New professors, hands-on interdisciplinary research at Wissensstadt Berlin and the submission of the evaluation report - the year 2021 offered numerous highlights for the ECDF, its partners and the public. In our annual report, we present the various projects, events, and people involved that shaped the past year.

Right at the beginning of the year, ECDF Professor Dr. Dr. Felix Balzer took over a lifetime W3 professorship in Medical Data Science at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. In addition, since 2021, two new professors have expanded the research at ECDF: Professor Dr. Lydia Kaiser accepted the call for the professorship "Digital Engineering 4.0" at the Technical University of Berlin in March; on December 1, Prof. Dr. Andreas Schwitalla took up the junior professorship for "Digital Implantology" at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

At the events, we were able to realize a mix of on-site, digital and hybrid formats: At the Berlin Water Hackathon in January, we digitally worked on water-related challenges of the capital; our new discussion format "One Room - Four Perspectives" was able to take place hybrid with guests such as Britta Ernst, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of the State of Brandenburg and then President of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (Kultusministerkonferenz); at Wissensstadt Berlin, the ECDF then presented itself on several dates during the summer months in front of the Red City Hall.

In 2021, our members continued research on already established projects such as SimRa and at the same time launched new research projects, e.g. on the use of service robots in everyday life, on digital skills in the Tunisian labor market, or on quantum storage in space for a tap-proof quantum internet.

The ECDF annual report is available for download here: DEU / ENG. 

We hope you enjoy reading it!