The rapid advancement of autonomous vehicle technology promises enhanced efficiency and safety in transportation. However, operational constraints within Operational Design Domains (ODDs), including issues in sensing, behaviour prediction, and reliability, limit the potential of automated vehicles. Expanding the ODD framework is critical to enable these vehicles to navigate challenging scenarios like construction zones, unmarked roads, and adverse weather conditions. This expansion involves robust perception and decision-making algorithms, reducing the need for human intervention and facilitating integration with human-driven vehicles. While the benefits are substantial, challenges like data collection, sensor technology, and regulatory frameworks must be addressed through interdisciplinary collaboration. The iEXODDUS project is at the forefront of advancing digital technologies and navigation services, aligning with goals for increased safety, security, and sustainability in the mobility sector, ultimately paving the way for safer and more reliable automated transportation. iEXODDUS shall meticulously assess existing ODDs to unveil limitations and areas for improvement, fostering a deep understanding of ODD challenges and opportunities. This analysis serves as the foundation for a framework to assess and categorize ODDs across diverse automated driving scenarios. A key focus area is the enhancement of sensor technologies and perception capabilities through cutting-edge data fusion methods, expanding ODDs beyond current limits while considering environmental factors like weather conditions and road infrastructure. iEXODDUS envisions autonomous vehicles travelling across Europe, resolving harmonization and legal issues, and making policy recommendations. Collaboration with industry stakeholders and aiming for real-world demonstrations will enable an industry-tailored approach towards automated driving systems with extended ODDs.

Olefins are feedstocks readily available from petroleum and vegetable biomass with an integral role in the preparation of high-value materials. In particular, olefin ozonolysis used to introduce oxygen atoms and convert these molecules into a broad spectrum of synthetic intermediates like aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids. So far ozonolysis reactions mostly adopted by the bulk chemical industry which uses it on simple materials. The fine chemical sectors (pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries) do not use this reactivity mostly due to safety concerns in handling ozone. The Leonori group has recently demonstrated that photoexcited nitroarenes can be used as ozone surrogates for the oxidative cleavage of olefins. This project seeks to understand the key mechanistic factors that govern the reactivity so that generalization and application by the broad chemical community might be possible. The completion of such a timely and relevant mechanistic project at RWTH Aachen University will be facilitated by generating, transferring, sharing and disseminating knowledge, and will enhance The Researcher’s future career following the training plan envisioned.

Quantum networking would enable the connection of quantum processing nodes to increase computing power, long distance intrinsically secure communication, and the sharing of quantum resources over wide networks. Fully realizing these prospects requires local nodes with many coupled qubits connected by photonic links. Currently, qubits with good prospects for scaling to large numbers provide no optical interface, while optically addressable systems appear difficult to scale. This project aims to establish the fundamentals for quantum networks consisting of potentially scalable semiconductor spin qubits in gated GaAs quantum dots. These electrically controlled qubits have been proven viable for quantum computing, but so far have not been interfaced coherently with photons. To achieve the latter, we plan to use local electric fields generated by gate electrodes on both sides of a quantum well to create bound exciton states in a semiconductor structure that also hosts quantum dot qubits. These hybrid devices will make results from semiconductor quantum optics and self-assembled quantum dots applicable to gate-defined quantum dots. Besides laying the foundations for our technological goal, such a connection of two very active subfields will open a broad range of new possibilities. Building on the capability to optically address our qubits, we plan to implement a protocol to transfer their quantum state to a photon. In addition, we plan to implement exchange-based two-qubit gates for two-electron spin qubits, which promise a much higher fidelity than the demonstrated Coulomb-coupled gates. Such high fidelity entangling gates are essential for quantum information processing. We then aim to integrate a photon interface into a two-qubit device in order to entangle a photonic flying qubit and a scalable semiconductor qubit. Finally, two such devices will be used to entangle separate semiconductor qubits via a photonic link, thus demonstrating a minimal network.