Faculty and research in Railway Engineering
The multidisciplinary nature of the master's programme in Railway Engineering is reflected in the research groups that compose KTH Railway Group. The programme is hosted at the School of Engineering Sciences. Still, railway-related research is carried out at four of KTH's schools: Engineering Sciences, Architecture and Built Environment, Industrial Engineering and Management, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
All these groups work on projects from different sources: EU-funded projects (Shift2Rail/Europe's Rail), independently funded projects and even own research interests. Some of the most research-intensive groups participate in research projects with first-line railway companies, research centres and administrations in Europe in this context. The professors involved in these groups actively participate in the courses imparted in the programme, giving a direct and up-to-date coupling between research and education. For instance, some of these and their research groups are:
Associate Professor, Systems Engineering and Wheel-rail tribology
Professor, Transport planning, economy and engineering
The center KTH Railway group recently received approximately 60 million SEK from the EU and the Swedish Transport Administration for research within Europe’s Rail. The research covers a number of different areas such as driverless trains, conversion from diesel operation to battery or hydrogen gas, seamless freight transport, concepts for more attractive and competitive train traffic in low-traffic areas. The former railway master student Benjamin Smakic won a prestigious prize at one of the largest transport conferences in Europe named Transport Research Arena 2022 for his work Artificial Intelligence applications for railway signalling and autonomous trains.
For thorough information about the research carried out at the railway centres hosting the programme, see KTH Railway Group and RailTEC at UIUC .