Researchers publish findings on insect antenna flexibility and structure

For hundreds of millions of years, insects have used specialized antennae to explore their surroundings. For this tactile exploration, the antennae have to stiff enough to allow for active, controlled movement, while at the same time compliant enough to prevent damage when coming into contact with objects. How do insects solve this problem? And can the solution be used for biologically inspired robots? In an interdisciplinary project, researchers from Kiel University, Bielefeld University, and the Hochschule Bremen City University of Applied Sciences are working together to get to the bottom of this question.
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47 certificates for successful candidates in the current year

Passing their DSH-Prüfung is a major milestone for refugees wishing to take up university studies. The 120th DSH certificate gained since the start of preparatory German language courses for refugees at Bielefeld University in 2016 will be awarded at a small ceremony today (07.09.). Eleven of this year’s successful candidates intend to use their certificates to start studying at Bielefeld University or Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. [Weiterlesen]

Exchange of email server

The email server of Bielefeld University will be exchanged from Friday September 7th noon until Monday morning September 10th.
[Weiterlesen]

Design of the new lecture hall building unveiled

A lecture hall and three seminar rooms housed in a new building, spread over more than 1,000 square metres of main usable floor area, will complement the campus in future. Today (29 August), Bielefeld University presented the winner of the competition for the new lecture hall building. The design features a bright spacious foyer, a lecture hall with daylight, and a façade in which wood is a distinctive feature. The building on “Konsequenz” road is to be completed in 2020.[Weiterlesen]

International conference on the initiative of the Collaborative Research Centre 1283

Mathematics can describe dynamic processes such as weather patterns and stock prices with equations. If a sudden volcanic eruption disrupts the weather or a war unexpectedly upsets stock prices, mathematics speaks of a random incident. Researchers, especially in the field of stochastic analysis, want to better understand, describe and use this randomness. This is also a focal topic at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1283 “Taming uncertainty and profiting from randomness and low regularity in analysis, stochastics and their applications” at Bielefeld University. From 3-7 September, researchers will be welcoming around 100 mathematicians from all over the world to the International Conference on Stochastics and Its Applications (ICSAA) in Bielefeld.[Weiterlesen]

“Science Robotics” journal: Study by CITEC researcher and international colleagues

Can robots induce the same social influence and peer pressure as humans do? A new study shows that children adopt a false claim when this is expressed by a group of robots. Conducted by computer scientist Anna-Lisa Vollmer of the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University as well as her colleagues from Plymouth University (United Kingdom), the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Berlin) and Ghent University (Belgium), this study appeared on Wednesday (15.08.2018) in the scientific journal “Science Robotics.”
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Scientists at Bielefeld studying niche construction

Aphids – who hasn’t been bothered by these little insects at one time or another? Why do they reproduce on plants so successfully? These are among the questions that Professor Dr Caroline Müller and her research team are addressing at Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Biology. They have found out that aphids are able to influence the quality of their food, and that this may enable them to construct a niche on their own host plants. Müller’s research team is located in the Transregio Collaborative Research Centre ‘NC3’ that is studying animals and their ‘individual niches. Today (25.07.2018), they have published their findings in the journal ‘New Phytologist’.[Weiterlesen]

ERC Starting Grant for Professor Dr Minh Nguyen

How much welfare and social assistance do the millions of migrant workers in China’s and Vietnam’s global factories receive? What does this tell us about the welfare systems of these rapidly developing nations? The Bielefeld scientist Minh Nguyen has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for her social anthropological research on Eastern and Southern Asia at the Faculty of Sociology. These grants aim to promote excellent and promising young academics. Minh Nguyen’s research will receive a total of approximately 1.5 million euros funding over a period of five years. She is the third researcher at Bielefeld University to receive one of these major EU prizes to promote science.[Weiterlesen]

“Human Brain Project” at Bielefeld University extended for two years

Professor Dr. Ulrich Rückert, a researcher at Bielefeld University’s Cluster of Excellence CITEC and the Faculty of Technology, is working to better understand the human brain with the help of computer-based models. This project is taking place throughout the European Union – the goal of which is to gather findings on the brain and make new connections with this information. [Weiterlesen]

The natural way in which living beings orient themselves and move in their environment, avoid obstacles, and find their way home again without their brain consuming much energy is a model for scientists who also want to equip robots with such complex abilities. Because in this field there is a wide gulf between the brain and electronics. The exchange of expertise between behavioural neurologists and robotics scientists is the focus of a symposium at the FENS Forum 2018 in Berlin (7.-11.7. 2018).
[Weiterlesen]