Studies and Teaching

As a new structure-building measure, an international cooperative master's program "Vehicle-Road Integrated Digital Engineering and Asset Management" (between TUD and RWTH) will be planned and established within the framework of SFB/TRR 339. In this master's program, digital engineering and asset management of road infrastructure in the life cycle will be taught, i.e., the focus will be on planning, construction, operation, maintenance/repair, upgrading of infrastructures, and finally on deconstruction and reuse of materials. Civil engineering and transportation issues play a role. Since the main focus in the future will be on infrastructure that has already been built and not so much on new construction, the degree program will address more the issues of operation, maintenance, retrofitting, etc., hence the title "Digital Asset Management". The program will consider all elements of infrastructure, i.e., road, bridge, tunnel, secondary structures (pipelines, septic tanks, noise abatement systems, etc.), and the overall equipment. The aim is to teach an end-to-end digital condition recording, maintenance and management system. Topics such as construction processes, traffic control during construction, working sites, construction times or lean management, economic cost considerations and sustainability are considered. Knowledge transfer should be supported as best as possible by digital methods.

For the infrastructure element road, the SFB/TRR 339 can provide with the digital twin the scientific basis for the digital working methods of the future generation of infrastructure engineers in the field of road engineering.