02/2020

dialog THE TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

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No future without investments

Germany is still one of the leaders in production and automation technology. There are still plenty of hidden champions among the medium-sized enterprises in our country. However, Germany risks losing this position along the path to the industrial production of the future. In the future, an economy’s ability to perform will depend greatly on the degree of digitiza- tion and personal attitudes towards this. The US and China have a clear lead here, with huge investments being made in digitization topics such as AI research and the associated startup culture. The 5G race has already reached such speeds that it’s going to take a great leap for Germany to catch up. This is not the way to achieve technological sovereignty! So what do we need to do to retain or win back our sovereignty in the field of technology? Solutions include massive investments in training and further education that are unaffected by lobby- “In the future, an economy’s ability ing and in results-oriented research funding. Politics and busi- to perform will depend greatly on ness need to step up their efforts and pull in the same direction its degree of digitization” instead of complaining. This is not the way to work as a team to- wards a common goal! One of the most critical components for successful digitization is microelectronics. Master- ing the entire value creation chain in this field is an essential prerequisite for claiming a strong technological position on the global market. Chip design and production must take place in Europe – there can be no avoiding “Europe first”. If we give up control of this cross-domain knowledge, the only thing left for us will be a role as a dependent importer of key technolo- gies. This is not the way to ensure innovative leadership! And another thing: Schools, universities, training and further education institutions need newly developed, flexible curricula, STEM didactics, and modern teaching methods. We must not allow learners to be the victims of curricula that have been due for reform for years. This is not the way to show educational leadership! These are just a few reflections on urgently needed measures that would allow Germany and “Made in Germany” to shine again. After all, we are currently experiencing what mo- nopolistic dependence truly means in these times of the coronavirus. It has already caused the postponement of the Hannover Messe – the focus of this issue – at short notice. Happy reading and stay healthy!

Yours truly,

PHOTOS: COVER: PINKYPILLS – ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; PAGE 03: VDE PAGE 03: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; PINKYPILLS – COVER: PHOTOS: Ansgar Hinz, VDE CEO

03 CONTENTS

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Future-oriented: The international industry will gather at the Hannover Messe under the slogan “Industrial Transformation” to share ideas in various future hubs about the mega-trends in automation and energy technology en route to Industry 4.0.

32 27

Thumbs down: Until a few years ago, tech companies were seen as symbols of the Gameplay through thought control: The NextMind electrodes attached to the back American entrepreneurial spirit. Today, though, criticism is growing. of the head measure brain activity and translate them into computer commands.

04 TITLE

12 HANNOVER MESSE Once a year, everything at the Hannover Messe revolves around automation and energy technol- ogy. The new focus topics at this TOPICS year’s trade show are the new mobile communications standard 5G and sustainability in the sense 27 CES LAS VEGAS of environmental and climate The Consumer Electronics Show SPECTRUM protection. in Las Vegas presents major tech- nology trends as well a vast range 18 STARTUPS of curiosities. 06 DISPATCHES Industry 4.0 poses major chal- Artificial intelligence/automotive lenges for many companies. Co- 30 NETWORK TECHNOLOGY industry/algorithms/rail transport/ operating with innovative startups It doesn’t always have to be 5G. deep learning/sensors/energy storage/ appears to be a clever strategy Alternative network technologies battery production/electromobility that promises success. such as LoRa (Long Range) can be the better choice for certain 07 PERSONALIA 22 3D PRINTING application areas. Thomas Michael Koller/Hildegard To fully exploit the potential of Müller/Lena Müller/Stefanie 3D printing for industrial manu- 32 CORPORATE POWER Müller/Fralett Suarez Sandoval facturing processes and switch to Technology giants such as this production track, we need to Facebook, Amazon, and Google 08 CHECKING IN think additively – right from the are finding themselves under Is the development of the Gaia X design phase. increasing scrutiny from both data cloud and the underlying politicians and antitrust authori- initiative to create a separate, secure, 24 PARTNER COUNTRY ties – even on their home market and trustworthy data infrastructure Indonesia, South-East Asia’s larg- in the United States. for Europe the right path to take? est economy, is marching boldly into the future. Based on the 34 CYBERSECURITY 11 INTERVIEW slogan “Making Indonesia 4.0”, Europe’s largest research center The engineering and IT company President Joko Widodo has set for applied cybersecurity takes its OSB maintains a unique, highly out an ambitious program. name from Athena, the goddess creative startup culture. Board of of wisdom, strategy, and warfare. Directors member Andreas Rottmair A visit to the site in Darmstadt, explains why this calls for entrepre- Germany. neurial spirit.

VDE GROUP

38 VDE GROUP 42 MEET THE VDE PHOTOS: PAGE 04: DEUTSCHE MESSE AG (TOP), ALPHASPIRIT – STOCK.ADOBE.COM (BOTTOM LEFT), NEXTMIND (BOTTOM RIGHT) LEFT), NEXTMIND (BOTTOM (BOTTOM ALPHASPIRIT – STOCK.ADOBE.COM (TOP), MESSE AG 04: DEUTSCHE PAGE PHOTOS:

05 SPECTRUM

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY Smart carmakers Good news for the automotive industry: it has the edge over other sectors in the race to build smart factories, and can look forward to increased productivity.

In the next three years, the global automotive industry plans to in- crease its investment in the building of intelligent factories by over 60 percent. This was one finding of a study by Capgemini. Build- ing these smart factories could enable productivity increases to the tune of more than $160 billion. According to the plans of automobile manufacturers, 44 per- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE cent of factories are to be converted into intelligent plants. This puts the industry ahead of other sectors. The discrete manufac- People made of turing sector (excluding automotive) plans to increase its share of intelligent factories to 42 percent by 2025, followed by the pro- bits and bytes cess industry with 41 percent, the energy and utility industry with 40 percent, and the consumer goods industry with 37 percent. The Samsung subsidiary STAR “The automotive companies have made more progress than Labs has developed digital avatars expected on their smart factory initiatives in the past two years that are astoundingly human-like – and are now planning on pushing ahead even faster,” says Henrik but for now they are still confined Ljungström, Executive Vice President for Automotive & Manu- to screens. facturing at Capgemini in Germany. “However, this also means that the automotive sector is now facing gaps in its talent pool, in They look like real people and behave its technological strategy, and on the issue of scaling that need to like us too: the “Neon” digital avatars be filled. That is the only way for them to capitalize fully on the developed by STAR Labs. The com- advantages.” pletely computer-generated figures The study surveyed 100 managers from large automotive man- appear on a screen and can reputed- ufacturers and suppliers from 11 countries with revenue of more ly react independently in real time, in- than $1 billion. The countries included Germany, the United cluding the ability to show emotions States, Great Britain, France, India, and Japan. and intelligence. According to STAR Labs, the avatars can answer questions within milliseconds. For now, users still need a tablet in order to commu- nicate with these simulated people. In the future, though, this will be possible through spoken language. STAR Labs still uses human mod- els to generate the figures. The models are only scanned once, though, while everything else is created digitally. The Neon avatars could soon serve as vir- tual assistants, such as in customer service.

06 PERSONALIA

+++ 1 THOMAS MICHAEL KOLLER has been directing coupled equipment. +++ 4 STEFANIE MÜLLER also re- VDE’s strategic and operative marketing, brand, and com- ceived a prize for her dissertation on the systematization munications activities since the beginning of the year. He and identification of interference sources and occurrences succeeded Walter Börmann, who has retired. Mr. Koller in historical video documentation. +++ 5 FRALETT joined us from Siemens, where, as Senior Vice President of SUAREZ SANDOVAL was also recognized for her disser- Corporate Communications, he led the strategic realign- tation, in which she demonstrated the suitability of ment of brand management in preparation for an IPO in ad- magneto-­inductive waves for efficient wireless energy dition to other responsibilities. +++ 2 HILDE- transmission with free positioning of the receiver. GARD MÜLLER is the new president of the Ger- man Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). 1 2 3 She has taken over from Bernhard Mattes, who stepped down from the position at the end of 2019. Ms. Müller was previously COO for Grid & Infrastructure at the energy provider innogy SE. +++ The Dr. Wilhelmy VDE Prize annually recogniz- es young engineers for outstanding dissertations in the fields of electrical engineering and informa- 4 5 tion technology. One of this year’s prizewinners is 3 LENA MÜLLER, who examined altered system dynamics resulting from the integration of inverter-­

ALGORITHMS Superpower based on the Lego Principle

A new algorithm is leaving mainframe computer systems in the dust. It makes it possible to solve complex tasks on a regular PC.

Scientists at the University of Mainz (JGU) and the University of Lugano have developed a method for reliably performing incredibly complex calculations at low costs. In the future, tasks that have previous- ly required a supercomputer could be solved with the new algorithm on a normal PC according to Prof. Il- lia Horenko, a computer expert at the University of Lugano. Possible fields of application include weather 5), CURVABEZIER – STOCK.ADOBE.COM (BOTTOM) – STOCK.ADOBE.COM 5), CURVABEZIER – forecasting, classification problems in bioinformatics, image analysis, and medical diagnostics. The method is based on the Lego principle, where complex sys- surface temperatures in Europe for the coming day tems are deconstructed into individual conditions or with a prediction error of only 0.75 degrees Celsius,” patterns. With only a few patterns or components, the explains Prof. Susanne Gerber, a bioinformatics ex- algorithm can analyze vast amounts of data and pre- pert at JGU. In relation to the error rate, the meth- dict coming developments. “For example, we can use od is 40 percent better and significantly cheaper than PHOTOS: PAGE 6: STAR LABS (TOP), GORODENKOFF – STOCK.ADOBE.COM (BOTTOM); PAGE 07: VDE (1), PAGE (BOTTOM); – STOCK.ADOBE.COM GORODENKOFF LABS (TOP), STAR PAGE 6: PHOTOS: MIKURA VISUAL ARTS COLOGNE / VDE (2 COLOGNE ARTS VISUAL MIKURA the algorithm to make a data-supported forecast of the usual computer systems used by weather services.

07 SPECTRUM

CLOUD SERVICES

The European Cloud RAIL TRANSPORT There is a global trend towards isolation – especially regarding China or the United States. This made the European data cloud Made in project Gaia X, initiated partly by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as a reaction to this development, Rostock a central topic of discussion at the VDE Tec Summit. Is this path The DB Cargo fleet is improving its leading in the right direction? CO₂ footprint with hybrid locomo- tives. Toshiba has announced that DR. ATTILA BILGIC, CEO, Krohne the trains will be built in Rostock, There are more and more companies considering ex- Germany, starting in 2021. tended services that invest in cloud-based services or Software as a Service. Many industrial firms are Starting next year, the Japanese con- developing their own solutions in this area, but they glomerate Toshiba will begin prepara- are doing so using the backbone technologies from tions for the assembly of hybrid loco- large providers such as Amazon Webservices. That motives at the DB Cargo maintenance is reality. Doing something to change this will be very depot in Rostock. The rail freight difficult. But that does not mean that it shouldn’t be company has already ordered 50 lo- done. After all, as the nice saying goes: never give up. comotives and will rent an additional 50. Investments in the facility will lie somewhere in the medium seven-dig- DR. GUNTHER KEGEL, VDE President and CEO, it range. Pepperl+Fuchs “With this technology, DB Cargo The question is: can we still achieve this? Or is the is improving the CO₂ footprint of its effort required simply too much? Might we be better fleet of shunting locomotives,” says Si- advised to work on establishing more mutual trust grid Nikutta, DB Management Board with our allies? We need to answer this question as Member for Freight Transport and a society. Money is not the issue here. But do we re- CEO of DB Cargo. “We will reduce ally want this, and is it only possible through the EU energy consumption by 30 percent institutions? Gaia X is only the tip of the iceberg here. and save one million liters of diesel I’m not saying that it’s impossible. But it comes with every year. Additionally, the vehicles the precondition of a communal European effort. are also easier for our staff to operate thanks to modern technology.” The hybrid vehicles also offer the ROLAND BENT, CTO, Phoenix Contact advantage of far lower maintenance We must do the former, but we should still pursue the costs and higher average fleet availa- latter. Of course we should keep working on the re- bility. Moreover, the battery modules lationships with our allies in a positive manner. It has can receive additional external charg- become clear in a dramatic way now that we as Euro- ing from the very beginning, further peans are somewhat torn between the two big super- increasing the share of renewable en- powers. This makes it crucial to build up a third pole ergy on the rails. alongside the other two powers – a kind of EU++, to borrow from computer jargon. That’s why I think we’re taking the right step by building our own agenda in Eu- rope and tackling a topic like Gaia X. But it all depends on the level of political will behind the project.

