Cognitive Sensor Technologies

She is exceptionally talented in many respects. Dr. Theresa Götz, who indeed holds two doctorates – in physics and information science –  pursues her wide-ranging interests with both passion and dedication. And her career path reflects that variety: She had originally planned to become a hotel manager and chef with the ultimate aim of taking over her family’s restaurant. Then she won a youth research award, took part in the Fraunhofer Talent Academy, and completed her physics degree in record time. At the age of 26, she had successfully earned two doctorates, and she now works as chief scientist and deputy group manager of the Multimodal Human Sensing group at Fraunhofer IIS. We interviewed Theresa Götz about her career and her life.

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We interviewed Prof. Alexander Martin about the European data strategy for the future, how Europe can deal with data in a responsible and sustainable way, and in which specific areas of application federal data management should apply. Alexander Martin is a director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and a member of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT.

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Hydrogen is considered a technology of the future. But what exactly is the hydrogen economy? What expertise does Fraunhofer IIS offer in this field? And how can companies benefit from it? Prof. Alexander Martin, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen and Chair of Analytics & Mixed-Integer Optimization at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg has some answers.

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We must start putting greater emphasis on treating data as a valuable resource. After all, producing and storing data consumes enormous amounts of energy. One solution is the concept of eResourcing, which provides for a sustainable way to handle the resource “data.”  Even data recycling will soon be a matter of course. Prof. Alexander Martin explains why.

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We’ve developed nanoSPECTRAL technology, which enables a large number of highly integrated spectral channels to be produced at very low cost. These production costs essentially remain constant, regardless of the number of spectral channels required. We achieve this by structuring metallic layers as part of the CMOS semiconductor fabrication process. Unlike with conventional optical filters, such as thin-film filters, no further processing steps are required to produce these optical nanostructures. #WeKnowHow

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Dr. Roland Fischer, managing director of the Fraunhofer Center for Applied Research on Supply Chain Services at Fraunhofer IIS, and Markus Weissenbäck, project manager for the FACE project, describe how a fast and equitable distribution of medical protective goods works based on mathematical methods. #WeKnowHow

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The FutureIOT platform captures and connects data from the real world. It can be used to coordinate processes and to monitor and optimize infrastructure. This is useful for a variety of applications, including animal health, parking space management, air quality measurement and connected sensor technology for fields. Dr. Christine Funk from Fraunhofer IIS is managing the joint project that brings together 29 companies and authorities as well as 11 partners from the scientific sector in Bavaria. Funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation, the project ran until the end of July 2021. In the video, IIS Executive Director Prof. Albert Heuberger explains how the platform benefits people and the environment.

Christian Weigand’s professional interests center around the digitalization of healthcare. He is head of the Mobile Health Lab for mobile and digital medicine in Bamberg and CTO of the Digital Health Application Center (dmac). Addressing the question of whether physicians will visit us in our living rooms in the future in an interview on the Innovationskünstler*innen im Gespräch (“Innovation artists in conversation”) podcast from the Innovationskunst initiative, Weigand discussed innovations in the area of telemedicine that are intended to facilitate communication between patients and medical staff. The conversation focused on the security and availability of medical data, as well as the significance for research.

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For the third time, the INC Invention Center and Fraunhofer IIS/EAS are training companies in the use of artificial intelligence (AI). In the consortium project “AI: Understand – Apply – Benefit,” participants from a wide range of industries learn how to harness the potential of AI to their advantage. Applications range from production processes and operational workflows to integration into products and services. The consortium project will run from June 25, 2021 to April 5, 2022, although it is still possible to join at a later date during the first few weeks after the start of the project.

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In this interview, Albert Heuberger talks about the challenges facing the field of Green ICT, and how applied research can help. As chairman of the steering committee of the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD), he also discusses the topics the FMD is working on, as well as outlining the developments currently being pursued at Fraunhofer IIS.

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The "Bayerische Kompetenzzentrum Quanten Security and Data Science", or BayQS, was launched with a kickoff event on April 29, 2021. The center’s main objective is to research and develop fundamental concepts and solutions, and also to evaluate prototypes in the field of quantum computing. Prof. Alexander Martin and Markus Weissenbäck attended the event. Here, they explain how Fraunhofer IIS plans to use quantum computing to optimize methods and applications.

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Bavaria has set its sights on becoming a hotspot for artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, the State Government established the Bavarian Council on AI. It is chaired by Prof. Sami Haddadin, Director of the Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MSRM). The body’s 21 members have been drawn from various fields. High-caliber experts from universities, non-university research institutions and industry are pooling their know-how and resources to advance Bavaria’s High-Tech Agenda in the field of AI through intensive cooperation in a dense network.

