Mechanical engineering today: research in the spirit of sustainability

When did the Gesamthochschule Kassel become the University of Kassel? How heterogeneous is the student body at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering? And how do our scientists contribute to solving current ecological and social problems? We answer these questions in the fourth part of our short series on the history of mechanical engineering in Kassel.

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The Gesamthochschule Kassel was founded as a reform university. A core concern was enabling people without Abitur to study at university and opening up access to a scientific education to broader sections of the population. However, Gesamthochschulen enjoyed less prestige and reputation than established universities in the public perception. In the changing spirit of the times, the "Gesamthochschule Kassel" was renamed "Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel" in 1993 and finally "Universität Kassel" in 2003. This name change was accompanied by a clear upgrading of Kassel as a scientific location. Despite the renaming, the legacy of the reform university lives on in the University of Kassel, which is still open to people with the most diverse educational biographies. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is no exception, and today only slightly more than half of our students have a traditional Abitur. In contrast, around 40% of our students have qualified for a degree in mechanical engineering or mechatronics through their advanced technical college entrance qualification, their foreign qualifications or their previous vocational training ("studying without an Abitur").

The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is committed to the guiding principles of integration, diversity and internationalisation. At the same time, the topic of sustainability has also been accorded outstanding importance for several decades. As early as the 1990s, for example, Prof. Werner Kleinkauf called for the need for a sustainable orientation in engineering:

A general return of the engineer to the traditional virtues of shaping technology and not 'just' making further developments and improvements will be indispensable for mastering the tasks ahead of us. [...] Possibilities must be created to ensure that the assured growth in knowledge, such as that recently gained in the environmental and climate sectors, can also be translated into adequate technology. Helping to solve pent-up problems and opening up perspectives for future generations is necessary and opens up new fields of activity. Training and research at universities in the field of engineering are excellently suited to develop new, future-oriented standards here. (Kleinkauf 1996, pp. 188-189)

In this sense, Kassel Mechanical Engineering continues to be committed to future-oriented research. This is also reflected in the research profile, which was revised in 2021 with its with its four current research focal points:

1. Biologisation of technology, 2. decarbonisation and resource efficiency, 3. digital transformation of products and processes as well as the 4. reliability of processes, structures and functions.

With their research, the scholars at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering are breaking new ground and thus contributing to the conservation of resources and the environmentally friendly transformation of the economy, technology and society.

German text Daniel Koch

Source

Kleinkauf, Werner (1996): Design or comprehend? Aspects of the Development of Engineering Sciences at the GhK. In: Annette Ulbricht-Hopf (Ed.): ProfilBildung. Texts on 25 years of the University of Kassel. 1st ed. Zurich: vdf Hochsch.-Verl. an der ETH (Kasseler Semesterbücher Reihe Studia cassellana), pp. 179-190.