the Weiland FoundationMichael Heroth, Sophia Heyde, Jörg Schmidt and Aliena Trillig are the first scholarship holders of the Weiland Foundation, which was established by Professor Thomas Weiland in 2014. The Foundation funds outstanding students on Bachelor’s courses with a mathematics, technical or engineering focus and aims to support them on their subsequent

Four Master’s students receiving the first scholarships from the Weiland Foundation.

“TU Darmstadt gave me the opportunity to build a large institute and successfully supervise over 100 doctoral candidates to the end of their doctoral thesis. This is the best job I could imagine.”

Professor Thomas Weiland

Master’s degrees at TU Darmstadt in order to create scope for them to examine their subject matter in depth. Each scholarship holder receives EUR 500 per month for four semesters. The Foundation is set to increase its number of scholarships to six in future.

Professor Keping Li from Tongji University, Shanghai,

is TU Darmstadt’s FIRST international

ambassador. After completing his doctorate in the

Institute of Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering

in Darmstadt in 1996, he spent a total of 14 years in

Germany. He now shares his experiences with current

students and researchers.

The Wiechers Foundation Cities for People has provided

EUR 100,000 in funding for the Department of Architecture in particular, for example for the “urban planning colloquia” series, over the last few years. The Foundation donated another EUR 10,000 in 2016.

100,000 Euro The Horst Görtz Foundation awarded first prize in the

German Prize for IT Security to Siegfried Rasthofer,

Steven Arzt, Marc Miltenberger (TU Darmstadt and

Fraunhofer SIT) and Professor Eric Bodden (Paderborn

University).

TU Darmstadt presented the Robert Piloty Prize

to 2 world renowned professors from

Würzburg and Saarbrücken. This is the first time

the accolade has been awarded.

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Architecture and education

As the first holder of a German Chancellor Fellow-ship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Maria Ustinova spent time as a visiting fellow with Professor Annette Rudolph-Cleff in the Department of Architecture at TU Darmstadt. The 33-year-old has a vision: She wants to use architecture to make kindergarten more enjoyable for children. To this end, she is analysing the architectural design of kindergartens and schools in the Rhine-Main region against the backdrop of their educational strategies, also taking into account energy efficiency. After all, she says, it is not only about constructing buildings for children, but also about considering how children are effected by their environment. She intends to make use of the findings in her home country of Russia.

There, she had already overseen public residential construction projects and identified a need for extensive knowledge in the fields of architecture, law, economics and social science. Maria Ustinova hopes that she will be able to become a specialist in the field of educational architecture over the course of the fellowship. And this is not her first visit to Darmstadt, having participated in a Master’s programme focused on international cooperation and urban development in 2008.

Maria Ustinova is gaining impetus for her research career.

“I hope I’ll be able to become a specialist in the field of educational architecture over the course of the fellowship. I’d then like to return to Russia and apply my knowledge there.”

Maria Ustinova, holder of the German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Milestones in sight

Radar set to help the elderlyElectrical engineering professor Moeness Amin is considered the world’s leading researcher in the field of signal processing. The Humboldt prize-winner from Villanova University in Pennsylvania is working with a team at TU Darmstadt to research how radar technology, originally used for military purposes only, can be applied in the health sector, for example to detect when elderly persons or individuals with limited mobility have a fall. Their every movement can be detected simply by using hand-size Doppler radars in their home. The techno-logy can determine whether someone is sitting, standing, walking or falling and in need of help. Professor Amin explains that, unlike cameras, radars do not make people feel watched or monitored.

He and his team are working on a self-learning radar technology that adapts to the user and his or her movements and everyday routine. This should guard against false alarms. Egyptian by birth, Professor Amin has been making repeat visits to Darmstadt for over 15 years now. The Humboldt

Professor Moeness Amin, Alexander von Humboldt Research Award-winner, is a visiting fellow at the TU.

