The first Spring School for doctoral students within the WG5.7 community took place on March 22nd-23rd at BIBA in Bremen, Germany. Alumni of the IFIP WG5.7 Associates working now in industry, consulting and academia will join the event, and give talks on aspects of PhD life and share their experiences from the transition period between PhD and the next career steps.
The Spring School offered the possibility of combining topical learning and social networking in one event. During the two days, the participants achieved hands-on experience on decision-making in supply chain, reengineering and operations management. The first day of the Spring School was organized as a workshop where the participants played completely “Lego racer game” and also they played some parts of “SECONDS” and “Logistic” SGs, which are used for educational purposes. The second day of the workshop provided opportunities for networking and community strengthening, along interesting social activities, i.e. visiting Becks Company which is one of the biggest beer productions. The Spring School ended with a discussion on the future of the associates group and an outlook to the forthcoming event during the APMS 2013 Conference at The Pennsylvania State University, http://www.apms-conference.org/.