Last week, from June 26 to 30, all AKSW members were at Zingst for an internal group meeting. With the university villa located right by the sea, it seemed to be a perfect getaway and an awesome location for a group meeting outside Leipzig. Sunday was spent mostly in travelling as it took three train changes and a bus ride to reach Zingst. Monday was spent in smaller group discussions on various ongoing projects. Over the next two days, 13 of the AKSW PhD students presented their achievements, current status and future plans of their PhD projects. Sören, Jens and Axel, the heads of the three sub-groups (ES, MOLE and SIMBA), gave their inputs and suggestions for the students to help them improve, continue and or complete their PhDs. In addition, the current projects were also discussed so as to find possible synergies between them and to discuss further improvements and ideas.
Moreover, swimming in the sea was a pleasant experience as the water was not too cold. However, we were greeted with a lot of jelly fishes, although (thankfully) the ones that don’t sting! While some of us left early on Thursday to attend the OKCon, the others left in the afternoon by the direct train from Rostock to Leipzig. Overall, it was a productive and recreational trip that we plan to do every year to not only keep a track of each students progress and help them improve but also enjoy the sea.
