ENG-Portraits
Table of contents
The decision to study is an important decision for one's future. Especially in the STEM subjects, women are often still underrepresented. The TUD therefore aims to inform young women about their study options and motivate them to take up technical or scientific studies at the TUD. In doing so, making female role models visible and providing information about future study contents as well as practical experience and knowledge about possible fields of application of STEM subjects in "real life" is an important component. On this page, we would like to introduce you to interesting STEM women in the form of short portraits.
Female Engineers
Tina Bobbe
Research Assistant at the Chair of Industrial Design Engineering
With a soft spot for math and physics, I euphorically began studying mechanical engineering in Berlin. I made this choice primarily because of the countless opportunities to specialize in mechanical engineering. The plan worked out: A few semesters later, I learned about technical design at the TU Dresden, where the constructive development process and creative industrial design meet. Here we consider needs of society up to the user before it comes to the concrete product concept. In my diploma thesis I developed simple solutions on site together with refugees in Dresden. In the meantime, I am working and doing my PhD at the Chair of Industrial Design Engineering at the TU Dresden and researching how industrial design can help to establish a dialogue between current science and society. Specifically, this involves the "Tactile Internet", which will enable many novel applications for people in the future. Developing these technologies responsibly and in exchange with society is central to the Cluster of Excellence CeTI (ceti.one).
Dr. Sabine Apelt
Research Associate at the Institute of Materials Science
When I was a child in the garden with my parents, I used to look at the trees, houses and stones and wonder what they were made of. I imagined that there was an element of wood, an element of stone, an element of grass ... and thought about what these elements could be made of and what distinguishes them, why some are hard and others are soft, some dark and some light. I don't remember anymore what answers I thought up to these questions.
When we studied the Periodic Table in school, I was completely fascinated by the fact that the whole variety of things surrounding me consists of a limited amount of different elements, which actually only differ in their number of electrons, neutrons and protons. With the youthful motivation to make nuclear energy safe and thus the world a better place, I started studying physics right after school. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for reality to catch up with me and show me that theoretical electrodynamics and other subjects are very far away from what I actually wanted to do. Fortunately, I already had a part-time job at Fraunhofer as a research assistant. Compared to most of the content from my lectures, I found it super exciting what the researchers there were working on all day. It was about real, everyday problems and their technical solutions. I asked all my colleagues about what they had studied. Besides chemistry and physics, many there had a background in materials science. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who had never heard of "materials science" until my early twenties, so I started reading up on it. I realized it is more or less like mechanical engineering, but with a focus on the materials used, which actually sounds exciting. It still took me a while to realize that I really had made a mistake in my choice of studies. After four semesters of physics, I then started all over again in the materials science program at TU Dresden. After the rather general basic studies, the really exciting special lectures started in the main course of studies. I met incredibly nice fellow students, specialized in functional materials and have never regretted my decision for a single day.
What we learned in our studies went far beyond what we learned in school: We studied what metals, ceramics and polymers are actually made of and how they are constructed on the inside to have exactly the properties that make them useful to us specifically in all kinds of applications. Today, I am a Research Associate at the Institute of Materials Science and work on the interaction of material surfaces with their environment. Even though I have been working with materials for so long now, they have lost none of their fascination. On the contrary, I have developed an even greater curiosity about all the things I don't know yet.
Dr. Anja Winkler
Research associate at the Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology
How does an aircraft or a steam turbine work? What role do materials, the design and the manufacturing processes of the components play? What is actually behind it when I travel from A to B in a car or train, or fly in an airplane? These are all questions that I have asked myself time and again and that I wanted to understand for myself. Initially, I studied mechanical engineering, with a lot of mathematics, physics, mechanics and electrical engineering as the basis for a later specialization. The lightweight construction field of study then had the greatest variety for me and also the most interesting topics that could meet my thirst for knowledge. The core topics of lightweight construction are not only light and solid materials, but also the determination and calculation of their properties, the design of components and systems as a function of their external load, and simulation as a means of designing components and predicting critical conditions. In addition, other topics such as electromobility or "artificial intelligence" are also included, which raise an infinite variety of questions and solution strategies. Especially the mixture of classical technical tasks combined with new approaches, which can be e.g. the integration of sensors and actuators in critical components to detect their state, is always interesting and motivating for me.
Due to the variety of topics I deal with on a daily basis, I have learned a lot in my professional as well as in my daily life and can now derive the answers to my everyday questions based on my acquired knowledge.
Anjana Krishnan
Student Nanoelectronic Systems
Actually, I did not expect myself coming out of all the stereotypes existing in my society. From a girl who was not allowed to take her own decisions to a person who is now here in Germany, it feels more like a dream! I come from southern part of India. With the love for Mathematics and problem-solving, I completed Bachelors degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from India and then worked as Graduate Apprentice at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for an year. It was the turning point in my life, which paved my door to Germany. The frequent conversations with ISRO scientist on the ongoing miniaturization in the microelectronics industry and the knowledge they shared about the vast opportunities in Semiconductor Industry helped me explore a new field in Nanotechnology. I was at first not much confident to take this stream but now I think it is the strongest decision I made in my life. Now as a Masters degree student in Nanoelectronic Systems at TU Dresden, it is very fascinating to learn about different nanomaterials like quantum wells, quantum dots, nanowires, etc. and their diverse practical applications. Moreover, the lab sessions with practical programming tasks to deal the problems in the field of Computer science helps in gaining skills in programming.
Josephine Mehlhorn
Student Process Engineering and Natural Materials Technology
I have always enjoyed being creative in the kitchen. Chocolates, cakes, bread and yogurt - homemade not only tastes better, it has always been fun for me to realize myself in this way. But I wanted more. To know more, for example how filled chocolates, which take me hours to make, can be made a thousand times an hour. To understand more why milk is liquid but yogurt is solid. But do I want to spend a lifetime studying food, or is this just a phase? After graduating from high school, I wasn't so sure. The TU Dresden offers a very flexible course of study in process engineering and natural materials technology. During the first four semesters, you have time to study general engineering subjects and to get a taste of various directions, such as biotechnology, wood and fiber technology, or food technology, before deciding on one of the directions. I am very happy with my choice to continue working with food. At the Institute of Food Technology, not only are basic processes taught, but also what is behind the processes. Of course, practice plays a big role in this. Many excursions, internships and tastings made learning easier. Current research is also not neglected. Above all, the holistic use and thus resource conservation and development of new uses for food is an important topic.
Prof. Nadine Bergner
Professor Chair of Didactics of Informatics
I am a professor for didactics of informatics at the TU Dresden. And this is something I would have least expected myself! I graduated from high school in 2005 and then enrolled at RWTH Aachen University for a teaching degree in math, computer science and physics. The decision for computer science was more a coincidence, because I wanted to try something new. Until then, I could neither program nor did I have any idea how a computer is built. During my studies I was so enthusiastic about this subject that I really wanted to pass this on. That's why I decided in 2010 to do a doctorate on a school computer science lab. As a research assistant, I was able to show students as well as children and young people how exciting and versatile computer science is. In 2015, after a few challenging years, I had my doctorate in the bag and then in 2019 the great opportunity arose to take up a professorship at the TU Dresden.
Nele Liebold
Student Mechanical Engineering
The reason why I chose mechanical engineering after graduating from high school? I enjoy mathematics and I am very interested in technology. This sounds very crude, but in a nutshell it hits the nail on the head. Now I am halfway through my studies. My basic studies are finished. And I can build on basics such as mathematics, technical mechanics, design theory, electrical engineering and much more. However, one subject that was groundbreaking for me was not included in the list. Production engineering. I was very fascinated by this subject and it was the deciding factor for me to study production engineering. What fascinates me about production engineering is the holistic view of a product's life cycle. What parameters have to be taken into account when designing and selecting manufacturing processes? How are the parts manufactured? Which machines can be used for production? How long do the individual production steps take? Which parts does a company actually manufacture itself and which are purchased? ... Questions about questions, to which I am glad to find answers in production engineering.