UIG e.V. has published the results of the first nationwide survey of citizens regarding the user-friendliness of digital services in cities. The survey was conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Information Systems (WIN). 

Digital services have long been a part of everyday life for citizens. Municipal appointments are booked online, applications are prepared digitally, waste collection schedules are accessed via apps, and doctor's appointments are arranged digitally. A systematic nationwide study has now been conducted for the first time to assess how user-friendly these services are actually perceived by citizens.

We are pleased to welcome Prof. Steven Kimbrough (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) as a guest from June 22 to 26, 2026. His research focuses on artificial intelligence, evolutionary computation, and decision support systems. Several members of our group have been collaborating with him on joint research projects.

As part of his visit, Prof. Kimbrough will give a short impulse talk at the SOSEC conference "How Are You, Democracy? — Academic Conference on Measuring Sentiment and Polarization in Times of Crises," which takes place on June 25, 2026 at the TRIANGEL space in Karlsruhe. 

The language barrier remains a significant impediment to seamless global communication, a challenge particularly pronounced within multilingual communities and institutions such es EU or UN. Recent advancements in AI have led to the increasing availability and use of automatic speech translation tools. However, current tools still seem to fall short of fully supporting people to overcome language barriers in everyday life, showing a gap between improvements as measured by computer scientists and as perceived by end users.

Last week, members of WIN participated in the NeuroIS Retreat 2026 in Vienna, one of the leading venues for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of neuroscience, information systems, and human-computer interaction.

The retreat provided an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas with researchers from around the world, discuss emerging topics in NeuroIS, and receive valuable feedback on ongoing research projects. During the conference, our team contributed three research presentations:

Last month, Marie Thederan from the research group “Smart Grids and Energy Markets” (SGEM) had the chance to participate in the DTU PES Summer School on Future Energy Systems in Copenhagen.

The 5-day course about the latest developments and applications of machine learning and optimization for energy systems provided an exceptional learning experience. In particular, lectures in the context of market design and machine learning were a perfect match to Marie’s research on two-level reinforcement learning for energy market and policy design within the ADAPT project.

From March 30th to 31st, Kim K. Miskiw and Marie Thederan from the Chair of Prof. Weinhardt attended the ABM4Energy Conference 2026 on Agent-Based Modeling for Energy Economics and Energy Policy in Vienna. The event was the perfect opportunity to present our latest research with ASSUME (Agent-Based Electricity Markets Simulation Toolbox) and discuss future directions with other researchers in agent-based modeling for energy-related topics.

From the group of Smart Grids and Energy Markets, Kim K. Miskiw presented her work with the title “Beyond Reward: Equilibrium Validation for MADRL-Based Electricity Market Simulations”.

Climate adaptation protects local infrastructure, improves citizens' quality of life, and makes municipalities more attractive for investment—yet a lack of expertise, limited resources, and fragmented information often hinder the development of effective adaptation strategies. To address these challenges, the AI-powered climate adaptation system "Ada" is being developed at the human-centered systems lab (https://h-lab.win.kit.edu/) in collaboration with the non-profit organization UIG e.V. (https://nutzerfreundlich.digital/).

On June 4th 2026, 

Prof. Alexander Maedche from the human-centered systems lab of the Institute for Information systems (WIN) gave a keynote at the EUNIS 2026 Congress in Timisoara, Romania. The keynote was titled „The Rise of Personalized Learning Companions: Where Subject-Matter Tutoring meets Self-Management“. This keynote explores the potential of personalized learning companions that combine subject-matter tutoring with self-management support. Drawing on advances in generative AI, biosignal sensing, and multimodal human-computer interaction, it discusses how future learning companions can dynamically adapt to individual learners throughout the entire learning journey to foster engagement and improve learning success.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, the question of functionally conscious AI systems is shifting from the realm of science-fiction to a prospective future. This study explores the perhaps most controversial and equally speculative question related to AI – functional consciousness. Using typological theorizing enables us to identify and explore four scenarios of functional conscious AI, which we contextualize using health services, and further illustrate through the literature on technology-enabled service, AI consciousness, and digital ethics. By challenging common assumptions and by examining the implications of AI consciousness, this study offers new thinking to help navigate this rapidly emerging frontier and prepare for a digital future where machines may not only process information and independently generate insights but also experience their own existence.
 

As part of the Triangel Days of Democracy, the SOSEC consortium hosts How Are You, Democracy? – Academic Conference on Measuring Sentiment and Polarization in Times of Crises on June 25, 2026 at Kronenplatz, Karlsruhe. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the FZI Research Center for Information Technology invite researchers to submit poster contributions by June 10, 2026. The conference brings together empirical research on how social sentiment, polarization, and trust in institutions co-evolve during political and societal crises. We welcome contributions from political science, sociology, communication research, computational social science, psychology, and adjacent fields. Accepted posters will be published in a curated online collection after the conference. Participation is free of charge.

The Decision Support Systems (DSS) Journal has published the paper "Effective use of open data story authoringportals for enterprises".social good: Design principles for explainable LLM-based open data assistants". The paper is co-authored Till Carlo Schelhorn, Ulrich Gnewuch, and Alexander Maedche from the Institute for Information Systems (WIN), human-centered systems lab (h-lab) and the University of Passau.

Public access to information through open data is critical for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 16, which promotes accountable and inclusive institutions. However, open data portals often present barriers, such as complex user interfaces and large data catalogs.

Bachelor's and master's students studying information systems (IS) at KIT can apply for an IS scholarship. The scholarship will start on October 1st, 2026 and will run for 12 months. Scholarship holders are supported with 300 Euros per month. The scholarship is awarded by the non-profit association "Die Wirtschaftsinformatik e.V." and serves to promote young people in the field of IS. The scholarship is funded by companies that provide the financial support and are involved in the awarding of the scholarship. For the 2025/26 period, overall seven IS scholarships will be awarded at KIT: 3 scholarships from Schwarz Digits KG, 2 scholarships from SAP SE, and 2 scholarships from Atruvia AG. Further information on the scholarships is available via: https://wirtschaftsinformatik.de/community/stipendien-wirtschaftsinformatik/