08 DEEP LEARNING Transparent black box

It is a dilemma in the field of artificial intelligence: SENSORS deep learning processes are not always rationally traceable. The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is working on a solution to this. Lifesavers from the printer The lack of traceability in the decision-making in deep learning processes is an acute hindrance to this technology being used in Nurses may soon be getting safety-relevant areas, such as autonomous driving or in the med- assistance from an inconspicuous ical field. In these fields, especially, there are particularly high de- sensor placed behind their mands for reliability and trustworthiness.While deep-learning patients’ ears. processes produce quick results that cannot be rationally substan- tiated, classic symbolic calculations reach traceable, mathematical- The Norwegian startup Moon Labs ly correct results – but they do take more time to achieve. has developed a sensor called Evo that In the Fast&Slow project, DFKI scientists are now examining continuously records important pa- how the two methods can be combined for more decision trans- tient health data. The sensor is pro- parency. The first step defines problems that can be solved with duced using 3D printing technology both approaches, such as planning a series of activities. Then the and placed behind the wearer’s ear. formally correct result is worked through before the problem is The disposable sensor measures heart solved using the quicker method. The result is then checked after- and respiratory rates as well as oxygen

PHOTOS: PAGE 8: KROHNE (TOP), VDE (MIDDLE), PHOENIX CONTACT (BOTTOM); (BOTTOM); VDE (MIDDLE), PHOENIX CONTACT 8: KROHNE (TOP), PAGE PHOTOS: MOON LABS (TOP) (BOTTOM), – STOCK.ADOBE.COM 9: METAMORWORKS PAGE wards with the classic method and corrected, if necessary. saturation for up to five days. A gate- way transmits the data to an electron- ic journal. The accompanying soft- ware allows doctors and hospital staff to monitor the vital signs of multiple patients in a dashboard and detect health problems at an early stage. If a patient’s condition worsens, the sys- tem can also independently send an alarm. The first devices are currently being tested in three Norwegian hos- pitals. Following this test phase, Moon Labs is hoping to receive the neces- sary CE certification mark and begin mass-producing the system by the be- ginning of 2021.

09 SPECTRUM

BATTERY PRODUCTION Cathodes from Brandenburg BASF is investing in the creation of a European supply chain for electric vehicles in Lusatia. ENERGY STORAGE BASF is building a new plant to manufacture cathode materials in the town of Schwarzheide in Brandenburg, Germany. The compa- Power pack ny describes this as part of a multi-step investment plan to build Australian researchers have report- a European supply chain for e-vehicles. The plant is to begin pro- edly developed the most powerful ducing cathode materials at an initial capacity sufficient to equip lithium-sulfur battery to date. about 400,000 fully electric vehicles per year. The Schwarzhei- de operation will use primary products from the previously an- Researchers at Monash University in nounced BASF plant in Harjavalta, Finland. Both plants are to be- the Australian city of Clayton have gin operations in 2022. announced the development of a new With its investments in Finland and Germany, the chemical lithium-sulfur battery that is reported- conglomerate plans to become the first supplier of cathode mate- ly four times more efficient than the rials from local production capacities for the three main markets of current market leader. Lithium-sul- Asia, the USA, and Europe. BASF had applied for the EU Com- fur batteries are lighter, cheaper, and mission’s €3.2 billion funding program aimed at bringing battery more environmentally friendly to pro- production to Europe. duce than the widely used lithium-ion batteries. The key to this breakthrough is a particularly robust sulfur elec- trode. According to the team of re- searchers, the technology is capable of powering a smartphone for five days or charging an electric vehicle enough to drive over 1,000 kilometers. However, the Fraunhofer Insti- tute for Material and Beam Technol- ogy IWS, which developed the bat- tery cell prototypes, warns against too much optimism. The technology has great potential, the Institute says, but the advantage of lithium-sulfur batter- ies over their lithium-ion counterparts lies in their low weight, not in their volume. “The advantage for smart- phones is therefore doubtful, and the advantages for electric vehicles de- pend heavily on the particular vehicle design,” stated the experts at Fraun- hofer IWS.

10 ENGINEERING AND IT SMEs bringing startups to life The mid-sized engineering and IT company OSB maintains a unique startup culture with small spinoff companies. Chief Strategy Officer Andreas Rottmair speaks with VDE dialog, explaining what this means exactly and how the company benefits.

OSB is an engineering and IT firm ment has to have real substance, after life cycle: OSB with 500 employees. What does all. Then everything runs just like in a IoT Device Man- your company have to do with classic startup – except that the in- agement. Andreas Rottmair startups? vestor is the company where the team Chief Strategy Officer, We have taken small teams with spe- was already working. This allows our What challenges OSB AG cial competencies and founded our extremely young, ambitious engineers do you see in the own internal startups. They have been to develop freely. This lets us harness OSB approach? clustered in the form of individual com- the startup spirit to develop exciting Of course, we always begin with a petence centers. They work on devel- new products. product idea, but the idea has to re- oping specific technologies further that sult in the creation of something that have already been implemented as Can you name an example? works – while keeping to the planned product ideas. One internal startup focuses on the timeframe and budget. Developers, security of embedded software. In however, tend to prioritize the devel- So the relevant teams work there Germany, there are many SMEs that opment itself. So you have to keep exclusively for the internal start- are very strong in electronics and an eye on things and make sure the up? software development. But they often product doesn’t become overdevel- That’s right. They work there with their have a lack of insight into how to pro- oped cost-wise, especially in this sort own business plan, just like in an in- tect these products from unauthorized of startup atmosphere. It’s important dependent company. Starting with external access. With this in mind, our here to really live out the product de- the product idea, the product devel- team has developed an extensive plat- velopment process in an all-encom- opment process is started within a form to securely produce and manage passing way. After all, it also takes product board, and then the idea is the component where the software is some entrepreneurial spirit. presented to the company. The invest- embedded across the entire product

ELECTROMOBILITY More e-cars – fewer jobs Germany has grown into the most important European market for electric vehicles. At the same time, the National Platform Future of Mobility (NPM) is warning about massive job cuts.

The Center of Automotive Management (CAM) re- tion in personnel needs in both production and parts ports that Europe set a record for new e-vehicle reg- of development. The reasons for this are the increas- istrations last year with over 564,000 cars registered. ing automation of production processes as well as the CAM anticipates that this upward trend will contin- poor competitive position of German companies in ue in 2020, forecasting an e-vehicle market share of the area of e-mobility, because they need to import 6 percent among new registrations in Germany alone. battery cells and electric vehicles. “We will need to The National Platform Future of Mobility is warn- have the entire automotive supply chain here in the ing about the possible negative impact of the grow- future,” concluded Jörg Hofmann, Chair of IG Metall

PHOTOS: PAGE 10: FRAUNHOFER IWS DRESDEN (TOP), BASF SCHWARZHEIDE GMBH (BOTTOM); PAGE 11: OSB AG 11: OSB AG PAGE GMBH (BOTTOM); BASF SCHWARZHEIDE IWS DRESDEN (TOP), 10: FRAUNHOFER PAGE PHOTOS: ing electric trend. It is forecasting a significant reduc- and Head of NPM Working Group 4.

11 TITLE FUTURE HUB

12 DIGITAL AND SUSTAINABLE

Hannover Messe will once again turn the capital of Lower Saxony into a mecca for automation and energy technology. This year brings two new focus topics with fresh implications for Industry 4.0: the new mobile communications standard 5G and sustainability in the sense of environmental and climate protection.

BY GEORG GIERSBERG

Hannover Messe (HM) has stood for Industry 4.0 since sector will require many steps, “such as the transition to 2012. Some may be tired of even hearing the term, but green energy and its storage or the selection of sustaina- the path to autonomous production systems – and that re- ble materials.” Hannover Messe presents answers to these mains the goal – is still long. It is more a matter of dec- challenges with “top sustainable technologies” (see inter- ades than years before fully autonomous systems will be view). controlling industrial facilities or roads. What’s more, many companies have not made as much progress as others. The Hannover Messe shows approaches and recently published results of a survey of industrial deci- solutions for climate-neutral production sion-makers reveals that even managers have not yet ful- ly recognized the potential of the Fourth Industrial Revo- Matthias Zelinger shares the same view. As climate and en- lution. “Only 41 percent of the surveyed managers have ergy policy spokesman for the Mechanical Engineering In- developed a formal approach for how their company will dustry Association VDMA, he predicted a few weeks be- deal with the effects of climate change; only 9 percent of fore the trade fair: “The HM will feature solutions, and we the survey participants reported having a comprehensive will discuss approaches for climate-neutral production.” Industry 4.0 strategy,” the experts at consulting firm EY This will include the ongoing theme of hydrogen. The top- conclude. ic of hydrogen/fuel cells illustrates the way many topics de- This year’s Hannover Messe intends to do something velop over the years – sometimes rapidly, sometimes more about that. While previous years saw the spotlight on pro- slowly – and showcase their annual progress in Hanover. ductivity, flexibility (key word: batch size 1), and time- One year ago, artificial intelligence was a big topic and to-market, the topic of environmental efficiency will at new territory for industrial applications. Its use remains least be claiming its share of the limelight with the other in the spotlight twelve months later. What is presented as three topics, according to Klaus Helmrich, Member of the a fresh innovation one year will only see widespread dis- Managing Board of Siemens AG. The trade fair’s director, semination the following year or even later. There will be Dr. Jochen Köckler, agrees on this point. The Deutsche lots of new software offerings this year, but also very prac- Messe AG CEO is the board member responsible for Han- tical hardware solutions such as those from the Karlsru- nover Messe. In conversation with VDE dialog, he said that he Institute of Technology (KIT). Researchers there have

PHOTO: PAGE 12: SIEMENS PAGE PHOTO: achieving the goal of climate neutrality in the industrial developed a system for fully automated monitoring of ball

13 TITEL FUTURE HUB

Converting data to knowledge to boost sustainability: Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH fills four million bottles of mineral water every day. To avoid taking too much water from its springs, the company uses an IoT-based solution for precise usage forecasts.

screws in machine tools. This is possible through the inte- the Vulkaneifel deliver the mineral water that currently acts gration of a camera directly into the ball screw’s nut. Us- as the basis for 125 different drinks which are filled into ing the resulting image data, artificial intelligence contin- 4 million bottles daily on 12 filling lines. “Until recently, we uously monitors any wear to keep the machine downtimes couldn’t say for sure on Monday whether we would have at a minimum. enough water in the tanks for certain drinks by Friday,” re- calls Arnd Büchsenschütz. Mr. Büchsenschütz is the oper- The digital twin is on everyone’s mind, ations manager for process technology at the main factory but most are hesitant to implement it at Gerolsteiner. “We lacked the transparency to optimally control the production feeders,” says Mr. Büchsenschütz. A digital twin for a company’s entire value chain has been While all the relevant data was being recorded, it was stay- around since 2017. Today, 90 percent of companies are al- ing at the individual springs or in the individual warehous- ready discussing the idea, but only a small number have es – it was not being combined and transmitted from the implemented it. Dr. Helmrich estimates that only some MES level at the machines to the ERP level of the commer- 40 percent of industrial companies have begun working at cial software. This interface was missing – as it is at many least partially with a digital twin so far. In practice, many other companies. Along with his colleague responsible for companies are still working on digitally recording data, IT, he began looking around for suitable digital solutions. i.e. installing the relevant sensors. Another topic of crucial They found what they were looking for at the German soft- importance is the consistency of all data within a compa- ware firm, SAP. ny. But this area in particular has shown significant pro- gress, both in the implementation of pilot projects as well The need for consulting is immense, as standardization by DKE and IEC. A common obstacle as are expectations for added value to this for many companies are “homespun” IT systems that stand in the way of data consistency – like at Gerol- Borrowing the first name of Italian genius Leonardo da steiner Brunnen GmbH from Gerolstein in the Eifel re- Vinci, the software firm offers a system that enables univer- gion of Western Germany. 28 springs from the depths of sal digitization across an entire company – from machines

14 TRADE FAIR STRATEGY “Scenarios for the future of industry” Hannover Messe does not only show the newest automation technologies: It also plans to become more easily measurable itself for exhibitors and visitors. Dr. Jochen Köckler, the CEO of Deutsche Messe AG, speaks on content, new hall plans, and digital visitor management. Dr. Köckler is also the board member responsible for Hannover Messe.

