Minister President Dr Markus Söder opens Bavaria's first High-Tech Agenda Bavaria modular building at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt

Record construction time of less than nine months - a model for universities throughout Bavaria.

Minister President Dr. Markus Söder visits the new modular building of Technische Hochschule Ingostadt for the inauguration, in the picture during his greeting. (Photo: THI)

Technische Hochschule Ingostadt (THI) has expanded its Ingolstadt campus. The new modular building is the first to be completed in Bavaria as part of the High-Tech Agenda Bavaria. It creates the expansion of approximately 1200 square metres of usable space for lecture halls, offices, new laboratories in the areas of Health/Life Science and Technical Design, as well as the Center of Entrepreneurship, which coordinates all start-up activities at the THI, necessitated by the strong growth of the university. On Monday, 31 January, the modular building was officially inaugurated in the presence of Minister President Dr. Markus Söder and Minister of State Bernd Sibler.

The new modular building was financed with almost six million euros from the High-Tech Agenda Bavaria and erected in a record time of less than nine months. To this end, THI, in cooperation with the State Building Authority, constructed the floor slab on its own and "ordered" the modular building through a call for tenders. This was then erected on the floor slab in the same way as a prefabricated house. The participants agreed that this saves time and money and serves as a model for the efficient creation of space at universities throughout Bavaria. Otherwise, state buildings often take up to six years between the building application and occupation.  

Minister President Dr. Markus Söder said in his welcoming address: "With the AI node, Ingolstadt is part of Bavaria's economic and scientific jugular and is the first address for mobility. Science provides answers to the big questions of our time. We create jobs of the future for the next generation".

THI President Prof. Dr. Walter Schober said: "We would like to thank the Bavarian State Government for the initiative of setting up modular buildings at Bavarian universities. We are pleased to be able to inaugurate the first of these buildings in Ingolstadt. A construction time of less than nine months between excavation of the ground and occupation and a quality standard that corresponds to that of standard buildings are outstanding. This helps us to cope with the space shortage caused by rapid growth."

Science Minister Bernd Sibler emphasised: "The future of our state depends on our innovative strength. Like here in Ingolstadt, we are investing in personnel and infrastructure throughout Bavaria with our Hightech Agenda Bavaria and its acceleration programme Hightech Agenda Plus. The fact that the modular construction could be implemented so quickly here at the TH Ingolstadt shows that everyone involved is pulling together to improve these framework conditions even further. My thanks go in particular to the university and the State Building Authority."

Minister-President Söder and Science Minister Sibler then took a tour to find out about the progress being made in setting up the AI mobility node AImotion Bavaria. Already 14 of the 20 professorships for artificial intelligence from the High-Tech Agenda Bavaria have been filled; in addition, two calls have been issued and four professorships are being advertised. AImotion focuses the topic of AI on three fields of action: Autonomous Driving, Unmanned Flying and Automobile Production.

During the on-site tour, Science Minister Sibler emphasised: "The Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences is demonstrating its innovative strength in an outstanding way and, together with numerous network partners in the region, nationally and internationally, is taking AI research to a new level. Here we have found the ideal location for our AI mobility node."

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