Hochschule Karlsruhe – Technik und Wirtschaft

Extensive cooperation

The Karlsruhe company INIT supports the new degree program Transportation Management at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences with over EUR 700,000, including the financing of a professorship

A university has to plan ahead and develop course structures and content that will provide their graduates - i.e. in three to four years from now - with the best possible career opportunities. The university e.g. planned ahead by increasing the number of university placements in view of the double number of high school graduates in 2012. However, it also has to think ahead when it comes to offering new degree programs that are meant to prepare its engineers for future market demands.

An example for this type of planning is the establishment of the Germany-wide only Bachelor degree program Transportation Management, starting this winter semester at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. The deadline for applications is 15 July 2012.

We are constantly on the go - and we want our trip to be quick, comfortable, with low environmental and social impact and of course inexpensive. But we are often stuck in traffic jams, arrive late and produce pollution and noise. Future mobility presents special challenges - the degree program Transportation Management develops solutions for them. Transportation Management means optimizing the interplay of transport supply and demand, activating resources and exploiting potentials. To do so, engineers need to develop highly efficient measures. In conjunction with world-wide operating companies, the degree program trains future specialists in this promising field.

One of the major cooperation partners is INIT Innovations in Transportation based in Karlsruhe. INIT was founded in 1983 as a typical university spin-off and has become a world-wide leading provider of integrated telematics and ticketing systems for public transportation. INIT's innovative IT products help transportation companies make public transportation faster, punctual, more attractive and efficient.

Today, on 6 June 2012, Achim Becker (CEO of INIT GmbH) and Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Meisel (President of Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences) signed a cooperation agreement to support the new Bachelor degree program Transportation Management. The company has agreed to finance a research-oriented W3 professorship and an assistantship at the newly founded faculty of Information Management and Media for a minimum period of five years. For INIT GmbH this means an investment of over EUR 700,000. The professorship in research and education focuses on traffic telematics, data communication, dynamic information and traffic guidance systems, planning, operation and financing of public transportation.

Achim Becker, CEO of INIT, sees INIT's engagement in the new degree program as a continuing pursuit of the company's strategy: "Since we're an innovation-oriented company, cooperation with universities has always been important to us. That's why we've been offering students the opportunity to do internships or complete their final thesis with us here in Germany and abroad. With this cooperation agreement, we'd like to take collaboration a step further and proactively spur on research in the field of intelligent concepts for future mobility."

INIT GmbH will accompany the development of the degree program by participating in an advisory council and will thus help ensure that the program meets the demands of the market and potential employers.

"We are happy and grateful that with INIT we've found a competent and world-wide leading partner in industry that is willing to give us such broad support in establishing a unique degree program in a very promising field”, says President Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Meisel.