Retreat 2025

It is autumn again, that means it was time for our retreat! After last year's retreat to Halle, we spend two days in the capital of Saxony: Dresden. It was only a 2-hour train ride and a short walk until we reached the mightyTwice Hotel. We were welcomed with coffee, tee and some snacks, which strengthened us for the first talks.

The overall topic of this year's retreat was Stochastic Decision Making (SDM). Therefore, most of our participants presented their work in the context of SDM. What is the decision? What makes the decisions in my system? Additionally to the talks of our steady members, we could also learn about the research of a new member: Torben Ott introduced us to the topic of behavioural strategies of animals with the example of optimal time investment. In between the talks, we had a well-deserved lunch, before we started with the second round of presentations.

After listening to all the interesting work and having engaging discussions the whole day, the urge for movement and some fresh air was strong. Since last year's 'walk and talk' was a success, we took the tram to the old town of Dresden and strolled through the city. Starting at the Theaterplatz, we passed by the Semperoper and went into the Zwinger, a palatial complex with gardens built during the reign of Augustus the Strong. When we found out that there is a Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments (German: Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon), we could not resist to take a group photo in front of it!

Our way led us past the Dresden Castle to the Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes), which is a large drawing on Meissen porcelain tiles that shows 35 rulers of Saxony. They ruled from the High Middle Ages until the 20th century and were labelled with interesting nicknames, for example Albrecht II, der Entartete (Albert II, the Degenerate) or Friedrich I, der Gebissene (Frederick I, the Bitten).

Following this mural, we reached one of Dresden's most famous buildings: the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). It was severely damaged during the bombing at the end of World War II and remained a ruin for a long time, but luckily its reconstruction was initiated in 1994. When we arrived at the church, the sun was setting and making the church shine orange. A part of the group decided to go to the top of the church, from where you have a great view over Dresden with all it's beautiful buildings. The others explored the numerous shops at the Neumarkt, including a shop selling the famous Meissen porcelain or were simply enjoying the nice evening. When everyone was back to the ground, we finished our walk on Brühl's Terrace along the Elbe River, which is also called 'The Balcony of Europe'. 

The tram brought us back to the hotel, where everything was ready for dinner. We ended the day with good food, some drinks and inspiring conversations.

The second day of our retreat began with an early breakfast and was followed by the last talks of our Stochastic Decision Making Project. These included a presentation from another newly joined member of the group: Jens Krause talked about group level decisions and brought up examples from fish and humans. He showed videos from predator-prey situations in which the group of preys moves together, therefore Making some sort of collective decision.

After a short coffee break, we resumed with discussions about Stochastic Decision making in smaller groups. Our researches sat together in groups of three or four and talked about key concepts of the topic, open questions and important methods. With the collection of their ideas the working part of the retreat came to an end. We ate lunch together and headed back to Berlin, where the work on the project continues!