Finding the required information to succeed in the organisation of everyday study life is not always easy for a student. Ontologies are an instrument to define a domain by illustrating its concepts and thereby presenting knowledge in a structured way. In this paper, our aim is to design an ontology that is suitable for the higher education environment of a German university to build a Knowledge Graph for a conversational AI. As a research context, the Ansbach University of Applied Science is used. The paper is organised into five sections. After a brief introduction in Section 1, Section 2 reviews previous work of conducted ontologies within the higher education environment, whereas Section 3 outlines the methodology for developing the ontology and presents the final result. The development procedure is thereby partly based on the ontology framework provided by Stanford University (Noy & McGuinness, 2001). The presented ontology, which delivers possible classes for the development, and transferability to other universities will then be discussed in Section 4. Finally, the conclusion and approaches for future work with ensuring a constant up-to-dateness of the classes are given in Section 5.

MöglichMacher²³ – Bayerischer Hochschulpreis Entrepreneurship ist eine Auszeichnung, die das BayZiel – Bayerisches Zentrum für Innovative Lehre gemeinsam mit dem Bayerischen Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, der vbw - Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft e.V. und Hochschule Bayern e.V. am 19.9.2023 zum ersten Mal vergeben hat.

Damit der Wirtschaftsstandort Bayern weiter erfolgreich bleibt, braucht er Innovationskraft und Gründergeist. Insbesondere Hochschulen spielen in Bezug auf die Förderung und Vermittlung unternehmerischer Kompetenzen und beim Gründungsgeschehen eine zentrale Rolle. Das Bayerische Hochschulinnovationsgesetz hebt die Bedeutung der Unternehmensgründung an Hochschulen hervor und fördert Entrepreneurship durch verschiedene Maßnahmen wie Gründungszentren und Gründungsfreisemester für Professorinnen und Professoren. Mit dem erstmalig ausgelobten Hochschulpreis MöglichMacher werden besondere Leistungen ausgezeichnet, die sich mit hohem Engagement für die Stärkung des unternehmerischen Denkens bei Studierenden und die Förderung des aktiven Gründungsgeschehen an den Hochschulen einsetzen.

Das Team der Gründungsberatung der Hochschule Ansbach, Prof. Dr. Carolin Durst und Johannes Hähnlein, beeindruckte die Jury mit seinen innovativen Ansätzen und den in nur zwei Jahren erzielten Erfolgen. Diese umfassen nicht nur erste spannende Ausgründungen und Startups, sondern insbesondere einen spürbar gestiegenen Gründungsgeist im Umfeld der Hochschule Ansbach.

Die Gründungsberatung der Hochschule Ansbach wurde hierfür mit dem 2. Platz ausgezeichnet sowie mit einem Preisgeld in Höhe von 10.000 € honoriert und nimmt damit laut Jury eine Vorbildrolle für ganz Bayern ein.

Tourism recommendation systems can mitigate the potential impact of choice overload on tourists. Social robots are a promising approach to provide recommendations to tourists through an engaging and intuitive user interface on sites like tourist information offices. This study investigates whether tourists perceive tourism recommendations provided via social robots as a satisfying and effective experience and whether tourists respond better to a more human or robotic design of social robot interactions. Therefore, an experiment is conducted at a real-world tourist information office where 60 tourists are exposed to either the more human or robotic version of the social robot recommender system. Their feedback is collected with a survey. The results show that the social robot is perceived positively across
all user-centric evaluation dimensions. This indicates that tourists accept social robots in real-world tourist recommendation situations and would also use them in the future.

The current energy crisis and the high cost of fossil fuels pose major challenges for energy-intensive industries such as the non-ferrous foundry industry. Therefore, it is important to promote the transition to renewable energy sources with the help of the electrification of the melting units. In this pilot study, for the first time the conversion of conventional foundries to sustainable technologies is simulated. For this purpose, a simulation model is developed based on a selected example company. It considers the energy consumption and the logistical effects of a converted operation. The simulation model is implemented as a hybrid simulation combining a discrete
event simulation at the plant level and a process simulation within the furnaces. The study shows how a sustainable energy supply can be achieved in foundries. It also considers the impact of efficiency, energy costs and emissions.

