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Digitalisation and AI
Research into the rail transport of the future at the "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences
The EU has proclaimed 2021 as the "European Year of Rail". According to a communication published on 2 December 2020 by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), Germany and Portugal, as the current and then following country holding the EU Council Presidency, are committed to strengthening rail in Europe.
This announcement has met with great approval at the "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences at the TU Dresden. At two of the faculty's seven institutes alone, research and teaching is conducted directly on the subject of rail and public transport: at the Institute of Railway Systems and Public Transport and at the Institute of Railway Vehicles and Railway Technology.
Digitalisation and AI as key topics
"Strengthening and expanding the rail transport system can only succeed if the performance and attractiveness of its subsystems and the boundary conditions are continuously developed. Digitisation and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) play an immensely important role in planning and process design in the rail sector. Our students receive comprehensive theoretical and practical training to enable them to become specialists who are in demand worldwide in such future fields and to comprehensively master the operation of railways and public urban and regional transport," says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer König, holder of the Chair of Rail and Public Urban Transport.
Diploma, Bachelor, Master - Dresden transport graduates are in demand worldwide
His colleague Prof. Dr.-Ing. Arnd Stephan, holder of the Chair of Electric Railways, also welcomes the EU's decision: "Such signals from the European level further encourage our students in their choice of study programme and focus. Our prospective traffic and railway system engineers, transport economics and logistics experts, as well as Master's graduates in electric transport systems are trained in the faculty to become specialists for the mobility of the future. For our research topics at the faculty, such EU plans are a good basis for advancing innovations around transport and mobility with international partners from business and science and bringing them into practical application - and thus generating real added value for people".
Rail transport of the future: Faculty contributes to European research community
The "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport Sciences is supporting the European Year of Rail 2021 concretely with its activities in the European research community on Digital Automatic Coupling and other components for the innovative freight wagon, on dispatching systems with artificial intelligence components and telematics solutions for the rail transport of the future. The aim is to help shape and advance the European transport and climate change with effective contributions from basic research.
The "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences
The faculty is the only one in Germany dedicated to transport and traffic sciences and has an internationally recognized competence for sustainable mobility. The interdisciplinary research covers the entire range of transport on land and in the air. The faculty is a pioneer in the development of systemic solutions for the design of safe, efficient and sustainable transport systems according to technical, economic, ecological and social criteria. Research and teaching are carried out in an interdisciplinary network within the TU Dresden and the DRESDEN-concept association as well as together with national and international partners from science and practice. More than 200 scientists research and teach at seven institutes and 20 professorships. The faculty offers 6 own study programs, including the diploma degree in Transport Engineering, the bachelor degree in Transport Economics and 4 master programs. For practical applications in research and teaching, the researchers and 1,100 students of the faculty have access to around 30 laboratories or experimental and test facilities.
Digitalisation and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) play an immensely important role in planning and process design in the railway industry. Our students are comprehensively trained for this in theory and practice.