Women in Tech: how Audi women are shaping the future
The speakers at the ITCS 2024
Sevgi Akkanat, Solution IT Architect - Technical Infrastructure
What have been the key moments in your career so far?
There are two key moments. The first was the scholarship I received from Audi after my apprenticeship, along with a promise of re-employment. This enabled me to work at the company during my studies, keep in touch, and network.
The second key moment: at the time, I was continuing my private training in IT security alongside my job in the development department. My knowledge from further training and my job then fitted in perfectly with the newly created position of Solution IT Architect. As no one had ever done the job before, it was like jumping in at the deep end, but it also allowed me to shape my own work. During this initial period, I learned a lot about myself as well as about the profession of Solution IT Architect. But I still haven't finished learning: continuous learning is essential in my job to always be up to date.
What does your day-to-day work at Audi look like today? What are your tasks?
As an Solution IT Architect, I ensure that the solutions we develop satisfy our internal customers and guarantee IT security. We focus on special non-standard infrastructures. This applies, for example, to the test bench systems in the Group's development department, which check vehicles' properties.
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A passion for your profession naturally creates the desire to be the best in your field.“
These systems are integrated into a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), which ensures the secure transmission and storage of generated data. An architecture diagram is created for this VLAN environment before and after the changeover. The changeover to the VLAN is carried out using a proof of concept, i.e., with a test bench. This tests whether all connections work according to the desired target architecture. If the test phase is successful, the test bench systems are gradually integrated into the VLAN. Any problems are discussed and resolved.
What advice would you like to give women who want to be successful in technical jobs?
Passion drives you! A passion for your profession naturally creates the desire to be the best in your field. You automatically want to know more and learn more. This characteristic has helped me to achieve top performance and to come out of my shell. Challenges are there for you to accept and grow from.
Please listen to yourself and not to what others say. If you set yourself a goal and pursue it with passion, you will achieve it.
Larissa Berk, Specialist in digitalization in the Production and Logistics division
What have been the key moments in your career so far?
One key moment was that I completed my training as a warehouse logistics specialist as the best trainee in Germany. This showed me once again that I had chosen the right career path. During my training, I gained valuable insights into the operational business and developed an understanding of a company's concerns. Also, it was always important to me to play an active role in shaping things and contribute my opinions. I was able to do this through my role as a youth and trainee representative at the Neckarsulm site.
The employee scholarship filled me with pride, and, at the same time, I felt that Audi had great confidence in me. Logistics was my favorite subject and is still close to my heart. However, during my studies (business administration and corporate management), I wanted to learn about other areas and came to digitalization through my bachelor's thesis. After graduating, I took the plunge into this area - another key moment. I was immediately fascinated by the focus on the future, the speed, and the people in the field.
After two years of experience as an application manager, I now have the opportunity to prove myself in my technical assistant position. I really appreciate being trusted with so much and it shows me once again that it's worth taking on challenges and trying new things.
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Believe in yourselves, and don't give up even if there are headwinds!“
What does your day-to-day work at Audi look like today? What are your tasks?
I find my day-to-day work exciting and varied. In addition to my position as a specialist consultant, I am also responsible for strategy and HR management. I am also the project manager for KPI digitalization, which we use to make digitalization in production and logistics measurable and thus demonstrate progress.
We bundle all digitalization activities in our division, thus ensuring our strategic orientation. With around 200 employees at the Neckarsulm and Ingolstadt sites, we are shaping the production of the future at Audi: we are driving innovation in data-driven production, empowering people, creating a framework for strategic action and jointly reducing the growing system complexity.
We are also making it possible to establish digital technologies such as artificial intelligence in the production of the future to make our plants and processes even more efficient.
What advice would you like to give women who want to be successful in technical jobs?
Believe in yourselves, and don't give up even if there are headwinds! I believe that we should accept challenges and use them as opportunities. I think the motto "Work hard and dream big" is pretty apt, but it also means that you shouldn't always choose the easiest path.
I also think it's essential to focus on your strengths and build on them. The most important thing is to remain yourself!
The speakers at the ITCS 2023
Anna Vogt, Data Governance Production/Logistics
What do you regard as the key moments in your career?
Choosing what I would study at university was an important moment for me. I went with mechanical engineering because I had the opportunity to participate in an extracurricular robotics class while I was in secondary school. Later, I got familiar with MAN and the Volkswagen Group while I was at university, and after that, I started as a trainee at Audi. Looking back, I’m really happy with that decision.
What is your typical workday at Audi? What sort of work do you do?
Since I've been at Audi, I’ve increasingly focused on data and production IT. These days, my colleagues and I at the P Data Factory make sure that valuable data is available where it is needed in Audi production. Data needs to be tended to just as much as machines or facilities. Well-kept data are a prerequisite for using artificial intelligence, for instance.
We’re also developing use cases for AI and data analytics, which we use to support inter-departmental teams in Audi production. Everyone is talking about AI language models because of ChatGPT right now, and we want to implement a similar use case in Audi production in the future. That would allow people who work in maintenance to communicate with a maintenance bot. The bot would then be able to offer tips and advice to support the teams while they’re servicing machines and facilities.
