Präsentation (online), Portfolio

This module is a hands-on collaboration with ESB Reutlingen. Students from both ESB Reutlingen and University of Tübingen will form teams to work on interdisciplinary AI-related innovation projects. We have two intense in-person “hackathon” like meetings, one in Lichtenstein and one in Tübingen. External industry partners will provide goals. The module aims to equip students with the ability to systematically work on interdisciplinary AI-related innovation projects.

The focus lies on the project-based development of user-centred, business-driven, and technically feasible solution approaches using agile working methods. University of Tübingen students are specifically expected to contribute or lead on the following aspects:
- Translating user stories into technical specifications
- Rapid prototyping & coding
- Software architecture & implementation

At the beginning of the module, students are introduced to the respective industry cases during an online kick-off session, familiarise themselves with the problem contexts, and form interdisciplinary teams comprising students from business and information technology backgrounds. In a subsequent multi-week exploration phase, the teams analyse the domain-specific, organisational, and user-related context in close cooperation with the industry partners. This includes conducting interviews, performing process analyses, and systematically deriving requirements, hypotheses, and initial user stories.

The in-depth project work is carried out in two on-site modules, each organised as intensive sprint-based working phases. The first on-site module focuses on agile working methods and user-centred design. Teams develop personas, user journeys, and prioritised user stories, which serve as an agile requirements framework for further project work. Based on this, initial prototypical implementations are developed and critically reflected from both business and technical perspectives. In the subsequent project phase, the results are validated with the industry partners and further refined.
The second on-site module concentrates on finalising the solution. Students conduct several sprints to complete the technical and conceptual implementation, refine business logic, value propositions, and KPIs, and integrate these elements into a coherent prototype. The module concludes with an online presentation in which teams present their results in the form of a professional pitch, including a demonstration or simulation, and reflect on them together with the industry partners.

After successful completion of the module, students are able to systematically analyse AI-related business problem contexts in interdisciplinary teams and develop user-centred, business-driven solution approaches. They can critically reflect on requirements and represent them in the form of user stories, personas, and prioritised backlogs. They can translate representations into technical specifications, prototype solutions and implement these in the form of code or software. Students apply fundamental methods of agile development and user-centred design in iterative development processes, integrating both business and technical perspectives. Furthermore, they are able to evaluate prototypical AI-supported solutions with regard to feasibility, business value, and relevant KPIs, and to present their results in a clear and audience-appropriate manner. The project-based team setting strengthens students’ communication, organisational, and problem-solving competences in practice-oriented innovation contexts.

Prerequisites: No special requirements.
Literature: Will be announced.