CMMRS 2025 Summer School
Published: 07 August 2025
This year, between 27th of July and August 3rd, I had an honor and pleasure to take part in CMMRS in Saarbrücken, Germany. During the school I’ve had many amazing opportunities to meet really awesome people from all around the world and learn more about PhD studies and research in general.
About the school
The Cornell, Maryland, Max-Planck Institute predoctoral Research School – in short known as CMMRS – is an annual, week long school. Since 2017, when the first edition was held, it takes place at the MPI campus in the city of Saarbrücken, Germany.
During this school a very diverse group of students (undergrad and masters’) in computer and information science (and some from mathematical backgrounds) had the opportunity to interact with each other and with faculty from Cornell University, the University of Maryland and Max Planck Institutes.
After the arrival of participants on sunday, July the 27th and check-in in the hostel (quite a nice place), the entire next week followed basically a fixed schedule of a breakfast, then two lectures at MPI, lunch in local cafeteria (of good quality) and after that another lecture and a discussion panel or a mentoring session.
The lectures were given by various professors from organising universities and each of them was focused on different topic, connected to the research area of the lecturer. My favorites beeing the two lectures on NetCat - a formal language for networking proofs, the lectures on type systems and really interesting lecture about Artificial Intelligence having certain biases even with explicitly requested objectivism.
From the afternoon sessions, most were panel discussion about a life of a PhD student and the recrutation process on various universities. The notable exeption to this being the lecture on how to write a scientific article and a group mentoring session, when the participants had an opportunity to interact with various faculty members in smaller, more private groups.
Additional activities
The CMMRS was not only an academic event, but also (maybe even mostly) a social gathering of people with similar interests and at the similar time in their lifes. And, as stated a few times before, from many different countries. Thus far it shouldn’t surprise anyone, that I have met a great deal of amazing people and made some new connections and friendships.
To start things of, let’s say, that I have been roommates with really cool guys. Gabriel from Brazil, Luca from, well, he was studying in Austria and Fabian from Germany.
After the dinner, every day, we had time off. During this breaks I have mostly enjoyed walks around the town of Saarbrücken (or the wildpark near the hostel) with varying subsets of people. The most frequent company included Enna from Germany, Airan from Iran, Anna from Hungary and Valeria from Italy.
The second best activity was playing games in the hostel lobby. We had mostly played Avalon – a social deduction game – with Ayon, Joshua, Huzaiffa and some of the previously mentioned people, who also participated in walks.
The Völklingen Ironworks
During the fourth day of the school, on July 31st the whole school went on an excursion. There were actually two different options for this adventure: a rope course and an ironworks in Völklingen. After some experiences with bikes on the previous workshops I have decided to stick with less physically demanding activity and went to the ironworks.
This proved to be a very good decision, because this industrial site was a sight to behold. From what the guide has told us, it is the oldest and fully preserved, complete ironworks in Europe. It was operational from its construction in late XIX century to the 1986. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 and turned into a museum.
As for the tour around the plant, it was very interesting and our guide was a retired worker of the ironworks. As such, he was able to tell us some real stories from the long life of the ironworks, as well as some trivia and tidbits, that are not so well known outside. He also had a set of keys and general disregard for the official paths, that a tour of the ironworks should follow, so we got a chance to visit places, where not all tourist go.
And all of this is to just say, that I had had a blast and a great time looking all around the blast furnaces, pig iron transportation systems and even train stations designed for easy handling of coal.
Summary
The Cornell, Maryland, Max-Planck Institute predoctoral Research School was a really fun and enriching experience, that I am very glad to have had a chance to take part. It was interesting, fun and it allowed me to meet a host of new people and helped me to make my mind whether or not I would like to continue studies after Master’s.
So, if you ever have a chance to go to the future CMMRS, go for it. You will not regret it.