A major new research project led by the University of Augsburg with the Technical Univer-sity Munich (TUM) as partner is dedicated to a key topic of the future: the research and de-velopment of new types of materials whose properties are characterised by quantum ef-fects. In the long term, they could serve as the basis for very powerful computers. The University of Augsburg is involved in another three Collaborative Research Centres.

Together with Munich, Augsburg is home to a new site of the German Centre for Mental Health. The aim of the new centre is interdisciplinary research into the development and progress of mental illnesses across the lifespan. The Augsburg site of the new centre will focus on researching treatments for depression. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the new centre (DZPG) consists of five research sites in addition to Munich/Augsburg.

The University of Augsburg has appointed historian Prof. Dr Simone Müller, an expert on global environmental history and environmental humanities, as new DFG Heisenberg Professor. The sought-after historian, who works in an advisory capacity for the Polish National Science Council, the Academy of Finland, and the Swedish Research Council, researches globalisation processes and the relationship between ecology and economy. In 2017, she was nominated by the German Research Foundation as a leading researcher in her field (Academia.net).

Since the 1st of May, the University of Augsburg’s music education institute has been newly named the Leopold Mozart College of Music (LMC). The institute has recently re-orientated itself and revised its degree programmes. The newly launched bachelor degree programme in music aims to better prepare students for a career in music and will start in the coming winter semester. The master’s degree programme will start in the following year.

The Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Augsburg awarded an honorary doctorate (Dr. rer. pol. h. c.) to the former Federal Minister of Finance, Dr Theo Waigel, in a ceremony at the Augsburg Town Hall.

Discourse research spans a broad range of themes, including questions of educational justice, environmental problems, problems associated with the pandemic, as well as identity conflicts and migration. From the 30th to the 31st of March, leading researchers will meet at the University of Augsburg for the international conference “The Discursive Construction of Reality V,” organised by the Chair of Sociology. Alongside research, the conference will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the “Zeitschrift für Diskursforschung (ZfD),” which was founded in Augsburg.

As part of the EmmA project, the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Augsburg has developed a coaching assistant avatar designed to provide psychological support in times of occupational stress. It can recognise a user’s emotional moods via their mobile device and react appropriately in real time. The avatar is based on machine learning and complex data processing. The results of the project will be used in a follow-up study with people suffering from depression and is also part of an international collaborative project aimed at providing vulnerable people with access to personalised psychosocial services.

With the €200 one-off energy price allowance, the federal government and the states are providing financial assistance to students to offset increased heating, electricity, and food prices. Applications for the one-off energy price allowance can be submitted from the 15th of March 2023. This is how the application process works.

How was scientific evidence produced, communicated, and socially negotiated during the Corona crisis? To answer this question, media and communication scientists from Augsburg are analyzing around 1,000 newspaper articles from established media sources such as the Süddeutsche Zeitung and BILD.

Low-pressure plasmas are commonly used for coating spectacles or producing microchips. Yet very high-energy UV radiation is produced in these plasmas, which under certain circumstances can disrupt production. In order to measure the intensity and wavelength distribution of UV radiation, large and expensive devices have been relied on up until now. Researchers at the University of Augsburg have now developed an alternative system that is both portable and inexpensive.

Non-fungible tokens are based on blockchain technology known from cryptocurrencies. NFTs create a ‘proof of authenticity’ for digital works and confirm personal ownership of them, which is what makes it possible to trade virtual images. Twain Stolz, an art historian and economist, is researching the effects of NFTs on the art market.

The University of Augsburg is participating at the first Bavarian International Conference on AI, AI.BAY 2023, which will take place from the 23rd to 24th of February. The new forum brings together leading representatives of the Bavarian AI Network, international, high-profile guests, as well as state politicians to discuss the future of AI and international developments.