The aim of this sub-project is to improve the academic success of international female students on engineering degree programmes. The focus is on female students who face particular gender-specific orientation and adjustment challenges at the start of their studies. To this end, a two-semester, gender-sensitive empowerment programme is being developed and piloted.

The programme supports participants in finding their way around their studies and everyday university life more quickly, increasing their commitment to their studies and improving their academic success in the long term. Structured reflection, accompanying coaching and peer formats as well as targeted workshops promote social integration, self-efficacy and personal and social skills.

The project is implemented in close cooperation with central university institutions and the equal opportunities and faculty structures and is evaluated on an ongoing basis.

About the Mentoring Program

ProMA² aims to implement a modern, practical course of study in the STEM field and starts exactly where motivation arises: with the tangible meaning of learning. The project specifically combines mathematics for engineering students with real-world issues in mechanical engineering and engineering, particularly in the context of the European Green Deal. Through project- and challenge-based learning units and projects, theoretical principles are directly linked to topics relevant to practice.

Particular attention is paid to increasing the attractiveness of engineering courses and the targeted promotion of female students. Mentoring, interdisciplinary challenges, and new assessment formats create a motivating learning environment in which students recognize the practical benefits of their studies from the outset, especially in the basic subjects. ProMA² thus not only strengthens technical skills, but also motivation, self-efficacy, and academic success.

The aim of the subproject “Mathematical and Scientific Competence Promotion” is to sustainably increase academic success in master's programs in materials science, especially in the international master's program “Advanced Materials Analysis.” The goal is to specifically align students' heterogeneous prior knowledge at the beginning of their studies in order to facilitate their access to further learning content.

To this end, the “MaWiKom” project is developing a new classroom module on the mathematical and physical fundamentals of materials science and the methodology of scientific work, supplemented by digital self-study materials and self-tests. This combination of classroom teaching with digital content and tools is intended to enable individual and flexible learning and promote self-organisation in studies.

The most important contents of the classroom module and the digital learning materials include:

• Vector and matrix calculus, complex numbers, differential and integral calculus, Fourier transform
• Fundamentals of physics: oscillations and waves, fundamental interactions
• Planning experiments, formulating hypotheses, interpreting results
• Evaluating measurement data and analyzing measurement errors, error calculation
• Scientific work and good scientific practice as a basis for the scientific research project and the master's thesis