Who: The VIP is a multi-partner company by design built to deliver innovation in tomorrow’s ecosystem.

What: The VIP is able to create, deliver and capture value for customers operating in future market scenarios.

Why: The VIP delivers strategic growth options for today’s businesses  seeking Where to Play tomorrow?

How: The VIP integrates existing market and technology know-how with trend perspectives differentiating certain and uncertain changes affecting customers’ future needs

Where: The VIP emerges from a competitive business model designed around value propositions serving the needs of customers operating in the next evolutionary market stage.

When: The VIP build follows a strategic roadmap which reviews developments, implements competences, adjusts  capabilities and develops its customer base step-by-step, adjusting to actual developments to be market ready on time.

ITK Engineering and the Faculty of Engineering and Management at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences will work together in the summer term 2024 to identify marketable product and service solutions for autonomous systems in innovatve future market scenarios.

The Future of Autonomous Systems will Kick-Off on March 26,  12:00 - 14:00 PM in room R108 (MARS collab room.)

As part of the Innovation and Technology Management course in the Technical Product Management specialization, we will learn how to understand today’s and anticipate tomorrow’s ecosystems by extrapolating dynamic developments in a target corridor identified cooperatively with ITK Engineering.

Building on this foundation, we will go on and derive the future market requirements from the perspective of future users and customers to develop concrete solution concepts that may be created by ITK Engineering in cooperation with strong partners, embracing future growth opportunities together.

KSB and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering at HMA want to seek innovative solutions for the globally growing food processing market in winter semester 2023/24. 

Kick-Off with KSB will be on Thursday, Septmber 28th 2023 in Room S/R 108 (MARS Collaboration Room).

KSB is one of the world's leading manufacturers of pumps and valves as well as comprehensive services, headquartered in Frankenthal (Palatinate). The Virtual Innovation Player project is being worked on in close cooperation with Dr. Maximilian Panthen.
Maximilian Panthen heads innovation management at KSB and is responsible for identifying and evaluating future potential for the company ("Corporate Foresight"). He and his team also organize various formats to promote the topic of innovation at KSB: Conferences, workshops, lectures or learning formats.

As part of the Innovation and Technology Management (TPM1) course taught by Prof. Dr. Stephan Altmann in the Technical Product Management major, we will work together to understand the market and its structures today and evaluate the most important developments in a target corridor agreed with KSB during the course of the project in the years 2030 and beyond. On this basis, we will derive the future requirements of the market from the customer's point of view and design concrete product and service solutions that offer KSB and partners longer-term options for business development.

Students at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences from all faculties can take part in this project event. In the Faculty W, these are in particular the students in the first semester Master and in the seventh semester Bachelor International. The results can be further developed both at the HMA within the inno.space and MARS offerings within our TransforMA network. In previous projects (e.g. with Lufthansa, BASF or Stihl), students have subsequently carried out internships and final theses at the partner companies.

The kick-off of the project "Future of Food & Beverage Processing 2030+" will take place together with KSB in the last week of September at the beginning of the winter semester 2023/24 as part of the module TPM1 - Innovation and Technology Management.

On May 3, participants in Prof. Dr. Stephan Altmann's Innovation and Technology Management (TPM1) project lecture visited Freudenberg Filtration Technologies in Weinheim. Three teams, including exchange students from France, Mexico, Turkey and Sri Lanka, Dr. Matthias Brendel, Marc Brechtel and Dr. Stefan Kluck presented their results at the end of the first phase of the Virtual Innovation Player project (VIP). In their lecture-based project, students from the Master's and Bachelor International in Industrial Engineering and Management developed options for strategic business development in the construction industry for Freudenberg Filtration Technologies with a view to the year 2030.
Each team presented concrete recommendations for relevant growth areas based on an overview of markets, value creation structures, key companies, technologies, products and application scenarios. In doing so, the junior consulting teams also took into account the impact of key trends on demand, value and supply when assessing innovation potential. The Freudenberg colleagues were very impressed by the systematic approach and the clearly structured and professionally presented research results and recommendations. Mattias Brendel said, "The outside-in perspective of the teams of students allows us to complement our own understanding of the market and technology." Stefan Kluck added, "We look forward to the findings in the next phase of the project, when the students focus on innovation potential based on the user-centric needs analysis."
The second phase of the VIP project follows for the teams after an intensive feedback session and joint planning of the approach with Prof. Altmann. In this phase, he also provides them with the necessary tools and examples for their application with specific reference to the current project task. Everyone is pleased that in the second phase five more project participants from the USA, who are joining the VIP project as part of the joint Summer School with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at HMA, will strengthen the teams.

On June 28, Dr. Matthias Brendel and Marc Brechtel from Freudenberg Filtration Technologies came to Mannheim University of Applied Sciences for the final presentation of our students at the end of the VIP project 'The Future of Protective Gear in Construction 2030+' within the project lecture Innovation and Technology Management (TPM1) of Prof. Dr. Stephan Altmann.
Three teams of students from the Master and Bachelor International in Industrial Engineering, reinforced by exchange students from U.S.A., France, Mexico, Turkey and Sri Lanka, presented their recommendations based on their results to our project partner from Weinheim on this day.
After the teams had primarily developed markets, technologies and the most important trends into a framework for examining future customer requirements in the first phase of the project, they developed concrete problem solvers for the anticipated challenges on construction sites in 2030 and beyond in the second phase. For example, the teams presented two concrete product solutions complemented by digital service offerings. In addition, one team proposed to focus on developing a digital communication and transaction platform.
The project outcome thus provided a small portfolio of longer-term growth options based on differentiated solutions with innovation potential for the construction industry from the students' perspective. In his closing statement, Matthias Brendel said that "the structured analysis by the student teams provided valuable ideas and impetus that Freudenberg Filtration Technologies will now follow up. Marc Brechtel added that "the innovation potentials identified and presented will help define and establish concrete product and service solutions on the market."

Last week at Hochschule Mannheim Mannheim we finished the 15th Virtual Innovation Player project dedicated to identifying new business opportunities in solution driven business models. This time we worked in and around the automobile of the future together with Valtech Mobility GmbH. Grand Thanks to Sven van Hauten and Marian Reinheimer for a great project experience with a multitude of new insights and great encouragement to continue developing solutions built in and around tomorrow’s data ecosystems. Several students will take their concepts forward to innovative product development in inno.space - Design Factory Mannheim. Thanks to Kirstin Kohler and team for this chance to expand into solution space prototyping!

Opportunities uncovered by three student teams from Engineering & Management in close collaboration with Robin Degen and Sebastian Fuhrich from Putzmeister Innovation Factory! You asked for new perspectives on the Future of Sustainable Construction – and you got them!

Congratulations to all three student teams on their great project pitches, covering down-to-earth ready for implementation, technology challenging as well visionary digital service solutions for Putzmeister and its partners. Thanks to Dr. Jiang, Robin, Sebastian, Marc, Markus for all your support and absolutely great feedback!

Lufthansa Technik AG and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management will work together in the summer semester 2020 to identify marketable solutions as part of high-growth business models for Internet connectivity in the aviation of the future. In the course Innovation and Technology Management with the specialization "Technical Product Management" by Professor Altmann, we will work together with the master students to understand the market and its structures today and to extrapolate the most important developments in the time target corridor. On this basis, we will derive future requirements of the market from the customer's point of view, develop concrete digital-based solutions and work out an implementation plan in cooperation with strong partners of Lufthansa Technik.
The kick-off to the will take place on 19.03.2020 at 14:00 in room L112. The project and the lecture are aimed at students in the master's program in industrial engineering.

On January 10, 2020, Prof. Altmann and the master course Innovation and Technology Management (TPM1) were with 20 students for the presentation of the results of the Virtual Innovation Player (VIP) project for the second time at the main plant of ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG (STIHL) in Waiblingen.
Beforehand, Prof. Altmann and the master's students were given a presentation ranging from the "classic" to the most modern chainsaw powered by an electronically controlled combustion engine, as well as an overview of the company's current and increasingly diverse range of battery-based equipment for a wide variety of gardening tasks.
They were then able to test how user training and maintenance work will be digitally supported in the future. To this end, they themselves conducted training for the use of all-cutting rescue saws for firefighters with the help of augmented reality, as well as the maintenance of equipment with the help of illustrated equipment documentation via virtual reality.
After a joint lunch, the student teams presented the results of their project work from the semester. All four teams developed solutions and business models for the generation as well as for the successful marketing in the aftersales area.
Team STIHLvoll and Team Green Thumbs presented digitally based consulting and service solutions for the aftersales market in the field of professional as well as private garden and landscape care. The colleagues from STIHL were particularly impressed by the versatile and at the same time well coordinated solution 'STIHL+' from Team STIHLvoll.
The NoNames team as well as Team WoodBuddies presented digitally based Service-as-a-Product (SaaP) solutions. Professional users and the large group of STIHL dealers in particular could benefit from this in the future. The focus of all concepts is on the effective and efficient use of smart solutions and equipment at the point of use as well as during work preparation and follow-up. With the help of these solutions, small companies in particular could concentrate even better on their core business.
Ingo Hofmann, Head of Aftersales, and Kai Ondraschek, Marketing & Aftersales, STIHL, praised the consistent execution as well as the content-rich results of the project teams. From their point of view, the presentations contained a variety of exciting options for future offerings in the aftersales area of STIHL. Together with the company's communications and recruiting departments, they openly and emphatically invited the students to apply for master's theses and other opportunities at ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. At the end of the day-long event, Prof. Altmann, on behalf of the students and the faculty of the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, thanked the colleagues from STIHL for their numerous and particularly active participation in the differentiated discussions on the students' presentations.
Prof. Altmann expressed special thanks to the partners at STIHL who had made the project possible and provided exemplary and active support from preparation to completion. This thanks goes in particular to Ingo Hofmann, the project sponsor at STIHL, and Kai Ondraschek and Sebastian Lehmann, who provided the teams with information and advice at all times and coordinated the project optimally on the STIHL side.
The company was highly satisfied with the results of all VIP teams of HS Mannheim. All Students received a certificate of participation from STIHL and Prof. Altmann.

