On 14 and 15 March, the StartUpLabs met at the HM Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences for their first status meeting. Due to the pandemic, it was also their first meeting in presence. The aim of the event was to promote the exchange and networking of the UAS funded via StartUpLab@FH and to strengthen cooperation in the field of entrepreneurship.

Streaming platforms have become an integral part of our lives, and the number of available videos is steadily increasing. But how can the customers’ quality requirements be reconciled with the increasing costs for storage and data transmission? RheinMain University of Applied Sciences is addressing this question in the VidUX project and developing an algorithm to determine the lowest data rate that still fulfils the quality requirements, thus improving the overall user experience.

In December 2022, the European Commission has launched a broad public consultation on the past, present, and future of the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation. Stakeholders from academia, business, and politics, as well as other interested parties, thus have the opportunity to contribute their positions on European research and innovation policy.

How do you control a robotic arm without using your hands and feet? In the MIA project, two research teams from the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen have addressed this question and developed a device that allows machines to be controlled entirely by head movements and gaze. This technology could help paralysed people to participate more in society and thus contribute to more inclusion.

Many children have problems with spatial hearing. This can lead to them barely understanding their teachers in noisy classrooms, or not understanding them at all. In the VIWER-S project, TH Köln and the Jade University of Applied Sciences want to remedy this situation. The project team is developing a special hearing training with VR glasses and an innovative microphone system for everyday school life.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has now officially launched the Research Impulses programme that was announced in spring 2022. The funding instrument is specifically designed for universities of applied sciences (UAS). A virtual information event for the first call will take place in November.

Modern ploughs dig up around 10,000 hectares of arable land before their steel parts have to be replaced due to material wear. A research project at the University of Applied Sciences Jena aims to extend the service life: with an innovative steel that is harder and more wear-resistant. Soil tillage equipment in agriculture could thus be used much longer, saving energy and resources.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has organised a digital matchmaking event in October at which UAS researchers met researchers from Canada and the USA. The meeting was organised by the initiative "Supporting the Internationalisation of Research at Universities of Applied Sciences" (UDIF-HAW).

Small and agile Jersey cattle could replace the black and white Holsteins as the most common dairy cow breed in the future. Not only is the keeping of Jerseys more resource-efficient, but their milk is also richer in ingredients. So far, however, little is known about these animals. A research project at the University of Applied Sciences in Neubrandenburg wants to change that.

People with social anxiety are afraid of interacting with other people. They avoid social contacts for fear of negative attention. In the DISA project, an interdisciplinary research team at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam is investigating whether and how digital innovations can help affected persons to cope with anxiety-inducing everyday moments in a self-determined way. The interdisciplinary project is funded via FH-Sozial.

Wind turbines are an important part of the goal to switch to renewable energies in the long run. However, in spite of many advantages, many people are sceptical towards wind farms, especially when a turbine is to be built in the immediate vicinity. So, wouldn’t it be useful to be able to experience the effects of wind turbines at an early stage before they are even built? The Hamburg University of Applied Sciences is investigating this question in the X-Eptance-Explore project.

How must robots, intelligent machines, and virtual worlds be designed so that people can accept them and successfully interact with them? The BHT (Berliner Hochschule für Technik) aims to answer this question with its new HumanVRLab, a research lab that is unique in Germany. It was funded via FH-Invest and enables transdisciplinary research between robotics, IT, medicine, and life sciences.

In the Rural Mining project, the HM Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences is investigating how well residential buildings can be deconstructed, reused, and recycled. Prefabricated wood houses serve as study objects, as they can be deconstructed and rebuilt with little effort.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has announced a new funding opportunity for universities of applied sciences (UAS): In three consecutive calls for proposals, UAS may apply for individual research grants (“Sachbeihilfen”) for major instrumentation, provided that the instruments have initially been procured via DFG funds.

Some types of fruit and vegetable show distinct outward signs of ripeness or decay, but others such as melons don’t. The htw saar (Saarland University of Applied Sciences) is therefore developing an AI-based measuring system to easily examine fruit. The system can also be optimised for other foods and might help to reduce food waste.

In the AsyMode project, Coburg University has developed a method to create asymmetric splitting in fibre optic cables together with the Technology Campus Teisnach Sensor Technology and LEONI Fiber Optics GmbH. The development provides more data security and also allows the design of new optical components.

A striking number of young people who have grown up in youth welfare institutions struggle with homelessness, drug abuse, or experiences of violence. In the HtR_CaL project, Koblenz University of Applied Sciences is investigating the reasons and developing a help concept to support the young people and to pave their way to a self-determined, healthy life.  