Dr. Köckler, how are the world’s in Hall 3 with a clear technological link. DR. JOCHEN most hotly debated current top- This will allow us to have more live KÖCKLER, CEO of Deutsche ics – sustainability and climate presentations than last year. We will Messe AG protection – reflected at Hannover also be featuring the topic in Hall 21, Messe 2020? which will specifically be dealing with The industrial sector has concerned it- the local 5G campus network that we self with the topics of sustainability and plan to operate here in the future. climate protection for years. Many of our exhibitors have already pledged to At the end of 2020, we are launch- work towards achieving climate-neu- ing a dedicated 5G trade fair called tral production in the future. Many Smart Venue. What will make that steps are necessary to reduce pro- trade fair different from Hannover can be evaluated objectively. This nat-

duction-related CO2 emissions and to Messe? urally results in the ability to plan the achieve climate-neutral manufacturing, While Hannover Messe focuses on next trade fair presence in a significant- including the transition to green energy technologies, services, software, and ly more targeted manner. Follow-up and its storage or the selection of sus- materials for industrial production, the correspondence with visitors can also tainable materials. Hannover Messe 5G CMM Expo will focus on tech- be conducted with more precision af- presents top sustainable technologies nologies and services for equipping ter the trade fair. At the end, visitors re- and innovative technologies for the fu- mobile machines and vehicles with ceive a detailed visit report with exact ture in the various exhibition areas on intelligence, allowing them to operate information about how long they spent the trade fair grounds, so we are offer- autonomously. at each stand. During the trade fair, the ing many answers to these questions. system will also recommend visitors Beyond this, we will also be spotlight- To let people plan their visits to the specific exhibition areas, forums, and ing climate protection and sustainabili- trade fair more efficiently, we are special exhibits that may be particularly ty in our forums, including the Integrat- deploying comprehensive visitor interesting for them. ed Energy Forum as well as the new recording. How does this benefit Transformation Stage in Hall 25. There, visitors and exhibitors? That sounds quite altruistic. What experts from business, science, and We are making trade fairs more meas- does the trade fair organization get politics will discuss scenarios for the urable with our new digital visitor anal- out of this? future of the industrial sector. ysis. The exhibitors will receive daily As the trade fair organizers, we also reports via email on how many visitors benefit since we can say exactly how An important component for the fi- were in the hall, around the stand, and many visitors were in the individual nalization of Industry 4.0 is the roll- where exactly they were at the stand. halls, which trade fair topics proved es- out of the 5G mobile network. Han- This makes it clearly recognizable pecially attractive, which target groups nover Messe began this one year who was at the stand at what time were interested in which topics, or ago with a small special exhibition. of day, how full the stand’s capacity which presentations were in high de- What can we expect this year? was throughout the day, and how long mand. This knowledge also allows us We shall expand the special exhibition visitors stayed at a single stand. This to make our trade fairs more attractive. further this year and will present it di- makes the attractiveness of a stand rectly next to the logistics applications quantifiable, and individual activities Interview conducted by Georg Giersberg PHOTOS: PAGE 14: GEROLSTEINER BRUNNEN; PAGE 15: DEUTSCHE MESSE AG 15: DEUTSCHE BRUNNEN; PAGE 14: GEROLSTEINER PAGE PHOTOS:

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The optimal use of data is becoming more and more important for industrial firms. Industrial edge computing makes this simple, flexible, and secure. Data is evaluated and analyzed entirely at the machine before the optimized data points are transmitted to the cloud.

to business administration and on to the cloud. SAP is not puting. “The data must be sent to where it can be evalu- alone here. While their software specialists build the sys- ated and utilized for machine controlling,” says Siemens tem from top down into the production level, Siemens has board member Mr. Helmrich about this trend. Edge com- chosen to work in the opposite direction. The electronics puting could be quite suitable for the many users who are corporation from Munich has wide-ranging experience in hesitant to lose sovereignty over their data by sending it machine controlling and also offers support across the val- through the cloud. ue chain from production and business administration all One development in the same direction – towards win- the way to the cloud. ning back data autonomy – can be seen in the progression SAP reports that only 3 percent of firms have imple- of 5G campus networks. Very vague initial concepts were mented company-wide digital transformation projects. The already on hand at the last Hannover Messe. This year, demand for appropriate software, consulting, and service is once again, there will still not be any definitive solutions. therefore immense, because the expected returns can also There will, however, be a special hall dedicated to 5G. The be quite high. A new study from the consulting firm Cap- promise to establish a 5G network for the entire trade fair gemini indicates that intelligent factories could generate grounds this year was, however, a bit hasty. The Deutsche additional added value of at least $1.5 trillion for the world Messe supervisory board will only be awarding the con- economy over the next five years. The greatest challenge tract for a campus network in April. is reportedly IT-OT convergence, meaning the consisten- cy of data processing at the machine level (OT, operation- 5G turns the trade fair grounds al technology) through administrative data processing sys- into Smart venues tems (IT) and into the cloud. One major challenge is the standardization of data, also 5G presents industrial firms with new possibilities of re- referred to as normalization. This will also be a topic show- al-time processing and networking – not just in purely in- cased in Hanover. Another important question is whether dustrial applications. 5G is becoming important for the en- or not data can also be evaluated directly on site and used tire industrial sector. “With 5G, the Internet of Things will for controlling through technology known as edge com- finally become a mainstream reality, providing end con-

16 The 5G Arena was only the beginning – Deutsche Messe AG plans to go much further. By the summer of 2020, all of the halls and outdoor areas in Hanover are to be equipped with the new 5G mobile communications standard to test and demonstrate innovative applications that would not be possible without 5G.

sumers with access to more data at their fingertips with this year, as he stated leading up to the trade fair. But this virtually no response delay,” the market research company should not trick us into underestimating the huge impor- Nielsen states confidently. Deutsche Telekom has prom- tance of the technology. “5G is, along with artificial intelli- ised that the first 20 German cities will receive 5G by gence and cloud applications, one of the three big drivers the end of the year. Markus Haas, CEO of O2 (Telefóni- of Industry 4.0,” Mr. Ziesemer declares. He emphasized ca Deutschland), has even declared the next ten years the the urgent need for cloud platform standards to enable the “Wireless Decade”. He goes on to say: “Artificial intelli- quick and simple transition from one platform to another gence, the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and autono- so that choosing a platform (Azure or Mindsphere) does mous vehicles will push mobile data use to new heights. not need to be a make-or-break decision. 5G offers Germany a unique opportunity to catch up after Hannover Messe continues to be a technological trend- falling behind in international comparison,” says Mr. Haas. setter. But compared to CES in Las Vegas, which exhibit- This will especially spur advances in autonomous vehi- ed autonomous cars, or to the DLD conference in Munich, cles in industrial settings. With this in mind, the planned which focused on quantum computers and their myriad Smart Venue 5G trade fair in December 2020 will focus on possibilities, Hannover Messe remains the down-to-earth the use of 5G for logistics tasks, from self-driving sweepers source of inspiration for ideas and solutions that can be im- to forklifts or for transporting hazardous materials across plemented in the here and now. the grounds of a chemical factory. Hannover Messe will also cover the first signs of this trend. There will only be vague initial concepts for real-time controlling of manu- facturing technology through 5G at Hannover Messe. Pro- viders will first have to develop and test relevant products with their own 5G networks. “The rollout of 5G technol- GEORG GIERSBERG ogy for industrial automation will begin in 2023,” expects has been Editor of Business & Economics at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung since Mr. Helmrich. ZVEI President Michael Ziesemer is also 1982. In addition to business topics, one of his specializations is the electrical

PHOTOS: PAGE 16: SIEMENS; PAGE 17: DEUTSCHE MESSE AG 17: DEUTSCHE 16: SIEMENS; PAGE PAGE PHOTOS: expecting at best “5G applications based on test cases” ­industry.

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START-UPS Industry and innovation

Digitization, artificial intelligence, automation: Getting “industry” to live up to the epi- thet “4.0” will require the necessary innovation competence, innovation organization, and innovation culture. Not all companies can manage this on their own, so partner- ships with startups could be an effective tool for catching up in these areas. But that is easier said than done.

18 BY MARTIN SCHMITZ-KUHL

Is the glass half full or half empty? On the one hand, the prises (SMEs) and their importance for the German econ- latest innovation ranking from strategy consultancy Boston omy. It is precisely this type of company that often lacks a Consulting Group saw nine German companies counted vibrant innovation culture. This finding is all the more wor- among the 50 most innovative companies worldwide for the rying because they employ 58 percent of German workers first time. This makes German companies the second most liable for social insurance contributions. “If innovative ca- represented national group in the Top 50 after US compa- nies. In addition to the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas (number 10), which rose 25 places, two other corporations from Germany made a leap into the Top 20. The chemical conglomerate BASF climbed from number 23 to number “Partnerships play a 12, and tech company Siemens from 21 to 16. The chemi- significant role in cal and pharmaceutical company Bayer (24), the insurance accelerating innovations company Allianz (26), the automotive manufacturer BMW (27), the software firm SAP (28), and the two carmakers and are indispensable for Volkswagen (38) and Daimler (47) also placed among the Germany’s competitiveness 50 most innovative companies. “German companies have as a business location.” understood that, in the digital age, real innovation goes far STEFAN GROSS-SELBECK beyond incremental product improvements. They are also CEO of BCG Digital Ventures working on new services and customer interfaces, reinvent- ing processes, and building up partner ecosystems,” says Carsten Kratz, Chairman of the Boston Consulting Group for Germany and Austria. He points to another reason as well: “German companies profit from both their strong global presence and their established base of devices, ma- pability and the digital transformation fail to materialize, chines, and systems. The enormous amounts of machine hundreds of companies and thousands of employees could data from continuous operations are increasingly being slide into irrelevance,” Mr. García Schmidt warns. It is cer- used effectively to create a competitive advantage.” tainly understandable that SMEs cannot invest in research on the level of global conglomerates, but employee man- The innovation culture at established agement or the promotion of creative free spaces would companies is still developing at a slow rate also present opportunities to design innovation processes more dynamically. On the other hand – and now to the half empty glass – there is certainly still much catching up to do despite those The German startup landscape has proven top rankings. “A relatively small spearhead of innovative inventive when it comes to Industry 4.0 companies stands in stark contrast to the majority of com- panies in this country lagging far behind,” says Armando There is another popular method of boosting innovation García Schmidt, an economist at the Bertelsmann Founda- for companies whose own innovative power in the fields of tion. The foundation released a study at the end of last year digitization, artificial intelligence, and automation is lack- entitled “Innovative Milieus – How Strong is Innovation in ing: collaboration with companies that are further ahead in the German Business Landscape?”. The result: “Only very these areas. And the German startup scene certainly has few German companies have the innovative power need- something to offer, especially for Industry 4.0. The found- ed to secure their competitive position in the long term,” ers, coming from universities including TU Munich, the Mr. García Schmidt concludes. Only a quarter of compa- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and RWTH Aachen, are nies have the necessary innovation competence, innova- characterized by their sophisticated expertise. For exam- tion organization, and innovation culture at their dispos- ple: the maintenance and upkeep of machines and plants, a al. Almost half of all German companies reportedly failed crucial topic for industrial manufacturing. Numerous com- to adjust their innovation profiles to new conditions in the panies have been founded in recent years with the specific last few years. goal of making these processes cheaper and more efficient. The authors of the Bertelsmann study also see cause for · The Hamburg startup PANDA, founded in 2018, is cut-

PHOTOS: PAGE 18: FORMHAND; PAGE 19: BCG DIGITAL VENTURES 19: BCG DIGITAL 18: FORMHAND; PAGE PAGE PHOTOS: concern in the structure of small and medium-sized enter- ting down on production downtime with its software and

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INTERVIEW “Sometimes very hesitant” What is the current state of German digitization and innovation culture, and what role can politics play in pro- moting them? Thomas Jarzombek, the Economic Affairs Ministry’s Commissioner for the Digital Industry and Startups, answers our questions.

