Guidelines for the exchange from Iran to Munich
Welcome to the guidelines section for Iranian students who are interested in a research exchange from Iran to Munich. This document is structured into the following main points:
About the Exchange Program
The Avicenna Roentgen Collaboration (ARC) is a newly established German-Iranian educational program in Medical Engineering. It aims at bringing professors and young researchers from the two countries together under the common ideal of finding novel ways for the improvement of medical care in hospitals and for the cure of the “anonymous” patient. The partner universities are mainly the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the University of Tehran (UT), the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), the Sharif University of Technology as well as other German and Iranian institutes. A special emphasis of this program lies on the cultural exchange between the two home countries of the universities. Thus, visits of cultural sites are encouraged and promoted.
Through this exchange program, selected students from the Iranian partner universities are offered the opportunity to participate in a research exchange project at the TUM in Germany, working on a topic pre-defined jointly between the Chair for Computer Aided Medical Procedures (TUM) and the Iranian host university customized to the interests and capabilities of the exchange student. In return, the student will enjoy a
complete financial coverage of the expenses required for the duration of the program. The standard support rate covers a maximum amount of 750 Euro for flight costs and 615 Euro for undergrad students or 715 Euro for Ph.D., covering the expected monthly living expenses (these values are based on the standard financial requirements as calculated by the International Relations Office of the TUM). Moreover, the student will be offered support in visa matters (see “Apply for the exchange program”).
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About CAMP
The Chair for Computer Aided Medical Procedures (CAMP) was created in October 2003 under the direction of Professor Dr. Nassir Navab. Since January 2005, Prof. Gudrun Klinker, Ph.D. and her existing research group on augmented reality, with particular emphasis on industrial applications, joined the Chair for Computer Aided Medical Procedures. Due to the common needs for tracking, navigation and advanced visualization technologies in both medical and industrial applications, this addition strengthened the chair and since then has turned it into one of the strongest international research groups in augmented reality.
The main objective of the chair is to play the role of a strong research and educational
link between medical and computer science communities. The chair aims at introducing new elements into the curriculum of the computer science students in order to better prepare them for a growing market and an exciting research field.
In terms of research and development, the chair focuses on recovery and understanding of the workflow of medical procedures and on development of incremental, radical and fundamental technologies, which allow the physicians to improve the quality of medical procedures. The chair is interested and active in these subjects with a particular emphasis on surgical workflow, medical augmented reality, multi-modal rigid and deformable registration and intra-operative tracking and navigation. In particular, research topics deal with anatomical and functional imaging, reconstruction, segmentation, registration, navigation and advanced visualization as well as workflow recovery.
The chair has numerous collaborations with hospitals, various research centers on medical imaging and providers of healthcare and medical technologies. The chair also enjoys collaboration with many industrial partners interested in augmented reality, tracking, navigation and advanced visualization. Please find detailed information about
the chair in general,
the research projects, and
the teaching activities on the corresponding webpage of the chair.
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About Munich
Apart from the great research opportunities and conditions that are offered by the CAMP chair and the ARC program, the city of Munich itself also offers attractive conditions for a research exchange.
Due to its relatively mild climate and its location in the very south of Germany, Munich is very often referred to as the “most northern city of Italy” by the local people living here. Although it is the capital of the Bavarian state and as such one of the biggest cities in Germany, Munich has kept a somewhat provincial flair with many sights and traditions that pay tribute to the culture and history of both Bavaria and Germany. Apart from its cultural value, Munich is also one of the most important technological centers in Germany, being home to some world-renowned companies like BMW, EADS and Siemens, which have numerous collaborations with the 11 Munich universities, including the TUM and in particular our CAMP chair. Being a student in Munich means being dedicated to ones studies, but in return enjoying a high level of professionalism and a
strong network between academic institutes and the industry.
Since Munich is one of the safest cities in Germany, it allows carefree roaming throughout the whole city area, using Munich’s great infrastructure system featuring subway trains, tramway trains and busses. There is a lot to discover and we hope that you can enjoy your life here like the roughly 100.000 students of Munich do, who are living here in a lively atmosphere with a young and modern lifestyle against the background of strong cultural roots.
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Apply for the exchange program
The application and selection is performed in two rounds:
For the first round of the application, we encourage you to contact us by sending a complete application including the
following documents:
- One up-to-date resume in table form with following contents
- Personal Information
- Education at school and university
- Current status of studies at university
- Courses taken so far (a rough overview, so that the academic knowledge becomes clear)
- Skills (including programming skills)
- Academic interests (e.g. for your research project)
- Letter of Intent including the following contents:
- Your preferred time of stay
- Your preferences or special interests for a research project (only if you have any, otherwise we will define a project for you)
- Your motivation and reasons for participating in the ARC exchange program
Before the second round of application can begin, the ARC supervisors will review incoming applications and define a student exchange coordinator for each accepted student. Together with him, a research topic for the applicant will be defined by us, based on the student’s interests and capabilities. Subsequently, we will contact the applicant and arrange a
telephone conference. This telephone conference aims at testing the English listening and speaking abilities. Furthermore, it is intended as an opportunity to further get to know each other and define the interests and assignments for the research project.
