Where do you place sensors so that they pinpoint the source of a sound as accurately as possible? To answer this question, we need mathematics. Phuoc Truong Huynh is a doctoral student working on solutions required in many fields of application.
Research mathematics is creative. One of those people with a particular affinity for imaginative puzzle-solving is Sarah Jane Selkirk. The South African came to Klagenfurt in 2020 as a doctoral student and is now a member of the doc.funds doctoral school “Modeling – Analysis – Optimization of discrete, continuous, and stochastic systems”.
When it comes to evaluating the teaching of teachers externally, there are many challenges for everyone involved. However, a self-assessment tool can provide teachers with valuable feedback on the quality of their teaching without openly questioning their abilities. Elisa Reci, a doctoral student at the Department of Informatics Didactics at the University of Klagenfurt, has developed a platform for this specific purpose.
“We need clearly defined standards for different quality levels, and we have been working on these together with experienced teachers,” Elisa Reci tells us, offering a basic explanation of the tool she has developed as part of her doctoral thesis. These precise criteria have now been modelled and incorporated into an online tool that is available to all teachers. “We want to support teachers in reflecting on their teaching and making it even better. This means that the teachers learn: How good am I? And how good do I want to be?”, she goes on to explain.
Originally from Albania, Elisa Reci, who completed her Bachelor’s degree with distinction, came to Klagenfurt for her Master’s degree in Informatics. When she returned to her native country, she spent three years working as a lecturer at the university and as a computer science teacher at a secondary school. “I became very aware that we are struggling to get enough young people interested in computer science, both at school and at university”, Reci tells us. Elisa Reci attributes the hesitancy in choosing to study computer science to the quality of computer science teaching, among other factors: “Ultimately, how well the teaching goes depends on the teacher and their motivation.”
Elisa Reci originally designed her model for computer science classes. However, it soon became apparent that it was also very suitable for other subjects and could generally be a useful support for all teachers, whether they work at the university, in schools, in further education or in other educational sectors.
Elisa Reci returned to the University of Klagenfurt as a predoc scientist and doctoral student and has devoted the past four years at this university to her research. She has already presented her model and the platform at several conferences and in scientific journals, and it has generated a lot of interest. Her contract at the University of Klagenfurt recently came to an end. For now, Elisa Reci wants to stay in science: “I would like to continue my research as a postdoc scientist and am currently looking around to see what opportunities are opening up.”
Visit the self-evaluation platform: https://team-iid.aau.at/welcome
What motivates you to work in science?
We can all hope for a better future if the generations of tomorrow are well-educated. This motivates me to seek out new ways to improve education.
Do your parents understand what you are working on?
Yes, they do.
What makes you furious?
Injustice.
And what calms you down?
A smile and a hug from someone with a good heart. Every kind gesture motivates me to fight for and demand a better world.
Who do you regard as the greatest scientist in history and why?
I think that every discipline has its important scientist, as each contributes to different areas of life. I would like to single out medicine, as it has the protection of human life at its core.
What are you looking forward to?
To keep working on what I love.
As a writer, he left many literary traces behind. Yet all too few readers have followed along his linguistic paths, argues Giacomo Carlesso. The doctoral student is preparing his doctoral thesis within the scope of the joint doctoral programme “Italian Studies” at the Università Ca’Foscari Venezia and at the University of Klagenfurt. He talks to us about his fascination with the Treviso author Giovanni Comisso.
One way of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the spread of pollutants in cities would be to set up measuring stations everywhere. But that is not feasible in reality. To address this tricky issue, Iris Rammelmüller, a doctoral student at the FWF-doc.funds doctoral school “Modeling – Analysis – Optimisation of discrete, continuous, and stochastic systems”, is developing mathematical models that can be used to calculate pollutant levels.
To start with, robotics research is mainly about what is feasible. System security is often neglected in the process. Jasmin Wachter, a doctoral student pursuing her doctoral degree in the Karl-Popper-Kolleg “Responsible Safe and Secure Robotic Systems Engineering, SEEROSE”, wants to find out what measures are required to ensure that security for robotics also pays off.
Drones are increasingly being deployed as autonomous actors in uncontrolled environments. This requires reliable control and navigation. The research team at the University of Klagenfurt led by Stephan Weiss and Jan Steinbrener, which also includes doctoral student Christoph Böhm, is now working on improving the drone’s self-awareness so that it becomes better at adapting to changing conditions in the future.
That life opens up paths you never expected is something Johannes Hofmeister, a doctoral student in statistics, experienced only recently. He told us why he decided not to become a teacher (for now), but has become an avid mathematical researcher instead.
Verena Schwarz came to Klagenfurt to join the FWF doc.funds doctoral programme on “Modeling – Analysis – Optimization of discrete, continuous, and stochastic systems”. We spoke with her about the origins of her passion for mathematics.
Kathrin Spendier is one of the first doctoral students to participate in the FWF doc.funds doctoral programme on “Modeling – Analysis – Optimization of discrete, continuous, and stochastic systems”. She talked to us about the fascination mathematics holds for her, and what goals she wants to achieve with her research.
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