The Hasso Plattner Institute (Hasso-Plattner-Institut für Digital Engineering gGmbH), abbreviated HPI, is a German information technology institute and faculty of the University of Potsdam located in Potsdam near Berlin. The teaching and research of HPI are focused on "IT-Systems Engineering". HPI was founded in 1998 and is the first, and as of 2018 the only entirely privately funded faculty in Germany. It is financed entirely through private funds donated by billionaire Hasso Plattner, who co-founded the software company SAP SE, and is currently the chairman of SAP's supervisory board.
HPI offers the innovation-oriented and practically based studies in "IT-Systems Engineering" with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree and master degrees in Digital Health, Data Engineering and Cybersecurity. In addition, HPI offers a supplemental study program in the innovation method of Design Thinking. The HPI is a world-class educational provider. The institute already offers an optimal study and work environment and cooperates very closely with the business community.
Since 2012, under the research project “openHPI”, HPI offers free interactive online courses about different topics in information technology. ”openHPI” is an Internet educational platform for offering massive open online courses (MOOCs), which is embedded in a global social network. Participants can become familiar with basic topics of computer science, and IT systems engineering as well as with advanced current research topics in IT. They also have the ability to discuss issues and to develop solutions in a virtual community with participants from around the globe.