THE MAGAZINE FOR PARTNERS AND CLIENTS Corona research is starting Full speed ahead
Foresight Analysis @ AIT Five missions for the Europe of tomorrow
01/20
Energy transition in industry New ways of decarbonisation Pricing analysis Machine Learning protects consumers
Martina Neuländtner, Matthias Weber and Christoph Brodnik (from left to right)
Health and oncological research are topics where AIT can demonstrate its expertise.
Paul-Stephan Binder/PicturePeople
THINK TANK FOR EUROPE'S FUTURE With its expertise, the AIT Center for Innovation Systems & Policy helps to define the major and future-oriented topics in European research and technology policy. This has an impact on how we will all live in the future. Research, technology development and innovation are the key ingredients to securing our economic well-being and addressing societal challenges and, as the current Corona situation shows, crises. The key question is which topics are to be approached in a focused manner, and which projects for a future-oriented research, technology and innovation policy (RTI policy) and its 2
players will result from this. “We use state-of-the-art methods to analyse research and innovation processes and systems, as well as forward-looking approaches to help public administration and companies in defining their RTI policies,” explains Matthias Weber, Head of Center for Innovation Systems & Policy, “because in times of rapid change it is no longer enough to eliminate existing
deficits. Instead, it is necessary to pursue strategic and visionary paths into the future and to help shape the future." Steering research in a specific direction With its interdisciplinary team of experts, the Center for Innovation Systems & Policy not only contributes to the understanding and development of a systemic RTI policy. The results of this research THE MAGAZINE FOR PARTNERS AND CLIENTS
yield concrete recommendations for action that focus research at a European level in certain directions. "We see ourselves as a future-oriented think tank and advisor for Austrian and European politics," says Weber, "we are a central node in national and international research and innovation networks and a partner for public administration, companies, universities and research institutions." A case in point: the Center for Innovation Systems & Policy plays a central role in the concrete design of the subject areas for the upcoming EU research framework programme "Horizon Europe", which will run from 2021 through 2027 and which is one of the largest research initiatives worldwide with a volume of around EUR 100 billion. The focus is on big topics such as decarbonisation, digitisation, energy efficiency, and health. Horizon Europe
particularly wants to promote research with a real European added value and demonstrable benefits for society. We're talking about "mission-oriented research" tied to specific subject areas and goals: based on five "mission areas", clearly visible R&I missions are defined together with citizens, stakeholders, the European Parliament, and member states. Five missions for Europe's future Matthias Weber's team conducts corresponding foresights for the five missions in the areas of cancer, adaptation to climate change, healthy oceans, climate-neutral cities as well as soil health and food. “We are developing various scenarios for the future and want to use them to derive possible options for political action. In doing this, our Center works directly for the European Commission as part of a framework contract.”
Years of good cooperation at EU level preceded this remarkable success: Already in preparation for Horizon Europe, the Center led a large foresight project in close cooperation with the EU Commission. "This has resulted in the need to continue the cooperation," Weber is pleased to note. He points out that the EU is making a paradigm shift in parts of Horizon Europe: “Research agendas are no longer only driven by a scientific-technological logic, but are looking for research topics that can be derived from longer-term societal needs. This is a very exciting approach." AIT has the task of coordinating 14 organizations in sub-projects and collaborates with several EU Directorates-General. "This means we can offer both short-term foresight expertise and long-term recommendations for action," says Matthias Weber. The work programmes for the first phase
AIT TOPICS 01 CLIMATE CHANGE Adaptation to climate change and its mitigation Climate services and natural resources Systemic and nature-related solutions Citizen participation, sustainable production, and sustainable consumption Disaster risk mitigation and management including public health and critical infrastructure Water management and biodiversity 02 CANCER
04 CLIMATE-NEUTRAL AND INTELLIGENT CITIES Public health policies and practices Patient representation including self-help groups and family counselling, innovation and business development Ethics 03 HEALTHY OCEANS, COASTAL AND INLAND WATERBODIES Transition to a circular and blue economy
Mitigating climate change and adapting to it Air quality Spatial planning and energy efficient buildings
Soil management to secure food and nutrition and to provide non-food products and public goods Restoration and remediation of soils, fallow land, soil sealing
Urban infrastructures and networks
Potential of soils and soil management practices for climate protection and adaptation
Conversion to clean energy
Practices to improve soil health
Urban production, circularity and regeneration
Sustainable land management, land use and changes in land use, spatial planning
Raising public awareness Sustainable use and management of marine resources
05 SOIL HEALTH AND FOOD
Ecosystem services and nature-related solutions
Ecology, agroecology, soil microbiology
Public health and well-being in cities
Cancer prevention, prediction, detection, diagnosis and treatment
Development of new materials including biodegradable plastic substitutes, new feed and foodstuffs
Quality of life and care at the end of life
Urban, coastal and marine planning and management
Resilience of cities
System sciences / system approaches taking into account the financial effects of soil degradation
Social impacts of climate change
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of the new framework programme will be available this fall. "Thanks to our work, it will be possible to narrow down/focus the initially defined subject areas that were deliberately left broad and open", Matthias Weber is convinced, "this is a very important step in the further development of the European research landscape and the entire European RTI system." More than 20 years of experience in foresight processes Weber also wants to continue to play an important role with his team in the other
phases that deal with the concrete implementation of the topics: "We know the processes at EU level, we know political decision-making processes. This will be of great importance in the specific implementation." The Center for Innovation Systems & Policy often integrates other AIT Centers when it comes to inquiries from the Commission; in other cases, external partners are involved as well. "As AIT, we are a European-scale research institution today, ranking among the international elite in specific subject areas," says Weber not without pride.
