News

	27.05.2026: Presentation at the Logistik Werkstatt Graz Research activities of CRC1574 were presented at the Logistik Werkstatt Graz to industry representatives, fostering exchange between academia and industrial practice.
	May 2026: ESWC 2026 – Contributions from CRC1574 Researchers Researchers from CRC1574 – Circular Factory contributed to ESWC 2026 in Dubrovnik with presentations on uncertainty reasoning in knowledge graphs, sustainability, and ontology alignment. LinkedIn-Link
	04.–07.05.2026: CRC1574 Hackathon at the University of Stuttgart Researchers and doctoral students of CRC1574 participated in a hackathon at the University of Stuttgart.
	April 2026: Girls' Day at the Karlsruher Forschungsfabrik As part of Girls' Day, 15 schoolgirls visited the Karlsruher Forschungsfabrik at KIT. Under the motto “The Factory of the Future – Artificial Intelligence & Robotics”, participants gained insights into current technologies and applications in production research. LinkedIn-Link
	April 2026: CRC1574 Retreat in Gernsbach The CRC1574 Circular Factory retreat in Gernsbach brought together researchers to discuss the further development of circular production systems. LinkedIn-Link
	27.03.2026: Contribution to the WiGeP Book Project on Sustainable Product Development CRC1574 contributed to the WiGeP book project “Sustainability in Product Development”, which brings together academic contributions, strategies, and innovative approaches for environmentally conscious and future-oriented product development.
	23-26.03.2026: CRC1574 at the KIT Spring Academy Following the opening keynote by Sven Matthiesen at the Sustainability Forum, researchers of CRC1574 organized and participated in the KIT Spring Academy. Workshops on angle grinder design, robotic disassembly, and circular business models highlighted the vision of the Circular Factory. LinkedIn-Link
	12.03.2026: Robotics Institute Germany Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award A researcher associated with CRC1574 received the Robotics Institute Germany (RIG) Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award for a thesis on unified movement primitives and reinforcement learning for efficient robotic skill learning.
	11.03.2026–13.03.2026: CRC1574 at the German Robotics Conference Researchers of CRC1574 attended the German Robotics Conference, contributing with a workshop, an oral presentation (top 8%), poster presentations, and a robot demonstration, while exchanging ideas on the developments in robotics research. LinkedIn-Link
	09.–11.03.2026: CRC1574 at the CIRP LCE 2026 Conference CRC1574 was represented at the CIRP LCE – Life Cycle Engineering 2026 Conference through research contributions and presentations on sustainable product development and circularity analysis using the model of System Generation Engineering (SGE). LinkedIn-Link
	06.03.2026: Visit of the Consul General of India to KIT The Consul General of India, Shatrughna Sinha, visited the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. As part of the program, the delegation visited the wbk Institute of Production Science, where participants gained insights into the institute’s research activities, including the work of CRC1574.
	02.03.2026: Engineering Seminar Series Talk at King's College London As part of the Engineering Seminar Series at King's College London, research was presented on learning robot manipulation skills from human feedback and vision-language models as an alternative to hand-crafted reward functions.
	03.03.2026: Visit to Remanufacturing Company ATC in Waldenburg Doctoral students of CRC1574 visited the remanufacturing company ATC in Waldenburg. During the visit, participants gained practical insights into the complete remanufacturing process chain—from disassembly and cleaning to inspection, reassembly, and final quality testing. The exchange highlighted the important role of remanufacturing for resource efficiency and sustainable industrial production. LinkedIn-Link
	26.02.26: CRC Women Researchers’ Evening CRC1574 hosted a Women Researchers’ Evening at the High Performance Humanoid Technologies Lab (H2T), IAR at KIT. Professors, doctoral researchers and student assistants met for networking and exchange across career stages in a welcoming atmosphere. LinkedIn_link
	17.02.2026: Visit of the Wirtschaftsförderung to the Circular Factory CRC1574 welcomed representatives of the Wirtschaftsförderung to the Circular Factory to discuss the upcoming CCPT conference and the synergies between the project and the circular economy strategy of the City of Karlsruhe.
	12.02.26: Visit of German–French Student Delegation at KIT Students from Arts et Métiers visited KIT as part of an international delegation organized by the International Affairs Business Unit. CRC1574 presented its materials science laboratories and research activities related to circular production chains.
	02.02.2026: CRC1574 at the ICSC Conference in Los Angeles Researchers of CRC1574 presented the paper “Efficient Uncertainty Propagation in Continuous Bayesian Networks Using GUM and Monte Carlo Methods” at the ICSC Conference in Los Angeles.
	22.01.26: CRC1574 Winter School Researchers and doctoral students participated in a three-day Winter School of CRC1574 including workshops on science communication, diversity in research, and a general assembly with project presentations and posters. LinkedIn-Link
	20.01.2026: Participation in the maKeIT – KIT Panel on AI & Robotics CRC1574 participated in the maKeIT – KIT Panel on AI & Robotics, discussing the role of collaboration and interdisciplinary research in translating advances in AI and robotics into real-world impact.
