Press

On June 13 and 14, 2024, the first “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Smart City” (IPSC) conference took place at Fraunhofer IESE in Kaiserslautern. The event brought together over 100 experts from various scientific disciplines to discuss the latest research findings and developments in the field of smart cities. As the first scientific conference in the German-speaking world to shed light on different perspectives of the smart city and smart region from an interdisciplinary perspective, it set new standards in the scientific community. The partners and organizers of the conference were the Rhineland-Palatinate University of Technology Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE and the warmly digital team of the city of Kaiserslautern.

Kaiserslautern, June 11, 2024 – In a unique collaboration, the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE, the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS, and the University of York with the Assuring Autonomy International Programme (AAIP) have developed new safety standards for autonomous systems – with a focus on autonomous driving – in the research project ICON “LOPAAS” (Layers of Protection Architecture for Autonomous Systems). After three years of research, the closing event of the project took place today at Fraunhofer IESE in Kaiserslautern.

The official opening ceremony of the AAS Dataspace for Everybody took place yesterday - a pioneering platform that also facilitates access to data rooms, digital twins and administration shells (AAS) for small and medium-sized enterprises. More than 60 representatives from science and industry came together at Fraunhofer IESE in Kaiserslautern to discuss the added value and potential applications of digital data spaces.

On April 25 and 26, 2024, the official closing event of the AI projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) took place at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern. The event was jointly organized by the BMEL, the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) and the networking and transfer project “X-KIT: Gaia-X and AI projects: Transfer and Networking” jointly organized.

The Industry 4.0 Research Advisory Board and the Industry 4.0 Platform have issued a critique of the use of the term “Industry 5.0”. Industry 4.0 was presented to the general public for the first time at the Hannover Messe 2011 with an industrial model that is still highly topical and is spreading worldwide. The Industry 4.0 Research Advisory Council and the Industry 4.0 Platform criticize the frivolous and unnecessary use of the term “Industry 5.0”, which contains no new content and contributes to uncertainty. Industry 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution and its ongoing transformation, which encompasses all areas of society.

“Energizing a Sustainable Industry” - the motto of Hannover Messe 2024 clearly shows how important an equally efficient and sustainable industry is for Germany as a manufacturing location. This year, more than 4,000 companies will be presenting new products and solutions at the world's leading trade fair for industry that help to reconcile climate neutrality and efficiency in manufacturing. The Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE from Kaiserslautern will also be presenting an innovative solution at the joint stand of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Hall 2, Stand B24) that makes it easier for companies of all sizes to join data rooms and thus paves the way for them to enter the world of digitalization: the AAS Dataspace for Everybody.

Testing driving functions requires thousands of kilometers of test drives after every software change. But what if real test drives on this scale are not possible? This is where virtual test benches come into play. The Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE will be presenting the latest developments in this area at the embedded world Exhibition&Conference 2024 (Hall 4, Stand 422) in Nuremberg from April 9 to 11, 2024, and will show how companies can use virtual test benches to detect errors early on in the development process of their Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

Diagnosing rare diseases often presents doctors with challenges. Digitalization can help to make a diagnosis - Frankfurt University Hospital is showing how: It is playing a leading role in the research project Smart Physician Portal for People Affected by Rare Diseases (SATURN). Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health, a platform is being created that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help with diagnosis. As a software expert, Fraunhofer IESE is investigating in the project how AI can be used to make comprehensible and transparent suspected diagnoses for rare diseases with small amounts of data. A test version of SATURN is now available online - just in time for Rare Disease Day on February 29, 2024.

After eight years at the side of Managing Director Dr. Konrad Steiner, Dr. Matthias Jung is stepping down as Deputy Director of the “Simulation and Software-based Innovation” High-Performance Centre. He is succeeded by Zai Müller-Zhang. The electrical engineering and information technology graduate has been working for the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE since 2016.

Open source software makes an important contribution to the digital sovereignty of municipalities. According to a new study from the accompanying research of the Model Projects Smart Cities (MPSC), more intensive cooperation between local authorities, IT service providers and existing communities is particularly important when planning, procuring and developing appropriate solutions.