RWTH Innovation Award Honour Goes For Four Projects
RWTH seeks to foster of innovation and entrepreneurship among its students and academic staff and to support the process of turning new ideas into impactful solutions. Since 2014, it has presented its annual Innovation Award, which honors university projects that contribute to enhancing the innovative capacity of the Aachen region.
A software development kit for neuromorphic AI chips in edge applications won the first place award in the 2022 round. Second place went to an electromagnetically heatable nano-modified stent for the treatment of hollow organ tumors. The SaaS platform JuLES and a digital battery twin for more efficient and safe use shared third place.
The award is supported by RWTH Innovation GmbH The ideas submitted are evaluated according to technology orientation, innovation potential, customer benefits, planned further development, commercial potential and overall impression.
Software Development Kit for Neuromorphic AI Chips in Edge Applications
By integrating computing and storage units, neuromorphic computing systems mimic the human brain. This results in vast performance improvements in artificial intelligence, or AI for short. However, the technology is hardly accessible to AI device manufacturers due to the more complicated system design both at the hardware software levels. Hardware and software development kits have now been developed at the Chair of Software for Systems on Silicon headed by Professor Rainer Leupers. The hardware development kit integrates neuromorphic chips, provided by third parties, into an existing computing system, allows validation of neuromorphic hardware, and can serve as a development platform for market-ready AI devices. The software development kit enables easy programming and simulation of AI applications on neuromorphic systems. Software developers can thus bring low-risk AI applications to disruptive neuromorphic hardware and reduce the energy consumption of AI.
Customers of both innovations are industrial users, mobile device manufacturers, and smart city IoT device providers.