Research Award is enabling him to complete six months of work at the TU over the course of three years. Amin’s goal is to develop a monitoring system that could even detect illnesses and identify rehabilitation progress.

Millions for catalystsThe European Research Council (ERC) is providing over EUR 2 million in funding to support the work of TU researcher Bastian J.M. Etzold. The ERC Consolidator Grant is enabling the Professor of Technical Chemistry to develop significantly enhanced catalysts for the low-temperature fuel cell. The cell promises to play a key role in the German energy transition (Energiewende), as it can be used to convert hydrogen and air into electricity with the only waste gas being water vapour. However, its use is being hampered by the high cost of catalyst technology. Etzold has now used ion coating to triple the performance of the catalysts and reduce costs by a factor of three.

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Multiple awards

New cancer therapiesDr. Julia Weigand, Research Associate in the Depart-ment of Biology, has been awarded the 2016 Adolf Messer Prize. Worth EUR 50,000, it is the most highly endowed award at TU Darmstadt. The 35-year-old is researching new cancer therapies, examining how cancer cells adapt at molecular level to a lack of oxygen.

Normally, all human cells need to be supplied with oxygen by the bloodstream, otherwise they will die. Cancer cells, on the other hand, can continue to multiply with almost no oxygen. Weigand completed her doctoral studies in Frankfurt am Main and has been conducting research in the field of synthetic genetic circuits at the TU since 2012. The Adolf Messer Prize is awarded annually by the Foundation of the same name and recognises outstanding work by young researchers at TU Darmstadt.

Adolf Messer Prize-winner: Dr. Julia Weigand.

Robert Piloty Prize awardedProfessors Phuoc Tran-Gia and Gerhard Weikum have been awarded the Robert Piloty Prize by TU Darmstadt. Worth EUR 10,000, this prize was awarded for the first time in 2016. The biannual award recognises outstanding achievements and exceptional research and development work in the fields of computer science, electrical engineering, information technology and applied mathematics.

Professor Tran-Gia has done pioneering work on the methodology for performance assessment and the optimisation of communication networks. He is Chair of Communication Networks at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, of which he has been Vice-President since 2015.

Gerhard Weikum, Research Director at the Max-Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, is one of Germany’s most respected computer scientists in the field of databases. His work on transaction processing and distributed systems, self-optimising database systems and the integration of database and information retrieval methods is world renowned.

Generous foundation

Franziska Braun Award The collaborative research centre “Multi-Mech-anism-Adaptation for the Future Internet” (MAKI) has been presented with the Franziska Braun Award of the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation at TU Darmstadt. The prize is endowed with EUR 25,000. MAKI has been recognised for its equality strategy, which is designed to encourage more women to get involved in MAKI-related areas of research. The centre’s winning strategy involves seamless support and initiatives for school pupils, students and researchers. MAKI has already provided financial and content support for “Girls’Day” and “LanParty Girls only”.

Additionally, several young female researchers have been able to spend time working abroad. All MAKI female researchers can choose from a wide range of career development services, including training and coaching. The Franziska Braun Award recognises models designed to recruit women to research and teaching posts at the TU. The prize is named after Franziska Braun, the first female student to be enrolled at the then TH Darmstadt in 1908.

Athene Prizes and eTeaching AwardsSeveral members of the TU have been awarded the 2016 Athene Prizes for Good Teaching, worth EUR 40,000 in total, by the Carlo and Karin Giersch Foundation. The main Athene Prize, worth EUR 2,000, was presented to Dr. Philipp Richter from the Institute of Philosophy for the publication he issued on philosophical didactics. The Special Prize for Interdisciplinary Teaching was awarded for the “Was steckt dahinter?” (“What's behind all this?”) lecture series. Other special prizes were pres-ented for a research project designed to encourage students to conduct a research project of their own and for an initiative preparing student teachers to work with refugee children and young people.

Benefactor couple the Gierschs (front left) and the Franziska Braun Award-winners.

The eTeaching Awards, worth a total of EUR 12,000, were presented again by the Giersch Foundation. The main award (worth EUR 8,000) went to Henrik Bellhäuser, Dr. Johannes Konert and Marcel Schaub for the Moodle plugin they developed for efficiently setting up student working groups.

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Top performances

Million mark surpassed

The TU has secured a total of 345 scholarships under the Deutschlandstipendium programme, allowing some EUR 1.24 million of funding to be paid out to students. The TU has always ranked in the top five out of all 287 German universities participating in the Deutschlandstipendium when it comes to attracting sponsors. The programme operates on the half and half principle, whereby EUR 150 of the EUR 300 monthly grant is provided by the German Government and the other half financed with funding secured by the TU from entrepreneurs, private individuals and foundations. The departments selected scholarship candidates based on their study results and their social engagement.

Initially primarily attracting large companies when it began in 2011, the Deutschlandstipendium programme now works with a greater number of foundations and small firms. As found in a study by TU student Maximilian Klöckner from the Department of Law and Economics, one of the reasons companies get involved in the initiative is to boost their HR marketing work and enhance their reputation. Half of the companies surveyed by Klöckner offered scholarship holders an intern-ship, and 44 per cent offered them the opportunity to complete a university dissertation. 31 per cent of the firms subsequently hired the scholarship holders onto their staff.

Visible success in securing scholarships.

Closely linked

Safety glass and tumour therapyDr.-Ing. Johannes Kai Kuntsche and Dr. Stefan Zielonka have been awarded the EUR 20,000 Kurt Ruths Prize for their outstanding doctoral thesis. Kuntsche wrote his thesis on the mechanical behaviour of laminated glass under time-dependent and explosion loading. He created a basis for precisely calculating the interlayers of the glass.

Zielonka is researching the use of customised anti-bodies in cancer diagnosis and therapy. For example, sharks produce special antibodies that are consider-ably simpler in structure and more stable than human antibodies. It had previously been extremely difficult to access these antibodies, but he managed for the first time to develop a technology capable of isolating the shark antibodies that detect human tumour cells. The procedure produces the antibodies from baker’s yeast, eliminating the need for animal testing.

Awards for doctoral thesesThe Association of Friends of Technische Universität Darmstadt presented another round of awards in 2016, worth EUR 65,000 in total, for the best docto-ral theses in all 13 departments. The Departments of Architecture and Chemistry were each allowed to nominate two prize-winners to share the award, which is also linked to funding for the institutes or departments supervising the theses.

Established in 1918, the Association funds scientific work, research and teaching at TU Darmstadt. It is one of the first associations of friends and has one of the highest memberships for such associations in German universities It presents awards, supports in-stitutes, institutions and research projects at the TU, assists students, and manages a wide range of foun-dations providing funding for relevant purposes.

Full of ideas and enthusiasm Colombian Ivan Felipe Martinez Valencia was presented with the 2016 Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Award for Outstanding

Ivan Felipe Martinez Valencia is involved in a wide range of activities.

“He works tirelessly to promote the interests of international students, even when he sometimes comes up against opposition, and refuses to give up.”

Jury’s verdict for the DAAD Award

International Students at TU Darmstadt. The 31-year-old completed his Bachelor’s degree in the TU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. Martinez worked as a voluntary assistant with the European Voluntary Service in Croatia and, as project and team manager, helped design many Tutors International initiatives at the university. He served as a represen-tative for international students in AStA and was a student member of the University Assembly.

