Ready for tomorrow’s job? CONTINUING EDUCATION AT FRAUNHOFER Experience innovation in action, earn qualifications with part-time training and gain the competitive edge bestowed by knowledge. www.academy.fraunhofer.de/en

4 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Contents 10 The dawn of a new era The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and IBM are bringing the first quantum computer to Germany – with other quantum technologies in the pipeline. Quantum computing will open up immea- surable opportuni- ties for the EU research community. 32 Engineered to delight Fraunhofer scientists are develop- ing tomorrow’s fine foods. 03 06 10 32 34 Editorial In brief, Editorial notes Lead article: Leaps and bounds in quantum technologies Welcome to the world of quantum mechanics, where nothing seems logical, but everything appears possi- ble. And Fraunhofer is busy applying that science. Researchers take the taste test Low-fat, low-salt products are healthy, but can they taste good too? Fraunhofer researchers are investigating this question. Revolution one drop at a time A decade of research, a successful spin-off – and a major leap forward for the pharmaceutical industry. 36 38 40 44 Leaving behind those in need? A new EU regulation intended to make medical devices safer could end up jeopardizing care for children and patients with rare diseases. Fraunhofer is striving to minimize these consequences. The ecological impact of Christmas trees Is this beloved tradition incompatible with today’s sustain- ability values? A sobering look at the facts and data. Space applications for car parts Could commercial off-the-shelf components developed by the auto industry reduce the cost of space missions? From fly larvae to fine food A more sustainable way of sourcing valuable protein: if only the black soldier fly could break through the yuck barrier. © IBM Research, Sven Döring, iStock, Dina Giangregorio / F1online, SpaceX, Jochen Zick / action press, Stocksy

6 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Navigating the human body with AI in the driver’s seat When stroke strikes, every minute matters. A surgeon wielding a catheter has to act quickly to clear clots obstructing major blood vessels. Any delay puts patients at risk of serious brain damage. But few specialists are quali- fied to perform this tricky procedure. Seeking a speedy yet reliable way of steer- ing catheters to clots, Fraunhofer researchers have struck upon a smart solution – artificial intelligence. A surgeon threads the catheter from an incision in the groin all the way to the brain. © Fraunhofer IPA Each year, some 270,000 people suffer a stroke in Germany. Doctors often perform a thrombectomy to treat stroke, inserting a thin catheter through a vascular incision in the groin, and then threading it through the aorta all the way up to the blocked blood vessel in the brain. A tiny basket-like mesh called a stent retriever opens like a net at the point of occlusion to ensnare the clot. Then the surgeon reels in the catheter, hauling out the clot caught in the net – 45 minutes to three-and-a-half hours later, depending on the surgeon’s aptitude and experience. A thrombectomy is clearly a skill acquired with long training and much practice. Merely maneuvering the catheter through the body to the blood clot takes 10 to 90 minutes of concentrated effort. The Fraunhofer team aims to speed things up with a computer-controlled catheter. “The physician will still perform the actual procedure to remove the blood clot with a stent retriever, but a self-navigating catheter is going to take over the complicated task of steering past all those hard-to-traverse anatomies,” says Johannes Horsch, a research fellow in the Project Group for Automation in Medicine and Biotechnology PAMB at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. This automated intervention with a catheter is not only a viable option for strokes. It can also serve in endovascular surgery for heart attacks or liver tumors. These navigation skills are also acquired via deep reinforcement learning (DRL), a method scientists apply to train neural networks. It is similar to the way humans learn – by experience. An algorithm generates the data to train the neural network independently, by practicing this procedure over and over again on a computer model. It rehearses with a simulated vascular tree and catheter to gain virtual experience. “This virtual model allows us to simulate every movement the catheter could possibly make and train the neural network up to a certain level. “In the tests so far, we’ve achieved a 95 percent success rate with the simulation model – in this simplified scenario, the catheter was indeed able to navigate autonomously to the vascular occlusion,” says Horsch.

8 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Dot your i’s, cross those t’s: A pen could take the struggle out of learning to spell. © Stocksy / F1online A smarter sort of pen pal A pen that catches spelling mistakes on the fly? That would surely top many a young stu- dent’s wish-list. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany, are deter- mined to make that wish come true. Equipped with sensors, this prospective smart pen will do more than merely correct spelling mistakes. “The idea is for the pen to be an intelligent tool that also helps children improve handwriting automaticity and penmanship on their own,” says Julia Knopf, professor of German Primary Education at Saarland University. She is taking part in this joint project with industry partners. The principle sounds simple enough: The sensors track the writing as the author puts pen to paper, and then sends it to a tablet in real time for assessment. Putting it into practice is not quite that simple, however: “An important part of the study deals with the question of when and by which methods the feedback on spelling should be given and what the didactic exercise scenario looks like,” says Knopf. Once the concepts for these handwriting exercises have been developed, they will be tested at various schools, probably starting in 2022. Goodbye, greasy smudges Pristine stainless steel door handles, fittings and refrigerators sure look sleek. But a human touch or two is all it takes to go from snazzy to grubby. Fingers and palms leave greasy smudges that are hard to clean. A new nano enamel developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Insti- tute for Microstructures of Materials and Systems IMWS promises to put an end to those unsightly blemishes. The new coating shrugs off grease and water. © iStock Editorial notes Fraunhofer magazine All about research, technology and innovation. ISSN 1868-3428 (print edition) ISSN 1868-3436 (online edition) Published by: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Hansastrasse 27c, 80686 Munich, Germany Editorial address as above Phone +49 89 1205-1301 magazin@zv.fraunhofer.de http://s.fhg.de/magazines Free subscription: Phone +49 89 1205-1301 publikationen@fraunhofer.de This innovative nano enamel is water- and oil-repellent. It contains special particles that adhere to stainless steel to roughen and enlarge its surface. A fingertip or hand touching a refrigerator door coated with this paint only brushes up against the peaks of this raised surface. Skin oils do not penetrate to its valleys, so those little dabs here and there are hardly noticeable. “How big are the individual particles in the various paint systems? Are they distributed uniformly? What effect do additives have? – that’s what we’re looking into,” says Dr. Jessica Klehm, a research fellow at Fraunhofer IMWS. This analysis is the only way of assessing the coating’s quality. If the nanoparticles aggregate to form larger particles, the transparent coating could become opaque. On the other hand, if the particles are too small and the surface too smooth, the oily film could stick to it across a larger area, defeating the coating’s purpose. The researchers have already found a front-runner among the investigated options. The production of this coating system is to be ramped up to industrial scale next year. Editorial team: Janis Eitner (responsible for content), Josef Oskar Seitz (editor-in-chief), Dr. Sonja Endres, Roman Möhlmann Editorial assistants: Janine van Ackeren, Mandy Bartel, Christine Broll, Alexandra Goßner, Sirka Henning, Daniela Leitner, Eric Schütz (2issue), Mehmet Toprak, Monika Weiner, Britta Widmann, Winnie Winkler. Layout & lithography: Vierthaler & Braun Cover image: Sven Döring on behalf of Fraunhofer Printed by: H. HEENEMANN GmbH, Berlin Translation: Burton, Van Iersel & Whitney © Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V. Munich 2019

10 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 The weird, wonderful quantum world The future is now

12 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 at the same time. That is not all they have Marta Gilaberte Basset is working on new technologies for applied quantum imaging. © Sven Döring ......