The HAW Hamburg demonstrates how close research at universities of applied sciences often is to people's lives: In the AdeLe project, the university developed a concept for helping disorganized people, which is now being put into practice by a society called Ambulante Hilfe Hamburg e.V. The project has already aroused interest outside Germany as well.

When laundry smells bad after washing, you can usually blame it on bacteria and other microorganisms. In the Washing Machine Microbiome Project (WMP) at Furtwangen University, a team of microbiologists and biochemists is analysing the microbial communities that form inside washing machines and investigating whether they are problematic or even dangerous for humans.

Trier University of Applied Sciences is developing a sensor in the VITASENS project that monitors senior citizens in their homes and sounds the alarm if they suddenly fall or their heartbeat or breathing stops. Unlike many conventional systems, the sensor does not have to be worn on the body, nor does it take pictures of the rooms and the people in them, thus protecting the privacy of the people being monitored and ensuring data protection.

As part of the FH Dialogue between UAS and the BMBF that she initiated, Federal Minister Anja Karliczek met with representatives of Aalen University of Applied Sciences during a virtual visit on 26 May 2021.

Teflon^Ⓡ is commonly known as a useful coating for cookware. At Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, however, a team of researchers is looking at a completely different application for the material: In the PTFE Transferfilme project, the scientists are investigating how well Teflon^Ⓡ – also known as polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE – is suited as a solid lubricant for sleeve bearings in machines.

Last year, the Plasma for Life partnership made some important innovations in the field of air purification. They have enabled the partner companies to preserve endangered jobs in the region.

The symposium of the FH-Impuls partnerships took place on 9 June 2021. The event focused on the experiences of the partnerships in the first funding phase and discussed development perspectives for research at universities of applied sciences.

On 14 October, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is organising a virtual career fair with a focus on universities of applied sciences (UAS).

In recent years, the fingerprint has become more and more part of our everyday lives. Many smartphones and laptops now have a fingerprint scanner that restricts access to the device, and modern identity documents also record this biometric feature. In the 3D-Finger project, biometrics experts from Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS) are currently developing a device that can record three-dimensional fingerprints. Since it also registers deeper skin structures, the 3D prints can hardly be faked.

On 02 March 2021, the “Focus Day: Where food meets IT” took place at the OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts (TH OWL). The online conference addressed the core topics of the smartFoodTechnologyOWL  partnership: digitalization and Industry 4.0 in the food industry.

How much sound will the new soundproof windows absorb? Will the street noise on my doorstep get worse if there are new traffic lights at the next intersection? And how much will I benefit from the planned noise barrier on the nearby railroad tracks? People often ask questions like these when something is being built or rebuilt in their neighbourhood. With the HEAR project, part of the i_city partnership, a team from Wölfel Engineering GmbH is working on a simple solution to this problem: They want to make noise forecasts audible so that everyone involved can find out how a construction project will affect the soundscape around them before it starts.

The Hochschule Mannheim – University of Applied Sciences and ProxiVision GmbH in Bensheim have developed a handy system for measuring aerosols indoors. They are using a sensor that was originally intended for determining fine dust concentrations. The device is now being delivered to the first companies and some schools in Mannheim to help them comply with their ventilation concepts.

Algorithms are now everywhere: they determine what we see in social networks or on shopping sites, translate texts, calculate production processes in modern factories and control the first autonomous vehicles. But in medical practice, artificial intelligence (AI) is still not very widespread. The HTW Berlin wants to change this: In the deepHEALTH project, a research team is developing deep learning methods based on neural networks, which are to be used in medical diagnostics and research.

Following the successful evaluation in May 2020, the ten FH-Impuls partnerships are now entering the intensification phase with a kick-off workshop. The event on November 10 and 11 will be held via video conference and will be led by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft.

In a BMBF-funded project, a team of researchers at FH Aachen has developed a body scanner based on a 3D camera that was originally designed for a game console. The body scanner is to be used for medical purposes.

For various reasons, opiate addicts are often on the margins of society and are treated as such - even by doctors and therapists in the context of psychosocial support. In the Checkpoint-S project, a team of researchers at Merseburg University of Applied Sciences wants to provide them with a smartphone app that will help them to better understand their disease themselves and to talk to their doctor at eye level during treatment.

A research team at the TH Ostwestfalen-Lippe is investigating new ways of determining the quality and shelf life of food. Thus, the scientists from the research partnership smartFoodTechnologyOWL want to prevent food waste.

With a contactless monitoring system, a group of scientists from Nuremberg Tech wants to alleviate the difficult start in life for premature babies. In the NeoWatch project, the team around project leader Prof. Dr. Christine Niebler and doctoral student Johanna Gleichauf is developing a sophisticated sensor technology that can monitor the most important vital parameters of the child without touch.

