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#InnovationFestival @karlsruhe.digital 2023

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That was the firework display of digital innovations on October 13!

On Friday, October 13, 2023, the 3rd InnovationFestival @karlsruhe.digital once again offered the best digital innovations from Karlsruhe and the Karlsruhe TechnologyRegion the big stage – on site at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and streamed live!

In addition to a top-class keynote speech about the Baden-Württemberg AI Alliance, ten companies and institutions from business and science presented their digital transformation projects in 10-minute pitches, highlighting the diversity of the innovative digital location.

InnovationFestival meets KIT Science Week

From October 10 to 15, 2023, KIT Science Week was all about sustainability and climate protection. Whether it’s a keynote speech, panel discussion, citizen dialog or a guided tour through open laboratories: all science enthusiasts receive exclusive insights into the most diverse facets of science and research – and our InnovationFestival was part of it for the second time. Following the InnovationFestival at the ZKM and the Climate Slam of the KIT Science Week, the motto on October 13, 2023 from 10 p.m. in the Tollhaus at the Alter Schlachthof in Karlsruhe was: InnovationFestival meets KIT Science Week! In addition to the relaxed bar atmosphere, DJ Arletka’s techno tunes accompanied by visuals by Prizesin Haralt and the DASDING party bash invited guests to dance and party.

Program 2023

From 2 p.m. in the ZKM Media Theater and via livestream:

Welcome: Alistair Hudson, Scientific and Artistic Director of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Opening talk with the chairpersons of the karlsruhe.digital initiative: First Mayor Gabriele Luczak-Schwarz, Professor Dr. Thomas Hirth (Vice President KIT), Martin Hubschneider (Chairman CyberForum)
Keynote: Ingo Hoffmann, Managing Director of the Baden-Württemberg AI Alliance
Start of the 10-minute keynote speeches from the digital sector on topics such as artificial intelligence, smart city, mobility and IT security
From 6 p.m.: Get together in the foyer of the ZKM

Joint closing party with the KIT Science Week in the Tollhaus at the Alter Schlachthof (admission from 9:30 pm, start at 10 pm)

Moderation

Lisa Rosa Bräutigam

Lisa Rosa Bräutigam was not only born in the technology region of Karlsruhe, she is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the leading office furniture as-a-service platform nuwo – with an unusual life path.

Lisa Rosa Bräutigam was a civil servant teacher for 6.5 years before she turned her back on the civil service and actively ventured into entrepreneurship. With a clear mission in mind, it offers its customers more than just furniture: it supports companies in mastering the challenges of the modern working world and creating inspiring working environments in which employees can develop their full potential. And her success proves her right: her start-up nuwo recently closed the financing round for further growth with around EUR 3 million in investment. The successful founder is also actively involved in networking and promoting women in management positions.

Keynote

Quo Vadis AI – Artificial intelligence in the field of tension between innovation, adaptation and regulation

Ingo Hoffmann

Managing Director, KI-Allianz Baden-Württemberg e.G .

After all, artificial intelligence is one of the most important technological developments of our time and is on everyone’s lips thanks to ChatGPT. It offers enormous opportunities for innovation, but also challenges in terms of adaptation and regulation. In this lecture, the various aspects of AI in the field of tension between innovation, adaptation and regulation will be highlighted. The development as well as the economic and social implications of AI will be discussed with the aim of conveying a differentiated picture of AI and stimulating an active dialog about its future. The presentation will provide exclusive insights into the close links between science and industry as well as the networking idea of a joint concept for numerous locations at the AI Alliance Baden-Württemberg and highlight the AI expertise of Karlsruhe and Baden-Württemberg.

Pitches

Pitches 2023 at a glance

approx. 3 p.m.: Dr. Jochen Wendel from init innovation in traffic systems SE/Competence Center KARL
approx. 15:15: Thilo Richter from aicorn GmbH
approx. 15:30: Dr. Manuel Lösch from InnoCharge GmbH
approx. 15:45: Prof. Dr. Moritz Dörstelmann KIT – Professorship Digital Design and Fabrication
approx. 16:30: Mi Le & Ben Linnenbaum from MeinDein GmbH
approx. 16:45: Jonas Tischer from Validaitor
approx. 5 p.m.: Dr. Carmen Kempka from WIBU Systems AG
approx. 17:15: Elias Groll from Codesphere
approx. 17:30: Dr. Sebastian Zanker from HQS Quantum Simulations GmbH
approx. 17:45: Janna Meyer from MEHRWERK GmbH
approx. 18:00: Felix Hörner, Michel Weber winners of the national youth research competition

Pitch

The best solution for every disruption – Smooth public transport thanks to AI support for dispatchers

Dr. Jochen Wendel

R&D Manager, init innovation in traffic systems SE / Competence Center KARL

Every public transport user in Karlsruhe knows it. An accident at Durlacher Tor! This quickly leads to rail chaos in the city center. In addition to the delays for the user, this is a stressful situation in the control center. For the dispatcher, this means rerouting trains, adjusting signals and informing passengers, preferably all at the same time. With KARL, together with other partners from Karlsruhe, we are developing a digital suggestion assistant using artificial intelligence (AI) that will relieve staff in the control center and contribute to fewer restrictions in local transport.

Pitch

Preventing public transport infarction together!

