Review of a successful spring colloquium 2025

The fourth generation of the Boysen-TU Dresden-Research Training Group has successfully completed its two-day spring colloquium. The meeting, which took place on May 5 and 6, 2025 in the "Alte Bibliothek", a beautifully designed meeting room in the Gerhart Potthoff Building at the Friedrich List Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, fostered a lively exchange of ideas and offered new insights through multidisciplinary perspectives shared by all members of the Research Training Group.

The conference opened with a warm welcome and introductory remarks from the Research Training Group's spokesperson, Prof. Antonio Hurtado, and Managing Director Dr. Anna Martius. Before the presentations of the individual doctoral students, the research questions of the respective clusters were briefly presented by a supervising PI (Principal Investigator).

During the two-day event, the doctoral students were divided into four presentation groups according to their clusters. The speakers had ten minutes per presentation, followed by a twenty-minute discussion and Q&A session with very constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement. Only doctoral student Inês Almeida, who only started her project work around four months ago, made a shorter contribution with a two-minute pitch, as she is still at the beginning of her research. On the first day, the doctoral students from clusters E and F presented their current research, while clusters G and H took over the baton on the following day. The overarching collaboration of various projects within their own clusters, but also in other clusters, which has already resulted in the preparation of various publications, was very inspiring and promising - a clear indication of the interdisciplinary cooperation that the Boysen-TU Dresden-Research Training Group is primarily committed to.

As an incentive to the doctoral students, speakers and PIs of the Boysen-TUD-Research Training Group repeatedly referred over the course of the two days to the TU Dresden's claim to high scientific excellence and the pursuit of cutting-edge research that leads to publications in renowned specialist publications and allows the university to remain competitive. The colloquium served as intensive preparation for this year's Doctoral Student Days from 14 to 16 May 2025, which will be held in Dresden for the first time this year, especially thanks to the feedback round that followed each lecture and the individual discussions between the lecture blocks.

The spring colloquium concluded with the board meeting on Tuesday afternoon, at which, among other things, Managing Director Dr. Martius and spokespersons Prof. Hurtado and Prof. Hagen gave a summary review of the highlights and challenges of the past six months, outlined the agenda for the upcoming doctoral student days and, as an absolute premiere, announced the first internal and preliminary information on the 5th generation of the Research Training Group, which will start in 2026.

The entire Boysen-TU Dresden-Research Training Group would like to thank all participants once again for their lively participation, motivating feedback and smooth organization. The doctoral students are already looking forward to further cooperation in the future, which will greatly enrich the academic careers of all members.