What will the major inner-city construction site look like in 2030? What role will trucks still play here?
How can and how should the offer of today's leading supplier Mercedes-Benz Trucks look for this?

These are precisely the questions our master's students are investigating this semester. At the beginning of the semester, Prof. Dr. Altmann, together with Mercedes-Benz Trucks, kicked off the project "The Future of Construction Trucks" in the lecture "Innovation and Technology Management". The kick-off event shortly after the start of the semester on March 18 began with a small round of introductions in which the experts from Mercedes-Benz Trucks and the master's students got to know each other, exchanged their requirements, but also their expectations regarding this project.
After an introduction to the topic and a wide range of background information on the company and its products, the students had the opportunity to deal with two prepared kick-off topics together with Mercedes-Benz Trucks in two working sessions. On the one hand, they gained an overview of what kind of trucks are used for what tasks on and in front of the construction site and how. Secondly, they were asked to identify trends and evaluate when and how they might influence the construction industry in general and construction site processes in particular in the future. The students and the experts compiled the results of these sessions and presented them to each other.
The carefully prepared and executed kick-off event thus already set a very well-founded starting point in terms of content for the project work to be carried out in the following semester. In the upcoming phase 1 of the project, the students will organize themselves into teams of 5-6 participants each and, based on the cooperation partner's understanding of the market and technology, develop their own 'picture' of the industry, your customers and the current relationships among each other. Special attention will be paid to upcoming innovations as well as to safe as well as uncertain developments that will be particularly important in the future. On this basis, the teams are to present and plausibilize their scenarios for 2030+ by the interim presentation on April 30 at Mercedes-Benz Trucks in Wörth. In phase 2 of the project, which will subsequently run until the end of June, it is then the task of the teams to derive, design and finally present innovative products, services and business models on this basis for the optimal operation of the major inner-city construction site from 2030.
To this end, all three teams will not only learn and apply the necessary research, analysis, evaluation and presentation methods within the framework of lectures and independent work. Thanks to the generous support of project partner Mercedes-Benz Trucks, they will also travel to BAUMA 2019 in Munich together with Prof. Altmann and spend a day there gaining direct and very up-to-date insights into the offerings and technologies of the leading companies in the construction industry.
The kick-off event has once again strengthened the enthusiasm for the challenging and exciting task among all participants. Immediately afterwards, the first discussions began on starting points and ideas on how to proceed further. Accordingly, the students came to the lecture with Prof. Altmann the next day well prepared to plan the first phase of the project together and to get the first overview of the methods.

In cooperation with Harmonic Drive AG and Professor Altmann, an innovation project on the topic of "collaborative robots (cobots)" took place this winter semester 2018/19. Students of Faculty W gained insights into the tasks of a project manager through the "Virtual Innovation Player" project.
A comprehensive analysis of the current market situation and research work on scientific studies formed the basis for tackling the individual project tasks with defined phase objectives.
In doing so, they explored the questions of how collaborative robots are influencing today's working world in different areas such as production, healthcare and work environments, and in which areas cobots are already being used.

"The interplay between innovative ideas and in-depth expertise is a win-win for both sides. We receive scientifically researched information on general market developments. The students, in turn, can benefit from our practical know-how. After all, robotics solutions are playing an increasingly important role for our customers. In addition to classic industrial robots, collaborative robots - so-called 'cobots' - are increasingly being used," says Wilhelm Born-Fuchs, Head of Product Management at Harmonic Drive AG.*
The project ended with a presentation in which the student teams presented their results.
Harmonic Drive berichtete 2018 auch auf ihrere eigenen Seite hierüber.
 

Who: We partner with a dedicated or a company from another project and investigate their ecosystem strategy.

What: The SED project wants to understand how a company’s past internationalization strategy has shaped its present state.

Why: The SED is about learning how past strategic design choices affect strategic capabilities of companies in the future.

How: Investigating international development of a company and market followers helps us understand its past choices regarding configuration, cooperation and collaboration for strategic gain.

Which: The SED project looks at the evolution of a company’s networks, value chains and ecosystems from its national base to today’s global configuration and resulting coordination tasks.

