„Ferienakademie 2017“ at Sarntal (South Tyrol, Italy)
„Ferienakademie 2017“ at Sarntal (South Tyrol, Italy)
Course 8, Topic „Energy Materials“
A sustainable, environmentally-friendly efficient conversion and use of energy is one of the major challenges that societies are facing around the globe. Economically-balanced solutions are needed urgently. The development of materials and material systems, both soft and hard matter materials, are considered by scientists for application in energy technology.
1. Scientific part:
At the annual „Ferienakademie“, a collaboration seminar for students of three participating universities (TU-München, University of Stuttgart and the FAU), the ICSP (Prof. T. Unruh, Dr. M. Weißer) organized the course 8 „Energy Materials“ in cooperation with Prof. W. Petry (TUM) and Prof. R. Niewa (Univ. Stuttgart).
Her all major topics of energy research, storage and transformation (including batteries, fuel cells, electrolysis, H2-storage, thermoelectrics, and magneto-calorics), solar energy applications, nuclear energy, catalysis, as well as engineering and industrial applications were covered in the two-week seminar. All topics and concepts on how to combine different energy sources to obtain intelligent and thus a sustainable energy network have been discussed intensively by the participating cross-disciplinary students (Physics, Chemistry, Engineering Science, Informatics) of different semesters (picture above).
2. Recreation time:
Traditionally, free time in between courses has been used for hiking in the lovely mountains close by. The picture left (Hirzer, 2781m altitude) shows one of the most beautiful views at the central part of the european alpine region from the peak of the mountain called Hirzer. This is one of the most challenging hiking tours at Sarntal, which was undertaken by all of the course participants. Further highlights: finishing first and second position of the annual „Seelauf“ by two course 8 members (Wolfgang Männer, Valentin Leeb) and the winning of the table tennis tournament by the „Feldrand“ team (course 8 representative was Stefan Diez).
Dr. Matthias Weißer, organization committee
Institute for Crystallography and Structural Physics: https://www.icsp.nat.fau.eu