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Project manager Raphael von Thiessen kicked things off with an introduction to the Innovation Sandbox. He explained the purpose of the sandbox and presented the selected AI projects. The Innovation Sandbox serves as a learning environment - like a laboratory, so to speak - in which companies, organizations and administrations can test out AI projects and develop expertise in the field of AI deployment without being completely left to their own devices. This is because the Sandbox project team advises submitted projects on regulatory issues and, if requested, provides new data sources. So far, 21 projects have been submitted, most of which came from smaller companies and startups, but also research institutes and some large companies.

At the practical seminar, the six selected projects were presented and discussed together with the participants. Using Mentimeter, participants had multiple opportunities to share their thoughts. So too on the question of where they see the greatest potential for AI in the public sector. The areas of administration, knowledge transfer & management, transport, cyber security, taxes, social affairs and communications stood out. Some of the projects presented actually fall into the above areas. For example, Parquery's Smart Parking project or AI-based administrative document search. Other projects surprised with their scope of application, such as the automated correction of primary school assignments, which aims to relieve teachers in order to create more time for individual support. The question of the risks of AI in the public sector was also raised; participants considered data protection, the threat to jobs, the question of ethics and quality, but also the fear of loss of control and the misuse of AI to be particularly important.

After the introduction to the topic, the participants divided into six groups to the corresponding World Cafés:

1. Smart parking through image recognition
2. Autonomous commercial vehicles
3. Infrastructure maintenance by drones
4. Machine translation of administrative texts
5. Automated corrections of primary school tasks
6. AI-based search of administrative texts

For fifteen minutes, each table discussed the opportunities and risks of using AI, where further areas of application lie, and what needs to be considered when implementing it. If the event management had not called for a rotation after the elapsed time and a conclusion after three rotations, the discussions would probably have continued until late in the evening. It was clear that the topic is more topical than ever. The evening showed that Artificial Intelligence and its diverse applications raise many questions and need promotion in a protected setting, one like the Innovation Sandbox, where responsible innovation can emerge.

Would you like to learn more about one of the projects or even initiate a similar project in your area? Then contact the responsible project manager Raphael von Thiessen. He will be happy to discuss the topic of AI with you.

Raphael von Thiessen
Project Manager Innovation Sandbox for AI
Division of Business and Economic Development
raphael.vonthiessen@vd.zh.ch

The presentation by Vlad Trifa, CEO & Founder of ZIMT AG, highlighted the need for an upgrade in the global food system and the challenges faced by food producers. Trifa emphasized the potential of blockchain technology in addressing these challenges and achieving goals such as traceability, transparency, and trust in the food industry.

The presentation acknowledged that traceability in the food industry requires complex IT integrations and collaborations. However, blockchain technology was presented as a solution to facilitate this process, offering a decentralized and immutable ledger that can securely record and track the journey of food products.

ZIMT AG proposed their solution, which leverages blockchain technology as the core component. Their ZIMT Hub serves as a digital data certification, utilizing blockchain to provide a trusted notarization service.

The presentation showcased past projects and pilots involving blockchain technology, including data collection for farmers in Brazil, cold chain monitoring of chocolate shipments, and a full digitization solution for Swiss wine makers. These examples highlighted the benefits of blockchain in streamlining data management, enhancing trust and loyalty from consumers, simplifying compliance with regulations, and optimizing processes and operations in the supply chain.

In conclusion, the presentation emphasized the transformative potential of blockchain technology in revolutionizing the food industry. By leveraging blockchain for traceability, transparency, and data certification, ZIMT AG aims to enable small and medium-sized food businesses to meet consumer demands and comply with upcoming regulations while building trust and improving efficiency throughout the food supply chain.

** This text was generated by ChatGPT based on the presentation of Vlat Tirfa and edited by the Innovation Zurich team.

Data will play a central role in the medicine of the future. Data makes it possible to better understand diseases and develop new therapies. The opportunities and challenges of data-based medicine were discussed at the conference in keynote speeches, parallel sessions and a panel discussion. In addition, an Investor Track, networking meetings and an exhibition space offered a variety of networking opportunities.

More precise therapies

The development in the direction of precision medicine was at the center as a fundamental trend. More and more precise data, as well as new technologies, are needed to better tailor treatments to the individual. Such technological innovations include organoids, as Professor Hans Clevers, Head of Research and Early Development and member of the extended Corporate Executive Committee at Roche, explained.

Bernd Bodenmiller, Professor of Quantitative Biomedicine at ETH and the University of Zurich, then provided insights into data-based methods for more precise tumor diagnostics. His team is working - in the meantime also within the framework of the start-up Navignostics - on the incorporation of single-cell data into "digital tumors" in order to simulate the course of the disease and the effects of therapy.

In the parallel sessions, numerous projects were presented that aim to improve medicine with the help of data. The challenges repeatedly mentioned were data management, data interoperability and privacy protection - or the question of who should own the data. Common, cross-institutional data standards are all the more important, the conference emphasized. This is the only way to overcome the isolated "data silos" that have existed up to now.

Professor Philipp Fürnstahl and Dr. Sebastiano Caprara reported on how such data standardization is to be achieved at Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich. With the OR-X project, a surgical research and learning center will also be available at the clinic from August 2023. Among other things, new surgical technologies such as augmented reality, robotics and artificial intelligence will be tested there. The project is correspondingly digitized and data-based.

The importance of data becomes clear at the latest when it is missing. This is the case, for example, in the field of gender medicine, as Catherine Gebhard, professor at the Inselspital in Bern, reported. The "gender data gap" can be seen, for example, in the fact that men are usually overrepresented in studies and women suffer more often from the side effects of treatments. According to Susanne Gedamke, executive director of the Swiss Patients' Organization, there are also blind spots with regard to patients' perspectives. Little is known, for example, about how they evaluate medical services.

Resources needed

In the panel discussion, it became clear once again that it's about more than just data. A good infrastructure, a governance framework, and a societal understanding of data sharing are equally important to making meaningful use of health data. This requires the appropriate financial resources. Overall, the panelists were confident that much would be achieved in the coming years with regard to the further digitization of healthcare and the use of data in medicine. At the end of the conference, the two start-ups aiEndoscopic and Positrigo received an award for the best presentations of their companies in the Investor Track.