9 July 2025

On 3 and 4 July 2025, the campus of Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences was once again dominated by artificial intelligence: hike - University Incubator Nordhausen - organised a two-day AI bootcamp at advanced level and was able to attract the renowned speaker and serial entrepreneur Philipp Zacher.

This was the fourth time that a boot camp on the topic of artificial intelligence was held at the university. While the previous formats were primarily aimed at beginners, a programme for advanced students has now been developed for the first time - with the appropriate level of ambition, pace and depth of content.

The new format focussed on real business cases, smart tools and AI agents in practical use. Philipp Zacher brought along real start-up projects for the groups to work on directly - turning grey theory into colourful practice. The participants developed visions together and clarified key questions: Who are our users? What do they really need? Which solutions have real added value?

Small groups then created well-founded personas including empathy maps. Building on this, the groups developed customised value propositions. With the help of tools such as Lovable and Wegic, clickable websites were created within a very short time, filled with content and published across all channels - from short texts to visual elements and chatbots.

At the same time, the participants learnt how AI-supported automation can be designed efficiently. With the help of Make, ManyChat and n8n, workflows were set up that save time, promote creativity and minimise routine processes.

In addition, the focus was on the following skills and content:

• Development of landing pages with Wegic
• Development of marketing funnels and allocation of specific marketing activities
• Expansion of prompting competences (especially with custom GPTs)
• Introduction and application of various generative AI tools (including Notion, Wegic, Make, n8n, Lovable, ManyChat)
• Identification and implementation of automation flows
• Design and implementation of AI agents with n8n

Many of these tools have only recently become available - or were experienced by the participants for the first time in an application context. For this very reason, a key learning objective was to develop a critical understanding of which of the rapidly growing possibilities in the field of AI are actually relevant and can be used sustainably.

"The standard was extremely high - and that's what makes it so appealing," said one participant. "When you have the feeling after two days that your own brain is a hard drive full to the brim, then you know that you've learnt a lot."

Philipp Zacher was also impressed: "I'm impressed by the speed with which the participants got to grips with new tools and methods. Not only were concepts developed here in a very short space of time, but the first prototypes were also implemented directly. This is exactly how sustainable learning works."

With this bootcamp, the hike has once again offered a format that is not only up-to-date and practical, but also strategically forward-looking. By combining in-depth knowledge, tried-and-tested application and a critically reflective selection of tools, the event makes an important contribution to the further development of digital skills at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences.

A big thank you to Philipp Zacher for his highly committed input and to the hike team for their professional organisation, collegial support and feel for future-relevant topics. The next formats are already being planned.