Projects
Table of contents
On-going Projects (Selection)
On this website you find a selection of current on-going projetcs. About further projects you can inform in the Research Information System of TUD and at the Websites of our Chairs informieren.
EU Projects
Objective:
The JOVITAL project wants to add a significant value to the teaching process in Jordan by empowering academic staff with contemporary teaching competencies.
A comprehensive capacity building programme will be implemented to facilitate intensive know-how transfer among the consortium members to address the problems of outdated instructor-centred frontal teaching methods, limited physical academic mobility, and ineffective use of ICT in formal higher education in Jordan.
Type of inancing:
European Commission, Erasmus+, KA2 – Capacity-building in the Field of Higher Education
Contact:
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Information Management
Prof. Dr. Eric Schoop: eric schoop@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
To reduce the risk of a relapse of a serious acute illness in the old age an active reorientation of the lifestyle is often necessary, motivated through the affected person. An international research team investigates in the EU-funded project "vCare - Virtual Coaching Activities for Rehabilitation in Elderly" how a bespoke shift from a rehabilitation phase to the home environment can be realised by means of an intelligent linking of health information, details concerning the living environment and the continuous interaction with the affected persons.
One out of six people in the EU has a disability, usually caused by an acute episode or a chronic disease (i.e., heart disease, heart attack, stroke, Parkinson disease). Providing a suitable rehabilitation is the main issue for people, especially at advanced age, as it helps people to live independently and enhance their Quality of Life. Virtual Coaches can help these patients to proceed with a personalized rehabilitation that complies to age-related conditions, as the key technology for empowering patients through the enhancement of the adherence to the care plan and the risk prevention. The vCare project addresses two major shortcomings of the status quo: a participatory design driven by users’ needs and the personalization of care pathways enabled by technology. The results of vCare shall stimulate the European Healthcare & ICT sector for innovations in the field of integrated care. In sum, vCare will contribute to the EU goal to increase healthy life years of Europeans by two until 2020.
Type of Financing:
European Union, HORIZON 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Grant Agreement No. 769907
Contact:
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Systems Engineering
Dr. Hannes Schlieter: hannes.schlieter@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
The Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer (iPAAC) Joint Action brings together 24 Associated Partners (with Affiliated Entities, 44 partners) across Europe whose main objectives are to build upon deliverables of the CANCON Joint Action and to implement innovative approaches to cancer control. A Roadmap on Implementation and Sustainability of Cancer Control Actions will be the main deliverable of this Joint Action.
Type of Financing:
European Union
Contact:
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Systems Engineering
Dr. Hannes Schlieter: hannes.schlieter@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
About:
The VALEU-X project aims to add a significant value to the teaching process in Albania by empowering academic staff with contemporary teaching competencies. It offers Albanian HEIs a chance to explore, implement, and disseminate Internationalisation at Home practices to increase their students’ and staff exposure to a European and international academic, economic, and societal context.
Funding:
ERASMUS+ Key Action 2
Contact:
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Information Management
Mattis Altmann mattis.altmann@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Background:
The increasing socio-demographic change is causing an elder population in Europe. There is a lack of resources to maintain this shift in European Health Systems, which causes an inevitable unsustainability of the health systems. At the same time, stakeholders in the healthcare sector are fragmented. Doctors have problems that companies cannot solve while patients are affected by this situation. Since there are often no adequate ways of integrated and home care, treatment usually ends in the hospital. In terms of technology, there are no standards for the provision of IoT services in the health and care sector. In connection with the lack of interoperability in this sector, it is quite complex to connect the needs of the different actors and to build on them.
As part of the HORIZON 2020 program, the GATEKEEPER project, financed with 21.3 million Euros, was officially started on October 25 in Madrid. The initiative is coordinated by Medtronic Ibérica and comprises 43 partners, which are spread across health technology companies, research institutes or large universities, healthcare providers and networks for technological innovations. During a 42-month work plan, the project will be expanded to provide solutions involving around 40,000 older citizens on the supply and demand side (authorities, institutions, companies, associations, universities) in 8 regional communities from 7 EU member states are.
