GRADUIERTENKOLLEG 1554

The summer workshop 2018 from the 23^th to 25^th of May took place at Hotel Schwarzer Adler in Tangermünde.

Tangermünde is a small and beautiful town which is located close to river Elbe in the north of Saxony-Anhalt. In former times it was a famous city where emperor Karl IV lived and ruled. Further on, Tangermünde was a member of the association “Hanse”. In contrast to these good times Tangermünde was nearly complete destroyed in 1617 by a huge fire. But the city Tangermünde could not recover from this and could not get back to the glorious times it had before.

On the next day workshop started at 9:30am after the rest of GkMM had arrived by train in Tangermünde. The train started 7:55am in Magdeburg and they reached Tangermünde in time. The hotel provided adequate facilities for the workshop.

The workshop had 25 contributions in the form of presentations and posters. Whereby, two students could not join the workshop because of important conferences but their supervisors presented their contributions. In 16 presentations each participant was given 15 minutes to present current research results followed by a 5 minute discussion with the audience. This proven format allowed to identify helpful approaches for sticking points as well as to ignite further discussions during coffee breaks and social activities. During the poster-presentation nine participants first introduced the content of their poster in a few presentation slides. Afterwards there was time for all participants to study the presented posters and discuss questions with the presenters in detail. The first day closed with a city-tour through the city Tangermünde which was a little bit outlined in the first paragraph, already. The tour closed in front of the restaurant “Alte Brauerei” where our GkMM dinner took place. These social events gave opportunity to learn something about the history of Tangermünde and much more important to discuss some issues or problems with colleagues which could not be discussed in detail during the workshop. Moreover, social programme supports growing together of the whole group and integration of new members, respectively.

The workshop format was proven successful when nearly everyone was able to stick to their scheduled time. When it was necessary the discussion was continued in coffee breaks, during lunch or social events. The workshop also included a board meeting.

We departed on Friday after a student meeting and lunch for our journey back to Magdeburg. Like the way from Magdeburg to Tangermünde it was possible to go by train or bike back. The way by bike back to Magdeburg chose seven people. All arrived well in the afternoon.