University magazine "Dimensionen"

The year 2021 was a special one for FH Aachen: We celebrated the 50th anniversary of our university, a success story that we are pleased to review in this issue of our "Dimensionen". This year, however, we also had to say goodbye to our well-deserved Rector Prof. Dr. Marcus Baumann, who has been the face of our FH Aachen for so many years - without ever sparing himself. At the same time, we shouted "Welkomme" because an excellent and promising new Rectorate around Prof. Dr. Bernd Pietschmann was taking up its work. Staff, students and teachers have achieved an immense amount: Great research achievements around Prof. Dr. Michael Schöning, which also impressed the responsible Federal Ministry, the start of electric flying in Merzbrück with our Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, our brand-building timber construction specialists, who were finally able to celebrate the groundbreaking in Simmerath, show that work has continued. Many(s) could still be added. Our university has so much to offer and has achieved so much, has been and is therefore represented with top positions in the most important rankings, and we can be proud of that.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2021/1 (PDF, 5 MB)

We live in turbulent times. Covid-19 has now changed the whole world, turned many things upside down. We were all forced to quickly find a whole host of new and creative solutions for our work, our university and not least for our students. Solutions that will ultimately benefit digitalisation, but which in the meantime have also shown their limits for many. We had to be fast, and we were fast, and we can be proud of that, even if some things were not optimal. The return to the increasing presence of the staff will again make high demands, but we will master them together.

We are experiencing constant change at first hand, and this new DIMENSIONEN must also take this into account: you will receive a slimmer, shorter magazine with nevertheless many informative stories. So we are happy about a very successful library extension, while at the same time the reading and reception habits of our students are changing a lot. We are in the midst of a media upheaval: which students derive which benefits from which medium, what role does the book play? Why do we still need a reference library at all in the age of e-books and digital media? And what makes reading rooms so popular? We have prepared many more stories for you, for example about the sex appeal of mathematics, about bridges that think for themselves and monitor themselves, about the chance to produce biogas with the help of waste paper and an exciting story about a heart made of concrete.

Of course, that is by no means all, let yourself be inspired by our print product DIMENSIONEN, it contains many beautiful (success) stories that we are happy to refer to, especially in these times.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2020/1 (PDF, 6 MB)

Success has many parents. What began 13 years ago with the commissioning of FH Professor Karl Schlösser by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) to advise the Namibian Ministry of Transport quickly became a successful model: the cooperation between the FH Aachen and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Windhoek, supported primarily by Prof. Dr. Thomas Krause. In the run-up, it was the former Dean Prof. Dr. Karl-Jakob Dienst, the architect Prof. Sigurd Scheuermann and the staff members Norbert Kremer and Markus Theissen who paved the way. In Namibia, the long-time Rector of NUST, Prof. Dr. Tjama Tjivikua, deserves special thanks. Over the years, an exemplary cooperation with NUST developed, especially to address the glaring shortage of skilled workers and civil engineering courses in Namibia.

There were some successes in 2019 at FH Aachen, as a centre for timber construction research will soon be established in Simmerath, which FH professors Wilfried Moorkamp, Leif Arne Peterson and Thomas Uibel are particularly looking forward to after many years of intensive work. Also successful are our graduates with brilliant ideas to revolutionise supermarkets. The fact that we are increasingly looking for excellent solutions within the challenges of digitalisation is not new. These challenges have long been addressed in cross-faculty collaborations - for example, in the Media and Communication for Digital Business degree programme in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.

FH Aachen is a university of applied sciences that has a special charisma, and music also contributes to this. Both the university choir and the FH Big Band, long since also a combo and a newly founded quintet with our Rector Prof. Dr. Marcus Baumann, a well-known jazz pianist, always hit the right notes. In the meantime, another CD is in the works, reason enough to interview Boris Bansbach, the long-time clock generator, director and collaborator.

Looking back, there remains much pleasure in the numerous successes of our university, in the great people to whom we owe so much. Above all, the pioneers, such as our founding Rector Prof. Dr. Helmut Strehl and our former Rector, Prof. Dr. Hildegard Reitz, who have unfortunately left us. We owe them all an immense debt of gratitude. Thank you!

Download DIMENSIONEN 2019/1 (PDF, 7 MB)

The indisputably most important resource of any institution is the people who work there. The success of a company or a university stands or falls with the quality of their work. That is why we have put the spotlight on those who work at the UAS: cross-media and networked. Our FH moments, just like the portrait photos by our colleague Arnd Gottschalk, which I find very appealing, provide a very personal insight into the respective working methods and show the personal behind the respective people. We are very happy that we were able to realise these two formats with you, because both the individual motivation and the core of a staff member's being - including their hobbies - determine our daily work.

