{"id":10771,"date":"2022-11-23T13:49:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T12:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karlsruhe.digital\/2022\/11\/digiwomenka-jivka-ovtcharova-a-woman-of-the-world-with-a-down-to-earth-attitude\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T11:51:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:51:05","slug":"digiwomenka-jivka-ovtcharova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karlsruhe.digital\/en\/2022\/11\/digiwomenka-jivka-ovtcharova\/","title":{"rendered":"#DigiWomenKA: Jivka Ovtcharova – a woman of the world with a down-to-earth attitude"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Female role models are important. They show possibilities, they help to define your own goals and we can learn from your experiences. In our blog series #DigiWomenKA, Katharina Iyen meets one such role model from Karlsruhe’s digital sector once a month to find out more about them, their experiences and their commitment. Today she talks to Jivka Ovtcharova<\/a>, <\/em> Engineering scientist, director at the Karlsruhe Research Center for Information Technology (FZI)<\/a> and professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology<\/a> (KIT).<\/p>\n\n

Jivka Ovtcharova visits me in the early afternoon in Ettlingen city. She is a very elegant woman. She wants to take her boots off in the hallway. I bend over backwards and put on extra shoes to signal to my guest that it’s okay if she keeps hers on. I quickly realize that this woman is very down-to-earth and has kept her feet firmly on the ground. A characteristic that I have noticed in all #DigiWomenKA so far. We start our conversation in the sunshine of my living room bay window with black tea and chocolates. <\/p>\n\n

\"DigiWomanKA
DigiWomanKA Jivka Ovtcharova with the author Katharina Iyen. Photo: Jivka Ovtcharova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Jivka Ovtcharova holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and computer science and\nholds an honorary doctorate. The KIT professor is head of the Institute\nfor Information Management in Engineering (IMI) at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering\nand founder of the KIT Lifecycle Engineering Solutions Center\n(LESC). She is also Director of the Research Center for Information Technology (FZI)\nin Karlsruhe. She is the winner of the Edition F Award 2014 25 Women for\nthe digital future<\/a>. I am impressed. <\/p>\n\n

“A friend, who works in the digital sector herself, applied for the job. I\nwas really chosen from thousands of applicants – that was completely unexpected for me\n,” recalls Ovtcharova. At Edition F in Berlin, the\n#DigiWoman with three doctorates liked it: “Edition F is a modern, great\nformat. Not just talk. Those who really have something to say\nhave their say.” This is fitting, as she herself holds Ted\n X Talks<\/a> and sometimes takes part in panel discussions with politicians such as\nG\u00fcnther Oettinger, popular philosophers such as Richard David Precht or star photographers\nsuch as Michel Comte<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

However, her many titles, activities and awards can sometimes distract from a very approachable woman, a social climber who was given nothing for free. “I don’t care about titles at all, the inner values are much more important,” Ovtcharova admits to me. <\/p>\n\n

Childhood and 100,000 years of technology<\/h2>\n\n

Jivka Ovtcharova’s steep career path was not laid in her cradle\n. She was born in Bulgaria. Both parents worked, so\nit was enough to live on. “My parents were very hardworking, but we weren’t\nwealthy. Our money went on food, clothes and culture,” she explains. Her\nolder sister needed a lot of attention, so Jivka\nkept herself busy. She was interested in books, especially about technology, and she\ndid a lot of handicrafts. <\/p>\n\n

A gift from her father, which can still be found on the professor’s bookshelf today, paved the way for her future career. “He gave me the three volumes “100,000 Years of Technology”. I was fascinated by all the advances that mankind has made through technology. For me, this process of conceiving inventions and turning them into reality basically means virtuality, which is the focus of my research today: you can mentally imagine completely new products or technologies and turn them into reality through virtual engineering. For me, the virtual world is infinite and offers unimagined possibilities for each and every one of us. The virtual world really is open to everyone.” <\/p>\n\n

\"A
A gift from her father, which can still be found on the professor’s bookshelf today, paved the way for her future career. “He gave me the three volumes “100,000 Years of Technology”. Photo: Jivka Ovtcharova <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

By virtual, however, the expert does not mean the computer-generated\nmetaverse; for her, this digital space is merely the technological\nparallel image of physical reality in the narrower sense. For her, virtuality primarily\nrefers to people’s imagination and its anchoring in real life: “Many\nideas about the new are strongly based on a subjective position.\nFor many people, the new means something newly created, or something that\nthey are not yet familiar with – and with which they have not yet had any experience: a\nnew film, a new house or a new journey. <\/p>\n\n

