Hello, dear first semester students!
My name is Andreas Stöhr. I am a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen and head the Department of Optoelectronics
I'm delighted to welcome you to the university and that you have decided to study here in Duisburg. I will now introduce you to our teaching and research activities in the Department of Optoelectronics.
What are your teaching activities?
We have numerous courses: in the Bachelor's programmes, we will see each other for the first time in higher semesters for the lecture "Optoelectronics".
You will learn about the interaction between light and matter and understand how lasers, light-emitting diodes and other optoelectronic components work.
In advanced semesters - if you are also doing your Master's at this university - we will see each other at courses like "Optical Networks", "Integrated Photonics" or "Laser Technology".
Hello, dear first semester students! My name is Rüdiger Buß and I am the second lecturer at the Department of Optoelectronics.
We will meet each other during the "EIT First Semester Workshop" in case you are studying Electrical Engineering, in the "Medical Engineering Lab" if you are studying Medical Engineering,
or during "Optical Communications Technology" if you are enrolled in other degree programmes such as Nanoengineering, Embedded Systems Engineering or Industrial Engineering and Management.
Later in the Master's programme you can attend my course "Optical Signal Processing".
Well, in any case, I'm delighted that you're taking part and: "Welcome aboard!"
What are your research activities?
The Department of Optoelectronics is located at the Centre for Semiconductor Technology and Optoelectronics, which you can see here in the background.
We operate a 500 square metre clean room together with colleagues from the department "Components of High Frequency Electronics"
At this point, I may say that this is an exceptional situation in Germany. Our infrastructure is really outstandingly good. We are therefore also integrated in numerous national and international (research) activities.
I can say that we are involved with colleagues in the DFG's Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TRR 196 (MARIE). Overall, there are very few TRRs in the field of electrical engineering (Germany-wide).
We are part of the BMBF's High-Tech Initiative and are also working on a Terahertz Integration Centre, funded by the EU.
We are also coordinators in a European graduate school dealing with terahertz photonics.
For all this work, we use the clean room that you see in the background. This is where we develop integrated photonic chips.
You can think of it like it was in microelectronics at the time when ICs were developed. A lot of transistors were integrated at that time.
We are integrating optical components instead. It is possible to generate light, to store light, and to modulate it; this is what we do here in integrated photonics.
Where is the link between your research and teaching?
Our teaching activities - and thus our range of courses - naturally also reflect our research to some extent. Thus, you will find research topics that we are working on in class.
If I may mention "Integrated Photonics" as an example, where we are discussing issues such as the integration of different optical functionalities on one chip.
We also offer a lecture on "Optical Networks", where we are discussing questions like "How does our Internet work?", "How is such an optical communication system actually to be understood?", "How does it work?".
In addition, we offer the lecture "Laser Technology", in which you will understand what different types of lasers are available and how the most common types among them work.
One more point I would like to mention: You can work as a student assistant at our institute parallel to your courses. And we would be pleased if you are interested. If so, you will be involved in the research work of the corresponding doctoral students who are working at the institute.
You are welcome to carry out your project thesis or even your final thesis at our institute: These are bachelor's theses or - for some of you - also later the master's thesis.
We are looking forward to seeing you!