“How do we want to shape and use the digital transformation in teaching, research and administration?”

Monday, June 14, 2021, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

The digital transformation has a direct impact on teaching, research and the administration. The question is therefore no longer if, but how  we want to proactively shape this rapid development in all activities of the university and how to utilize it in a beneficial way. The Future Lab offers a platform to voice your opinions as well as the opportunity for exchange on the different facets of digitalization: How should we design our curricula so that our students are equipped with comprehensive expertise for digital research and the working world? How can we promote the digital skills of our employees? How can a digitalized administration be designed and how can research be successfully supported by digitalization? What elements shape a user-guided and functional intranet? And finally: What does digital sovereignty mean to us and how should we deal with the threats arising from digitalization?

Program details

Thematic Groups

Thematic Group 1 - Digitalization in Curricula

Which digital competencies do future graduates require?

Skills in utilizing digital technologies are of essential importance, both at the university and on the job market. This applies not only to the School of Computer Science, but also to the entire spectrum of academic careers. Our goal is to equip students with the most comprehensive digital skills possible. Questions in this regard range from “How should curricula be designed and developed in order to meet the demands of a digitalized working world?” to “How do our students become those who will shape digitalization?”
Differences are likely to emerge depending on the subject-specific requirements. Nonetheless, it will also be possible to work out common fundamental skills. It is significant to clarify how digital skills should complement classic teaching subjects and whether (and if so, what kind of) innovative teaching should be established.

Moderators: Prof. Nadine Bergner, Prof. Michael Beitelschmidt

Thematic Group 2 - Digitalization Skills

How can we promote the digital skills of our employees?

For employees in almost all areas of work at TU Dresden, digital skills are an important prerequisite for successfully and efficiently performing their tasks. One particular challenge is knowing the appropriate tools and being able to utilize them effectively. On the other hand, employees are confronted with the challenge of keeping up to date in view of the rapid developments in the digital field. What skills need to be developed amongst employees in the individual status groups? What methods can be used to train TUD staff adequately, combining traditional further education with independent learning?

Moderators: Prof. Thomas Köhler, Beate Herm

Thematic Group 3 - Digitized Administration

How do we design a digital administration?

In the digitalized professional world, the image of a modern administration promises, simplified processes in everyday life, increased efficiency by reducing bureaucracy, and a stronger focus on service. This not only applies to administrative staff, but ultimately to every member of TUD, since everyone is confronted with different administrative processes. In many areas, TU Dresden has already taken important first steps, as exemplified by the newly created possibility of hiring student assistants electronically. We now want to extrapolate: How will we shape digitally supported work and cooperation at TUD in the future? What aspects do we need to tackle in the near future in order to accelerate the digitized administration?

Moderators: Prof. Christian Prunitsch, Barbara Uhlig

Thematic Group 4 - Intranet

How do we design a useful and user-friendly intranet at TU Dresden?

A well-structured intranet adapted to the current needs of employees is the heart of internal communication as well as a central information, knowledge and exchange platform. Here, employees should be provided with relevant information, assistance and guidance in a transparent and understandable manner for their respective day-to-day business.
The intranet is intended to improve and accelerate the flow of information between employees, regardless of department or location, and to enable the exchange of information - also in the sense of a social intranet - in all directions and at all levels. Therefore, the intranet is intended to be a central tool for all employees to be able to participate directly in joint work at TUD and to help shape the processes. The target group in the first stage of development are all employees of TUD (science, technology, administration).  The collaborative round serves as a workshop for ideas in order to introduce requirements and design ideas for the start of the intranet development.

Moderators: Prof. Martin Sedlmayr, Claudia Vojta

Thematic Group 5 - Digitalization and Research

How will digitalization support research in 2025?

The digital transformation not only has a massive impact on research content and topics, but also on the process of gaining knowledge itself. Today, scientists have more research data at their disposal than ever before, which can be analyzed in new and diverse ways thanks to the possibility of machine evaluation. Digitalization is thus the bearer of hope for new knowledge and numerous innovations; it will change almost all disciplines in their approach to gaining knowledge, and even turn some completely on their head. It has already been evident for the last few years that this will be driven not only by the availability of “Big Data”, but also by the development, linking, evaluation and subsequent use of “Small Data”. In order to fully exploit the resulting potential, appropriate research infrastructures are necessary. In this context, researchers at TU Dresden benefit from the university’s participation in the National Center for Artificial Intelligence ScaDS.AI and the National High Performance Computer located in Dresden. What changes in working methods are we expecting, what new needs for targeted support will arise in the foreseeable future, and how can these be met?

Moderators: Prof. Angela Rösen-Wolff, Prof. Wolgang E. Nagel

Thematic Group 6 - Digital Sovereignty

Digital Sovereignty - where are we now and where are we heading?

Digital sovereignty encompasses various aspects of digitization: It is as much about sovereignty over our data and research results as it is about preserving the independence of software products and companies. This requires a permanent balancing of desired functionalities in the digital world, available resources, risks of digital dependency and/or isolation. Here, it is important for TUD to determine the location and to jointly develop scenarios or options and premises for digital sovereignty at and in TUD. 

Moderators: Prof. Oliver Sander, David Senf-Mothes

Thematic Group 7 - Dangers due to Digitalization

The other side of the coin: How do we want to deal with the threats posed by digitalization?

The changes, shifts and disruptions that are associated with digitalization in research, teaching and administration go hand in hand with both opportunities and threats. Sustainable digitalization must therefore identify and address these threats at an early stage. The following aspects and questions are examples of what is at stake: The transparent employees/student/test subject - how will we deal with personal data in the future? Cyber attacks - how do we protect data at our university? Overload and stress - how do we include students and employees and take them on board? Ethics and digitalization - how do we ensure that ethical principles are taken into account in the digitalization of research?

Moderators: Jens Syckor, Matthias Rack

The Future Labs 2021 are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free State of Saxony as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments.