ifib Focus: School Information Systems

In the DATAFIED (data for and in education) joint project, ifib and its partners are investigating various levels of information processing and use in the education system: ifib is primarily concerned with changes in the organization of schools through school information systems and comprehensive data infrastructures. In several steps, existing systems are recorded and analyzed in order to identify the actors involved and software and data structures. Subsequently, interviews with developers will give an insight into the background of software design. Which problems should be solved by the programs? What feedback and priorities are given by the software? What ideals of good education and schooling are at the basis of development? Finally, ifib will conduct further interviews at several schools to investigate how the school information systems are used in practice.

Three Partners Involved

The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Brunswick, Helmut-Schmidt-Universität in Hamburg, and the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education  in Frankfurt am Main are DATAFIED partners. The research of the network partners is dedicated to the levels of the school authorities and the school itself, learning software and teaching, and teachers and pupils in the classroom. Overall, the project aims to provide a comprehensive and deep insight into the impact of digitization on schools. Schools in Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, and Potsdam are involved. At the end of the project, the research results will be discussed with participants in planned practical workshops in all participating cities.

Contact:

Dr. Juliane Jarke
Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib)
at the University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 218 56-586
E-mail: datafied@ifib.de

Vice President: Success through Cooperation

Professor Andreas Breiter, Vice President for Research, Young Scientists, and Transfer at the University of Bremen, is delighted: “Once again, we have been able to develop further and even improve on our top position – this is a very nice distinction for our start-up consultants and our joint offer that is financed by us on a long-term basis. I am particularly pleased that we are able to apply this to the BRIDGE network. This achievement was only made possible for the university through its cooperation in the recently expanded BRIDGE network.”

About the BRIDGE Network:

BRIDGE is the central contact point for students and members of Bremen higher education institutions on the subject of business start-ups. The BRIDGE university initiative is funded by the University of Bremen, Jacobs University Bremen, which has been active in the network since November, the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, and Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH. The BRIDGE initiative has the goal of improving the start-up climate at all participating higher education institutions and promoting promising ideas with start-up potential at an early stage. To this end, the institutions hold a large number of courses in regular teaching. In addition, BRIDGE advises about 140 start-up projects per year and offers 30 courses on the subject of entrepreneurial thinking and acting. Since 2007, the network has raised five million euros in funding from the nationwide EXIST program to support a large number of science start-ups. The CAMPUSiDEEN competition with prizes worth more than 15,000 euros rounds off the offer. Since 2003, 690 contributions have been submitted over the course of the 16 years. This makes CAMPUSiDEEN one of the most continuous competitions of its kind.

Additional Information:

www.bridge-online.de
www.bridge-online.de/bridge/gruendungsgalerie
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Martin Heinlein
Managing director at BRIDGE
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60330
E-mail: martin.heinlein@vw.uni-bremen.de

The Role of Pioneer Journalism in Germany

Project A –„Pionierjournalismus: Die Re-Figuration der Organisation(en) des Journalismus" is a joint research project by communication scientists Professor Andreas Hepp from ZeMKI and Professor Wiebke Loosen from the Hans-Bredow-Institut on new forms of journalism called pioneer journalism. It aims at redefining journalism, its function, achievements, structures, and practices. Media and digital technologies play a decisive role and often form the basis for new developments. The project asks what role pioneer journalism plays in the transformation of public communication and is funded with approximately 442,000 euros.

Projects B and C are in progress at the HBI. They deal with how journalism’s relationship with its audience is changing and how people connect to different public spheres through their individual use of media.

Joint Network of the Universities of Bremen and Hamburg

The Communicative Figurations research network is a joint initiative of the universities of Bremen and Hamburg. In Bremen, the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) and the Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) are involved, as are the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, the Research Center for Media & Communication (RCMC), the Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research (HBI), and the Research Centre Media History (FMG) at Universität Hamburg.

Additional Information:

http://www.zemki.uni-bremen.de/en/start.html

https://www.kommunikative-figurationen.de/en/

www.uni-bremen.de/en

Contact:
Dr. Leif Kramp
ZeMKI/ IPKM
Fachbereich Kulturwissenschaften
Tel.: +49 421 218 67652
E-Mail: kramp@uni-bremen.de

Voluntary Commitment to the Topic of Integration

In addition to his studies, he organized various voluntary events on the subject of integration in Germany and abroad, took part in artistic and musical initiatives, and actively supported schoolchildren and students in the context of advisory and support services.
The award ceremony took place on December 4, 2018. The DAAD prize is awarded every year by the Vice President International and Diversity, Professor Eva Feichtner, and the International Office at a festive Christmas jamboree. The event pays tribute to members and cooperation partners of the university who have actively and enthusiastically participated in the internationalization of the university.

Additional Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/starting-your-studies/offers-for-international-students/

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Dr. Jutta Paal
kompass
International Office
Tel.: +49 421-218-60363
E-Mail: jutta.paal@vw.uni-bremen.de

Worldwide Success with Online Courses

The DUK and the BMBF acknowledged the particularly strong integration of sustainability principles in the educational content and methods of the Virtual Academy. With around 12,000 examination registrations since its foundation, the learning environment has a strong appeal, and other higher education institutions also include Virtual Academy courses in their course catalogues, both in Germany and worldwide.

Teaching Concepts for Socio-Ecological Transformation

HOCH-N was awarded as a network for the promotion of sustainable development in all central structures and areas of activity of the participating higher education institutions. In the meantime, a quarter of all German higher education institutions have been networked with each other through the HOCH-N sustainability network. The networking work package at the University of Bremen is developing innovative workshop formats to promote the socio-ecological transformation of society. “Interactive methods such as system constellations and Lego Serious Play are intended to stimulate systematic thinking. This will allow new ideas and initiatives to emerge in the HOCH-N project that do justice to the complexity of the task,” explains Professor Georg Müller-Christ, coordinator of both initiatives at the University of Bremen. He adds: “We are very pleased with the accolade and, at the same time, are encouraged to continue contributing to making society as a whole more sustainable through our initiatives.”

The project was initiated by the network of the same name – the Hochschule an Nachhaltigkeit – HOCH-N. The University of Bremen is one of the eleven founding members. The aim of network is to anchor the topic of sustainability in six subareas of German higher education institutions. These subareas are research, enterprise, sustainability reporting, teaching, transfer, and governance in particular.

Background: Education for Sustainable Development

Since 2016, the German Commission for UNESCO and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research have been recognizing education initiatives once a year as part of the national implementation of the UNESCO Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development. Sustainable development means achieving human dignity and equal opportunities for all in a sound environment. Education is central to sustainable development. It enables people to make decisions for the future and to assess how their own actions will affect future generations or life in other areas of the world.

Additional Information:

www.va-bne.de
www.uni-bremen.de/nm/forschung/forschungsprojekte/projekt-hoch-n/ (In german only)
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Georg Müller-Christ
University of Bremen
Faculty of Business Studies & Economics
in particular Sustainable Management
Tel.: +49 421 218-66780
E-mail: gmc@uni-bremen.de

Virtual Academy of Sustainability
Katharina Lingenau
Tel.: +49 421 218-66788
E-mail: lingenau@uni-bremen.de

HOCH-N – Hochschule an Nachhaltigkeit
Merle K. Tegeler
Tel.: +49 421 218-66789
E-mail: tegeler@uni-bremen.de

User Data Is Less Well Protected in Many Cases

With this report, the economists follow on from their study on digital financial actors, which was conducted in the spring of 2018. For this purpose, they collected the current version of the respective data protection statements from all 505 fintechs examined in 2017 and examined them for changes in content. The results show that since the introduction of the GDPR data protection regulations have deteriorated for users of fintech products and services in many cases.

One Hour to Read the Data Protection Statement

The researchers were able to identify two general trends in the adjustments made: firstly, the data protection statements are now more than twice as large and secondly they now consist much more frequently of standardized text modules. The latter means that in many areas it is much less often stated definitively which personal data is processed and which is passed on to third parties. Users must find information about the processing of their data on the websites of the respective third parties themselves. “In extreme cases, it took users over an hour to read the data protection statement in full,” explains Professor Lars Hornuf. From the scientist’s point of view, a further finding is also just as critical: as in 2017, the collection of personal data must be accepted without alternative by consumers by giving their consent. In addition, fewer fintechs than before indicate how long data is actually stored and only refer to the legal retention periods.

Researcher Calls For More Consistent Implementation of Data Protection Measures

Lars Hornuf explains: “The hope that the GDPR will provide more transparency has not been confirmed among the fintechs that were examined. On the one hand, fintechs are often asked to provide their users with comprehensive information, but, on the other hand, they should also only do so in a brief and concise way. It may be that only professional financial actors are able to enforce the rights of many small market players, for whom the costs of law enforcement are usually too high. Consumer protection associations in particular are obliged to do this, and they must also be given sufficient human and financial resources.”

ABIDA Project: Focus on Big Data

The ABIDA project is an interdisciplinary research project on the social aspects of big data. It analyzes the social opportunities and risks of processing large amounts of data and develops courses of action for politics, business, and research.

Additional Information:

www.abida.de/sites/default/files/ABIDA_Folgegutachten_Fintech_DSGVO.pdf

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Lars Hornuf
Faculty of Business Studies & Economics
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-66820
E-mail: hornuf@uni-bremen.de

New Use for the Satellites

Instead, gravitational physicists from the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravitation (ZARM) at the University of Bremen proposed to use the satellites together with the atomic clocks to carry out an improved test of the gravitational redshift. This effect is a prediction of the general theory of relativity established by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago. It says that gravity – in this case the force of gravity on Earth – influences time. To be more precise: clocks run faster with increasing distance from Earth, for example in space, than identical clocks on Earth.

Together with partners from the Technical University of Munich, the ZARM team has now succeeded in confirming the gravitational redshift four times more accurately than before, which is the first improvement in this test of relativity theory in more than 40 years. A parallel analysis from a French team came to a similar conclusion. Both results have now been published in the renowned Physical Review Letters journal. Redshift has great practical significance in terms of positioning, navigation, the definition of International Atomic Time, geodesy, and geophysics.

Sponsors behind the Project

The Bremen initiative for the scientific use of the Galileo satellites was taken up both by the Space Administration of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and by the European Space Agency (ESA). They were also supported by the RELAGAL projects (relativistic experiments with Galileo 5 and 6) and the ESA project GREAT (Galileo Gravitational Redshift Test with Eccentric Satellites). The latter was set up as part of the ESA General Studies Programme and coordinated by the Galileo Science Office at ESAC near Madrid. The data on orbit and clock rate was processed over three years by the ESOC Navigation Support Office in Darmstadt and made available to the team at ZARM and another group at the Observatoire de Paris (SYRTE) for parallel independent analysis. In addition to the high-precision clock and orbit data, laser-based position measurements of the satellites were also used.

Additional Information:

journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.231102

www.zarm.uni-bremen.de

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

For project-related questions:

Dr. Sven Herrmann
Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravitation
E-mail: Sven.Herrmann@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-57871

Professor Claus Lämmerzahl
Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravitation
Phone: +49 421 218-57834
E-mail: Claus.Laemmerzahl@zarm.uni-bremen.de

Press inquiries:

Annika Teubner
Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravitation
Phone: +49 421 218-57821
E-mail: Annika.Teubner@zarm.uni-bremen.de

The venue is lecture hall 1 in building NW 1 at Otto-Hahn-Allee 1, 28359 Bremen. The event starts at 11 a.m. and admission is from 10:40 a.m. Admission is free.

Additional Information:

www.fb1.uni-bremen.de/en/start/

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Justus Notholt
Institute of Environmental Physics
Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-62190
E-mail: jnotholt@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de

Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and E-Commerce

Big data, artificial intelligence, and e-commerce are also playing an increasingly important role in brand management. This is a matter of identity. “The brand must be authentic. It is counterproductive to present yourself to the customer as young and modern when in reality you’re an old-fashioned and outdated company,” Professor Christoph Burmann explains.

How Do Consumers Behave?

Professor Kristina Klein focuses on the investigation of consumer behavior through experimental research. One of her topics is gamification. By integrating playful elements, a special customer connection can be achieved since the customer’s instinct to play has been satisfied. “Gamification can also have negative effects in a marketing context, for example if consumers are too distracted from the actual information by the game elements.”

Philosophy: Transfer of Learning

“Our research topics come from business administration. Therefore, in addition to customer benefits, we always look at the economic effects for companies,” summarizes Professor Burmann. Consistent transfer of learning is the focus of markstones’ philosophy. “We offer companies concrete solutions, whether in marketing, branding, or when using the latest technologies on the Internet.” Student projects in research-based learning are also closely linked to practice.

Weighty Textbook

The first book has already been published in line with the founding of the institute. Marketing: Grundlagen marktorientierter Unternehmensführung – Konzepte – Instrumente – Praxisbeispiele (marketing: fundamentals of market-oriented corporate management – concepts – instruments – practical examples) is the title of the textbook from publisher Springer Gabler and has just been published in a completely revised 13th edition. According to the publisher, it has been the best-selling marketing textbook in Germany since 1976. Two of the four authors, Professor Burmann and Professor Eisenbeiß, are from the institute.

A video of the inauguration of the markstones Institute can be found here: https://youtu.be/KrVsknhecaU.

Additional Information:

www.markstones.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Michael Schade
Managing director at markstones Institute of Marketing, Branding and Technology
Faculty of Business Studies & Economics
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-66583
E-mail: mschade@uni-bremen.de

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/fb2
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Stephan Leupold
Faculty of Biology/Chemistry
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 361-14276
E-mail: sleupold@uni-bremen.de

The emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases leads to warming and acidification of the oceans. Stony corals, which form reefs, react very sensitively to these environmental impacts. Ocean warming often triggers the dreaded coral bleaching, while ocean acidification impedes the formation of reef structures from lime by the corals. High CO2 emissions therefore pose two different threats to tropical coral reefs, which may eventually lead to the loss of these important ecosystems in the near future. We are therefore observing very closely what will be decided in Katowice. The UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) sets the course for the International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) 2020 in Bremen.

At the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference, the goal was formulated to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In Katowice, it is now a question of binding details on implementation. Assuming we do not reach this level. What could this mean for tropical coral reefs?

Coral reefs will already have major problems if the ocean is warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius. Many coral species start to bleach already then and often they die as a direct consequence of the bleaching. Any increase in ocean temperature beyond that will only exacerbate the problem.

During the Jurassic geological age, at the time of the dinosaurs some 150 million years ago, large parts of Europe were a tropical shallow sea with large, healthy coral reefs. At that time, the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere was about five times higher than it is today, and the Earth’s poles were ice-free due to the warm climate. So, why do a few degrees higher in average temperature mean such a great threat today?

According to all we know, the past climate changes in Earth's history have taken place over very long time scales - millions of years. Therefore, corals had enough time to adapt to the new conditions. The climate change we are currently experiencing is taking place at a rapid pace - within a few decades. It is therefore extremely unlikely that corals will be able to adapt quickly enough.

More information:

http://www.icrs2020.de
http://www.uni-bremen.de/marine-ecology
http://www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Christian Wild
Marine Ecology
Faculty of Biology/Chemistry
University of Bremen
Phone +49 421 218-63367
E-mail: christian.wild@uni-bremen.de

Public Discussion Event in the City

“About the future of our educational institutions” is the subject of the public event at the Haus der Wissenschaft in the afternoon. The discussion will focus on questions of what is expected of the university as a teaching institution and what all those involved can do to shape it. A panel discussion will be held after short introductory lectures by Jan Masschelein from the Laboratory for Education and Society at KU Leuven in the Netherlands and Norbert Ricken from Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The guests are Thomas Hoffmeister (Vice President Academic of the University of Bremen), Irina Kyburz (Allgemeiner Studierenden Ausschuss [AstA – students’ union] of the University of Bremen), Jan Masscheleien, and Maren Petersen (Professor and Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Production Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Process Engineering at the University of Bremen). The public discussion event will be led by the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies, the Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences, and the Zentrum für Lehrerbildung und Bildungsforschung (Center for Teacher Education) at the University of Bremen. “We would like to invite all students and university employees to discuss good teaching with us on this day,” says Professor Thomas Hoffmeister, Vice President Academic of the University of Bremen. 

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/lehre-studium/developing-good-teaching-together/teaching-day/ www.hausderwissenschaft.de/English.html

Contact:

Dr. Stefanie Grote
Administrative Department 1 – Teaching and Studies Unit
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60357
E-mail: stefanie.grote@vw.uni-bremen.de

Who Is Professor Hans Joas?

Hans Joas is the Ernst Troeltsch honorary professor at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Previously, he was a professor of sociology at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, the Freie Universität Berlin, and the University of Chicago. Between 2002 and 2011, he was the director of the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies in Erfurt and, until 2014, a permanent fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies. Professor Joas has received numerous awards, including the Max Planck Research Award, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Werner Heisenberg Medal, and the Bielefeld Science Award.

The Dieter Senghaas Lectures

With this lecture series, the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies (InIIS) of the University of Bremen honors the life and work of one of the most internationally renowned and respected peace and conflict researchers, who has been teaching and researching at the University of Bremen since 1978. He is one of the founders of the institute. The Senghaas Lectures, which have been held since 2015, are supported by the Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung Bremen. In the book titled “Deutsche Politikwissenschaftler – Werk und Wirkung” (“German political scientists – work and impact”), Dieter Senghaas is characterized as an outstanding scholar who has “shaped an entire generation of people in peace research, in the peace movement, and in the developmental ‘scene.’” And it goes on: “Where Senghaas is, is academy, is the lively exchange about the changes of the world and about the dynamics inherent in it.” His “civilizing hexagon,” which describes six building blocks for a peaceful society, made it into the Abitur tasks of German students and into the most important textbooks for international relations. His oeuvre comprises 35 books written by him as well as 35 other books in which he was involved as editor or coauthor.

Additional Information:

www.iniis.uni-bremen.de/veranstaltungen/dieter-senghaas-lectures/

Contact:

Dr. Roy Karadag
University of Bremen
Institute for Intercultural and International Studies
Tel.: +49 421 218-67468
E-mail: karadag@uni-bremen.de

Added Value through Bundled Expertise

Researchers at the University of Bremen are currently investigating individual and collective decision-making in various disciplines and faculties. Students can deepen their knowledge of the topic in two successful master’s degree programs at the University of Bremen. With the Institute for Decision Research, researchers in this field hope to bring together their existing expertise. The aim is to intensify the exchange on research and teaching and to communicate the topic jointly to the interested public. Various activities such as workshops, lecture series, discussion forums, and possibly a series of publications are planned.

Exchange between Science, Business, and Society

The center strives for a transfer between theory and practice. “Decisions often have enormous political, financial, or technical implications. Here, findings from research can help to systematically address the pressing problems of our time. We therefore want to enter into an exchange with interested persons and institutions who have decision-making responsibility outside the university,” explains joint initiator Professor Dagmar Borchers. In her opinion, the Center for Decision Research could develop into a think tank in which socially relevant decision-making problems and structures can be discussed and conceived.

External Members Also Welcome

The founding team of the institute consists of Professor Dagmar Borchers (Philosophy), Professor Stefan Bornholdt (Theoretical Physics), Professor Adele Diederich (Psychology at Jacobs University Bremen), Professor Hans-Günther Döbereiner (Physics), Dr. Thorsten Fehr (Psychology), Professor André Heinemann (Economics), Professor Manfred Herrmann (Psychology), Professor Felix Herzog (Law), Miriam Kahrs (Academy of Continuing Education), Professor Torben Klarl (Economics), Professor Frank Nullmeier (Political Sciences), Dr. Tanja Pritzlaff-Scheele (Sociology), Professor Wolf Rogowski (Health Sciences), and Professor Uwe Schimank (Sociology). In addition to the internal university members, there should also be the possibility of an associated membership for external persons. Personalities from the fields of administration, politics, art and culture, health care, and business are invited to join the institute.

Opening of the Institute with Lectures on the Importance of Time in Decision-Making

The Center for Decision Research will be officially opened next Friday, November 30, 2018, at 9 a.m. in the Haus der Wissenschaft, Sandstrasse 4/5, 28195 Bremen, Germany. In the first part, interested parties can gain an insight into the institute’s key areas of work. Beginning at 10:30 a.m., there will be lectures by experts on the subject of quick decisions, slow decisions, and how time influences the quality of decisions.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de
www.jacobs-university.de

Contact:

Professor Dagmar Borchers
Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Cultural Studies
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-67820
E-mail: borchers@uni-bremen.de

Heiko Lammers
Corporate Communications & Public Relations
Jacobs University Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 200-4532
Mobile: +49 151 16312415
E-mail: h.lammers@jacobs-university.de

EU More Popular among Right-Wingers

The EU received more support from the public after the Trump election. However, this increase is unevenly distributed if it is divided according to political orientation. It is particularly amongst right-wingers that the Trump effect can be measured. Support for the EU has also increased slightly among those who are politically centered or left, but this could still be regarded as a coincidence in statistical terms. The authors asked themselves what the motives of those who are more right-wing are, but they can only speculate here. The most plausible thing is that the Trump election has fueled hopes in these political circles of developing the EU into a “Europe of Nations” that is more closed to the outside world and pursues a more protectionist power policy, says Lara Minkus. “Whether this ‘Trump effect’ on the right was temporary or permanent will be seen in the next European elections in May next year.”

The Publication

L. Minkus, E. Deutschmann, and J. Delhey, 2018: A Trump Effect on the EU’s Popularity? The U.S. Presidential Election as a Natural Experiment. Perspectives on Politics: 1–18; https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592718003262.

Contact:

Lara Minkus
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-58536
E-mail: lminkus@uni-bremen.de

The media addressed the practices of predatory publishers in the summer of 2018. Journalists’ research shows that almost the entire German science system is affected by the machinations of predatory publishers. Nevertheless, for the University of Bremen open access remains an indispensable part of scientific publication culture in the digital age. It continues to advocate this form of publication. Sensitized by the media coverage, it is intensifying its activities in providing information  about the black sheep among publishers.

University and President Give Their Opinions

As a first step, in July the University Executive Board informed all scientists about the business model of the predatory publishers and drew their attention to the advisory services offered by the State and University Library. The university  and President commented on the issue on the university home page. In a letter to the president of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation – DFG), Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter suggested that the DFG should work together with its member institutions to deal appropriately with the phenomenon of predatory publishers.

Academic Senate Assigns Research Commission

In addition, the University responded to numerous media inquiries about predatory publishing. Among other things, a detailed interview with the President was published in the newspaper Weser-Kurier (in German only). After the end of the summer break, the academic senate also discussed the topic in detail. As a result, the research commission, as well as the State and University Library, were assigned to work out measures and recommendations for quality assurance in the publication process. The aim is to systematize, update, and supplement the existing quality assurance measures.

Offers of the State and University Library

The State and University Library regularly provides information on open access and about predatory publishers in this context. Scientists can also seek personal advice there if they wish to publish their research results with open access. The library addressed the current media reports within the framework of a panel discussion entitled “Open Access in Zeiten von Raubverlagen” (open access in times of predatory publishing – in German only), which, in November, raised the question of the possible impact of predatory publishing on the idea of open access.

Creating Good Framework Conditions

The freedom of science remains unaffected by all these measures. In the end, each individual researcher is responsible for their own publications. However, the University of Bremen sees itself as responsible for setting the framework conditions in such a way that all its scientists become aware of the practices of predatory publishers and journals.

Additional Information:

Statement from the German Rectors’ Conference:
https://www.hrk.de/positionen/beschluss/detail/stellungnahme-predatory-publishing/

Statement from the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany:
https://www.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/zv/de/ueber-fraunhofer/wissenschaftspolitik/201807_Stellungnahme_Allianz_PP.pdf

Pilot Project in Three Provinces

From 2017 to 2018, a representative pilot project based on the COMET method was carried out in China in vocational higher education institutions (HEI) in eastern, central, and western China, at three to five HEIs in each of the provinces of Zhejiang, Hubei, and Yunnan, with courses in toolmaking, nursing, horticultural engineering, and logistics management.

The project was led by Professor Zhao of Peking Normal University – a former doctoral student of Professor Rauner – and Professor Tang of the Chinese central institute for vocational education and training. The test results are extremely convincing for everyone involved. In the final report, the test procedure was praised and the high significance especially for the students, trainers, and lecturers was emphasized.

Comprehensive Introduction

On the basis of the results of this pilot project, the Ministry of Education will introduce the COMET method in China with the following steps:

•    In the future, the accreditation of vocational education and training programs will publish the rating results and the reports on the quality of the degree courses. This is also intended to raise the profile of vocational education and training in society.

•    The evaluation results are to be used to steer vocational education and training, which is intended to enable vocational HEIs in particular to support local economic and social developments.

•    Exemplary vocational degree courses will be selected as examples of the development of teaching and learning methods based on the COMET competence model. The reflection on the test results is intended to help identify the need for innovation at vocational HEIs and to integrate it into the quality development of the degree programs.

The Chinese project consortium played a special role in the international COMET research network set up by I:BB over the past decade. The Chinese partners always took part in the internationally comparative COMET projects of the University of Bremen – with the intention of appropriating the “Vocational Education and Training PISA” method and carrying out basic research in the field of competence diagnostics themselves.

“This Would Be Good Even for Germany”

In Germany, pilot projects were carried out by the Federal States of Bremen, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia, and in Europe with a network for a project in the field of nursing training. “I would welcome it if not only China and other international partner institutions were to introduce COMET – the only method to date for carrying out internationally comparative competence diagnostics projects in vocational education and training,” said Professor Felix Rauner, initiator and head of this international research and development network. “This would be good even for Germany, the country where this method was developed.”

Additional Information:

www.ibb.uni-bremen.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Honorary Professor Felix Rauner
TVET Research Group
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-62631
E-mail: rauner@uni-bremen.de

A Special Feature of the University of Bremen

The German Federal Government, companies, associations, foundations, and private individuals jointly support high-performing students as part of the Deutschlandstipendium. In this way, civil society assumes responsibility for talented young people and makes an important contribution to the future. Scholarship recipients receive 300 euros per month for one year. One-half is paid by the German Federal Government, and the other half by private sponsors. A special feature of the University of Bremen is that the selection criteria are based not only on academic performance, but also on social commitment. Scholarships are awarded by a scholarship council made up of students and professors of the university.

“I Want to Give Them a Start”

Many sponsors not only contribute to the financing for one year, but have also given their commitment for a longer period of time. In addition, scholarship recipients from 2017/2018 have come together to also provide a scholarship in the 2018/2019 funding year. “I want to support young, committed people and give them a start for their careers – also as a mentor,” says Bernd Bohn. The psychologist was a lecturer at the University of Bremen for more than 30 years and is one of the sponsors. 

“Someone Who Believes in My Abilities”

“For me, being a Deutschlandstipendium scholarship recipient means that there is someone who believes in my goals and abilities and who makes it possible for me to realize my wishes,” says Lena Tietjen, a scholarship recipient. “I want to contribute to a generation that is able to be compassionate instead of blindly preaching racism and questioning nothing. I want to be a support to those who are not supported,” says the student teacher.

More Than Half Receiving Funding for the First Time

Of the 112 students, more than half (64) are receiving funding for the first time and 20 percent are in their first semester, thus enabling them to begin their studies with a scholarship. Almost 50 percent are working to earn a master’s degree. A total of 85 percent of scholarship recipients volunteer their time alongside their studies. Around 60 percent come from a so-called nonacademic household; 22 percent have a family language other than German.

Workshop Offers

The scholarship award ceremony also marks the start of another round of ideal accompaniment for the scholarship recipients from the University of Bremen. With workshops on soft skills, this accompaniment is intended to help them find their way around life and work issues. Offers from sponsors provide insights into working environments and valuable networks. With the help of this support, students can make even greater use of their own potential and networking opportunities.

Who Makes the Scholarships Possible?

The University of Bremen would like to thank the following individuals, foundations, and companies:

Alumni der Universität Bremen e.V. | AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven | bp beratung, Bernd Bohn | BREBAU GmbH | Brede Stiftung | BREKOM GmbH | Bremer Umweltinstitut GmbH | Bremische Evangelische Kirche | COLLEGIUM-Förderstiftung | Deutschlandstipendium recipients 2017/18 | Professor Rolf Drechsler | Manfred und Ursula Fluß-Stiftung | GESTRA AG | Werner Glaubitz | Hanseatische Software-Entwicklungs- u. Consulting GmbH (HEC) | Hanseatische Waren Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG | Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung | INDICO-SOLUTIONS GmbH | International Campus AG | Ipsen Logistics GmbH | KAEFER Isoliertechnik GmbH & Co. KG | KELLNER & STOLL – STIFTUNG FÜR KLIMA UND UMWELT | Professor Günter Kleinen | Monika and Gerd-Rüdiger Kück | Ernst A.-C. Lange-Stiftung | Professor Rüdiger Lautmann | LIDL Vertriebs-GmbH & Co. KG | Luers Stiftung | MLP Finanzberatung SE | Professor Ivo Mossig | Conrad Naber Stiftung | NH IT Schulung GmbH | OLB-Stiftung | OMNILAB-LABORZENTRUM GmbH & Co. KG | OptoPrecision GmbH | Rector’s Circle | Wolfgang-Ritter-Stiftung | Rotary Club Bremen | Rotary Club Bremen Bürgerpark | Rotary Club Bremen Hansa | Rotary Club Bremen Roland | Rotary Club Bremen Weser | Rotary Club Delmenhorst | Rotary Club Oyten | Rotary Club Syke | Santander Consumer Bank AG | Dr. Ilka Peeken and Professor Michael Schulz | Sparkasse Bremen AG | University of Bremen Foundation | EUROPA-CENTER Uwe Heinrich Suhr Stiftung | Tandler Zahnrad- und Getriebefabrik GmbH & Co. KG | team neusta GmbH | Dr. Petra Tessin-Stiftung | Reiner Thöle | Association of German Engineers – Bremen chapter | Weber-Steinhaus & Smith Solicitors | Dr. Gisela Wefer-Bierhaus and Professor Gerold Wefer | Gerda-Weßler-Stiftung | Frits und Dorothea Witte-Stiftung
 

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/deutschlandstipendium  

www.deutschlandstipendium.de 

Contact:

Evelyn Bertz
UniTransfer
Universität Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60333
E-mail: evelyn.bertz@vw.uni-bremen.de 

Second Incident

There was another similar water damage incident in the university pool at the end of October. At that time, the technical center was also flooded due to a faulty position of valves in the entire water pipe system of the pool. “Today we assume that it was also sabotage,” says Orlok. The police are now investigating both cases.

Additional Information:

www.hospo.uni-bremen.de
www.bremer-baeder.de
www.uni-bremen.de
 

Contact:

Hans-Joachim Orlok
Administrative Department 4 – Technical Administration and Buildings
University of Bremen
Dr.: +49 421 218-60600
E-mail: orlok@uni-bremen.de

Incomplete Inventories

“In the publication in the Nature journal, we now propose an explanation for this gap,” says Marzeion. “There is strong evidence that global glacier inventories are incomplete.” The Randolph Glacier Inventory provides data on almost all glaciers on Earth in computer-readable form and is an important basis for research. However, it has been known for some time that it is very difficult to find and identify small glaciers in remote sensing data. Marzeion: “We could speak figuratively about the dark matter of glaciology. There is strong statistical evidence that these glaciers exist, but we don’t know where they are,” David Parkes explains. “In addition, several glaciers disappeared during the 20th century. This means that they used to exist, but today they are rightly not present in the inventories.”

Explaining Gaps Completely

Parkes has now developed a statistical method to assess the past development of these unknown glaciers. The result is that they could fully explain the gap in the sea-level budget – the previously unexplained five-centimeter rise. “This is surprising because these unknown glaciers are so small today that they will not contribute more than 0.2 to 0.3 centimeters to rising sea levels in the future,” he says. They are therefore actually insignificant today compared to the known glaciers, which would cause an increase in sea levels of 40 to 50 centimeters in the event that they were to melt completely. “The glaciers that are so tiny today that it is difficult to find them have been very important for the rising sea levels over the past 100 years, which, in turn, is why they are so tiny today,” says Professor Marzeion, summing up the research results that have now been published.

Profiles:

In 2015, Ben Marzeion took on a professorship for physical geography in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bremen, where his main area of interest is climate geography. His work focuses on the global modeling of the dynamics of mountain glaciers. The scientist is particularly concerned with the significance of glacier melting in relation to regional sea-level changes. In addition, he investigates the influence of glaciers on water availability, which can vary greatly from region to region, depending on the local climate and the needs of the local population.

David Parkes earned his doctorate through his participation in the climate geography working group in Innsbruck and Bremen, and is now employed at KU Leuven in Belgium. He is a mathematician and develops statistical methods that relate the complex spatial distribution of glaciers in mountain areas to the climatic conditions prevailing there. These methods make it possible to predict and reconstruct changes in glaciers for which very little information is available.

About Nature Journal:

Nature: a weekly journal of science is an English-language specialist journal with topics from various predominantly scientific disciplines. In 2014 Nature was the most cited interdisciplinary specialist journal worldwide. It is also one of the world’s most respected journals for natural sciences, alongside Science journal, which is published in the US.

Additional Information:

Digital Object Identifier DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0687-9
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0687-9

Contact:

Professor Ben Marzeion
Institute of Geography
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-67170
E-mail: ben.marzeion@uni-bremen.de
Website: www.marzeion.info

David Parkes
Earth and Climate group
Earth and Life Institute
UCLouvain
Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
Tel.: +44 75 97255728
E-mail: david.parkes@uclouvain.be

Coordination by the Virtual Academy of Sustainability at the University of Bremen

The aim is to investigate how a digital educational space must be designed using interactive video functions in order to encourage students to engage in research on sustainability. Professor Georg Müller-Christ and the team from the Virtual Academy of Sustainability in the Faculty of Business Studies and Economics at the University of Bremen are coordinating the joint project SCoRe. For years, this has supported German-speaking higher education institutions in integrating sustainability into their curricula by means of video-based courses.

Research-Based Learning for Sustainable Education

The innovative use of videos both as learning tools and as works produced by students themselves will also be the focus of the new research project. The concrete teaching content refers to the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) UN Global Action Programme. It is an educational approach that enables people to think and act in a sustainable and responsible way. “Video technologies are becoming used more passively in teaching. We want to explore the opportunities for exchange and collaboration offered by digital instruments. These are becoming ever more important when it comes to conveying core competencies such as critical and systematic thinking and organizational ability. In the same way, the individual findings of the learners will be combined to form a stream of research on sustainability that enables students working together to further develop the content of the research to do so in a purely digital environment,” explains Müller-Christ. As conceivable examples, he cites the use of 360-degree video techniques and virtual reality, which enable connections to be visualized differently.

Tapping into the Potential of Digitization for the German Educational Landscape

Over the next three and a half years, the SCoRe partners will work with the design-based research approach. In several phases of exploration, design, and evaluation that continually build upon one another, the scientists will develop prototypes for packages with different digital functions. These will then be tested and evaluated in courses. In this way, both goals are pursued on the one hand to provide concrete practical educational benefits and, on the other hand, to gain insights and practical knowledge for the German higher education landscape and other areas of education. The progress made by SCoRe will be published on a homepage maintained by the partners, for instance.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/nm/forschung/forschungsprojekte/ (German only)

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Jonas Joachims
Virtual Academy of Sustainability
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-66791
E-mail: joachims@uni-bremen.de

Professor Georg Müller-Christ
Department of Sustainable Management
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-66780
E-mail: gmc@uni-bremen.de

Dramatic Reading Presents Important Stages

After a predominantly peaceful start to the revolution, the violence escalated in Bremen just three months later when the Division Gerstenberg marched into the Hanseatic city together with the Freikorps Caspari. At least 83 women, children, and men died during the fighting on February 4, 1919. One day later, the provisional government appointed by the government of the Reich informed the people of Bremen that all councils had been abolished. In the dramatic reading, important stages of this development are presented from the point of view of the various protagonists and the confrontation between the working class and the bourgeoisie is followed.

