Due to technological change and the increasing importance of data analytics and artificial intelligence, the requirements profile of companies for graduates as specialists and managers is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. They need techno-economic competences around topics such as data management and analysis, machine learning, value-oriented management and sustainability management. In order to optimally prepare students for the demands of their future professional life, the University of Bayreuth, together with the University of Hohenheim and the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, would like to expand its teaching portfolio. For this purpose, the joint project "Smart Sustainability Simulation Game" (S3G) started on 1 September. With S3G, the three universities will receive a total of 294,840 € in funding as part of the "Freiraum 2022" call for proposals from the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education Teaching (www.stiftung-hochschullehre.de).
The aim of the joint project is to create a student-centred and didactically high-quality teaching programme that teaches techno-economic skills in the context of digitalisation and the transformation of industrial value chains towards greater sustainability. Specifically, an innovative and interactive business game with teamwork, gamification and competition elements is to be developed and implemented at all three universities. Within the framework of the business game, students slip into professional roles and find themselves in simulated practical situations. They go through stages of a circular economy and find tasks at each stage for which they work out solutions largely independently in the sense of problem-based learning. They have to make decisions about suitable measures and implement them in the simulation game. These decisions are continuously reflected upon, taking into account technical feasibility, economic sense and sustainability impacts (ecological, social, economic).
The target group of the simulation is Master's students of economics, computer science and their interfaces at all three participating universities. The simulation is expected to be offered in the summer semester of 2023.
