Summary HITeC Annual Report 2019

HITeC is the research and technology transfer center of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hamburg. Due to its independent status, HITeC offers flexible and professional cooperation opportunities. HITeC solutions are based on the latest research results and provide advantages through innovative technologies.

HITeC is a registered, non-profit association supported by members of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hamburg. The association is linked to the University of Hamburg by an agreement.

HITeC focuses its main activities on:

  • Implementation of application-oriented research projects
  • Dissemination of application-oriented research results
  • Realization of seminars
  • Mediation of contacts between companies and students
  • Improvement of the practice-oriented education in the university
  • Support for business start-ups from the university

In 2019 HITeC had six supporting members, these are companies and institutions that support HITeC. The number of active personal members of HITeC is approximately 40.

HITeC’s project volume in 2019 was approximately 1.9 Millionen Euro.

The following changes were made to the Executive Board in 2019: Prof. Dr. Bernd Neumann left the board. The management and the board of directors would like to thank him for his many years of work for HITeC, from its foundation in 1997, through active implementation of research projects, especially in the field of image processing, to the most recent work in the area of Open-Data and Artificial Intelligence. Prof. Dr. Waalid Maalej will join the board as a new member. Walid Maalej is Professor for Applied Software Technology at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hamburg. We are looking forward to a very good cooperation!

Some selected projects and activities in 2019:

  • Coordination and implementation of the EU-funded project Requirements Engineering, Big Data, Recommendation Technologies (OPENREQ)
  • Several projects in the field of application of Artificial Intelligence methods (analysis of social media texts – SmartSquare, determination of skin parameters by image analysis, prediction of the skin sensitization potential of organic molecules, implementation of a web service for the prediction of the metabolism of active ingredients, scientific consulting service collection of spoken language data, autonomous adaptive machines, configuration workshop, meeting minute bot and AI consulting, RoboCup-AG – Hamburg Bit-Bots)
  • Continuation of the conception, further development and implementation of the transparency portal of the FHH Hamburg (InfoReg) and achievement of synergy effects with the projects Open Data Portal Schleswig-Holstein and Metadatenmodel GovData from the Open Data area
  • Several projects in the field of eHumanities aiming at the dissemination, collection, presentation, and long-term archiving of cultural objects (PESHAT, adaptable university bibliography with MyCoRe, matriculation portal, OAI-dashboard, distributed software development using the example of Cosi, distributed software development in heterogeneous groups)
  • Support and consulting in the area of software architecture for several software houses
  • Support in the organization of the ITMC Conference at the Faculty of Computer Science with approx. 150 participants
  • Many smaller projects, mainly with companies and research institutions from the Hamburg region
  • Participation in a working group of the founding initiatives of all Hamburg universities as well as cooperation with ahoi.digital
  • Participation in a working group of the founding initiatives of all Hamburg Universities as well as cooperation with ahoi.digital

In 2019, HITeC has participated in the foundation of the Artificial Intelligence Center Hamburg e.V. (ARIC) as a special activity. ARIC has the task of being the central contact point in the Hamburg metropolitan region for business, science, and society for questions concerning Artificial Intelligence. ARIC organizes network meetings, workshops, and project initiations. It is the extended arm of the project area Intelligent Systems, in which HITeC carries out cooperation projects in the field of Artificial Intelligence. ARIC was founded in September 2019.

Publications of HITeC are listed on the websites of the university of the respective professors and project collaborators. An overview of project activities provides https://hitec-hamburg.de.