Simulation overcomes boundaries

For the third time the interdisciplinary Science College of the Ruhr-University Research School took place. On June 19th more than 120 doctoral candidates of the Research School and outstanding international scientists discussed chances and limitations of methods for analyses and prognoses in simulation and modelling.

Exchange across disciplinary boundaries
The guest speakers looked at simulation and modelling from different scientific point of views. Dietrich Dörner, Professor for Theoretical Psychology, University of Bamberg and Leibnizprizewinner showed the simulation of the human soul.
Alexander Hartmaier, Professor at the new Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulation (ICAMS) at Ruhr-University explained the contribution of simulation in material design. Dr. Andre Schneider, vice president central technical development at Benteler AG stressed the importance of material simulation for industry. In his talk Professor Paul W. Humphreys, international expert for philosophy of science at University of Virginia expounded the problems of interpreting simulation results from an epistemological perspective.

Practical interdisciplinarity
The following workshops had been prepared by doctoral candidates of the Research School together with the guest speakers and scientists from the RUB. In these workshops various topics were discussed, like the difference between experiments and simulations, or the difficulty to simulate future and make predictions. The next-generation scientists as well as the guest speakers valuated the interdisciplinary dialogue as very profitable: “The Science College 2009 again showed me how diverse researchers from different fields deal with similar problems. This reminds me of the importance of interdisciplinary exchange, which is one of the concepts of both the Research School and the Science College” says Sebastian Rasche, doctoral candidate of the Research School and moderator of a workshop.

In the evening talk Dr. Igor Mayer, Associate Professor Public Management and Gaming at Delft University of Technology showed the possibilities of simulations in “Serious Gaming” as a method for research and complex decision processes.
As every year the Science College ended with the welcome of new fellows of the Research School and the farewell of the fellows who completed their doctoral studies.

Ruhr-University Research School
The new dimension to international research training in Germany
Since October 2006 within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative, the Research School promotes top-level postgraduate education throughout Ruhr-University, offering research within 20 faculties and 12 interdisciplinary thematic priorities.
www.research-school.rub.de

Ruhr-University Research School
Central Coordination Office (CCO), Universitätsstr. 150, FNO 01/142,
44780 Bochum, research-school(at)rub.de

This release was published on openPR.