Department of Computer Science

Professor Manfred Kaul retires

ruhestand manfred kaul urkunde von praesident sta 20230223 foto juri kuestenmacher

Friday 10 March 2023

Computer science professor Manfred Kaul, Vice President for Teaching, Studies and Continuing Education from 2009 to 2014, retires from Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in spring 2023.

In September 1999, Dr Manfred Kaul joined the still young Department of Computer Science at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg as Professor for system development and database systems. Just one year later he was appointed Evaluation Officer and served in this role until 2022.

Even before his time as Vice President for Teaching, Learning and Further Education, Manfred Kaul had been intensively involved with e-learning and therefore also made the topic one of the focal points of his vice presidency. This focus has proven worthwhile for the entire university since the Corona pandemic at the latest. In the transnational joint project Work & Study, work was done on reaching more people through e-learning.

His Digital Makerspace (DMS) project, a kind of marketplace of flexible web components for e-learning, was awarded a fellowship for innovation in digital university teaching by the German Donors' Association in 2017. Within it, teachers and students search for an app suitable for their purposes and choose or create a suitable configuration for themselves.

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Professor Manfred Kaul opposite President Ihne, in his office. Photo: H-BRS/Juri Küstenmacher

The students and their studies were always at the centre of his actions as professor and vice-president; ensuring that teaching and learning was done well at the H-BRS was his motivation and passion. It is also the cooperation and the personal, professional and didactic exchange with the students and the employees that he is going to miss upon retiring.

However, Manfred Kaul sees retirement in a rather positive light: stress-free breakfasts, long walks with his Labrador and a Christmas season in which he does not have to prepare slides or lectures. When the President of the H-BRS, Professor Hartmut Ihne, presents him with his retirement certificate, the computer science professor says in his typical dry manner: "It's time to go. Not sooner and not later. It's the right time."

On the other hand, he will not let go of his involvement with computer science, "it continues to fascinate me beyond the end of my professional career, so I will continue to keep up to date with the latest developments."