Studium trifft DLR
Atmospheric research. Aerospace medicine. Adaptive systems. Mechatronics. Robotics. Planetary research. Propulsion technology. Materials physics in space. Artificial intelligence. Earth observation. Transport engineering. And many more. DLR offers fascinating opportunities for students during their studies – and thereafter, from PhD to unique professions! DLR is particularly closely working together with Technical Universities within the project DLR@TU9. TU9 – that is nine leading technical universities having joined forces to support science and research in engineering and natural sciences. Within the framework of DLR@TU9, DLR and TU9 are closely cooperating in the fields of space flight, aviation, and traffic. The joint aim is the exchange of knowledge and experiences and a better networking of university and non-university research in order to be better positioned in international competition.
DLR_Uni Summer School in the flying lecture hall
© Max Fuhrmann/TU Braunschweig
A DLR research aircraft, a research aircraft from TU Braunschweig, 40 students: in the DLR Uni Summer School, organised by DLR and TU Braunschweig together with six other aeronautics universities, students are given the opportunity to conduct research with flight experiments. Many student research projects or master theses started from there.
NASA/DLR Design Challenge
A regular topic all around further development of aeronautics, students from TUs in Germany and the USA, ambitious concepts and the participation in a symposium in the USA: that is the NASA/DLR Design Challenge. It takes place once a year and is a classy opportunity to introduce revolutionary (and marketable) ideas to an international expert audience.
DLR@Uni Electric Flight
How can flying become ecologically more sustainable and more efficient? By air transport avoiding the use of kerosine, for example, by using electric propulsion systems. This presents a huge challenge. In the Helmholtz initiative “LR@Uni Electric Flight” all forces are joined to boost research: 14 DLR institutes and 20 university institutes in Berlin, Braunschweig, Stuttgart and Munich/Oberpfaffenhofen take part, jointly with industrial partners. For students, this presents a great opportunity to actively contribute to important future-oriented topics and to get themselves a recommendation for their final theses and their career entry.
3 main topics
- Technology and configuration of aircraft
- Validation of subtechnologies in a flight experiment
- Operation, infrastructure, and social acceptance of electrically driven aircraft
Helmholtz-Allianz DLR@Uni
Drei DLR-Standorte. Elf Forschungsschwerpunkte: In Braunschweig, Stuttgart und München arbeiten DLR und Hochschulen in räumlicher Nähe eng zusammen. In Forschung, Lehre und Graduiertenförderung (inklusive Stipendien).
Letzterer kommt im Rahmen der Allianz eine besondere Bedeutung zu: Ziel ist es, den promovierenden Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern überfachliche Kenntnisse und Fähigkeiten zu vermitteln, die bereits während der Promotionsphase dienlich sind, aber auch darüber hinaus karrierefördernd wirken.
Campus Forschungsflughafen Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig, DLR):
-
Luftfahrt- und Verkehrsforschung, zum Beispiel Vereisung durch große, unterkühlte Wassertropfen
Munich Aerospace München (TU München, Universität der Bundeswehr, Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V., DLR)
- Sicherheit im Orbit
- Autonomes Fliegen
- Hochauflösende geodätische Erdbeobachtung
- Advanced Space Communications
- Aviation Management
Campus „Gemeinsam die Zukunft gestalten“ Stuttgart (Universität Stuttgart, DLR)
- Virtuelle Zulassungsrouten und Design für Aerostrukturen
- Rückkehrtechnologie für hochenergetische Bahnen
- Nutzung nachwachsender Rohstoffe für die dezentrale Stromerzeugung
- Leichtbaukonzepte für Elektrofahrzeuge
- Fahrdrahtlose Energieübertragung bei Schienenfahrzeugen
Dual studies at the DLR
Studying and making money at the same time – with an education in the dual system.
The practical part will take place at the DLR, the theoretical part at a cooperating university.
The education towards a bachelor takes three years or six semesters, respectively. You will be a student at a university and a trainee at the DLR at the same time – during the entire period of time, a trainee allowance will be paid. This enables studies while being financially independent to a large extent. Possible courses of study, to name a few examples: electrical engineering, informatics, (precision) mechanical engineering, aerospace electronics, or business information systems. Partner universities are, for example: Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) in Mannheim, Stuttgart, and Ravensburg (Campus Friedrichshafen), UAS Hildesheim/Holzminden/Goettingen as well as FHDW Bergisch Gladbach. Lectures and on-the-job training will alternate. After six semesters, the dual studies are completed with the theses for gaining a Bachelor of Engineering degree.
Student research projects/theses
We are looking for discoverers: at our institutes, you will be given the opportunity to conduct research for your student research project, bachelor or master thesis. We will support you: in assigning a tutor who will do more than just guiding and accompanying you. You make use of our unique infrastructure, profit from exchange in our interdisciplinary teams and get insights into the world of one of Europe’s leading research institutions. We are looking in particular for high qualified students of engineering sciences, informatics, physics, mathematics, natural sciences, and geosciences. We advertise topics for student research projects and theses on our job portal at www.DLR.de as salaried jobs – however, we are open for new ideas, too.
Doing one’s PhD and working: DLR_Graduate_Program
Taking an active part in a mission to Mars? Developing the next generation of aircraft or
trains? Taking part in developing the future of robotics, adaptive systems, navigation, and communication technologies? Researching on new energy sources? As a PhD candidate at the DLR, you can work on your PhD thesis, on your career, and as a top performer – with the DLR_Graduate_Program, which has been designed for a three-year duration. This programme actively supports young scientists. Every year, about 200 diplomas and 70 doctoral theses are successfully completed at the DLR. Many companies from the aerospace sector, e.g., Airbus or Siemens, are committing themselves to mentoring young scientists.
The DLR_Graduate_Program is a qualification programme imparting important knowledge and skills beyond practical work that are essential both for the doctorate phase and your further career, e.g. scientific publishing and presenting, acquisition of third-party funding, conducting negotiations as well as project and team management. The DLR initiative for supporting young scientists comprises three parts: firstly, the qualification measures of the institutes, secondly a cross-institute qualification and development programme, and thirdly the so-called supplements such as own publications, teaching, or giving lectures at conferences.
German Trainee Programme
Within the framework of a one- to two-year fellowship, graduates (master, diploma, PhD) are given the opportunity to gain experience in a space project in an international team at the European Space Agency ESA. Satellite operation, robotics, manned and unmanned space flight, Earth observation, and mission analysis are only some of the fields of work that are offered.
STERN: student’s experimental rockets
T minus X ... and counting. The rocket is ready for launch. A few seconds later, it will take off towards the sky with supersonic speed. Not in Kourou, Cape Canaveral, or Baikonur, but at the small spaceport in Esrange in Sweden.
© Hochschule Bremen
To develop, build and launch one’s own rocket – this opportunity is opened up for students of aerospace technology by STERN (Student’s Experimental Rockets) of German Space Agency at DLR that has been running since 2012. Within a three-year project, the student teams pass through all phases of a real development programme, starting with the first concepts for manufacturing of the rocket through to the flight with subsequent evaluation of flight data.
They will get expert advice from the DLR’s Mobile Rocket Base MORABA that also launches sounding rockets from Esrange, as well as from the DLR Test Centres for Rocket Propulsions in Lampoldshausen and Trauen. Here, the students are also given the opportunity to test their engines. The programme also includes several workshops discussing propulsion topics, on-board electronics as well as safety aspects and workflows at Esrange.
The previous highlights of the STERN programme include the European altitude record with
32.3 kilometres, whereby the rocket reached a velocity of approx. 2,500 kilometres per hour
and subsequently landed with a parachute, the flight of a hybrid rocket with solid wax and
cold, liquid oxygen with a temperature of -183 degrees Celsius as propulsion as well as the development of a liquid propulsion unit driven by ethanol and liquid oxygen. In the first phase of the STERN programme, eight universities were participating. Eight rockets were started. Due to the great interest awakened by the project, the programme is currently taking place for the second time.
During the project, the students have to answer the following questions:
- How should propulsion and rocket be designed to achieve the desired flight altitude and speed?
- How must the rocket – as lightweight as possible – be designed to stand high in-flight strains?
- How do I develop a functioning parachute system for safe recovery of the rocket?
- How do I transmit the flight data?
- What about safety, for which components is the MOT needed?
- What technical and organisational requirements must be met by the operator in Esrange?
- What development tests do I have to carry out? – and, last but not least:
- How can I realise the entire project within a given time and budget frame?
REXUS/BEXUS
Rocket and balloon experiments for students
There it is, the dazzling idea for an experiment, which, however, can only be carried out in the stratosphere or under microgravity conditions – an experiment to measure atmospheric data, to test the communication of a satellite with the ground station or the technology for a planned microsatellite – or in which cosmic radiation plays the major role. How can an experiment with such complex prerequisites be implemented?
The German-Swedish student programme REXUS/BEXUS (rocket and balloon experiments for students at universities) offers student teams the opportunity to apply for a flight on a stratospheric balloon or a research rocket. On the one hand, those who convince with their experiment proposals and are accepted to participate in the programme will gain lots of experience; on the other hand, they will find plenty of work to do. It will definitely be an exciting experience. During a period of 12 to 18 months, the students will go through a complete space project, starting with the idea and the planning, and ending with the publication of the results. In between, they design, build and test their experiment equipment, take an active part in the balloon or rocket launch campaign, monitor the experiments during the flight from their ground stations and evaluate the acquired data.
© DLR
© ESA
REXUS/BEXUS is a joint programme of German Space Agency at DLR and the Swedish National Spaceflight Agency, SNSA. Through cooperation with ESA, student teams from universities and institutions of higher education of all member states can participate. During the entire project, they are supported by space flight engineers of ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity), DLR, SSC Esrange, and ESA. The launches of two rockets and balloons each per year are conducted by SSC and DLR MORABA (Mobile Rocket Base) from the space flight centre Esrange near Kiruna in Sweden, 200 kilometres north of the polar circle.