Communication talents in research

Presenting your own research work in a generally understandable, exciting and entertaining way to a non-specialist audience: Doctoral students are given this opportunity every two years at the Young Researchers Symposium. The variety of topics is impressive every time: this year, for example, the focus was on plastic extraction from wastewater, the importance of zinc in the development of diseases such as Alzheimer's, new perspectives on urban planning - or the analysis of certain fiber materials. The best contributions in the talk, poster and abstract categories were awarded prizes with a total value of 6,000 euros.

Presenting science in an understandable way - a skill that young researchers will need again and again in the course of their careers: Whether you want to inform the general public about a complex topic - or attract funding for your own research project. So it's only fitting that the TU Nachwuchsring at RPTU and the Centre for Simulation and Software-based Innovation organize the Young Researchers Symposium (YRS) every two years - an interdisciplinary conference at which Kaiserslautern and Landau doctoral students inspire a non-specialist audience for their own research project in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.

In keeping with the motto "entertaining and captivating instead of complicated technical jargon", a total of 41 doctoral students from 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, Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences presented their work this year.

Exciting and understandable: communicating a complex topic in just a few minutes

In the run-up to the event, interested doctoral students were able to submit an abstract, i.e. a short written summary of their scientific work. This in turn was reviewed by an interdisciplinary jury. On the day of the competition itself, participants in the "Talk" category then had 15 minutes to present their topic in English (12 minutes 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 were each given a 3-minute poster pitch, i.e. the opportunity to give their own short presentation, and a poster session in which they were able to discuss with the jury and other conference participants. The interdisciplinary jury's assessment of the lecture or poster presentation and an audience vote were relevant for the overall evaluation.

Obtaining biodegradable plastic from industrial wastewater

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

Cora Laumeyer has been a doctoral student at the Civil Engineering department 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 program - as well as an M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure at KTH Stockholm. "I was already very interested in wastewater treatment during my studies," reports Laumeyer, who presented the topic of her doctorate in her YRS lecture: "I am researching the production of biopolymers, i.e. biodegradable and biodegradable plastics from wastewater streams." She uses waste streams from a brewery, for example, and converts the components they contain into plastic using a complex multi-step process.

"The dream is not only to use this process to generate a valuable resource from waste, but also to produce a low-cost plastic that decomposes by itself under normal environmental conditions and therefore does not contribute to permanent environmental pollution." She herself is particularly enthusiastic about the interdisciplinary nature of this topic - "the production of 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 practise science communication in a protected environment"

How did she approach the challenge of explaining her research work in a concise and generally understandable way? "At first, I slightly underestimated the task, as I would have liked to share more of my research findings. But then I imagined how I would present the topic to someone completely unfamiliar with it and realized that I had to start at the beginning to tell a story that would come to life through images, emotions and animations." And how did she win over the audience? "I simply enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm for the subject. It was also important for me to appear authentic - and to explain the topic in completely natural language, as if I were talking to a friend."

She would definitely recommend taking part in the YRS: "Everyone was very welcoming and the discussions were informal and genuinely interested. The YRS gives you the opportunity to practise scientific communication in a protected environment and make promising contacts."

Important for biology and medicine: making zinc visible in cells

Florian Altes has been working on his doctorate in inorganic chemistry since 2023. His research work focuses on zinc. In contrast to other trace elements, such as iron, not quite as much is known about its effect in the body. This is mainly due to the fact that 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, for signal transmission in the brain, learning and memory." A disturbance of the zinc balance can lead to neurodegenerative diseases - such as Alzheimer's disease. "A growing problem in an ageing society," says the doctoral student. What exactly is he doing as part of his doctorate? "I am developing so-called zinc fluorescence sensors, i.e. tools that can be used to examine zinc in cells." In layman's terms, this is like a light bulb connected to a pair of tongs. If the "pliers" bind zinc, the "light bulb" starts to glow. Zinc becomes visible in this way. Researchers in biology and later also in medicine can, for example, look at the differences in zinc levels between healthy nerve cells and diseased cells.

And how did Florian Altes score with his poster at the YRS? "During the poster pitch, I resolved to simply 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 lab, "I think everyone likes colors 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 practise exactly that."

Impressive variety of research topics

The entire event once again offered the audience an impressive variety of topics this year: awards were given to the contributions of Nesrin Dilmen (2nd place, Best Talk) with a presentation on biologically inspired copper catalysts, Arvid Kraus (2nd place, Best Poster), who presented a paper on biologically inspired copper catalysts and Arvid Kraus (2nd place, Best Poster), who presented a paper 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 optimization using the example of the Devil's Table.

Prize for the best abstract

For the first time this year, a prize was also awarded for the best abstract: The award was shared by Corinna Schittenhelm and the duo Aiswarya Nair and Alex Keilmann, who received equal points from the reviewers.

Corinna Schittenhelm works at the Chair of Urban Planning at RPTU: "My research is about managing underused areas in urban districts more efficiently and bringing different uses into the district." The aim is to maintain or improve local amenities for citizens - "and make better use of resources in the process". She says of the YRS: "I was impressed by the quality of the presentations and pitches. The variety of topics allows insights into many other fields of research that would otherwise not be possible to the same extent. The opportunity to talk during the breaks was also great. I was also totally motivated to see how enthusiastic the other participants were about their research."

Aiswarya Nair has been a PhD student at Fraunhofer ITWM in the Image Processing department and at RPTU in the Statistics group since December 2022. Alex Keilmann is doing his doctorate in the Statistics Group - and explains: "Our research work is about analyzing and modeling materials that are made up of fibers. We mainly work with insulating materials that are made of wood fibers and are intended to insulate houses." Together with other researchers and partners from industry, the two want to optimize these insulation materials. "However, our research work 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 your own work

Aiswarya Nair and Alex Keilmann found it quite challenging to formulate a generally understandable abstract: "The fact that two of us were working on the same project but on different research topics meant that we were able to give each other good feedback on how comprehensible our text is for others."

Both would definitely recommend taking part in the YRS: "On the one hand, the preparation helped us to see the big picture of our work. In everyday life, you often talk to experts from your own research group and develop a certain tunnel vision." On the other hand, the exchange with other young researchers was also very enriching.

Practicing scientific communication in a protected environment - and scoring multiple points for your future career: This is exactly what doctoral students will be able to do again in two years' time at the Young Researchers Symposium.