14 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19

16 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Welcome to the world of quanta, where nothing seems logical, but everything appears possible. A new era is dawning with quantum technologies helping us to better understand and order our world. Fraunhofer is bringing science to applications. By Mandy Bartel

18 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Five sectors des- tined to be changed by quantum technology1 Medicine and health- care Deeper insights into biological processes, more effi- cient drug discovery, more powerful diagnostics Is Europe fated to yet again bring up the rear? No, says Prof. Manfred Hauswirth, executive director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS, located in Berlin, Germany. He is sanguine about Europe’s chances: “In Germany and Europe, we not only have the necessary expertise in the processes of quantum physics; we also have an in-depth understanding of the potential applications. And we understand all the major production and industry pro- cesses. That’s what counts right now, with research focusing on potential applications of quantum technology. We’re still very much at the start of developing genuinely practical uses.” Quantum computing looms large on the horizon Yet progress has been promising so far, with headlines of recent months dominated by a story that first broke at the end of September 2019. Google reportedly used a 53-qubit quantum computer to perform a random sampling calculation in just over three minutes, thereby achieving the grail of “quantum supremacy.” As the story goes, the world’s most powerful supercomputer would have required 10,000 or so years for the same operation. IBM was quick to question the science behind Google’s assertion, insisting that the conventional supercomputer’s potential is far from exhausted. Welcome to the quantum world Quantum physics is not something most of us encounter in our daily lives. Everything we can experience first hand – the big stuff of our macroscopic world – obeys the laws of conventional physics. Sub-atomic particles defy these familiar principles. The laws of quantum physics rule on the atomic scale, where strange things happen. This is a world where elementary particles, atoms or even molecules can behave like particles or like waves. They can even exist in several states at once. Two particles can become entangled, so that one always possesses the complementary information on its twin, irrespective of the latter’s location. This uncertainty about a particle’s actual state goes to the heart of quantum physics. Rather than being in one state or changing between a variety of states, particles exist across several possible states at the same time in what is called a superposition. Nothing is fixed and anything is possible, so we are dealing with probabilities here – or, more precisely, with probability waves. We cannot know the exact position or state of a particle until we observe or measure it, which destroys the quantum state. 1913 Niels Bohr first formulates a quantized model of the atom The dawn of quantum physics Max Planck postulates quantum theory: light consists of tiny, discrete packets of energy known as quanta 19001900 1915 1915 Albert Einstein postulates the theory of general relativity and posits the exis- tence of photons as particles 1924 1924 Louis-Victor de Broglie postulates wave-particle duality

20 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 and trans- 2Logistics portation Optimized route planning, better-informed decisions about where to locate logistics centers, better power grid management In January 2019, IBM unveiled the IBM Q System One, the world’s first commercially viable quantum computer – meaning that it works outside a lab. A consortium of seven Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany has been tasked to look into real-world applications for quantum computing as of 2021 in a bid to drive the advance of applied quantum science in the EU. “We want to find out just what kind of applications there are for quantum computing in industry and how to write the necessary algorithms and translate them for specific applications,” explains Hauswirth. The initiative also aims to keep entry barriers low by sharing insights with companies to fast-track the industry’s efforts to build a knowledge base in quantum computing. There are still high hurdles to clear on the path to upscale the performance of available quantum computers. The priority now is to find ways of shielding the fragile quanta from ambient influences that interfere with the computing process. For example, qubits have to be cooled to a tempera- ture approaching absolute zero – around minus 273 degrees Celsius, which is colder than outer space. They also require a vacuum and have to be shielded against electromagnetic radiation. Vibrations and parasitic effects of electromagnetic waves used to manipulate the qubits and read out the information they carry can also cause problems. Solving complex problems What kind of real problems can quantum computers solve? “In a few years from now, quantum computers will provide highly efficient means for prime factorization. That will leave current cryptographic systems vulnerable, which is why major research into post-quantum cryptography is underway,” says Hauswirth. Quantum computers will be able to tackle even John Bell formulates Bell’s theorem: 1966 there are no local parameters determining the behavior of a quantum system 1958 The first microchip 1974 The double-slit experiment with single electrons demonstrates the theory of wave-particle duality 19601960 The first laser r o m th e f 1990s Scientists manipulate individual quanta, sparking the second quantum revolution 1982 1982 1982 Experiments by Alain Aspect prove the hypothesis of quantum entanglement

22 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Fokker-Planck equations. These serve to develop lithium ion batteries and wind turbines, calculate granular flows and determine prices in quantitative finance. These equations can be converted into quantum mechanics equations for quantum computers to crunch the numbers, probably much faster.” The race to develop quantum AI Quantum computing is expected to be the springboard for a huge leap forward in artificial intelligence (AI). A new inter- disciplinary research field called quantum machine learning (QML) has emerged at the intersection of these two key technologies. Explaining how the two are connected, Prof. Christian Bauckhage from the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelli- gent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS in Sankt Augustin says, “From a mathematical perspective, a lot of AI problems are really problems of combinatorial optimization, which serves to do things like calculate the best delivery routes. If these problems are highly complex with lots of variables, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find the best solution in a reasonable length of time using today’s digital computers. A quantum computer, by contrast, would be able to solve them in a flash.” Quantum pioneer John Stewart Bell (left), originator of Bell's theorem, with colleague Martinus Veltman at CERN in 1973. © akg-images How does a quantum computer work? A conventional computer works with bits; a quantum computer with qubits. Like bits, qubits can have a value of 0 or 1. Unlike bits, they occupy a superposition of overlap- ping quantum states, so they can also have any combination of the two. A qubit does not take on a definite value until it is measured. Adding one qubit doubles the system’s perfor- mance so that 50 qubits, for example, would yield 2 to the power of 50 (250) possible combinations. This way, big problems and complex tasks are computed in parallel rather than in linear fashion. Conventional bit 1 2 up 1 2 down Qubit (by analogy) A qubit can be pictured as a rotating particle whose axis of rotation only assumes a fixed position when it is measured. Calculations are performed by correlating qubit states. 5 David Di Vincenzo’s* five criteria for a quantum computer 1. A scalable physical 2. The ability to initialize system with well- characterized qubits the state of the qubits to a simple fiducial state * Pioneer of quantum information science and professor of theoretical physics at RWTH Aachen

24 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 1 What is this project about? Six Fraunhofer Institutes and other partners in science are investigating how quantum technologies can benefit imaging applications and are developing initial demonstrators to this end. 2 Why does this matter? Conventional medical imaging is somewhat limited. By contrast, quantum imaging will provide insights into previously inaccessible realms of the body using low-radiation light that does not destroy cells and tissue. It will also make the imaging of material surfaces more reliable, faster and cheaper. 3 When do you expect to see the first results? We’ve already built initial demonstrators for life science applications and for detection in the barely accessible terahertz range. More are to follow by late 2021. How are you going to make quantum imaging work in the real world? Three questions for Prof. Andreas Tünnermann, Fraunhofer IOF, on the lighthouse project QUILT © ddp images Physicist and Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) is noted in the annals of science for his groundbreaking quantum research, but his thought experiment with a cat has become a staple of popular culture. Quantum computers can process large datasets in a single step and identify patterns in the data that conventional computers are unable to detect. Moreover, they might be better capable to cope with by incomplete or corrupt data. In a few years, this fusion of quantum computing and artificial intelligence could have repercussions that echo in practically every area of our lives. QML could help enhance logistics, improve power grid management and optimize investment portfolios in the finance sector. It could also expedite training for large neural networks. Bauckhage and his team at the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies are working on a QML project to develop quantum algorithms for problems of combinatorial optimization that are fundamental to machine learning and AI. “We want to be at the forefront of the coming revolution in quantum computing and provide industry with solutions as quickly as possible.” Fraunhofer is pursuing a similar goal in a project called PlanQK. Together with 14 partners, Fraunhofer FOKUS is seeking to develop a platform for quantum artificial intel- ligence. This will create a joint forum for AI and quantum computing specialists, developers, users, customers, service providers and consultants to share their knowledge of QML algorithms and applications. One example of a scenario with practical implications is banking fraud, which QML could help detect and even predict. In September 2019, this project won a competition for economically impactful innovations in artificial intelligence sponsored by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). Applied quantum computing is clearly taking shape in the real world. Will we all have a quantum home computer or a quantum processor in our smartphones in a few years? “Quantum computers will only ever be able to solve very specific problems, so they won’t replace conventional com- puters. It’s likely that cloud-based models will prevail – that is, quantum computing as a service (QCaaS). We’ll probably also see hybrids of quantum computing and conventional high-performance computing,” says Hauswirth. By then, quantum technologies will have made inroads into other aspects of daily life.

