Monthly Archives: January 2012

BBK was founded in May 2004 as an important contribution of the Federal Government to the new strategy for the protection of the population in Germany. Together with the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), BBK as a supreme federal office within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) fulfils tasks relating to civil security measures, above all in the sector of civil protection and disaster assistance.

The BBK is a federal competence center for inter-divisional and inter-administration level crisis management both on the operative tactical and on the strategic level. It incorporates all interdisciplinary domains of civil security precaution and combines them into an effective protection system for the population. For example, the BBK is responsible for the conceptual planning and interdisciplinary coordination of the protection of critical infrastructures and the education of executive managers on the higher administrative levels in civil defense.
It supports the BMI in these areas and also, by consent of BMI, the responsible supreme offices. Above all, BBK is responsible for the following tasks:

• Development of a national risk analysis
• Development of standards and framework concepts for civil protection
• Warning and information of the population
• Information of the population about protection and support possibilities
• Education, further education and training of decision makers and managers from the sector of civil security measures
• Technical and scientific research

The high significance of research in the task profile of the BKK is expressed through its own research division and through numerous collaborations with universities. With the journal Civil Security Research (“Zivilschutz-Forschung”) and the publication of other articles the BKK provides an important contribution to the scientific state of the art of civil security.

The Institute for Visualization and Interactive Systems (VIS) of the University of Stuttgart is internationally highly visible for research in the area of visualization, interactive 3D computer graphics, human computer interaction, and semantic models. The institute is currently involved in a number of national and international projects carried out in collaboration with partners from academia, public research institutions and industry. The focus of the R&D-work of VIS is on visually oriented presentation and interaction techniques (graphical and model-based user interfaces, mobile and automotive HCI, user interfaces for sensory handicapped people, virtual and augmented reality), computer graphics (parallel and hardware accelerated interactive rendering, web based and mobile graphics, gigapixel displays), scientific visualization (volume rendering, flow visualization, multi-resolution analysis, large datasets) as well as information visualization and visual analytics (high-dimensional and heterogeneous data collections, document databases, social media, semantic web ). The projects are primarily funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and the European Union. Many projects involve collaborations with leading industrial partners and public agencies. VIS is a member of the VISMASTER Coordinative Action and participates in two projects within the DFG priority program ‘Scalable Visual Analytics’. VIS is also involved in the EU Project PESCaDO (“Personalized Environmental Service Configuration and Delivery Orchestration”).

In the VASA project, VIS will be responsible for the development and integration of visual analytics techniques for interactive reasoning and for advanced interactive visualization techniques for data/knowledge space exploration.

The project group Constitutionally Compatible Technology Design (provet) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Alexander Roßnagel carries out interdisciplinary research projects on legal issues arising in the field of information and communication technology. Therefore, the project group is part of the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Information System Design (ITeG) alongside with several other technical Partners. At the present time, there are 20 legal scholars in the project group. The research agenda is to support the development of legally compatible technology. Within the framework of practical research projects, technical design proposals are being developed for technical systems and infrastructures, such as ISDN units, electronic signature algorithms, multimedia system models, electronic methods of payment, chipcards, biometric systems, mobile communication, internet shops and electronic marketplaces. In this way, compliance with legal requirements can be ensured. Conversely, appropriate legal regulations have become a central requirement for the implementation of new technologies, especially in the case of ICT. The second research agenda is thus to support a development of law that is adapted to meet the changing general conditions specified by the development of technology. In this respect, the projects aim at the establishment of technically suitable regulation concepts and legal recommendations, like in the past, e.g. for the laws of electronic signature, tele service data protection, data protection auditing and the new German electronic ID card. The projects are being funded and promoted by ministries, other public authorities, foundations, enterprises and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

With some six million customers and more than 20,000 employees, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG generated annual revenue in excess of € 17 billion in 2010. As the third-largest energy company in Germany, EnBW focuses on the electricity business – in the generation and trading segement and the grid and sales segment – and the gas as well as energy and environmental services business. EnBW is committed to Baden-Württemberg and Germany as locations and these are the focal points of our activities. The company also operates in other European markets.

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the fields of industry, energy and healthcare as well as providing infrastructure solutions, primarily for cities and metropolitan areas. For over 160 years, Siemens has stood for technological excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality. The company is the world’s largest provider of environmental technologies. Around 40 percent of its total revenue stems from green products and solutions. In fiscal 2011, which ended on September 30, 2011, revenue from continuing operations totaled €73.5 billion and net income from continuing operations €7.0 billion. At the end of September 2011, Siemens had around 360,000 employees worldwide on the basis of continuing operations. Further information is available on the Internet at: http://www.siemens.com.

In the VASA project Siemens is represented by Corporate Technology (CT), a central research unit. With major research centers in Germany, the U.S., Austria, Slovakia, Russia, India, China, Japan and Singapore, CT employs over 5,000 people in a worldwide network of innovation. The organization provides expertise regarding strategically important areas to ensure the company’s technological future.