{"id":20288,"date":"2026-04-08T10:37:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/?p=20288"},"modified":"2026-04-08T10:37:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:37:56","slug":"junior-research-group-leader-pit-hofmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/junior-research-group-leader-pit-hofmann\/","title":{"rendered":"Orchestrating the Backbone: An Interview with Junior Research Group Leader Pit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a world-class research environment like CeTI, “excellence” requires more than just individual brilliance \u2013 it needs structure, coordination, and a shared vision. Our Junior Research Group Leaders are the “conductors” of this scientific orchestra. We sat down with Pit to discuss his role in managing the technological backbone of the Tactile Internet.<\/p>\n

CeTI: Pit, what does the title “Junior Research Group Leader” actually mean in the context of an Excellence Cluster?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pit:<\/strong>\u00a0You can think of this role as a scientific orchestrator. As a Junior Research Group Leader, I have several years of research experience and now take on the responsibility of coordinating an interdisciplinary group. This involves aligning professors, principal investigators, postdocs, and PhD students. The goal is to make our collective work efficient while maintaining a cooperative environment where the research questions always come first.<\/p>\n

CeTI: What is your specific role within that structure?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pit:<\/strong>\u00a0I act as the interface. I connect the various researchers within my area and serve as a link to the CeTI Program Office. I ensure that our research goals are clearly defined and successfully implemented. My focus is split between scientific content and the administrative tasks that keep the engine running.<\/p>\n

CeTI: You lead the “Communication-Oriented Research” area. Why is this area considered the “backbone” of CeTI?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pit:<\/strong>\u00a0Because we provide the essential infrastructure. Our area unites multiple layers: from the\u00a0Fundamental Floors <\/em>(Computing, Communication & Sensing) to the\u00a0Methods Floors<\/em>\u00a0(AI, Information Theory) and the\u00a0Component Floor <\/em>(Network of Networks). Without this backbone, our various use cases \u2013 whether in medicine or industry \u2013 wouldn’t have the communication and computing power they need to collaborate across projects.<\/p>\n

CeTI: What are your core tasks on a day-to-day basis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pit:<\/strong>\u00a0My work revolves around four key pillars:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Coordination:<\/strong>\u00a0Streamlining activities to create synergies between different researchers.<\/li>\n
  2. Organization & Communication:<\/strong>\u00a0Hosting meetings, brainstorming sessions, and workshops to foster interdisciplinary exchange.<\/li>\n
  3. Problem Solving:<\/strong>\u00a0Being the point of contact for team members regarding both administrative and scientific questions.<\/li>\n
  4. Research Alignment:<\/strong>\u00a0Keeping an eye on the “big picture” to steer all activities toward meaningful innovation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    CeTI: What is the personal “added value” of this position for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Pit:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s an incredible opportunity to grow both professionally and personally. Managing complex research projects and working in such a diverse, interdisciplinary team challenges you every day. You don\u2019t just develop technical solutions; you learn how to actively advance a scientific community.<\/p>\n

    Picture: \u00a9 Frank Gr\u00e4tz<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":20290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,172],"tags":[223],"class_list":["post-20288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-research","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20288"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20299,"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20288\/revisions\/20299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceti.one\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}