Prof. Dr. Nützel, what are you doing in your innovation professorship? The aim of the teaching innovation professorship is to develop a teaching concept that integrates the knowledge and application of the digital twin in mechanical engineering into teaching. The central questions are:

• How do I set up a digital twin in a meaningful way?
• How do I use the digital twin to solve development tasks?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages and what are the limits of digital twins?

How could other teachers, students and researchers (at OTH) benefit from your project? Digital twins are not only used in mechanical engineering, e.g. in the development of wind turbines. They can also help to analyze and optimize traffic in the city, control global supply chains or plan operations in medicine. The knowledge gained in the teaching innovation professorship can also be applied to other disciplines by making experience available and through mutual exchange, e.g. in the form of network meetings and lecture series. The content of the teaching innovation professorship is to be continued even after it ends.

What motivated you to want to realize a teaching innovation? Digital twins are very popular in research and industry at the moment and seem to be used everywhere and in every form. That's why I think it's important that our students are able to develop and use digital twins independently and responsibly for product development issues. To this end, I would like to teach technical issues relating to digital twins at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in a practical, detailed manner and over a longer period than just one semester. It is crucial to link the content of different courses in order to gain a holistic view of the digital twin and to be able to internalize things better. This is exactly where I want to pass on my knowledge to the students.

Why is working with digital twins so important in mechanical and plant engineering? A key component of digitalization in the development of new products in mechanical and plant engineering is the use of digital twins. Digital twins are virtual models of real objects that record, save and process data in real time. They enable virtual prototypes, predictive maintenance, optimization of operating processes, simulations and the optimization of product life cycles in mechanical engineering. Specific questions can be, for example: How can a digital twin improve the performance of a pedelec drive and help to use materials efficiently and conserve resources? What does predictive maintenance mean and how can we predict how long a new washing machine will last?

To what extent can the "Digital Engineering" course address the new requirements in industry and business? Product development times in industry are being accelerated more and more in order to make innovative products available quickly. Furthermore, digital twins are part of many disciplines in mechanical engineering studies and generally encompass more than just a single subject area - mechanics, electronics, software. The digital twin plays a decisive role here because its use can shorten the development time and map different specialist areas. The use and handling of digital twins must therefore be a crucial part of mechanical engineering studies. This can be achieved by linking the content of different modules in a meaningful way. Students learn how to use professional software and use it to create a digital twin. They are enabled to use tools and methods for an individual discipline (detailed engineering) as well as for overall systems and their interaction (systems engineering). They use the resulting added value in terms of system understanding specifically for their questions.

How is the digital twin integrated into teaching? The digital twin is developed on the basis of a specific product, e.g. a bicycle, and built up further with each module in the degree program until the entire product development chain - from the idea to production - is mapped. The chosen approach reflects current research and development tasks. Furthermore, the modules are linked together by digital teaching content and examples with a high degree of application relevance.