The bridge builders
IRIS is intended to force ahead the innovativeness and international visibility of research in Germany
Whenever Jürgen Rabe starts expounding on the number of disciplines converging on this institute, it puts the listener in dizziness. IRIS is intended to force ahead the innovativeness and international visibility of research in Germany. “We focus on research fields that represent our strength,” explained Rabe, adding: “We can then enter into joint ventures that are not possible anywhere else in Germany – and in only very few places worldwide.”
Jürgen P. Rabe, Professor of Physics at Humboldt University of Berlin (HU) and Founding Director of IRIS Adlershof, can be called a bridge builder. Since 2009, Rabe’s Integrative Research Institute for the Sciences (IRIS) is the link between various university faculties, non-university research institutes, and innovative companies. This can best be illustrated by the currently commissioned HU excellence cluster project “Matters of Activity: Image Space Matter”. 25 researchers – so-called principal investigators – from various fields, have gathered to work on an all-new manner of viewing materials. Here, the partnership is shared equally among the humanities, sciences, medicine, and ergonomics. They combine traditional technologies like machining with intelligent sensor systems and digital communication. At the same time, they also scrutinise the cultural impact of their research.
One example involves the surgical extirpation of a tumour. The surgeon bases his incisions on a previously generated 3D image of the tumour reproduced on a display during the operation. “In other words, the image intercedes in the surgical execution,” explained Rabe. “The image then becomes an active, dynamic participant in the process.” The researchers’ objective is to develop a “smart knife”, a cutting tool that exhibits dynamic mechanical sensor properties to become a high precision “active blade”. It should sense automatically what and how it is cutting. The term Jürgen Rabe prefers for developments of this kind is “soft robotics”, where pliant, adaptive materials enable machines to respond intelligently to a stimulus.
Interdisciplinary issues are growing in importance, so IRIS will experience a boost in growth. To date, the scientists are working in most cases at decentralised locations, at the strategic partner establishments. Now, Adlershof is giving birth to a research building covering a utilisable area of a good 4,700 square metres, about half of which for laboratories. This will be the working space for 140 scientists from early 2019. “We’ll then become more visible on the international level as well,” said Rabe. “This concentration of so many specialists on site has opened up to us excellent prospects for development. In our view, there is no better place for this than Adlershof.”
By Mirko Heinemann for Adlershof Special