The scope of the program was deliberately shrinked and the topics selected were quite broad to address a larger audience. After short greetings by the deputy head of the Expert Committee Prof. Dr. Carsten Gachot and the DGM Managing Director Dr. Stefan Klein, the focus was on new results in the field of laser interference structuring of surfaces to influence optical properties. Dr. Marcos Soldera offered very exciting insights into the developments in this field. The next speaker, Mr. Vittorio Vercillo from Airbus, presented novel structural patterns to prevent ice formation on aircraft wings.

The event was rounded off by two presentations that did not deal with structuring processes. On the one hand, Dr. Riedl-Tragenreif of the Vienna University of Technology gave a lecture on novel wear-resistant coatings and very nicely illustrated how coating optimization can be carried out. On the other hand, Dr. Merstallinger from AAC (Wiener Neustadt, Austria) showed very impressively the challenges of tribology for space technology.

All presentations were very exciting with lively discussions afterwards. At times, the event had more than 24 participants, which was a higher attendance rate than some of the on-site events in previous years. Nevertheless, we hope to have another face-to-face meeting next year as part of the Expert Committee, but we are optimistic that we will also be able to offer a varied online meeting if the Corona measures are extended.

Prof. Dr. Carsten Gachot
Co-Head of EC Functionalization of Surfaces