Head of the development department at C. A. Picard and board member of the Competence Network for Surface Technology e. V.; Interview: Robert Piterek
"We want to take the first step towards AI"
Dr. Kölsch, netzwerk-surface.net. is becoming the first talking technology network with an AI assistant. What exactly is this about?
I would like to use an image for this: Imagine you are setting up a new department and starting with a new employee, the AI assistant. This person specializes in technology issues and needs to be trained. They have the following skills from the ground up: He has knowledge provided to him, in our case technology descriptions from 22,000 selected patents - in other words, a special talent. The patent topics were selected on the basis of a survey of our members. He can combine relevant aspects from this pool to form a question and link them together. He can summarize the information found and provide well-founded explanations and references. Their limits are that they can only answer as well as the question and their knowledge is sufficient. The person asking the question must also learn to interact with the AI assistant. However, the AI assistant is not afraid to admit a lack of knowledge, which makes it fundamentally different from other AIs. Of course, the AI assistant's capabilities grow with the data that we provide it with from a wide variety of sources. This is where our network is in demand and also very active. There is a saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child. We need our network and therefore ourselves to educate the assistant.
AI is supposed to help find the needle in the surface technology haystack, according to LinkedIn. What is the vision behind the idea?
Let's go back to the picture of the department you are building. It may not be enough for you that the AI assistant only answers technology questions relating to surface technology, but you are also interested in other questions and contexts, such as your market environment. In this case, a second AI assistant needs to be trained to give you well-founded answers to these questions. In the grand vision, interaction between the different AI assistants is desired in order to recognize and use correlations. Together through the network and the AI assistant, we can find that needle in the haystack by using the shared knowledge to uncover new synergies and opportunities that human employees cannot find due to the amount of data. The Kompetenznetzwerk für Oberflächentechnik e.V., netzwerk-surface.net, is part of an innovation group in Germany that tests AI technologies for regional competence networks and regional economic development agencies. The first AI pilot projects running within the Google Cloud Platform were presented with the Public Sector of Google Cloud at the Smart Country Convention 2024 in Berlin. We are delighted to be there.
What do you expect from using the AI assistant?
We hope to take a first step towards AI with our association members and offer them real added value with the AI assistant. The AI assistant also clearly shows that we are only strong when we work together and how important networking is in today's world. Our members can see and benefit from direct added value here.
Who can access the AI Assistant?
The tool will initially only be available to our member companies. However, there is a member search engine on the homepage of our website where you can search for content offered by our members. This is accessible to everyone.
INFO
Competence Network for Surface Technology e. V.
Business network with over 50 member companies that actively shape the network. The background of the network is surface technology, but it is widely diversified because everyone and everything has something to do with surfaces, as Dr. Kölsch describes. In March, for example, there will be a practical time on the subject of composite materials in the Bergisches Land region of North Rhine-Westphalia. The network focuses on companies in order to pool expertise and bring relevant topics into the network.
INFO
Dr. Katharina Kölsch
completed her doctorate in surface and materials technology on the subject of surface wear caused by particles. She heads the development department at Carl August Picard GmbH, where she has remained committed to the topic of wear and wear protection. She has been a board member of the Competence Network for Surface Technology e.V. since 2023.