When: In SED we travel into the past and review the evolution of a company’s international business activities from its foundation to today to its future options.

On June 27, Wolfgang Weissler from Siemens Digital Industries came to Mannheim University of Applied Sciences for the final presentation of our students at the end of the SED - Strategic Ecosystem Design project for and with Siemens within the project lecture Strategic International Management (IMA) of Prof. Dr. Stephan Altmann.
Five teams of students from the Master and Bachelor International in Industrial Engineering, reinforced by exchange students from France, Mexico, Turkey and Sri Lanka, presented on this day their strategic perspectives to our project partner based on their results from their project work in SS 2023.
After the teams had examined and presented the historical strategic development of Siemens in comparison to selected market competitors in the first phase of the SED project, they developed their own perspectives on relevant strategic opportunities and challenges for these companies in the second phase.
The teams focused on an examination of the relevant ecosystems in which the selected companies face growing challenges from market demands as well as political and legal requirements from governmental and supranational institutions for sustainable business.
Wolfgang Weissler from Siemens thanked the teams for their presentations and stated that his expectations of the students' work were fully met. "My stated goal was to analyze and evaluate the selected companies and their business relationship with Siemens Digital Industries from the perspective of the younger generation, who are now entering their professional lives and will (co-)decide the direction of our industry as decision-makers in a few years. Sustainability, digitalization and ecosystems are things that everyone is talking about, but which are (still) seen and lived differently in today's management of many companies than the generation now coming up imagines. I wanted to have answers to the questions whether we are on the right track today, whether we are setting the right priorities in our decisions and whether perhaps even new business opportunities and models are coming to light that we have not yet considered at all. After the final presentation I can say that all teams presented amazingly good, innovative and coherent approaches and thoughts even considering the short time, the parallel load of other subjects and the limited information available on the internet. Some of them will certainly be adopted into our pool of ideas and thus have good prospects for implementation. I don't think I need to emphasize that I would like to welcome such students to our company as employees soon."
In principle, the students see opportunities in greater collaboration between companies along and across value chains. Digital technologies and data-based products and services in particular offer concrete opportunities for all companies to effectively position themselves sustainably in the future.

Together with BASF we finalized our 3rd Strategic Internationalization Project. This time we worked on understanding the transformation of the furniture industry from linear value chains to data enabled sustainable business ecosystems by specifically analyzing two large incumbent players from Europe. Grand Thanks to Bernd Meyer-Roscher, Tunja Jung and especially Daniel von Nessen for creating this 'near business experience' in a challenging pandemic environment and sharing your insights and feedback on the research results of our students from Hochschule Mannheim.

Who: The AMB Talks feature top speakers with comprehensive expertise gained in business and related organizations.

What: Our guests talk about their extended experiences which they have made in responsible business roles and functions.

Why: AMB speakers are invited to share professional and personal insights with students and university members in their presentations as well as in the subsequent discussions.

How: Our guests join us for 90 minutes in a large lecture hall at HMA, where up to 100 university members can participate.

Which: We ask guests to join and share with us their competent perspective on current as well as fundamental topics addressing opportunities and challenges for academia.

When: AMB talks run each semester during the lecture period generally on Wednesday afternoons at Mannheim University.

Maximilian Panthen heads KSB's global innovation management from the Group headquarters in Frankenthal. He visited us on June 15 and gave us an overview of the tasks of his department. Because Maximilian also has various teaching assignments, including at the HS Reutlingen, he was able to share more than just his portfolio of tasks at KSB with the students of the WING master's program at the HMA. He also skillfully placed the various topics in the general spectrum of tasks of innovation management in larger companies for them.

It was particularly impressive for all participants to learn about the various interlocking program elements that Maximilian Panthen has developed for KSB's global organization with its international customers and markets. Maximilian is not a mechanical engineer but a sports economist and holds a doctorate in business administration, so he brings a different, complementary perspective to his company. This includes identifying the most important trends for the company with their short- to long-term potential, summarizing them and discussing them with operational management to support strategic planning. Various formats bring together the different international locations and allow the company to record and jointly process opportunities and challenges in the various global markets from the perspective of local customers on the one hand, but also with particular attention to regional regulatory and standardization differences, for example. For individual topics, Maximilian Panthen actively involves external partners from universities, from companies and from local authorities. In exchanges with the wider ecosystem, he thus works with the business units to find new opportunities for innovation in products, services and business models for KSB.

Guests from the University of Malaysia Pahang also took part in this visit. Among them was Hanafiah Ahmad, Dean of the Faculty of Industrial Management, with which Faculty W of HMA will offer a joint double degree program from 2025. Maximilian Panthen expressly welcomed our guests. He emphasized how important it is for students to gain international experience and specifically learn about the culture and different needs in global regions in order to be able to think about innovations in their future companies from a holistic perspective.

