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A Picture of Excellence

Chemnitz University of Technology is a cosmopolitan university with strong regional, national and international networks. It is home to about 2,300 academic and administrative employees as well as more than 9,600 students from about 90 countries. It is thus the third largest university in Saxony. In terms of the proportion of foreign students, Chemnitz University of Technology occupies a top position among state universities nationwide. Chemnitz, the European Capital of Culture 2025, can point to many years of positive development in gross domestic product and a high proportion of highly qualified employees. It also owes this to its university, as Chemnitz University of Technology is the intellectual heart of the city and has developed into an internationally visible research location for future value creation processes and sustainable future security.

Unique things are created at the junctures of scientific disciplines

The university combines engineering and natural sciences as well as mathematics with humanities, social sciences and economics. At the junctures, unique degree programs are created alongside pioneering research projects. These include, for example, sensor technology and cognitive psychology, computer science for humanities and social scientists, and the degree program MINT: Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences with Applications in Technology. As of the 2021/2022 winter semester, the university has a total of 97 degree programs offered. A particular hallmark is the high degree of interdisciplinarity. This also applies to the 14 part-time distance and continuing education degree programs.

A student with laptop computer before a whiteboeard

"Teaching mission statement" forms framework for student success

Chemnitz University of Technology considers excellent teaching to be an essential basis for additional lively scientific development of the research landscape as well as for the transfer of new questions, findings and methods to the economy and society. The university has created the necessary framework for this in its "Teaching Mission Statement". Thus, teachers and students jointly shape the teaching and learning conditions at Chemnitz University of Technology in the context of internationality and regionality. The further development of study programs is regularly initiated by the TUCpanel student survey as well as by accreditation procedures. This makes student success factors visible, which ultimately helps more students to successfully complete their studies in the standard period of study.

Freedom to shape the European Capital of Culture 2025

Chemnitz University of Technology is an important change-maker and a powerhouse in the region and beyond. For example, city of Chemnitz’s successful campaign for the title European Capital of Culture 2025 was actively supported by the university in many ways. Those who now study in Chemnitz can actively participate in the shaping the Capital of Culture. There is plenty of scope for implementing ideas in Chemnitz.

Unique research profile across all faculties

Chemnitz University of Technology has set itself the goal of acting as an innovation driver for tackling high-priority future-centered tasks and developing sustainable solutions with societal benefits through highly interdisciplinary approaches. Today, Chemnitz University of Technology stands in particular for the three core competencies Materials and Smart Systems, Resource-Efficient Production and Lightweight Structures, and Humans and Technology. This profiling has produced a constellation of competencies across all eight faculties that is unique in Germany.

Researchers in a cleanroom

From high-performance materials to systems with intelligence

Within the core competency Materials and Smart Systems, innovative materials and material systems as well as new integration technologies, e.g. for vehicle construction, for regenerative energy technologies and for medical technology, are researched and developed. A particular focus is on functional enhancement through intelligent systems. Important catalysts in the field of nanoelectronics were provided, for example, by the Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes (MAIN), which is unique in Europe and whose laboratory building was financed with 34.3 million euros from federal and state funds. Outstanding research work, particularly in the field of nanomembrane-based materials, one of the most advanced fields in micro- and nanotechnologies, is attracting worldwide attention. In 2021, the research group for proximity-induced correlation effects in low-dimensional structures, established by the German Research Foundation (DFG), was launched under the leadership of Chemnitz University of Technology to investigate atomically thin carbon layers such as graphene. The aim is to lay the foundations for novel quantum materials with tailored properties and their application, for example in spintronics or microelectronics.

From renewable energies to technology fusion

Chemnitz University of Technology also occupies a leading position in research in the core competency area of Resource-Efficient Production and Lightweight Structures. The core competence in this field is underpinned in particular by the work in the MERGE research cluster. This central institution of Chemnitz University of Technology emerged from the federal excellence cluster MERGE - Technologies for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures. For example, MERGE is involved in the InnoCarbEnergy: Carbon, Systems and Mobility Solutions SAXONY project, which is creating a research center for cost-effective, customized and "green" carbon fibers in Lusatia that is unique in Europe. In addition, MERGE is also involved in the establishment of the trilateral CircEcon campus in Lusatia, where new paths for a highly efficient circular and bioeconomy are to be researched and developed with the help of pilot lines, test facilities, laboratory configurations and demonstration systems. In the future, the Refrigeration and Energy Technology Research Platform (KETEC) in Reichenbach in the Vogtland region will also make an important contribution to the energy transition, where new refrigerants and storage materials will be investigated and new technical solutions developed. The establishment of KETEC is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with 15 million euros. At the same time, the project to establish a competence center as a branch of Chemnitz University of Technology in Reichenbach will be further advanced.

