Inaugural Seminar - Doctoral Retreat

At D-MTEC, we value a comprehensive learning journey for our doctoral candidates. A cornerstone of our doctoral education is the Inaugural Seminar, a three-day event. In 2019, the retreat took place in Kloster Kappel am Albis, with 30 first-year doctoral students. As an innovative learning and networking experience, the retreat combines informal get-togethers with inputs, workshops, and interactive sessions. The participants embark on their comprehensive learning journey at D-MTEC and discuss with professors, assistant professors, scientific staff, and alumni about state-of-the-art research methods, reading and publishing strategies, teaching challenges, supervising master students, and career opportunities after their doctorate. We introduce the D-MTEC research collaboration award and encourage participants to engage in interdisciplinary exchanges. The retreat is an excellent opportunity to network with faculty members, the doctoral services, other doctoral candidates, and alumni.

The course is a unique initiative to onboard junior researchers into the D-MTEC culture. We give them a chance to develop peer support networks and we sow the seeds for future cross-chair collaborations. Over the past years, about 70% of all newly enrolled D-MTEC doctoral students participated in the retreat. We value social interactions in the evenings and take participants on a hike to allow for conversations and interactions during outdoor activities. In the inputs and workshops, we use a wide range of didactic methods to foster soft skills developments and research method training (e.g. mapping participants, audience interaction polls, facilitated Q&A sessions, science communication in the "#tweetyourthesis" workshop).