The MGK meets monthly, every third Tuesday of the month. Each time, one Ph.D. candidate presents his or her Ph.D. project in a seminar talk. In order to help the other participants to better appreciate this talk, group discussions guided by a collaborative worksheet with qualitative questions (“Tutorial”) precede the talk and provide technical basics relevant for the respective topic. From time to time, the monthly meetings are supplemented by additional units, such as seminars on management or organizational structure.

List of presented project presentations

Seminar Talk

The project presentation in the MGK does not focus on the presentation of the latest research data, which can be found in the publications of the SFB sub-projects. Instead, each Ph.D. candidate is expected to illustrate the goals, methods and results of her or his project in a manner that can be understood by the members of the various other sub-projects of the SFB 986, thereby promoting cooperation within the SFB at the graduate student level.

Tutorials

A successful networking that results in effective cooperation between individual Ph.D. candidates is only possible if all Ph.D. candidates have a general understanding of the technical basics. Since the Ph.D. candidates - like the participating institutes in the SFB – come from different disciplines (engineering, physics, chemistry, materials science, etc.) the common knowledge of a core curriculum may not be taken for granted. Inspired by the concept "Elicit-Confront-Resolve" by McDermott & Shaffer (1995), the Ph.D. candidates acquire the relevant technical basics together with the help of Tutorials, which are developed jointly by the member presenting her or his topic and the MGK team.