News from the Project

First Retreat and official Opening of our Cluster of Excellence "The Martian Mindset"

2026-03-11

From the 4th to the 5th of March 2026, Prof. Dr. Vera Hagemann, Dr. Krisztina Konya and Carina Litfin attended the first official Retreat of the Cluster of Excellence “The Martian Mindset”. The Project leaders and PhD candidates from all research projects of the Cluster of Excellence came together in Visselhövede to meet each other in person and to familiarise themselves with the various projects. The Retreat was opened by Prof. Dr. Marc Avila, director of ZARM and co-speaker of the Cluster, followed by inspiring introductions of all members. 
Our research project "Human-Agent-Teams in Extreme Environments" was presented by the PhD student Carina Litfin. You want to know what WALL-E has in common with Human-Agent-Teaming and "The Martian Mindset"? Besides the learnings that building something new out of scarcity is possible, the movie shows that Humans and (AI-)robots can create some great effort, when they will come together as a team.
Prof. Dr. Vera Hagemann, Dr. Krisztina Konya and Prof. Dr. Lutz Mädler introduced the Working Group "Data, Modelling and Uncertainty", in which Prof. Dr. Hagemann's sub-group aims to gain knowledge, exchange perspectives and to find cross-disciplinary measures to understand, define and quantify uncertainty.
There was a lot of content-related work, brainstorming, productive discussions and team-building events on both days. During the coffee breaks and lunch, there was also a lot of time for enriching scientific exchange between the different project members. It was such a great pleasure to finally meet and get to know everyone in person. We look forward to more delighting discussions and collaborations within the Cluster.