Early-Career Faculty Program Leads to Success via an Unconventional Career Path

For Andreas Jilg, a native of Haslach, his professional career was anything but a foregone conclusion. “I don’t come from a family of college graduates, and I never would have thought back then that I’d be able to complete a degree,” he says. So the now 38-year-old first graduated from high school with a Mittlere Reife and completed an apprenticeship as an industrial mechanic at Neumayer Tekfor in Hausach. He then attended a vocational college in Wolfach to earn his university entrance qualification, graduating with a final grade of 1.2 and receiving a school award.

What followed, in short, was a bachelor's and master's degree in Maschinenbau with top grades at Hochschule Offenburg, while simultaneously working at various regional and international companies and institutions. After completing his master's degree, Andreas Jilg worked for three and a half years as a research assistant at Hochschule Offenburg and, during that time, earned his Ph.D. magna cum laude from Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. He then spent a good four years as a software model engineer at Robert Bosch GmbH in Bühl. Even during this time, however, he remained loyal to Hochschule Offenburg through part-time employment.

In March 2023, Andreas Jilg finally joined the HaW-PROAKtif Early-Career Professorship Program. In this program, the University and its partner companies or research institutions guide selected early-career researchers over a three-year period to gain sufficient experience in professional practice and independent university teaching, so that they are subsequently eligible for appointment to a HAW professorship. During this time, Andreas Jilg worked as a junior professor of digital process technology at Hochschule Offenburg and as a research associate at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials in Freiburg.

Now, the father of two has achieved his goal: He was appointed to the professorship in Digital Process Technology and Product Sustainability at Hochschule Offenburg, effective March 1. Through his teaching, he aims to prepare students for the current demands of industry and empower them to develop innovative solutions in the fields of digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI), and sustainability. At the same time, he will continue his research on the evaluation and optimization of products and processes by combining technical, ecological, and economic criteria. And last but not least, the avid mountain biker and skateboarder hopes that his rather unusual career path will encourage others to pursue an academic career—even if it seems out of reach at first.