Tech Project

Description of the challenges faced by the Tech Project

With innovative solutions and concepts for the future, we are collaborating with selected partners in the initiative “Smart Rural Areas” on better exploiting the potential offered by life in the country. Limitations and obstacles that currently speak against rural life shall be eliminated and overcome with the help of smart, software-based solutions. With new concepts we want to bring rural life from the sidelines into the fast lane and thereby make it just as attractive as the model of a future life in “Smart Cities”. This will allow everyone to re-think their own life plans and to freely decide – independent of any constraints – how and where they want to live. Whether Smart Cities or Smart Rural Areas – the time for addressing the challenges for future life models is now.

Brief description of technology

We have developed a platform for digital enhanced services offered in rural areas. These services can be developed by various organizations but are offered in a consistent way via the platform to the users. Examples of these services are a marketplace with local shops where users can buy goods and groceries, a crowd based logistic service to distribute the shop orders and a digital black board for sharing service. This network of services and service providers can grow complex and requires an elaborated visualization concept that can be understood by developers and non-technical users so that trust is built.

What the project is looking to gain from the collaboration and what kind of artist would be suitable

Making life in rural areas worth living in the future is our joint responsibility in government, research, business, and society. Science and research should make every effort to support the pursuit of new and innovative paths. The Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern therefore considers itself a pioneer and companion for future-oriented ideas, which are being developed in numerous collaborations with business enterprises. With the research program “Smart Rural Areas”, Fraunhofer IESE contributes its competencies regarding “A Future for Rural Regions“ for the benefit of rural areas on the one hand and – in a cross-discipline approach including various partners – for the benefit of Germany and the European Union on the other hand.

Resources available to the artist

Office facility, digital equipment (i.e. computer, internet access, graphical tablet etc.), working directly with the team in a collaborative working space, small amount of budget for consumables and equipment. Possibility to visit our living labs in the rural areas in Betzdorf and Eisenberg.