Communication talents in the field of research

Presenting their own research in a way that is generally understandable, exciting and entertaining to a non-specialist audience: doctoral students get this opportunity every two years at the Young Researchers Symposium. The range of topics covered is impressive every time: this year's topics included the extraction of plastic from wastewater, the importance of zinc in the development of diseases such as Alzheimer's, new perspectives on urban planning – and the analysis of certain fibre materials.The best contributions in the categories of talk, poster and abstract were awarded prizes worth a total of €6,000.

Presenting science in an understandable way is a skill that young researchers will be able to use again and again in the course of their careers, whether they want to inform a broad public about a complex topic or attract funding for their own research project. It is therefore very opportune that the TU-Nachwuchsring at the RPTU and the High Performance Centre Simulation and Software-based Innovation organise the Young Researchers Symposium (YRS) every two years – an interdisciplinary conference at which doctoral students from Kaiserslautern and Landau inspire an audience from outside their field of study for their own research project in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.

This year, a total of 41 doctoral students from the RPTU, the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM), the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), the DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence), the IVW (Leibniz Institute for Composite Materials), the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and, for the first time, the Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences.

Exciting and comprehensible: Communicating a complex topic in just a few minutes

In advance of the event, interested doctoral students were invited to submit an abstract, i.e. a short written summary of their scientific work. These abstracts were then reviewed by an interdisciplinary jury. On the day of the competition itself, the participants in the ‘Talk’ category then had 15 minutes of speaking time to communicate their topic in English (12 minutes of speaking time and three minutes of discussion) – whereby the presentation could be spiced up with small live experiments and videos.

Participants in the ‘Poster’ category each received a 3-minute poster pitch, i.e. the opportunity for a short presentation, and a poster session in which they could discuss with the jury and other conference participants. The overall assessment was based on the evaluation of the interdisciplinary jury of the lecture or poster presentation and, in addition, an audience vote.

Extracting biodegradable plastic from industrial wastewater

This year, Cora Laumeyer (1st place lecture) and Florian Altes (1st place poster presentation) did particularly well.

Cora Laumeyer has been a doctoral student at the Department of Civil Engineering at RPTU since 2021. She is researching the use of industrial wastewater to produce a biodegradable plastic. Before coming to RPTU, she completed a master's degree in environmental engineering at TU Darmstadt – as part of a double degree programme – and an MSc in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure at KTH Stockholm. ‘Even during my studies, I was very interested in wastewater treatment,’ reports Laumeyer, who presented the topic of her doctorate in her YRS lecture: “I am researching the production of biopolymers, i.e. biodegradable and biologically produced plastics from wastewater streams.” She uses, for example, the waste streams of a brewery and converts the components contained in them into plastic via a complex, multi-step process.

‘The dream is not only to use this approach to generate a valuable resource from waste, but also to produce an inexpensive plastic that decomposes by itself under normal environmental conditions and thus does not contribute to long-term environmental pollution.’ She herself is particularly enthusiastic about the interdisciplinary nature of this topic – ’producing biopolymers from wastewater or other residual materials is very complex and multi-layered, so many experts have to be involved.’

‘The YRS gives you the opportunity to practice science communication in a protected environment’

How did she approach the challenge of explaining her research work briefly and in a way that anyone could understand? ‘At first, I underestimated the task a bit, because I would have liked to share more insights from my research. But then I imagined how I would present the topic to someone completely uninvolved and realised that I had to start at the beginning to tell a story that comes to life through images, emotions and animations.’ And how did she win over the audience? ‘I just enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm for the topic. It was also important to me to appear authentic – and to explain the topic in very natural language, as if I were talking to a friend.’

She would definitely recommend taking part in the YRS: ‘Everyone was very supportive and the exchange among the participants was relaxed and genuinely interested. The YRS gives you the opportunity to practice science communication in a protected environment and to make promising contacts.’

