News Overview

Lunch & Teaching: Who are our students?

The spring date of Lunch & Teaching is dedicated to the question: “Who are our students?” Gabriele Suppan is invited as an expert who will stimulate a discussion related to a generational change as well as about the generations Y and Z.

After that, it’s possible to inform yourselves at various stands about the main topic of the event. Additionally, the introduction of the new booklet “Studying at TU Graz – The most important information about your beginning studies” will take place.

• When: Tuesday, 7 May 2019, 11 am – 1 pm
• Where: Auditorium of TU Graz, Rechbauerstraße 12/first floor

Please register here until 5 May 2019.
Note: Limited number of participants!

Further information and an overview about past Lunch & Teaching events can be found on the Intranet TU4U.

TU Graz Sustainability Week: 3 to 7 June 2019

Austria stands up for the Agenda 2030 – the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). TU Graz takes responsibility and strengthens awareness for SDGs in the Sustainability Week. The highlights of the TU Graz Sustainability Week:

• (H)TU Nachhaltigkeitstag (Day of Sustainability) on 5 June 2019, 2 pm, Campus Inffeldgasse
• Sustainability Lecture and panel discussion on 5 June 2019, 12 am – 2 pm, auditorium i9 with Univ.-Prof. Ing. Dr. Verena Winiwarter (BOKU)
• In the TU Graz Sustainability Week, all our lecturers are asked to refer to the 17 SDGs within their lectures.

These activities shall strengthen the awareness at TU Graz for the goals of the Agenda 2030 and support the goal to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.

Collecting practical experience at KELAG

You are searching for exciting practical experiences during your studies? The KELAG company offers internship semesters in a wide range of different areas, beginning with July 2019:

• Data analysis for Energy Services
• Digital HR
• E-Business
• E-Mobility Solutions
• Informational management in the field of telecommunication
• Competence centre E-Mobility
• Marketing & Sales in the field of telecommunication
• Organisation, processes and integration
• Product development
• Product management E+ products
• Programming of roboters in the area of Humanising Technologies
• Sales management

Applications have to be submitted explicitly via the online form. Deadline: 24 April 2019.

5 x 1.000 euros for gender and diversity

Mind the Gap – that’s the motto of the price for gender and diversity. By this, TU Graz supports scientific studies related to the human factor in engineering and science. Overall, five prices with a total value of 5.000 euros are awarded!

Target group: students, teachers and researches. The focus lies on

• Academic theses (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral theses)
• Academic publications
• Teaching activities
• Participation in completed or ongoing continuing education activities, workshops, conference contributions.

The entries are evaluated in terms of the quality with which they discuss, consider and/or integrate gender and diversity aspects.

• Application period: 8 March – 30 September, submit to akgnoSpam@tugraz.at

Application form and further information can be found on the Intranet TU4U.

Falling Walls Lab: Qualifier Event

At the Falling Walls Lab, 14 outstanding young talents from a wide variety of disciplines have been selected to give a 3-minute speed performance of their ideas and projects in front of a top-class jury, headed by former Rector Hans Sünkel. The winners will qualify for the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin on 8 November 2019.

Don’t miss it: The Falling Walls Lab Austria is staged for the first time in Styria, by the hosts TU Graz and Science Park Graz.

Falling Walls Lab – Qualifier Event Austria 2019 for Future Breakthroughs in Science and Society
When: Tuesday, 9 April 2019, 6 pm
Where: TU Graz, Laboratory for Innovation, Inffeldgasse 11, 8010 Graz

Registration: www.tugraz.at/go/falling-walls-lab.

Comprehensive course evaluation

In the next two semesters (SS19, WS19/20) all courses at TU Graz will be scheduled for evaluation. This measure serves as quality assurance in making a consequent development of teaching at TU Graz possible and in delivering valuable inputs for teaching staff and their courses.

As soon as the courses are entered for evaluation in TUGRAZonline, lecturers will receive a corresponding E-Mail message from the system. The procedure of the evaluation is the same as usual. For example, lecturers are still able to state own questions. Students are asked for participation!

Information about the process of evaluation can be found on the intranet TU4U.

Universities and Sustainable Development Goals

Universities count as centres of innovation and play a significant role at the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This motivation signalises the base of the project UniNEtZ (Universities and sustainable development goals). 18 institutions work comprehensively together in contributing to a sustainable development of Austria.

Through an intense discourse with SDGs, principles of sustainability are embedded in research and the field of teaching. The establishment of a Sustainability Committee (Nachhaltigkeitsbeirat) as central contact for sustainability agendas at TU Graz serves as strategic base for the implementation of according measures (e.g. Sustainability Day at TU Graz on 5 June 2019 – Save the date!).

