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Department of Mechanical Engineering
[Translate to English:] © IUL

Two Ruhr Fellows at IUL

© IUL
Ruhr Fellows Leah Maathey (left) and Madeleine Korver (right) in front of IUL's 2,000 kN SMG press used for cold forging
© IUL
Final presentations at IUL, from left: Prof. Yannis P. Korkolis, Leah Maathey, Madeleine Korver, and Jan Gerlach
From June 8th to July 24th, 2026 the Institute of Forming Technology and Lightweight Components (IUL) welcomed two students for research internships within the Ruhr Fellowship Program organized by the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr): Leah Maathey, an environmental engineering student at Harvard University, and Madeleine Korver, a mechanical engineering student at Lehigh University.

The student exchange started with a one-week academic and cultural introduction across the University of Duisburg-Essen, Ruhr University Bochum, and TU Dortmund University. Then the students joined their respective host institutions. At IUL, both students worked in the context of the Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio 188 "Damage Controlled Forming Processes". Their projects connected current questions in materials characterization, modeling, and forming technology.

Supervised by Jan Gerlach, Leah investigated rest-time effects on the elastic properties of dual-phase steels. Her work combined experiments with the modeling of complex nonlinear elastic behavior. The project provided an opportunity to engage with the interaction between experimental observations and constitutive descriptions of material response.

Madeleine was supervised by Niklas Bechler and focused on the cold forging of aluminum and the influence of forming-induced damage on material properties. Her work included both numeric and experimental aspects, giving her hands-on experience with metal forming processes and material testing as wells working with FE-simulations.

We are very pleased to host such enthusiastic and talented people from around the world. Through the Ruhr Fellowship Program we have been able to host 6 students from US universities over the past 3 years. During the same time, we hosted several visiting students and scholars from around the world, from Japan, China, Turkey, Algeria and France. Beyond the technical exchanges, this exposure to diverse cultures benefits everyone involved.

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