At the beginning of July, two of our collaborators, Lisa Schwegmann and Anno Dederichs, held presentations at the EVACES 2025 in Porto, Portugal, in which they presented their research on the dynamic monitoring of civil infrastructure. Anno Dederichs held a presentation on “Evaluating mode tracking algorithms through AOMA outcome simulation framework”, discussing the challenges, limits, and need for future research into Mode Tracking. Lisa Schwegmann’s presentation “Numerical Considerations in Context of Stochastic Subspace-Based Fault Detection Test” focused on correctly estimating the matrix rank in the covariance-based Stochastic Subspace Identification algorithm for damage detection.

We wish to thank the organisers and all the delegates for an interesting and nice conference.

We were there. Together with other colleagues from the department and the faculty, we took part in this year's company run as the ‘dynamic eight-footer’ team. Together we ran 4x 3500m in a relay through Rostock's city harbour. It was a great event that we would like to take part in again next year.

Project week. We used this week to gather practical impressions with our students. This year, we travelled to Weimar, Erfurt and Jena.

Among other things, we visited the N3 construction site of the Goldbeck company. N3 Engine Overhaul Services is responsible for the maintenance, production and cleaning of aircraft engines. The existing buildings are being extended by a further hall and a technical building. Goldbeck is an expert in the field of hall and industrial construction. It is particularly challenging to organise the construction work during ongoing production, which requires logistical and constructional excellence.

In Jena, we also marvelled at the construction site of the ZEISS high-tech location and the so-called ‘Campus Inselplatz’ in Jena. ZEISS AG is currently constructing a building on the ZEISS construction site, in which all development units and a large part of the local production and administration departments will be located. The shell construction work is being carried out by the company RiedelBau, which is also responsible for the shell construction of our new Ulmicum. On the Inselplatz in Jena, a modern, new university campus has been under construction since mid-March 2020 in the immediate vicinity of the university's main building. The Institute of Psychology will be located here, as will the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics. A new branch library is also being built at this location.

We were also able to gain an overview of the Bauhaus University's testing centre in Weimar. There, we were shown and explained many exciting projects, including how construction elements are tested for a wide variety of load cases. Of course, we also had to visit the historic and world-famous Bauhaus University. We were given a guided tour of the premises and were able to experience how wonderful it is to study within these walls.

However, a special highlight for all of us was the visit to Erfurt Cathedral. The head of the Episcopal Building Office and master builder of the cathedral led us through Erfurt Cathedral and up to the Gloriosa belfry. Our professor Volkmar Zabel has also been involved in work at Erfurt Cathedral in the past.

Culturally, our students were treated to a visit to the German National Theatre in Weimar. The play ‘John Lennon’ gave a wonderful insight into the life of the musician and took us on a fantastic musical journey through time.

Through this study trip, our students were able to personally experience how very different living and working environments can develop and exist side by side in a relatively small space between tradition, present and future. The construction sites present engineers with very different challenges and therefore offered a great insight into the diversity of civil engineering. To summarise, this excursion was an exciting insight and therefore a great success.

Today we rang in the end of the working day together with all BLU employees at the barbecue. We enjoyed the good weather together with delicious food.

At last! We have a new tea kitchen. We inaugurated it together today with an international lunch.

This week, we travelled to the beautiful mustard town of Bautzen and took part in a major measurement campaign on the IDA-KI research bridge with our shaker and acceleration sensors. After recording the reference condition, the bridge was statically loaded at different load levels on the second day. The highlight followed on day three with the severing of some tendons.

Further information on the project can be found at: https://tu-dresden.de/bu/bauingenieurwesen/imb/das-institut/news/45-m-lange-versuchsbruecke-website-zum-openlab-online