Research with a sense of humour
Study on CEOs and humour, drones for medical transport, philosophising in the beer garden, conspiracy myths and generative language models: video review of the research communication topics in 2024.
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"Freedom of science" was the motto of this year's Dies Academicus at the University of Passau. The keynote speech was given by Professor Walter Rosenthal, President of the German Rectors' Conference (press release). The University of Passau celebrates its anniversary with the academic holiday.
This video review, which was shown for the first time on this year's Dies academicus, provides an insight into the communicative activities of the researchers in 2024. Below are the show notes on the topics highlighted by the the video.
Research with a sense of humour
Professor Andreas König, who told a joke on stage at the Scharfrichterhaus venue, proved that science communication can score points with humour. The video of this was very popular on Linkedin and thus raised awareness of the results of his study, in which he looked at types of humour and their effect on top CEOs. He also came across some surprising findings:
Large Language Models
At the University of Passau, researchers from various disciplines are working on generative language models and their disruptive consequences for technology, business and society. Large language models were also a topic at this year's PasDas, the Passau Data Summit, which brings together researchers and experts from leading international companies:
Research with an impact in the region
In the project "AI-based mobility optimisation in non-urban regions", or KIMoNo for short, a team is researching the optimisation of medical transport and communication routes in rural regions. The use of drones is intended to shorten transport times for laboratory samples and thus enable faster diagnostics and medical care, especially in emergencies.
In 2024, a team from the University of Passau once again successfully took part in the university competition as part of the BMBF Year of Science, which this year had the motto "Freedom". The team from the PASSAUtonomy project familiarised citizens with the philosopher Immanuel Kant's concept of freedom and discussed it in beer gardens, among other places:
Research that is recognised internationally
Political scientist Professor Oliver Hidalgo and educationalist Dr Hannes Birnkammerer are coordinating the new EU Horizon project TaCT-FoRSED, which is developing effective long-term strategies to make democracies more resilient to entrenched conspiracy beliefs. They reveal more about their project in this interview:
This year in June, the "DPE Forum" took place for the first time. It is the flagship conference of the DFG Research Training Group 2720 "Digital Platform Ecosystems", which brought platform researchers from all over the world to Passau. The conference focussed on the power of digital platforms and smart regulatory options. The two keynote speakers have their say in the video: Professor Marshall Van Alstyne from Boston University spoke about how self-cleaning markets can be created to combat misinformation. Professor Martin Selmayr, Scientific Director of the Centre for European Law at the University of Passau, explained the development of the regulation of digital technologies in Europe:
