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The doctoral track is aimed at professionals with an excellent Master's degree and at least five years of professional experience who, through the programme, acquire the academic qualification for a HAW professorship via a doctorate. The programme focuses on the academic post-qualification of experienced professionals with professorial potential.

The practice track is aimed at post-docs who, as part of the programme, complete the legally required practical work for a HAW professorship. The focus is on the professional qualification of outstanding post-docs with professorial potential.

With this co-operation, THI and Audi are bringing together the best of two worlds: Philipp Tröber brings the latest scientific findings and methods to the company. His practical experience from the Audi foundry can then be channelled directly into the research and development of future technologies. Prof. Tröber is already working with the team to analyse the processes for heat treatment, straightening and grinding, identify bottlenecks and simulate the future system. These activities are currently still carried out manually. By increasing the level of automation, ergonomically critical workstations will be eliminated and the employees concerned will be trained for higher-value functions.

Prof Tröber's second project is the large-scale casting of structural components. This is currently still in its infancy, but companies such as Tesla are already leading the way and casting entire body parts. It is important for Audi not to miss the boat. Prof Tröber also has valuable insights in this area: Thanks to his work at the Chair of Metal Forming and Foundry Technology, he knows both the casting and sheet metal worlds and can use his neutral perspective to develop the best processes for Audi.

During his practical phase, Prof. Dr. Schmid is working in the "Situation Awareness" department at Airbus Helicopters in Donauwörth. Among other things, the department deals with the development and integration of new sensor concepts for helicopters. Thanks to his experience with automotive ADAS sensors at the Institute for Innovative Mobility at THI, Prof. Schmid is predestined for this field. The focus for Airbus Helicopters in sensor development is on increasing safety in aviation and supporting or relieving pilots with additional sensor data. The sensor technology is tested in practice on the "PioneerLab" prototype carrier.

Dr Martin Landesberger is the first scientist to gain the necessary industrial experience at MTU as part of a part-time position limited to three years. The specialist in materials science and engineering previously researched and taught as a research associate at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) before moving to THI as a junior professor in January 2023. "Among other things, I supervise Bachelor's and Master's students here, and this summer semester I'm also giving a basic lecture on 'Material Science'," says the 35-year-old. His conclusion after six months of industry experience: "First of all, I learnt a lot about the aviation industry, MTU and the corporate culture. What impressed me immediately was that quality is the number one topic and is practised at every point in the company."

Patrick Weiss was the first to be appointed to a junior professorship at THI as part of the Professional Tenure Track Program. Since September 1, 2022, he has been a junior professor for Digital Marketing at THI Business School. After completing his Master's degree in Marketing, Sales and Media at THI, he gained several years of practical experience in various companies in the field of marketing and has now returned to THI. As a candidate in the doctoral track, he is working on his dissertation on "Marketing Communications in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence" in cooperation with the Chair of ABWL and Service Management at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KUEI). He is supervised by Prof. Dr. Jens Hogreve (KUEI) and Prof. Dr. Stummeyer (THI)

Teaching and research in close collaboration with industry: this is the aim of the cooperation between THI and AVL Deutschland GmbH, as part of which Alexander Gelner is gaining professional experience over three years at this innovative company in the Ingolstadt area. At the THI, he teaches innovative drive systems and commercial vehicle technology, while at AVL he works on battery systems, powertrain integration, driving functions such as autonomous driving and overall development methodology. In addition to his work in the "Safe Electromobility" research group at THI, he also gathers knowledge in the industrial environment - also in joint projects. These include, for example, customer and funding projects, the supervision of student theses and the integration of AVL software in the field of hydrogen combustion engines, battery-electric mobility and fuel cell technology in university internships. In this way, Prof. Gelner lays the foundation for long-term cooperation during the practical phase, even after the end of the program.    

Prof. Gelner's current projects include the determination of key parameters for the simulation of battery fires and the derivation of safety measures as well as the techno-economic evaluation of the use of AI tools in the AVL environment.

Prof. Patrizia Heinl has been the first female junior professor at THI since the beginning of 2023. As part of the Professional Tenure Track Programme (PTTTHI), she is researching the interface between machine learning and the security of cyber-physical systems at the Faculty of Computer Science, writing her dissertation at the THI Doctoral School and teaching on the Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence degree programmes.

Prior to her appointment at THI, she worked at the world's largest reinsurer Munich RE in various positions in the field of cyber security, both in London and Munich. Previously, she conducted research in the field of cognitive cyber attack detection in collaboration with IBM and George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.