DiWoDo 2026

Fraunhofer ISST @DiWoDo 2026

From September 15 to 21, 2026, #diwodo will celebrate its 10th anniversary throughout the city. More than 150 events will offer a wide variety of inspiration, networking opportunities, and new ideas.

The Hansa Coking Plant will serve as the festival hub for #diwodo 2026. From September 15–21, art, technology, and cuisine will come together here to create a unique experience.

Click here for the official DiWoDo program

The Fraunhofer ISST program at DiWoDo 2026:

On September 18, the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering (ISST) will host a four-part “Research Insights” series. On this day, you’ll gain exclusive insights into current research projects and see how innovative technologies are already solving concrete challenges in business, government, and society.

How Does AI Identify Local Health Services?

Research Insight 1: The “Platform4Health” Project

How can municipalities in the Ruhr metropolitan region provide health information in a simpler, more targeted, and multilingual manner so that citizens can find it more easily? The Platform4Health project is dedicated to addressing this question. The project is developing an AI-powered health platform in which intelligent chatbots and digital services assist citizens in finding suitable health services and provide municipalities with a flexible digital infrastructure for their healthcare systems.

Speaker: Maren Keuchel, research associate in the Healthcare Department at Fraunhofer ISST

Register here

Who owns my data in the smart home?

Research Initiative 2: The Opt-In Project

Smart home solutions offer attractive lifestyle and health options right in your own home. Users provide providers with valuable personal information. In the Opt-In project, we’re creating a solution that enables data sovereignty in the smart home. The research project demonstrates how citizens can make autonomous decisions about the use of their data while simultaneously enabling the development of innovative applications and digital services in smart cities.

Speaker: Daria Koretskaia, research associate in the Mobility & Smart Cities Department at Fraunhofer ISST

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Can AI forget?

Research Focus 3: The DeFedOblivio Project

How can a decentralized AI “forget” without losing performance?

We demonstrate how data can be selectively removed from jointly trained AI models without significantly compromising model quality. This “machine unlearning” is particularly relevant when multiple organizations jointly train an AI model, as secure unlearning is an essential building block for the trustworthy and privacy-compliant use of decentralized AI in zero-trust environments.

Speaker: Sebastian Becker, research associate in the Industrial Manufacturing Department at Fraunhofer ISST

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How sustainable can IT become?

Research Focus 4: Sustainable Software Engineering

Digitalization brings great opportunities, but it also increases the energy consumption of IT systems and data centers. Join us to learn how Green IT helps companies make their IT infrastructure more energy- and resource-efficient. We’ll show which measures reduce the ecological footprint, what potential sustainable IT solutions offer, and why Green IT is a key component of a future-proof data economy.

Speaker: Rebecca Herbst, research associate in the IT Service Providers department at Fraunhofer ISST

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The sessions will focus on digital solutions for better healthcare, greater data sovereignty, trustworthy decentralized AI, and sustainability.

We invite you to attend up to two sessions. Please note that two sessions will take place simultaneously at any given time.

Following the two event blocks, you’ll enjoy an exclusive visit to the Fraunhofer ISST rooftop terrace—normally closed to the public—which offers an impressive view of the Port of Dortmund. After many exciting insights into our research, we’ll round out the morning with a change of perspective—with a fresh breeze and a sweeping view of the harbor.