Whether natural sciences, engineering, computer science, mathematics, economics, or media: young researchers from a wide range of disciplines were the focus of the second PhD Day at TU Ilmenau. In lectures and workshops, a lunch talk with alumni and alumnae of the university and a talent fair, Master's students and doctoral candidates were given information about support services and space to network. The focus was on the topic of doctoral supervision.
To provide PhD candidates and young researchers with an excellent scientific environment for cutting-edge research as well as the best possible support and advice and to enable them to make a successful start to their professional careers: This is one of the core objectives and activities of TU Ilmenau as a research-intensive university. "You are the heart of our university," said Vice President Prof. Stefan Sinzinger at the opening of the second PhD Day in the Audimax:
As doctoral candidates, you have the privilege, but also the responsibility, to shape what you do yourself.
"Doing a doctorate is the privilege of investing your knowledge and talent for the benefit of society in order to initiate innovation," explained Dr. Helke Hillebrand from Heidelberg University in her keynote speech. She outlined how universities can best doctoral researchers in this process based on the results of a study by the League of European Research Universities (LERU). Together with her colleague Claudine Leysinger from the University of Zurich, she proposes a holistic view of supervision:
Doctoral supervision encompasses much more than just specialist advice in a particular field of research.
It also served as a catalyst for future career paths - both for expert careers and management careers:
It is about giving young talent the opportunity to find their place in society.
This could only succeed if mutual expectations are clearly formulated from the outset:
Communication is key, and everyone involved must do their part to promote mutually productive supervision based on a culture of appreciation.
Another point Dr. Hillebrand stretched in her key note was the importance of connecting PhD candidates with each other:
When you meet people who tick like you do, and when it 'clicks': that's when innovation kicks in.
Work-Life-Integration
"A doctorate is an investment that also has an impact on your private life", Dr. Hillebrand explained. This would make it all the more important to be in harmony with one's own needs:
Life is a whole, a work of art, everything is interwoven.
Instead of strictly separating work and leisure in the sense of a work-life balance, she recommended an integrative work-life approach to those present, in which both areas are efficiently brought together in the sense of work-life integration. Psychologist Carolin Stotzka from the Equal Opportunities, Diversity and Health Division at TU Ilmenau expressed a similar view. In one of numerous short workshops at the PhD Day, she gave the participants some initial ideas on the topic of mental health, especially on the importance of establishing a clear daily structure with regular wake-up times.
Other workshops dealt with interpersonal challenges, project and self-management, as well as publishing, teaching and good scientific practice. As part of a Talent Fair, Master's students were also able to find out about current research projects and open doctoral positions and were given an overview of the various phases of the doctorate by the doctoral student representatives: How do I register as a doctoral student? What does acceptance by the faculty mean? And what exams can I expect at the end of my doctorate?
This workshop in particular gave Benedikt Oppeneiger, a doctoral student in mathematics at the Department of Optimization-based Control, many important insights: "It's a very nice effort that the university organizes something like this for us." Jakob Lerch, a Master's student in the second semester of Engineering Informatics, also took part in the PhD Day, although the topic is not yet too relevant to him:
It was very helpful, I took lots of notes and got lots of impressions from PhD students. It made me more aware of the need to look more closely at certain points with a view to a possible PhD.
Benjamin Calmbach would also have liked to be able to discuss all questions related to his doctorate at the end of his studies: "It's really great that this now exists," said the doctoral student in control engineering, who helped organize the day as a member of the PhD student representatives. He stressed that the PhD Day was also about making the TU Ilmenau's offers for doctoral students even more visible.
"We are all there in this formative phase of life"
"Whether it's the Graduate Center, University Library, Start-up Service, Patent Center, PhD student representatives or the Department for Gender Equality, Diversity and Health: we are all there for PhD students in this formative phase of their lives, in which the course is set for their experiences with science and their future careers," says Equal Opportunities Officer Dr Katja Tonisch, who organized the PhD Students' Day together with Benjamin Calmbach, Alexandra Dalek from the Graduate Center and Rebecca Petrich from the Förderverein für Mikro- und Nanotechnologien Ilmenau e.V. (Ilmenau Association for the Promotion of Micro and Nanotechnologies ). She knows from her own experience as a doctoral student:
You throw yourself completely into this work. It's easy to forget to take a step back and ask yourself: 'Who do I actually want to become?
For those who want to stay in academia, workshops in university didactics, for example, are also helpful, as are courses in entrepreneurship for those interested in founding a company. TU Ilmenau also offers such courses.
Dr. Jochen Weber, Partner and Associate Director at the Boston Consulting Group, is one person who chose a different path after completing his degree in electrical engineering at TU Ilmenau and his doctorate. As one of a total of six graduates from the university, he shared his doctoral experience in the aluMNI Talk :
Very few have planned their career from A to Z from the very beginning.
He therefore encouraged those present to not only focus on the technical aspects, but also to take the time to invest in their own "people skills", i.e. skills such as communication, presentation, moderation and social skills:
If the Graduate Center is now offering exactly these things at TU Ilmenau, then that's great.