Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten für Ingenieure

Students at the TUM School of Engineering and Design have the opportunity to enrol in various courses related to scientific working and writing in this subject area. The aim is always to strengthen competences in the scientific context with regard to one's own scientific projects such as bachelor's, semester or master's theses.

For this purpose, students can choose from a range of courses at different levels. The Center of Key Competencies coordinates these with various actors at TUM and offers lectures, seminars and e-learning opportunities.

The range of topics

• Characteristics and requirements of good scientific practice: Students will learn which guidelines apply to ensure good scientific practice at TUM and which quality standards must be met for their own scientific work.
  
  
• Structure and planning of scientific papers and time management: Students will acquire the skills needed to structure scientific work (theses and scientific papers) within an engineering framework. In addition, the students will learn about the different writing and working phases of a scientific paper and how they can structure and realistically manage their time according to these phases. Writing an exposé serves as an effective tool for structuring the subject topics and refining research questions and methodologies.
  
  
• Design of experiments and evaluation: Students can dig into the scientific fundamentals of experimental design including different types such as experiment, simulation, and design. For example, you will learn about the differences between experiments in mechanical engineering and other disciplines. You will also learn strategies for handling and analyzing the collected data.
  
  
• Scientific writing in German and English: The aim of these courses is to improve your scientific language and to develop scientific arguments. The structured development of arguments, the hypotheses formulation, the improvement of your writing style as well as tips on how to avoid unconscious manipulation are the contents of the courses.
  
  
• Literature management, literature research, citation: Students will receive guidance on accurately citing scientific sources and expand their knowledge of successful literature research. They can also learn how to select suitable and high-quality literature and discover where to access these resources within the university libraries or in databases.
  
  
• Developing and implementing research ideas and dealing with patents: In e-learning, students will receive input on how to develop research ideas and how to proceed in turning them into reality. In addition, e-learning teaches how to deal with patents.
  
  
• Presentation of research results: In this section, students can develop their skills in presenting research results. Offers range from a classic presentation to a pitch to a poster presentation.
  
  
• Dealing with writing problems: Students learn how to tackle challenges in the academic writing process and gain insights on how to overcome writing and work blocks that may occur, or how to solve motivation problems. For example, through the targeted use of creativity techniques..

The lecture contents

During the semester we offer a lecture series (basics and structure) every Thursday online via zoom. You can register for the courses (see registration) or book into the self-enrollment moodle course (Course: Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten im Ingenieursstudium | TUM). If you are interested in individual topics, you are also welcome to come to individual courses. You will find the link to access the online lectures in the moodle course, where you will also find the current dates. 

Registration

Please register for the respective event on TUM Online. We recommend that you attend the event before starting your thesis.

or via self-enrollment in the moodle course: Kurs: Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten im Ingenieursstudium | TUM

You can find information on the coursework exposé on this WIKI page!

Contact

Zentrum für Schlüsselkompetenzen
Boltzmannstraße 15
85748 Garching

zsk@ed.tum.de