In the winter term 2006/07, the HPI introduced an initiative that provides students with an opportunity to actively participate in shaping life at the institute: HPI's Student Clubs. They enable students to grow with their projects while the HPI grows with the various clubs' activities.
Clubs at HPI
Some clubs are prethemed, but students are invited to come up with their own ideas and start new initiatives anytime. The following student clubs are currently active:
Are you fascinated by artificial intelligence? Then you're in the right place! In the Artificial Intelligence Club, we want to exchange ideas about new developments in the field of machine learning in a community setting, further develop (our own) projects, and organize expert talks. What's the goal of all this? The focus, of course, is on the fun of developing artificial intelligence ourselves. At the same time, we want everyone to learn from each other to better understand topics from MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) to causal inference to deep reinforcement learning. So, if you're interested in more than just buzzwords, come and join us.
For all those who are interested in learning and carrying out routine work such as oil and tire changes, want to identify and fix problems on a vehicle before they get worse, want to work on their new project with others, or are simply car enthusiasts: we are the car and motorcycle workshop for you! Whether you want to learn in a workshop how to fix or change a flat tire when you’re stranded--without despairing, or if you want to just tinker on cars with others who are like-minded, drop by or send us a message. We look forward to hearing from you!
If you are interested in aviation or if you are a hobby pilot yourself, the Aviation Club is the right place for you. At regular meetings, we exchange ideas with each other in a relaxed atmosphere and discuss with topics that are currently on our minds. In addition, the Aviation Club organizes, for example, visits to industry facilities or companies in order to establish a connection to the industry.
Since the Aviation Club is still quite new, we look forward to your contributions in the way of ideas and plans. Feel free to contact us!
The Band Club regularly performs at HPI events such as the graduation celebration or the "HPI Sommerfest". Furthermore, the club wants to expand the musical ability of all students. As long as one is interested in music, the club is happy to have their support.
The Board Games Club was foundedat the beginning of summer semester 2016. Its main activities are the weekly board game meetup on Tuesdays (6:30 pm, H-E.51) and the 'Go' meetup on Thursdays (6 to 9 pm, H-2.57). Furthermore, the club hosts other events as well.
At the book club, a selected book is read together every month and then discussed at a meeting. You can choose from two interest groups: the thinkers and the doers. Different genres are read in the two groups depending on your personal preferences. In the thinkers' group, we read socially critical novels, science fiction or philosophical books. With the doers, we gain knowledge from guides on lifestyle, personal finance or psychology. Anyone can get involved and nominate a book for voting, with one book per group democratically selected as the book of the month from those nominated.
If you like reading and discussing, why not drop by? We communicate mainly via Slack, so send an email and you'll be right in the thick of it!
It's easy to miss out on your own programming projects during your studies. The casual coding club meetings offer the opportunity to take time for a project once a week in the company of others. You are welcome to bring your projects or be inspired by existing ones. At the meetings, we have snacks and drinks and, of course, other people who can give feedback and help with problems.
Hello, to all Hello to all chess fans! We from the chess club meet about every two weeks for a few rounds of chess and let the day end in a relaxed way.
Feel free to come by and check it out. All our meetings are announced at least a week in advance.
Do you want to join us? We look forward to hearing from you!
This club organizes and supports CoderDojo events at HPI in Potsdam and around the city. CoderDojos are events for boys and girls, from ages 5 to 17, who learn to build games, work with robots, programme and have fun. At HPI, we host CoderDojo every second Saturday in the month from 2 pm to 5 pm. The number of participants increases with every CoderDojo that’s organized.
Competitive Programming is about teams of three students working together on a computer to solve as many problems as quickly as possible. From graph problems (e.g., Dijkstra) and search problems (e.g., backtracking) to number-theoretical problems (e.g., prime number decomposition), everything is included. We tie in directly with the course of the same name, which is always offered in the summer semester.
