University of Kassel involved in new LOEWE center on resilient cities

The LOEWE center "emergenCITY" ("Resilient Digital City") will develop solutions "that ensure emergency operation for and with information and communication technologies in crisis situations, enable rapid assistance and support an efficient return to normality," explains the center's scientific coordinator, computer science professor Matthias Hollick (TU Darmstadt).

To this end, the technology must continuously "self-prepare" for crisis situations even in normal operation and detect them autonomously, according to Hollick. In emergencies, services that are essential for survival should be provided more quickly. The knowledge gained from experience should help to be better prepared in future critical situations.

This is also urgently needed: In 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities. Adaptable and efficient infrastructures are essential for the growth of cities. Digital cities of the future will increasingly use information and communication technologies to provide networked infrastructures in areas such as energy, transport, health, government and administration. The dependence of these systems on information and communication technologies is steadily increasing - and they are becoming vulnerable to natural events, human and technical failure, and violence and terror.

Teams of 23 professors from the fields of computer science, electrical engineering and information technology, mechanical engineering, social sciences and history, architecture, economics and law will conduct research together in the university network - the TU Darmstadt is in charge, and the University of Kassel and the University of Marburg are partners. On the part of the University of Kassel, the departments of Distributed Systems (Prof. Dr. Kurt Geihs) and Public Law, IT Law and Environmental Law (Prof. Dr. Gerrit Hornung) are participating.

While Prof. Geihs' team contributes its specific informatics knowledge, Prof. Hornung's group contributes the legal perspective, for example when it comes to data protection or IT security. The President of the University of Kassel, Prof. Dr. Reiner Finkeldey, congratulated the participating scientists and was pleased about the "important building block for the expansion of a strategic cooperation with the TU Darmstadt in the future field of digitalization."

Together with the Digital City Darmstadt, an emergenCITY Lab will be established for practical testing of solutions. As a further partner, the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance is contributing the holistic authority and application view.

Link:

www.emergencity.de

Contact:

Sebastian Mense
University of Kassel
Communication, Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 561 804-1961
E-mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
www.uni-kassel.de