At the end of the winter semester on February 20, 2026, the Department of Mechanical Engineering held its traditional department colloquium. In a festive setting, letters of congratulations were presented to the master's graduates, prizes were awarded, and honors were bestowed. This year's keynote speech, entitled "Shaping Movement – Robotic Intelligence in a Dynamic World," was given by Professor Arne Rönnau from the Institute for Information Management in Engineering (IMI). We would like to congratulate all graduates and award winners.
Ron Kikinis, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, is the recipient of this year’s International Excellence Award of KIT and the Fellowship of SCHROFF Foundation. With the awards, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) honors an internationally recognized expert in medical image processing, image-guided therapy, and biomedical informatics. The awards include a research stay of up to six months at KIT. The award ceremony took place on February 10, 2026.
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January 20, 2026: At the "Formula Future" motorsport event, student teams compete with vehicles they have developed themselves and test concepts under the same conditions. Fuel cells, hydrogen engines, combustion engines, and hybrid drives are permitted. Malki Maliha, postdoctoral researcher at KIT and event manager, explains: "The combustion engine is far from obsolete for the next generation." Unlike the purely electric Formula Student Germany, Formula Future focuses on technological openness.
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January 21, 2026: The IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics (OJPEL) is a 100% open-access journal that publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed articles on the development and application of power electronic systems and technologies.
Prof. De Carne has now been appointed as the new co-editor-in-chief alongside Prof. Wenkang Huang from Infineon Technologies (USA). We congratulate them and wish them every success in further improving the quality of this important publication.
January 4, 2026: Baden-Württemberg will participate in the cross-state alliance for fusion research, in which several federal states are pooling their activities for the development of fusion reactors. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will make a significant scientific contribution to this alliance. The main focus will be on identifying and removing technological obstacles to the practical use of fusion energy. Research at KIT will concentrate on key requirements for future fusion power plants.
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January 18, 2026: For the first time, tankers in Mannheim can now load fuel blends that not only contain bioethanol, as is usual with the well-known E10 or E5 fuel grades, but also other renewable components such as electricity-based or biogenic fuels – so-called reFuels. A new pilot plant at the Exolum Mannheim GmbH tank farm flexibly mixes these components and digitally documents the greenhouse gas savings for each delivery. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is providing scientific support for the construction of the plant.
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January 3, 2026: With the new investment company BW-Capital GmbH, the state aims to strengthen start-ups and accelerate innovation. At its meeting on December 9, 2025, the Council of Ministers paved the way for the new investment company of the state of Baden-Württemberg, BW-Capital GmbH. This will enable the establishment of a central instrument for promoting young, innovative companies. In the future, BW-Capital GmbH will provide targeted venture capital for technology-oriented start-ups, scale-ups, and innovative medium-sized companies.
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January 2, 2026: The RIRO Excellence University Project transfers the unique strengths of KIT into teaching. As part of the Helmholtz Association, KIT operates numerous infrastructures for large-scale research tasks that are unique in the German higher education and science system. In order to specifically incorporate this strength into teaching, KIT launched the RIRO – Research Infrastructures in Research-Oriented Teaching excellence university project seven years ago. A unique opportunity for students – and researchers.
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