Federal AI 2025 competition launched, registration until June 1

It's all happening in quick succession: the winners of the Federal AI Competition (BWKI) have barely been chosen when the Tübingen AI Center announces the next round: From now on, pupils can once again register their project ideas. The registration deadline is June 1, 2025, and the finished projects must be submitted by September 21, 2025. Experts from the Tübingen AI Center will then assess how well the ideas have been implemented and select the 10 finalists. Anyone who attends secondary school or has graduated in the past year can take part, either alone or in a team of up to four people. The AI course developed by the BWKI will help overcome any barriers to entry.

Bundeswettbewerb KI (BWKI)

Seit dem Jahr 2019 gibt es den Bundeswettbewerb KI (BWKI). Die Initiatoren sind Forschende des Tübingen AI Centers. Das Tübingen AI Center ist ein vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) gefördertes Kompetenzzentrum der Universität Tübingen und des Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme. Der Hauptförderer der Initiative ist die Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung. Der BWKI bietet neben seinem Wettbewerb auch einen kostenlosen KI-Kurs für alle Interessierten an. Schulen, die diesen Kurs besonders viel nutzen, habe die Chance "KI-Schule des Jahres" zu werden.

• Bundeswettbewerb KI: Nicht nur für die Preise, auch fürs Leben trainieren sie
• Bundeswettbewerb KI
• KI-Kurs

Whatever is useful and appealing is allowed. If you want to be inspired, you can browse through the winning projects from previous years on the BWKI website. Each project is accompanied by a short video presenting the idea. In addition to the main prize, special prizes are also awarded, for example for the most successful combination of machine learning and self-designed hardware. Last year's main prize was won by Sebastian Steppuhn with his smart sluice for beehives, which recognizes bees infested with varroa mites and moves them into a treatment box using a mechanism he devised himself. Other prizewinners analyzed microscopic images, developed an intelligent traffic light circuit or built an elaborate apparatus for an unsolved scientific puzzle.

Some projects are still growing and thriving. BWKI 2019 winners Theo Döllmann and Marius De Kuthy Meurers are constantly optimizing their method, which they use to predict the reliability of train connections: travellers can see for themselves how well it works at bahnvorhersage.de. The Kenergy project by Jacob Bürkle, Max Schmidt and Marcel Decker, which analyzes roof surfaces for their photovoltaic potential and was awarded the 2023 prize, has grown into a small company: The founders were able to win Stadtwerke Dreieich as a pilot customer and are developing a service based on their algorithm that automatically generates PV analyzes and offers for entire residential areas.

(atr)