Why an Electricity Retailer Is Founding the Leipzig Computer Science Circle
At Optimax Energy, we trade electricity—and we do it with passion. We tinker with new strategies, monitor the market, and are constantly expanding our portfolio. When people ask us what we actually are, we still answer: a tech company. In this post, we’ll explain why that’s the case and what it has to do with students in Leipzig and Halle.
What Has Made Us Strong
Our trading operations succeed because we’re independent of external service providers and develop our own software. This ranges from data processing to the tools our traders, analysts, and finance department use every day.
We owe our current success to colleagues who began automating processes early on. This made our processes better, faster, and more secure; we were able to scale them and thus stay one step ahead of the market time and again. Most of these colleagues are computer scientists and mathematicians. They see where things can be improved. They break problems down until they understand how they work, and they enjoy trying out new things.
These are precisely the qualities we want to foster and encourage in young people—as early as possible.
Why we start as early as school
The education system often lacks funding and staff. Classes are canceled or taught by teachers who have never studied the subject themselves. This has particular consequences in computer science: Students who have little exposure to the subject in school often never discover their passion for it in the first place. Universities are now taking notice of this as well. We hear from computer science professors in Leipzig that significantly fewer young people are applying to study computer science.
Some media reports are currently giving the impression that computer scientists will soon be largely unnecessary because machines will take over programming. We see it differently. Even if AI writes part of the code, we still need people who can think through problems in a structured way, understand systems, and assess whether a solution is truly viable. These skills are becoming more important, not less so.
The idea: a computer science club modeled after the LSGM
The Leipzig Student Society for Mathematics (LSGM) has been running math clubs for gifted students for many years. There, students meet regularly outside of class, work together to solve challenging problems that go beyond the school curriculum, and delve deeper into their subject. Until now, there has been virtually no comparable program for computer science in Leipzig. We wanted to fill this gap, so we launched our computer science club in 2025.
In the biweekly clubs, students work on specific projects based on their prior knowledge. They practice software development, explore IT security, or program robots. The courses are led by tutors who are themselves studying computer science or computer science education. They are close in age to the students and know from their own experience how to spark enthusiasm for the subject.
Where We Stand Today
Today, we fund computer science clubs as full-day programs at schools, including the Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium in Leipzig and the Cantor-Gymnasium in Halle. Each course has 10 to 20 high-achieving students. In addition, 5 to 10 high school students from all over Leipzig meet regularly at our office for their own club.
To ensure high quality, we work closely with HTWK Leipzig and Prof. Both. Next on the agenda is a field trip to HTWK so the students can get a taste of college life.
More Than Just Computer Science: Our Partnership with the Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium
We are particularly pleased about our collaboration with the Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium. We are in close contact with Friederike Trommler to discuss how we can support the students there in various ways. In addition to two computer science clubs, we fund two other full-day programs in the STEM field.
In addition, we’re helping the school improve the acoustics in the auditorium and expand the school library. For us, effective support doesn’t stop at the curriculum—it also includes an environment where students enjoy learning and can work effectively.
Our Goals and How You Can Get Involved
Every school has students with a talent for computer science. We want to reach as many of them as possible and strengthen Leipzig as a hub for excellent computer science education, together with schools, the HTWK, the University of Leipzig, and other partners.
To this end, we’re always looking for new contributors—such as tutors who are eager to share their knowledge and inspire young people to pursue computer science, and schools that would like to start their own computer science club.
If you’re interested or would like to learn more, please feel free to contact Lydia Mähnert at info@optimax-energy.de.
Curiosity was the starting point for everything we’ve built at Optimax. If we can pass on even a little bit of that to the next generation, every club meeting will have been worth it 😊
