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The tasks and participating companies were top secret until this day. Now it is revealed that the students will cooperate for and with Porsche, ebm-papst, the Dieter Schwarz Foundation and i2M, an offshoot of Mann + Hummel. Mentors from the companies were present that evening to promote their projects. The mission of the Dieter Schwarz Foundation includes better networking of the various educational institutions on the “Bildungscampus”. Daniel Gottschald, managing director of the “TUM Campus Heilbronn gGmbH” expects nothing less than a "big bang" and advises participating students to "Think out of the box!"

A good network is the trump card

There is plenty of time in the lobby during networking breaks for direct conversations between mentors and the selected participants. One of them is Sindi Teqja, a 19-year-old student from Romania studying Information Engineering at TUM Campus Heilbronn. She formulates her own expectations of the Challenge as follows: "During my studies I learn Design Thinking in theory; here I want to gain first-hand experience." She is also excited about working in interdisciplinary groups and building up her own network. Similar expectations can be heard by Maciej Lubinski from Poland, who started his studies in Management & Technology just a few days ago: "It’s an excellent opportunity to meet new people. I’ll also learn a lot about myself," he says confidently.

Over the next months, regular workshops and coaching sessions will now be held with the teams. One of the coaches is Jai Ganesh, a management graduate specializing in "Innovation & Entrepreneurship" from the Technical University in Munich, who is now a freelancer at “UnternehmerTUM”, which supports startups during the founding period. He will coach two teams and describes his role during the project work: "I follow the teams’ development along the process and check if they are moving in the right direction. If not, they get tips from me." Teams have time until January 19 to complete their company and personal challenge successfully. It is not just the participating parties who are already eager to see the results.