Networked and International – Doctoral Student Seminar at the Professorship WOT
The doctoral seminar, which takes place once a year at the Chair of Materials and Surface Engineering, has been accompanying young researchers on their way to a doctorate for several years now. From 13 to 15 July 2020, 16 doctoral students took the opportunity to present the progress of their dissertation topic and then answer questions from their supervisor Prof. Thomas Lampke and the interested auditorium. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the seminar took place under changed conditions, but was nevertheless a complete success.
The decision was made in advance to hold the doctoral seminar for a limited number of participants as a face-to-face event at the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (IWW) in the Erfenschlag part of the university, but at the same time to give other interested listeners the opportunity to follow the lectures online and participate in the subsequent discussion.
This was realised by using a video camera set up in the seminar room and the BigBlueButton conference system further developed by the TU Chemnitz. This not only opened up the possibility of attending the seminar from the office or home office, but also gave two international PhD students the opportunity to present their topic live and online from the USA and Turkey respectively.
A concept that had already proven successful at last year's doctoral seminar was continued: Thus, in consultation with the doctoral students, external experts – so-called peer reviewers – were again invited to certain lectures at the IWW, in addition to experienced colleagues from within the professorship, in order to ask critical questions and provide valuable advice for further work on the doctoral topic. In conjunction with Prof. Lampke's assessment and suggestions, the peer review concept is found to be very helpful not only by the professorship's own doctoral students, but also by the five external doctoral students working in different companies. Focusing on the essential focal points, dealing with important but still underrepresented aspects and also having the courage to part with topic areas that do not lead to the desired results are essential prerequisites for a high-quality dissertation.
The candidates are now called upon to implement the insights gained in their work. Those whose doctoral process is not already drawing to a close and whom we wish every success on the home stretch are cordially invited to present their new interim status at the doctoral seminar in 2021 – whatever the boundary conditions may be.
Image:
Participants of the doctoral seminar 2020 during the presentation by M.Sc. Maximilian Grimm
7.8.2020 – Events of the professorship ( rico.drehmann@mb… )
