The Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« aims to create a basis for a new culture of materials. The central vision of the Cluster is to rediscover the analog in the activity of images, spaces and materials in the age of the digital. Biology and technology, mind and material, nature and culture intertwine in a new way.
Employee Video Production
With 25% Regular Working Time - E 3 TV-L HU (limited until 31 December 2025) – DR/203/20
Video production in our green screen studio. Copyright: Matters of Activity
We are Looking for an Employee for Supporting Activities in the Technical Accompaniment of Virtual Events and Green Screen Recordings
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Reverse-engineering the Locomotion of a Stem Amniote – Insights from a Multidisciplinary Approach
Hosted at ExC Science of Intelligence our Member John Nyakatura Talks About Contemporary Paleobiological Research on 14 January
Copyright: Jonas Lauströer, Amir Andikfar, John Nyakatura (HU Berlin)
Reconstructing the locomotion of key vertebrate fossil specimens offers insights into their palaeobiology and helps to conceptualize major transitions in vertebrate evolution. A unique combination of an articulated nearly complete early land-living vertebrate fossil specimen and fossilized trackways was the starting point for an in-depth reconstruction of the locomotion based on the integration of image-based analyses with engineering techniques. The reconstruction involved experimental as well as computer-aided modeling approaches (›virtual paleontology‹).
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The Analog in The Digital Age
Our Virtual Space was launched 11 November and Remains Open
Key Visual MoA Annual Conference. Copyright: Matters of Activity
In extraordinary times we all try out new formats: We were happy and excited to welcome so many international guests to our first digital Annual Conference »The Analog in the Digital Age« – following the Cluster's central vision to rediscover the analog within activities of images, spaces and materials in the age of the digital. Our virtual doors are still open for you to discover our laboratories, workshop spaces and microscopic landscapes in a way that you can explore by yourself topics from Germany's cutting edge research.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 14.1.2021
Take a look at our beloved #biofilm! What is has to do with #MattersofActivity and e.g. #textiledesign and… twitter.com/...
New Funding Within Priority Program »Computational Connectomics« For Team of Charité Berlin and Cluster Members of »Cutting«
Creation of Personalized Models of the Brain of Tumor Patients
Connectome construction of a patient with a tumor in the speech-eloquent area of the brain.
The connection strengths of the white matter are shown as edges with a heat map (dark = weak connection, light = strong connection). The cortical areas of the brain and their size are illustrated as nodes in the form of spheres. Additionally, three orange TMS points are shown (TMS = Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation). In this case, the patient’s speech network could be non-invasively disturbed in these areas and mapped accordingly.
The visualization of the white matter is based on tractography. The different directions of the white matter can be measured and displayed by means of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja & Image Guidance Lab, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
The field of connectomics aims to comprehensively describe the physical and functional coupling among the neural elements of the brain. Creating personalized models of the brain of tumor patients helps to better understand the impact of a brain tumor on the cerebral network and plasticity and functional reserve capacity. Similarly, it helps to improve effects of neurosurgery on the connectome and identify key nodes and edges, i.e., potential high-risk areas for surgery, reveal the network basis of language function in relation to tumors, and predict the course of recovery.
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Season's Greetings – Thank you for 2020
MoA Season’s Greetings. Copyright: Matters of Activity
As the end of the year approaches, we would like to reflect once again and express our deepest thanks to all our members and visitors. Although the majority of personal encounters at face-to-face events had to be canceled in recent months, we can nevertheless look back on a very diverse, lively and successful Cluster Year 2020. In the last few weeks in particular, we have been able to count on our Cluster members' commitment, enormous creativity and great enthusiasm for experimentation. This has created new formats and opportunities for scientific exchange, of which we are proud and which will continue to enrich the Cluster culture and beyond in the future. We are looking forward to showing you more of our work in the upcoming year and until then wish you all restful and healthy holidays! Stay healthy and safe!
Welcome to our Virtual Cluster Space
3D Anchor Room of Annual Conference. Design by Helen Galliker and Object Space Agency. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Click more to find the entrance to the Cluster's virtual environment with its 3D »Anchor Room« and the 360° knowledge rooms of our Annual Conference with all lectures, talks, digital laboratories and research objects.