December 16: Reading and Discussion With the Author Mark Jones

After the premiere of the piece, further performances are planned for the next few months. A special performance will take place on Sunday, December 16 2018: Mark Jones from University College Dublin will be a guest on this day. “He wrote the most important book on the events of 1918/19,” says project manager Dr. Eva Schöck-Quinteros of the University of Bremen. Tickets for all performances are available from the bremer shakespeare company (bsc) for €13 (discounted tickets €6).

About the Project

“From the Files to the Stage” is the title given to history and theatre projects on topics from the Hanseatic city’s past that have been developed at the University of Bremen since 2007. Students from the Institute of History at the University of Bremen and actors from the bremer shakespeare company develop and stage dramatic readings from original historical documents.

Numerous Sponsors

The project “From the Files to the Stage” is supported by the Bremen state archives, the alumni association at the University of Bremen, the Manfred und Ursula Fluß-Stiftung (Manfred and Ursula Fluß foundation), the schwelle Foundation, and the University of Bremen Foundation.

Additional Information:

www.sprechende-akten.uni-bremen.de/

www.shakespeare-company.com/repertoire/das-ganze-deutsche-reich-steht-heute-gegen-uns

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Eva Schöck-Quinteros
Institute of History
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-67251
E-mail: esq@uni-bremen.de

Panel Discussion: How Can the University Open Itself to Queer Diversity?

But how do higher education institutions (HEI) deal with the existing gender diversity and the different sexual orientations? What importance is accorded to gender and sexual diversity at HEIs? Where is action needed? What do employees and students experience as discriminatory with regard to this issue and, in light of this, what does is mean for the university to open up to queer diversity? These and other questions will be the subject of a panel discussion to launch the public event series titled “Queering University.” Invitees include Bremen-based lawyer Professor Konstanze Plett, who has dealt with the relationship between law and gender for years and who has taken part in constitutional amendments, Professor Dominic Frohn from the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Né Fink from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, and students from the queer community at the University of Bremen.

Diversity in Everyday University Life

The focus “Queering University” will be continued in the 2019 summer semester. The discussions, lectures, and workshops will focus on, among other topics, the perception and anchoring of gender and sexual diversity in everyday university life. Specifically, the experts want to address the following aspects: addressing and categorizing people, the invisibility/visibility of diversity, and questions of normativity and discrimination. In doing so, “Queering University” hopes to illuminate the different levels of the university field, which refers to structural aspects, dealing with self-definitions and attributions, forms of representation, and interactions in research, administration, counselling, teaching, and study. The lecture series is also expressly aimed at an interested nonuniversity audience.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/diversity-management/aktuelles/   (In German only)
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Margrit Kaufmann
Academic Expert for Diversity
Faculty of Cultural Studies
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-67631
E-mail: mkaufm@uni-bremen.de

Practical Introduction to the Digital Society

“If elementary school students, who only a few weeks previously had little experience in using laptops or desktop computers, can successfully develop and implement their own programming ideas, then they have learned far more than just using a new type of technical device,” emphasize the authors of the “Calliope mini – Mikrocontroller programmieren im Grundschulunterricht” (Calliope mini – teaching microcontroller programming in elementary school) study. The students were able to implement their own plans through programming and thereby tested their role in the digital society.

On behalf of the University of Bremen, Professor Lydia Murmann (general sciences and social studies), Professor Heidi Schelhowe (interdisciplinary media education), and Dr. Iris Bockermann (interdisciplinary media education) led the study. For the implementation they cooperated with the Landesinstitut für Schule (state institute for schools – LIS) and three elementary schools in Bremen.

Highly Motivated Children

One of the questions at the beginning was whether the third and fourth graders were already ready for working with microcomputers. This was quickly affirmed. “The children handled the devices very independently,” reports Murmann. However, at the beginning each student had very different levels of understanding. One finding is therefore that before the Calliope teaching units, some basics of media education must first be worked out, for example the principle of files and the storage of data.

Within the framework of the study, various applications were programmed with the learning groups, for example a jump counter, an alarm system for boxes of candy, and the exchange of messages via the Microboard. “The children’s motivation was very high compared to other subjects,” explains Schelhowe. “We’re still not sure if it was the novelty of it all. But we believe it had a lot to do with practical action.”

Quick Training for Teachers

Teachers, too, quickly got to grips with the material and in some cases they did so despite a lack of prior knowledge. Training is necessary, but does not have to be time-consuming.
From the scientists’ point of view, it definitely makes sense to give students at this age a first insight into programming so that they can develop an understanding of their digital environment. “The aim of elementary school is that children learn to understand their lifeworld,” says Murmann. “This includes digital applications today.” In the case of children, the study showed no difference in motivation between girls and boys. The scientists hope that initial successes will help to get more girls interested in technical topics.

Study Available for Download

Those interested can download the Bremen “Calliope mini – Mikrocontroller programmieren im Grundschulunterricht” (Calliope mini – teaching microcontroller programming in elementary school) exploration study from the Internet. In the coming weeks a teacher handbook with six teaching modules (eleven double lessons) will also be published. It will be available in four languages: German, English, Portuguese, and Russian.

Additional Information:

“Calliope mini – Mikrocontroller programmieren im Grundschulunterricht” (Calliope mini – teaching microcontroller programming in elementary school) study: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-00106848-17
www.uni-bremen.de/tzi/
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Lydia Murmann
University of Bremen
Faculty of Educational Sciences
Tel. +49 421 218-69410
E-mail: murmann@uni-bremen.de

Axel Kölling
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 171 530-5119
axel.koelling@uni-bremen.de

Well, I hope so! Democratic politics can only function if the exchange of ideas across the various camps remains possible. This includes accepting that the other person has the right to defend their opinion – especially in the face of disagreement. Whoever demands the right to be heard must grant it to others. This prohibits blanket exclusions from discourse as well as discussion behavior that consists essentially of misinformation, reproaches, and confrontation or that refuses to take the arguments of the other seriously.

What significance does increasing populism have in this problem?

If by “populism” we mean the spread of right-wing populism, one of its essential elements is the aggravation of a few issues in a very simplistic way. Typically it is directed against certain groups – such as foreigners or religious or sexual minorities. It pretends to speak in the name of a clearly definable “people” or a uniform “common good.” However, modern democracies are not so simple. Their characteristic feature is a fundamental uncertainty: who belongs to the population and how exactly we understand the common good can only result from our common, complex democratic practice. First and foremost, we need the pluralistic and open input of all those affected, not populist moments of exclusion that fantasize about the supposedly unified population.

Do you see parallels to the Weimar Republic in our current social situation?

That would be too farfetched. On the one hand, most parties are loyal to the republic and do not long for another “system.” On the other hand, unlike in the late Weimar Republic, uniformed antidemocratic shock troops are not the norm on our streets. However, there are of course concrete, politically induced dangers to people, for example due to their religion or skin color. And there are political discourses that legitimize such threats or normalize violence. It is necessary to counter this through the democratic discourse, to insist on the moral equality of all people, to defend people at risk, and thus to prevent the dehumanization of minorities first and then prevent increasing violence.

How can understanding still succeed in the face of serious inequalities and conflicts?

Democracies can only survive if their citizens can perceive each other as free and equal. This does not require people to live in complete material equality – a state that most people do not consider desirable because there are different needs. But the differences must not be allowed to result in us not being able to face each other with our heads held high as free citizens. As soon as parallel societies of the super rich emerge without any contact to the everyday problems of the majority and, at the same time, this wealth has an influence on politics – as we see it strongly in the United States – it becomes more difficult to perceive each other as free and equal. This may also lead to an increase in support for populist tribunes. For this reason, the prevention of too much inequality in tax and social policy is always also a policy to defend democracy.
For Editorial Offices: You will find pictures under this link. You are welcome to use these under indication of the copyright: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/27d1f9b489ef4a44a182/

Additional Information:

Website: www.uni-bremen.de/bug/
Program: www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/sites/bug/Downloads/BUG_148983_programmheft_2018_de.pdf
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:
Professor Martin Nonhoff
Institute for Intercultural and International Studies (IIIS)
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-67476
E-mail: martin.nonhoff@uni-bremen.de

Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche:
Dr. Christina Jung
UniTransfer – Sponsors and Partners
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60336
E-mail: christina.jung@vw.uni-bremen.de

Award for the Promotion of Young Female Researchers

The University of Bremen, along with nine other universities, has also received an award for the “geschlechtergerecht 2028” joint equal opportunity future concept. The University of Bremen has been awarded the distinction of “excellence in gender equality,” in particular for its approach to career and personnel development for young female researchers. This gives the university the opportunity to make use of the promotion of a fourth initial appointment of a woman.

Shaping Cultural Change

Anneliese Niehoff, head of Staff Unit 04 Equal Opportunity/Anti-Discrimination Office at the University of Bremen, explains: “With this additional funding, the university can build on its achievements in the previous program phases, which began in 2008, and sustainably secure its thematic priorities. Continuity is important for gender equality work, since its success requires a comprehensive cultural change within the scientific system.” She mentions gender-equitable personnel development at all scientific qualification stages, the promotion of a family-friendly university, and coaching of female students in the STEM fields as examples of central fields of action.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/chancengleichheit.html
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Anneliese Niehoff
Staff Unit – Equal Opportunity/Anti-Discrimination Office
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60181
E-mail: chancen1@uni-bremen.de

Erosion of the Middle Class

The dynamics of inequality can also be seen in increasing status competition within social groups. The middle classes in particular are affected by this, as competitive behavior is just as prevalent in education, labor, and financial markets as on digitized dating platforms or in social networks. It is therefore open to debate whether a broad middle class can still yield the long-term integration efforts that were previously taken for granted by Western democracies. The Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche 2018 want to draw attention to these problems and relate them to each other.

Public Event: Can We Still Talk?

The public panel discussion in the Schütting, Bremen, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, November 15, 2018 will be the prelude and thematic introduction to the closed conference with the title “Can We Still Talk? The Drifting Apart of Society and the Crisis of the Public”. People who live in a democracy discuss controversial issues and are used to parties in conflict with one another arguing in an appropriate manner. However, this seems to have become increasingly difficult in recent years. On the one hand, the gap between rich and poor has widened in Germany, not only economically but also in terms of their lifeworld. At the same time, conflicts over values are breaking out, which often go as far as identity-laden conceptions of the self and are therefore often discussed in a highly emotional manner. The public, civil society, and political debate that would arise from this would be fundamentally challenged as the predominant discourse of elites and certain social milieus, which would have long since decoupled themselves from the life situations and environments of large sections of the population.

VIP Panel

How can we come to a common understanding in such an atmosphere? This question will be discussed by SPD member of the Bundestag and former integration commissioner of the Federal Government, Aydan Özoğuz, Professor Wolfgang Merkel, director of the Democracy and Democratization research unit at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), and Jürgen Kaube, co-editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Stephanie Rohde, editor at WDR and Deutschlandfunk, will moderate the event. Singer and songwriter Katharina Franck will provide musical entertainment.

The Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche conference

Since 1988, the Wolfgang-Ritter-Stiftung (Wolfgang Ritter foundation), the University of Bremen, and the “unifreunde” association have been inviting students to the Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche conference. The aim is to stimulate a dialogue on topical issues with social partners beyond the scientific framework. A lively exchange of representatives from science, politics, and business can give the discussion new impetus and practical relevance.

The Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche conference will take place this year for the 31st time. The talks will be financed by the Wolfgang-Ritter-Stiftung. The scientific coordination is overseen by Professor Olaf Groh-Samberg and Professor Martin Nonhoff from the University of Bremen and the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), a joint institution of the University of Bremen and Jacobs University. The opening event in the Schütting at 6 p.m. on November 15, 2018 is open to the public. Participation in the conference on November 16, 2018 is by invitation only.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/bug/
www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/sites/bug/Downloads/BUG_148983_programmheft_2018_de.pdf
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Christina Jung
UniTransfer – Sponsors and Partners
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60336
E-mail: christina.jung@vw.uni-bremen.de

Participating Memorial Sites

The project focuses on the rare film documents produced by Allied forces in liberated concentration camps and other sites of National Socialist crimes. Although they only show a certain aspect of the Holocaust, they have filled the void caused by the lack of images and have served as a lasting influence on our conception of the Holocaust. These film documents, scattered among archives in the USA, Great Britain, Russia, and other former Soviet republics, will be brought together in one location for the first time, digitized according to the latest criteria, analyzed, and indexed. They will subsequently be combined with photographs, written documents, oral history interviews with survivors, cameramen, and other witnesses, but also with film works produced later. One goal is to create new contexts for research in fields such as history, film and media studies, cultural studies, and computer science. In addition, novel mediation applications for memorial sites, museums, and educational institutions are being tested. Several memorial sites are direct partners in the consortium: the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial site, the Mauthausen Memorial and the Bergen-Belsen Memorial.

Selection According to Ethical Principles

“The liberation armies recorded mountains of corpses in the camps,” says Professor Winfried Pauleit. According to Pauleit, some of the shocking material has already been used for educational work. It will now be systematically processed as part of the large digitization project. What is important is selecting what can be shown and defining ethical principles. Last year, the Bremen research lab “Film, Media Art and Popular Culture” at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) was invited by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute in Vienna to submit a joint research proposal to the EU. “Our work, especially in film mediation, has been well-known there for 15 years,” says Professor Pauleit. He refers to the book series “Bremen Writings on Film Mediation”, which has been constantly expanded since 2006 and has a good reputation among experts.

The project “Visual History of the Holocaust: Rethinking Curation in the Digital Age” is being funded with five million euros as part of the Horizon 2020 EU program. The project will run for four years, starting in January 2019.

Additional Information:

http://www.kunst.uni-bremen.de
http://www.film.uni-bremen.de
www.zemki.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Winfried Pauleit
Research Lab “Film, Media Art and Popular Culture”
Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-67720
E-mail: pauleit@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Rasmus Greiner
Tel.: +49 421 218-67725
E-mail: rgreiner@uni-bremen.de

Two Thirds of Caregivers Are Women

In December 2017, around 2.5 million people in need of long-care were nursed by a main caregiver. Two thirds of them were women, and one third men. Only one third of the caregivers from the 2018 BARMER survey of insured persons stated that they were currently gainfully employed. However, a quarter said that they had reduced or given up gainful employment because of their situation as a caregiver.

Support Is Often Insufficient

The main caregiver usually performs several tasks such as administrating medication, helping during mealtimes or toilet visits, as well as supporting mobility in general. Six out of ten main caregivers would appreciate further assistance in at least one of the 11 areas of responsibility included in the survey. In addition to these general needs, finding substitute caregivers is also a further problem. Well over 50 percent of the main caregivers have no way of finding someone to replace them for one or more weeks, which would allow them to take a break. Alternative offers often cannot be resorted to because of high costs, presumed low quality, a lack of offers, or high organizational expenditure. Undoubtedly, there is a clear need here – but one that cannot be satisfied due to problems relating to the supply of options for caregivers or to the expenditure of help.

Caught in the Role of Caregiver

Of the main caregivers, 87.5 percent say that they are mostly or always able to manage their role as a caregiver. Nevertheless, a large part of them do not get enough sleep (38 percent) and 29.9 percent of the main caregivers actually feel trapped in their role. Every fifth person (20.4 percent) often finds caregiving too strenuous. In 22.7 percent of the cases, long-term care ends up having a negative effect on friendships. One in five (18.8 percent) feel anxious about the future and their existence.
Those providing care to relatives are not only sicker, but they also become more ill through the process of providing care. Psychological disorders are very common among main caregivers (48.7 percent in December 2017). In a comparison group not structurally identical in terms of age and sex, only 42.5 percent have such diagnoses. Over the past five years, the morbidity rate among main caregivers has increased by 9.1 percentage points yet only by 5.7 percentage points for the comparison group.

Future Scenarios of the Caregivers

A total of at least 185,000 main caregivers, who are on the verge of discontinuing their provision of care, can be extrapolated from the 2018 BARMER survey of insured persons. Another over one million main caregivers only wish to continue providing care as long as the situation does not change. However, since the caregiving situation often tends to deteriorate over time, it cannot be assumed that this group will continue with their provision of care. The authors see this as “an ominous starting point.”

Desire for Less Bureaucracy

Main caregivers would like to see less bureaucracy with regard to applications, would preferably like to contact the same specialist every time they have questions, and would also appreciate receiving better information about the benefits of long-term care insurance and where to get help. “This shows a need for action on the part of the central players in the area of caregiving and of politics,” the authors sum up.

Contact:

Professor Heinz Rothgang
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-58557
E-mail: rothgang@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Rolf Müller
Tel.: +49 421 218-58554
E-mail: rmint@uni-bremen.de

www.healthsciences.uni-bremen.de

Main Subject of the Report: Democratic Education and Participation

According to the BMFSFJ, the 16th children and youth report is intended to create a basis for the further development of institutions and concepts of democracy education for the age group of up to 27 years old. It is also about new and attractive ways of communicating democratic values and practices. The aim is to support young people in their political self-positioning and to promote their development into personalities capable of community life. A special requirement in the current report mandate is to include the perspective of young people in the preparation of the report, for example through youth workshops.

Expert on Educational Disadvantage

Since September 2005, Christian Palentien has been professor of education and socialization in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Bremen as well as dean of studies. His research and teaching focuses on an analysis of the relationship between the social and educational preconditions of parents and the school success of their children. His thesis: if there is no or only insufficient transfer between educational processes in pedagogically important institutions such as families, kindergartens, schools, youth institutions, media, and reference groups, unfavorable effects of one area – such as in the family sectors of unemployment or poverty – manifest themselves as prerequisites for other areas. In addition to an analysis of this relationship, the aim of his work is to develop approaches that can break this “cycle.”

Additional Information:

www.fb12.uni-bremen.de/bildung-und-sozialisation/mitarbeiterinnen/prof-dr-christian-palentien.html
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Christian Palentien
Faculty of Educational Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-69110
E-mail: palentien@uni-bremen.de

IAW to Receive 230,000 Euros

The Institute for Labour and Economy (iaw) at the University of Bremen is focusing on investigating how the particular strengths and unique selling points of Bremen – such as the aerospace companies based in Bremen or the wind energy companies based in Bremerhaven – can be supported even more efficiently. The project name TraCS3 is derived from transnational cooperation within smart specialization strategies (S3) of regions.

Cooperation with Local Partners

“Our institute is working on analysis and further development of Bremen’s innovation infrastructures,” says IAW Director Dr. Günter Warsewa. “We work closely with local partners such as the Senator for economics, labor, and ports, Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen (Bremen’s economic development agency), the chambers of commerce and industry, and the state’s research institutions.” The structure and functioning of the regional innovation system in Bremen are examined and its strengths and weaknesses compared with the innovation systems of other European countries and regions.

A Regional and International Exchange of Experience

“Together with the other people involved in the project, we want to see where are things going well and what strong examples there are,” says Warsewa. “From this we can then develop recommendations for improvement together – the ‘regional action plans.’ We want to communicate the results and findings from the partner regions, organize the international exchange between the local partners and support the regional partners in the evaluation and use of project results.”

After the start of the project, the first regional workshop will take place at the Bremen Innovation and Technology Centre (BITZ) on Wednesday, November 7. It marks the start of a series of events to promote interregional cooperation that will take place in Bremen and other partner regions during the five-year project period.

For Editorial Offices: Press representatives are very welcome to attend the workshop; registration is required (see contact below).

A logo of the TraCS3 project for illustration can be downloaded here: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/0edf60cd5beb42828288/.

Additional Information::

www.interregeurope.eu/tracs3/
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Laura Suarsana
Institute for Labour and Economy (iaw)
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-61746
E-Mail: laura.suarsana@uni-bremen.de

Attracting Excellent Young Talent

The Dr. Hans Riegel specialist prizes were presented at the award ceremony by Professor Thomas Hoffmeister, Vice President Academic of the University of Bremen, and Professor Ingeborg Henzler, member of the board of the Dr. Hans Riegel-Stiftung. “We are very interested in attracting excellent students and young scientists to our university. We are therefore delighted to be able to express our appreciation of young talents at an early stage through these prizes, together with the Dr. Hans Riegel-Stiftung, and to support them in their careers,” said Hoffmeister. 

Beginning of Sustainable Support

Henzler adds: “With the Dr. Hans Riegel specialist prizes, we find and support the talents that Germany will need in the future as well-trained specialists. The foundation of the same name accompanies young people on their way to scientific studies or a technical profession. Winning a specialist prize is the beginning of a long-term, sustainable promotion of young talents in the MINT subjects. We are delighted that we are once again awarding the Dr. Hans Riegel specialist prizes together with the University of Bremen and will continue to do so in the future. Many thanks to all involved.”
The award ceremony was also attended by representatives of the Senator for Science (patron of the joint project) and the Senator for Education. The event took place with the kind support of the Bremer Institut für angewandte Strahlentechnik (BIAS) in rooms of the LION building at the University of Bremen.

The Dr. Hans Riegel-Stiftung and Its Specialist Prizes

The foundation of former HARIBO co-owner Dr. Hans Riegel is particularly committed to promoting education – always with the aim of helping young people shape their future. The Dr. Hans Riegel specialist prizes are endowed with 600 euros each for first place, 400 euros for second place, and 200 euros for third place. In addition, the schools of the first-place winners will receive a noncash prize of around 250 euros in recognition of the supervision of the student work by the respective subject teachers. The prizes are awarded in cooperation with 14 German universities. Depending on the university, papers can be submitted in the natural sciences, computer science, and mathematics.

Additional Information:

Details on the individual prizewinners and their work can be found here (in German only)
www.uni-bremen.de 

Contact:

Isabell Harder
University–School Transfer Coordinator
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60393
E-mail: isabell.harder@vw.uni-bremen.de

Peter Laffin
Project Manager – Dr. Hans Riegel specialist prizes
Phone: +49 228 22744715
E-mail: peter.laffin@hans-riegel-stiftung.com  

“Brezhnev Didn’t Actually Want to Be a Politician”

Professor Susanne Schattenberg, director of the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen, has written the first academic biography about Leonid Brezhnev. Her research surprised even her. This is because it turned the image of Brezhnev being a hard-liner on its head. Instead, her extensive source material shows a highly emotional man with a talent for acting, who wanted world peace, but could no longer face political pressure in the 1970s and became addicted to taking pills. In an interview, the researcher reports on her findings and “aha” experiences during years of dealing with the topic. The biography by the expert on Eastern Europe caused a sensation and was recently awarded the translation prize of the Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels, which will now fund the book’s translation into English.

On the Way to the “Light of the Future”

Walls made entirely of light, also usable as screens, affordable and flexible – this is still a dream for the future, but perhaps not for long. Chemists from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Crystallography (IACK) at the University of Bremen are conducting research in a field that is currently the focus of attention worldwide as one of the more promising future technologies: organic LEDs, OLEDs for short – the “light of the future.” With the development of a completely new class of copper-based substances, the scientists have now taken an important step towards the mass application of OLEDs.

The Heat Champions from Namibia

It was a visit with consequences: when microbiologist Barbara Reinhold from the University of Bremen searched for wild rice varieties in northern Namibia, she pulled cowpeas cultivated on the Okavango River from the nutrient-poor soil. What began with a look at the root system as a “professional reflex” led to the TOPSOIL project (“Towards Improving Food Security For Smallholders in Dry Southern African Climates”). As part of this project, scientists from Bremen, Hamburg, and Namibia conduct research to enable small-scale farmers in the southern part of the African continent to obtain better yields from their fields. The project – financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) – is headed by Barbara Reinhold.

What’s That Knocking? Geologists from Bremen Dig for Fossils in the Nevada Desert

What does it mean when geoscientists take a closer look at Triassic rock strata bit by bit, layer by layer? Well, they climb, kneel, and squat on the scree. They break open intractable ground with chisels and carefully hammer out fossils. In this case, ammonite shells in the northwestern mountain desert of the US state of Nevada.

The Professorship as a “Christmas Present” – a Portrait of Fabio La Mantia

If you want to make a career as a scientist, you make the rounds. Like the Italian Fabio La Mantia, who has persistently pursued his path and, after working in Switzerland, the United States, and Germany, finally became a professor at the University of Bremen. Since July 2015, he has been teaching in Faculty of Production Engineering. However, as a “bridge professor,” he deliberately conducts his research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM).

The Advanced Energy Systems Institute: Research for the “Eldorado of the Energy Transition”

Professor Stefan G. Reisemann is committed to a sustainable and livable future. His unexpected passing in July 2018 shocked the university, his team, and his like-minded colleagues at the artec Sustainability Research Center. A month earlier, “Highlights” editor Karla Götz had had a conversation with the Professor of Resilient Energy Systems. Among other things, he stated: “I believe that, by 2030, a large part of our energy will come from renewable resources. The potential for geothermal energy, for example, has not yet been exhausted.” As a tribute to the scientist who was able to encourage us, the interview has been printed in the current issue of “Highlights.”

If you are curious about the topics or just want to have a look at “Highlights,” we will be happy to send you the latest issue. You can also find it on the Internet for viewing and download as a PDF.

Additional Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/universität/presse/publikationen/highlights/

Contact:

Kai Uwe Bohn
University Press Office
E-mail: kai.uwe.bohn@vw.uni-bremen.de
Tel.: +49 421 218-60160

Palliative Expertise Is Increasingly Important

The nurse of the outpatient nursing service, the doctor in the hospital, the psychologist, the seriously ill patient and their relatives therapeutically accompanied, the health insurance company employee who is active in nursing consultation – they are all faces of palliative care. “In the future, palliative expertise will be key to the qualification of many occupational groups in the social and health services,” stresses Dr. Susanne Fleckinger, palliative care program coordinator at the University of Bremen. The central goal of both continuing education courses is to provide participants with well-founded practical and theoretical knowledge and to support them in reflecting on their professional activities.

Certificate Course Possible without University Entrance Qualification<

A special feature of the certificate program is that interested persons without a university entrance qualification can also take part. Following on from their own professional experience, they impart interdisciplinary practical knowledge. The content includes, for example, insights into pain therapy methods, treatment standards, communication with patients and relatives, and ethical issues. The continuing education program comprises two weeks of educational leave and 12 weekends over a period of two years and is completed with a university certificate.

Specialization in the Master’s Program

Interested students need to have a first university degree in order to participate in the interdisciplinary master’s program. The part-time degree course usually lasts six semesters and offers the opportunity to look at palliative care from a health, care, and social science perspective. It is aimed at those interested in acquiring practical, theoretical, and research-oriented knowledge in the field of palliative care. After completing the master’s program, graduates also have the opportunity to earn a doctorate.

Application Deadline: December 6, 2018

The information event on the certificate program will take place on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Academy of Continuing Education (University of Bremen, Bibliothekstrasse 2A, Central Campus Building/Room B 1300). On Thursday, November 22, 2018, from 6 to 7 p.m., interested students can find out more about the master’s program in the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences (Grazer Strasse 2, Room 0180). Both events are free of charge and nonbinding. Applications for the degree courses – which are subject to fees – can be submitted until December 6, 2018.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/palliative-care-master
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Marlis Glomba
Academy of Continuing Education
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-61622
E-mail: mglomba@uni-bremen.de

Dr.  Susanne Fleckinger
Institut für Public Health und Pflegeforschung (IPP)
Faculty of Human and Health Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-68982
E-mail: fleckinger@uni-bremen.de

Red, Yellow, and Green Lights

The results of the individual appraisals are represented by traffic light colors. A green light is awarded when the new medicine shows advantages in terms of additional benefit and cost-effectiveness. A yellow light is awarded if there is at least an indication of such benefits, and a red light is issued if none of the benefits mentioned are shown in comparison to medicines already available.

Which Medicines Were Tested?

The current Innovation Report highlights 32 new medicines introduced in 2015 to the German pharmaceutical market of the statutory health insurance and subjects them to a critical evaluation. For years, the focus of newly approved medicines has been on the treatment of cancer, in addition to medicines for the treatment of chronic joint inflammation (rheumatism), multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis. One-third of the medicines analyzed were orphan drugs for rare diseases, which, according to the European definition, do not affect more than five people per 10,000 inhabitants.

Results of the Report:

Four of the 21 non-orphan drugs achieved a green light in the overall evaluation. Three of the 11 orphan drugs tested also received a green light. The increasing marketing of orphan drugs, which can only rarely be sold but at very high prices, can also be seen in this year’s Innovation Report. “Rote-Hand-Briefe” – informational letters – were sent for a total of six medicines. They point to side effects that only became known after market authorization. For eight medicines, “Blaue-Hand-Briefe” with further information for doctors and patients were written. “Although these measures were necessary to improve treatment safety, the medicines were recommended as part of guidelines,” said Glaeske.

Special Chapter – Alzheimer’s Dementia

The special chapter of the Innovation Report 2018 deals with the clinical picture of Alzheimer’s dementia and the current medicinal treatment of this age-related neurological disease. Worldwide, 15 million people are currently affected by this – primarily in societies with longer life expectancies such as those in European countries, Japan, China, Canada, and the United States. According to the forecast in the report, by 2030 the number will have risen to 75 million people. The medicine market would thus grow by 17.5 percent annually. Contrary to this trend, however, pharmaceutical manufacturers are ending their research commitment after years of activity in this field, because the setbacks of recent years have shown how difficult it is to find a scientifically successful path in medicinal treatment.

Promoting Dignified Living

Currently – and the evaluations in the special chapter of the Innovation Report 2018 show this – people with Alzheimer’s dementia are more often prescribed sedative psychotropic drugs than antidementia drugs. The increased risk of premature death in people with dementia has been known for many years, especially with the use of antipsychotics. Such medications, in combination with tranquilizers and sleeping pills, do indeed calm people and therefore mean less care expenditure (“clean, fed, and calm”), but they are not means to promote a dignified life for Alzheimer’s patients. Other measures are necessary in this regard, such as activating care, which is intended to maintain the everyday abilities of these patients for as long as possible. “Medication therapy should be beneficial and not harmful – but this seems to be forgotten with the far-too-frequent use of neuroleptics for people with Alzheimer’s dementia,” criticized Professor Gerd Glaeske.

Additional Information:

http://www.socium.uni-bremen.de/

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Gerd Glaeske
Co-Head of the Department of Health, Long-Term Care, and Pensions
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-58559
E-mail: gglaeske@uni-bremen.de
buero-glaeske@uni-bremen.de

The focus of the event is on the stories and experiences of the people who have already taken the step into starting a business and who now offer those interested in setting up a business a glimpse behind the scenes. The exchange of valuable information about starting one’s own business is intended to give interested parties an insight into dos and don’ts during the start-up phase. How have the young start-ups grown? What provided important support in their eyes? Where was there tailwind? What mistakes would they not make a second time? In a relaxed and lively campus atmosphere, “old hands” from Bremen higher education institutions (HEI) talk about their experiences in short interviews.

Four Start-Ups Introduce Themselves

Marco Stolle is the managing director of werk85, an agency that offers tailor-made media – from conception to design and development. Dr. Joost den Haan is a cofounder of PlanBlue and is developing an intelligent underwater camera that is going to revolutionize seabed analysis. His company has already won first place in the “Business Ideas” category of the CAMPUSiDEEN 2017 competition. David Weyhe and Thomas Abeln from Mexican Tears make sauces from the hottest chilies in the world. They are constantly developing new sauce creations and expanding the range to include hot spices and chili snacks. Dr. Arno Kruse from RYTLE makes package logistics in city centers faster, more efficient, and greener. The Movr, a kind of transport bicycle with integrated package box, was developed for this purpose. The founders of werk85, Mexican Tears, and RYTLE studied at the University of Bremen. The PlanBlue team developed its business project as part of its research as research assistants at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPIMM). In the meantime, this has developed into a full-time job.

Following the short interviews, there will be the opportunity to talk to the entrepreneurs and other stakeholders and to network. The venue of the event at the University of Bremen is Room B3009 in the GW2 building.

Information about BRIDGE and STARTHAUS:

BRIDGE is the central contact point for students and members of the HEIs on the subject of business start-ups. The BRIDGE university initiative is funded by the University of Bremen, the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, and Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH. The BRIDGE initiative has set itself the goal of improving the start-up climate at all participating HEIs and promoting promising ideas with start-up potential at an early stage. STARTHAUS is the central contact point for anyone interested in starting a business and new enterprises in Bremen and Bremerhaven.

Additional Information:

www.bridge-online.de/kurse/programm/8-bremer-startup-lounge-2018.html
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Charlotte Simmat
UniTransfer
BRIDGE Start-Up Support
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60346
E-mail: charlotte.simmat@vw.uni-bremen.de

Dr. Fanni Aspetsberger
Head of Press and Communication
MPI for Marine Microbiology
Tel.: +49 421 2028-947
E-mail: faspetsb@mpi-bremen.de

Experts, users, manufacturers, and researchers of laser-assisted production technologies will meet for the 11th time on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, in Bremen for a two-day intensive exchange of ideas. The established Laser Applications Forum (LAF), which takes place every two years on the last Wednesday and Thursday of November, has grown out of its infancy and is now moving to the Congress Centrum Bremen on the exhibition grounds. Around 150 participants and 27 well-known exhibitors are expected on November 28 and 29, 2018. The exhibition space has thus doubled. The forum brings together users and suppliers of innovative solutions in the fields of beam sources, system technology, additive manufacturing, measurement technology, and laser protection. The 2018 program focuses on experiences and innovations on the trend topic of digitization, reports from additive manufacturing, and laser beam joining. Dr. Reiner Ramsayer, Robert Bosch GmbH, will give the opening lecture on challenges and opportunities for lasers in the context of the trends of digitization, industry 4.0, and electromobility. Entrepreneur Adrian Raidt reports on the experiences of the online platform Laserhub.de, launched in 2017, to optimize production capacity utilization. Additional topics of the 20 lectures include remote laser welding, beam diagnostics, system technology, and measurements for additive manufacturing. In the afternoon of the second day, the Bremer Institut für angewandte Strahltechnik GmbH (BIAS) will open its laboratories for the traditional open house and allow the participants to take a look behind the scenes of the research. Here, young scientists will present current BIAS projects in the fields of joining, microproduction, optical metrology, surface technology, and additive manufacturing. Information and registration at www.bias.de/LAF. Contact: Christine Steffens; Tel.: +49 421 218-58130; E-mail: laf@bias.de

Wide Range of Applications

A central idea here is the principle of the “Lego construction kit”: the properties of luminescent and electrically conductive atomically thin materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), are combined with graphene by stacking them directly on top of each other. Despite loose cohesion, these structures exhibit enormous mechanical stability. The TMDs they contain not only shine very well, but also absorb light and can convert it into electricity. This is why the first practical applications are already available in very sensitive sensors. They can also be used in flexible solar panels or smartphone displays. By using them in highly miniaturized lasers, new components can be realized that are needed for the high-speed Internet of the next generation. “With these materials, we can provide a whole pool of components for innovations in engineering and technology. The properties of these atomically thin flakes are highly interesting in light of the growing demand for renewable and efficient energy sources,” explains Frank Jahnke, Professor of Theoretical Physics. Together with Dr. Matthias Florian and Dr. Alexander Steinhoff, he conducted the investigations at the University of Bremen.

Atomic Physics in Two Dimensions

For physicists, the atomically thin layers also mean a radical rethink. In contrast to conventional atomic physics, which always refers to a three-dimensional space, everything here takes place in only two spatial directions. In order to make the layers glow, the electrons in the atoms must be excited. Positive and negative charges then generate new composite particles or artificial atoms, which can only move in the plane of the thin network. Physicists now have to formulate a two-dimensional atomic physics that presents them with numerous puzzles. In particular, they want to understand the characteristic spectral lines of the particles, which they can measure with spectroscopic methods – similar to the investigation of gas molecules in our atmosphere. “Although these particle complexes in crystals are much more short lived than real atoms and molecules, they can be made visible in modern ultrafast experiments,” explains junior researcher Dr. Alexander Steinhoff.

Research into Spectral Fingerprint of Materials

In close cooperation with colleagues from experimental physics in Berlin and Houston, Texas, the team from the University of Bremen has combined computer simulations with state-of-the-art spectroscopy to obtain the spectral fingerprint of these composite particles. They have shown that the inner structure of the four-particle complexes gives rise to new quantum states. These go far beyond the previously known laws of atomic and molecular physics, because they generate a rich spectral signature.

