YRS 2018  - June 22, 2018

For the fourth time since 2011, the Young Researchers Symposium (YRS 2018) took place in Kaiserslautern on June 22, 2018. The scientific conference was organized by the TU-Nachwuchsring of the Technical University of Kaiserslautern (RPTU) and the Center for Simulation and Software-based Innovation. It was held under the patronage of Prof. Dr. Arnd Poetzsch-Heffter (Vice President for Research and Technology at RPTU) and Dr. Konrad Steiner (Managing Director of the High-Performance Center). In 15 lectures and 20 poster contributions, the participants presented the entire spectrum of research at the site in a very vivid way. The consistently very successful contributions were the subject of lively discussion by all participants, which was a particular challenge for all participants, speakers and audience alike in the highly interdisciplinary environment. Typically, research would normally be discussed by experts in their own scientific field.

The prerequisite for participation in the YRS 2018 was the submission of a scientific abstract, which was evaluated in advance by a jury consisting of young scientists from RPTU and scientists from the Fraunhofer Institutes. Of the 64 contributions submitted by doctoral students from RPTU, the Fraunhofer Institutes IESE and ITWM, the Institute for Composite Materials (IVW) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), 35 young scientists ultimately had the opportunity to present their research work to the audience at the Fraunhofer Institutes' conference center. A particular challenge was to present their own project in a way that was not only interesting and entertaining, but also vivid - because the majority of the audience and jury did not belong to their own specialist area, but were made up of scientists from the various departments at RPTU, the Fraunhofer Institutes and IVW. Therefore, in addition to criteria such as presentation style and slide design, the ability to explain one's own research topic to a non-specialist audience was also assessed. The three best presentations and posters were awarded a total of €6,000 in prize money at the end of the event.  While waiting for the winners to be announced, participants had the opportunity to network while chilling out with finger food and background music from the jazz band Night &Day.

(Translation of the press release from 26.06.2018)