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Embodied Interaction (1) : HyperHaptics
Oscillating between Physical and Virtual Tactility
Embodied Interaction (1) : HyperHaptics. Oscillating between physical and virtual tactility. Copyright: Judith Glaser.
This winter semester, the Cluster Professorship for ›Embodied Interaction‹ is hosting the practice project ›HyperHaptics‹ at the Weißensee School of Art. Together with MoA researchers, Bachelor and Master students of the Department of Product Design are exploring the potential of interlocking virtual and physical tactility. ›HyperHaptics‹ is thus a direct continuation of the research work of the project »Cutting« . The overall aim of »Cutting« is to investigate the haptic dimension of the cut. How can new haptic experiences be encoded? How can the ›Sensing Knife‹ or ›Virtual Dissection‹ be experienced in a prototypical setup and what is needed for this?
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MoA Blog: Launch of a New Publishing Platform
Copyright: Matters of Activity
The MoA Blog is where the researchers of the Cluster write about their work. The Cluster contains more than 40 disciplines from Natural Sciences, Humanities and Design and aims to create a basis for a new culture of material. You will find articles, event announcements and insights from an international and interdisciplinary team and gain an insight into Germany's top-level research. Find out more about our topics.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 13.1.2021
Just a quick reminder: Don't miss @JohnNyakatura's lecture tomorrow morning about Contemporary #Paleobiological… twitter.com/...
Material Trajectories. Designing with Care
Annual Conference of the German Society for Design Theory and Research in Berlin on 6–8 May 2021
Copyright: DGTF
Design is deeply engaged with materials. Yet the attempt to make sense of the properties, composition and behavior of matter, artifacts and built infrastructures is accompanied by a pressing question: »Who is in fact designing?«. The 17th Annual Conference 2021 of the DGTF (German Society for Design Theory and Research), that takes place from May 6th to 8th in cooperation with »Matters of Activity« and the weißensee school of art and design berlin intends to make this and other questions graspable and to discuss the contribution of design through four interlaced strands: Sympoiesis of Making, Performative Surfaces, Living Matter, Designing Resilience. The conference will most likely be held in virtual form.
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Shelf Life. Ferment-Activity and Nurturing Materials
An Online Event on 10 December 2020
Poster Shelf Live. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Fermentation is a complex set of techniques bridging food substances, microbes, and the environment, which makes us question the distinction between decay and flourishing. Inherently a filtering activity, fermentation relies on the long-standing relationship of yeast and bacteria to nutrients and the elements. Through practices of food transformation, preservation and consumption, the newly woven symbiotic entities emerge from fermentation processes and enter into a different ecosystem – that of the human body, itself a multi-organism entity. These entities are directly in correspondence with our microbiome: fermented food has, in a way, already stepped into the human digestive system before it is ingested.
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New Research Group »Adaptive Fibrous Materials«
Members Charlett Wenig and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten Were Awarded 2nd Place at Idea Competition of »Die Junge Akademie« for »The Bark Project«
»The Bark Project«, Charlett Wenig. Copyright: Patrick Walter, MPIKG
The MoA research group »Adaptive Fibrous Materials« is interested in interactions between biological material and its environment. The fact that plants are sessile make them particularly interesting regarding their adaptability and optimization strategies – there is no way for them to escape. Remodeling processes, such as those found in the animal kingdom, are absent and adaptation takes place by growth. The junior research group is jointly funded by »Matters of Activity« and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Surfaces (MPIKG).
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Botanical Comrades 植物同志 Plants Practice Politics
Regine Hengge and Zheng Bo are Part of Berlin Science Week
Botanical Comrades. Copyright: Berlin Science Week
On November 7th, which marks the Solar Term Beginning of Winter (立冬) in the East Asian lunisolar calendar, artist and theorist Zheng Bo will be joined by biologist Regine Hengge, Principal Investigator of »Matters of Activity« among others to speculate about how plants practice politics.
Zheng understands politics as a bodily practice that can only take place in exchange with others, particularly through interspecies relationships. For instance, trees are protected and nourished by fungi, while insects are responsible for pollination. Within the framework of Falling Walls x Berlin Science Week »Botanical Comrades 植物同志. Plants Practice Politics« examines forms of interspecies communication and asks how humans can take part in interspecies politics.
