Pioneering workshops: AI and social innovations in Ingolstadt!

Pioneering workshops: AI and social innovations in Ingolstadt!

On April 4, 2025, a variety of events took place at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) as part of Girls' and Boys' Day. This day of action plays a crucial role in encouraging girls and boys to recognize their individual strengths and go their own way. The activities offered to participants ranged from interactive workshops to exciting experiments designed to promote both curiosity and understanding of economic relationships.

A highlight of the day was the interactive movement workshop led by Nina Savarini. At the same time, the participants gained insights into the fascinating aspects of business information technology through an experiment entitled “How do Netflix, Amazon and Co. know what we want?” This experiment was carried out by a team consisting of Prof. Dr. Thomas Setzer, Prof. Dr. Nadja Ray and Veronika Wachslander supervised and showed how algorithms are behind the recommendations of these streaming services.

Diverse learning opportunities

In addition, the participants were integrated into an economic experiment led by Prof. Dr. Dominika Langenmayr took place. Here they discussed individual versus common good decisions using a deck of cards. The boys' program included exploring the Eichstätt campus, where they were also able to learn about various areas of application of psychology in social work. They carried out small experiments, for example on selective perception, and dealt with the topic of robotics in care and ethical issues.

The day concluded with a discussion about social transformation and the “new normals” resulting from current developments. The School of Transformation and Sustainability (STS) was introduced as a contact point for dealing with these topics.

Artificial intelligence to support career decisions

The event also highlighted the importance of preparing young people for the possibilities of the digital age. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in career orientation is a central topic here. Analytics platforms like LinkedIn Career Explorer use AI to analyze skills, experiences and interests to provide personalized career recommendations. Such technologies complement traditional career advice, with human career coaches continuing to play an indispensable role, particularly in providing emotional support to those seeking advice.

In addition, AI tools such as Zety and Resume.io help create and adapt application documents by making concrete suggestions for improvement. The integration of AI can make discovering new career opportunities much easier, while the human aspect, such as empathy and emotional understanding, cannot be replaced. A career coach plays a key role here, not only in optimizing applications, but also in strategically planning further training measures that are tailored to individual goals.

Generative AI in an educational context

The controversial discussion about generative AI shows that this technology is playing an increasingly important role in education. It enables new didactic approaches and helps to relieve the burden on teachers and students. However, confident handling of AI requires new skills, including understanding the outputs of AI systems and critically examining risks such as the production of false information and dealing with bias.

The KU is actively involved in further training on these topics to ensure that teachers and learners can work competently with AI. Training offers and a comprehensive information platform on generative AI are central to appropriately addressing the opportunities and challenges of these technologies.

Overall, the Girls' and Boys' Day events at the KU illustrate the importance of future-oriented education that takes both personal strengths and innovative technologies into account. The students were inspired to find their individual paths and successfully navigate an increasingly digital world.