This club offers HPI students the opportunity to practice in teams for national and international competitions, to participate in them, or to organize competitions. It is also the right place to learn the latest tips and tricks for efficient programming.
The Culinary Club aims at raising student awareness for healthy nutrition and supporting events at HPI. Preparation of fresh and healthy food, if possible, in organic quality is primarily important to the club. Both vintage, but also exceptional new recipes are tested and documented by the club for other students to share. The club also offers the preparation of dishes for events of other clubs or internal events of HPI.
The Connect Club has the task of connecting you with companies, but also with HPI alumni and other IT students. To this end, we organize various events such as our company contact fair “Connect,” the “Startup Spotlight” and our “HackHPI” hackathon. As part of the “HPI meets ...” series, we organize TechTalks together with companies or invite alumni to give a talk about their experiences after graduation. Our alumni work also includes our alumni beer garden at the summer festival. Would you also like to make contacts and be involved in event planning and implementation? Then get in touch with us!
The Cybersecurity Club at HPI is a contact point for all people interested in cybersecurity. We mainly deal with current topics in information security, take part in competitions (CTFs) and prepare our own events. These include our “Hacken und Schnacken” series, Hacking Day 101 and the Cyberquiz. We meet weekly and talk about the latest cyber news or solve and design CTF challenges together. Sporadic dates for competitions, school trips and other events are also organized and announced.
Standard and Latin dances, and workshops with extraordinary and exotic dances. This describes the dance club. We meet every Friday, at 5pm (17:30), in the lecture hall foyer. You are more than welcome to stop by—preferably with a dance partner, but you can gladly come alone.
We offer a cool program for dance beginners as well as experts. In addition to the relaxed end of the week with dance lessons on Fridays, we also regularly organize free-style dancing—when there's time for music, fun, and good vibes without a lot of explanations!
Every week we debate social, political or even funny topics. In a regulated battle of words, we hone our sharp arguments, persuasive rhetoric and courageous demeanor. You can expect unusual perspectives, exciting debates, and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Students from other disciplines are also involved. No matter whether you are interested in debating, want to improve your rhetorical skills or want to shake up the competitive tournament scene—our club is the right place for you. We welcome you to just drop by, watch, or join in straight away.
Several times a year, over 40 interested students come to HPI for a weekend. The Education Club organizes camps lasting several days and puts together an unusual program. At the camps, everything is focused on exciting topics from computer science and student life at HPI. Many HPI students have found their way to us through one of these camps.
Over the course of a year, there are camps on a variety of topics. The BwInf-Camp focuses on algorithmics, while the Code Night involves students developing and presenting their own projects in one night. In the heat of summer, hardware solutions for a smart home system are worked out. In addition, Calliope programming and topics such as handwriting recognition are explored in workshops with school classes.
As a club, we organize our events, develop new workshops and get pupils excited about computer science.
Are you excited at the prosepct of founding a startup one day? Then the Entrepreneurship Club (E-Klub) is the right place for you. This is where all HPI students interested in startups come together. The rhythm of the club is set by our meetings. These takes place every two weeks on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 pm. The first half is usually content-driven. For example, founders come and talk about their everyday life in the startup business. The second half is usually a relaxed end of the evening with drinks, food, and sometimes a round of Xbox. Here you have an opportunity to exchange ideas with other HPI students who are interested in founding a company.
Beyond our club evenings, we as a club organize StartUpTalks@HPI, hackathons, joint events with business schools like WHU, visits to startups and much more – always with a focus on entrepreneurship! We are now over 50 members and are happy about every additional member and every new idea. The E-Klub is a place where you can quickly implement your ideas, in line with the motto "just do it."
You can join the E-Klub by logging into E-School Slack (E-School Slack) and then joining the #e-klub channel there. We look forward to seeing you!
