Technische Fakultät Uncovered

I always wanted to be an inventor. When I was told that wasn't a job you could train for, I opted to become a scientist - which basically had the same job description.

Prof. Bastian Rapp is professor at the Department for Microsystems Engineering and Full Professor of Process Technology.

1. What do you associate with microsystems engineering?

Sustainability is the imperative of the present; no other question moves humanity, especially the younger generation, so deeply. And rightfully so - if we don't find a way to solve the climate crisis and the problems of an unsustainable economy, we will face challenges that we won't be able to overcome anymore. As scientists, our task is to propose solutions today so that it doesn't come to that. The essence of microsystems engineering is to require fewer resources, materials, space, and energy to achieve the same or higher functionality. No other science has made a comparable leap in technology in recent years - just think of the supercomputers we carry with us in our pockets today. All of this wouldn't have been possible without microsystems engineering. Few technologies can boast such an innovative leap.

2. What is your main field of research and why is it so exciting for you?

In my research, I am concerned with the question of which new materials and material systems we need to solve technical and societal problems, how to manufacture these materials, and how to process them. This is an exciting field of research because materials are the core ingredient for almost every technical system. For example, at my chair, the Laboratory of Process Technology, we have invented the injection molding of glass in the 3D printing process. However, we also research tactile surfaces that allow visually impaired people to perceive texts and images through touch. We contemplate how to store heat in materials, how to program materials, and what the next generation of 3D printing processes will look like, where complex components can be created directly in free space.

3. What do the students learn from you and which aspects are particularly important to you?

It is especially important to me that students recognize how incredibly vital their skills, knowledge, and ideas are and will be. One of my main tasks is to educate the next generation of pioneers, problem solvers, and innovators. In the minds of young people, the solutions to the problems of our time will emerge and must emerge. I believe it is immensely important for young individuals to understand that it is not only about completing a specialized degree program or obtaining good grades on paper. While those are important, it is even more crucial to comprehend that university is not just a gateway that one passes through and closes behind them. The university is the key that can unlock countless doors - one only needs to be open to it.
 

4. What advice would you give to students at the beginning of their studies?

Keep your eyes open, ask questions, and seek solutions. Don't just aim for the minimum required. Try to discover the maximum potential you can achieve. Challenge yourself, your fellow students, and professors. Instead of merely finding the best solutions to a problem, try to determine if the problem itself is the relevant challenge. Why must it be done this way? Why does everyone do it like this? Shouldn't it be done completely differently? And if so, how? No employer will allow you to ask these questions as extensively, comprehensively, and extensively as the university does. Scientists must think and act beyond the conventional boundaries. We need this freedom to come up with truly new ideas, approaches, and solutions. The business world always needs to ensure that a solution is financially viable. That's necessary and good - that's how the economy should work. However, science does not have this limitation. Students do not have this limitation either. During your studies, you have the time and space to thoroughly observe, reconsider, and comprehend everything. Seize this opportunity!

5. What are the career prospects for graduates?

Career prospects in STEM subjects have never been better. The number of challenges and problems requiring intelligent engineers has never been higher, and the future has never been more exciting for people who enjoy working on solutions to socially relevant problems.

6. What is your motto for teaching and research?

Always keep your eyes on the horizon: What lies directly ahead can make walking difficult. But, you shouldn't let that get in your way. It's important to always keep an eye on where you're going if you just keep walking.

7. What do you like best about the Faculty of Engineering?

There are really no relevant questions in the STEM subjects that we don't cover here. For every question, you will find someone who can answer it for you. And the openness with which people collaborate and research here is incomparable. Anyone who is bored has never been here!

8. What you think students should know about you?

I always wanted to be an inventor. When I was told that wasn't a job you could train for, I opted to become a scientist - which basically had the same job description.

We will only really succeed in achieving the mandatory energy transition if we also achieve a material transition, since the generation, conversion and storage of energy will only be possible with sustainable materials and their process technology.

Dr. Frank Balle is professor at the Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering and leader of the Walter-und-Ingeborg-Herrmann-Chair for Power Ultrasonics and Engineering of Functional Materials (EFM).
 

