Members introduce themselves 10/06/2025

Close-up Furtwangen University

In the "Members introduce themselves" section, companies and research institutes from the Cluster Electric Mobility South-West provide an insight into their activities: they talk about their current activities, look into the future and show how they are advancing cooperation in the Cluster Electric Mobility South-West. Focus on: Furtwangen University. The research institute provides an insight into current projects and future plans, and shows how it is helping to shape the mobility of tomorrow. In a brief interview, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Steffen Jäger, Head of the Powertrain and Machine Validation Laboratory, provides insight into preconceptions, progress and prospects of electric mobility.

What aspects of electromobility is your institution currently working on?

The Powertrain and Machine Validation Laboratory (PMVL) research group at Furtwangen University specialises in analysing powertrain components. This includes the use of manual gearboxes, as well as the analysis of gear acoustic behaviour. Our laboratory is equipped with the necessary test rigs for the research, development and validation of these systems. Finding the optimum balance between efficiency, acoustics, weight and cost is a key challenge. In the future, we intend to utilise the full potential of our test rigs to contribute to research in the areas of electric motors, battery development and brakes.

Which topics are currently particularly challenging for your institution?

Apart from the technical challenges, our research focuses particularly on the methodological level. The focus here is on how to develop and validate new products efficiently and reliably. One focus is therefore on the development of modern validation methods. 

How did you overcome this challenge? 

Developing and applying new methods for virtual and physical validation requires innovative approaches to coupling physical and virtual models. In this context, we are planning to expand our activities into new areas such as cyber-physical systems. The application of artificial intelligence in the area of product development methodology also represents an exciting field of research. We want to use it to investigate challenging issues in validation methodology.