Logo der Professur VPE - links: Visualisierung einer Hierarchie und eines Daten- bzw. Dreiecksnetzes, rechts Text: VPE Professur für Virtuelle Produktentwicklung © Professur VPE

The chair introduces itself

The main research of the Chair of Virtual Product Development is oriented towards digital methodologies and enhanced development procedures for engineering design processes. Useful digitalization and technological capabilities need to be examined and understood before transferring analogous and physical models to their virtual counterpart in a purposeful manner. Along the design process, the Chair is dedicated to the challenge of leveraging the potentials of development organization and decision-making.

experience now The chair introduces itself

Wichtige Themen im Überblick

Darstellung einer Gruppe von Kollegen bei der Arbeit © kantver / Fotolia
Staff

The Chair of Virtual Product Development currently includes twelve research assistants, an assistant to the chair and a teaching and study coordinator.
GOM 3D Scanner © VPE
Offers, facilities and equipment

The chair uses technology from the fields of reverse engineering and virtual reality. The Reverse Engineering Lab has different 3D scanning technology and powerful software to prepare scan data for sophisticated research and services. In the virtual reality lab, different presentation and input devices are available for experiments. Since January 2007, the professorship also has a modern 5-sided CAVE. This was modernized in 2016.
Das Foto zeigt vier Personen vor einem großen, beschriebenen Whiteboard. Sie stehen sich gegenüber und lachen. Eine Person hält zwei Whiteboardmarker in den Händen. © Amac Garbe
Networks, committees and coopera­tions

In research projects and services, the chair cooperates with strong partners from industry and academia. The professorship is also involved in various research networks. We are at your disposal for collaborations, please contact us and follow our presences in social media for updates on research and teaching.
Foto von Professor Dr.-Ing. Stefan Fronius © Universitätsarchiv / TU Dresden

History of the chair

The founding of the chair goes back to the introduction of design engineering as a research and teaching area by Professor Dr.-Ing. Stefan Fronius (pictured left) in 1969. The lectureship in design engineering (design theory), which was installed in 1971 in the section for the fundamentals of mechanical engineering, was converted into a chair in 1980 when the holder was appointed as a full professor, which became a professorship in design engineering/CAD as part of the reorganisation of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

The reorganisation of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering after the fall of the Berlin Wall involved the formation of larger institutes. This involved a cooperative merger of the two chairs of Construction Engineering/CAD and Machine Elements with the addition of the two professorships of Constructive Design and Technical Design to form the Institute for Machine Elements and Machine Design with joint administration and autonomy in research and teaching.