THOMAS That is why the German Federal Gov- JARZOMBEK ernment is supporting entrepreneurial Economic Affairs Min- istry Commissioner research and development through tax for the Digital Industry incentives for the first time this year. and Startups. The Minister for Economic Affairs has been a strong supporter of this meas- ure. In terms of “may”, it’s all about regulation and legal foundations. That is why we support living labs that make it possible to try out new technologies and business models under real con- In your opinion, how far along is here in Germany. This involves reduc- ditions, even if they have not yet been the Germany economy in terms of ing the red tape further, and also the properly covered by applicable law. digitization? state taking a leading role: for exam- Otherwise, the disruptive potential of Overall, German businesses need to ple, it can use blockchain technology some digital innovations may not be step on the gas when it comes to dig- to digitize administrative services and fully realized. itization. This was really driven home give innovative startups a more con- by a recent Bitkom survey where a sistent chance in public procurement What contribution can startups majority of the companies considered processes. make towards Industry 4.0, and themselves to be stragglers. It is espe- what must be done to make this cially important that SMEs should take What must happen for innovation more successful? advantage of the opportunities pre- culture here in Germany to grow Startups play an important role for in- sented by digitization. That is why we even more – so that it does not dustry by serving as the suppliers of have started a grant program, “digital become dependent on other coun- digitization. Their ideas for new pro- jetzt – Investitionsförderung für KMU” tries? duction processes or business mod- (digital now – investment promotion for Innovation culture depends highly on els are often adopted later by SMEs SMEs), to create an additional incentive “want”, “can”, and “may”. Innovation or corporations. Both sides can profit for investment in digital technologies and an entrepreneurial spirit develop from each other in this way. For this to and the qualifications of employees. very early, from the school years on- work better in Germany, we need inte- wards. We need to foster this spirit, grators – companies that buy startups. Which role do startups play in this? not stifle it – and that goes especially Compared to American companies, A key one. And that is why we need for girls too. And we need to reduce who do this in a big way, German com- more growth capital for startups. We bureaucracy. For example, startups panies are sometimes very hesitant – particularly want to raise private capital that fail are still required to keep their which leads to other companies mak- from large institutional investors more records for years afterwards. Issues ing purchases and successful startups aggressively through a future fund. like that need to change, because leaving Germany. In particular, I wish We also need to improve the under- they keep people from even pursuing that DAX companies would be more lying conditions for startups so that an idea in the first place. With regard decisive and proactive here. they can actually implement their ideas to “can”, finances play a central role.

20 hardware solution for cause analysis and the identifica- on neural networks to make industrial robots more flexi- tion of manufacturing problems. With the plug & play ble. The goal is to let users train machines using real-time product DRIFT, PANDA offers an all-in-one system for cameras and artificial intelligence. Mr. Vuine also let him- minimizing plant standstills and performance deficits in self be “persuaded” into a partnership a few years ago – the production process. and was disappointed. “The corporations often see start- · Meanwhile, the Berlin startup Weare, founded in 2017, ups as colorful novelties that they can throw a little money has developed a software which enables machine con- at to outsource innovation risks,” he complains. In his case, struction and tech teams to jointly observe and work on which he refers to as a “bitter experience”, micropsi indus- plants using VR glasses in virtual conference rooms. The tries was ultimately not even paid when the conservative user navigation is intuitive – partly because it is borrowed factions at their partner company won the upper hand. He from VR gaming. explained that such cooperation projects bring the hidden · The Munich startup remberg, founded in 2018, has de- danger of pouring lots of time into solving very special- veloped a software that makes it possible to map all ser- ized problems that are only really relevant for the respec- vice processes relevant to the machine – like maintenance tive corporation – time that the startup could otherwise be and upkeep – on a single platform. In this way, manufac- using to further develop its own product. For this reason, turers can offer their customers digital documentation, they decided to not enter into any such partnerships going service requests, and replacement part ordering. forward. “We want the corporations to be our customers, · The startup FORMHAND Automation, founded not our partners. At the end of the day, it’s all about mak- in 2017, is a spinoff from the Technical University of ing a good product that will be bought.” Braunschweig. It specializes in grippers that can flexibly That is ultimately the goal for all companies, including grip various parts through a kind of cushion using neg- the approximately 5,500 exhibitors from around the world ative pressure. who will be presenting their products at Hannover Messe. Among them are naturally many large industry leaders – “In a fast-paced world, partnerships with startups are in- from A for ABB through Z for Zeltwanger. But Halls 24 dispensable,” says Michael Brigl, Partner and Corporate and 25 will also be filled with around 250 unknown, new, Venturing Expert at Boston Consulting Group. Larger and emerging startups. The Future Hub is reserved for companies, at least, appear to have grasped this fact. In young companies who can present their innovative prod- the study “After the Honeymoon Ends: Making Corpo- ucts and ideas there in the Young Tech Enterprises area. In rate-Startup Relationships Work”, the strategy consulting addition to the renowned Hermes Award, this year will also firm presented the first comprehensive analysis of partner- see the presentation of the first Hermes Startup Award. El- ships between corporations and startups in German-speak- igibility is limited to companies founded five years ago or ing countries. “In doing this, the companies are hoping to less. “The startup scene is producing disruptive ideas and digitize their own business models with more speed and technologies with real staying power,” the trade fair has an- efficiency,” Mr. Brigl explains, while the startups mainly nounced excitedly: “The young newcomers are shaking up hope to gain access to important markets. However, these the industry!” hopes are often just too big – as are the disappointments when their expectations do not come to fruition.

Cooperation does not always lead to the desired win-win situation Only 45 percent of the founders surveyed in the study were satisfied with the cooperation. Despite the initial euphoria, many said they were disillusioned by their goals going un- achieved – they achieved no visible revenue growth from the improved market access and were unable to open new sales channels. The analysis indicates a high potential for frustration on both sides if decisions are made slowly or with little transparency, or if one side develops a feeling of being in an unequal partnership. Ronnie Vuine knows this all too well. The CEO of the Ber- MARTIN SCHMITZ-KUHL

PHOTOS: PAGE 20: © TOBIAS KOCH 20: © TOBIAS PAGE PHOTOS: lin startup micropsi industries, founded in 2014, works is a freelance author from Frankfurt am Main, Germany and an editor of VDE dialog.

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3D PRINTING It all starts with additive thinking 3D printing technologies are no longer only used for prototypes. Companies are integrating additive manufacturing more and more into their production process. But innovative thinking is needed to exploit the technology’s full potential – German companies in particular have some catching up to do.

BY MARKUS STREHLITZ

“Additive manufacturing is well on its way to becoming an Dr. Weißgärber explains that melting processes are already established production technology,” says Thomas Weißgär- used to manufacture components for medical technology, ber, provisional head of the Dresden branch of the Fraun- aerospace engineering, and tool making, to name just a few. hofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Ad- According to a study conducted by the audit and con- vanced Materials (IFAM). Long gone are the days when sultancy group EY that surveyed 900 companies, only 3D printing, which encompasses a wide range of process- 5 percent of companies worldwide had integrated additive es, was used only for rapid prototyping. More and more manufacturing into their production processes in 2016, parts are being printed for actual use in the real world. but that number has now already risen to 18 percent. “By

22 2022, some 46 percent plan to use additive manufacturing in their end production processes,” says Stefana Karevska, Global Head of 3D Printing at EY. No strategic promotion One company already doing this in a big way is igus, a German companies are still only hesitantly deploying 3D manufacturer of plain bearings, energy chains, and special printing in industrial production processes. In addition to flexible cables. “We use this process to manufacture com- the high costs, Stefana Karevska of the audit and con- ponents used in machines – things like bearings, gears, or sultancy group EY sees the reasons for this in a general drive nuts,” reports Tom Krause, Head of Additive Man- skepticism and caution among Germans when it comes ufacturing at igus. Additionally, the company also offers to new technologies. Things look quite different in Asia. its customers a 3D printing service, mainly for wear parts. “Particularly in China, additive manufacturing has been 3D printing can play to its strengths here, especially in set as a clear priority of the economic strategy at nation- the production of spare parts, small to medium-sized pro- al level,” Ms. Karevska says. “There is no comprehen- duction runs, and the wide variety of parts to be produced. sive promotion of 3D printing like that here in Germany.” “If a customer’s machine is standing idle and they urgent- ly need a spare part, we can print it overnight so they can This effectively means that Germany has been overtak- get right back to work,” Mr. Krause says. “Additive manu- en by other industrial nations in the use of 3D printing. facturing is predestined for this, because it grants you flex- While the EY analysis does find that 63 percent of com- ibility and takes away the need to first procure the tools panies here use the relevant technologies, this puts Ger- needed to produce the required part,” the 3D printing spe- many just below the international average of 65 percent. cialist explains. In the lead are South Korea and China, where 81 per- cent and 78 percent of companies use 3D printing, re- Design engineers must already consider spectively. But the study also singles out Canadian com- 3D printing during development panies as being much more advanced, at 77 percent. Additive manufacturing has also enabled the production of things that would be impossible with conventional meth- ods. As an example, Mr. Krause names what is called a gas ring – a device allowing drivers with disabilities to accel- names the process stability across various hardware sys- erate by hand just using a car’s steering wheel. Problems tems as one of these issues. “There are still many challeng- arise with steering wheels that are not completely round es at the moment when switching from one system to an- but flattened on the bottom. This requires the production other.” Meaning: there are varying results from machine to of a special ring to match the irregular shape. “The compa- machine. To make matters worse, there is a relatively high ny Kempf has developed a ring for this purpose composed number of parameters across the additive manufacturing of many gliders, allowing it to move around the corners,” process that are prone to errors or fluctuations, such as the Mr. Krause explains. This part is produced additively. moisture content of the powder or the output of the laser. “With injection molding, the ring could have only been The EY study also names the shortage of specialist ex- produced in multiple parts – and with higher costs as well.” pertise on the production processes as another reason to Conversely, it makes little sense to additively manufacture only hesitantly invest in additive manufacturing technolo- parts that were designed for classic production methods. gies. The high costs of materials and system procurement “We are constantly getting inquiries about parts that were are also putting a damper on development. They are prob- clearly designed for conventional manufacturing,” report- ably also the reasons why German companies, despite their ed Stefan de Groot, Technology Manager & Project Lead- enthusiasm for testing, have not yet committed strongly to er for Additive Manufacturing at Protiq, at the last Han- additive manufacturing for their end products – unlike in nover Messe. “But using 3D printing to manufacture such Asia, where 3D printing is showing strong growth. Par- parts is often expensive and has no benefits.” This is why, ticularly in comparison to their international counterparts, according to Dr. Weißgärber of Fraunhofer IFAM, design German companies have considerable room for improve- engineers need to step up their additive thinking. That is ment. the only way to exploit the technology’s full potential. Aside from the gap in thinking patterns, there are a couple more hurdles on the way to this becoming a full- fledged production technology. Michael Wawrzinek, Addi- MARKUS STREHLITZ

PHOTOS: PAGE 22: R_BOE – STOCK.ADOBE.COM PAGE PHOTOS: tive Manufacturing Specialist at 3D printing firm Altair, is a freelance journalist and editor for VDE dialog.

