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Dear reader,
Five years ago, the TUM Department of
Mechanical Engineering was evaluated
in a review process initiated by the
University Board. Already in 2011, the
Board of Referees pointed to the strength
in research and teaching, while also
suggesting that more publications in
internationally highly renowned journals
or conferences were required to increase
visibility.
As a consequence, the department agreed
to focus on contributions listed on ISI
Web of Science or Scopus as a criterion
for ‘renowned journals’ and introduced a
number of measures to increase publica-
tion activities, starting from courses on
‘Scientific Paper Writing’ in the Graduate
Center up to financial incentives for the
institutes and formal requirements, e.g. in
the habilitation process. The number of
publications almost doubled from c. 300
p.a. (2006-2008) to 500 p.a. (2013-2016,
based on Scopus data for professors
only); citations more than tripled from less
than 2000 p.a. to over 6000 p.a. Since
most international rankings are based on
publication data, the TUM Department of
Mechanical Engineering is now ranked in
top positions worldwide and on position
1 or 2 within Germany (c.f. Rankings
p. 27).
Excellent collaboration with industry is
a unique feature of German engineering
schools, especially in such an economi-
cally strong region as the greater Munich
area. Third party funding has more than
doubled since 2005, although the growth
rate has been slowing down during the
last few years, with an observable shifting
from direct funding through industry
towards project funding from the federal
and state governments. Students and
doctoral candidates profit significantly
from early contacts with potential future
employers. At the same time, one can
observe that the scientific quality of theses
improves from good supervision and
presence in an academic environment,
including teaching. Consequently, the
Department of Mechanical Engineering
was the first faculty at TUM to expect
presence at the university for at least one
day per week on average from each Ph.D.
candidate.
Equally important as research funding
and joint projects with industry is the
appointment of high profile researchers
from industry. In 2016, the TUM Depart-
ment of Mechanical Engineering was
able to appoint Prof. Gümmer as Chair
of Turbomachinery and Flight Propulsion
and Prof. Fottner as Chair of Technical
Logistics. Prof. Gümmer was Chief
Engineer at Rolls Royce Germany and
Prof. Fottner has been Managing Director
of MIAS GmbH with responsibility for all
technical and operational businesses in
the MIAS Group.
For the third time now, we have com-
piled the department's most recent
achievements and research results in this
report. We hope that it helps our partners
in academia and industry to establish
contact points, prospective students and
junior researchers to identify possible
supervisors that best suit their interests
and – last but not least – ourselves, the
colleagues at the department as a living
exchange platform on our research and
teaching activities.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Nikolaus Adams, Dean
Preamble
Preamble