Important for biology and medicine: making zinc visible in cells

Florian Altes has been doing his doctorate in the field of inorganic chemistry since 2023. His research focuses on zinc. Unlike other trace elements, such as iron, not as much is known about the effects of zinc in the body. This is mainly because there are currently only a few ways to study zinc in the body. So, where and how is it distributed – and in what quantities? Florian Altes: ‘Zinc is important for a variety of different tasks in the human body. For example, it is important for signal transduction in the brain, for learning and memory.’ A disruption of the zinc balance can lead to neurodegenerative diseases – such as Alzheimer's disease. “A growing problem in an aging society,” says the doctoral student. What exactly does he do as part of his doctorate? ’I develop so-called zinc fluorescence sensors, which are tools that can be used to study zinc in cells.’ The layman could imagine this as a light bulb connected to a gripper. If the ‘gripper’ binds zinc, the ‘light bulb’ starts to glow. Zinc becomes visible in this way. In this way, researchers in biology and later also in medicine can, for example, see what differences there are in the zinc levels between healthy nerve cells and diseased cells.

And how did Florian Altes score points with his poster at the YRS? ‘At the poster pitch, I just decided to have fun presenting and to convey my enthusiasm for the topic to the audience. Maybe it also helped to make a joke or two and that there was no technical chemistry on the slide.’ During the poster session, he also used glowing samples from the laboratory, ‘I guess everyone likes colours that glow’.

He would definitely recommend taking part in the YRS: ‘Communicating scientific topics in an understandable way is becoming increasingly important in today's society. The symposium offers the perfect opportunity to practice just that.’

Impressive variety of research topics

The entire event once again offered the audience an impressive range of topics this year: the prizes were also awarded to the contributions of Nesrin Dilmen (2nd place, Best Talk) with a lecture on biologically inspired copper catalysts, Arvid Kraus (2nd place, Best Poster), who reported on mixing processes in the process industry, Stephanie Rommel (3rd place, Best Talk) with a lecture on the early detection of Parkinson's disease and Maximilian Eckrich (3rd place, Best Poster), who explained topology optimisation using the example of the Teufelstisch.

Prize for the best abstract

This year also saw the introduction of a prize for the best abstract. The award was shared by Corinna Schittenhelm and the duo Aiswarya Nair and Alex Keilmann, who received the same number of points from the reviewers.

Corinna Schittenhelm works at the Chair of Urban Planning at RPTU: ‘My research is about managing underused spaces in urban neighbourhoods more efficiently and bringing different uses into the neighbourhood.’ The aim is to maintain or improve local services for citizens – ‘and to make better use of resources in the process’. About the YRS, she says: ‘I was impressed by the quality of the presentations and pitches. The wide range of topics allows insights into many other research fields that would otherwise not be possible to the same extent. The opportunity to engage in conversation during the breaks was also great. In addition, it was extremely motivating to see the other participants so enthusiastic about their research.’

Aiswarya Nair has been a doctoral candidate at the Fraunhofer ITWM in the Machine Vision department and at the RPTU in the Statistics working group since December 2022. Alex Keilmann is doing his doctorate in the Statistics Group – and explains: ‘Our research is about analysing and modelling materials that are made up of fibres. We mainly work with insulating materials made of wood fibres that are used to insulate houses.’ Together with other researchers and partners from industry, the two of them want to optimise these very insulating materials. ’However, our research is so general that it can also be applied to other materials, such as composites in the automotive industry or felts in medicine.’

Seeing the big picture of their own work

Formulating a generally understandable abstract was something that Aiswarya Nair and Alex Keilmann found quite challenging: ‘Because we were two people working on the same project but on different research topics, we were able to provide each other with feedback on how understandable our text was for others.’

Both would definitely recommend participating in the YRS: ’On the one hand, the preparation helped us to see the big picture of our work. In our daily work, we often talk to experts in our own field and develop a certain tunnel vision.’ On the other hand, the exchange with other young researchers was also very enriching.

Practising science communication in a protected environment – and scoring points for your future career in the process: this is exactly what doctoral students can do again in two years at the Young Researchers Symposium.