Digitization in research and teaching is becoming an increasingly omnipotent part of the day-to-day routine of researchers, scientists and scholars in all disciplines. Handling constantly growing data volumes using modern information and communication technologies presents researchers with new challenges.
That is one reason why research findings and projects surrounding the thematic field of Digital Transformation will be the central focus of our Research Alumni Meeting and be supplemented by current practical examples.
In particular, some of the reasons for the growing significance of information technology resources and services in research lie in the exponentially expanding data volumes that result from the higher degree of precision in scientific investigations and the inter- and transdisciplinary collaborative research generated by changed technical structural conditions.
Current mathematical and physical evidentiary proof and large-scale experiments are only imaginable thanks to the enormously expanded computer capacities. In this context, medical research, diagnosis and therapy profit from modern computer technology and imaging procedures in a distinctively unique way. Nowadays, it is feasible to implement social sciences models and perform precise analyses of larger data volumes exclusively in a computer-supported fashion.
The trend towards more data-based research is additionally reflected by new research approaches in the humanities, which are utilizing digitized data in ever greater proportions. In addition, working with digital texts, digital libraries and new media is assuming a growing importance.
The methods also adapt commensurate with the objects of research: Computer-supported procedures make it possible to trace back authorships and compare styles, to investigate virtually inconceivably large bodies of works according to narrative patterns and their historical development, to track down motif chains and citation pathways, to search through films according to character constellations or simply find samples of literary criticism debates on the web.
The linking of various cross-disciplinary sources of information, the management and derivation of new knowledge content and the efficient management of services in “virtual research environments” represents a central infrastructural topic and one that is momentarily also throwing new challenges at academic libraries.
New tools enable the use of mutual knowledge spaces that incorporate resources from the grid environment and facilitate generalised access to information. However, the heterogeneity of the existing data sources often still prevents the interlinked analysis and utilization of data inventories of multiple creators. Thereby, research data and the scientific evidence derived therefrom remain hidden from other user groups.
Thursday, 11. September 2014
Venue: Ford Mason Center – Conference Center (2 Marina Blvd)
| 1:00 p.m. | Registration, midday snack |
| 2:00 p.m. | Welcome address Prof. Dr. Ulrike Beisiegel, President of the University of Göttingen |
| 2:15 p.m. | Introduction to the conference theme Prof. Dr. Norbert Lossau, Vice-President of the University of Göttingen |
| 2:30 p.m. | Digital Transformation – changes for University Campuses MacKenzie Smith, University Librarian at UC Davis |
| 3:15 p.m. | Wiki Education – a Changing paradigm in Education Frank Schulenburg, Executive Director Wiki Education Foundation |
| 4:00 p.m. | Coffee break |
| 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. | Digital Transformation – Impacts on Research 1 (Natural Sciences) Panel discussion. Dr. Wolfram Horstmann, University Librarian, Göttingen, and further scientists from the Göttingen Alumni Network |
Transfer to the hotel is provided.
| 7:30 – 10:00 p.m. | Welcome dinner with a word of welcome by Nobel Laureate and Göttingen Alumnus Thomas C. Südhof Restaurant Forbes Island (shuttle boat embarks from I-Dock on Pier 39) Sponsored by  |
Friday, 12. September 2014
Venue: Ford Mason Center – Conference Center (2 Marina Blvd)
Transfer from the hotel is provided.
| 9:00 a.m. | Digital Transformation – Impacts on Research 2 (Social Sciences, Humanities) Panel discussion. Prof. Dr. Andreas Busch, University of Göttingen, and further scientists from the Göttingen Alumni Network |
| 10:30 a.m. | Coffee break |
| 11:00 a.m. | Digital Transformation – Impacts on Teaching Panel discussion. Prof. Dr. Ramin Yahyapour, Director of the GWDG computing and IT competence centre, Göttingen, and further scientists from the Göttingen Alumni Network |
| 12:30 p.m. | Lunch break |
| 2:00 p.m. | Creating win-win-situations through research alumni relations – Current initiatives of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Dr. Martin Schaffartzik, Programme Director Strategic Planning, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation |
| 2:30 p.m. | The International Office and Alumni Göttingen – Support Services for Researchers Dr. Tanja Falkowski, Deputy Director International Office Bernd Hackstette, Head Alumni Relations, University of Göttingen |
| 3:00 – 3:45 p.m. | The University of Göttingen at the Göttingen Campus – Profile and Strategy Prof. Dr. Ulrike Beisiegel, President |
Alumni Reception (with other alumni)
German Consulate General, San Francisco
Transfer from the hotel is provided.
| 6:00 p.m. | Registration and Networking |
| 6:30 p.m. |
|
| 7:15 – 10:00 p.m. | Dinner buffet and Networking |
The language of the meeting is English.
