And I’m happy to say that it was a huge success! We reached our capacity limit when 130 curious guests showed up at the Porsche Digital Foundry in Ludwigsburg to listen to four crisp presentations on the topic of AI. All of them were rewarded with inspiration, knowledge, contacts, drinks and snacks.
"At Porsche, we believe that AI is a game-changer."
At Porsche, we believe that AI is a game-changer. In order to further advance and broaden the exchange and the knowledge around this important topic in Germany, we are very happy to now host AI Mondays also in the Stuttgart area. In collaboration with Taival, we launched the series here and kicked-off the first event successfully. For everyone who couldn’t join us, here is a short recap of the four presentations that were held:
1. The SoundDetective: Can you hear the mistake?
Why did Porsche bring the AI Monday to Stuttgart at all? Anja Hendel, Director Porsche Digital Lab, and Simone Schulz, Program Manager Digital Enterprise at Porsche, addressed this question for the beginning of our first AI Monday. Well, the case is clear: AI is the key to achieving our goal of cross-functional, -departmental, -organizational and -industrial collaboration and networking. Using the example of "Click", a new approach to predictive maintenance based on a well-founded analysis, the two experts demonstrated how interdisciplinary teamwork enables new solutions. All mechanical devices are affected by abrasion. But failures and defects can cause significant delays and costs if they occur during production. With the use of AI, the Porsche Digital Lab created an innovative solution that allows to detect and respond to faults before they occur. Each machine has a unique sound profile that changes when it is running, idling, in standby or servicing. Porsche has succeeded in developing artificial intelligence that is able to identify the condition of the machine on the basis of the sound. We call this the SoundDetective.
2. AI grew out of its infancy into Netflix, Amazon and Co.
The first presentation already showed that AI is no longer an exciting technology to just play around with - for a lot of guests this may be nothing new, but the AI Monday is open to everyone, including non-experts that may not know of the possibilities of the technology. Sebastian Klenk from 5Analytics showed how AI prototypes prove their reliability and knowledge under real conditions in production environments. He gave exciting examples from Netflix, Amazon and other large companies on how they successfully realize this. I mean, did you know that 75% of all watched movies on Netfix are recommended by an engine and that Amazon uses machine learning to ship packages before they are ordered?
3. AI for security: Analyze and influence visitor flows
At this point at the latest, the question of how AI is able to make all of these great business cases possible arose. That’s why Raoul Schönhof from Fraunhofer IPA gave us a deep dive into what AI really is, as part of which he presented selected cases from the Fraunhofer Institute such as the Security Defense. This application recognizes when too many people are at a certain place, for example during a fair, and uses crowd detection to warn of possible risks, such as mass panic. With this innovative technology, tragedies such as the Love Parade 2010 are supposed to be prevented in the future.
4. Fighting road damage with AI
Not only the infrastructure of events but also of whole cities is very important for a safe living together. Unfortunately, the quality of German roads is increasingly deteriorating. Severe winters and low investments in road maintenance lead to dramatic wear and tear. This is a problem for the safety of drivers and passengers – and also harmful for the vehicles. But even for bumps and broken streetlights, AI can be the solution. As the last speaker, Friedrich Münke, Machine Learning Specialist at Vialytics presented his solution for identifying defective roads and thus initiating maintenance measures in a targeted manner.
Deep-dive discussions and downloadable AI knowledge
After each presentation, the audience had the opportunity to ask questions and get direct answers from the experts. To wrap up the whole evening, we led over into a networking session. With cold drinks and tasty snacks, there were a lively exchange and good conversations.
Now, the kickoff event is over, but the relevance of the topics of the talks are definitely not. That’s why we provide all the presentation slides online after each event and engage you to deepen your knowledge even if you couldn’t be part of the event.
Join us for the next AI Monday!
The first event was a great success and made me even more excited about the following meetups. I’d love to see many of you at our next AI Monday on July 22nd, 2019 at BWCon. To get a ticket and information about the following topics, click here. Better hurry – the last event was fully booked.
One more thing: The AI Monday at Porsche is supposed to be a lively format that conveys new impulses and meets current challenges with answers. Therefore, let us know which issues are of interest to you and we might pick up the topic at the next AI Monday.
Last but not least I want to thank my awesome colleagues from our AI team at Porsche - without this committed team, all of this wouldn’t be possible. It’s so much fun to work with you!
