High-performance computing (HPC) makes an important contribution to solving the complex challenges facing our society, such as researching diseases and understanding the the causes and effects of climate change. It accelerates the development of new drugs and materials and supports detailed analyses and simulations where costly experiments would consume enormous budgets and time. But HPC can be very energy intensive. Improving energy efficiency in HPC is therefore an important research focus at the ZIH.

CODIP's Technology Enhanced Teaching Labs (TET Labs) are used to test innovative digital usage scenarios for lesson design and teaching. With the help of technologies such as VR glasses, green screens and a sound studio, not only can audio and video media be professionally produced, but new approaches to how digital media can enrich and support everyday school and teaching life in the future can also be tested.

The aim of the project “Klartext” is to use the latest large language models to translate extensive content from the websites of ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig and the TUD Dresden University of Technology into plain or simple language and to offer this alongside German and English. This not only serves to reduce language barriers, but also creates significant added value by promoting the inclusion and participation of all citizens in scientific and cultural discourse.

As one of the pillars of scientific research, digital research data is generated in almost all disciplines. In addition to storage, processing, access, etc., IT infrastructures must also support collaboration between scientists across institutional, political-geographical and disciplinary boundaries. This includes the collaborative and distributed management and utilization of data as well as the knowledge generated from the data. The ZIH is therefore developing strategies, methods and tools for dealing with data throughout its entire life cycle.

Research into complex systems in our SynoSys department is based on an anti-disciplinary, synergetic approach. The focus is on multi-scale, non-linear, network-driven phenomena such as pandemics, the emergence of cooperation, social dynamics and fungal growth patterns. For example, the FEDORA project combines physiological data from wearables with subjective assessments to better understand post-COVID conditions (PCC). Another current research interest is the investigation of mechanisms behind the spread of fake news in order to support the targeted development of strategies for dealing with online disinformation.

OpenGPT-X researches the entire value chain of Generative AI: from the highly scalable, GPU-based infrastructure and data for training large language models, to the development of the models and their productive application. The overarching goal is to develop a large AI language model that is available as open source for research and companies and is geared towards the multilingual needs of Europe. CIDS, with its departments ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig and ZIH, is involved in the project as one of ten partners.

The pilot exhibition “//DataSpaces Wissenschaft erleben”, planned and curated by the Interactive Science Lab, brings together current research from CIDS and TU Dresden with interactive elements and the historical computing and computer technology of TU Dresden. From November 2024 to February 2025, //DataSpaces could be visited in the foyer of the Andreas Pfitzmann Building—additional exhibition venues are listed on the exhibition pages.