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PARTNER COUNTRY Breakthrough for Industry 4.0 As Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia has relied for a long time on its surplus of cheap labor. This is no longer sufficient in the global race to attract investment though. President Joko Widodo wants to make Indonesia, this year’s partner country of the Hannover Messe, ready for Industry 4.0.

BY MATHIAS PEER

You certainly cannot accuse Anne Patricia Sutanto of lack- currently already produce over 110 million garments annu- ing ambition. An entrepreneur, she is director of the Indo- ally – that is almost 200 items per second. Virtually the en- nesian textile producer Pan Brothers, which is one of the tire output is exported and sold under brands such as Adi- market leaders in the Southeast Asian country. But that is das, Uniqlo, or Lacoste. Ms. Sutanto wants to increase the not enough for Ms. Sutanto. From her company’s head- capacity to 130 million items per annum by next year. To quarters in western Java, she wants to expand to become achieve this goal, she is investing heavily in the digitization Asia’s largest textile manufacturer over the coming years. and automation of this labor-intensive trade. “My motto is She even considers it possible to become the worldwide in- to decide fast, monitor, and revise if necessary,” Ms. Su- dustry leader by 2035.The company’s two dozen factories tanto said recently in an interview. Her modernization ef-

24 forts received positive attention from the Indonesian gov- ries. But the competitive advantage provided by low labor ernment, which awarded Pan Brothers a prize as one of five costs is proving less and less sufficient for attracting com- Industry 4.0 model companies. panies to the country. “If Indonesia wants to make itself Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, known by the nick- more attractive to international manufacturing companies, name “Jokowi” among Indonesians, has made it a central it cannot make its case solely on the basis of low personnel objective of his second term in office to help the country costs,” concluded an analysis by the consulting firm McK- achieve a breakthrough in the Fourth Industrial Revolu- insey. Rather, the study suggests that Indonesia should fo- tion. In April 2018, he presented his strategy under the cus on dramatically increasing its industrial productivity. name “Making Indonesia 4.0”. With this master plan, he Mr. Widodo’s government is on the same page. Its wants to lead his country’s economy into a digital, net- master plan regrets that Indonesia’s productivity sank by worked future. Mr. Widodo sees this as a precondition for 20 percent in relation to India’s between 2005 and 2016. It climbing into the group of the world’s ten largest econo- even sank by 46 percent in relation to Chinese productivi- mies by 2030 as planned. Indonesia will also be present- ty. Industry representatives are betting on the government ing this vision as the official partner country of this year’s achieving a turnaround. “The ‘Making Indonesia 4.0’ plan Hannover Messe. has a crucial role when it comes to turning Indonesia into a more successful and more developed economy,” said Industry 4.0 in Indonesia still means Prakash Chandran, CEO of Siemens Indonesia, in an in- expanding automation first of all terview with VDE dialog. “The government is convinced that this transformation will also significantly boost ex- The country still has a great deal to do before the plan can ports,” he said. become reality. It does have a number of things going for it: Within the framework of his Industry 4.0 strategy, an enormous market with a population of over 260 million, Mr. Widodo plans to concentrate first on five sectors of a rapidly rising middle class, and years of constant annu- the economy: food and drink production, textile manufac- al growth of over five percent. But the industrial sector of turing, the automotive industry, the chemical industry, and Asia’s third most populous country is still lagging behind electronics manufacturing. They will receive targeted sup- its regional competitors. In the past, the wide availability of port – in part through the setup of industrial zones, sup- comparatively cheap labor gave companies little incentive port in providing advanced training to employees, modern

ILLUSTRATION (P. 24–26): BASTIAN FRISCH FOR DEUTSCHE MESSE AG FRISCH FOR DEUTSCHE 24–26): BASTIAN (P. ILLUSTRATION to invest in modern automation technology for their facto- digital infrastructure, and regulatory reforms. There was

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networked, intelligent systems. The country does not pos- sess either a satisfactory telecommunications infrastructure for this, or a sufficient amount of skilled labor, according to Frank Malerius, who observes the Indonesian market for GTAI, the German government’s economic development agency. “It is more realistic to focus on expanding auto- mation – for example, by connecting multiple production processes within a plant,” his analysis states. This is already commonplace in more developed industries such as the food processing sector. One example is the dairy group Indolakto, which was selected by the government as a flagship company along with Pan Brothers. With Indomilk, the group has one of the most well-known consumer product brands in the coun- try. It is counting on high-tech solutions in its most modern factory in eastern Java, which began operation in 2012. It is primarily run using automation systems from Siemens. “We help our customers to increase their productivity and flexibility,” said local Siemens CEO Chandran. Siemens, along with ABB and General Electric, is among the most important factory automation providers in Indonesia. “We also help to provide additional training to employ- ees, to prepare them for the demands of tomorrow’s labor market,” said Mr. Chandran. This statement addresses one of the biggest concerns that Indonesians have about Indus- try 4.0 – they are afraid that further automation and net- working of the factories will lead to massive job losses. The government is doing its best to allay these fears. It is fore- casting that the Industry 4.0 initiative will result in the crea- tion of up to 30 million new jobs by 2030. The government is pinning its hopes on higher productivity leading to mas- sive industrial growth and an increase in foreign companies setting up shop in the country. GTAI expert Mr. Maleri- us cautions against such high expectations. “To reach this scale, the processing industry would have to show enor- mous growth and achieve high export surpluses,” he ex- plains. This will be no easy task, in his opinion, given the level of competition from neighboring countries that are also investing in Industry 4.0. Meanwhile, Deutsche Messe ADDITIONAL IMAGE AND TEXT SOURCES: WWW.FLATICON.COM, WWW.DE.M.WIKIVOYAGE.ORG/WIKI/INDONESIEN, WWW. ENCHANTINGTRAVELS.DE/REISE-BLOG/WUSSTEN-SIE-SCHON-SPANNENDE-FAKTEN-UBER-INDONESIEN/, WWW.STATISTA.COM/ STATISTIK/INFO/INDONESIEN, WWW.INDONESIEN.AHK.DE/, WWW.KAFFEE-SPEZIALISTEN.COM, WWW.DEUTSCH-INDONESISCHE CEO Dr. Jochen Köckler is more optimistic about Indone- INDUSTRIE- UND HANDELSKAMMER.DE, WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/INDONESIEN, WWW.HOMEISWHEREYOURBAGIS.COM/ WITZIGE-INDONESIEN-FAKTEN/DE, ARD WELTSPIEGEL, WWW.URLAUBSGURU.DE, WWW.SPIEGEL.DE/WISSENSCHAFT/NATUR sia’s potential. “It is remarkable to see the possibilities that modern technology can offer to cover the needs of a soci- ety showing such strong growth,” he said. Dr. Köckler has a positive response to these initiatives: “The Making In- invited President Widodo to Germany for the occasion of donesia 4.0 roadmap is a once-in-a-generation opportu- Indonesia’s partnership with this year’s Hannover Messe. nity for the country to revitalize its manufacturing sector The trip should be worthwhile for Mr. Widodo’s plans to and become a powerhouse in the Fourth Industrial Revolu- revolutionize Indonesia’s industrial sector – he is sure to tion,” states one analysis from the consulting firm Kearney. find more than a few sources of inspiration at the trade fair. Observers are quick to point out, however, that Indone- sia operates on a much broader definition of Industry 4.0 than the European one. The primary goal for this emerg- MATHIAS PEER ing economy is not to digitize conventional factories into is Southeast Asia correspondent for Weltreporter.net.

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CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW Total networking An ‘Avatar’ mobile from Daimler, telepathy devices, digitally equipped Pampers diapers: the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was a colorful carnival of ideas. It reflected the major technology trends and delivered a wealth of curiosities. German startups were barely represented.

BY ROLAND LINDNER

What do the consumer goods titan more companies rooted in the analog using a camera and smartphone app. Procter & Gamble, Delta Air Lines, world are trying to realign according- In the special exhibition for artificial and the agricultural machine manu- ly by redefining their identity and their intelligence and robotics, agricultur- facturer John Deere all have in com- field of action. That has given this tech al machine manufacturer John Deere mon? They all recently made a big spectacle in the US gambling metrop- presented a gigantic self-driving field splash at CES in Las Vegas. That may olis a much broader relevance – it has sprayer. In one of the keynote address- come as a surprise. The E in the trade become a colorful playground for es, Delta envisioned a future in which fair’s name stands for “electronics”, companies from an astounding range passengers could select their seats after all, and the focus is typically on of industries. Procter & Gamble ush- by taking a virtual augmented reali- products like televisions or comput- ered its Pampers brand into the digi- ty stroll through the plane in a smart- ers. But today hardly any industry tal age at CES – with a sensor that can phone app. has been left untouched by the rap- be placed on diapers to deliver infor- This diversity undoubtedly made

PHOTOS: PAGE 27: MERCEDES-BENZ AG PAGE PHOTOS: id advance of digitization. More and mation about a baby’s sleep behavior the huge event even more exciting.

27 TOPICS

It may have even saved the trade fair, into the cars of the future. One thing protecting it from a similar fate to that is for sure: Sony caused a real sensa- of the computer fair Cebit in Hano- tion with the stunt. ver, which was discontinued in 2018. When the first CES took place in 1967, Must-attend event the visitors were wowed by transistor for automotive and radios, stereo systems, and black-and- white televisions. Later editions host- digital specialists ed the premiere of the video record- Cars have become a central topic er and the CD player. In addition to overall at CES. The trade fair is now a classic entertainment electronics, in- must-attend event for many automo- formation technology established it- tive manufacturers. It is here that they self as another focus area over the demonstrate their mastery of future years with companies such as Micro- technologies like networking, elec- soft and Intel represented with large tromobility, and autonomous driv- stands. When Microsoft withdrew as ing. This has led to the Internation- an exhibitor a few years ago, there was al Auto Show in Detroit, which has discussion of whether CES even had taken place directly after CES up to a future anymore. Rather than closing, now, being eclipsed to a certain ex- the trade fair had the foresight to prof- tent. German manufacturers have it from the digitization trend and re- also decided to skip that trade show invent itself. The Sony Corporation, in recent years. The organizers in De- which has been an exhibitor since troit felt that they had no choice but to the founding year, demonstrated this move the show to June this year. The year just how much the trade fair has IAA in Frankfurt has also increas- changed. Not only did the represent- ingly suffered under the strong influ- Cellphone videos and social media content atives from Japan talk about their es- ence of CES and is currently explor- on a vertical TV – now possible with the tablished businesses, such as new tel- ing a new identity with a new design flippable screen from Samsung, The Sero. evisions or the next generation of the and location. One of the most spectac- PlayStation® game console – they also ular moments in Las Vegas this year surprised the audience with a proto- was delivered by Daimler and its con- type of an electric car. It is question- cept car Vision AVTR, inspired by the able whether the vehicle will ever be science fiction film Avatar. The pro- on stage himself with Ola Källenius, mass-produced. The company de- duction studio of Hollywood direc- Chairman of the Board of Manage- scribed it more as a vision of how var- tor James Cameron was involved in ment of Daimler. The electric car has ious technologies could be integrated the design. Cameron even appeared no conventional steering wheel, but a steering element in the middle console that is activated when the driver places their hand on it. The vehicle is report- edly even able to recognize the driver based on their breathing. Passengers control what happens in the car by holding up their hand, where a com- puter menu is projected. Daimler re- ports that the battery consists entirely of compostable and recyclable ma- terials. Its technology is built around graph-based organic cellular chem- istry, and it is free of rare earth and metals. The seats are covered in vegan leather, and the floor consists of re- Telepathy 4.0: Attached to the back of the newable wood. Mr. Källenius said his head, Nextmind takes signals and con-

28 verts them into computer commands. company was using the car to make a statement for “sustainable mobility”. This model is admittedly not expect- ed to be on the roads anytime soon. Daimler describes it as a vision of mobility “in the distant future”. Oth- er announcements in the industry ap- pear to be much closer to reality. The young Tesla challenger Byton, whose design studio is in Munich, brought its M-Byte to Las Vegas – a fully elec- tric and digitally equipped crossover model that is set to be launched on the market in China this year and in Eu- rope in 2021. If there was a common thread con- necting all of the CES events, then it was the message that everyday life is getting more and more networked. The cars presented here are an exam- Cats always need to go: The smart litter box from Lulupet can analyze a cat’s urine and feces and warn the ple of this, as is the presence of com- owner if it detects signs of kidney problems. Also integrated: (Cat) facial recognition. panies from so many industries.

