“Research, teaching, application”: That neatly sums up the recipe for success followed by the University of Bremen’s Center for Computing and Communication Technologies (TZI - Technologie-Zentrum Informatik und Informationstechnik). For the past twenty years, TZI researchers have been doing a lot more besides basic research – developing innovative technologies for all sorts of applications in work and everyday life.
Often working in cooperation with regional and international collaborative research groups, they develop software solutions in areas like education, therapy, robotics and industrial manufacturing as well as mobile communications. Integrating students in their development work is a very special feature of what they do. The TZI is also exceptionally successful in promoting university spinoffs. By now, the TZI with its 160 employees has been instrumental in setting up more than 24 start-up enterprises in the Federal State of Bremen, contributing towards creating some 250 new jobs. The center is also successful in acquiring third-party funding: Since it as founded 20 years ago the TZI has acquired over 80 million euros of external funding for its research and development projects. As part of activities to celebrate its 20th anniversary, the TZI will serve as the venue for the next meeting of i2b.
“Industrie 4.0” and robots for everyday applications
According to TZI spokesman Professor Rainer Malaka, “There’s a bit of Bremen in every smartphone“. He’s able to say that because for years now the Bremen research team has been among the leaders in the development of wireless standards and mobile telephony. “Industrie 4.0” is another important area of research. Here, the TZI researchers work closely together with partners in industry to optimize wireless communication between machines used in manufacturing processes. In the field of rehabilitation therapy, the TZI cooperates with regional and international partners in the health sector. In this context, in 2012 informatics students of the TZI were winners of the competition “365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas”. Their prizewinning idea called “WuppDi!” involves therapeutic games that help compensate for motor deficits in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Robotics is another important area of research: Here, for instance, the TZI frequently hits the headlines with a robot called PR2 that can make popcorn and pancakes all on its own. The aim, of course, is to provide assistance to handicapped people by taking over simple everyday tasks.
The “Go4IT”School Laboratory
In the field of education, too, the TZI provides teaching support for Bremen schools and teacher training activities at the University of Bremen. High-school students and teachers can attend sessions at the School Laboratory called “Go4IT” and learn how to develop apps, for instance. And trainee teachers can receive useful advice on how to sue digital media in schools. The TZI students are also very active in the education field: Recently a student group programmed a software tool for use in the school library of the Rockwinkel Oberschule in Bremen.
TZI background:
The TZI was founded by the University of Bremen in the Faculty Mathematics/Computer Science in April 1995. It was led by Professors Otthein Herzog and employed 45 people. In July 2005 the University’s Academic Senate constituted the TZI as a research institute in the Faculty Physics/Electrical Engineering and Mathematics/Computer Sciences. At this time, the former Center for Communications and Information Technologies (ikom) was merged with the TZI. Meanwhile, the TZI’s different research teams comprise a deeply networked interdisciplinary research and knowledge-transfer institute with some 160 employees, where a total of 15 professors of the University of Bremen are engaged in cross-disciplinary research.
“From the outset, the TZI has adhered to a strategy of intertwining interdisciplinary research, knowledge transfer and academic teaching that has become a model for the State of Bremen“, says TZI spokesman Professor Rainer Malaka. Today it is among the top research and transfer institutes worldwide. As he says, “This is an important requirement to help shape technological development in the long term. It forms the basis for generating positive and sustainable stimuli for the region going forward.”
If you would like to have more information on this topic, please contact:
University of Bremen
Center for Computing and Communication Technologies (TZI)
Axel Kölling (Communications)
Phone: +49 171 5305119
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