Type of Financing:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 857223.
Contact:
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Systems Engineering
Dr. Kai Gand kai.gand@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Website of the chair
Project website: https://www.gatekeeper-project.eu/
Federal Projects
Objective:
Many people experience time and performance pressure in digitized work despite stimulating tasks and sufficient personal freedom. In the long term, this can lead to exhaustion and psychosomatic complaints as well as increased downtime, demotivation, and fluctuation. The reasons for this are presumed in terms of temporal and quantitative self-induced and external demands on the employees. So far, there are no long-term results for complex mental work since there are no suitable methods for determining reasonable amounts of work.
The core objective of the project is to avoid overloading of employees by means of self-imposed and externally imposed time and performance pressures. The project focuses on digitized activities that require a high degree of knowledge processing and independent decision making. Steps in this design project are the further development, introduction, comprehensive testing, and generalization of a practicable and transferable approach which in the case of complex digital knowledge and innovation work prevents impairments on the performance and health of employees, develops competences, and thus makes social innovations possible.
This approach, which is to be introduced into the pilot firms and to be made available for transfer, is intended to combine an innovative process optimization with the subsequent agreement of reasonable workload. At the same time, the deficiencies of the work design are to be identified as working obstacles and hindrances to the work process, and therefore to be eliminated as far as possible. A participatory approach which allows both the best possible expertise for the respective work tasks to be optimized and the consensus of all project partners, is selected for this. It is intended to combine health promotion with increased competence as a social innovation in the work process. Finally, a monetary and non-monetary evaluation of the effectiveness of the developed approach is carried out using approaches to process optimization, time-driven activity-based costing, and time-based accounting.
Type of Financing:
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), funding project „Arbeit in der digitalisierten Welt“ (Work in the digital world)
Contact:
Chair of Business Management, esp. Management Accounting and Control
Prof. Dr. Thomas Günther: thomas.guenther@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
The aim of the joint project HOCH-N is to promote sustainable development at institutions of higher education in Germany. A central question is, what the contributions are, that institutions of higher educatoin, such as universities, can make. As societal actors, institutions of higher education bear a great responsibility in educating future generations. The institutionalization of sustainability at institutions of higher education is of a multidimensional nature, it is to be integrated in several fields of action on an inter-, intra- and transdisciplinary level.
Since November 2016, eleven german institutions of higher Education have been working together on meeting the multidimensional challenges of sustainable development in higher education for HOCH-N.
The Chair of Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting at the TU Dresden works together with the Hochschule Zittau/Görtlitz (HSZG) in the field of sustainable perspectives in operations in higher educaion. Core tasks of this field of action are: procurement, operations, disposal, resource management, mobility, diversity, marketing, event management as well as the controlling of respective activities.
Financing:
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
Contact:
Chair for Business Administration, esp. Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting
Prof. Dr. Edeltraud Günther: edeltraud.guenther@tu-dresden.de
Nicolas Roos: nicolas.roos@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
Universities undoubtedly occupy a leading position in the knowledge production within modern innovation systems. Germany thereby possesses a unique differentiation of research institutions and a traditionally high standard in university research and teaching. Since the independence of universities is in general ensured through state funding, the public interest that universities use the available funds as efficiently as possible to perform their core tasks (research, teaching, transfer) is correspondingly high.
The aim of the project is to improve the efficiency evaluation of universities by gaining insights into the advantages and disadvantages of the applied (technical) method and the suitability of publications as an output measure for scientific research. Within the project the methods of efficiency analysis are presented, their pros and cons for the higher education sector are shown and the added value of current methodical advancement are described. At the same time, the question how publication-oriented output measures can be included in the efficiency determination is examined. Options for the (qualitative) weighting of publications within the framework of the efficiency analysis are discussed and shown to what extent structural parameters (as for example the distribution of publications between subject groups or network analysis indicators) can be included in the efficiency evaluation. Based on the results, recommendations for the future integration of the output into the efficiency analysis can be given. In addition, the calculated efficiency values of the German universities represent relevant information and can be the basis for valuable policy recommendations.