26 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Not quite so spooky after all A glimpse of the wonders to come in the world of quantum mechanics is to be had at Fraunhofer IOF at Jena. Its scientists are exploring ways of harnessing entangled photons to enable secure communication and enhanced imaging. By Mandy Bartel Erik Beckert brandishes a shiny golden device bristling with fibers and wires. A photon source with a nonlinear crys- tal, this device generates 300,000 entangled pairs of photons per second. Fraunhofer IOF’s quantum research focuses on correlated light particles which may show “spooky action at a distance." Twin photons’ properties always complement each other regardless of the distance between the two, so mea- suring the first tells you the state of the second. This turns out to be a useful feature for powerful physical encryption to foil hackers, plug data leaks and prevent snooping and thievery by industrial and economic spies. Beckert, an engineer and self-taught quantum mechanic, explains the entanglement precept thus: “We use entangled photons to generate secure quantum keys on a physical basis and transmit them via satellite to our communication partners on Earth with as little interference as possible. Any attempt to intercept the communication is detectable because it disrupts this entanglement.” The first quantum ciphering satellite of European origin to be equipped with this photon source is expected to launch into space in 2022. Its development owes a great deal to the efforts of Beckert, his Jena team and other partners. The future of quantum encryption has arrived, with financial service providers, telecoms and government agencies taking such a keen interest in the technology. Fraunhofer, Max Planck, the German Aerospace Center DLR, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and industry partners embarked on a major campaign to make quantum encryption a reality. Called QuNET, this project aims to erect a high-security communications network over the next few years by connecting government sites via unhackable links. It will also provide the underpinning for quantum commu- nication infrastructure spanning Germany. Beckert believes quantum cryptography could be the ticket to secure online banking further down the line. Efforts are already underway to make quantum communica- tion affordable for the mass market. Called UNIQORN, this project involves 17 partners from across Europe. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI in Berlin are doing their part by developing miniaturized, quantum-enabled components that will be easy to install in home routers. One of the scientists’ goals is to slash the costs of quantum communi- cation by 90 percent to put it within reach of cash-strapped consumers. Entangled photons – a revolution in imaging Two of Beckert’s colleagues at the IOF, Dr. Markus Gräfe and Marta Gilaberte Basset, are pressing entangled photons into service for quantum imaging, a field that scientists just recently began to explore. “Medical researchers have been stymied by the problem of human cell samples being so sensitive to light. UV light, especially, damages cells. This limits the amount of time available for investigation,” says Gilaberte Basset. Quantum imaging with minimal doses of radiation could allow scientists to observe and analyze tissue cells with a high resolution and non-destructively. They could even monitor cell processes that take several minutes or many hours. 3 Finance Enhanced portfolio management, risk analysis and fraud detection and prediction; secure commu- nications and data transfer for online banking and the like

28 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Quantum sensors: new opportunities for medical technology Photons are one, but not the only, way of taking measure of the quantum world. Electrons are another. A research team at Fraunhofer IAF is using these tiny particles to develop ultra-precise quantum sensors. By Mandy Bartel The principle behind quantum sensors seems simple: Electrons orbit atomic nuclei which spin like a top. In this context, “spin” is an angular momentum intrinsic to quantum mechanics. This spin produces a magnetic dipole around the electron that other magnetic fields attract or repel. This creates the world’s smallest magnet. The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF has chosen to use diamonds for its quantum magnetometer. Explaining the method’s finer points, the institute’s quantum expert Jan Jeske says, “We measure the states of electrons in a very specific defect in the diamond lattice, a so called nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center. This NV center enables us to optically measure the electron spin. A magnetic field shifts the energies of the spin states, which we measure by a change in brightness. This is how the sensor works. Diamond is well suited for this, because it is very stable even at room temperature and allows for long coherence times. To create the NV centers, we first add nitrogen atoms to the diamond, and then generate a neighboring vacancy.” Improved diagnostics for diseases Such quantum sensors harbor the potential for enormous progress in medical engineering. For example, they can help diagnose cancer faster and more accurately. The Freiburg research team is looking to improve today’s MRI technol- ogy by combining a diamond-based polarizer with biomarker molecules to be injected into the patient prior to an MRI scan. This imaging method could be 10,000 times more sensitive than conventional scans. Quantum sensor technology will also help combat one of the most frequent causes of death, cardiovascular diseases. Given the tools to measure minute magnetic fields in metabolic processes taking place within heart tissue, physicians can better identify risks. The IAF researchers engaged in the MetaboliQs project are developing a diamond-based polarizer which will offer 160 times higher efficiency and 40 times faster polarization at room temperature than before, at just a quarter of the cost. Quantum sensors are a gateway not only to advances in medical diagnostics; they are also opening new doors for industry and manufac- turing. For example, with their ability to detect the tiniest cracks or deformations in materials by their magnetic field signature, these sensors enable manufacturers to test microelectronic and nano-electronic components in a non-de- structive manner. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft launched the QMAG lighthouse project – a collaborative effort of six Fraunhofer Institutes and two universities – in 2019 to optimize magnetometers for this sort of application. With concerted research efforts like this under- way, we will surely see quantum leaps in many fields over the next 10 to 20 years. This work is giving us a better understanding of matter in all its facets, and the tools to put it to good use. Scientists can now measure, analyze and calculate states and interactions at the atomic level with remarkable accuracy. To measure more is to know more. And to know more is to know better what to do with this knowledge. The future, an adventure in the making, has already begun.

30 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Quantum technologies “Germany is at a very good vantage point” One of the leading minds in the field of quantum technologies at Fraunhofer, Prof. Andreas Tünnermann heads up the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena. Interview by Mandy Bartel Mr. Tünnermann, do you recall when and where you first encountered quantum mechanics? That was a long time ago. As far as I’m aware, my first encounter with the quantum world took place in the sixth or seventh grade when I had to hand in a paper on the external photoelectric effect. The photoelectric effect was one of the key experiments serving to establish quantum theory. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his explanation of this effect, with which he proposed that light consists of quanta called photons. The quantum world has always fascinated me, and photons remain the focus of my life as a researcher today. I am a laser man. We have been researching quantum systems and their applications since the institute was founded. For example, we work on lasers and investigate the interactions between light, or photons, and matter. To this end, we collaborate with world-class groups. In many cases, these groups owe their ability to conduct original research into quantum technologies to our components and systems for controlling light. We have been looking into specific questions of the second quantum revolution for more than ten years now, jointly addressing aspects of quantum imaging, quantum sensor technology, quantum communication and quantum computing with partners. What fascinates you about the quantum world? What are the most exciting quantum projects under- way now? People learned to control larger ensembles of quanta and put them to use in applications in the ’50s and ’60s. This is known around the world as the first quantum revolution. It gave rise to the laser, and then to the photonics industry, a new line of business that radically changed our society. Just think of the Internet, which would be inconceivable without photonics. The first quantum revolution also laid the foundations for microelectronics. The world as we know it would stand still today without these components. Now we are asking ourselves, “What is the practical added value of being able to control a single quantum? Can it be made to create value of similar macroeconomic significance [as photonics and microelectronics]?” You launched several major quantum initiatives on behalf of Fraunhofer in recent years. How did quantum research get underway at Fraunhofer IOF? Quantum communication is an important topic for our society because data security and data sovereignty are fundamental rights. We want to further the cause of data sovereignty in Europe with QuNET, a project we are currently pursuing with partners to develop the underpinning for secure data transmission and storage. This is where quantum technologies serve to generate keys and share data among the various partners in a communication network. One example of another communications project is Space EPS. Working with the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Vienna, we developed and optimized a photon source for a communications satellite on behalf of the European Space Agency. The first prototype measured several square meters – the size of a large conference table. It had hundreds of discrete optomechanical components. We streamlined the design, shrinking it to the size of a shoebox. The next stage of development is to bring it down to the size of a pack of 4Materials science Simulation of novel materials at the molecular level, faster development of materials, more pre- cise testing methods