The company replique is a good example of the successful spin-off of employees from a large company based on their own idea. Max Siebert is the CEO and co-founder of replique. He developed his company in BASF's excubator, the chemovator, and spun it off from there in early 2023. Max Siebert holds a PhD in chemistry and started his professional career at BASF. After many years as a particularly efficient intrapreneur, starting in 2019 Max was one of the first to take the opportunity to develop his business idea, which did not fit BASF's operational business model or strategy, into a startup with model support in the chemovator. Since then, at the latest, Max's main focus has been on being an effective entreprenuer. Since 2023, replique has been headquartered in the startup center MAFINEX next to the HS Mannheim. On May 11, Max joined us at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management to share his experiences with us.
We had prepared Max Siebert's visit again, so Max knew most of the students' questions in advance. He already included many of the answers in his introduction and his summary of the challenges and the most important success factors of the still ongoing founding phase of replique.
"It was and is particularly important for replique's success that the (founding) team understands each other very well and complements each other very well," is one of the key pieces of information Max Siebert shares with the HMA students that day. This is also one of the key aspects that investors pay attention to, in addition to the product idea and the concrete interest of the market in it. Among the many questions from the students, several asked how Max Siebert deals with the risk of failure? "Founders can also fail. It is important that you face the possibility of failure. Talk about it early on with those around you, i.e., especially with your family, and clarify how you will deal with the whole situation together." Some questions from the students refer to how to determine that an idea is (potentially) good enough to start a business based on it? Max's tip on this surprised some, because Max said very clearly: "Talk to as many people as possible about your idea. On the one hand, you will learn to explain your idea, your product and your business model really well. On the other hand, you will learn from the feedback not only what you can still improve, but also whether many people like the idea. After all, this also includes - your - investors."
Prof. Stephan Altmann, who is also the head of the International Business Engineering program at the HMA, also asked Max Siebert what language is spoken in his company. Max Siebert replied that his many international employees, with whom he continuously develops replique from Mannheim and addresses customers and investors worldwide, generally speak English with each other. Many in his team also speak Spanish. Max is looking for more employees and among them those who speak French well, as many of replique's new clients come from France.
Finally, Max wrote his email address max.siebert@replqiue.io on the board and said goodbye by saying that he would be very happy if the participants would apply to him, among others, for theses or even as employees.

Julian Proelss is head of Business Management in the young and highly dynamic Battery Materials Recycling business unit at BASF. He visited the Faculty of Industrial Engineering as part of the "WING Students Meet Business" series on May 4, 2023 to talk to us about Leadership & People. The students had prepared a prioritized question table on this in advance. Julian Proelss was happy to take up these pre-structured questions and linked these interests with concrete experiences from his soon to be 22-year and constantly developing career at BASF.
At the beginning, the students briefly introduced themselves and told Julian Proelss about their own practical and professional experiences. Julian used these brief insights to make concrete connections to the situations described and to link them to his own experiences. In this way, he was able to make concrete references and give the students comprehensive answers to their questions with a holistic view of the topic. These questions included, among others: "How do you still maintain your authority with a loose leadership style?", "How do you lead not only your own team but also the various stakeholders in the company?" and "How do you motivate your team and keep them engaged and productive - even in difficult situations?"
To make connections between the different situations and challenges for managers, Julian Proelss used a variant of the three target areas of personnel development, which differentiates essential characteristics according to professional, methodological and social competence. In doing so, he emphasized that for him as a manager, it is a matter of ensuring that the team as a whole has these competencies at its disposal, but this does not mean that each individual employee must have a fully optimized profile for his or her tasks. On the contrary, he said, it is regularly the diversity of competencies that is the strength of the team, if the manager succeeds in communicating the value of these differences and making them available to the whole team for the sake of joint success.
Unfortunately, the time was over again much too quickly. In response to Prof. Stephan Altmann's concluding question about how he experienced his visit, Julian replied "I enjoyed being able to share my experiences and ideas on the topic of leadership, guided by the students' various questions. I was particularly pleased with the constant high level of attention from all participants throughout the event. This gives energy that I also like to take with me for my tasks as a manager at BASF."

On April 6, 2023, Christian Eichholtz, VP Manufacturing, Small Ag & Turf, Europe and Asia Asia at John Deere visited us as part of the faculty series "WING-Students meet Business". Christian Eichholtz introduced us to the opportunities and challenges posed by the constantly accelerating transformation requirements for established companies, including John Deere in particular. In a discussion with the students from the MGMT module of the WING Master's program, an intensive exchange ensued in which the students inquired about many of the topics addressed by Christian Eichholtz. Further questions revolved, among other things, around the requirements for the 'set of future skills' for upcoming graduates. Unfortunately, time was then up far too quickly and Prof. Stephan Altmann ended the exchange 15 minutes over the agreed time by asking Christian, with whom he went to the same school in the 80s, how he had experienced the format and discussion. To which Christian Eichholtz replied, addressing the students, "That was a great exchange. I would love to discuss with you more. Your questions showed me how interested you are and you reminded me or help me to look from your perspective and with a fresh view on your, but also on our issues at John Deere. Thank you, I will be happy to come back!

