Kategorie: ‘Fun & Facts’
Review of SC25: HPC Highlights From St. Louis

Source: Own illustration
The Supercomputing Conference 2025 (SC25), one of the world’s most important conferences in the field of high-performance computing, took place this year in St. Louis, Missouri (USA). Under the motto “HPC ignites,” around 15,000 participants gathered to discuss current research results, technological developments, and future trends in supercomputing. The IT Center was represented by three participants, who took the opportunity to exchange ideas with international experts and gain valuable insights from the vibrant HPC community.
A Different Kind of Advent Calendar
It’s getting dark earlier, temperatures are falling, Christmas markets are opening: we’re slowly getting into the Christmas spirit. Between baking cookies and buying presents, Advent calendars sweeten the days leading up to the holiday.
Why not learn something instead of (or in addition to) chocolate this time?
Learning with AI – How effective is it really?

Source: Freepik
AI systems are revolutionizing the way we absorb information and process knowledge. Examples include voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa, learning platforms such as Duolingo, a wide range of commercial AI chatbots, and, in a university context, RWTHgpt and Ritchy at RWTH Aachen University. These technologies use machine learning to provide personalized learning experiences tailored to the needs of individual users.
But the key question is: How can AI be used in a way that truly improves learning and is not counterproductive?
AI Governance & Ethics – A Responsible Future

Source: Freepik
AI-supported applications are changing the way we work, learn, and conduct research. Whether it’s text generation, data summarization or automated data analysis, AI-supported applications can simplify many work processes and open up new opportunities. This also applies to research, teaching, and administration.
IT Center Oktoberfest 2025

Source: Own illustration
On September 26, 2025, it was once again time to say “O’zapft is!” – the IT Center invited guests to its traditional Oktoberfest. Daniel Bündgens, Chief Executive Director of the IT Center, opened the festivities with a warm welcome and got the numerous guests in the mood for a lively evening full of Bavarian atmosphere.
fIT Courses: IT Knowledge Made Easy

Source: Own illustration
Whether you’ve just started your first semester or are already in the middle of your studies, IT skills are a real advantage in any subject area. This is exactly where the fIT courses at RWTH come in: they offer you the opportunity to learn how to use important programs or refresh your existing knowledge. Whether Excel, MATLAB, or Python – the free training courses will get you ready for your studies, research, and beyond.
The RWTH IT Center at the 12th Aachen Company Run
The IT Center of RWTH Aachen University was once again represented at this year’s event. On Friday 19 September 2025, a total of 7,523 runners from 518 companies took part in the race. As usual, the sporting event took place around Pascalstraße in Aachen-Oberforstbach.
Technical Background to the X-Win Conversion

Source: Own Illustration
On June 10, 2025, we successfully converted RWTH’s network connection to the German science network (X-WiN) to a new generation of routers. You can also read more information in the blog post. These important components of the network infrastructure were replaced with more powerful and energy-efficient devices. In this article, we take a look behind the scenes of the technical changeover: Why was it necessary? What was replaced? How did the complex conversion actually work?
Team UX at the IT Center

Source: Own Illustration
In this series, the IT Center’s UX team reports on its work. When developing interactive systems such as websites and apps, not only HTML, CSS and JavaScript play a decisive role, but also usability and user experience. Put simply, this refers to the question of whether a system supports its users in achieving their goals effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily and what perceptions and reactions result from using a system.
At the IT Center, we also focus on the usability and user experience of our systems. User tests such as the annual satisfaction survey on the RWTHapp are a key tool that we use for this. You can find this year’s results here.





