OpenLab tours also for companies starting in autumn
“How can we grow closer together as HFU in the course of the transformation process?” Not only the newly founded faculties, but also the so-called “Focus Team Laboratories” headed by Dr. András Kovács, have been asking themselves this question over the past six months. This is because HFU has a large number of laboratories with excellent equipment, which are to be used even more across faculties in the future. Industry should also benefit even more from the opportunities.
For this reason, both the faculties and the laboratories focus team are currently offering a large number of laboratory tours. In the first round, the initiative was aimed at members of the newly formed faculties. "Three tours in December and January meant that we were quickly able to build up a common understanding of the heterogeneous laboratory landscape and the faculty members were able to network. Ideas for joint projects were discussed right away," says Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hollunder, Vice-Dean for Laboratories and Infrastructure in Faculty I - Computer Science & Applications.
Faculty III - Health, Medical & Life Sciences is located on the Furtwangen Campus, the Schwenningen Campus and the Freiburg Study Center. “To give all faculty members the opportunity to get to know the new faculty locations and the great laboratories associated with them, we have organised several laboratory tours at the various locations for the year 2025,” explains Prof. Dr. Magnus Schmidt, Vice-Dean for Marketing and Location Development. He has already guided groups of interested professors and employees through the Schwenningen laboratories several times, where state-of-the-art technology is used to conduct research on topics ranging from CO2 capture and the optimisation of biotechnological processes, to the characterisation of microbial communities on everyday objects or the establishment of cell culture models as a replacement for animal experiments.
Of course, there was also the opportunity to visit the Hazardous Materials Lab, the Security Lab and the Laboratory for Applied Security Technology on the Furtwangen Campus and even to see the Furtwangen nuclear reactor up close. Alparslan Babur, Prof. Dr. Klaus Grimm, Sabine Grimm and Alexander Wilke, the heads of the laboratories, proudly presented their lab equipment and their uses; Sylvia Schwinghammer was responsible for the organisation.
Things got interactive in Freiburg − during the tour through the laboratories of the Study Centre, organised by Prof. PD Dr. Ottilie Frenkel, Prof. Dr. Angela Dieterich and Jessica Aykan, teaching staff and students presented current research projects relating to movement, pain and stress. Sebastian Köcker demonstrated the analysis of leg axes using a camera system, and in the ultrasound laboratory, Prof. Dr. Angela Dieterich, Andreas Haueise and Lennard Valentin used shear wave elastography and motion-mode ultrasound to visualise the stiffness of tissue and the activation time of deep-seated muscles. In the Functional Lab, Carlos González Blum showed how functional electrical stimulation in combination with treadmill training specifically supports patients with neurological disorders when walking. Prof. Dr. habil. Gabriela Ferreira Carvalho provided insights into pain research and explained, for example, the modulation of pain through additional pain stimuli, such as a blood pressure cuff. In the VR lab, Prof. Dr. Ottilie Frenkel and students Marie Maier, Miriam Ferré and Katharina Bek guided visitors through virtual stress scenarios and presented the current PeakPainZen research project on ski touring.
The guided tours serve an overarching purpose, says Kovács, "OpenLabs stands for communication with each other and cooperative use of laboratories and equipment. This allows us to use resources effectively and sustainably." This makes better use of the university's capacities and facilitates the transfer of technology and knowledge.
In the next round, the OpenLab tours will appeal to an even larger audience − close links with companies are particularly important to Furtwangen University. For this reason, company representatives, as well as the general public, are invited to gain an impression of the HFU laboratories. “We are planning the first public tours for the autumn in Schwenningen,” announces Schmidt. Further tours at the other locations are to follow.