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So my advice, particularly for young women, would be to just try out subjects that they may not have heard about through other women they know.”
What would you like to say to women who want to succeed in technical jobs?
If I hadn’t been involved with the robotics class in school, it may not have occurred to me to go into a STEM field. So my advice, particularly for young women, would be to just try out subjects that they may not have heard about through other women they know. That particularly goes for science and tech jobs, which are still mostly taken by men, although there are increasing numbers of women too. That will greatly expand the solution space for your own career and offer you great opportunities for development.
Daniela Buch, Data Analytics Production/Logistics
What do you regard as the key moments in your career?
After school, I started working as a consultant in the auto industry. During my first job I learned what it was like when you land in cold water and must swim. I had to put an automated small-parts storage system into operation, and everyone else kept telling me: “You can’t do this without experience or prior knowledge.” But I did do it. That was a real turning point for me, because I made a decision that I would always learn to swim. I took that with me into the future: I can do anything, no matter how cold the water is.
What is your typical workday at Audi? What sort of work do you do?
These days I work in Data Driven Production in the Data Analytics department. Our vision is to establish AI as a game changer for the future of production so that we can use data products to design Audi plants and processes more efficiently. My colleagues and I actively implement analytics and AI use cases. Predictive maintenance is one example of that. We continuously monitor the condition of our machines and facilities to avoid unplanned downtime and predict ideal times to do maintenance.
I’m convinced that data analytics and AI are crucial for Audi’s transformation and the path to data driven production. To some extent, we can even use it to revolutionize production. But that requires a strategic plan, which our AI program manager and I are working on in the form of the AI program for P. We’re planning strategic analytics and AI activity areas and drafting corresponding road maps for using AI in Audi Production efficiently and on a long-term basis.
“Show people what you’re doing, what you’ve done, and be proud of it.”
What would you like to say to women who want to succeed in technical jobs?
Come what may, it’s important for women to hold their ground. The question should be: “What am I passionate about? What am I interested in?” You have to stay with those fields and trust yourself to be able to evolve and keep learning over your entire life – especially in technical professions. Along the way, you can also focus on self-promotion and soft skills: show people what you’re doing, what you’ve done, and be proud of it.
Kirsten Wellkamp, Data Development Lead
What do you regard as the key moments in your career?
Deciding to go into IT was a really important step in my career. I was originally an industrial engineer with a focus on mechanical engineering. After a year as a trainee at Audi, I switched to become an IT newcomer. I found a great team that supported me in that transition. A year and a half ago, I made the decision to specialize further and deepen my IT expertise. That’s why I switched departments again, this time within IT, to Data Analytics.
What is your typical workday at Audi? What sort of work do you do?
I’m the Data Development Lead, which means that I’m responsible for a data analysis development team as well as for various IT products, including dashboards, reports, and analyses for various Audi departments. That makes the job very multifaceted. We see to it that products work properly and assess how we can improve them or create new products.
One demonstrative example of that is an analysis of battery data in electric cars during and after the production process. The information from the production process is linked to and augments data and information from the battery itself in the field. We can analyze those linked data with our software. Quality Assurance is working with Technical Development to use what we’ve learned from that to make further improvements to the next generation of batteries.
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Experiment and test your limits. You have a lot of opportunities!”
What would you like to say to women who want to succeed in technical jobs?
We women tend to overthink things. So I think it’s important in a professional context to just try things out and see what talents and interests lay dormant within yourself. When I was in school, I never would have thought that I’d ever end up in IT and be so happy here. Experiment and test your limits. You have a lot of opportunities!
Lea Schwarz, Head of Features Development/Driving and Energy Functions
What do you regard as the key moments in your career?
I've always been fascinated by cars, particularly in motorsport. When I was a kid, my father used to take me to a lot of DTM races at the Hockenheimring and he explained the technology to me. That’s where my enthusiasm for motorsport started. I wanted to develop racing cars myself, so I eventually opted to study mechanical engineering. I was on the Formula Student team when I was in college. That’s where I learned to take responsibility and developed much faster than I would have in normal everyday college life. Another key moment for me was when I wrote my dissertation on sustainability in motorsport.
What is your typical workday at Audi? What sort of work do you do?
My team is made up of 16 people at various locations. As the manager, I set the parameters so that my team can function at its best. We work on functional safety and define the way that customer functions operate while driving as well as energy for upcoming Audi models. For instance, that means that we deal with questions of when and under what circumstances the automatic start-stop system should turn the engine on or off and what information that function needs to make that decision.
We support and take responsibility for the development process as well as the entire functional chain and ensure that the function ultimately demonstrates exactly the customer behavior we have defined.
“When you're passionate about something, you can study any subject or pursue any job!”
What would you like to say to women who want to succeed in technical jobs?
I think it's very important to find what you’re passionate about and blaze your own trail at work. So my first piece of advice is: when you decide to do something, it should be the opportunity or the challenge that really fits. You’ll always make your best contribution when you work on something with a lot of enthusiasm and conviction. My second piece of advice would be not to let setbacks discourage you. When you're passionate about something, you can study any subject or pursue any job!