From Basic Research to Application

The scientists have now published their discoveries in the renowned journal “Nature Physics.” With their findings, they help to bring order to the so-called line zoo of the new materials, because they provide colleagues in their research field with a recipe for identifying further lines. The results are interesting for basic research because they go far beyond the usual analogy between solid-state and atomic physics. The researchers are also keeping a close eye on the applications: as a next step, they plan to produce functional prototypes of such components.

The work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation – DFG) within the framework of the graduate school “Quantum Mechanical Materials Modelling” at the University of Bremen. The article “Biexciton fine structure in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides” can be found under www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0282-x (DOI number: doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0282-x).

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Frank Jahnke
Institut für Theoretische Physik
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-62050
E-mail: jahnke@itp.uni-bremen.de

Fraunhofer MEVIS Is Closely Associated with the University

Fraunhofer MEVIS, headed by the physicist Horst Hahn and the physician Ron Kikinis, has been closely associated with the University of Bremen since its beginnings. Today’s Research Center emerged from the Center for Complex Systems and Visualization (CeVis) at the University of Bremen, which was founded in 1992 and, like the university, is a member of the U Bremen Research Alliance. In addition to the university, the members of the association include 11 nonuniversity research institutes from the region that are financed by the state and federal governments. Employees of Fraunhofer MEVIS not only conduct joint research projects with colleagues from the University of Bremen, but have also been active in university teaching for many years. 

Harvard Professor Ron Kikinis came to Bremen in 2014. Among other things, he heads the Medical Image Computing working group at the Faculty of Mathematics/Computer Science. Professor Matthias Günther – head of the MR Physics working group at Fraunhofer MEVIS and professor of physics – has been teaching at the university since 2009. In addition, he conducts research in the laboratory of magnetic resonance tomography, which has been operated jointly with the university since 2011. 

Four Main Areas of Study

In addition to the established study areas of Security and Quality (SQ), Artificial Intelligence, Cognition, and Robotics (KIKR), and Digital Media and Interaction (DMI), the Faculty of Mathematics/Computer Science now offers a total of four study areas with Medical Computing. 

Additional Information:

www.mevis.fraunhofer.de
www.uni-bremen.de/en/research-alliance  
www.uni-bremen.de
 

Contact:

Bianka Hofmann
Fraunhofer MEVIS Institute for Medical Image Computing
Phone: +49 421 218-59 231
E-Mail: bianka.hofmann@mevis.fraunhofer.de 

Meike Mossig
Press Relations Office
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60168
E-Mail: mmossig@uni-bremen.de
 

Project Needs Creative Ideas

The web app is currently in the development phase and needs a convincing design. With the help of an idea competition, a logo and an app icon are now to be found. The experimental app will initially be developed for the state of Bremen and the neighboring districts of Osterholz and Diepholz. At a later date, however, it is also to be used for other cities and regions. Anyone can take part in the idea competition. What is needed are concrete design proposals. The only requirement is that the logo has a square aspect ratio of at least 512 × 512 pixels and must be submitted in the file formats png or jpg. The winner receives 500 euros and will be named in the app.

Research Background for molo.news

Since October 2017, the ZeMKI has been working together with the Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) and the Hans-Bredow-Institut in Hamburg on the “crisis of the city’s public.” The starting point for the research network funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is the increasing loss of importance of local news services and the lack of digital services that meet the needs of young users in particular.

The research association is breaking new ground in software development. Together with future users and representatives of the local public, an innovative mobile news and information app will be developed for people in and around the city. The app will work according to the so-called Tinder principle: users should be able to classify information as interesting or not interesting by swiping in the app. The first prototypes of the web app have already been developed and discussed in workshops.

Further information on the idea competition:
www.molo.news

Further information on the project:
www.kommunikative-figurationen.de/de/projekte/tinder-die-stadt/

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Andrea Grahl and Katharina Heitmann
Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-421 218-67699

E-Mail: molonews@uni-bremen.de

Conversations with Contemporary Witnesses

The intensive examination of the history of Schützenhof, a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, began at the University of Bremen with geophysical measurements and excavations of foundations under the direction of Bremen state archaeologist Professor Uta Halle. In a parallel seminar by Dr. Ulrike Huhn from the Research Centre for East European Studies, six students from the History and Integrated European Studies degree courses researched material on the camp in the Bremen state archives and in the archive of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. They talked to contemporary witnesses and their relatives. The audio walk is the result of the joint work of Jan Dohrmann, Lilja Girgensohn, Anna Görner, Lennart Pohl, Johanna Sachse, and Julia Szarzech.

Use in Arms Production

During the Second World War, A.G. Weser was intensively involved in arms production. In the final months of the war, concentration camp prisoners were to compensate for the significant shortage of labor. For a few months, from December 1944 to the end of March 1945, a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg existed on the grounds of the Schützenhof in Bromberger Strasse. Around 700 men were imprisoned here, yet the names of just 257 people who did not survive the camp or the forced labor at A.G. Weser are known.

Many Helpers and Supporters

The audio walk vividly depicts people’s living conditions and illuminates historical backgrounds. The walker is guided by GPS through Gröpelingen and hears professionally recorded scenes and noises again and again. The texts were recorded by Bremen actors Andrea zum Felde and Christian Bergmann. “We had a lot of helpers,” says Johanna Sachse, one of the participants. She first names the Gröpelingen Geschichtswerkstatt (historical workshop) and the past-at-present company from Berlin, which specializes in teaching history through various forms of multimedia. “In our research, we also benefited from the expertise of Karsten Ellebrecht, who has been researching forced labor in Bremen for a long time.” The retired teacher supported the student’s research in the Bremen state archives. In the military archives in the French town of Caen, he also found a sketch of the Schützenhof satellite camp that a former prisoner had perhaps made afterwards. “This find once again illustrates the dimension of how international the history of the Bremen camp actually is and how traces of a camp that ultimately only existed for a few months can still be found abroad,” says Johanna Sachse.

Footpath to A.G. Weser

The digital walk starts with the free Radio Aporee app, which is available in the App Store or on Google Play, at Schützenhof in Bromberger Str. 117 and follows the prisoners’ daily route to the former A.G. Weser factory premises at the harbor. From there the route leads along the Waterfront and ends at the bunker on Pastorenweg. A total of 5.5 kilometers will be covered.

Additional Information:

https://einkzfuerdiewerft.wordpress.com/audiowalk

www.landesarchaeologie.bremen.de/presse-1477

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Ulrike Huhn
Research Centre for East European Studies
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-69611
E-mail: ulrike.huhn@uni-bremen.de

Touching with the Force Microscope

In Bremen, Professor Manfred Radmacher’s research group participates in the Institute for Biophysics in the Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering. The research group examines the mechanical properties of cells and tissues with the force microscope. A fine tip mounted on a soft spring scans the sample – like with the human finger, cell surfaces can be scanned and properties such as roughness, stickiness, and softness measured. This happens in high resolution, so that even individual molecules can be examined. Since the force microscope can also be operated in liquids, it is possible to examine living biological samples. “Measuring small forces with high accuracy and spatial precision under physiological conditions is a unique combination that is not possible with any other microscopy technique,” says Professor Manfred Radmacher. Many diseased cells show striking mechanical properties: some are harder, others softer than healthy cells. For example, cancer cells are often softer than normal cells. “This is why we are trying to find out to what extent cell mechanics could also be used in medical diagnostics,” says Radmacher.

Intensive Exchange

The multinational project Phys2BioMed starts in January 2019 and will run for four years, under the coordination of the University of Milan. The Bremen research group is funded in the European network with 500,000 euros for two doctoral positions. Intensive exchange between the partners is important. The international consortium brings together researchers from Italy (Milan), France (Grenoble and Lille), Spain (Barcelona), Poland (Krakow), and Germany (Bremen and Münster). Commercial partners such as hospitals and companies are also involved. All participating researchers in the network meet regularly for workshops, two of which will take place in Bremen. Six doctoral students from the other partners will spend several-month research stays at the Institute for Biophysics at the University of Bremen.

Link to the coordinator’s press release in English: http://cimaina.unimi.it/research/grants/research_grants/4

Contact:

Professor Manfred Radmacher
Institute for Biophysics
Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-62280
E-mail: radmacher@uni-bremen.de

Combination of Melting Probes

A combination of several autonomously acting melting probes was tested. The IceMole melting probe developed by the FH Aachen is navigable. It is designed to locate water-filled crevasses under the ice surface, drill them, take liquid samples, and analyze them. Other probes are used to determine the position, similar to satellite navigation systems. The task of the researchers from the University of Bremen was to determine the position and location of all probes in the ice in real time and to navigate the IceMole to its destination. “We were able to successfully demonstrate both during the field test,” says Joachim Clemens, the project manager.

Space Mission Planned for 2040

The University of Bremen is involved with Professor Kerstin Schill’s cognitive neuroinformatics research group and Professor Christof Büskens’ optimization and optimal control research group. The EnEx mission could probably be implemented by 2040. However, the technologies researched are not only relevant for future space missions. The researchers at the University of Bremen will also use them for terrestrial applications, for example in the field of highly automated driving.

Additional Information:

www.cognitive-neuroinformatics.com/de/forschung/projekte/enex-cause

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Joachim Clemens
Cognitive Neuroinformatics
Faculty of Mathematics/Computer Science
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-64218
E-mail: jclemens@informatik.uni-bremen.de

The opening lecture will be given by Professor Heinz Rothgang from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, October 17, on the subject of how (un)attractive the nursing profession is. Sven Beyer – chairman of the Bremen state group of the Bundesverband privater Anbieter für soziale Dienste (bpa) and director of DKV-Residenz in der Contrescarpe in Bremen – will be the guest at the same time of day in the same location on October 24, 2018. Ilona Osterkamp-Weber – chairwoman of the Bremer Pflegerat nursing council and facility manager of the retirement and nursing home of the Bremische Schwesternschaft vom Roten Kreuz e.V. – will be his discussion partner. On Wednesday, December 12, 2018, the subject will be the German nursing staff reinforcement act (Pflegepersonalverstärkungsgesetz) and the concerted campaign for nursing care and staff assessment. Professor Stefan Greß, professor of health services research and health economics at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, will then speak on the question of whether long-term care is currently sufficient. The last event in this series will take place on January 30, 2019. Professor Jonas Schreyögg will talk about nursing staff in hospitals – pitfalls and options in implementing the German coalition agreement. Professor Schreyögg is the Chair of Health Care Management at the Hamburg Center for Health Economics of the Universität Hamburg.

All lectures will be moderated by Professor Heinz Rothgang and will take place on Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. The events will be held in the Haus der Wissenschaft, Sandstrasse 4/5. Admission is free.

Additional Information:

http://www.socium.uni-bremen.de/veranstaltungen/gesundheitspolitisches-kolloquium/

Contact:

Dr. Maike Schulz
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Department of Health, Long-Term Care, and Pensions
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-58545
E-mail: maike.schulz@uni-bremen.de

Focus on Education in the Digital World

The second funding phase of the Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung will begin in mid 2019 and will run until 2023; the University of Bremen is to receive around 2.7 million euros from this. The director of ZfLB, Professor Sabine Doff, is in charge of the project. She explains: “The funds will enable us to further develop our subprojects and link them even more closely. Above all, this will strengthen the practical relevance of future teachers and make our goal of developing education as a central interface in the digital world tangible. In addition, we want to further professionalize our efforts to anchor diversity and inclusion in teacher education.”

Preparation for Reality of School Environment

The Vice President Academic, Thomas Hoffmeister, emphasizes: “The Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung program aims to promote reflected, skills-oriented training that consistently incorporates the reality of a school environment. The University of Bremen is taking up these challenges with the Schnittstellen gestalten project in teacher education: we will support our teacher-training students in acquiring skills that relate to their ability to reflect and take action professionally and in line with their individual requirements. This is because we want to prepare future teachers in the context of lifelong learning for a school environment that is constantly changing.”

Background: Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung

In 2013, the Federal Government and Federal States adopted the Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung as a joint program for ten years. Related projects have been funded since 2015: the Federal Government provides funding of up to 500 million euros for this purpose. The selection of the projects is decided by an 18-member committee comprising representatives from science, practical teacher education, and the student body as well as from the Federal Government and the Federal States. Professional advisory services and a closer integration of studies, internships, and continuing education are the aims of the Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung in order to achieve better practical relevance.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/zfl/projekte/schnittstellen-gestalten-qualitätsoffensive-lehrerbildung/
www.qualitaetsoffensive-lehrerbildung.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

University of Bremen
Zentrum für Lehrerbildung
Professor Sabine Doff
Tel.: +49 421 218-68170
E-mail: doff@uni-bremen.de

Determining the Reality of Life with Media

Whether digital or analog, media offerings are an integral part of everyday life. People communicate, inform themselves, and chat through a growing number of media. Use is becoming more mobile, more global, and more casual. Methodical instruments and supporting software technology are needed to help communication scientists to adequately understand these usage habits. The aim of the research is to determine a differentiated and revealing picture of how people shape their reality with media.

Diary and Sorting Software

Starting in 2012, ZeMKI has already developed prototypes for this within the framework of a research project. With the MeTag software (media diary), testers can record their media usage in detail on different end devices. Using MeSort, a sorting software, preferences in media usage can be displayed in a structured way. ZeMKI, for example, investigated the media behavior of users of different age groups.

National and International Partners

The basic objective of the new DFG-funded research and development project is now to further improve the two software prototypes already developed in cooperation with national and international scientific partners. The Institute for Information Management Bremen GmbH (ifib) and the Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research at the University of Hamburg were there from the very beginning. Universities in Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have also since become involved.

App User Requirements

“With MeTag and MeSort, we have developed two powerful tools that we would now like to further develop into a model of good practice for the provision of research software in the field of media and communication in close cooperation with other science locations,” says project manager Professor Andreas Hepp. Interested scientists are invited to participate in the development process by submitting their requirements and wishes for the apps. Numerous joint development workshops and transparent documentation of progress are planned to promote this process and establish a broad network of researchers.

Developing a Secure Infrastructure

Data security is ensured. In addition, a secure infrastructure is being developed for the analysis and storage of data on servers of the University of Bremen.

Additional Information:

https://www.kommunikative-figurationen.de/de/projekte/forschungssoftware/

Contact:

Florian Hohmann
Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-421 218-67654
E-mail: fhohmann@uni-bremen.de

Students of General Studies, students of all subjects, and the interested public are invited. Individual events can also be attended; registration is not required. Participation is free of charge. The lectures take place on Thursdays from 4:15 to 5:45 p.m. in the Humanities building (Geisteswissenschaften 2 – GW2), Room B2890, Enrique-Schmidt-Strasse.

Reading with Felicitas Hoppe: “Prawda: Eine amerikanische Reise” – “Nibelungen” Project

At 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 22, there will also be a reading and discussion with author and Georg Büchner Prize winner Felicitas Hoppe, who will present her latest travel novel “Prawda: Eine amerikanische Reise” and her “Nibelungen” project. The venue is the Stadtbibliothek Bremen, Am Wall 201.

Program:

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Sonja Kerth, adjunct lecturer
Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-68241
E-mail: skerth@uni-bremen.de

From Guarantor of Order to “Arsonist”

The thematic focus of Bremen’s contribution to the institute for social cohesion is on the middle classes. They are the large group of our society that, for a long time, has been promised to act as a guarantor of the stability of social order – the rule of law, democracy, social balance. However, the integration power of the middle class seems to have been weakened by increasing conflicts and inequalities. In the meantime, larger subgroups have tended to appear exactly the other way round as “arsonists.” How did this come about? What could be done about it? Research projects on these two questions will be carried out by the social scientists from the University of Bremen.

Federal Research Minister: “Substantiating Debates”

“The realities of life in the city and in the country are changing and sometimes drifting apart. New media are changing the culture of communication. In our pluralistic society, different questions arise than before when it comes to a sense of belonging and identity. That is what concerns citizens,” said Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek. The new institute will be given the task of researching the abovementioned questions and contributing to substantiating debates. “It will help us to strengthen social cohesion.”

Contact:

Professor Uwe Schimank
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-58564
E-mail: schimank@uni-bremen.de

Professor Olaf Groh-Samberg
BIGSSS – Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-66440
E-mail: olaf.grohsamberg@uni-bremen.de

Entrance into Studies Made Easier

“I am pleased that students continue to show great interest in us and that we can offer them improved conditions for a successful course of study with a reformed introductory phase using research-based learning approaches and support scenarios,” says Thomas Hoffmeister, Vice President Academic at the University of Bremen.

Orientation Week Starts on October 8, 2018

The first preparations for studying – such as preliminary courses in electrical engineering, accounting, or computer science – already started in September; at the beginning of the month, the “Neuland Universität” workshops for orientation at the university followed. Orientation week starts next Monday for all freshmen. It offers subject-specific and interdisciplinary events, a central information exchange on Thursday, October 11, and many welcoming activities by teachers and students of more advanced semesters for the “frosh.”

Teaching Profession Remains Popular

Slightly more than 3,600 students begin a course of study with the aim of obtaining a bachelor’s degree or taking the First State Examination in Law. In light of the slight decline in the number of applicants – even throughout Germany – most of them were able to secure their first choice of university. Only in the degree courses qualifying for a teaching position, psychology, and media and art studies did the university have to issue many rejections due to limited resources.

As usual, the largest first-semester groups are in business and law with 450 and 250 students respectively, followed by sociology with around 175 first-semester students. A total of around 450 students begin their studies with the aim of becoming teachers, one-third of them for elementary school.

More Master’s Enrollments

The University of Bremen has recorded a slight increase in the number of applications and first-semester figures for its master’s programs, in particular due to the newly launched master’s programs “English-Speaking Cultures: Language, Text, Media” and “Digital Media and Society.” Around 1,500 bachelor’s graduates will begin their first degree course with a specialization or interdisciplinary extension in the form of a master’s degree.

Master’s Program Attracts International Students

As in previous years, slightly more women than men are beginning a degree course: in 2018, 53% of the students were women in their first degree course and 54% in their continuing studies. While around 8% of undergraduate students have a foreign nationality, this figure is a quarter of all new master’s students. The University of Bremen is pleased with this interest, which is certainly also due to the expansion of the international master’s programs and the lively and open university culture. In addition, a further 250 or so young international students are starting guest, language, or preparatory studies.

Additional Information:

The university start portal offers comprehensive information about the beginning of your degree course:

www.uni-bremen.de/uni-start-portal/

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Christina Vocke
Administrative Department for Student Affairs
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-61000
E-mail: cvocke@uni-bremen.de

The Verein für Hochschulsport (VfH) e. V. had filed an application for a temporary injunction against the closure of the pool with the administrative court in Bremen. In this summary proceeding, the VfH obtained that the currently pending renovations had to be carried out by the university and that the indoor pool should be reopened on October 8, 2018. A final decision will be made in the main proceedings currently under way.

Additional Information:

www.hospo.uni-bremen.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:
Hans-Joachim Orlok
Administrative Department 4 – Technical Administration and Buildings
University of Bremen
Tel..: +49 421 218-60600
E-mail: orlok@uni-bremen.de

Focus on Living Communities

Outpatient assisted living communities are a form of housing for people, including those with dementia, who can no longer be adequately cared for in their own homes but do not want to live in a nursing home. Residents of a dementia living community are cared for by professional nursing staff, and relatives remain closely involved at the same time. Common everyday activities can create a family atmosphere that offers opportunities for social participation.

Increased Hospital Risk

Nevertheless, people with dementia have an increased risk of inpatient hospital stays, which are often particularly stressful and place severe restrictions of quality of life, and are also frequently accompanied by deterioration in health. In addition, the risk of becoming even more dependent and in need of care increases. The project will apply appropriate measures to improve quality of life, reduce challenging behavior such as restlessness, reduce the risk of falling, and stabilize cognitive abilities.

“More Quality of Life”

To achieve this goal, scientists from Professor Wolf-Ostermann’s (University of Bremen) and Professor Elmar Gräßel’s (Universitätsklinikum Erlangen) team focus on training the nursing staff, the early involvement of the responsible GPs and specialists, and special therapies in which motor skills and cognitive abilities are specifically trained. Everyone could benefit from the results of the research project: first of all, people with dementia would benefit from fewer hospital stays and a better quality of life. Those responsible for the project are convinced that this, in turn, will relieve the burden on relatives, nursing staff through improved processes, and the dementia living communities themselves through the addition of an innovative offer.

Contact:

Professor Karin Wolf-Ostermann
Institut für Public Health und Pflegeforschung (IPP)
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-68960
E-mail: wolf-ostermann@uni-bremen.de

Professor Elmar Gräßel
Zentrum für Medizinische Versorgungsforschung
Universitätsklinikum Erlangen
Tel.: +49 9131 8534810
E-mail: elmar.graessel@uk-erlangen.de

About the Institut für Public Health und Pflegeforschung (IPP)

The Institut für Public Health und Pflegeforschung (IPP) at the University of Bremen is one of the largest research institutes in this field in Germany. It was founded in 2005 as a research institution of the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences. Today, more than 100 scientists research and teach in nine departments and working groups. Interdisciplinary health and nursing research, research-oriented teaching in health and nursing science degree courses, and scientific transfer in practice, politics, and society: these are the tasks of the IPP. The central goal of the research is to improve the health and well-being of the population.
http://www.ipp.uni-bremen.de
www.healthsciences.uni-bremen.de

Exploring the Ocean Floor

The ocean floor accounts for about two-thirds of the earth’s solid surface. What processes take place there and how they affect all of the earth’s systems is still not understood. Nevertheless, the researchers are certain that it is an important interface for the climate system and the global carbon cycle. The seabed is also like an archive that has recorded the environmental conditions of bygone times. Research will also focus on how the sensitive ecosystems in the deep sea react to a changing environment and rising temperatures. The unique fleet of equipment operated at MARUM will be used for the research, with advanced devices include diving robots, drilling rigs, and autonomous underwater vehicles.

Close Collaboration with Partner Institutions

As part of the cluster, the researchers at MARUM will work closely with partner institutions in the region. These include the University of Oldenburg, Jacobs University, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Senckenberg am Meer, and the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT). Together, the scientists hope to exploit the full potential of ocean floor research in the region.

Additional Funding for U Bremen Excellence Chairs

In addition to the funding for the Excellence Cluster, the University of Bremen also receives funds from the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments for a university lump sum of one million euros. The state of Bremen provides for an increase of this amount. Starting in 2019/20, up to eight so-called U Bremen Excellence Chairs are to be financed with the funds. Three additional chairs will be financed through the MARUM cluster application. The Excellence Chairs offer internationally outstanding scientists the opportunity to conduct research at the University of Bremen over a period of several years in addition to their home institution and to establish their own working group there. At the same time, they are intended to strengthen the university’s partnerships with leading institutions worldwide.

Senator Congratulates

Senator of Science Eva Quante-Brandt congratulates the University of Bremen along with MARUM and the marine scientists from Bremen on this success: “Bremen’s marine research has prevailed in a scientific showdown with great competition. I would like to congratulate all those involved from the University of Bremen and the nonuniversity partners in Bremen as well as the University of Oldenburg. Of course, I am particularly pleased that the panel of experts not only emphasized the outstanding research, but also the good infrastructure that has been built up thanks to the strong support of the state of Bremen. The fact that the university’s concept for the university lump sum also convinced the international experts demonstrates that the University of Bremen has taken the right path with its strategy for the further development of excellent research.”

Additional Information:

Watch a film about the excellence decision from the University of Bremen:
https://youtu.be/RWoPuA6tNHA

Read the press release from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): www.dfg.de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2018/pressemitteilung_nr_43/index.html

www.marum.de
www.uni-bremen.de

For Editorial Offices: You will find pictures under this link from the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences of the University of Bremen. You are welcome to use these under indication of the copyright: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/4fbf78b9f3fe4cbbbddc/ .

Contact:

President Bernd Scholz-Reiter
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-66010
E-mail: rektor@uni-bremen.de

Professor Michael Schulz
Director of the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-65540
E-mail: mschulz@marum.de

On Wednesday, October 3, 2018, children and their parents are invited to an open house at the MRI facility of Fraunhofer MEVIS. The Institute for Medical Image Computing is participating in the “Die Maus” door opener day, initiated by WDR (“Die Sendung mit der Maus”). Since 2011, doors that conceal something exciting and interesting have been opening throughout Germany. MEVIS is taking part for the first time in 2018 and will show curious children and their companions how medical images are made. The hosts will guide you through the MRI facility and explain how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) works. They will demonstrate how to take pictures of the inside of a melon or lemon without cutting it open. And it will be particularly exciting when pictures of the brain and beating hearts are taken. MEVIS is researching new, contrast-free procedures in medical imaging. On the “Die Maus” door opener day, this will be demonstrated to the children in a very vivid way. Venue: MRI facility in the COGNIUM of the University of Bremen, Hochschulring 18. Further information and registration at www.maus.mevis.fraunhofer.de; Contact: Bianca Hofmann; Tel.: +49 421 218-59231; Mobile: +49 1523 17 859 17;

On October 4 and 5, 2018, a workshop of the Adaptive Designs and Multiple Testing Procedures working group of the German and Austro-Swiss regions of the International Biometric Society will be held on the topic of new methods and applications for adaptive designs and multiple test procedures. This year’s workshop is organized by the Biometry department of the Competence Center for Clinical Trials Bremen together with the Institut für Statistik of the Faculty of Mathematics/Computer Science. The workshop focuses on academic exchange around the topics of adaptive study designs and multiple test procedures. This offers researchers and users from the field of (bio-) statistics a forum to exchange ideas and discuss problems and solutions. The workshop is dedicated to theoretical knowledge as well as practical applications. Venue: GW2 Building, Room B3009, at the University of Bremen. More information at: https://admp.uni-bremen.de/ Contact: Professor Werner Brannath; Competence Center for Clinical Trials Bremen; Tel.: +49 421 218-64601
E-mail: brannath@math.uni-bremen.de

The CECAM (Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire) workshop on the subject of reliable and quantitative prediction of defect properties in gallium-based semiconductors will bring together 60 renowned scientists from all over the world from October 8 to 12, 2018, in Bremen. They will investigate the electronic properties of defects in semiconductors both experimentally and by means of simulations on an atomic scale. The functionality of semiconductors for applications in microelectronics, optoelectronics, and photovoltaics is primarily determined by the stability and electron structure of defects. While experimental data from spectroscopy provides increasingly accurate data, the exact atomic structure of these defects is to be modelled and understood in direct comparison with computer simulations. Of particular interest are gallium-based semiconductors, such as gallium oxide and gallium nitride, which are of great importance for power electronics and LED lighting, and which are the central focus of research in the Faculty of Physics at the University of Bremen. The CECAM workshop offers the opportunity for intensive academic exchange as well as for the deepening of existing and the initiation of new international research cooperations. Venue: House of Science. Further information: www.bccms.uni-bremen.de ; http://www.bccms.uni-bremen.de/veranstaltungen/2018/cecam-gasc/;Contact: Professor Thomas Frauenheim; Bremen Center for Computational Materials Science; Tel.: +49 421 218-62340; E-mail: frauenheim@bccms.uni-bremen.de

“Future Challenges for Global Disaster Risk Management – Evidence-Based Research and Powerful Competencies Needed for Nurses” is the topic of an international conference of the World Society of Disaster Nursing (WSDN) on October 18 and 19, 2018. The event in Bremen will bring together more than 150 scientists from 15 countries. A total of 42 lectures and 80 posters deal with catastrophes and their health-related consequences from different perspectives. The number of catastrophes is increasing worldwide, and 75 percent of the world’s population has already experienced a catastrophic event. More recent examples are severe earthquakes such as those in Nepal in 2015 and Mexico in 2017. Europe is also increasingly affected by disasters: examples include floods, heat waves, severe storms, earthquakes, and the enormous flow of refugees caused by war. The Department of Interdisciplinary Research on Ageing and Nursing of the Institut für Public Health und Pflegeforschung (IPP) at the University of Bremen has been dealing with this subject for years. It is a member of the WSDN and is represented on the Board of Directors. The international conference will take place for the first time in Germany. The venue is the Swissôtel in Bremen. Further information on the congress at: https://wsdn2018.de/; Contact: Paulina Meinecke; Tel.: +49 421 218-68908; E-mail: wsdn2018@uni-bremen.de

The DFG Collaborative Research Centre Global Development Dynamics of Social Policy at the University of Bremen is hosting an international conference on Thursday, October 25, 2018. In accordance with the central objective of the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC), the focus is on explaining the global development dynamics of social policy from the last quarter of the 19th century to the present. The participants will examine the question of how the interplay of domestic political factors and transnational dependencies has shaped the development of social policy. Social policy aims to secure social rights and create social security. In addition to the market and family support networks, it is a central producer of welfare. Research on the social welfare state – at least in the context of developed democracies – usually understands the field of social policy as a purely nation-state matter and explains its development almost exclusively as the result of domestic conditions and processes. What is missing is the systematic consideration of external influences on national social policy. Since national politics has to deal with these international influences, the thematic focus of the conference will be on the interplay of national socioeconomic and political frameworks with international dependencies in order to explain the development of social policy from a global and historical perspective. Venue: ATLANTIC Hotel Universum
Contact: Judith M. Ebeling; E-mail: socialpolicydynamics@uni-bremen.de

“Failing Identities, Schools, and Migrations” is the topic of an international conference of the Department of Intercultural Education in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Bremen in collaboration with the University of Oldenburg. It will take place on Friday, October 26, 2018. The conference aims to critically and reflectively examine the appropriate role of teachers in transnational constellations. Under the conditions of a globalized migration society, it has become clear that the nation-state can no longer be the central reference for education and schools. Not least as a result of the ongoing worldwide migration of refugees, changes in world politics are becoming a directly tangible educational dimension locally. In addition to the growth of right-wing populist countermovements at the political level and logistical and financial challenges at the level of school organization, there are also enormous opportunities for a substantive and conceptual transformation of the education system, which has hitherto been rather nationally oriented and, in this sense, also offers limited perspectives. The conference will be held at the University of Bremen. Contact: Aysun Doğmuş; Tel.: +49 421 218-69127; E-mail: fism2018@uni-bremen.de

Environmental Satellite Provides Detailed Data

The data on the chemical composition of the plume was collected by the Sentinel-5P satellite. The environmental satellite, which has only been in orbit for almost a year, flies around the Earth 14 times a day. It provides worldwide data on the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere with a spatial resolution of 3.5 to 7 kilometers. The evaluation and analysis of the data is carried out at the Institute of Environmental Physics (Director: Professor John P. Burrows) of the University of Bremen, which has built up a great deal of expertise in this field of research over 20 years. Sentinel-5P is based on technical concepts developed during the SCIAMACHY mission conducted under Bremen management.

Results of Sentinel-5P will also be presented at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen at the beginning of October.

For Your Understanding:

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and toxic gas (keyword “smoke inhalation”). It occurs, among other times, during the incomplete combustion of carbon-containing substances with insufficient oxygen supply, as is typical for moorland fires. (Source: Wikipedia)

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a reddish-brown, poisonous, pungent gas with an odor similar to chlorine. It is produced during the combustion of fossil fuels such as gas, coal, and oil and is therefore a component of exhaust gases from motor vehicles and aircraft, oil and gas boilers, and gas- and coal-fired power plants, among other things. Nitrogen dioxide is also produced in forest fires and – to a lesser extent – in moorland fires. (Source: Wikipedia)

Additional Information:

IUP: www.iup.uni-bremen.de/deu/
Copernicus Sentinel-5P: www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-5P/Introducing_Sentinel-5P
www.uni-bremen.de

FOR EDITORIAL OFFICES: Illustrative material for this press release is available for download at this address: seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/b8ed113d25704b1daa98/

Contact:

Dr. Heinrich Bovensmann
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-62102
E-mail: heinrich.bovensmann@uni-bremen.de

U Bremen Research Alliance Is On Hand

The University of Bremen is represented at the exhibition in the Exhibition Hall (Hall 5). In particular, the university’s master’s programs in the field of space travel will be presented. They are aimed at graduates with a bachelor’s or comparable university degree in engineering sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics. The Bremen-based U Bremen Research Alliance, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), OHB, Airbus, ArianeGroup, and, of course, the ZARM will also be participating.

2,000 Lectures

There is something for everyone interested in the content of the congress program. Numerous renowned speakers from all over the world are expected to give around 2,000 lectures. A highlight for the ZARM team will be giving its own plenary lecture to present research from Bremen. In addition to the core program of the congress, the Space Generation Congress (SGC) will take place at the University of Bremen from Thursday to Sunday in the last week of September.

Public Day on October 3

In addition, IAC 2018 will include continuing education for teachers on the subject of space travel and a student congress. Lawyers can take part in an extra event in the jury courtroom in Bremen on the topic of the legal aspects of space travel. In addition, a public day is planned for all interested parties on the Day of German Unity, October 3, 2018. Admission is free. The exhibition will be open to the public in the Exhibition Hall from 12 p.m. on the same day. The motto of the main event, which will take place from 1:30 to 4 p.m., is “Space Is Big – Space Is Public.” It starts with a discussion about security in space. Topic will include the dangers of space debris, weather events such as solar storms, and the possibilities of planetary defense: early detection, prevention, or mitigation of asteroid or comet impacts. The speakers will be Jan Wörner (ESA Director), Jim Bridenstine (NASA Director), Patrick Michel (CNRS Research Director), Matteo Emanuelli (SGAC), Nicolas Chamussy (Airbus), and Thomas Jarzombek (Aerospace Coordinator for the German federal government). The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock (British space scientist and science educator).

Live Transmission to the ISS

From 2:45 to 3:05 p.m., there will be a live transmission to the International Space Station (ISS) and a conversation with Alexander Gerst in the ÖVB Arena on October 3. The public day will conclude with a get-together with international astronauts followed by a round of questions. The participants will be Pamela Melroy (USA), Ernst Messerschmidt (Germany), Matthias Maurer (Germany), Koichi Wakata (Japan), Sergey Krikalev (Russia), Micheal Lopez-Alegria (USA), and Thomas Reiter (Germany). The get-together will take place from 3:05 to 4:05 p.m.

Additional Information:

www.iac2018.org

Learn more about the space degree courses at the University of Bremen:
http://www.uni-bremen.de/raumfahrt-an-der-universit%C3%A4t-bremen/masterstudieng%C3%A4nge/

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Annika Teubner (Communication)
Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM)
Tel.: +49 421 218-57821
E-mail: media@iac2018.org

Representative Survey

The study is based on a representative survey of a total of 1,136 students at the University of Bremen and other higher education institutions (HEI) in Bremen, as well as 382 students at University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven. It was carried out in the summer semester of 2018. Among other things, the focus was on questions about preferred residential locations and forms of living as well as the amount of rental expenses.

Main Problem: High Rent Burden

The survey shows that the lack of affordable housing for students, regardless of personal characteristics, is an extraordinary problem. “Around 70 percent of the students surveyed at Bremen HEIs currently rate the search for accommodation as ‘very difficult’ or ‘rather difficult,’” says Dr. Günter Warsewa from the Institute for Labour and Economy (iaw) of the Bremen Arbeitnehmerkammer (“chamber of labor”) and the University of Bremen. “This is a circumstance that could have a medium-term effect on Bremen’s attractiveness as a place to study,” he believes. In Bremerhaven, on the other hand, the living situation for students is more relaxed. The main criticism here is the structural condition of the available housing.

Shared Apartment Most Popular Living Arrangement in Bremen

The most common form of accommodation for students at Bremen HEIs is shared apartments (32.7 percent). A growing proportion of students are switching to living with their parents or relatives. In total, only 12.4 percent of students at Bremen’s HEIs would like to live in a dormitory. Compared to the actual population of 11 percent of all students living in dormitories, there is therefore only a small additional demand.

Neustadt and Bremerhaven Mitte Preferred

In terms of its advantageous location, Neustadt clearly stands out from the other areas of Bremen. According to the students, the general satisfaction with the living situation in the Neustadt neighborhood is noticeably higher than in all other parts of the city. Bremerhaven Mitte is clearly the preferred district for student housing in Bremerhaven.

