7 December 2021 | Stuttgart/Tübingen

Kick-off for AI in higher education

Cyber Valley represented twice in funding initiative of the federal-state program

Universität Stuttgart (Archivbild) © Regenscheit

In the funding initiative of the federal-state program “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education”, the universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen are represented with one project each among the total of eleven individually funded universities in Baden-Württemberg. The selected universities in Baden-Württemberg will receive more than 23 million euros. The projects are scheduled to begin in December.

With the funding initiative, the federal and state governments are striving to effectively develop the key technology of AI across the breadth of the higher education system. On the one hand, measures are supported that contribute to the qualification of future academic specialists. For example, universities will receive support in the development of degree courses or individual modules in the field of artificial intelligence. On the other hand, universities are supported in the design of AI-supported learning and examination environments.

The project “Integrated AI in Teaching at the University of Stuttgart” (Integrierte KI in der Lehre der Universität Stuttgart, IKILeUS) aims to bundle the existing expertise of many collaborating departments on AI in order to both communicate AI to the breadth of the student body in an interdisciplinary view and to use AI-based technologies in teaching to relieve the burden on teachers and to improve teaching. The topics will be addressed with a focus on specific courses and software solutions, while at the same time looking at further potential of other user groups and areas.

The Tübingen AI Training (Tübinger KI-Training, TüKIT) has set itself the goal of developing sustainable effective and curriculum-accompanying innovative teaching formats for students of medicine and medical-related life science courses. TüKITZ Med is designed to teach basic concepts and methods of artificial intelligence competently, effectively, compactly and in a way that accompanies the studies to students who are not familiar with AI.

“AI is one of the key technologies that we are also working hard to advance in Baden-Württemberg. It is crucial for the economic success of our companies and the innovative strength of our state. Our universities, students and society as a whole will benefit from the new federal-state funding, in that university teaching can be improved through the use of artificial intelligence or future academic specialists can be better qualified for new professional fields,” said Science Minister Theresia Bauer. “I am thrilled by the diversity of the projects from Baden-Württemberg – it shows the commitment and innovative drive with which our universities are dedicating themselves to this topic of the future.”

About the funding initiative “Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education”

The legal basis for the funding initiative is the federal-state agreement “Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education” adopted by the Joint Science Conference (GWK) on December 10, 2020. The federal and state governments will provide up to around 133 million euros in funding. The funding will be provided in a ratio of 90:10 by the federal government and the respective state. The agreement runs until December 31, 2025, and an independent evaluation of the funding initiative is scheduled for 2024.