30 years FZI – implies also 30 years IT in engineering

The FZI celebrated its 30 years of success in technology transfer. From CAD / CAM towards Industry 4.0, IT in mechanical engineering was always in the focus of attention.
30 years FZI
30 years FZI party

At 28th and 29 th of January 2015 the FZI celebrated its 30 years of success in technology transfer, especially for SMEs. The support of core processes in industry by IT was taken into account from the beginning by Professor Grabowski, a founding member of the unique institution at that time. At the beginning were topics of CAD/CAM use in times of CIM Computer Integrated Manufacturing in the forefront of attention, over the years information management for the processes of the entire industrial value creation were also considered. Today, the FZI is dedicated to the challenges of comprehensive digitization and networking in industry. "The state capital may indeed be Stuttgart, but the digital heart beats in Karlsruhe." that’s how Economics Minister Nils Schmid described the importance of the FZI in Baden-Württemberg in his official speech at the cultural centre Tollhaus. With more welcoming speeches of representatives from politcs the FZI and the importance of IT has been acknowledged by Dr. Simone Schwanitz, Dr. Frank Mentrup, Prof. Holger Hanselka, Prof. Wolf -Dieter Lukas and Dr. Alexander Tettenborn from various perspectives. On the second day according to the motto "30 years of knowledge transfer" partners from industry, science and associations presented keynote speeches in workshops on current topics including Industry 4.0.Furthermore current demonstrators and project results in the Living Labs were shown. As a partner in the research project SkillPro the KIT/IMI together with the department PDE pointed out the possibilities of using VR to improve the vertical system integration in plant and production management.

FZI was established 1983 on proposal by a research committee of the State of Baden- Württemberg as a research and transfer center for computer science and IT applications at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) and at the 1st of January 1985 released in self-employment. It was set up by the state of Baden - Württemberg and the former University of Karlsruhe (TH) - now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in the legal form of an independent, non-profit foundation. The Department of CAD/CAM launched as one of seven founding departments and was renamed in 2001 in PDE Process and Data Management in Engineering. In 2004, Prof. Ovtcharova assumed the department, which also belonged to the FZI Board 2005-2008.