Rising Rent Costs Lead to Displacement of Students

Another result of the study is that students in Bremen spend an average of 372.80 euros per month on rent. The average rent expenditure of students in Germany in 2016 was 323 euros. Compared to a previous study from 2009/10 – at that time only for the University of Bremen – expenses for rent including heating costs rose by 26.8 percent. Compared to the overall development of rent levels in the city of Bremen (+30.1 percent), the increase in student housing expenditure has been lower. “However, there are displacement effects at the expense of students, since their income cannot keep up with the increases in rent,” says Professor Ivo Mossig from the Institute of Geography at the University of Bremen.

Rental Expenses Account for up to Nearly 50 Percent of the Total Budget

Mossig also found that students who do not live with their parents or relatives spend almost half of their monthly budget (49.1 percent) on rent. This represents an extremely critical rent burden that, according to the Professor Mossig, reveals a clear need for action with regard to the student housing situation in Bremen. The situation in Bremerhaven is somewhat less tense in terms of housing costs. Students, except those living with parents, pay an average monthly rent of 305.45 euros.

Additional Information:

The study results have been published in the series of publications from the iaw and can be downloaded at:

www.iaw.uni-bremen.de/ccm/publications/reihen/schriftenreihe-institut-arbeit-und-wirtschaft.de

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Ivo Mossig
Institute of Geography
University of Bremen
E-mail: mossig@uni-bremen.de
Tel.: +49 421 218-67410

Dr. Günter Warsewa    
Institute for Labour and Economy (iaw)
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-61700    
E-mail: warsewa@uni-bremen.de

A flight from Earth to Mars takes about six to eight months if the distance between the two orbits is short. Due to the long and expensive journey, it is crucial for space missions that all technical equipment function smoothly on-site. Under the direction of Professor Gabriel Zachmann, scientists from the Center for Computing and Communication Technologies (TZI) at the University of Bremen are therefore currently developing a detailed simulation of 40 square kilometers of the surface of Mars. In addition, they are allowing several research groups to test the collaboration of space robots in swarms in this virtual world.

Largest Canyon Landscape in the Solar System

The simulation is being developed as part of the VaMEx-VTB project. The abbreviation stands for “Valles Marineris Explorer – Virtual Test Bed”; this is a preparatory mission study with the aim of investigating the “Mariner Valleys” on Mars in a future VaMEx space mission. The Valles Marineris form the largest canyon network in the solar system, extending over 4,000 kilometers and reaching a depth of up to 10,000 meters. At the same time, they may contain indications of raw materials or extraterrestrial life, because the conditions for the development of microorganisms could have been good at least in the past – when the martian climate was less hostile to life.

Such indications are most likely to be found in the protected niches of the canyon system, i.e. in places that are difficult to access. The implementation partners of the VaMEx initiative of the DLR Space Administration are developing a whole swarm of different robot types that complement each other, for example robots that walk, drive, or fly. However, testing this collaboration in a realistic way is difficult on Earth because the environmental conditions here differ greatly. The scientists from the TZI are therefore not only virtually recreating a large section of the Mars landscape, but are also programming interfaces to the systems of the robots that were developed by the project partners. In this way, participants can test their technologies for Mars without having to travel there.

Robots Interact Autonomously and in Real Time

One challenge of the VaMEx-VTB project is the processing of the enormous amounts of data required for a realistic representation of the 40 square kilometers of martian surface – based on a scan by NASA. Also complex is the integration of many different robot systems so that they can interact with the system in real time. “The swarm has to organize itself autonomously,” explains Professor Zachmann. The simulation is not only to be developed as a desktop application, but also as a virtual reality version. In this way, project participants can enter the scenario even more realistically with the help of virtual reality glasses.

The VaMEx-VTB project is funded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The Robotics Innovation Center of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH, Bremen), Universität der Bundeswehr (Munich), Technical University of Munich, Technische Universität Braunschweig, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, and Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg are among the contractors of the University of Bremen. The project, which started in October 2017, will run until May 2019. The VaMEx initiative is part of the DLR Explorer project.

Additional Information:

www.tzi.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Axel Kölling
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 171 530-5119
axel.koelling@uni-bremen.de

Those who wish to have their Italian language skills certified can earn the internationally recognized CILS certificate from the University of Siena at the FZHB on December 6, 2018, at the desired language level (A1–C2). And if you need an internationally recognized language certificate for English, you can register once a month at the FZHB for the TOEFL exam and prepare for it here.

The tutoring program offers individual support for autonomous language learning. It is free of charge for students of the University of Bremen. The program is rounded off by various workshops on effective language-learning strategies (including grammar and listening comprehension) as well as weekly language cafés where you can speak the language freely.

Those who would like to learn particularly intensively and individually can even complete individual training at the Fremdsprachenzentrum. The FZHB would be pleased to prepare a suitable offer.

Additional Information:

www.fremdsprachenzentrum-bremen.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

University of Bremen
Fremdsprachenzentrum der Hochschulen im Land Bremen (FZHB)
Dr. Anikó Brandt
Tel.: +49 421 218-61993
E-mail: brandt@uni-bremen.de

The Four Projects of the University of Bremen:

The first-place winners in the “Business Ideas” category, Nina and Dirk Wenig, impressed judges with their intelligent chat bot IDA Bot. Chat bots are often used in customer service, as a marketing tool, or to impart knowledge. For good customer communication, they must be equipped with sufficient knowledge. Usually chat bots are modeled manually – an expensive solution with limited possibilities. The IDA Bot chat bot, in contrast, is based on machine learning processes and independently acquires domain-specific knowledge from websites, manuals, newspaper articles, and other sources.

“KARL, der Ökobot” (“eco-bot”) helps consumers to act sustainably. It knows the needs, routines, tastes, and purchasing behaviors of its users and also has comprehensive knowledge of quality labels and the ecological balance of products. It gives personalized tips and suggestions on how to integrate sustainability into your everyday life without major restrictions or changes. It was developed by Kirsten Hillebrand, Hendrik Hinrichs, and Tobias Freund.

IT experts predict that block chain technology will have a similar influence on the economy and society as it has recently had on the Internet. Many companies in the logistics, energy, and health care sectors are already experimenting with block chain technology – but very few people even know what block chain is. Apart from the hype about the crypto currency Bitcoin, it is still invisible in people’s everyday lives. Which is why Leonard Pust, a graduate student at the University of Bremen, offers well-founded lectures under the name “BitMoin” in which block chain technology, the Bitcoin system, and its opportunities and potential are explained clearly and comprehensibly.

“Museum work has to go better than with the classic audio guide,” Leonardo de Araújo, Nina Hentschel, and Zhou Yuen Fang thought. With their business idea, they create an innovative data-driven curatorial framework for the employees of cultural institutions. With the help of the Artfacts platform software, cultural institutions can reorganize and reinterpret their digital collections. It offers effective strategies to give the public access to digital collections and thus opens up innovative communication channels for multimedia educational museum work.

Prize Money Totaling 15,000 Euros

Prizes worth a total of 15,000 euros were presented at the awards ceremony at the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday evening. In addition to the first three places in the “Business Ideas” and “Business Plans” categories, an audience prize was also awarded in the “Business Ideas” category. The “Homepage” special prize, sponsored by the Bremen online marketing agency of former CAMPUSiDEEN participant Admospherics, and the “Markenschutz” special prize, sponsored by the Bremen law firm Nachtwey IP, were featured as additional awards. Janina Marahrens-Hashagen, vice president of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, and Bremen city councilor Ekkehart Siering gave welcome speeches and congratulated the prizewinners.

About the CAMPUSiDEEN Competition

Since 2002, the CAMPUSiDEEN competition has been recognizing the best start-up ideas in Bremen’s higher education landscape. It is put on by the BRIDGE university initiative. The University of Bremen, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, and Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH thus support business start-ups from a university context. The offers include counseling on the topic of self-employment and a course program.

The following partners support CAMPUSiDEEN 2018: BLG Logistics Group, Bremer Aufbau-Bank, kraftwerk city accelerator bremen, Nachtwey IP law office, neuland – Büro für Informatik, Admospherics, encoway, Sparkasse Bremen and the Bremen Chamber of Commerce.

Additional Information:

www.bridge-online.de/campusideen.html
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Sarah Thiel
BRIDGE
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60343
E-mail: sarah.thiel@vw.uni-bremen.de

Practical Historical Work at the University

For two semesters since October 2017, history students at the University of Bremen, under the direction of Dr. Sonja Kinzler, have been conducting scientific research into the eventful history of the bunker for the first time. At the Kulturbunker, they are now presenting an exhibition that sheds light on the construction of the building, the subject of forced labor, hospital operations during the war, and post-war uses. To implement the project, they are cooperating with the Zuckernetzwerk and the Kultur im Bunker association. Students from the University of the Arts Bremen (HfK Bremen) have developed the design concept for the exhibition and will contribute their own works.

Bunker Construction Part of Nazi History

During their research work in various institutions such as the state archives, the students discovered construction plans, photographs, and interviews that reveal the significance of the bunker as a monument of war, a refuge, a place of exclusion, fear, and help. “The bunker is part of the history of Nazism. It is therefore essential to review its history of origin and use, and to incorporate the scientific findings on it into the current debate on its future use,” says history lecturer Sonja Kinzler. “Even if the use of forced laborers was difficult to understand due to the confusing historical situation and gaps in tradition, the students were able to find out which company carried out the construction and that they used forced laborers for it,” she explains. The students report that independent research on this extensive complex of topics and the implementation of the exhibition was a special experience.

The exhibition will open on Saturday, September 15, 2018, at 7 p.m. at the Kulturbunker, Berliner Strasse 22c, 28203 Bremen. Opening hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Guided tours can be arranged on an individual basis. A closing event is planned for October 12 at 7 p.m.

Additional Information:

www.retrokonzepte.de/bunkerausstellung.html
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Sonja Kinzler
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-178-886-6666
E-mail: kinzler@uni-bremen.de

The students can be reached by sending an e-mail to:

ausstellungdiakonissenbunker@web.de

Press release of the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (in german)

Youth Climate Conference 

Think, mix, shape: on September 13 and 14, a youth climate conference will take place in the university’s lecture hall building. It is organized by the Environmental Management department of the University of Bremen together with the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz (BUND) e.V. of the Landesverband Bremen. A total of 200 students in grade ten and beyond are expected. In workshops, they work together with scientists to develop a climate protection manifesto that is intended to serve as a guide for politicians. 

Max Planck Day

Immerse yourself in marine research: on September 14, 100 high school students will have the chance to get to know the work at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Marine Microbiology better. To this end, they are invited by the institute to lectures and an exhibition at the House of Science in downtown Bremen. For the general public, the exhibition is open from 1 to 6 p.m. on this day. The occasion is the 70th anniversary of the Max Planck Society. The more than 80 institutes of the research society organize the Max Planck Day throughout Germany, thus giving the public exciting insights into their work. 

Info Day – Future Field of Mathematics

Dream job in mathematics: in the university’s lecture hall building on September 17, more than 400 students will receive exciting insights into the field of mathematics. The technical progress that determines our daily life is inconceivable without mathematics. However, it often does its work behind the scenes. That is why the Zentrum für Technomathematik (ZeTeM) of the University of Bremen and the Fraunhofer MEVIS Institute for Medical Image Computing have invited experts, who will present to the students from their own experience on the exciting topics that mathematicians deal with in their professional lives.

Space Show

“Astro Alex” says hello: the space show of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has been on tour since August. The occasion is the Horizons mission of German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, called “Astro Alex.” The show will stop at a total of 20 locations throughout Germany, and on September 20 it will also come to Bremen. The interest of the schools in the run-up was so overwhelming that the tickets had to be drawn. Over 600 students in grades three to six were lucky winners. In the large lecture hall of the university, they will be able to experience the colorful program that DLR_School_Lab staff have put together for them: exciting hands-on experiments, fascinating videos, and even a greeting from Astro Alex himself. 

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/kooperationen/uni-schule 
www.uni-bremen.de 

For Editorial Offices: You will find pictures under this link. You are welcome to use these under indication of the copyright: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/d/d334e2591fa64819bee1/?dl=1 

Contact: 

Isabell Harder
University–School Transfer Coordinator
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60393
E-mail: isabell.harder@vw.uni-bremen.de 

Youth Climate Conference:
Dr. Doris Sövegjarto-Wigbers
Environmental Management
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-63376
E-mail: soeve@uni-bremen.de 

Max Planck Day:
Dr. Manfred Schlösser
MPI for Marine Microbiology Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 2028-734
E-mail: maschloe@mpi-bremen.de 

Future Field of Mathematics:
Dr. Matthias Knauer
Zentrum für Technomathematik (ZeTeM)
University of Bremen 
Tel.: +49 421 218-63863
E-mail: knauer@math.uni-bremen.de 

Space Show:
Sandra Müller
DLR Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 244-201151
E-mail: sandra.mueller@dlr.de 

Professor Yasemin Karakaşoğlu, Professor of Intercultural Education in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Bremen, is organizing the international conference together with Professor Paul Mecheril, Professor for Intercultural Education at the University of Oldenburg and director of the Center for Migration, Education and Cultural Studies. The target audience is academics, teachers, and all those who want to deal with the current central issue of transnational migration and its significance for schools. Those interested can register until October 1, 2018.

Dealing with Teacher Training

Through lectures and discussions, the participants – inspired by international research concepts presented by speakers from Great Britain, Chile, Japan, Turkey, and Iran, among others – will take a critical look at schools and teacher training in Germany and the world. The three main topics of the conference – failing identities, migrations, and schools – will each be addressed in a basic lecture. Speakers will include Professor Ann Phoenix, a psychologist from University College London in the United Kingdom, Professor Ayşe Cağlar, a social anthropologist from the University of Vienna in Austria, and Professor David Gillborn from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Educational Reflections

In order to open up a dialogue between international and German research perspectives, the lectures will be accompanied by a reflection on educational science. These will be led by Professor Arnd-Michael Nohl from Helmut-Schmidt-Universität in Hamburg, Professor María do Mar Castro Varela from Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin and Professor Ewald Terhart from the University of Münster. On Saturday evening, Thomas Quehl, a teacher who conducts research in London, will reflect on how theoretical considerations and empirical findings can be integrated into school practice and the training and continuing education of teachers. The conference is funded by Stiftung Mercator, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and Wolfgang-Ritter-Stiftung in Bremen.

Further Information and Registration:

unihb.eu/fism2018.registration

Contact:

Lydia Heidrich
Faculty of Educational Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-69124
E-mail: fism2018@uni-bremen.de

Specialized in Curriculum Development

Ingrid Darmann-Finck is a nursing educator. “Curriculum development is my business,” she says. The professor also trains teachers for vocational schools at the University of Bremen. She also worked for two years on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Health in a four-person team on the training and examination ordinance for nursing (“Ausbildungs- und Prüfungsverordnung für die Pflege”). This ordinance was recently passed by the Bundestag.

High Proportion of Practical Training in Nursing

“When designing the curricula, we focus on the development of skills,” says Darmann-Finck. “The trainees are confronted with a wide range of tasks.” The questions are: Do the theoretical considerations of the curriculum designers really make it into the minds of the trainees? When is what knowledge needed? Is it in the right order? In addition, one has to consider that nursing education is conceived with a high proportion of practical training. During the three years, the future nurses will work 2,500 hours in the facilities. Additionally, in 2020, the three fields of nursing, geriatric care, and pediatric nursing are set to begin with a common introductory phase. For this general introductory program, plausible curricula are necessary that do justice to all three subject areas.

Skill: Communication

In addition to nursing skills such as support in life activities or swallowing problems, or dealing with challenging patient behavior, the ability to communicate with different target groups is also important. “How do I talk to people in difficult situations? How do I advise relatives?” the professor gives as examples. Developing communication skills is a very demanding task, she says.

Partnership with Innovative Schools

In order to obtain a heterogeneous, scientifically assessable picture, the test persons are scattered according to age, gender, and region. “We are working with many innovative schools at the IPP,” says the nursing professor. “At the end of the project, we will know what the trainees actually perceive as development tasks.”

Contact:

Professor Ingrid Darmann-Finck
Institut für Public Health und Pflegeforschung (IPP)
Faculty of Human and Health Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-421 218-68940
E-mail: darmann@uni-bremen.de

Contribution to the “Looted Cultural Property” Project

In the context of the Looted Cultural Property projects at the State and University Library Bremen and the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart, several books were found in both libraries last year from the family property auctioned off after the deportation. Only last year, the State and University Library Bremen returned an ex libris to the family. Research at the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart is still ongoing. Hans-Christian Pust, who heads the research project on looted cultural assets at the Württemberg State Library, will talk about this.

The exhibition will be on display in the foyer of the SuUB until October 10, 2018. Admission is free.

For Editorial Offices:

Using this link, you can download a photo from the book with reference to the source.https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/0362fd60a344475d9297/

Additional Information:

https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/

Contact:

Anke Winsmann
Public Relations Officer
State and University Library Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-59572
E-mail: winsmann@suub.uni-bremen.de

Diversity or Regulation?

Questions arise at the university and the HEIs in the state of Bremen as well: Can religion be visible at an institution of science? Does Bremen need a code of conduct for religious practice like the Universität Hamburg? And what does neutrality actually mean? In order to discuss this topic, the Faculty of Educational Sciences, the Department of Intercultural Education, and the Officer for Diversity Management at the University of Bremen are hosting a panel discussion entitled “Everything Neutral, Right? Ideological Diversity at Higher Education Institutions” with an all-star cast:

•    Professor Yasemin Karakaşoğlu, Head of the Department of Intercultural Education, University of Bremen
•    Professor Thomas Pawlik, Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Bremen University of Applied Sciences
•    Betül Yavuz, Chairwoman of the IHB, the Islamic federation of HEIs in Bremen (IHB)
•    Dr. Andreas Quade, Protestant Student Community (ESG) Bremen
•    René Wells, Head of Campus Life, Jacobs University

•    Moderator: Dr. Christoph Fantini, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Intercultural Education, University of Bremen

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/diversity
www.bremerintegrationswoche.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Christoph Fantini
Faculty of Educational Sciences
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-69123
E-mail: cfantini@uni-bremen.de

Long-Term Cooperation with the University of Miskolc

In the past, Professor Karpuschewski worked closely with the university located in the northeast of Hungary on various production technology research projects. The researcher from Bremen also supported the scientists in the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science with infrastructural questions. In addition, he supervised the doctoral projects of research assistants. By 2011, Karpuschewski had been awarded the honorary professorship of this faculty at the University of Miskolc.

Personal Profile:

Bernhard Karpuschewski is Professor of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen and Director of the Department of Production Engineering at the Leibniz-Institut für Werkstofforientierte Technologien (IWT). His working group comprises around 60 employees who conduct research in the field of material-oriented manufacturing technology with a focus on machining processes and ultraprecision manufacturing. Professor Karpuschewski studied mechanical engineering at the Leibniz University of Hannover, where he received his doctorate in 1995 and his university teaching qualification in 2001. He accepted a position at the University of Bremen in 2017. He is a consultant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [German Research Foundation] for Collaborative Research Centres, Priority Programmes, and large-scale proposals, and a member of the DFG Senate and Grants Committee for Collaborative Research Centres. He is also a consultant of the Volkswagen Foundation and a member of the Council of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP). In 2011, Karpuschewski was appointed Honorary Professor of the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Miskolc. In 2016 he received an honorary doctorate from Georgian Technical University in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Additional Information:

www.iwt-bremen.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Bernhard Karpuschewski
Professor of Production Engineering
Faculty of Production Engineering
University of Bremen
Director at the Leibniz-Institut für Werkstofforientierte Technologien (IWT)
Tel.: +49 421 218 511 01
E-mail: karpuschewski@iwt-bremen.de

A new project entitled New ABS legislation and practice and compliance with the Nagoya Protocol, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG – German Research Foundation), has been running at the Research Centre for European Environmental Law – FEU (Forschungsstelle für Europäisches Umweltrecht) – at the University of Bremen since February 2017. As part of this research project, an international conference with 40 to 50 participants will be held on September 19 and 20, 2018. The focus is on the new regulations on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) of the Nagoya Protocol of 2010. This is an additional protocol to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, which abolished free access to genetic resources in a binding manner under international law. The current project examines national legislation in force after the entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol and the implementation practice. The conference language is English. Preregistration is required for participation. Venue: Überseemuseum, Bahnhofsplatz 13, contact: Dr. Evanson Chege Kamau, tel.: +49-421-2186-6105, e-mail: echege@uni-bremen.de.

The 13th International Workshop on Boolean Problems will take place in Bremen from September 19 to 21, 2018. This year’s event is being organized by the University of Bremen and the Cyber-Physical Systems research division of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence – DFKI (Deutschen Forschungszentrums für Künstliche Intelligenz). The event is chaired by Professor Rolf Drechsler. The workshop focuses on the scientific exchange of researchers and engineers in the field of Boolean logic and algebra. The approximately 40 participants want to present and discuss both theoretical findings and practical applications. One of the main goals is to initiate scientific cooperation and open up new fields of application. Additional Information: www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/iwsbp/index.php. Contact: Professor Rolf Drechsler, tel.: +49-421-2186-3932, e-mail: drechsler@informatik.uni-bremen.de.

The Bremen Institute for Metrology, Automation and Quality Science – BIMAQ – at the Faculty of Production Engineering of the University of Bremen is organizing the 32nd Metrology Symposium of the Arbeitskreis der Hochschullehrer für Messtechnik e. V. – AHMT. Highlights of metrology and current metrological issues are presented, which provide insights into the current state of research and new findings. Young scientists are invited to present papers on metrological topics. The highlight of the event is the presentation of the metrology award. In 2018, another outstanding young scientist is to be awarded the renowned AHMT prize. Venue: BIMAQ, Linzer Str. 13, 28359 Bremen, contact: Hiltrud Kallasch, tel: +49-421-2186-4601, e-mail: ka@bimaq.de.

Welcoming Speech by Senator Quante-Brandt

The Senator of Science, Health, and Consumer Protection, Professor Eva Quante-Brandt, will give the welcoming speech. She taught at the University of Bremen and headed the Academy of Labor and Politics from 2009 to 2011 (known as the Center of Labor and Politics (zap) since 2013).

World Champions in Robot Soccer Up Close

This year, five-time world champions will take part: the robot soccer team B-Human. This is a project of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Bremen and the Cyber-Physical Systems research unit of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). The aim of the research project is to develop software for participation in RoboCup competitions as well as to inspire students to undertake an academic career or research within the framework of a lively subject area. The team consists of students and researchers from the University of Bremen and the DFKI. The RoboCup is a fascinating combination of innovative research and the world’s most popular team sport. Declared goal: the robots should be able to beat the current human world champion by 2050.

About the Alumni Association at the University of Bremen

The alumni association at the University of Bremen has existed for more than ten years. It currently has over 3,000 members. Its task is to maintain contact with graduates and former university employees, to inform them about the university, and to build up a network with them that benefits everyone. Current students and university members are also active and welcome in the association. There are various regional organizations in Germany, and Bremen alumni are also connected internationally. For example, there are groups in Shanghai and Yaoundé (Cameroon) who meet regularly for exchange and to maintain contact with their university in Bremen.

Supporting the University

The alumni association also offers the opportunity to give something back to the university and its students. For example, it supports several German scholarships and projects that promote the dissemination of science and research to the public – such as the “Aus den Akten auf die Bühne” theater project of the university and the bremer shakespeare company. In addition, student projects as well as seminars and lecture courses for vocational preparation in the Faculties are supported. The B-Human team of the University and the DFKI is also one of the projects sponsored by the association.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/alumni/
www.b-human.de/index-de.html
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Derk H. Schönfeld
Alumni der Universität Bremen e.V.
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-421-2186-0019
E-mail: derk.schoenfeld@vw.uni-bremen.de

Material Analysis Deciphers Individual History of Exhibits

Materials such as wood, metal, and textiles play a decisive role in conservation and restoration work. In addition to historical and restorative expertise, materials science is also important for researching and securing museum exhibits. For example, MAPEX scientists were able to determine the type of pine used thanks to microscopic analysis of a small fragment of the “Carla” figurehead. From the type of wood decomposition they can also conclude that the figure must have been under water for a long time – it probably sank and was salvaged as a relic. These two findings provide valuable information for further conservation and reconstructing the history of the exhibit. “The aim of such a material-science study of historical objects of cultural value is always to find out about their history and to develop solutions for long-term preservation for future generations,” says Dr. Hanna Lührs of MAPEX. She coordinated the scientific cooperation with the German Maritime Museum.

Successful Interdisciplinary Research Alliance

For the scientists at MAPEX, the collaboration with a museum was an enriching experience, explains Professor Lucio Colombi Ciacchi, spokesperson from MAPEX. “One of the particular challenges was to find out – together with all those involved and their different specialist approaches – what the most sensible approach in this specific museum context is, particularly if an object can only be preserved through more major interventions, yet its original materiality and appearance should be changed as little as possible. Here, the knowledge and perspectives of our scientists and museum experts have complemented each other perfectly.” The cooperation between MAPEX and the DSM is part of a long-term research cooperation with the aim of material characterization and digital recording of the museum collection.

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/mapex
www.dsm.museum/
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Hanna Lührs and Professor Lucio Colombi Ciacchi
MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-421-2186-4580 or +49-421-2186-4570
E-mail: mapex@uni-bremen.de oder colombi@hmi.uni-bremen.de

From Module to Certificate with the Modular System

The LIFE module courses allow those interested to use selected modules from university teaching for their individual adult education. Thanks to the modular system, the study program can be expanded step-by-step until the certificate is awarded. A comprehensive advisory service supports those interested in the selection and planning of their study program.

Participation is still free of charge in the trial phase. In addition to fulfilling the admission requirements, the participants need only be willing to evaluate the courses. In return, they can expect high-quality adult education in line with current science and research, and an interesting exchange with university lecturers and young students.

Information Events in August and September

In August, the information and registration phase for the winter semester is in full swing. Prospective participants can obtain specialist information at two workshops: for the health and care course on August 22, 2018, from 5 to 7 p.m., and for the Computer Science and Digital Media course on August 28, 2018, from 5 to 7 p.m. On September 11, 2018, an information event on all topics will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. In addition, individual appointments for advice on adult education can be arranged. Registrations can be submitted until September 15, 2018.

LIFE is part of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) project, which, together with the University of Bremen, supports the opening of higher education institutions to new target groups. More information is available from the academy for continuing education at the University of Bremen by phone (+49-421-2186-1619) or e-mail (life@uni-bremen.de).

“High-quality teaching and research strength go hand in hand at the University of Bremen,” emphasizes project manager Dr. Petra Boxler from the academy for continuing education. “We are pleased that employed people and companies can benefit from this through innovative training.”

Additional Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/life (in German only)
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/weiterbildung/ 
www.uni-bremen.de/en/ 

Contact:

Astrid Rehbein
Academy for continuing education
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-421-2186-1609
E-mail: rehbein@uni-bremen.de
 

Committee Determines Framework of Medical Care

The Federal Joint Committee primarily determines whether and to what extent the various treatment measures and methods correspond to the current state of medical knowledge and are to be provided by the health insurance companies within the framework of care. Since medicine is developing extremely quickly, this task plays a key role in today’s health-care system. Among other things, the committee adopted guidelines on medicine supply, treatment programs for chronically ill people, and quality assurance in outpatient and inpatient care.

Expert for Health Law

Friedhelm Hase was a professor of public law at the University of Bremen from 2009 to 2017, where he continues to be involved in teaching. Together with Professor Benedikt Buchner, he heads the Institute for Information, Health, and Medical Law at the Faculty of Law, which deals with the interdisciplinary development of solutions to the challenges of a modern health and information society. “In the legal regulation of complex social systems, which are changing evermore rapidly, new approaches must be taken today. Above all, it is necessary to take account of the change in fundamental knowledge to which the law must refer,” Hase emphasizes. He has dealt with questions arising from this for health care in a series of works.

Additional Information:

www.jura.uni-bremen.de/personen/friedhelm-hase/
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Friedhelm Hase
Institute for Information, Health, and Medical Law
Faculty of Law
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-421-2186-6010
E-mail: fhase@uni-bremen.de

Companies Present Concepts

The organizers are focusing the tenth international summer university on the topic of gender policy and women in engineering. This is also reflected in the seminars: topics discussed include gender equality, technology, and ethics. As part of a special theme day on August 15, 2018, companies with gender-sensitive organizational concepts and personnel management strategies will present their practices beginning at 11 a.m.

Still Enthusiastic after 21 Years

Veronika Oechtering, scientific director of the Kompetenzzentrum Frauen in Naturwissenschaft und Technik and founder of the summer university, comments on this year’s program: “As part of the seminars, we also want to take a critical look at the working world, as many gender stereotypes persist in the field of technology and women are confronted with unequal treatment there in particular. The high level participation by female students with a nontechnical background who are very interested in programming, for example, is encouraging this year. Even after 21 years, I am still enthusiastic about the atmosphere during these three weeks in the MZH building. The atmosphere is excellent – despite the intense study and the extreme heat.”

Presentation of Best Practices

The special theme day on Wednesday, August 15, 2018, begins at 11 a.m. in the MZH building, Bibliothekstrasse 5, room 1470, with the welcome address by Professor Maren Petersen, Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen. Stefanie Gebhardt from IG Metall Bremen will then speak about gender equality in the working world from a trade union perspective. The companies ArcelorMittal, Airbus, and BTC will inform about their best practices and answer the critical questions of the audience. The interested public is cordially invited.

“Working Women Obscured?”

Further lectures with top-class speakers are open to anyone who is interested. On Tuesday, August 21, 2018, at 5 p.m., in the MZH building, Bibliothekstrasse 5, the DGB Hamburg Chairwoman Katja Karger will discuss the issue of “the work of the future: a beautiful new working environment for everyone?” Her credo is that the mechanization of the working world is not a new phenomenon, but we are facing a new dimension: digitization is accelerating and intensifying employment. At the same time, it is making borders superfluous and changing both value-added as well as power structures. As a result, the working world will change decisively in all sectors. So far, however, the keyword “Industry 4.0” has primarily been used to discuss traditionally male occupations and sectors from the point of view of technological progress. The service sector, however, which is largely staffed by women, is still receiving little attention in the discussion. This not only obscures the experiences of many working women, but also pushes gender inequalities in the world of work by the wayside.”

Work and Digitization

In another public lecture on August 20, Judith Simon – Professor for Ethics in Information Technology at the University of Hamburg – will present approaches to understanding digital technologies and their effects on people and societies and discuss recent developments at the interface of big data and artificial intelligence.

Additional Information:

The entire program with all theme days and public lectures at https://www.ingenieurinnen-sommeruni.de/2018/programm/

Contact:

Henrike Illig
Kompetenzzentrum Frauen in Naturwissenschaft und Technik
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-64467
E-mail: illig@uni-bremen.de

Interested Companies More than Doubled

Whereas last year six companies and 43 students participated, the number of interested companies has now more than doubled. “Word has gotten around in the Bremen business world that the teams are doing excellent work – and many companies are also taking the opportunity to make contact with talented and committed future graduates,” says Maren Hartstock from the Faculty’s Office of Practice and International Affairs. “After all, three weeks of good work are more convincing than many an interview.”

The second edition of the summer camp differs from the first not only by an increase in the number of projects, but also by the formation of bilingual and international teams. “This is an additional challenge for the companies, but many were open to this experiment,” says Maren Hartstock. “Our students have a lot of digital and intercultural skills. Coupled with the testing of the new form of teamwork for some companies, the summer camp follows paths that are becoming increasingly important in professional life anyway.” The results of the individual projects will be presented by the students and companies at the final presentation on Friday, August 17, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the University of Bremen (Wilhelm-Herbst-Str. 12, WING Building, Room 003).

For Editorial Offices: If you would like to report about the summer camp and the results, you are cordially invited to the final presentation on August 17. As experience has shown that members of the media have only limited time, please contact Ms. Hartstock to arrange an appointment.

Contact:

Maren Hartstock
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-66505
E-mail: mhartst@uni-bremen.de
www.wiwi.uni-bremen.de

About the University of Bremen

Top-performing, diverse, reform-minded, and singularly cooperative – that about sums up the University of Bremen. Around 23,000 people learn, teach, research, and work on its international campus. Their shared goal is to contribute to the advancement of society. With well over 100 degree programs, the range of subjects offered by the University is broad. As one of Europe’s leading research universities, it maintains close cooperation with non-university research institutions in the region. This spirit of cooperation led to the founding of the U Bremen Research Alliance in 2016. The University’s competence and dynamism have also attracted numerous companies to settle in the technology park surrounding the campus. This has created an important national location for innovation – with the University of Bremen at its heart.
www.uni-bremen.de

Objective: Better Understanding of Coastal Processes

“For this project, we strive to use a multidisciplinary combination of methods to study the sea level and its fluctuations as well as the extreme waves of the last warm period,” explains Alessio Rovere. He intends to invest this sum in hiring excellent young researchers, creating a reliable global database on the latest interglacial sea levels and wave proxies, and investigating new field surfaces using advanced modelling and measurement techniques.

“The results of this project,” Alessio Rovere says with certainty, “will contribute to a better understanding of coastal processes under somewhat warmer climatic conditions. I am honored that the ERC has considered me for this prestigious award.” He also sees the ERC Starting Grant as a sign of the relevance of his work in recent years.

Since 2014, Rovere has headed the joint research group “Sea Level and Coastal Changes” at the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences of the University of Bremen and the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research. The WARMCOASTS project, which is now funded by the European Research Council, is based on the work of this group and is based at the University of Bremen. After completing his studies and earning his doctorate at the University of Genoa in Italy, Alessio Rovere moved first to the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in the United States and then to MARUM.

About the ERC Starting Grant

This year, the ERC Starting Grant will be awarded to 403 top young researchers across Europe, and 3,170 applications have been received for the prestigious award. The European Research Council funds the scientists with a total of 603 million euros. The funds are intended to enable them to implement their own research ideas independently with their teams. For a period of five years, groundbreaking frontier research will be funded with a maximum of 1.5 million euros. “The funding by an ERC Starting Grant not only underscores the outstanding expertise of the people awarded, but also the attractive scientific environment of Bremen’s marine sciences,” says Professor Michael Schulz, Director of MARUM. Of the 20 ERC grants awarded to researchers at the University of Bremen since the ERC was established, seven have been awarded to marine scientists.

For Editorial Offices: Pictures for illustration can be downloaded under this link: seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/71b32a9df87c4217a621/

Contact:

Dr. Alessio Rovere
Tel.: +49 421 218-65771
E-mail: arovere@marum.de

MARUM Press and Public Relations
Ulrike Prange
Tel.: +49 421 218-65540
E-mail: medien@marum.de

About the University of Bremen

Top-performing, diverse, reform-minded, and singularly cooperative – that about sums up the University of Bremen. Around 23,000 people learn, teach, research, and work on its international campus. Their shared goal is to contribute to the advancement of society. With well over 100 degree programs, the range of subjects offered by the University is broad. As one of Europe’s leading research universities, it maintains close cooperation with non-university research institutions in the region. This spirit of cooperation led to the founding of the U Bremen Research Alliance in 2016. The University’s competence and dynamism have also attracted numerous companies to settle in the technology park surrounding the campus. This has created an important national location for innovation – with the University of Bremen at its heart.
www.uni-bremen.de

About the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences:

MARUM uses state-of-the-art methods and is involved in international projects to decipher the role of the ocean in the earth’s system – especially in view of global change. It records the interactions between geological and biological processes in the sea and contributes to the sustainable use of the oceans. MARUM comprises the DFG Research Center and the Excellence Cluster “The Ocean in the Earth’s System.”
www.marum.de

On August 30 and 31, 2018, the final conference from the Media meets Diversity @School interdisciplinary focus group, which is located at the HWK-Institute for Advanced Study, will take place. With the title of Implications and Challenges for Teacher Education, it pursues the question of how digital media can be used in such a way that an adequate school approach to the increasing heterogeneity of pupils is supported both in specialist subjects and across disciplines. In particular, the implications and challenges for teacher education will be taken into account in this context. Three themed panels will each highlight one main area of the focus group’s work. The final conference will be rounded off by a poster session in which research projects from the fields of media didactics, diversity, and subject didactics related to the student conference will be presented. The best poster will receive an award on the second day. Venue: HWK-Institute for Advanced Study, Delmenhorst. Contact: Dr. Nina Sørensen, tel.: +49-421-2186-61910, e-mail: soerensen@uni-bremen.de. Additional information: www.h-w-k.de/das-kolleg/projekte/focus-groups/focus-group-media-meets-diversity-school.html

“Contribution to the Shift away from Fossil Fuels”

Project manager Timo Wassermann from the University of Bremen explains: “Especially in aviation, electricity-based fuels have the potential to make a major contribution to the shift away from fossil fuels and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The use of alternative propulsion technologies that do without hydrocarbon-based fuels is currently not foreseeable in aviation.”