• Adam Opel AG , Rüsselsheim

• Airbus Defence & Space GmbH, Taufkirchen

• ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH, Hanau

• ASAP Engineering GmbH, Rüsselsheim

• Atotech Deutschland GmbH, Berlin

• BASF SE, Ludwigshafen

• Beirat des TU Darmstadt Energy Center e.V., Darmstadt

• Berufsbildungswerk Philipp Jakob Wieland, Ulm

• Bickhardt Bau AG, Kirchheim

• Bilfinger SE , Mannheim

• Bosch Gruppe, vertreten durch Bosch Rexroth AG, Lohr am Main

• Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. KG , Coburg

• CA Deutschland GmbH, Darmstadt

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

• Clariant Produkte (Deutschland) GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

• Cofinpro AG , Frankfurt am Main

• Compagnie de Saint-Gobain , Aachen

• Copitos GmbH , Berg/Ravensburg

• Datenlotsen Informationssysteme GmbH, Hamburg

• Deloitte GmbH Wirtschafts- prüfungsgesellschaft, Düsseldorf

• Deutsche Bahn Stiftung gGmbH , Berlin

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

• d-fine GmbH , Frankfurt am Main

• Dr. Ing.h.c.F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart

• DS Smith Paper Deutschland GmbH , Aschaffenburg

• Ed. Züblin AG, Frankfurt am Main

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

• ENTEGA NATURpur Institut gGmbH , Darmstadt

• Evonik Stiftung, Essen

• FERCHAU Engineering GmbH, Niederlassung Darmstadt, Darmstadt

• Fritz und Margot Faudi-Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main

• HAL Allergie GmbH , Düsseldorf

• HEAG mobilo GmbH, Darmstadt

• Heinrich Sauer & Josef Schmidt Stiftung, Gelnhausen

• Heraeus Holding GmbH, Hanau

• Herrhausen, Traudl , Bad Homburg

• HORNBACH – Baumarkt AG , Bornheim

• Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik GmbH , Darmstadt

• HPC AG , Kriftel

• HPP – Harnischfeger, Pietsch & Partner Strategie- und Marketingberatung GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

• IBM Deutschland GmbH , Frankfurt am Main

• INCOE International Europe, Rödermark

• Infraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG, Frankfurt am Main

• ING-DiBa AG, Frankfurt am Main

• Ingenieurbüro Dipl.-Ing. H. Vössing, Frankfurt am Main

• Ingenieursozietät Prof. Dr.-Ing. Katzenbach, Darmstadt

• Isra Vision AG , Darmstadt

• Jakob Wilhelm Mengler-Stiftung , Alsbach-Hähnlein

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

• KFT Chemieservice GmbH, Griesheim

• KSB AG , Frankenthal

• Kurt und Lilo Werner RC Darm-stadt Stiftung, Darmstadt

• KVL Bauconsult Frankfurt GmbH , Frankfurt am Main

• LEONHARD WEISS GmbH & Co. KG, Satteldorf

• LOTUM GmbH , Bad Nauheim

• Lufthansa Technik AG , Hamburg

• MAHLE International GmbH, Stuttgart

• Merck KGaA, Darmstadt

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

• Miele & Cie. KG, Gütersloh

• MLP Finanzdienstleistungen AG, Wiesloch

• PASS IT-Consulting Dipl-Inf. G. Rienecker GmbH & Co. KG, Frankfurt am Main

• PPI AG Informationstechnologie , Frankfurt am Main

• Preh GmbH , Bad Neustadt a.d. Saale

• Rauscher GmbH – Tochterfirma Codema, München

• Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim

• Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

• SAP SE , Walldorf

• SCA Hygiene Products GmbH , Ismaning

• SCHENCK RoTec GmbH, Darmstadt

• Siemens AG Human Resources, Erlangen

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

• Solvay GmbH, Hannover

• sovanta AG, Heidelberg

• Sparkasse Darmstadt, Darmstadt

• TIZ Darmstadt GmbH Technologie- und Innovations-zentrum, Darmstadt

• UPM – The Biofore Company, Augsburg

• vwd Vereinigte Wirtschafts- dienste GmbH, Kaiserslautern

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

• Viessmann Werke Allendorf GmbH , Allendorf (Eder)

