Research collaboration between TU Dresden and University of Auckland

Stephen Flint (Director of Research Transfer and Commercialisation, University of Auckland) visited the TU Dresden on March 14th and 15th, 2019 to discuss and inform himself about possibilities of a future cooperation. During the two-day meeting, Professor Dr. Uwe Aßmann (Chair of Software Technology), Dr. Frank Pankotsch (Managing Director of Foundation Consulting Research Transfer) and Dr. Katrin Jordan (Head of the Research Department), among others, presented various research areas, projects and administrative units of the TU Dresden in order to explore possibilities for future cooperation.

The two-day event was initiated by Dr. Ernst-Friedrich Markus Henke (scientific assistant at the Institute for Semiconductors and Microsystems Technology and at the Institute for Solid State Electronics). From 2015-2017, Dr. Henke did postdoctoral research at the University of Auckland together with Professor Iain Anderson (Associate Professor Auckland Bioengineering Institute and Faculty of Engineering) on bionic, robotic structures and multifunctional dielectric elastomers, also called artificial muscles, within the framework of a DAAD postdoctoral fellowship and a Marie Curie Global Fellowship. After his return, he participated in the cluster of excellence proposal DCM (Center for Materiomics) of the TU Dresden. "There are outstanding research groups at the University of Auckland. Joint research projects between the two universities would be a great enrichment and would certainly lead to interesting results in research transfer," explains Dr. Markus Henke. In fact, an invention in the field of soft robotics was developed during his time in New Zealand together with Professor Iain Anderson and is to be applied in the field of life science.

On the basis of the existing research collaboration and collaboration, different ideas and approaches (summer school, student exchange, staff exchange, etc.) will be pursued in order to build up an inter-university partnership in the future. Already in June, a joint summer school for soft robotics, biomechanics and human-machine interaction will take place at the TU Dresden. The event should strengthen the scientific exchange of both universities and give professors and doctoral students of both universities the opportunity to present their research foci and institutes to each other. Within the framework of the event, laboratory and institute tours as well as lectures and workshops will be offered.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Ernst-Friedrich Markus Henke
E-mail:                                                                                       Tel.: 0351 463 39962