Multiple Partners Involved

The joint project is coordinated by the University of Bremen. The industry partners Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH, Raffinerie Heide GmbH, and SKL Engineering & Contracting GmbH are also involved. The science partners comprise the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, the DLR Institute of Networked Energy Systems, and the Institute for Climate Protection, Energy and Mobility (IKEM). The Institute for Advanced Energy Systems (AES) with the participating departments Resiliente Energiesysteme (resilient energy systems), and Systemverfahrenstechnik (process systems engineering) is the executive body at the University of Bremen.

About the "KEROSyN100" Project

The project proposal, which has the full title “KEROSyN100: Entwicklung und Demonstration einer dynamischen, effizienten und skalierbaren Prozesskette für strombasiertes Kerosin – Phase 1” (KEROSyN100: development and demonstration of a dynamic, efficient, and scalable process chain for electricity-based kerosene – phase 1), will be funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with 4.24 million euros over the next three years. The project was funded as part of the funding initiative “energy transition in the transport sector: sector coupling through the use of electricity-based fuels” and is associated with the ENTREE100 project initiative of the Entwicklungsagentur Region Heide (Heide region development agency). Through the interaction of investigations based on system analysis and the development of an innovative technology for the synthesis of kerosene from methanol, electricity-based kerosene is to be brought closer to a market launch. Furthermore, the basic engineering for a customized demonstration plant at the Raffinerie Heide oil refinery site is being developed in the project. Wind energy generation in the vicinity of the refinery plays a central role here. Within the scope of the research project, the aim is to use wind energy, which is currently being regulated and thus lost due to grid bottlenecks and a lack of flexibility in the system.

Contact:

Timo Wassermann
Institute for Advanced Energy Systems
Faculty of Production Engineering
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-64897
E-mail: timo.wassermann@uni-bremen.de

When the good idea of open access gained a lot of support around ten years ago, a number of new publishers emerged on the market and made a serious impression. At the time, there was no reason for me and my colleagues to doubt the seriousness of these publishers, despite our lack of history and experience with these new publishers. Political upheavals such as the eastward expansion of the EU and the opening of scientific systems in Asia and Arab countries brought further providers and authors onto the markets – it was only natural that we didn’t know about these new publishers.

Scientists who were convinced by the open access model therefore switched to using these publishers, even though this would present a disadvantage in terms of bibliometrics. This is because authors publishing in new journals with new publishers in the first few years cannot necessarily achieve such good bibliometric figures as they could if publishing with established publishers. Open access was therefore more important to these scientists than good figures.

For me personally, it was important to find a middle ground – publishing in classic journals with established publishers as well as with open access, which would then inevitably lead to publication in new journals with new publishers. Either way, the scientific seriousness and quality of the published articles always has been and still is the priority for me.

All publications that I have coauthored and that have been published with publishers identified as predatory publishers in current media coverage have been open access since 2009 or 2014. They have been readable and downloadable on the Internet free of charge for several years. Classic publishers do not offer this possibility. Users usually have to pay around 30 euros to be able to read an article.

There have been no doubts about any of the articles with my coauthorship during these years. The scientific quality and integrity of the published texts are therefore beyond question. The publications are also based on third-party-financed research projects and are listed and enclosed in the final reports of the respective research projects. These reports have been examined by anonymous reviewers. Neither the publications nor the selected publication organs have been criticized in the statements communicated to me by the third-party funders such as the German Research Foundation.

If I or my coauthors had had doubts about the seriousness of the publishers at that time, we certainly would not have published there. Today I would no longer publish with the publishers concerned and would also warn other scientists against them. At the time of publishing the articles, many years ago, I was not aware of the phenomenon and practices of predatory publishers.

The University of Bremen takes warning against predatory publishers very seriously. The State and University Library provides regular advice on publishing with open access as well as information about predatory publishers. In the Policy on institutional affiliation in research publications, published in 2017, the university also refers to the importance of quality control when selecting open access portals. In addition, the State and University Library advises scientists who apply to it for funding for open access publications specifically on the selection of possible publishers.

The discussion triggered by current media coverage is important and good since it can make a further contribution to making all members of the scientific system aware of the problems concerning the machination of predatory publishers. To this end, however, it is very important that a careful distinction is made in the debate between predatory publishers on the one hand and honest authors on the other. It must not give the wrong impression that there is more false information than truth in science. Not everything published by predatory publishers, however, is scientifically dubious. Not only I, but also numerous other scientists have fallen for such publishers. This should not be used to attack the seriousness and integrity of people who have worked in a scientifically sound manner. Only if the discussion is conducted in an open-minded and nuanced way is it ultimately helpful for all of us.

The University of Bremen is using the research network publications as an opportunity to continue intensifying its activities educating and warning about predatory publishers so that they don’t stand a chance at the University of Bremen.

Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter
 

On this subject: University of Bremen Warns Of Predatory Publishers

Second Monitor Survey

Numerous so-called critical infrastructures were surveyed from October 2017 to January 2018 as part of the Germany-wide IT security study “Monitor IT-Sicherheit Kritischer Infrastrukturen” (IT security of critical infrastructures monitor). These include airports, rail-traffic control centers, hospitals, banks, insurance companies, nuclear power stations, and waterworks, for example. The study – also called a monitor survey – was carried out within the framework of the funding priority “IT-Sicherheit für Kritische Infrastrukturen” (ITS|KRITIS – IT security for critical infrastructures” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The research project is headed by the Üniversität der Bundeswehr München (university of the German armed forces in Munich). In addition to the University of Bremen, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (DKE) within the VDE (Association of Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies) are involved. This is the second monitor survey. The first one was published in 2017.

IT Security Training Is Important

The study showed that a large number of the operators surveyed reported cyberattacks. According to Bremen IT expert Dennis-Kenji Kipker, it is remarkable that the most frequently cited cause for the success of attacks is the misconduct of employees. “This demonstrates the need for appropriate IT security training.” In addition, staff must have a sensitive awareness of IT security.” The results of the study show that there is a large proportion of organizations that do this. However, partners and external employees are rarely included in this training. “It is also interesting that the operators are more optimistic about their own ability to fend off cyberattacks than they are about the ability of the rest of their industry or the German economic area in general,” says Kipker. This effect was already visible in the first monitor survey and can now be seen again.

IT Security Must Be Adapted to Current Risks

Another result of the study is that if cyberattacks are caused by malware that attracts a lot of media attention, organizations are much more inclined to rethink their IT security. But even if operators respond to new threats, few of them take new measures. Most organizations check the existing ones or have already taken measures in advance because the threat was already known. “These results show that the operators of critical infrastructures take their responsibilities seriously and react,” says Kipker. Then again, it is becoming clear that IT security needs to be continuously adapted to current risks.

Additional Information:

https://monitor.itskritis.de

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Dr. Dennis-Kenji Kipker
Institute for Information, Health and Medical Law (IGMR)
Faculty of Law
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49-421-151-4022-3163
E-mail: kipker@uni-bremen.de

About the University of Bremen
Top-performing, diverse, reform-minded, and singularly cooperative – that about sums up the University of Bremen. Around 23,000 people learn, teach, research, and work on its international campus. Their shared goal is to contribute to the advancement of society. With well over 100 degree programs, the range of subjects offered by the University is broad. As one of Europe’s leading research universities, it maintains close cooperation with non-university research institutions in the region. This spirit of cooperation led to the founding of the U Bremen Research Alliance in 2016. The University’s competence and dynamism have also attracted numerous companies to settle in the technology park surrounding the campus. This has created an important national location for innovation - with the University of Bremen at its heart.

Around ten years ago, the idea of open access to scientific publications gained a lot of support. But what does open access mean? Open access guarantees free and unrestricted access to scientific publications on the Internet. Scientists pay for publishing in an open access journal. In contrast with articles from traditional publishers, the reader can read the articles without paying a fee. The scientific quality and seriousness of the research is in no way affected by this method of publication. Instead, it means that the research results reach more people than they would through a classic publication.

The University of Bremen advocates open access in its Strategy for 2018 to 2028. Research institutions such as the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association, the Leibniz Association, the Fraunhofer Society, the German Rectors’ Conference, the German Research Foundation, academies, higher education institutions, and politicians also support the idea of publishing with open access.

Unfortunately, in recent years, publishers who work with dubious methods have also appeared on the market. For example, the contributions of these predatory publishers do not undergo a review process or any review process in accordance with the usual standards, also known as a peer review process, before they are published. Scientists often find it difficult to recognize the machinations of predatory publishers. Universities, higher education institutions, and research institutions are therefore obliged to provide their employees with the best possible information about predatory publishers and to support them when publishing with open access.

The University of Bremen takes this task very seriously. The State and University Library provides regular advice on publishing with open access and warns of predatory publishers in this context. In the policy on institutional affiliation in research publications (in german only), published in 2017, the university also refers to the importance of quality control when selecting open access portals. In addition, the State and University Library advises scientists who apply to it for funding for open access publications specifically on the selection of possible publishers.

Current media coverage can make a further contribution to making all members of the scientific system aware of the problems concerning the machination of predatory publishers. The University of Bremen is using the publications as an opportunity to intensify its activities educating and warning about predatory publishers so that they don’t stand a chance at the University of Bremen.

On this subject: President of the University of Bremen on the Practices of Predatory Publishers

“The designation as honorary citizen of the University of Bremen means a lot to me and I would like to thank all those responsible who contributed to it,” said Manfred Fluß. “I have been associated with the University of Bremen for almost 50 years – initially from 1969 to 1971 as a member of the founding committees of the planning commission for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, then for almost 28 years as a member of the Bremen Parliament in the responsible scientific deputation, and over the last 20 years as chairman of various foundations for the promotion of science and the University of Bremen.” After the difficult founding phase and the first ten years of the University of Bremen’s existence, which were in part even more difficult, an almost unprecedented success story has developed, the honoree emphasized. “Despite very limited funds from the State of Bremen, the university has developed into an outstanding research institution that the people of Bremen take pride in.” He was grateful to have been awarded with this honor.

For Editorial Offices:

You can download a photograph using this link. https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/9a20e2ebbe1940658197/

Contact:

Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, President of the University
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-63367 (office)
E-mail: rektor@uni-bremen.de

The university is also doing well in the European context, with grants funded by the European Research Council (ERC). It is one of the 20 most popular higher education institutions (HEI) selected by the award-winning scientists. With six scholarship holders, the University of Bremen was ranked 17th for the period mentioned.

First Place for Geosciences

In a comparison of the individual scientific disciplines in the current Funding Atlas, the University of Bremen once again took first place in the field of geosciences, which also includes the marine sciences. Of the total of 328 million euros allocated by the DFG for this subject area, 12 percent will go to Bremen alone. With a funding volume of 39.3 million euros, the University of Bremen achieves more than twice as much as the second-place university. The natural sciences (seventh place with 49.2 million euros, including geosciences) and engineering sciences (15th place with 30.1 million euros) also improved.

About the DFG Funding Atlas:

The DFG Funding Atlas, which is published every three years, presents key figures on publicly funded research in Germany in a comprehensive and technically differentiated form. It is the standard work on the third-party funding success of universities in Germany and is thus more than just a university ranking. The DFG Funding Atlas provides information on the success of third-party funding not only within the DFG but also within the framework of direct research and development funding by the federal government and the European Union, both as a whole and by subject and funding area.

Additional Information:

http://www.dfg.de/dfg_profil/zahlen_fakten/foerderatlas/

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Heidi Asendorf
Administrative Department 1 Academic Affairs
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60315
E-mail: heidi.asendorf@vw.uni-bremen.de

Teaching in the Target Language

The special focus of this master’s degree lies on the international component, also to meet the professionally relevant needs of students of Romance studies. Lessons are largely held in the respective target language (French or Spanish). In addition, there is an integrated study-abroad program in a French- or Spanish-speaking country of choice in the third semester. The standard period of study is four semesters. Through a regulated recognition procedure, this master’s degree can be shortened to one year following a Master of Education or another teaching degree.

Unique Degree Course in Germany

The attractiveness of Bremen as a location for students of Romance studies is considerably increased by the offering of an international master’s degree, since today many student applicants for a bachelor’s degree select their study location based on the criterion of possible further study in a master’s program and, in philology, also based on the potential to study abroad. There is currently no comparable master’s in international Romance studies in Germany with a focus on Spanish-speaking or Francophone countries.

Diverse Career Prospects

Possible professional fields for graduates of the International Romance Studies MA program include – in addition to the sciences – media and publishing, digital media, translation, theater and film, adult education, public and private educational institutions, national and international agencies for language policy and language planning, intercultural training, European and international organizations and nongovernmental organizations.

Additional Information:

www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/romanistik/ma/default.aspx

www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Professor Sabine Schlickers
Linguistics and Literary Studies
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-68056
E-mail: hispan@uni-bremen.de

Additional Information:

www.fremdsprachenzentrum-bremen.de (in German only)

www.uni-bremen.de/en   

Contact:

Fremdsprachenzentrum der Hochschulen im Land Bremen (FZHB)
at the University of Bremen
Telephone: +49 421 218-61990
E-mail: fzhb@uni-bremen.de 

About the RoboCup World Championship

The RoboCup World Championship takes place every year in a different country. B-Human competes in the Standard Platform League of the RoboCup: in this league, teams of five Nao robots from Softbank Robotics each play against each other on a small artificial-turf field with the same hardware, but different software.

New Rules with Free Kicks and Goal Kicks

There were a few innovations to the rules of the game this year as well. Most changes had already been implemented at the RoboCup German Open last April, including the introduction of free kicks and goal kicks, which significantly increased the demands on playing as a team. At the same time, the usable bandwidth of Wi-Fi communication between the robots was reduced by almost two-thirds, which meant that team communication now had to be much more concise. Fouls were also penalized more severely, as the duration of time penalties increased sharply with each additional instance.

Additional Events Such as Penalty Shootout and Mixed Team Competition

Just like in Japan last year, there were additional events in Canada, such as the penalty shootout, as part of the Technical Challenge and the Mixed Team Competition. Team B-Human won both tournaments, having taken part in the Mixed Team Competition together with the rUNSWift team from Sydney. Each team provided three players for the joint team called “B-Swift.”

B-Human Uses Deep-Learning Methods for the First Time at a World Championship

Team B-Human currently consists of more than 25 students. Of these, 15 traveled to Canada with us. They were accompanied by the scientists Dr. Thomas Röfer from the DFKI Cyber-Physical Systems research unit, headed by Professor Rolf Drechsler, and Dr. Tim Laue from the multisensory interactive systems working group at the University of Bremen. In terms of content, this year’s team has revisited the topic of deep learning: the training and use of deep neural networks that are used to, among other things, recognize the ball. These new methods were already put to use at the RoboCup German Open in the spring. B-Human was able to record a lot of data and gain important insights to improve various aspects of the system so that the Naos always stay near the ball. The main sponsor of the B-Human team is Bremen-based company CONTACT Software, the leading provider of solutions for the product process and digital transformation.

Additional Information:

Official website of the RoboCup 2018: http://www.robocup2018.com
Official website of the Standard Platform League: http://spl.robocup.org
Website of B-Human: http://www.b-human.de
B-Human on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/pennybhuman
B-Human on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/teambhuman
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Corporate Communications Bremen
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Tel.: +49 421 17845-4180
E-mail: uk-hb@dfki.de

A Reimagining of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

As a fitting farewell to the stage, the Foules are taking a new approach to the production of an old friend: comedy or tragedy – which one will win? Their not-so-dreamy midsummer night’s dream leads from the modern comfort of the city into the mysterious depths of the forest – where, rather than Wi-Fi, only magic lies in the air. The play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream (more or less ...)” combines Shakespeare’s classic with additional material from “The Popular Mechanicals” by Tony Taylor and stand-up comedian Keith Robinson, as well as the familiar Foules elements of live music, dance, and a touch of madness.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream (more or less ...)” will premiere on June 27, 2018, at the Schnürschuh Theater on Buntentorsteinweg 145 in Bremen. More shows will follow on June 28, 29, and 30, 2018. Curtain for each show is at 7 p.m., and tickets cost 13 euros (9 euros for students).

Additional Information:

www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kultur/foules
www.schnuerschuh-theater.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Contact:

Michael Claridge
Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-68181
E-mail: claridge@uni-bremen.de

Interdisciplinary approach

“We pursue an interdisciplinary research approach,” says the professor. “We want to examine the influence of past policies on the current state of the economy in the eastern part of Germany.” What does the "legacy of the GDR" mean for the economy? How can we explain the visible structural weaknesses in the East of Germany today? What are the long-term effects of past socialist policies and the transformation that started in 1990? The project members also want to investigate what has become of the intellectual potential of GDR scholars and scientists. And what role does the “Wendegeneration” so decisively shaped in the period of transition play, for example, in the area of start-up activities? These and many other questions can only be analyzed and brought together in a large collaborative research group working with pluralistic methods.

Past structural deficits

“These are highly complex questions,” says Jutta Günther. She is happy, though, about the mix of disciplines and research methods. For example, economic historians and political sociologists from the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) are just as involved as science sociologists from the TU Berlin and economists at the University of Jena. “So far, we have the general economic finding that the economy in East Germany reveals a productivity gap of a good 20 percent compared with the West,” says the expert. “But in order to understand why, we must not content ourselves with a present-day perspective, but also illuminate the structural deficiencies of the past. Only in this way, almost 30 years after the end of the GDR and the subsequent transformation period, will we be able to better understand today's situation.” The project team hopes to gain special insights by making comparisons between developments in the GDR / Eastern Germany with those in neighboring Central and Eastern European countries. The Research Centre for Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen has assumed a special task. Under the direction of Professor Heiko Pleines, a doctoral student will examine the simultaneous situation in Poland and the Czech Republic. All in all, the project wants to examine the tension arising from the hurdles typical of state socialism, on the one hand, and the creative potentials on the other.

What is the expected outcome?

“International research papers, doctoral dissertations, habilitations, high-level conferences and in the end also a book on the overall findings,” says the Bremen economist. All members of the research project place great value on the transfer of research results. “We work together with memorial sites, associations, museums and collections,” she emphasizes. “We don’t intend to conduct our research isolated in an ivory tower, but want to communicate our findings to the public at large.” Ultimately, the scientists hope to derive recommendations for future action and they expect their results will help to resolve contemporary issues.

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther
Research Group Coordinator
Professor of Economics, Innovation and Structural Economics
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 666 30
Email: jutta.guenther@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Heiko Pleines
Research Center for East European Studies
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 69602
Email: pleines@uni-bremen.de

Approval process does not sufficiently reflect the impact

Juliane Filser is a member of a group of experts who convened at the invitation of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Together with other authors, Filser vividly shows that the current authorization procedures for pesticides fail to reflect many of the environmental effects on agricultural land. The expert group recommends adapting the authorization procedures for pesticides in order to make their use more environmentally friendly. Based on the example of the weedkiller glyphosate and the pesticide group of neonicotinoids, they illustrate, for example, the deficits in the authorization procedures and make recommendations on how they could be improved.

Expert group calls for observation system

According to Filser, “Crop protection products are often longer detectable in soil and water than intended under the authorization. Even after they have become degraded, they can still have delayed effects.” Together with the expert group, she is therefore proposing a system of observation that will examine the long-term effects of pesticides on ecosystems. They also recommend a phased authorization process over an initially limited period and area of use.

Ecosystems are exposed to a pesticide cocktail

In agricultural practice, several pesticides are spread over the fields by means of tank mixes in spraying sequences. As a result, ecosystems are mainly exposed to mixtures of pesticides. According to the expert group, though, so far there has been very little research on precisely how these mixtures impact on the environment. They therefore recommend taking greater account of agricultural practice and the real environmental situation in the risk assessment. The risk assessment already looks at how pesticides affect so-called non-target organisms. These are the plants and animals to which the pesticide is not directly applied, but which can be affected by its spread in the soil and water. The experts also recommend that this aspect should receive more attention than is currently the case.

New process offers advantages for pesticide industry

“The phased authorization process we are proposing would also have benefits for the crop protection industry,” says Juliane Filser. As a result, substances that pose no risk to health or the environment could be applied earlier under field conditions, with the consequence that the entire process would be shortened and the associated costs significantly reduced.

More information under:

https://www.leopoldina.org/publikationen/detailansicht/publication/der-stumme-fruehling-zur-notwendigkeit-eines-umweltvertraeglichen-pflanzenschutzes-2018/
www.uni-bremen.de

Members of the press please note: Professor Juliane Filser is available for interviews. You can find her photo under the following link and you are welcome to use it with due mention of copyright: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/d/203ce7cfa9494df39d71/?dl=1  .

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Juliane Filser
General and Theoretical Ecology
Faculty of Biology / Chemistry
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-63470
Email: filser@uni-bremen.de   

Visualizing unequal gender relations with situation comedy   

The aim of the postcard series is to raise awareness of informal, gender-related mechanisms present in the everyday working life of scientific-technical research networks. “It's about making people aware of unconscious patterns of thought, action and evaluation that tend to be based on male-dominated normative images,” explains Anneliese Niehoff, leader of the Equal Opportunities / Antidiscrimination Unit at the University of Bremen. Susan Köppen, leader of a subproject at Graduate School QM³, relates: “The cartoon project was a great opportunity to reflect on and exchange views on our everyday gender relationships in the workplace. The humorous approach made it easy for us to examine the many little moments in which we behave in a stereotypical manner.”

Exhibition and discussion

On Thursday, June 21, 2018, the cartoons will be presented in public for the first time at an exhibition (12.00 to 1.30 p.m.). In a podium discussion, the project participants want to share their experiences made in the development process leading to the cartoon series and discuss the opportunities presented by new approaches to gender with such communicative projects. The participants will include cartoonist Bettina Bexte, Professor Lucio Colombi Ciacchi (speaker of the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes), Professor Emily King, subproject leader of the Research Training Group pi³, and Dr Susan Köppen, subproject leader of the Research Training Group QM³. The discussion will be moderated by Anneliese Niehoff, Head of the Unit Equal Opportunities / Anti-Discrimination. The venue is the seminar room Cape Town in the LION building of the Bremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology (BIAS) in Klagenfurter Strasse 5.

More information under:

www.uni-bremen.de/chancengleichheit
www.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Anneliese Niehoff
Anna-Lena Vallentin
Unit Equal Opportunities / Anti-Discrimination
University of Bremen
Phone:  +49 421 218-60189
E-Mail: chancen1@uni-bremen.de

Meanwhile, the two have developed a prototype. Although ProtoKARL does not yet provide users with any personalized recommendations for action. “Interested parties are invited to have a little chat with him,” says Kirsten Hillebrand. “ProtoKARL can supply recipes or facts about the environment, or you can get news the latest news about the project.”

How do you talk to ProtoKARL?

The user can communicate with him in the same way as with a friend via the messenger service “Telegram”. This works much like WhatsApp and is very popular with young people. To start the chat, just look for the username “@Oekobot” – and off you go. “The first users will certainly have to be a little patient with him. However, as the quality of the information it supplies depends on the amount of data it is fed with, it increases with each interaction.”

Co-founder sought with IT background

KARL currently requires a great deal of manual data entry. So that it can automatically give personalized tips in the medium term on the basis of user data, the two economists are in need of an optimized IT infrastructure. They have applied for funding from a start-up program. “We are looking for a co-founder with an IT background," says Hendrik Hinrichs. If you are interested, you can contact the KARL team and receive details of the offered position.

On the start-up stage in Hanover

Meanwhile, others have become aware of the project involving an electronic consultant for environmentally friendly and sustainable lifestyles. Kirsten Hillebrand and Hendrik Hinrichs will present their KARL on Friday, June 15, 2018, from 11.10 to 12 pm on the start-up stage of the CeBIT in Hanover. “Tech for Good: Using new technologies for social impact” is the topic. The two developers from the University of Bremen are looking forward to the event.

More information under:

http://www.klimakarl.de/

http://unihb.eu/0SK4W092

www.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Kirsten Hillebrand
Research Associate
University of Bremen
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
Chair for Business Administration with a focus on
Financial Services and Financial Technologies
Phone: 0170 2984 375
Email: kirsten@klimakarl.de

Hendrik Hinrichs
Phone: 0176 61335 522
Emal: hendrik@klimakarl.de

The plot of the grotesque comedy:

A nurse has been murdered in the mental hospital Les Cerisier – by a patient who thinks he is the famous physicist Einstein. Inspector Voss, charged with investigating the case, has his hands tied. It seems Einstein is mentally ill, so he cannot arrest him. Little by little, one learns that three months previously, another patient, who believes to be Newton, also murdered his nurse. And yet a third physicist patient, Möbius, believes King Solomon regularly appears to him to reveal his wisdom. Möbius – by profession a nuclear physicist – is really a genius, though, and the discoverer of a brilliant but lethal physical formula.

The modern-day reference:

Friedrich Dürrenmatt wrote “Die Physiker” (the physicists) in 1961 as a grotesque comedy. The classic piece raises questions that are just as relevant today as they were then. Can one keep a research finding secret once it has been made – however dangerous it may be – and like Möbius, escape to the madhouse so that nobody gets their hands on it? Can one try to prevent new knowledge being abused by commercial or political interests? “Everything imaginable can be thought up, now or in the future. Something that Solomon found can also be found by others. For “what has been revealed is no longer a secret,” says the director of the mental institution Zahnd to the three scientists. In essence, the piece focuses on the responsibility of the scientist regarding the problem issues arising from the human drive for knowledge and the use of research findings on the part of private or state interests, with all the potentially dangerous consequences this entails.

Tickets:

Theater InCognito’s staging of “Die Physiker” premiers on Tuesday, 19th June19th, 2018, in the theater hall of the University of Bremen. Further performances will be on the 20th, 21st, 29th and 30th of June. The curtain goes up at 8 pm. Tickets can be reserved on the website of the theater InCognito: www.theaterinCognito.de

Members of the press please note:

You can download images of the performance under seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/74a8b1140f2445fbbb73/

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Franz Josef Eggstein
Adjunct Lecturer in the Faculty of Cultural Studies
University of Bremen
Phone: 0160 98315624
Email: f.eggstein1@web.de

High-ranking representatives from the European Commission, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the responsible state ministries as well as research and funding organizations will be participating in the event. The main topic of the conference will be elucidated in a panel discussion titled “The 9th Framework Program of the EU - Opportunities and Challenges for German Science”.

Public participation in research 

Other topics include public participation in research and science communication. In addition to these broader cross-cutting issues, there will be a panel discussion on the strategic use of Marie Skłodowska-Curie measures to promote the transnational mobility of researchers. There will also be interactive workshops on current topics of EU research funding. A program highlight is the evening reception in Bremen's city hall on June 20, hosted by the Bremen Senate (Senator for Science, Health and Consumer Protection Bremen).

About KoWi and its federal conference 

KoWi is a joint service platform of the major German science organizations. It is funded by the German Research Foundation and has offices in Bonn and Brussels. KoWi supports researchers in Germany in the competition for funding from the EU Framework Program by providing information, advice and training. As a rule, once a year and at changing locations it organizes the “KoWi-Bundestagung”, a conference on EU research and innovation funding. The first federal conference was hosted in Dresden in 1993.

More information under:

www.kowi-bundestagung.de (in German only) 
www.kowi-bundestagung.de/frontend/converia/media/KoWi2018/Agenda.pdf (program in german only)
www.uni-bremen.de/en 

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Andrea Gottlieb
Staff Unit 12 – Research and Early-Career Researchers 
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 60322
Email: eu@vw.uni-bremen.de 

Isabel Herzhoff
EU Cooperation Office of Scientific Organizations (KoWi) 
Phone: +49 228 95997-14
Email: isabel.herzhoff@kowi.de 

More information under:

https://onoc.eu/
www.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:
Dennis Schürholz
ONOC Organization Team
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
University of Bremen
Email: info@onoc.eu

“The goals fit in with the University’s diversity strategy”

Helga Grubitzsch attaches great importance to promoting access to studies and establishing the ability to study for young women with a refugee background. “I have no heirs,” says the donor. “That's why I've been thinking for a long time about how I can put my assets to meaningful and sustainable use in the long term through making a testament for after my death.” Together with the University of Bremen Foundation, which is to become a trustee, she has developed statutes and guidelines for the award of scholarships. Helga Grubitzsch is very satisfied with her decision to approach the University Foundation for her endowment idea. As the University’s Director of Finance and Administration Martin Mehrtens underscores: “The goals of the planned foundation fit in well with the University of Bremen’s diversity strategy”. The interface between school and university will be anchored as “a major topic” on campus. Dr. Mehrtens continues: “For refugees, the transition from high school to university studies is still less than satisfactory”. Also the Vice President Diversity and International, Prof. Dr. Eva Feichtner, who was also present at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, showed herself impressed by the foundation's goal and was pleased it is to be realized under the fiduciary umbrella of the University.

About the person:

Helga Grubitzsch was born in Berlin in 1943. She studied Latin, Psychology and Romance Studies in Cologne and Mainz, did her doctorate and later habilitated. Her work as a university lecturer in Bremen was followed by a call to the University of Paderborn, where Professor Grubitzsch subsequently researched and taught the subject comparative literatures. The focus of her interest has always been on women. Numerous books together with female co-authors testify to the results of this work. “Freiheit für die Frauen - Freiheit für das Volk! sozialistische Frauen in Frankreich” (Freedom for women - freedom for the people! Socialist women in France); “Grenzgängerinnen, revolutionäre Frauen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert” (Frontier Women, Revolutionary Women in the 18th and 19th Centuries); “Weibliche Wirklichkeit und männliche Phantasien” (Female Reality and Male Fantasies); and “Veränderungen kultureller Selbstwahrnehmungen von ostdeutschen und osteuropäischen Frauen nach 1989” (Changes in Cultural Self-Perceptions of East German and Eastern European Women after 1989) are selected titles of her scholarly books. On her return to Bremen, she embarked on a completely new path after her retirement from the academic realm. Following her interests, Helga Grubitzsch has completed a course of therapeutic training: bioenergetics, poetry and bibliotherapy, addiction counseling, existential analysis and logotherapy are now among her additional specialties. Since 2001 she works independently in her own practice in Bremen where she offers courses for creative and biographical writing.

Memories of the University of Bremen in its founding years

Helga Grubitzsch was already involved in the University during its founding years. It annoys her when people talk badly about this time in public. “There were really good offers such as project studies, where a topic could be examined in an interdisciplinary manner from all sides,” she recalls. By way of contrast: In Paderborn at that time “the subjects were as closed as walled battlements”. In Bremen, members of faculty were committed to revolutionizing teacher training. “It should become practice-oriented and socially relevant.” She put her whole heart into this endeavor. Martin Mehrtens affirms: “We have inherited many positive things from our founding years: Interdisciplinary cooperation and research-based learning are just two examples.” Internal cooperation is still one of the great strengths of the University of Bremen. Team spirit is a high value on campus. Founder Grubitzsch likes to hear it: “The University of Bremen is part of my story,” she said.

More information under:

http://www.kaleidoskop-kreativ.de/biografiearbeit/kontakt.php

Members of the press please note:

You can download a photo with caption and source at the following link: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/ec7e7b300c784320987b/

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Christina Jung
Department 1: Teaching, Research and Planning
University of Bremen
Phone: +49-421-218-60336
Email: stiftung@vw.uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Helga Grubitzsch
Phone: +49-421- 34 66 64 7
Email: info@kaleidoskop-kreativ.de

What should living together be like in Germany and Europe? What role do borders play? How can we use the digital space as a democratic platform? These are just a few examples of the questions that young people from the age of 15 can tackle during the Democracy Workshop. They will be supported by the Bremen Youtuber Fabian Nolte. Together they will create their own videos to make their ideas and demands public.

International exchange via Twitter and Videos

The Democracy Workshop will take place simultaneously in several European cities from July 23 to 27, 2018. During the Bremen workshop, participants can exchange ideas and develop common ones with young people from Aarhus, Budapest and Krakow using Twitter and video messages.

Offered by the Center for Labor and Political Education

The Democracy Workshop is offered by the Center for Labor and Political Education (zap) at the University of Bremen. In the workshop, young people develop ideas for a sustainable democratic society. They formulate specific recommendations for action, which they then present to politics and the public. The format is part of the EU project "European Learning Environment Formats for Citizenship and Democracy" (ELEF), which aims to strengthen democratic core values and by doing so to counteract radicalization tendencies.

Further information:

www.uni-bremen.de/zap  (in German only)

www.uni-bremen.de/en.html

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Julia Gantenberg
Center for Labor and Political Education (zap)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-56711
EMail: gantenberg@uni-bremen.de

Four Start-Ups introduce themselves

This time the event focuses on four start-ups and their stories: Viktoria Theorahova produces individually tailor-made hoodies with the brand name HUDDY. She has already opened a shop in the Neustadt suburb of Bremen. Joost den Haan develops the “Google Maps” of the underwater world. His company called HyperSurvey has already taken first place in the category “business ideas” in the competition CAMPUSiDEEN 2017. Tin Phan and Christopher Nottrodt offer insights into their start-up Freedom Media. They have set themselves the goal of turning companies into well-known brands. Last but not least, Thorsten Bausch reports on his supermarket of the future called myenso, where the customer determines what is offered.

After the short interviews, there will be the opportunity to talk to the founders and other stakeholders and make new contacts. The venue is room B3009 in building GW2 at the University of Bremen.

The Start-Up Lounge is organized by the university initiative “BRIDGE – founders from Bremen universities” in cooperation with STARTHAUS.

About BRIDGE and STARTHAUS:

BRIDGE is the central point of contact for students and members of the universities interested in the topic of starting up a business. The sponsors of the university BRIDGE initiative are the University of Bremen, the City University of Applied Sciences Bremen, the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven and the Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH. BRIDGE has set itself the goal of improving the start-up climate at all the participating universities and promoting promising ideas with start-up potential at an early stage.

The STARTHAUS is the central contact point for all potential start-up entrepreneurs and young companies in Bremen and Bremerhaven.

Further information and registration:

http://www.bridge-online.de/kurse/programm/7-bremer-startup-lounge-2018.html
http://www.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Meike Goos
UniTransfer / BRIDGE Start-Up Support
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60346
Email: meike.goos@vw.uni-bremen.de

Testing novel methods

Reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases requires their effective monitoring. The aim of the research flights in Poland is therefore to test novel methods for the determination of regional methane emissions using the Katowice region as an example. Data gathered from the various measuring systems – ground, aircraft and satellite sensors – are currently being collected to be later collated and provide a more detailed picture of methane emissions there. The Polish partners are active on site with ground-based measurements and they also establish contact with the coal mine operators.

