Schlagwort: ‘KI’
WestAI: Review, Exchange, and Outlook – An Overview of the Consortium Meeting
Source: WestAI
The AI Service Center WestAI, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMFTR, formerly BMBF), is one of four nationally funded AI service centers in Germany and is a central point of contact for applied artificial intelligence in North Rhine-Westphalia. The center aims to accelerate the transfer of AI research into practical applications and, in particular, to provide small and medium-sized enterprises and research teams with low-threshold access to modern AI technologies.
In this blog post, we take a look at the current role of WestAI, summarize the most important results of the latest consortium meeting, and provide an outlook on the further developments planned for the coming years.
Basic AI Supply in North Rhine-Westphalia: How the IT Center Is Contributing With KI:connect.nrw
Source: Own Illustration
Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly at universities in North Rhine-Westphalia. To ensure that they are well positioned in the long term, common technical foundations and responsible solutions are needed.
A new paper by Digitale Hochschule NRW (DH.NRW) describes precisely this approach. It shows how basic AI services can be established for all universities in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Ritchy – Your Opinion Matters!
Source: Own Illustration
Since April 2025, our chatbot Ritchy has been available to assist you around the clock, even after our regular support hours. It provides answers, tips, and suggested solutions, and is designed to complement our personal customer support services.
We have already introduced Ritchy in a previous blog post and explained its advantages and special features.
If you would like to learn more about our chatbot, we highly recommend taking a look at this article.
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.
Ritchy Explained – How the Chatbot Works & How to Get the Most Out of It
Source: Own Illustration
In our last post, we introduced you to Ritchy, the IT-ServiceDesk’s AI-powered support chatbot. If you’re not yet familiar with Ritchy, we recommend reading the first post first. There you can learn more about the background and development of the chatbot.
When you select the support chat function on our IT Center website, in IT Center Help, or directly in RWTHmoodle, you can now choose whether you want to chat with Ritchy or with the IT-ServiceDesk staff. But if you’ve been wondering how Ritchy works in detail, we have the answer for you in this post.
Digital Courtesy With Consequences – The Ecological Footprint of AI Chats
Source: Freepik
Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of everyday life for many university members. Language models such as ChatGPT provide support in writing scientific texts, programming, research, and translations. RWTH Aachen University also has a powerful AI system at its disposal in the form of RWTHgpt, which can be used in a variety of ways. While the technical possibilities are constantly growing, another question is increasingly coming into focus: How sustainable is our use of AI?
KI:connect.nrw – On the Path to 350,000 Users
Source: Own Illustration
In our first post, we introduced the launch of the KI:connect.nrw project. The aim of the project is to provide universities in NRW with a privacy-compliant and customizable way of using generative AI via the central webinterface of KI:connect. In the meantime, there has been significant progress: The following five universities are now successfully connected and are actively using KI:connect:
- FernUniversität in Hagen
- Fachhochschule Aachen
- Hochschule Ruhr West
- RWTH Aachen University
- Technische Hochschule Köln
This means that KI:connect is now available to more than 170,000 students and staff in the fields of study, teaching, and research.
AI-Tech MeetUp NRW 2025 in Bochum
Source: Own Illustration
On Monday, September 22, 2025, the AI-Tech MeetUp NRW — a collaboration between the state projects Open Source-KI.nrw, KI:edu.nrw, and KI:connect.nrw—took place at Ruhr University Bochum with a focus on (generative) artificial intelligence. We, as the IT Center of RWTH Aachen University, were also represented at this exciting event as participants and project partners.
Ritchy: The IT- ServiceDesk’s AI Chatbot
Source: Own Illustration
With approximately 45,000 students, around 10,000 employees, and a steadily growing number of digital offerings, the IT-ServiceDesk receives a wide variety of questions every day: from setting up Wi-Fi and software access to special services for research and teaching. In order to process these efficiently and promptly, the IT Center has recently started testing a modern solution: Ritchy – an AI-supported chatbot that assists users of IT Center services. In this article, we show how Ritchy works, what makes it special, and what advantages it offers.