Contact:
Chair of Economic Policy and Economic Research
Prof. Dr. Alexander Kemnitz: alexander.kemnitz@tu-dresden.de
Junior Research Group Knowledge and Technology Transfer
Dr. Matthias Geißler: matthias.geissler@tu-dresden.de
Financing:
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Directive „Quantitative University Research“
Further Information:
Kurzbeschreibung:
Der demographische Wandel stellt nicht nur den Bund und die Länder, sondern auch insbesondere die deutschen Kommunen vor große politische und finanzwirtschaftliche Herausforderungen. In vielen Kommunen gibt es bisher keine oder nur sehr rudimentäre Ansätze zur Bewertung der Zukunftsfestigkeit ihrer Haushalte. Die Stadt Cottbus hat dieses Problem frühzeitig erkannt und möchte gemeinsam mit der Wissenschaft neue Lösungen finden. Das Vorhaben NaKoFi verfolgt das Ziel, die Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung kommunaler Haushalte zu verbessern. Dabei soll ein standardisiertes Verfahren zur Nachhaltigkeitsanalyse von Haushalten der kommunalen Ebene zur Verfügung gestellt werden.
Im Rahmen des Projektes sollen deshalb frühzeitig Einflussfaktoren auf den Haushalt erkannt und geeignete Entscheidungsgrundlagen für Kommunen geschaffen werden. Bisher gestaltet sich die Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung kommunaler Haushalte in der Praxis nicht immer einfach. Zum einen stehen häufig nicht die benötigten Daten für eine Nachhaltigkeitsanalyse zur Verfügung, zum anderen wird die kommunale Ebene zumeist in ihrer Gesamtheit und nicht differenziert betrachtet. Ziel von NaKoFi ist es nun, ausgehend von bestehenden Methoden der Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung, ein möglichst standardisiertes Verfahren zur Bewertung einzelner Kommunen zu erarbeiten, wobei sowohl interne (z.B. die kommunale Haushaltspolitik) als auch externe Effekte (z.B. der Demographische Wandel oder Änderungen im Finanzausgleichsgesetz) auf den Haushalt berücksichtigt werden. Nach erfolgter Bewertung der Haushalte sollen im Anschluss Handlungsempfehlungen für zukunftsfeste kommunale Finanzen erarbeitet werden.
Finanzierungsart:
BMBF, Die Fördermaßnahme "Kommunen Innovativ" ist Teil des BMBF-Rahmenprogramms „Forschung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung“ (FONA³).
Ansprechpartner:
Professur für VWL, insb. Finanzwissenschaft
Dr. Gunther Markwardt: gunther.markwardt@tu-dresden.de
Weiterführende Informationen:
Objective:
Reinforced concrete is the most commonly used material for construction, but it also has some drawbacks in terms of high resource consumption and a limited lifespan of only 40 to 80 years. Besides many other constructions, bridges are continuously becoming more and more a safety risk. For this reason the „C3 – CARBON CONCRETE COMPOSITE“ was formed, a consortium which aim it is to develop a textile-fiber reinforced concrete as an environmentally and resource friendly alternative to the commonly used reinforced concrete. The project, funded by the BMBF in the context of the program „Zwanzig20“, is expected to lay the foundations for the objective of replacing at least 20% of the steel reinforcements by carbon reinforcements in new constructions.
In this project, the Chair of Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting is responsible for a holistic ecological evaluation and optimization of the textile-reinforced concrete. In this context, the environmental impacts of this building material are being analyzed throughout the entire lifecycle, based on the Life Cycle Assessment according to DIN EN ISO 14040 and DIN EN ISO 14044. In the course of this, the building material is modeled including the upstream chains, transport routes and recycling (cradle-to-grave), with the objective of identifying critical variables for an ecologic and economic optimization.