Chasing the well- to-do consumer was Samsung’s The Sero. It can rotate tracted attention with many interest- from the usual horizontal format into ing ideas. Take for instance the com- At times, networking is moving in very a vertical position and be connected pany Lexilight with its special reading curious directions. Take, for instance, with smartphones. This is intended lamp for people with dyslexia, or the the bath mat connected to a smart- to improve viewing for smartphone company Nextmind and its device al- phone app or the $10,000 intelligent videos from social networks like In- lowing users to control computers toilet presented here. But it has also stagram or TikTok. Samsung also with their thoughts. It is attached to become clear that digitization can be a showed a new even bigger version of the back of the head and picks up sig- valuable help in certain areas, such as its huge television The Wall, measur- nals that are converted into comput- products concerning health and well- ing 292 inches diagonally. This is ob- er commands, such as changing from ness. There were many new concepts viously a niche product. Samsung re- one Internet site to another. Nextmind in Las Vegas aimed at older people, ports that it will mainly be installed in was one of several companies in Las such as a sensor system from the com- company headquarters – or on yachts. Vegas exploring this futuristic tech- pany Caregiver that can tell if some- Germany was chiefly represented nology known as Brain Computer In- one has a fall. There was also a con- in Las Vegas by established corpora- terface or Brain Machine Interface. spicuous range of products aimed at tions this time. In addition to Daim- The underrepresentation of Germa- pet owners, including an intelligent lit- ler’s ‘Avatar’ mobile, Bosch was also ny’s startup scene in Las Vegas seems ter box from Lulupet that can signal present with products such as a digi- like a missed opportunity. At least potential health problems in cats. tal sun visor designed to improve driv- there will be more opportunities soon. Traditional entertainment elec- ing safety. With the help of algorithms Several German startups will also be tronics have seemingly slipped into and a camera, its LCD screen dark- presenting at the digital festival South the background at recent editions ens only the specific portion of wind- by Southwest held in Austin in March. of CES. But television manufactur- shield through which the driver is be- ers in particular have always had a ing blinded. One thing missing from knack for attracting consumer atten- CES, however, was a noticeable pres- tion. LG achieved this last year with a ence of German startups. In stark ROLAND LINDNER TV that can be rolled up. One of the contrast, there was once again a strong is a business correspondent for F.A.Z. based in New

PHOTOS: PAGE 28: SAMSUNG (TOP), NEXTMIND (BOTTOM); PAGE 29: LULUPET PAGE NEXTMIND (BOTTOM); 28: SAMSUNG (TOP), PAGE PHOTOS: most photographed products this year contingent of French startups who at- York.

29 TOPICS

TECH COMPANIES The honeymoon is over The big US tech companies are now finding themselves under increasing scrutiny from both politicians and antitrust authorities, even on the domestic market. Criticism of Facebook, Amazon, and Google is a rare topic of bipartisan support in this polarized country. A breakup of the tech giants can no longer be ruled out.

BY NORBERT KULS

United States Senator Elizabeth War- sage: “Break Up Big Tech”. Senator The industry was alarmed. It so hap- ren chose to attack the tech industry in Warren placed her call to dismantle pens that Democratic politicians on a decidedly analog way. As a candidate the large tech and internet companies the primary campaign trail are not the for the Democratic presidential nom- last summer at the heart of the indus- only ones with an eye on the leading ination, she engaged in no advertising try – outside a transit station in San tech companies. Criticism of their ex- on Facebook and also dispensed with Francisco used by many commuters cessive market power, inadequate data search engine optimization on Goog- employed in Silicon Valley, home to protection, and political manipulation le. Instead, she went with the impact the headquarters of Facebook, Goog- has welled up and grown along a wide of a large billboard. The simple mes- le, and Apple. The message hit home. front in the US. This backlash has al-

30 ready been christened with its own ald Trump and it became clear that ambitions, but the stronger progres- moniker: “Techlash”. Russia had exploited social media for sive candidate Bernie Sanders is also Among the industry’s most prolif- a disinformation campaign. Founder demanding the breakup of big tech. ic critics on the Republican side is the Mark Zuckerberg was summoned be- The more moderate Joe Biden, once relatively young Senator Josh Hawley. fore Congress, and last July saw Face- Vice President to Barack Obama, con- Mr. Hawley has introduced bills – in- book hit with a fine of $5 billion after siders a final judgment on the matter cluding some jointly with Democratic an analytics firm involved in the elec- “premature”, despite all the criticism. colleagues – addressing topics such as tion campaign obtained unauthorized For years, tech firms seemed im- online data protection for minors and access to millions of users’ person- mune to accusations of market ma- addictive behavior linked to the use of nipulation, since companies serving social media. Republicans also accuse the public good had hardly ever come Facebook and Google of suppressing under the microscope of the antitrust conservative positions with their al- authorities. However, Patrick Spence, gorithms. And particularly since last USA vs. Microsoft CEO of speaker manufacturer Sonos, year’s successful proceedings against The US Justice Department and has accused Google and Amazon US tech firms by mainly European 20 states filed an antitrust lawsuit of selling their own smart speakers antitrust authorities, competition reg- against the software corporation Home and Echo at cutrate prices to ulators in the companies’ home mar- Microsoft in 1998. They accused effectively crowd smaller competi- ket are now also taking a closer look at Microsoft of using the monopoly-­ tors out of the market. Another point their business practices. like position of its Windows oper- of criticism is the fact that the lead- ating system to force Netscape, ing tech firms not only operate plat- Trolls, data theft, and a competitor, out of the Internet forms, but also use them to sell their antitrust allegations browser market. Microsoft auto- own products. matically delivered its own brows- It is proving to be a rude awakening er, Internet Explorer, with every Manipulated search for the industry following the honey- Windows installation. In 2000, results? moon period of the last several years. a judge ordered that Micro­soft There were already antitrust proceed- should be broken up into one For example, this is how Amazon, ings against the software corporation company for operating systems with its cheap “AmazonBasics”, com- Microsoft in the late 90s (see box). and another for application soft- petes with brand-name products, pos- Until a few years ago, however, rapidly ware. The judgment was never sibly with the help of data collected on growing tech companies like Amazon enforced. An appeals court over- the competition. In the case of Goog- and Google were mainly seen as sym- turned the breakup order, though le, skeptics suspect that its own offer- bols of the American entrepreneurial it still criticized Microsoft’s anti- ings, such as the route planner Google spirit. The innovations brought by the competitive practices. A settle- Maps, are given preferential place- triumph of smartphones and the In- ment was reached two years later. ment in search results. Makan Delra- ternet – search engines, social media, him, head of the Justice Department’s online shopping – and the fast pace antitrust division, has stated that a of ongoing development appeared to breakup of the biggest Silicon Val- overwhelm the regulatory authorities. al data. The Justice Department and ley companies is “perfectly on the ta- Barack Obama, the first President to the Federal Trade Commission now ble.” However, battle lines in Washing- successfully take advantage of these want to investigate whether the in- ton are fluid. Mr. Delrahim recently new technologies, even cultivated a ternet giants obstructed free compe- recused himself from part of the inves- close relationship with Silicon Valley. tition on their march towards domi- tigation. The reason? He once earned The industry’s young founders pre- nance. Attorney General William Barr his living as a lobbyist – for Google. sented themselves as do-gooders with is pushing for a wide-ranging probe of only the best intentions, a positive im- Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Ap- age that was well received in compar- ple. Following Senator Warren’s at- ison to the financial crisis and its af- tack, Mr. Zuckerberg threatened to termath. Facebook only found itself in start a legal battle if she tried to break NORBERT KULS the crosshairs after Hillary Clinton lost up Facebook as president. Ms. War- is a freelance business correspondent in New York

PHOTOS: PAGE 32: ALPHASPIRIT – STOCK.ADOBE.COM PAGE PHOTOS: the 2016 presidential election to Don- ren has since given up her presidential and writes for the Börsen-Zeitung.

31 TOPICS

COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY Across mountains and valleys It’s crucial for applications for the Internet of Things to be set up as simply and cheaply as possible. The LoRa communications standard can deliver on those points. The technology is especially promising for Smart City projects, but it has potential for production settings as well.

BY MARKUS STREHLITZ

Network technologies other than ting mentioned much at all is Narrow- formation from electric meters or pro- 5G are having a hard time attract- band IoT. Yet these technologies are duction machines, for instance, does ing attention at the moment. The actually over-dimensioned for many not involve large data volumes or re- fifth-generation mobile communica- IoT applications – not least in terms quire response times in the millisec- tions standard is dominating the pub- of costs. This is especially true in en- ond range. lic debate – especially when it comes vironments where issues such as low Low-power wide area networks to the Internet of Things (IoT). The latency and high bandwidth only play (LPWAN) could be a possible net- only potential alternative to 5G get- a secondary role. The analysis of in- work alternative for such applications.

