SMART Master Lab Kick-Off Day – Cohort 2.0

On August 4, we launched the second cohort of the SMART Master Lab program, welcoming a new group of master’s students.

The day opened with an introduction to the fundamentals of SmallData by Maren Hackenberg, early career researcher (ECR) from the Fusion Hub. Iván Acevedo then provided an overview of the SMART framework and the structure and goals of the SMART Master Lab.

As part of a series of short presentations, SMART doctoral researchers introduced their ongoing projects and methodologies:

• Michelle Pfaffenlehner (Associated ECR)
• Clemens Schächter (A03)
• Adrian Fritz (A04)
• Hannah Habenicht & Hanne Raum (B02)
• Julia Hindel (B04)
• Maren Hackenberg & Fabian Kabus (F)

In the afternoon, students took part in hands-on sessions designed to give insight into key research areas through practical work:

• Learning a Partial Differential Equation with Hanne Raum
• Interpreting Large Language Models with Clemens Schächter and Fabian Kabus
• Introduction to Graph Neural Networks with Adrian Fritz

Group activities, a joint lunch and informal networking provided space for students and doctoral researchers to get to know each other and exchange ideas.

With the kick-off completed, students now begin work on their SMART Master Lab projects, applying SmallData methods with support from SMART doctoral mentors.

We thank all participants, and gratefully acknowledge the support of the University of Freiburg and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for making this program possible.