back

Win-Win: Three Unite! Visiting Professors at etit

Guests from Aalto University Enhance Teaching and Research

2025/09/05 by

All three guest professors bring international expertise and decades of research experience to TU Darmstadt, aiming to familiarize students with the latest scientific developments and challenges. Dr. Maria Nazarova, Prof. Dr. Zhengmao Li, and Dr. Avleen Malhi will each contribute a dedicated course to the department’s teaching program.

Bridging Fields and Scales in Brain Stimulation and Neurorehabilitation – Dr. Maria Nazarova

The course led by internationally recognized neurologist and neuroscientist Dr. Maria Nazarova aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration between medicine and engineering. The module focuses on how microscopic insights from neuroscience can be translated into macroscopic applications in neurorehabilitation. In a simulated learning environment, students will adopt the perspectives of both developers and medical professionals to create interdisciplinary solutions for current challenges in neurorehabilitation.

Elements of Hydrogen Systems and Storages – Prof. Dr. Zhengmao Li

Green hydrogen is a key technology for the energy transition and is increasingly integrated into multi-energy systems. Prof. Dr. Zhengmao Li, a leading expert in green hydrogen technology, will cover all essential aspects of green hydrogen production, storage, and utilization. Topics include electrolysis, methane pyrolysis, storage methods (compressed and liquefied hydrogen), and applications in fuel cells and industrial use. Special emphasis is placed on integrating green hydrogen technologies into multi-energy systems and on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in optimizing these systems. Students will not only learn the technical fundamentals but also examine the ecological and societal impacts of hydrogen technologies.

Explainable and Ethical Artificial Intelligence for Engineering – Dr. Avleen Malhi

In the age of digital transformation, the ethics of artificial intelligence is a crucial topic. In her course, Dr. Avleen Malhi will teach both the technical foundations and ethical considerations surrounding AI. The module explores explainable AI (XAI) – the interpretability of AI decisions – and addresses ethical challenges in areas such as autonomous driving, healthcare, and smart cities. Students will be introduced to the development of AI systems that are not only powerful but also transparent and ethically responsible. The course highlights how engineers must consider societal contexts when designing intelligent systems.

An Interdisciplinary Exchange That Looks Beyond the Horizon

The Unite! Visiting Professors Program promotes cross-disciplinary networking and strengthens international collaboration. Students benefit from a practice-oriented, research-driven education that prepares them for the challenges of a globalized and technological world.

Through its interdisciplinary focus and international exchange, TU Darmstadt offers a unique learning environment where students not only gain technical knowledge but also develop an understanding of the ethical and societal issues associated with future technologies.

Avleen Malhi is an AI researcher currently working in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. She also holds an associate professorship at the Finest Centre for Smart Cities at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Her research focuses on applied intelligence in smart systems and the advancement of AI methods to improve autonomy, interpretability, and effectiveness. She develops efficient AI-powered solutions to tackle real-world problems, with a special focus on automated decision-making in machine learning, explainable AI (XAI), and autonomous systems.

Zhengmao Li is an Assistant Professor at Aalto University and leads the MESPO research group on AI and optimization for multi-energy systems. He is a recipient of the Best Paper Award from IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and co-author of a Nature article series on green hydrogen systems. His research focuses on integrating green hydrogen into electricity, heat, and water networks. The goal is to design energy systems that are cost-effective, climate-friendly, and stable. The key challenge: achieving both economic efficiency and sustainability while coping with the variability of wind and solar energy. To address this, he develops AI-based decision-making methods, including deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and optimization using large language models (LLMs). Combined with renewable energy and green hydrogen, these tools aim to enable optimal planning and operation of energy systems.

Maria Nazarova is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow and leads the Brain-informed R2B Project at the Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. Her research explores the interplay between the brain and behavior to better understand motor physiology and improve motor function recovery following brain injuries. She connects practical therapeutic applications with fundamental neuroscience questions, investigating how medical technology can stimulate neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to adapt – in rehabilitation. Her work focuses especially on hand and arm function, as the loss of manual dexterity remains one of the most significant challenges in modern neurorehabilitation. Hand function is one of the most complex achievements of the brain, reflecting both evolutionary development and the collaboration of multiple levels of the nervous system. Nazarova’s work bridges practical therapy and deep neuroscientific inquiry.