Almost one year has passed since the start of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1173 – time for the First Annual Meeting. It took place in the Bildungshaus St. Bernhard in Rastatt from April 4th till April 8th. About 70 people – from Ph.D. students to professors – took part. Most of them were from the KIT Department of Mathematics, while some came from Stuttgart and Tübingen, and from the KIT Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering.
Poster session
The most important part of the meeting were the scientific talks. Each project was presented by an overview talk, which was given by one or two of its principal investigators. Additionally, several of the Ph.D. students got the opportunity to present the current state of their research.
A new experience for many of us was the poster session. Due to the large amount of participants and because some of them just started into their Ph.D. project, several of the Ph.D. students designed a poster about their work. All posters were presented in the lecture hall at the same time and the Ph.D. students were available for questions about their research.
During the coffee breaks and between the sessions a lot of mathematical discussions took place, often inspired by the talks that had just been given. The schedule even included time slots for such fruitful discussions to make it a true workshop and to enhance collaboration between the projects which lead to new ideas and new cooperations.
Apart from the scientific program we had time for socializing events such as watching soccer games on TV or playing card games, table tennis, tabletop football or billiard. On Wednesday afternoon some of us were on a hiking tour to Favourite Palace and went on a guided tour there. Fortunately, the weather offered perfect conditions for the trip, so we did not get wet.
We want to thank the Bildungshaus St. Bernhard for being a very good host for us and for providing us with everything we needed.
Photos by Marlis Hochbruck.