Innovations Beyond Computing

14. Xyna Konferenz  21.11.2019 at the Kurhaus, Wiesbaden

Video reviews

"Short Review"

A review of the GIP Research Institute's Xyna Conference 2019 on 21 Nov 2019 at the Kurhaus, Wiesbaden.

"Innovation im Dialog"

Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser and Petra Florin discuss the term innovation in the opening talk of the Xyna Conference 2019, true to the conference theme "Innovations Beyond Computing".

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From Leonardo da Vinci to DNA-Computing

The 14th Xyna Conference was all about innovation

Mainz/Wiesbaden - How are new ideas created? How will synthetic biology change our lives? What characterizes social innovations? "Innovations Beyond Computing" was the motto of the 14th Xyna conference held by the Mainz-based software house GIP AG. More than 250 guests from the telecommunications and IT industry met at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus on November 21, 2019, to learn about and exchange ideas on the topic. "Innovations are the DNA of our company," said GIP CEO Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser."Therefore, nothing was more obvious than to make them the topic of our conference."

Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser and Petra Florin open the conference

"If one really wants to create something new, one has to be a little crazy"

Rethinking innovations

How do new ideas come about? Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser opened his presentation on innovations with this leading question. "If you really want to create something new, you have to be a little crazy," he quoted the physicist and Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr. Reifenhäuser pinpointed the human brain's tendency to stay in tried-and-tested thought paths when solving problems as the biggest obstacle to innovation. This so-called path dependency, however, can be overcome by an interdisciplinary approach. He illustrated this with the example of the universal genius Leonardo da Vinci, who became famous as a painter and sculptor, but was also an outstanding engineer and scientist. The Bauhaus also linked various disciplines, including architecture, furniture making, painting and textile design, and thus created an entirely new style.

Reifenhäuser expects a technological leap from the linking of two originally distant disciplines, namely computer technology and synthetic biology. "DNA computing will continue to evolve over the next decade and open up a completely new field," the GIP executive predicted. He sees applications in a variety of fields, including energy, pharmacology, medicine, agriculture and the environment. "All of a sudden, we have a toolbox here that we can use to fix the problems we're going to get from climate change," Reifenhäuser said. That will spark a revolution, he said, just as the Internet did.

Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Friedrich (Biochemist at the Universität Jena)

"Synthetic biology can create structures and systems that do not exist in nature"

Synthetic biology: from artificial blood to data memory

Biochemist Karl-Heinz Friedrich, professor at the University of Jena, delved into the enormous innovation potential of synthetic biology. His lecture began with a foray through the history of genetic research, which began in 1953 with the discovery of the DNA double helix. Since then, the field of research has developed tremendously. It is now possible to equip bacteria with a completely synthetic, i.e. man-made, genome that reproduces like natural organisms. Even artificial life is no longer a utopia. "Synthetic biology can create structures and systems that do not exist in nature," Friedrich said. In the future, genetically modified bacteria would perform a variety of tasks, from breaking down toxic substances to producing artificial blood or customized immune cells that can be used to fight disease.

However, DNA can also be used to store data. Instead of in binary form, DNA encrypts information with a fourfold code that results from the four DNA bases. As a result, the data density is several thousand times higher than that of previously used digital storage media. "One gram of DNA, about a teaspoonful, could theoretically store 100 petabytes of information," Friedrich said. Another advantage is that, unlike digital storage media, DNA is very stable - as evidenced by the fact that millennia-old DNA from Neanderthals or mammoths can still be read today. Some experts believe that DNA will be a standard storage medium in about ten years.

Professor of Human Resource Management Dr. Erk Piening

Social Innovations: A new and broader view of future innovations

Social Innovations

Dr. Erk Piening, Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of Mainz, spoke about social innovations. This involves solving social problems, e.g. in the sectors of health, environment, poverty, etc., for which - often due to a lack of earnings prospects - no private companies are available. Social entrepreneurs, foundations or other organizations step into the breach and take on the problem. As an example, Piening reported on a project of the Bill Gates Foundation in which human excrement is disposed of in neighborhoods without sewage systems and processed into fertilizer. A well-known social innovation is the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which provides microloans to destitute artisans. The Discovering Hands initiative uses blind people to prevent breast cancer. Social innovation processes, says Piening, need special support to be successful.