1. What do you associate with sustainable systems engineering?

Many systems today are still far from sustainable. Engineering systems are therefore one of the great challenges of our time and a key to mastering the challenges of sustainable resource management. Both in research and in education, I would like to contribute to bringing more sustainability into the products and systems of today and tomorrow. This includes questions on material innovations as a basis for sustainability in the field of energy transition, the corresponding resource scarcity or sovereignty as well as engineering solutions for re- and decarbonization.

We will only really succeed in achieving the mandatory energy transition if we also achieve a material transition, since the generation, conversion and storage of energy will only be possible with sustainable materials and their process technology.
 

2. What is your main field of research and why is it so exciting for you?

In research, I deal with sustainable materials and their process technology in the sense of circular value creation due to the motivation mentioned above. In a circular economy resources should be kept in high-quality product stages or production processes for as long as possible in order to preserve their value and to save resources and time with economic advantages without having to forego progress.

More precisely, I am intensively engaged in research with the technology of power ultrasonics (my passion since nearly two decades), which in my opinion can contribute to more sustainability. At INATECH, we use power ultrasonics to combine very different, sometimes exotic materials, but we can also separate them on demand by ultrasonics. This excites me because I can work with a technology that is always capable of new pioneering applications. I can be the first to address these issues with my group and implement them with undergraduate and graduate students. Separation technologies are also a key to "circularity engineering" (www.circularity-engineering.de), i.e. the development of circular and environmentally healthy products, components and materials - my new research focus at INATECH.
  

3. What do the students learn from you and which aspects are particularly important to you?

The students learn fundamental knowledge in engineering sciences. At the same time, the focus is on materials science and engineering. The reference to real systems and application examples is very important to me.

Our students are the developers and decision-makers of the future and the driving force behind innovations and transformations. They should always be involved in new developments in the sense of sustainable development. Thus, we promote a circular way of thinking - a Circular Mindset - from the very beginning. It is in the hands of the current generation of students that products become more sustainable and circular in future.

4. What advice would you give to students at the beginning of their studies?

Always ask yourself the question, "Do you have fun?" In my opinion, the question is always quite easy to answer with yes or no. Why this is the case is certainly more difficult to answer. It’s been my experience that things you like to do are done with enthusiasm and usually turn out very well in the end.

One specific piece of advice is: Enjoy attending the Sustainable Systems Engineering study seminar, a mandatory module for all our SSE Bachelor students. There, each participant can find out what he or she really enjoys professionally and exchange ideas about it with his or her peers for a semester.

5. What are the career prospects for graduates?

Sustainable Systems Engineering is a broad course of study that offers many opportunities later on. Our graduates find excellent job prospects in a wide range of industries, from energy producers to NGOs to material manufacturers or in politics. Our "sustainability engineers" are desperately sought after in industry, because engineers with sustainability knowledge and thinking will belong in every technology-related company in the future.

I would also like to cordially invite all students to our Sustainability Talks. In this interdisciplinary series of lectures - always in the winter term - outstanding personalities from science and R&D give talks on the subject of sustainability. Students also have the opportunity to get to know exciting companies where they can make a contribution as a graduate.

6. What is your motto for teaching and research?

I would speak less of a motto and more of our WHY that we have developed together at the chair: We create knowledge and pass it on so that we can advance people and technologies.

The most rewarding thing for me in my role as a university professor is to advance people and to see the contribution I have been able to make in the process, e.g. how students have developed from the start of their studies in the study seminar through to graduation and perhaps even outgrow themselves.

7. What do you like best about the Faculty of Engineering?

I appreciate the diversity of all the professors at the faculty. We all have a unifying spirit with which we want to solve the challenges of our time in engineering science and work on innovations that contribute to this.

A special feature of the Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering compared to universities where I previously worked is the close and direct institutional cooperation with the five Fraunhofer Institutes here in Freiburg. This unique cooperation in Germany offers added value for application-oriented education and research. It is certainly one of the reasons why I joined the University of Freiburg and why I feel so comfortable here at INATECH.

8. What you think students should know about you?

Contact with the students is very important to me and I welcome direct feedback. At one point or another, I have been perceived as strict, because I ask and demand for absolute silence and concentration in the lectures.

The reason is my wish that students make the best possible use of their time in their studies and become successful personalities. In my lectures, I want them to challenge me with questions - before I take questions later ;-)

"Be flexible to be adaptive."                                                                         

Prof. Edoardo Milana is professor at the Department of Microsystems Engineering and head of the Soft Machines Laboratory.