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Christian Hofmann and his Medical Sensor Systems Group are working on the Filter4Flow project, which simplifies care for patients requiring respiratory assistance and could help avoid the feared bottlenecks in ventilation units. #WeKnowHow

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Computer architecture inspired by the human brain – to most people, this sounds rather abstract and removed from everyday life. Far from it: a research team from Fraunhofer IIS and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has developed neuromorphic hardware capable of detecting early signs of atrial fibrillation and considerably reducing the risk of stroke. In other words, this application has an entirely practical place in everyday life.

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Christian Weigand heads the Mobile Health Lab in Bamberg, Germany, and works at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. He explains how the pandemic management app can help support health authorities.

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Group manager Dr. Matthias Völker and senior engineer Dr. Markus Stahl-Offergeld both work in the Smart Sensing and Electronics Division at Fraunhofer IIS. They are currently working on “KI-PREDICT”, a project funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) devoted to on-sensor data processing supported by AI functions. For this project, the two experts are focusing on the development of a “sensor interface ASIC” with integrated AI functions. One of the partners in the “KI-PREDICT” project is Rolf Slatter, the managing director of Sensitec GmbH since 2009. Sensitec is a global market leader in high-quality, innovative magnetic sensor solutions. We asked Matthias Völker, Markus Stahl-Offergeld, and Rolf Slatter to tell us about the project and their collaboration.

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Prof. Dr. Andreas Harth is head of the Data Spaces and IoT Solutions department at the Fraunhofer Center for Applied Research on Supply Chain Services at the Fraunhofer IIS. He seeks out hidden data that makes companies more resilient in a crisis and enables them to stay in control, and he researches technologies for decentralized information systems.

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Bringing intelligence to devices is an essential prerequisite for autonomous driving. After all, real-life traffic situations demand fast responses and leave no time to transmit sensor data to a cloud for intelligent analysis. In the KI-FLEX project, researchers are developing neuromorphic hardware that allows artificial intelligence (AI) to be integrated directly into a car – in the form of a flexible platform. Project coordinator Michael Rothe from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS offers his insights into the project.

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Analog or digital – two terms that will be quite familiar to most people. But when it comes to artificial intelligence, only the experts know that there’s something “in between.” They call this “in between” the spiking neural network (SNN). One of the main hopes for the SNN approach is that it will resolve how to integrate “intelligence” directly into devices. Cognitive scientist Johannes Leugering explains what’s involved.

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The purpose of Edge AI is to relocate artificial intelligence to where it is needed: end devices. For this to work, however, processing operations cannot be too energy-intensive. In the ECSEL projects ANDANTE and TEMPO, researchers at Fraunhofer IIS are paving the way for this emerging technology with the development of suitable chips, algorithms, and tools.

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Professor Ute Schmid has been at the head of the Project Group Explainable AI (EAI) since January 2020. Schmid and her team explore ways to help users understand machine learning.

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In our interview, Professor Ute Schmid, head of the Comprehensible Artificial Intelligence project group and professor at the University of Bamberg, and Dominik Seuss, head of the Intelligent Systems group and head of the Image Analysis and Pattern Recognition business unit, describe in an interview how AI is constantly expanding to include more and more applications and further areas of implementation and explain why humans require transparency and explainability in AI systems.

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Some challenges are best faced shoulder to shoulder – like developing the chips, algorithms, and the hardware needed to integrate artificial intelligence directly into end devices, a paradigm also known as “Edge AI”. Marco Breiling, chief scientist at the Fraunhofer IIS Communication Systems division and Dr. Loreto Mateu, group manager at the Fraunhofer IIS Smart Sensing and Electronics division, talk about why their collaboration on Edge AI is so fruitful, and the benefits of working in an international team.

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Dr. Simon Zabler and his team develop systems for high-resolution computed tomography in the micro- and nanometer range. This allows microscopically fine structures to be examined in three dimensions. His working group is located at the Würzburg location of the Development Center X-ray Technology EZRT.

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Alexander Ennen heads the Application-Specific Methods and Systems department in the Development Center X-ray Technology EZRT at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. He and his team are developing X-ray systems designed for use on conveyor belts in the fields of electronic waste recycling, mining and detecting foreign objects in food.

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At the Fraunhofer Development Center for X-ray Technology (EZRT), Wolfgang Holub designs robotic systems able to perform CT scans of entire vehicles. The innovation earned Holub and his team this year’s User Prize awarded by the German Society for Non-Destructive Testing.

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How the discovery of X-rays changed the Nuremberg metropolitan region and the world.

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Artificial intelligence gives technical systems the ability to learn, thus enabling them to apply what they have learned to new situations. Typically, the “intelligence” is not stored in the system itself, but rather in clouds that provide the high computing power required. The common term is therefore cloud artificial intelligence, or cloud AI. But people are also hearing more and more about edge AI.

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Uwe Veres-Homm is Business Unit Coordinator for logistics, transport and mobility topics in the Fraunhofer Center for Applied Research on Supply Chain Services SCS. He explains how supply can work in times of crisis.

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Anne Loos explains how companies can benefit from the Saxony consortium project.

