Prof Dr Charlotte Köhler wins 4th Brandenburg Science Slam

It was the very first Science Slam in which Viadrina Junior Professor of Business Administration (Business Analytics in particular) had taken part. In her ten-minute presentation, Charlotte Köhler gave presented what happens at online retailers after a customer has clicked on "order now". The data expert explained what many in the room know from the consumer's perspective by taking a look behind the app interfaces. She described aspects of logistics and data analysis and also addressed customer satisfaction. Humour, specialist knowledge and everyday relevance earned her the top spot.

"The biggest challenge for me was the time: in just ten minutes, you want to explain what it's all about in an understandable way - and at the same time convey that the research problem is relevant and anything but trivial," says Charlotte Köhler, describing her approach and admitting that she was quite nervous. Preparing her research for an audience, some of whom had never heard of analytics or optimisation problems, was also enriching for her: "Preparing the topic for a broader audience - in example explaining what you are working on and why it is relevant - is not only fun, but also helps you to look at your own field of research with different eyes." She enjoyed getting out of the "professional bubble" and presenting content in a different/new way just as much as the presentations by the other participants.

In addition to Charlotte Köhler, Viadrina graduate Oona Malmi gave a presentation on the use of humour in feminism and Viadrina doctoral student Lado Sirdadze presented a legal tech future scenario at the science slam. Guest researcher Prof Stephan Lewandowsky from the University of Bristol and doctoral student Thoralf Dietrich from the University of Potsdam also reported on their research.

The individual slam contributions will be published shortly on the Youtube channel of the Präsenzstelle Fürstenwalde.

Translated by DeepL and edited