But there are many other colleagues who deserve to be highlighted. Innovative robots show how closely interwoven machines, electronics and artificial intelligence are. FH professors Peter Dahmann, Andreas Gebhardt, Stephan Kallweit and Jörg Wollert, together with some graduates, staff and doctoral candidates, have developed, for example, a field robot, a SMART climbing robot and a window-cleaning drone. However, the areas of application go far beyond this - read our article on this.

Ten years of our scholarship programme is a reason to celebrate, as is the first Moroccan electrical engineering student, Issam Yazidi, who successfully completed his studies with a double degree. However, unpunctual or cancelled trains are no cause for celebration. It begs the question, what is actually going wrong? In contrast, the success story of two women is exemplary: Alina Richter is now doing a doctorate at VW Group Research, Meral Dural is studying electrical engineering "with interest and discipline", and after her Bachelor's degree she could even go on to do a doctorate. Undeniably, professional illustration is now indispensable and an integral part of everyday editorial work, but sometimes there is no really suitable photo. A sensitively developed illustration or infographic can remedy the situation and has long been a value in itself, which is why we too are increasingly making use of the numerous skills of FH graduate Lara Bispinck, who recently received the city's "Future Impact Maker_" award.

These brief notes have hopefully piqued your interest, read many exciting stories
in our magazine about our university of applied sciences, FH Aachen. On behalf of the press office, I thank you very much for your interest and support. We are always happy to receive suggestions, tips or re-registration.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2019/1 (PDF, 9 MB)

Just in time for the end of the year, our new university magazine "Dimensionen" is now in front of you. It is no exaggeration to say that we have all experienced a year with great challenges, far-reaching changes, but also many successes. One thing is certain: our lives are changing on a scale hardly experienced before, many things that have "always been this way" are being rethought, not least at universities. The boundaries between reality and vision are blurring, virtual reality is gaining in importance in the age of digitalisation. FH Aachen is also active in this area, and so we present to you - without claiming to be exhaustive - some of the activities within our title topic.

The years-long efforts of one of our most active researchers, Prof. Dr. Holger Heuermann, with ever new, marketable and patent-worthy applications of a new leading technology, plasma technology, were again successful, read more about his revolutionary spark plug. The Summerschools at FH Aachen continue to be a success and deserve extensive coverage. To ensure that many students can also gain a lively impression of the different, highly exciting research and teaching areas of our Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, our "aero | race lab" was developed, mainly by students, and handed over to its intended use after its rollout.

The FH Aachen was also active in the middle of the city with our colleagues from the press office: while high church and secular dignitaries celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the High Cathedral of Aachen as the first German building on the UNESCO World Heritage List, we were allowed to present the FH Aachen with a small special publication "The Cathedral and I" for a whole week directly in front of the Cathedral's gate. In addition to the Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Minister President of our federal state, Armin Laschet, and more than one thousand citizens were able to find out more about FH Aachen, while numerous children built creative thrones at our Lego Karlsthron activity.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2018/2 (PDF, 6 MB)

In this summer edition of our university magazine DIMENSIONEN, we have once again picked up on many very exciting tips that we have received from you. For example, we take you on a walk with an eagerly collecting professor, Peter Sparla from Vaals.

We tell you the story, unfortunately at the end of the walk, of the extremely meritorious and active "Verein der Ingenieurfreunde" with its chairman, Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Raatschen. Another association, the "Flugtechnische Arbeitsgemeinschaft", has already been able to inspire many students to fly and continues full of verve. Read the news from the Sonnenwagen team or about this year's very well attended Future Lab Gala.

The internationally renowned Institute for Nano and Biotechnologies at our Jülich campus, led by the Director of the Institute, Prof. Dr. Michael Josef Schöning, is ten years old - truly a reason to celebrate. And there was once again a very informative Research Day, which continued the tradition of the then eponymous format of the current university councillor, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gisela Engeln-Müllges. Of course, we should also mention the many others who, full of passion and competence, stand their ground, such as Dr Julia Kessler, who has since done a doctorate and conducts research in the field of additively manufactured lightweight structures, or FH graduate Markus van Hauten, who has become a widely known landscape photographer.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2018/1 (PDF, 9 MB)

"Blackout" - the annual theme of our university. As one of the winners of the DIE ZEIT competition "One university, one book", we are constantly exploring new facets of this topic; the basic idea is a power blackout caused by hackers with catastrophic consequences. A topic that our IT forensics experts around Prof. Dr. Marko Schuba deal with professionally, unfortunately also an Achilles heel of an increasingly digitalised society. We are aware of the need to be prepared for such attacks.

