prostep ivip Symposium 2024: The fine art of digital engineering

Darmstadt/Munich, April 2024 – "Digital Engineering - Ready for Seamless Collaboration" was the motto of this year's prostep ivip Symposium, which focused on future topics such as artificial intelligence, software in the product and collaborative digital twins. About 700 participants from Germany and all over the world met at the MOC Event Center Messe München to learn about the latest trends in the field of digitization and to network intensively. The new key topics and the broad international participation show that the association's strategy for the future is bearing fruit, said the old and new spokesman of the board Henrik Weimer. He and all other members of the board were re-elected at the general assembly the day before the event.
With four keynotes, 98 presentations and seven workshops, the two-day agenda was busier than ever. Four expert corners offered participants the opportunity to discuss topics such as the use of AI in engineering or the successful implementation of standards with proven experts. One new addition were the guided tours through the exhibition, which was completely booked out with 33 exhibitors. The tours provided a quick overview of the solutions offered on specific topics, which was very well received by both participants and exhibitors.
Premium sponsors of this year's symposium were car manufacturer BMW and PLM vendor PTC.
In their keynote on the art of digital engineering, Dr. Julien Hohenstein, Vice President Processes, Digitalization, Governance Idea to Offer, Total Vehicle | BMW Group and Jan-Steffen Kuhlmann, Vice President Idea to Offer, Quality, BMW Group IT | BMW Group,  gave an interesting insight into the digitization strategy BMW is using to further accelerate vehicle development. In addition to harmonizing the IT landscape, the use of AI in all R&D processes plays an important role, said Hohenstein. Potentials arise, for example, during requirements checks, engineering searches, simulation, or software development and testing.
Frank Möhring, Vice President Solutions Consulting CER at PTC, picked up the ball in his keynote on the importance of software in the product and explained key use cases for AI in the PLM environment, such as better assessment of the impact of changes. Möhring called for a responsible approach to AI: "Not everything that is technically feasible is also socially acceptable.”
To make the symposium even more attractive to young people, the association awarded a start-up prize for the second time this year.  In an elevator pitch, three young companies presented themselves to the audience, which voted for the best candidate via the symposium app. The prize of 2,500 Euros went to AI Marketplace. The platform, which originated from a research project, allows companies to search for or offer AI solutions for engineering.
The association also presented Scientific Awards for young scientists at the informal evening event. The 1,000 Euro prize for the best master thesis went to Alexander Palmisano from TU Graz, who studied how to improve battery life predictions. Dr. Maurice Preidel from TU Berlin received the 4,000 Euro prize for the best dissertation. He developed a method for early specification of the data required for AI training.
The next prostep ivip Symposium will take place on May 13 and 14, 2025 at the BBC Berlin - with Dassault Systèmes as one of the premium sponsors. In the closing keynote, Dominic Kurtaz, Managing Director of Eurocentral, gave the audience a taste of what to expect: the vision of a virtual twin that allows a glimpse into the past in order to master the “future in motion”.