RWTH Aachen, TU Eindhoven, and KU Leuven Forge AI Partnership for Cutting-Edge Collaboration

“Groundbreaking.” With this short statement, Professor Holger Hoos, one of the directors of the RWTH Center for Artificial Intelligence, describes the signing of a cooperation agreement in the field of artificial intelligence between the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), the KU Leuven (Belgium) and the RWTH Aachen .

In the future, says Hoos’ fellow director Wil van der Aalst, we will hold joint events, exchange scientific staff and share infrastructure. The contract was signed on Monday evening at the historic location in the Coronation Hall of the Aachen Town Hall during the opening of the “RWTH KI Week” by Professor Silvia Lenaerts, Rector of TU Eindhoven, Professor Luc Sels (Rector KU Leuven) and RWTH Rector Professor Ulrich Rüdiger. “Eindhoven and Leuven are among the world’s best AI research institutions,” says Hoos, so the contract signing is a “validation of what we have achieved here in Aachen.” People at RWTH are now overjoyed that this “fantastic cooperation” has come about – not least due to long personal contacts with the other two universities. The three cities are also geographically in a perfect triangle, so you can meet in person within a very short time. As a group, a critical mass can be formed to stand up to competitors in the USA and China in the field of AI.

This Belgian-German-Dutch solidarity was taken up several times in a very entertaining way during the celebration on Monday evening. First in AI-supported films that played with the image of three individual swarms that became one, then later as part of a spectacular drone light show at the Katschhof in Aachen. In front of the unique panorama of Aachen Cathedral, the drones not only formed the lettering “AI Week”, but also played with the colors of the three countries and symbolically formed a whole. This cross-border cooperation is also called for by NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, who stated in a video greeting that “AI must be developed and researched across borders”. Gonca Türkeli-Dehnert also gave approval for the AI merger of the three universities, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia: “Aachen is already an important AI location,” but Europe-wide cooperation, dialogue and communication are necessary. And to Holger Hoos and his colleagues: “Thank you for wanting to leverage this potential.”

The fact that AI can also be fun became clear not only through the videos and the drone show. The comic character “Charlemagne” by the Aachen artist Alfred Neuwald was also brought to life with AI support. With a snap of the animated figure, original Aachen prints were stuck under the visitors’ chairs – that happened in a completely analogous way on this groundbreaking evening for Aachen and the RWTH.