Annual report 2017

4SMARTS - Successful second symposium!

The premiere of 4SMARTS in Darmstadt in April 2016 was followed by an equally successful second symposium in 2017 attended by around 100 delegates. The 4SMARTS Symposium 2017 in Braunschweig also focused on smart structures and systems.

The event was held under the patronage of the Fraunhofer Institute of Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF and the Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems of the German Aerospace Center e.V. (DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt).

Participants from Germany and Austria discussed the interdisciplinary topic area of smart structures and systems. The theme was: “Innovation through focused networking of research and application”. Accordingly, the symposium covered all the relevant fields of technology with a large number of contributions from research and application ranging from the material and design of components to the integration of functions and the reliability of complex systems. In addition to the classic areas of use in active vibration control, noise reduction and shape control, the symposium highlighted other applications, such as structural health monitoring (SHM) and energy harvesting. The lively exchange of ideas and opinions was rounded off by an evening event at the German Aerospace Center’s Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems which included a tour of the institute.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Wiedemann, Director of the German Aerospace Center’s Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems, welcomed the participants on Wednesday morning and opened the symposium which was followed by two days of more than 40 exciting lectures and poster presentations.

IAs part of the poster session, talented young scientists presented their current work with short presentations to the entire plenum and during the breaks they had the opportunity to discuss their posters in greater depth with the other participants. The three best posters were awarded prizes. And for the first time, a Best Paper Award was also presented. The Best Paper Award is a young talent award for young scientists up to the age of 30.

Dr.-Ing. Andree Altmikus, WRD GmbH; Steffen Bauss, Airbus Operations GmbH; Dr.-Ing. Sven Herold, Fraunhofer LBF and Univ.-Prof. DI Dr. Martin Schagerl, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz gave four exciting keynote lectures.