Humanoid robot TALOS at TU Darmstadt for research into human-like learning

The Technical University of Darmstadt is expanding its portfolio of large-scale interdisciplinary research equipment with a special addition: the state-of-the-art humanoid robot ‘TALOS’. There are currently only five other research centres in the world with such a robot, and Darmstadt's TALOS is the only one in Germany. Its arrival today also marked the launch of the new Laboratory for Humanoid Robotics.

Webinar series for studentsCafé

In compact 20-minute sessions, Unite! presents various opportunities for students. Topics include summer schools, multicultural and multilingual programmes, the U!Train – a course that enables a study tour through Europe – and exchange study programmes. The webinar series will take place on 12 March 2025, with the registration deadline on 10 March 2025.

Unite! guest professors at TU Darmstadt for the first time

In the winter semester 2024/2025, four Unite! guest professors will be teaching and researching at TU Darmstadt for the first time. The Unite! Guest Professorship aims to attract outstanding international talent to promote interdisciplinary teaching and didactic innovation through international experience. We introduce the visiting scholars and their research. The next call for applications is already open, with the deadline for submissions being 31 March 2025.

Hosted by UPC in Barcelona

From February 25 to 28, the Unite! community will meet in person once again for an edition dedicated to students and their role in shaping the future of the alliance. “Unite! students: our soul, our core” is the theme of this exciting event, packed with activities, interactive workshops, community work sessions, and high-level meetings with university leaders.

Unite! Visiting Professorship Programme 2025

In 2025, the Unite! Visiting Professorship Programme continues to aim at attracting outstanding international talents to promote interdisciplinarity in teaching and didactic innovation through international experience. It is open to all subjects represented at TU Darmstadt. Up to 13 visiting professorships could be financially supported. The target group are primarily experienced postdocs. The deadline for applications is March 31st, 2025.

TU researchers have developed and tested a novel technology for even more precise quantum sensors

UNESCO's International Year of Quantum Science and Technology begins with a success for TU researchers at the Institute of Applied Physics: Physical Review Research publishes results of their research on dichroic mirror pulses. These act like velocity-selective traffic controllers for atoms by directing the particles with correct velocity towards detection while letting run troublemakers into the void.

In the search for “dark forces”, physicists came across deformed nuclei

When world-leading teams join forces, new findings are bound to be made. This is what happened when quantum physicists from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg combined atomic and nuclear physics with unprecedented accuracy using two different methods of measurement. Together with new calculations of the structure of atomic nuclei, theoretical physicists from the Technical University of Darmstadt and Leibniz University Hannover were able to show that measurements on the electron shell of an atom can provide information about the deformation of the atomic nucleus. At the same time, the precision measurements have set new limits regarding the strength of a potential dark force between neutrons and electrons. The results have been published in the current issue of the scientific journal “Physical Review Letters”.

Potential zum Energiesparen nutzen

At TU Darmstadt, four working groups from the Departments of Chemistry and Biology have been awarded so-called “LEAF certificates” for more resource-efficient laboratory operations. With these quality seals, the TU is a pioneer in Hesse.

Chemistry team of the TU publishes new drug discovery approaches

Ring-shaped molecules often have better pharmacological properties, but the development of these active substances is difficult. Now the working group led by Professor Felix Hausch at the Clemens Schöpf Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at TU Darmstadt has shown in three publications how molecular rings can be built using a modular assembly and how this translates to better properties. This opens up new approaches, for example for the treatment of depression, obesity or chronic pain.

Call for Applications

The Unite! Alliance is pleased to announce the opening of the call for the Unite! Seed Fund 2025, a fund designed to support innovative and collaborative projects among the alliance's member universities. This fund offers financial support to students, researchers, and professors who wish to initiate joint initiatives between at least three Unite! universities (and at least two for student proposals), encouraging collaboration and excellence in education, research, and innovation. The deadline for all submissions is March 20, 2025, with various matchmaking events scheduled to help participants find partners for their projects

TU researchers present first comprehensive study on the social media platform Bluesky

The booming short messaging service Bluesky with its logo of a blue butterfly is not only a suitable alternative to X, but offers tangible advantages to users, conclude a team of researchers with leading involvement from TU Darmstadt in a study on the novel platform.

Study develops method for movement without electronics and batteries

Researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf have developed a revolutionary technology: flexible robot wings that are moved by magnetic fields. Inspired by the efficiency and adaptability of the wings of the monarch butterfly, they enable precise movements without electronics or batteries. This bio-inspired development could fundamentally change environmental monitoring, rescue operations and biomedical applications.

The fourth call for 5 PhD Fellowships Unite! priority areas is now open until 28 February 2025.

Together with our Alliance, the University of Lisbon, in collaboration with Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) will award 5 PhD Fellowships in 4 Unite! key areas Artificial intelligence , Energy – Batteries, Hydrogen and Smart Cities and Industry 4.0. Applications can be submitted until 28 February 2025.  

The expertise that computer science alumnus Kai Beckmann acquired and the people he met at TU Darmstadt provided him with important stimulus and inspiration for his professional career at Merck

Kai Beckmann studied computer science at TU Darmstadt in the 1980s and completed his doctorate in economics at the university ten years later part-time while working. Beckmann began his career at the science and technology company Merck as an IT system consultant. Today, the alumnus is a Member of the Executive Board of Merck responsible for the Electronics business sector (semiconductors and specialty chemicals), the Darmstadt site, patents and inhouse consulting.

First Unite! Online Language Café starts January 15

If you want to learn a new language, you also have to speak it. Language learning theories argue that language learning takes place unconsciously and by chance through exchanges with native speakers or through contact with authentic language use outside the classroom. The Unite! Online Language Café (UOLC) aims to do just that and invites students from all Unite! universities for the first time on 15 January 2025