AI is not magic - Experiences from a hackathon and a look into the future

In this meetup, we will have 3 talks around AI, plus drinks, pizza and a lot of networking.

#1
Mr.Pat - AI from Hackathon to reality (45 min)

Sometimes you have to work smarter not harder - This is how the jury evaluated the app “Mr. Pat”, which was built for the Hackathon of the TU Munich 2018. Due to the use of IBM Watson services such as Watson Assistant or Visual Recognition, the app could be built quickly and easily, while other teams tried to build a Visual Recognition all weekend. The success of Watson Services convinced the organizers, so maybe the app will soon become reality? Often the results of the hackathons are turned into reality. An example of this would be the OpenSmart app, which was released in a similar form by BMW and will also be presented at the Meetup.

Daniel Frick (22) holds a bachelor’s degree in business informatics from the Munich University of Applied Sciences. He is currently completing his dual master’s degree at IBM and enjoys taking part in hackathons privately.

#2
AI in Space: Project CIMON

In 2018, German astronaut Alexander Gerst accomplished his second six-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS). On this mission, Gerst had the chance to work with CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion): The five-kilogram, 3D-printed, medicine ball sized robot is the first astronaut assistant in space to be equipped with artificial intelligence and is a technology experiment for human-machine interaction in a cosmic setting. In this talk, you will learn more about the first autonomously flying robot jointly created by Airbus, DLR and IBM and how AI technology is entering human spaceflight.

Sophie Richter-Mendau works as a Technical Specialist for Analytics and AI Solutions. She holds a Master of Science in Business Psychology and researched on future trends of human-machine-interaction and the benefits of using psychometrical tests in business applications. As part of her practical work, she just recently designed the personality and voice interaction system of the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON) to assist astronauts on the International Space Station.

#3
Looking into the future of AI: Project Debater (20 min)

Project Debater is the first AI system that can debate humans on complex topics. The goal is to help people build persuasive arguments and make well-informed decisions. In this talk, I will give an overview of this IBM research project and its results in debates with humans.

Stephan Reimann is Leading Technical Specialist Big Data, Data Science & AI at IBM Germany. He supports clients to build innovative data-driven solutions starting from generating ideas to implementing prototypes. His current focus is on innovative, cloud-based data solutions using analytics and AI and on real time streaming analytics.