Cooperation: PhD students develop smart data platform

Stadium visitors and festival fans know the problem: quickly sending a photo of your favorite band or updating friends on the score. But the mobile network has long been overloaded by the large number of devices and messages. What is annoying in your free time can be expensive in industry: Large amounts of highly sensitive data are often sent, especially in innovative sectors. This is why the district of Harburg and its business development agency WLH launched the USIN5G project four years ago. On the site of the Technology and Innovation Park Nordheide (TIP) in the district of Harburg, a unique ecosystem for the development of new marketable and innovative products and services was created in combination with a 5G campus network and public 5G coverage. 

The key difference to public 5G: the private network operates in a specific frequency range (3.7-3.8 GHz) and can only be used with your own SIM card. It therefore not only offers the greatest possible security, but also the ability to transmit data volumes more efficiently: the public 5G network is designed for streaming videos or music. With the private network in the TIP, however, uploads also work faster, which optimizes data exchange between local companies.

The WLH and the district of Harburg were supported in their project by a specially founded research association, including the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. 

USIN5G is the lighthouse project at the TIP. Innovations based on 5G were developed in the application areas “5G Smart Service Platform for Commercial Areas”, “Smart Production and Buildings” and “Intelligent Disaster Prevention”. Ole Prüfer and Kenneth Richter were responsible for providing the smart data platform: “The industrial park is home to various small and medium-sized companies that generate and exchange a lot of data,” explains Kenneth Richter. The computer scientist is doing his doctorate under Prof. Dr. Paul Drews, Professor of Business Informatics. Ole Prüfer is an engineer and is doing his doctorate under Prof. Dr. Jens Heger, Professor of Modeling and Simulation of Technical Systems and Processes. At USIN5G, he has focused in particular on machine control: “With private 5G, production processes can also be orchestrated more efficiently,” he explains. 

The doctoral students designed and programmed together with the partners at the Innovation Park: For example, both have wirelessly networked a so-called cobot, i.e. a collaborative robot, with several machines and thus optimized the production processes: “Working in a collaborative project was the best thing that could have happened to me. I learned a lot from the transfer between industry and research and I'm looking forward to supporting companies in the region,” says Ole Prüfer.

Both doctoral students are also involved in the follow-up project EVOLVE5G. The project aims to strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the introduction of 5G technologies and to optimize processes. The core of the project is the methodical elaboration of an application-oriented catalog for 5G and edge devices, as well as the development and testing through the implementation projects “Smart Monitoring: Forecast-controlled process planning” and “Cyberphysical production system: Mobile cooperative handling”, which are networked via a central data platform that Ole Prüfer and Kenneth Richter helped to develop. 

The project is thus further developing an innovation ecosystem that strengthens the Lüneburg and Harburg regions in the field of networked, intelligent production systems on the one hand and promotes technology transfer beyond regional borders on the other.

Cooperation partner Dr. Timo Maurer, Innovation Manager at WLH

“The Nordheide Technology and Innovation Park on the outskirts of Hamburg offers enormous potential! Innovative companies and research institutions come together here to jointly develop solutions based on a unique 5G infrastructure - under real conditions!
In TIP Nordheide, companies and partners such as Leuphana University can use a private 5G network - a clear competitive advantage, as the necessary licenses are not provided in many European countries. This practical approach works: Several projects with Leuphana have already shown how technology transfer works in practice. Together with SMEs, tailor-made solutions are created for real challenges, which are implemented on site with the scientific staff in the companies. This not only creates added value for the participating companies, it also creates a pool of knowledge for 5G applications in SMEs. But 5G is only the enabler - the actual added value is created by AI, data glasses, robotics and other technologies. This is precisely where TIP Nordheide is developing into a center of excellence for the digitalization of SMEs - offering companies the opportunity for more innovation, competitiveness and future security.”