Contact for further questions: alexander.passernoSpam@tugraz.at

Information about the summer semester 2019 for students

Summer semester 2019 starts next week. Vice rector Detlef Heck would like to draw your attention on some news and events in the field of teaching:

• Comprehensive evaluation of all courses
• Registration for a course due to exceeding the assessment period
• Visit of all student representatives of TU Graz
• Event: Student’s discussion group

Summarised information and further links to the topics listed can be foun here in English and German.

Information about the summer semester 2019 for teaching staff

Summer semester 2019 starts next week. Vice rector Detlef Heck would like to draw your attention on some news and events in the field of teaching:

• Comprehensive evaluation of all courses
• Correction period and Exams
• Actively Taking Examinations
• Start of the course administration
• TEL Marketplace
• In-house training in the field of teaching
• Self-evaluation Lehre 2020
• LLT Breakfast

Summarised information and further links to the topics listed can be found here in English and German.

Start of iMooX courses

As of March, a wide range of free online courses is offered by iMooX again:

• Electrical network and plant protection (starting 3 March)
• STEM course Mathematics (starting 4 March)
• Programming and processing 1 (starting 4 March)
• Societal aspects of IT (starting 11 March)
• Teaching and learning with digital media I (starting 11 March)

The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) “Electrical network and plant protection“ is part of the course “Protection and Security of Supply in Electrical Power Systems” of Lothar Fickert and functions as accompanying online course. The multimedia contents serve as preparation and deepening of those contents that are part of the in-class course.

Information about and registration for the MOOCs: https://imoox.at.

Course administration: adaption of the process

Together with the dean’s offices and the Service Department IT Services (ZID), the Vice Rectorate for Academic Affairs edited the process of course administration:

• Dates, responsibilities and task descriptions of the course administration can now be found on the Intranet TU4U (formerly: TUGRAZonline)
• Update of the form for assignment and appointment of Lecturers in the TUGRAZonline-Application Course administration (to be applied for extern teaching assignments, for intern ones an E-Mail is sufficient)
• Simplification of the notification about the scheduling / holding of courses: The forms for reporting available via TUGRAZonline are not obligatory.

Further information can be found on the Intranet TU4U.

Contact for questions: Christoph De Marinis (c.demarinisnoSpam@tugraz.at, +43 316 873 8551)

Booklet Teaching at TU Graz: Examining and grading

January usually means a lot of deadlines and exams. Particularly for administering and grading of exams, there is a variety of legal regulations, which are sometimes not that easy to look through. The Booklet Teaching at TU Graz provides help by answering questions such as:

• Can an oral examination be carried out via Skype?
• What is the right to alternative examination methods?
• By which deadlines do written examinations need to be corrected?
• Can students view documents used for assessment and make a copy of these?

The entire Booklet is available to TU Graz teaching staff as a PDF document in German, English as wells as barrier-free in German on the Intranet TU4U.

The Service Department IT Services (ZID) updates the web-based E-Mail Client Webmail for students. The update comprises for example a refreshed design, technical renewals and the possibility of a Single Sign-On.

• Transition phase: 22 January, 07 to 09 a.m.

During this time, it’s not possible to retrieve E-Mails via Webmail; Outlook or Thunderbird will function as usual. Following the update, calendars, notes, tasks and contacts have to be imported in the new Webmail system if necessary. ZID provides a PDF document as instruction which can be downloaded (in German): Umstieg auf Webmail neu

Didactic workshop series “Didaktik-Werkstatt” (in German)

The series of didactic workshops presented by the Steirische Hochschulkonferenz will start again in January and go until June 2019. Participants can complete workshops in the following areas:

• Oral exams
• Written exams
• Multiple-Choice-exams
• Feedback
• Consultancy
• Alternative exam forms
• Supervision and Grading of papers

The programme is aimed at all teachers working in higher education in Styria and can be completed with a certificate (specific requirements).

• Registration for workshops starts December 4, 2018. Please note that there are a limited number of participants!

More information about the programme, registration and the certificate can be found on the Science Space Styria website (in German).

Workshop: Conflict Management (in German)

Have you ever been confronted with group dynamic-related challenges or conflict situations in your classes? Interested teachers are invited to a two-day workshop, where they will develop strategies for the constructive handling of conflicts in teaching under the supervision of an experienced expert.

• Event: “Über den konstruktiven Umgang mit Konflikten in der Lehre“ (About the constructive handling of conflicts in the field of teaching), supervisor: Dipl.-Math. Wolf Hertlein
• When: Wednesday, January 30, and Thursday, January 31, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day
• Where: FH Joanneum, Eggenberger Allee 11, 8010 Graz, ground floor, seminar room 014

Registration is open until January 25. Details about the workshop and registration can be found (in German) at FH JOANNEUM.

