Press release
Im neuen Studiengang Digital Engineering werden die Studierenden viel eigenständig an ihren Projekten im Labor arbeiten.
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RWU
Weingarten –Starting this winter semester, RWU will offer a new bachelor’s degree program: “Digital Engineering – Smart Products & Manufacturing” combines the natural sciences, engineering, and computer science and is characterized by a strong practical focus.
“It’s about the digitalization of industry, from product development through production to operation,” says program director Professor Dr. Samuel Vogel. “Digital engineers are needed wherever products are connected, industrial processes are automated, and data is used intelligently.”
Close cooperation with industry partners in the region
Among other things, the curriculum includes courses in programming and software engineering. The goal is to provide students with a broad foundation and prepare them as well as possible for the job market. To ensure this, Digital Engineering was developed in the context of industrial challenges and in close cooperation with regional industry partners.
One of these partners is the company ifm in Tettnang. ifm is a leading global provider of sensor technology. Managing Director Stefan Hoberg explains that the skills gained through Digital Engineering are in high demand in day-to-day work at ifm. “I like to talk about an interdisciplinary toolbox. This encompasses various dimensions: hardware development, software development, process technology, and mechanical design. Colleagues can be particularly creative when they independently master the complex toolchains that bring these aspects together. If they know and can apply the methodology, they can develop creative ideas and give them substance at the same time.”
With their skills, digital engineers have diverse career opportunities at companies like ifm. “Typical roles we offer at ifm that are a great fit for digital engineers include, for example, system engineers in the development department. On the production side, there’s the interdisciplinary field of industrial engineering. This serves as the bridge between production and development. We also have application engineers on our team. They help our customers with the commissioning of the finished product,” says Hoberg.
An important aspect of the program is its high practical component. Students will do a lot of work in teams and on projects. A new feature is that a semester’s lectures can be replaced by an individual team project. Instead of a traditional bachelor’s thesis, there will be a bachelor’s project. Digital Engineering is thus aligned with the reality of the working world, where the focus is also on project-based work.
Digital Engineering Means Thinking in Systems
Parts of the course content were previously taught in a separate lecture. Among those who attended was Christopher Repka, who is enrolled in the Physical Engineering program at RWU. “In Digital Engineering, we learn to think in systems. Modern, complex products consist of subsystems, and these require holistic thinking. You have to consider how a product’s design relates to theory and reality,” he says.
Program director Samuel Vogel says that with Digital Engineering, RWU has expanded its portfolio. “We are trying to combine our industrial expertise with the increasingly important aspects of digital production, also to contribute to the future viability of German industry.”
Text: Caroline Kolb