The TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology (SOT) is a school of the Technical University of Munich, established in 2021 by the merger of three former departments. As of 2022, it is structured into the Department of Educational Sciences, the Department of Science, Technology and Society, and the Department of Governance.

Department of Educational Sciences

The Department of Educational Sciences conducts teacher training and

education research Educational research refers to the systematic collection and analysis of data related to the field of education. Research may involve a variety of methods and various aspects of education including student learning, teaching methods, teacher trai ...

Chairs

As of 2020, the department consists of following chairs: * Business Education * Didactics of Chemistry * Didactics of Computer Science * Didactics of Life Sciences * Educational Psychology *

Formal Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements (forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to: Dress code and events * Formal wear, attire for formal events * Semi-formal attire ...

and Informal Learning *

History of Technology The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques and is one of the categories of world history. Technology can refer to methods ranging from as simple as stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and info ...

* Information Search, Ecological and Active Learning Research with Children * Mathematics Education * Methods in Empirical Educational Research * Personality and Social Psychology * Research on Learning and Instruction *

Science Communication Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...

* Teaching and Learning with

Digital Media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

* Technical Education * Vocational Education

Department of Science, Technology and Society

The Department of Science, Technology and Society was formed from the former Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS) that was established in 2012 as part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative. As of 2022, research groups at the department include: * Innovation Research * Law, Science and Technology * Philosophy of Science * History of Technology * Sociology in Science * Science and Technology Policy

Department of Governance

The Department of Governance was formed from the former School of Governance that was established in 2017. It focuses on the interactions among politics, economy, society, and technology.

Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence

The Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (IEAI) is a lab of the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology. It was established in 2019 to investigate the ethics of artificial intelligence. Christoph Lütge serves as the founding director.

Controversies

Facebook is funding the institute with a total of €7.5 million over five years. This has been met with significant criticism. The contractual agreement between the university and the US company was kept secret, though the "Facebook Unrestricted Gift Letter" became public. For the grant, the company reserves the right to stop paying out further funding at any time after its payment of an initial margin of $1.5 million, without giving reasons. This was interpreted by politicians and the media as a threat to refrain from publishing unfavorable research results. The agreement also explicitly states that the institute must be led by founding director Christoph Lütge. Lütge holds an endowed chair in business ethics at TUM, endowed by former

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

executive

Peter Löscher Peter Löscher (born 17 September 1957 in Villach, Austria) is an Austrian manager who was the CEO of Siemens from 2007 until 2013. As of 2017, Löscher remains as the only CEO to be hired from outside the conglomerate in the 170-year history o ...

. Should the university wish to appoint another institute director, it would require the prior written approval of Facebook. Christian Kreiss, a professor at , criticized the university for becoming Facebook's extended marketing arm through this funding.

Alexander Filipović Alexander Filipović (born 8 January 1975) is a German ethicist, focusing on media and the digital transformation. He is a professor for media ethics at the Munich School of Philosophy and co-director of thCenter for Media Ethics and Digital Socie ...

, a professor of media ethics at the

Munich School of Philosophy Munich School of Philosophy (German: ''Hochschule für Philosophie München'') is a small Jesuit higher education college in Munich, Germany founded in 1925. History Founded as a seminary at Pullach in 1925 by Augustin Bea, first named the Ber ...

, said that while he was concerned, he trusted the university. Chris Köver wrote on

Netzpolitik.org netzpolitik.org is a German language news website on digital rights and digital culture. Among other topics, it covers mass surveillance, open source software, data protection and privacy and net neutrality. The blog was founded in 2002 by Mark ...

that after Sheryl Sandberg announced the partnership, many media outlets "from

Tagesschau (German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality ...

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

" immediately reported on the company's commitment to ethics in AI. Köver wrote: "Facebook has bought a comparatively cheap image campaign in the German media landscape this way for 6.6 million euros."

Rankings

In the QS World University Rankings, TUM is ranked between 101-150 in the world and between 2-5 in Germany in the subject Education & Training. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, TUM is ranked 50th in the world and 2nd in Germany in the subject Education.