On 3 and 4 December, the Software Campus network gathered at the Fraunhofer Forum in Berlin for its annual summit. The event was opened by Stefan Jazdzejewski (Software Campus project lead), Alexander Nouak (Fraunhofer ICT Group) and Patrick Schubert (Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space), who welcomed current participants, alumni/alumnae, partners and representatives of the Project Management Agency VDI/VDE and DLR.
Research projects, demos and science slams
A total of 24 researchers presented their projects through posters, demos and science slams. They had previously refined their short presentations under the guidance of science slam coach Ingo Nordmann-Mohn. Presenting the research ideas developed at the Software Campus in a popular science format is a challenging task every year – yet remains one of the highlights of the summit. In the preliminary round, the contributions by Alexander Rombach (DFKI), Miriam Anschütz (TU Munich) and Hassan Nassar (KIT) received the highest audience ratings for their contributions, which were therefore presented again on the second day. Ultimately, Hassan Nassar won the most votes with his slam ‘Alice in the cloud land’, in which he humorously explored the digital, secure storage of Alice’s grandmother’s secret recipe. The prize, sponsored by the Fraunhofer ICT Group, was a backpack filled with the publication Beyond Text and Image: Generative AI for Diverse Data Worlds and various stationery items.
Alumni perspectives, start-up projects and a panel discussion
Numerous programme participants and alumni also took to the stage. Dr Matthias Rost (Observe Switzerland) shared the advice he would give to his younger self. Zahra Ebrahimi, Aleksandr Perevalov and Samim Multaheb (machinemade) presented their start-ups and ideas for new businesses.
And Omar El Nahhas, who presented his start-up StratifAI at last year’s summit, shared the lessons he has learned from subsequent financing rounds and the the company’s growth. Additionally, Dr. Susanne Perner (AI NATION) outlined the factors that are crucial for successfully transforming research into marketable products.
During a fishbowl discussion, panellists Götz-Philip Brasche (Huawei Germany) and Z.S. (alumna of TU Berlin) joined participants from the audience in exploring how AI is changing leadership in software development. Sven Trendow also presented the Europe-wide AI Grid network, connecting AI researchers and enthusiasts.
Communities of Practice workshop
Another item on the agenda was the Communities of Practice workshop, which brought together participants and partners of the Software Campus. The partner organisations provided real-life use cases from their teams, and strategies, concepts, proofs of concept and evaluations were developed jointly.
As every year, the summit concluded with graduation ceremony. Dr Jeronimo Castrillon (TU Dresden) presented ten participants with their graduation certificates. This was followed by the traditional alumni network meeting of the alumni association.
We would like to thank the Fraunhofer ICT Group sincerely for hosting the summit!
Pictures: © Stefanie Loos
