Around 50 representatives from industry, science, and design attended the GRAVOnet event at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle on May 22, 2025, to engage in interdisciplinary discussions on functional surfaces, sustainable product design, and innovative materials.
In three keynote speeches, Prof. Dieter Hofmann, Hannah Kannenberg, Prof. Lutz Engisch, and Dr. Ulrike Helmstedt clearly demonstrated the potential of functional surfaces for product development, both technically and in terms of design. “It is clear that surface properties must be considered from the outset when developing new innovations,” emphasized Dr. Ulrike Helmstedt, who heads the GRAVOmer project at the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM) and is head of the “Barrier and Precision Coatings” research department.
Guided tours of the workshops, the materials collection, and the forward-looking “BurgLabs” also provided exciting insights into current projects being carried out by students at the interface between design and science. Of particular interest were the material experiments and the “BioLabs” where biological substances are incorporated into gel matrices using 3D printing. Equally impressive were the students' creative approaches to designing sustainable shoes - a product that has been virtually impossible to recycle until now.
At the end of the event, a total of twelve partner institutions from research and industry presented themselves at the cooperation exchange, including the IOM with a pitch presentation by Claudia Hackl on the GRAVOmer project “Functionalized microstructured polymer films for biomedical applications using UV imprinting”. The spectrum ranged from sustainable use of materials to photovoltaic and ceramic technologies to high-tech solutions for industry.
Key technology meets design - GRAVOnet brings together players from industry, science, and design
Images: Copyright GRAVOmer