Global Interest in AI in a Scientific Context

More than 20 university staff members from ten countries attended a session at Hochschule Offenburg to learn about this current topic.

28.04.2026 · Press release · Editorial Office: jd

A man is standing to the right of a lectern in a lecture hall in front of a seated audience
Rector Prof. Dr. Stephan Trahasch introduced the topic to the participants.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Hagen, Prorector for Internationalization, welcomed the visitors to the international Staff Week at Hochschule Offenburg, which was sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Rector Prof. Dr. Stephan Trahasch also welcomed more than 20 staff members from partner universities in Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Colombia, Latvia, North Macedonia, Poland, Sweden, Spain, and Ukraine, and introduced them to the current use of AI at Hochschule Offenburg as well as in Germany, and the challenges associated with it.

At the start of the program, Sebastian Grünwaldt, Christian Merschroth, and Gilbert Seilheimer provided an overview of LearnWise, an AI platform for universities. Afterward, the participants split into various workshops to delve deeper into specific aspects of the topic over the course of three sessions. In between, a tour of Hochschule Offenburg’s AI labs—organized by Vera Vanié, the vice director of the International Center, and her team—as well as an excursion to various companies provided practical insights. At a Barcamp on the topic “How AI Is Changing Universities” with Kai Wißmann, the participants finally compiled the results of the workshops. A guest lecture by Dr. Bettina-Johanna Krings from the KARL Institute on “The Integration of AI Systems into Labor Markets and Their Impacts: The Importance of Social, Ethical, and Legal Discourse,” as well as a networking meeting with students, added further perspectives to the work done.

Another important topic was discussed throughout the week during numerous one-on-one meetings between individual participants and professors at Hochschule Offenburg: the planning of new collaborations in research and teaching, as well as additional joint degree programs. While there are no concrete results yet, numerous promising ideas were generated.

The program was rounded out by a networking dinner, a visit to a brewery, and the opportunity to tour the Gengenbach campus.

Highlights from Staff Week

A man is standing in a lecture hall in front of a seated audience.
A woman is standing in a lecture hall in front of a seated audience
A man is standing in a seminar room in front of a seated audience
People are standing in a laboratory room among humanoid robots, a monitor, and a partition, gathered around a round table
A man is standing to the right of a woman, holding an open comic book in his hand and laughing
A young man is standing in a lab to the left of a humanoid robot suspended from a frame, explaining something to the person standing to the right of it
A view from behind, looking through a young man on the right and a humanoid robot on the left, at people standing in a laboratory