Keynote speech "Quantum Grid"

with Eduard Esau (University of Mainz)

Quantum Grid: decentralized power supply for Africa

Another example of a technology-based social innovation is the "Quantum Grid," which GIP developed and for which it holds patents in many countries. This is a decentralized power grid. Analogous to the Internet, small packets of electricity independently find their way through the lines - even in areas with different voltage or frequency, Bernd Reifenhäuser explained. In the Quantum Grid, special routers interconnect subnetworks. This means that the grid no longer requires central control and would also be open to the smallest energy producers, such as individual solar plants or wind turbines.

Such a network would be ideal for many regions of Africa where there are no nationwide power grids. "It takes about 130 days for a company in sub-Saharan Africa to get a power connection. And after that, there is no electricity for about 700 hours a year because of power outages," explained Eduard Esau of the Department of Organization and Business Management at the University of Mainz. The lack of electricity, he said, is blocking development in Africa. According to Bernd Reifenhäuser, the Quantum Grid could effectively solve the electricity problem. It would enable every village to organize its own power supply simply and reliably. New businesses, jobs and Internet connections would be created locally, and the economic situation would improve permanently.

At the Xyna Café, visitors had the opportunity to get a concrete picture of the deployment of the Quantum Grid. With data glasses on their heads, they were able to travel virtually to an African village and learn about the various components of the power grid - from solar panels to batteries.

Dr. Alexander Ebbes (CTO & CEO of GIP Exyr GmbH)

Xyna Phi Factory and other Xyna Innovations

Xyna Innovations

Dr. Alexander Ebbes, CEO of GIP Exyr GmbH, gave an insight into current product developments of the Xyna software. He also presented GIP's Junior Fellow Program, a support program for specialist careers. "Innovations need innovators," Ebbes emphasized. That's why GIP's Junior Fellow candidates are given the opportunity to design and implement their own projects alongside their day-to-day work. Successful candidates will participate in the company as a Fellow.

Various workshops rounded off the program, which ended in the evening with the traditional Xyna party.

Xyna Conference 2019 Agenda & Speakers

  • 14:15 – 15:00

    Dr. Alexander Ebbes
    GIP Exyr GmbH
    Xyna Innovations

  • 15:00 – 17:00

    Xyna Café
    Quantum Grid Land: Gamification & Innovation // Xyna Demos // Ideas Conference // coffee & cake

  • 17:00 – 17:30

    Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser
    GIP AG
    Re-Thinking Innovations Beyond Computing

  • 17:30 – 18:00

    Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Friedrich
    Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
    Synthetische Biologie: Ein Quantensprung, der die Welt verändert?

  • 18:00 – 18:30

    Prof. Dr. Erk Piening
    Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
    Social Innovations: Ein neuer und erweiterter Blick auf zukünftige Innovationen

  • 19:00

    Xyna Party
    Dinner-Buffet & Drinks

Newsroom

First xyna.bio Hackathon

Last Friday, xyna.bio hosted a highly successful hackathon, bringing together motivated students and industry experts to work on cutting-edge biotech solutions using our first beta version. We are thrilled to share the highlights and achievements from this inspiring event. Participants tackled ambitious projects, including optimizing a protein involved in plastic degradation and designing a synthetic serotonin-like molecule for Alzheimer's disease treatment. With our initial pipeline, teams were able to design workflows from scratch and present initial results within just a few hours, showcasing the powerful capabilities of xyna.bio. One of the standout achievements was the integration of a ChatGPT node by the students, demonstrating the innovative potential of combining AI with biotech. We are excited to announce that we will be pursuing the addition of this ChatGPT node into the first official version of xyna.bio, set to launch later this year. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting development!

Monday, July 8, 2024

Great success on jumpstarting with the first Future on Site event – Next GenAI goes Bio!

Our new series Future on Site jumpstarted with an inspiring mixture of young scientists coming together to create future synthetic biology solutions. The eagerness to develop new algorithmic tools and solve modern problems of our local iGEM Teams is fascinating, gaining them each a XOLLX iGEM Grant prize to develop their projects. A highlight was the firsthand insight, invaluable for the development of our Saturn project derived xyna.bio. The idea of an AI-aided bioinformatical analysis hyperautomation platform was greeted by all with enthusiastic discussions and ideas. The shared vision among all at the Future on Site: Next GenAI goes Bio once again showed the great innovative potential that we are eager to harness in these interdisciplinary events. Thank you again to everyone from the iGEM Tübingen, iGEM Aachen, iGEM Frankfurt and CompuGene Student Lab for the amazing first Future On Site Event. We will persist in gathering innovative minds to further work on creating our future.

Monday, May 13, 2024

Future On Site: Next GenAI goes Bio

Future On Site: Next GenAI goes Bio We're thrilled to unveil our vision for xyna.bio - a pioneering GenAI-aided, graph-based platform tailored for bioinformatic analytics. Our platform design is set to empower scientists to streamline their analyses and pipelines without the need for coding expertise or the hassle of deployment all powered by our innovative xyna.ai Saturn program. Join us on the 12. April at the GIP headquarters in Mainz where we'll demonstrate xyna.bio in action, discuss the future of bioinformatical hyperautomation and share visions with local iGEM Teams, students and professionals. For updates and registration: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/xollx-futurelab/

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Vodafone: wir setzen auf die GIP und auf Xyna

Die GIP Exyr GmbH (Website) und Vodafone verbindet bereits eine lange Geschichte: einst war Arcor bzw. die DBKom (aus der dann erst die CNI, dann Arcor, dann Vodafone hervorging) der erste Kunde des damals noch unter anderem Namen firmierenden Systemintegrators aus dem Bereich Internet / Telekommunikation. Das war 1998!  Seit dieser Zeit besteht eine Partnerschaft mit Vodafone. In einer schnelllebigen und unsteten Zeit sind solche Beziehungen besonders wertvoll. Sie ermöglichen es, nachhaltig wertschaffende Lösungen zu realisieren, die sich immer wieder erneuern und modernisieren, und somit zu stabilen Bausteinen einer zukunftsorientierten Architektur werden.  Für das folgende Testimonial sind wir sehr dankbar: „Seit über zwei Jahrzehnten setzen wir bei der Entwicklung von OSS-Anwendungen auf unseren Partner GIP Exyr GmbH. Die Provisioning-Suite AIDA, die IP-Dienste für Privatkunden, Geschäftskunden und Carrier bereitstellt, basiert auf der Automation-Plattform Xyna Factory. Die GIP Exyr GmbH liefert Kompetenz und Expertise an der anspruchsvollen Schnittstelle zwischen Network Engineering, Automatisierung und Software/IT. Gemeinsam gestalten wir bei Vodafone die Zukunft der Netzautomatisierung — im Einklang mit unserem Credo: Growing Together.“ Steffen Krippner  Head of OSS Fulfilment Vodafone GmbH

Thursday, January 25, 2024

GIP AG fördert studentisches Projekt zu grünem Wasserstoff in Namibia

Mit Startschuss im Mai 2023 unterstützt die GIP in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Verein 3E4Africa ein studentisches Forschungsprojekt in Namibia. Der gemeinnützige Verein 3E4Africa wurde von deutschen und afrikanischen Studenten der RWTH Aachen mit der Zielsetzung Education, Empowerment & Ecofriendliness u. a. zur Förderung nachhaltiger Innovationen in Afrika gegründet. Dazu fördert 3E4A afrikanische Studenten und Forscher bei der Teilnahme an Forschungsprojekten zur Entwicklung von lokalen und nachhaltigen Lösungen für die Energiewende, den Klimawandel und dessen Folgen in Afrika. Namibia eignet sich aufgrund der Größe und hohen Sonneneinstrahlung ideal für die Produktion regenerativer Energien. Grüne Energie in Form von Wasserstoff, der durch Elektrolyse mittels regenerativem Strom aus Wasserkraft erzeugt wird, kann dabei auch als Exportgut dienen. Namibia baut daher zeitnah Kapazitäten zur Produktion grünen Wasserstoffs auf. Aufgrund der geringen Energiedichte bietet sich darüber hinaus die Weiterverwertung von Wasserstoff zu grünem Ammoniak an. Grüner Ammoniak kann nicht nur als Energieträger oder Treibstoff verwendet werden, sondern auch als Ausgangsprodukt für Düngemittel dienen. Genau dort greift das durch die GIP unterstützte studentische Förderprojekt der 3E4A an. Das Ziel des Projektes ist es, die Wirtschaftlichkeit und Wirksamkeit von ökologisch nachhaltigen Ammoniakderivaten, u. a. auf Basis von grünem Wasserstoff, für Düngemittel in der Region Omusati in Namibia zu untersuchen. Das Projektteam wird in enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Namibian Green Hydrogen Research Institute (NGHRI) arbeiten. Dies trägt sowohl zur Nachwuchsförderung im Bereich der Herstellung von grünem Wasserstoff als Kraftstoff in Namibia bei, als auch zur Entwicklung erneuerbarer Energieinfrastrukturen in Afrika. Wir freuen uns sehr, Teil dieses spannenden Projektes zu sein, und nachhaltige Innovationen lokal in Afrika fördern zu können.

