News

At KTmfk, we often faced this challenge — especially when trying to reuse and communicate tolerancing approaches across disciplines in research and industry projects. After three years of collaboration, we are happy to share the results in our latest publication. We introduce a holistic descripti...

The KTmfk took part in SheMet25 in Paderborn from March 31 to April 3. SheMet is an international scientific conference that focuses on current developments, methods and applications in sheet metal processing and forming technology. The KTmfk was represented by a scientific paper by Jonathan-Markus ...

From 2nd to 4th April 2025, the 35th CIRP DESIGN CONFERENCE took place at the University of Patras in Greece. KTmfk contributed with two scientific papers and was represented by Jessica Pickel, Marc Behringer and Prof. Sandro Wartzack. The presented topics included an overview on the use of ontologi...

For this year's strategy meeting, the KTmfk - Chair of Design Engineering at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg retired to the Ammersee at the Seminarhotel Riederau from March 26 to 28. The focus was on optimizing internal chair processes, developing new research ideas and strengthening team cohesion. In additi...

Dr. Miehling is now a member of the Editorial Board of the renowned journal Scientific Reports in the field of Biomedical Engineering. Scientific Reports is an interdisciplinary open access journal from Nature Portfolio and the 5th most-cited journal worldwide. The Editorial Board is a crucial compo...

Preliminary design decisions shape a product’s entire lifecycle, yet freehand sketching remains disconnected from digital workflows. Our study explores natural VR modeling as a viable alternative, enabling intuitive, CAD-compatible 3D modeling. A controlled user study compared VR modeling and sketch...

The Chair of Design Engineering would like to congratulate Mr Benjamin Gerschütz on successfully completing his doctorate in engineering on 21 March 2025. In his dissertation entitled ‘Identification of use cases and integration of data-driven methods in the product development process’, Mr Gerschüt...

The Chair of Engineering Design congratulates Mr. Andreas Winkler on successfully passing the doctoral examination to become a Dr.-Ing. on March 10, 2025, which he completed with distinction. Mr. Winkler presented the contents of his dissertation entitled “Numerical wear modeling of rolling/sliding ...

Developing user-centered products requires a careful balance between usability and emotional design. While usability ensures efficiency and intuitive handling, emotional design shapes user perception and acceptance. But what factors influence this interaction? A recent systematic literature review i...

Dr. Christian Witzgall was appointed by Prof. Sandro Wartzack as a senior engineer and head of the lightweight construction research group at the KTmfk - Chair of Design Engineering at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg on 1 February 2025. He brings many years of experience in the simulation and experimental te...

Our new annual report is out and offers an exciting journey through 2024. This year has been particularly special for the Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk) as we celebrated 40 years of innovation and growth. The research report provides exclusive insights into our current projects and key highl...

The ability to perform coordinated movements is a central factor in people's everyday lives. However, various events, such as trauma, strokes, etc., can damage the nerve structures and thus cause motor disorders. The lower leg muscles are frequently affected, resulting in a pathophysiological moveme...

In the context of digitalised product development, modern concepts such as Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), Digital Twin and Digital Engineering appear. However, it is often unclear how these concepts are linked and what role they play in holistic digital engineering. In an interview between ...

Researchers from the Institute of Engineering Design (KTmfk) have published a novel method for improving infill structures in additive manufacturing in the journal Materials. The article, entitled A New Slicer-Based Method to Generate Infill Inspired by Sandwich-Patterns for Reduced Material Consump...

On December 1st, a familiar face, Dr.-Ing. Benedict Rothammer, was appointed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sandro Wartzack as Senior Engineer and Manager of the “Machine Elements and Tribology” research team. As a long-standing team member at the KTmfk, he contributes valuable insights, particularly from but no...

The use of components made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) is steadily increasing. With these higher quantities, variation management during product development is becoming increasingly important. In this study, artificial fiber misalignment has been introduced into the outer plies of tens...

The Chair of Engineering Design congratulates Mr. Fabian Wilking on successfully passing the doctoral examination to become a Dr.-Ing. on 14.11.2024, which he completed with distinction. Mr. Wilking presented the contents of his dissertation entitled “Assistance system for the utilization of system ...

The Chair of Design Engineering congratulates Mr. Christian Witzgall on successfully passing the doctoral examination for Dr.-Ing. on 25.10.2024, which he completed with distinction. Mr. Witzgall presented the contents of his dissertation entitled "Consideration of previous fatigue damage in the cra...

The KTmfk welcomes Prof Régis Kovacs Scalice as a visiting professor at the Chair. Mr Scalice is a professor at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Joinville, Brazil. He conducts research in the fields of model-based systems engineering and IoT for product-service systems and is the author...

Following the invitation of Prof. Göbel, Head of the Chair for Virtual Product Development, the WiGeP Assistants Meeting took place in Kaiserslautern on October 17–18, 2024. Researches from across Germany, including Jessica Pickel from the Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk), gathered to discuss cur...

The Stanford List, published annually by the Elsevier publishing house, presents the names and ranking of the 2% most cited scientists. In the current year, Prof. Sandro Wartzack (H-index according to Scopus.com of 34/555 publications) is gratified to be included in this select group with an improve...

Lightweight design is particularly important in the aviation industry. Therefore, the exploration of new lightweight potential is being strongly promoted in this sector. Potentials arise, for example, from the use of lightweight materials and the optimal structural-mechanical design of parts. This ...

The exciting field of tolerance management research has been a focus of the Institute of Engineering Design for many years, therefore we have taken this opportunity to consolidate the current state of knowledge in a single book. Under the title "Research in Tolerancing", this book unites the results...

This year's DfX Symposium took place from 12.-13.09.24 in Bamberg. In addition to organizing the event, the KTmfk also contributed various presentations and posters. The topics covered included multi-material topology optimization, the optimization of adaptation designs, the simulation-based design ...

The triennial conference of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) took place this year on the beautiful island of Jeju, South Korea. The conference, with a total of over 1,200 papers and 2,000 participants from research and industry, covered all topics relating to ergonomics. In two contrib...

Efficiency in product development is becoming increasingly important due to growing market requirements. The focus is often on developing products according to the "first-time-right" principle, thus reducing the number of iterations. This results in high costs, especially in late development stages....

Gwen Spelly joined the user-centred design research group as a research assistant at the beginning of September. Previously, she studied medical engineering, specializing in medical device engineering and prosthetics, at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. As a student assistant and d...

System models are used in the context of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) in order to improve communication and are essential for system documentation. However, scientific approaches in recent years show that the further utilization of these system models is of interest, for example in the for...

This year's NordDesign conference took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, from 12th to 14th August 2024. We contributed to the well-organised conference with several presentations. They covered our current research on the utilization of system models in the context of digital twins, plausibility check of ...