Multi-sensors, Simulations, Gender Issues

Starting April 1, 2017, Anelis Kaiser has taken over the professorship for Gender Studies in STEM at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Freiburg that works in close cooperation with the Center for Anthropology and Gender Studies (ZAG). Kaiser researches and conducts courses on the ways in which gender issues manifest themselves in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Her main focus is examining „gender in the brain." For this purpose she combines methods from various disciplines: she works with both an epistemological method in terms of science and gender studies as well as a neuroscientific, empirical approach by relying on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRT). She is currently working on a project that is looking at the question of gender classification and registration in fMRT research, examining brain activity in gender-connotated neurolinguistic tests. This is one of the first projects worldwide to attempt to apply critical concepts from gender studies in empirical science. In addition, as co-founder for the network NeuroGenderings, she is coordinating the only international consortium of researchers linking gender theory and neuroscience.

Kaiser studied psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and received her doctoral degree there in 2008. Between 2005 and 2006 she did work as a guest research at the BIOS-Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science in Great Britain. From 2008 to 2009 she worked at Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience in Aarhus, Denmark and at the Excellence Centre Gender/Nature at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. From 2010 to 2012 she was a guest and substitute professor at the Technische Universität Berlin and at the Department of Cognition Science at the University of Freiburg. Before she came to Freiburg, the researcher was a Marie Heim-Vögtlin fellow in the Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Bern where she ran a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

On April 10, 2017 Lars Pastewka began his professorship for simulation in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Freiburg. His specialty includes modeling material properties and processes with the help of atomistic and mesoscopic simulation methods that target the threshold between the micro- and macroscopic. Pastewka uses these methods to describe how adhesion, friction, wear or wetting depends on a surface's structure and chemical composition and how these processes can be controlled in engineering applications. He was able, for instance, to uncover the atomic processes during surface machining of ceramic materials and to advance the development of analytical models for contact and adhesion of rough surfaces, explaining, for example, under what conditions a surface is sticky. He developed specific simulation methods that made these studies possible. At the Faculty of Engineering, he will apply and continue to develop atomistic and mesoscopic methods for design and reliability of microsystems. In addition, he will explore new materials that are particularly wear resistant or have adjustable adhesive characteristics and allow for new design principles for mechanical components.

Pastewka studied microsystems engineering and physics at the University of Freiburg as well as on a Fulbright scholarship at North Carolina State University in the United States. After completing his doctoral degree at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials (IWM) and the University of Freiburg in 2010, he transferred to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA in 2011 on a scholarship from the Marie-Skłodowska-Curie actions. In 2014 Pastewka became head of an an Emmy-Noether Independent Junior Research Group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Alexander Reiterer began his professorship for monitoring of large structures at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Freiburg on April 1, 2017. He will focus on research and teaching about multi-sensor systems with which objects and infrastructures can be monitored. His work will center around new-fangled methods for automated data analysis and interpretation that signal weather-related changes in, for instance, bridges, tunnels, dams, cliffs or large-scale vegetation so that possible geo-hazards can be detected early. Laser scanners, 3D cameras and low-cost sensors, together with multi-senor systems will be able to generate even more accurate and high-resolution spatiotemporal measurement data for large surfaces. Reiterer will pursue questions such as how certain system specifications influence later data material and how information about sensor design can be used to avoid misinterpretation of data. In addition, Reiterer will research new calibration methods for entire process chains made up of the collection, analysis and interpretation of measurement data.

Reiterer studied geodesy and geophysics at the Technische Universität Wien in Vienna, Austria. He received his doctoral degree in 2004. He was a visiting researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland and at the University of Calgary, Canada. From 2011 to 2012, he received a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation at the Technical University of Munich where he conducted his post-doctoral research in the field of applied geodesy. In 2012 Reiterer became director of the group "Laserscanning" at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques (IPM). He has also been directing the department „Object and Shape Detection" since 2016 at IPM.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Anelis Kaiser
Department of Computer Science
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/203-54080
E-Mail: anelis.kaiser@tf.uni-freiburg.de

Prof. Dr. Lars Pastewka
Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK)
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/203-67480
E-Mail: lars.pastewka@imtek.uni-freiburg.de

Prof. Dr. Alexander Reiterer
Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH)
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/8857-183
E-Mail: alexander.reiterer@ipm.fraunhofer.de