Co-working with God: In the former nave of the Digitalchurch in Aachen, students are now working on their startup ideas. digital hub
In the workshop, the first students in cargo pants are already 12 years old. They carry metal rods and wooden panels through the 1,200 square meter hall and brood over their calculations for prototypes – the machines rattle in the background. The Collective Incubator start-up center of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH) has been set up on the former factory premises of an electrical engineering company since September 2021 with co-working spaces, its own recording studio and workshop. Aron Heibges is head of the “Maker Space”, as the people of Aachen proudly say. If you want to implement a project, you have to get past him. “Some startups own machines themselves and know their way around better,” says Heibges. He will give an introduction to those who want to try it out first.
With good reason: “If you program a coordinate incorrectly here, the machine can destroy itself,” explains Heibges, pointing to a cycle lathe that can be used to manufacture metal parts. However, one hour of instruction should be enough to be able to produce simple brackets and frames. The students will find a basic stock of building materials on site. Walking through the workshop, Heibges passes a row of 3D printers – some of them are special for metals, another, “Delta”, can run overnight. His favorite item: a water jet cutter that can cut through metal 10 centimeters thick. In the rear part of the hall is a solar-powered racing car made of ultra-light carbon fiber, on which around 80 RWTH students were involved. In Aachen, the students are already thinking about what can come after electromobility.
RWTH produces the most founders in Germany
In general, the desire for innovations and founding a company seems to drive many here: In 2022, the Deutsche Startup Monitor RWTH once again took first place among the top 10 start-up universities, followed by TU Munich and WHU in second and third place. According to this, around 6.4 percent of the more than 4,800 founders surveyed have completed their studies at the Aachen University of Technology. A total of 242 spin-offs have emerged from RWTH since 2019. In the current winter semester, the university has over 47,000 students in a total of 170 courses – half of them are studying for a bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering.