UAlberta and RWTH Aachen Partnership News

May
2018

• A cohort of 20 students from RWTH Aachen visited UAlberta to learn about entrepreneurship in Edmonton. During their week visit Aachen students learnt from leading UAlberta experts, engaged with Albertan entrepreneurs and business leaders, and visited business incubators and accelerators. Panel discussions involved the founders of numerous startups, such as trioova, G2V optics, and Evented, and lecturers included both University of Alberta faculty as well as private-sector entrepreneurship/innovation leaders like Dr. Eddy Isaacs. Regional incubators and accelerators such as TEC Edmonton, Startup Edmonton, eHUB, and Business Link were visited during the program.
• A UAlberta student cohort (20+ participants) comprised of both undergraduate and graduate students had the opportunity to visit RWTH Aachen and learn about entrepreneurship in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The cohort visited numerous business incubators and accelerators in the three countries to get a first-hand experience of how entrepreneurship and innovation is supported in other countries. Through case studies students explored how large European corporations are responding to industry disruptions by engaging entrepreneurs. Students from UAlberta and RWTH Aachen worked together in teams to develop startup ideas and business models.
• A delegation of the RWTH Aachen consisted of Dr. Rudolf Mathar, Pro-Rector for Research and Structure at RWTH Aachen University, Head of the Institute for Theoretical Information Technology (TI); Dr. Leif Kobbelt, Head of the Institute for Computer Graphics and Multimedia; Dr. Gerhard Lakemeyer, professor, Dept. of Computer Science; Dr. Danilo Bzdok, Junior Prof. Dept. of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and Dr. Daniel Holder, Head, America & Australia, Division Mobility, International Office, RWTH Aachen University visited the University of Alberta. The RWTH Aachen researchers participated in the joint workshop "Data Science, Machine Learning and Computational Innovation". During the visit Dr. Rudolf Mathar met with Dr. Matthias Ruth, Vice-President Research at UAlberta in order to discuss the existing/future collaborations between the universities.

• Prof. Stefan Jockenhoevel, Director of Tissue Engineering and Textile Implants, Institute of Applied Medical Engineering, Helmholtz Institute of RWTH Aachen University & Hospital, and Prof. Thomas Schmitz-Rode, Director of Institute of Applied Medical Engineering, Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, visited UAlberta. They met with numerous Faculties to establish contacts between researchers on a variety of topics linked to biomedical engineering and medical imaging particularly in the fields of sensor and material integration and cell therapy manufacturing.

• Workshop in Aachen. 3 topics -- Biofuels; Biomedical engineering; Smart grids and Storage -- 9 researchers from UAlberta and 6 administrators from UAlberta participated in the workshop.

• Prof. Rudolf Mathar, Vice-Rector for Research at RWTH Aachen, visited UAlberta Nov. 14-17 to follow up on the August 2016 delegation and discuss concrete opportunities for research collaboration. The visit was designed to help build a systematic collaborative approach to enable both institutions to leverage their academic expertise, apply each other's brand recognition, and make use of the respective networking capital and existing partnerships, including with corporate partners. Prof. Mathar met with many administrators and professors during his stay, with a joint research workshop planned in Aachen as one of the outcomes.

• Manfred Nettekoven, Chancellor and Malte Brettel, Vice-Rector for Industry and Business Relations visited Edmonton on August 29-30. This was a return visit after Dr. Turpin's visit to Aachen in April 2016. The UofA and RWTH share a common focus on research, scholarship and education particularly in science and engineering with focus on energy related research. The universities are looking for an opportunity to build a systematic collaborative approach which will enable both institutions to leverage each other's academic expertise, make use of the respective networking capital and existing partnerships, including with corporate partners, and apply each other's brand recognition.

• President Turpin visited RWTH Aachen during his first international trip in the role of the UofA President. He meets with Rector Ernst Schmachtenberg, Chancellor Manfred Nettekoven, prof. Rik De Donker, Director of the E.ON ERC (Energy Research Institute) at RWTH Aachen University as well as with Prof. Harald Bolt (Board of Directors, Forschungszentrum Jülich - FZJ)

• UAlberta visited RWTH Aachen to strengthen research and student exchange relations. The purpose of the visit was to touch base on current issues of bilateral relations with Dr. Christian Haag, Director of Flexible Elektrische Netze FEN-Konsortium.

• Experts from UAlberta and RWTH Aachen University met to advance connections in the area of smart grids.