New Team Member: Ina Ni Ina obtained her master’s degree in Computational Social Systems from RWTH Aachen University. Focusing on interdisciplinary approaches from the social sciences, computer science and psychology, she is now joining the “Digital Democracy and Participation” research group as part of the SOSEC project.

New Team Member: Lukas Schick Lukas completed his master thesis at the University of Tübingen and Porsche AG, where he analyzed and classified driver interventions during automated driving. Lukas is also a member of KD2School.

Suport Science and Earn Money Playing With the start of the semester the KD2Lab offers the doubled chance to win 50€! Everyone who registers until Nov 17th is part of the raffle. For more information visit www.kd2lab.kit.edu

From October 21st to 24th, the IISM-IM team, led by Prof. Weinhardt, gathered for their semester retreat in Balderschwang, nestled in the scenic Allgäu region. In addition to these productive work sessions, the team engaged in several workshops focused on developing grant proposals at various stages, exchanging ideas and collaborating to strengthen each proposal. The team explored the breathtaking landscape on a hike, shared delicious homemade meals, and enjoyed friendly competition with activities like table tennis and table football.

The Wirtschaftsinformatik 2024 conference took place this year from the 16th -19th September in Würzburg. The chair of Information & Market Engineering of Prof. Dr. Weinhardt participated with six additional colleagues: Isabel Bezzaoui, Carolin Stein, Christina Speck, Thimo Schulz, Marvin Motz and Dr. Jonas Fegert. We also contributed to the conference program in several ways. Jonas Fegert and Christof Weinhardt moderated a workshop on the topic of “Digital Democracy”, during which Isabel Bezzaoui also presented her paper concerned with research on false information and hate speech. Christina Speck and Thimo Schulz led the “WI-Nachwuchsevent for Doctoral Students”, giving young researchers guidance and tips on progressing towards their PhD degree.

From September 15th to 17th, the first Modern Finance Conference (https://mf-conference.com/1st-modern-finance-conference-mfc/) was taking place in Warsaw, Poland. Marvin Motz from the IM chair attended the conference and presented his work titled “ESG and Stock Returns: The Critical Role of Analysis Parameters”. The conference hosted a broad audience of international researchers and offered presentations to a variety of topics from the field of finance.

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.