Who are you and what are you doing? Who are your partners?
My name is Patrick Lübbecke and I work at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence in Saarbrücken. I do research in the field of Green Business Process Management and other sustainability topics.
My industrial partner is Software AG.
What do you expect from the Software Campus?
I hope to gain new experiences during my time at the Software Campus and to realize my project idea together with other people. I am especially looking forward to the practical workshops with the industry partners. I also hope that after the program there will still be some contact to other participants.
What is the content of your IT project and how could it be used in the future?
My project is about recognizing patterns in the way people use information systems and in the way that they are designed, which indicate low or high resource consumption in the execution of processes. If enough similar patterns have been identified, you can replace the high resource consumption patterns in business processes with lower consumption patterns. In the long run, this saves energy and other raw materials. A simple example of this is the use of a web browser. For example, in many scenarios Internet Explorer, causes up to a third less energy consumption than Firefox. With a single computer, that doesn’t matter much. But if you look at the total number of computers and mobile devices, there is an enormous savings potential.
The patterns can be used, for example, to model business processes in the “ARIS” software from the industry partner Software AG. While a process designer defines a process, the software checks whether an ecological process rule has been violated at any point and suggests better alternatives to make the process more ecological.
Have you been especially impressed with a particular personality from computer science or management?
I admire managers who make it from the bottom to the top through hard work and who still remain true to values such as humanity and responsibility. There are some in IT. Outside IT, it is especially Trigema CEO Wolfgang Grupp who I admire.
Do you think there is “the one” quality that a top executive must have today in order to be successful?
It all depends on how you define success. If you make success dependent on achieving financial goals, then a little elbow mentality certainly doesn’t hurt. But if you follow a sustainable business model in which long-term thinking counts and in which people also play a role, then sensitivity and empathy are also very important in my opinion.
Imagine this: Internet breakdown for 1 month – what do you do?
Since my work depends very much on the Internet, I would simply take four weeks off and travel. Preferably to Australia, Canada or the USA – that’s where I always wanted to go!
What’s your passion – besides your job and Software Campus?
When I spend the whole day thinking, then my body needs some exercise to compensate. That’ s why I like to do sports, e.g. in the gym or playing soccer. I also like to do manual work, which also creates a balance. Otherwise I meet friends, and cinema and culture are on the agenda – the usual.
