uni.news

» Published on 2. Juli 2014

Copying and morality

One party considers that the legal restrictions on copying don’t go far enough; the other party takes advantage of the available copying technologies without any sense of wrongdoing. What could be a fair balance between these two positions? From July 8–11, an international conference entitled ‘The Ethics of Copying’ will be addressing this issue at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF). 

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» Published on 11. Juni 2014

The difference between robot girls and boys

Social informatics researcher Selma Šabanović takes up the Visiting Professorship for Gender Studies at Bielefeld University

When are robots assigned a male or female gender? Do men and women think about or interact differently with robots? How do our social notions and lived experiences of gender influence the design and use of social robots? Social informatics and human-robot interaction researcher Selma Šabanović PhD from Indiana University in Bloomington, USA, investigates questions such as these. From mid-June she will take up the post of Visiting Professor for Gender Studies at Bielefeld University. Šabanović will be giving lectures in the current summer semester and discussing research on gender, culture, and robotics in seminars at the Faculty of Technology and in the Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology CITEC.

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» Published on 2. Juni 2014

‘Refugee tragedies are a thorn in the flesh of the EU’

Sociology professor Thomas Faist addresses Bielefeld conference/ Topic of the conference: Social inequality and crisis

‘The never-ending refugee tragedies in the Mediterranean are a thorn in the flesh of the European Union’ says the migration expert Professor Thomas Faist in the run-up to a conference on social inequality and crisis in Bielefeld. ‘At the same time as EU representatives are demanding respect for human rights, the EU is turning desperate refugees away from its borders. This makes the policies of the EU open to attack,’ considers Faist. At the international conference from 4 to 6 June, Faist and about 30 further researchers will be considering when social inequalities are made a matter of public concern (conference title: ‘A New Social Question or Crisis as Usual?’). The conference is being organized by the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS).

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» Published on 2. Juni 2014

How can religion and human rights be reconciled?

New research group at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF)

The question of religion’s proper role in public life has generated intense debates and conflicts in and between societies worldwide. Internally, countries are divided, sometimes bitterly so, over the secular or religious character of the state, which can pose serious obstacles to constitution-writing in democratic and democratising states. How and through which arrangements do societies negotiate these competing visions and craft constitutions that both protect human rights and accommodate diverse constituencies? As ongoing and recent processes of constitution-writing and -revision in the Arab world and the wider Middle East demonstrate, the proper relationship between religion and the state remains hotly contested. An international research group newly convened at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) brings together scholars from different disciplines to address this question in a range of countries and regions.

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» Published on 29. Mai 2014

The neighbourhood factor

International symposium at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF)

Social inequality not only means inequality in income, but also inequality in health-related opportunities, for example. Little research has so far been conducted into the impact of neighbourhood context on the development of inequality. An international symposium being held at Bielefeld University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) from 2 until  4  June, seeks new methods to understand neighbourhood context and its significance for equality and inequality.

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» Published on 22. Mai 2014

Marriage of convenience with a fungus

Biologists at Bielefeld University publish study in ‘Nature Communications’

Thanks to a fungus, the medicinal plant ribwort plantain gains a higher concentration of the defensive compound catalpol. Biologists at Bielefeld University report this discovery in a study to be published this Thursday (22.5.2014) in the scientific journal ‘Nature Communications’. The increase in catalpol gives the plant better protection against pests. In the study, the research team worked with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These are known to colonize the roots of land plants. The plants benefit from this, because the fungus provides them with nutrients and minerals. However, are the impacts of this marriage of convenience with the fungus on plant chemistry equal for all plants? That is what the researchers wanted to find out.

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» Published on 15. Mai 2014

With imprecise chips to the artificial brain

Researcher from Bielefeld University and international colleagues present their findings

Which circuits and chips are suitable for building artificial brains using the least possible amount of power? This is the question that Junior Professor Dr. Elisabetta Chicca from the Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) has been investigating in collaboration with colleagues from Italy and Switzerland. A surprising finding: Constructions that use not only digital but also analog compact and imprecise circuits are more suitable for building artificial nervous systems, rather than arrangements with only digital or precise but power-demanding analog electronic circuits. The study will be published in the scientific journal ‘Proceedings of the IEEE’. A preview was published online on Thursday, 1 March 2014.

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» Published on 6. Mai 2014

Bielefeld’s leading role in the Turkish–German University

Opening on 29 April with the Federal President Joachim Gauck

Bielefeld University is taking a leading role in setting up the Turkish–German University (TDU) to be officially opened in Istanbul on the 29th of April by the German Federal President Joachim Gauck and Turkish President Abdullah Gül. Professor Dr. Uwe Koreik, Professor for German as a second language (DaF) at Bielefeld University, will also be attending. He worked on building up the language centre at the TDU and is intensively involved in its further development. A total of 30 German universities are participating in the development of this binational university. Six of them have taken a leading role in its design. Alongside Bielefeld University, these are the Freie Universität Berlin, the Technische Universität Berlin, Heidelberg University, the University of Cologne, and the University of Potsdam.

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» Published on 15. April 2014

Sun protection for algae

Biologists at Bielefeld University discover important molecular mechanism

Researchers at Bielefeld University together with colleagues from Italy and Australia identified a molecular mechanism that microalgae use to protect themselves from damaging environmental stress. According to the researchers, the results of their analysis could be used to speed up the cultivation of algae for the production of valuable products. An advance version of the study is now published online in the internationally renowned journal "Plant Cell".

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» Published on 9. April 2014

Extending the largest radio telescope in the world

Bielefeld University and the University of Hamburg cooperating with the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy – Contract to be signed this Wednesday

Bielefeld University and the University of Hamburg together with the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy ASTRON are setting up a telescope the size of a football pitch. The observation station will be installed in Norderstedt (Schleswig-Holstein). It will link up with the largest radio telescope in the world, the international LOFAR telescope. As a consortium of what will then be 49 stations, LOFAR can produce high-resolution images of extremely distant galaxies. The project partners will meet up at the Hannover Messe 2014 on April 9 to present the project at to sign a cooperation agreement for the new station in Norderstedt. 

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