Participants in the mechanical engineering lab with Prof. Vette-Steinkamp

e Secretaries Andy Becht and Dr. Matthias Frey, visited the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld to find out about the range of courses on offer and the university's potential for the region in the profile areas of sustainability and digitization.

The president of the university, Prof. Dr. Dorit Schumann, received and welcomed the group: "I am very pleased to be able to present our university location in Birkenfeld as a model for sustainability to the FDP parliamentary group. At the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld, we are providing important regional and international impetus for the sustainable transformation of the economy and society, and we are demonstrating how digitization if shaped sustainably, can help us meet many of the challenges of our time."

The chairman of the parliamentary group Philipp Fernis addressed his greeting to all participants and thanked them for the opportunity to get to know the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Helling, Dean of the Department of Environmental Economics/Environmental Law, and Prof. Dr. Henrik te Heesen, Associate Dean of the Department of Environmental Planning/Environmental Engineering, presented the Green Campus concept as well as the diverse range of courses offered in technology, environment, economics, law and computer science.

Prof. Dr. Peter Heck, Director of the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS), and Prof. Dr. Christian Kammlott explained the main topics of internationalization and recycling management to the members of the parliamentary group and visited the solar carports on campus for emission-free charging of electric cars with the group. The numerous research and consulting projects for local authorities, the state, the federal government and the EU, and international cooperation projects, demonstrate the success and research strength of the university.

Prof. Dr. Henrik te Heesen, Prof. Dr. Matthias Vette-Steinkamp and Prof. Dr. Klaus Gollmer gave the guests a tour of the Mechanical Engineering Technical Center and the INNODIG Digitalization Innovation Lab. In the lab, which the Carl Zeiss Foundation funds, interdisciplinary collaboration with regional partners and schools is being driven forward. Under the motto "Learning and Transferring by Making", applications of Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things and Machine Learning are built, tested and analyzed with the help of 3D printing and 3D scanning.

In the Mechanical Engineering Technical Center, Prof. Dr. Matthias Vette-Steinkamp explained research projects from robotics and experiments on dismantling electric vehicles and recycling batteries.

The parliamentary group members were given a comprehensive insight into life, learning, and work at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld, Germany's greenest university location.