"With our systemic and interdisciplinary approach, we are in fact predestined to take part in defining questions of the future and research topics of tomorrow. Last but not least, we can point to more than 20 years of experience in foresight processes.�
One of the five missions in "Horizon Europe" concerns climate-neutral cities. Here, the AIT City Intelligence Lab (CIL) offers a truly unique R&D infrastructure.
AIT/APA-Fotoservice/Hinterramskogler
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CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH: FULL SPEED AHEAD A large number of AIT employees are working from their home office. Numerous phone calls, email communication and digital conferences dominate our working day. AIT thus keeps operating at full speed to keep its performance promises. And of course, great efforts are being made everywhere to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Here are three examples from the first days after the onset of the COVID-19 protective measures.
New telehealth system for people in quarantine The corona crisis is pushing the healthcare system to its limits. An eHealth solution that has now been developed at the AIT Center for Health & Bioresources can help here: Based on the proven AIT Telehealth platform, the "Covid-19 Monitoring Service", which can support the health authorities in the care of people in quarantine, was developed at short notice. Which is doubly important, since the number of quarantine cases is likely to continue to increase. People in quarantine enter their body temperature and, if necessary, oxygen saturation via the smartphone app or an Internet form and answer relevant questions about their well-being or symptoms (coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, sore throat). After an automatic plausibility check, this data is encrypted and transmitted to authorized caregivers. Clinical staff or health authorities receive a graphical representation of all data and can filter it for a better overview (body temperature, symptoms). The support teams can send short messages to the people using an integrated feedback function. All information is stored in a transparent and traceable manner. The people in quarantine can have the data clearly displayed at any time and thus also have THE MAGAZINE FOR PARTNERS AND CLIENTS
a "diary" in which they can monitor their progress themselves. Measuring impact: Fewer taxi trips during the Corona Crisis Center for Mobility Systems analyzed movement data: The restrictions imposed by the government to combat the Corona crisis are working: Researchers at the Center for Mobility Systems were able to document current changes in mobility behavior in Vienna using taxi data. The taxis continuously report their position - completely anonymously - and thus offer an insight into the traffic situation. Since the introduction of movement restrictions, significant changes have been registered: The taxi traffic in Vienna has decreased noticeably. The changes are particularly pronounced in the city centre. The otherwise so popular destinations for guests and night life have lost much of their appeal. The decline in long-distance passenger traffic – due to train reductions and airport shut-down, as reported by the media – is clearly noticeable. For example, far fewer people than before take a taxi to the central train station. The data thus show that the Viennese population and guests are reacting to the measures and restricting social life.
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Distraction at home The current situation in Austria is challenging in many ways. To shorten the time in your own four walls a little, we recommend the AIT podcasts on SoundCloud and Spotify. Here, AIT provides information on topics such as Artificial Intelligence, autonomous driving and the work of the AIT Gender Taskforce. The podcasts are done in cooperation with Radio INJOY. For those who prefer to read, the editors recommend the current AIT yearbook "Discussing Technology" with the focus on "Cybersecurity" that can be downloaded from the AIT website. The yearbook provides answers to the question of how we want to shape the digital world in the future. Fascinating input comes from, among others, Alexander Janda (Secretary General of the Safe Austrian Board of Trustees), Hemma Mayrhofer (researcher at the Institute for Legal and Criminal Sociology Vienna) and Christoph Thun-Hohenstein (General Director of the MAK Museum of Applied Arts).
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ENERGY TRANSITION
In the NEFI SANBA project, concrete low-temperature networks are examined using the Martinek military camp and the Niederösterreichische Molkerei (NÖM AG). The Martinek area has a total area of around 40 hectares and could become an attractive urban expansion area.
