Expert groups
In nine expert groups, each led by a steering committee member, the digital aspects and success criteria of areas such as Smart City, location factors for securing skilled workers, human-centric artificial intelligence, innovation transfer, digital sovereignty, science, education, innovation and start-up culture, internationalization as well as culture and society are analysed and further developed.
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As one of the leading IT locations in Europe, Karlsruhe offers everything that the specialists of today (and tomorrow) could wish for. Whether start-up, medium-sized company, large corporation, university, non-university research institution or administration – the multifaceted digital sector in the Karlsruhe region offers students and specialists career and further training opportunities in a wide variety of areas. And the self-employed are also always part of the picture in the fan-shaped city with its numerous coworking spaces and creative rooms.
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Smart City Karlsruhe uses the potential of digital technologies and data to increase the participation and quality of life of our residents, to meet the challenges of the present and future and to ensure Karlsruhe’s future viability. And has been doing so successfully for years. Selected projects
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There are excellent universities and renowned research institutions within a radius of a few hundred meters in Karlsruhe. The best conditions for innovative and excellent research, but also for training the specialists of tomorrow.
This includes a wide range of educational opportunities across all types of schools and extracurricular activities. Selected projects -
Business, science, administration and culture in Karlsruhe have committed themselves to the overarching goal of pooling their interests in the field of digitalization and continuing to position the region internationally as a driver of digitalization for a sustainable society.
To this end, various institutions work hand in hand – and each area contributes its expertise to a wide variety of projects. As a result, new ideas and innovative concepts can be implemented quickly, which would not be possible without this close integration. -
Digital sovereignty and reliable systems for information and communication systems are a basic prerequisite for a free society, a functioning economy and an independent state.
The expert group brings together leading players from the field of IT security and sovereignty for exchange and cooperation. -
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the topics of the future that has the potential to change our world for good. Karlsruhe recognized this early on and pooled the expertise of local institutions that had developed over decades. Selected projects
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Supported by the strong digital sector, the proximity to research and development and the innovation-friendly climate of the entire region, a flourishing start-up scene has developed in Karlsruhe. For start-ups, the fan-shaped city is a place where they can not only find technical expertise and first-class trained specialists, but also support from the orientation phase through to the start-up and maturity phase. Selected projects
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In 2019, Karlsruhe was the first and so far only city in Germany to be awarded the title of Creative City of Media Arts [Stadt der Medienkunst] by UNESCO and was included in the international UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). Karlsruhe thus stands for social and technological innovation, for creativity, networking and interdisciplinarity, and brings art and science together in a variety of ways. Selected projects
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Karlsruhe is the cradle of IT security in Germany: The first chair for IT security, the first companies specializing in IT security, the “European Institute for System Security (EISS)” and the first cryptography exhibition “Kryptologikum” originated in Karlsruhe.
In addition to numerous companies specializing in information security and data protection, the “Competence Center for IT Security” of the state of Baden-Württemberg, the “Competence Center for IT Security (KASTEL Security Research Labs)” at KIT – one of the three German research centers for cyber security – and the “Cyberwehr Baden-Württemberg” are based in Karlsruhe today.
Selected projects of the expert groups
Expert group “Excellence in education, teaching and research”; Project: WIR FORSCHEN DIGITAL
Are you feeling well? Join us, do research with us! What is it all about? Many things in everyday life happen in the digital space. In future, work and education will increasingly take place in hybrid form – i.e. online and offline at the same time. How are you doing with it? And what happens after the pandemic? What does this do to our well-being at home? Our common goal is to explore these effects together with you. The aim of wir-forschen.digital is to mobilize your knowledge, creativity and curiosity about pressing social issues: From formulating research questions to evaluating and communicating the results, you can get involved – with simple digital citizen science tools that we provide here.
Expert group “Excellence in education, teaching and research”; project: karlsruhe.digital@LEARNTEC
fischertechnik-AGs at LEARNTEC: Joint stand of karlsruhe.digital & technika In addition to numerous companies and start-ups, the education working group of the karlsruhe.digital initiative is represented at LEARNTEC together with the Karlsruhe Technology Initiative. Around ten teams of students will be presenting the latest projects from their fischertechnik and coding clubs at the stand. At 74 schools in the city and district of Karlsruhe, the fischertechnik AGs motivate around 1,400 children and young people to train or study in a STEM subject (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in a fun way. Primary school children can build bridges and cars, high school students can develop complex robots or production systems. At the stand of karlsruhe.digital and technika I Karlsruher Technik-Initiative at the LEARNTEC education fair, the offers for the promotion of young talent, such as the fischertechnik AGs and the Girls’ Digital Camps, in which girls are encouraged to take up programming, will be on display. Explained and presented by the inventors themselves: the pupils.
