This time, the IfU Business Project will be held in collaboration with ACP, a large Austrian IT firm with customers mainly in Austria and Germany. The topic will be “Use cases for AI and advanced forecasting tools". Students will act as consultants who identify challenges and develop solutions on the topic at hand in collaboration with our project partner. The intermediate and final results of the project will presented to and discussed with the ACP management team. As SIMC and WU bachelor students will conduct this project together, SIMC students are expected to act as team leads and project coordinators. As the project includes access to proprietary company data, students are expected to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). A good command of German is required for the data collection at the company. 

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS:

This is a real-life consulting course that blends research and practice. Students will learn about current challenges in business practice and develop tailor-made solutions. They will gain consulting experience in research-focused consulting project and learn how to do a practically relevant research study. Students will gain unique real-world insights into the IT industry and will have the opportunity to learn empirical research methods, such as expert interviews and survey study.

Students will be able to develop and train their team-working and leadership skills. According to the “IfU Business Project Approach“ which has been awarded the Austrian State Prize for teaching (Ars Docendi) in 2016, up to five Master Students will take the role of team leaders and lead small teams of Bachelor students. The experienced challenges of leadership will be discussed in class and all students (Bachelor and Master students) will have the opportunity to get invaluable „learning by doing“ leadership experience for their future career.