The term "digitalization" is currently on everyone's lips. The necessities from the accelerating technological progress to maintain highly qualified and well-paid jobs in Germany therefore also require the strong inclusion of state-of-the-art, digital technologies in the field of education. For this reason, Mannheim University of Applied Sciences is pursuing an important strategy for the three-dimensional presentation and digital enrichment of teaching and research content in various disciplines with the establishment, maintenance and consistent further development of the "Virtual Engineering Competence Center".

In 2014, the necessary framework conditions were created by investing 5 million euros in a modern building with up-to-date equipment and the establishment of a 5-sided cave.

With the decision of the rectorate to appoint Prof. Dr. Julian Reichwald as additional scientific director alongside Prof. Dr. Matthias Rädle, the core team of the KVE is again fully staffed with Ms. Natascha Heß-Mohr, MSc. and Mr. Kevin Kastner, MSc. "In the future, we will work together on expanding the technological possibilities and integrating virtual worlds into the university's teaching and research landscape," says Prof. Reichwald. His many years of experience in the field of digital twins will take the KVE a step further towards becoming a digitization center.

In addition to these management functions, a development team of 8 additional scientists from the departments of process engineering, communications engineering, electrical engineering and computer science has been established and located in the KVE building.

This brain trust deals with projects of 3D visualization, artificial intelligence and machine learning, interface and application developments as well as mathematical methods.

"The equipment has now also been expanded in the direction of 3D scanning and rapid 3D prototyping in collaboration with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, so that cross-faculty interdisciplinary tasks and projects can be tackled in an integrated environment for virtual product development and optimization," Prof. Rädle is pleased to say.

The entire team expects new exciting projects, is available for collaborations within and outside the university and is looking forward to many contacts and multi-dimensional exchange in virtual as well as in real space.