Type of Financing:
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Contact:
Chair of Business Management, esp. Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting
Prof. Dr. Edeltraud Günther: edeltraud.guenther@tu-dresden.de
Christoph Scope: christoph.scope@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Project Website
Website of the Chair of Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting
Objective:
By closely interlinking development processes, logistics and production with Industry 4.0 technologies, iDev40 achieves a disruptive step towards speedup in time to market. By developing and implementing a digitalization strategy for the European electronic components and systems industry a “breakthrough change” is initialized.
Addressing European Policies for 2020 and beyond iDev40 aims to offer solutions to some difficult societal and organizational challenges, like innovate technologies to master the increasing complexity of development and manufacturing of ECS “made in Europe” regarding digitalization approaches and high quality knowledge. Strengthen European competitiveness through interdigitated development and production. Due to the creation of skilled jobs specific areas of logistics, products and processes are virtualized. The collaboration of key European ECS actors in terms of digitalization is strengthened. “Knowledge workers” in manufacturing as well as development and assessment of global value chains are supported by smarter machines (AI).
iDev40 covers the whole value chain to provide sustainable, digital and industrial solutions for integrated development and production.
Type of Financing:
This Project is co-funded by the consortium members and ECSEL JU under grant agreement No 783163. The JU receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, national grants from Austria, Belgiu, Germany, Italy, Spain and Romania as well as the European Structural and Investement Funds.
Contact:
Chair of Business Management, esp. Logistics
Prof. Dr. Rainer Lasch: rainer.lasch@tu-dresden.de
Jacob Lohmer: jacob.lohmer@tu-dresden.de
Stefan Drechsler: stefan.drechsler@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
Transformation processes at district and city level form a pillar of the energy transition in Germany. The approx. 8300 employees and 36000 students account for a considerable part of the city's energy and traffic volumes. The CAMPER-MOVE project is dedicated to the challenges that arise in the course of the necessary transformation processes for the TU Dresden campus. It builds on the project CAMPER (funded by the BMWi, FKZ 03ET1319A, duration 10/2015 - 03/2019), in which an energy and GHG development plan was prepared on the basis of an in-depth energy analysis and put to practical measures. In CAMPER-MOVE, practical implementations are to be supported by scientific monitoring and optimization and assessed with regard to their effect and practical suitability. The experiences flow into further conceptual considerations. "MOVE" stands symbolically for the transformation process towards an energy efficiency campus, which is driven by scientific support.
Type of Financing:
Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, funding measure: application-oriented non-nuclear R & D in the 6th Energy Research Program of the federal government,area of funding: energy-optimized buildings and neighborhoods - decentralized and solar power supply
Contact:
Chair of Business Management, esp. Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting
Teresa Krannisch: teresa.krannisch@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
The integration of renewable energies into the energy system while maintaining high levels of security of supply requires an effective, Europe-wide electric grid. For this reason, the importance of meaningful electric grid modeling is increasing. A wide array of methodological approaches for the modeling of (extra) high-voltage grids has developed over the past years. The approaches can lead to different and sometimes contradicting results. Therefore, the overarching goal of the research project MODEX-Net is a comparison of existing grid models within the European context. With model experiments, differences in methods and data are systematically identified and analyzed, specifically focusing on the role of demand- and supply-side flexibility options. Based on the insights, recommendations for the advancement of grid models will be derived to enhance their informative value for the "Energiewende" (energy transition).
Type of Financing:
Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi)
Contact:
Chair of Business Management, esp. Energy Economics
David Schönheit: david.schoenheit@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Projects of the Free State of Saxony
Objective:
The Eastern Saxony network for Stroke (SOS-NET) has developed a reference application for the ICT-supported care for the acute stroke in the stationary area. Essential components are an integrated care pathway (SOS-Care), which extends over rehabilitation up to one year, into the period of ambulatory after-care. The technological foundation is being created since the middle of 2015 by the CCS-Telehealth East Saxony (CCS-THOS), which the Carus Consilium Saxony GmbH is developing jointly with T-Systems International GmbH. It is additionally supported by the European Union and the Free State of Saxony with ERDF funds. This pathway is quality-assured for the care and documentation, which is technically implemented using the acute and rehabilitation clinics. Within the scope of a follow-up program, the patient is looked after by one or more case managers by using this pathway.
Type of Financing:
European Union and Free State of Saxony (EFRE)
Contact:
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Systems Engineering (Prof. Dr. Werner Esswein)
Further Information:
Short Description:
Complex chronical illnesses require next to an intensive medical treatment often the inclusion of informal caretakers. The relatives of the diseased person are usually faced with the care and organisation of support. A highly important resource in this context are information about the disease and the necessary measures. The project IBMS – the development of an integrated Care Portal for patients with Multiple Sclerosis – main objective is to create a better connection between professionals and supporting care providers (informal). Furthermore, the patients as well as their relatives should be better supported in managing their chronical illness.
Together with our partners, the Multiple Sclerosis Centre (MSZ) at the Centre for Clinical Neuroscience (University Medical Centre Dresden) and the Carus Consilium Sachsen GmbH, there will be developed an eHealth-application that covers all needs of informal and formal caretakers as well as patient-requirements. Therefore, the already existing documentation system for patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MSDS3D) will be connected to the telemedical infrastructure CCS Telehealth Ostsachsen (THOS). Thereby (there) is created an institution-spanning electronical file, that can be also used by the patient itself. The project hence focuses on an improvement of the individual quality of care for patients as well as an optimised use of resources in the public health care sector.
Type of Financing:
European Union and Free State Saxony (EFRE-Mittel)
Contact:
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Systems Engineering
Dr. Hannes Schlieter: hannes.schlieter@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
DFG Projects
Objective:
The collaborative research centre Transregio 96 is a long-term, Germany-wide large-scale research project that is focused on thermo-energetic design of machine tools from a multi-perspective and interdisciplinary point of view. The project is funded by the DFG with a term of max. 10 years.
Type of Financing:
German Research Foundation (DFG)
Contact:
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Systems Engineering
Prof. Dr. Werner Esswein: werner.esswein@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
The concept of role modeling has been introduced in different fields and at different times in order to model context-related information, including the dynamic change of contexts. But up to now, roles have mainly been used in an isolated way for context modeling in programming languages, in database modeling or to specify access control mechanisms. Never have they been used consistently at all levels of abstraction in the software development process, i.e. modeling of concepts, languages, applications and software systems. Only then, software can be defined as consistently context-sensitive.
The central research goal of this DFG research training group is to prove the feasibility of consistent role modeling and its applicability. Consistency means that roles are used systematically for context modeling on all levels of the modeling process. This includes the concept modeling (in meta-languages), the language modeling, and the modeling on the application and software system level.
There are four aims of this program that will contribute to the main goal of research in this field:
- Formalizing the universal concept of roles. The aim is to prove that it is a feasible concept for developing context-sensitive software. This means to integrate the concept in classical, object-oriented modeling implying thus its expansion.
- Researching the dynamic aspect of roles.
- Investigating the consequences of those new attributes of role-based software on the duration. New concepts for coping with dynamic processes have to be developed. Research will focus on the influence context-specific aspects of the role-concept have on the process of developing software and the lifetime of software.
- Evaluation of context-sensitive role-modelling using practical examples. This will help to illustrate the results and to present the advantages of these concepts.
Contact:
Chair of Information Systems, esp. Information Systems in Manufacturing and Commerce
Prof. Dr. Susanne Strahringer: susanne.strahringer@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
Existing constructions from concrete or steel reinforced concrete generally have a low resistance to short-term dynamic stresses, such as impact, detonation or earthquakes. The central objective of the graduate school is to make exsting buildings and structures more resistant by the application of flat, thin-layer reinforcements. By the use of new mineral-bound composites, people's safety and important infrastructure can be significantly enhanced. The developed principles will furthermore enable the economic and ecological building of new structures, that will be highly resistant to impact stresses.
