AI Factory Austria AI:AT Opens AI:AT Coworking Hub
Around 90 students from BWKI projects and “AI Schools of the Year” discussed Austria’s AI future with Innovation Minister Peter Hanke, AI experts, start-ups and funding agencies
Around 90 pupils, AI experts, start-ups and representatives from research, the funding landscape and public administration came together today at the “Next Generation AI – Young Talents of the BWKI Competition” event at the AI Factory Vienna. The focus was on the winners and project teams of the Federal Competition for Artificial Intelligence (BWKI) from previous years, classes from the “AI Schools of the Year” and a direct exchange with Federal Minister Peter Hanke.
The young talents presented AI projects from the years 2023 to 2025, discussed the opportunities and limitations of artificial intelligence and then networked with experts, start-ups and funding bodies in workshops, speed dating formats, start-up inputs and brief patent consultations. The projects presented ranged from sign language on smartphones, autonomous driving and deepfake detection to image processing, political transparency, medical documentation, compliance and cybersecurity.
Federal Minister Hanke: “Shaping the future of AI with young people”
At the opening ceremony, Innovation Minister Peter Hanke emphasized that artificial intelligence has become indispensable today and that young people need to develop a courageous, responsible approach to this technology. The exchange with research, universities, companies and funding bodies should help to turn school projects into new perspectives for studies, start-ups and applications. At the same time, Hanke referred to the federal government’s industrial strategy with the aim of making Austria one of the most economically important countries by 2035 – a development that he believes can only succeed with technology-enthusiastic groups and strong networks.
“What we have seen today shows that AI expertise is created where young people combine curiosity with responsibility. The BWKI makes the potential in Austria’s schools visible. With Next Generation AI, we are bringing these talents together with research, start-ups, funding agencies and the AI Factory Austria – so that ideas become prospects for training, start-ups and responsible AI applications.”
Innovation Minister Peter Hanke (BMIMI)
Project insights from BWKI talents and KI-schools
AI Factory Austria AI:AT/APA-Fotoservice/Arman Rastegar
GestIQus
HTL Spengergasse | 1st place 2023 | Translates 3D finger positions from sign language into signs and thus enables smartphone control via sign language; focus on inclusivity and digitalization
AutoMinds / Faker
HTL Spengergasse | Projects 2023/2024 | AutoMinds: End-to-end solution for autonomous driving with a focus on European road and traffic data; Faker: Deepfake detection for video streams and industry-related team calls
ProcessAeye
HTL Perg | 2nd place 2024 | Real-time image reconstruction and inpainting: combination of classic image processing with deep learning models to add detail to image areas; demonstration of quality/speed trade-offs
Somes
Florian Nagy, HTL Hollabrunn | Open source platform for political transparency; processes primary sources from the National Council, speeches and legal texts with the help of AI/LLMs and makes political positions more understandable and accessible
MedCodeAssist
Teodora Radomirovic, Phillip Ostrega, Paul Totzauer and Timo Burgmann, HTL Spengergasse | 3rd place 2025 | AI-supported text analysis to simplify medical documentation; structures doctor’s letters as International Patient Summary and uses standards such as HL7 FHIR and SNOMED CT
Gomply
Hannah Fluch and Harald Zumpf, HTL Spengergasse | current project on Model Context Protocol, Compliance and Cybersecurity | Analyzes meeting minutes and evidence against corporate guidelines, works locally/on-premise and was presented with a use case from the banking and compliance environment
AI:AT connects young talents with infrastructure, expertise and ecosystem
“The BWKI impressively demonstrates that AI expertise can be developed early on if students are given space for experimentation, responsibility and application. As AI Factory Austria, we want to combine this energy with research, business and public administration and show young talents how good ideas can become robust and trustworthy applications.”
Karl Kugler, Co-Lead AI Factory Austria AI:AT
“Young AI talents not only need inspiration, but also access to infrastructure, expertise and networks. This is exactly what AI:AT is there for: we make visible which paths lead from the initial idea to proof of concept, start-up or cooperation – and at the same time show how responsible AI is created in practice.”
Markus Stöhr, Co-Lead AI Factory Austria AI:AT
From AI Act to founding a startup: Connection opportunities for young AI talents
The exchange with Federal Minister Hanke was followed by a workshop on the EU AI Act and technology sovereignty with Michael Löffler and Simeon Harrison (AI:AT). Over lunch at the AI Factory Vienna, the program included speed dating formats with Newsrooms.ai/TrendingTopics, Nukuki AI, sz.Digital, FFG Nachwuchsförderung and a brief patent consultation with DI Dirk Harms. The event concluded with inputs on founding start-ups, funding and Ask me Anything with aws, FFG, sz.Digital, EYYES and other experts. AI:AT provided rooms and exchange formats for this and deliberately brought the students together with co-workers, startups, experts and funding organizations.
About the Federal Competition for Artificial Intelligence (BWKI) Austria
The Federal Competition for Artificial Intelligence (BWKI) Austria is a school competition that gets young people excited about artificial intelligence and supports them in developing their own AI projects. The program includes an online AI course, the project competition and the “AI School of the Year” award. The competition is organized in Austria by the Austrian Society for Artificial Intelligence (ASAI) and supported by the BMIMI. In addition to methodology and technical quality, the economic potential, social benefits and ethical dimensions of the projects are also evaluated.
The 2025 competition took place for the fifth time; over 100 registered participants take part each year. In 2025, seven teams reached the final and four projects were awarded prizes. There is also a special AI for Green prize.
About the AI Factory Austria AI:AT
The AI Factory Austria AI:AT is Austria’s national AI Factory within the framework of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. It is jointly managed by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and Advanced Computing Austria (ACA) and implemented by an Austria-wide consortium. The partners in the consortium are TU Wien, University of Vienna, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), University of Innsbruck, Graz University of Technology, Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU), Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), INiTS – Vienna’s High-Tech Incubator and EODC – Earth Observation Data Center for Water Resources Monitoring GmbH. AI:AT combines AI-optimized high-performance infrastructure with a physical hub, training, exchange formats and services. As a market-neutral, independent access point, AI:AT supports organizations from business, public administration and applied research along the AI journey, from the first use case to practical implementation, and connects young talents with research, startups, funding agencies and European connection opportunities at an early stage.
Funding Acknowledgement
AI Factory Austria AI:AT is co-funded by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No. 101253078. The Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme as well as from Austria through BMIMI/FFG.
Contact:
AI Factory Austria AI:AT
Daniel Pepl, MAS MBA | Head of Marketing & Communications | +43 664 620 78 05 | daniel.pepl@ai-at.eu| http://www.ai-at.eu
Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI)
Carina Novy, Pressesprecherin | +43 1 711 62-65 8010 | Mobil: +43 664 855 19 12 | carina.novy@bmimi.gv.at | www.bmimi.gv.at | infothek.bmimi.gv.at
