The forum offered students the opportunity to present current research findings from their theses to an expert audience. The student lectures were complemented by impulses from practice. At the end of the event, all those interested found themselves in the "Campus-Dein Original" and let the evening come to an end. Here, all participants had the opportunity to talk to each other and also to exchange ideas about possible internships and theses.

The event was opened and organised by Luise Wottke, research assistant at the Chair of Electric Railways. She presented her PhD project with a focus on dynamics simulation of the interaction between pantograph and overhead line.This is used to evaluate and check the quality of the driving as well as the compliance with normative limit values.

Wieland Kestler presented the results of his study work on the statistical evaluation of short-circuit data. Via a live connection to China to Wenhao Lu, a graduate of the Master's programme in Electrical Transportation System, he presented essential findings of his Master's thesis on the phenomenon of restoring forces. Yaodong Jiang, who came from the field of mechanical engineering and landed in the field of overhead contact lines, explained the potential and possibilities of using finite element software to investigate overhead contact line systems as part of his diploma thesis.

Economy represented with three companies

From the business side, three representatives of renowned companies from the railway sector took part in this year's Catenary Systems Forum. Thomas Nickel, construction manager and head of overhead lines at DB Netz AG, explained the difficulties and challenges in the electrification of the railway network. In doing so, he critically addressed the goals set by DB AG itself.

Johannes Schott, from DB E&C, told what his day-to-day work as an overhead line engineer is like. He is a graduate of the "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences of TU Dresden and has been working for a year.

The Catenary Systems Forum is traditionally closed by the lecturer of the catenary systems lecture and long-time employee of Siemens Mobility GmbH, Dr Andre Dölling. In his contribution, he presented proposed solutions on how to achieve the electrification goals.

The organisation team would like to thank all participants who enriched the event with their contributions. Another thank you goes to the audience, who listened to the expert presentations with rapt attention for a good two hours.

A fourth edition of the Catenary Systems Forum is already planned for 2023. Interested parties will be informed about the event in time.