Dear learning community,
Summer brings new insights into the openHPI change process: this time, things are getting more technical again. You’ll also find out more about the Digitalkolleg for school students interested in IT and an exciting HPI research project where AI meets bioinformatics.
openHPI Insights
Whilst the last newsletter focused more on content, this edition takes a more technical turn: in today's Insights, we’d like to introduce you to Christoph. He is a software engineer at HPI, responsible for the technical management of the redesign project and works on the further development and maintenance of the openHPI front end, as well as the full-stack implementation of new features. By the way, he joined HPI himself through an openHPI course.
You know the old openHPI system very well and have been involved with the platform for a long time. Was there a moment during the redesign when your experience with openHPI proved particularly helpful?
“When you’ve been involved with a platform for several years, you eventually come to know not only the code but also many technical details and edge cases. This knowledge proved helpful in many areas during the redesign, such as in further development, to ensure new features could be integrated smoothly into the rest of the platform. At the same time, we constantly have to assess which technical solutions that have evolved over time still make sense today.”
What challenges arise on the front end when a legacy platform is modernized without users experiencing any disruption to their day-to-day use?
“The front end is an area of software development that has evolved particularly rapidly over recent years. As such, we have replaced old frameworks with new ones. In doing so, we select technologies that are easier to maintain in the long term and meet today’s requirements for reliability and security. We’re also placing even greater emphasis on component-based development and using modern build tools.
The point is: modernization like this doesn’t happen overnight; old and new technologies must function in parallel over an extended period. Our users should, as far as possible, be unaware of the technical overhaul whilst parts are gradually being replaced in the background.”
What are you most looking forward to with the new platform?
“We’re currently laying a better technical foundation for the future of openHPI. The overhaul will enable us to respond more quickly and effectively to our users’ needs with new features in the future. What I’m most looking forward to, however, are the new video formats and the more interactive course content. I take courses on openHPI myself from time to time, so as a user I’m also excited about the new possibilities.”
Events
Shaping the Digital Future
Is the IT you’re taught at school not enough for you, and do you want to delve deeper into computer science topics? Then the Digitalkolleg is just the thing for you. In study groups, you’ll explore topics such as Python, web-design, game-design and AI. Applications are open until 15th September.
- Location: Digital
- School level: From Year 7 onwards
- Scope: a total of 10 learning units, each 90 minutes long
- When: in the afternoons after school
- Duration: 5 months
- Cost: free
Apply here: https://hpi.de/studium/hpi-schuelerakademie/digitalkolleg/
Recommendation
HPI research solves a well-known problem in bioinformatics
How reliable are AI agents at retrieving biological data when the databases themselves were not designed for AI? This is precisely the question that HPI PhD student Ferdous Nasri is investigating in her research. Together with her team, she has developed a solution to a well-known problem in bioinformatics that is attracting global attention. Find out more in the article.
Click here for the article: https://hpi.de/en/article/ferdous-nasri-solves-a-well-known-problem-in-bioinformatics/
We look forward to seeing you!
Your openHPI team