The Ethical Machines are getting reinforcements. Violeta Miličević works at the Chair of Philosophy and Ethics of Scientific and Technological Cultures and is therefore part of the Ethical Machines. She is a researcher in the field of ethics of artificial intelligence and explainable AI (xAI) in the Collaborative Research Centre TRR 318 "Constructing Explainability". In her free time, she enjoys swimming, reading many non-fiction books and novels…

In the product.intelligence project, companies and research institutions from Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and the surrounding area are jointly developing approaches for sustainable, data-based product management. The aim is to no longer base decisions about product functions, further developments or reorientations solely on intuition and experience, but to base them on the systematic use of relevant data. In many organisations, this data is…

How can we anticipate requirements today that will only materialise in the future? The need for products to be sustainable and recyclable presents engineers with major challenges right from the early development phase. This is because many requirements often only become apparent later in the product life cycle. But how can such requirements be taken into account during development, even though many influencing factors are still unclear at this…

The DART - Data-Driven Methods in Control Engineering project was created as part of the funding programme for young female AI scientists, which was launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2019. The aim of this funding line was to increase the participation of women in German research on artificial intelligence and also to enable them to take up academic leadership positions. The main objective of the junior research…

One of the greatest challenges in the development of automated vehicles is the precise perception of the vehicle's surroundings, especially in poor weather conditions. Commercially available sensor systems are still limited in their perception performance in the news, as rain, fog or snow can significantly impair detection performance. This is where the LiRaS (LiDAR Radar Combi System) research project comes in. It is dedicated to the…

Our HNI Forum took place on 8 July 2025 and we were able to gain exciting insights into product creation. More than 80 people attended the lecture series and listened to two exciting lectures under the main topic "Unvealing the power of extreme data for Product Creation". Our speakers Prof. Dr.-Ing. Iris Gräßler, Head of our Product Creation Group, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Kuhlenkötter, Head of the Chair of Production Systems at Ruhr University…

The increasing integration of AI systems into everyday applications has made the explainability and transparency of machine learning models a central research challenge. Particularly on the Web – the largest information infrastructure in human history – decisions made by AI systems affect billions of users daily. Trust in these systems hinges on our ability to understand and explain their behavior. WHALE (Web-Scale Hybrid Explainable Machine…

The Institute of Human Sciences, the subject area Philosophy and the Chair of Philosophy and Ethics of Scientific and Technological Cultures are seeking to fill a position as a Research Assistant with a Bachelor's degree (f/m/d) (WHB) as part of the ERC Synergy Grant "Cultures of the Cryosphere. Infrastructures, Politics and Futures of Artificial Cooling". This is a temporary position of 10 hours per week. The tasks include the following: -…

The European Union has committed to the principles of responsible and trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) by requiring mandatory risk assessments for AI systems prior to their deployment. Prior to its introduction, AI-based systems were subject to different jurisdictions under different aspects (e.g. product liability), whereas the AI Act provides a comprehensive and uniform framework legislation for AI systems in the EU. Its introduction…

On 27 June, the Communications Engineering specialist group welcomed Professor Nobutaka Ono from Tokyo Metropolitan University. The department organised a workshop where the guest speaker gave a lecture on "Audio on the edge: Low-latency BSS and blinky-based scene recognition". Prof. Ono is an expert in "Blind Source Separation" and "Synchronisation of Distributed Microphones".

Daniela Hobscheidt successfully completed her doctorate on the topic of "Solution patterns for the socio-technical design of Industry 4.0 in SMEs" under Prof Dr.-Ing. Roman Dumitrescu. Summary of the doctoral dissertation: The megatrend of digital transformation offers enormous potential for increasing efficiency in the production and business processes of manufacturing companies, known as Industry 4.0. The design of Industry 4.0 is to be…

Great success for "QuSine": The Paderborn University spin-off has been selected by the Federal Agency for Leap Innovations (SPRIND) for a so-called validation contract. This is a prestigious funding programme that supports ground-breaking technological developments with disruptive, i.e. market-changing, potential. "QuSine", which emerged from the "RadiOptics" research project, develops high-precision signal generators that set completely new…

We cordially invite you to the HNI Forum 2025 on 8 July 2025 at 4 pm. The HNI Forum is a series of lectures focussing on current research trends and projects. The aim is to convey ideas, challenges and solutions in a generally understandable way. Along the main theme of ‘Unvealing the power of extreme data for Product Creation’, we can look forward to two exciting presentations this afternoon. Prof Iris Gräßler, Head of our Product Creation…

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on 3 June 2025, full membership of the Heinz Nixdorf Institute's Executive Board was confirmed. Prof Dr Suzana Alpsancar has headed the associated specialist group ‘Applied Ethics with a Focus on Technology Ethics in the Digital World’ at Paderborn University for four years as a junior professor. Since April of this year, she has continued to lead the department under the new name ‘Philosophy and Ethics of…

Due to growing pressure from regulations, customer expectations and environmental requirements, companies are faced with the challenge of making their added value more sustainable. One approach is the circular economy. It makes it possible to develop products in such a way that the resources used are reduced, their utilisation is intensified and their recycling is ensured. As part of the "ZirkuPro" ("Circular Product Creation" – German: Zirkuläre…