It has always been particularly important to Professor Stefan Kornhuber to involve students with their wishes and interests in the design of teaching. For example, the measurement and insulation technology module is special compared to conventional lectures in that students are directly involved in current research in the field of high-voltage technology.

They work closely with the staff, who suggest interesting tasks for the current semester, depending on the possibilities. The students choose a project and gain an insight into the specialized fields of work of the employees and first immerse themselves theoretically in the current state of research. The theory is followed by practice in which, unlike the usual laboratory internships, the result remains open.

In the winter semester 2023/2024, the students focused on the topic of space charge measurement using high-energy pulsed lasers. In the laboratory, they tested the thesis put forward by supervisor Henry Hirte, according to which different electrode materials should have an influence on the efficiency of the measurement method. The motivation for the application of space charge measurement is the ageing behavior of polymer insulating materials under DC voltage, whereby charges accumulate within the test material under high voltage stress, which influence the service life. Space charge measurement is by no means a trivial matter, but is highly sensitive, technically demanding and physically difficult to understand.

This, as well as the handling of high-energy laser radiation, goes far beyond what is taught in electrical engineering courses and was therefore what attracted the students. In the end, however, they particularly praised the independent work with the special laboratory technology, which included a briefing and several hours of training / trial and error and a further day for the planned execution of all investigations. The supervisor was only available for discussion and supervision after the briefing. Here it became clear that the laboratory projects taking place in the measurement and insulation technology module are never pre-constructed laboratory practicals. The technology and processes often have to be specially adapted and the results viewed in a more differentiated way than in all the experiments in the course up to this point. Research up close.

Ultimately, the students were able to independently confirm the influence of the electrode materials on the measurement in two groups. Not only that, but the students were also able to pick up on other effects that had not yet been discovered in the experimental set-up and discuss them in their papers.

Henry Hirte was able to present the findings from the laboratory project as part of an international publication at the IEEE Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena in Auburn, USA, which took place in October. A reviewer of the paper praised the careful and comprehensive data acquisition and evaluation of the measurements and emphasized the importance for the further development of the measurement method.