News

The Chair of Design Engineering congratulates Dr. Christopher Sauer on passing his doctoral examination with very good results. In his dissertation, Mr. Sauer addressed the topic of ‘The use of machine learning for data-driven synthesis and analysis of product properties in the context of linked pr...

The 24th International Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM24) took place at the University of Delaware from August 4 to 8. The conference not only provided an excellent platform for professional exchange on current developments in the field of composite materials, but was also a special celebra...

The Institute of Engineering Design congratulates Ms. Julia Kröner on successfully passing her doctoral examination with the distinction “very good.” In her dissertation, titled “Green Bearings – Service Life Calculation of Dry-Running, PVD-Coated Deep Groove Ball Bearings,” Ms. Kröner impressively...

On September 23, 2025, the KTmfk – Institute of Engineering Design at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg – hosted its annual summer festival. In a relaxed atmosphere, staff members from all research groups took the opportunity to engage in personal exchange and networking. A special highlight was the warm welcom...

The complexity of multi-criteria decision-making in product development arises from numerous interactions between requirements, product and process data, as well as relevant standards. Heterogeneous data complicate the consistent evaluation of alternatives and their integration into seamless, comput...

The International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED), the flagship conference of the Design Society, took place in Dallas this year with over 400 participants. The Chair of Engineering Design KTmfk was represented with eight exciting presentations on various topics and was able to leave a lasti...

With the 36th DfX Symposium, the Chair of Design Engineering has two days of exciting discussions, inspiring contributions, and intensive exchange behind. The program was framed by keynotes from representatives of Airbus and Lufthansa Technik, as well as an evening event with a sunset boat trip fol...

From September 8 to 12, this year’s “Girls and Technology” workshop for students in grades 7 to 12 took place at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Under the theme “Machine & Human,” Gwen Spelly and Jessica Pickel (KTmfk) gave participants fascinating insights into how gears and t...

Madeleine Helmer joined the Dimensional Management research group as a research assistant since the beginning of August. She previously studied Mechanical Engineering at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. In her master's thesis at KTmfk, she focused on the development of a modular ca...

From July 26 to 31, the 35th International Symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) took place in Ottawa, Canada. The International Symposium (IS) is the largest international conference on systems engineering and combines research, industrial application, and teaching....

High-quality manufactured products are not only a key customer requirement but also a decisive factor for economic success in international competition. This is especially for delicate high-precision products. Since manufacturing operates at the limits of technological feasibility, tolerance allocat...

Tobias Kirch joined the Digital Engineering research group as a research assistant in mid-July. He previously studied mechanical engineering at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. During his student work at KTmfk, he focused on designing a hybrid AR-based workstation for CAx and its i...

From June 25 to 27, the 27th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII) took place in Gothenburg, Sweden. KTmfk contributed with a scientific paper at the affiliated 16th International Conference on Digital Human Modeling & Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics & Risk...

The development of complex products is characterized by ever-increasing requirement specifications. Use cases are often used to take these into account in a structured way during product development. Since their manual identification is very time-consuming, especially in large requirements specifica...

When generating an optimal design proposal, one of the main challenges is to maximize material efficiency and minimize stress concentrations while taking various boundary conditions and loads into account. In this context computer-aided algorithms are increasingly being used in terms of structural o...

A new interactive touchscreen now welcomes all visitors to our main site in Martensstraße – offering quick and direct access to the latest updates from the chair. Whether it’s news, upcoming events, or newly posted thesis topics – all it takes is a tap. The system was created as part of a Bachelor's...

On July 4, 2025, students of the courses “Tribology & Surface Technology” and “Rolling Bearing Technology” visited the Schaeffler company in Herzogenaurach as part of an excursion. The event offered the participants a comprehensive insight into the technologies, production processes and career o...

On June 3 and 4, 2025, the 16th VDI Conference " Gleit- und Wälzlagerungen: Gestaltung – Berechnung – Einsatz" took place. The Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk) actively participated in the conference with two contributions. In addition to Prof. Sandro Wartzack and Felix Pfister, students Max Poh...

Moritz Treschau joined the Lightweight Design research group as a research assistant at the beginning of June. Previously, he studied mechanical engineering at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. He also wrote his master's thesis on Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINN) in the field...

The European Group of Research in Tolerancing (E-GRT) met for the 6th time - this time in Milan, Italy. The E-GRT is an association of chairs from France, Sweden, Italy, and Germany with the aim of promoting and strengthening international cooperation in the research field of tolerancing. The event ...

Perhaps a little less scientific, but just as engaging: This year, our entire team from the Chair of Engineering Design (KTmfk) once again took part in the traditional Bergdienstag at the Erlangen Bergkirchweih. Together with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sandro Wartzack, we swapped the office for a relaxed after...

The Chair of Engineering Design congratulates Mr. Paul Schächtl on successfully passing the doctoral examination for Dr.-Ing. with distinction on 13.05.2025. Mr. Schächtl presented the contents of his dissertation entitled “Tolerance-compliant product and process design of additively manufactured me...

The Stuttgart Symposium for Product Development took place from 21 to 22 May 2025. KTmfk participated with two contributions and was represented on site by Yannick Utz, Jan Kopatsch, and Dr.-Ing. Stefan Goetz. The papers dealt with the efficient consideration of non-geometric key characteristics in ...

The Chair of Engineering Design congratulates Mr. Sebastian Bickel on successfully passing his doctoral examination for the degree of Dr.-Ing. on May 7, 2025, which he completed with distinction. Mr. Bickel presented the contents of his dissertation titled "Development of a Procedure Model for the A...

The Chair of Design Engineering (KTmfk) welcomes Prof. Dr.-Ing. Katharina Völkel to the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. She takes over the tenure-track professorship for Machine Elements in the Context of E-mobility at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of En...

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...