List of sponsors

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Excellent dissertations

How does the police force use social media? What can the construction industry learn from “Werkzeug-kasten Industrie 4.0”? Students area producing solid answers to questions such as these in their dis-sertations. Working with prize sponsors Datenlotsen GmbH, Dreßler Bau GmbH and Liebig-Gruppe, TU Darmstadt’s Executive Board presents awards for excellent Bachelor’s and Master’s dissertations each year. Datenlotsen Prize-winner Nora Jansen from the Department of Law and Economics examined the topic of “Facebook, Twitter & Co. in Action – How the Police use Social Media Channels”. She developed a model in which she lists the key factors in getting the population to communicate to a greater extent with the police, for example via social media. The German Federal Criminal Police Office has since expressed interested in Jansen’s findings.

Nora Jansen receives recognition for her fascinating Master’s dissertation.

Dreßler-Bau Prize-winner Nils Ehrenfeld from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering found in his dissertation that the construction indus-try has significant catching-up to do in the use of the latest technologies, best practices in management and information and communications technology support. Connecting the different stakeholders and interests in the construction processes is key. Ehrenfeld concludes that the application levels of machine-to-machine communication and human-machine interfaces will become far more prominent than in the past.

Excellent reputation

Professor Cameron Tropea, Head of the Institute for Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics at TU Darmstadt, has been appointed a member of the Scientific Commission of the German Council of Science and Humanities. The Council advises the German Federal Government and the federal states governments on the development of science, research and higher education. Professor Tropea was appointed on the joint recom-mendation of the German Research Foundation, the Max Planck Society, the German Rectors' Conference, the Helmholtz Association, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and the Leibniz As-sociation. He was officially appointed for a three-year term by the German Federal President.

Professor Tropea was also appointed in 2016 by the Joint Science Conference to the 39-member international Committee of Experts for the Excellence Strategy in Germany.

Outstanding

Prof. Gerhard Sessler, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology: Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Prof. Eberhard Abele, Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools: President of the German Academic Society for Production Engineering

Prof. Ulrich Kohlenbach, Department of Mathematics: President of the Association

for Symbolic Logic

Assistant Prof. Dr. Annette Andrieu-Brunsen, Research Group Smart Membranes: ADUC Prize for instructors completing their professorial credentials to Dr. habil, presented by the Working Group of German University Chemistry Professors (ADUC)

Prof. Markus Roth, Institute for Nuclear Physics: LANSCE Rosen Scholar Fellowship

Prof. Hartmut Fueß, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences: Carl Hermann Medal of the German Crystallographic Society

Prof. Rolf Isermann, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology: Lifetime Achieve Award of the International Federation of Automatic Control

Prof. Martin Oberlack, Institute for Fluid Dynamics: Fellow of the American Physical Society

Prof. Johannes Buchmann, Department of Computer Science: Honorary Member of the Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Forschungstransfers

Prof. Peter Cornel, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Advisory Professor to Tongji University

Dr. Tanja Drobek, Darmstadt Graduate School of Excellence Energy Science and Engineering: Appointment to the Board of Trustees of the Deutsches Museum, Munich

Prof. Jochen Wambach, Institute for Nuclear Physics: Admission to the Academia Europaea, Physics Department

Prof. Mira Mezini, Department of Computer Science, Prof. Nina Janich, Department of History and Social Sciences:

Admission to the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech)

IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Award: Christian Stab, Ubiquitous Knowledge Processing (EUR 20,000)

Rotary Sponsorship Prize: Friederike Liebach, Business Engineering/Electrical Engineering (EUR 10,000)

Manfred Hirschvogel Prize: Dr.-Ing. Christoph Brandstetter, Department of Mechanical Engineering (EUR 5,000)

German Structural Engineering Award: ETA-Factory team and office for structural design (osd) (EUR 4,000)

IEEE Brain Initiative Best Paper Award: Karl-Heinz Fiebig, Department of Computer Science (USD 2,500)

