Building bridges across the disciplines: FIZ Karlsruhe at the fPET conference in Karlsruhe

In numerous keynotes, workshops and presentations, both academics and representatives from business, culture and art discussed current issues at the interface of philosophy, (information) technology, science and engineering. A particular focus this year was on questions relating to the use of artificial intelligence and the associated ethical implications. Opportunities and challenges relating to the digital transformation were also an important topic discussed by representatives from all disciplines. FIZ Karlsruhe was of course also represented - this time with the Leibniz ScienceCampus Digital Transformation of Research (DiTraRe), which our FIZ colleagues introduced in a presentation and with a poster.

In a joint presentation with her FIZ colleagues Matthias Razum, Dr. Felix Bach and Dr. Linda Nierling from the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Dr. Anna Jacyszyn explained exactly what this transdisciplinary and cross-institutional ScienceCampus is all about: “Research results are increasingly being shaped by digitalization processes - this applies both to research methods and to their communication in science and society. At the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Digital Transformation of Research" (DiTraRe), we are investigating the effects and potential of the increasing digitalization of scientific work in four interdisciplinary research clusters.“

The importance of interdisciplinary exchange and interface communication

In addition to the DiTraRe presentation and the positive feedback from the fPET community, Dr. Jacyszyn gained even more insights from three days of conference and one day of expert workshops: “The discussions with colleagues from different fields showed how enriching a different perspective can be and how important it is to have such interface conferences. However, it also became clear how relevant our language and our communication is when we talk about research and research results. Do we really mean the same thing by certain terms? For example, what do we mean when we talk about digitality, digitalization and digital transformation? These terms are very often used interchangeably, even in a scientific context, but they actually mean very different things.”

Dr. Felix Bach draws a similar conclusion with regard to fPET: “With many interesting presentations at the interface between science, philosophy and technology, fPET was interesting and relevant for the Leibniz Science Campus DiTraRe, which presented itself with a poster and a talk. The interdisciplinary exchange ensures that new impulses and new perspectives on problems - such as ethical ones - can be incorporated into DiTraRe.“

For Dr. Bach, in addition to the feedback on DiTraRe, the many questions surrounding AI were also an important aspect of fPET: “AI is not just a tool that can make our lives easier. When we discuss whether there can be AI-based personal assistance systems, for example in healthcare, we need to understand even better how an AI makes decisions and whether or when human intervention is necessary.” Felix Bach was able to confirm the impression that different disciplines use different terminology, ideas and models in the discourse on AI - a finding that shows that it is all the more important to build interdisciplinary bridges. Dr. Anna Jacyszyn gets right to the point: “Through this interesting and unique exchange between philosophers, engineers, technologists and scientists of different kinds I was once more reminded how crucial for a proper development of research it is to talk, discuss, take a step out of our comfort zone to broaden our horizons and include perspectives which are outside of our regular scope. “

More information on the Leibniz ScienceCampus Digital Transformation of Research (DiTraRe) is available here.

Program of the fPET 2024 
Book of Abstracts
Paper of Dr. Anna Jacyszyn