Both parties are using conspiracy ideology rhetoric in their election campaigns and, in view of the real socio-economic situation in the new federal states, are stirring up resentment against “elites” and general mistrust in political decisions. In the current Tagesspiegel article “Landtagswahlen im Osten - Großer Teil der Ostdeuschen glaubt an Verschwörung gegen sie”, the authors draw on current survey data from the SOSEC panel and analyze it for the spread and background of conspiracy ideological positions and beliefs. In times of increasing social fragmentation, the authors provide important insights and background information on political developments.

The Minister of Science of the State of Baden-Württemberg visited the FZI Research Center for Information Technology in Karlsruhe on Tuesday (September 3, 2024). Events like this show that the FZI not only makes an important contribution to shaping digital democracy with its projects, but also produces knowledge on the pressing challenges that arise in this context in an innovative way. With the House of Participation (HoP), it also has an effective platform that bundles this work internally and, at the same time, acts as a hub that enables collaboration with various partners and the communication of findings up to the highest political levels.

Our IISM team members Michael Knierim, Thimo Schultz, Benjamin Gaube and Fabio Stano just visited the Mensch und Computer 2024 conference in Karlsruhe. Michael offered a tech demo of his most recent ExG Headphone prototype, while Thimo showed two research projects in the poster session and Benjamin discussed his research plans at a workshop on AI and Health. We especially congratulate Helen Vedder for winning the 2nd place in the student research competition for her bachelor thesis project “Classification of Music Preferences Using EEG Data in Machine Learning Models”, supervised by Fabio Stano.

Just before the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony (September 1, 2024) and Brandenburg (September 22, 2024), polls are showing high vote shares for the AfD and the newly founded BSW. These trends are fueling public debates about the causes and drivers of the expected party-political upheavals in the upcoming state elections. Time and again, differences between the so-called new (formerly East German) and old (formerly West German) federal states, but also between urban and rural areas or different age groups are used as explanations.

On June 20th Prof. Christof Weinhardt, Dr. Jonas Fegert and Cosima Pfannschmidt met up with Marco Aurelio Ruediger, director of the School of Communication, Media and Information at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV ECMI) and Amaro Silveira Grassi, project coordinator at the same School.

We are currently in the process of working on a German-Brazilian Digital Democracy research center, as we are both working on the topics of disinformation, online social networks and polarization in democracies. To strengthen that partnership, a next step will be visiting FGV in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

New Team Member: Laura Selgrad Laura completed her master’s thesis at Fraunhofer ISI, where she analyzed how Smart Charging influences the behavior of prosumer in electric vehicle charging. Laura is now joining the “Smart Grids & Energy Markets” research group, where she will focus on energy research and the energy industry as part of the D2HeaTec project.

From September 23rd-25th, the research groups of Prof. Mädche and Prof. Weinhardt invite for the ABBA Summer School Seminar at the KD²Lab. The summer school seminar is offered as part of the ABBA project. In this seminar, we give students the opportunity to leverage biosignal sensor and GenAI technologies for designing advanced biosignal-adaptive GenAI systems. This three-day program is designed for both bachelor’s and master's students. 

Part of the IM chair recently attended the first Sustainable Energy Education Conference (SEED) in Valencia. Christina Speck shared her research on public sentiments in Germany regarding the energy crisis, providing a basis for tailored energy education. Thimo Schulz presented EnerGPT, a customized ChatGPT aimed at improving household energy literacy. The conference highlighted the importance of addressing diverse public needs in energy education and showcased innovative solutions for enhancing energy literacy.

We are pleased to welcome Philipp Fritz as a new team member and doctoral student researcher at the Chair of Prof. Weinhardt at IISM. Philipp completed his master's thesis at our chair, investigating how Serious Games can enhance the Energy Literacy of households. During his master's program, he also contributed to the SOSEC project as a student researcher, focusing on energy and climate-related topics. Philipp now joins the “Smart Grids & Energy Markets” research group, where he will be concentrating on the collaboration between energy research and the energy industry within the scope of the NFDI4Energy project.

Dr. Jonas Fegert had the opportunity to attend the “Forum on the Transformation of Society” at Bellevue Palace on July 10th, where Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave a keynote speech on the digital public sphere and AI.

The International Conference on European Energy Markets (EEM) in Istanbul welcomed contributions from the ASSUME team. Four papers developed using the open-source, agent-based simulation toolbox were accepted, allowing developers Nick Harder, Florian Maurer, Manish Khanra, and Kim K. Miskiw to showcase their latest advancements. Highlights included the introduction of advanced order types like block bids, a comprehensive comparison with the agent-based model Amiris, insights into steel plant flexibility, and a discussion on the application of explainable reinforcement learning in a multi-agent setting.

In a guest commentary for Tagesspiegel, experts from the FZI Research Center for Information Technology and the KIT, Dr. Jonas Fegert, Prof. Dr. Christof Weinhardt, and Prof. Dr. Achim Rettinger, emphasize the importance of ensuring AI technologies do not worsen societal conflicts. The authors discuss the pervasive impact of AI on daily life and democracy, highlighting the urgent need for ethical and responsible AI deployment.