New at the TU Darmstadt: Professor Michael Kraus

The 35-year-old scientist, who describes his appointment at TU Darmstadt as his most important professional and scientific milestone to date, was previously a post-doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich and co-director of the Immersive Design Lab there. Kraus previously worked at Stanford University (USA) and the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich, where he completed his doctorate. We asked Professor Kraus a few questions about his start at TU Darmstadt:

Why should students be interested in your topics? What is exciting about your topics?

Training in structural analysis teaches core skills for assessing and analyzing structural systems. Building on the content of technical mechanics, structural analysis teaches the abstraction of real structures to calculation models of linear and planar load-bearing structures as well as the implementation and control of the calculation. The aim is to equip students with the necessary skills to find creative solutions to tasks in research and practice across the board. Due to my research profile, the lecture program is supplemented by the content of “Scientific Machine Learning”. The focus here is on teaching complementary knowledge and methodological skills from the fields of artificial intelligence, machine and deep learning with reference to civil engineering and computer-aided processes in particular.

Interdisciplinarity is a top priority at TU Darmstadt. Where are there interfaces with other specialist areas in your field of work?

I deal with so-called “scientific machine learning” for the design and calculation of structures in the built environment, e.g. bridges or tunnels. My research approach is inherently interdisciplinary with a main focus on structural analysis and links to computer science (through machine and deep learning) but also mathematics (optimization, numerics). I am firmly convinced that students of civil engineering must continue to receive a profound education in our domain, but should also be equipped with in-depth knowledge of artificial intelligence algorithms with regard to their future viability.

Which TU department would you like to spend a day in? Why?

I would like to spend a day at the Department of Human Sciences in the Institute of Psychology at TU Darmstadt. As an engineering scientist, the research questions there on perception and cognition as well as human-machine interaction would be interesting. Ultimately, we engineers design technical products for people and want to improve our everyday lives, conserve resources significantly better and protect the environment more sustainably. The fact that public acceptance of construction projects is an essential part of the work in civil engineering is demonstrated by the public interest in our work.

If I were a student today, I would …

… plan a stay abroad earlier in my studies and attend more lectures from other disciplines such as computer science, mathematics and environmental engineering, as many current and future problems can only be tackled with multidisciplinary knowledge and the toolbox of methods can never be big enough. I would also make more intensive use of the university's opportunities to learn another foreign language.

The best balance to a stressful working day is …

… doing sport or meeting up with friends.