Collaborative Project 1st years Final Presentations (Mar 5, 2021)

GRK2495 is one of the first international doctoral programs at FAU, which is a joint research and training project together with the Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan in the area of electro-optical and electro-mechanical materials and devices for multifunctional energy harvesting systems. In order to facilitate and increase cross-disciplinary collaboration, GRK2495 includes an engineering and materials development competition.

Four groups of doctoral researchers, each consisting of FAU- and NITech doctoral researcher, have worked collaboratively over the course of one year to develop a concept addressing a scientific question. The topic for the first year was presented at the Kick-off Meeting in February 2020: Developing a strategy to couple electro-optical and electro-mechanical functionalities. Importantly, this topic is open enough that it can entail materials development, device integration development, simulations, and structure development. The teams then submitted a proposal explaining their research idea, proposed methods, and important milestones as well as a financial justification for requested funds. After 6 months they presented their initial findings and results on October 7th. The final presentations were held at the FAU-NITech School on Energy Systems on March 5th 2021.

Now, the second and last year of the Collaborative Project starts for our first generation. Together with the PhD students it has been discussed and decided that the teams will continue working on the same topic, and in the same groups so they continue the collaborative work on their findings and results.

• Team 1: Investigation of stress-dependent material properties of Energy Harvesters
• Team 2: Electrooptical and Electromechanical Coupling of Photoferroic Solar Cells
• Team 3: In Depth Examination of Photostriction in Lead-Free Perovskites
• Team 4: Tailoring the conversion of a multilayered material with nano piezoelectric and phototronic effects