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Dear Reader,
The TUM Department of Mechanical
Engineering is today one of the most
successful faculties of its kind worldwide.
This is demonstrated through all relevant
university rankings. It is placed in first or
second place within Germany and within
the ‘Champions League’ worldwide (c.f.
p. 27).
At the same time, the department is also
proud of its long and prestigious history;
founded in 1868 as the core of the former
Polytechnical School in the context of the
industrialization of Bavaria it was home to
and school of many renowned scientists.
In 2015, a ‘family tree’ of the department
was drawn up, which you can find as an
appendix to this report and in the ‘Mag-
istrale’, the center of the main building of
the department.
In recent years, students, staff and
faculty of the department have become
much more diverse: in 2015, 21% of the
students came from abroad (+75% since
2011); 16% of scientific staff are female
(+42% since 2011); and 12% of the pro-
fessors have an international background
(+100% since 2011).
In 2015, the success of the department
allowed us to attract Prof. Marburg (from
the University of the Armed Forces, Neu-
biberg) for the newly founded Institute of
Vibroacoustics of Vehicles and Machines.
In addition, Dr. Tropschuh, in charge of
Corporate Responsibility and Politics at
AUDI AG in Ingolstadt, was appointed as
honorary professor (c.f. p. 18).
Despite its long history, one aspect of the
TUM Department of Mechnical Engineer-
ing has remained constant throughout
the years; the department covers a very
large range of topics, both in teaching
and research: from the design of efficient
gears to studies on the usability of driver
assistance systems; from the description
of microfluidic systems to the optimization
of production systems. Despite very
diverse approaches, the common goal is
to find technical solutions for the chal-
lenges faced by society:
n
Climate Change and Shortage of
Resources
We work on new mobility concepts,
production processes, which are
highly energy and material efficient,
development and usage scenarios for
novel, ultra light and strong materials
as well as both the development of
highly efficient combustion plants and
renewable energies.
n
Demographic Change
We study usage habits and develop
robots and assistance systems e.g. for
car and production environments as
well as medical devices and support
systems for the elderly.
n
Urbanization
Approximately a quarter of the scien
tific staff works on projects related
to safe and efficient ground mobility,
now to a large extent focused on the
development of small vehicles with
very low fuel consumption or new types
of propulsion units, and possible new
types of ownership (car sharing, etc.).
With this brochure, we present an over-
view of the research at the department’s
institutes. We hope that it helps our
partners in academia and industry to find
experts for their issues, prospective stu-
dents and junior researchers to identify the
supervisor that suits best her/his interests
and – last but not least – ourselves, the
colleagues and partners of this depart-
ment, to inform themselves even better
about our research and teaching activities.
Prof. Dr. Tim C. Lüth, Dean
Preamble
Preamble