Field Notes

Wolfheze, Hamburg, Munich

One intensely refreshing week across three communities.

May 16, 2026 · Dr. Habil. Mohcine Chraibi

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Last week was an intensely refreshing one.

It started in Wolfheze with a CROWDING project meeting — socio-psychologists, computer scientists, mathematicians and physicists in one room. Creativity and original ideas were all over the place. In the evening we all watched the Champions League semifinals together — though some left a bit sadder after Bayern’s exit ^^.

The CROWDING project meeting in Wolfheze.

From there to Hamburg for a workshop organised by Desior, with a Sunday talk on what UEFA EURO 2024 taught us about the gap between practice and research.

Crowd management workshop at the Hamburg Harbour Birthday, organised by Desior.

Then Munich for the VIB workshop — a new community for me, working on adjacent questions of building safety. And to close, a good long breakfast conversation with Dr. Yang.

The VIB workshop in Munich.

In between the sessions I got to talk through some of what we’ve been working on lately: motivation modelling, our work on the Amritsar tragedy, and pyFDS-Evac — a revival of the much-missed FDS-Evac.

Big things coming. And more strength to open-source software.