A Successful Program by the City of Regensburg
“For many years now, there has been the ‘TV Studio,’ a media education summer program organized by the City of Regensburg (Office for Municipal Youth Work/Regensburg Multigenerational Center), in which children and teens from the city and district of Regensburg, ages 10 to 14, spend a week filming videos on a specific topic under our guidance. The resulting videos—which range widely in format (e.g., reports, interviews, surveys, and fun videos)—ultimately come together to form about an hour of TV programming featuring music, fun, serious topics, comedy, and entertainment. “The goals are to teach media literacy, foster collaborative work on a large project, and explore an exciting topic in depth,” explains Michael Jungbauer, a social education worker at the Office for Municipal Youth Work in Regensburg.
This year, the project took place during the second week of the Easter break and focused on the highly topical subject of “artificial intelligence.” The participants interviewed passersby in Regensburg’s Old Town and visited OTH Regensburg, where three professors from the Regensburg Center for Artificial Intelligence (RCAI) were delighted to contribute to the project. They conducted interviews with the students and provided fascinating insights into ongoing research projects.
The resulting video, which the participants subsequently edited professionally and clearly, can be found here.
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence by Prof. Dr. Armin Sehr
In a live interview, Prof. Dr. Armin Sehr explained the basic principles of artificial intelligence to the students. Using the example of image recognition, he demonstrated that artificial intelligence learns step by step based on specified inputs(e.g., pixels) and specified outputs (e.g., visible objects in the image), enabling it to subsequently identify objects in new images on its own.
He answered the question of how artificial intelligence works in social media using the example of the YouTube recommender system, which provides suggestions for additional videos based on viewers’ preferences. However, he also highlighted the processing of user data and advised the students to exercise caution when sharing personal information online.
Finally, he also provided a brief insight into his current projects. HASKI is developing an adaptive learning platform for students that adapts to users’ individual learning progress through personalized learning paths. In another project, Prof. Sehr is working on the localization of acoustic sound sources.
Interview with Prof. Dr. Karsten Weber on the Ethical and Legal Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
At OTH Regensburg, the students spoke with Research Professor Dr. Karsten Weber, who specializes in technology assessment—specifically, the impacts of artificial intelligence on the environment, society, cities, and mobility.
During the conversation, he discussed with a student how people have become dependent on technological systems. In addition to the advantages—such as facilitating communication across different languages—they also addressed potential risks, such as changes in or the loss of jobs.
Using ChatGPT—which was recently suspended in Italy for review—as an example, he explained the critical importance of research and legal regulations that ensure key aspects, such as data protection, are upheld in the context of artificial intelligence. This, he said, is essential to prevent potential misuse and to guarantee that artificial intelligence serves as a positive support for people.
Artificial Intelligence in Practice — Project Presentations from Prof. Dr. Hermann Ketterl’s Measurement and Control Technology Laboratory
In the Measurement and Control Technology Laboratory, two female students presented their project on monitoring cows to study herd behavior. In addition, the high school students gained insight into a practical project aimed at optimizing the settings of a coffee machine.
Ph.D. candidate Tobias Heinrich showed visitors how an autonomous robot can make people’s work easier by independently identifying and removing weeds using artificial intelligence.
Prof. Dr. Hermann Ketterl concluded by presenting the latest research from the ELISE project, in which an autonomous robot is being developed for standardized soil analysis. Here, artificial intelligence is used to evaluate microscopic images of soil samples to determine the fungus-to-bacteria ratio in the soil and optimize it for growing plants.
The students were enthusiastic about the professors’ expertise and the exciting projects at OTH Regensburg. The feedback from the participating professors, staff, and students was equally positive; they thoroughly enjoyed the productive collaboration with the film crew.
OTH Regensburg extends its heartfelt thanks for the wonderful results and looks forward to more great work from the TV studio!