Epoxy resins are widely used polymers in the automotive and aerospace fields. Different blends of novel biodegradable resins have been studied in the last years in order to provide sustainability while maintaining the same properties of epoxy resins. Bio-based thermoset resins made with acrylated epoxidized soybean oil are well-studied in different vat polymerization techniques. The present work compares a bio-based resin and a petroleum-based resin. A benchmark with different features was designed and manufactured by a VAT photopolymerization process using both materials; measured with an optical scanning device; thus, the dimensional deviations were analyzed through inspection software. Tensile and flexural specimens were manufactured with the same procedure and tested with a dynamometer machine. Therefore, the comparison between a biodegradable resin and a petroleum-based resin is discussed in terms of the quality and mechanical performances of manufactured parts, considering the use of identical printing conditions. Some parts are required to satisfy both the requirements at the same time, such as the gears. Therefore, dimensional accuracy and mechanical strength need to be controlled and evaluated in a unique final quantification. This work proposes a novelty performance index to quantify dimensional accuracy and mechanical strength simultaneously. By combining the two aspects it is possible to define the overall performance obtained with the used material, optimizing the manufacturing process by choosing the proper material for each purpose.

In spring 2022, we implemented e-portfolios at a product design course for engineers in the bachelor's programme on ‘Sustainable Engineering’ at the University of Applies Sciences, Ansbach. The use of e-portfolios was new to both students and lecturers. To evaluate the effect the e-portfolio had on students, we accompanied the implementation with surveys and interviews. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the evaluated results. Among other things, the following three main findings convinced us to continue with e-portfolio work. First, ~91% of the interviewed students felt that they were supported very well by our introduction. Second, ~93% got along well / very well with the functions of the e-portfolio software. Third, ~86% of those interviewed appreciated the freedom of design. Prior to the implementation of e-portfolios in our first test course, we identified the following factors as crucial for the successful implementation of e-portfolios: a comprehensive personal introduction, extensive information material, continuous guidance, clear work instructions, room for flexibility and creativity to foster learners' individual strengths, and exchange between learners and teachers. This paper reflects on these initial factors. The aspects identified for further improvement in the second round of e-portfolios, in the summer of 2023, are better technical preparation of the lecturers, the communication of technical borders in advance, timing of the accompanying e-portfolio workshops and a more comprehensive promotion of teamwork. The suggested modifications will be discussed in detail in this paper.

Students not always enjoy an in-depth practical learning experience with an adequate portion of hands-on during their academic education. In many fields of study, traditional laboratories are common learning spaces that are, however, not accessible 24/7 and, the practical work is mostly pre-defined by the lecturer, resulting in a short and very “passive” active learning. To overcome this limitation and to provide a broader availability and to foster individual learning experience, we aim to transform this analog world into a modern learning and teaching environment using digital technologies and a corresponding digital framework for courses and laboratories. An existing laboratory on prototyping from our university’s bachelor program on sustainable engineering with an extensive machine park consisting of 3D printers, milling machines, lasers and various hand tools is digitized and will finally be linked with the real-world lab. In addition to digitizing the basic process of product development and prototyping as part of students' project works, all additional activities arising in the lab are also transferred from the analog to the digital world. This digitalization is implemented alongside the already existing (partly browser-based) software tools of the individual devices in the e-learning platform Moodle. This results in a digital copy of the lab, its equipment and defined processes – structured in accordance with the established proceedings on product development (such as Pahl/Beitz and VDI 2221). We consider it a digital twin of the work and learning environment, calling it the “digital learning environment twin” of the real-world lab. For the product development process, a course area is available in Moodle with various feedback loops and assessment levels for the individual development steps of the student projects. Through this, students can submit their project plans, design ideas, sketches, CAD-models, manufacturing codes (such as G-codes for 3D printers, laser cutters and carving machines), or “just” request feedback and initiate meetings on technical and/or organizational topics of their product design process, the lab equipment, etc. Also, a safety instruction with instructional videos, PDF documents with hazard warnings and operating instructions as well as a final test (to allow operating the lab equipment) are provided to introduce the students to the lab. In this paper, we will illustrate the overall methodological approach on the established digital learning environment twin of the lab. Furthermore, we will have a detailed view on the challenge of transferring underlying manufacturing process to the digital world and linking them to provide a continuous digital workflow. The paper will be closed with an analysis of feedback (by both students and lecturers) on the pros and cons as well as on the usability of the digital twin of the lab.