Worldwide unique sensor

In the research aircraft provided by the Free University of Berlin, the University of Bremen uses its unique methane and CO2 sensor MAMAP (Methane Airborne MAPer). “MAMAP enables us to record the spatial distribution of methane,” says Bremen physicist Konstantin Gerilowski, who developed MAMAP. Flight-meteorological experiences are essential for successful deployment and data interpretation. This expertise is present at the Free University of Berlin. “A special challenge for the ongoing measurement campaign is to be able to make precise temporal predictions regarding the currently prevailing cloud formation,” says Dr. Thomas Ruhtz, a research assistant at the Free University of Berlin. These meteorological predictions are important for the coordination of all ground- based and airborne measurements. The University of Bremen has been cooperating successfully for over ten years with the Free University of Berlin in the field of research flights for the measurement of air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

Part of a larger research project

The CoMet project is part of a larger research project: From mid-May to mid-June 2018, an experimental airborne mission under the direction of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will measure the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) over Europe. The German research aircraft HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft) equipped with innovative instruments for measuring greenhouse gases is also involved in the project. The Bremen and Berlin contribution to the CoMet project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

More information under:

https://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10081/151_read-27980/#/gallery/1725
http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/deu/
https://userpage.fu-berlin.de/geoiss/de/home.html
www.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Heinrich Bovensmann
Institute for Environmental Physics (IUP)
Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Email: Heinrich.Bovensmann@uni-bremen.de (during the research flights in Poland) 
Phone: +49 421 218 62102 (as of approx. June 18, 2018)

Dr. Thomas Ruhtz
Institute for Space Sciences
Faculty of Geosciences
Free University of Berlin
Email: ruhtz@zedat.fu-berlin.de (during the research flights in Poland)
Phone: +49 30 49 30 838 56 662 (as of approx. June 18, 2018)

Dr. Andreas Fix  
Institute of Atmospheric Physics
German Aerospace Center – Institute of Space Systems (DLR)
Phone: +49 81 53 282 -577
Email: andreas.fix@dlr.de

The picture book artist and illustrator Tobias Krejtschi

Born in 1980 in Dresden, Tobias Krejtschi studied illustration in Hamburg. In 2001, he illustrated the book "Wie Hagen Siegfried feig erstach im Odenwald, bei Amorbach", and in 2004 he provided illustrations for the children's CD by Anne Thiel "Lula und das fliegende Bett." Tobias Krejtschi is the winner of the illustration competition announced by the Peter Hammer publishing house in 2006 on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. The picture book "Die schlaue Mama Sambona" (Text: Hermann Schulz), which emerged from the competition, was nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize 2008. During his upcoming visit to Bremen, he will deliver an overview of his previous projects under the title "From Idea to Picture Book".

The Bremen Institute for Picture Book Research (BIBF)

The Bremen Institute for Picture Book Research (BIBF) is part of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Science at the University of Bremen. The centerpiece and communication center is a picture book library with 1,600 books, which is primarily used by students. Together with the Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar, the institute awards the picture book prize HUCKEPACK once a year.

More information under:

www.tobiaskrejtschi.de/de/Buecher/index.html  
www.bibf.uni-bremen.de   
www.uni-bremen.de 
 

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact :

Dr. Elisabeth Hollerweger
Bremen Institute for Picture Book Research (BIBF)
Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-69439
Email: hollerweger@uni-bremen.de 

"What connects art and science is human curiosity and imagination," says Claudia Sobich, public relations officer for the Collaborative Research Center, who had the idea for the project. She invited art students from the Kunstschule Wandsbek to come to the University of Bremen and get involved with  the CRC in an unconventional undertaking. How do students from a non-related discipline view the scientific work of the CRC? What ideas and analogies come to their minds, and how would they describe them? Together with Ingo Wiegand, a lecturer for experimental design at the Wandsbek art school, they developed a thematic framework they call  "Adding System to Coincidence".
Coincidence and system

"This basically sums up what we want to achieve with the development of our novel 'colored states' method," says Professor Lutz Mädler, spokesman for the CRC. Despite the existence of high-performance computers, materials research still relies on the long-established principle of trial and error. This type of research is laborious and must be experience-based. Coincidence has little chance here. In order to be able to meet the increasingly complex requirements placed on modern materials, the CRC is working on a new method in which metallic micro samples are submitted to high-throughput tests. This fast and efficient process and the special formula aimed at calculating the properties of the tested materials should make coincidence quasi predictable.

The students from the art school were inspired by this scientific process. They have subsequently created some interactive exhibits and installations, all of which are related to the CRC’s research and yet provide a very unique perspective on the subject of coincidence and system.

Action day and exhibition

At which interfaces and in which spaces can science be communicated? In the course of this unusual project, new ways are being tried out. "From 2 to 6 p.m. on June 2, we will present ourselves at the Hanseatenhof to the people of Bremen with our research and the exhibits developed by the artists – and we are curious to see what resonance we will receive," says Lutz Mädler, already looking forward to the day. The exhibits – that include a light installation, Chladni sound patterns and a conclusion room – will invite visitors to reflect, try out and ask questions. Following CRC action day, the exhibition moves to the citylab for the month of June (formerly Lloydhof, citylab-bremen.de).

The project is funded by the University of Bremen Foundation.

About the CRC 1232 "Colored States"

The Collaborative Research Center 1232 "From Colored States to Evolutionary Construction Materials" at the University of Bremen is a cross-institute interdisciplinary research network. It is developing a novel experimental method of materials development. The overall objective is to efficiently and purposefully find compositions and process chains for new metallic construction materials that meet a specific requirement profile. The CRC 1232 was established in 2016 and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). More than 50 scientists from the fields of production engineering, process engineering, materials engineering, mathematics and computer science conduct interdisciplinary research here.

About the Wandsbek art school in Bremen

The Kunstschule Wandsbek is a vocational school for communication design in Bremen and Hamburg. The approx. 220 students in Bremen learn their future profession in seven semesters that encompass a broad design spectrum. Classroom activities are frequently augmented with project-oriented work, such as exhibitions of the group "Young Blood" in the Weserburg or the voluntary support of advertising measures for non-profit organizations.

More information under:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/farbige-zustaende/%C3%B6ffentlichkeit-presse/dem-zufall-system-geben.html
www.sfb1232.de
www.kunstschule-wandsbek.de
www.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Claudia Sobich
Sonderforschungsbereich „Farbige Zustände“
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit/Wissenschaftskommunikation
Tel.: +49 421 218 51232
E-Mail: wiko@sfb1232.de

Ingo Wiegand
Kunstschule Wandsbek, Bremen
Dozent Visuelle Kommunikation
Tel.: +49 160 91643528
E-Mail: i.wiegand@kw-bremen.de

There is still not enough accommodation available for all the people coming. The University is therefore appealing to the population of Bremen to help out. If you would like to provide accommodation for an international guest for a rent of 280 euro during this time, you can contact the summer course office at the University of Bremen in the foreign language center.

More information:

University of Bremen
Foreign Language Center of the Universities in the State of Bremen
Summer Course Office
Phone: +49 421 218 61965
Email: sommerkurs@uni-bremen.de

The four students, who are participating in the competition organized by the association "Unternehmen für Bremen", are enrolled on the master's program at the LEMEX, the chair for small and medium-sized enterprises, business start-ups and entrepreneurship occupied by Professor Jörg Freiling. "We wanted to offer a sustainable alternative solution for the many discarded coffee-to-go cups," says Lucian Suhrhoff from the Cup2date team. And the idea has so far been very well received. Anyone who buys their coffee in such a disposable cup can return it to one of the participating cafés, where it is cleaned and made ready to use again. The cups are made of a food-grade, dishwasher-compatible and recyclable plastic. Although it might sound somewhat illogical to replace cardboard with plastic, it is not. You have to know that the conventional disposable paper cups have a plastic coating, which means you cannot cleanly separate the materials from each other and recycle them. The students have designed the sustainable “Bremer Becher” with an illustration of their own.

Objectives of the campaign

By participating in the crowd-funding campaign, which runs until June 20, they are pursuing two goals. "In the first stage we want to raise 7,000 euro, which," says Suhrhoff. "…will allow us to buy and design a lot of new reusable cups. We intend to illustrate the cups with a skyline of Bremen." The second goal, the acquisition of 15,000 euro, should enable them to expand into a nationwide sales network and develop their own logistics. They want to launch a business start-up. "If people support us with money, they will in return receive a thank you from us. This could include, for example, a joint coffee and cake party, Barista courses or Bremen coffee specialties," emphasizes the team spokesman.

More information under this link to the Crowd-funding campaign: https://www.startnext.com/cup2date
Link to the competition: https://ideenfuerbremen.de/
Link to the project Cup2date: http://unihb.eu/IWXZYOMI

Achtung Redaktionen: Unter diesem Link finden Sie ein Foto, das unter Angabe des Copyrights verwendet werden kann https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/b3779f58ed2145b6ae1e/

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Merle Ridder
University of Bremen
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
Projekt “Cup2date”
Phone:+49 176 721 35 104
Email: team@cup2date.de

Joint declaration signed in Brussels 

The seven universities from the Young European Research Universities Network (YERUN) will submit applications under the leadership of the University of Maastricht. In Brussels, they met under the acronym YUFE – Young Universities for the Future of Europe – and signed a joint statement on the core content of the application. The University of Bremen is on board, as well as the University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy), the University of Antwerp (Belgium), the University of Eastern Finland, the Universidad Carlos III Madrid (Spain), and the University of Essex (Great Britain).

“We see ourselves as a pilot group” 

“We are thrilled to be part of the YERUN core group,” says Professor Eva-Maria Feichtner, Vice President Diversity and International at the University of Bremen. “Our partnership focuses on integrating teaching and research, new mobility concepts and intensive institutional exchange. Several students were also present at the meeting in Brussels and will continue to play a crucial role in shaping the application.”

Over the summer months, the universities of the YEFU initiative will engage in a close exchange so they will be ready to launch concrete plans for the agreed core content in autumn. “We will be able to rely on the many innovative approaches in the YERUN network,” says Eva-Maria Feichtner. “We see ourselves as a pilot group for the benefit of the entire YERUN network.”

About YERUN

The “Young European Research Universities Network”, YERUN for short, was formed in 2014. The network encompasses 18 strong research European universities that are less than 50 years old. YERUN gives a voice to the young universities in Europe.

More information under:

www.yerun.eu  
www.uni-bremen.de/en   
 

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Feichtner
Vice President Diversity and International 
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60040
Email: kon3@uni-bremen.de    

There are dozens of city guides and district maps on the market. But very rarely do they provide the information older people are looking for: Where can I go for a walk? Where are there park benches to rest on, where are the toilets? Where can I find meeting points for seniors or counseling services? In the frame of the EU project called “Mobile Age”, the Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) developed the prototype of such a neighborhood guide that contains precisely this kind of information.

Since the end of January 2018, the Bremen district of Osterholz has had an interactive digital neighborhood guide containing details of 70 facilities such as meeting points for seniors, counseling centers, offers of sports and cultural events as well as 17 beautiful green areas and paths. By means of a map or a list of small photos, you can search for the information you want and access details. The information on attractive walks and where to go also includes whether there are benches and toilets.

With the participation of senior citizens in Hemelingen

Now the suburb of Hemelingen is also to benefit from the ifib expertise. With the help of local people active in the outreach work of Netzwerk Alte Vielfalt and elderly residents, a total of seven walks are described in the districts of Hemelingen, Hastedt, Seebaldsbrück, Mahndorf and Arbergen. Senior citizens took in information, wrote texts, took pictures and made videos about the walks and individual stations along the way. They were also able to learn some new things about the area they live in and about digital technologies.

Interested members of the public and the media attending the launch on Wednesday, 23 May 2018, 10:30 a.m., in Bürgerhaus Hemelingen (Godehardstraße 4, 28309 Bremen) will be able to learn how the neighborhood guide for Hemelingen works and what it offers, who exactly was involved and how this result can be transferred to other parts of the city. Representatives of the Institute for Information Management as well as residents and the participants involved will be there to present their work and answer questions. For older citizens who might not be familiar with digital media, a printed version of the digital walkways will be distributed at the same time.

MEMBERS OF THE PRESS: An informative film about the idea of a digital neighborhood guide and how it can be realized can be found under: https://vimeo.com/225376546

You can find photos illustrating how the Hemelingen neighborhood guide project was implemented under: https://ifibinstitut-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/jjarke_ifib_de/EmFgDYQp4LJGmxoh2bml8pMBTm1P1NbePDphhm4iIRUwfg?e=ZFza77

There is a comprehensive University of Bremen press release describing the start of the first digital neighborhood guide in January 2018 and further information under: https://bit.ly/2IjaOEw

About ifib: The Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) is an independent affiliated institute of the University of Bremen. The focus of the work done there is on the handling of information and IT management in public administration, in schools and universities as well as in associations and similar. The institute staff combines research and consulting. In so doing, they focus on the requirements of the respective field of application rather than the technology involved www.ifib.de.

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Juliane Jarke
Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-56586
Email: jarke@uni-bremen.de
www.ifib.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Only sociologist among the experts in the commission

Simone Scherger is the only sociologist among the three members from the realm of academia. She has been a professor of sociology at the University of Bremen with a focus on life-course oriented social policy since April 2018. This is an endowed professorship financed by the “Funding Network Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research” embedded in the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

Individual life courses in view

Simone Scherger’s research focuses on the connection between life courses and social policy. These include, for example, the risks of changing employment patterns and ways of life as well as the effects of labor market reforms on individual life courses and provision for old-age. Simone Scherger is especially interested in how certain groups – such as women, people with a migrant background or reduced earnings capacity and the self- employed – deal with social risks during their life course and in everyday life. From 2010 to 2017, Simone Scherger headed the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group “Gainful employment beyond the retirement age in Germany and the UK” at SOCIUM.

More information under:

www.socium.uni-bremen.de/ueber-das-socium/mitglieder/simone-scherger/
www.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Simone Scherger
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58569
Email: simone.scherger@uni-bremen.de

Unique in Germany

One focal point is the empirical-analytical examination of a digital society characterized by media. This is based on an integrative concept that links communication and media studies with media informatics, media education, study of religions, and film studies. The focus on current and future social developments and challenges related to digitalization is innovative and so far unique in Germany.

Societal background

Digitalization is increasingly changing our everyday lives. The rapidly growing importance of digital data is also changing the role of the media and means of communication in society and what we mean by media and communication sciences. Digitalization and data collection require that career starters critically reconsider the role that media and communication devices play in people’s everyday lives. This also applies to processes in politics, business and culture. The intensive analysis of these developments in different areas of society is a central theme of the new “MA Digital Media and Society”. This puts the degree program at the forefront of these developments and qualifies students for key positions in the digital society, both in the media practice as well as in academia.

More information in the University of Bremen’s Studies Database: https://www.datenbankstudium.uni-bremen.de/studienangebot/studien-berufsfelder/kultur-medien-kunst-musik/detail/study/digital-media-and-society-master/

The ZeMKI homepage: http://www.zemki.uni-bremen.de/de/lehre.html

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Leif Kramp
Center for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)
University of Bremen
Faculty of Cultural Studies
Phone: +49 421 218-67652
Email: kramp@uni-bremen.de

Developing a model of good practice

The basic objective of the e-Research and IT infrastructure project is to develop a model of good practice for the provision of research software in the field of media and communication. In order for this to fit as closely as possible to the needs of media and communication research and to build a sustainable community of researchers using and developing the software, the project is based on a so-called co-creation approach. Its purpose is to ensure the long-term development and accessibility of the research software. The goal is to improve the security, applicability, usability, and accessibility of MedTag and MedSort software and to make it easier for media and communications researchers and participants in research projects who do not have specialist technical knowledge to gain easier access to the software.

“Building a community of researchers”

“Compared to other approaches in software development, we enable users of the software to have a far-reaching influence on the development process,” says project leader Professor Andreas Hepp. “The idea is to build a community of researchers who use the software and at the same time participate in its further development to a business model.” At the same time we want to be able to anchor the software firmly in the interdisciplinary field of empirical media and communication research and step by step open the developed infrastructure to other types of software in the research field.

More information under:

www.kofi.uni-bremen.de/en/ 
www.uni-bremen.de/en   

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof.Dr. Andreas Hepp
Center for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) 
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67620
Email: andreas.hepp@uni-bremen.de   

Research on German Intelligenzblättern

The Bremer Institut für deutsche Presseforschung (Bremen institute for German press research) has extensively researched the German Intelligenzblättern, i.e. local news and information periodicals. In 2017, Professor Holger Böning published the book “Justus Möser: Anwalt der praktischen Vernunft. Der Aufklärer, Publizist und Intelligenzblattherausgeber” in the series “Presse und Geschichte”.

Guided tours possible

Members of the public are welcome to attend the opening of the exhibition titled “Aufklärung & Tradition – Justus Möser (1720–1794) Politiker und Publizist” on Thursday, May 17, 2018, at 5 p.m. in the foyer of the Bremen State and University Library. Welcoming addresses will be held by Maria Elisabeth Müller, Director of the Bremen State and University Library, and Professor Holger Böning, Institute for German Press Research at the University of Bremen. This will be followed by a thematic introduction and a tour with curator Martin Siemsen from Osnabrück. And after this, the Freundeskreis der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek (Friends of the State and University Library) invite you to a drink. When the exhibition ends on July 24, 2018, 5 p.m., there will be a public tour with the exhibition curator. Further tours are possible by appointment.

More information under: www.suub.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Maria Elisabeth Müller
Direktor of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-59400
Email: direktion@suub.uni-bremen.de

A tale of joy and hardship

What’s it all about? A hundred and fifty years ago, on May 24, 1868, Captain Koldewey and his eleven-man crew embarked for the Arctic on the sailing vessel “Grönland”. The voyage is the very first German polar expedition recorded in the history books. Just one year later, in June 1869, Koldewey started the second German North Polar Expedition. What drove the polar researchers to undertake such dangerous missions into the icy wilderness? With what experiences and insights did they return, if at all? How did the results of their expeditions change our ideas of the world? What political and economic interests were in play? Researchers such as Alfred Wegener, Johannes Georgi, Fritz Löwe and Ernst Sorge come to life in the reading. They relate their experiences of loneliness and cold, conflicts and friendship, of the long separation from their wives and also the importance of their four-legged companions.
The premiere will take place on May 23 at 7 p.m. at the German Maritime Museum and on May 28 at 7.30 p.m. in the Theater am Leibnizplatz. Further performances are on June 12, and June 20, at 7.30 p.m., in the Theater am Leibnizplatz. The tickets cost 13 euro each (reduced rate 6 euro).

“Out of the files, onto the stage” wins theater competition

Students of history and actors and actresses of the bremer shakespeare company under the direction of Dr. Eva Schöck-Quinteros and Peter Lüchinger have been creating theatrical reading performances based on original documents since 2007. The aim is to bring files to life on the stage and in this way to make historical research accessible to a wide audience. The project “Out of the files, onto the stage” has already received several awards.
Recently, there was another reason to celebrate: The project won the ideas competition “Theater Makes History. Artistic Interventions for the Future” supported by the foundation Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft. It was awarded 37,000 euro for the realization of the theatrical production "No refuge. Nowhere: Neither on land nor at sea". The production deals with the failure of the international community at the Evian Conference in July 1938, which was unable to agree on granting asylum to 500,000 German and Austrian Jewish citizens. Associated with the award is a lecture performance to be held in June 2018 at the Sommertheater in Leipzig.

More information under:

www.sprechende-akten.de
www.shakespeare-company.com/repertoire/vom-eis-gebissen-im-eis-vergraben
www.dsm.museum/info/veranstaltungen/vom-eis-gebissen-im-eis-vergraben.6672.de.html
https://www.awi.de/ueber-uns/service/archiv-fuer-deutsche-polarforschung.html

If you would like to know more, feel free to contact:

Dr. Eva Schöck-Quinteros
Institut für Geschichtswissenschaft
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67251
Email: esq@uni-bremen.de

One of the biggest dangers when working underground is the collapse of ceilings and walls: Workers are often cut off from the outside world or completely buried. It is often extremely difficult for rescue teams to locate the trapped miners, especially since the tunnels are now being driven deeper and deeper into the ground. Many workers are found too late, if at all. The experts therefore speak of the missing miner problem.

Robust decentralized wireless networks

Up to now, there has been no solution to this problem, because conventional wireless technology does not function underground – especially not under piles of rocks and debris. At the Technology Center for Computer Science and Information Technology at the University of Bremen, however, the Communications Networks working group led by Professor Anna Förster has been working on the development of decentralized wireless networks for several years. They are designed for use when the infrastructure collapses, for example in the wake of natural disasters. Their research is now helping to establish reliable communication links – even in the deepest of mines.

The project was conceived during an exchange visit by the research associate Idrees Zaman to the Mining Institute of Wits University. It was supported by the postgraduate international program run by the University of Bremen’s Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering and the South African university. Together with his local partners, Zaman developed a system of nodes that enables communication in all corners of a mine. The miners carry a sensor on their body, which automatically transmits their exact location to the system. “Even if the connection breaks off in the event of an accident, it can always be used to determine the trapped miners’ last position,” explains Anna Förster, who is in charge of the project. “That's already a great help.”

Monitoring vital body functions

The system uses a low radio frequency, which is much more robust than the normal Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, this is accompanied by a reduced bandwidth, meaning a smaller amount of transferable data. But there is still room to observe not only the miners' position but also to monitor vital body functions or the oxygen content in their blood. If the oxygen supply in the underground galleries threatens to be insufficient, for example, the workers can be brought to safety in time.

The system successfully passed initial tests carried out in the basement of Wits University, which was made to simulate the environment of a mine. Now the system is to be further developed for use in a real mine. Also planned in this context is the expansion of cooperation between the University of Bremen and Wits University.

You can view the Wits University video on the research project (English) under:
youtu.be/jMQzXWWMZmQ

Members of the press: You can download a photo of the research team under: seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/82dda6df40e94bfcbd58/

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Anna Förster
Phone: +49 421 218 62383
Email: anna.foerster@comnets.uni-bremen.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Campus tours and tips on applying for a place

The varied offer starts at 8.30 a.m. with tours of the campus and institutes, information about financing studies, studying abroad and foreign languages, as well as tips on learning techniques. The staff of the Central Student Advisory Service will be there to explain the application procedure, and in information lectures visitors can learn about the structure of bachelor's and master's studies.

Information breakfast and fun courses for beginners

In the morning, students invite visitors to "Breakfast at Philosophy" or the Info-Café. There are also interdisciplinary information events, and in the morning and afternoon, visitors can take part in fun courses for beginners. Here are some examples: In mathematics, prospective students can deal with the topic “The length of the arc”. In the subject French and Spanish, different fields of Romance Studies are presented at varying learning stations. And under the title “Fundamental rights in the multicultural society”, visitors can get an introduction to public law.

Central point of contact is the information stand in building GW 2

The central point of contact on the information day for prospective students is the stand run by the Central Student Advisory Service in building GW 2. Here, from 9.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m., visitors can get information on the range of studies offered at the University of Bremen and get directions on how to find what they are looking for. At the numerous other stands run by the degree programs and service facilities, you can be sure to find competent partners to answer any questions you might have.

More information under (in German only):

www.uni-bremen.de/isi

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Central Student Advisory Service
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-61160
Email: zsb@uni-bremen.de

Focus on research-based learning

Professor Thomas Hoffmeister has held the post of Vice President Academics since 2014. In this time, he has built a solid track record. The trained biologist was, for instance, responsible for establishing quality assurance in teaching, so-called system accreditation, across all of the University’s Faculties. The University has in the meantime thus been able to conduct more than ten self-directed evaluations. Under his leadership, research-based learning has also become firmly anchored across the curriculum and the University of Bremen is the only German university to date that has geared entire degree programs to this principle.

Recruiting female students for the STEM subjects

In the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called STEM subjects, there is still room for improvement in the area of student support and reducing dropout rates. “We have to compensate for the skill gaps of school leavers and help our students bring their studies to a successful conclusion,” said Hoffmeister. In the frame of the Hochschulpakt (higher education pact), the state of Bremen has agreed for the next four years to fund support offers in the run up to studies and in the first academic year. “We are thinking about STEM orientation studies, especially with a view to recruiting more female students for these subjects,” said Hoffmeister.

Promoting innovations in teaching

In his following four-year term, the Vice President Academics wants to closely follow the program Quality Offensive Teacher Training as well as the promotion of teaching innovations in all disciplines. “We should continue to work on making examples of innovative teaching more visible – both inside as well as outside the University," says Hoffmeister. He wants to create more scope for teachers to develop new formats. For instance, it might take more time to produce videos that deal with a topic comprehensively and are easy for students to understand than simply to record an entire lecture – but it’s much more efficient in the long run.

Driving internationalization

In addition to the digitalization of teaching, the internationalization of degree programs is another major item on the Vice President’s agenda. “The predicted decline in domestic student numbers is at the same time an opportunity to attract new groups to the University of Bremen.” The planned undergraduate offer in the natural sciences, in which studies begin in English and are then gradually converted to German, is one of the innovative ideas that Professor Thomas Hoffmeister wants to push forward in his next term until 2022.

Members of the press: You can download a photo of Professor Thomas Hoffmeister under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/4acd1d6bfa3145b6a1a3/?dl=1

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoffmeister
Vice President Academics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49-421 218-60030
Email: kon2@uni-bremen.de

Overall, the educational goal targeted by the reform is to increase the efficiency of schools as well as to promote equal opportunity in education. In order to evaluate the success as well as the problems and challenges of this process, last year a group of education and school researchers was commissioned to carry out an evaluation of this structural school reform.  

Event presents the main results 

The report of the expert group is now available. The event deals with the main results of the reform and presents an opportunity for discussion together with students, teachers, and Bremen school pupils. In particular, the audience should be made aware of the possibilities and limitations of such an evaluation as well as the complexity and limited linear controllability of educational reform and school development.

Part of the “Shaping Interfaces” project 

The event is part of the “Shaping Interfaces” project at the University of Bremen, which in turn belongs to the program “Quality Offensive Teacher Training”, which is funded with 2.7 million euro by the Federal Government and the Länder. “Our aim is to promote practice-oriented education that takes account of school reality”, says the project leader Professor Sabine Doff. With this in mind, teaching practicals are to be anchored in teacher training right from the beginning, and the three phases of training – teacher education, the mandatory period of in-school teaching practice and learning at work – should be more closely interlinked. Under the guiding principle of reflection-oriented teacher training, the University of Bremen has bundled four subprojects, each with different strategies but with the shared aim of integrating the different elements and phases of teacher education and the innovative qualification concept "Dual Doctorate".

More information under:

www.uni-bremen.de/qualitaetsoffensive (in German only) 

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Marion Wulf
Project Shaping Interfaces 
Center for Teacher Education 
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421-218 61902
Email: wulf@uni-bremen.de    

Firmly established in the top field of German universities

Already in 2016 and 2017, the University of Bremen had performed convincingly with excellent results in the CHE ranking. For example, Business Administration scored ten placements in both the teaching and the research categories, with German Studies at the top seven times. The subjects of English and Romance Studies also did well in the category linked to studies. For most of the research indicators in the CHE ranking, the subjects taught in Bremen are mostly in the top group. The strong results produced once again in the 2018 ranking show that the University of Bremen is now firmly established over a wide spectrum of subjects in the top field of German universities. The success derives in particular from the excellent support available to students when they take up their studies and the time needed to complete their degree program in the foreseen time, but also in the international orientation and relevance of studies for the labor market and careers.

Several subjects at the front again in 2018

The CHE ranking is divided into several categories. The geosciences, which have been strong for years, are at the forefront in no less than seven areas, namely support at the beginning of studies, completion of studies in a reasonable time, the international orientation of the master's program, and the four research segments (1) citations per publication (2) research grants per academic (3) doctorates per professor and (4) research reputation.

Top results for their contact with professional practice are achieved by the subjects of Geography and Nursing Science. The international orientation of bachelor's and / or master's degree programs is particularly pronounced in Physics and Political Science. In Mathematics and Computer Science, the University lands in the top group for doctorates per professor. Political Science has an especially strong research reputation.

How the students see it

In many subjects, students answering a questionnaire from the Center for Higher Education Development within the framework of the ranking give the University of Bremen very high grades. In their perception, the University belongs to the top group in

• the subject of Biology in the categories mentoring, organization of studies, excursions,  
  offers for vocational guidance and support for studying abroad and
• Computer Science in the areas of support for studying abroad and examinations.

The data collected in the Faculties that are considered as fact indicators in the CHE ranking confirm the positive overall picture. The respective top groups, for example, include

• Chemistry with regard to support at the start of studies and program completion within a
  reasonable period and
• Geography in the categories support at the start of studies, completion of degrees in
  appropriate time, and contact to the professional practice in the bachelor studies.

High quality of teaching and study programs

“I am delighted that our commitment to high quality in teaching and studies is reflected in the excellent results shown in the CHE ranking. The placement of several degree programs in the top groups shows us that the students benefit from our diverse teaching and counseling services,” says Professor Thomas Hoffmeister, Vice President Academics at the University of Bremen. “In particular, I see this as confirming the success of our concept of research-based and problem-oriented teaching. We owe such outstanding grades to the great dedication of our academics, the administration staff, and our student tutors.”

Members of the press: You can download images (campus scenes and more) on the University of Bremen homepage under: https://www.uni-bremen.de/universitaet/presse/bildmaterial-logo.html

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoffmeister
Vice President Academics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 60030
Email: kon2@uni-bremen.de
www.uni-bremen.de

Data is at the heart of empirical science. In the environmental sciences, too, datasets are becoming ever more expansive and complex. By the same token, however, they represent a rich source of new possibilities - for example, when older datasets are applied in combination with new analytical tools.

Great potential for science

“The project Deutsche Föderation für Biologische Daten (German Federation for Biological Data – GFBio) contributes towards resolving a crucial problem facing present-day research: Namely, how to secure permanent access to research data and thus enable better science”, says Dr. Michael Diepenbroek, Manager of the PANGAEA data center coordinating the GFBio project. “We centralize data on collections, the genome and the environment. This creates great potential for future research.” For instance, through the search function in the portal researchers are already able to access almost five and a half million data entries from the eight affiliated GFBio data centers. This represents a wealth of information that can be reused in research.

19 partners all over Germany

Data from publicly funded research should be widely and freely accessible - including both raw data generated in the research process itself and metadata describing under what conditions and with what methods the research data was generated. This is where the GFBio project comes in: A total of 19 partners from all over Germany are involved - including universities, museums and molecular biology archives. The project participants are committed to the principles of "FAIR Data", which in this context FAIR stands for "Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable".

National data provider and advisory center

GFBio serves as a national point of contact, acting as a provider and offering advice on all matters surrounding the standardization and management of biological research data over the entire data life cycle, i.e. from its compilation, through archiving, and up to publication. The conception and implementation phase of the project was used, among other things, to create the data portal www.gfbio.org. The third phase, which starts in summer, will above all focus on improving the range of services together with the users and building up a sustainable research-data infrastructure. To give this a legal structure, the non-profit association GFBio was also founded.

More information:

www.gfbio.org
https://twitter.com/GFBio_Project
www.marum.de
www.uni-bremen.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Michael Diepenbroek
PANGAEA, Manager
GFBio, Coordinator
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 65590
E-mail: mdiepenbroek@pangaea.de

Ulrike Prange
Press and Communications
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 65540
E-mail: medien@marum.de

Cornerstones of QUALISERVICE

In addition to the establishment of a secure data center and long-term archive, the infrastructure project encompasses further development of a dedicated anonymization tool, the installation of a search portal, data delivery service and help desk, establishing the office, as well as quality assurance measures and exchange with the scientific community.

Implementing a nation-wide archive

Over the next three years, an interdisciplinary consortium will lay the foundations for establishing a permanent national archive. The IT aspects of the internal data management will be organized together with the data archive PANGEA – Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science – operated by MARUM and the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research. Further project partners are the State and University Library Bremen and the GESIS Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences, Cologne, with which a reciprocal reference system is being set up for so-called mixed-methods data.

Longstanding expertise

The SOCIUM of the University of Bremen has extensive expertise and many years of experience in the processing of qualitative research data. Its roots go back to the Bremen Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 186 “Status Passages and the Life Course” (1989-2002). The several hundred interviews conducted at the CRC were first archived in the “Archive for Life Cycle Research”, in order to keep them available for future use. In 2011, the “Archive for Life Cycle Research” became QUALISERVICE, which was funded by the DFG in a first project phase between 2011 and 2014. Central components and workflows for the archive were subsequently developed in a follow-up project. During this time, QUALISERVICE was already making a name for itself in the scientific community and providing important impulses for the discussion surrounding the archiving and use of qualitative data. The importance of the SOCIUM in this area is also reflected in an international expert workshop on the subject of “Archiving and access to qualitative data”, which recently took place at the University of Bremen. It was organized by the SOCIUM (Professor Betina Hollstein) in collaboration with the German Data Forum.

More information under:

www.qualiservice.org

www.socium.uni-bremen.de/

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein
SOCIUM Research Center for Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58512
Email: betina.hollstein@uni-bremen.de

Susanne Kretzer
SOCIUM Research Center for Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58616
Email: skretzer@uni-bremen.de

 “…a major objective of our University”

“We thank you for the trust that you as association members are putting in the University of Bremen,” reciprocated the chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Bremen Foundation and University President, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter. “You have decided to look ahead and to uphold the association’s tradition in a more up-to-date and far-sighted form as well as on a new academic level. Gender equity is a major objective of our University and we do a lot for it.”

Targeted gender mainstreaming

Gender equity is not only relevant as a research topic: It has been a key objective of the University of Bremen for more than 20 years. In the realm of science and academia, women should take active part and have the same opportunities as men. The University achieves this through the targeted promotion of women and various regulations. The University of Bremen has been certified as a family-friendly university since 2007, not least because it proactively helps its students and employees who have children or care obligations to reconcile family life with studying and work.

Senator: “…the University will continue in the steps of the women who founded the association”

“Although at first glance the dissolution of such a traditional association as the Women's Employment and Vocational Training Association Bremen might seem a shame, the good thing is that its services should no longer be required,” said Bremen’s Senator for Science Professor Eva Quante-Brandt. “But we can be sure that going forward the University will continue in the steps of the women who founded the association but in the more contemporary areas of research, teaching and administration.”

Cutoff date is January 1, 2019 

The assets of the Women's Employment and Training Association Bremen will be transferred to the Foundation of the University of Bremen on January 1, 2019. It includes, among other things, the listed building belonging to the association in the Carl-Ronning-Strasse 2. The proceeds from the assets will go towards funding projects at the University of Bremen that accord with the old association’s purpose.

About the University of Bremen Foundation

The University of Bremen Foundation emerged in 2009 from the “unifreunde Foundation” and has been growing ever since. Specifically, it wants to contribute to the development of future-oriented research fields at the University of Bremen, enable new approaches in teaching, promote early career researchers, and advance the communication of science to the public.
It gives private individuals, foundations, societies, associations and companies the opportunity for long-term and sustainable engagement in the promotion of research and teaching in Bremen – either by donation, bequeathal or setting up a trustee foundation.

About the Women's Employment and Training Association Bremen

Following a call for action issued by the General German Women's Association in Leipzig in 1866, organizations were set up in other parts of Germany with the aim of increasing the social awareness of women’s rights to education and vocational training. They should create opportunities to implement these goals – in Bremen, too. The names of Ottilie Hoffmann, Marie Mindermann, August and Mathilde Lammers as well as Lucie Lindhorn stand for the founding of the “Association for the Extension of the Female Work Area”, which later became the Women's Employment and Vocational Training Association.The creation of appropriate training and employment opportunities as well as demands for political and civil equal rights formed the mainspring of the association. It was necessary to clear away the obstacles that stood in the way of these goals. In its 150-year history, the association has always moved with the times to meet the corresponding social needs as well as the specific life situation of women.

More information under:

www.uni-bremen.de/en/stiftung  
www.feav-bremen.de (in German only)  
www.uni-bremen.de(en  

If you would like to know more, feel free to contact:

Meike Mossig
Press and Communication Office 
University of Bremen 
Phone: +49 421 218-60168
E-Mail: mmossig@uni-bremen.de

More information:

www.uni-bremen.de/sommerakademie.html (in German only)
www.uni-bremen.de/en 

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr Jennifer Uhlig-Herrmann 
Cooperation University-School 
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 60393
Email: schule@uni-bremen.de

New rules with free kick and goalkeeper kick

In addition to the new time penalties, this year’s championship in Magdeburg also saw the introduction of free kicks and goalkeeper kicks. This significantly stepped up the requirement for team play. At the same time, the available bandwidth of WLAN communication between the robots was reduced by almost two thirds, which meant that the interchange of team tactics had to be much more compact. The RoboCup Standard Platform League is played in teams of five NAOs on a nine-by-six-square-meter pitch made of artificial turf. The name NAO refers to the humanoid robots produced by the French manufacturer Aldebaran Robotics. These robots act completely autonomously, can communicate with each other via WLAN, and can interpret the decisions of the human referee. To achieve this, the assistant referee transmits signals to the players via computer.

