Potsdam/Phoenix. For the first time, two female students will be traveling with a team from Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) to the USA to take part in the largest IT fair for women worldwide: the “Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.” The two computer science students were each awarded a travel grant that covers the complete costs of their visit to the fair. Bachelor student Maren Sindlinger(24), who comes from the town of Herrenberg in Baden-Württemberg, studies corporate and IT security at the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg. Lisa Pfisterer (25), from Berlin, is completing her master’s degree at HPI in the department of Human Computer Interaction.

The fair is being held from 8-10 October in Phoenix (Arizona). Women scientists from HPI will be representing their institute for the fourth year with a booth at the event. “With the travel grants, which we would like to award every year, we want to motivate young women and show them that they have decided on the right study program. Unfortunately, majors in the fields of math, computer science, natural science and technology are often not among the first choices for young women. At HPI we try to show the excitement and diversity of the computer science profession for women in practice-oriented projects already carried out during the bachelor’s study,” said HPI director, Prof. Christoph Meinel.

The majority of the 20 percent of female HPI students complete their studies with excellent results, according to Meinel. For HPI this is a reason to encourage young women to choose a computer science major. Graduates of the practice-oriented HPI program “IT Systems Engineering” have excellent professional opportunities, both in the industry as well as in research or as a company founder. Information about the studies or a PhD is available at: www.hpi.de/studium and www.hpi.de/research-school.

More information can be found at the HPI website: www.hpi.de/grace-hopper and www.hpi.de/studium/it-systems-engineering/frauenfoerderung.

Press contact on location in Phoenix:

• Rosina Geiger: rosina.geiger(at)hpi.de

Student contact:

• Maren Sindlinger: msindlin(at)stud.hs-offenburg.de
• Lisa Pfisterer: pfisterer.lisa(at)googlemail.com

The Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering GmbH, at the University of Potsdam, is Germany’s university excellence center for IT Systems Engineering. It is the only university institute in Germany offering the bachelor’s and master’s program in “IT Systems Engineering” – a practical and engineering-oriented study program in computer science, in which 470 students are presently enrolled. The HPI School of Design Thinking is Europe’s first innovation school and modeled on the Stanford University d.school. It offers 240 places yearly for a supplementary study.

There are a total of ten HPI professors and over 50 guest professors, lecturers and contracted teachers at the Institute. HPI carries out research noted for its high standard of excellence in its nine topic areas, and also at the HPI Research School for PhD candidates, with its other branches in Cape Town, Haifa and Nanjing. HPI teaching and research focuses on the foundation and application of large-scale, highly complex and networked IT systems. The development and exploration of user-driven innovations for all areas of life is an additional field of importance. HPI always earns the highest positions in the CHE university ranking. Since the beginning of September 2012, HPI has offered openhpi.de, an interactive Internet educational platform. Its free online courses are open to everyone.