An AI Alliance for Cities
A call to develop, train and use AI collaboratively - Science, Politic, Business
A new challenge for communities - Call for Cooperation
The city has always been challenged to continue evolving since its very invention. New services, new ways of living and working place new demands on city management. Areas such as mobility, energy, and climate resilience now impose requirements that once played little or no role. With these growing demands, however, the toolbox of urban management must also expand.
Advances in computer science, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, hold great potential for improving the management of cities and municipalities. For this to succeed, many parts must interlock, and many actors must work together effectively. This is all the more important since the workings of complex software systems are often difficult to comprehend. When software, algorithms, and—particularly in the case of AI—training data are not publicly available, transparency and accountability become a challenge.
Goals & Activities
The alliance aims to address the challenges described by bringing together partners from science, industry, and public administration in joint projects. We want to develop software and algorithms collaboratively, with their source code made publicly available. In this way, solutions can be transferred, and the necessary expertise can be developed collectively. Direct exchange between research and practice is intended to help translate insights into practical solutions. At the same time, it should also ensure that areas of application within the public sector can be opened up as data sources for research. This two-way exchange will furthermore enable the development of market-ready products.
Another key focus will be the publication of labeled training data. Since AI systems require very large amounts of prepared training data for their training, these must also be made publicly available. This is not the case for many AI services, particularly those from countries outside a city's political or legal zone. This hinders local innovation and thus stands in the way of sovereign technology use.
Alliance Founders
Ostfalia Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften (German for "Eastphalia University of Applied Sciences", known as Fachhochschule Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel until 2009), is a Fachhochschule in eastern Lower Saxony, Germany and is internationally know as Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences. The predecessor of the college, Staatliche Ingenieurschule Wolfenbüttel (State Engineering School Wolfenbuettel), was founded in 1928. It merged with two other independent institutions in August 1971. It has campuses in Salzgitter, Wolfenbüttel, Wolfsburg and Suderburg.
Aalen University - Technology, Business, and Health - is a University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
Five faculties, 60 diverse and forward-looking degree programs, more than 130 partnerships worldwide, and over 4,000 students: Aalen University of Applied Sciences is one of the largest universities of applied sciences in Baden-Württemberg. Aalen University maintains strong alliances with the numerous “hidden champions” and global companies based in this region.
Founded in Wolfsburg by three software engineers, Starwit offers a range of software products as well as consulting services. Focused on algorithmic software components in the field of machine vision and AI, Starwit's products help communities and businesses in the area of mobility, logistics and manufacturing. Starwit's tools are Situational awareness, detecting anomalies and advanced statistics.
Gerhartl is a company based in Wolfsburg that supports customers from the initial idea through to the fully developed product. Rooted in Wolfsburg's traditional automotive industry, Gerhartl assists its clients in the transformation process toward new technological products by combining competencies in electrical and mechanical engineering. Its range of services covers all areas of the development process and beyond.
City of Carmel, Indiana
Carmel is a suburban city in Hamilton County, Indiana, United States, immediately north of Indianapolis. With a population of 99,757 as of the 2020 census, the city spans 49 square miles (130 km2) across Clay Township and is bordered by the White River to the east and the Boone County line to the west. Carmel was home to one of the first electronic automated traffic signals in the country, and constructed 155 roundabouts between 1997 and 2025. With continued investments in fibre channel connected infra-structure Carmel, leads the transformation into the city of tomorrow.
City of Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg is a city in the state of Niedersachsen in northern German. With almost 130.000 inhabitants Wolfsburg is best known as the headquarter and the largest factory of the Volkswagen corporation. It is thus a place where manufacturing and industrieal expertise has a long and succesful tradition. Based on this prosperous past Wolfsburg aims to be Germany's most influential laboratory for the mobility of tomorrow. To this end Wolfsburg continuously invests in smart city applications as well as the necessery infrastructure. AI algorithms are at the center of these investments.
LINET Services, based in Brunswick, advises companies and public institutions on all matters regarding data protection and compliance. Its primary goal is to ensure regulatory compliance, safeguard personal data, and mitigate legal risks. Its compliance department is staffed exclusively by lawyers who also specialize in the EU AI Act. Consequently, our legal team supports organizations in the legally secure implementation of Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, LINET Services has been acting as a trusted IT service provider for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region for over 20 years.