The topic of energy has great significance for the UAS: at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Solar Institute Jülich, there was an opportunity for a productive look back in retrospect, for new reflections and exchange. At this point, congratulations once again on the round birthday! Even now, buildings are not predominantly stone plus technology, but rather complex technical facilities with a solid shell. The demand in the free economy for experts in this growth area is huge. Reason enough for the head of the programme, Prof. Dr. Bernd Döring, to start the new Bachelor's degree programme Smart Building Engineering as early as the winter semester 2018/2019. You can also read about new developments in energy generation, such as how biogas can be produced on an industrial scale with waste paper. The FH Institute NOWUM-Energy has developed spectacular ideas and approaches.

He is an alumnus, he is successful, and he is a generous sponsor: Alexander Wilden, owner of the schwartz Group with its headquarters in Simmerath, gives himself up to our press office for an interview. Another anniversary: find out interesting facts about the 10th anniversary of pro8, Prof. Dr. Martina Klocke knows very well how important it is to think 'out of the box' in order to prove oneself in professional life.

And there is another person of whom the FH can be immensely proud: Prof. Hermann Blumer teaches, is enthusiastic about building with wood at the FH Aachen. He is one of the pioneers in this field, he enjoys a good reputation worldwide, and it is almost impossible to escape his enthusiasm for his subject.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2017/2 (PDF, 7 MB)

Once again, you have a new university magazine in front of you. Many new ideas have been put forward in the meantime, some have been discarded, but many have also been realised; the process of changing our university magazine is not yet complete. We are very curious to hear your opinion.

Digitalisation - a word conquers the world. The associated upheavals are underway. They potentially make us more communicative, more efficient and faster, but they will also irrevocably change our society. FH Aachen is rising to this challenge and developing formats to further improve our already excellent teaching. In the course of the first "Teaching Day", we were able to get to know a surprisingly diverse range of digital teaching contributions and exchange ideas about them. Experience shows that professional e-learning content significantly improves the attractiveness of academic knowledge transfer.

Digital content is potentially vulnerable, so hackers can now spy on, disrupt or manipulate many systems. For example, our IT forensics experts around Prof. Dr. Marko Schuba have uncovered that even baby monitoring systems are vulnerable, read more about this in our article "Baby under observation".

We would like to offer you many other exciting contemporary and future topics, such as the work of Dirk Thal, Leon Bockstegers and Erick Regehr on an eternally current building material, concrete. You can also read more about two FH innovations that have managed to land at the aerospace company Airbus, and learn how 3D printers are changing our world, for example how people in crisis areas can be helped by a "printed" prosthesis.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2017/1 (PDF, 8 MB)

We have continued to work on our DIMENSIONen. The new magazine should be even leaner, more entertaining, more professionally illustrated and more diverse.

In other words, a magazine that also addresses the many changes at our FH Aachen appropriately and for a heterogeneous target group. Compared to previous editions, it is even closer to the people without whom such - predominantly positive - changes would not be possible. In this issue, representative of the many other good projects in the Faculty of Design, we report on the super success of an alumnus of the faculty: Shawn Bu. He now enjoys almost 10 million clicks on YouTube for his Star Wars fan film. Reason enough for Event Management in the Press Office to organise an event in honour of Prof. Matthias Knézy-Bohm's highly successful student crew and in honour of the faculty. Likewise, event manager Roxana Riewe quickly realised a very well-attended event with ESA astronaut Dr. Thomas Reiter together with the Foundation International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen. As if that were not enough, our event management team was able to welcome EU Parliament President Dr. Martin Schulz to a third SPIEGEL Talk at FH Aachen: an event that left nothing to be desired. We have highlighted all of these events again for you here in our university magazine to review moving moments and special event formats of a cosmopolitan, up-and-coming university.