About Team B-Human

Team B-Human currently consists of more than 25 students from the University of Bremen as well as the scientists Dr. Thomas Röfer from the DFKI Research Unit Cyber-Physical Systems, headed by Professor Rolf Drechsler and Tim Laue from the University of Bremen. On June 14, 2018, the Bremen squad will be traveling to the RoboCup World Championships, which will be held on June 18-22, 2018, in Montréal, Canada. That, they hope, is going to be a completely different ball game! 

More information under:

The official website of the RoboCup German Open 2018:
 www.robocupgermanopen.de (in German only) 
The Team B-Human homepage:
 www.b-human.de  

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Tim Laue
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-64209
Email: tlaue@uni-bremen.de 

Dr. Thomas Röfer
Section Cyber-Physical Systems
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI)
Phone: +49 421 218-64200
Email: Thomas.Roefer@dfki.de 

At a festive event at the University of Bremen, the jury honoured the final theses of marine biologist Natalie Prinz and microbiologist Jann Lasse Grönemeyer before an audience of around one hundred invited guests.

Research on the Cook Islands

Natalie Prinz is a graduate of the ISATEC (International Studies of Aquatic Tropical Ecology), a master's programme offered jointly by the University of Bremen and ZMT. As part of her master’s thesis, which was supervised at ZMT, she conducted research on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. A large part of the local population there lives from tourism; especially diving and snorkelling is popular with travellers. On snorkel tours, organisers and tourists try to attract as many fish as possible with bread feeding. Natalie Prinz investigated for the first time the ecological impact of additional feeding on coral reef fish in the Aitutaki Lagoon. In her study, she also focused on social components. Prinz interviewed tourists and organisers in the Cook Islands to find out whether bread feeding improved the experience of snorkelling for participants or whether there may have been a discrepancy in the perception of both groups.

"It is not only the empirical parts of the study that deserve special mention, but also the strong local communication and the involvement of various stakeholders, which is unusual for a master's thesis,” the jury wrote in explanation of its decision.

In his laudatory address, Reiner Stoll of the Bremen KELLNER & STOLL FOUNDATION FOR CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT emphasized the continuing commitment of the award winner: "Natalie Prinz has not stopped working on her question with the completion of her master’s thesis, but has maintained contact with local authorities and the various interest groups in order to present her results. In this way, she has been able to obtain the commitment that these will be included in the management plan for the lagoon.“

Research in the Okavango region

The award winner in the dissertation category, Dr. Jann Lasse Grönemeyer, received his doctorate in microbiology from the University of Bremen. His doctoral thesis was devoted to bacteria associated with crops and their importance for sustainable agriculture in the Okavango region. Agricultural yields in Africa's arid sub-Saharan regions are declining steadily. Arable soils lose the nitrogen necessary for plant growth due to overexploitation.

Grönemeyer investigated so-called rhizobia, which can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants. In symbiosis with legumes such as beans, these bacteria can cover the entire nitrogen need of the host plant. Using DNA analyses, he identified 20 different species of rhizobia in the region and investigated their properties in field experiments. From particularly efficient strains, the young scientist developed an inoculant adapted to local environmental conditions – comparable to a kind of inoculant that increases symbiosis and thus nitrogen production. This inoculant is mixed with the plant seeds shortly before sowing and can be used as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to mineral fertilizers. In his studies, Grönemeyer worked closely with para-ecologists and small farmers in the Okavango region.

“Grönemeyer’s dissertation is impressive due to its local relevance,” the jury stated. “It dispenses with the approach promoted by external organisations, which is still widespread in today's development cooperation, and instead relies very successfully on the knowledge and competence of the local population.”

In her laudatory address, Professor Anna-Katharina Hornidge (Head of the Department of Social Sciences at the ZMT and Professor of Social Sciences in the Marine Tropics at the University of Bremen) said: “Jann Lasse Grönemeyer cooperated with local people on an equal footing and developed scientifically sound and socially embedded approaches based on the locally available knowledge. This approach of conducting research inspired by and feeding back into local practices is essential if research is to contribute to the sustainable further development of the existing agricultural production system.”

"The CAMPUS PRIZE has achieved visibility both within and beyond the University of Bremen

The CAMPUS PRIZE: Research for a sustainable future was awarded for the second time in 2018. The nominations for the prize came from a wide variety of departments at the University of Bremen – from production technology to social and legal sciences to marine biology –  and thus reflected the diversity of sustainability research on campus.

In his welcoming speech, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter said: "The CAMPUS PRIZE has achieved visibility both within and beyond the University of Bremen. We see this not only in the increased number of very good nominations. The CAMPUS PRIZE draws the attention of the public to outstanding young scientists and gives weight and attention to research into sustainability and marine science."

"The submitted works make it clear that the challenge of sustainability is a task that must be mastered across disciplines and seen in a global context," emphasised Professor Hildegard Westphal, Scientific Director of the ZMT and Professor of Tropical Geology at the University of Bremen.

About the jury

In the run-up to the award ceremony, a jury evaluated the submitted works according to the criteria of the CAMPUS AWARD and selected the winners. The jury members were Dr. Rita Kellner-Stoll and Reiner Stoll from the  KELLNER & STOLL FOUNDATION, ZMT Director Prof. Dr. Hildegard Westphal, Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Head of the Department of Social Sciences at the ZMT, Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter, Vice Rector for Research, Young Academics and Transfer at the University of Bremen, and Prof. Dr. Justus Notholt, Professor for Remote Sensing from the University of Bremen, Michael Wolff, Deputy Chairman of the Alumni Association of the University of Bremen and Fritz Habekuß, editor for the "Wissen" section of the ZEIT weekly newspaper.

About the CAMPUS AWARD: Research for a Sustainable Future

The CAMPUS AWARD: Research for a Sustainable Future draws the attention of the public to outstanding young scientists whose special approaches, methods and findings as well as their practical relevance and stakeholder involvement have resulted in an outstanding research thesis in the field of sustainability. The prize, endowed with 3,000 euros, is awarded by the KELLNER & STOLL FOUNDATION FOR CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT, the Leibniz Centre for Marine Tropical Research (ZMT), the University of Bremen and the Alumni Association of the University of Bremen. The Bremen companies ADLER Solar, REETEC and ecolo - Agency for Ecology and Communication support the CAMPUS PRIZE.

For more information, please visit www.campuspreis.de  (in German only) .

How the eco-robot helps in everyday life

What’s behind KARL and how does it work in everyday life? The name “eco-robot” sums it up: KARL is actually a so-called chatbot: An interactive innovation that bundles traditional apps into one service. Chatbots are a text-based dialogue system that allows chatting via a technical system. The chatbot can access large amounts of data and is a self-learning system that adapts to the needs of the user based on data structures. “We want consumers to behave in a manner consistent with their convictions. Sometimes this is not so easy to keep up in everyday life,” says Kirsten Hillebrand. She holds a PhD in Business Administration (supervisor Professor Lars Hornuf) with a focus on digitalization and behavioral economics. Hendrik Hinrichs also wrote his master's thesis in this field. “The chatbot gets to know the person who uses it autonomously and becomes a real interaction partner,” he says.

No finger wagging

How does it work in everyday life? “The assistant is a friend, not a finger wagger,” emphasize the developers. He proactively sends messages and sustainable recipes, helps with the selection of groceries, refers to regional products, and helps with purchasing decisions. For example, he knows from the current weather data that “the weather is good,” and messages “Ride your bike to university today. That consumes 150 calories.” The two are quick to point out that KARL is a scientific product. He creates his recommendations for what to do on the basis of an algorithm. “The eco-chatbot should enable users to behave sustainably within their individual comfort zones,” says Kirsten Hillebrand. It is about turning good intentions into concrete actions.

More information under: www.digitalengagiert.de

Members of the press: A photo of the two prizewinners can be downloaded under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/707ce0e6fb4549c18920/

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Kirsten Hillebrand
Research Associate
University of Bremen
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
Chair for Business Studies,
Financial Services and Financial Technologies
Phone: 0170 2984 375
Email: kirsten@klimakarl.de

Hendrik Hinrichs
Telefon: 0176 61335 522
Email: hendrik@klimakarl.de

Start-up marketing in Windhoek as a result of research-based learning

The first group developed a new concept for the Bokamoso Entrepreneurial Center. “When we arrived, nothing was in place: No one had any idea about how to attract tourists and get them to spend money in the shops,” says Dr. Harima. According to the plan, the site is now to become a cultural center. The gray corrugated iron barracks are to be daubed in bright and cheerful colors. Tourists should be able to experience authentic Namibian culture. So far, there are hardly any such opportunities in the region.

The second group found that many startup entrepreneurs lack the necessary knowledge. For example, they needed to know something about marketing and have a social media strategy. At the same time, the NUST students were desperately looking for internships, which until now have been in very short supply. The Bremen guests therefore set up a web portal, where companies can promote themselves and students can seek and hopefully find internship opportunities.

Finally, the third group proposed an online learning platform that will provide knowledge on such vital skills for start-up entrepreneurs as business plans and budgeting. The entrepreneurs will be able to use these going forward. “We want to continue and intensify the initiated exchange,” says the project leader. The LEMEX Chair is now working on applications for funding to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The aim is to promote the exchange of students and scientists between the two countries and make the successful project sustainable.

More information under:

https://ttwebs.wixsite.com/bokamoso  - the web presence developed by a group of students for the Bokamoso Start-up Center.

Members of the press: You can find a photo of the Namibia project under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/5c58206d031f469699ed/

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Aki Harima
University of Bremen
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
LEMEX – Chair for Small Business, Start-ups and Entrepreneurship
Phone: +49 421 218 66867
Email: harima@uni-bremen.de

Easy to use thanks to pictograms 

An interactive web portal aims at helping users realize the value of informal qualifications and their own skills. The design with pictograms makes it easy to use. In dialog with the various people involved in the labor market, the aim is to discuss and develop possibilities for recognizing informally acquired skills and knowledge. “We are very happy about winning the award and how it will help us implement our project idea. As part of its advisory activities, the zap aims at sharpening the awareness of everyone involved in the labor market.  The app fits in nicely with our overall approach – and we can also use it for our research”, says Dr. Julia Gantenberg, a member of the zap team.

About the competition

The university competition is sponsored by Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD) and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The guiding idea of the Science Year 2018 is "experience, learn, and shape". The interactive communication concepts developed by the winning team also aim at making their research area more transparent and understandable. At the same time, it demonstrates the social significance of the work carried out at zap. The aim of the competition is to promote the direct dialog between young researchers at German universities and the public, and to offer early-career researchers a platform.

More information under:

https://www.hochschulwettbewerb.net/appsolutkompetent/
www.uni-bremen.de/zap  

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Julia Gantenberg
Center for Labor and Political Education (zap)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-56711
Email: gantenberg@uni-bremen.de 
 

Cotton as a symbol for world trade and inequality

Sven Beckert vividly tells a global story of cotton. This history ranges from the integration of European cotton production in colonial times and the transatlantic slave trade to the establishment of global markets. “The book ‘King Cotton’ succeeds in making past and present connections between violence and inequality understandable today. Through varied reading events and lectures on campus and in the city, we want to reach a diverse mix of participants and discuss together how the plantations, looms and ports involved in cotton production interrelated. We are also interested in how the example of cotton can shed light on the functioning of modern-day globalization processes,” explains project manager Professor Michi Knecht. The central opening event for “Global Cotton: Eine Uni - Ein Buch - Eine Stadt” will take place on Monday, May 28, 6:00 pm (building GW2 room B3009). Author and historian Sven Beckert, who teaches at Harvard, will come to the University of Bremen to take part.

Out of the seminar rooms into the city

As a seaport and location of the cotton exchange, Bremen plays an important role in Sven Beckert's work. Just like the book, the project “Global Cotton: Eine Uni - Ein Buch - Eine Stadt” wants to demonstrate links by involving institutions and the people of Bremen. Cooperation partners include the "Überseemuseum", the German Maritime Museum, the city archives, and the "Zeitschrift der Straße". The planned formats include public events at locations related to the cotton trade, the production of a post-colonial city map, and a city tour on the subject of cotton.
“The book ‘King Cotton’ offers various opportunities to tap into contemporary political and social debates on capitalism and colonialism. In addition, it makes good reading and integrates well in Bremen’s tradition of research-based learning,” says Professor Thomas Hoffmeister, Vice President Academics at the University of Bremen. At the same time as the project, the Institute for Anthropology and Cultural Research is holding a theme semester on “Global Cotton”.

Reading action intends to create communication spaces

The initiative "Eine Uni – Ein Buch" aims to project the institution “university” as a social form and through the shared reading experience to create a creative exchange among as many university members as possible. Around 3,000 companies, business associations, foundations and private individuals have come together in the "Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft".

Cooperation partners in the City State of Bremen

Bremer Baumwollbörse
Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum
Hafen-Museum Bremen
Kampagne für saubere Kleidung (CCC), Regionalgruppe Bremen
Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung, Bremen
Staatsarchiv Bremen
Überseemuseum Bremen
Zeitschrift der Straße

More information under:

www.uni-bremen.de/global-cotton-eine-uni-ein-buch-eine-stadt/
www.stifterverband.de

Attention editorial offices: Under this link you will find photo material:
https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/d/6219acdaef7c48b490d9/

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoffmeister
Vice President Academics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60031
Email: kon2@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Michi Knecht
Institute for Anthropology and Cultural Research
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67640
Email: knecht@uni-bremen.de

Books were handed over by a well-known Georgian poet

It was no different with the latest batch of returned books. According to the German Embassy, the recently returned collection was in the possession of the well-known Georgian poet Giwi Markwelashvilli. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, he presented 57 volumes to the Georgian National Science Library in Tbilisi. From the ownership stamps in the books, it was not difficult to identify the libraries they originally came from. Seven books printed in the 18th and 19th centuries belong to the Bremen State and University Library. They include textbooks and a novel:

-    “Observationum selectarum ad rem literariam spectantium”, Vol. 9. Halle, Magdeburg, 1704
-    C. F. D. Schubart: “Kurzgefasstes Lehrbuch der schoenen Wissenschaften”, 1781 
-    “Frankfurter Archiv für ältere deutsche Literatur und Geschichte”, published by J.T.v. Fichard, Frankfurt a.M. 1811
-    Gustav Seyffarth: “Rudimenta Hieroglyphics”, 1826
-    Johannes Janssen: “Geschichte des deutschen Volkes“, Freiburg 1878
-    Bernhardine Schulze-Smidt: “Inge von Kantum”, Frankfurt a.M. 1881
-    Stockholm: “sveriges hufvudstad; skildrad med anl. af Allmänna Konst- och Industriutställningen”. Published by E. W. Dahlgren, Stockholm 1897

Members of the press: This link will take you to a selection of image material: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/0ba63c814f6a450dab8c/ 

More information under:
www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/   

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Maria Elisabeth Müller, Director
Bremen State and University Library 
Phone: +49 421 218-59400
Email: direktion@suub.uni-bremen.de 

The featured interviewees and alumni include Bremen's Mayor Carsten Sieling and Bremen’s Senator for Science Eva Quante-Brandt. Sieling not only studied at the University of Bremen but also earned his doctorate here. Eva Quante-Brandt was a professor at the University of Bremen for many years before becoming a Bremen senator. Alumna Anne-Kathrin Laufmann, who is today in charge of corporate social responsibility at Werder Bremen, made a successful career entry with the help of the Practice Office in the Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Bremen. More than ten years ago, the former president of the Chamber of Commerce, Patrick Wendisch, was proactively involved in Bremen being awarded the accolade “City of Science” in 2005: Together with a former Mayor of Bremen, Henning Scherf, and Wilfried Müller, who was Rector at that time, as well as Professor Gerold Wefer from the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, the prominent businessman traveled to Bonn by train to convince the jury there.

The German-English publication is available from the University Bookstore on the Boulevard, among others. All graduates of the University who took their final exams between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017 will automatically receive the Yearbook. 

Campus tours on Facebook

During the video shoot, the Yearbook editor asked the interviewees to point out their favorite locations on campus. Examples are the University Boulevard, the dining hall,  the State and University Library, and the streetcar stop in Lise-Meitner-Strasse. A selection of the video material can also be found on the University of Bremen’s Facebook page under the heading “Videos”: www.facebook.com/universitaetbremen   

More information under:

www.uni-bremen.de/en/jahrbuch.html 
Trailer on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5uGRBHoScI&feature=youtu.be  

Members of the press: You can find image material under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/d83dc43d0902408cb46a/    

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:
University of Bremen
Press and Communications
Meike Mossig
Phone: +49 421 218 - 60168 (8.30 a.m. 3 p.m.)
Email: mmossig@uni-bremen.de 

Part of the EU research program Horizon 2020

A research group comprising members of the University of Bremen’s Institute for Labor and Economy and the Bremen Chamber of Employees is now preparing the planned Europe-wide long-term study EuroCohort by helping to formulate content and methodological concepts as well as the creation of legal and financial framework conditions. The 18-month European Cohort Development Project is being funded by the European Commission with a total of two million euro under the HORIZON 2020 EU Framework Program for Research. Altogether, 13 countries are participating in the study. Project coordination lies with Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. Right from the start, the project will also involve representatives of government institutions and NGOs, for whom future research on the well-being of children and adolescents is highly relevant.

The goal: To improve the standard of living of all children in Europe 

As part of the ECDP project, the Bremen researchers are preparing the Europe-wide long-term study EuroCohort. The study will examine the developing situation over a period of 25 years and which aspects are particularly important for the positive development of children and adolescents. Dr.. Britta Busse, head of the iaw project, says: “Reliable statements about the factors that affect children's well-being throughout the life-course are key to formulating effective child policy. We are pleased to have this opportunity to contribute to the design of a study whose goal is to improve the standard of living of all children in Europe.” The Bremen project is funded with 113,000 euro.

More information under:

http://www.iaw.uni-bremen.de/ccm/research/Projekte/european-cohort-development-project.de

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Britta Busse
Institute Labor and Economy (iaw)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 61724
Email: bbusse@uni-bremen.de

“I am very happy for Lutz Mädler about this high distinction, which is also a major accolade for the University of Bremen,” said the President of the University Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter on hearing the news. "Coming after the approval of the Collaborative Research Center ‘Colored States’ under the direction of Lutz Mädler in May 2016 and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2017 for Professor Mädler, this is further proof of the scientific excellence of materials engineering in Bremen,” he added.

Another person with every reason to be pleased about Mädler's award is Professor Matthias Kleiner, President of the Leibniz Association, of which IWT has been a member since the beginning of the year. “Lutz Mädler is a fine example of the typical Leibniz combination of scientific excellence with clear application orientation and relevance for society, the economy and people's lives. As an engineering scientist, I am particularly pleased that the IWT, which has only been part of the Leibniz Association since this year, so impressively demonstrates how materials engineering enriches our organization: This, after all, its second ERC Advanced Grant.”

New technology for tailor-made materials

At the heart of the million-plus funding for Lutz Mädler and his research group is a goal-oriented project in which new reactor concepts for reactive spraying are being developed. This technology makes it possible to produce customized materials and surfaces like the flexible electronic and catalytic coatings used to measure exhaust fumes, for example. Mädler and his team perform experiments on tiny single droplets hardly larger than the diameter of a hair. “Research on such isolated droplets is cost-effective and under control at all times," says the professor. “However, for our experiments we need a variety of chemicals that are quite difficult to handle. On the small scale we are working on, it’s not such a problem if things sometimes go wrong, so we can experiment a lot.” On a larger scale, on the other hand, high investments would have to be made – with no guarantee for success.

Research on micro scale

When experimenting with isolated droplets, Mädler’s basic research moves in dimensions that are no longer visible to the naked eye. Nonetheless, one of the important objectives of the project supported by the European Research Council is to transfer the knowledge gained to a larger scale. “Once we succeed in showing on a small scale that we can produce materials for novel applications, we naturally want to explore their industrial applicability,” says Mädler. There’s still a long way to go, though. First, more research has to be done on the basic correlations of reactive micro-scale spraying.

About the person

Lutz Mädler first studied technical physics at the Technical University of Zwickau and then process engineering at the Freiburg University of Mining and Technology, where he received his doctorate in 1999. He spent his habilitation period at the ETH Zurich and then worked at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2008 Mädler received an appointment at the University of Bremen as Professor of Mechanical Process Engineering in the Faculty of Production Engineering. At the same time he is Director of the Department of Process Engineering at the Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering – IWT.

About the ERC Advanced Grant

The European Research Council (ERC) awards its Advanced Grant to established top researchers. The grant in an amount of up to 2.5 million euro is used to fund groundbreaking basic research for a period of five years. The support provided by the ERC Advanced Grant not only underscores the outstanding expertise of Professor Mädler, but also the scientific quality of process engineering at the University of Bremen.

Members of the press, please note:

Photos of Professor Lutz Mädler can be downloaded under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/10c3c9901dd64f999df2/ 
You can also view a video clip showing the ERC Advanced Grant being awarded to Mädler under: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHFMHF88XWk&feature=youtu.be 

On request, the University Press Office will be pleased to supply video material from this clip in HD resolution.

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof.Dr-Ing.habil. Lutz Mädler
Leibniz-Institut für Werkstofforientierte Technologien - IWT
Tel. 0421/218-51200
E-Mail lmaedler@iwt.uni-bremen.de
www.iwt-bremen.de/verfahrenstechnik/lmaedler/

By 2019, the Federal Government wants to know to what extent projects involving real estate financing also make use of these exemptions for their crowd financing and whether further changes to the law are necessary. The expert opinion being prepared by the research team at the University of Bremen and funded by the Federal Ministry of Finance should make an important contribution in this respect.

Small investor market is an important economic driver

Crowd financing expert Lars Hornuf explains: “The small investor market is important because it sometimes allows start-up entrepreneurs to obtain financing and pursue a project in the development phase even before the customary equity financing. In Germany, start-up helpers, so-called business angels, who initially help small businesses with capital and knowledge, are much less common than in the USA, for example. Crowd financing can therefore be an important driver for innovation and growth. At the same time, though, investors should steer clear of financial products they don't understand and whose risks they are unable to assess.”

The use of crowd financing rules under the microscope

For their expert opinion, the Bremen researchers want to evaluate examples of how crowd funding works in practice. They will question relevant stakeholders such as market participants, investor protection bodies, consumers, banks, religious communities and regulators. “The results could indicate whether the scope or thresholds for crowd financing should be adjusted. On the basis of these research findings, the Federal Government will also decide whether the market should be made more transparent and Europeanized”, says Hornuf.

If you would like more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Professor Dr. Lars Hornuf, M. A. (Essex)
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
Chair for Business Studies, with focus on financial services and financial technology
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-66820
email: hornuf@uni-bremen.de

The social scientist died on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, at the age of 74 years. Stephan Leibfried was associated with the University of Bremen for many years. After studying political science and law in Berlin, he obtained his doctorate here in Bremen in 1972. In 1974 he was appointed to a professorship with a focus on social policy and social administration. Fourteen years later, he was one of the founders of the Center for Social Policy, which has since become part of the SOCIUM Research Center for Inequality and Social Policy at the University of Bremen. Leibfried was also responsible for various collaborative research centers (CRC) in the social sciences at the University of Bremen. Until 2014, he was the spokesman for the CRC 'Statehood in Transition'. Stephan Leibfried was strongly committed to the advancement of early-career researchers. In 2001, he campaigned for the founding of the Graduate School of Social Sciences (GSSS). He supported the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), which the University of Bremen has been running together with Jacobs University since 2007, with just as much dedication.

A universal scholar of the social sciences

In everything Stephan Leibfried did for the social sciences at the University of Bremen, he always adopted a universal perspective. His brainchild and greatest wish was to unite different social science disciplines under one roof. In 2014, Stephan Leibfried received the Schader Foundation Award for his life's work. “Stephan Leibfried has shaped the social sciences at our university intellectually and institutionally for more than three decades. With his whole personality, he has incessantly worked for interdisciplinary cooperation, sustainable research infrastructures, internationalization and innovative measures for the advancement of young researchers – often far ahead of national science policy. His firm conviction that the social sciences are the key to understanding the state and society in transition and his wit will be missed,” says Professor Karin Gottschall, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bremen.

Members of the press please note: A photo of Professor Stephan Leibfried can be downloaded under the following link: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/4595ad2c2da14876b975/.

More information under:

http://www.socium.uni-bremen.de/ueber-das-socium/mitglieder/stephan-leibfried/

Technology makes the decisions

Demonstrations on the university parking lot showed how a vehicle independently explores a parking space. Based on sensor information, control signals (throttle, brake, steering wheel) are calculated to steer the vehicle for the next few seconds or minutes. “Independent of driver input, the technology makes autonomous decisions about the optimal driving maneuvers that are necessary in the respective situation and executes them in a regulated manner,” says Dr.-Ing. Mitja Echim from the Center for Industrial Mathematics (ZeTeM). The vehicle orients itself independently in the parking lot, moves in and out of a parking space, avoids obstacles, and makes emergency stops.

Since September 2016, the University of Bremen and the University of the German Federal Armed Forces in Munich have been researching methods for the highly automated navigation and control of automobiles. The cooperation is based on innovative algorithms developed in aerospace research. And since May 2017, a research team from the University of Bremen equipped with a special permit has been on the roads in Bremen and Lower Saxony with a specially equipped series-produced automobile to analyze highly automated driving maneuvers in real traffic situations – intersections, country roads, highways, parking lots and much more. At the same time, mathematicians and computer scientists are working on algorithms and evaluating the test results in order to constantly improve automated driving.

Optimum control and regulation

“The challenge is to combine multisensory information, experience values and real-time information to determine current vehicle and location conditions,” explains Joachim Clemens from the Cognitive Neuroinformatics Group. “At the same time, the surrounding environment must be reproduced. The appropriate maneuvers for the situation at hand must then be calculated to ensure optimum control and regulation.”At the same time, risk assessments are necessary that take into account the ever-present 'uncertain knowledge' – which can in turn lead to behavioral changes and the generation of new maneuvers.

“Autonomous driving is the subject of intensive research worldwide,” says Professor Büskens. “In contrast to existing approaches, the driving behavior we have developed is characterized by the fact that it uses new methods for risk calculation, mapping, and dealing with uncertain information.” With a fundamentally different approach to the determination of optimal driving maneuvers, the 'Bremer driving model' can guarantee stability and expandability with regard to a diversity of possible driving situations.

Next step: From the parking lot onto the road

In the next step, the Bremen researchers want to concentrate on moving tests from the parking lot onto the road. The focus is on interurban and city traffic. “The consistent further development of the algorithms aims above all at ensuring safety,” says Christof Büskens. Together with the project’s industrial partners, the existing algorithms are evaluated in order to be able to apply the research results over the longer term.

The 'AO-Car' project is jointly funded by the German Aerospace Center and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. More information under: www.math.uni-bremen.de/zetem/aocar

Members of the press please note:

Images of the live demonstration of the research vehicle on the university parking lot can be downloaded here: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/56019892a2df4d5da579/ .

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr-Ing. Mitja Echim
University of Bremen
Center for Industrial Mathematics (ZeTeM)
Phone: 0421/218-63865
Email: mitja@math.uni-bremen.de

Recording the spread of regional pollution

The purpose of the mission is to better understand and predict the extent and impact of urban air pollution on the Earth's atmosphere. Previously, the scientists conducted aerial surveys of European metropolitan areas, such as London, Rome, Paris, Marseille, Barcelona, as well as in the Ruhr area and in the Po Valley. Since the in-flight measurement technique is dependent on cloud-free conditions in order to be able to fly at low altitudes into the cities’ emission fumes, they are taking place in the springtime when there are comparatively favorable weather conditions. DLR will use its social media channels to provide updated information on where current flights are taking place.

State-of-the-art aircraft

“A total of around one hundred flight hours are planned to measure the transport and tranformation of emission plumes originating from Asian mega-cities,” says the project leader, Professor John P. Burrows of the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen. The HALO research aircraft (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft) is equipped with 20 different instruments to record the different primary gaseous and particulate emissions and their transport and transformation to secondary climate pollutants. “We want to understand in detail how atmospheric emissions spread and convert in different weather conditions. Here, in particular, the high temperatures, humidity, solar radiation and frequency of thunderstorms play an important role,” explains Dr. Hans Schlager from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

More than 50 partners

The international project EMeRGe encompasses more than 50 partners from 16 different countries. Among them are 27 from Asia. Scientists at the National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica play a special role. “These partners will carry out measurements from other airborne platforms as well as ground-based networks to complement the HALO flights,” says Burrows.

Project is funded with around six million euro

In addition to the University of Bremen, project partners in Germany are the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, the Universities of Mainz, Heidelberg and Wuppertal, as well as the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Forschungszentrum Jülich. The EMeRGe project is being funded with around six million euro by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Max Planck Society (MPG), and DLR.

About HALO 

The HALO research aircraft is a joint initiative of several German environmental and climate research institutions. HALO was started with funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Helmholtz Association, and the Max Planck Society. The operation of HALO is supported by the DFG, the Max Planck Society, the Forschungszentrum Jülich, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam, and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig (TROPOS). DLR is both the owner and operator of the aircraft.

Attention editorial offices: Under this link there are pictures of the research aircraft: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/d/02036004bf544075a889/

Further information:

www.iup.uni-bremen.de/emerge
www.halo.dlr.de

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Professor John P. Burrows FRS
Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP)
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-62100
email: burrows@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de 

Dr. M.-D. Andrés-Hernández
Phone: +49 421 218-62110
email: lola@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de

Falk Dambowsky
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Tel.: +49 2203 601-3959
email: falk.dambowsky@dlr.de

In the "Paris Agreement", 195 member states of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have agreed to limit the rise in global average temperature to significantly below 2°C, if possible to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This should significantly reduce the risks of climate change. What does this plan - if successful - mean for the evolution of glaciers? Climate researchers Ben Marzeion and Nicolas Champollion from the Institute of Geography at the University of Bremen and Georg Kaser and Fabien Maussion from the Institute of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences at the University of Innsbruck have investigated this question by calculating the effects of compliance with these climate goals on the progressive melting of glaciers. "Melting glaciers have a huge influence on the development of sea level rise. In our calculations, we took into account all glaciers worldwide - without the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and peripheral glaciers - and modelled them in various climate scenarios," explains Georg Kaser.

One kilogram of CO2 emitted costs 15 kilograms of glacier ice.

Whether the average temperature rises by 2 or only 1.5°C makes no significant difference for the development of glacier mass loss over the next 100 years. "Around 36 percent of the ice still stored in glaciers today would melt even without further emissions of greenhouse gases. That means: more than a third of the glacier ice that still exists today in mountain glaciers can no longer be saved even with the most ambitious measures," says Ben Marzeion.

However, looking beyond the current century, it does make a difference whether the 2 or 1.5°C goal is achieved. "Glaciers react slowly to climatic changes. If, for example, we wanted to preserve the current volume of glacial ice, we would have to reach a temperature level from pre-industrial times, which is obviously not possible. In the past, greenhouse gas emissions have already triggered changes that can no longer be stopped. This also means that our current behaviour has an impact on the long-term evolution of the glaciers - we should be aware of this," adds glaciologist Kaser. In order to make these effects tangible, the scientists have calculated that every kilogram of CO2 that we emit today will cause 15 kilograms of glacier melt in the long term. Calculated on the basis of an average car newly registered in Germany in 2016, this means that one kilogram of glacier ice is lost every five hundred meters by car," clarifies Ben Marzeion.

This work was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant 01LS1602A) and German Research Foundation (grant MA 6966/1-1), and supported by the former Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research as part of the UniInfrastrukturprogramm of the research platform Scientific Computing at the University of Innsbruck.

Ben Marzeion, Georg Kaser, Fabien Maussion, Nicolas Champollion: Limited Influence of climate change mitigation on short-term glacier mass loss. Nature Climate Change (2018).
DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0093-1, Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0093-1

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr. Ben Marzeion
University of Bremen
Institute of Geography
Tel.: +49 421 218-67170
Mobile: +49 177-7611873
E-Mail: ben.marzeion@uni-bremen.de

The Research Mobility Award

A practical example of how this cooperation can be structured is the YERUN Research Mobility Award. The network announced the call for the first time in December 2017. The Research Mobility Award enables researchers to visit partner universities for two-week periods in order to pave the way for long-term cooperation. The measure is attracting considerable interest. A total of 141 applications were received, 26 of which were successful. For example, the University of Bremen has received guests from Maastricht, Barcelona and Madrid. So far, they have come to visit the Cognitive Systems Lab, the Bremen Spatial Cognition Center and the Leibniz Institute for Material-Oriented Technologies (IWT). In return, a postdoc from the Faculty of Production Engineering has visited the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. 

Training for employees

From March 13 to 15, 2018, the YERUN Staff Training for employees of the participating universities will also take place at the University of Bremen. The theme is Entrepreneurship and Employability. More than 20 participants from the YERUN network will discuss what “employability” means for young research universities and will jointly consider how they can support graduates in their transition to professional practice. Participants will include various career services and representatives of specialist departments and administrations, including BRIDGE, the Bremen University initiative to promote entrepreneurial thinking, start-ups and entrepreneurship.

More information under: http://www.yerun.eu

If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Annette Lang
University of Bremen
International Office
Phone: +49-421 218-60361
email: annette.lang@vw.uni-bremen.de

Facilitating participation at conferences

The program is divided into two parts. It should be made easier for female students who are interested in doctoral positions and early-career researchers to participate in high-level scholarly meetings. They should, for example, be able to attend conferences without being actively involved and having to hold a lecture or similar. “There are so many great conferences where women can network and find orientation,” says Maria Kristalova. It’s a shame when female students can’t take part simply because they can’t afford to. “Such meetings can be an incentive to stay longer in academia,” adds Antje Bollen, a research associate and member of the women's representative group. It should be made easier for master students in particular to attend conferences, networking meetings and measures of further training. Now the Faculty will give them financial support from their own resources.

The Dean: “Break down structural hurdles”

Professor Jochen Zimmermann, Dean of the Faculty of Economics, is in agreement. “Our women's representatives have hit the nail on the head. We have to break down structural hurdles for the transition to careers in academia,” he says. “That's why we will use our limited resources to help the master students.” After completing their studies, many women opt for a career job in a company, to have a recognized period of practice after a family break. Academic experience falls by the wayside, and that puts downward pressure on the number of Ph.D. positions for women.

Engage a child minder

The program explicitly takes student mothers in its sights. “We offer mothers children under the age of 14 an allowance of 50 euro a day to facilitate their attendance at conferences and participation in further education,” says Marija Shkolnykova, the fifth in the group, who is currently doing her doctorate. “Now they can engage a child minder for the time they’re away." The members of the group all agree in future it’s going to be easier for mothers to attend such functions.

Tandems of mentee and mentor

In addition to the financial support described above, the concept includes a mentoring and coaching program. For a period of one year tandems are to be formed, in each of which a seasoned alumna mentor supervises a master student as a mentee. “The idea came straight from one of our alumni,” says Maren Hartstock – a perfect way for a transfer of experience and advice to take place. “We have six places in the program,” adds Maria Kristalova. The women's representatives want to fill them with the best master's students. In addition to the individual exchange in the tandems, appointments for individual coaching will be offered from April 2018 onwards. The topics are personality development, networking, work-life balance, application training, and the role of women on the academic career path. “I’m pleased that we can access our very own network to implement the mentoring program. This also makes the University more visible to externals,” emphasizes the Dean, Professor Zimmermann.

The application deadline for the program is April 1 and the kick-off event will be on April 27, 2018.

Focus on the diversity and strength of women's movements

Since 2014, women researchers in the Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences of the University of Bremen have been carrying out intensive field studies to investigate how the various women's movements in Turkey, despite their differences, work together and find out what common goals they pursue. Charlotte Binder and Aslı Polatdemir participated in World Women’s Day events and interviewed numerous activists. “The German media tend to focus on a victimization discourse surrounding migrant Muslim women from Turkey. Likewise, research on feminist debates and movements in Turkey often focuses on the deficits. It was therefore important for us to shed light on the activities and debates of women’s movements that develop and shape societal alternatives,” says project leader Yasemin Karakaşoğlu, explaining her research.

