In the first part of the lecture, the youngest institute “INATECH” - the Institute of Sustainable Systems Engineering of the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, founded in 1457, is introduced from the research and educational point of view based on the 3 pillars: sustainable materials, energy systems and resilience engineering.

In the second part, selected results in the research area “Hybrid Material Engineering” will be discussed. A hybrid material system is created by combining different materials or even material classes using new manufacturing processes to form a composite material or, alternatively, a material combination by the help of a material-specific joining process. Ultrasonic technology is the common thread running through the research work: For example, power ultrasonics (US) are used to join dissimilar materials, such as light alloys (Al, Ti, steels) with polymer composites (CFRP, GFRP) or even glasses or ceramics to enable multifunctional as well as lightweighting concepts. In addition, we develop and apply power ultrasonics for accelerated fatigue testing of composites to study longevity and circularity options from a materials science and engineering prospective.