32 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Researchers take the taste test Everyone knows the importance of cutting down on fat, sugar and salt. Fraunhofer IVV is helping to get the right balance between taste and healthy eating – and research into chocolate is particularly popular just before Christmas. Those are the benefits for people’s health, the climate and the environment – at least in theory. But Zacherl insists it cannot succeed in practice unless we get one crucial factor right: “It has to be tasty. If it’s healthy but doesn’t taste good, then there’s no point.” Large-scale consumer tests began in late 2019, but at the time of this interview the food technologist at Fraunhofer IVV in Freising was busy sampling a spoonful of chocolate spread from the first of several pots. “Standard chocolate spread with palm oil” says the label, and it tastes like the popular brand Nutella. A row of other pots awaits his appraisal. The “chocolate spread with rapeseed oil” still has a very fatty-looking surface texture. The “choc- “If it’s healthy but doesn’t taste good, then there’s no point.” Christian Zacherl By Josef Seitz Some dads bring work home with them – but this particular family has no complaints. The fruits of this dad’s labor are something his three kids are happy to sample: a mix of fatty acids, saturated and unsaturated micellar proteins from lupines and other pulses, and oils from rapeseed and sunflowers, all combined into a chocolate taste sensation! Christian Zacherl strolls into the pilot plant for chocolate pro- duction at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Freising. The lab coats hanging to the right of the door – liberally spattered with chocolate brown patches – make it perfectly clear what this food technologist and business development manager for food will be working on again today. There are machines aplenty, including a drum roaster, an agitated bead mill, a laboratory conch, a temper- ing machine, a three-roll mill and coating tanks. But perhaps the day’s most important tools are the humble spoons, which are already laid out ready for use. Together with his colleagues, Zacherl will be taste-testing just how close the institute has come to reaching its goal. Fraunhofer IVV embarked on two Europe-wide research projects at the start of 2019. Their goal is to achieve a one-third reduction in the saturated fat content of chocolate fillings and the popular chocolate spreads people have on bread for breakfast. The scientists are hoping to replace palm oil, which is believed to adversely affect the cardiovascular system, with oils that are regarded as healthier and that can be produced by more sustainable means. The idea is that fields of rapeseed and sunflowers located closer to consumers could eventually replace the palm oil plantations that are so controversial from an environmental standpoint, with native oils taking the place of oils from the rainforest. Known as oleogels, these can be tailored to have a texture as close as possible to that of the original fats while simultaneously optimizing the fatty acid profile.

34 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Revolution one drop at a time A decade of research, a successful spin-off – and a major leap forward for the pharmaceutical industry. By Eva Rathgeber “We can massively increase the number of experi- ments while also cutting costs.” Andreas Traube, Fraunhofer IPA Imagine a world where made-to-measure antibiotics get the job done without the blanket approach of a broad-spec- trum antibiotic, where cancer specialists identify optimal substrate compositions by testing different concentrations of anti-cancer drugs on a patient’s cell cultures, and where scientists have the technology to grow viable living cells in a precise and controlled manner. These are just three examples of what I-DOT can do – and some argue the potential it offers is nothing short of revolutionary, especially for the pharmaceutical industry. These four letters have played a major role in Andreas Traube’s career. A full decade of research went into creating the “Immediate Drop on Demand Technology,” or I-DOT for short. Now a head of department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, Traube has been fascinated by one particular question ever since he became a scientist: what’s the best non-contact, pipette-free method of dispensing tiny samples of liquid for biological analysis? From the start, his main focus was on the microtiter plates used for bioassays. “In biology, any contact is bad because it can result in contamination,” he says. The topic not only dominated his work, but also appeared in a number of theses at Fraunhofer IPA. Tobias Brode, now head of the medical engineering and biotechnology business unit at the IPA, attracted particular attention with his thesis and was asked to join the Fraunhofer team of scientists working on the I-DOT process. “It’s great to track the evolution of a project from its inception right through to product commercialization,” says Traube. The principle behind the non-contact I-DOT method is simple: applying a pulse of compressed air to the top of the source well dispenses a nanoliter droplet through the hole or ‘nozzle’ in the bottom of each well into, or onto, the desired target. Using a set of eight dispensing heads arranged in parallel, each individual nozzle can dispense up to 600 of these approximately one nanoliter drops a second, enabling volume throughput of between 10 and 1,000 nanoliters. Competitive advantage: “Using I-DOT, we can transfer tiny doses of many different liquids extremely quickly,” says Traube. “So we can massively increase the number of experiments while also cutting costs.” Conventional high-throughput methods of bulk experimentation currently rely on pipetting robots, but these are unable to handle the quantities below one microliter that offer such key costs benefits. Conventional methods involve 3,600 pipetting steps: I-DOT slashes the number of steps required and uses just one fifth of the material. Dispendix GmbH was founded in 2016 as a spin-off of Fraunhofer IPA and was acquired by Swedish 3D bioprinting company Cellink at the end of 2018. Cellink acquired Dispendix’s product range and technology with the aim of gaining a key competitive edge in microtissue production. The company’s cooperation with Fraunhofer continues apace, and the license agreement based on I-DOT patents will run until 2028. The two organizations are combining forces to work on the development of further technologies, particularly in the fields of single-cell analysis and digital dosing.

36 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Leaving behind those in need? The EU has issued a new directive to make medical devices safer – but it could end up jeopardizing care for children and patients with rare diseases. Fraunhofer ITEM is striving to minimize that risk. By Christine Broll One in every hundred babies in Germany is born with a heart defect. In many cases, their survival depends on artificial heart valves, stents, catheters and pacemakers specifically designed for infants. Yet these devices may soon be in short supply as a result of the EU’s Medical Device Regulation. The new legislation states that all commercially available medical devices must be reassessed by May 2024 to demonstrate compliance with the latest standards. That includes everything from scalpels and endoscopes to hip implants, pacemakers and heart-lung machines. The med-tech industry association BVMed warns this will be an insurmountable hurdle for around 30 percent of medical device manufacturers’ products – and that the consequences will be particularly dire for younger patients such as newborn babies. Could maxi- mizing safety for patients with common diseases come at a price for everyone else? The EU has launched three major projects to mitigate this impact. One of these is the Medical Device Obligations Taskforce (MDOT), which is headed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM in Hannover. Project manager Dr. Ulrich Froriep sees the new EU regulation as a double-edged sword: “If I have a common disease, then I will have access to very safe medical devices in the future. But if I have a rare disease, I may soon be in the unfortunate position of finding that the remedy is no longer available in Europe.” The new regulation came into effect throughout the EU in May 2017 – and the consequences are starting to bite. The changes to the criteria medical devices must meet to obtain approval were triggered by the scandal of low- quality breast implants that first hit the headlines in 2009. The french company Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) had been selling breast implants made from cheap industrial-grade silicone. Many of the silicone shells ruptured soon after being implanted, leading to infections. Some 30,000 women were affected in France alone. All notified bodies now have to be redesignated – yet by the end of October only four of the existing 58 notified bodies had been certified to review medical devices: two in Ger- many, one in Italy and one in the United Kingdom. Medical device makers must therefore prepare themselves for a long wait and be prepared to provide considerably more data and documents than before. In particular, the EU has toughened up the requirements for technical documentation and manufacturers’ quality management systems. The regulation includes a new risk classification system that requires clinical trials for a far greater range of devices. “It’s a huge challenge for the German med-tech industry, which primarily consists of small and medium-sized enter- prises,” says Fraunhofer researcher Froriep. “The companies are looking closely at which clinical trials they can afford for which devices.” The High-Performance Center Translational Biomedical Engineering, in which Fraunhofer ITEM has joined forces with partners including the Hannover Medical School, is taking action on many levels to preserve patients’ access to medical devices. One of their goals is to develop accelerated test methods for manufacturers. “We’re also working with industry associations in the political arena to raise awareness among key decision-makers and get improvements on the table,” says the head of the High-Performance Center, Profes- sor Theodor Doll from Fraunhofer ITEM. “We’re involved in two projects on an EU level that are seeking to develop open innovation test beds for medical devices.” Project manager Ulrich Froriep hopes that the EU project MDOT will create a platform that will help med-tech com- panies with the conformity assessment process for medical devices. Fraunhofer ITEM embarked on the project in January

38 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 The ecological impact of Christmas trees 45 m Dortmund 24,0 25,5 27,5 28,0 28,5 29,0 30 › 25 › Number of Christmas tree sold (millions) 20 › 2000 ’02 ’04 ’06 ’08 ’10 01: Growth phase 10 years 12 min. of labor per tree Time factor Labor factor It can take ten years for a tree to grow tall enough to be used as a Christmas tree. The producer invests an average of around 12 minutes for each tree they produce. The labor required for each hectare comes to 80 hours a year and primarily consists of manual work. 04: Disposal issues Local authorities across Germany are in charge of collecting Christmas trees. What happens then differs from place to place. In Berlin, they are fed into biomass power plants to produce electricity and district heat. In Leipzig, Christmas trees are composted and converted into humus, while in Munich some trees are made into chipboard. Just like garden waste, it is prohibited to dispose of trees in the forest. Unsold trees are often given to zoos. Turned into Energetische Verwertung energy Composted Kompostierung Furniture / Möbel / Baustoffe building materials Zoo Zoos Keine Entsorgung Do not dispose of trees in forests im Wald

