Yearly Review for international Alumni 2017
Dear Alumni,
We wish you a happy and peaceful festive season and hope that you are able to look back at 2017 with satisfaction.
Below you will find some highlights of 2017 at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg - enjoy reading.
This year the university recorded a considerable success: in the “Innovative University” competition held by the Federal and State Governments, our “Campus to World” concept was among the winners, meaning that over the next five years we will receive around 10 million euros to enable us to disseminate university know-how even more throughout society.
Around 9000 students are another reason to be happy, as is the completion and occupation of the new buildings on our two main sites. – If you would like to see all the action for yourself some time, then why not come to our next Alumni Day on 27 April?
Warm regards,
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bode, Vice President for Internationalisation and International Cooperation
Barbara Wieners-Horst, Alumni Management Officer
New Occupancy of New University Buildings | Completed on time and within budget: the new buildings covering approximately 5,100 square metres at the Rheinbach and Sankt Augustin sites were ready for students, researchers and staff to move into as early as October. The building in Sankt Augustin was inaugurated on 4 December; in Rheinbach this will take place on 18 January as part of the New Year Reception. The only bit of bad news is that actually even with these additions we do not really have enough space, and so further extensions are already being considered.
International chair for academics from around the world | Since August there has been a very special guest lectureship at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg: the “International Chair”, a chair for foreign lecturers that is limited to one year and for which the departments at H-BRS can and should apply. We conducted an interview with Vice President Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bode and the first holder of the International Chair, Dr. Karl Kirschner, about it.
Range of English-language courses at H-BRS | The new degree programmes in International Business (BSc) and Materials Science and Sustainability Methods (MSc) are delivered in English and German. Next summer semester we will see the new Master’s in Visual Computing, delivered in English and German as well. A quick overview of our range of courses can be viewed here.
20 Years of the Department of Natural Sciences – Retrospective and Pictures | June 9 saw some lively birthday celebrations in Rheinbach. Employees and around 80 alumni as well as students and dignitaries had fun with some humorous speeches, presentations by alumni, a campus scavenger hunt, Science Slam, barbecue and live music by the lake. Have a look at the photo gallery and here for the alumni contributions. (German only, sorry)
"Innovative University" provides H-BRS with development stimulus | In July Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg was named the winner in the "Innovative University” competition held by the Federal and State Governments. With its concept, “Campus to World”, the university convinced the assessors and over the next five years will set up what is known as an Innovation Mall for its research and transfer activities. The first transfer projects commence on 1 January. Find out more here (German only).
University Alumni Day on Friday, 27 April 2018 | The university invites all alumni to its second university-wide Alumni Day. The University President, Hartmut Ihne, will open the event at 13:00. Afterwards, there will, for example, be a discussion with experts in the Department of Management Sciences on current Brexit issues, and how body language can be utilised confidently and professionally at work. Computer Scientists will hear from the dynamic, award-winning founders of the IT startup, Skymatic, about the formation of their company. From 17:30, get-together with Kölsch and snacks. So: pass it on - make a date - come on over... Watch out for the invitation sent by email in February. If you like to come and meet fellow alumni and you need help with addresses please contact alumni@h-brs.de.
2017 Graduation Ceremony | On 22 October around 400 graduates celebrated completing their studies with their families and friends at the central graduation ceremony. Many mortar boards were thrown! At the graduation ceremony of alumna and speaker Inga Koster ten years ago, the traditional cap and gown were not yet customary. But this did not detract from the professional success of our former student: the co-founder and CEO of smoothie producer, “true fruits” entertained the around 1300 guests with humorous university reminiscences and encouraged our new alumni to pursue their “own thing” with passion. - With the party that followed the ceremony we also said farewell to the Telekom Forum, which has now become too small for us. In 2018 the graduation ceremony will be held in the Telekom Dome in Bonn’s Hardtberg district on 27 October. Click here to see the nicest pictures and read the speech by University President Hartmut Ihne (German only).
The photographers from the Department of Computer Science focussed particularly on the Computer Science graduates – click here for their pictures.
Project STARK makes international students more attractive for German employers | Since winter semester 2017/2018 international students have been supported by workshops, career coaching, language cources and application folder check in order to alleviate their entry to the German employment market. The project STARK provides accurately fitting career support for all of our international students. More information for students and graduates…
Your employer can profit from the project as well concerning recruiting activities and diversity strategies. More information for employer…
International alumni with lectures in the Department of Computer Science | Under the label “Alumni Comeback”, during the summer semester around 25 graduates from all five departments returned for presentations at the university. MAS alumni Matias Valdenegro and Oscar Lima also made it possible: they came back to the campus from their universities in Scotland and Portugal and reported on their doctoral projects. Oscar built the stop-off in Sankt Augustin into his trip to the Robo Cup in Leipzig; Matias travelled from Bremen, where he is currently conducting research with the underwater robotics specialists at Jacobs University.
“Respect! Time for Diversity – Time for Sustainability” – for the second time at the University | In the summer semester this initiative, through a number of events, prompted visitors to consider the subjects of sustainability and diversity. Introductions to sign language gave an insight into the world of deaf people. The workshop “Between the dominant culture and multi-culturalism: which campus do we want to live on?” examined how we deal with religion, discrimination, sexism and values at the university. More on the workshop, more on the series of events. (German only)
Recipes from all over the world: Robotics specialists get cooking | Once a year the students on the Master’s degree programme in “Autonomous Systems” (MAS) demonstrate their cooking skills. Everyone brings a typical dish from their homeland with them to the MAS party. Course head, Iman Awaad, treated the guests to delicacies from Egypt. And for the fourth time, she combined all of the recipes in a wonderful cook book with dishes from five continents.
Summer school Social Security Studies | September 5, 2017 the faculty of Social Security Studies kicked-off the beginning of the two-week summer school with different specializations on social protection. Over 80 students, researchers and practitioners from all over the world were welcomed by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bode, Vice President of the university, and Prof. Dr. Esther Schüring, Head of the master's programme on "Social Protection", in Sankt Augustin. The short-courses enabled students, researchers and practitioners to deepen their knowledge of social protection in their respective field of specialisation through lectures and interactive group sessions. In addition, each specialisation had the opportunity to visit a representative institution or organisation in an excursion: The course on climate change for example visited the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn.
First Professor-Alumni scholarship | For the first time, alumni have jointly contributed to a Germany Scholarship, instigated by Business Management & Law Professor Irene Fahrenhorst. On the occasion of her retirement, she contacted “her” alumni in person and appealed to them to contribute to the joint scholarship as a sign of their gratitude for the good years spent at H-BRS. - At the impressive scholarship ceremony on 6 December a total of 137 students at H-BRS received their scholarship documents from the hands of the founders and supporters. The funding amounts to almost half a million euros.