Technische Universitaet Wien (TU Wien) was founded in 1815 and is located in the heart of Vienna. It is the largest technical university in Austria with about 30.000 students. About 3.700 out of 4.800 employees are scientific staff. The annually budget consists of about 260 Mio € public funding plus about 90 Mio € project and third party funding. The faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering has about 900 beginners each year and offers a wide range of engineering majors within the three main curricula mechanical engineering, engineering management and plant engineering (both bachelor and consecutive master). For the project proposal at hand, the chair of Mechanical Engineering Informatics and Virtual Product Development (MIVP), part of the Institute of Engineering Design and Logistics Engineering, is taking the lead role for the involvement of TU Wien. The institute has an internationally recognised expertise in a wide range of product development, from the methodological side (design methodology, Ecodesign) over the core application areas of machine elements up to the level of IT support in terms of virtual product development.

MIVP research group, led by prof.Manfred Grafinger, was established in 2006 and is responsible for all topics related to Computer Aided Design and Engineering (Virtual Product Development) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in research and teaching. This includes methodological aspects (systems engineering, design methodology, integrated product development) as well as tool aspects for 3D modelling, design automation, knowledge based engineering and product information management. The Institute has an extensive hardware and software equipment in the relevant field. The Virtual Product Development Lab consists of more than 100 High-End Graphic workstations equipped with all major PLM and CAx applications, a wide range of peripherals, e.g. a VR powerwall, large format plotter and 3D printers for rapid prototyping and a virtualised server infrastructure for hosting various PDM systems and other industrial IT applications. MIVP is also responsible for provisioning PLM solutions to research partners and to perform required customisation and software integration such as CAD. The group provides course and training material independently from specific CAx and PLM tools.

MIVP research group is involved in many research projects with public funding on both national and European Level (H2020, Erasmus+). With respect to the topic education in engineering design, MIVP has carried out three nationally funded projects together with vocational 6 schools in Austria as partners.

Key staff involved:

Manfred Grafinger – associate professor at TU Wien
Maximilian Schramek – researcher and PhD candidate at TU Wien
Heinz Peter Stanek – researcher and industrial associate at TU Wien
Patrick Rosenberger – researcher at TU Wien