At the beginning of January, around 35 students took part in this year’s ski seminar at a mountain hut in the Kleinwalsertal (Austria). The ski seminar was held in cooperation with the University of Koblenz and was organized by Prof. Patrick Delfmann (University of Koblenz), with support from Prof. Dennis Riehle (University of Koblenz) and Janis Elmer from the Department of Information Systems (University of Münster).

Four seminars from Münster participated: “Flow Factory: Processes & AI” as both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s seminar, “Digital Enablers of the Circular Economy”, and “Ski Seminar on Vision Transformer”.

As part of the Bachelor’s seminar “Flow Factory: Processes & AI”, led by Prof. Jan vom Brocke, Janis Elmer, Sandro Franzoi, and Tobias Zimmermann, students explored the use of artificial intelligence for analyzing, controlling, and optimizing business processes. After an introduction to the fundamentals of scientific research methods, they worked in small groups on current research projects at the Flow Factory. The aim was to gain new insights at the intersection of processes and AI and to prepare these findings scientifically.

In the seminar “Digital Enablers of the Circular Economy”, Master’s students investigated how information systems can support the transition toward a circular economy under the supervision of Dr. Michael Koddebusch, Celine Poppe, and David Stanlein. They developed research questions on topics such as Green IT/IS, digital platforms, and circular product design and completed a full academic conference cycle – from preparing a research paper and receiving peer reviews to presenting and revising their work. In doing so, they deepened both their subject-matter knowledge of the circular economy and their academic research and writing skills.

In the Master’s seminar “Vision Transformer”, led by Jan Pauls and Dr. Karsten Schrödter, students deepened their understanding of transformer architectures and examined current vision transformer models for semantic segmentation. They implemented the models using PyTorch and discussed different architectures as well as their current applications in computer vision, gaining insights into modern research trends and application areas of vision transformers.

In the Master’s seminar “Flow Factory: Processes & AI”, led by Prof. Jan vom Brocke, Janis Elmer, Sandro Franzoi, and Tobias Zimmermann, students examined the use of artificial intelligence in business process management. After learning advanced research methods, they investigated how human–AI collaboration can improve process efficiency, how predictive analytics can anticipate bottlenecks, and which ethical and practical challenges arise when implementing AI in complex process landscapes.

In addition to engaging final presentations, the seminar also offered ample opportunities for sporting activities: under excellent weather conditions, participants enjoyed skiing together and exchanging ideas in an alpine setting.