The Chair of Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting supervises the three-year dissertation project „C2: Analysis and assessment of the sustainability and resilience of reinforcement methods with new composites“. The aim of the project is to develop an assessment concept that already takes the research and development phase into account through a sustainability and resilience assessment and results in more resilient and more sustainable composite materials. The concept aims to take technical, financial, societal and ecological influencing parameters into account and to enable quantitative prognoses and scenarios.
Type of Financing:
DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Contact:
Chair of Sustainability Management und Environmental Accounting
Prof. Dr. Edeltraud Günther: edeltraud.guenther@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Industrial Projects / Further Projects
Summary:
At the core of the project stand the question of "Which business model adaptations provided small and medium-sized enterprises with the resilience to sustain COVID-19 related measures?" The result of this project will be the identification of strategies regarding the business model adaption necessary to sustain a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the results of the project, governments can provide small and medium companies (SMEs) with guidelines and assistance regarding business model adaptations, providing a supplement for offering subsidies.
As a first step, a detailed conceptualization of business model changes based on existing literature will be developed. Based on the information from literature, interviews with local SMEs in Göttingen and Dresden will be conducted. In these interviews, we will iteratively develop insights regarding COVID-19 related business model changes. Furthermore, we intend to carry out workshops to supplement the insights gathered during interviews. The gathered data from the interviews and workshops will be synthesized to help SME companies to learn from each other. At the end of the project, the results will be published in repots, scientific papers and conference proceedings.
Partners:
Chair of Information Management, University of Goettingen
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Intelligent Systems and Services
Chair of Business Informatics, esp. Information Systems in Industry and Commerce, Technische Universität Dresden
Project duration: 3/2021 - 09/2022
Funding: VolkswagenStiftung
Contact:
Digital Work Research Group (DWRG)
Summary:
Intensive care unit (ICU) capacity is crucial for the treatment of the most severely sick patients. Due to the common lack of ICU bed availability, the ICU physician in charge must triage which patient can be sent to the regular ward when new critical patients arrive. The choice of an ideal candidate for transfer is subject to a variety of medical and operational factors compounded by uncertainty regarding the recovery process of each individual. It may also come at times of high workload or fatigue.
This project aims to develop a software-based decision support system that helps clinicians identify patients who are most suitable for transfer to a lower ward. Our approach is to analyze historical ICU data to estimate the effects of a potential transfer on patient outcome in the presence of specific combinations of vital signs and operational factors. The software tool evaluates the current state of ICU patients along with their therapeutic characteristics and proposes a set of eligible transfer candidates. Alternatively, it provides the physician with an aggregate easy-to-interpret eligibility score for each patient.
Funding:
The project ist funded as a 'Interdisciplinary Innovation Project (IIP)' from Else Kröner-Fresenius Center for Digital Health.
Website:
https://digitalhealth.tu-dresden.de/research/innovation-projects_economic/prioricare/
Project duration:
01.10.2020 - 30.09.2021
Contact:
Chair of Business Administration, esp. Industrial Management
Franz Ehm, M. Sc. franz.ehm@tu-dresden.de
Objective:
Within the scope of the doctoral projects of the third Boysen-TU Dresden Research Training Group new mobility technologies and scenarios as well as the related questions are considered from different scientific perspectives. The 16 doctoral projects are divided into four scientifically delimited but thematically converging clusters. In this way, the transformation processes in the fields of traffic, environment, and society can be examined in a technically appropriate, perspectively diverse, and methodologically multifaceted manner and existing synergies can be exploited on a broad interdisciplinary basis.
