Core Competency "Materials and Smart Systems"

 

Materials provide the hardware basis for new innovative processes and technologies for digital materials, additive manufacturing, digital process twins, energy-efficient mobility, as well as sports and medical technology. Based on this, smart systems are created that make everyday life easier and safer and thus, for example, enable an independent life up to an advanced age. The future-facing aspect of increasingly biologizing materials is also being consistently pursued in this field of competence.

Another focus at Chemnitz University of Technology is on developing materials for batteries and fuel cells for alternative drive concepts. The scientific consideration is carried out over the entire scale, from the nano level, through the micro scale, to the macro level. In order to be able to cover these areas in their entirety, mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering are working together intensively.

An important element to realize these steps is simulation and modeling. Here, mathematicians at Chemnitz University of Technology develop new methods tailored to the respective material systems. This also creates the basis for design of material twins, which are seen as a central component for the further development of Industry 4.0.

In the field of generative manufacturing, the targeted generation of personalized medical implants based on new materials is of great importance. In addition, the development of new types of high-temperature materials for power engineering, which are also used for the additive manufacturing of components, is a current research field. Furthermore, the provision of environmentally compatible and recyclable lightweight composite materials is also of importance, as these requirements often cannot be met by composite materials currently in use. In addition, future-oriented surface coatings from the nano- to the micro-scale are provided to meet the increasing demand for surface functionalization.

Together with scientific partners from mathematics and computer science, data-scientific concepts, and intelligent algorithms for the processing of sensor data and actuator data are also being developed, since data generated in materials science is also becoming increasingly high-dimensional and complex. This includes machine learning methods, especially supervised and unsupervised deep learning. Real-time audio-, image-, video- and other sensor-data analysis complement process monitoring for quality assurance and quality improvement of resulting products.

Last but not least, the transferability of the developed materials with the corresponding models, suitable processes, and the resulting structures and intelligent systems will be analyzed, evaluated and, if suitable, actively promoted by the participating economists and legal scholars.

The individual scientific abilities and potentials of the different research areas at Chemnitz University of Technology are thus brought together and bundled in this field of competence in a suitable form across faculties and topics. The integrative approach starting with basic research up to the transfer of knowledge and the derivation of innovative products and processes contribute not only to the structural development of the scientific location Chemnitz and to the economic strengthening of the region, but also to national and international attention and recognition.

Thus, the composition of this field of competence with the participating professorships from the diverse yet complementary faculties and disciplines forms an extremely suitable platform for the generation of future-oriented interdisciplinary cooperative research projects in the field of Materials and Smart Systems.

News

• Forschung

  TODOSustainable Living Technology

  In a recent article in the high-profile journal “Advanced Materials”, researchers in Chemnitz show just how close and necessary the transition to sustainable living technology is, based on the morphogenesis of self-assembling microelectronic modules, strengthening the recent membership of Chemnitz University of Technology with the European Centre for Living Technology (ECLT) in Venice.

• Forschung

  How Nano-Sensors Help with Treatment

  ESF-funded project "SenseCare” at Chemnitz University of Technology successfully completed - Therapeutic support, especially for diabetes mellitus

• Forschung

  It All Depends on Proximity: How Crystal Influences the Resistance of Graphene

  A research team, headed by the University of Göttingen but with involvement from Chemnitz University of Technology, observed greater variation than previously assumed – and it was published in Nature Communications

Research Associations

• DFG-Project INST 269/628-1 in Collaborative Research Center/Transregio 96 Thermo-energetic design of machine tools
• ESF Young Researchers Group NeMaCell (only in german)
• ESF Young Researchers Group HEA-SurfProtect (only in german)