All members succesfully kicked off the program in Bamberg, Germany
The GRK 2495 members got together on February 24-26, 2020 for the Graduate School Kick-off Meeting and spent three successful days full of lectures, presentations, and cultural exchange in Bamberg, Germany.
The Director, Prof. Kyle G. Webber, and Co-Director Prof. Ken-ichi Kakimoto from Nagoya Institute of Technology were pleased to officially open GRK2495 and welcome the Japanese and German participants to the Congress Hotel Residenzschloss for the first phase of the interdisciplinary collaboration and cultural exchange.
The meeting started with presentations from two international advisors, Dr. Gunnar Picht from Corporate Research Department, Robert Bosch GmbH and Dr. Oliver Schmidt from Siemens Healthineers. Their interesting presentations gave participants an overview of industrial research activities in Germany on perovskite materials for piezoelectric and x-ray detection systems.
Following this, PIs from FAU and NITech introduced their proposed projects and held Ring Lectures on a variety of topics from ceramic processing and ferroelectricity to photoelectrochemical water splitting and single crystal growth. This kick-off meeting also marked the beginning of the Collaborative Research Project on Integrated Coupled Energy Harvesting Systems, where four teams of doctoral researchers at FAU and NITech will work collaboratively to address the scientific question: “How can the electro-optical (photovoltaic) and electro-mechanical phenomena be coupled into one system?”
PIs, doctoral researchers, and associated researchers got together for scientific and cultural exchange during joint dinners at local restaurants with traditional Franconian food and beer.
On the last day, participants came together for a traditional “Brotzeit” and beer tasting at “zum Sternla”, a local Brewery in Bamberg, followed by a guided sightseeing tour by two “locals”.
The next GRK 2495 Yearly School will be held in Nagoya, Japan on March 1-5, 2021.