14.07.2008
GSaME at Universität Stuttgart: a vision becomes reality
Almost the entire first year’s doctoral candidates were among the participants of the celebration. (Copyright: GSaME)
The GSaME graduate school was officially opened in a ceremony high above Stuttgart’s Schlossplatz on the 7th of July 2008. Lord Mayor Wolfgang Schuster and German Research Foundation President Matthias Kleiner spoke to well over one hundred guests in the CUBE museum restaurant. The founding of the
GSaME – Graduate School of Excellence advanced Manufacturing Engineering at
Universität Stuttgart is the realization of the idea to study intelligent production and manufacturing techniques in depth while providing a cutting-edge interdisciplinary education for managers, engineers and scientists. The dual system for doctoral candidates that alternates between phases of scientific training and research in industrial settings is unique. Thanks to this new approach of interdisciplinary research and close co-operation with the business community, GSaME is exploring new paths in production research in Germany and Europe.
Eight different research clusters were defined in GSaME, each under the supervision of a professor. The Stuttgart corporate model serves as the basis for its entire range of research work. Additional clusters cover the fields of digital and virtual engineering, materials and process engineering, networking in manufacturing, ICT for manufacturing, knowledge-based management, intelligent production systems, as well as sustainability and manufacturing.
The relationships of the graduate school to international research organizations and 40 international universities, its international summer school and annual international conferences guarantee it a solid network with manufacturing researchers throughout the world. An exchange programme for doctoral candidates and guest lecturers permits members of the school to gain personal experience in research and education in other countries. The lectures and seminars of the GSaME are focused on cultural management and leadership qualities.
The school kicked off with eight doctoral candidates on the 1st of April; currently it has 26 doctoral candidates, of which eight are from abroad. GSaME is open to all interested doctoral candidates from any country. Its goal is to support 60 young researchers in the graduate school by the end of 2008. Every student accepted to the graduate school will receive a grant for a maximum of four years which requires annual renewal until the third year. The renewals are based on assessments that cover students’ participation in the scientific programme, as well as successful work on their research programmes and dissertations. The doctoral candidates alternate between work and study. Research work is carried out at the university institutes, industrial partners or the Fraunhofer Institutes. The opportunity is also available to implement research results during industrial internships or at the Fraunhofer Institutes. The GSaME is an independent, central scientific institution of the Universität Stuttgart. The completely new structural approach guarantees the graduate school far-reaching autonomy with regard to its curriculum, structure, organization and finances.
The 17 institutes of the Universität Stuttgart with its 29 professors in four faculties are not the sole sponsors of the graduate school, however. As partners of the GSaME, the Fraunhofer Institutes for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA and for Industrial Engineering IAO, DaimlerAG, MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH, MTU Maintenance GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens AG, Trumpf GmbH & Co.KG, WITTENSTEIN AG, Leitz GmbH & Co. KG and Audi AG as well as the VDMA IMPULS Foundation and the Hans Böckler Foundation have contributed to its structure and content from the outset. In autumn 2007, GSaME received an excellent evaluation from international experts and has since been supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as a part of the federal and state Excellence Initiative. The graduate school has a budget of approx. €2.5 million per annum.
The deadline for applications is the 30th of July 2008.
More:
http://www.gsame.uni-stuttgart.de/
