Colourful Night of Digitalization 2022: A city festival dedicated to digital innovations
Karlsruhe’s digital sector has an incredible number of facets. At the Colourful Night of Digitalization, citizens were able to experience these at first hand.
After a rainy start to the day, the grey clouds gave way to sunshine at lunchtime on 1 July – perfect conditions for the Colourful Night of Digitalization 2022. At 2 p.m., Gabriele Luczak-Schwarz, First Mayor of the City of Karlsruhe, opened this year’s city festival in the town hall on Marktplatz and made it clear right at the beginning that “urban society is at the heart of digitalization.” For digitization to succeed at all, the participation of the population is essential.
In his welcoming address, Stefan Krebs, State Government Commissioner for Information Technology and CIO and CDO of the State of Baden-Württemberg, made it clear that this is not just theory in Karlsruhe, but has been lived practice for years, describing the fan-shaped city as the “heart of digitalization in the state”. This was also confirmed by the three chairmen of the karlsruhe.digital initiative in the subsequent talk format, which was moderated by David Hermanns, Managing Director of the CyberForum e. V. business network.
Karlsruhe’s digital industry within reach
At 3 p.m., the Colourful Night of Digitalization got off to a full start – with a decentralized programme involving around 80 partners throughout the city. The individual stations could be planned quickly and easily in advance using the official web app. The buses, trains and KVV.nextbikes, which could be used free of charge as part of the event, provided the necessary mobility within the city area.
The individual items on the program could not have been more varied: In the town hall on the market square, citizens were able to get an overview of the city’s current digital projects, while the real estate office offered a virtual tour of the market square and provided insights into data collection using a drone. The city library and Lessing Gymnasium Karlsruhe delighted visitors to the town hall with humanoid robots, microcontrollers and a networked telescope, demonstrating first-hand what is already in use in the education sector in terms of digitalization beyond tablets and computers.
How is digitalization changing production and what role does artificial intelligence play in this? Visitors received answers to these questions, for example, at the Karlsruhe Research Factory for AI-integrated Production, which uses state-of-the-art robotics and automation to bridge the gap between research and industry. A somewhat smaller, but no less impressive robot was on display on the KIT campus, where the Kamaro Engineering university group presented an agricultural robot it had developed itself. At the dm-drogerie Markt in Kaiserstrasse, meanwhile, there was a unique opportunity to get to know the store robot, which otherwise only makes its rounds at night.
Those who were more interested in programming applications got their money’s worth at the bluehands developer party. Visitors to the Computer Science Teaching and Learning Lab on the campus of the Karlsruhe University of Education were able to experience digitalization in a playful way, while two things that are not necessarily thought of together came together at the University of Music: Computer science and classical music. However, there was much more on offer for different age groups, as a drone course at CAS Software AG delighted young and old alike. While TelemaxX opened the doors of the IPC 4 data center in Hagsfeld and gave an exclusive look behind the scenes of a powerful local service provider during guided tours.
In 2022, the Colourful Night of Digitalization once again succeeded in making the digital stronghold of Karlsruhe visible and tangible for citizens in a variety of ways.
#DigitaleNachtKA: Closing party with live coding at the ZKM
Of course, the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe also took part in the Colourful Night of Digitalization again this year. During the day with free admission to the exhibitions as well as #digiTALK lectures and stands from start-ups – and in the evening as the location for the closing party. Visitors partied until well after midnight to the beats of AI researcher and musician MODISCH, who succeeded in combining art and digitalization with his music in the unique ambience of the ZKM in a very special way.
“At the second Colourful Night, digitalization made in Karlsruhe became visible and could be experienced up close during the diverse and exciting programme items. Interesting glimpses behind the scenes of the digital industry were possible and the numerous impressions and discussions will certainly have a lasting effect. I would like to thank the karlsruhe.digital initiative as well as all partners and sponsors, without whom such an event would not be possible,” explains Gabriele Luczak-Schwarz, First Mayor of the City of Karlsruhe.