The IIIX took part in both the trade fair and the symposium with a total of eight employees. In addition to presenting current research findings, the institute took part in the event with workshops and interactive presentations.
The event kicked off on June 4 with a presentation by Institute Director Prof. Dr. Matthias Wölfel on collaborative learning and experience worlds in the AR/VR area. Together with Torsten Fell from the Institute for Immersive Learning, he reported on the research and practical application of immersive learning. Supported by Jonas Deuchler and Fiona Schmidbauer, he showed a live demonstration of the VR Campus - an immersive VR learning environment developed at IIIX in which a lecture takes place every semester. This presentation gave the audience of around 150 an insight into the revolutionary possibilities of virtual reality (VR) for collaborative learning experiences.
On the second day of LEARNTEC, June 5, Wladimir Hettmann and Thorsten Zylowski continued the series of IIIX presentations at the congress. They presented the AI-based Occupational Path Recommendation Assistant (OPRA), which is being developed as part of the MERLOT project. This language assistant offers young adults individual recommendations for training and further education and facilitates educational and career choices with tailored learning paths through the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI technologies.
Also on June 5, Katharina Anderer and Matthias Wölfel gave a workshop on “The Art of Prompt Engineering”. Prompt engineering is the art and science of designing inputs (prompts) for AI models in such a way that they deliver optimal and desired outputs. Participants learned how to use technologies such as ChatGPT sensibly and efficiently through prompt engineering in order to exploit the full potential of AI in education. The workshop was met with great interest and was fully booked.
Another highlight was the “Journey through the EduVerse” on June 5, a hands-on tour through virtual immersive educational spaces. This tour took place live on the stage of the AR/VR area at LEARNTEC in Karlsruhe as well as simultaneously at the UFFestival in Berlin and in the UFF livestream. Visitors were able to follow the tour guides from the uniVERSEty network, including Jonas Deuchler and Fiona Schmidbauer from IIIX, through various VR education spaces.
Throughout the fair, Andreas Reich presented the Digitaler Weiterbildungscampus (DWC) and the Pedagogical Educational Tutor (PET) at the Ministry of Education's stand. Visitors had the opportunity to test their knowledge in the DWC's electrical engineering course and experience how PET answers their questions and guides them through the learning process. This interactive demonstration showed the power of PET in education and was also met with great interest.
The Institute for Intelligent Interaction and Immersive Experience's trade fair appearance at LEARNTEC 2024 was a complete success. The presentations and workshops enabled valuable contacts to be made and knowledge to be shared. The great interest and positive feedback show that the institute is on the right track to develop innovative solutions for digital education. The knowledge gained will be incorporated into the institute's future work in order to continue to drive progress in the field of digital education.