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Exploring Filtering
A Short Project on the Filtering Process
Experiments overview. Copyright: Veronika Aumann, Thomas Ness
In the week-long short project »Exploring Filtering«, Cluster member and interaction designer Thomas Ness, and textile designer Veronika Aumann dealt with the topic of Filtering with an open-ended mindset. The goal of this creative exploration of filtering processes was to gauge and express them in a practical and tangible way, respectively.
The point of departure for this was not a particular substance to be filtered or a specific substrate to be attained. Rather, the interest lay much more on the actual processes of filtering in and of themselves and the filter as an object. In the »Design Lab«, different kinds and methods of filtering processes were tested hands-on with familiar prototyping materials and techniques and transformed into six narratively and visually impressive representations.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 12.1.2021
Good news 🎉 Our members @LuciusFekonja, @DrMarkWest and their team at @chariteberlin receive further Funding within… twitter.com/...
Engineering Neo-Pancreas
Journal »Acta Biomaterialia« accepted Paper by Cluster Members Johann Pratschke, Igor M. Sauer, Marie Weinhart and Colleagues
Copyright: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1742706120305365?dgcid=author
Together with their colleagues, Cluster members Johann Pratschke, Igor Sauer and Marie Weinhart published the paper »Engineering an endothelialized, endocrine Neo-Pancreas: Evaluation of islet functionality in an ex vivo model« in the international journal »Acta Biomaterialia« (Impact Factor: 7.242).
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From Fiber to Yarn: A Discussion Between Textile, Biology and Design
Experimental Yarns Workshop / Part 1 on 16 October 2020
Elena Eulitz, Extension Charm (2019/2020. Copyright: weißensee school of art and design berlin
Experimental Yarn is planned as an interdisciplinary exchange on the idea of fibers and yarn: How are fibers and yarns being formed and how do they perform inside a material system. By discussing and comparing approaches from specific disciplines - Textile Technology, Biomaterials and Design - we aim to transgress the disciplinary boundaries and explore new fields for research and application.
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Weaving Practices – An Exploration into the Materials, Techniques and Design of Fabrics
An Online Workshop on 29 October 2020
Poster Weaving Practices, Copyright: Matters of Activity
Weaving is an ancient practice that is found across cultures. It commonly designates a technique of making surfaces by interlacing two sets of materials that cross each other at a right angle. However, weaving as a manual, mechanical or digital technique of entanglement applies to a broad variety of vegetal, animal or synthetic materialities brought together to form a fabric by use of a frame such as a loom. Furthermore, weaving practices may also introduce hybrid techniques such as knitting, plaiting and braiding. This one-day, practice-based, interdisciplinary workshop brings together specialists who will highlight concepts and practices of weaving from various angles by emphasizing specific techniques, technologies, materials, patterns and design.
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The Human Liver Matrisome
Journal »Biomaterials« Accepted Paper by A. Daneshgar, O. Klein, G. Nebrich, M. Weinhart, P. Tang, A. Arnold, I. Ullah, J. Pohl, S. Moosburner, N. Raschzok, B. Strücker, M. Bahra, J. Pratschke, I.M. Sauer, and K.H. Hillebrandt
Biomaterials, Vol. 257, October 2020. Copyright: Elsevier
Together with their colleagues, Cluster members Johann Pratschke, Igor Sauer and Marie Weinhart published the paper »The human liver matrisome. Proteomic analysis of native and fibrotic human liver extracellular matrices for organ engineering approaches« in the international and highly ranked journal »Biomaterials«.
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We Are Humboldt
»Matters of Activity« in the New Image Brochure of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
»Wir sind Humboldt«. Image brochure of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Fotos: Matthias Heyde, Grafic Design: Weserloh Media. Copyright: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Entitled »Wir Gestalten. Material World«, the Cluster research is represented by two contributions in the new HU image brochure. The materials scientist Lorenzo Guiducci, the professor of textile and surface design Christiane Sauer and the literary scholar Karin Krauthausen are giving a brief and concise insight into the thematic fields and interdisciplinary cooperation of the Cluster.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 12.1.2021
RT @scioi_cluster: THIS THURSDAY at @scioi_cluster
on Zoom (10am)! John A. Nyakatura from @exc_moa
will tell us how image-based analyses…
Matters of Writing
3rd Open Design – Academic Encounters Online
Matters of Writing. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Do you see yourself as an author? This question was asked by Laura (Violeta) Colombo, lecturer in the Master's Degree in Open Design at the Universidad de Buenos Aires during the third meeting of »Open Design - Academic Encounters Online«.
A short silence, heads shaking, followed by shy hand signals. Why do we find it difficult to consider and also identify ourselves as authors? What makes for good writing? Why do we write, what do we write and how do we write it? These were some of the key questions of this week's online encounter held by Maxime Le Calvé, Research Associate at Matters of Activity in collaboration with Laura (Violeta) Colombo, Research Assistant at CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technological Research of Argentina).
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TA Tour 360°
Veterinary Anatomy Theater (Tieranatomisches Theater) Now Accessable in Virtual 360°
TA Tour 360°. Copyright: Tieranatomisches Theater
The Veterinary Anatomy Theater (TA T) is now accessable virtually in 360°. Get a behind the scenes look of the exhibition space and enter the secret life of things. There are certainly some surprises.
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Open Design
Academic Encounters Online
Open Design – Academic Encounters Online. Copyright: Matters of Activity
Announcing the deferral of »Open Design« to the summer term 2021 was a very difficult decision. We were all so much looking forward to start the program with a fantastically diverse group of 32 international students from all over the world. But only few days after the arrival of some of the students to Buenos Aires it became clear to us that we would not be able to start as expected. Borders were being closed, travel authorizations withdrawn, and flights cancelled. Both universities, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Universidad de Buenos Aires, operated in emergency presence mode and peoples’ everyday mobility everywhere became limited
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Cutting
Fiber tractography delineating the white matter of the brain. Copyright: Lucius Fekonja, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.
Cutting is one of the oldest cultural practices. It is a fundamental way for human beings to enter into correspondence with materials. With these specific gestures and tools, people alter and reshape material boundaries and intertwine different entities. Those activities span across wide forms of tacit knowledge, from ancient craftsmanship to current high-tech procedures. In the domain of art, the cutting of text, music or film material produces new compositions that can provoke new insights. Similarly, in the domain of medicine, surgeons cut the body to understand and to heal it. Embedded in the way we think, write and speak, the act of cutting is ubiquitous: it means distinguishing and choosing between ›good‹ and ›bad‹ in a multitude of symbolic ways.
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Object Space Agency
Flour Cloud. Copyright: Clemens Winkler, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo
In »Object Space Agency«, the researchers of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« are gathered to examine the relationships of active materials in the sphere of objects, persons and architectural structures. Material objects appear to be temporally and spatially at once stable and changeable. Check out the brand new project website.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 11.1.2021
RT @biofilmMan: #biofilm #cellulose Co-designed with our little friend #bacteria. An interdisciplinary project within @exc_moa #Follow me…
Playing Against the Crisis With »Singleton #WirBleibenZuHause«
Game Researchers from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Become Solution Enabler for »WirVsVirus«
Copyright: GameLab Berlin
Dr. Christian Stein, Research Associate in »Object Space Agency«, studied German and Computer Science and is co-founder of the »Gamelab.Berlin«. He submitted the game »Singleton« to the »Solution Enabler« program of the German government and is now looking forward to further development together with his team. With over 28.000 participants and more than 1.500 solutions, the #WirVsVirus Hackathon of the German government against the COVID-19 crisis was the biggest of this kind ever.
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Closed but Open
Veterinary Anatomy Theater now Shows Exhibition »Meshwork of Things« Online
Corrosion preparation, vessels of the left hand (red plastic). Preparators: Klaws (Kiel) and Heuckendorf (Berlin), 2003. Collection of »Fächerverbund Anatomie der Charité Berlin«. Copyright: Veterinary Anatomy Theater (Tieranatomisches Theater)
»The Meshwork of Things – Sammlungsschaufenster in the Tieranatomisches Theater« shows 80 objects from 26 collections – now online! Together with its partner Shoutr.Labs MoA's cooperation partner the Veterinary Anatomy Theater (Tieranatomisches Theater) offers you the complete permanent exhibition as a couchsurfing experience.
