"When you need to innovate, you need collaboration" – Marissa Mayer

Exchange between each other is important to moving progress, but especially in challenging times or even in good condition, this is not always possible. Social distancing, travel costs and scheduling conflicts frequently make local collaboration difficult or impossible. To overcome these challenges, the KoLabBW consortium, consisting of the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), the Visualisation Institute of the University of Stuttgart (VISUS), the Competence Center for Virtual Engineering (KVE), the IRGP at Albstadt-Sigmaringen University, and the IMI at KIT, is developing advanced methods for remote collaboration in virtual environments. From virtual to augmented reality, our solutions enable seamless collaboration across devices - from smartphones to fully immersive virtual rooms. Whether it's city planning, assembly support, or stage design simulation, KoLabBW offers a comprehensive range of applications.

Our Mission

Through this ongoing project, we aim to empower institutions and companies in Baden-Württemberg by providing cutting-edge visualization methods that enhance collaboration and foster innovation.

Our innovative platform revolutionizes collaboration in Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) by enabling location-independent editing and seamless integration of various devices. Developed in cooperation with CMC-Kiesel GmbH and imsys immersive systems GmbH & Co. KG, this solution combines technical excellence with cost efficiency.

Features and Benefits

• Cross-platform collaboration:

  Edit 3D data simultaneously on a 3-, 4- or 5-sided CAVE, a Powerwall, head-mounted displays, or a laptop.

• Seamless integration into existing workflows:

  With support for various devices, you can efficiently present project details and updates to your team without time-consuming travel for in-person meetings.

• Maximum data security:

  Data can be stored locally as needed, ensuring the highest data protection and security standards - perfect for sensitive projects.

• AI-powered optimization: Only one efficient cluster is required to operate the CAVE, Powerwall, and HMDs an AI-based load balancer intelligently manages the required computing resources. A specially developed prediction model optimizes the use of networked systems, ensuring smooth workflows even during computationally intensive processes while minimizing performance peaks and adapting them individually to each end device.

• Cost efficiency through smart technology:

  By utilizing innovative data compression and optimized hardware configurations, acquisition costs have been significantly reduced without compromising performance.

Applications

The platform is ideal for construction and 3D projects requiring interactive, simultaneous collaboration. Companies in architecture, mechanical engineering, product design, and research particularly benefit from this solution.

Experience a new dimension of collaborative 3D work—powerful, flexible, secure, and cost-efficient.

In the context of digital transformation and Industry 4.0, it is important to ensure that students are adequately prepared for the future workforce, with the knowledge and skills required to thrive in an increasingly digital environment. Laboratory events at universities of applied sciences (HAWs) play a central role in this development, but their implementation is often challenging and resource-intensive. The SHELLS 4.0 project, involving Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Hochschule Offenburg, and Pforzheim University, aims to establish a cross-institutional pool of hybrid, competency-based laboratories. This initiative focuses on improving the accessibility of digital teaching and learning methods, addressing implementation challenges.

Project Overview and Vision

The goal of SHELLS 4.0 is to create models for hybrid laboratory teaching across HAWs, integrating both virtual and physical learning environments. By offering laboratory events to students from various universities, the project aims to expand course offerings, making them more diverse, interdisciplinary, and attractive. This approach also addresses the challenge of limited resources by optimizing available educational offerings.

Through this initiative, SHELLS 4.0 strives to foster educational innovation by promoting more collaborative, cross-institutional hybrid laboratory teaching. By enhancing connectivity between universities, the project strengthens collective offerings and enriches the overall learning experience for students. Qualitative surveys with students and teachers will guide the creation of collaborative courses, helping to reduce barriers to implementing and establishing these teaching models.

The Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and the University of Mannheim are part of a diverse and active innovation system. With research focuses on digitalization and biologization, social work and sociology, as well as sustainable economics, the two institutions are able to make significant contributions to pressing economic and societal challenges. These contributions are particularly important in Mannheim, a city undergoing multifaceted transformation. The goal of the joint transfer strategy of the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and the University of Mannheim is to position themselves as a regional center of expertise for actively shaping transformation processes. Building on the existing transfer activities of both institutions, the aim is to create an open, collaborative, impactful, and sustainable offering. To achieve this, the two institutions will interconnect their existing transfer activities and strengthen structures for technology and knowledge transfer. New transfer formats will particularly target groups that have so far not been involved in the activities and offerings of technology and knowledge transfer. To include all relevant target groups, the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and the University of Mannheim will establish spaces outside their own facilities, thus creating room for cooperative transfer formats.