Urban Design Excellence Award of the National University of Singapore: Lara Giacometti, Felix Graf, Fabian Gräfe, Tyagita Hedayat, Boshra Khoshnevis, Min Kim, Rui Song, Leonie Lube, Jonathan Mwanza, Nimade Wenes Widiyni, Khatun Zankt, Department of Architecture (SGD 4,000)

Doctoral Prize awarded by the Familie Bottling Foundation: Dr.-Ing. Christian G. Schäfer, Department of Chemistry (EUR 3,500)

Darmstadt Energy Awards: Dr.-Ing. Anne Fuchs, Department of Materials and Earth Sciences, Dr.-Ing. Hendrik Schaede, Department of Mechanical Engineering: Award for Outstanding Doctoral Theses; Patrick Lieser: Award for Best Master’s Dissertation; Sascha Neusüs: Special Master's Award

Distinguished Professor Cameron Tropea.

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Water is her element

In addition to researching wastewater technology, Susanne Lackner, Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s IWAR Institute, also has a connection to water outside of work. The rowing enthusiast and her team mates Anke Molkenthin, Tino Kolitscher, Valentin Luz and cox Inga Thöne competed in the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro 2016.

However, following success in the heats and the repechage, the team had to settle for fourth place behind Great Britain, the United States and Canada. Nonetheless, the 38-year-old researcher, who is highly visually impaired, was still happy: “We beat teams that were a boat’s length in front of us.”

Professor and athlete: Susanne Lackner.

Susanne Lackner began rowing when she was 13 and only switched to disabled sport in 2006. She came first in the World Rowing Championship mixed fours in 2007, third in 2009 and seventh in 2015, and fourth in the 2008 Beijing Olympics mixed fours.

And Lackner could not quite turn her mind away from her specialist field of wasterwater technology in Rio: “The water there was very dirty indeed.” She found it regrettable that this problem had not been addressed in advance, at least by building simple sedimentary basins – not for the athletes, but for the population: “They squandered an opportunity there.”

Biologist, anatomist and artist

Berend Koch started collecting snail shells when he was a child. He is now a taxidermist in the Depart-ment of Biology He has built up an impressive study collection with a wide range of animal species since 1988. The specimens serve as study objects for students beginning their degree courses, providing information about species diversity and anatomy. The aim is for students to learn how to reliably identify the animals using an identification key. Koch is convinced that films and computer models are not particularly well suited to this task: “Films fail to give a clear idea of an animal’s exact size.”

He sees himself as a “biologist, anatomist, artist and craftsman” all at once. Whatever pose the specimen is in, “it must appear lifelike”. No animals are killed in his work; he uses dead animals from zoos and animals found dead elsewhere.

Koch’s work has also made an impact at inter-national level, where he has won Best in Europe and Best in World titles at the European and World Taxidermy Championships respectively. He now organises the European Taxidermy Championships with a colleague from Switzerland. He particularly enjoys preparing birds, but his favourite winged creature to prepare is a mammal – the bat.

World champion in his field: taxidermist Berend Koch.

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New Professors Name

Markus Engelhardt

Sybille Frank

Nina Gribat

Felix Hausch

Konrad Kandler

Eckhard Kirchner

Susanne Lackner

Tobias Melz

Christian Mittelstedt

Marcus Müller

Tanja Paulitz

Britta Schmalz

Christine Sutter

Felix Waechter

Torsten Wedhorn

Thomas Weitin

from

EnviroChemie GmbH, Roßdorf

Technische Universität Berlin

Technische Universität Berlin

Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry, MunichTechnische Universität Darmstadt

Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Technische Universität Darmstadt

Sogeti Hightech GmbH, Hamburg

Heidelberg University

RWTH Aachen University

Kiel University

RWTH Aachen University

Architecture office Waechter + Waechter

Paderborn University

University of Konstanz

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

History and Social Sciences

Architecture

Chemistry

Materials and Earth Sciences

Mechanical Engineering

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical EngineeringHistory and Social SciencesHistory and Social Sciences

