Svenja Schulze has talks with the rector's office and gathers information on two focuses of research.

On 24 January, Science Minister Svenja Schulze visited Bielefeld University. Officially, this was her inaugural visit. She took the opportunity not only to discuss current topics at Bielefeld University with the rector's office but also to gather information on two major focuses of research: on conflict and violence and on interactive intelligent systems. She then gave an address while unveiling a building sign to celebrate the start of construction of the new building for Bielefeld University's Interactive Intelligent Systems Department on the North Campus (www.uni-bielefeld.de/forschungsbau).

Talks between the Minister and the rector's office focused on strategies for the future (Bielefeld University's applications within the Excellence Initiative), the new study structure (starting in the winter semester 2011), and the forthcoming construction work (including the new extension located on Universitätsstraße). After holding talks with the rector's office in a frank and interested atmosphere, Minister Svenja Schulze and Rektor Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer met the professors Dr. Wilhelm Heitmeyer (Social Science), Dr. Andreas Zick (Social Psychology), and Dr. Ralf Kölbel (Law/Criminology) along with the young academic Anna Klein (Education Science).

They discussed the interdisciplinary research activities in the field of conflict and violence, particularly those at the Bielefeld Institute (www.uni-bielefeld.de/ikg/). After this, the next stop in the Minister's tight schedule was a visit to the temporary building of the CITEC Centre of Excellence. Here the Centre's speaker Professor Dr. Helge Ritter and Junior Professor Friederike Anne Eyssel gave a presentation on the interdisciplinary research field Interactive Intelligent Systems. They also took a look at just one of the Centre's laboratories where the Minister was particularly fascinated by the sensor system of the robot hand (www.cit-ec.de).