From Hybrid Societies to Virtual Humans

Interdisciplinary cooperations are also typical for Chemnitz University of Technology in the core competency of Humans and Technology. An important center in this field is the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) Hybrid Societies: Humans Interacting with Embodied Technologies, established by the DFG, in which all eight faculties are involved. The SFB Hybrid Societies is primarily concerned with finding answers to the question of how humans and autonomously acting machines can coordinate smoothly in encounters. To this end, 30 professors and senior researchers at the university fundamentally investigate how humans can interact efficiently and safely with autonomous vehicles and robots in public spaces, for example. Further focal points of the interdisciplinary cooperation in the area of Humans and Technology are assistance and automation in industrial manufacturing, road traffic and the compensation of motor, sensory or cognitive limitations, furthermore the use of virtual reality for simulation, assistance and training as well as research on the documentation and reflection of the development of technology and of practices of media use. These focal points are represented, among others, in the Center for Sensory and Cognition at Chemnitz University of Technology.

Committed to the next generation of scientists

Fostering young scientists is a focal point of the work of Chemnitz University of Technology. With the Centre for Young Scientists, a central support structure exists for this purpose. Chemnitz University of Technology also creates excellent support and career conditions through junior research groups. Currently, young scientists work in six junior research groups which are supported by the European Social Fund. They develop, for example, new materials for fuel cells or navigation and orientation systems for physically impaired people in larger buildings.

Chemnitz University of Technology – the strongest transfer and start-up university

A future-oriented aspect of Chemnitz University of Technology is the increasing linkage with companies and research institutions in the Chemnitz region. Together with non-university research institutions and university-affiliated institutes, with the city administration as well as partners from the economy, the university creates ideal conditions that combine practice-oriented education with basic and application-oriented research. The start-up network SAXEED at Chemnitz University of Technology and three other universities in Saxony offers good conditions for the leap from the lecture hall to self-employment. With its help, more than 1,500 start-up projects have been supervised since 2006, from which around 480 companies have emerged. To promote innovative spin-offs in the university's core competencies, the Sächsische Aufbaubank (development bank of the Free State of Saxony) and Chemnitz University of Technology also initiated TUClab to provide better support for founders during and after their start-up. All of this contributed to Chemnitz University of Technology being considered one of the best start-up universities in Germany. According to the Gründungsradar 2020 start-up ranking, it is among the top 3 institutions with the strongest start-up performance among medium-sized universities. In particular, its activities in the areas of start-up support and promotion, which are shaped by the Center for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Chemnitz University of Technology, were recognized here.

Prof von Unwerth in front of a model of the HIC

Gaining strength in the network

Networking is very important at Chemnitz University of Technology. Among the outstanding network projects at Chemnitz University of Technology are, for example, the innovation cluster HZwo - Drive for Saxony and the Smart Rail Connectivity Campus (SRCC). The innovation cluster HZwo pursues the goal of establishing a value-added network for hydrogen fuel cell technology in Saxony. To this end, the Hydrogen and Mobility Innovation Center (HIC) is to be established on the Technology Campus South with significant participation from Chemnitz University of Technology, for which the federal government is providing up to 60 million euros. Here, excellent research and its transfer in the field of hydrogen technology and mobility will be raised to a new level. Funded under the "WIR! - Change through Innovation in the Region" program of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the SRCC is a unique European center for applied research, development and testing of technologies that further develop rail transport and make it more sustainable, as well as linking it with other modes of transport. Within its framework, a new research campus is being established in the city of Annaberg-Buchholz as a branch of Chemnitz University of Technology. In addition, the SRCC is a "location cluster" of the German Center Mobility of the Future.

Lived internationality

With almost 30 percent international students and numerous international researchers with cooperative relationships to 130 universities on every continent, Chemnitz University of Technology is one of the most internationally oriented universities in Germany. It has been pursuing this path for many years with increasing dynamism and at a professional level, as evidenced by the seal of the HRK Re-Audit Internationalization of Universities. In the coming years, the university will further strengthen its European dimension and, in particular, provide a catalyst for the diverse challenges in the border region. To this end, Chemnitz University of Technology, as the coordinating institution of the European University Alliance called UNIVERS - European Cross-Border University, is working together with seven partner universities to shape their common vision of a transnational European university. Among other things, concepts for joint study programs as well as physical and digital mobility offers for students and teachers from the participating universities are being developed. Chemnitz University of Technology is also expanding its internationalization and transfer efforts in other parts of the world, e.g. in California. For example, Chemnitz University of Technology was one of three German universities to join the advisory board of the German Centre for Research and Innovation (DWIH) in the "innovation hotspot" San Francisco.

The Technische Universität Chemnitz at a Glance

This presentation from the TU Chemnitz includes general information about the university and its activities. It may be used as the basis for further presentations or on its own.

Presentation

Accessible PDF Documents: Recommendations for formatting in PowerPoint (in German)