It is generally understood that the new is connected to change. More precisely, it is not just a question of what the new is, but what changes or developments it is subject to, what relationships it can enter into and, last but not least, what reactions it can cause. The transition from virtuality to reality – and vice versa – is fluid. Regardless of where you are in the world and under what conditions you were born, everyone has the power of imagination and fantasy. With these skills and the right technologies at their disposal, they can create new values that are comprehensible.” Ovtcharova explains to me that our data is the only resource that is growing and not shrinking. The expansion of physical reality into the virtual will accelerate. The product of virtuality is infinite, like its nature. “Data is and will remain our only infinite resource.” <\/p>\n\n

Blows of fate, lessons learned and adaptation <\/h2>\n\n

Deeply impressed by her words, I wonder if looking into her\npast will help me to understand what experiences have shaped these thoughts and\nthis person. As if my question is written all over my face\n, Ovtcharova begins to tell me. The Chernobyl disaster at the end of\nApril 1986 changed her life from one minute to the next. At the time,\nshe was working as a nuclear engineer at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in the\ncapital Sofia: “I remember May 2, 1986 as a day full of\nsunshine and invisible danger at the same time. We were on a green\nmeadow and had to measure the radioactivity. Everything seemed fine – but the\nGeiger counters were going crazy. The radiation was insanely high. Back then,\nI learned that you can’t really control anything and that good things can suddenly become\nbad.”<\/p>\n\n

\"DigiWomanKA
DigiWomanKA Jivka Ovtcharova was interested in VR from an early age. Photo: Jivka Ovtcharova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The professor reflects and continues: “Just like today in the\ndiscussion about so-called artificial intelligence. If there’s one thing I’ve learned\n, it’s to “skin” myself. A good friend once said that about me. I\ncan confirm that: I have extreme adaptability. It is\ndefinitely one of my most important qualities that has always helped me in difficult\nsituations. It goes on and on. You are responsible for yourself in every situation\n“. At the age of 30, she was living on 800 Deutschmarks a month in 17 square meters. In October 1987, she came to Germany to do research in Darmstadt on a doctoral scholarship. “I worked at the Technical University<\/a> and the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics<\/a> Research until 1996. I had nothing except a head, two hands and three suitcases,” she says with a laugh. <\/p>\n\n

Existing on a small scale didn’t bother her: “I felt comfortable\nand had my goal in mind. My first investments were a television\nand a sewing machine. The TV to improve my German and the\nsewing machine to sew fashionable clothes for myself using Burda patterns.” In\nthe family attached great importance to a well-groomed appearance and a good\nwardrobe: “In Eastern Europe, people are very aware of how to appear in public\n. My parents taught me to pay a lot of attention to this.”\nHer clothes stood out positively: “I’ve always cared about fashion. Being professional\nand elegant at the same time is one of my ideals.” <\/p>\n\n

After the Chernobyl disaster, it quickly became clear to her that her engineering degree in nuclear energy no longer offered her any prospects for the future: “After a few hours, I was already mentally moving towards computer simulations,” she tells me with a laugh. Shortly after arriving in Germany, she devoted herself to computer-aided design (CAD) and virtual reality (VR). In the mid-90s, Jivka Ovtcharova switched to the automotive industry. With two doctorates under her belt, the Bulgarian-born designer did not want to be seen as a mere academic, but as a thoroughbred engineer. From 1998 to 2003, she headed the Process and System Integration Center at General Motors in the International Technical Development Center of Adam Opel GmbH in R\u00fcsselsheim. “Getting into the industry was difficult,” she recalls. “My Eastern European background and the fact that I was a woman made it challenging. However, thanks to my interdisciplinary education and qualifications, I occupied an important niche.”<\/p>\n\n

Networking #DigiWomen is still needed in Karlsruhe today<\/h2>\n\n

Asserting herself as a woman in an environment that was previously characterized by a lack of female managers continues in her stations. She has been in Karlsruhe since 2003. At that time, she took up her professorship at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering<\/a> at KIT, the first female professor in the 150-year history of the faculty. Her memories of it are therefore not all positive: “I was a woman and a foreigner who still spoke with an accent, and not all my colleagues could cope with that back then. She still remembers well how a retired professor made a condescending comment at an event. “He said to me: I don’t understand what you’re saying. How did you become a professor in the first place?” She has learned not to take such incidents personally: “I have realized that such behaviour ultimately says nothing about me, but a lot about the other person.”<\/p>\n\n

\"Ted
She holds Ted X Talks and sometimes takes part in panel discussions with politicians such as G\u00fcnther Oettinger, popular philosophers such as Richard David Precht or star photographers such as Michel Comte. Photo: Jivka Ovtcharova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

