State Secretary Messari-Becker Visits TU Darmstadt

2024/08/17

On Tuesday, June 11, the State Secretary of the Hessian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport, Housing, and Rural Development, Professor Dr.-Ing. Lamia Messari-Becker, visited TU Darmstadt. The main focus of the exchange with members of the university's executive board at the Science Castle was on the diverse contributions that TU Darmstadt makes in research, teaching, and exchange to address major future challenges such as the energy and mobility transition or digital transformation. The significance of the university as a driver for the regional economy and as a nucleus of a vibrant ecosystem of established companies, founders, and successful start-ups was also highlighted.

Messari-Becker was welcomed by TU President Tanja Brühl, Chancellor Martin Lommel, Vice President for Digitalization, Sustainability, and Infrastructure Peter Pelz, and Chief Communication Officer Patrick Honecker. The subsequent exchange with scientists on the university's Lichtwiese campus offered exciting insights into specific projects at two stations, demonstrating how powerful innovations emerge from inspirations at TU Darmstadt.

TU President Tanja Brühl thanked the contributing scientists for presenting ongoing projects on sustainable mobility and energy concepts. She explained: “As a technical university, we work on innovative solutions to the questions that shape the world today and those of tomorrow and beyond. We also use our campus as a real-world laboratory. For us, excellent basic research and application, and trying things out in daily practice naturally go hand in hand. We rely on active dialogue with our partners in science, business, civil society, and politics for the development of new ideas.”

“The TU Darmstadt is one of the most research-intensive technical universities in Hesse, where scientists work on innovative solutions for societal change towards greater sustainability around energy, mobility, and the environment,” explained Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lamia Messari-Becker. “For forward-looking ideas for energy generation and storage or new approaches for resource-efficient and low-emission material cycles, TU Darmstadt is a reliable partner time and again. We will further intensify our collaboration on these important topics.”

Research Project “EnEff

Campus Lichtwiese”

One station of the visit was the research project “EnEff

Campus Lichtwiese.” Here, a team of scientists and staff from the fields of construction and technical operations at the university are investigating how the energy transition can be designed at the neighborhood level. Christoph Kuhn, Professor of Sustainable Building in the Department of Architecture and scientific director of the research project, outlined how solutions from the project are immediately put into practice. For example, he explained measures for more efficient heat supply in existing buildings, which are being implemented during the ongoing renovation of the architecture building. Julia Barbosa, an employee in the sub-project “Digital Twin,” presented applications of this virtual overall model of the campus energy system. The digital twin is intended to eventually enable the efficient energy supply of the university with electricity, heat, and cooling to be optimized in real-time.