1. What do you associate with microsystems engineering?

The president of IBM predicted in 1943 that there would have been a market for circa five computers. It is hard to find another example of how a prediction turned out to be so enormously wrong. Today there are billions of computers in the world, and this extraordinary achievement is due to the very rapid development of microsystems engineering.

What makes this discipline exciting right now are the potential new applications beyond microelectronics, from biomedical devices, to microrobotics, via programmable and smart materials.

In addition, we have examples all around us all the time of how nature has evolved into organisms that have functionality at different scales, from molecules to tissues via cells, and this synergy of nano-, micro-, and macro-systems is an outstanding source of inspiration for the development of new sustainable, high-performance technologies.

2. What is your main field of research and why is it so exciting for you?

My main field of research is Soft Robotics, where we design and build autonomous machines using compliant and flexible materials like rubber, plastics and gels. Soft robots can safely interact with delicate objects and organisms due to their mechanical properties and are ideal candidate for applications that involve operations with inevitable human-robot contacts, such as robotic surgery, active prosthetics, elderly care and companion robots. It is exciting that soft materials can take over some of the roles traditionally played by sensors, actuators and controllers and study how artificial intelligence can be created not only at the software level but also at the hardware one.

3. What do the students learn from you and which aspects are particularly important to you?

In my classes and laboratories, students learn how to create machines that are not made by an assembly of rigid components that rotates and translates, but are composed of materials that can be printed or molded and move through deformation.

We study the actuation mechanisms and the control strategies that make this possible. I find it particularly important to carefully design the geometrical structure of these machines in order to simplify control algorithms as much as possible by programming functionality directly in the physical embodiment.

4. What advice would you give to students at the beginning of their studies?

It’s exciting to start a new program of studies but it may be possible to feel overwhelmed by the different engineering disciplines to be tackled. I advise the students to enthusiastically pursue what stimulates their interests and curiosity and to follow what they are passionate about, to adjust their specialization accordingly.

I also encourage the students to get involved in the research projects that are being carried out here at the Faculty of Engineering, to grasp beforehand the importance of scientific research and to enrich their knowledge base through practical activities.

5. What are the career prospects for graduates?

A microsystem engineer is a highly skilled professional trained to work in cutting-edge tech companies. Job opportunities can be found in several industries, electronics, sensors, actuators, automation, but also automotive, biomedical, energy systems and materials.

Moreover, given the exceptional research environment of our faculty, the graduates have the opportunity to pursue doctoral training in outstanding and leading research groups, in the perspective of an academic career or management positions in industrial R&D settings.

6. What is your motto for teaching and research?

Being a researcher in soft and compliant machines, I can truly say that my motto is “Be flexible to be adaptive!” It is an expression of wisdom to recognize the limitations of a certain technology or methodology and to be ready to explore unknown but promising alternatives. This is both valid for teaching and research, as flexibility means to be able to respond to external feedbacks to gain better performance and understanding.

In engineering, we are witnessing these transformations in energy systems and transportation, and the same will happen in robotics and materials science.

7. What do you like best about the Faculty of Engineering?

The strong interdisciplinary environment of the Faculty of Engineering is a unique opportunity to grasp the core aspects of classical engineering disciplines. For example, Microsystems Engineering builds upon Mechanical, Electrical and Systems Engineering as well as Materials Science and Chemistry, therefore students are trained in all these disciplines.

Moreover, I really like that the departments are complemented by research centers such as FMF, FIT and IMBIT, where the research activities cross the faculties borders enabling collaborations between engineers, medical doctors, biologists, physicists and chemists.

8. What you think students should know about you?

I am a soft robotic enthusiast, so the students should not be alarmed when I will try to convince them that squishy and deformable robots can be better in certain aspects than the cool humanoid machines that we see on youtube performing backflips and dances!

On a more personal level, I love watching and playing football and I am huge AS Roma fan, so don’t be surprised to meet me at the Europa-Park Stadium if there is a match SC Freiburg – AS Roma in the next UEFA Europa League!

My favorite motto for research is the quotation of Neil Armstrong “Research is creating new knowledge.”, while for teaching is “Explore and fly!”                                                         

Prof. Oana Cojocaru-Mirédin is professor at the Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering and Full Professor of “Cross-scale Material Characterization”.

1. What do you associate with sustainable systems engineering?

I associate with that the responsibility as a researcher to provide effective and innovative solutions that address the challenges of sustainability, starting with materials up to systems.