Financing:
Friedrich und Elisabeth Boysen-Stiftung and Technische Universität Dresden
Contact:
Cluster B: (Prof. Dr. Udo Buscher, Chair of Industrial Management; Prof. Dr. Jörn Schönberger, Chair of Transport Services and Logistic)
Cluster C: (Prof. Dr. Dominik Möst, Chair of Energy Economics; Prof. Dr. Edeltraud Günther, UNU FLORES)
Further Information:
Objective:
All railway companies are facing increasing competition. Operating authorities frequently invite tenders for operational services on railway lines or networks on a Europe-wide basis. One requirement in the tender documents issued to the operator is compliance with on-board staff attendance rates, i.e. a stipulated percentage of trains that need to be staffed (in the form of local public transport conductors or inspectors). In order to provide the required services as cost-efficiently as possible and avoid penalties, it is necessary to fulfil the stipulated attendance rates and make the best possible use of available personnel. The different manifestations of on-board staff attendance rates pose a significant challenge to personnel planning in the context of both tender preparation and operation. Planning requires the creation of shift schedules, which minimize the necessary deployment of personnel and satisfy the requirements of the Arbeitszeitgesetz (German Working Hours Act) and the collective bargaining agreements. The aim of the project is to develop a software solution for DB Regio AG for solving and optimizing this problem. Mathematical model formulations and powerful operations research methods are used in this context.
Type of Financing:
Deutsche Bahn AG
Contact:
Chair of Business Management, esp. Industrial Management
Prof. Dr. Udo Buscher: udo.buscher@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Objective:
Different local transport networks are often interconnected. More precisely, the intersection of two sets of operated train stations by network A and B is nonempty in many cases. Yet, at DB Regio AG, our project partner, crew schedules are optimized for each network separately. The aim of the project is to explore whether crew pooling, which describes a joint crew schedule and personnel deployment across multiple networks in a defined region, can achieve additional cost savings. We expect that crew pooling reduces the total paid working time (total number of shifts x average paid working time) and generates economies of scale (personnel fix costs, cost for depots and others).
The complexity of the railway crew scheduling problem (RCSP) increases exponentially with its size; in mathematical terms, the problem is known to be NP-hard. Solving multiple networks simultaneously imposes not only an increase in size, but also adds network-specific restrictions to the problem’s complexity. Most of the present optimization methods and algorithms can solve large-scale but only one single network with globally valid restrictions at a time. One example is the SINA project, which develops a software solution for crew scheduling with attendance rates for conductors in one local transport network. Building on the results of SINA, the project at hand widens the scope of the crew scheduling problem with attendance rates as to solve multiple networks simultaneously. The aim of the project is to develop and implement an algorithm which optimizes the large-scale RCSP for multiple networks, which vary in size and must fulfil network-specific restrictions. For this purpose, we use powerful Operation Research methods and heuristics, e.g. column generation.
Type of Financing:
Deutsche Bahn AG
Contact:
Chair of Business Management, esp. Industrial Management
Prof. Dr. Udo Buscher: udo.buscher@tu-dresden.de
Further Information:
Summary:
The project aims to establish an international interdisciplinary collaboration between Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) and King's College London (KCL) on the topics of wellbeing and resilience competency development. Our project’s goals are twofold: to provide in-depth research-based insights into the development of resilience as a competency for current and future professionals and to adapt and develop novel learning approaches that can be used as interventions to promote and enhance both competency and wellbeing among different students of different subjects and in different settings (e.g., face to face and online settings). In this sense, we aim to bridge research on education, learning, psychology and neuroscience to strengthen our interdisciplinary research cooperation and to provide young researchers and students with opportunities for exchange in both academia and research.
Our project will commence with research on implementing a collaborative teaching programme focused on developing competency in resilience and wellbeing. Due to current challenges and social distancing urged by COVID-19, our partner at KCL designed a novel online coaching programme, titled “Time to Thrive”, which we plan to offer to university students at TUD. The project’s results will be examined and evaluated by the international research group, including students in both institutions.
The research group also plans to enhance cooperation on additional related topics with other partners within our universities.
Websites:
https://tu-dresden.de/tu-dresden/internationales/transcampus/transcampus-projekte-2020
Institutional Project Coordinator:
Prof. Dr. Bärbel Fürstenau
Project Coordinator:
Ianina Scheuch
Project Staff:
Caroline Muss
Carolin Schneider
Project Partners:
King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN)
- Dr. Patricia A. Zunszain
- Dr. Gisele Pereira Dias
- Dr. Juliet Foster
Funding:
TransCampus Funding Programme