Prof. Dr. Michael Bühren

For every digital transformation to succeed, skills and capabilities are fundamental to execution. This includes not just experts in topics like AI, Cloud, Data Analytics – but also a huge number of “Translator” roles: people who are able to build the bridges between different functions and innovative digital solutions. Yet, often you won’t find all these people on the hiring market, but need to build them internally.

In this panel discussion, we will discuss the pressing topics for teams and entire companies in the context of these upskilling projects, including (but not limited to):

• How to build an end-to-end digital skills strategy
• How to tailor the skill-building offerings to the different learning goals, different prior knowledge, and different learning styles of individual employees
• How to engage people with a combination of blended self-learning and collaborative learning journeys

Prof. Michael Bühren is 52 years old and married with two children. Since April 2016, he has been the spokesman for the Mechatronics Institute Bocholt (MIB) in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Bocholt Campus (Control Engineering and Electrical Drive Systems). His research interests are robotics, artificial intelligence and automation. After obtaining his engineering diploma from RWTH Aachen University in 1996, he undertook a doctoral programme at the same university from 1997 to 2002. From 2002 to 2016, he gained industrial experience in international plant construction at SMS Group GmbH, a company operating in the field of electrical engineering and automation.