The new endowed professorship – “Industry 4.0: Adaptive and Integrated Production Systems” – is an important component in the establishment of a research and teaching centre on the topic of Industry 4.0 in southern Austria. Well-known research groups are already active in the field of “new production technologies” both in Carinthia, in the surroundings of the AAU, and in Styria in the vicinity of TU Graz. The aim of the endowed professorship is to further develop the strengths of both universities in the field of autonomous, adaptive and integrated production systems and work closely with relevant research groups in Klagenfurt and Graz. The infrastructure of both locations will be used, and an additional six PhD/ doctoral students will be employed at the AAU and two at TU Graz. The purpose of the endowed professorship, in addition to promoting research projects in Industry 4.0, is to make an active contribution to university training in the subject areas of production, logistics, robotics, planning, configuration, diagnosis, analytics and optimisation.
Donors
The project is being largely funded by donors from industry. The following companies are involved: cms electronics GmbH, Constantia Industries GmbH, FunderMax GmbH, Hirsch Armbänder GmbH, incubed IT GmbH, Infineon Technologies Austria AG, Isovolta AG, Kostwein Holding GmbH and the Kärntner Sparkasse Private Foundation. The Kärntner Wirtschaftsförderungs Fonds KWF is also on board with a considerable sum.Together with industry, the two universities are thus sparking valuable impulses for the Carinthia-Styria region, developing top research and supporting companies in creating solutions to complex problems as well as raising productivity, quality and flexibility.
