Institute for Digital Communications

The Institute for Digital Communication (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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Open Thesis Topics

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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!  

Application deadline: 31.05.2026

Application details: Click here or view this pdf

News

We are delighted to welcome back Prof. Dr. Yansha Deng as a Mercator Fellow of SyMoCADS! Prof. Dr. Deng is one of the world’s leading experts in molecular communication, and we are happy to have her back in our midst. During her stay, she will be hosted by Prof. Dr. Robert Schober at IDC and…

We are pleased to announce that our former colleague, Friedemann Laue, successfully defended his doctoral thesis on 29 April 2026, earning the Dr.-Ing. degree. In his thesis, Codebook-Based Configuration of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces, Friedemann investigated how RISs can improve coverage in future mobile communication systems. He analysed key performance trade-offs and optimised codebook designs, enabling…

On April 15–17, 2026, researchers from the Institute for Digital Communications (IDC) attended the 10th Workshop on Molecular Communications, held in Istanbul, Turkey. The workshop brought together an interdisciplinary community working on molecular communication systems across theory, experiments, and applications. The IDC delegation included Dr. Maximilian Schäfer, Dr. Sebastian Lotter, Dr. Fardad Vakilipoor Takaloo, Theofilos…
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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.

EmpkinS

EmpkinS is a Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) with a the focus on capturing human motion parameters remotely in a minimally disturbing and non-invasive manner and with very high resolution.

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. 

IDC’s Fields of Research

Next Generation Wireless Communication

Molecular and Biological Communication Systems

Machine Learning, Signal Processing and Information Theory