Around 100 visitors from the public sector, research and industry took the opportunity at the Urban Innovation Day to discover innovative applications for the city of the future and to engage in discussion with experts. Michael Leitner-Hickisch, the new head of UIV’s Digitalization and AI team, emphasized the importance of innovation, research and the responsible use of AI technologies for the city of the future.
The AIT Center for Technology Experience was represented as a partner with an innovation stand, demonstrating how AI technologies can be developed and evaluated in a human-centered way. At the AIT stand, visitors were able to test the following:
- Measurement of emotions and experience factors using automated facial expression analysis
- Automated chatbot tests with AI personas, based on a test framework for conversational AI and agentic AI developed at AIT
- The use of eye-tracking to analyze gaze behaviour, user experience, emotions and cognitive load, using the online game GeoGuessr as an example
Two projects in which the AIT Centre for Technology Experience is involved were also presented:
• KICK Lab – the UIV’s AI lab, which supports organizations from the initial idea through to the proof of concept, whilst placing the human-centered perspective and the principles of digital humanism at the heart of its work.
• AI Creation – a project aimed at testing, through specific pilot cases, how AI tools can make participatory processes and public engagement simpler and more efficient.
The programme at Urban Innovation Day was complemented by demonstrations of other innovative applications, such as an AI-powered energy advice bot and the mobile mapping equipment from the Vienna Geospace Hub.
Urban Innovation Day impressively demonstrated how close collaboration between research, city administration and innovation partners contributes to the practical development of forward-looking technologies and highlights their potential for cities. For AIT, the event provided an ideal platform to present current research in the field of human-centered AI and digital innovations to a specialist audience and the Digital City Vienna community, and to further deepen the dialogue.