Who: People and technology provide business organizations with means to create, capture and deliver data-driven value.

What: The DBV project aims at understanding how a sound process understanding enables strong business performance.

Why: Modern organizations need a culture which continuously seeks value from shared data in distributed collaboration.

How: DBV grows when organizations reflect data-driven value potentials in business strategy development, its operational business model executed in shared data tasks and processes.

Where: Local as well as global business teams assemble to collaborate on goals within and across (meta-)organizations.

When: Relevance of DBV is increasing as the world grows more connected and good governance of the enterprise architecture results in increasing independence of business value creators.

Second Master's Excursion for meeting with fellow students and Alumni, experience nature and culture, network and learn more about the great things Mannheim and its surroundings have to offer.

On April 12, 2024, our Master's first-year students went on another excursion as part of the MGMT - Engineering and Management Skills course. This time, we first went to Heidelberg to Philosophenweg. After the biggest hurdle - namely finding an S-Bahn actually running from MA to HD this morning - had been overcome, we headed to and steeply upwrads on Philosophenweg. At the crossing with the Schlangenweg down into the city, around half of the participants decided to continue the ascent to the Thingstätte (some actually using the gradient method), before we all met again at lunchtime in and around the Marstall Mensa down in the city of Heidelberg.

In the afternoon, everyone was back in Mannheim on time and experienced a particularly exciting, guided tour by Dr. Martin Stather through the current Niemann Ausstellung at the Mannheimer Kunstverein. Christoph Niemann, we learned, spends as much time creating art every day as he does thinking about why and how he can reduce essential content to its essence and convey it in an understandable way.

In the evening, we all came together at the HMA, having previously visited the best ice cream parlor in Mannheim Lindenhof and willingly waited in line for the special treat - in the form of large scoops at a fair price. We were joined by ten of our WING Alumni, who exchanged their experiences from their first years of work with our 35 students in personal conversations late into the evening. The freely configurable MARS collaboration room and the well-filled fridge with cool drinks were particularly helpful...

In the 'Sommersemester 2024', we are again inviting a group of young professional alumni from WING HMA to share their experiences with our new Master students.

We will all meet on April 12 in Heidelberg and Mannheim for a full day of great personal and cutural experience sharing. This will add another corner stone, bring our current Master students together and link them with our growing Alumni Network. 

All Master students will participate in the upgraded talk series now termed 'Academia Meets Business', in which we will invite top level speakers across the board from March to June to come and share their business experience with our students and all members, including lecturers and researchers at HMA. 

The whole team of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and your lecturer Prof. Dr. Stephan Altmann are looking forward to meeting you! 

See here below will be joining us this summer from our WING HMA Alumni Network:

Since 2022, Selina is working as a management consultant in the field of organizational development at Drescher Consulting in Stuttgart.

During her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, she gained practical experience in the automotive industry in the areas of service provider management and ramp-up management.

Parallel to her Master's degree in Industrial Engineering (M. Sc.) at the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences with a specialization in technical product management, Selina worked as a working student at Evobus under the management for production.

During her master's thesis conducted at Voith Turbo in Heidenheim, she delved into contemporary advancements and obstacles within the realm of B2B platform collaboration.

In her current role as a consultant, Selina is working on the comprehensive and structured use of vehicle data for the identification, root cause analysis and prediction of fault hotspots.

Carolin joined Empolis, a leading provider of cloud-based software in the field of Intelligent Decision Support Solutions based on Artificial Intelligence, as Product Manager in 2021. She is responsible for the further development of cloud-based SaaS products and, as an expert in the field of knowledge transfer, gives numerous lectures and webinars.

During her dual Bachelor's degree in Business Administration (B.A.) at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, she worked in various departments of a manufacturer of high-end video systems, such as sales, marketing and technical purchasing. She then went on to study industrial engineering (M.Sc.) at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, where she focused on technical product management. During this time, her career already took her into the software industry, where she worked in the product management department of ERP provider proALPHA alongside her studies.

Anna brings over three years of experience to the software industry, having served as both a project manager and sales consultant.

Following the completion of her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration in the United States, Anna joined Lufthansa Technik as an IT project manager, contributing her expertise to a supply chain project. Concurrently pursuing the Master's program in Industrial Engineering (M.Sc.) with specialization in Technical Product Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim, she applied her knowledge by working as a project manager at the Mannheim-based IT startup, 11A.