40 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Pieces of this car puzzle – especially the electronic components – could make space travel more affordable. © Volkswagen AG

42 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Dizzy new heights? In the future, ESA hopes to equip its satellites and space probes with indus- trially manufactured components. © SpaceX “We hope to boost effi- ciency by streamlining testing.” Dr. Michael Steffens, Fraunhofer INT The next step is to test the components. Can they withstand constant bombardment with cosmic radiation in Earth’s orbit or out in space? Or does that rapidly impair their performance? And could the impact of a single high-energy particle – the kind of perilous single-event effect that can be caused by factors such as solar winds – be enough to cause a defect? There are broader goals, too, says Fraunhofer researcher Dr. Michael Steffens, who is in charge of making COTS components “flight-ready.” “One of our key goals is to boost efficiency by streamlining testing.” Killing two birds with one stone Steffens heads up a team of 12 that plans, designs and conducts tests at the INT in Euskirchen, not far from Cologne. Work on the project is in full swing in the “Nuclear Effects in Electronics and Optics (NEO)” business unit – and there are plenty of resources available in addition to the Cobalt-60 source, including various lasers and a plethora of high-grade measurement and lab equipment. The impetus for this ambitious project came from the European Space Agency (ESA), which brought the INT scientists on board. The Fraunhofer team’s point of contact is Gianluca Furano, who has spent the last 17 years working as a computer engineer in ESA’s Data Systems division – roughly the same amount of time he has spent delving into the use of COTS components in space. Getting Fraunhofer involved in the research project was an easy decision for ESA to make, says Furano, not just thanks to the NEO team’s high-tech equipment, but also due to their expertise. “Our productive partnership with Fraunhofer stretches back many years,” says Furano. “When it comes to irradiation testing, our INT colleagues are the best!” Steffens also acknowledges their prowess in this area, though in more modest terms: “We are the leading European player in the field of dosimetry, which refers to the precise study and measurement of radiation dose.” The project team hopes to make a decisive contribu- tion to solving two key spaceflight dilemmas. Previous mis- sions have relied almost entirely on high-reliability or “HiRel” parts which are produced in small batches on dedicated production lines. That not only makes them expensive, but also requires each and every batch to be tested and certified for radiation resistance. Some of the test routines can take years to complete, so what starts out as state-of-the-art technology ends up being something very different by the time it is ready for launch. Put simply, space missions are too costly and make use of obsolete technology. Working with his team, Steffens hopes to draw on his experience as a solid-state and nuclear physicist to improve this situation – and Furano has high hopes that the project

44 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Little bug, big poten- tial: Two centimeters is not much in the way of size, but tiny Hermetia illucens could have a huge impact on the environment. As the stuff of tomorrow’s feed for livestock, the black soldier fly may well help save rainforests and protect the climate. © ddp-images

46 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 “The larvae produce anti- microbial peptides.” Prof. Andreas Vilcinskas in the wake of the BSE epidemic. Contaminated meat- and-bone meal was thought to cause the spread of mad cow disease. It was not until 2017 that the EU relaxed the regulations and has since allowed fish farms to use insect- based feed. However, larvae reared on waste are still taboo. Andreas Vilcinskas expects the EU to permit insect-based feed for other livestock as well, first for poultry and then perhaps later for pigs. Companies seeking to commodify the black soldier fly in Europe share that hope. Suppliers in Germany do business on a very small scale, growing larvae for pet fish and reptiles or making cat food with insect meal. Larger companies in Belgium and the Netherlands are investing to plant a footprint in this emerging market. At the top of the pyramid, a gourmet eatery The EU ban on larvae fed with manure or catering waste makes life hard for businesses seeking to turn a profit with fly farms. Rearing larvae with approved feed such as grains is ecologically unsound. This is why Andreas Vilcinskas has opted to go with organic by-products sourced from the food industry, such as pomace – the pulpy leftovers of apples pressed to make juice. To demonstrate that this line of business can indeed create value in Germany, he is setting up a closed system in which fly larvae serve as food for upmarket shrimp. Turning the lowly black soldier fly into pricey black tiger prawns certainly does that. Part of the “Bioökonomie im Ballungsraum” [Metropolitan Bioeconomy] initiative, this project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Insects’ long march to the table Europeans are most circumspect about the notion of insects as food, a reluctance born of the BSE epidemic. That is beginning to change. People are now free to dine on edible insects in the EU since Brussels gave its official blessing in 2018. More and more are overcoming their inhibitions to nibble a bit of bug here and snack on a crispy cricket there. And for good reason: insect-based food is healthy and ecofriendly. Foodies can now buy freeze-dried grasshoppers and buffalo worms, and consult cookbooks with recipes on preparing roasted mealworms on a bed of herbs or crickets with honey and sesame seeds. Some supermarkets already offer insect protein bars and frozen insect burgers. Resident expert Andreas Vilcinskas is confident that insect-based products will have gone mainstream in ten years’ time. “Learning from insects means learning to win.” Prof. Andreas Vilcinskas is a trailblazer in insect biotech. © Fraunhofer / Piotr Banczerowski Chances are good his plans will pan out. The larvae of the soldier fly are natural-born survivors with an impressive immune system, perfectly adapted by nature to grow up amid rotting waste and dung teeming with germs. Vilcinskas and colleagues at the University of Dresden and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology are investigating how these flies manage to keep pathogens at bay. The team found more than 50 different antimicrobial peptides in the insects to explain their larvae’s remarkably robust immune system. Even more remarkable is that the spectrum of peptides produced by these animals changes with their diet. “By optimizing the food used to rear larvae, we can make sure they produce antimi- crobial peptides to ward off key pathogens such as salmonella and listeria,” says Vilcinskas. “These peptides end up in the insect meal, protecting it against bacterial contamination.” A fly in the food chain – from larvae to chickens to humans The market prospects for insect protein look brightest in Indonesia and neighboring countries, where people have no qualms about feeding it to animals. Insects also figure prominently in local traditional cuisine. The likes of grilled grasshoppers and fried silkworms have long been popular delicacies for humans. People in Africa, too, are open-minded about insect-based livestock feed, so farmed soldier flies could go a long way toward enriching the population’s diet with protein. A pilot project in Kenya is a case in point. A startup called Sanergy has set up portable toilets in the slums of Nairobi. The company regularly empties their tanks, collecting human excrement in large barrels that go to an insect farm, where it is mixed with waste from restaurants and fed to black soldier flies. The larvae are processed into chicken feed, the chickens lay eggs, people eat the eggs and then – to put it delicately – the perfect recycling economy comes full circle. Inhibitions run highest in Europe. Feeding animal protein to livestock had been a no-go since the EU banned the practice

48 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 + © ddp-images One face for two Automated passport checks are de rigueur worldwide. Yet facial recognition systems are vulnerable. That can be dangerous in times of terrorism, transnational crime and mass refugee migrations. The Fraunhofer Institutes HHI and IPK are striving to tighten up security. By Britta Widmann One passport for two people? It can happen, as a story that starts at a Berlin citizens’ affairs bureau goes to show. The short of it: Apply for an express passport. Verify creden- tials with an ID card. Pay the €37.50 admin fee. Hand over a picture. Drop by nine days later to pick up a new passport fresh off the federal presses. That is how a political activist who goes by the nom de guerre Billie Hoffmann obtained an official travel document that would have also gotten Italy’s former foreign minister, 46-year-old Federica Mogherini, past automated passport control gate facial recognition systems. As it turns out, Mogherini just happened to also be the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy at the time. The key to this subterfuge was a morphed passport picture. A computer had merged two biometric photos to get one passport made for two people. Convenient, but risky Automated passport checks with cameras and scanners are certainly convenient. They shorten the wait at border crossings and the lines at immigration. On the downside, this type of authentication is vulnerable to morphing attacks. “Criminals are able to trick facial recognition systems so that two people can use the same passport,” says Lukasz Wandzik, a scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK in Berlin. Wandzik, his colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommu- nications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI and other partners are developing algorithms to detect anomalies typical of morphed images. This project goes by the name of ANANAS, the German acronym for Anomaly Detection for Prevention of Attacks on Authentication Systems Based on Facial Images. Fraunhofer magazine tested the security mechanism with pictures of the author and three coworkers. “Our detector spotted all three morphs despite the non-biometric source images. If the passport checkpoint had been equipped with the ANANAS detector, the author would not have passed the gates with these manipulated images on her ID card,” says Prof. Peter “Criminals are able to trick facial recognition systems.” Lukasz Wandzik, Fraunhofer IPK

