¹Technische Universität München, München, Germany

Correspondence: Linda Nowack, Technische Universität München, LTE, L. Nowack, München 80290, Germany. Tel.: +49 89 289 22925; Fax: +49 89 289 22938; E-mail: linda.nowack@mytum.de

Received 2 May 2008; Revised 3 September 2008; Accepted 15 October 2008.

Abstract

At the university, each institute or chair can be seen as a small independent enterprise in respect of education and research. For this reason, the efficiency of management as well as the improvement of education and research within this unit is more and more at a premium. The students need a good working environment and the opportunity to gain and share information in order to carry out successful research and course work. This paper shows how education at a university semiconductor laboratory can be improved by using a content management system to build a knowledge management system. The structuring and implementation will be shown as well as students' rating of it. The results support the conclusion that the knowledge base is a great step forward for improving education and research in a complex environment.