GONG - the countdown starts

GONG – this is the starting point! From now, 9:00 a.m. sharp, for 24 hours non-stop our eight teams will work on their tasks.

But what are their tasks? Right after the gong, students and company partners gathered at their ‘work stations’ and the up-until-this point sealed envelopes were handed over – a picture that reminds a little of the Oscars – luckily no mistakes in Alpbach :-)

The tasks are real-life challenges our companies are facing and they are as diverse as the companies themselves. Our max-mix student teams will now develop prototypes and concepts for this year’s sponsors who are AVL, Energie Steiermark, Constantia Flexibles, Fronius International, Liebherr, Logicdata, Magna Steyr and voestalpine.

One team will think about how to build trust in autonomous vehicles with AI, another will ponder about the question of what the future of packaging in a digital world will be like and yet another will focus on the topic of future intralogistics. Further topics are: energy as a service; the development of a one-hand shopping merchandising cooler; failure detection in the steel casting process; the future workplace – a digital theatre for analog experiences; game-changing vehicle vision for the urban environment 2025+.

For most outsiders, the tasks sound like almost unsolvable challenges but this is what our teams say: ‘It is so inspiring and exciting. We are really optimistic we will make it.’ When asked about their academic backgrounds and how they match the task they say: ‘They match quite well. On the other hand, we are all consumers, so we all have different perspectives that might contribute to the solution’

This is what our partner Andreas Prielinger from Fronius International said: ‘It was not easy to identify the core of the problem. But to see the diversity of the teams and the knowledge they bring with them, makes me optimistic that tomorrow I will leave Alpbach with great new ideas for our future!’

We are all really curious of what the results will be in 24 hours. We wish our teams a lot of energy, stamina, fun, great new learnings and contacts or in short: an experience they will never forget in their lives!