Collaborative Project Progress Presentations (Oct 7, 2020)

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

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