TUM and DRÄXLMAIER: Cutting-edge research at the Garching campus

Concentrated high-tech expertise in Garching

Autonomous driving, big data and connectivity, electromobility and the Industrial Internet: These are the innovative topics TU Munich will collaborate on with the DRÄXLMAIER Group. Starting in 2017, 75 of the company's engineers, physicists, designers and technicians will work together on the automotive industry's central future topics in approximately 1000 square meters of office and laboratory space at the "Neue Mitte GALILEO" center on the Garching campus.

TUM President Wolfgang A. Herrmann is confident that both sides will benefit from the partnership: "Research and practical application complement one another perfectly in the collaboration between an excellent university and an excellent, innovative company such as the DRÄXLMAIER Group. And the fact that this international high-tech artisan is headquartered here in Vilsbiburg in Bavaria is particularly pleasing to us."

DRÄXLMAIER intentionally chose the campus character of its new site and supports its employees in their creative work activities. "It is important to us that we give our employees enough freedom to develop ideas and work under their own responsibility," explains Dr. Martin Gall, Chief Technology Officer at DRÄXLMAIER and also a TUM graduate. "The GALILEO site will help us win over and foster talented new colleagues."

Industry on Campus

The TUM partnership with DRÄXLMAIER places an important accent on its strategic "Industry on Campus" concept. One outstanding example of the concept's success is the research program with General Electric: Twelve years ago the worldwide corporate group decided to set up its European research center at the Garching campus in the immediate vicinity of the TUM. Working on the basis of a frame agreement, the partners are conducting research in the fields of Energy, Mobility and Health.

Siemens AG is also planning a new research site at the campus center. In the future as many as 300 of the company's researchers are to work side by side with scientists from the TUM. The most important areas of collaboration are Robotics/Autonomous Systems and IT Security. The research building will be located right next to the new construction site for the TUM Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Addressing the networking of companies and scientists in the field of digitalization, the Bavarian State government's digitalization center "Zentrum Digitalisierung.Bayern" (ZD.B), is headquartered on the research campus and coordinates activities in this future-oriented science and business sector throughout Bavaria.

Today well over 15,000 TUM students are already being educated at the Garching campus, making it the university's largest single contiguous site. At the end of 2017 the "Neue Mitte GALILEO" will also be completed, featuring an Audimax auditorium, a campus hotel, shopping and restaurant areas, office space and an underground garage. "The construction project is making rapid progress and will be completed on schedule," said TU President Prof. Herrmann, to whom the alliance of the university with strong research partner companies is of central importance. "There is no other university site in Germany that can match Garching in terms of the potential synergies between the makers of technology and the business world."