Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Disorders

Researchers led by Computer Science Professor Iryna Gurevych at TU Darmstadt and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi are addressing a key question: How can AI-based tools in the mental health domain be designed to reliably protect patient privacy?

Graduate Ellen Bräuer on her medical technology studies – part three of a five-part series

Ellen Bräuer took up medical technology as a second degree rather by chance during her bachelor's studies and then switched to it completely for her master's degree. In this interview, the 33-year-old, who graduated in April 2024 and now works as a medical physicist, talks about her experiences – including the oddest ones.

Unite! Seed Fund initiative to advance fish protection and sustainable water systems

European rivers are highly fragmented – by barriers, hydropower, water withdrawals and other alterations to their natural flow. These disruptions pose serious threats to biodiversity and hinder fish migration. In response, a growing European research community on ethohydraulics and fish passage is working to improve ecological connectivity and align water management with sustainability goals.

Welcome Guide Now Live

The next Unite! Dialogue will soon take place at Aalto University, and the official Welcome Guide, including everything you need to know about the Dialogue, is now live. Themed “Connect and Collaborate”, the Dialogue will take place in Espoo, Finland between 6-9 October 2025. The event will bring together students, researchers, staff, and faculty from across Europe to strengthen partnerships in education, research, and innovation. The programme features community meetings, a parallel programme for early-career academics, and Mix & Match workshops designed to spark new collaborations.

From idea to start-up

In September 2025, the 3rd ryon Start-up Summer School took place in Darmstadt, organized by the Centre for Synthetic Biology and the ryon GreenTech Accelerator. The program is designed for young scientists and aims to transform research ideas from the field of synthetic biology into groundbreaking start-up concepts.

Interview with the Deans of Studies for the RMU joint degree programme “Medizintechnik” – part two of a five-part series

Together with Goethe University Frankfurt as a partner in the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance, TU Darmstadt has been offering the Medizintechnik programme since 2018. The two Deans of Studies, Anja Klein and Miriam Rüsseler, look back on the beginnings and venture a prediction for the future.

A degree program by the strategic alliance of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU)

Engineering meets medicine: About seven years ago, the joint degree programme Medizintechnik between TU Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt was launched. Since then, 132 students have successfully completed the programme. A five-part series focuses on this unique programme, which is embedded in the strategic alliance of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU). The series kicks off with a video providing an overview of everything you need to know about Medizintechnik.

TU professor Kersting assesses the significance of the DeepSeek-R1 AI language model

Training large language models is costly and resource-intensive. At the beginning of the year, Chinese provider DeepSeek introduced a so-called reasoning language model that achieved results similar to those of established models but required fewer resources for training and operation. TU Professor Kristian Kersting from the Department of Computer Science has now commented in a detailed statement for the Science Media Centre Germany (SMC) on the effects of training without human feedback and the advantages and disadvantages of the model.

hoch³ Visual Story: Athene Young Investigators 2025 In Profile

Resolutions passed by State Parliaments

In their respective plenary sessions on 11 September 2025, the Hessian State Parliament and the Rhineland-Palatinate State Parliament unanimously passed two identical resolutions to strengthen the transregional Rhine-Main science region.

European Research Council funds two projects at TU Darmstadt with ERC Starting Grants

Two early-career researchers at TU Darmstadt have been awarded Starting Grants by the European Research Council (ERC) for their excellent and innovative fundamental and pioneering research. Professor Grace Li Zhang and Dr.-Ing. Arne Scholtissek will each receive 1.5 million euros over a period of five years for their projects on neural networks and simulations for CO₂-neutral energy sources.

Professor Grace Li Zhang awarded ERC Starting Grant

TU Professor Grace Li Zhang has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for her research project “LogiNet”. She will receive 1.5 million euros. LogiNet pursues a new approach to making neural networks – the heart of many artificial intelligence (AI) applications – more energy-efficient and transparent. LogiNet not only develops new solutions for green AI to benefit the economy and the environment but also lays the foundation for new directions such as logic-based DNN validation in the era of large-scale models that have started to influence our society fundamentally.

Dr.-Ing. Arne Scholtissek Receives ERC Starting Grant for “ProtoMan” Project

The research project “Protocol for Data-Driven Manifold Generation, Validation, and Utilization in High-Fidelity Combustion Simulations” (ProtoMan) at TU Darmstadt has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Dr.-Ing. Arne Scholtissek, Senior Academic Councillor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will receive around €1.5 million in funding over five years. He is developing advanced simulation approaches that aim to support the substitution of fossil fuels with carbon-neutral alternatives.

TU researchers prove microplastics are stored in forests for the first time

Microplastics and nanoplastics are not only polluting our oceans, rivers and fields, but also our forests. This is the conclusion reached by geoscientists at TU Darmstadt in a study now published in the renowned journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.