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Architecture

Mathematics

History and Social Sciences

New Assistant Professorships Name

Yann David Disser

Simon Emde

Guido Salvaneschi

Kai Schulze

Verena Spatz

Viktor Stein

from

Technische Universität Berlin

Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Technische Universität Darmstadt

University of Potsdam

Universität of Vienna

University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Department

Mathematics

Law and Economics

Computer Science

History and Social Sciences

Physics

Biology

New KIVA-Professors Name

Larissa Aronin

Marcel Bilow

Gary Downey

Leon Hempel

Konstantinos Kafetsios

Yossi Maaravi

Safiye Yildiz

from

Oranim Academic College of Education, Israel

Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

Virginia Tech, USA

Technische Universität Berlin

University of Crete, Greece

Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel

University of Tübingen

Department

History and Social Sciences

Architecture; Civil and Environmental EngineeringMechanical Engineering

History and Social Sciences; Civil and Environmental Engineering

Human Sciences

Law and Economics

Human Sciences

Foundation Professorships

Deutsche Bahn Stiftung gGmbH: Foundation Assistant Professorship Business Administration Multimodality and Logistics Technologies in the Department of Law and EconomicsAssistant Professor Anne Lange Deutsche Bahn Stiftung gGmbH: Foundation Assistant Professorship Business Administration Logistics Planning and Information Systems in the Department of Law and EconomicsAssistant Professor Michael Schneider

Deutsche Bahn Regio: Foundation Professorship Railway Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringProfessor Andreas Oetting

NATURpur Institute for Climate and Environment Protection:Foundation Professorship Applied Geothermal Science and Technology in the Department of Materials and Earth SciencesProfessor Ingo Sass

Goldbeck Foundation: Foundation Professorship Sustainable Building Design in the Department of ArchitectureProfessor Christoph Kuhn

Horst Görtz Foundation: Horst Görtz Foundation Professorship IT-Security focused on Security Engineering in the Department of Computer ScienceProfessor Stefan Katzenbeisser

Volkswagen Foundation: Lichtenberg Professorship Educational Natural Language Processing (e-NLP) in the Department of Computer ScienceProfessor Irina Gurevych

Institut Wohnen und Umwelt GmbHFoundation Assistant Professorship Models of Housing and Energy Policy in the Department of History and Social SciencesAssistant Professor Kai Schulze

4 international* appointments

22 appointments in total

* Appointments of foreign citizens or individuals abroad

to professorships/assistant professorships

New honorary professors

Reinhold Elsen Department of Mechanical Engineering

Ralf Steding Department of Civil and Environmental

Engineering

Martin Steinebach Department of Computer Science

New Adjunct Professor (apl. Prof.)

Jan Bender Department of Computer Science

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City Centre

Botanical Gardens

Lichtwiese

University Stadium

August-Euler Airfield (with wind tunnel)

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 Titelfoto: Jan-Christoph Hartung,Patrick Bal (3),Katrin Binner ( 19),Jan Ehlers, Felipe Fernandes (4),Paul Glogowski,Miguel Hahn ,Jan-Christoph Hartung (15) Jan-Michael Hosan / Hessen schafft Wissen ( 2),Sandra Junker ( 8),

M. Laatiaoui/GSI,Anja Lüppert,Moritz Merkle ,Thomas Ott ( 5),Lillie Paquette / MIT School of Engineering,privat (2),Christian Rau,Rockstar Games /Visual Inference Group,Gregor Rynkowski ( 5),Binh Truong /DBS,TU Darmstadt ( 2),Matthias Voigt,Claus Völker ( 13),Stefan Weigelt /Rolls-Royce Deutschland (2)

Illustrations “Focus on entrepreneurial atmosphere”/Concept and Designconclouso GmbH & Co. KG, Mainzwww.conclouso.de

PrintingDruckerei Ph. ReinheimerGmbH Darmstadt

Circulation (english):700

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