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The (re)politicisation of climate change discourses and multi-material 3D printing
The University College Freiburg (UCF) has awarded the ‘Erasmus Prize for the Liberal Arts and Sciences’ - livMatS graduate Stefan Conrad received the prize for his dissertation.
The University College Freiburg (UCF) of the University of Freiburg has honoured Liberal Arts and Sciences graduate Solveig Degen and physicist Stefan Conrad with the 2024 'Erasmus Prize for the Liberal Arts and Sciences'. The UCF presents this award annually to recognize outstanding academic work that exemplifies interdisciplinary research and bridges the gap between different subject areas. The award is presented annually in two categories: one for a Bachelor's or Master's thesis, and one for a dissertation or postdoctoral thesis. The prizes are endowed with 1,500 and 3,500 euros respectively, donated by Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau. The UCF is a cross-faculty platform for promoting interdisciplinary teaching at the University of Freiburg, offering its own Bachelor's degree programme in Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Stefan Conrad: 'Multi-material 3D printing in pneumatic soft robotics'
Dr Conrad's dissertation "3D-gedruckte Aktuatoren und Material-eingebettete Logik für die Anwendung in der pneumatischen Softrobotik" was completed at the University of Freiburg as part of the Area of Demonstrators and the livMatS (Living, Adaptive and Energy-Autonomous Materials Systems) Cluster of Excellence.
His work combines materials science, bionics and engineering, developing a novel multi-material 3D printing platform that can switch between different tools during the printing process. This enables the combined processing of elastic materials and the production of pneumatic actuators and logic devices, eliminating the need for support structures or manual post-processing. This technological innovation paved the way for the development of a fully electronics-free control logic based on 3D-printed, air-pressure-controlled valves. This allows compliant machines to interact with their environment without using any electricity.
Dr. Conrad is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher on an innovative, recyclable, wood-based material as part of the DELIVER (Data-Driven Engineering of Sustainable Living Materials) project, which is funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation.