AI for Urban Practitioners - Franco-German Exchange on Smart Cities and Regions

Marie Bernard has a long international career in legal innovation. She now works in the Nantes metropolitan area on digital innovation issues within the public sector. She focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence and led Nantes Débat de l'IA, a local public consultation on the topic. She also explores the effects of hyperconnectivity on mental health and community life.

Dr. Jonas Bostelmann is Product Owner in the GeoAI team at the State Office for Geoinformation and Surveying of Lower Saxony. His team is responsible for the development and operation of GeoAI applications in the field of remote sensing and image analysis. He holds a scientific background in photogrammetry and satellite remote sensing. In his work, he places particular emphasis on open source, open data, and the strengthening of internal expertise within public administration.

Marlene Damerau is Head of the Smart City Unit and project lead of URBAN.KI at the City of Gelsenkirchen. A trained geographer, she previously worked as a research assistant at Rupprecht Consult in Cologne on innovation topics in mobility, at the Everyday Mobility and Transport Systems Research Group at ILS Dortmund, and as a project manager for sustainable urban development at the City of Kassel.

Carolin Johannsen is a systems engineer with a Master's degree in Systems Engineering (University of Bremen 2011). She conducted research in the Cognitive Neuroinformatics working group on artificial intelligence for the common good, in particular on decision support systems. As a software architect in the Innovation Unit at the State Office for Geoinformation and Land Surveying of Lower Saxony (LGLN), she worked on urban resilience projects. She currently heads the start-up "Reimagine Spaces", which is supported by the ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) Northern Germany.

Prof. Dr. Christian Kuhlmann completed his doctorate in the field of machine learning theory at the Ruhr University Bochum. He subsequently carried out various AI projects in the industrial environment of the insurance industry. He has been Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Westfälische Hochschule since 2018, where he teaches Machine Learning and Data Mining. In 2019, he founded the Artificial Intelligence and Municipal Geoinformation research group, with which he has successfully carried out a number of projects in close cooperation with various municipalities and the Recklinghausen district administration in recent years.

Sarah Langnese is a Senior Consultant with a focus on the public sector, digitalisation, AI and administrative modernisation. She leads the community management of the Civic Coding Innovation Network AI for the Common Good project. Previously, she advised the Federal Foreign Office on a digital project as a Work4Germany Fellow and worked as a freelance strategist, facilitator and consultant for digital tools. With many years of experience in agile, hybrid and classic project management, she supports digitalisation and innovation processes, moderates workshops and events and has expertise in network building, stakeholder and community management.

Renate Mitterhuber has been Head of the Smart Cities and Regions Division at the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building since 6 December 2021. Prior to that, she was head of the "Federal Portal Network, Business and Coordination Centre 115" unit at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Her focus there was on setting up the IT infrastructure to implement the Online Access Act (OZG). From June 2017 to October 2019, Renate Mitterhuber was head of the IT Planning Council's office. Before joining the federal administration, she worked in the administration of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, first in various staff positions and since 2001 in the area of digitalisation. Among other things, she was responsible for Hamburg's e-government and IT strategy, the development of the Hamburg Open Data Portal and the transparency portal.

Peter is an experienced urban development expert who has worked in various countries, including China, Germany, and across Africa. He has more than 15 years of expertise in the industry and proven records of effectively managing and leading multiple international projects relating to urban development, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

He has worked for several renowned organisations, including Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG, where he served as a Head of Project and Manager for Energy Efficient Urban Development, respectively, over the course of his career. Peter has held a variety of executive roles at these organisations. In addition to that, he has participated in a number of research projects that are associated with the planning of tourism, urbanisation, and regional development. Currently, he is in charge of the International Smart Cities Network, supporting the German Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building in promoting the integration of digital solutions into citizen-centred urban development processes and facilitating the exchange of good practices and experiences between urban practitioners worldwide.

He holds a Master of Business Administration in International Real Estate Management from Biberach University of Applied Sciences as well as an engineering degree in urban and regional planning from Technical University of Berlin.

Björn Schwarze is Managing Director of ADDIX GmbH and has been an entrepreneur in digital infrastructure since 1999. With ADDIX, he operates one of Germany’s largest public Wi-Fi networks and is involved in several AI research projects. Within the CAPTN initiative, he collaborates with academia, industry, and public authorities to harness Artificial Intelligence for maritime mobility.

Dr. Julian Stubbe works as a Senior Consultant at the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) at VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH in the field of demography, clusters and futurology. His work focuses on innovation policy topics such as responsible research and innovation, AI for the common good, participatory methods and foresight. Stubbe advises federal ministries, such as the German Ministry of Education and Economics, as well as state ministries and innovation policy organisations in a project management position. In his scientific-analytical work, Stubbe focuses on topics such as mission-oriented innovation policy or ethics and acceptance of artificial intelligence.