New ways to decarbonise the industry
Wolfgang Hribernik, Head of Center for Energy, and Edith Haslinger, project manager for SANBA, carry out valuable research work for the energy world of tomorrow.
With almost one third of the total energy consumption in Austria, industry is a key factor alongside transport and mobility. Initiatives such as New Energy for Industry (NEFI) - a key program within the energy flagship regions - demonstrate that 100% decarbonisation of industrial processes is reasonable and possible with energy technologies 6
developed in Austria. "Key technologies for industrial waste heat utilisation such as heat pumps or storage technologies - as well as new solutions for the use of renewable energy in industrial energy systems - play a central role here", explains Wolfgang Hribernik. Head of Center for Energy at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and NEFI network coordinator. "We are currently working on nine projects to show how the use of innovative technologies can lead to greater efficiency and lower C02 emissions. In this way we are making a central contribution to the energy transition and at the same time strengthening Austria as a research and business location," says Hribernik. In its projects, NEFI pursues a systemic approach that sees industry and commerce from different sectors as a central part of an integrated energy network. In addition to AIT, around 100 partners from companies, research institutes and public institutions are involved in NEFI. With the Montanuniver-
sität Leoben, Energiesparverband Upper Austrian and the Upper Austrian location agency Business Upper Austria, the AIT has three important partners at its side. The industrially strong provinces of Styria and Upper Austria are also behind the programme. NEFI is supported by the Climate and Energy Fund, funded by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK). SANBA - using industrial waste heat An exciting project within the framework of NEFI is currently being carried out in Baden near Vienna. The former "Martinek-Kaserne", which has been unused for several years, is located there. The huge 40 hectare site with its listed buildings from the 1930s would offer great potential for various types of use - from living to working or education and training. In any case, a decisive step in this direction would be a fundamental THE MAGAZINE FOR PARTNERS AND CLIENTS
Photos: AIT/Wolf
The decarbonisation of industry is an essential component for the success of the Energy transition. In flagship initiatives such as the programme NEFI (New Energy for Industry), technologies and system solutions are being developed that may decarbonise 100% of the energy and initiate the technology roll-out. AIT experts show that supplying industry from renewable energy sources is feasible and affordable.
With friendly permission of NÖM/Mario Pampel
redevelopment, but this would be very cost-intensive due to the size of the property. In one aspect, the provision of heat, the Federal Ministry of Defence as owner, the city of Baden and the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments have now agreed on a research project. The results should then enable further considerations for future use. The aim of the NEFI project "SANBA" is to develop a so-called anergy or low-temperature heating and cooling grid for the "Martinek military camp", whereby industrial low-temperature waste heat from neighbouring NÖM dairy and locally available renewable heat sources such as geothermal energy. The project results will show whether the concept of an energy grid is technically and economically feasible and whether it should be pursued further. The concept of an energy network includes • Heat recovery from the wastewater of the neighbouring NÖM dairy, • Integration of locally available renewable energy sources, • Energy storage aspects, THE MAGAZINE FOR PARTNERS AND CLIENTS
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Special challenges of different building standards of listed old buildings compared to new buildings with different uses (residential, commercial, educational) and thus different supply temperature and demand characteristics, as well as Moderate cooling via Free Cooling.
"Low temperature networks for heat supply and cooling or energy grids open up new possibilities for decentralised energy supply at neighbourhood level", says Edith Haslinger, AIT project manager for SANBA, "They increase flexibility and promote the integration of local, renewable energy sources. This creates dynamic networks that enable buildings to actively participate in the network as producers and consumers". On 21 January, the research team started a test drilling at area of the NÖM dairy. The properties of the subsoil are being tested with regard to its suitability for storing heat and cold. The researchers defined three concrete scenarios for the development of the site as the basis for the energy and renovation calculations. These range
from the exclusive use of the listed, renovated existing buildings without new buildings to a dense development with mixed use. In addition to the technical analysis and planning, an economic analysis is also carried out, in which the specific costs of the different energy services for these three development scenarios are determined and compared. The research work will show which variant will ultimately prevail.
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CONSUMER PROTECTION THROUGH MACHINE LEARNING Can your own smartphone, purchasing behaviour and location actually be a decisive factor for a price?
