uni.news

» Published on 9. Februar 2016

1984 – Big Brother is watching you

Performances will take place from February 15, to February 20 at University

George Orwell’s famous novel as play adapted by Robert Owens, Wilton E. Hall Jr. und William A. Miles Jr.
Bielefeld University’s English Drama Group presents a stage adaption of George Orwell’s classic 1984, produced by Angie Starczyk. Performances will take place every night from Monday, February 15, to Saturday, February 20, 2016, at 8 p.m. at Hörsaal 7. The performances will be in English. Admission is free.

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» Published on 15. Januar 2016

Getting refugee children to carry out scientific experiments

Doris Wolff Foundation funds Bielefeld University project

Since October 2015, Chemistry Professor Gisela Lück’s students have been travelling to a total of 14 schools and youth centres in the Bielefeld region and carrying out experiments together with 7- to 18-year-old refugees. The Doris Wolff Foundation in Bielefeld is funding this ‘Welcome Science’ project with 100,000 Euro. The experiments should impart practical skills to the children and youths and arouse their interest in the natural sciences.

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» Published on 15. Januar 2016

Pupils from six different countries to visit the biotechnology lab

A new biotechnology project will be kicking off this week when an international group of pupils comes to Bielefeld University to learn and engage in research together. Six schools from six different European countries are participating in the project labelled ‘Biotechnology in our life’. Bielefeld University’s teutolab-biotechnologie is coordinating the project with a 260,000 Euro grant from the European Union over the next three years. Twenty-four pupils will spend one full year working together in international teams. They will engage in research, get to know different companies, and discuss ethical issues in biotechnology. The goal of the Erasmus project is to forge links between schools, industry, science, and politics. The young researchers are 16 to 18 years old and have been specially selected by their teachers.

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» Published on 22. Dezember 2015

Robots to Help Immigrant Children Learn German

Researchers at Bielefeld University plan to use the humanoid robot ‘Nao’ for language training

According to the Federal Statistical Office, one-third of children under the age of five in Germany come from immigrant families. Could technical assistants be used to help prepare immigrant children for school and teach them the new language? L2TOR, the new project financed by the European Union, is researching that very question. The project will launch in January 2016 and will run for three years. One research group at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) of Bielefeld University wants to provide tutoring systems with Tablet-PCs and robots that can assist in language learning. To do this, researchers are developing modules that recognize a child’s language abilities and motivation so that the robot can react individually to each child.

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» Published on 25. November 2015

Why bartenders have to ignore some signals

Research into pub communication with robot James continues at Bielefeld University  

A robotic bartender has to do something unusual for a machine: It has to learn to ignore some data and focus on social signals. Researchers at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) of Bielefeld University investigated how a robotic bartender can understand human communication and serve drinks socially appropriately. For their new study, they invited participants in the lab and asked them to jump into the shoes of their robotic bartender. The participants looked through the robot’s eyes and ears and selected actions from its repertoire. The results have now been published in the open-access research journal “Frontiers in Psychology”.

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» Published on 10. November 2015

People live their own form of spirituality

Bielefeld theologian publishes findings of study 

Was does spirituality mean? Each individual has his or her own answer to this question. Theologian and psychologist of religion at Bielefeld University, Professor Dr. Heinz Streib, has just published the results of a long-term study in German on the semantics and psychology of spirituality with the psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Barbara Keller. The title of the book is Was bedeutet Spiritualität (What does spirituality mean?).  The findings make clear that self-labelling as a “spiritual person” always occurs within a certain semantic context. For some individuals this expresses their experience of transcendence whereas for others it distances them from religion. In addition, personal biography is closely connected to how an individual perceives and understands spirituality. In parallel, Streib and his colleague Ralph Hood in Chattanooga (USA) have published a more comprehensive book in English. The title is “Semantics and the Psychology of Spirituality” and is published by Springer. Both books came out in October 2015.

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» Published on 4. November 2015

Mammography screening: Only one in three women is well-informed

New study published by health care researchers at Bielefeld University

Only one in three women participating in Germany’s mammography screening programme (MSP) is well-informed about it: the higher the level of education, the greater the chance of women making an informed decision. These are the results of a study that health care researchers at Bielefeld University are publishing today (03.11.2015) in the international specialist journal PLoS One. ‘Further information and support services are needed to spread more knowledge about the programme – especially to women with little education and women with a Turkish migration background,’ sums up Junior professor Jacob Spallek, who ran the study together with Professor Petra Kolip.

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» Published on 29. Oktober 2015

Optogenetic research on molecular switches for nerve cells

Publication by researchers at Bielefeld University in a young field of research into light-controlled cells

Optogenetics uses light to control neurons and other electrically excitable cells. These cells are genetically modified so that they can be targeted specifically by light of a certain wavelength. In the specialist journal Trends in Biochemical Sciences, two scientists at Bielefeld, Dr. Arash Kianianmomeni and Professor Dr. Armin Hallmann, report on new optogenetic tools that can be used not only to switch on neurons quickly but also to switch them off again quickly without disturbing the natural processes in the cell. These molecular light sensors open up new possibilities – not only for basic research in neurobiology and cell biology but also for biomedical applications.

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» Published on 28. Oktober 2015

Searching for new medical agents

German–Arabic research network studying unexplored natural substances  

The antibiotic penicillin, the cancer medication taxol, or the anti-malaria drug artemisinin (for which the Chinese scientist Youyou Tu was a joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in October) are examples of important natural substances. Originally found in plants and microorganisms such as fungi or bacteria, they are now also applied in therapeutic treatment. Such microorganisms produce a variety of different biologically active and chemically challenging molecules that make them a potentially valuable source of new medical drugs. Scientists from Tunisia, Egypt, and Germany are currently working together at Bielefeld University on isolating previously unexplored natural substances from strains of bacteria, characterizing them, and studying their uses in medicine. The German–Arabic research and training network ‘Novel Cytotoxic Drugs from Extremophilic Actinomycetes’ is being funded by the German Academic Exchange Service’s (DAAD) ‘Change by Exchange’ programme.

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» Published on 26. Oktober 2015

Mathematics: Humboldt Professorship for Bielefeld University

Germany’s most highly endowed international research award

The mathematician Professor Dr. William Crawley-Boevey has been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship – the first prize of this kind for Bielefeld University. The Briton will be leaving the University of Leeds for Bielefeld in the coming year. This is all thanks to a Humboldt Professorship worth 3.5 million Euros over five years – the most highly endowed international research award in Germany.

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