Thilo Richter

CEO and Co-Founder, aicorn GmbH

You know what it’s like: You want to save money and the climate by traveling by train. The day is well planned and you are standing on the platform with your appointments firmly in view until you are told that the train has been canceled due to technical problems. But why is this announcement an everyday occurrence? What can we do about it? Germany needs strong public transport. This is where we want to provide support with our “ECG for the railroad”. This gives the transport company a “preventive data check” and the opportunity to react to operational errors at an early stage and carry out predictive maintenance. In this way, we want to prevent a “public transport infarction”.

Pitch

Smart charging for low-cost and green charging of electric vehicles

Dr. Manuel Lösch

Founder and Managing Director, InnoCharge GmbH

The InnoCharge software solution increases the profits of charging point operators by making intelligent decisions when charging electric cars. Ultimately, e-car users will also benefit from this. At the same time, InnoCharge makes a valuable contribution to the energy transition: The software solution ensures that existing electricity grids and existing battery storage systems are used in such a way that a high proportion of renewable energy is possible. The presentation shows how this works: It’s about cheap PV electricity, dynamic electricity prices, remunerated services for the energy system…

Pitch

ReGrow – Digital manufacturing technology for sustainable construction

Moritz Dörstelmann

KIT – Professorship Digital Design and Fabrication

The construction industry accounts for a large proportion of global emissions, waste and resource consumption. Through automated prefabrication of fully recyclable and at the same time high-performance willow-clay composite components for scalable applications in ceiling and wall components, we aim to replace reinforced concrete with willow and clay and have already successfully tested this. The current market conditions make our construction methods ecologically and economically sustainable. The aim is to scale this up to market standard as quickly as possible.

Pitch

Shaping the Sharing Economy in Germany

Mi Le & Ben Linnenbaum

CEO & CTO, MeinDein GmbH

Do we still live in a world where we have to own everything? And what do sustainability and diversity have to do with it? With MeinDein, we want to challenge mass consumption. How MeinDein works, how we make lending safer, what impact we can achieve with it and what advantages it offers… …we will explain all this at the InnovationFestival!

Pitch

Validaitor – We build Security and Trust for Artifical Intelligence

Jonas Tischer

Senior Software Engineer, Validaitor

Artificial intelligence (AI) needs better tests and controls. At Validaitor, we develop tools to comprehensively test AI systems for security, data protection, performance and robustness. We bring trust and security to AI systems and maximize the net benefits of AI transformation.

Pitch

Ways to use artificial intelligence in a trustworthy manner

Dr. Carmen Kempka

Head of Corporate Technology, WIBU Systems AG

The WIBU-SYSTEMS innovations AxProtector Python and CTP are a building block for the trustworthy use of artificial intelligence in many areas, e.g. medicine or robotics, in addition to protection against reverse engineering, know-how theft and manipulation as well as the possibility of the technical implementation of new business models of digitization. We have also created space for cooperation projects, including laboratory and test structures and bring together proactive SMEs and R&D facilities in co-working spaces.

Pitch

Revolution in the cloud sector: How Codesphere is shaking up the billion-euro cloud market from Karlsruhe

Elias Groll

Founder & CEO, Codesphere

Codesphere solves the DevOps problem for the growing $800 billion cloud market. The platform transforms the sequential DevOps process into a multiplayer mode, enabling organizations to deploy new features 6 times faster and save 72% of infrastructure costs. We are on a speedrun to introduce our new (patent pending) technology for auto-scaling AI applications, which reduces GPU costs by 90% (e.g. we can host a Llama2 for only 8$ per month) and our new free GPU tier.

Pitch

Simulation of quantum systems on heterogeneous (quantum) computer systems

Dr. Sebastian Zanker

CTO, HQS Quantum Simulations GmbH

Quantum systems play a crucial role in understanding how active substances, chemicals or functional materials work, for example for new types of batteries or efficient solar modules. Unfortunately, the computer simulation of quantum systems is very complex and consists of various steps with different hardware requirements up to completely new types of hardware such as quantum computers. We present the cloud solution developed by HQS for the simulation of quantum systems, with which complex simulations can be started from a laptop.

Pitch

AI-driven sustainability transformation

Janna Meyer

Vice President Process Execution Management, MEHRWERK GmbH

Sustainability is one of the most pressing fields of action in the global economy and requires swift action, also against the background of the CSR reporting obligation. In our presentation, we will demonstrate in a practical way how cloud-based, AI-supported process mining can be used to strategically analyze and monitor business processes and identify ways to significantly reduce your own carbon footprint. Sustainability therefore does not necessarily mean doing without, but instead creates transparency, defined recommendations for action and real-time success monitoring for companies.

Pitch

Measuring particulate matter by bike – environmental data made easy!

Felix Hörner & Michel Weber

Winner of the national “Jugend forscht” competition in the geosciences and spatial sciences category

The bicycle can also be used to collect geodata during the daily ride through the city. Felix Hörner, Felix Makartsev and Michel Weber designed a compact measuring system that continuously collects data on air quality and sends it to a server together with other parameters and the respective GPS coordinates. There they are immediately available for further evaluation via a geographical information system. The young researchers tested their device using particulate matter data collected during their bike rides through Karlsruhe as an example. The system is designed in such a way that even non-professionals can attach it to the bike and use it without any problems. The data collected will then be available as a basis for future urban planning decisions.

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