Prof. Dr.-Ing. Walter Lang
Co-director at the Institute for Microsensors, -actuators and -systems
"As a student I was rarely in lecture, I sat in the library and in study groups."
When the university was founded in Bremen, Walter Lang was attending a grammar school in Munich and was just gaining his first insights into his third foreign language, French, in the 10th grade. After stations in Munich and the Black Forest, he received a call to the University of Bremen, where he has taught for 18 years and coordinates international Master's programmes such as "Control, Microsystems, Microelectronics" (CMM). Students from all over the world always find an open ear with him.
Prof. Lang has a clear opinion on the subject of compulsory attendance in lectures: students should be able to work independently. Even before Corona, Walter Lang organised his courses in such a way that you can learn well with scripts, books, exercises and discussion meetings. "I don't want to force people to sit in the lecture hall."
So he himself appreciates the freedom to develop his own ideas in his work as a university lecturer and researcher in Department 1 (Physics/Electrical Engineering), e.g. material integration in microtechnology: "We want to build sensors into materials in the same way that nature has built sensors into our skin". For many years, the topic of food transport has preoccupied him. A third of all food produced is never eaten, but spoils en route. In the project "The Intelligent Container", sensor networks are used to prevent these losses.
For the future, Prof. Lang wishes for students to have a self-determined course of study and for himself to implement his ideas on sensory material and sensor-supported processes in logistics.