Every year, an annual report of the GAMM junior research groups is published in the GAMM Newsletter. We would like to collect the content of our contributions here in order to provide information about our activities in the respective years on the website of the junior research group itself. For further content, interested readers are referred to the GAMM website: https://www.gamm.org/publikationen/gamm-rundbriefe/.

The activities of the GAMM Junior Research Group at TU Dortmund University this year commenced with our now traditional summer party, where Dr. Sonja Hellebrand (University of Duisburg-Essen) gave an inspiring talk entitled "On the three-dimensional numerical analysis of residual stresses on two scales in hot bulk forming parts." The informal atmosphere afterwards provided an excellent opportunity for professional and personal exchange as well as networking within the group.

This was followed by the fourth edition of our "Doctoral Consultation Hour." Over coffee and cake, students were able to discuss individual questions regarding their doctoral studies -- by now an established element of our annual program. We were then delighted to welcome Dr. Andreas Warkentin (University of Kassel), who accepted our invitation and delivered an insightful lecture on "Efficient energy harvesting with ferroelectrics: from material modeling to process optimization." Further highlights included talks by Prof. Magnus Ekh (Chalmers University of Technology) on "Gradient-enhanced phase-field crystal plasticity modeling of ductile failure in polycrystals" and by Prof. Mathias Rögers (TU Dortmund University) on "Variational models for biomembranes". Each of these events was accompanied by lively scientific discussion and social interaction. The same held true for this year’s general assembly of the Junior Research Group, during which the current board was confirmed for another term thus continuing to represent the group’s interdisciplinary character between mathematics and mechanics. In addition to the scientific program, several friendly football tournaments were organized and met with great enthusiasm.

The activities of the Junior Research Group at TU Dortmund have once again reached a high level this year, supported by numerous dedicated members. This positive dynamic now extends beyond TU Dortmund: within the framework of the Ruhr Alliance, we have already established connections with the Junior Research Group at Ruhr University Bochum. With the joint summer event held together with the University of Duisburg-Essen in May 2025, we successfully continued our networking initiative, creating an excellent platform for scientific exchange and social interaction across university boundaries.

We thank all members for their outstanding commitment and look forward to another year of close collaboration and stimulating contributions.

This year's activities of the GAMM Junior Research Group at TU Dortmund University were kicked off by Assoc. Professor Stehphan Rudykh (University of Wisconsin-Madison) with an exciting lecture on ‘Micromechanics and Instability-driven Pattern Formations in Soft Magneto-Active Materials’. This was followed by the summer party, which has now become an annual fixture, and the doctoral consultation hour, after which the Junior Research Group enjoyed a lecture by Prof Adam Wosatko (Krakow University of Technology) on the topic of ‘Survey of evolving gradient damage models with different activity functions’.  Further activities followed with the opportunity for scientific and personal exchange, whereby the Christmas party of the sister group at the Ruhr University Bochum should be emphasised in particular. The Junior Research Group from TU Dortmund was delighted to accept the official invitation to Bochum and was not only able to attend a stimulating lecture by Prof Jörn Mosler (TU Dortmund), but also to make scientific contacts outside TU Dortmund. The scientific content was rounded off by mathematical contributions in the form of a lecture by Professor Patrick Henning (Ruhr University Bochum) on ‘Numerical Homogenisation by Localized Orthogonal Decomposition’ and a lecture by Dr David Wiedemann (TU Dortmund University) entitled ‘On the notion of polyconvexity for isotropic functions’.

Three of the four current members of the Executive Board were officially dismissed at the plenary meeting. Fabian Guhr, Sebastian Hillbrecht and Henning Lammen have been active members of the junior research group since it was founded in 2019 and have since been involved in the board with extraordinary commitment in changing positions. They are now all in the final stages of their dissertations and are therefore stepping down as board members, but will remain with the Junior Research Group as senior members. The newly elected board is made up of Nataly Manque Roa, Jonas Dünnebacke, Klas Feike and Marius Harnisch. Fortunately, an interdisciplinary board has once again been found, which will further strengthen the interdisciplinary cooperation between mathematics and mechanics at TU Dortmund University.