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Michael Salamon was instrumental in setting up the world’s only XXL computed tomography system at the Fraunhofer Development Center X-ray Technology EZRT in Fürth, a division of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. He and his team use it to scan large, often spectacular objects and are developing new applications for high-energy computed tomography.

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Stefan Gerth is a researcher and group manager at the Fraunhofer Development Center for X-Ray Technology in Fürth. He oversees the development of CT systems to aid the selection of heat-tolerant crops. His group's research makes an important contribution to the efforts of plant breeders to respond to the threat of climate change.

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Ada Lovelace is the name giver of the ADA Lovelace Center, which combines AI research with AI applications. But who was this Ada and what distinguishes her as a pioneer in the evolution of data processing? In this story, "she herself" tells us how computers and data processing have developed.

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Prof. Alexander Martin is head of the Fraunhofer IIS and also in charge of the co-located ADA Lovelace Center. He and his team are looking into ways to extract information from big data using artificial intelligence (AI).

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Dr. Christopher Mutschler is one of the AI experts at Fraunhofer IIS. He researches machine learning and ensures that scientific findings make their way into industry. In this interview, Ilona Hörath reflects on his career path and field of work.

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Prof. Albert Heuberger, Director of Fraunhofer IIS, explains the significance of research in the development and use of 5G and how it can benefit users.

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In collaboration with the Universitätsklinikum Erlangen and the University of Bonn, Fraunhofer IIS researchers have succeeded in applying magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in orthodontics. This gentle method has the potential to replace the current common use of harmful X-ray radiation. We spoke with Dr. Daniel Haddad about this breakthrough that has also been honored by the European Federation of Orthodontics FEO.

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Dr. Theobald Fuchs and his colleagues at the Development Center for X-ray Technology EZRT are working with the Germanisches Nationalmuseum to develop standards for the computed tomography of musical instruments. Fuchs explains why this work is much more important than one might initially think.

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Using a solution developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, the BMW Group in Regensburg is now giving their production assemblers digital assistants directly on their tools. The case in point: hand-guided electric screwdrivers. For every assignment, the tool tells its operator whether all screwing procedures for a given job were properly carried out. Done!

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Place the object inside, push the button and collect the CT scan. Taking an X-ray is that simple with ValuCT. Good collaboration among three partners played a crucial role in developing this technology.

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Imagine your daily life without a smartphone. No emails, no quick online purchases. If that sounds difficult, you’re not alone; most people probably feel the same. It is almost impossible to imagine our society without digitalization now, and the process is set to continue. Our editorial team spoke to the institute’s directors, Professor Albert Heuberger and Dr. Bernhard Grill, to learn about the emerging digital trends and what we can contribute to them.

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Space is teeming with satellites. They allow us to receive TV shows, give us Internet access on planes and ships, and keep communications going during disasters. We are working on a range of developments that will make this kind of communication more efficient, more flexible, and more stable in the future.

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The Internet and containers are two obvious innovations that have revolutionized logistics over the past decades. They linked up the world, created new and bigger markets, and ultimately drove enormous growth in global trade. Thanks to them, the world has become smaller. They also expanded economic opportunities – although only for businesses that recognized the potential of these innovations early on and mastered the full repertoire of possibilities presented by this new age. This is why it is so important to know today what the state of the art will be tomorrow. To do that, however, we have to know what innovations are on the horizon.

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A revolution is coming to factories and assembly halls. It goes by the name of Industry 4.0. First factories were mechanized and the electrified, and then IT systems were introduced to support business processes. Now the fourth generation of manufacturing has arrived in the form of industry 4.0. In this interview, Prof. Albert Heuberger explains what the term means and what Fraunhofer IIS can achieve in this area.

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The quality of cleverness is something we generally attribute to people. Now objects are set to become intelligent too – and not just individual smart objects considered in isolation, but as a networked whole. For ex- ample, objects will be able to determine their “condition” themselves and “talk” to each other. Researchers at Fraunhofer IIS are developing the basic technologies required for this Internet of Things – and are doing so for the entire chain of applications.

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The course is set: now the Leistungszentrum Elektroniksysteme (LZE) (High Performance Center for Electronic Systems) is embarking on its mission to establish itself as the leading center for electronic systems in Germany. Energy saving and energy efficiency – this strategic collaboration between research and industry is focused on nothing less than these key economic and social topics of the future. Something is happening at the heart of the Nürnberg Metropolitan Region about which others can only dream: world- class research with a well-defined practical orientation.

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X­ray technologies are excellently suited to the task of revealing even tiny defects or processes inside materials. To provide industry with suitable tools, the Development Center for X­ray Technology (EZRT), a division of Fraunhofer IIS, defines and expands the state of the art in the field of non­ destructive testing all along the product life cycle. Over the past year, re- searchers at the center have published many innovative new concepts. The researchers are especially proud of two new technologies: “HeiDetect Inline CT Compact R” and “MULIX”

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