On 11 and 12 November 2021, more than 120 researchers met in Bad Boll for the annual IntCDC Status Seminar, following the established safety protocols and measures. After almost two years of mainly online and dedicated small group meetings, this was the first time that all IntCDC team members were fortunate enough to gather again for exchange, collaboration and networking.
A warm welcome and a general overview of the Cluster by Achim Menges kicked off two well-organised days of updates, workshops, lectures and a festive awards ceremony.
The results reports of the 20 ongoing research projects of network period 1 sereved as a starting point for knowledge transfer and discussion to achieve the main objective of this year's Status Seminar: The coordination of research network period 2 and future research plans.
In several parallel workshop sessions, the researchers identified and coordinated the input and output workflow of the new research projects submitted for the upcoming network period 2.
Three excellent Junior Research Group Leaders – Dr. Marie Davidova, Dr. Kuno Kurzhals and Dr. Serena Gambarelli – joined the IntCDC over the course of the summer. The Junior Research Group Leaders introduced themselves to the Cluster with presentations on their previous work.
Topics:
- COLife: Manufacturing Ecosystems of 21st Century – Dr. Marie Davidova
- Eye Tracking for Architectural Design and Construction – Dr. Kuno Kurzhals
- A reliable numerical approach for the damage analysis of building materials – Dr. Serena Gambarelli
Highly inspiring talks were given by the IntCDC Visiting Professors Vernelle A. A. Noel, on traditional craft practices and cultures, technological design and making practices, and their intersections with society, and Martin Tamke, on computational strategies and models for the transition from current systems of representation in design to those that can serve the requirements of a future eco-metabolistic building practice based on bio-materials.
In a festive ceremony five IntCDC Grants and Awards were awarded to strengthen early academic independence at IntCDC.
- IntCDC Best Publication Award 2020/2021
awarded to Li Zhang et al. for their paper “Quality as Driver for Sustainable Construction – Holistic Quality Model and Assessment” - IntCDC Best Publication Award 2020
awarded to Carsten Ellwein et al. for their paper “Integrative data processing for cyber-physical off-site and on-site construction promoting co-design” - IntCDC Blue Sky Project Grant 2021
awarded to Piotr Baszyński for the project “Automated preforming of natural-fibre textiles for biocomposite profiles and lightweight structures” - IntCDC Master's Thesis Grant
awarded to Daniel Locatelli und Nils Opgenorth for “Building Across Scales – A Heterogeneous Robotic System for In-Situ Timber Fabrication” - IntCDC Master's Thesis Grant
awarded to August Lehrecke, Cody Tucker und Xiliu Yang for “Distributed Fabrication for Fibrous Networks”
In a bottom up consolidation workshop, the early career researchers compiled lessons learned and a vision for the future phase 2 of the Research Project Areas (RPAs). The RPAs provide the Cluster's content framework for specific research projects, in which the work programme of the Research Units is pursued.
In parallel, the Equal Opportunities Strategy 2022 was presented to the Principal Investigators, Participating and Associated Researchers and the General Assembly of the IntCDC Members was held.
The final get-together took place in the warm autumn evening light in the garden of the conference centre over a warm fruit punch before everyone headed back to Stuttgart.
Thank you to all participants of the IntCDC Status Seminar for making this a success!