During her master's thesis, Anna transitioned to Objektkultur Software, a Microsoft-focused IT consultancy. In her current role, she holds responsibility for managing all strategic alliances, leveraging her background in project management and sales consultancy.

Kim Ibrahim joined FUCHS LUBRICANTS GERMANY GmbH (formerly: FUCHS LUBRITECH GmbH) in 2013. 

As a working Student, she was able to work in different departements including maintenance, R&D, product Management and IT while succesfully completing her bachelor in project engineering (B.Eng.) in 2016. 

She then joined FUCHS as a project manager, managing the relocation of a coating shop to the headquarters before joining product Management. 

Next to her job, she studied Industrial Engineering at Mannheim University of Applied Science until 2022 (M.Sc.).

Since 2023, she's working as a Business Development Manager EMEA for an American FUCHS affiliate and specializes in lubricants for high end technologies such satelites oder medical Devices.
 

Jonas joined Siemens AG in February 2022 as a Trainee Sales & Service. During the trainee year, he was able to get to know various departments within the sales organization of Siemens Digital Industries in Germany and build up a broad professional network. After completing the trainee program in February 2023, Jonas was employed as a Sales Representative in the Southern Germany region. In this role, he is currently responsible for new customer acquisition, development and support.

Before successfully completing his Master's degree in Industrial Engineering (M.Sc.) at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Jonas studied Industrial Engineering (B.Sc.) at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences.
Since the beginning of his studies, Jonas has always focused on the areas of product management and sales, which is why he completed internships as well as working student activities and subsequent Bachelor's and Master's theses in these areas. Therefore he also decided to specialize in Technical Product Management for his Master's degree. 

Philipp works as a project manager in Global Sales at the global market leader for safety automation, Pilz GmbH, where he deals with pricing, business intelligence and product launches providing a range of essentials for the 42 subsidiaries. Driving the company’s change with various strategic projects, he helps sales align their strategies in the best possible way for the future and optimize to their full potential.

He has completed his bachelor's degree in sales management at Hochschule Heilbronn, with sales experience in the air freight and renewable energies sector, as well as in supplier management within the automotive industry. He decided to focus on the technical aspects of the supplier management which led him to pursue a Master's degree in industrial engineering.

Marc brings eight years of professional experience in various positions through collaboration in the FREUDENBERG Group.  In addition to working in sales, application technology and digital business development, he is currently employed as a project manager in advanced product development at FREUDENBERG FT GmbH.

Previously, he studied W.Ing. (B. Eng.) with a specialization in technical sales at the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg, Mannheim, before successfully completing his master's degree in industrial engineering - technical product management (M. Sc.) at the HS Mannheim.

Marc Brechtel has been an external PhD student at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Potsdam since the end of 2019. He is writing his doctoral thesis on "Designing the Value Proposition of Industrial Data Ecosystems" while working.

Marcel has been working in the Healthcare Industry at Dedalus in Bonn since he graduated from his master’s program. He started in the field of product marketing and has been working as Product Marketing & Innovation Manager since 2023.

As part of the product marketing team, he is responsible for the positioning of the medical imaging portfolio. As it comes to innovation management, he initiated the setup of an innovation process for one of Dedalus’ business units, enabling them to innovate effectively and efficiently. He is involved in setting up innovation search fields, creating and evaluating ideas and shaping new business models.

Before he studied Industrial Engineering in his master’s, he studied Mechatronic Engineering in his bachelor’s program, both at the University of Applied Science in Mannheim. Currently he is enrolled in a distance learning MBA program for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, getting ready for his plans to become self-employed.

Sebastian is a research associate and PhD candidate at the wbk - Institute of Production Science at KIT in Karlsruhe. His area of expertise is in the manufacturing and disassembly of lithium-ion batterie cells. By means of highly automated, yet flexible machinery, he is exploring new ways to better adapt the technological landscape of battery manufacturing to the ever-changing demands of tomorrow. 

He has completed his bachelor’s degree in business administration at the Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg before commencing with his masters in industrial engineering at the HS Mannheim. Sebastian has gained plentiful industrial insights during the course of his studies by performing various internships at the diesel engine manufacturer Deutz in Cologne, Audi in Neckarsulm or the Pfalzwerke Netz AG.   

After successfully completing his Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Felix decided to enrol in the master's programme in industrial engineering - technical product management at HSMA.

His enthusiasm for technical contexts and solutions has already led Felix through various positions and departments such as the technical sales at Bosch UK and the product management at Metabo and SEW Eurodrive.

Motivated by the green energy transition, Felix joined 2022 the turnkey solar plant provider GoldbeckSolar as a site manager in the UK market. Since 2023 he has been a project manager, responsible for the planning and execution of large scale photovoltaic plant projects in the UK.

