53 project partners came together in St. Pölten for a project meeting as well as a poster and demonstrator walk, organized by the SDIS studio together with the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (FH St. Pölten).
Strengthening digital sovereignty and sustainable production in Europe is the goal of the EU project AIMS 5.0 (Artifical Intelligence in Manufacturing leading to Sustainability and Industry 5.0). 53 project partners across Europe, including the SDIS studio in St. Pölten, have been working on this for a year. The Smart Digital Industries & Services Studio is one of six studios of the Research Studios Austria Forschungsgesellschaft (RSA FG).
The St. Pölten campus was the venue for a working meeting of all 53 project partners for AIMS 5.0 on Thursday, May 16, to Friday, May 17, at the invitation of Infineon Technologies.
Newest developments at the Digitech-Corner
In the course of this, the St. Pölten UAS, together with the RSA FG, invited visitors to the DIGITECH Corner to experience the latest developments in the project and beyond at first hand with the help of posters and demonstrators. The SDIS studio presented its model for the industrial production of medicinal plants to interested guests from research, industry and politics. As part of the EU project, the experts in St. Pölten are researching how AI can help achieve an ideal result. Due to its space-saving design, efficient cultivation technology with the lowest possible use of water and substrate and high production efficiency, stacked indoor plant production is considered the cultivation technology of the future. The demonstrator on show also uses technology from the Austrian company TTTech, which was also represented at the AIMS 5.0 working meeting and the Digitech Corner. Bertha von Suttner Private University also gave an insight into its work at the Digitech Corner. It is located directly in St. Pölten.
Together with its project partners, the St. Pölten RSA FG team is considering, among other things, which light spectrum is ideal for the plants and on which substrate they grow best, and is linking another major project to this, which was also shown at the Digitech Corner: EDEN. The St. Pölten UAS has the lead in this FFG project, and a mini-aquaponics system for this project is located in the SDIS studio in St. Pölten. This means that the excrement from fish is used directly to fertilize the plants in the demonstrator.
St. Pölten UAS strongly represented as host
St. Pölten UAS also presented various research initiatives at the Digitech Corner. For example, the Smart Companion 2 project on intelligent assistance systems for the home presented a robot prototype.
The RSA FG was also represented with other stations. The Viennese studio PCA (Pervasive Computing Applications) explained its projects ranging from virtual reality-supported pilot training to eye tracking studies to identify stressors in the care sector.
Great interest from the regional economy and politics
The Digitech Corner served as an exchange and networking meeting for the international AIMS 5.0 partners as well as for local business and politics. UAS Professor Dr. Thomas Moser, Head of the Institute for Creative\Media/Technologies at St. Pölten UAS, hosted the opening ceremony, while Mayor Matthias Stadler of the City of St. Pölten was represented by local councillor Gregor Unfried and Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Governor of the Lower Austria, by Federal Councillor Bernadette Geieregger. The event was also attended by board member of the Federation of Austrian Industry-Burgenland and head of the Siemens branch DI Martin Geiger, Michaela Zalesak from Economica GmbH, tourism director of the city of St. Pölten Stefan Bauer and the head of the innovation and digitalization department of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce DI Thomas Strodl MBA. Finally, one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, Evelyn Regner, also paid a visit to the event to find out more about AIMS 5.0 and the RSA FG.
RSA FG Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Markus Tauber and SDIS Studio Manager Dr. Stefan Gindl look back on the Digitech Corner: “The Digitech Corner was a valuable platform for exchanging ideas with international and regional stakeholders. Exciting opportunities were identified for international research and industry to cooperate with regional partners.”
c: Maria Prchal/RSA FG
c: Belal Abu-Naim/RSA FG