Things are also looking up for our climbing robot for the maintenance and repair of wind turbines: in the meantime, on 27 August and 28 August 2016, the SMART team around project leader Prof. Dr. Peter Dahmann, Prof. Dr. Stephan Kallweit, Mohsen Bagheri and many others received an invitation from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) to exhibit the SMART demonstrator model at the Open Day in Berlin. Another major topic, not only of our day, is illustrated in the photo documentation by Stephan Klumpp from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology: people who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves in unbelievable need and are seeking refuge with us. A huge task that is difficult to solve in all areas: Where and how should refugees live? We therefore also report on the ideas of a fold-out refugee house by Dina Bharucha, who is now a Master's student in the Faculty of Design.

Our request: Take the time to read something in our magazine. It is - not least thanks to your help and work - a multifaceted business card of a lively university that is much more than a place for STEM studies.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2016/2 (PDF, 8 MB)

Just in time for the beginning of the year, we are pleased to present our truly new DIMENSIONEN. We would like to know if you like it, find out what appealed to you and what you would like to see different.

Our DIMENSIONEN wants to be a real (university) magazine, it should be entertaining, stimulating, occasionally also controversial, it can polarise and thereby also initiate discussions. Above all, however, it is - not least thanks to your support - an ever-diverse and multi-faceted business card of our FH Aachen. For example, we report on valuable service offers for our most important target group, our students. For example, the FH Aachen has been offering the Psychosocial Counselling service for five years, which is more than valuable at a time when the demands, not least on students, have increased rapidly and continue to grow. Our FH Aachen does practical research, it cooperates with Interpol and researches the new techniques of hackers. Meanwhile, car thieves need a computer rather than a hammer, a sad and important topic for application-oriented research. And in research, the UAS is always good for a world premiere. For the first time, a data glasses system is being used in series production in logistics; it was co-developed by a UAS researcher. It is being used in a company that is managed by a graduate of the FH, a company that for its part cooperates very closely with us - not least, it is a valuable scholarship provider for our students and for us. You will learn more about interesting new degree programmes, for example in rail vehicle technology. And you will read the name Baumann more than once: one name holder is not only our Rector, he is also the HAWtech spokesperson and the new State Rectors' Conference Chairman. The other name bearer gives interesting answers to our questions as AStA chair.

So we have put our backs into it, not least our colleague Dagmar Riewe who, as a 'real' Berliner, has contributed her language and translation skills to 'translate' the text about our FabBus Wolfgang.

Let me close with a preview of our next DIMENSIONEN. Shortly after we went to press, we learned of the gratifying promise of funding for the second project phase of our SQSL project, important and extremely welcome news for quite a number of colleagues.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2016/1 (PDF, 8 MB)

Our further rejuvenated university magazine DIMENSIONEN is now in front of you. You will certainly notice a few changes directly, we believe it is now even more worth reading and interesting. The focus is now on the reports, which ideally cover all faculties, is on the many people who make up our university and who are active in society or even in companies. Colleagues who give our FH Aachen a face. The professional profiles are diverse and immensely varied, for example, our alumnus Hans W. Krämer became an artist as well as a photographer and fashion designer, getting to know the later world-famous models of the fashion industry at a very early age. You can find out how ex-Alemannia head Prof. Dr. Horst Heinrichs experienced his FH Aachen, how he sees it in retrospect, what he experienced with it and with us. Alumnus Moritz Christ, together with ex-Olympic gold medallist Rica Reinisch, helped the EUREGIO Wirtschaftsschau to a new appearance; an article on Prof. Rudolf Schwarz, the former head of the Handwerker- und Kunstgewerbeschule, examines the roots of our Faculty of Design; a special publication on Rudolf Schwarz will follow soon. A - unfortunately - very current topic is the good, but also the bad hackers. For several semesters, Prof. Dr. Marko Schuba and Hans-Wilhelm Höfken have offered a course on ethical hacking, and now their students have examined corporate networks for security vulnerabilities. The cooperation with Morocco is growing and flourishing, so we can already present the first four graduates of the international degree programme in Applied Chemistry, a cooperation, by the way, that will certainly produce many more transnational projects. Read also how female graduates of the FH founded a driving school for people with disabilities. Prof. Dr. Peter Sparla and Sabine Heinen-Fuchs as well as Hartmut Malecha are measuring our Aachen Cathedral with state-of-the-art technology, using a gyrocopter to create high-resolution images and ultimately a three-dimensional view of the world cultural heritage...

We very much hope that you will enjoy our exciting new university magazine with us. We welcome your opinion on it.

Download DIMENSIONEN 2015/1 (PDF, 7 MB)

At the turn of the year 2015/16, we have changed the publication date - the magazine will always be published at the beginning of the respective semester from issue 2016/1 onwards.