The 2025 Stuttgart International Symposium kicked off today with the Welcome Session from the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart moderated by Dr.-Ing. Lea Schwarz, Head of Development Features and Functions Driving/Energy at AUDI AG. The board members of FKFS, Prof. André Casal Kulzer, Prof. Hans-Christian Reuss and Prof. Andreas Wagner, welcomed the participants in a relaxed discussion round. This gave the audience an insight into the current trends in the automotive industry, which will be the focus of the two-day symposium. Prof. Kulzer also pointed out the many exciting program items that the symposium has to offer this year. Prof. Wagner reported on the exciting innovations at FKFS, first and foremost the newly opened Center for Climate Comfort and the Climate Road-to-Rig test bench.
This was followed by a digital greeting from Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of the State of Baden-Württemberg. She was unable to attend the event in person due to her schedule. In her speech, she emphasized the need to embrace technological and cultural changes in order to successfully meet the current challenges.
At the end of the session, Prof. Dr. Peter Brem, Vice-Rector for Transfer and International Affairs at the University of Stuttgart, welcomed the participants with a few words on Baden-Württemberg's strong basis in the field of engineering sciences and encouraged the participants to recognize these strengths, to be proud of them and to build on them for the future.
Two top-class keynotes kicked off the program:
- Franz Loogen, President of e-mobil BW, with the presentation: “From ICE to AI: Electrification and Digitalization as Growth Drivers”. He highlighted the key challenges that need to be addressed, such as overcapacity, regulations, timing, and balancing regional preferences – all of which are crucial for success. Loogen emphasized that Baden-Württemberg already offers a strong foundation for automotive AI across the entire value chain. According to him, now the focus must shift to transfer, scaling, and coordination.
- Florian Bankoley, Chief Digital Officer - Bosch Mobility Company at Robert Bosch GmbH, with the presentation: “Shaping the Future: How Digitalization and Software Are Reshaping the Mobility Industry”. His keynote emphasized the company’s goal to actively drive and shape this transformation. Bosch’s digitalization strategy focuses on four key industry trends: software-defined vehicles, fleet solutions, cost pressure and technology, and the use of data and AI. In summary software-defined transformation is a massive challenge but is being tackled by Bosch with a well-defined strategy.
The technical presentations then began in five thematic sessions. More than 50% of the papers submitted were subjected to a peer review process by the SAE in advance, which underlines the high quality of the program. In addition, speakers presented their research results in a new pitch session, in which they concisely conveyed key content in compact five-minute presentations.
Another successful format was the business speed dating. Here, participants had the opportunity to get to know each other in a structured way based on thematic guidelines, exchange ideas and make new contacts.
To round off the first day of the conference, participants are invited to a networking evening at Memox, located in the heart of Stuttgart, tonight with lots of opportunities to continue the discussions from the day.