Research and Projects

Network Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The "Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)" network was established in March 2023 from the eponymous think tank of the Virtual Competence Center AI in science and meets monthly online due to the great interest in personal exchange. Current questions of how AI can be used ethically and responsibly will be discussed between representatives from a wide range of disciplines. In March 2024, a handout entitled "What is AI?" containing ten statements and a FAQ list with recommendations for practitioners was drawn up and published. Are you interested in participating in one of the next digital meetings? For further information visit the European Network Ethical Use of AI website or feel free to contact: Christian M. Stracke.

European Artificial Intelligence & ED
The European Union recognized the need to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) early on. To this end, the European Commission has drawn up the draft of the AI ​​Act, which is now being discussed by the member states following approval by the European Parliament. At the same time, the Council of Europe selected a 20-strong Expert Group on "Artificial Intelligence and Education" (AI&ED) with Christian M. Stracke from the University IT and Data Center at the University of Bonn as the German representative. The Expert Group AI&ED is appointed to develop an international convention to regulate AI on the basis of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Network Open Education
A closed network for open education between many international universities is currently being set up. The aim is to set up and support community building, research and educational offers on open education for all as well as the sharing of learning concepts, resources and software. Christian M. Stracke represents the University of Bonn within the network as a long-standing ICDE Chair and coordinates internal coordination, activities and contributions.

Network Virtual Learning Rooms
The nationwide network "Virtual Learning Rooms" has been meeting online regularly every six to eight weeks since summer 2022 and includes all types of digital learning environments from wikis and forums to immersive 3D worlds with VR glasses. The informal exchanges are always started with an input. Are you interested in participating in one of the next digital meetings? Feel free to contact: Christian M. Stracke.

The University of Bonn has been using the collaboration tools Confluence (wiki), Jira (task management) and Bitbucket (software development) of the provider Atlassian since January 2020 for work organization principally in the areas of knowledge management, project management and administration as a central collaboration platform that enables and/or facilitates collaboration between various central and peripheral units.

The project team addresses the core issues of goal defining, technical interfaces/borders to parallel services, overseeing administrative change processes and ongoing employee training on use of the collaboration tools to unlock the full potential of unlimited University-wide collaboration.

The University of Duisburg-Essen has been using a proprietary app for a few years now called MyUDE. This app is now undergoing further development for use by other universities in the state of NRW and as a state-wide service.

The University of Bonn is participating in this state-wide project. Possible use cases include the student and staff identification, providing the semester ticket or the library card, or connecting the interfaces of the campus management system, study management system or the library system. The "Uni Bonn App" will be made available at the beginning of the summer term 2024 at the University of Bonn.

High performance computing resources are offered by the university computer center as a central service for working groups / scientists at the University of Bonn. This supports highly parallel numerical simulations, especially for applications in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

To the website "High Performance Computing at the University of Bonn"

Identity and access management (IdA) is about processes, policies and techniques for managing personal data and data objects and access rights to resources, thus representing a prerequisite for a host of other services. IdA poses a special challenge at universities because of the wide variety of users and their various roles within research, teaching and administration, and also because student data is involved in processing.

Central identity and access management is about the overarching organization and management of authorizations for various services so as to render a ‘digital identity’ for users. The project goal is the further development of existing central identity and access management structures and processes to meet actual requirements.

There is one Hertz Professor for each of the six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) at the University of Bonn, responsible for driving forward top-level research. These professorship chairs are central in nature, not belonging to any specific faculty.

University of Bonn IT support however is decentrally organized at the various faculties and institutes, which receive central IT services from University IT.

The project goals are the development and establishment of a new service structure within University IT for decentral support for Hertz Professorship holders without impacting the provision of central IT services by University IT and the ongoing optimization thereof.

Virtual Collaboration (ViCo) strengthens and supports the future-oriented further development of teaching at the University of Bonn. ViCo includes various forms of digital collaboration both between teachers and students and between students themselves.

To the Website "Virtual Collaboration und digitale Zusammenarbeit an der Universität Bonn"