E-teaching and remotely attended seminars

The goal of this project is the organisation of a joint seminar (together with our Russian partners, group of Prof. Alexander L. Fradkov) and the revision of e-teaching tools of the curriculum of theoretical physics. The equipment and technical infrastructure necessary for the remotely attended seminar is provided by funds within the current and earlier G-RISC projects.

Multimedia and e-learning are valuable tools to enhance the education of students. Utilizing internet-based techniques, students from different locations around the globe can profit from live research seminars and lecture series. Seminars can be jointly held although the attendees might still reside at their home institutions. The discussion and knowledge transfer will take place by their virtual presence via modern communication tools. This leads to a great benefit of those advanced students who are entering the international conference community. Lectures could be given using electronic chalk (e-chalk), which means that they are available on the web for download or replay by students from all institutions participating in the G-RISC framework. The recording and electronic manuscript are immediately available after the lecture is finished. These actions will fundamentally facilitate discussion and scientific exchange.

The established seminar series with the working group of Prof. Fradkov is continued with a seminar on the applications of complex networks ending in February 2015. Mobile multimedia sets which were part of previous G-RISC projects enable a live and two-way communication with the remote audience during the seminar. Positive long-term effects can already be observed by the increasing interest of working groups from other universities to remotely attend the seminar.

Additionally, student assistants will further develop and maintain e-modules for lectures given in the respective semester.

Student assistants: Frederico Brückelmann, Fabian Sternkopf

In the past semester, the joint seminar in cooperation with the Russian partner group of Prof. Fradkov was held on the role of symmetries in dynamical networks. The mobile multimedia sets and additional equipment of previous projects could be used for the further development of the remotely attended seminar. The increasing interest of working groups from other universities to take part in the seminar demonstrates the success of the project. A student joint seminar based on the gained routine from the previous project is intended to be hold in the winter semester 2014/2015.

Our work has also enabled the further development and maintenance of e-teaching tools for the curriculum of theoretical physics.

Student assistants: Stanislav Ax, Maximilian Buser

Our efforts to advance the German-Russian exchange for the promotion of teaching and science are continued. The joint seminar "Control of network dynamics" ends in February 2014. We also intend to organize a similar German-Russian student seminar in the summer semester 2014. Therefore, this project helps to establish a routine for a series of future seminars and thus lead to positive long-term effects. In addition, the student assistants will develop and maintain e-modules for courses given in that semester.

Student assistants: Stanislav Ax, Philipp Loske, Anatoli Ulmer

A German-Russian seminar "Control of network dynamics" on cutting-edge topics in the field of network science and control with the working group of Prof. Fradkov has been established. The practicability of a joint seminar remotely attended via an online platform has been clearly demonstrated. We used mobile multimedia sets, which were part of previous G-RISC projects (M-2012a-2, -2010a-5), and additional equipment of the current project X-2013b-1.

Furthermore, we started a revision of e-teaching tools of the curriculum of theoretical physics, which will support and enhance the usage of e-teaching tools. This revision led to a reorganization of the websites of project, which now appear in a more accessible and cleaner layout. This part of the project builds on the expertise gained through a three-year project at Technische Universität Berlin (Project director: Prof. Schöll) on visualization and animation of theoretical physics through electronic applets and e-modules available online. We mainly focused on the field of classical mechanis and electrodynamics, because the corresponding, compulsory lectures are held in the winter term 2013/2014.

Student assistants: Stanislav Ax, Anatoli Ulmer

This project initiated the use of that equipment by setting up

the hardware backbone and introducing it to researchers and lecturers in St. Petersburg. We gave a detailed introduction to the E-Chalk system using the concrete system that was now available. This introduction was well attended by faculty members and researchers at St. Petersburg State University. All of them were very interested and impressed by the possibilities of the E-Chalk system. The establishment and adoption of lectures using the E-Chalk system is now planned by many of them. In addition, the live video-streaming of the two-and-a-half-hour symposium “Control of Network Dynamics” of the DPG Spring Meeting of the Condensed Matter Section in Berlin, 25-30 March 2012, to St. Petersburg State University was realized using this equipment, which demonstrated and

stimulated the possible applications of the hard- and software.

Presenting author: Dr. Thomas Dahms

The project activities were centered around two presentations (faculty of mathematics and mechanics and the faculty of physics, St. Petersburg State University) dealing with the improvement of teaching by modern tools for visualization and e-learning. Since additional financial resources were not available at this point, the purchase and installation of the hardware and enhanced multimedia structure was postponed to a later project (M-2012a-2, see above).

Presenting author: Dr. Philipp Hövel