TEL Marketplace – show and tell

Within the strategic project “Digital TU Graz”, a first measurement will be implemented in the field of teaching to introduce research results and findings of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) to the practical area of higher education. To grant innovation transfer, strengthen the exchange between researchers and teachers and to increase teaching quality, a “TEL Marketplace” is organised in March 2019 in the Grand Hall of TU Graz. The Marketplace shall provide the opportunity to form teams and create projects which afterwards are realised within the daily teaching practice.

Apply now under elearningnoSpam@tugraz.at with specific TEL concepts or prototypes until January 21^st 2019 with a one-sided abstract to receive an exhibition stand at the Marketplace.

More details can be found under tugraz.at/go/digitalisierung.

LLT Breakfast on 12 December 2019

On 12 December, the new dialogue format "LLT Breakfast" will take place for the first time. During a small breakfast of the organizational unit Educational Technology, you will have the opportunity to learn new things about the use of digital media in teaching and then to exchange ideas with colleagues and the LLT team in a relaxed atmosphere. Our topic this time is interactive videos.

LLT Breakfast
When: Wednesday, 12 December 2018, 08:00 to 09:00 o'clock
Where: Office of the organizational unit Educational Technology, Münzgrabenstraße 36/I, 8010 Graz
Topic: Interactive Videos

Please register at elearningnoSpam@tugraz.at.

Prize for Excellence in Teaching: Prizewinners

On November 15^th, once again the “Prize for Excellence in Teaching at TU Graz” was awarded. The prize honours those teachers of TU Graz who impress through excellent didactic concepts, outstanding dedication and equivalent motivation in the field of teaching. This time five prizewinners were awarded during a ceremony in the Great Hall:

• Category “Prize for Excellence in Teaching”: Werner Lienhart
• Category “Young Teachers”: Carlo Alberto Boano, Daniel Gruss and Patrick Wurm
• alumniTUGraz 1887 special prize: Gernot Pottlacher (Christmas lecture)

More detailed information about the prizewinners, the prize itself and the multilevel selection procedure can be found in a current news article of TU Graz.

Studo App: Campus licences for TU Graz

The successful story of the Studo App started at TU Graz and as of winter semester 2018/19, a stronger cooperation between TU Graz and Studo begins. That is, campus-wide licences for the full version will be available from December on!

The app facilitates the personal organisation of students’ daily life and offers a wide range of useful features: synchronised calendar (incl. timetable for university), access on curricula, search of rooms, access on your University-Mail-account and many more.

With the full version the students receive an extended calendar preview, advertising banners are removed and colour settings can be made. In addition technical improvements were made, that will make the app even more efficient, battery-saving and faster in the future.

The app was developed by TU Graz-students who founded their software development startup during the course Gründungsgarage.

Website of Studo (in German)

End of the additional period

The additional period ends by 30 November. This date marks the latest point of time for exceptional cases of admission for the winter semester 2018/19 at TU Graz. Moreover,

• the Austrian Students’ Union fee and possible tuition fees have to be paid within this period to grant the continuation of your studies.
• the application for an interruption of studies in exceptional cases has to be handed in until this date.

More detailed information:

• Exceptional cases in the additional period
• Interruption of studies (Intranet TU4U)

Website of the Registration Office

Review on the Students‘ Discussion Group

The Student’s Discussion Group has been taking place regularly since winter semester 2016. In a casual atmosphere, the team of the Vice rectorate for Academic Affairs gets in contact with students directly to discuss topics concerining learning and teaching. The last Discussion Group on 29 October focused on the question: What information do first-year students need to successfully start their studies at TU Graz?

The Vice rectorate for Academic Affairs, in cooperation with the Student’s Union of TU Graz, is currently working on a reference book for new students. The focus on the needs of students should provide an additional source of information to develop a well-rounded brochure.

Information about and outputs of the past Discussion Groups can be found on the Intranet TU4U.

Route 63: A link between computer science and economy

With the cooperation Route 63 the TU Graz and the University of Graz further intensify their successful collaboration. Beginning with summer semester 2019, the universities open their range of studies in the fields economy, sociology, psychology and computer science to prepare students for the labour market.

While students of University of Graz get the option to acquire Know-How in computer science (such as programming simple web-based and non-web-based applications), students of TU Graz receive the possibility to adopt useful knowledge for establishing businesses or marketing software. The Faculty of Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering provides information for TU students about specific contents, learning goals and possible courses.