1) Introductory lecture from the Center for Nonlinear Science (CeNoS) under the motto "Mastering Complexity to Navigate a Complex World"
Dr. Katrin Schmietendorf and Dr. Oliver Kamps from the Center for Nonlinear Science (CeNoS) aim to develop an interdisciplinary, application-oriented introductory lecture in collaboration with student assistants and the departments of Physics, Mathematics & Computer Science, Psychology, Biology, and Chemistry. This lecture will use preparatory materials and accompanying Jupyter Notebooks to address the heterogeneous prior knowledge and interests of a multidisciplinary target group. The lecture will be permanently integrated into the CeNoS teaching program under the motto "Mastering Complexity to Navigate a Complex World" and will serve as an impetus for interdisciplinary exchange and cooperation at the University of Münster. Complex networks are a thematically highly diverse and interdisciplinary field of research, as they address many questions from current societal debates, such as the spread of epidemics, the propagation of disinformation, climate research, or the optimization of cycle path networks.
2) Ecological landscape project "Sensorlök"
Ecological landscape projects increasingly rely on measurement data that are automatically, continuously, and over long periods collected by sensors. In the project Sensorlök by Dr. Marvin Ludwig, the Institute of Landscape Ecology aims to integrate environmental sensors into teaching to train the scientific next generation to apply modern methods of environmental observation in practice.
To this end, a part of the climate and biodiversity area Ammeloe, known as the Lüntener Forest, will be considered as an exemplary ecosystem. The former peat forest is scheduled to be rewetted over the next few years, offering the chance to observe the ecosystem's reactions to controlled environmental changes.
In a seminar, students will equip the Lüntener Forest with sensors that measure, for example, groundwater levels, soil moisture, and microclimate, and store the data automatically in the cloud. This creates a kind of open-air laboratory. In a hackathon, data processing methods will be developed to continuously evaluate the sensor data and understand the impacts of the renaturation measures on the ecosystem.
3) Online tutorial for the didactic-methodical qualification of student tutors
Tutorials conducted by students as a supplement to teaching have been a key component of German universities' course offerings since the Bologna Reform and the associated demand for quality assurance and improvement. However, the tutors responsible are rarely prepared for their role in terms of subject matter and didactics.
The University of Münster does not currently offer a comprehensive program for the professionalization of student tutors. For this reason, Kris-Stephen Besa and Annalisa Biehl aim to advance the development of an interdisciplinary online tutorial for the qualification of student tutors with their project, which can be used at the University of Münster beyond the project period. The content conveyed through the tutorial focuses on fostering social competence, reflexive and self-competence, diagnostic competence, and didactic-methodical competence. The tutorial will be evaluated to allow for possible adjustments and to contribute to the research field that has been little explored so far.
4) Interdisciplinary exchange between students and staff of the disciplines sports and music with regard to the prevention of sexualised violence
Various areas of life are affected by sexualized violence, and universities are no exception (UniSafe, 2022). The experience of sexualized violence has far-reaching consequences for those affected, not only in terms of their health but also their quality of life and performance. In the university context, there are particular vulnerabilities of students and employees, especially when a dependency relationship exists (bukof, 2018). Subjects like music and sports have specific risk factors that can promote sexualized violence (e.g., proximity-distance relationship).
The project by Lena Henning and Isabelle Heiss aims to promote interdisciplinary exchange between students and staff in both subjects regarding the prevention of sexualized violence. The exchange will encourage dialogue about subject-specific and interdisciplinary structures, sensitizing to subject-specific and interdisciplinary risk factors, as well as potential opportunities. The project pursues two objectives: a) the exchange between students in a joint seminar, which leads to b) a moderated exchange between students and colleagues from Sports Science and Music Education.
5) Practical course "Model- and Data-based Methods in the Natural Sciences" (MoDaNa)
In the newly designed interdisciplinary and research-oriented practical course "Model- and Data-based Methods in the Natural Sciences" (MoDaNa), students from the departments of Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, and Chemistry and Pharmacy acquire competencies in the field of numerical modeling and the use of modern data-driven methods for simulation. They work on a current research topic in supervised interdisciplinary teams over a semester, focusing on applied areas such as climate change, epidemiology, or swarm behavior. The students learn the basics of programming in Python, numerical modeling, data analysis, and machine learning methods. This includes topics such as research data management, data preparation and visualization, as well as the creation and testing of mathematical models. They then apply this knowledge to their specific research project. They collect their own data, develop hypotheses, create models, and conduct simulation runs. They also present their results to the other participants.
