Oct
21, 2024
From October 21 to 22, the LOEWE Center emergenCITY is exhibiting resilient digital solutions that protect cities from crises and disasters at the German government’s Digital Summit. Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck stopped by the stand on Monday morning. emergenCITY Coordinator Matthias Hollick spoke in a panel discussion on “Digital Resilience” in the evening.
“The German government’s Digital Summit is an excellent platform to present our innovative concepts for digital resilience and to start a conversation about them,” Matthias Hollick, Professor of Computer Science at TU Darmstadt and Scientific Coordinator at emergenCITY, says.
The event, which takes place from October 21 to 22 at Kap Europa in Frankfurt am Main, is intended as a dialog forum. Over 1,500 participants from business, science, civil society and government will discuss digital innovations, digital sovereignty and international cooperation.
Matthias Hollick’s first guests on Monday morning were Federal Ministers Volker Wissing and Robert Habeck, who were accompanied by Hessian Digital Minister Kristina Sinemus on a tour of the “Market of Digital Opportunities”. Photo: emergenCITY
Digital Communication for Rapid Disaster Control
The LOEWE Center emergenCITY, together with the Odenwald district and the district of Fulda, is exhibiting at the “Market of Digital Opportunities” organized by the partner state of Hesse at Kap Europa in Frankfurt am Main until Tuesday under the title “Digital communication for rapid disaster control: innovative, digital, resilient & secure”.
Ministers Habeck and Wissing were among the first guests. Photo: HMD/Charline Iacono
Matthias Hollick’s first guests on Monday morning were Federal Ministers Volker Wissing and Robert Habeck, who were accompanied by Hessian Digital Minister Kristina Sinemus on a tour of the “Market of Digital Opportunities”. In a brief overview, he introduced the ministers to the work of the interdisciplinary and cross-location research cooperation, in which the Technical University of Darmstadt, the University of Kassel and the Philipps University of Marburg are involved.
How can cities prepare for disasters and protect critical infrastructures such as energy supply and communication networks? How can resilient, digital information and communication technologies (ICT) help? This is what the LOEWE Center, which is funded by the state of Hesse, is researching.
At the stand, emergenCITY scientists Joachim Schulze and Frank Hessel, laboratory engineer Julian Euler and student Jakob Huth provide an insight into the topic of emergency communication in urban districts in particular using three selected exhibits, a sensor box, the “Litfaßsäule 4.0” and the serious game “Krisopolis” as well as films.
Frank Hessel and Joachim Schulze presented the serious game “Krisopolis”. Photo: emergenCITY
Mission “Digital Heinerblock” is presented
Specifically, they present the “Digital Heinerblock” project. In this project, emergenCITY is supporting the City of Science Darmstadt in transforming a district into a traffic-calmed, climate-resilient and citizen-friendly neighborhood. Sensor boxes attached to street lamps will measure particulate matter, solar radiation, temperature and noise, among other things, and enable wireless communication in the event of a disaster.
The energy self-sufficient “advertising pillar 4.0”, a conventional advertising pillar that has been extended to include a capital with a digital display and communication unit, can display information and warnings from the authorities to residents even in the event of a prolonged power cut. And in the serious game “Krisopolis”, which can be tried out on a large touch display at the digital summit, users can playfully prepare for an emergency in an urban district. A new explanatory video with animated illustrations provides background information on the Digital Heinerblock.
Matthias Hollick (from left to right) discussed with Elke Anderl, Kristina Sinemus, Martin Zeidler and Johann Saathoff the establishment of a national center for digital resilience in disasters. Photo: Oskar von Stryk
Panel discussion on digital resilience
During a panel discussion on Monday evening, emergenCITY coordinator Matthias Hollick introduced the topic of “digital resilience” in a presentation and explained the principles and solutions being researched at emergenCITY in order to get through disasters safely with the help of resilient, digital ICT systems. He then discussed the establishment of a national center for digital resilience in disasters with Johann Saathoff, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of the Interior and for Home Affairs, Kristina Sinemus, Hesse’s Minister for Digitalization and Innovation, Elke Anderl, Managing Director of Commercial T-Systems International and Martin Zeidler, Head of Crisis Management at the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance.
“From our point of view, we need a national effort and a structured, continuous exchange between science and application involving all stakeholders,” Matthias Hollick said, summarizing his point of view.
