At the tech event Digital Tech Summit, industry and universities shared knowledge about solutions that can help Europe through societal challenges.
Europe is facing major societal challenges with the climate crisis, the energy crisis, disease prevention, production, security, etc. Challenges that have been emphasized by the war in Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the latest climate report from the UN environmental organization UNEP.
Here, safe technology can help make our society more resilient. The tech resilience was the theme at the big tech event Digital Tech Summit, where all Danish universities met with industry and exchanged knowledge through presentations and debates.
Dilemma Galore
One of the features of the two-day conference was the 'Digital Tech Dilemma Galore - count-down to solutions' organized by the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences, ATV, and sponsored by Danish Data Science Academy. Here, Novo Nordisk and Siemens discussed digital challenges with researchers.
Dilemma no. 1, Novo Nordisk: How to enable a Digital Supply Chain Twin with precise data, and integrating with different enterprise data systems, to achieve visibility and improve decision-making, when unexpected events occur in the supply chain?
Dilemma no. 2, Siemens Digital Industries: Digital technologies are our unique selling point, but challenge the way we look and navigate in terms of the value chain, so how do we work in a complex and ecosystem-based value chain and navigate in the global market?
Two of DTU Compute's staff, Assistant Professor Tobias Kasper Skovborg Ritschel and Associate Professor and Head of Study for Continuing Education Line Clemmensen, helped represent the research in the dilemma debate.
”It was interesting to hear about Novo Nordisk's and Siemens Digital Industries' digital solutions challenges within digital twins and supply chain management and with transforming value chains through digital ecosystems. I hope they can use my suggestions on incorporating data uncertainty into the digital twins and on combining data-driven learning with expert knowledge, and I think it is worthwhile to keep exploring how data, technology, and business models should interact in order to drive industrial adoption of science and technology,” says Tobias Kasper Skovborg Ritschel - and Line Clemmensen adds:
"It was a pleasure to see the great digital ambitions our companies have. They demand complex digital solutions, which also involve the ecosystem and the people the solutions should help. My angle was to remember to find the biggest pain points/values and transform them from the beginning to minimize risks and to earn money from the start, even in large and complex projects. Furthermore, this progress provides the opportunity for essential and concrete feedback from users and stakeholders early in the process.”
Everybody talks about resilience
The dilemma debate was moderated by Helle Rootzen, CEO and Founder of andhero, and Vice Chairman at ATV’s Digital Wise Men. She emphasizes the importance of bridge building between the industry and the universities to inspire each other:
"The universities are close to research and know the latest news in the research field. They also know how to make things safer or maybe not make them quite as advanced as the industry could come up with - and thus more robust," says Helle Rootzen.
"Right now, we talk a lot about resilience and how to prepare for crises. Unfortunately, the state of the world shows that is necessary. And there I think that the cooperation between the industry and the universities is really, really important in order to be resilient for the future that we are facing," she says.
It is only the second time that the Digital Tech Summit was held by the eight Danish universities together with a large number of partners; business and interest organisations, research centres, innovation clusters, and companies. This year in Bella Center Copenhagen, where participants could choose between numerous debates and presentations on the stages that surrounded the industry's exhibition area.
Mark Riis, Head of Innovation at DTU Compute and Project Manager for the Digital Tech Summit, calls the Digital Tech Summit a success.
"With over 4,300 registrants, a unique meeting place was created for the tech environment in Denmark, where experts with deep insight into the technologies met with people with a deep need for the technologies to discuss visions and solutions. DTU was strongly represented at the Digital Tech Summit, and thus the event was also a solid framework for networking and showing what DTU stands for; creating technology for people," says Mark Riis.
Have a look at the photo gallery at the top of the article.