Michael started his professional career in 2012 with a dual study program (DHBW) in the electrical industry and completed it with a Bachelor of Arts. This was followed by a change to the construction industry. During his studies at the HMA in 2017, a contact to the healthcare sector was already established through the specialization subject "Technical Product Management".

Michael wrote his master's thesis at Roche Diagnostics in Mannheim in research and development and finished his master's degree. For a holistic view, a one-year engagement in Strategy & Porfolio at Roche in Rotkreuz followed.

Since 2020, Michael has been working at the management consultancy Arcondis in Switzerland and is active as Head of MedTech CH and Senior Consultant. His expertise is mainly in project management, change management and business/operating modeling.

As a first step into his business career, Daniel started with his Bachelor of Engineering degree in industrial engineering and international engineering at Hochschule Rhein Main in Russelsheim. For gaining this degree, he spent 6 months at AGCO corporation in Duluth (Georgia), working in product management of agricultural machinery.

This is where he found his passion to technical product management and decided to focus on that topic in his master’s degree at Hochschule Mannheim.

Fulfilling his master’s study, he wrote his master’s thesis at Harmonic Drive SE in Limburg an der Lahn. Since 2016 he is still working at Harmonic Drive SE and gained a lot of experience in technical product management of technology driven mid-size companies by overtaking the whole mechatronic product portfolio.

This practical experience has furthermore been supported by presenting and discussing about best practice cases in product management training courses.

Today he is responsible for strategic product management and business development at Harmonic Drive SE

As part of the MGMT - Management & Engineering Skills module, all first semester Master's students met on Friday, October 6, 2023 in the Palatinate for a full day of networking among themselves and with alumni of the WING program from the past 6 years.
During the day, the large group first went together into the Palatinate Forest: from Deidesheim via the Michaelskapelle (see picture), the Heidenlöcher and the Eckkopf finally to the Wallberghütte. There, spinach dumplings and spit-roast fresh from the vine wood grill awaited the students. In the afternoon, groups or teams of students had the choice of either 'exploring' Deidesheim and its cafés in more detail or taking up the challenge of visiting various unknown places in the Palatinate Forest along the Hartrand and finally proving this to everyone else in the evening by taking photos on site. Two teams 'dueled' each other, whereby one actually not only climbed the Deidesheimer Hütte, the Knoppenweth and the Stabenberg Warte, but they also discovered the Sängerklause, the Weiße Kreuz and the Klausenkappelle and were additionally able to locate a field cross.

Finally, all hikers, a bit tired but in a good mood, arrived at their destination at the Ruppertsberger Winzerverein. There they met 10 Alumni of WING MA, who briefly introduced themselves to them after dinner together. Afterwards, they exchanged experiences and individual plans in small groups over water (for the car drivers) and Palatinate wine (for the train drivers) before the participants bid each other a fond farewell. Many students want to stay in lively exchange with the alumni in order to be well prepared with the extracurricular requirements for career starters already during their master studies. Some also already started to consider one or the other practical activity and master thesis topics with the alumni.

For the winter term 2023/24, we have again invited a group of young professional alumni to share their experiences with our new Master students. We will all meet already at the beginning of the term this time for a full day of team building. This means that students and alumni will be able to get to know each other in person first before theys go on exchanging experiences and insights flexibly throughout the term. Students will be asked to summarize their insights briefly for each other at the end of the term.

We also continue and expand the invitations of experienced experts and managers from private and public institutions. In the winter term 2023/24 this will be done in the format of a series of talks called 'Students Meet Business' which will be open to everyone at HMA. Preparations are almost finished and we are expecting seven guests from different business and applied research backgrounds to bring us up to spead on everygreens including leadership, sales, marketing, R&D, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Do you want to get to know our alumni and have the chance to build on the experience of these young professionals while you are still studying for your master's degree? Then don't hesitate any longer and apply for the Masterprogram Industrial Engineering and Management at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences.

The whole team of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and your lecturer Prof. Dr. Stephan Altmann are looking forward to meeting you! 

MGMT, the SMB Talks and Master and Alumni networking has again been a great sucess. See which Alumni participated on our Alumni site.

In the summer semester 2023, our new module MGMT - Engineering and Management Skills will take place for the second time in our Master's program.

We are pleased about the great positive response of the current participants in the first semester of our Master's program to the intensive exchange with alumni of our faculty who have already gained several years of professional experience. 

For the summer semester of 2023, we have again invited a group of our former graduates to share their experiences and have a cozy get-together in Mannheim with our current Master's students.

Do you want to get to know our alumni and have the chance to build on the experience of these young professionals while you are still studying for your master's degree? Then don't hesitate any longer and apply for the Masterprogram Industrial Engineering and Management at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences.

The whole team of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and your lecturer Prof. Dr. Stephan Altmann are looking forward to meeting you! 

MGMT and Master and Alumni networking has been a great sucess. See which Alumni participated on our Alumni site.