Open Source Crawler for free further development As part of the project, a special analysis tool, a "crawler", was developed for the 8
The pricing of online shopping frequently stimulates discussions.
surveys. It allows the regular and automated query of price points in online shops. The open source software is available under the GPL-3 license. Instructions that are freely accessible with the tool make it possible for users with basic technical know-how to use the crawler as quickly and easily as possible. The crawler allows, for example, cookie management for the price comparison of new customers versus returning existing customers, a VPN control to compare prices from different geo-locations, and it offers various user clients that allow price comparisons from different devices. The results of the empirical investigation and the legal analysis were been published as a study and can be found at www. mein-preis.at. Investigation of price discrimination using Machine Learning In the next step, the follow-up project PRIMMING ("Monitoring price discrimination in personalized pricing for e-commerce through machine-based learning") extensively examines data-based discriminatory pricing in e-commerce using methods of Machine Learning in order to protect consumers from unfair prices on the Internet and to be able to take measures against gender disadvantages. The project is coordina-
ted by the ÖIAT in cooperation with AIT, Ciuvo GmbH, and the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The two-year project (October 2019 – September 2021) was considered for funding in the BMVIT's “Talents” programme as part of the 6th FEMtech call for proposals. The aim is to develop a price monitoring framework that can be used to simulate personas and generate query scenarios. It allows prices to be raised in automated tests in a controlled infrastructure. To do this, the crawler will mimic the behaviour of real people. This makes it possible to identify overlaps of different causes of discrimination and to evaluate them. The results allow conclusions to be drawn about the legal conformity of these pricing measures in online trading. The acceptance on the consumer side is also evaluated with regard to gender-specific differences.
Photo: unsplash/John Schnobrich
An exciting topic – that was carefully examined with the netidee project "preis. wert", which was completed in December 2019. For this purpose, experts from the ACR institute ÖIAT (Austrian Institute for Applied Telecommunications) and data scientists at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology have developed a framework for monitoring data-based pricing practices in online trading as well as a dashboard for analyzing and visualizing the data sets obtained. The first application of the tool shows: Dynamic pricing is the order of the day in online retail. Between 16 May and 23 September 2019, the price development of a total of 13 electronics and 7 fashion items was queried in 50-minute intervals in two survey phases. The four online retailers for fashion as well as for electronics with the highest sales in Austria were selected. Ongoing price changes were observed for all observed online retailers. Many price movements were in the range below one euro, changes were rarely for more than 10 euros. Selected products were also examined for personalized pricing. For this purpose, different end devices, cookies and VPN addresses were used to simulate a location outside of Vienna. No personalized pricing could be found in the test under these conditions.
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FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE Customer feedback Raphael Schneeberger
Raphael Schneeberger, Managing Director NOUS Wissensmanagement GmbH
“As a provider in the areas of app development, mobile guides and digital transformation, we are always looking for new technologies and innovative solution approaches. As the largest Research and Technology Organization (RTO), AIT has already proven itself in several customer and innovation projects as a competent partner who accompanies us on the way to novel user experiences with technical expertise and a comprehensive understanding of user needs."
62 percent more than in 2019. A steadily increasing role of startups as a job engine of the Austrian economy can be observed as well. Austria's startups now employ more than 17,000 people and intend to create 7,000 new jobs in the medium term – although more than half of the startups have difficulty finding suitable employees. Every third startup now has at least one woman on the founding team. Karl-Heinz Leitner, Senior Scientist at the AIT Center for Innovation Systems, and scientific director of the project: “Startups are often active in industries in which regional focal points already exist. They often cooperate with established companies or universities in doing so. Startups rely on future technologies such as AI, Big Data or the Internet of Things and thus energize a wide variety of industries." The study was a collaboration between AIT, AustrianStartups and the founding center of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The photo shows Markus Raunig (AustrianStartups), Karl-Heinz Leitner (AIT) and Stephan Jung (WU Entrepreneurship Center). More at: www.austrianstartupmonitor.at
Photos: NOUS, AIT/Zinner, AustrianStartups
Austrian Startup Monitor 2019 Startups are speeding up
At the end February, the 2nd Austrian Startup Monitor 2019 was presented. The results show that Austria's startups have increasingly focused on sustainability in 2019. By now, 46 percent of startups are dedicated to social and ecological goals, DAS MAGAZIN FÜR PARTNER UND KUNDEN
ERA-LEARN New concept for R&D partnerships The preparation of the new European framework programme is progressing. A cornerstone of this is the redesign of the partnership instrument, which will bring about significant changes for existing public-public (P2P) and public-private partnerships (PPP). In order to better prepare the partnership community for the transition phase to Horizon Europe, ERALEARN's activities focus on increasing the coherence between different joint initiatives in the future and enabling greater interaction. In addition, innovation activities within P2Ps need to be strengt-
hened, since contributions needed for tackling societal challenges are to be submitted which cannot be achieved through research alone. More at: www.era-learn.eu
ImmUniverse When 26 partners pull together
Molecular Diagnostics expert Christa Noehammer is leading one of six work packages in the ImmUniverse research project.
Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are an increasing medical challenge worldwide. They differ greatly with respect to the outcome of the disease and also the response to medication, which means that therapies can often not be tailored to the individual patient. The ImmUniverse project, which is being supported by the EU together with the pharmaceutical industry with 30 million euros, focuses on the two IMIDs Ulcerative Colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, and Atopic Dermatitis, also called neurodermatitis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease. By means of extensive multi-omics studies and the resulting biomarkers, the aim is to create the basis for predicting disease behaviour and response to therapy and thus enable personalized treatment. The aim is to improve the diagnosis, to get a better understanding of the development of the disease and to create the basis for personalized therapy decisions for patients with ulcerative colitis and atopic dermatitis. More at: www.immuniverse.eu 9
The parallel existence of the mobility of persons, goods transport and its associated traffic infrastructure is increasingly being replaced by systemic interaction based on new technologies and overarching stakeholder interests and business models. An integrated view of passenger transport and logistics, combined with a flexible use of the infrastructure opens up new perspectives for shaping the mobility of the future. At the same time, the mobility system should be ecologically compatible, efficient, safe, and resilient, and it should meet the needs of the people. The development of economically and socially viable solutions requires a holistic approach and close cooperation between all those involved. R&D makes a significant contribution in this context: Comprehensive system know-how, scientific excellence and international networking make it possible to provide answers to the most burning questions in the mobility sector and thus to serve industry and society today with the solutions of tomorrow.
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Building sector Premiere: Expert forum for digital building technology
data interfaces of BIM models enable building simulations to be carried out, or controlling strategies and commissioning tests to be drafted automatically.
WiConNET Development and testing of wildlife warning modules
Pioneers and partners for the reduction of fossil energy consumption: Michael Paula (BMK), Thomas Fleckl (AIT), Steffen Robbi (AIT) / from left to right.
In December 2019, the Digital Building Conference, Austria's first expert forum on digitalization in buildings, took place in Vienna, Seestadt Aspern. The dialogue-oriented format of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology offered project developers, building owners, planners and technology providers a unique platform for intense exchange on digitalization in the building sector. The digital building of the future requires integrated thinking and planning approaches as well as an interdisciplinary approach right from the conception phase. This means that different players such as project developers, building owners, planners and technology providers must be involved in the process in order to better exploit the potential in terms of energy efficiency, automation and sustainability. However, key technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and artificial intelligence are not yet used in a standardized way in the planning process. Augmented Reality in particular offers the possibility to support integral planning and decision-making processes in a more transparent way. The application of artificial intelligence can help to analyze complex data from numerous sensors and to optimally adjust energy production to consumption. In addition, coordinated
The "Wildwarner" is to prevent wildlife accidents.
Every year, over 70,000 animals die on Austria's streets. Game accidents also pose a significant risk to motor vehicle occupants, with around 300 injuries and occasionally also fatalities. 92.5% of wildlife collisions happen on open roads. The WiConNET research project focuses on measures for accident prevention. It is executed in collaboration with iPTE Traffic Solutions Ltd and WWN-Forstner Technisches BĂźro fĂźr Forstwirtschaft [WWN-Forstner Technical Office for Forestry]. The aim is to develop new types of optical and acoustic game detectors / wildlife warning modules so that they can then be tested on selected "hot spots" or test tracks on the rail and road infrastructure. In the course of the project work, interdisciplinary AIT teams from the Centers for Mobility Systems and the Center for Vision, Automation & Control developed a mobile measurement laboratory for game detectors which makes it possible to subject the available game detectors to an objective test for the first time.
AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Photos: AIT/Aleksa, AIT/APA-Fotoservice/Hinterramskogler
Perspective paper Systemic mobility of the future
LKR Production of complex 3D components with Wire-AM
EAWARD 2020 Awards for THREATGET and Public Safety Hub (PSH)
and Technology (BMK) in the security research programme KIRAS, as well as EU research programmes.
Digitisation Cybersecurity Innovation Challenge in Vienna
Konrad Wieland and Salome Wagner (LieberLieber), Willibald Krenn and Michael Mürling (AIT) / from left to right
Photos: AIT/LKR/Lang, AIT/Milena Krobath, AIT/Zinner
The development process covers the entire value chain.
In the newly built Additive Manufacturing Laboratory at the LKR, complex 3D components are manufactured using the modern Wire-AM (wire+arc additive manufacturing) process. The LKR scientists have been researching the necessary Wire-AM-compatible welding wires made of aluminium and magnesium materials for several years. These special wires are developed, pressed and spooled in the in-house smart wire production route. A welding robot produces a component from them by laying the welding wire in several layers on top of each other. In the AM laboratory, complex 3D components can be built using material-specific process control, a multi-axis robotic system and the latest torch technologies. “The LKR is a pioneer in the research and development of the Wire-AM process as the future key technology of the industry. The advantage is that complicated geometries can be realized with reduced material usage and little waste,” says Martin Schnall, Wire-AM expert at the LKR.
