The Digitalos Award was presented in five categories for the best implementation of digitization in Upper Austria. Here are the winners in more detail:
Digital start-up: Thomas Neubauer won with a data platform on the rise
With a loud and joyful “Yes!” Thomas Neubauer his fist in the air. The Altenberger prevailed in the “Digital Start-ups” category with his company Dimetor and the associated platform Airborne RF. “We’ll all need that, but we don’t know yet,” said Neubauer confidently on stage.
With Airborne RF, the Mühlviertler has developed a platform to be able to better analyze data in aviation. With the data fed in, the software helps plan, define and approve routes for commercial drone flights.
Dimetor works at the interface between security systems in aviation and telecommunications. A digital, three-dimensional corridor in which the unmanned drone can fly safely is being built using data from national air traffic control and mobile phone networks.
The innovative software has also aroused the interest of international heavyweights in the telecommunications industry. There are already partnerships with British Telecom, Vodafone and Swisscom. Swiss air rescue is already using drones to find people in need – without direct line of sight to the drone.
“This is about a billion-dollar market,” says Neubauer. In 2030, eight million commercial drones would be needed in Europe alone, all of which would depend on the technology.
- That was Digitalos 2022:
Digital Personality: 5 Mothers, 16 Children: One is Always Crying – Christina Tropper’s Parent Blog
The public vote on nachrichten.at has Christina Trooper won by far, she was allowed to lift the Digitalos trophy for the “Digital Personality”. “We’re really happy, incredibly proud,” says Tropper. The team of authors around the 41-year-old from Linz makes one of the largest parenting blogs in the German-speaking world – with more than 300,000 page views per month.
With her blog “One always screams” about life with children and twins, Tropper has already made it into the “Bild” and the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “We are a total of five mothers, all social media experts, and we write about our lives and everyday life with a total of 16 children,” says Tropper. And someone always screams, she jokes. The children are between four and 23 years old. “We pretty much cover everything that comes up for parents.” It’s about high-quality content, interviews with experts and not about how to bake cakes. “That also sets us apart from other blogs.”
Even before the pandemic, the team of bloggers, which is spread across Linz, Graz and Germany, was digitally networked in their home office, “the coordination is done via WhatsApp,” says Tropper. There are now more than 900 blog posts – with more than 17,000 comments.
Tropper: “We are very happy that it is so well received. The Digitalos is now a real appreciation of our work.”
Digital transformation: Marc Simmel wants to take timber construction to a new level
“Wood and water are archenemies,” says Marc Simmer, Managing Director of the company Sihga, which specializes in fastening technology for timber construction (e.g. screws). In order to make timber construction even safer and to promote it, Sihga has developed a moisture monitoring system together with the Vöcklabruck-based company Tagtron.
Buildings are monitored across the board, sensor data is collected in real time in a cloud. In the event of a problem, technicians are automatically informed so that they can repair the spot and prevent the wood from rotting. After eight years of development (“we didn’t want to roll it out until it was definitely whistle”), the system was launched in June. Since then, the Ohlsdorf-based company has installed it for 20 customers – for example in the first Asfinag wooden traffic sign bridge in Völkermarkt, in the Team 7 world in Ried, which is about to be completed, and in a multi-storey residential building in Wolfurt. It will be installed in a hotel in Lisbon next week.
“We want to take timber construction to a new level,” says Simmer. The 27-year-old emphasizes that the sustainable raw material can contribute to climate protection, because the construction sector is responsible for around 40 percent of CO2 emissions worldwide.
Sihga was founded in 2003 by his mother Jane-Beryl Simmer, has around 100 employees and another location in Olsberg, Germany.
- The award winners:
Digital commitment: Experts in artificial intelligence – Verena Stanzl wants to encourage
Brought for the winning photo Verena Stanzl from Attnang-Puchheim, her two colleagues Katrin Strasser and Kathrin Kefer on stage. Women in AI won the Digitalos for “Digital Commitment”, which was awarded for the first time this year. “We were surprised at first and then we were very happy,” says Verena Stanzl, who works as a data scientist at Fill in the Innviertel region.
With Women in AI, she is committed to encouraging women and young girls to become experts in data and artificial intelligence (AI). “It’s also about dealing ethically and responsibly with artificial intelligence.” Women in AI Upper Austria is part of the global “Women in AI” network, which aims to promote diversity in new technologies. In 2018, only 20 percent of all AI experts worldwide were female – these role models are set to change. Verena Stanzl and her colleagues want to set a good example. They organize events and lectures to give the experts and their work a stage. Online events such as “Beating breast cancer with artificial intelligence” were launched or online panel discussions, in which more than 600 guests took part. “At the same time, we want to provide information about AI and its possible applications,” says Stanzl. The Digitalos is “a great honor and an incentive to continue along this path.”
- Sepp Hochreiter was honored as a digital pioneer:
Source: Nachrichten