What separates and what unites?

The team around Professor Karakaşoğlu was able to show one thing above all: Despite the differences between different groups across many ideological borders, the women’s movements in Turkey function as a strong alliance when it comes to combating violence against women and accessing rights to work and education. They are thus important players in the struggle for social change. Nevertheless, the limits of a common position often come to the fore: Parts of the religious-conservative women's movement, for example, are now so closely linked to the ruling AKP party that many feminist activists no longer consider them to be suitable alliance partners. Different ideas of a gender-equitable society separate the activists of the left-feminist groups and the religious-conservative women's movements.

Solidarity with endangered cooperation partners in Turkey

It is important for Karakaşoğlu that her research draws attention to a bitter fact: Some of her cooperation partners at the universities of Ankara and Istanbul have in the meantime been massively hindered in their activities or even imprisoned, and many of the institutions and associations investigated have been disbanded and their members criminalized. “March 8 is also an occasion for us to point out this injustice. People who campaign for women's rights in Turkey currently face repression or arrest. It is therefore particularly important to publicize the work of women’s groups and gender activists and to maintain an exchange with them even in difficult circumstances.”

The project “Women's Movements in Inner-Turkish Comparison” was one of five projects funded by Stiftung Mercator in the program “Change of Perspective: Studies on Contemporary Turkey”. The project findings have now been published online in the four languages German, English, Turkish, and Kurdish. “We chose to publish online because we believe that this is the most transnationally accessible form of publication. Through multilingualism, we want to make our results known beyond the academic context and to continue the exchange with the activists who cooperated with us on the study,” explains Karakaşoğlu.

You can find further information under:

www.fb12.uni-bremen.de/de/interkulturelle-bildung/forschung/frauenbewegungen-im-innertuerkischen-vergleich/forschungsergebnisse.html

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof.Dr.. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu
University of Bremen
Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Science
Research project “Women’s Movements in Inner-Turkish Comparison”
Phone: +49 421 218 60040
E-Mail: karakasoglu@uni-bremen.de

The example of Japanese deep-sea microbes

An interdisciplinary team from the Universities of Vienna, Linz, Hamburg and Bremen under the lead of Simon Rittmann (Department of Ecogenomics and Systems Biology at the University of Vienna) investigated whether microbial life might be possible under the conditions prevailing on Enceladus. For their research, the team used methanogenic microorganisms from the group of the Archaea, because they metabolize hydrogen and carbon dioxide and can withstand high temperatures and pressure – conditions also suspected on Enceladus. They showed that in particular an archaeal strain from the Japanese deep sea could in principle be able to reproduce under the suspected ice-moon conditions.

Bremen laboratory simulates Enceladus conditions

In addition to the biological experiments carried out by the Universities of Vienna and Linz, astronomical-geological experiments were carried out at the Universities of Hamburg and Bremen. A research group led by Professor Wolfgang Bach from the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen made an important contribution to the study by modeling the reactions between water and rocks. This served to simulate the chemical-physical conditions that presumably prevail under the ice crust on Enceladus. “Based on this modeling, we have shown that hydrogen-consuming microorganisms could actually live in the extremely harsh conditions on Enceladus,” says Bach, explaining the results of the Bremen research. However, another aspect was also evident in the study: The data show that there may be a risk of contaminating such ice moons with terrestrial organisms carried by space probes from Earth.

You can read the article “Biological methane production under putative Enceladus-like conditions” at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02876-y (DOI Number: 10.1038/s41467-018-02876-y)

Editors please note: You can download images on this topic under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/d/23d00927c4f24e639635/

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof.Dr. Wolfgang Bach
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: 0421/218-65400
email: wbach@marum.de
 

Not utopia, but already in test mode on the road today – and tomorrow a reality

Although most people might think it is still utopian, the future has long since begun. At Frankfurt Airport, for example, autonomous shuttle buses for passenger transport are already in trial operation. Moreover, since 2017, the first autonomous scheduled mini-bus service is in operation on the Euref campus in Berlin, the site on the Schöneberger gasometer with more than 100 companies and more than 2,500 employees.

Autonomous self-driving supply vehicles have already been operating in factories and in the warehouses of logistics companies for a long time. Among other things, the BIBA can draw on its research in these areas for the adamo project. “What is already successfully used in production and logistics can also help physically impaired people to improve their quality of life and support their mobility,” says Aaron Heuermann, head of the adamo project. “This will very soon be technically feasible,” he is convinced.

Small smart vehicles to provide individual assistance when changing trains

“The project is developing a mobility concept for the intermodal mobility of seniors and other people with physical impairments,” explains Heuermann. When we choose and link together different modes of transport during a journey and change to other means of transport one after the other, we are travelling “intermodally”. The main subject of the project are autonomous micro-vehicles that function as intelligent helpers when transferring between different means of transport – with aids for entry and exit or walking aids to facilitate passenger and luggage transport.

Intelligently controlled autonomous aids in conflictive traffic areas on the road

“The small, smart vehicles are designed to move in so-called 'conflicting traffic areas' in part and in full autonomy, intelligently interconnecting different means of transport and supporting transitions between them, rather than just standing by separately next to them,” explains Heuermann. This requires system communication and interaction with and between all other links in the chain of involved vehicles and infrastructure such as stops and elevators. In addition, an intelligent self-learning vehicle control as well as user interfaces are to be designed which adapt to the individual needs of the users.

The challenge of human-technology interaction

One of the challenges lies in the human-technology interaction. “It has a high priority in this project and is crucial for the acceptance of robotic vehicles,” says Heuermann. “We design age-appropriate, easy-to-handle user interfaces. The operation should be as simple as possible and intuitive – and according to the possibilities of the users, offer optional control by gesture, voice or via a touch screen like a smart phone.”

Call for participation in the BIBA online survey “Mobility Behavior in Transition”

The research should be supported by a data collection. In this connection, the BIBA is calling for people to participate in a survey on mobility behavior under adamo.ikap.biba.uni-bremen.de.
Sabine Nollmann

Attention Editors: You can obtain image material on this topic under www.biba.uni-bremen.de/press2018.html or by contacting Sabine Nollmann (email: mail@kontexta.de, cell: 0170 904 11 67)

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus-Dieter Thoben (Institute Leader)
BIBA – Bremer Institute for Production and Logistics
Phone: 0421/218-50006
email: tho@biba.uni-bremen.de
www.biba.uni-bremen.de
adamo.ikap.biba.uni-bremen.de

Mini laser for microchips

While laser cutting or scanning CDs is done with a laser that is large enough to be visible to the human eye, applications in information technology, for example, call for much smaller nanolasers. Future data transmission and processing will increasingly be based on light, as we already know from the use of fiber optic cables. For microchips, however, mini-lasers are necessary – the smaller, the more energy-efficient. In addition, they can be integrated directly on the chip, which is an important aspect in addition to energy efficiency. The goal of the international research project was to develop such a nanolaser. The research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Published in “Nature Communications”

The development is an important step for basic research in this path-breaking area. The results, therefore, were also published in the renowned open access journal “Nature Communications” (see link below). The research was realized in close cooperation with other teams headed by leading experts in the field of semiconductor optoelectronics (Prof. Stephan Reitzenstein, TU Berlin), semiconductor processing (Prof. Nicolas Grandjean, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), and characterization of nitride semiconductors (Prof. Axel Hoffmann, TU Berlin).
 
It not only proved extremely difficult to produce the required miniaturized semiconductor structures. Yet another challenge was to prove the existence of phase-coherent light emission – so-called lasing – in the first place. “A normal laser is subject to huge losses,” explains Christopher Gies. “In fact, only 0.0001 percent of the generated light actually ends up in laser mode. The newly developed nanolaser, though, suffers hardly any losses at all – more than 70 percent of the generated light is retained! "

Extremely high energy efficiency

However, the high energy efficiency also presented a problem during the development of the nanolaser. “The almost complete absence of losses means that the laser’s ‘fingerprint’ – namely the sudden increase in light intensity at the laser threshold – is no longer existent. Instead, we have to study the almost unperceivable changes in the small amount of light that is emitted by the tiny semiconductor structure,” explains Gies. “This creates a real problem for experimental measurement methods, because at first you have no idea of which signatures to look for.”

And this is where the expertise of the Bremen University physicists from the Institute for Theoretical Physics came up trumps. Nobody knows better the complex laser theories that take into account the quantum mechanical features of the smallest lasers. With their computer-generated microscopic models, Christopher Gies, Frank Jahnke and Frederik Lohof were able to predict the behavior of the nano-system with amazing accuracy. “When our project partners started on the practical experiments, thanks to our work, they knew exactly how they would be able to identify the presence of lasing. The agreement between theory and experiment was proof that the nano-laser works.

Link zum Nature-Artikel: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02999-2; als PDF: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02999-2.pdf

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Christopher Gies
University of Bremen
Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITP)
Phone: 0421/218-62052
email: gies@itp.uni-bremen.de
www.itp.uni-bremen.de/ag-gies

“Cooperation in both directions”

“It is my deep conviction as a researcher that the University’s relationship with society should be of a more reciprocal nature. The University is part of our urban society: 3,500 highly qualified people work here, which makes us one of the largest employers in Bremen,” says Breiter. He sees his new task in ensuring that the University in Bremen is more strongly perceived as a research university and not only as an institution of higher education. After all, the research done here results in tangible benefits for the city state of Bremen, for its future and its reputation as a science hub. Breiter believes that, in addition to business start-ups and research and development with industrial partners in the region, science transfer must be understood in a much broader sense. In order to establish a sustainable transfer culture, it is important to develop cooperation in both directions. “We want to make the transfer activities of the Faculties even more visible. There are any number of great collaboration projects in the humanities and social sciences, especially with schools and cultural institutions.” The comprehensive transfer audit which the University carried out last year is the first step towards the development of a sustainable transfer strategy as part of the University’s overall future strategy.

About the person:

Andreas Breiter was appointed Professor of Applied Computer Science in the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science at the University of Bremen in July 2008. The chair focuses on information and knowledge management. At the same time, he heads the Institute for Information Management Bremen GmbH (ifib), a not-for-profit research and consulting institute at the University of Bremen.

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof. Andreas Breiter
Vice-President for Research, Young Academics and Transfer
University of Bremen
Phone: +49-421-218-60020
email: kon1@uni-bremen.de

In addition to the obligation to provide one’s full name and waive the right to delete shared information, further consent is requested. Such as the unpaid use of name and profile picture for upgrading marketing efforts as well as the processing of personal information for use in studies and product development. Participants in the survey were also asked whether they knew that their personal data is passed on to the US. The terms of use also include consent to authorities having access to their data.

Unawareness and indignation

The survey revealed that 99 percent of respondents did not know that they had agreed to all these abovementioned conditions. If they had the choice, now only three percent would agree to all the clauses. Subsequent in-depth qualitative analyzes made it clear that when confronted with details of what they had given their consent to, most people react with criticism and indignation.

“The results show that the voluntary use of Facebook cannot be equated with actually having consented to the coupled processing of a user’s data,” explains the author of the study Robert Rothmann. Simply using facebook does mean having given blanket consent to all contractual contents and subsequent data processing. The representative data show that the vast majority of people who use facebook do so without having given their informed consent.

Erosion of privacy

The opinion of facebook, but also that of many lawyers, stands in stark contrast to the empirical findings: They interpret the act of registration as formally validating a contract with binding consent. Consumers who sign up for a social media service based on extensive “general terms and conditions of business” are simply assumed also to be in agreement with any subsequent activities and processing of their data. However, that the average consumer is aware of such extensive terms and conditions is economically irrational – quite apart from the fact that it is practically impossible for legal laypersons to understand them. The assumed consent thus proves to be a fiction. This protects the corporations and gives consumers an improper advantage under data protection law in the digital mass market. “We can speak of a contractually-based erosion of privacy, which completely derails central data protection values,” sums up Robert Rothmann.

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Robert Rothmann
University of Bremen
Faculty of Law
Institute for Information, Health and Medical Law
Phone: +49 421 218-99734
email: robert.rothmann@univie.ac.at

Prof.Dr. Benedikt Buchner
University of Bremen
Faculty of Law
Institute for Information, Health and Medical Law
Phone: +49 421 218-66040
email: bbuchner@uni-bremen.de

Until 2016, the Bremen Papyri were kept in glass frames made in 1902/03. At some point, the glass was damaged and strange deposits formed where the broken glass came into direct contact with the papyri. The gray-white residues are clearly visible everywhere the papyrus came into direct contact with the glass. The project goal, therefore, is just as much a re-glazing undertaking as an investigation into the cause of these strange deposits. For this reason, conservational processing was carried out on the papyri, as well as analyzes of the old and the new glass.

Protective packaging and graphic beds

The papyrus restorer Jörg Graf from the University Library Leipzig opened the old glass frames. He removed the papyri from the acid-free carrier board and replaced the glass. These were then brought to the SuUB Bremen in suitable protective packaging and on graphic beds.

The conservation measures were accompanied by a research project embedded in the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Leipzig (HTWK). The project was funded by the Koordinierungsstelle für die Erhaltung des schriftlichen Kulturguts [Coordinating Office for the Preservation of Written Cultural Heritage].

On view until April 12

An exhibition traces the individual steps of the project and provides information about the historical papyri collection. It is on view from February 19 to April 12, 2018 in the foyer of the SuUB in Bibliothekstraße, 28359 Bremen (Mon – Fridays 8 a.m. till 10 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.).

Attention editors: You can download a photo on this topic under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/65b65d54ff5147c185af/

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Anke Winsmann
State and University Library Bremen – Public Relations
Phone: +49 (0)421/218-59572
email: oeffentlichkeitsarbeit@suub.uni-bremen.de
www.suub.uni-bremen.de

The very latest technology

The laboratory will specialize in computer-aided surgery, intelligent training systems for surgeons, as well as the detection of malaria and dengue habitats. MIRU will be equipped with state-of-the-art computer and interaction technology, such as force-feedback simulators to provide feedback on the force applied during surgery. The work will be carried out in close collaboration with the clinical partners of Mahidol University.

From cooperation to strategic partnership

The cooperation between the University of Bremen and Mahidol University in Bangkok was contractually formalized in 2014. This was preceded by several individual research contacts. Cooperation between the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science at the University of Bremen and the Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies at Mahidol University has now developed into a so-called strategic partnership, i.e. an effective and structured continuous cooperation. Of particular importance is the intensive exchange of students and doctoral students, in which candidates from Bremen gain international research experience and are supervised by experts in Bangkok. Currently there are four students and one doctoral candidate in Bangkok. Since 2017, a framework agreement offers the opportunity for bi-national doctorates under joint supervision. The model is to be extended to other Faculties of both universities.

Simulation method for dentistry

Cooperation between the two universities is already established in the areas of medical informatics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, human-computer interfaces, digital media, robotics, and health sciences. In recent years, for example, students from Bangkok have been coming to Bremen to work on the development of simulation methods for medicine and dentistry or to process geodata to identify malaria and dengue habitats. Ample proof of just how successful these students are is provided by the many prizes and publications in the past three years.

“Impressive commitment”

“Hardly any other cooperation has developed so quickly and through such impressive commitment on the part of all those involved,” emphasizes Professor Eva Feichtner, Vice President Diversity and International at the University of Bremen. Several project proposals are currently in the application phase, including one for a graduate program in cooperation with Mahidol University and Harvard University.

Attention editors: You can find annotated images of the opening of the joint laboratory under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/ad4f884aa86c4878a79c/

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof.Dr. Christian Freksa
University of Bremen
Faculty of Mathematics Computer Science
Phone:+049 421 218 64230
email: freksa@uni-bremen.de

Collaboration on a new generation of trains

As part of the Mat4Rail project, researchers at the University of Bremen and Fraunhofer IFAM are working on the development of flame-retardant lightweight materials. Project leader Professor Bernd Mayer explains: “The Mat4Rail project allows us to investigate and optimize innovative matrix systems with regard to their fire behavior in combination with carbon, glass and basalt fibers. We’re excited about this opportunity to work on the emergence of a whole new generation of rail vehicles.” The 4-person research team around Mayer consists of two production technicians and a chemist, who are supported by researchers from Fraunhofer IFAM. The little over two-year Bremen project is being funded with almost 500,000 euro.

Part of the world's largest research program Horizon 2020

Mat4Rail is part of the so-called Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (S2R JU), a public-private partnership launched in the frame of the Horizon 2020 EU research program. The goal of S2R JU is to secure and strengthen the competitiveness of the European rail industry. Horizon 2020 is the world's largest transnational support program for science, technology development, and innovation. In addition to SMART, Mat4Rail is already the second Shift2Rail project in which the University of Bremen is directly involved. SMART is about automation in rail freight transport.

Innovation through cooperation

The University of Bremen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Materials Research (IFAM) are members of the “U Bremen Research Alliance”, which was formed to strengthen research cooperation between the University and top-level non-university research institutes. The collaborative research conducted in the Mat4Rail project strengthens the research alliance and simultaneously makes the University of Bremen more internationally visible as a place of top research.

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof.Dr. Bernd Mayer
Faculty of Production Engineering – Mechanical Engineering & Process Engineering
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 2246-419
E-Mail: bernd.mayer@uni-bremen.de

Dovetailing studying and further training

“In today’s knowledge society, it is the task of the universities to provide academic education to specialists with varied educational biographies and in different phases of life – even after completing their first academic degree,” explains project manager Dr. Ing. Petra Boxler from the Academy for Continuing Education at the University of Bremen. “In 'konstruktiv' we take this particular bull by the horns. Undergraduate studies and further education must in future be more closely interlinked.”

This is because innovation cycles are getting increasingly shorter; and because not only the individual benefits from part-time studies, but also the employer. With this in mind, “konstruktiv” developed the modular course of studies called LIFE, which has been undergoing empirical testing since the fall of 2017. LIFE makes it possible for people interested in further education to take part in modules from the fields of computer science & digital media, production engineering as well as health & nursing. They can take exams and earn credit points. The modules can be individually documented or combined to further education certificates. In the second funding phase of "konstruktiv" it is planned to extend this offer to possibly include studying for a master's degree.

Flexible curricula for professionals

The main focus of work in the “konstruktiv” project is on the development of flexible curricula that reflect the further education requirements of working people in the best possible way. In order to improve the compatibility of studying with work and family commitments, part of the curriculum should be flexible in terms of both location and time windows. Such an approach requires that classroom attendance can be replaced by e-learning or self-guided learning.

An extensive offer of counseling and support for students in further education facilitates entry and the individual design of studies. The aim of the second funding phase is also to create structures that sustainably embed the modular studies LIFE in the University together with the approaches developed in “konstruktiv”.

The trial phase of LIFE will be continued in the summer semester of 2018. Prospective students can register for selected modules until March 15, 2018. Detailed information on the project “konstruktiv” can be found under www.uni-bremen.de/konstruktiv and on the study offers under www.uni-bremen.de/life.

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Petra Boxler (project leader)
University of Bremen
Academy for Continuing Education
Phone: 0421 / 218-61600
Email: konstruktiv@uni-bremen.de

The next Ocean Day will be on February 13, 2019

In future, the Bremen Ocean Day is scheduled to take place every year. The next event will take place on February 13, 2019.  “We are pleased that the new format was so well received and that we could give young people insights into our interdisciplinary research,” says Dubilier.

Four lectures

The first Bremer Ocean Day was dedicated to the deep sea: During the event, the young people were able to learn first-hand how and what marine research “made in Bremen” is all about. In four lectures, experienced researchers talked about the fascinating and fragile deep-sea habitats they have come across during expeditions, the technical challenges of doing research in the most remote places on earth, and an “ocean under the ocean”.

Further information:

www.uni-bremen.de/oceanday 

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Cooperation University-School
University of Bremen
Email: school@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-60393

Now, new materials are coming on stream which are extremely thin and produce very intense light –and are at the same time surprisingly easy to manufacture: Using conventional adhesive tape it is even possible to strip individual atomic layers of special crystals in the laboratory. Particularly suitable for this purpose are the so-called “van der Waals” crystals. A key idea here is the principle of the “Lego modular system”. The functionalities of luminous and electrically conductive, atomically thin materials are combined by stacking them directly on top of one another.

Innovative material allows use in sensors and solar cells

The materials produced in this way exhibit enormous mechanical stability. Not only do they efficiently emit light, they can also absorb light and turn it into electricity. This has already resulted in initial applications in highly sensitive sensors, and their use in flexible solar panels also seems to be a next step. This feature is particularly interesting in view of the growing demand for renewable energy.

Dancing game of particles explored

Light in a certain range of the color spectrum is generated in semiconductors by the emission of positive and negative electric charges. Owing to their different polarities, the opposite charges attract each other and can combine to form new composite particles, so-called excitons, with altered properties. In the course of their basic research on new materials, the physics team at the University of Bremen has developed a method with which these composite particles can be visualized and studied.

The scientists have been able to analyze how the occurrence of composite particles depends on the number of charges that can be controlled externally with a light emitting diode. “The unequal charges show a behavior very similar to that of dancers on a differently populated dance floor. If the density is low, there are very few dancers on the floor and it’s difficult to find a partner – so everyone dances on their own. On a well-filled dance floor, however, couples form and dance together undisturbed. Eventually, though, an overcrowded dance floor leads to the couples colliding a lot, so that they separate and everyone dances alone again,” is how the early-career researcher Dr. Alexander Steinhoff explains his research to a layperson.

“We were able to show that the composite particles can be visualized by means of photoelectron spectroscopy.” He goes on to explain, “By so doing, a high-energy light particle is irradiated. The composite particle is crushed and its constituents are released from the semiconductor and lock onto the structure of the composite particle.”

New method brings structure into the dance.

The authors suggest in the Nature article to use these findings. The relationship between free and paired charges directly affects the optical and electronic properties of the material. It can be controlled by targeted structuring of the environment to which atomic thin materials react sensitively. The scientists hereby make an important contribution to handling the “Lego-like modular system” and the production of ultra-thin opto-electronic components with tailor-made properties.

The work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the frame of the graduate school “Quantum Mechanical Materials Modeling” at the University of Bremen. The article “Exciton fission in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors” can be read under this link: www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01298-6 (DOI number: 10.1038 / s41467-017-01298-6).

Attention editors: You will find images under: https://seafile.zfn.unibremen.de/d/2bd6be7b3b1a4f52a4b7/

If you would like more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Prof.Dr. Frank Jahnke
University of Bremen
Institute of Theoretical Physics
Phone: +49 421 218-62050
E-Mail: jahnke@itp.uni-bremen.de

Developed together with senior citizens

“That's exactly what older people have been missing in local maps so far,” says Dr. Juliane Jarke from the Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) at the University of Bremen. Together with Professor Herbert Kubicek and Ulrike Gerhardt, from May 2017 to January 2018 she designed and implemented the interactive neighborhood guide within the framework of the EU project “Mobile in Old Age”. The most important thing: “The neighborhood guide for older people was not only developed for them, but also with them. Because it should meet their information needs and really be useful for the target group,” says Juliane Jarke. On February 9, 2017, the digital neighborhood guide map went online and was integrated into the website of Bremen. The offer can now be accessed online at www.bremen.de/osterholz/senioren

A core group of twelve elderly citizens between the ages of 55 and 80 – five men and seven women – met every 14 days to work on the project. The local councilor, three so-called neighborhood managers and representatives of two parishes, a mothers' center and various neighborhood initiatives also participated in the project. Moreover, at various meeting points for senior citizens, around eighty people contributed ideas on the places they thought should be included and which information should be made available.

Collecting ideas, creating a data model, putting the data together, technical implementation on the server of the project partner FTB (Research Institute Technology and Disability of the Protestant Volmarstein Foundation in Wetter), usability tests – all this took some time. But the effort was worth it, and the result is impressive: “This is a very valuable contribution to getting older people out and about,” said Bremen's Social Senator Anja Stahmann at the launching event.

Easily transferable to other locations

“The EU Commission funded this neighborhood guide for Osterholz to illustrate how future users could be involved in its development,” says Professor Herbert Kubicek from ifib. “The new product should serve as an example in other parts of the city or towns and communities. It can be transferred without too much effort. Older people elsewhere should also be provided with information to help them stay active longer.” Kubicek now plans to compile guidelines to show others how to create digital interactive neighborhood maps of this kind.

And what about the older people who are not yet online? “That, too, is a topic of our research and we are working on the problem,” says Juliane Jarke. “But of course we want to help those seniors now. We have therefore printed a brochure – 1,000 copies – containing information on the 17 beautiful squares and paths.”

An informative film about the development process of the digital neighborhood guide can be found here (in German): https://vimeo.com/225376546

If you have any questions on this topic, feel free to contact:

Professor Herbert Kubicek
University of Bremen
Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib)
Phone: 0421 / 218-56575
Email: kubicek@informatik.uni-bremen.de

About ifib​​​​​​​: The Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) is a financially independent affiliated institute of the University of Bremen. Its work focuses on the handling of information and IT management in public administration, in schools and universities as well as in associations. Members of the institute are active in research and consultancy. Their main focus is not on the technology, but rather on the requirements of the respective field of application. www.ifib.de

Science Senator Professor Eva Quante-Brandt emphasized that the theses were works of passion, and went on to say: “We need your competence and capacity for reflexivity. We need you as critical minds. With your findings, you help keep society together”.

Professor Andreas Breiter, who as Vice President Academics moderated the award ceremony, also emphasized the passion shown by the young academics. The laudations delivered by the students’ supervising professors followed in quick succession of five-minutes each.

The prizewinners:

• Dr. Jan Höcker's dissertation in the field of natural and engineering sciences for his thesis: “In situ studies on the growth and structure of rare doxide-based inverse model catalysts”.

• Lars Langhorst with his master's thesis in the field of natural sciences and engineering on the subject: “Simulation and validation of deviations in shape of a flat-milled work piece”.

• Dr. Regina Arant for her dissertation titled: “Who you are depends on where you are: The impact of a high school year abroad on the national and host country identity of German exchange students”.

• Paola Janßen with her Master's thesis in the field of social sciences and humanities on the topic “Bayesian networks in the administration of justice”.

• The special prize sponsored by Bruker Daltonik GmbH for scientific and engineering dissertations was awarded to Philipp Niemann for his work on “Towards Computer-Aided Design of Quantum Logic”.

Dr. Ing. Regina Arant presented a reviewed of her research findings. The psychologist from the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) accompanied, questioned online and interviewed 846 exchange students over a period of two and a half years. She postulates and has also provided significant evidence that “One’s German identity consolidates during a stay abroad. Young people learn to deal with their German origins. They explore them and consciously bind themselves emotionally. A temporary bi-cultural identity assumed during a student exchange ultimately strengthens their identity with their German nationality.”

The experts know all about it – the “average consumer” usually not: How does the electricity get into the wall? “In Germany, this is done via three-phase networks. Everyone knows the overhead power lines that criss-cross the countryside,” explains Holger Raffel from the Bremen Center for Mechatronics at the University of Bremen. “However, worldwide it is more usual to use DC to transport electricity over long distances. This is done through point-to-point connections on high-voltage DC transmission links – HVDC lines, for short.” – For example, when electricity is transported from Sweden to Germany or from a distant wind farm off the coast.

How does electricity get from north to south with low loss?

Holger Raffel is the coordinator of the new collaborative project “Multi-Terminal Intelligent / Integrated Grids” (MuTiG), in which, in addition to the University of Bremen’s Institute for Electric Drives, Power Electronics and Components (IALB) and the Fraunhofer IWES (Bremerhaven), the industrial partners ABB AG (Ladenburg) and wpd offshore solutions GmbH (Bremen) also participate. The researchers want to develop the direct current solution with linked HVDC lines for use in Germany. Why? “Currently, there is a lot of discussion about how the offshore electricity generated in the north will cope with travelling over long distances to the south – from the coast to the mountains, so to speak,” says Raffel. Of course, it’s also possible to use the existing three-phase networks. “But over long distances, big losses can occur. Nobody wants that. By contrast, direct-current lines are low-loss – and therefore significantly more economical.”

Sophisticated control technology is necessary to implement such a solution – and the know-how for this comes from the state of Bremen. The IALB and the IWES have been working at different levels for many years on the physical and electrical challenges involved in the generation and transmission of offshore wind energy. Together with the industrial partners in the MuTiG project, they now want to coordinate research and application in order to create the electricity grid of tomorrow.

Will the electricity pylons disappear from the landscape one day?

The MuTiG project partners are not just concerned with making the transport of electricity from north to south low-loss. “The point-to-point connections on HVDC lines must be thought of as power cables running side-by-side from the coast to Bavaria, Saxony or Thuringia. We now want to link these adjacent routes together in numerous places. This has the advantage, for example, that – if a cable were to break somewhere – the power could be diverted to the south via another cable,” says Raffel. “As HVDC cables are nowadays usually laid underground, it could one day even lead to the disappearance of electricity pylons in Germany. But that's still a future dream.”

In order to connect the strands functionally, intelligent converter stations are required. One of the tasks within the project is to efficiently manage the various everyday situations that can occur. For modern power transmission systems are highly sensitive. Even small fluctuations can upset the balance – the risk of a “blackout” looms in the background. The joint research should ultimately also serve to make the German and European electricity grids more robust. Beside the technical challenges, over the next three years the four project partners will be investigating the legal and economic aspects as well as.

Attention editors: Photos for this press release can be downloaded here: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/a3c4cac50d54411ab3d5/.

If you have any questions on this topic, feel free to contact:

Dr. Holger Raffel
University of Bremen
Bremen Center for Mechatronics
Phone: 0421 / 218-62690
Email: raffel@mechatronik-bcm.de
www.mechatronik-bcm.de

About the project partners: ABB AG from Ladenburg contributes its expertise and experience in the field of HVDC systems as part of the research project. The global technology developer and manufacturer will focus on interconnect topologies for the conversion of electrical energy and solutions for monitoring and protecting electrical networks. Owing to its many years of international experience in implementing wind energy projects, the Bremen-based wpd offshore solutions GmbH supports German offshore wind projects in the areas of terminal connection, operation, risks and responsibilities. The Fraunhofer IWES brings its expertise and experience in the field of plant and park modeling, plant operation management and control as well as in the field of real-time simulation into the consortium. In the MuTiG project IWES conducts the system and interpark network modeling and develops new solutions for the overall system model of the offshore wind energy transmission system.

www.iwes.fraunhofer.de
www.abb.com/de
www.wpd.de
www.ialb.uni-bremen.de

As part of a Humboldt Research Fellowship for established researchers, Professor Galina Zelenina will be a guest at the Research Center for East European Studies at the University of Bremen for a whole year. She is a Privatdozentin (since 2013) at the Center for Biblical and Jewish Studies at the State University for the Humanities (RGGU) in Moscow. Her research interests are Jewish history and culture in Russia. Prof. Zelenina’s current research project investigates the Jewish underground movement in the late Soviet period. For source material in the form of letters, memoirs, diaries and documents, she can refer to the comprehensive archive at the Bremen research center. Many of the archived documents come from well-known Jewish dissidents or “refuseniks”, i.e. Jewish Soviet citizens who were denied emigration.

Intensive use of the research center's archive

The focus of her work lies in the paradoxes that can be seen in the lifestyles or the self-image of members of the Jewish community that often shape minorities or groups in the diaspora. How was the relationship to their Jewish tradition or religion affected? What did the spectrum of Jewish life in the Soviet Union encompass? Prof. Zelenina wants to get to the bottom of these questions with her research. “It's wonderful to be able to do research at the Research Center for East European Studies, My work will benefit greatly from the wide variety of topics covered,” she says. During her time in Bremen, Prof. Zelenina will be supported by the director of the research office, Professor Susanne Schattenberg.

Dr. Roman Frolov: “Between the private and the public: Political actors in the Roman Republic”

Russian researcher Dr. Roman Frolov from the State Demidov University Yaroslavl is guest at the Institute of History. During the two years of his Humboldt Research Fellowship, he will investigate the political culture of the Roman Republic. “In order to fully understand the Roman political order one has to distinguish between privatus and publicus. A public official (magistratus) did not act as a “private person” (privatus). The project, though, examines the possibilities that were used prior to taking up office and after their term was finished, although they never admitted to being privatus,” he explains. In addition, he wants to analyze the relationships in which public officials failed to act within their formal rights. Even today, one can observe that the actual role of individuals in politics does not depend only on formal status. Often, there are also other factors that exert a strong influence, such as social prestige.

Expansion of the scientific network

The historian will remain at the University of Bremen until May 2019, after which the University of Bielefeld will then be his host for a further six months. Frolov has known his supervisor in Bremen, Professor Tassilo Schmitt, for a long time. Under his direction, Frolov already carried out a project from 2012 to 2013 on the Roman contiones, a form of non-decision making political assembly. “My alma mater in Yaroslavl and the University of Bremen have had contacts in research and teaching for many years. They are intensively and successfully cultivated in various formats by my doctoral supervisor Professor Vera V. Dement’eva and Professor Schmitt. I am particularly pleased that, based on this, I can pursue my research project and further expand my network,” says Frolov.

Attention editors: Under the following link you can download photos of Galina Zelenina and Roman Frolov: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/d/25b703e1d8e341bb8008/

If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:

Professor Susanne Schattenberg
University of Bremen
Research Center Eastern Europe
Phone: 0421 218-69624
Email: schattenberg@uni-bremen.de

Professor Tassilo Schmitt
University of Bremen
Institute of History
Phone: 0421 218-67240
Email: tschmitt@uni-bremen.de

“We use the comics to shed light on interesting questions and aspects surrounding technical informatics,” explains Stoppe. “Of course, in just four images, we can only convey academic content to a limited extent; but fascination for computers and technology can often be aroused by pointing out just how crazy the current technologies are on closer inspection.” Rolf Drechsler and Jannis Stoppe want their comics to awaken enthusiasm for knowledge, even – and in particular – when the readers are laypersons.

Why is the Nœrdman called “Nœrdman”?

“The Nœrdman is the nerd from the north – both technically interested and a little cranky at the same time, who emanates the calm said to be typical of Bremen people. That the ligature “œ” – the combination of two letters to an unusual type of printing – in German also stands for “without limitation” is no coincidence,” Stoppe reveals.

Further information:

• Website with all comics
• Nœrdman is also on Twitter
• Rolf Drechsler also posts the comic series on Instagram
• Hashtag: #noerdman

Questions are answered by:

Prof. Dr. Rolf Drechsler
Universität Bremen
AG Rechnerarchitektur (AGRA)
Phone: +49-421/218-63932
E-Mail: 

The Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering - IWT Bremen

The Leibniz IWT is located on the campus of the University of Bremen. It has been working closely with the Faculty of Production Engineering for many years. The institute develops future technologies in the field of metal processing from basic research to industrial maturity. Its extensive know-how and exclusive technical equipment make a significant contribution to solving the problem issues encountered in metalworking. It was admitted to the Leibniz Association at the beginning of January this year. At the invitation of the Senator for Science, Professor Eva Quante-Brandt, a festive ceremony was held in the Bremen town hall on January 30 to mark the occasion.

German Science Council: Bremen Alliance is a good example of cooperation

The cooperation between the University of Bremen and the non-university research institutions around the campus and in the state of Bremen has a long tradition. In addition to the University, the alliance founded in 2016 encompasses member institutions of all the major German science organizations. The partners want to intensify the already existing scientific cooperation between their institutions and work even more closely together in the areas of service and administration. “A strong university promotes strong non-university research institutions, and strong non-university research institutions stimulate university development,” says the President of the University of Bremen. The German Science Council obviously agrees: In its recently published “Recommendations on regional cooperation of scientific institutions”, it portrays the Bremen Alliance as a shining example of good cooperation.

The twelve members of the U Bremen Research Alliance:
1.    Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)
2.    German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Bremen (DFKI)
3.    German Maritime Museum - Leibniz Institute for German Maritime History (DSM)
4.    DLR Institute of Space Systems
5.    Fraunhofer Institute for Image-Assisted Medicine (MEVIS)
6.    Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Materials Research (IFAM)
7.    Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES)
8.    Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS)
9.    Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering (Leibniz-IWT)
10.    Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT)
11.    Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPI)
12.    University of Bremen