Kategorie: ‘Events, Anniversarys & Success’
IDM.nrw Office Officially Launched
Stefan Drees (MKW), Aylin Gündogan (RWTH), Matthias Müller (RWTH)
Source: Own illustration
As research, teaching, and administration become increasingly digital, the importance of secure, cross-institutional identity management continues to grow. Researchers, students, and staff expect seamless and secure access to digital services—regardless of the university or research institution they belong to. Federated identity management provides the foundation for making this possible.
To sustainably support higher education institutions across North Rhine-Westphalia and to coordinate the further development of shared identity infrastructures, the IDM.nrw Office has been established.
The office was officially inaugurated during a launch event held at the IT Center of RWTH Aachen University on 20 May 2026. Representatives from universities across North Rhine-Westphalia, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the DFN Association, and numerous partners from the research and higher education community joined the event to mark this important milestone. Read the rest of this entry »
IT Center Summer Party 2026: Celebrating Summer Together
Source: Own Illustration
Summer, sunshine, and a great atmosphere – the perfect conditions for the IT Center Summer Party 2026. In glorious weather, employees, trainees, and student assistants gathered at Wendlingweg to spend an eventful afternoon and evening together. Amid cool drinks, delicious food, and plenty of conversation, there was, of course, also time for games, fun, and group activities.
CLAIX-2025: Next Milestone for HPC at RWTH Aachen University
Source: Own illustration
With CLAIX-2023, a major step was taken in 2023 toward a modern, energy-efficient, and scalable High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure at RWTH Aachen University. Now, CLAIX-2025 marks the next milestone, bringing significant additional CPU computing power to strengthen the field of traditional HPC simulations. In addition, a targeted expansion in the field of machine learning (ML) marks an important step forward. The new system went live on July 13, 2026, and seamlessly complements CLAIX-2023 as part of the proven 1-cluster concept at the Tier-2 level.
The IT Center at the 13th Aachen Company Run
Source: Own Illustration
The IT Center was once again represented at this year’s Aachen Company Run. The 13th Aachen Company Run did not take place at the end of September as usual, but instead on Friday, July 3, 2026. Due to construction work at the event site, the run was moved to early summer.
Follow-up Report: Lenovo Customer Advisory Forum 2026
Peter Watzlawik at Lenovo Customer Advisory Forum 2026.
Source: Own illustration
This year brings a change regarding customer meetings with framework agreement partners and manufacturers. The new framework agreement for IT client hardware was accompanied by a change in manufacturer. As a result, RWTH and all participating universities in North Rhine-Westphalia were supplied with devices from Lenovo starting September 2025. Our colleague Peter Watzlawik, who is part of the working group for client tenders in collaboration with Department 7.3 – Central Purchasing, was invited by Lenovo to this year’s Customer Advisory Forum (CAF). The event took place from June 9 to 11 in Noordwijk aan Zee, near The Hague.
Read the rest of this entry »
A Look Back at the RWTH Talk Lehre 2026: AI in the Higher Education Context
Source: Own Illustration
The RWTH Talk Lehre 2026 took place on June 10, 2026. Approximately 350 participants from the fields of teaching, research, and university administration attended the presentations, workshops, and discussions both in person and online. The event focused on how artificial intelligence is changing and has already changed higher education, as well as the opportunities and challenges that arise from this.
In this article, we provide insights into the individual presentations, discussions, and practical examples. You can find an overview of the program and the individual sessions in our introductory article on Talk Lehre 2026.
A Look Back at EUNIS 2026
Source: Own Illustration
The EUNIS Annual Conference at the West University of Timisoara brought together the European higher education IT community from June 2 to 4, 2026. Under the motto “Advancing freedom in higher education,” the focus was on digitalization, innovation, and the future of higher education institutions.
RWTH Talk Lehre 2026: Shaping AI in Higher Education Together
Source: Own Illustration
On June 10, 2026, RWTH Aachen University invites you to the RWTH Talk Lehre 2026. The event will focus on how artificial intelligence is transforming higher education and what opportunities and challenges this presents for faculty and students. The event is aimed at anyone who is actively involved in shaping teaching at RWTH or is interested in doing so.
The Talk Lehre offers an open forum for exchange, new perspectives, and joint discussions on the further development of teaching and learning formats in the context of AI.
HPC Insights from SCA/HPCAsia 2026
Source: Own illustration
The SupercomputingAsia (SCA) is the largest conference in the field of high-performance computing (HPC) for the global supercomputing community in Asia. This year, the SCA was jointly hosted with the International Conference on High Performance Computing in the Asia-Pacific Region (HPCAsia) in Osaka, Japan. More than 2,500 participants from 45 countries and regions attended SCA/HPCAsia 2026 to discuss current research results, technological developments, and future trends in supercomputing. Keynote speakers highlighted important developments for the convergence of HPC, AI, and Quantum Computing.
The IT Center was represented by three participants, who exchanged ideas with international experts and made strong contributions to the conference’s workshops by presenting current research results on HPC & AI and energy efficiency.
Ten Years of ISO Certification for the IT-ServiceDesk
Source: Own illustration
Ten years ago, the Service & Communication department of the IT Center reached an important milestone: On May 23, 2016, the then IT-ServiceDesk received its initial certification under DIN EN ISO 9001:2015—and has been certified without interruption ever since. The department can thus look back on a decade of continuous quality management and successful development.
