Institute for Digital Communications
The Institute for Digital Communications (IDC) is part of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Communications of the Faculty of Engineering at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Schober. IDC is complemented by Prof. Dr. Laura Cottatellucci, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Müller, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Gerstacker.
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We Are Hiring
We are hiring — Join the SyMoCADS team as a doctoral student or postdoctoral researcher!
We are looking for nine dedicated doctoral students and one postdoctoral researcher to join the Research Training Group (RTG) on Synthetic Molecular Communications Across Different Scales: From Theory to Experiments (SyMoCADS) starting December 1, 2026!
Extended application deadline: 30.06.2026
Application details: Click here or view this pdf
Molecular Communication Lecture Series in Winter Term
Can information travel without radio waves? Can a communication system speak directly to living cells — and work where every conventional wireless technology fails?
These are the questions at the heart of our Molecular Communications (MC) lecture series (5 ECTS, oral exam, elective module), offered every winter semester.
MC is an emerging field that transmits information using molecules rather than electromagnetic waves. This lets communication happen where conventional wireless communication breaks down, and lets engineered systems interface naturally with living ones, borrowing signaling mechanisms that evolution has refined over billions of years. The result is a new set of possibilities in healthcare, smart agriculture and pest control, targeted drug delivery, and bio-nano networks. And IDC at FAU is one of the world’s leading centers for MC research! Our group leads flagship initiatives like the DFG Research Training Group SyMoCADS and the DFG Priority Program HoD-MoCS — and has earned multiple Best Paper Awards at leading international conferences.
The lecture and its tutorials give a comprehensive introduction to this fast-growing, interdisciplinary field and prepare you to take on your own MC research projects. Topics span the biochemical foundations of MC, natural MC systems, communication-theoretic channel modeling, and signal detection and parameter estimation. Prior knowledge of stochastic processes and communication systems is helpful but not required. So whether your background is in communication engineering, medical engineering, computer science, biology, or chemistry, this series is a chance to join one of the current exciting frontiers in communication science.
News
Friedemann Laue Wins Third Prize in IEEE ComSoc 4MT Competition
Maximilian Schäfer Elected to Board of Die Junge Akademie
Welcoming Dr. Chenguang Liu as Visiting Researcher
IDC’s Lighthouse Projects
SyMoCADS
The Research Training Group (RTG) SyMoCADS is a research training program funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to train scientists and engineers in the emerging interdisciplinary field of molecular communication.
KoRaTo
The Research Training Group (RTG) KoRaTo is a joint project between the Ulm University (UUlm) and the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg with the aim to develop a new UAV- and radar-based geophysical monitoring system to measure for instance earth mass movements, vegetation heights, or the cryosphere.
xG-RIC
xG-RIC is part of the 6G Platform Germany and serves as a technology transfer hub with the goal of advancing key 6G technologies and systematically accelerating their transfer into industry and society.