50 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Gene therapy as a last hope How white blood cells are being armed for the fight against cancer cells By Christine Broll Before opening the special liquid-nitrogen-cooled con- tainer, Melanie Müller dons safety goggles and special gloves. She carefully removes a metal box containing a patient’s blood bag. The bag holds numerous T cells, a special type of white blood cell. She doesn’t know who the sample belongs to, but she knows precisely what fate lies behind the number under which the bag is registered. The patients whose blood she works with here suffer from severe forms of lymph node cancer or leukemia. Many of them are children. They are considered untreatable, meaning that all standard treatment options have been exhausted. Kymriah®, a gene therapeutic, is their last hope. It is manu- factured – individually for each patient – at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI on behalf of the Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis. Kymriah® was the first gene therapy approved for the treatment of cancer. It has been on the market in the U.S. since August 2017, and in the EU since August 2018. So far, Fraunhofer IZI in Leipzig is the sole production site in Europe for the product approved by the European Commission. The complex production process was established there in collaboration with Novartis – initially for clinical studies and now for treating patients. Fraunhofer IZI is also working hard to make gene therapies more economical and efficient. Today, in Germany, treatment with Kymriah® costs 275,000 euros per patient. Reprogramming in the cleanroom The blood bags that the team at Fraunhofer IZI receive are thawed out in the ultrasterile cleanroom with genetic engi- neering safety level S2. Here, Melanie Müller and the other employees wear full-body coveralls with a hood, shoe covers, two pairs of gloves, face mask and safety goggles so as not to run any risk of contaminating the patients’ blood cells. The cleanroom is where the patients’ T cells are genetically transformed, arming them for the fight against cancer cells. The T cells are reprogrammed to enable them to recognize the cancer cells. A non-replicating virus transports a gene that forms a special receptor on its surface – the chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR for short – into the T cells. This is why the reprogrammed cells are called CAR T cells. With the receptor’s help, they can now identify cancer cells as the enemy and do what natural T cells normally do with hostile bacteria and viruses: initiate an immune process that kills the enemy. Following the transformation, the lab in Leipzig propagates the CAR T cells and tests them extensively. After about 22 days, they are sent, deep-frozen, to the patient to save a life. Patients who are currently being treated with Kymriah® in Europe have a long history of suffering behind them. This treatment is approved only for cases in which at least two standard treatments have already failed. It is used for children and young adults up to 25 years of age with pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (pALL), as well as adult patients with a form of lymph node cancer known as diffuse large cell B-cell lymphoma. Those affected normally have a life expectancy of just a few weeks or months. The CAR T cells are normally administered to patients only once by infusion. This destroys the cancer cells and triggers an intense immune reaction. If this causes the release of too many immunological messenger substances, such as cytokines, a cytokine storm may result – accompanied by high fever and flu-like symptoms. Neurological disorders are also possible. Kymriah® was approved for use in the EU in 2018. In Germany, this therapy costs 275,000 euros – per patient.

52 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 “To save time and costs, we are aiming to automate production.” Gerno Schmiedeknecht, Fraunhofer IZI The specialized centers that work with Kymriah® are equipped with intensive care facilities where they use a variety of therapies to battle these and other side effects. Since the CAR T cells can continue to multiply in the patient’s bloodstream, this treatment can also reduce tumor cells over the long term, as the results of clinical studies have shown. In the ELIANA study, 79 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia were treated. Of those, 82 percent responded to the treatment, and two years later, 66 percent of the patients treated in the study were still alive. Therapies for breast and lung cancer, too So far, the CAR-T cell therapy is available only for patients with B-cell-based cancers. This is because the CAR construct used for Kymriah® recognizes a very specific target molecule that occurs only in degenerate B cells. However, companies and research facilities around the world are working to develop CAR-T cell therapies for treating solid tumors and other types of cancer. At Fraunhofer IZI, the department headed by Dr. Gerno Schmiedeknecht and Kati Kebbel is pursuing a promising approach – in cooperation with the University Hospital of Würzburg and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin. The project is being funded through the Proof of Concept Initiative, a platform through which Deut- sche Hochschulmedizin, the Helmholtz Association and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft are intensifying their collaboration. “Our partners in Würzburg have developed a CAR construct that recognizes a special target molecule that also occurs on certain solid tumors,” says Gerno Schmiedeknecht. “The target molecule is called ROR1 and occurs on lung and breast cancer cells, among others. We are currently developing a method to produce CAR T cells that destroy these cancer cells.” By developing this method, the research team aims to make the manufacture of personalized CAR T cells more econom- ical and efficient. Currently, a non-replicating virus is used to introduce the gene for the CAR construct into the T cells. However, these specialized viruses are extremely expensive and difficult to procure, which is why, for the gene transfer in the project, they use an alternative: a transposon – a jumping gene that can change its position within a genome. “The virus-free transfer method is more economical and highly efficient,” Schmiedeknecht says. Upon completion of the project, initial clinical tests with the CAR T cells targeting different tumors are planned for 2021 at the University Hospital of Würzburg. CAR-T cell therapies save terminally ill patients’ lives, but they pose a major challenge for the healthcare system. In Germany, around 50 patients have so far been treated with Kymriah®. In mid-September 2019, Novartis signed an agreement with the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-SV) to defray the treatment costs. Who’s going to pay for it? But what will happen when CAR-T cell therapies are also approved for the most common tumor indications, breast and lung cancer? Then patient numbers will soar. Will the health insurance companies still be able to bear the costs of several hundred thousand euros per patient? Or will this treatment be reserved for those who can afford it? Gerno Schmiedeknecht takes a less pessimistic view of this development. “When the first monoclonal antibody therapies came on the market, they, too, were extremely expensive owing to ineffective manufacturing processes,” says the department head. “Today, modern manufacturing methods and the approval of the first biosimilars have resulted in significantly lower prices. Currently, manufacturing the CAR T cells still requires a great deal of manual work in the lab. To save time and costs, we are aiming to automate production.” Support for this endeavor could come from experts at other Fraunhofer Institutes. After all, process automation is one of Fraunhofer’s strengths.

54 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Making travel easier with blockchain It’s New Year’s Eve. Your plan is to take the subway to Munich central station, jump on a fast train to Cologne and grab a taxi to the party. It’s fairly easy to find the cheapest route from A to B and from C to D using an app. But imagine if you could simply click on “book now” and buy a ticket for the whole journey in just one click! It would make life so much easier – but we’re not there yet. By Sonja Endres Professor Gilbert Fridgen and his colleagues at the Fraun- hofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT are on a mission to make traveling in Germany easier. Their plan is to develop an open, decentralized mobility system, known for short as an OMOS. The idea is for all mobility providers to make their data available through a central platform. An algorithm could then use this data to calculate the cheapest journey, allowing consumers to select, reserve and pay for their trip with just one click. “This kind of platform has never got off the ground because Deutsche Bahn, Lufthansa, public transport operators and car sharing companies are understandably reluctant to hand over the reins and their customer relationships to a platform operator,” says Fridgen. Blockchain technology offers a way to bypass this problem by creating a neutral platform that eliminates the need for an operator. The idea is for customers to access the platform using existing apps such as DB Navigator and Share Now. Depending on the app, preference could be given to a specific mode of transport in the event of a tie between two different journey options. For example, the DB Navigator app would put trains and public transport at the top of the list, while Share Now would prioritize car sharing. “Blockchain is a bit like a notebook that can be accessed and read by anyone. Deutsche Bahn can see all its train routes in the notebook, but it can also see what options other providers offer, and at what price. That means it can offer customers a package covering their entire journey – such as a taxi to Berlin’s main train station followed by a high-speed train to Bayreuth and a car share to their final destination of Kulmbach.” The trip booked by the customer is added to the notebook as a permanent entry that cannot be deleted or modified, together with the details of the services and prices provided by each operator. Easy and convenient “Deutsche Bahn, the taxi companies and the car share opera- tors sort out the whole billing process between them, leaving customers to simply enjoy their journey. If the customer uses the DB Navigator app, Deutsche Bahn receives the payment and shares it out accordingly. The operators could also agree to allocate five percent of the ticket price to the company that receives the payment, much like the commission paid to a travel agent,” says Fridgen. Customers don’t have to worry about who bills what.