EvaP Hacking Hours are regular meetings dedicated to the further development of the HPI evaluation platform. Every two weeks on Mondays, all who are interested can contribute to the development of a platform used by hundreds of users. There is a wide range of tasks to work on—from new features to performance optimization and UI-Design. Whether you choose to work alone or as part of a team; whether you have prior knowledge or not―everyone is warmly welcome to join us. For beginners, we offer an introduction to Git, Django, and EvaP, and there is always someone nearby to lend a hand.
This club supports the PR department in planning, designing and holding all HPI events, for example tournaments in Poker, Skat and Go. We are also arrange public viewing events, the HPI summer celebration, the annual Kart-Challenge and a lot more.
If you are interested in supporting events and meeting people, you are welcome.
The film club spends time on the conception, realization and wrap-up of its own film projects. In a project, the club members run through the several states of a film production—from the script to the storyboard and, finally, to the actual production and cutting.
Anyone who ever wanted to stand in front of or behind a camera is welcome to join us.
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This club publishes the so-called HPImgzn biannually. Our campus magazine presents current research projects, portrays members of the staff, and reports on past events and student life in general.
The GameDev Club organizes events such as LAN parties and weekend-long GameJams, which anyone interested can join in. To prepare participants for the GameJams, we organize workshops. We also program larger projects together, such as the recent ”Sheap Pizza” co-op game for the bachelor first-semester days and various other events. In addition, our members meet weekly for GameDev-Hours, during which we work together on GameDev-related projects or discuss trends in the Game development industry.
If you want to learn more about the GameDev Club, follow us on Instagram!
The annual “HackHPI” is a flagship event of HPI that is known throughout Europe. The hackathon with a technical focus just outside Berlin brings together students from different universities once a year on a set topic. A central aspect of the HackHPI format is student sovereignty over the topic, preparation and execution (under mentorship of the School of Entrepreneurship).
Goooooal! Playing table soccer together, cheering each other on and getting encouraged just makes you feel good. At Kickerklub, you can drop by and join in the fun. Whether you come to have a bit of fun or even want to improve your technique is completely up to you—with us you get the full program. Come join us, and warm up your wrists!
This club is involved in various activities, such as documenting HPI events. It also offers its members the opportunity to learn more about photography and to realize their own ideas within the framework of workshops on photography and related topics and techniques, such as light painting.
The low level computing club is all about hardware-related topics - from FPGAs to developing your own programming languages. Once a month we organize an event with presentations and opportunities for discussion afterwards. We also want to give you a space to talk to others about your own low level projects and receive support for them. Whether you're already a VHDL pro or just getting started with Linux, feel free to drop by!
The PR club supports the PR department in all kinds of press and public affairs, and also assists international students studying at HPI. We design and sell HPI merchandise as well.
While software is omnipresent at HPI, tinkering with real electronics is unfortunately neglected. In robotics, these disciplines come together harmoniously. Whether it's programming SBCs, soldering motors or designing new vehicle parts - you'll never get bored here.
But not without a goal: we strive to represent HPI at various competitions to show off the fruits of our labor. Can you help us climb the podium? Autonomous Racing, Micromouse or Eurobot - we democratically decide which competitions to take part in. Our priority is building knowledge together. So, whether you are as clueless as me, or have experience and are willing to share—the Robotics Club is waiting for you.
Hello everyone. We all hear the news: “AI is growing by leaps and bounds every year”, “In a short time the singularity will happen: AI will dominate humanity.” We are rightly critical of this simple story. How else can we explain that AI systems are failing regularly, and what about when we see that these systems are used to amplify racisim and sexism?
It is unsurprising that in recent years, many research fields have become interested in AI.
In the spirit of Gina Neff et al., we want to "critique and contribute" and provide "a practice-based framework for improving critical data studies and data science." We want to include perspectives from other scientific disciplines by reading these works, discussing them, and to create a broader and societal perspective on Data Science. Our aim is to critically discuss dominating narratives and to attempt to build alternative narratives. In summary, we want to answer the question, “What is AI and what should it become?”