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The eAward is one of the most important domestic IT awards and distinguishes particularly economical, customer-friendly and innovative IT projects from Austrian companies. LieberLieber Software and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology received the award for the new cybersecurity management system THREATGET in the "Industry 4.0" category. With the introduction of the new European safety directive according to ECE Level, vehicle manufacturers must demonstrably verify the cybersecurity of their vehicle systems in order to obtain approval of their products. With THREATGET, "Security by Design" becomes a reality: It provides developers with a tool to identify threats already during the design phase of new systems and to be able to quickly assess the associated risks. AIT received the “E-Government” category award for the implementation of the Public Safety Hub (PSH) which was developed in cooperation with the Department of Civil Protection and Defense in the Office of the State Government of Styria. For the first time, the PSH enables a seamless exchange of information between military and civil IT systems and with volunteers from the general population; it was developed as part of national projects funded by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation
Stronger together: Since April 2012, the UNCCT has implemented more than 80 capacity building projects on a global, regional and national level.
A few weeks ago, the finale of the two-day cybersecurity innovation challenge took place in Vienna under the motto "Countering Digital Terrorism". The event was organized by the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Center (UNCCT), the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), the United Nations Office of Information Communication and Technology (OICT), and AIT. 35 young participants from 16 countries developed strategies and solutions in 13 team groups. The aim of the Innovation Challenge was to raise young people's awareness of digital terrorist threats and to motivate them to look for innovative solutions to these threats. The Cybersecurity Innovation Challenge was hosted by AIT, which has a strong research focus on the area of digital security with its Center for Digital Safety & Security.
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"With this blog, we want to reach those people who do not work in R&D and show them that AIT is working on solutions to the problems of our time," says AIT Head of Communication Michael Hlava.
On 13 February 2020, the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology started its new research blog. Austria's largest non-university research institution is thus expanding its communication mix and addresses a broad public in order to convey the topics of research, innovation, and technology development in an exciting and understandable way. Two to four times a month, a new article will talk about AIT, introduce researchers, or present their current projects. The work and achievements of these highly qualified experts can thus be experienced in a concrete way. Last but not least, the blog is intended to clarify the particular benefits of industry-related research for each individual. www.ait.ac.at/blog
EIT Health For a better and healthier life in Europe At the beginning of January 2020, AIT, Boehringer Ingelheim Regional Center Vienna (RCV), Kapsch BusinessCom, UNIQA Insurance Group AG and the WILD Group as well as the successful Viennese start-up incubator INiTS as a network partner became the first Austrian 12
partners to join the largest European health network EIT Health. The aim is to jointly bring new products and services to the European market faster, to support young companies in a targeted manner and to make new educational offers available. AIT took the lead in bringing the partners into the network. The European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) brings together innovative organizations from industry, research, universities and entrepreneurs in a unique network for open innovation in order to specifically increase Europe's innovative capacity.
Technology Experience Age-appropriate mobility in demand
Automated mobility technologies are essential for older people to participate in everyday life.
Research indicates that older people could particularly benefit from automated mobility technologies and services, in terms of increased mobility, autonomy and quality of life. In the research and development service “A4F�, the AIT Center for Technology Experience investigated in more depth the requirements and acceptance factors for age-appropriate automated driving. Based on a detailed analysis of existing and future use cases of aging-sensitive mobility solutions, scenarios and system concepts were discussed with target group representatives and experts. Building on this, needs, concerns and barriers regarding automa-
ted driving technologies and services were derived. The project results will be published here: https://a4f.tech-experience.at/
3beLiEVe Large HORIZON 2020 project at AIT is picking up speed
Batteries without cobalt and with sensor technology are an essential project objective.
After more than a year of preparation, countless telephone calls and meetings with potential project partners and a great deal of courage and determination, the work has paid off: the "3beliEVe" project has been approved and, at 10.8 million euros (of which 1.6 million euros for AIT), is one of the largest Horizon 2020 project coordinated by AIT. The consortium consists of 21 research institutes, industrial companies and SMEs from 10 different European countries. Two centers are involved in the AIT - the Center for Low-Emission Transport and the Center for Vision, Automation and Control. The project is coordinated by the LET Competence Unit Electric Drive Technologies and runs until June 2023.
