Deutsche Telekom-Institute for Connected Cities | Profile
In 2008, the Deutsche Telekom AG enabled Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen to set up the Deutsche Telekom-Institute for Connected Cities (TICC).
The aim of the new institute is to strengthen research and teaching activities of applied computer science and the modernization of administration. The focus of the work at the institute is on the interplay of modern information and communication technologies, as well as city development, as regards higher social and technological integration and network potentials.
The institute is part of the department of management-oriented administrative and political sciences (Department PMG) at Zeppelin University.
The Deutsche Telekom-Institute for Connected Cities (TICC) sets itself the goal to act as pioneer in developing groundbreaking ideas, visions, strategies, concepts, theories, models and tools and to implement them together with partners. For an interdisciplinary, creative institute the close interconnection of teaching and research with practice is an essential success factor to generate sustainable solutions.
The institute is organized around the following five research areas for which specific research programs are to be developed:
- Center for Connected Cities (CCC) - Center for Business Informatics (CBI) - Center for Media Informatics (CMI) - Center for Administrative Informatics (CAI) - Center for IT-Compliance and Trust (CIT)
The institute is comprised of the professors, the corresponding members, the visiting researchers and the academic staff. Student assistants and students profit from this environment, which they become acquainted with under supervision, introduce their own ideas and implement their own projects. Scholarships, as well as the research school, are to allow for the possibility to start self-dependent research early on.
TICC provides a creative arena to deal with the outlined research areas in an intensively shaping and interdisciplinary fashion. A transfer of convincing results – together with suitable partners - into practice is aimed for to secure the sustainability of the considerations. Spin-offs by staff and students is aimed at and supported.
Empirical studies and research findings are to be published in monographs, presented journal articles and in an own academic series of the TICC. Talks, workshops, symposia and conferences will contribute to the transfer of knowledge. The TICC laboratory serves administration and business as a shop window, studio, and discussion platform for the dialog with the general public. A TICC newsletter will inform on current developments and ongoing projects.
TICC is integrated into the large-scale project "T-City Friedrichshafen" (2007-2012) of Deutsche Telekom AG. The manager of the institute is the head of the project area "learning and researching" and has been appointed by the city. In this function he will coordinate projects and initiate new plans. Basically, in all areas of T-City there is the willingness to cooperate if groundbreaking research projects can be designed and afterwards implemented together with partners.
The integration of the TICC into the academic community is guaranteed by the intensive cooperation with the "Gesellschaft für Informatik", the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS), the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Recht und Informatik" and the national IT-summit of the federal government. Through an advisory board and special programs, additional partners that provide third-party funds and scholarships could be tied more closely to the institute.
