News

The unmanned aircraft Sagitta has successfully completed its first two test flights at the Overberg test range in South Africa. The project is part of the "Open Innovation" initiative launched by aircraft manufacturer Airbus. The objective is the development of new technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles. Sagitta serves as a platform for testing these technologies and is not focused on any specific end-product. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) answer for the overall configuration, programmed the flight control system, investigated the aerodynamic phenomena and developed flexible materials for Sagitta.

Golfers wanting to shoot below par or tennis players looking to smash their way past opponents should focus on their backswing in order to perfect new techniques quickly, research suggests. Academics at the University of Plymouth and the Technical University of Munich assessed the speed at which people learned the basic skills which allowed them to achieve consistent results.

Applications from talented young people hoping to study at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are at record levels. TUM has received around 40,000 applications for the coming winter semester. That matches the total number of students currently enrolled. Foreign applicants account for 46 percent of the total – also a new record. And for the first time, the master’s applicants outnumber those applying to begin a bachelor program.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is launching two new Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – one on land management and one on food value chains. While the former aims to show the importance of land as a finite ressource for very different aspects of society, the latter looks into how stakeholders in the food industry can harmonize the seemingly conflicting priorities of competition, sustainability and product quality.

Light and light design are vital to urban planning and the design of buildings. In this interview, Prof. Hannelore Deubzer explains the new possibilities presented by artificial light, but also why it should be used in moderation.

After a long day of working at the computer, scratchy contact lenses are not only painful, over longer periods of time they can also damage ocular tissue. Relief may be in sight from a natural mucus component referred to as a mucin. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now succeeded in demonstrating that contact lenses coated with purified porcine gastric mucin do not cause damage to the eye anymore.

When T cells encounter an antigen, they proliferate and produce various types of daughter cells. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now refuted the prevailing hypothesis that this immune response is largely predetermined by the individual structure of the T cell receptor. Instead, the influence of the T cell receptor can be described only in probabilistic terms. Such mathematical models may help to improve the design of future vaccination strategies.

The protein amyloid beta is believed to be the major cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Substances that reduce the production of amyloid beta, such as BACE inhibitors, are therefore promising candidates for new drug treatments. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has recently demonstrated that one such BACE inhibitor reduces the amount of amyloid beta in the brain. By doing so, it can restore the normal function of nerve cells and significantly improve memory performance.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has launched an online platform that provides the status quo of educational research in an easily understandable and transparent fashion. The "Clearing House Unterricht" is intended to help integrate scientific results in the design of teacher training and school teaching. The platform answers specific questions that arise in everyday classroom situations.

The Board of Trustees of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has unanimously elected two new Vice Presidents. The economist Prof. Claudia Peus will become Senior Vice President Talent Management and Diversity. The medical scientist Prof. Juliane Winkelmann will take over as Senior Vice President International Alliances and Alumni. The Board of Trustees also unanimously reelected Prof. Gerhard Müller as Senior Vice President Academic and Student Affairs and computer scientist Hans Pongratz as Chief Information Officer.