Driving value with better soft­ware and tech­no­lo­gi­cal in­no­va­tions

“With our funding, we are making it pos­si­ble for German uni­ver­si­ties to appoint two young aca­de­mics with an in­ter­na­tio­nal track record, streng­t­he­ning Germany’s stan­ding as a science and re­se­arch hub in fields that are im­portant for the future,” says Marion Müller, a member of Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft’s Ma­nage­ment Board. 

Crea­ting value through tech­no­lo­gi­cal in­no­va­ti­on

David Finken will be taking up the new Tenure Track Pro­fes­sor­ship for Mar­ke­ting & Tech­no­lo­gy at TUM in De­cem­ber 2025. The po­si­ti­on is in­ter­di­sci­pli­na­ry in nature, com­bi­ning in­sights from social psy­cho­lo­gy and or­ga­ni­za­tio­nal science with prac­ti­cal ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons. The aim is to offer con­cre­te re­com­men­ded courses of action to de­cisi­on-makers and to show them how they can le­verage in­no­va­tions with im­mer­si­ve tech­no­lo­gies and AI. David Finken’s aca­de­mic career in­clu­des po­si­ti­ons at pres­ti­gious in­sti­tu­ti­ons in the United States, South Korea, Switz­er­land, and France. In ad­di­ti­on, he brings ex­ten­si­ve in­dus­try ex­pe­ri­ence and par­ti­ci­pa­tes in pro­jec­ts that promote know­ledge trans­fer between aca­de­mia, busi­ness, and society. Finken has re­cei­ved mul­ti­ple awards from re­now­ned in­sti­tu­ti­ons for his dis­ser­ta­ti­on and sub­se­quent re­se­arch work.

“The trans­for­ma­ti­on driven by digital tech­no­lo­gies will leave no sector of the economy un­touched," says Chris­toph Kaserer, Dean of the TUM School of Ma­nage­ment. “To be able to shape this change ef­fec­tively, we must un­der­stand not only the tech­no­lo­gies but also how people behave around them. Through its funding, Wübben Stif­tung Wis­sen­schaft enables uni­ver­si­ties to attract the best sci­en­tists for this re­se­arch and plays a major role in the success of digital trans­for­ma­ti­on. We are gra­te­ful to the WSW for placing such a high level of trust in our uni­ver­si­ty.”

De­ve­lo­ping soft­ware with and for people

Pooja Rani designs tools and methods to improve the quality and ef­fi­ci­en­cy of soft­ware source code, with a focus on energy per­for­mance and main­tai­na­bi­li­ty. Her re­se­arch is highly re­le­vant for fields such as health­ca­re, sci­en­ti­fic com­pu­ting, and cyber-phy­si­cal systems like driver as­si­s­tan­ce tech­no­lo­gies. She com­bi­nes soft­ware en­gi­nee­ring tech­ni­ques with ar­ti­fi­ci­al in­tel­li­gence (AI) and natural lan­guage pro­ces­sing (NLP) to au­to­ma­te complex soft­ware de­ve­lop­ment tasks such as writing, eva­lua­ting, and main­tai­ning soft­ware systems more ef­fi­ci­ent­ly. Her goal is to develop AI models and as­si­stant systems that reduce de­ve­lo­per­s' workload and improve soft­ware re­lia­bi­li­ty. 

Beyond au­to­ma­ti­on, she also in­ves­ti­ga­tes the human side of soft­ware de­ve­lop­ment. She studies how social, tech­ni­cal, co­gni­ti­ve, and or­ga­ni­za­tio­nal factors shape de­ve­lo­pers’ thin­king and be­ha­vi­or and, con­se­quent­ly, how soft­ware is created and main­tai­ned. To achieve this, she uses em­pi­ri­cal methods, such as surveys, in­ter­views, eye-tracking, and facial re­co­gni­ti­on tools to un­der­stand co­gni­ti­ve load and team dy­na­mics. Her re­se­arch pro­mo­tes data-driven, human-centred prac­tices that help diverse teams build high-quality, sustainab­le soft­ware.

Pooja Rani com­bi­nes a strong sci­en­ti­fic pu­bli­ca­ti­on record with ex­ten­si­ve in­dus­try ex­pe­ri­ence. She will move from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mann­heim and take up the Pro­fes­sor­ship of Com­pu­ter Science there on April 1, 2026. “We are de­light­ed to have been able to appoint Pooja Rani, a high-profile aca­de­mic who com­bi­nes tech­ni­cal ex­cel­lence with so­cie­tal re­le­van­ce,” says Claus Hertling, Dean of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mann­heim’s School of Busi­ness In­for­ma­tics and Ma­the­ma­tics.