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Funding by European Research Council
Cluster Member Prof. Dr. Dr. Pulvermüller Received Funding for the Project »Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition«
The European Research Council is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. A total of 1881 proposals were submitted, of which 35 ERC Advanced Grants went to Germany. The project »Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition« will be funded with 2.5 million euros and will use novel insights from human neurobiology translated into mathematically exact computational models to find new answers to long-standing questions in cognitive science, linguistics and philosophy.
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Where Analog Solutions are More Efficient than Digital Ones
Interview with Peter Fratzl in Austrian »DerStandard«
In »DerStandard« MoA's Co-Director Peter Fratzl is talking about the efficiency of analog solutions compared to digital ones. In his interview, the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and Deputy Director of »Matters of Activity« also discusses information processing in nature and recycling problems. The article is available in German.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 11.1.2021
RT @biofilmMan: « When #art changes the rules of #science (and doing science) and when science meets art » Weekend fun with Dr. Bastian Bey…
Make It Real - Für Einen Strukturalen Realismus
Published by Karin Krauthausen and Stephan Kammer
Cover Make It Real. Copyright: Diaphanes
The publication »Make it Real. Für einen strukturalen Realismus« (Make It Real - For a Structural Realism) of the Cluster members Karin Krauthausen and Stephan Kammer deals with the relationship between structuralism and realism. The literary realisms of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries must – like structuralism itself – be understood via a tension that not only takes place between the formal-abstract structure and the diversity of empiricism or the contingency of history, but also captures and dynamises the concept of structure itself.
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Nature as Source of Inspiration
The Innovation Potential of Bio-inspired Materials
Stone Web – Spatial module system made from basalt fibre at the weissensee academy of art berlin (Idalene Rapp, Natascha-Katharina Unger, Christiane Sauer). Copyright: weissensee academy of art berlin, I. Rapp, N. Unger
Nature is a source of inspiration for the production of new materials. A project by acatech in cooperation with the Cluster Co-Director Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Peter Fratzl, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), highlights the innovation potential of bio inspired materials – from chemistry and energy to medicine and robotics, art and design.
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Open Science Statement
Since 2007, International Open Access Week is celebrated at hundreds of events around the globe. This year publishers, librarians, researchers, and institutions have discussed and organized events around the theme: »Open for whom? Equity in Open Knowledge«. With its own Open Science Statement »Matters of Activity« supports its members in opening up their research
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Brain Roads
Exploring the White Matter of the Human Brain
The Human Connectome. Copyright: Olaf Avenati
»Brain Roads« is an interdisciplinary French-German project for visualization and interactive exploration of the brain. It brings together graphic & digital designers from ESAD de Reims, engineers from Télécom SudParis, and researchers in Neurosurgery and Social Sciences from the Cluster »Matters of Activity« and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Its ambition is to develop visual representations and interactive tools for exploring the white matter of the human brain.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 8.1.2021
RT @MpiciPotsdam: It looks great...👏
"The #BarkProject" combines basic scientific research on the material and chemical composition of tree…
Material Form Function
Wrinkled E Coli Biofilm making cellulose. Copyright: Diego Serra & Regine Hengge, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.
The research group of the project »Material Form Function« deals with the relationship between material, form and function in order to generate new design principles and insights for the Materials Sciences and Humanities.
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Weaving
Cellulose in E. coli biofilm. Copyright: Diego Serra & Regine Hengge, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo.
The project combines expertise from the fields of Anthropology, Cultural History and Theory, Literary Studies, Biology, Design/ Architecture, Material Sciences and Mathematics. The researchers investigate resources, practices and forms of weaving, focusing on the activity that is structurally anchored in the materials and as a process.
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Filtering
Filters. Copyright: NODE Berlin Oslo
The project »Filtering« investigates filters using historical, experimental and computational approaches. What information, for example, can be enhanced by new filter techniques?
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Symbolic Material
Symbolic Material. Copyright: Myfanwy Evans, adapted by NODE Berlin Oslo
In the project »Symbolic Material«, researchers from various disciplines investigate the material foundations of symbolic processes in interaction with the symbolic dimension of materials.
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ExC Matters of Activity
@exc_moa, 8.1.2021
RT @ResearchGermany: Interested in #DigitalFiltering and #DigitalAdaptiveTwins ? Then check out this #Postdoc position as research assistan…