TU Ilmenau is contributing expertise from five scientific fields: artificial intelligence, processing and analysis of big data and data streams, fluid mechanics and measurement technology, bioelectrical and biomagnetic measurements and data evaluation as well as tensor-based signal processing. The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena has developed the Flora-Incognita app in collaboration with the TU Ilmenau to obtain real-time information on phenology, i.e. the periodically recurring developmental phenomena of allergenic plants over the course of the year, and provides insights into predicting the spread of species. The Helmholz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig is contributing its many years of experience in pollen research and Leipzig University Hospital its outstanding expertise in the field of experimental and clinical allergy research.
The President of TU Ilmenau, Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler, sees the PollenNet project as a good example of how basic university research can be combined with application-oriented research: "With this project, we want to demonstrate how joint, interdisciplinary work from very different fields of research can address not only scientific issues, but also problems of everyday life."
Project leader Prof. Patrick Mäder, Head of the Data-Intensive Systems and Visualization Group
at TU Ilmenau, is confident that PollenNet will make a contribution to improving public health: "I am very proud to have brought together top international researchers who share my motivation to help millions of people who often suffer greatly from their hay fever and other pollen allergies. With accurate predictions of allergenic air pollution, we want to make it possible in future to take effective preventive measures to significantly improve the quality of life of those affected, for whom their suffering is an enormous burden. We hope to achieve a real breakthrough in pollen research."
About the Carl Zeiss Foundation
The Carl Zeiss Foundation has set itself the goal of creating scope for scientific breakthroughs. As a partner of excellent science, it supports basic research as well as application-oriented research and teaching in the STEM disciplines (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology). Founded in 1889 by the physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe, the Carl Zeiss Foundation is one of the oldest and largest private science-promoting foundations in Germany. It is the sole owner of Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG. Its projects are financed from the dividends distributed by the two foundation companies.