2. What is your main field of research and why is it so exciting for you?

My main field of research is the Re-Design of sustainable energy materials by employing a unique concept called correlative microscopy and techniques. The improvement and re-design of material’s properties have been very often done by employing a “cook and look” procedure. This is mainly due to the impossibility to characterize the materials down to the atomic level in a correlative manner and, hence, to determine synthesis-property interrelationship.

3. What do the students learn from you and which aspects are particularly important to you?

The students learn how to characterize materials down to the atomic level and to determine materials properties in a correlative manner. Based on these understandings they are able to provide innovative solution in terms of material Re-Design with the goal to meet the sustainability criteria.

4. What advice would you give to students at the beginning of their studies?

I advise the students to open up their curiosity and to explore different existing fields in science. For sure, they will find the career path which makes them motivated and happy.

5. What are the career prospects for graduates?

There are so many possibilities when studying engineering! They range from research to industry in many different applications: automotive, energy, health, communication, biology, etc.

6. What is your motto for teaching and research?

My favorite motto for research is the quotation of Neil Armstrong “Research is creating new knowledge.”, while for teaching is “Explore and fly!”.

7. What do you like best about the Faculty of Engineering?

I like a lot the degree programs available. They are not only providing a good basic understanding of the theoretical aspects, but also provide to the students a certain direction in terms of job possibilities. Also, the research in the campus is internationally top level with many various world-wide well-known groups.

8. What you think students should know about you?

That I am enthusiastic and really enjoying my research activities at technical faculty. Also, I love putting theory and praxis together so that different concepts are very well understood and mastered.

Once you start morphing into an engineer, the whole world begins to look different.                                                       

Prof. Zappe is professor at the Department of Microsystems Engineering and Full Professor of Micro-optics.

1. What do you associate with microsystems engineering?

When Apollo 11 flew to the moon in 1969, the entire space capsule computer had 12,300 transistors and three gyroscopes the size of tennis balls. Today, your smart phone has about 12 billion transistors and micro-gyroscopes smaller than a rice grain. Plus it has ultra-miniaturized eyes (the micro-cameras), ears (the microphones), mouths (the micro-loudspeakers), skin (the micro-fingerprint sensor) – and best of all, you can stuff the whole thing into your back pocket. What made all this possible? Microsystems Engineering of course: Faster, better and lots smaller!

2. What is your main field of research and why is it so exciting for you?

Optics and photonics, the engineering of photons: It’s incredible what we can do with light and it gets even more exciting when we get smaller.

Lasers the size of salt grains; tiny cameras that can see inside the body; hair-sized fibers that send terabytes of data per second… even I find it mind-boggling sometimes.  

3. What do the students learn from you and which aspects are particularly important to you?

My students think they are learning electronics and photonics but they are actually learning to think, breathe, and dream like engineers. Once you start morphing into an engineer, the whole world begins to look different and it’s that pervasive engineering thinking I want you to learn.

4. What advice would you give to students at the beginning of their studies?

I won’t lie, engineering is hard. So bite the bullet and get the basics down pat right from the start: the math, the physics, the chemistry, all of it. Because with those vital tools under your belt, every new skill you acquire later will help you realize that engineering is also really exciting.

5. What are the career prospects for graduates?

It is said that politicians may run the world, but it’s the engineers who make the world work. The world may not need more politicians, but it definitely needs more engineers.

6. What is your motto for teaching and research?

Find the wicked problems which are relevant for humanity and attack those. After all, if an engineer isn’t trying to do something impossible, she’s probably bored.

7. What do you like best about the Faculty of Engineering?

Have you ever noticed how engineering departments have this buzz, this energetic vibe, this constant ripple in the space-time continuum that results from really smart people trying to do really outrageous things together? You haven’t? Then you haven’t been to the Faculty of Engineering.

8. What you think students should know about you?

There is this widespread perception that engineers are super nerdly, socially inept, emotionally awkward misfits with the communication skills of a soldering iron and an aptitude for interpersonal interactions at the level of a chimpanzee using grass tools to coax ants out of an anthill. I’m just like that ;-)

It’s amazing how humans are natural engineers. Watching my five year old daughter attack the wicked problems in her world using detailed analysis and creative engineering solutions is one of my greatest pleasures. She just needs to work on her maths more…