The tri-university research initiative “Productive Teaming” brought together more than 40 scientists from different institutions to discuss an exchange as well as cooperation opportunities on the topic of “Teaming between human and artificial agents” and to develop solution approaches for increasing productivity.
On March 17, 2023, the symposium of the research initiative “Productive Teaming” took place at the TU Chemnitz. More than 40 scientists from various institutions of the Chemnitz-Ilmenau-Magdeburg Research and Innovation Network (“CHIM”) accepted the invitation, including representatives of the Chemnitz University of Technology, the OVGU Magdeburg, the Ilmenau University of Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute in Chemnitz, Ilmenau and Magdeburg.
At the opening of the symposium, the three coordinators of the research initiative, Prof. Dr. Dr. Marco Ragni (TU Chemnitz, Head of the Center for Man and Technology and of the Professorship Predictive Behavior Analysis), Prof. Dr. Frank Ortmeier (OVGU Magdeburg, Head of the Professorship Software Engineering) and Prof. Dr. Gunter Notni (TU Ilmenau, Head of the Department Quality Assurance and Industrial Image Processing), presented both the research initiative itself and the grouping of the individual projects. Thus, the participants of the event could already get an overview of the topics and projects of the other participants.
Afterwards, the participants had the opportunity to briefly present their own project in a poster session with a total of 25 posters. Here, the diversity of the research projects and the expertise of the scientists in the various fields became apparent. During and after the poster session, the participants took the opportunity to discuss the presented projects, to work out further questions as well as possible solutions and to develop ideas for further research activities. This symposium thus provided a suitable platform for the scientists to explore various cooperation possibilities and also provided the impetus for a planned manifesto on “Productive Teaming”, which is to be published later this year.
In a concluding discussion Prof. Ragni summarized the results of the day and gave an outlook on how these results can be integrated and further developed in the advancing research of “Productive Teaming”. Prof. Ragni: “The Productive Teaming symposium was a successful event that gave those involved in the research initiative the opportunity to gain valuable insights into the research activities of their colleagues and to enter into possible collaborations.” The research initiative thus underscores the importance of the interdisciplinary interface between artificial intelligence (AI), psychology and mechanical engineering, not only in central Germany but also on a national and international level. Each university contributes its respective strengths from its core competencies, creating a symbiosis of numerous subject areas and complementing each other. “In addition, our CHIM research network promotes cross-site collaboration and exchange between researchers at the three sites in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, both for current and future research projects and initiatives,” Ragni said.
About Productive Teaming
Current technological developments are enabling highly complex, intelligent, adaptive, and autonomous cyber-technical systems that can support, complement, and surpass human cognitive abilities and skills in solving tomorrow’s new challenges. This constant development of increasingly powerful and intelligent technologies is currently leading to equally new and complex challenges in dynamic production systems, which must be mastered quickly and consistently. A key challenge in the field of production systems in the future will be to solve highly complex problems with myriad parameters that far exceed the capacities of individuals and conventional, human teams. Therefore, to solve these problems and increase productivity, it is ultimately necessary to create teams of people and production systems that specialize in such “teaming” between people and production systems. Productive Teaming” is a joint research initiative of the Chemnitz University of Technology, the Ilmenau University of Technology and the OVGU Magdeburg, which has developed from the already existing research and innovation network “CHIM”. The goal of this initiative is to better understand teaming between human and artificial agents with the help of overarching thematic complexes and to find an answer to the following research question, among others: Can intelligent systems be cognitively augmented to be able to dynamically anticipate the capabilities and needs of the team partner within this process?
Further information on the research initiative can be found here: https://chim.hrz.tu-chemnitz.de/projekte/productive-teaming/
TU Chemnitz, 28.03.2023
(Author: Marlies Facius)
Photos/Copyright: TU Chemnitz (Marlies Facius/Nithin Kashyap Venkatesha)