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Xyna Ad Astra

Under this motto, GIP Exyr GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of GIP AG, hosted XynaCom on 14.06.2022 at the Kulturzentrum, Mainz. In the morning, exciting workshops were held, which provided an insight into selected projects. New employees were also welcomed and introduced. One of the highlights of the event was the presentation by Dr. Alexander Ebbes, who announced the initial open source publishing, the first release of Xyna Factory on GitHub under Apache license. “For Xyna to be successful, out there in the wild, we have to reinvent it, reposition it in a new and contemporary way." This quote from Dr. Alexander Ebbes shows that the tool is no longer limited in its potential and can now develop further. This also changes the mindset of the GIP, which thus also looks to a new future. Afterwards, Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser, as initiator, announced the foundation of the Future Networking Research Alliance. The goal of the alliance is to lay the foundations for future networks and software-defined networks through cooperative research. The focus will be on software-defined, resilient and secure networks as well as 6G and the Internet of Everything (IoE). The entire article by Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser on the founding of the alliance can be found on LinkedIn. In addition to GIP AG, the alliance is currently formed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Trick and Prof. Dr. Armin Lehmann from the Telecommunications Networks Research Group at the University Of Applied Science Frankfurt, as well as Prof. Dr. Martin Stiemerling and Prof. Dr. Michael von Rüden from the Department of Computer Science at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. It is completed by Dr. Alexander Ebbes, who represents GIP Exyr GmbH. By forming the alliance, GIP has significantly strengthened its research in the areas of 5G, 6G and Internet of Everything (IoE). By jointly applying and participating in research funding activities, the alliance will be able to fund challenging and high-risk research in the future. The last presentation of XynaCom by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Trick covered the technology of 5th generation mobile networks. At the end of the event, a copy of the book "5G: An Introduction to 5th Generation Mobile Networks" by Prof. Dr. Trick was raffled off to all participating guests. In addition to all the interesting presentations, the XynaCom was a fitting event to also celebrate the coming together of the employee:s in a larger setting since the beginning of the Corona Pandemic. We look back on this beautiful and eventful day with pleasure.

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Founding of the research alliance Future Networks

On the initiative of Dr. Bernd Reifenhäuser, GIP AG, the Future Networks research alliance was founded at XynaCom on June 14, 2022, together with Prof. Ulrich Trick and Prof. Armin Lehmann, Telecommunications Networks Research Group of the University of Applied Science Frankfurt am Main, and Dr. Alexander Ebbes, GIP Exyr GmbH.  Among the founding members, who unfortunately could not attend XynaCom on June 14, are Prof. Martin Stiemerling, Prof. Stefan Valentin and Prof. Michael von Rüden of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt. The objective of the alliance is to lay the foundations for future networks and software-defined networks through cooperative research. The focus will be on software-defined, resilient and secure networks as well as 6G and the Internet of Everything (IoE). Current global political developments in particular show that resilience and cyber security are becoming central for networks, as lifelines for our future. But also to be able to counter climate change with technical measures, the stronger networking of people, data, things and processes through the IoE will be inevitable. The next generation of mobile communications, 6G, will offer new dimensions for wireless networking, e.g., with special purpose networks, and thus open up new potential for IoE innovations. Alongside the future Internet of Everything, energy supply will form the backbone of our society. IoE and energy supply are closely linked, so this aspect will also be the subject of the research alliance. The alliance is to be expanded to include medium-sized technology suppliers and providers of all sizes. A central task of the alliance is the successful acquisition of national and European research funds in order to be able to finance these breakthrough innovations. Dr. Ebbes, left, Prof. Trick, center, Prof. Lehmann, right www.gip.com www.e-technik.org www.fbi.h-da.de

Monday, June 20, 2022

GIP receives patent protection in the USA for virtualization of power grids

The US patent has granted the extension of the scope of protection of the GIP patent US 10,361,564 B2: now not only the packet-based CrossBar, called QBar, as a dedicated network node is protected, but also the embodiment of this as a virtual or logical QBar for the distribution of electrical power is included in the scope of protection. With this technology, it is now possible to virtualize and highly dynamically segment power networks. In particular, this technology allows virtual overlay networks to be realized for packet-based power transmission on standard power networks. Then a quantum grid based on standard power grids that is divided into cells can be formed. These cells can exchange power with each other on a packet basis using the virtual QBar technology. A particular advantage of this cell-based Quantum Grid is the firewall function, which prevents a large-scale spread of a blackout and at the same time offers the possibility of operating individual cells in island mode and then interconnecting them again to form an overall grid without the usual problems of "black start".

Monday, July 26, 2021