Photos: AIT/Shotview/Rigaud, Getty Images, AIT/Fabry
Science communication AIT goes online with a new blog
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LET'S KEEP IN TOUCH
Due to the current situation regarding COVID-19 and the associated measures that had to be taken, we would like to inform our customers and partners about our current operational situation. We continue our operational activities. How– ever, most of our employees work from their home office. You can reach your contact persons as usual by email and telephone; messages and calls are forwarded accordingly. Meetings are held via online conferences. Follow us: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ait_2 https://www.facebook.com/AITtomorrow2day https://www.twitter.com/aittomorrow2day https://www.youtube.com/user/AITTomorrowToday https://www.ait.ac.at/presse/ait-podcasts/ Sign up for the AIT Newsletter
More about AIT: www.ait.ac.at
INNOVATION CALENDAR Editorial deadline: 31 March 2020
26 – 28 May 2020
21 – 26 June 2020
28 – 30 July 2020
12 – 13 November 2020
QoMEX 2020 International online conference for Quality of Multimedia Experience Location: Athlone, Ireland AIT contact: Raimund Schatz www.qomex2020.ie
IMLB 2020 Conference on the latest research results on lithium batteries. Location: Berlin AIT contact: Katja Fröhlich www.imlb2020.org
PCIM Europe 2020 Leading trade fair and conference for power electronics, intelligent drive technology, renewable energy and energy management. Location: Nürnberg, Germany AP: Peter Scheuermann, Johannes Stöckl www.pcim.mesago.com/nuernberg/ de.html
Digital Austria – AI Konkret The Innovation Summit for Users: Separating hype from reality and showing that AI can be used in almost all industries. AIT contact: Michael Mürling Location: Bad Erlach, Lower Austria www.lsz-consulting.at/events/ digital-austria-2020-ai-konkretinnovation-summit-users
18 June 2020 FSV traffic day Specialist conference with exhibition on the topics of mobility, traffic, traffic safety as well as construction and building material recycling. Location: Vienna AIT contact: Anna Huditz www.fsv.at
5 – 9 July 2020 ESOF2020 European Science Forum International science conference on questions of research and innovation, presentation of the AIT project RISIS2 Location: Trieste AIT contact: Thomas Scherngell https://www.esof.eu
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SCIENTIFIC PAPER WITH FLEXIBILITY TO THE ENERGY TRANSITION A key aspect of the energy transition and the new structure of the energy system is that private households are moving from being purely passive consumers to becoming prosumers. But how can these customers be inspired? The AIT Center for Energy has analysed this question in detail.
Johanna Spreitzhofer, Regina Hemm (top right) and Tara Esterl (below) are working at the AIT Center for Energy on issues such as the flexible use of energy systems. Helfried Brunner, Christopher Burger-Scheidlin, Christian Fuchs, Johannes Kathan, Klemens Korner, Felix Lehfuss, Fabian Leimgruber, David Reihs, Roman Schwalbe and Mark Stefan also work on these projects.
AIT/Zinner, Oskar Hemm, AIT/Sophie Menegaldo
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THE MAGAZINE FOR PARTNERS AND CLIENTS
Components such as heat pumps, electric cars, boilers and batteries can store energy, release it when needed or shift the time of consumption. The broad use of this flexibility offers new possibilities for integrating fluctuating renewable energies into the electricity system - and is increasingly turning private households into active players on the electricity market. At the AIT Center for Energy, a team of researchers has now investigated how this transformation step could be made "tasty" to customers. This was based on the national "leafs" and "Flex+" projects led by AIT and supported by the Climate and Energy Fund, as well as other national and international research projects. Among other things, the network operators Netz Oberรถsterreich, Salzburg Netz und Energienetze Steiermark conducted a survey of a total of 13,000 customers, which was evaluated by the Energy Institute of the Johannes Kepler University of Linz. Trend towards electrification confirmed The results of the survey confirm the widespread trend towards electrification. The interest in electric cars and heat pumps is particularly high. Even though only 4 % of those surveyed people already owned an electric car at the time of the survey, 23 % planned to buy one and 74 % obtained information about it. In the provinces of Styria, Salzburg and Upper Austria, heat pumps have also taken the lead in the planned expansion of heating systems, with an average value of 33 %, compared to fossil-fuelled energy sources such as gas and oil, and also before biomass. A great potential is also attested to batteries for PV systems: 80% of those surveyed show a high interest in neighbourhood storage systems that serve several buildings at once. Automatic control with Plug&Play The advantage of these components is that they can be controlled automatically THE MAGAZINE FOR PARTNERS AND CLIENTS
and flexibly with an appropriate control system. So what incentives are needed to ensure that customers make appropriate use of this flexibility? The results of the projects clearly show that low costs, little effort or additional added value play a significant role. The "Flex+" project pursues an exciting approach here with the use of cloud systems, which are already integrated in most components for maintenance and monitoring purposes. In combination with a specially developed platform, this has created an intelligent interface between the electricity suppliers and the prosumers. On the basis of forecasts for electricity prices and electricity demand, the use of the flexibility of the components combined in pools can thus be controlled and optimised in a targeted manner. The Plug&Play aspect is very important in this context: In the future, customers will not have to keep themselves constantly informed about prices and keep an eye on the markets. When buying a heat pump, for example, the installer simply enters the required building parameters on site - the rest runs fully automatically.