32 One such application is LoRa (Long and valleys, posed a further challenge to keep track of objects like contain- Range) – a radio standard with exten- for radio communication, and LoRa ers along the supply chain. In addi- sive reach. It constitutes the physical technology proved to be the best solu- tion, the agricultural sector is deploy- layer for setting up communication tion. It was also important for the mu- ing long-range radio communications. links. The associated communications nicipality, which is subject to procure- Thanks to network technology, sen- protocol is known as LoRaWAN. It ment guidelines, to be able to build its sors installed to report soil moisture can extend battery life by years and own infrastructure and take advantage content to a central system can also be was developed for sensors that most- of free market offerings when seeking used to track livestock movements and ly send small volumes of data at long technical support – and not to be de- then make inferences about the ani- intervals of time, such as every few pendent on one or two major service mals’ health. hours. The infrastructure and soft- providers. However, Mr. Groot also sees large ware-related costs are lower than those Since last year, the Wüstenrot gov- potential for LoRaWAN in produc- associated with 5G, Narrowband IoT, ernment has used LoRaWAN to re- tion environments. For requesting ma- or WiFi. This is partly thanks to its ex- cord heat and electricity usage in mu- chine statuses using a sensor that “only tensive range. “If you want to build a nicipal buildings. It plans to expand sends a signal once per day, a synchro- WiFi network in a city or on a large the technology to many other applica- nous communications technology like site, you will have to place a gateway tions in the future, including the mon- 5G is not suitable at all,” says the ex- every 50 to 100 meters,” explains Jaap itoring of CO₂ levels in school build- pert. Industrial firms also find the abil- Groot, Vice Chair Europe at LoRa Al- ings. Other planned applications for ity to build up their own network in- liance, whose mission is to promote the network technology include park frastructure attractive. Mr. Groot LPWAN technologies. “With LoRa, surveillance, flood protection, build- reports that automotive manufactur- on the other hand, you only need one ing security, and street lighting. The ers like BMW have already expressed every 10 kilometers.” required sensors, which are current- their interest in LoRaWAN. There is also another advantage – ly still in development, are to be in- The technology does have clearly LoRaWAN uses the license-free fre- stalled by 2021 at the latest. “We have defined limits, though, which is why quency bands including 868 MHz established comprehensive LoRa cov- Mr. Groot sees it as complementary (Europe) and 915 MHz (North erage across the entire municipality,” to 5G. “In applications like robotics, America and Australia). Anyone is says Mr. Löffelhardt. The distance be- where low latency is required, 5G will free to build such a radio network of tween sensors and base stations may be used.” For predictive maintenance, their own without being dependent on be up to ten kilometers. Mr. Löffel- on the other hand, you could fall back a large service provider as with cellu- hardt estimates that seven or eight on LoRaWAN. lar technologies. gateways have been installed across There is great interest in the poten- the municipality. With his experience tial of LoRa technology not only here Wüstenrot is already in widely deploying the technology in Germany, but around the world. investing in LoRaWAN and knowledge on its practical appli- According to the LoRa Alliance web- cations, Mr. Löffelhardt has become site, there are now LoRaWAN instal- These qualities make LoRaWAN at- an in-demand contact for other mu- lations in 143 countries. The estimat- tractive for a wealth of application ar- nicipalities. He receives an average of ed number of LoRa nodes is currently eas. Smart City projects are a major ten inquiries per month from other around 105 million. The LoRa Al- example. For cities and towns, it is municipalities that want to learn more liance expects this figure to rise to crucial that network communications about using LoRaWAN. 130 million by the end of the year, for IoT projects are implemented in making LoRaWAN anything but a the simplest and most cost-effective Four application areas niche technology. manner possible. are especially suitable For the municipality of Wüstenrot in Southern Germany, this was one According to Mr. Groot, Smart City is of the reasons for investing in Lo- one of four main application areas for RaWAN. “We needed an affordable LoRa technology. Another is the area technology,” says Thomas Löffelhar- of Smart Building. The communica- dt, Wüstenrot’s technical manager and tions standard is used here by safe- energy commissioner. The communi- ty systems, among other things. The MARKUS STREHLITZ

PHOTOS: PAGE 30: MAKHNACH – STOCK.ADOBE.COM (BACKGROUND) – STOCK.ADOBE.COM 30: MAKHNACH PAGE PHOTOS: ty’s topography, with its mountains technology is also used in logistics is a freelance journalist and editor for VDE dialog.

33 TOPICS

CYBERSECURITY In the name of Athena

Since the end of last year, Darmstadt has been home to the largest research center for applied cyber- security in Europe. Christened ATHENE, it is named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom, strategy, and battle. All three of these elements are necessary to counter threats such as those caused by the mal- ware Emotet. But what work is being done there exactly? VDE dialog went to Darmstadt to find out.

BY MARTIN SCHMITZ-KUHL

The new National Research Center no huge laboratories here where com- itors. The reality is far less exciting. for Applied Cybersecurity ATHENE puter scientists in hoodies desperate- ATHENE may be the largest research is different than what the movies ly battle Trojans, viruses, worms, and institution of its kind in all of Europe, would lead you to expect. There are other malware before countless mon- but its presence in Darmstadt is vir-

34 tually imperceptible. This is because back to 2002, when TU Darmstadt He is additionally the department head ATHENE is housed in a building be- founded the Darmstadt Center for of Media Security and IT-Forensics at longing to the Fraunhofer Institute for IT-Security (DZI) to bundle their Fraunhofer SIT. He uses an example Secure Information Technology, SIT. cybersecurity activities. At the same from this area to illustrate the benefits Only 8 of its 550 total employees work time, Fraunhofer SIT was conduct- of ATHENE: “Imagine if audio deep- in its offices there. The rest are scat- ing applied cybersecurity research. fakes got so out of hand that we could tered across the whole city – in the Fraunhofer SIT looks back on a much no longer trust any communication by SIT building, at the Technical Univer- longer history, having emerged from telephone. To find a solution for this, sity of Darmstadt, at the Darmstadt the Deutsches Rechenzentrum (Ger- the Federal Research Ministry would University of Applied Sciences, and man Computing Center) founded in actually first have to tender a research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Com- 1961. The following years saw further contract after the problem has been puter Graphics Research IGD. As IT-security institutions founded in recognized.” Such processes report- the partner institutions forming Darmstadt. In 2008, the state of Hesse edly stretch an average of two years ATHENE, they also form its Board, led the founding of the Center for Ad- before work can finally begin. Now, whose current Chairman is SIT Di- vanced Security Research Darmstadt with ATHENE, the board can sim- rector Prof. Michael Waidner. So does (CASED), in which Fraunhofer SIT, ply conclude the urgency and impor- ATHENE only exist on paper? “No,” TU Darmstadt, and Darmstadt Uni- tance of the topic and at least kick off Prof. Waidner objects, “ATHENE versity of Applied Sciences worked the initial research phase. “The advan- is more than a virtual construction – together on cybersecurity issues. The tage of these research sprints cannot ATHENE is quite real.” German Federal Government fol- be overstated,” says Prof. Steinebach, As an organization within the lowed this in 2011 with the Europe- since they allow scientists to start look- Fraunhofer Society, the center is not an Center for Security and Priva- ing for a solution to the problem much legally independent; all employees cy by Design (EC SPRIDE), a new more quickly and flexibly. The subse- have an employment contract with competence center for information quent efforts would then be normal one of the four partner institutions. security research. The state-funded project work, however, which would That does not mean, though, that CASED and the federally funded EC have to be submitted and approved on there is not concrete work going on in SPRIDE eventually joined forces in an individual basis with the appropri- the name of the goddess of wisdom, 2015 to operate from then on under ate offices. “In that regard, ATHENE strategy, and battle. On the contrary: the joint name Center for Research in is no different than SIT or the univer- “ATHENE is the roof under which Security and Privacy, or CRISP for sities – research methods are the same everything somehow comes together.” short. everywhere.” And “everything” encompasses The activities at ATHENE include more than just traditional research. ATHENE – a center both foundational research, as tradi- The building also houses the offices with many missions tionally conducted at universities, as of the Digitalstadt Darmstadt initia- well as applied research, the classi- tive as well as the Digital Hub Cyber- So what is ATHENE then? Just cal domain of the Fraunhofer Society. security, an initiative of the German old wine in new wineskins? “No,” “We mix these field together, though; Federal Government that focuses on Prof. Waidner objects again. “Until all four partners have their respective supporting security startups and has 2019, CRISP exclusively consisted specialists in the various fields,” says made Darmstadt a leading innovation of temporary projects that always had Prof. Waidner. community in the field of cybersecu- to be applied for individually. With rity – not only in Germany, but also ATHENE, we now receive institution- Research sprint for far beyond. al funding, which gives us a different basics and applications level of security and makes our work Darmstadt is no much more effective.” Prof. Martin The topic is already being tackled very stranger to IT security Steinebach explains what this means. widely in Darmstadt – four legal ex- The computer scientist is one of elev- perts, a sociologist, a philosopher, and To understand what is actually afoot en mission leaders at ATHENE. numerous engineers from other disci- at ATHENE, however, you need to The team in Darmstadt sees “mis- plines belong to the pool of employ- know the background of the center. sions” as something like departments. ees just at Fraunhofer SIT. Because: While ATHENE was founded only re- Prof. Steinebach’s mission is Security “Cybersecurity is more than comput-

PHOTOS: PAGE 34: CATHARINA FRANK 34: CATHARINA PAGE PHOTOS: cently, its history stretches all the way and Privacy in Artificial Intelligence. er science,” Prof. Waidner explains.

35 TOPICS

INTERVIEW “You can only defend if you know how to attack” Dr. Haya Shulman is Director Cybersecurity Analytics and Defences at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology and is responsible for the Cybersecurity mission at ATHENE. Her area of responsibility includes research into the notorious malware Emotet.

Emotet has been causing trouble and sold – if someone wants to obtain since 2014, most recently for the credit card numbers or send spam mail, city of Frankfurt, the University of for instance. There is a wide range of Gießen, and the High Court of Ber- reasons to enlist such services, includ- lin. What makes this virus so dan- ing both political and criminal motives. gerous? Emotet isn’t necessarily more danger- And with Emotet it’s all about the ous than other malware. It was originally payment of ransom money? a so-called banking Trojan that could Not necessarily. It seems to have started intercept online banking login data. The out with extortionists who you could pay bigger problem now, however, is that in bitcoins. But even at that point this Emotet enables the spread of other mal- didn’t result in the data being decrypt- ware – types, for instance, that encrypt ed. Incidentally, a further problem with data or steal passwords. And this can Emotet is that there is often no key at all. then inflict all kinds of damage. This means that there is no person who could be identified and contacted, and How is Emotet spread? even if there were this would be point- Emotet is typically spread through less. e-mail phishing, when people click on links or files sent to them in an email. But “There are certain So why are institutions attacked, it can also use gaps in routers to spread precautionary measures such as the city of Frankfurt and the all by itself. Once it has established itself University of Gießen recently? somewhere, it may also lie dormant at that should be taken In those cases, they were probably sim- first rather than immediately becoming in advance. It is at least ply coincidental victims. There are not active. equally important, even really any beneficiaries of such at- tacks any more. The problem is simply But who even developed Emotet however, to be prepared that Emotet is now spreading across the back then – and why? when you do get Internet completely uncontrolled. We don’t really know. Such malware infected.” is chiefly developed by certain govern- So what can people do to protect DR. HAYA SHULMAN, ments either to spy on others or simply Director Cybersecurity Analytics themselves from a virus like Emo- to inflict damage. In the case of Emo- and Defences, Fraunhofer SIT tet? tet, we believe that it originated some- There are certain precautionary meas- where in Eastern Europe. However, it is ures that should be taken in advance – very difficult to prove this. But there is such as always having an up-to-date now also a large market on the darknet antivirus program on your computer and where all kinds of malware are bought warning all users against opening dubi-

