1st Doctoral Researchers’ Workshop and CRC Retreat

September 13th-15th, 2021

Hotel Leornardo Hannover 

Doctoral Researchers’ Workshop

The first face-to-face meeting of all TRR-287 participants was a great success. A full year after the start of the project, the participants had only been able to get to know each other via video conferences, as all face-to-face meetings had to be cancelled due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. Therefore, it was a really great pleasure to be able to combine the doctoral researchers’ workshop and the CRC retreat and to finally meet in person in Hannover.

The first day was reserved for doctoral researchers’ and postdocs. After a warm welcome, the workshop started with the first topic of the day. In different groups, cross-project and project-specific topics were discussed. A lively exchange quickly developed. In smaller groups, individual posters were created addressing the interdisciplinary topics of “Bulk Reaction”. The workshop was all about collaboration, regardless of research discipline or project.

A highlight of the location chosen for the retreat was the terrace of the conference room. From there, the animals of the adjacent zoo, which were relaxing in the sun on the meadow, could be observed during the coffee break. Entertainment was also provided in the form of a collaboratively generated ‘TRR-287 Quiz’ on general knowledge, which was won by Birk Hattenhorst. Our warmest congratulations!

CRC Retreat

The lunchtime presentation by Dr. Paul Alps on the second day marked the smooth transition between the doctoral researchers’ workshop and the CRC retreat. Dr. Alps is the head of the engineering department of Energy from Waste GmbH. He introduced an industrial example of reactive and moving granular assemblies with gas flow, the core topic of the CRC, by presenting development challenges for municipal waste incineration on grate firing systems.

During the afternoon of the second day and on the third day the CRC members reviewed the current progress of the CRC projects.

In addition, measures to improve team spirit in the difficult times of the COVID19 pandemic were discussed and actions defined.

First thoughts on the strategic positioning for the second funding period were exchanged in smaller groups and action items were identified. As a guest lecturer Prof. Stefan Pirker from the Johannes Kepler University Linz gave an inspiring talk on “Existing challenges and novel potentials for DEM and CFD-DEM simulations”