Field trip to Innsbruck and the Brenner Base Tunnel

On June 11 and 12, 2026, the Chair of Optical 3D Measurement organized a two-day field trip to Innsbruck together with 13 students from the Engineering Geodesy course.

At the invitation of Prof. Lukas Winiwarter, the group first visited the University of Innsbruck, where they gained insights into his teaching and research activities. As part of the Geodetic Colloquium, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ferdinand Maiwald then gave a lecture titled “Learning from the Past for the Future: Photogrammetric Analysis of Historical Image Data.” The event was organized by the AB Geometry & Surveying and Prof. Lukas Winiwarter in collaboration with the Austrian Society for Surveying and Geoinformation (OVG) and the Chamber of Civil Engineers of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The first day concluded with a group tour of Innsbruck’s Old Town.

The second day was dedicated to a visit to the BBT Tunnel Worlds. Following the exhibition, the group received a guided tour of the Brenner Base Tunnel. Topics such as tunnel boring machines, geology, material transport, logistics, and the central role of geodesy in an infrastructure project of this magnitude were covered. The tour was very well organized and offered the students practical insights into the construction and surveying of one of Europe’s most significant tunnel construction projects.

Special thanks go to Prof. Lukas Winiwarter and the organizers of the Geodetic Colloquium for the invitation and the warm welcome, the staff at BBT Tunnelwelten for the informative tour, and the drivers for safely navigating the long journey from Dresden to the Alps and back.