	20.01.2026: CRC1574 at the RAMS Conference 2026 Researchers of CRC1574 participated in the 72nd Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS Conference). The conference enabled exchange with representatives from American industry and increased the visibility and recognition of the CRC’s research activities.
	15.12.2025: Research Presentation at Eindhoven University of Technology Researchers of CRC1574 presented their work on Multi-Robot Task Allocation to researchers in the field of Operations Research at Eindhoven University of Technology.
	Nov 24–28, 2025: Participation in the RIG Bootcamp on Foundational Behavior Models A doctoral researcher of CRC1574 participated in the first RIG Bootcamp on Foundational Behavior Models. The event provided valuable exchange on foundation-model approaches for embodied intelligence and their relevance to uncertainty-aware human process understanding.
	18.11.25: CRC Hackathon on Knowledge Modeling A Hackathon Week brought together interdisciplinary teams to develop models and demonstrators addressing uncertainty in data for Circular Factory applications, fostering collaboration between computer science and production engineering. LinkedIn_Link
	14.11.2025: Presentation at the Symposium “Was Frauen forschen – Ein wissenschaftliches Kaleidoskop” At the symposium “Was Frauen forschen – Ein wissenschaftliches Kaleidoskop,” organized by the Verband Baden-Württembergischer Wissenschaftlerinnen (VBWW), Prof. Dr. Rania Rayyes presented her latest research, highlighting the importance and progress of autonomous, versatile, and adaptive robotics for circular manufacturing.
	14.11.25: CRC Research Presented at EMNLP 2025 Subproject A03 presented its research on reasoning over uncertain knowledge graphs at EMNLP 2025 in Suzhou. The work contributes to reliable and explainable AI for manufacturing knowledge systems within the Circular Factory.
	13.11.2025: Keynote at the IEEE International Conference on Knowledge Graphs S. Staab delivered a keynote at the 16th IEEE International Conference on Knowledge Graphs (ICKG 2025) in Limassol, Cyprus.
	10.12.25: Collaboration with KIT Works Fire Brigade Researchers at IPEK collaborated with KIT’s works fire brigade to collect real application data for studies on angle grinder loads, supporting research within CRC1574.
	Oct 19–25, 2025: CRC1574 at IROS 2025 Researchers of CRC1574 presented their work at IROS 2025. The conference enabled exchange with the international robotics community on perception, robustness, and industrial deployment challenges.
	21.10.25: Hector Seminar Student Project Completed Students Jakob Knippertz and Teodor Andrei successfully presented their Hector Seminar project on supplying power to sensor-integrated gears in power tools, contributing to research on condition monitoring and lifecycle evaluation in the Circular Factory.
	20.10.2025: Workshop on Robot Learning From Human Teleoperation The AIR research group (CRC1574 subproject C06) organized the workshop “Robot Learning From Human Teleoperation” together with researchers from University College London. The workshop featured contributions from leading experts from academia and industry, including Tamim Asfour, Xingxing Wang, and Sebastian Fischer.
	15.10.25: IndustryFORUM 2025 – Keynote on Circular Factory CRC1574 highlighted the IndustryFORUM 2025 event featuring a keynote by Prof. Gisela Lanza on the Circular Factory and sustainable industrial production. LinkedIn-Link
	15.10.2025: Workshop on Bayesian Networks A workshop on Bayesian Networks was conducted together with the Working Group Prediction of the Product Function.
	Oct 4–10, 2025: CRC1574 at IEEE SMC 2025 Researchers of CRC1574 presented their work at IEEE SMC 2025. The participation increased the visibility of B04’s research on human perception and process understanding in intelligent and human-centered systems.
	09.10.25: CRC1574 at the WGTL Kolloquium Jan-Felix Klein presented the concept of the Circular Factory and research on knowledge-based intralogistics systems at the 21st WGTL Kolloquium.
	22.09.25: CRC1574 Summer School Researchers, doctoral students and international experts gathered for the CRC1574 Summer School including workshops, lab tours, guest lectures and a doctoral colloquium presenting current research on circular production. LinkedIn_link
	08.09.2025: Invited Talk at the Aachen Symposium on Representation Learning to Act and Plan An invited talk was presented at the Aachen Symposium on Representation Learning to Act and Plan, highlighting current research activities and approaches in representation learning and intelligent systems.
	09.08.2025: Lecture at the Oxford Machine Learning Summer School A lecture was delivered at the Oxford Machine Learning Summer School (OxML), contributing to international exchange in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
	August 2025: CRC1574 Researchers at the 74th CIRP General Assembly Researchers from CRC1574 contributed to the 74th CIRP General Assembly in Stockholm with presentations on remanufacturing, production planning, robotics, and sustainable manufacturing. LinkedIn-Link
	15.07.25: Guest lecture of Hilti in the CRC lecture "The Circular Factory" Guest lecture of Bernhard Strack and Ly Hoang from Hilti in the lecture Series "The Circular Factory" of the CRC. LinkedIn-link.
	11.07.2025: Presentation of CRC1574 at the Endress+Hauser Annual Retreat CRC1574 was introduced as part of a keynote presentation at the annual retreat of Endress+Hauser, highlighting the research activities and objectives of the Collaborative Research Center.