56 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 “Preventing atrocities” Whether enjoying a glühwein at a Christmas market, celebrating New Year’s Eve at the Brandenburg Gate, or traveling through Germany by train – wherever we are, it’s comforting to know that the very best technology is helping protect us against terrorist attacks and violent crimes. By Janine van Ackeren Commemorating the victims of the terrorist attack at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz in 2016. © imago images

58 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 “We hope that our technology will prevent atrocities – or, at the very least, stop the terror escalating.” Dr. Markus Müller, Fraunhofer IOSB contaminated with radioactive material. “Our system detects whether someone in a stream of passersby is carrying a radioactive source and then warns security personnel,” explains Dr. Felix Govaers, deputy departmental head for sensor data fusion at Fraunhofer FKIE. The system is made up of a number of components. Gamma spectrometers, installed in the floor or the walls of a railroad station, are able to detect radioactive radiation and even determine the type of isotope. They cannot, however, localize its source. For this purpose, the network of gamma spectrometers is connected to commercial Kinect cameras, which not only provide images of passersby but also calculate their distance from the sensors. Data fusion software is then used to merge all this data, thereby pinpointing the radiation source and assigning it to a specific person. When installed at strategic locations – e.g., entrances to stations and airports, ticket barriers, departure gates, or in public buildings – technology of this kind could supply secu- rity personnel or surveillance systems with information on a potential dirty bomb attack. Crucially, here too, any decision to intervene remains under human control. Fraunhofer FKIE is currently in discussion with the Düsseldorf company innoRIID, which would like to market the system. Defense against dangers from the skies Let’s imagine a major event, such as the New Year’s Eve celebra- tions at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. A drone suddenly appears in the skies above. Is it harmless? Or is it an airborne weapon controlled by terrorists and carrying explosives – or, more likely, an incendiary device – into the midst of the huge crowd? This scenario shows just how urgently we require systems capable of identifying and defending against drone attacks. In AMBOS, a project to develop defense systems against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for authorities and organizations with security roles, 12 partners from industry, research and higher education have now devised such a system. Funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the project was coordinated by Fraunhofer FKIE. research group at Fraunhofer FKIE. “This not only merges all the data from the various sensors but also monitors the quality of data from each individual sensor.” For emergency services charged with ensuring security at major events, the system helps them assess each situation and react appropriately. Were a drone to approach New Year’s Eve revelers at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, security would be able to track its position, altitude, speed and direction of flight on a digital map. Moreover, the system also analyzes this data so as to determine the level of actual threat and suggest possible countermeasures. If appropriate, such measures can be implemented at the push of a button by the head of operations. The initial option is to broadcast an interference signal, which blocks any signal received by the drone from its remote controller. Unless the drone is an autonomous UAV, it will then most likely do one of three things, depending on its configuration: hover motionlessly in the air, land on the ground or return to its takeoff position. The second option to counter a drone is to transmit a pulse of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. This will tangle up the drone’s flight controller, thereby causing, amongst other things, the rotors to stop turning – with the result that the drone will fall from the sky like a stone. The third option is to use a net gun to physically bring the drone down. The project was brought to a successful conclusion at the end of June 2019 with an evaluation program held in the German town of Mosbach. Drones were flown in a variety of scenarios toward an area under surveillance. The system was able to recognize the danger and, under the control of the operations leader, undertook appropriate countermeasures. “We’re in discussion with a number of police departments and German air traffic control about the core system, which features sensor data fusion, positional graphics and decision support, and which can be combined with various sensors and defense measures,” says Stuch. It is to be hoped that such technology will soon be helping to limit horror scenarios involving drones. Twitter scans for greater security The system comprises a radar sensor, cameras, a radio reconnaissance sensor to analyze the radio signal used by the remote controller, and acoustic sensors to detect the sound of an approaching drone. Each sensor plays a complementary role: whereas the radar has a range of several kilometers, it requires a line of sight to the drone – as do the cameras; by contrast, the radio reconnaissance and acoustic sensors do not require a line of sight, but the acoustic sensor has a range of max. a couple of hundred meters and is sensitive to ambient noises. “The system’s great strength is its multimodal character and especially its sensor data fusion software,” explains Hans Peter Stuch, project coordinator and head of the AMBOS Another critical arena in the fight against terrorism is social media, which is being increasingly used by extremists for communication purposes and for announcing planned attacks. In the future, security forces will be able to turn to another technology from Fraunhofer FKIE in order to search tweets and other social media postings for keywords and thereby narrow down terrorist suspects. This technology combines an analysis of recorded phone calls with a search engine for social media postings. Once a judge has autho- rized the wiretap, a suspect’s telephone calls are analyzed in a total of three stages: Firstly, calls are scanned to filter out all the intervals in which no speech is to be heard. Secondly,

60 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Gone with the wind There are 30,000 wind turbines in operation in Germany, many of which are beginning to age. In 2019, 2000 rotor blades had to be discarded; in 2024, this figure will shoot up to 15,000. But where to put these up to 90-meter-long, 15-metric-ton behemoths? By Sonja Endres Experts are convinced that, if we want to meet climate targets, we have to increase the number of wind turbines in Germany tenfold over the next 30 years. However, this requires not only installing new wind power generators, but also disposing of numerous old ones – whether due to material fatigue or simply because they are being replaced by larger and more efficient systems. A study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT predicts that the 15,000 rotor blades that will have to be discarded in 2024 will be joined by another 72,000 in the subsequent three years. We already have environmentally friendly methods for disposing of the steel and concrete in the wind power generators, but recycling the rotor blades remains problematic. Firmly bonded and nearly impossible to separate Rotor blades are not made of steel. “That would be too heavy and inflexible. They are made largely of glass-fiber-re- inforced plastic (GFRP) and balsa wood bonded with epoxy or polyester resin,” says Peter Meinlschmidt, project manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klau- ditz-Institut, WKI in Braunschweig. This bond is extremely

62 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Fraunhofer worldwide Diamond electrodes break down recalcitrant environmental toxins The blessing of longevity can be a curse. Nature is not very good at breaking down polyfluorinated organic compounds. Prized by manufacturers for their ability to repel water, dirt and grease, these tough chemicals resist natural degradation and accumulate in the environment. Leeching into wastewater, they make their way into the food chain for plants and animals to absorb. Traces of these chemicals have been found in human tissue samples across the globe. That is not good news: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, have been linked to weakened immune system, impaired fertility and cancer. “Good ways of banishing these compounds from the cycle of materials have yet to be found. These chemicals are largely immune to bacteria and sunlight. Although they can be filtered out of aqueous solutions with activated carbon, ion exchangers or reverse osmosis, the PFAS are still there and cannot be degraded,” says Michael Becker from the Michigan State University-Fraunhofer USA Center for Coatings and Diamond Technologies CCD. PFAS contamination is a hot topic in the U.S. state of Michigan, whose authorities have discovered elevated concentrations in rivers, groundwater, people and the human food chain. Becker’s team is developing a process to break down PFAS into their constituent parts with diamond electrodes by way of “electrochemical oxidation.” Added boron atoms transform the diamonds into electrical conductors. The polyfluorinated organic molecules are oxidatively degraded at the anode, either directly or with the help of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals. This process mineralizes these intractable molecules fully, leaving nothing but water, carbon dioxide and harmless fluorides. The technology has proven its merits in the lab. Now the Fraunhofer researchers are busy optimizing the process for practical application. The Michigan city of Grand Rapids just approved a 300,000-U.S.-dollar grant to develop the technology. Minerals and drinking water from hot springs Water is a scarce commodity in northern be obtained from hydrothermal sources. Chile. Thermal springs are to be found under the arid ground, but their water does not a great thirst-quencher make. Hot and salty with magnesium, lithium and potassium, it also contains gold and boron. “Brine is a prized resource. It can serve to produce energy, drinking water and minerals,” says Dr. Joachim Koschikowski, researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and coordinator of the BrineMine project. German and Chilean companies and research institutions have joined forces with Fraunhofer CSET Chile in this project to develop a process to break brine down into its component parts. The energy needed to power this process may The first step is to force miner- al-rich water through a membrane that is permeable only to H2O. This produces pure water. The residual solution is rich in minerals that can be filtered out in a second step. Heating evaporates any remaining water through a membrane, which then condenses on a cold surface on the other side. This condensate is potable. The residual solids are minerals that may be separated chemically and put to good use. “With this BMBF-funded project, we want to not only show that the technology works; we also want to demonstrate its economic viability,” says Koschikowski emphatically. A demonstration plant is to start producing 100 liters of drinking water a day in 2021.