36 After all, it is one thing to find a solu- Young, 48 percent of the survey par- tion to a problem, but a different thing ticipants consider their own risk of altogether to ensure widespread ac- falling victim to cyberattacks low – ceptance of the solution. As with the even though 44 percent of the com- topic of data protection: computer sci- panies reported at least one cyberat- entists know exactly what would need tack over the last few years. 97 percent to happen to allow people to maintain even said they assume the danger of sovereignty over their data. Alas, peo- espionage and data theft will only in- ple do not listen to them. Instead they crease in the future. “It’s just like with go on surrendering their data without smoking. Everyone knows that smok- a second thought, all so they can en- ing causes cancer, yet each person still joy the advantages of the digital indus- assumes that it won’t happen to them.” try. It would also not be fundamental- Prof. Waidner says the situation is of- ous links or attachments in emails. It is ly impossible, Prof. Waidner says, for ten even more critical in SMEs. Com- at least equally important, however, to researchers to build an entirely new panies with fewer than 100 employees be prepared when you do get infected. Internet that could solve all cyber- can hardly afford their own security You have to react very quickly, clean the security problems in one fell swoop. experts any more. And that is a prob- affected computer(s), and then simply But no-one is interested in a new In- lem since these SMEs are often the re-install the programs and files – as- ternet, since it would be impossible to sites of innovation in Germany, mak- suming, of course, that you’ve been roll out on a large scale. “Nevertheless, ing them particularly attractive for es- regularly making backups. we still have to demonstrate the im- pionage. “That’s why we place such portance of data protection in the age importance on the research ques- What options does ATHENE have in of big data and artificial intelligence,” tion of how to automate and simpli- the fight against such threats? Prof. Waidner is convinced. “If data fy security to such a degree that it also We try to identify the networks that is the raw material of the 21st century, works in smaller companies without spread this malware, for one. If we then it’s all the more crucial that we too much effort,” says Prof. Waidner. achieve this, then firewalls can block ask ourselves how we can protect it.” And what is the situation with Emotet, communications with such networks. the virus that has been plaguing com- We are now also building a platform for Risk assessments too panies, institutions, and entire munic- automated malware analysis that auto- positive too often ipal governments since 2014 – such matically recognizes and quarantines as the University of Gießen and the emails with malicious content. And of Despite this, ATHENE main- city of Frankfurt recently (see also ac- course we also expose relevant securi- ly works on the pragmatic solutions. companying interview)? “Emotet is ty gaps by trying to hack into networks Prof. Waidner recollects how, at the a huge problem for humanity, but a ourselves. beginning of his career, he could not small problem for us,” Prof. Waidner understand why companies showed laughs. “It is not research that is cru- So you are also active as a white hat no interest in certain solutions that cial here, but quick response times and hacker? could have effectively gotten the re- lots of experience.” Yes, of course. You can only defend spective problems under control. Un- and develop security mechanisms if you til he understood that, as serious as the know how to attack. Companies are problems were, they were simply not often annoyed by this, but it is certain- the company’s problems. They would ly better for us to discover the security have had to restructure, or even invest gaps before they are found by the “bad in something without profiting from it guys”. Furthermore, we don’t simply ex- themselves. But this is simply not how pose the gaps – we also explain how the world works. It is more effective, in they can be closed and generally give contrast, to offer solutions with which the companies a few months to do this the companies can protect themselves. before making the case public. “People are then willing to pay for

PHOTOS: PAGE 36: FRAUNHOFER SIT 36: FRAUNHOFER PAGE PHOTOS: that,” says Prof. Waidner. MARTIN SCHMITZ-KUHL According to a survey of large Ger- is a freelance author from Frankfurt am Main, Germa- man companies conducted by Ernst & ny and an editor of VDE dialog.

37 VDE GROUP

BATTERY TECHNOLOGY New networking platform created The BMZ Group and VDE Renewables GmbH have signed a strategic partnership to promote a pan-European platform focusing on battery technology. The aim is to promote and strengthen international exchange within the industry.

The internationally recognized Battery Experts other aspect of the close partnership is the further de- ­Forum - organized by the BMZ Group - will serve as a velopment of a more extensive, multidisciplinary con- platform for jointly advancing the issues surrounding ference program, where VDE plans to integrate new the future of electrification. The globally active VDE topics such as bankability, recycling, and cybersecuri- Renew­ables is a subsidiary of the VDE Technology As- ty in energy storage systems into the BEF program in sociation, and offers comprehensive quality assurance 2020. Both the exhibition and the conference reflect services in the field of renewable energy generation the vision of the event: to create a central network- and storage. Burkhard Holder, the Managing Direc- ing platform for the whole industrial sector. Christian tor of VDE Renewables, said, “We are pleased to have Adamczyk, Spokesman and Chief Marketing Officer a strong partner in the BMZ Group, with whom we of the BMZ Group, pointed out: “Battery technology can advance the core issues surrounding electrification is becoming increasingly relevant. It is therefore essen- even more clearly. It is critical for the industry, and es- tial to provide an open exchange in the form of such pecially for Germany as a strong business location, to an industry platform.” This year, the Battery Experts promote a comprehensive exchange of information on Forum has once again registered a record number of these increasingly important topics and to form a close registrations and is reaching its capacity limits despite network on an international level. The event has the the continually growing exhibition space. The Battery decisive advantage of bringing together all the leading Experts Forum will take place from September 29 to companies along the value chain of the battery.” An- October 1, 2020, in Frankfurt, Germany.

38 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Making AI ethics measurable In order to protect consumers, the EU Commission is demanding risk assessments for decisions made by artificial intelligence (AI). VDE welcomes this initiative and is presenting the first AI ethics label capable of achieving international acceptance.

The digital strategy of the European Union, as pre- AI systems that interact directly with people or handle sented late February in a white paper by EU Digital their data,” explains Dr. Sebastian Hallensleben, an AI Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, encompasses top- expert with VDE and initiator of the model. He sees an ics including the ethics of AI. Ms. Vestager has stated opportunity for Germany to break into the lead in the that the proposal is meant to protect consumers from international AI competition with ethical and trans- the downsides of automated systems and AI and to parent AI “Made in Germany”. The VDE model for stimulate discussion of regulatory approaches in the an ethics label is based on the easily understandable coming months. VDE welcomes this initiative and is energy efficiency label already applied effectively to one step ahead of the discussion with its newly de- household products, and highlights AI system charac- veloped model that maps the ethics of AI with trans- teristics such as privacy protection, transparency, and parency and nuance for the first time. “Ethics, like freedom from discrimination. The VDE proposal has the topic of sustainability, is becoming a competitive already received positive feedback both at home and advantage. Companies that can transparently demon- abroad. Members of the German Bundestag’s Com- STOCK.ADOBE.COM; PAGE 39: GRAF VISHENKA – STOCK.ADOBE.COM PAGE STOCK.ADOBE.COM; – strate the ethical behavior of their AI systems have an mission of Inquiry on Artificial Intelligence have wel- easier time bringing their products onto the market. comed the model, and so has the International Elec- With this model, we are promoting citizens’ trust in trotechnical Commission (IEC). PHOTOS: PAGE 38: MALP PAGE PHOTOS:

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SAFETY UV-C resistance testing UV-C radiation sources are increasingly found in electrical devices. Due to their energy-rich nature, UV-C rays are capable of altering mechanical and electrical properties and thus endangering safety.

UV-C refers to ultraviolet radiation, which is main- ing mecha­nical and electrical properties. The conse- ly, but not exclusively, emitted by the sun. It covers quence of this is that cracks or fractures occur in the the electromagnetic spectrum range between X-rays component, which in turn compromises safety. The and visible light. The ozone layer filters out the UV-C suitability of the materials used with regard to UV-C rays that are harmful to all organisms. UV-C rays are radiation resistance should thus always be consid- found in the range of 100 to 280 nanometers. In this ered during product development. The VDE Insti- range they can kill germs. This special property can tute offers standards-based tests for determining the prevent the reproduction of microorganisms such as UV-C resistance of non-metallic materials. Interna- bacteria, viruses, and protozoa and even kill them. tional standards already require testing of the UV-C This method of killing germs by means of UV-C is resistance of non-metallic materials. Precursor here is mainly deployed in the areas of air sterilization, wa- the IEC 60335-1:2010/AMD2:2016 “Household and ter sterilization, surface sterilization, and food hy- similar electrical appliances - Safety”. In light of this giene. UV-C radiation sources are increasingly found development, the VDE Testing and Certification In- in electrical devices. Due to their energy-rich prop- stitute has already examined test methods and their erties, UV-C rays have an impact on most modern feasibility ahead of time. The UV-C resistance test materials and products, as they are capable of alter- can thus already be carried out today.

40 STANDARDIZATION Reducing trade barriers In 2013, Germany and India established the Indo-German Working Group on Quality Infrastructure to strengthen their economic and technical cooperation, reduce technical barriers to trade, and increase product safety.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Af- cal devices, and exploring twinning arrangements fairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Indian Ministry at ISO and IEC level.” During the Indo-German of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Workshop on the Role of Standards Developing (MoCAF&PD), in collaboration with other min- Organisations (SDO), Florian Spiteller, Head of istries, are working closely together on standard- External Relations at VDE|DKE, explained the ization, accreditation and conformity assessment, functioning interaction between the market, stake- metrology, product safety, and market surveillance. holders, and steering committees. After all: “stan- The seventh annual meeting of the Indo-German dardization must have market relevance”. Florian Working Group on Quality Infrastructure took Spiteller also emphasized the importance of inter- place on January 16–17, 2020, in New Delhi with national standards for the dismantling of technical around 80 participants. Secretary Avinash K. Sri- trade barriers. He also called for tools such as the vastava of the Indian Ministry of Consumer Af- Global Relevance Toolbox to be used and promot- fairs pointed out: “Germany is a trusted and im- ed more frequently, since they can be helpful with portant partner for India. It is encouraging to see the integration of national particularities in inter- the intense technical cooperation that happens in national standards. On behalf of the VDE|DKE our bilateral Working Group. I am happy to see Standardization Council Industry 4.0 (SCI), Flo- that we have deepened our cooperation in areas rian Spiteller presented the triangle of Platform In-

STOCK.ADOBE.COM; PAGE 41: GIZ GMBH PAGE STOCK.ADOBE.COM; such as cybersecurity, market surveillance, Indu­ dustry 4.0, Labs Network Industry 4.0 (LNI 4.0), – stry 4.0, and legal metrology. This year we will also and SCI 4.0. This model enables all stakeholders put a focus on strengthening the dialog on techni- involved to exchange ideas and was received with cal regulation, exchange on regulations of medi- great interest by India. 40: TILIALUCIDA PAGE PHOTOS:

41 MEET THE VDE

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VDE DIALOG The VDE technology magazine

ISSUER VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies

EDITORIAL TEAM

VDE Brand, Marketing, and Communication, Thomas M. Koller (V.i.S.d.P.), Melanie Unseld (editor in chief), Susanne Margraf, Martin Schmitz-Kuhl, Markus Strehlitz Contact: [email protected]

GRAPHICS Martin Wolczyk

PUBLISHER AND AGENCY ELECTRONIC CONDENSERS HEALTH-CARE-COM GmbH A company of VDE VERLAG GmbH SCC receives Kaiserleistraße 8A, 63067 Offenbach TRANSLATION AND REVISION VDE certificate exact! Sprachenservice und Informationsmanagement GmbH The VDE Testing and Certification Institute has awarded ADVERTISING Strong Components Co., Ltd.’s (SCC) electronic capacitors Beate Gehm, [email protected] with the VDE certificate. Due to COVID-19, it was the first Telephone: +49 69 840006-3030 handover ceremony conducted online. Valid ad price list: 9 (November 2019)

PRINTING COMPANY The VDE certificate certifies that the approved products meet H. Heenemann GmbH & Co. KG the requirements for international safety standards. As a result, the product quality is highly trustworthy and recognized world- FREQUENCY OF PUBLICATION wide. The challenges brought about by the global coronavirus cri- Four times annually, at the beginning of each quarter sis have also affected the VDE Institute and its Asian subsidiary, VDE Global Services. We are constantly looking for ways to con- CIRCULATION tinue to professionally offer our services to customers and to re- 40,000 copies

main in contact with them. To give the celebratory certificate han- SUBSCRIPTION CONDITIONS dover a proper framework despite the limitations caused by the For subscription information please coronavirus, it was held in an online meeting in order to congrat- contact Melanie Unseld, Editor-in-Chief ulate SCC live for successfully passing the test. In his greeting, ([email protected]) Sven Öhrke – CEO of VDE Global Services – emphasized that SCC has already received a large number of VDE certificates and gave his thanks for SCC’s years of trust in VDE certification as a strong guarantor for successful, international market entry. SCC’s Chairman, Zheng Quanfu, also referred to the important role of VDE Certification in opening international markets and increas- ing competitiveness.

The VDE dialog team: Melanie Unseld, Martin Schmitz-Kuhl, Susanne Margraf, Martin Wolczyk, Markus Strehlitz (left to right) PHOTOS: PAGE 42: VDE (PHOTOGRAPHED BY EMPLOYEE) (LEFT), HANNIBAL/VDE (RIGHT) EMPLOYEE) BY 42: VDE (PHOTOGRAPHED PAGE PHOTOS:

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