Prof. Dr. Mario Ohlberger (FB 10), Prof. Dr. Svetlana Gurevich (FB 11), and Prof. Dr. Andreas Heuer (FB12) have jointly conceived the course with students based on the practical course "Nonlinear Modeling in the Natural Sciences" offered by the Center for Nonlinear Science (CeNoS). In the long term, the practical course is to become a module of the planned Data Science degree program.
6) Teaching project "Shared Pharmacy and Healthcare Education for Real-world Experience" (SPHERE)
The new teaching project Shared Pharmacy and Healthcare Education for Real-world Experience (SPHERE) brings together medical and pharmacy students in their practical year (PJ) for the first time to jointly address the growing challenges of patient care. The project by Prof. Dr. Björn Burkhardt (FB 12) and Dr. Hedda Wollbold (FB 5) follows the approach: Learn together, care better together. Participants learn to plan complex therapies in tandem, make joint decisions, and act patient-centered in realistic scenarios with simulation patients.
The goal is to promote interprofessional cooperation already during studies and to break down barriers between the professions. Focus areas include teamwork, communication, and the role understanding of both professions. The practical implementation takes place on an outpatient basis in teaching practices and pharmacies. This teaching format significantly contributes to the improvement of patient care and conveys important competencies such as critical thinking and social responsibility. Scientifically accompanied, the project makes a decisive contribution to the implementation of the interdisciplinary care required in the therapy guidelines.
7) Development and implementation of the KI-based tutor Histo.AI for courses in history didactics
Dr. Sabrina Schmitz-Zerres and Ricarda Singh (M.Ed.) from the Institute for History Didactics at the University of Münster will develop the AI-based tutor Histo.AI starting in the summer semester 2025, in collaboration with students. Histo.AI will be implemented and evaluated in history didactics courses. In cooperation with the Münster-based Tutor.AI, Histo.AI is to be a subject-specific tool that supports students in creating their own scientific texts and reading texts. Histo.AI will be programmed to respond to specific needs and learning levels without taking over text production for students. Instead, Histo.AI supports students in reading texts or provides feedback on writing products. The project aims to individually support history students at the University of Münster in developing competencies through an AI-based tutor and to train the reflective use of AI.
8) Project "Patient-centered Counseling using Augmented Reality" (AR)
The field of Clinical Pharmacy is understood as a discipline that, based on pharmaceutical-natural science knowledge, aims to optimize the use of medication by and for patients. However, the expectation that students will have regular patient contact and continuously improve their skills in patient interaction is currently not met. Graduates thus face the challenge of meeting the growing complex demands in counseling and patient care upon entering the profession, which arise from demographic changes and the individualization of pharmacotherapy.
Therefore, Prof. Burckhardt (FB 12) and Prof. Hohenberg (FB 4) have initiated the project "Patient-centered Counseling using Augmented Reality (AR)." By using augmented reality (AR) in the study of Clinical Pharmacy, the bridge to a competence-oriented training for patient counseling can be gradually achieved. With the AR tool, it will be possible in the future to practically train the increasingly desired personalized medicine and individualized pharmacotherapy in a targeted manner, and thus transfer the knowledge learned in the course from theory to practice.
9) Project "VR4Students" in the eXperimental Reality Lab of the Marketing Center Münster (XRLab@MCM)
Virtual realities and the metaverse are changing our work and living environments. At the same time, for these new technologies, without personal experience, the functioning and benefits of "immersive" VR applications remain vague and abstract for most people. Since access to hardware today represents a bottleneck that prevents virtual experiences, the project "VR4Students" in the eXperimental Reality Lab of the Marketing Center Münster (XRLab@MCM) will likely offer, starting in April, a rental service for one year. This service will allow students of the University of Münster to try out state-of-the-art headsets. The rental of Quest headsets is free for one week at a time and is organized by student assistants who coordinate the administration, distribution, and support of software and hardware. In this way, the future technology VR can be made usable in an uncomplicated manner, and the digital competencies of Münster's students can be promoted.
10) Project "SHIFT happens: Learning with and from an AI-based learning assistant"
Tutor.AI is a joint project of the Department of Philology, the REACH – Euregio Start-up Center, and the start-up colloc.AI at the University of Münster. It is a learning assistant based on a large language model (LLM) that supports students in preparing and reviewing their study material. The assistant interacts with users through a chat interface and accesses relevant sources provided by the lecturers for a specific event. In the past two semesters, Tutor.AI has been used in 12 courses with over 2,000 students (ranging from Literary Didactics to Constitutional History, Mathematics for Chemists, or Autonomous Systems in Computer Science). Special emphasis is placed on data protection, as the assistant is hosted on the university's resources and uses open-source technology. In the project "SHIFT happens: Learning with and from an AI-based learning assistant", led by an interdisciplinary team headed by Prof. Silvia Reuvekamp, Tutor.AI is being further developed for the University of Münster and made available university-wide.
