CAR@TUM: Networking par excellence

Munich. The decades-long cooperation between the BMW Group and the Technische
Universität München (TUM) has now been enshrined in a firm organisational
structure: CAR@TUM - short for "Centre of Automotive Research" - brings
together existing and future projects. So far CAR@TUM has 35 doctorate students
and six new interdisciplinary high-tech projects on its books, covering
everything from basic engineering research to the finished product. A
management committee with equal representation from the TUM, the BMW Group and
BMW Group Forschung und Technik - in its capacity as a mentor to CAR@TUM - is
at the helm of the operational cooperation.

The "Energy Management" project, for example, examines energy flows throughout
the vehicle with the aim of identifying potential for optimisation in the
reduction of fuel consumption. The "Man-Machine Interaction" initiative,
meanwhile, sees the joint research partnership focusing on the design of
intuitive operating concepts with extended functional content. Information
technology is of central importance in the latest vehicles, and the content
defined so far by CAR@TUM therefore ranges from IT architecture, IT processes
and software engineering with mechatronics all the way to materials research.
Approaches are worked out - according to their area of focus - in the Faculty
of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology,
Computer Science, Mathematics or Physics.

TUM President Prof. Wolfgang A. Herrmann sees CAR@TUM as the "theme-based
re-structuring of a long-standing alliance to the mutual benefit of science and
industry - and also to the advantage of Bavaria as a high technology location."
Close and interlinked cooperation has ensured that both innovative technology
and highly qualified graduates find their way into the markets of the future.
"Through its role in this solid and trusting cooperation, the BMW Group has
become a "Partner of Excellence" of our university," says Herrmann. The TUM
President also explained how the university is expanding its "Partners of
Excellence" network with the addition of ten well-known companies in the high
technology sector.

"With CAR@TUM we are giving our long-standing cooperation a solid framework and
lending new impetus to the fruitful interaction between the worlds of industry
and science over and above the restrictions of institutes and national
borders," says Dr Klaus Draeger, member of the BMW AG Board of Management
responsible for development and procurement. "The future happens on its own,
but progress does not. Together with the TUM we are looking to actively shape a
part of the future."

BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW AG and has
been responsible for research at the BMW Group since 2003. VehicleTechnology,
CleanEnergy (hydrogen technology), EfficientDynamics (intelligent energy
management/alternative drive systems), ConnectedDrive (driver assistance/active
safety) and ITDrive (IT and communications technology) activities all come
under its watchful eye. Its legal independence as a GmbH (limited company)
ensures creative freedom and unbeatable flexibility. Worldwide access to trends
and technologies is provided by an established international network with bases
in the USA (Palo Alto, CA and Clemson, SC), Japan (Tokyo) and Liaison Offices
in France with Eurécom (Sophia Antipolis) and Germany in the shape of the
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH) in
Saarbrücken.

The Technische Universität München (TUM) is one of Germany's leading
universities, boasting some 400 professors, 8,500 employees (incl. those at the
"rechts der Isar" teaching hospital) and 20,000 students. Its specialist areas
are engineering, natural sciences, life sciences, medicine and economics. In
2006 it was named as an "Elite University" by the German Science Council and
German Research Foundation on the back of a number of awards and distinctions.
The TUM worldwide network also includes a branch in Singapore. The TUM is
committed to the "business university" model.