project, for example, a push message on a mobile phone was used to persuade customers to take advantage of a sun bonus, thereby shifting an average of 5 % of their electricity consumption to times of high local generation. In addition to such dynamic incentives, static time-ofuse tariffs, i.e. more favourable prices in fixed time windows, can also lead to a permanent change in consumption. The analysis thus brought new impulses for intelligent energy use, which could be further strengthened by further cost reductions and higher revenues for flexibility on the energy markets. In addition, it should be possible to increase the "coolness factor" of flexible use and make people more aware of the associated contribution to climate targets - after all, 80% of those surveyed said that climate and environmental issues are important or very important to them.
Win-win for energy suppliers and customers In the future, there will be many tariffs that allow for automated collection and provision of flexibility, thus opening up new marketing opportunities for energy suppliers. At present, there is a potential annual revenue of around 20 to 40 euros per kilowatt on the energy markets. Suppliers can then pass on the profit generated from this to end customers in the form of attractive tariffs. Since, in addition to the price aspects, the customers' own interests and comfort requirements are always taken into account, the result is a win-win situation for both sides. Human factor remains important But steering effects are also possible without automation. In the "leafs" 15
SCIENTIFIC PAPERS Web data for noise calculation A large amount of data on civil air traffic is now available on the web, thanks to the recent development of flight tracker websites. This paper presents a novel methodology to exploit these data for computing real-world noise around airports. The proposed approach consists of data collection and pre-processing, flight path reconstruction, aircraft noise computation using a best-practice model (ECAC Doc.29), and rendering of ground track and noise contour maps in airport areas. Applications are shown for nine European airports, where the daily air traffic reconstructed from 10,752 collected flights compares well with official records from EUROCONTROL. Among these airports, London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol and Vienna-Schwechat have been considered for the validation of the present methodology, and a good agreement is found between predicted ground noise levels and available historical data, with the largest deviations being detected in the portions of the airport areas most affected by departure events. The present work constitutes the first step to harnessing the potential of web data in aviation, unlocking unprecedented possibilities for assessing the environmental impact of civil aviation and providing policy-makers with a powerful tool for developing guidelines and regulations aimed at mitigating the detrimental effects of air traffic in densely inhabited regions.
M. Pretto, P. Giannattasio, M. De Gennaro, A. Zanon, H. Kühnelt, “Web data for computing real-world noise from civil aviation”, Transportation Research Part D, Vol. 69, April 2019, pp 224-249. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S1361920918306254
Detection of landslides With the increased availability of high-resolution digital terrain models (HRDTM) generated using airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR), new opportunities for improved mapping of geohazards such as landslides arise. While the visual interpretation of LiDAR, HRDTM hillshades is a widely used approach, the automatic detection of landslides is promising to significantly speed up the compilation of inventories. Previous studies on automatic landslide detection often used a combination of optical imagery and geomorphometric data, and were implemented in commercial software. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of open source software for automated landslide detection solely based on HRDTM-derived data in a study area in Burgenland, Austria. We implemented a geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) consisting of (1) the calculation of land-surface variables, textural features and shape metrics, (2) the automated optimization of segmentation scale parameters, (3) region-growing segmentation of the landscape, (4) the supervised classification of landslide parts (scarp and body) using support vector machines (SVM), and (5) an assessment of the overall classification performance using a landslide inventory. We used the free and open source data-analysis environment R and its coupled geographic information system (GIS) software for the analysis; our code is included in the Supplementary Materials. The developed approach achieved a good performance (κ = 0.42) in the identification of landslides. P. Leopold, A. Brenning, R. Knevels, H. Petschko: "Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis for Automated Landslide Detection Using Open Source GIS Software"; ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, ja (2019), 8 (12); S. 1 – 21. Open Access: www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/8/12/551
Digital innovation management Digitisation is causing a complete paradigm shift in production and innovation options. Digitisation is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and create new income and value creation opportunities. The term digiti sation describes the technological change from “analogue information into a digital format". Digitisation is the transformation of processes, interactions, communication, business functions and business models into digital ones. Digital transformation refers to the process of organizational and societal change, including the ability to adopt technology quickly, which affects both social and technical elements of business models, processes, products and the organizational structure. M. Hörlesberger: "Innovation management in a digital world"; Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 30 (2019), 8; 10 S. Open Access: www.emerald.com/insight/content/ doi/10.1108/JMTM-12-2019-461/full/html
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