The Professor Heinrich Aumund Endowed Chair for Industrial Sensor Technology and Predictive Maintenance 4.0
02.02.2021The Prof. Heinrich Aumund Endowed Chair at Berlin University of Applied Sciences for Technology and Economics (HTW) will be dedicated to Heinrich Aumund (1873 – 1959), engineering academic and entrepreneur. The professorship “Industrial Sensor Technology and Predictive Maintenance 4.0” represents practical and multi-disciplinary research, and projects the mindset of Professor Heinrich Aumund into today’s world. After successful initial discussions, representatives of the university and the Franz-W. Aumund-Stiftung met to consider the prospect of establishing the endowed professorship.
Franz-W. Aumund-Stiftung representatives from left: Dr Silke Landwehrmann, Member of the Board, Katja Jüngst, Managing Director, Franz-W. Aumund (Chairman of the Board, 3rd from right), Susanne Weiss, Project Coordinator, (far right), and from Berlin University of Applied Sciences Prof. Carsten Busch (3rd from left), President, and Prof. Tilo Wendler, Vice President for Teaching (2nd from right)
© Aumund
President of Berlin University of Applied Sciences for Technology and Economics (HTW), Prof. Carsten Busch states, “We are honoured that the Franz-W. Aumund-Stiftung has chosen HTW Berlin as its partner for this vibrant, forward-looking form of commemoration of a visionary and enthusiastic business founder. An endowed chair offers a wonderful opportunity to continue the legacy of Prof. Heinrich Aumund’s ideas, which are still ground-breaking today, and to enable young students to experience them. The proposed specialist field “Industrial Sensor Technology and Predictive Maintenance 4.0” promises innovative teaching and research, as required by a university of applied sciences, and we are very much looking forward to the next steps!”
Heinrich Aumund lectured at the University of Gdansk from 1909 until 1922, and worked at the Technical University of Berlin from 1925 until 1935, until he was forced into early retirement by the national socialist regime. Whilst lecturing, Heinrich Aumund always placed significant emphasis on proximity to industrial practice. After having submitted his first patent application at the age of 17, he ventured into business himself in 1922, starting his engineering office in Berlin and laying the foundations for what would later become the AUMUND Group of Companies as it is today.
From 1920 to 1926 Heinrich Aumund was attached to the Prussian Ministry of Science, and responsible for the reform of the technical universities in Prussia, an ideal platform for his furthering of the unification of technology and business. His professional and scientific experience formed the basis of his desire to unite the technical university and the commercial college in Berlin. In 1921 he entitled his central exposé on the subject, “The University of Technology and Economics”.
The ambitious intentions for reform could not be achieved at the time however, due to conflicts of interest and unfavourable financial circumstances. Nevertheless, they formed the basis for the later industrial engineering degree programme, which is now extremely popular and which produces graduates who identify with the connection between business and technology.
Franz-W. Aumund, Founder of the Franz-W. Aumund-Stiftung, is erecting a virtual monument to his grandfather, 100 years after his exposé, with the Prof. Heinrich Aumund Endowed Chair at the “University of Applied Sciences for Technology and Economics” in Berlin.
