Zukunfts­zen­trum für mensch­zen­trier­te Künst­li­che In­telli­genz (KI) in der Pro­duk­tions­ar­beit (ZUKIPRO‑2)

The ZuKI­Pro pro­ject is being exten­ded. To ensu­re that small and medi­um-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) do not lose out in times of rapid digi­tal chan­ge, the Fede­ral Minis­try of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) has laun­ched a fun­ding pro­gram for regio­nal AI (Arti­fi­ci­al Intel­li­gence) Hubs for Tomor­row. Their focus is on the par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry and human-cen­te­red design, intro­duc­tion and use of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies.

The Labo­ra­to­ry for Machi­ne Tools and Pro­duc­tion Engi­nee­ring (WZL) of RWTH Aachen Uni­ver­si­ty, as con­sor­ti­um lea­der, will estab­lish the Hub for Human-cen­te­red AI in Pro­duc­tion from now on, tog­e­ther with six other part­ners in Hes­sen within the frame­work of the fun­ding pro­gram. Based on the ana­ly­sis of regi­on-spe­ci­fic sup­port needs, it will in future offer various con­sul­ting ser­vices and inno­va­ti­ve tea­ching and lear­ning con­cepts for qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on in the sub­ject are­as of digi­tiza­ti­on and arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence. SMEs in the manu­fac­tu­ring and skil­led trades in Hes­sen and their employees are to bene­fit from this free offe­ring in the long term.

Regio­nal Exper­ti­se for SMEs in Hes­se

The Hub for Human-cen­te­red AI in Pro­duc­tion crea­tes a prac­ti­ce-ori­en­ted for­mat for con­sul­ting, qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on, test­ing and dif­fu­si­on of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies. It is inten­ded to pro­mo­te par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry work and tech­no­lo­gy design and enable SMEs to tap the poten­ti­al of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies in work and busi­ness pro­ces­ses. In addi­ti­on, ZuKI­Pro will act as a neu­tral cont­act and trans­fer point for SMEs, spon­sors, tech­no­lo­gy pro­vi­ders and social part­ners.

ZuKIPro's offe­rings are tan­gi­ble and prac­ti­ce-ori­en­ted: As part of the so-cal­led plat­form modu­le, com­pa­nies can bring a mobi­le AI lab direct­ly onto the com­pa­ny pre­mi­ses and expe­ri­ence pro­to­ty­pi­cal AI appli­ca­ti­ons. Digi­tal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on offe­rings, such as a lear­ning and know­ledge plat­form or Mas­si­ve Open Online Cour­ses (MOOCs), bring the topics of digi­tiza­ti­on and arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence to life for employees. Through the­se for­mats, the Future Cen­ter enables com­pa­nies and their employees to reco­gni­ze and ana­ly­ze the chal­lenges in their own com­pa­nies, to inde­pendent­ly initia­te, design and imple­ment lear­ning and solu­ti­on pro­ces­ses, and to eva­lua­te the results.

The aim of the AI intro­duc­tion modu­le is to crea­te a low-thres­hold approach to the topic. To this end, SMEs are sup­port­ed in the par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry, co-crea­ti­ve intro­duc­tion and human-cen­te­red design of AI sys­tems. Across all modu­les, the Future Cen­ter informs and advi­ses small and medi­um-sized enter­pri­ses accor­ding to their needs and enables them to imple­ment con­cre­te solu­ti­ons. In this pro­ject pha­se, solu­ti­ons for sus­taina­bi­li­ty, demo­gra­phy and diver­si­ty are also included in the digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on sup­port for SMEs as addi­tio­nal focal points for action.

In order to pro­vi­de a regio­nal­ly or local­ly opti­mi­zed offer, a total of three offices will be set up. The­se pro­vi­de the ser­vices and exper­ti­se of the par­ti­ci­pa­ting pro­ject col­la­bo­ra­tes in bund­led form in the indi­vi­du­al parts of the sta­te: Nor­t­hern Hes­sen (Kas­sel), Cen­tral Hes­sen (Frank­furt a. M.) and Sou­thern Hes­sen (Darm­stadt).

All pro­ject part­ners pull tog­e­ther

The con­sor­ti­um behind the Hub for Human-cen­te­red AI in Pro­duc­tion, ZuKI­Pro, com­pri­ses sci­en­ti­fic rese­arch insti­tu­tes, cham­bers, asso­cia­ti­ons and com­pa­nies that, tog­e­ther with a net­work of asso­cia­ted part­ners, are pur­suing the goal of advan­cing digi­tal deve­lo­p­ment with a focus on AI in SMEs.

The stra­tegy of the Hub for Human-cen­te­red AI in Pro­duc­tion, ZuKI­Pro, is to estab­lish and make acces­si­ble a lar­ge Hes­sen-wide net­work with part­ners from local, regio­nal and supra-regio­nal orga­niza­ti­ons, initia­ti­ves and asso­cia­ti­ons. In par­ti­cu­lar, the com­bi­na­ti­on of tech­no­lo­gi­cal, ergo­no­mic and socio-poli­ti­cal exper­ti­se and expe­ri­ence in trans­fer distin­gu­is­hes this uni­que net­work in Hes­sen. Through the supra-regio­nal pro­ject staf­fing with part­ners from North Rhi­ne-West­pha­lia, Hes­sen and Rhi­ne­land-Pala­ti­na­te, a clo­se net­wor­king with the other future cen­ters is also aimed at in order to use syn­er­gies and to con­ti­nuous­ly deve­lop the offer.

Human-Cen­te­red Arti­fi­ci­al Intel­li­gence for Pro­duc­tion

In the ZuKI­Pro pro­ject, ITA is taking on part of the labor sci­ence sup­port for the pro­ject, tog­e­ther with the Insti­tu­te for Labor Sci­ence at the TU Darm­stadt and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kas­sel. In addi­ti­on to advi­sing medi­um-sized com­pa­nies with a focus on the regi­on of sou­thern Hes­se, ITA's main focus is on the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­ti­on of digi­tal qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on offe­rings such as an online lear­ning plat­form and a digi­tal lear­ning game. ITA has many years of expe­ri­ence in rese­arch and con­sul­ting on par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry, human-cen­te­red sel­ec­tion, intro­duc­tion and imple­men­ta­ti­on of digi­tal (AI) tech­no­lo­gies. This includes the PFL-EX and DiCo pro­jects, which are also fun­ded by the Ger­man Fede­ral Minis­try of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS), as well as the Mit­tel­stand 4.0 Com­pe­tence Cen­ter Kai­sers­lau­tern, which is fun­ded by the Ger­man Fede­ral Minis­try for Eco­no­mic Affairs and Ener­gy (BMWi).

The pro­ject will start in Janu­ary 2023 and end in Decem­ber 2026.

Fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on at zuki​pro​.de.