News

Science Slam

Falling Walls Lab San Francisco 2024

Three minutes was all it took! DWIH San Francisco was delighted, for the third iteration, to host the Falling Walls Lab, a world-class pitch competition and networking forum for students, researchers, and early-career scientists of all disciplines. This year, we received twenty applications from participants around the country, and invited fourteen finalists to pitch their innovative ideas. Finalists were judged based on three categories demonstrating a breakthrough that has a positive impact on science and society.

Special to the Newsletter

Four Questions for Mostafa Elgayar

We had the pleasure of interviewing Mostafa Elgayar, a computer scientist living in Berlin, who took part in the inaugural cohort of the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute‘s Health Innovation Intensive. He spent a week in the Bay Area and visited UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced, and UC Davis to learn all about cutting-edge health, tech and innovation.

Delegation Visit

Information Trip for Senior Administrators of German Institutions of Higher Education

DWIH San Francisco welcomed a group of twenty-one top representatives from German higher education institutions — comprising of presidents, chancellors, and vice presidents for international affairs of German universities — to participate in a university policy information trip in the San Francisco Bay Area from March 10th to March 16th, 2024. This visit aimed to expand knowledge of the West Coast higher education systems to discuss the possibilities for cooperation between the US and German higher education institutes. Participants visited important institutions and actors in the higher education realm, as well as non-profits promoting innovation in the Greater Bay Area.

Inaugural Innovation Program

CITRIS Health Innovation Intensive 2024

Our inaugural cohort of eight German participants attended the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute‘s Health Innovation Intensive in the Bay Area to learn all about cutting-edge health, tech and innovation. From Monday, March 4 to Friday, March 8, they visited the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Santa Cruz, University of California, Merced, and University of California, Davis to take part in discussions and panels on topics ranging from assistive tech, nutrition, AI, robotics, and community health.

Research Security

National Academies Roundtable

DWIH San Francisco was delighted to attend the twelfth meeting of the National Academies’ National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable on January 23, 2024 at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This Roundtable featured an opportunity to engage with members of government and the academic, law enforcement, and national security communities.

Transatlantic Science Partnerships

Meet-and-Greet with the German Research Foundation

DWIH San Francisco was delighted to support the German Reseach Foundation (DFG) at a lunch roundtable at UC Berkeley on December 5th, 2023. Diego Rivas, program manager of the San Francisco office, introduced the DFG to professors, administrators and postdocs and discussed funding opportunities for research in Germany.

Science Slam

Berlin Science Week 2023

DWIH San Francisco was delighted to support our Falling Walls Lab San Francisco winner, Teena Bajaj, from November 7-9th, 2023 at the Berlin Science Week! The week, coinciding with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, celebrates new “walls” that fall in relation to advancements in scientific discovery, knowledge, and cutting-edge innovation.

Webinar

How Innovation Supports Resilience in Higher Education

Among the key topics discussed at a webinar on November 8th on resilience in higher education were the U.S. and German systems, both regions’ approaches to handling crises, as well as design thinking. Moderated by Zahar Barth-Manzoori, Director of DWIH San Francisco and Benedikt Brisch, Director of DWIH New York, the event brought in Julia Schaletzky, Executive Director of the Harry Wheeler Center for Emerging & Neglected Diseases (CEND) at UC Berkeley and Joann Halpern, Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute in New York. The speakers shared their thoughts and responded to questions from the online audience of around 100 people.

Focus Topic

Resilient Societies: The Bay Area’s Reinvention through Culture and Innovation

On October 10th, DWIH San Francisco held its signature event on Resilient Societies: The Bay Area’s Reinvention Through Culture and Innovation, where it focused on how art and culture foster innovation and how the unique mindset in the San Francisco Bay Area contributes to resilience. Moderated by Martin Rauchbauer, Executive Director of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Zahar Barth-Manzoori, Director of the DWIH San Francisco, the evening touched on the Bay Area’s key strength — its ability to attract innovators from diverse backgrounds and how it brings people together to spawn new ideas. Panelists included long-term residents of the Bay Area, as well as more recent transplants who shared their experiences living in the Bay Area and how we should look to the future of the region we call home.

Transatlantic Partnership

UCSF-CAU Advances in Artificial Intelligence & Novel Imaging Methods

On October 5th, DWIH San Francisco was delighted to support an international conference that convened researchers from UCSF Radiology and Biomedical Imaging; Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany (CAU); and UCSF’s Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center (HMTRC). Participants heard from imaging experts on the latest advances in artificial intelligence and novel imaging methods.