Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
The Leipzig region gives companies the opportunity to harness the potential of digitalisation. Particularly innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, Big Data and cloud computing can be found here. Companies such as Sage, Alexander Thamm, Powercloud and In-Tech have specifically chosen Leipzig as their location.
Companies in Focus
Sage, Leipzig
Sage offers software solutions for start-ups, small and medium-sized companies and craft enterprises in the areas of financial accounting, merchandise management systems, ERP or HR software or shop systems. Sage currently has 13,000 employees and serves over three million customers in 23 countries in Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia and Latin America.
In-Tech, Leipzig
Founded in 2002, In-Tech aims to shape the mobility of the future. To this end, they develop innovative solutions for automotive mobility, intelligent mobility, smart cities and smart factories at more than 20 locations in 8 countries to make everyday life more intelligent, sustainable and safe.
powercloud, Leipzig
powercloud GmbH develops platforms for the energy industry. The cloud software provider's “Software as a Service“ model provides a digitisation solution for companies of all sizes aimed at making the energy industry future-proof.
Alexander Thamm, Leipzig
As one of the leading service providers for data science and artificial intelligence in the German-speaking world, Alexander Thamm GmbH generates real added value from data to create competitive advantages for its customers. The company, which specialises in Big Data and analytics, has been growing steadily since its establishment in 2012 and has already carried out over 600 data science projects.
InfAI, Leipzig
The Institut für Angewandte Informatik e.V. (Institute for Applied Computer Science) was founded in 2006 to promote science and research in the fields of computer science and business informatics. The 130 employees of the accredited affiliated institute of the University of Leipzig work on domestic as well as international innovative research projects with a focus on the areas of Big Data, logistics, the energy industry and service research.
ScaDS Dresden/Leipzig
Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence is the national competence centre for Big Data, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). At the two university locations, Dresden and Leipzig, project partners work on a wide range of research and application development topics for the processing of large data sets in science and industry. The ScaDS has been developing into a German centre for artificial intelligence (AI) since 2014.
Smart Infrastructure Hub, Leipzig
Since 2017 Leipzig, together with Dresden, has been one of 12 digital hubs supported by the German government (BMWi). The work of the “Smart Infrastructure Hub“ focuses on the topics of energy, e-health, electromobility as well as the smart city, which conducts research in this area with the aim of intelligent networking and digitalisation of the processes and infrastructure in the City of Leipzig.
Innovation centers
The countrywide “Platform Industry 4.0“ was established by the Federal Bitkom Association to support the lightweight construction industry, and at the same time provided major impetus for the BMWi's nationwide “Digital Hubs“ initiative. This provided the basis for the Smart Infrastructure Hub Leipzig, which is located at the SpinLab - The HHL Acceleratorand supports the establishment and growth of innovative digital teams in the fields of infrastructure, energy and the smart city.
At the Co Creation Lab “Fabrik der Zukunft“ (Factory of the Future) of the “Saxony5“ university network, involving the HTWK Leipzig and others, products and solutions are being developed using IoT applications to enable smart components and machines to communicate with each other, to control processes and to move independently through production. The focus is particularly on the topics of the smart factory, smart operations, smart products, data-driven services, employees and digital leadership.
InfAI, the Institut für Angewandte Informatik (Institute for Applied Computer Science) is an important IT service provider in the areas of Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, Big Data/Smart Data and data analytics. It acts as an innovative contract partner, for example in BMWi projects such as the „NASIA“ network for anomaly detection and incident management for IoT-based applications, or the “PlatonaM“ project for the development of a process-oriented IoT platform for innovative maintenance management through predictive maintenance. In addition, through its incubation programme InfAI supports spin-offs from IT research with both financial and technological expertise.
SprinD, the Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovationen (Federal Government's Springboard Innovation Promotion Agency) was founded at the end of 2019 with the aim of promoting groundbreaking innovations „made in Germany“. It represents a further milestone in the promotion of innovation in the region. The Agency has a budget of one billion euro at its disposal over a period of 10 years. Funding will be given to ideas that serve a civic purpose.
Initiated by InfAI, KI-Hub Sachsen (Saxony's AI Hub) is devoted to the practical application of artificial intelligence to make daily work processes more efficient. Since 2019 a total of 17 entrepreneurs and scientists from the Leipzig region have been part of the initiative, which also includes the national competence centre for Big Data, ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig (Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence). As part of the German government's AI strategy, in addition to new AI professorships, research will be conducted on the efficient use of mass data, machine learning, trust, transparency and the protection of privacy at both locations.
In the rural areas of Saxony and the Leipzig region, digitalisation in agricultural engineering and processes is being promoted. Under the umbrella of simul+ InnovationHub companies in Saxony work together with research institutions and the government. Optimised and flexible value chains are to be developed from the interaction of sensor technology, robotics and automation with networked data use by artificial intelligence and Big Data. The reference projects “Kognitive Robotik 2.0 im Garten-, Obst- und Weinbau“, “EXPRESS: Künstliche Intelligenz in der Landwirtschaft“ (Cognitive Robotics 2.0 in Horticulture, Fruit Growing and Viticulture Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture) and “Projekt Feldschwarm®“ provide local companies with a platform to share knowledge and encourage them to enter the digital world.
