Network

CITEC cultivates an excellent scientific and industrial network, consisting of a Virtual Faculty, three adjunct institutions and several industrial partners.

Virtual Faculty

The CITEC Virtual Faculty consists of a group of renowned international experts who provide support for scientific questions.

Adjunct Institutions

The scientific activities of CITEC are supported by three adjunct institutions:

Center for Interdisciplinary Research

The Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF): With its dense and continuous program of interdisciplinary workshops and research groups, the ZiF has become a major research hub for fostering scientific contacts, facilitating our young scientists "getting in touch" with colleagues from all over the world, and enabling young scientists from abroad to experience the unique Bielefeld research atmosphere during shorter or longer visits at the Center.

CoR-Lab

The Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics is a central institute at Bielefeld University, which realizes progress in human-machine interaction in close cooperation with industrial partners, in particular but not restricted to the local region Ostwestfalen-Lippe. It hosts a graduate school in cognition and robotics and further projects in this domain, like e.g. the EU project ITALK. This research at Bielefeld University has also convinced representatives of the Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH to support the CoR-Lab's graduate school in joint projects and to provide research grants for PhD students and young postdocs. An important cornerstone of the cooperation are the two ASIMO humanoid robots, which Honda supplies for innovative research projects in the CoR-Lab. CoR-Lab and CITEC cooperate closely in the domains of robotics oriented cognitive research and within their graduate schools in the form of joint programs.

Crassenstein Castle

Crassenstein Castle is acting as a closely cooperating partner to the ZiF and the university. Offering a unique atmosphere for research, tutoring, demonstration and transfer, Schloss Crassenstein is positioned to play a prominent role for catalyzing new interdisciplinary connections, disseminating research results of the CITEC, connect medium sized enterprises and innovative research projects, and complementing the ZiF as an international seminar center for invited scientists from all over the world.

This enables CITEC to provide visiting researchers not only with an excellent infrastructure, but also with flexible living conditions, including housing and support for families if longer stays are intended.

Industrial Partners

CITEC covers the three major deployment areas of CIT applications:

• media-oriented CIT for enhancing interactive digital media with cognitive functions,
• appliance-oriented CIT bringing cognition into everyday household appliances, and
• CIT for cognitive robots.

For technology transfer in these areas, CITEC has signed cooperation agreements with three leading companies, each covering one of the three areas:

• Bertelsmann AG, a global player in modern media technology, with headquarters in nearby Gütersloh,
• Miele Cie. KG, Germany's leading company for high-quality household appliances, with headquarters in Bielefeld and Gütersloh, and
• Honda Research Europe, that develops the cognitive system of the world-renowned ASIMO robot system.

These cooperations will tightly connect the research activities in the CITEC with with problems arising in the marketplace.

Another cooperation with

• WEGE Technology Center GmbH Bielefeld

is positioned to establish a chain of measures to support know-how transfer between CITEC and smaller-sized companies, and aid young researchers with the start-up activities and their development of entrepeneurship in CIT.