Bringing AI Learnings to Industrial Engineering

Hi! My name is Sören Lange-Klapproth and I am an industrial engineering major, with a focus on production management at International University of Applied Sciences Cologne in Germany. I’m drawn to this major because I have a strong interest in all-things technical and applying efficiency-driven technological approaches to production while bringing a realistic aspect to the decision-making process.

Industrial engineering is an area where you can bring together knowledge about production and engineering, and now digitization and data science, which I've been putting more emphasis on since my time in the Berkeley Global Access Program during the Fall 2023 semester. 

I always knew that I wanted to study abroad. I had taken a gap year in Australia and wanted to have an academic experience abroad, as well. It didn't take me long to find out about Berkeley and the prestigious name it has when it comes to engineering. I believe that a  good industrial engineer understands the management, engineering and data science aspects of the work. When looking through the Berkeley Engineering department’s courses, I realized that my home university doesn’t offer classes that incorporate data science. Berkeley is definitely a few years ahead in this type of coursework.

The opportunity to attend classes with American full-degree students, choosing freely across departments, was also exciting. I was also really drawn to California and particularly the Bay Area—it's quite advanced when it comes to technology and the surrounding nature.

When looking through the Berkeley Engineering department’s courses, I realized that my home university doesn’t offer classes that incorporate data science. Berkeley is definitely a few years ahead in this type of coursework.

Berkeley Courses Thrive on Interactivity

During my semester, I took the Business Administration Leadership With Impact (UGBA XB196) course because I liked the idea of experiencing a class that is quite interactive. When it comes to teaching about leadership, my home university teaches it through two or three books: We would have read about leadership and theoretically learned how to lead a team. I knew that the approach in the Berkeley class would be totally different.

During the first few weeks of that class, we focused on presenting and learning about ourselves—how to lead by putting our personality out there. Later on, we talked about coaching, interview skills and how to make a person feel welcome. So in the end, you learn about how to empower people by being themselves.

In addition to that course, I also took Introduction to Financial Engineering (INDENG XB221), International Environmental Economics (ECON XBC184), Engineering Project Management (CIVENG XB167). All four courses were transferable and fulfilled degree requirements at my home university.

What I really liked about all of my Berkeley classes was the more personal engagement and encouragement from my professors and GSIs than I had expected. They all provided up-to-date scenarios to exemplify the coursework and were extremely interactive. I liked how the courses were structured in that I had regular assignments, a midterm and a final exam; in contrast, my home university has a single final-exam approach.

What I really liked about all of my Berkeley classes was the more personal engagement and encouragement from my professors and GSIs than I had expected.

Taking Advantage of Campus Activities

UC Berkeley is a lively campus that hosts a robust club environment and numerous engagement opportunities. I had the opportunity to co-found the Germany Student Association at Berkeley, which was a pretty cool coincidence.

A friend of mine hit me up and asked whether I'd be down to join the team of founding members. Of course, I said, “Yes!” After I joined, we moved forward with a great chance of presenting this club at a conference with the German American Chamber of Commerce.

The other founding members are a full-time Berkeley-matriculated student and a former BGA student who moved back to the Bay Area to found a startup,

Even after coming home, I’m still active with the group and continue to advertise the opportunities that Berkeley and its diverse club environment has to offer for visiting students of all kinds.

Sightseeing

Even though I was studying for one semester, I actually purchased a car—a Honda CR-V—the second day after I landed!

It worked out perfectly. I took friends with me on several weekend trips. The car was big enough to fit five people and a surfboard, and it’s not too high in fuel consumption. It was a great way to see some of the smaller cities in the Bay Area. I easily sold it the day I left.

Some of my favorite excursions—with or without my car!— were:

• weekly surfing trips at various Pacific Coast locations such as Santa Cruz, Pacifica and Bolinas
• sailing in the San Francisco Bay with Cal Adventures
• joining a Thanksgiving gathering at Shaver Lake with 16 other international students
• enjoying sunsets in the Berkeley Hills
• exploring San Francisco's neighborhoods and parks
• participating in Taco Tuesdays with my international friends
• taking a trip to New Orleans with friends from France!

In general, AI technology is more highly talked about in the Bay Area than here in Germany, so I thought I could have a positive impact by talking about adapting production by using the potential of AI with my team.

Bringing Berkeley Education to Strategic Operations Management Internship

Before coming to Berkeley, I did a two-year working student job at DEUTZ AG, a leading manufacturer of innovative engine drive systems. It's quite common to combine studies with practical experience in the field of industrial engineering.

When I returned home from Berkeley, I wanted to dive more deeply into the work that I had done at DEUTZ, so I chose to do a practical semester there. It was a long-term internship—about five months—and it allowed me to extend my bachelor's from 180 credit points to 210 points.

The second thing that motivated me to do this internship was that I could immediately implement what I learned in Berkeley about operations research and how to enhance production by seeing the potential of AI. During my time at Berkeley, we always discussed AI.

In general, AI technology is more highly talked about in the Bay Area than here in Germany, so I thought I could have a positive impact by talking about adapting production by using the potential of AI with my team.

During my internship, I focused on three areas:

1. Transitioning focus to digitalization strategies and process optimization
2. Working in strategic operations to meet production goals through digitalization
3. Developing IT support for operations, focusing on advanced analytics and IT infrastructure needs

This topic is also what’s driving my bachelor thesis, which is focused on finding out about data needs in production when considering the use of advanced analytics—machine learning, artificial intelligence and other analytical tools that allow you to not only analyze what's there already, but to also predict something and go forward with the data. My thesis puts an emphasis on the first steps of this process: making use of this potential by finding out about the data in depth, effective methods of streaming these and IT architectural models such as data mesh, which support the whole process of data integration.

So as an example, productivity is a goal in production and you want to increase productivity. There are KPIs to think about and the data you need to calculate those KPIs. But instead of measuring them every month by hand, I want to find out about the data that we could extract from the machines and other IoT devices in the production and along the production line so that we can measure and calculate those KPIs automatically. And from there, what does the structure or the architecture look like when extracting this massive amount of data from the production line and how to use this data to find out even more than what those KPIs suggest?

When I look back at my time in Berkeley, I can’t place enough emphasis on how much I enjoyed this BGA experience! 

Thinking Forward Beyond My Thesis

My next step is applying to graduate school because I want to further shift my focus toward the data science aspect of industrial engineering. I’d like to go to the Technical University of Berlin, which has a particular focus on data science. I have a scholarship, which allows me to further dive into projects around startups or digitalization in this field.

When I look back at my time in Berkeley, I can’t place enough emphasis on how much I enjoyed this BGA experience! I could choose almost any course that I wanted to take. The interactions with the professors were fantastic—they actually made an effort to get to know you, even when you're there for one semester.

I encourage anyone starting BGA to engage early with your course professors to deepen your understanding of the topics and, most importantly, take full advantage of all of the opportunities given to you by this amazing university, its student-run clubs and, ultimately, its people!