The Australian-German Study Centre for Optofluidics and Nanophotonics (SCON) Instigating a sustainable research partnership Christian Karnutsch Professor of Optical Sensor Systems at Hochschule Karlsruhe Adjunct Professor of RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia Christian.Karnutsch@hs-karlsruhe.de
Long-term Australian-German Research Collaboration good work good luck good people good talk
Long-term Australian-German Research Collaboration mutual scientific interests complementary expertise excellence in research funding opportunities highly motivated and skilled students and researchers networking opportunities good work good luck good people good talk
Australian-German Study Centre for Optofluidics and Nanophotonics (SCON) Outline What is SCON? How came it all together? What is the vision for the future?
What is SCON? Student exchange program between Australia and Germany Students work on research projects, one semester at IONAS in Germany, and one semester at RMIT in Australia (In total one year per exchange cycle) Everyone involved is part of the SCON family, with ongoing scientific exchange between all participants Current partner institutions: RMIT, Hochschule Karlsruhe, Hochschule Reutlingen, Hochschule Ruhr-West Current program sponsor Bürkert Fluid Control Systems Integrated Industry placements in Germany and Australia
SCON Host in Australia: RMIT, Prof. Arnan Mitchell Research focus of the Micro-Nano Materials Research Area Innovative micro- and nanoscale devices based on novel nano-structured materials Main research areas Integrated optics and photonics Photonic signal processing Lab-on-a-Chip technologies and Microfluidics Microfabrication and Microsystems
SCON Host in Germany: HsKA, Prof. Christian Karnutsch Research focus of IONAS Microstructured optical sensors and biomedical analysis systems Main research areas Polymer-based micro- and nanofabrication Selective nano-infiltration of microwells and spotting of micro droplets Potential platform for single cell analysis and manipulation Biomedical analysis Miniaturized blood analysis systems Temperature modulation systems for advanced microscopy
Integrated Industry Internship Program Two Bürkert in a Nutshell placements per exchange cycle, duration 1-2 weeks each Germany: Bürkert Headquarters in Ingelfingen; System House in Criesbach; Facilities in Öhringen and Gerabronn; Bürkert Innovation Centre in Karlsruhe Australia: Sales office in Melbourne; System House in Sydney
SCON Facts and Figures Since 2012, 19 students have participated in the SCON program 4 former SCON students now pursue a PhD at RMIT, 3 more have just applied for a PhD at RMIT 10 papers have been published by SCON students during or after their SCON participation 3 of those papers were based directly on research findings achieved during their SCON participation 2 SCON students have won the IONAS Innovation Prize In addition to the SCON students, 11 students from Hochschule Karlsruhe were given the opportunity for a six month research stay at RMIT since 2012
SCON: How came it all together? From to to to mutual scientific interests personal friendship SCON project institutional collaboration
SCON: How came it all together? 2007-2009: ARC Centre of Excellence CUDOS (Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems) Prof. Karnutsch: School of Physics, University of Sydney Prof. Mitchell: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT CUDOS Workshop Murramarang, Australia, 2008
SCON: How came it all together? 2011: ATN - DAAD Joint Research Co-operation Scheme DAAD PPP Novel fiberoptic biosensors based on organic nanolasers First joint student, Andreas Bös, completed his Master thesis within this DAAD project. Then continued with a PhD at RMIT and won the RMIT Prize for Research Excellence HDR (Technology) in 2016 (!) DAAD grant set the scene for our following activities
SCON: How came it all together? 2011-2014: Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM for university students BWS plus Seed funding (50.000 ) The advent of SCON SCON Colloquium, Hochschule Karlsruhe, 2014
SCON: How came it all together? 2014 2016: Industry sponsor Bürkert Fluid Control Systems Significant financial support Industry linkage and participation Integrated industry internships
Developments beyond SCON Based on success of SCON, formalised institutional collaborations could be established between Hochschule Karlsruhe and RMIT: 2012: Student Exchange Agreement 30 students have been exchanged under this agreement so far 2013: PhD Studies Agreement First joint PhD student submitted his thesis in November 2016 2013: Adjunct Professorship (Prof. Karnutsch) and Macquarie University, Sydney: 2015: Student Exchange Agreement (at Master s level) No students exchanged yet, due to challenges with funding
SCON: Vision for the future
Summary Sustainable long-term research collaborations are built on the back of Good work Good luck Mutual scientific interests, complementary expertise, excellence in research Funding opportunities and success Good people Highly motivated and skilled students and researchers Good talk Networking opportunities Expand SCON towards an Australian-German Research Centre Involve undergraduate students, postgraduate students, PhD students, postdocs, professors
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Karnutsch Professor of Optical Sensor Systems Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Institute for Optofluidics and Nanophotonics (IONAS) Hochschule Karlsruhe Technik und Wirtschaft Adjunct Professor of RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia Phone: +49-721-925-1352 christian.karnutsch@hs-karlsruhe.de www.hs-karlsruhe.de/ionas www.hs-karlsruhe.de/scon
Australian-German Study Centre for Optofluidics and Nanophotonics (SCON)