Research

City2020+: Engineering Life Quality for the Future (April 2009 – March 2011)

City2020+: Engineering Life Quality for the Future – The City under Global Demographic and Climate Challenges: an interdisciplinary assessment of impacts, needs, and strategies.

The project is supported within the Human Technology Centre (HumTec), funding by the excellence initiative of the German federal and state governments.

“City2020+” studies the consequences of two major global challenges – demographic trends and climate change – for urban structures. We explore existing adaption strategies of Aachen’s population and local actors and deduce from our results where action is needed. We are working as an interdisciplinary team consisting of researchers from the fields of medicine, climatology, cultural geography, civil engineering, urban planning, history and sociology to develop a methodological tool box to compare Aachen with other European cities.

The Sociology sub-project researches the interrelation between small scale urban structures and the configuration and the utilization of social networks. We are identifying urban quarters with a high risk of social isolation for its residents.

For further information: http://www.humtec.rwth-aachen.de/index.php?article_id=11&clang=1

 

AC-TEC: Gender-related Acceptance, Usability and Ethics in (New) Medical Technologies

The research project, approved in July 2009, is directed towards establishing an interdisciplinary research center for “Gender-related Acceptance, Usability, and Ethics in New (Medical) Technologies” at RWTH Aachen University. The university’s future potential for the development of (medical) technologies is high. We plan to add the early stages’ analysis and evaluation of requirement profiles concerning the aspects of gender & diversity, acceptance, usability, and ethical responsibility , to complete primary technical approaches. Up to now research projects in this area are neither connected nor clearly differentiated. For the evaluation of (medical) technologies there is a lack of holistic approaches that consider and consolidate different levels of examination, for example gender-related, social, ethical, and cognitive factors).

Leadership:

• Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. dent. Dr. phil. Dominik Groß (Institute for History, Theory, and Ethics in Medicine)
• Univ.-Prof. Dr.phil. Martina Ziefle (Communication Science)

Associated professorship:

• Univ.-Prof. Heather Hofmeister, Ph.D. (Sociology with the Specialty Gender and Life Course Research; Vice-Rector for Human Resources)
• Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Eva-Maria Jakobs (Text Linguistics)
• Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Rolf Rossaint (Director Anasthesia Clinic; Vice-Rector for Research and Structure)

For further information (only in German available): http://www.ukaachen.de/content/page/11169594

 

rebequa [Regionale Beratung und Qualfizierung] (2007)

Funded by the Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS), the initiative INQA and the European Social Fund (ESF).

Creation of social perspective maps, based on multivariate data analysis.

For further information (only in German available): www.rebequa.de