The final Spring School 2024 of the SFB 986 took place from 11-15 March 2024 in Bad Malente at the Gustav-Heinemann Bildungsstätte. Under the topic "Synergies in Material Science: Design after Modeling and Characterization" four scientific workshops were organized by international speakers. Starting on Monday the participants had the change to talk about their scientific work and discuss problems with each other and the speakers. In their talks the speakers presented a variety of topics from characterisation using X-ray and synchrotron to self-healing materials' design and the applications of machine learning in analysis and simulation. Each workshop included interactive elements either promoting discussions or allowing the participants to get familiar with Machine Learning tools or algorithms. On Wednesday afternoon the participants worked together in a Draisine tour through Holstein Switzerland. For the second part of the week two 2-day workshops focusing on self-presentation in difficult situations were offered for the participants to choose from. These focused on the introduction of a dissertation talks and dealing with the questions afterwards, and job search and self-presentation during a job interview, respectively.

The following scientists hosted interactive workshops on their areas of expertise:

Prof. Dr. Dorota Koziej
Desy / University of Hamburg

Prof. Dr. Joost Brancart
Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Prof. Dr. Robert Aydin
Hereon / Hamburg University of Technology

Dr. Alan Lewis
University of York

The following workshops on key competences were offered:

Thesis Defense Training
Dr. Malte Engel

Job Application Training
Dr. Matthias Zach