New Year Letter 2021 - Textlinguistik und ...
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Bild by iXimus (https://pixabay.com) New Year Letter 2021 Dear colleagues, partners and friends The year 2020 was challenging - socially, privately, and professionally. Nevertheless, our verdict is positive; we have found our way and we continue with confidence. This was possible thanks in particular to you - our partners in research, industry and administration. I would like to thank you and my excellent team for the great support and the really good cooperation under difficult circumstances! Please join us looking back at this unusual year ...
The research year 2020 …
…began full of expectations. Early 2020, I was glad to leave the to harness the potential of DC technologies for a future-pro-
bushfires in Australia behind. The RWTH Aachen University was of, stable smart grid. In project 1, an interdisciplinary team is
looking forward to its 150th anniversary, and we were looking studying how niches need to be designed socio-economically
forward to two events that we expected to celebrate in 2020. to support efficiently technology development and market
Nobody could foresee what would make this year so special. diffusion. We use novel methods of acceptance mining for a
The change of course began in March. Prof. Achim Stahl (Phy- cartography of acceptance factors for DC technologies. Thank
sics Institute III.B, RWTH Aachen University) had invited us to you, Prof. Stefan Böschen, for the good and inspiring coordi-
support the Aachen activities on the Einstein Telescope (www. nation of our team (Society and Technology, RWTH Aachen
institut3b.physik.rwth-aachen.de). On March 11th, an interna- University).
tional workshop with representatives from research, politics, Contact person: Dr. phil. Claas Digmayer
and economy took place. Two days later, on Friday, 13th, the
corona induced shutdown began in our region (North Rhi-
Contact and travel restrictions reduce traffic-related pollutant
ne-Westphalia), and we started home office. Working at home
emissions, but the German traffic transformation requires
has its advantages if you are well organized, willing to try and
more, e.g., an intact charging infrastructure for electric ve-
go new ways, and have exciting research projects. All of this
hicles. The aim of ALigN (BMWi, 2018-2022; consortium leader:
applies to us ... City of Aachen) is to expand the infrastructure in Aachen for
professional and private users. The first charging stations were
set up in 2020. We examine the users‘ requirements for the
Rethinking energy
design of the charging infrastructure, their involvement in the
The kick-off event in Munich in February 2020 marked the start expansion process, and the interaction of stakeholders, e.g.,
of the second phase of the BMBF-funded Copernikus collabo- the design of communicative interfaces (partners: STAWAG,
rative project ENSURE (2020-2023). In the project, scientists, umlaut SE, smartlab Innovationsgesellschaft mBH; ika, RWTH
companies, and NGOs are developing a systemic approach for Aachen University, among others).
the energy network of the future, which is based on renewable Contact persons: Lorena Niebuhr, Nina Rußkamp
energies and a decentralized energy supply. In project 1 (with
Germanwatch e.V., Öko-Institut e.V., Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V.,
and FCN, RWTH Aachen University, among others), we inves- Working in industry 4.0
tigate communicative tasks, strategies, and challenges in the
The BMBF project SiTra 4.0 ended in March 2020 (partners:
introduction of new energy system and network structures.
Westaflexwerk GmbH, CBM GmbH, DERICHS u KONERTZ
Contact person: Nils Hellmuth
GmbH, FIR e.V., Communication Science, RWTH Aachen Univer-
sity). In the project, an approach for tailor-made safety cultures
In May 2020, the second term of the BMBF research campus in industry 4.0 was developed. The approach was presented at
‘Flexible Electrical Networks’ (FEN 2, 2020-2025) started. It aims the spring conference of the German society for ergonomics
© Siemens AG
Teach Science
and published in several articles. One of the project highlights Corona required a complete change in teaching. Christian Kux
is the realization of the project logo as a two-meter-high woo- coordinated our digitalization push. Thank you for your patien-
den puzzle that was donated by Jan Westerbarkey (Westaflex). ce and creativity! Nina Rußkamp and Dr. Claas Digmayer have
It was supposed to decorate our booth at the final event of the taken on the virtual counseling in our study program ‘Techni-
BMBW „Work in the digitalized world“ in Cologne, which was cal Communication’. Thank you for the excellent work! Many
unfortunately cancelled due to corona. The tree is still at our thanks also to Max Tandi, who actively supported us in tea-
institute; its time will come. ching in the fall semester. In autumn, Dr. Simone Wirtz-Brück-
Contact person: Dr. phil. Claas Digmayer ner came back to us as if she had never been on parental leave.
All Bachelor and Master projects were digitally accompanied
Despite the need to adapt to work under unfamiliar condi- and completed without any loss of time. The examination
tions, the purely digital preparation of the BMBF joint project office (Mrs. Liontos) provided excellent support. We would also
CAM2030 (2020-2023; consortium leader: Fraunhofer IPT) was like to thank Andera Gadeib (Dialego), Eva Reimer (Xing), and
very successful, and the project’s virtual kick-off took place David Ranftler (sipgate) for exciting virtual contributions to our
in October 2020. The project supports users of CAM systems courses.
(Computer Aided Manufacturing) in processing highly complex
tasks by linking modern digital tools: evolutionary algorith-
ms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. We study the An-Institute for industrial communicati-
interaction of potential technological solutions, tasks, users,
on and professional media
and application contexts in SMEs (which solution is accepted
by whom, when and for what).
The IIF has survived the Corona crisis too. Dr. Kirstin Marso-Wal-
Contact person: Nina Rußkamp, Dr. Claas Digmayer
beck (management) and her team have done a very good job!
The corona pandemic demanded high commitment from our
partners (Exapt GmbH, 3Win GmbH, Werkzeugbau Akademie
GmbH) in their business fields. Nevertheless, the work in the What else was important
EFRE.NRW-funded joint project WerkerLab (2019-2021) con-
tinued according to the project plan. The final phase in the In January 2020, Prof. Birgitta Meex (KU Leuven) visited us.
development of innovative multimodal training concepts for Birgitta, thank you for the stimulating discussions. Since No-
CAx applications has been reached. Our focus is on the design
vember 2020, I am spokesman for the work group „Technology
of instructional videos for workers on the shopfloor. The results
and Society“ in acatech, our national Academy of Science and
of a first study were presented virtually at ACHI 2020 (Valencia).
We hope to discuss the results of another study in person with Engineering, as well as (with Ortwin Renn) coordinator of the
our colleagues at the AHFE 2021. communication experts group in the acatech project „Shaping
Contact: Maximilian Tandi, Lorena Niebuhr Technological Change“.
The Team
Dr. Simone Wirtz-Brückner ended her parental leave. We are
very happy that you are back with us.
Claudia Graf has shown that she can maneuver us administ-
ratively through stormy times and unsafe fields, even under
corona conditions. Many thanks!
Last but not least, we would like to thank our student assistants
Ahmet Bölükcü, Hannah Eßer, Kevin Klein, Lea Pohlmann and
Linda Sinani.
For the year 2021
We wish you and ourselves more normality in daily life, the
courage to learn from Corona, to critically rethink the old, and
to develop meaningful new solutions for the future. And: We
look forward to meet you again in person!
With best wishes for a good and healthy year 2021!
Your and team
Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Eva-Maria Jakobs
Textlinguistik und Technikkommunikation
Human-Computer Interaction Center
Campus-Boulevard 57 „Analog auf Abstand –
digital vereint.“
52074 Aachen
www.tl.rwth-aachen.de
www.tk.rwth-aachen.de
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