Whether young or old, prospective students or the curious – everyone was welcome to the Open University Day of OTH Regensburg on Saturday, June 28th, 2025, from 01:00 pm until 06:00 pm! This exciting opportunity was used by the Doctoral Network MAESTRI to present our research to the interested public. It was not an easy task because Chaitanya Doifode of OTH was at that time on his secondment at the University Kiel. Luckily, Arne Geldof from the University of Ljubljana, who has started his secondment at OTH just a few days ago, has readily stepped into the role of a MAESTRI communicator. Together with Florian Geitner, a first-year PhD student from the OTH Regensburg, they prepared a MAESTRI poster, made numerous creative demonstrations and were actively discussing with the visitors of the MAESTRI stand challenges and advantages of using magnetoactive elastomers for soft robotics. The show of Florian and Arne had an incredible success, several tens of guests visited their stand. The discussions were so intensive, that at the end of day Arne switched almost exclusively to German, which he did not practice much since the secondary school! Florian, whom the MAESTRI community knows from his voluntary participation in the Doctoral Training School 1 in Kiel, has proven himself as a reliable informal member of the MAESTRI team. Communication is a two-way process involving interaction and engagement with target audiences. It was the exceptional enthusiasm of both doctoral candidates, which led to success and attracted the audience. Thank you very much both to Florian and Arne for organizing and conducting this incredible event! It is planned that similar events will be continued at OTH in the nearest future. Special thanks go to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of OTH Regensburg, who provided the space for the MAESTRI demonstrations, poster, and integrated MAESTRI project into the faculty´s stand.
The MAESTRI booth at the OTH Regensburg Open University Day, presented by Florian Geitner, Arne Geldof, and Prof. Mikhail Chamonine.
Demonstration of magnetoactive elastomer properties to a student and Prof. Rainer Holmer, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.
