The RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) has a broad spectrum of subjects, from engineering to humanities. We actively direct our research towards innovation, both within the disciplines as wellas interdisciplinary. In doing so, we allow ourselves to be measured against the highest national and international standards, enhancing their development at the same time. From the wealth of excellent research at RPTU, seven profile lines are at the centre of interdisciplinary profiling in the research profile:
Climate change, species extinction, and resource scarcity are among the most pressing problems facing society. Our interdisciplinary research serves to gain an in-depth understanding of the causes and consequences of these problems. Based on the knowledge gained, we develop diverse solutions to complex problems. In consulting and educational processes, we communicate these to society and the economy. Our research focuses on biological, physical, and chemical processes in waters, soils, and agricultural landscapes as well as on the development of resource-efficient, climate- and environment-friendly procedures and production processes. Another focus is the integration of psychological, economic, and social science topics in the implementation of technical solutions and social transformation processes. On this basis, we develop, among other things, concepts for the sustainable management of environmental goods and the design of the built environment.
Coordinated Research in the Profile Line:
Bauen der Zukunft – klimagerecht und ressourcenschonend
NanoKat - Innovations for the raw material change
Transformation and Digitalization of Region and City
Zentrum für Nutzfahrzeugtechnologie (Research Initiative RLP)
Smart batch processes in the energy system of the future (Carl-Zeiss breakthroughs)
Halocycles (Carl-Zeiss Breakthroughs project of JGU Mainz with participation of RPTU)
SFB 1527 "High Performance Compact Magnetic Resonance – HyPERiON" (SFB of the KIT with participation of the RPTU)
New materials and interaction mechanisms with light and spin are essential drivers of technology development and thus a driving force for societal progress. For example, the development of innovative data processing and transmission methods will help conserve critical resources in this expanding field. We connect the research fields of optics and materials science across the traditional disciplinary boundaries of science and engineering. Light from all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, from the shortest pulses to continuous waves, is used specifically to study and control novel quantum materials, single atoms, magnetic solid-state systems, or biological samples. Our goal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of physical phenomena and thus to bring fundamental concepts, materials, and devices for future-oriented technologies to application.
Coordinated Research in the Profile Line:
OPTIMAS – Center for Optics and Materials Science (Research Initiative RLP)
QC-AI - Quantum Computing for Artificial Intelligence (Research Initiative RLP)
SFB/TRR 173 “Spin+X – Spin in its collective environment”
SFB/TRR 185 "OSCAR - Open System Control of Atomic and Photonic Matter"
SFB/TRR 306"QuCoLiMa - Quantum Cooperativity of Light and Matter" (SFB/TRR of FAU Erlangen Nürnberg , JGU Mainz and UdS Saarbrücken with participation of RPTU)
These research activities focus on the investigation of membrane-dependent processes, which are important, for example, in the development of many pharmaceuticals. Another focus is the analysis of mechanisms leading to stress tolerance of microbial, plant, and animal systems. Understanding these mechanisms makes it possible to describe the responses and adaptations of organisms, e.g. in relation to climate change. Among other things, these descriptions can help to improve crop yield security. Within the scope of our work are bioanalytical methods, high-resolution microscopy, and high-throughput methods, for example, for the analysis of genomes, metabolites, active substances, or proteomes. To make the large amounts of data generated biologically interpretable and sustainably usable, they must be analyzed and stored in a structured manner with the aid of mathematical and bioinformatical methods. We meet this challenge through diverse, also interdisciplinary, collaborations.
Coordinated Research in the Profile Line:
BioComp – Complex Data Analysis in Life Sciences and Biotechnology (Research Initiative RLP)
SFB/TRR 175 "The Green Hub - The chloroplast as the center of acclimation in plants“
The efficient processing and application of innovative material systems are prerequisites for the sustainable development of modern industrial societies. Efficient lightweight construction in particular opens up new potential for sustainable and energy-efficient designs in materials development. Hybrid material systems and product individualization through generative manufacturing are further research topics. At the same time, we are researching methods for highly efficient materials processing and machining, including techniques for controlled machining of components in the machining process, micro-machining, and additive manufacturing processes. The advancing digitalization in materials and production sciences is a cross-cutting topic that we take into account in our work through collaborations between engineering, computer science, and natural sciences.
Coordinated Research in the Profile Line:
AME– Advanced Materials Engineering (Research Initiative RLP)
Mathematical modeling, algorithms, and simulation methods for processing the resulting problems are key technologies used to understand and predict the behavior of complex technical, economic, and ecological systems. Their importance is constantly increasing against the background of digitalization. Thus, they contribute to solving major problems in our society, e.g., climate change, societal transformations, and resource scarcity. At our university, we are engaged in developing new mathematical models, algorithms, and simulation methods, both in application and basic research. Disciplinarily and interdisciplinarily, a central topic is to increase the efficiency of algorithms. This gives rise to further important questions for basic research and its application.
Coordinated Research in the Profile Line:
MSO - Modellierung-Simulation-Optimierung (Research Initiative RLP)
SymbTools – Symbolic Tools in Mathematics and their Application (Research Initiative RLP)
SFB/TRR 195 "Symbolic Tools in Mathematics and their Application"
Coordinated Research in the Profile Line:
Diversity - Diversität und Transformation. Interdisziplinäre Forschungsperspektiven auf heterogene Gesellschaften (Research Initiative RLP)
MLKL - Machine Learning Kaiserslautern-Landau (Research Initiative RLP)
N-Code - Neuro-COgnitive DEvelopment across the life span (Research Initiative RLP)
SCOPE - Uncertainty, Misinformation, and Polarization: Societal Communication in Times of Permacrisis (Research Initiative RLP)
Center for Ethics and the Digital Society (CEDIS) (university potential area)
GRK 2277 "Statistical Modeling in Psychology - SMiP"
Open Digitalization Alliance Pfalz (Innovative University)
Ageing Smart – Designing rooms intelligently (Carl-Zeiss Durchbrüche)
Energy- and data-efficient methods for environment perception in embedded AI systems (Carl-Zeiss Durchbrüche)
5G Model Region Kaiserslautern
Education is the central basis for successfully mastering the individual and societal challenges that arise from social and cultural transformation processes. Our goal is to analyze the courses and results as well as the framework conditions of educational processes, to improve them based on evidence, and also to critically reflect on their inherent educational concepts. In this context, both school-based and out-of-school educational processes along the educational chain and in relation to the design of transitions in all phases of life are considered. Through the close integration of subject-specific sciences and didactics, psychology, educational science, and social sciences, we succeed in analyzing teaching and (lifelong) learning from both general and subject-specific perspectives and in relating these to each other.
Coordinated Research in the Profile Line:
ProDis - Problem solving in digital systems (Research Initiative RLP)
RPTU’s research strategy governs a dynamic process of profile building with major support by the research initiative of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate. Ongoing third-party funding within coordinated research programs (among them five Collaborative Research Centers funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)) are particular evidence of RPTU’s successful profile building with international visibility.