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Contact
Please send your application or any question in regard to the exchange program to
Jörg Traub (email prefered):
Address:
(Postal) | Technische Universität München
Institut für Informatik / I16
Boltzmannstraße 3
D-85748 Garching b. München
Germany
|
| Email: | traub@cs.tum.edu |
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Getting Started for the Exchange Program
Once your application is accepted, you have to get started with the formal requirements for the exchange, most important of which is obtaining a visa for your stay in Germany. In order to obtain a visa to Germany, we have derived a standard procedure which you have to undergo through the experiences of former students from the exchange program. If you realize that any steps are missing or have changed, please inform us so that we can update the list for future students.
- Invitation Letter
Once your application is accepted, we will issue an invitation letter which is crucial for your visa application at the German embassy. We will send you one copy and fax another to the embassy. Please note the date and time of fax sending since the embassy will store incoming documents in categories of entry time. These are the main contents of the invitation letter:
- Your personal and academic data
- Short information about the ARC program and its affiliation with DAAD
- Confirmation of some financial support during the stay
- Explicit assertion that the duration of stay does not exceed the maximum allowed duration of 3 months/90 days
(Visa are issued for durations of 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 month, 6 months, 1 year and more. For visa durations more than 3 months, an Interpol letter would be required and the visa issuing becomes more complicated.)
- Time of stay (in months or, if possible, in exact dates)
- Short overview about the project contents, the supervising professors and the benefit for both countries
- Arrange an appointment with the German embassy
After receiving your invitation letter, please contact the German Embassy in Tehran and arrange an appointment for visa issuing. You can arrange an appointment with a telephone call or through email under the following contact information:
German Embassy
Avenue Ferdowsi 320-324
P.O.Box 11365-179
Teheran, Iran
Telephone:
General Information Tel.: +98 (21) 3999 - 0000 (Email: info@teheran.diplo.de)
Visa Information Tel.: +98 (21) 3999 - 4999 (Fax: +98 (21) 3999 - 1860)
Appointment Hotline for Visa Tel.: +98 (21) 3999 - 1260 (Email: termin@tehe.diplo.de)
Please take note that you will receive an appointment between 2 and 6 weeks after the day of your call or email, depending on how busy the embassy is with visa applications at the moment.
- Documents to bring along on your appointment day
For the appointment day, please bring along the following documents and items:
- A confirmation of a travel insurance for 3 months.
Several travel insurance companies are located near the embassy in Avenue Ferdowsi. There you can arrange insurances even on short notice.
- Two passport-sized pictures.
The pictures should be whole-faced / front-faced with a light background.
- Two filled out visa application forms.
The form is available on our website in the languages German, English, French and Italian. You can download it here.
- 36.000 Toman
The 36.000 Toman have to be brought along in 1.000 and 2.000 bills.
- A short letter from your home university in which your professor confirms the following data:
- Your personal data
- Your course of studies
- Your participation in the ARC program
- His knowledge about the project (a very short outline is sufficient).
- On your appointment day
On your appointment day, when being called in the embassy, you should have your matriculation card and/or your international student card ready (a copy is sufficient). You will undergo a formality chat with the responsible officer from the embassy (the talk will be in Farsi).
- Second appointment day
If no documents were missing and everything else was alright, you will be given another appointment for picking up your visa. For this second appointment, you should expect a working time of 1 to 3 weeks, again depending on how busy the embassy is with visa applications.
- Flight ticket
After receiving your visa, you can arrange your flight ticket.
- On the day of your flight
For the day of your flight, it is important to bring along all important documents with you! Do not forget your invitation letter, since you might be asked at the border to show a document proving the reason of your stay in Germany. Keep these documents in your hand luggage!
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Useful information about housing
Before applying to the program, it should be clear that we can give no formal support for finding an accommodation during the exchange stay. Unfortunately, the housing situation in Munich is rather tense for students. Only 13% of all students in Munich can be offered accommodation in student dorms, the rest is distributed among private residents which are more expensive than student dorms.
Although we cannot offer extensive support by organizing an apartment or guaranteeing a place in a student dorm or private residence, we would like to refer to the website of the
TUM Office for Foreign Relations, which offers information from people who are dealing with finding accommodation for foreign students on a daily basis.
Apart from that, the site features information about registering with the local authorities (after arrival in Germany). Moreover, it shows a rough overview of living costs which foreign students have to face when living in Munich.
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