Bavaria is giving strong steps towards becoming a leading AI district and stretching its network across Bavaria and the world, as more than 28,000 automatica visitors from around 75 countries experienced in-person during the second edition of munich_i at Messe München from 21,-24, June 2022.
Munich_i included 29 groundbreaking innovations at the AI.Society exhibition area as well as 6-panel discussions with experts and decision-makers addressing ethical, economical, technical, and educational issues associated with the development and use of AI-based technological innovations at the AI.Society i_space. Key decision-makers such as Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder, Bavarian State Minister for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy Hubert Aiwanger, Bavarian Minister of State for Science and the Arts Markus Blume, and Czech Minister of Science, Research and Innovation Helena Langšádlová and her delegation visited the AI.Society exhibition area.
More than 200 attendees at the Hightech Summit could also meet 17 world’s leading visionaries and thought leaders in Robotics and AI. Among them was Melonee Wise, Founder of Fetch Robotics, VP of Robotics Automation at Zebra Technologies, and winner of the 2022 Engelberger Robotics Awards, the world's most prestigious robotics honor according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder opened the Hightech Summit by highlighting that the target is to turn Bavaria into a hotspot for AI development. These intentions have been put into action with the Hightech Agenda Bayern, initiative under which Bavaria is investing 3.5 billion euros in science and research, an amount that surpasses the investment made by other States such as Finland, Denmark, and Canada in the same field.
Under the same Agenda, four Bavarian AI Council members gave stimulating talks about the current status of AI special areas distributed across the region: Würzburg (Data Science node), Ingolstadt (Mobility node), Erlangen (Health node), and Munich (Intelligent Robotics node). In addition, 20 young talented teams from 13 countries competed in the Robothon® Grand Challenge. The winning teams successfully solved a manipulation task to process electronic waste. The team CARI, from Italy, was honored with the first prize money of 10.000 Euros sponsored by Huawei. Second and Third places as well as honorable mentions received prize money sponsored by Siemens.