16.05.2019 | News , Kategorien AC News

Biomed goes international

back row: Kiriaki Athanasopulu (lab assistant), Zhishan Cui, Zhenhao Zhang, Irene García Jiménez, Mareike Apprich, Tim Völkerath, Marion Fros, Moritz Scherrenbacher, Prof. Dr. Ralf Kemkemer (lab leader), Claudio Sena Graf front row: Yu-Hsuan Peng, Melina Fischer, Nadine Platner, Elena Meier, Anja Wehrle

Susanne Raiser

“International Project Oriented Laboratory – IPOL” is part of the Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM for University Students – BWS plus, a programme of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung. The project runs from 2019 until 2021 and is supported with an amount of 105,000 €. The aim of the project is to expand the project-oriented learning lab BioMED to an international laboratory, where international and German students are working together in teams on interdisciplinary research topics.

In summer semester 2019, two international students are piloting the project. They come from Spain and Taiwan, and are each working in a group with our Reutlingen students.

Irene García Jiménez from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) works with her team on the topic of “A low-cost breast cancer cell migration assay based on gelatin for studying the dependence of ECM stiffnesses”.

Yu-Hsuan Peng is from the National Ciao Tung University (NCTU). Her team works on „Decellularization of plant tissues/cellulosic matrix for biomedical applications”. She tells us about her experience: “In Biomed lab, I work with 5 German students for a project. At the first meeting, I was astonished by their incredible efficiency of searching documents and making proposal. One of the students, Melina, is like the leader of our team, guiding us discussing every aspect of the project, and others giving opinions back and forth in a delightful atmosphere. This experience is I have never been before. I learn a lot from them of how-to making research and working in a group. Taking Biomed lab is the best decision I made in here and I hope our project has a positive outcome.”

Collaborating in internationally mixed groups is also a challenge for our Reutlingen students. Melina Fischer, a team mate of Yu-Hsuan mentions: “It is pretty cool to work together on such a project with an international student, because you get to know new perspectives.”

Lab leader, Professor Dr. Ralf Kemkemer and his assistants Susanne Raiser and Kiriaki Athanasopulu are happy about the first effects of this idea: “The students need to work together, really mix up, and learn from each other. In lectures you often see international students sitting together, separated from the Germans. Here they are doing research together, talking everyday research issues over in English. Both groups of students are profiting from this situation: The international students are better integrated, and the German students are getting well prepared for working in a globalized world.”

Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM

The Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM supports the international exchange of students and vocationally qualified people. Since 2001, it has enabled more than 20,000 young people from Baden-Württemberg to gain experience abroad and allowed scholarship holders from other countries to visit Baden-Württemberg. Approximately 1,500 young people receive a Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM each year.

www.bw-stipendium.de

Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM for University Students – BWS plus

With the Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM for University Students – BWS plus, the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung supports innovative joint projects between universities from Baden-Württemberg and their international partners. The programme, which is endowed with approximately 1.2 million euros annually, was announced for the first time in 2011. Since then, more than 70 BWS plus projects have been supported at universities in Baden-Württemberg.

Baden-Württemberg Stiftung

The foundation Baden-Württemberg Stiftung is committed to creating a vibrant Baden-Württemberg worth living in. It paves the way for cutting-edge research, diverse educational activities and responsible interactions with our fellow human beings. The Baden-Württemberg Stiftung is one of the major operational foundations in Germany. It is the only one that invests exclusively and non-partisanly in the future of Baden-Württemberg – and thus in the future of its citizens.

www.bwstiftung.de