New TUM School of Engineering and Design officially launched

11/13/2021
Reading time 3 min.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has taken another strong step forward in its strategic structural reform. The new TUM School of Engineering and Design was officially opened during a festive ceremony on Monday at the TUM high-tech campus in Garching as the fourth of a total of seven Schools.

TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann and Founding Dean Prof. Christoph Gehlen at the ED starting celebration

The TUM School of Engineering and Design consolidates expertise from the fields of mechanical engineering as well as civil, geo and environmental engineering, Aerospace and Geodesy and a part of electrical engineering and architecture. The School's creation expands the exploratory enhancement of technical-functional competencies to include a design-oriented dimension. This transcends the close disciplinary constraints of some teaching and research programs and drives the emergence of future-oriented system expertise.

TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann said: "The founding of the TUM School of Engineering and Design is an important milestone in the implementation of the TUM AGENDA 2030 with the guiding vision of human-centered engineering, supported by the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments."

With 124 professorships, approximately 2300 staff members and around 12,000 students, the new School will develop a collaborative profile oriented towards branding. Its focus areas range from innovations for intelligent mobility both on and above the ground, transformation of the built environment, manufacturing and energy supply all the way to ecological and sustainable Circular Economies. Here the School links the digital world with the physical world using digital twins and integrates design intelligence in research, teaching and innovation.

Prof. Christoph Gehlen, founding dean of ED, stated at the opening ceremonies: "As dean I consider it my duty to create a unique, intellectually stimulating environment and to fortify our excellent research and teaching. I greatly look forward to linking the individual design and engineering disciplines, promoting integrative thinking and generating a keen enthusiasm among our colleagues for creative, future-oriented projects."

Transition and renewal are part of the university's DNA

In his address TUM President Hofmann observed that TUM's persistent readiness to change and dynamic ability to renew itself have been firmly anchored in the university's DNA since it was founded more than 150 years ago. He added that TUM has repeatedly refocused its portfolio of disciplines and its research and teaching objectives precisely to suit the challenges of the respective time at hand. TUM's ongoing structural reform is now recombining the portfolio which has grown additively over the last few decades in terms of disciplines and future-orientation.

Hofmann went on to say that this reform will evolve into a decisive success factor for TUM, paraphrasing English naturalist Charles Darwin: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change."

Structural reform timetable

The founding of the TUM School of Life Sciences in 2020 was followed in 2021 by the inception of the TUM School of Management, the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology and the TUM School of Engineering and Design. The coming year will see the launch of the TUM School of Natural Sciences and the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology. The structural reform will be completed with the TUM School of Medicine and Health in 2023. The TUM Schools are interconnected by Integrative Research Centers as innovation spaces with transdisciplinary cross-section impact.

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