Third Yearly School on January 19th-20th, 2024
In the third week of 2024, our PIs, Doctoral and Associated Researchers, from FAU and partner institute Nagoya Institute of Technology, got together at the Yearly School 2024 for two days in Bayreuth. This time, the Yearly School consisted of an inivited talk, poster presentations by our doctoral researchers, collaborative project presentations and some cultural activities.
The Yearly School was kicked off by our IRTG director Prof. Dr. Kyle G. Webber and co-director Prof. Dr. Ken-ichi Kakimoto who welcomed everyone and talked about the long association and cooperation between NITech and FAU, which has already lasted for 15 years. All NITech PIs and doctoral researchers travelled to Germany for this Yearly School.
We invited Prof. Dr. Marin Alexe from the University of Warwick, Great Britain, to hold a presentation about Induced Functionalities by Symmetry Breaking. After a lunch break, the Doctoral and Associated Researchers presented their self-designed posters from project A-L. Similar to the previous Yearly Schools, prizes were awarded to three doctoral researchers for their efforts in the categories „Best Communication“, „Best Effort“ and „Highest Impact“. Those have been evaluated by all principal investigators. The winners were Viktoria Kraft for „Best Communication“, Silmi Kaffah for „Best Effort“ and Takahito Otsuka for „Highest Impact“.
On day 2 of the Yearly School, we started by listening to three collaborative presentations on the topics: „Investigations on Opto-electro-mechanical Sensing Applications Based on Bismuth Ferrite – Simulation and Manufacturin“, „Piezophotonic and Photostrictive Effect in Rare-earth Metal Doped Glass-ceramics“ and „Co-Deposition of Photo-rerroelectric Heterostructures“. The presentations were held by Doctoral Researchers, who collaborated together to present their results and future research goals. This is part of the Collaborative project with the goal of jointly work on a new interdisciplinary research project, helping to establish a common scientific language, broaden doctoral researchers understanding of related research topics, foster intercultural communication, strengthen the active collaboration of doctoral researchers, and act as an integrated soft-skills training on project development, proposal writing, scientific management, scientific communication, and teamwork.
After some final remarks from Prof. Webber, we headed off to the Catacombs of Bayreuth, in which they showed us how the famous Bayreuther Bier was made back in the days. We had the chance of tasting some delicious beer. For lunch, we visited the „Manns-Bräu“ together before going on a guided tour of the Urwelt Museum. Such cultural exchange represents the respective culture to other IGK2495 participants and helps opening communications and strengthening friendships between FAU and NITech members as well as promoting intercultural awareness and understanding.
Back in Erlangen, PIs from FAU and doctoral researchers held tutorials and hands-on workshops on various topics before a final barbecue and award ceremony. This part of the qualification programme aims at exposing participants to new ideas, methods, and materials in a compact, yet engaging way whilst being a theoretical and practical training. It also offers the doctoral researchers an integrated soft-skills training on developing and holding a lecture.
A Young Researcher Forum completed the Yearly School schedule. In a two-hour roundtable disscussion, our doctoral researchers could explore Deep Work as a method, focusing on its relevance for them as researchers. Such comprehensive sessions are designed to enhance their academic research skills. The discussion was led by Dr. Vogelaar, founder of achtsamschreiben.
This year’s Yearly School was the first „offline“ school and we are very happy that we could all meet in person in Erlangen and Bayreuth. We look forward to further encounters and experiences together!
(Images: L. Beck)