She was therefore still able to find peace with Karlsruhe. “I really feel at home here in the\nsouthwest. It’s a bit like Bulgaria, there\nare mountains and meadows and the sun shines, which is what I need.” She also appreciates\nthe Karlsruhe region for its diversity in terms of IT. “We have over\n3,000 IT companies here, which is the highest concentration in Europe. I have a lot to do with\n, the CyberForum<\/a> and the technology region\nKarlsruhe<\/a> (TRK). I experience a real pioneering spirit in the region.” Ovtcharova also\nlikes the manageability of the region’s cities. “I lived for several\nyears in cities with millions of inhabitants, such as Moscow and Sofia. There are always lots of people\naround you. At some point, you just want some peace and quiet and enough space.\nI only really arrived in Baden-Baden.” <\/p>\n\n

However, she does not yet see women in IT and engineering as well connected locally, rather those from the digital media industry. For example, she worked as an equal opportunities officer at KIT. “I think it’s time to stop discussing gender. Digitalization has no gender. It’s time to stop this discussion about women and men or women versus men. What needs to change is diversity – through education and upbringing. Stereotypes must be abolished and everyone must be treated as a single group.<\/p>\n\n

From poetry to artificial intelligence<\/h2>\n\n

And yet another one of those sentences that impresses me with its foresight.\nI doubt it and wonder if there’s actually something she can’t do. Startled\nI realize that I have spoken the sentence out loud. Ovtcharova laughs\nand doesn’t have to think twice. “Politician’s German,” she jokes and adds: “I\ncan’t talk around it. I come from the world of technology – what I say has to work\n.” <\/p>\n\n

I find that Ovtcharova often expresses herself\nvery poetically during our conversation. When I point this out to her, she laughs: “You got\nme. I wrote poetry as a child.” You can tell she has an affinity for the arts\n, this woman is anything but an IT nerd. She is more of a cosmopolitan\nwith a touch of a polymath. She doesn’t even shy away from philosophical\nthoughts. She rejects the term artificial intelligence, for example\n. She finds it misleading: “There is no such thing as artificial intelligence.\nThese are algorithms and patterns. If it is, then it is a machine intelligence. The\nspecial thing about human intelligence is precisely that it does not function according to\npatterns. Humans are conscious and search for the solution\nto a problem without even really knowing the problem. That is ambiguity\nand creativity and the machine cannot do that. Machines are not new-creative,\nthey don’t create anything original.” <\/p>\n\n

Persevering creative spirit<\/h2>\n\n

Ovtcharova, whose retirement age is not so far off, clearly demonstrates\nthat the question of how we shape our future is not a\nquestion of age. On the contrary, because she is not thinking about resting\nfor a long time yet. “Biological age means nothing to me, it’s just a number. I\nmay have the security of a civil servant these days, but I always make my life\na little uncomfortable because I really want to remain vigilant.” <\/p>\n\n

\"Jivka
Jivka Ovtcharova doesn’t get bored easily. Photo: Jivka Ovtcharova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

It has just launched the new RegioMORE<\/a> innovation project in B\u00fchl in cooperation with the city of B\u00fchl and the Karlsruhe technology region<\/a> – with a volume of 12 million euros. In their concept of sandbox labs, companies should be able to simulate process changes as if they were playing in a sandbox – without consequences. The concept also provides access to education for many groups of people, including those from outside the field. “We need more skilled workers for companies, so we shouldn’t be afraid to train single mothers, for example, who may not have been in work for a long time. It’s about ensuring that everyone can participate in society and make a contribution. This is the only way we can truly achieve regional digital transformation. The first thing we have to do is change our attitudes.”<\/p>\n\n

But that is not enough. She is currently in the\nconception phase of a book on the subject of virtuality. “It’s not academic, it’s written more prosaically\n,” explains Jivka Ovtcharova. And there it is again, the creativity\nin her technical work. And so she concludes our conversation with a smile – and again very\npoetically: “As long as you are in this world, life\nis like a river. And when something comes along, the river changes direction\nand somehow flows differently – but continues. Just like virtuality. The\nvirtual within us is constantly flowing, constantly changing, constantly evolving\n. It is a way of gaining orientation\nin unclear situations. A great help, especially for life today.”<\/p>\n\n

Contact Jivka Ovtcharova LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jivka-ovtcharova-51b55b9\/<\/a> XING: https:\/\/www.xing.com\/profile\/Jivka_Ovtcharova\/cv<\/a> KIT page: https:\/\/www.imi.kit.edu\/24.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Female role models are important. They show possibilities, they help to define your own goals and we can learn from your experiences. In our blog series #DigiWomenKA, Katharina Iyen meets one such role model from Karlsruhe’s digital sector once a month to find out more about them, their experiences and their commitment. Today she talks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,42,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digiwomenka-en","category-education","category-general-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n#DigiWomenKA - Jivka Ovtcharova - karlsruhe.digital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Interview with Jivka Ovtcharova, a female role model from the engineering sciences, director at the FZI and professor at KIT.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/karlsruhe.digital\/en\/2022\/11\/digiwomenka-jivka-ovtcharova\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#DigiWomenKA: Jivka Ovtcharova - 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