The activities of the Junior Research Group at TU Dortmund University are still at an all-time high with numerous active members. This pleasing development is not limited to the Technical University. As part of the Ruhr Alliance, a strong network was sought within the Junior Research Groups, which began successfully last year with joint activities with the Ruhr University Bochum and is planned this year with the University of Duisburg-Essen. We are very much looking forward to the upcoming scientific and social activities.

In the spirit of interdisciplinary exchange within the GAMM junior research group, the fifth year at the Technical University of Dortmund began with the seminar "Mathematical foundations of continuum mechanics for engineers: Korn's inequality", in which Prof. Dr. Ben Schweizer presented some of the central mathematical foundations of continuum mechanics specifically for engineers, thus making a major contribution to the networking of mathematics and mechanics. Exciting lectures were a regular activity of the junior research group, in which experts reported on current research activities in their specialist areas. The presentations ranged from "Electromechanical Coupling in Electroactive Polymers - a Visual Analysis of a Third-Order Tensor Field" by Dr. Chiara Hergl (Leipzig University) and "A modern view of FFT-based computational methods in micromechanics" by Jun.Prof. Matti Schneider (KIT), "Model-driven neural networks: From basics to applications in the calculus of variations" by Prof. Robert Martin (University of Duisburg-Essen), "Geometric Construction of Auxetic Metamaterials" by Prof. Stefanie Hahmann and "Computational Design of Laser-Cut Bending-Active Structures" by Prof. Georges-Pierre Bonneau through to "Biaxial testing of ductile damage in metals: New approaches and specimens" by Dr.- Ing.Ing. Steffen Gerke (University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich) and "Local Electrical Properties of Microstructural Defects" by Dr. Hanna Bishara (Tel Aviv University).

The current Executive Board was re-elected at the General Assembly, which was also able to report that the Young Investigators Group has continued to grow with 56 members. In addition to the number of members, their activity in recent months was also very pleasing, which was reflected not only in the lively participation in the lectures and seminars but also in the numerous social activities. The general meeting was rounded off with a presentation by Prof. Matthias G.R. Faes (TU Dortmund) on "Efficient numerical methods to deal with imprecise probabilities".

The activities of the junior research group are at an all-time high with numerous and very active members from various disciplines at the Technical University of Dortmund. We will use this pleasing development to further network young scientists in applied mathematics and mechanics by offering a platform for scientific but also personal exchange.

The fourth year of the GAMM junior research group at the Technical University of Dortmund has been characterized by positive changes. Some regular members now support the junior research group as senior members, others remain associated with the junior research group as former members and some new members have joined. We are particularly pleased to welcome the new members of the Chair of Continuum Mechanics from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, so that the junior research group now consists of 37 regular members, 15 senior members and four former members from seven institutes.

Due to the pandemic, the start of the new academic year took place in the now familiar digital form, with the lecture "Computational modeling with uncertainties: stochastic modeling, calibration and surrogate modeling" by Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Römer from TU Braunschweig not only leading to a lively scientific exchange, but also initiating cooperation projects. The General Assembly was rounded off by the presentation "On data-driven solid mechanics and the extension towards inelastic material behavior" by junior research group member Marius Harnisch, who was also elected to the new Executive Board together with Henning Lammen, Sebastian Hilbrecht and Fabian Guhr. In addition, the junior research group has created a new offer with a doctoral consultation hour, which gives all interested parties the opportunity to clarify questions relating to the doctorate in direct exchange with doctoral candidates. With the seminar "Engineering design of metamaterials' structures through micromorphic enriched continuum modeling" by Prof. Dr. Angela Madeo and a subsequent barbecue evening, the new members of the Chair of Continuum Mechanics were duly welcomed. This first social activity after long years of pandemic-related abstinence was quickly followed by a joint soccer match and the lecture "Knowledge Augmented Neural Network Plasticity Modeling" by Dr. Knut Andreas Meyer from the TU Braunschweig, which was held in hybrid form.

The junior research group is enjoying lively participation, so we are confident that we will be able to implement many more joint activities in the coming twelve months in order to further network young scientists in applied mathematics and mechanics at TU Dortmund University. This was underlined by the approval of the junior research group for a further three years.