Sometimes environmental protection produces paradoxical results. Take exhaust gas purification on board ships, for example: although it prevents harmful exhaust gases from being blown into the air, the pollutants often end up in the sea. A team of researchers at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences is developing an innovative membrane technology to avoid this problem.

Bus and train are back in fashion - since the beginning of the climate protests, local and long-distance public transport has become the topic of the future. A team of researchers at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences has been developing modern IT solutions for public transport for years. In its current project VSB-ÖP, the team is focusing on the systems in the background that organize local public transport: How can public transport companies make use of big-data and smart-data approaches or artificial intelligence (AI) to plan their timetables, routes and personnel more successfully?

The Gelsenkirchen-based company XignSys has developed an app to relieve local authorities in the corona crisis and serve as a contact point for citizens. The app “FlatCurve” is currently being tested in the Rhein-Kreis Neuss and is expected to be available to all citizens in seven languages from mid-June.

All ten FH-Impuls partnerships have been attested a positive interim result; the BMBF announced this news on 20th May. Thanks to the successful interim evaluation, they can now start the intensification phase. This is a very good result!

Seniors are forming digital networks: just a few weeks ago, this may have just sounded like a nice pastime for some people. However, in times of corona crisis and a ban on contact, digital skills suddenly became hugely important – especially for the elderly. A text message to the managment of the GESCCO project shows just how much participants in the project are benefiting from their new skills right now.

When people get old or sick, their relatives are faced with the task of organising or taking over the care. Family members who work in the care of the elderly and sick are particularly likely to step in in such cases. In a joint research project, the ehs (Evangelische Hochschule) and HTW (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft) Dresden have investigated the phenomenon of “double duty carers” and found that they often face special challenges.

We have long since become used to cars that think for themselves in traffic, stay in a lane, maintain speed or brake when necessary. However, one thing is often neglected in the research and development of autonomous vehicles: the feelings and unconscious behaviour of humans. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the fields of neurotechnology, networked mobility and robotics at Saarland University of Applied Sciences is working on the question of how autonomous vehicles can better respond to the emotions of their occupants. The simulator was built with BMBF funds as part of the FH-Invest project MIND2CAR, co-financed by Saarland and industry partners.

On 30 January, Georg Simon Ohm Institute of Technology in Nuremberg (NIT) opened a new research facility which it will use to convert the waste heat from a sewage treatment plant to generate electricity. Dr Peter Pluschke, environmental officer of the city of Nuremberg and first plant manager of Stadtentwässerung und Umweltanalytik Nürnberg (SUN), was also on hand for the facility’s commissioning ceremony.

For more than two decades, the BMBF has been providing targeted support to research at universities of applied sciences (UAS). Now, one example has shown quite well what effect this funding can have: a young scientist, who collaborated in a BMBF-funded project around ten years ago, later founded her own start-up – which is now a cooperation partner in a new UAS project.

Stem cells have the useful property of being able to transform into almost any body tissue if their development is steered in the right direction. Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS) is taking advantage of this as part of the PersoImplant project: the project team plans to cause endogenous stem cells to develop into bone tissue and repair severe bone damage as a biological implant.

When people live between mountains of paper, clothes or packaging, they are called “hoarders” in layman’s terms, but the technical term for this condition is “disorganised living”. As part of the SILQUA project AdeLe, HAW Hamburg has intensively dealt with the phenomenon and its causes over the past three years, particularly focusing on older people. The project will soon be completed, and on 21 November 2019 the AdeLe team will be holding its final conference in Hamburg.

EU research projects have to solve complex tasks in interdisciplinary and international teams. Developing an EU project proposal with suitable partners requires significant investment in terms of personnel and time, which UAS often cannot afford. The BMBF is thus supporting UAS in their networking and application processes within the framework of the EU-Antrag-FH funding line. By this means, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development has developed a successful EU research proposal for innovations in agriculture. The first interim results from the EU project LIAISON are now available.

On 5 September, the first UAS future conference concluded in Essen. Over two days, the participants discussed the future of universities, digitisation and internationalisation and future issues such as demographic change and energy transition.

On 28 August, the LaNDER³ technical centre had its ceremonial opening in Zittau. The members of the impulse partnership invited numerous guests from business, science and society to the opening ceremony of the new research hall.

On 14 and 15 May, the representatives of the FH-Impuls partnerships met at the Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt for the Transfer Workshop 2019. According to the motto ‘Strategic Partnerships with the Industry – Involving Industry Partners’, they exchanged views on issues relating to the successful networking of universities of applied sciences (UAS) with companies.