Research

AI offensive: TU strengthens focus on artificial intelligence and big data

The TU Ilmenau is strengthening its research activities in the fields of artificial intelligence and data science. Numerous research projects in these fields are being carried out at the university and at the Thuringian Center for Learning Systems and Robotics.

Hochleistungsrechner so groß wie Schränke stehen in einem Raum. iStock.com/Frank Peters
Leistungsstarke High-Performance-Computer, wie sie an der TU Ilmenau installiert wurden, ermöglichen extrem hohe Rechenleistungen für die anspruchsvollen Forschungsaufgaben auf dem Zukunftsfeld der Künstlichen Intelligenz.

In the Thuringian Centre for Learning Systems and Robotics TU Ilmenau coordinates all activities of Thuringian universities and research institutes in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data and robotics under one roof. The transfer project thuringian AI - thurAI for short, where "AI" stands for Artificial Intelligence - was recently launched at the research and transfer center. The TU Ilmenau and the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, together with the Ilmenau Institute for Microelectronic and Mechatronic Systems (IMMS) and Thuringian companies, are working on twelve individual projects in three promising areas: In the area of healthcare and medical technology, scientists are researching intelligent medical technology; in production and quality assurance, innovative methods for automated production monitoring are being tested; and in the area of smart city, scientists from TU Ilmenau and IMMS are working with the city of Ilmenau to develop intelligent digital solutions for the efficiency, citizen-friendliness and sustainability of modern municipalities. thurAI is being funded by the Free State of Thuringia with over three million euros for three years. Through the "Package of Measures for Innovation Potential", the state is funding forward-looking research and development projects in Thuringian research institutions and companies.

Powerful GPU cluster at the TU Ilmenau

In order to be able to carry out the highly ambitious projects in the future field of artificial intelligence, a so-called GPU cluster, which is funded by the Thüringer Aufbaubank, will go into operation in a few days at the computing center of the TU Ilmenau. If several GPUs, powerful graphics processors that are particularly well suited for high-performance computing due to their architecture, are connected to form a cluster, their performance is multiplied even further. The parallel processing of huge amounts of data enables the most demanding learning processes of modern AI techniques and the complex calculations for training AI algorithms are significantly accelerated.

The new GPU cluster will also benefit research projects at TU Ilmenau, which are already underway. The project "Engineering for Smart Manufacturing (E4SM)", funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation, is researching novel assistance systems for smart industrial manufacturing based on machine learning. In the cross-faculty project CO-HUMANICS, novel methods are being developed to enable older people to contact remote people in their home environment using technologies such as augmented reality.

Thuringia funds three additional professorships

The TU Ilmenau is not only striving to place greater emphasis on artificial intelligence and data science in its research, but the new disciplines are also increasingly finding their way into the university's teaching. The Free State of Thuringia supports TU Ilmenau's scientific focus by funding three additional professorships in the field of digitalization. The promising fields of Data Science for Engineering, Medical Informatics and Digital Materials Science complement the existing disciplines of the Ilmenau faculties in a meaningful way.

At the same time, the TU Ilmenau wants to attract and promote young talent for Thuringia. As part of the major transfer project thurAI, ambitious postdoctoral researchers will come together in Thuringia in the future in innovative formats such as summer schools to conduct research on specific AI topics. For example, the summer school "Digitalization Workshop" is planned for 2022 at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the summer school "Machine Learning in Engineering" is planned for 2023 at Ilmenau University of Technology. And in hackathon events - a neologism made up of "hack" and "marathon" - the young scientists develop software and hardware together.

With its AI offensive in research and teaching, TU Ilmenau will be able to compete nationally and internationally in the fields of artificial intelligence and data science. The new GPU Cluster enables the use of state-of-the-art deep learning methods and provides the university and its partners with access to the most powerful data processing. In this way, the university, the city and the state are continuing to work together towards the future.

Contact

Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler

President