The Future Lab on June 14 sparked impetus for digitalization across the university

Magdalena Selbig

"Digitalization not only affects all areas of our institution and the non-university partners," CTIO Prof. Ronald Tetzlaff explained in his welcoming speech on behalf of the Rector, "but also has an impact on every one of us in our daily work. It can help us to work more efficiently and save resources, whereas insufficient digitalization may put us at a competitive disadvantage."

Prof. Lars Bernard, the newly established CDIO at TU Dresden since 2020, began his keynote speech with a summary of the achievements in digitalization since the last Future Lab in 2018. One of the first major steps is the current reform of the governance structures, which will place even more emphasis on the interwoven nature of digitalization activities and establish suitable coordination and decision-making bodies at TUD. Through the software strategy working group, this new digitalization governance addresses issues such as the coordination of TUD-wide software procurement needs, which are financed centrally by TUD. In 2019, TUD established a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), an almost unique institution in the German university landscape, which helps TUD to excel in the prevention of and response to cyber attacks. Equally successful was the establishment of the Service Center Research Data as a local support structure for research data management, which is aimed at TUD employees and DRESDEN-concept partners. The CDIO considers the current activities to establish the CIDS (Center for Interdisciplinary Digital Sciences) and to permanently acquire the ScaDS.AI (Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence) to be essential components for developing the EXU Emerging Field Data Intensive and Digital Sciences. Regarding the CDIO strategy, Prof. Bernard continued: "We want to push the digital transformation of TUD in all areas. In addition to maintaining the very high standard of our basic IT services, we are also planning to expand the intranet and further advance the digitalization of administration, teaching and research. For society, we want to research the implications of digitalization and impart the necessary skills. This also includes a teaching portfolio on digitalization aspects that is coordinated across TUD."

Following the presentation, the 184 participants attended selected thematic groups and, during the break, had the opportunity to join a virtual guided tour through the Adventureland Mathematics in the technology museum Technische Sammlungen with Professor emeritus Bernhard Ganter, or to participate in the thematic padlet.

The first thematic group examined digitalization within curricula. The focus was on ways to increase the students' awareness of digital communication. This knowledge, however, would have to be imparted to the lecturers beforehand. Another point of discussion was the quantification of the digitalization competence: "DIQUA" (digital qualification) would offer a way to assign an inherent "digitalization score" to cross-disciplinary modules, with each student having to earn a set total. As previously expressed in the 5^th Future Lab on teaching, it was often suggested that lectures should preferably be delivered in an asynchronous format or as a flipped classroom.

The participants of the second thematic group explored options to foster the employees' digitalization skills. One element would be low-threshold, non-technical information on available resources and data sensitivity. "It is becoming increasingly apparent that the vulnerability of IT security is the user, not the system," said Dr. Markus Löffler (PostDoc at cfaed's DCN). TUD-specific self-help films would be a starting point. Lars Gladrow (Combined Laboratory and Experimental Services of the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering) outlined implementation problems: "Before any training is done, the company must develop the skills. Many of the services offered are pseudo-digitalized. There's no point in doing the training but doing it differently in day-to-day business." An event that reviews the "lessons learned" from the digitalization wave caused by the pandemic could systematize knowledge and prevent a regression to a "pre-coronavirus era," he said.

The third thematic group focused on the digitalization of the administration. In this context, it was deemed important to communicate more broadly which IT systems and software are used at the university and which functionalities these can cover. There is also a need for appropriate support structures. The consistent use of digital signatures and the SRM procurement management system were requested just as urgently as fully digitalized personnel processes without parallel paperwork. In this respect, Prof. Gianaurelio Cuniberti (Chair of Materials Science and Nanotechnology) suggested a mood barometer that measures support needs directly on a user level using a simple scale. In addition, the provision of forms in English, which would not necessarily have to be legally binding, but could certainly be quite useful for information purposes, would make work much easier. In general, support would be indispensable after the introduction of new digital systems - here, the electronic invoice processing system was criticized.

The fourth thematic group on the development of a user-friendly intranet was received enthusiastically and inspired feedback: The participants expressed their requests regarding the functionality of the intranet, which will start as a project in September and will be implemented over a period of three years. The focus was on personalization and target group-specific information, while at the same time providing a transparent overview of e.g. forms, project statuses, service contacts and minutes of meetings. Other frequently mentioned needs of TUD members included a highly efficient search function and a platform for university-wide and participatory exchange, as well as the usability on various electronic devices.

The fifth thematic group debated how digitalization can support research. Issues relating to the FIS and the FDM, which had already been mentioned in the first Future Lab, were also discussed in this group, such as the visualization of user accounts or the evaluation of large amounts of data. This discussion was followed by ethical questions and issues relating to the philosophy of science, such as how data analysis by AI should be designed and to what extent this would require a reassessment of the culture of science or a reorientation of research approaches. 

The sixth thematic group addressed digital sovereignty as the control over one's own data and the preservation of software independence. There was a lively discussion on the advantages and disadvantages as well as the opportunities and risks of using free software versus commercial products, and on advancing a TUD open source strategy. The development of a TUD-wide understanding and subsequently a common TUD mission for digital sovereignty was identified as one of the primary future tasks.

The seventh and thematic group explored the dangers of digitalization. Aspects such as excessive demands due to availability even beyond working hours and the resulting negative impact on the work-life balance were raised, as was the need for crisis management: Since prevention alone will not be sufficient, it would be crucial to raise the employees' awareness of how hacking attacks work and to create an awareness of the individual's responsibility. Once again, ethical aspects were debated using the fictitious example of an application process with AI-based pre-selection: if an AI were to be trained with male, white applicants, this could lead to discrimination afterwards. This issue would be tackled alongside university culture.

Following a presentation of the padlet results, Prof. Bernard closed the Future Lab, extended his thanks for the preparation and deliberation, and invited everyone to the last Future Lab in the series, which will take place on July 22 and is dedicated to communication and visibility.