Expert group “Human-centered artificial intelligence”; Project: KI-Allianz Baden-Württemberg
The Baden-Württemberg AI Alliance sees itself as a connecting element between business, science and politics, with the aim of securing and expanding economic success.
Targeted networking of stakeholders, knowledge transfer and transparency make the potential of AI technologies accessible to all.
Expert group “Human-centered Artificial Intelligence”; Project: de:hub Artificial Intelligence
Working with AI and machine learning has a long tradition in Karlsruhe.
The Digital Hub acts as a driving force for developments in this field, making a valuable contribution to Germany’s digitalization and competitiveness.
The Digital Hub Karlsruhe promotes research, applications and start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
With a focus on the areas of energy, mobility and production, the hub sets cross-industry standards for sustainable solutions.
Expert group “Innovation climate and start-up culture”; Project: #CyberLabFestival
The #CyberLabFestival is THE annual highlight of the Karlsruhe startup scene! In addition to the major players in the industry such as Trumpf and Co., the region’s most successful IT start-ups and hidden champions can also be found here. 2023 was all about applied AI: what exciting new technologies are currently being developed and how can they be turned into functioning business models? What best practices are there in the field of smart production? What ideas are AI start-ups currently launching? Inspiring discussions and impulses on the topic of applied AI, plenty of space and time for networking and, as the highlight of the day, the CyberChampions Awards 2023 were presented in the evening.
Expert group “Digital Art”. Project: Fungal Frequencies
A project of the SurrealLabor
Can we watch mushrooms think?
And if so, what do they have to tell us?
With the installation Fungal Frequencies, SurrealLabor (Andreas Hölldorfer, Julia Ihls and Marius Probst) explores the interfaces between mycelial and electronic signal processing: Mycelium – the subterranean hyphal network of fungi has already found its way into discourses on more-than-human narratives, posthumanism and new materialisms for several years and has since served as a mental metaphor for a polyphonic structure that shows us the pleasurable loss of control in precarious living environments beyond the anthropocentric.
But how exactly does this form of world perception and communication work that seems so alien to us?
It is not yet possible to fully explain scientifically how exactly signal processing works in these widely branched, decentralized mycelium networks – be it electrically, chemically or hydraulically.
Based on the preliminary work of Andrew Adamatzky – computer scientist and director of the Unconventional Computing Lab, Bristol – SurrealLabor artistically visualizes the translation processes between biological and technological networks, blurring digital and fungal computing in a liminal mixture.
Funded as part of the UNESCO City of Media Arts Karlsruhe 2023 project funding program for media art.
Part of the exhibition Media art is here (2024).
The presentation is kindly supported by karlsruhe.digital.
Image: Fungi Microscope, photo: SurrealLabor
Expert group “Digital Art”; Project: Minimal Carbon Internet
A project by Michael Saup in cooperation with karlsruhe.digital, the ZKM | Karlsruhe and the UNESCO City of Media Arts
Expert Group on Culture and Society Two websites, at first glance hardly distinguishable from each other and yet completely different: The artist Micheal Saup has created a version of the former karlsruhe.digital website which reduces its footprint by 95% – from 635 MB to 32 MB – while retaining the same appearance and functionality. Because we leave our footprint, even in the digital world. The Internet enables free access to knowledge and free worldwide communication. But the world pays a price for this. If the Internet were a country, it would consume the third largest amount of electricity in the world. It’s hard to imagine, but let’s assume that electricity is generated exclusively from lignite, then the consumption of lignite briquettes in one year would be equivalent to the entire Great Wall of China or a pyramid with a side length of 1.5 kilometers and a height of an unimaginable 905 meters. Or if you were to line up all these briquettes instead, they would stretch from the earth to the center of the sun.
In numbers, websites, streaming services, social media and email consume about 1 PWh (petawatt hour) of electricity per year, which is 4% of global electricity consumption and generates about 432,594,303 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). The Minimal Carbon Internet project by artist Michael Saup shows that there are options for action. Saup – who has been researching the energy consumption of digital culture since 1999 – demonstrates how the energy consumption of websites can be radically minimized. Minimal Carbon Internet not only raises awareness of the connection between information and energy, but is also a concrete technical solution: Minimal Carbon Internet proves that it would be possible to significantly reduce the energy consumption of the Internet simply by optimizing websites. How does it work? Answers can be found here
Interview with Michael Saup
In the first episode of the karlsruhe.digital podcast, Michael Saup talks to the two hosts about the project. He provides insights into his motivation, the background and how things will continue with Minimal Carbon Internet. Listen to the podcast in English!