Projects

Information Technology (IT) is becoming more and more important for sustaining competitive advantage and increasing business success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). In this context, IT outsourcing is enjoying a growing proliferation. Cloud Computing, a new computing paradigm, in essence, refers to outsourced IT resources accessible through thin interfaces (e.g. a web browser). Despite its promising potential, SMEs are still reluctant in adopting cloud services compared to larger enterprises. The economic landscape of Baden-Württemberg is characterized by an elevated export orientation and high technology competence. Cooperation among companies is considered highly important to the economy of this region, which exhibits a strong automotive manufacturing and a significant small and medium-sized business sector.

The research project Cloud Mall BW aims at exploring and developing open cloud ecosystems and exhibits a regional focus on the federal state Baden-Württemberg. Thereby, the project aspires to facilitate the communication and exchange among SME providers and users of cloud services. This helps providers to engage in inter-organizational cooperation and users to find trustworthy, high-quality cloud services. Furthermore, the development of integrated cloud services in the context of Cloud Mall BW should position the region Baden-Württemberg in the IT-sector positively. The project thus aims at retaining the competitiveness of SMEs located in this region. In order to meet the domain-specific requirements of different enterprises, the project exemplary addresses start-up companies as well as SMEs affiliated to industry and retail segments. During the project, various scenarios will be developed and implemented as integrated cloud services. The Institute for Enterprise Systems (InES) accounts for the development of a cloud ecosystem addressing the retail domain. In this context, the InES and project partners Fraunhofer IAO, Fraunhofer IPA and bwcon GmbH investigate the specific requirements of cloud service providers and users.

Industry 4.0, Cloud Computing and Social Media: Information and communication technologies (ICT) are developing rapidly. How this affects the economy, society and the individual is the subject of the research alliance “Digitization: Transformation of Socio-Economic Processes”, in short “ForDigital”, of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Mannheim. The aim is to better understand the mechanisms of digital transformation and to design innovative ICT solutions. The initiative, which is funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) of the state of Baden-Württemberg, brings together scientists from both institutions and other partners.

Recent findings in bio-medical research enable the advanced analysis and description of processes in the human body on a molecular level. Thus, disease control evolves and these novel findings provide increasing potential enhancing treatment modalities. Furthermore, the shift from organic to cellular or even smaller molecular structures in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer reveals innovative processes and allows molecular interventions.

Due to the high complexity of interventions on the molecular level, a combination of most modern examination- and treatment modalities also requires diversified procedures. These include subjects from the medical and scientific area, and particularly contributions from the engineering and business science. For this purpose a unique and multidisciplinary research network, connecting medical, scientific, engineering, and business sciences, conduct an intertwined research project alias M²olie. As a partial project ProM²olie supports and integrates the efficient procedures of all the different actors, processes, and resources applying innovative and appropriate information technology.

The Digital Academy is a network for structured exchange of knowledge, experience, thought leadership, innovations and future trends to drive the digital transformation in Germany. Therefore, it was developed with a network of corporate partners and based on a framework provided by the leading international business school in Germany.

The power of 5G mobile communications opens up a wide range of new possibilities for faster and better emergency medical care. The “RettungsNetz-5G” project is an alliance with 15 partners from industry, medicine, and research. The project serves to exploit the potential and incremental deployment of the new 5G communication standard and related technology innovations, which together enable mobile diagnostics and a much faster therapy initiation for emergency medical cases. To this end, the project will integrate medical technology innovations into an ambulance using the new 5G communication standard, generate cloud-based AI analyses, and communicate these in real-time to the emergency scene, so that faster high-quality care for stroke patients can be expected in this project. For digitized coordination in emergency care, research on physicians' decision-making behavior on the part of Prof. Dr. Armin Heinzl's chair is of central importance.