Conference Hotel
 |
Radisson Hotel Fisherman’s Wharf 250 Beach St San Francisco, CA 94133 |
 |
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Beisiegel President of the University of Göttingen |
Prof. Dr. Norbert Lossau Vice-President of the University of Göttingen and responsible for research and information infrastructure |
 |
 |
MacKenzie Smith University Librarian at UC Davis |
Frank Schulenburg Executive Director of the Wiki Education Foundation, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California |
 |
 |
Dr. Wolfram Horstmann Director of Göttingen State and University Library (SUB) |
Prof. Dr. Andreas Busch Professor at the University of Göttingen in Political Sciences |
 |
 |
Prof. Dr. Ramin Yahyapour Professor at the University of Göttingen as well as CEO of the GWDG computing and IT competence centre |
Dr. Martin Schaffartzik Programme Director Strategic Planning, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation |
 |
 |
Dr. Tanja Falkowski Deputy Director International Office |
Bernd Hackstette Head of Alumni Relations, University of Göttingen |
 |
 |
Stefan Schlüter German General Consule of San Francisco |
Karen Breslau Principal Consultant at The Dewey Square Group |
 |
The Role of the University of Göttingen
Novel computer-based research approaches and methods for utilizing the informational infrastructures are just some of the focal themes at the Göttingen Campus. The University of Göttingen has been working intensely on this with the other local research institutions.
Digital editions like Blumenbach online are compilations of geological and anthropological collections, featuring books written by the natural scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, information portals like Archaeoinf are online hubs for archaeology on the Web, EU-funded projects like DARIAH build digital infrastructures for the humanities in Europe and social sciences projects deal with the Internet and its regulation.
With other projects from this sector, Göttingen has high-profile visibility in the international arena. Worth mentioning are the likes of the Göttingen Grid Resource Centre, where innovative research converges from the fields of medicine, physics and the humanities, opening up new roads into digital text analysis.
The Göttingen Centre for Digital Humanities (GCDH) particularly aims to address the research interests and infrastructural needs of researchers in the humanities and social sciences. The GCDH brings together researchers whose interests range from Egyptology to Business Information Systems, from Musicology through Media Law to Linguistics and Literature. Its goal is to coordinate and foster the development of research and teaching in the Digital Humanities and related infrastructural activities, both in Göttingen and internationally.
The likewise newly established Centre for Collection Development at Göttingen University aims, among other things to co-ordinate and drive forward the systematic discovery of scientific collections and museum inventories through the use of modern digital methods.
Over the coming months, the thematic fields of the Research Alumni Meeting will be further articulated in a dialogue between the research alumni. Some proposed individual topics are:
- Crowdsourcing in science
- Acceleration and deceleration in scientific communication
- Research based on comprehensive digitized source materials
- Simultaneous and concurrent joint research work distributed worldwide via the web
- Text mining and speech processing
- The sustainability of virtual research environments
- Publication of digitized research findings
Once dedicated piece of research found that an especially large number of research alumni from the Göttingen Campus today live and work in the USA and Canada – irrespective of their nationality.
Besides the research alumni at the University of Göttingen, former researchers, scientists and scholars from the five Max-Planck-Institutes in Göttingen, from the German Primate Centre and of the Göttingen DLR site are all invited to participate in the meeting.
The Research Alumni Conference is aimed at researchers, scientists and scholars who have done research at the University of Göttingen or at another institution of the Göttingen Campus and currently live in the USA or Canada. German citizens can also participate.
Members of the Göttingen Campus:
• The University of Göttingen
• Göttingen Academy of Sciences
• German Primate Center
• German Aerospace Center
• Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
• Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
• Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine
• Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
• Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
(including former Max Planck Institute for History)
The conference is organised by the University of Göttingen under the auspices of the sponsorship programme “Research Alumni Meetings Abroad” administered by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Therefore, free participation in the conference is possible.
For participants who do not live in the San Francisco area, two overnight stays at the conference hotel are covered in full.
Upon request, you will receive on-site reimbursement for your airfare up to a € 500 limit.
Please complete the following registration form in full. To secure your place, we recommend an immediate application.
Last few places left: Register today!
Please note that hotel accommodation is no longer available.
