Institute of

Automotive Engineering

"We pursue industrial collaborations with regional and national partners and focus on innovative R&D to ensure research excellence at the Institute. Our future focus will be on electric drive trains, alternative drives, from pure electric vehicles through to fuel cells, and autonomous driving."

Head of Institute Kurt Steiner

The Institute of Automotive Engineering is part of the Department of Engineering. True to its motto "Dynamics starts in the head", learning, teaching and research take place in a practical and international context. One good example of this is the ‘joanneum racing graz’ project which is carried out as part of the Formula Student competition.

Research fields

Our R&D activities follow a three-pronged approach: analysis and calculation, numerical simulation and measurement, testing and experiments. Research is focused on the overall vehicle. The Institute is equipped with state-of-the-art testing facilities and cutting edge design and simulation tools.

Collaboration opportunities

Collaboration with partners in research contracts or funded research projects
Exploration of research questions as part of Bachelor’s and Master’s theses

Degree programmes

Projects

UNITED

Engineering Knowledge Transfer Units to Increase Student's Employability and Regional Development: The UNITED partner countries Indonesia (ID), Malaysia (MY) and Thailand (TH) represent the largest automotive industries in the SEA region and are highly important for the global car production, but little is done for technical advancement (R&D). The project aims to improve the current situation at the participating higher education institutions and the regional industries that are connected.

DRIVES - Development and Research on Innovative Vocational Education Skills

DRIVES aims to implement the Blueprint objectives for the automotive sector, namely the delivery of human capital solutions to supply chain SMEs through the establishment of an Automotive Sector Skills Alliance, covering all levels of the value chain (vehicle production, automotive suppliers and automotive sales and aftermarket services).

ASCENT - Competence centres for automotive engineering and sales management

Competence centres for automotive engineering and sales management will be set up to increase the positive impact on regional economic development in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

eCULT – electrified Car Ultra Light Technologies

Electric vehicles are very much a part of the streetscape nowadays. Despite their growing popularity, electric vehicles’ share of the domestic market is still very small. To give students at the Institute of Automotive Engineering at FH JOANNEUM an insight into the technology of zero-emission cars, they developed their own electric vehicle during the course of a number of studies and projects.

ELIC - Engineering Literacy Online

Engineering literacy of secondary school teachers in Austria, Czech Republic, Italy and Germany is going to be increased through the MOOC training in order to ease the access to technical knowledge of pupils. ELIC increases the interest of secondary school pupils in engineering, which in the future could lead to a better offer of highly skilled employees for the engineering labour market.

joanneum racing graz

Since 2003, Automotive Engineering students at FH JOANNEUM have participated in the Formula Student engineering design competition as part of the “joanneum racing graz” project. Participation in the competition involves designing and building a racing car that meets all the relevant requirements within a one year period.

Automotive Quality Universities

AQUA tries to minimize the GAP between the current educational standards and the expectations of the automotive industry through offering an intense training for engineering students.