64 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 An estimated 690 million packages are delivered in the period before Christ- mas – around 14 million packages every day. An intelligent assistant cuts packing volume, time and costs. © Jochen Zick / action press

66 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 »PUZZLE® calculates which shipping carton a packer should use and the arrangement of the items in it. PUZZLE® can also keep item types (item color and number) together. © Fraunhofer IML PUZZLE® and “passt” will soon help reduce packaging, making room for more goods in transporters. © Sina Schuldt / dpa “passt” is an assistance system that helps workers find the best packing strategy. The development of this packing workstation is the result of the collaborative effort of two Fraunhofer IML departments: the Software & Information Engineering department devel- oped the PUZZLE® software to optimize packaging, while the Packaging and Retail Logistics department devised “passt,” a novel assistance system that visualizes the PUZZLE® results. Fraunhofer IML’s iPackAssist transfer project with Hüdig + Rocholz GmbH is aimed at taking the integration of these two technologies from prototype status to preproduction status. The Fraunhofer IML team headed by Georg Wich- mann, Benedikt Mättig and Christian Olms conducted crucial research behind both of these developments. PUZZLE® calcu- lates the package volume and, with the help of the “passt” assistant, provides additional information aimed at helping the employees packing the boxes. Because the assistant provides visualizations, it is easy to understand, which means that employees don’t need to undergo time-consuming training and won’t fail in the day-to-day work environment as a result of language barriers. The joint transfer project is aimed at helping to develop the interactive packing workstation of the future. Currently, it is up to employees to decide which box format to use for each shipment and how to arrange the items in the box. PUZZLE® determines dimensions, weights and quantities and uses these to calculate the optimum package layout. “passt” is a human-machine interface that guides packers through the packing process. How does it work? The assistance system is comprised of two lighted strips embedded in the table at a right angle to each other, like a coordinate system. These strips indicate where to place the box, and LED lamps light up where the packages can be embedded. Further, different colors are used to provide additional information, such as the maximum load or which group a package belongs to. Because it provides intelligent assistance, learning how to use the system is very easy.

68 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Audi, BMW and other carmakers have announced the launch of various new vehicle models from 2021 onwards. The network of hydrogen fueling stations also looks set to expand, with a total of 400 scheduled to be up and running by 2023, and 1000 by 2030. For some people, traditional SUVs still rule the roost as a status symbol in today’s big cities, much like fur coats were once seen as the height of fashion – but hydrogen now has the potential to become the next big thing. Buoyed by support from the German government, the Fraunhofer Institutes ISI in Karlsruhe and ISE in Freiburg have produced a “hydrogen roadmap” for Germany with the help of their colleagues at Fraunhofer IMWS in Halle and Fraunhofer IKTS in Dresden. This makes clear recommendations on how the government can get hydrogen fuel cell cars on the road faster. Providing support for new refueling stations is one of the key proposals, with the authors recommending the use of public funding to get 1000 stations in operation by 2030. They also suggest that “a good way to support the market ramp-up is by incentiv- izing emission-free mobility in public procurement contexts such as utility vehicles, police vehicles and goods transport.” Hydrogen versus electric What’s the best way to power vehicles if Germany and Europe are serious about meeting their climate targets? This was the question tackled by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in their study on the “Industrial- ization of Water Electrolysis in Germany.” The authors focused primarily on the CO2 emissions from battery-electric, diesel and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, commonly referred to as their carbon footprint. “Our studies show that hydrogen fuel cells are the most favorable option for various usage scenarios and vehicle types,” says Professor Hans-Martin Henning, who heads up Fraunhofer ISE. “We therefore see fuel cell vehicles as a key component of future mobility that will co-exist with other climate-neutral means of powering vehicles.” Another question examined in the Fraunhofer study was whether bat- tery-electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles hold the greatest hope for the future. The results revealed that battery-electric vehicles come out on top for short trips and exclusively urban driving, but for distances over 250 or 300 kilometers, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles take the lead. Meanwhile, experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI investigated how hydrogen could help us move away from fossil fuels. Their results appeared in a “Gas Roadmap” produced on behalf of the German Federal Environment Agency. “Hydrogen really comes into play in situations where it is difficult to make direct use of electric energy, such as heavy goods transportation, shipping and air traffic,” says Mario Ragwitz, deputy director of Fraunhofer ISI. A glance at the figures for heavy goods vehicles and semi- trailer trucks reveals there are just 230,000 on German roads, far fewer than the number of passenger vehicles. Yet the potential they offer is huge, because heavy goods vehicles are responsible for half of the road haulage industry’s carbon footprint. Powering these vehicles with hydrogen fuel cells could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles Most people are familiar with the idea of using hydrogen as a fuel by generating electrical current in fuel cells. Vehicles carry the hydrogen in a special tank, and the fuel cell con- verts the hydrogen’s chemical energy into electricity to drive the electric motor that powers the vehicle. These systems typically include a small electric battery to handle peak loads. Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have become the standard for mobility applications. These offer the kind of high power density and very high dynamics that are required for maneuvers such as rapid braking. “Low-tem- perature PEMFCs open the door to emission-free mobility for all vehicle classes including buses and heavy goods vehicles as well as rail traffic,” says Professor Christopher Hebling, division director at Fraunhofer ISE. “Our work covers everything from basic development to research into produc- tion methods. Our goal is to get fuel cell reliability on a par with that of combustion engines in terms of their mobility credentials, but without increasing the manufacturing costs.” Currently, vehicles require a whole host of sensors to supply the fuel cell consistently with the right amount of hydrogen. These sensors drive up costs and make the system more susceptible to errors. To address this problem, scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU are collaborating with various partners on the Eco-CC project, which aims to develop a cost-effective and reliable measurement and control concept. “The idea is to come up with a concept that makes fuel cell operation as reliable and robust as possible,” says Professor Welf-Guntram Drossel, who heads up Fraunhofer IWU. The researchers have to take numerous parameters and measurement signals into account to get the best results, including pressure, temperature, humidity, electrical voltage, electrical current, gas concentrations, mass flow rates and electrical conduc- tivity. “We combine this sensor data with process models to gradually build up a concept that works,” says Drossel. The scientists hope their new control concept will make fuel cells more cost-effective and efficient. Hydrogen vehicles can only make a mark in the mobility sector if improvements are made to fuel cell service life, because replacing the fuel cell in a car after just a few years is a costly and unappealing downside for drivers. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM are currently seeking ways to make fuel cells last longer. They are focusing their attention on the ceramic and metal materials Battery-elec- tric vehicles offer advan- tages for city driving and shorter distances, but the strengths of hydrogen-pow- ered vehicles come to the fore with distances over 250 kilometers.

70 - Fraunhofer magazine 4.19 Important events in Fraunhofer’s 2020 calendar Fraunhofer annual general assembly May 12 – 13 Hamburg Hannover Messe April 20 – 24 Hannover The world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology Embedded World February 25 – 27 Nürnberg Exhibition and conference for embedded technol- ogies focusing on hard- ware, software and tools Optatec May 12 – 14 Frankfurt am Main International trade fair for optical technologies, components and systems Control May 5 – 8 Stuttgart International trade fair for quality assurance Hamburg Hannover Berlin Frankfurt am Main Stuttgart Nürnberg Munich HUB April 1 – 2 Berlin Europe’s interactive business festival for digital movers and makers ILA - Innovation and Leadership in Aerospace May 13 – 17 Berlin International aerospace show Analytica March 31 – April 3 Munich World’s leading trade fair and conference for laboratory technology, analysis and biotech- nology IFAT May 4 – 8 Munich World’s leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management

» “The combination of quantum computing and artificial intelligence will be nothing less than a key future technology that will main- tain our competitiveness in international high-tech markets.” Prof. Reimund Neugebauer, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft