German and Singaporean Students Test Their Wireless Know-how in Rohde & Schwarz's Case Study Competition

(Business News & Technology News, 28 Jul 2008)

Rohde & Schwarz celebrated the fifth anniversary of its case study competition with an international twist. For the first time, six teams from Singapore joined around 200 students from Germany for the preliminary rounds. The young finalists put their knowledge to the test in the final round which took place at the end of June. Inspired by the slogan "Go wireless! Testing for future communi-cations standards", the focus was on developing intelligent T&M solutions for the rapidly growing communications sector.

Of the 15 competing teams from renowned technical universities in Germany—and two universities in Singapore, the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Techno-logical University—the top teams qualified for the final round in Munich, where the atmosphere remained charged.



One of the Singapore teams participating in the competition


The finalists had to tackle a practical exercise from an engineer's everyday work.

The challenge was also taken from real life: everywhere in the world, the demand for communications using a wide variety of channels is rising relentlessly. As a result, the wireless industry must serve more and more end users sending larger data volumes at higher data transmission rates. The participants in the case study competition were given the task of designing a suitable solution in this context.

The students presented their results to a jury of representatives from Rohde & Schwarz and university professors. In addition to technical knowledge, they were judged on soft skills such as presentation methods, moderation skills, and the ability to work as a team. However, the standards for soft skills are not comparable in different countries—"which makes it an interesting challenge to fairly assess teams with an international background," says Carolin Michalski, head of Rohde & Schwarz Human Resources Marketing. The winner of the 2008 competition in Munich was the team from the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg.



Rohde & Schwarz CEO & President Michael Vohrer conducting his presentation


One reason Rohde & Schwarz extended the competition to the international level was to boost its presence in the Asian market. The company has its own service and sales offices in more than 70 countries, and this network is complemented by development centers around the world. The latest addition was the opening of regional headquarters and an R&D center in Singapore in April 2008. "The case study competition is just one of the elements of our overall strategy, which is to be close to the major markets and trends," explains Dr. Hubert Amend, Head of the Human Resources Division. "And of course, we also want to recruit creative talent, regardless of whether we find it in Germany, Asia or the USA."

Against this background, more international Rohde & Schwarz locations may be in-cluded in the case study competition in the coming years. The odds for this are good, since the competition already enjoys growing popularity in Germany every year. One of the likely reasons for this is the company's outstanding reputation. In 2008, Rohde & Schwarz was rated among the best employers in Germany for the fifth time in a row.

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