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The Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) is unparalleled in the German university landscape. HPI offers unique innovation-oriented and practically-based Bachelor's and Master's of Science degree programs in "IT-Systems Engineering." Also, HPI offers a supplemental study program in the innovation method of Design Thinking. Academically structured as the independent Faculty of Digital Engineering at the University of Potsdam, HPI unites excellent research and teaching with the advantages of a privately financed institute and a tuition-free study program. In Potsdam, the HPI is the only university faculty in Germany where a degree program in "IT Systems Engineering" is entirely and privately financed—made possible by founder Prof. Hasso Plattner. Plattner is co-founder of the software giant SAP, where he serves as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Plattner, one of Germany's most important private patrons of the sciences, has enabled a special university education in IT system engineering. One of HPI's significant goals is to become an elite, world-class educational facility. The institute already offers an optimal study and work environment and cooperates very closely with the business community. The HPI also maintains strong international contacts, for example, with Stanford University, the American ivy league university in Palo Alto, California. Reflecting the industry's needs, the educational program at HPI is provided by a total of twelve professors and more than 200 senior researchers, lecturers, and research assistants. Five hundred highly gifted young people have currently enrolled in the Bachelor's and Master's degree program in IT system engineering. Hasso Plattner Institute holds a unique position on the landscape of German universities. Research and teaching are concentrated in the area of IT systems engineering. The highly ranked Bachelor's, Master and Ph.D. degree programs have a high practical and innovation orientation. Design Thinking spans a bridge between Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam and Hasso Plattner Institute of Design in Stanford. The HPI has committed itself to offer a university program in the field of IT systems engineering that meets the highest standards of research and teaching, thus enabling its graduates to assume a leading role in the IT research crucial to industry and society, contributing to the development of computer science internationally, and, in close cooperation with partners from academic research and industry, advancing the engineering discipline of IT Systems Engineering, using its capabilities to address significant societal challenges and to promote the implementation of innovative solutions in industry and society in collaboration with other stakeholders. In this sense, our further specific objectives are to motivate and inspire young talents to pursue a degree in information technology, to provide students the latest knowledge, practical skills, and ability for cross-disciplinary collaboration under the best possible conditions, to complement our study program in computer science by fostering social skills (soft skills), innovation and entrepreneurship, to introduce suitable students early to an internationally successful research career, to produce highly qualified specialists who are willing and able to assume social responsibility in a complex and fast-changing world, to promote learning as a lifelong process and using IT technology ensure a rapid transfer of knowledge and technology into practical application. View full university