Utilising opportunities and overcoming limitations
Prof Xiang Liu has been Professor of Mobile Communication at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at TH Wildau since 2022. He told the Career Centre for Professorial Development about his international stations on the way to becoming a professor at TH Wildau and about his passion for applied technologies and research.
My path to a professorship at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau was...
... full of exciting adventures that led me to explore the world and discover myself. At the age of 19, I left my hometown to study at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. There I obtained two Bachelor's degrees and a Master's degree. Then I went to England and did a PhD in electronics and electrical engineering at the University of Southampton. After completing my PhD, I started a career that took me through various companies, including BlackBerry, TomTom, HERE Technologies and two small start-ups.
After more than 15 years in the telecoms and digital mapping industry, I gradually came to the realisation that my true passions and skills lie in applied technologies and research. This realisation led me to join the Department of Telematics at TH Wildau in 2022.
In my professorship, I am shaping ...
... courses in which theory is always accompanied by many practical exercises. My students learn the latest technologies in telecommunications and computer science not only in lectures, but also through programming, simulation and hardware development in a real product environment. For example, the students in my Cloud Computing course build a docker image, create a GitLab CI/CD pipeline and deploy an Amazon S3 bucket using Amazon Management Console, AWS CloudFormation and AWS CDK. We work independently, but also together as a team, just like in a real company.
Working as a professor at a Technical University of Applied Sciences is unique because...
»Working as a professor at a Technical University of Applied Sciences ist unique because you are only limited by your imagination.«
... you are only limited by your imagination. You can have stimulating discussions with young scientists about the latest technologies. You can collaborate in research with colleagues at the university and around the world. You can also turn your technology or business idea into a start-up. There are simply unlimited opportunities to have an impact on society, people and the world.
In Wildau and at the university, I particularly like...
... the professional and supportive cooperation of all colleagues. There are also many opportunities for personal development, e.g. the Language Centre, the co-working space Opp:Lab, the makerspace ViNN:Lab and the Tech:Lab.
When I'm not at the university, you can find me...
... at a scientific conference or at a meeting with other researchers.
