Every two years, a joint excursion for research assistants and doctoral students at Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences takes place, organized by the Vice President Research and Transfer and Ms Sandy Korb, Head of Department D2. Two years ago, the so-called AssEx went to Nuremberg in Middle Franconia, but this time it was to Würzburg in Lower Franconia.
The aim of the assistant excursion is to promote interdisciplinary exchange between young academics at our university. As part of the event, the participants presented their research projects and the topics of their doctoral projects and discussed these in an interdisciplinary manner. The academic program was supplemented by informal discussion rounds in which challenges in the day-to-day work of a doctorate were openly addressed and valuable experiences were shared in an atmosphere of trust.
A central element of the excursion is also a visit to a company. To kick off this year’s AssEx, Brose Fahrzeugteile SE & Co. KG opened its doors at the Würzburg site. The automotive supplier develops and manufactures electric motors for transmissions, steering and air conditioning as well as drives for two-wheelers. The participants were given in-depth insights into the company and its production processes.
With 68 locations in 24 countries, Brose has a broad global presence and remains a family-owned company – a self-image that is reflected both in its mission statement and in its day-to-day work. Brose Würzburg meets the current challenges of the automotive supplier industry with a high degree of innovative strength – not only in terms of products, but also with regard to modern manufacturing technologies, especially in the areas of automation and digitalization.
Three dissertation projects were then presented. The first was Paul Kluth, who is doing his doctorate at the Faculty of Business Law on the subject of location predicates. These are legally relevant terms such as “health resort”, “spa” or “resort”, which are officially recognized by numerous municipalities in Germany. The first task is to describe the phenomenon and put it into a legal context. Even if it is primarily a legal problem in municipal law, the closer you look at it, the more complex the situation becomes. The recognitions under state law are based on laws or ordinances; in practice, the stipulations of associations are of considerable importance. A certain medical-health tourism quality must be present to be awarded the label. Precisely because the labels can be accompanied by special legal consequences with high practical relevance (e.g. in tax law or store opening hours), this creates a legally attractive field of investigation. Thematically, it also fits into the increasingly important discussion on health aspects. A well-founded classification under commercial law is just as much in the interests of the administration as it is in the interests of the economic players concerned.
Yekatarina Strigina is doing her doctorate at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and is working on the “RoboTraces” research project, in which she was involved. The project dealt with logistics using micromobiles, which were intended to relieve the burden on older people in particular in their everyday lives by running errands or transporting goods. Moving the robot on sidewalks posed a particular challenge. On the one hand, the uneven terrain and the sometimes poor condition of the paths were difficult for the robot to cope with. Secondly, footpaths are inherently unstructured spaces: they generally have neither clear rules nor markings or unambiguous guidelines, which makes it difficult for autonomous systems to move safely and predictably. Another key task was communication between the robot and its environment, which also includes passers-by. The aim was to determine parameters in this human-machine interaction in order to clarify the conditions for acceptance. Speed, distance and predictability of actions were key factors. The dissertation attempts to integrate decision-making routines into the robot’s reaction patterns, which are fed by an artificial intelligence that has in turn been trained on real behavior and psychological insights. One of the ideas here is posture, which – correctly interpreted – allows conclusions to be drawn about a passer-by’s intentions. The aim is to enable the robot to react quickly, flexibly and reliably to this in its movement sequences. As a large number of autonomous micromobiles will be moving around in public spaces in the foreseeable future, similar projects are needed to proactively counter conflicts on shared paths.
Finally, Lukas Hauck from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering presented the progress of his project since his first presentation at the previous AssEx. In principle, this dissertation is about additive manufacturing of electronic components and exploring the technical possibilities of a 3D integration system: the latter can be described as a machine platform that allows different substrates to be applied to different and inhomogeneous topologies using different processes. In other words, the system offers various technical options for processing (such as dispersion or jetting, i.e. the contactless application of mostly drop-shaped fluids) of very different materials. At the same time, the 5-axis system makes it possible to work not only on a flat plane, but also in 3-dimensional space. This means that electronic components can be produced in positions that were previously difficult or impossible to access. Due to the multitude of possibilities, however, the control and efficient use of the system has also become complex, which poses challenges for prototyping as a field of application for the system. In order to keep the adaptation cycles and finding the optimal technology as minimal as possible, Lukas Hauck attempts to characterize and systematize different technical possibilities, determine different modules and describe possible combinations of different components. These design rules are intended to simplify the handling of the machine platform and exploit the optimum of its technological possibilities.
Finally, Ms. Ludwig reported on the current status of the FH-Personal project with a special focus on the activities in the context of young scientists. For example, the first-ever doctoral website, new impulses in doctoral coaching and current activities in science communication.
The AssEx was rounded off with an evening together and a tour of the city. The informal exchange that accompanies such an evening serves to share experiences of this special phase of an academic career: in addition to research topics, it is also about career planning strategies or very human questions of work-life balance, for example.
As the doctoral students are at least in a similar situation, events such as the AssEx bring together people who can discuss such issues without barriers.