What do we plan to do? We want to read one book or longer work together per semester and discuss it. At the end of the semester, we also want to invite researchers to discuss our results with them. In addition, we might form working groups to investigate specific ideas. We also want to cordially invite our fellow students from other faculties. Are you interested? We welcome you to join us at Telegram!
The Sustainability Club aims to draw attention to the topic of sustainability at HPI. To achieve this goal, we organize film evenings with thematically related films and subsequent discussions, cook together sustainably, and maintain a raised gardening bed on campus grounds. In the past, the Sustainability Club has also campaigned for topics such as green electricity, recycled paper, and more sustainable meadow design at HPI. We are always happy to welcome new faces, ideas and suggestions!
As the sports club, we offer students a wide range of sports opportunities. We oversee the purchase and maintenance of sports equipment on campus. Students and staff can compete against each other in our tournaments. Our members always search for new sports so that they can get to know them in various events. We are also responsible for the sports leagues during the semester and organize tournaments at HPI events. We welcome your ideas and support you in realizing them.
You can find more information at https://myhpi.de/en/information/sport/.
The Art Club provides opportunities to practice various artistic techniques and is open to both HPI students and staff. There is a large amount of art supplies and workshops or projects are offered throughout the year.
The club organizes the further development of the student information platform myHPI. On myHPI you can find all kinds of information about studying at HPI. The FSR and other student self-administration committees use myHPI for their work and write minutes there. Mailing lists are also managed there.
But we want to make myHPI even more useful and have many ideas for this. So, if you want to contribute to a software project that is used by many people, this club is a good place to build new things and learn from others in a relaxed atmosphere.
In the context of the high stress level at HPI - as gleaned from student surveys in summer 2022—we as the Wellness Club would like to build things or organize club meetings that contribute to the health of HPI members. We combine this activity with digital fabrication, so that we use our IT knowledge to create spaces that increase the feel-good factor. We want to pay more attention to wellbeing and make the paths to this goal sustainable. At the same time, we want to open the club to all HPI people to promote exchange within all HPI groups and strengthen communication.
If you would like to contribute to your well-being at HPI or would like to balance your everyday life, the club is happy to welcome new members!
Benefits of Participation
From the end of their first term, participation in a club of their choice is compulsory for all Bachelor’s students.
The time needed for club activities depends on the division of tasks and on individual commitment within each group. It is possible to move from one club to another.
Apart from the fact that project management experience is an indispensable soft skill, students benefit from club participation. If desired, students receive a certificate along with their diploma. This certificate documents extracurricular activities and can be an important advantage when applying for a job.
Club Awards
The most successful student clubs are awarded a prize each year.
- 2024: Clubs School, Events, GameDev, PR, Cybersecurity, Photo, Coder Dojo, Visual Art, Connect, Culinary, Newspaper
- 2018: School Club, Connect Club, Band Club
- 2017: Film Club, HPI Mgzn/Newspaper Club, Refugee Aid Club, School Club, Connect Club
- 2016: Coder Dojo, PR Club, Film Club, High School Club (special award), Connect Club (special award)
- 2015: Student Representatives (1st), Connect Club (2nd), Website Club (3rd), High School Club (special award)
- 2014: PR Club and Student Representatives (1st), High School Club (2nd), Photo Club (3rd)
- 2013: High School Club (1st), PR Club (2nd), Newspaper and HPI Connect Club (3rd)
- 2012: High School Club, Events Club, Photo Club, HPI Band and iDeveloper Club
- 2011: Visual Art Club, Film Club, Photo Club as well as the Alumni Club
- 2010: Events Club, IT Club, the Debating Club and the HPI Magazine
- 2009: High School Club, the HPI Band, Events, Alumni and Public Relations Club
- 2008: High School, Alumni, and HPI Connect Clubs
- 2007: High School and Newspaper Clubs
Contact Person
Last change: 26/09/2024, Geronimo Förster