Successful at IPBC

ChatGPT, machine learning, artificial intelligence: many people see great opportunities for our society in these technologies and their applications, while others are more cautiously doubtful about recent digital developments. Against the backdrop of this tension, the focus of the event was on the development of business models that specifically use the opportunities of AI to create added value for society. One example: More than 300 people drown in Germany every year. To solve this problem, the aquaAI team proposed an AI-based solution: A wristband that recognises whether a swimming person is in distress based on arm movements while swimming and the wearer's pulse rate and then automatically informs the supervisory staff.

During several company visits, the students received many impulses for their search for ideas: At the Appsfactory, they learned first-hand about challenges on the way to implementing a business idea into a digitally supported app. A practice-oriented lecture together with the development team for a new telemedical product very clearly sensitised them to legal and ethical challenges in relation to the use of personal data. Representatives of the Artificial Intelligence Center Hamburg (ARIC), an industry association for the use of AI, gave an overview of existing AI-based companies in Hamburg and the legal framework for founding and data protection. During a visit to Lufthansa Technik, the participants dealt with the prediction of necessary maintenance work on aircraft (predictive maintenance). The tour through the halls of technical maintenance in Hamburg was rounded off by an expert lecture. This was illustrated with examples from predictive maintenance, in which a wide range of sensor data is used to determine the expected probability of failure of technical components. Finally, the students learned more about the storage and evaluation of large amounts of data at the particle accelerator DESY.

Another important task for the teams was to organise themselves - no easy task given the cultural and language barriers. In daily mentor meetings, the progress of the group was reflected on and the business ideas and their intended implementation were put to the acid test.

At the end of the event, the eight teams competed against each other. In a maximum of twelve minutes each, the teams presented their business plan and faced critical questions from an independent jury of experts. Jury members were: Mia Witzig (Head of Digital Fleet Solutions Lufthansa Technik), Dr.-Ing. Christian Keun (Founder and Managing Director CompriseTec GmbH), Jan Schnedler (Founding Partner, Kanzlei Grenius Rechtsanwälte) and Teja Töpfer (Co-Founder and COO facelift). The Dermassistant team won with its idea for an AI-supported app that identifies the individual causes of skin irritations based on information about the behaviour and diet of people suffering from neurodermatitis.