	02.07.2025: Research Presentation at the IFAC Conference on Manufacturing Modelling, Management and Control Research results were presented at the 11th IFAC Conference on Manufacturing Modelling, Management and Control held in Trondheim, Norway.
	02.07.25: Celebratory speech marking the 100th anniversary of Festo Presentation of the CRC to the attending people of the 100th anniversary of Festo. LinkedIn-Link.
	01. & 02.07.25: CRC Hackathon Hackathon organized and sponsored by members of the CRC team. Participation of 80 students. LinkedIn-Link
	24. & 25.07.25: Visit of Erik Flores, Yongkuk Jeong & Magnus Wiktorsson (KTH) in the Circular Factory Visit of the KTH Professors for Production Logistics. LinkedIn-Link
	12.06.25: Visit to Deutz in Ulm with Students of the Lecture Series "The Circular Factory" LinkedIn-Link
	June 1, 2025: CRC1574 at the KG4S Workshop at ESWC 2025 CRC1574 participated in the Knowledge Graphs for Sustainability (KG4S) workshop at ESWC 2025. Researchers presented the paper “A Roadmap to Create a Knowledge Graph for the Perpetual Product” and chaired sessions of the KG4S workshop.
	21.05.25: CRC Career Evening for Women Career evening for women hosted by the CRC. LinkedIn-Link
	20.05.25: CRC1574 at ICRA 2025 Researchers of CRC1574 – Circular Factory presented two scientific papers at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025. The contributions showcased current research results of the CRC in the fields of robotics and automation for circular production systems.
	17.05.25: KIT open day The CRC organized tours through the Circular Factory at the KIT open day 2025. LinkedIn-Link
	12. & 13.05.25: CRC Retreat Second Retreat in the active Phase of the CRC. LinkedIn-Link
	22.04.25: Start of the Lecture Series "The Circular Factory" Start of the Lecture Series with participation of the PIs of the CRC. LinkedIn-Link.
	8.-10.04.25: Rematec and ICoR Conference Participation of the CRC in the Rematec and ICoR conference
	03.04.25: KIT Girls Day in the Circular Factory High School students visited the Circular Factory on the KIT Girls Day. Colleagues of the CRC consortium held two Workshops. The first Workshop was about how a machine can learn from humans. The second was about 3D printing in action.
	31.03. - 02.04.25: Spring School Circular Economy Visit of the Spring School Circular Economy of the French-German Institute for Industry of the Future in the Circular Factory. Website-Link.
	12.03.25: Karlsruhe Symposium for Product Production Co-Design With the presentation of the CRC working group "Functional Modeling" given by Patric Grauberger and Jan-Philipp Kaiser. LinkedIn-Link
	20.02.25: Workshop on knowledge modeling All people involved in the CRC came together for a knowledge modeling workshop. The relevance for knowledge modeling was worked out for every subproject. The goal is to build up a joint knowledge base using ontologies and the data platform Kadi4mat.
	28.01.25: Excursion to Deutz in Ulm Excursion to Deutz Plant in Ulm. Here, used motors are reworked. Exciting to see remanufacturing in industrial practice! Linkedin-Link
	22.01.25: Angle Grinder Workshop Getting to know the angle grinder as the demonstrator product of our CRC Linkedin-Link
	20.01.25: Visit of C-ECO Visit of PhD-students of the CRC at C-ECO. LinkedIn-Link
	14.01.-16.01.25: CRC Winter-School Two days of training and workshops followed by a day of guest lectures (Prof. Allwood - Cambridge, Prof. Hüttl-Maack - Hohenheim, Prof. Rashid - KTH and Prof. Sundin - Linköping) and a doctoral colloquium. Linkedin-Link 1 Linkedin-Link 2
	09.12.24: Visit of ZKM Karlsruhe in the Circular Factory Visit of the "Zentrum für Kunst und Medien" (ZKM) in the Circular Factory. Coordinated by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Barbara Deml, possible collaboration in public relations was discussed.
	07.11.24: First meeting of the industry advisory board of the CRC Circular Factory Visit by representatives of industrial companies with a sustainability focus Linkedin-Link
	06.11.24: Karlsruher Herbsttagung 2024 - Circular Production – Paving the way for a Sustainable Future Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza and Prof. Dr.-Ing Sven Matthiesen Linkedin-Link
	18.10.24: Conrad-Matschoß-Kreis Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza Linkedin-Link
	15.10.-16.10.24: Produktionsmanagement-Tagung Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza Linkedin-Link
	07.10.-08.10.24: Summit Allgäu Produktion Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza Linkedin-Link
	17.09.24: Visit of Politicians in the circular factory Visit of Ingo Wellenreuther (MdB), Nicolas Zippelius (MdB) and Ansgar Mayr (MdL) Linkedin-Link
	25.07.24: Visit of the KIT-Business-Club in the circular factory Visit of representatives of industry partners of the KIT in the circular factory Linkedin-Link
	11.07.24: Career evening for women Career evening for women pursuing a technical degree with interest for a doctoral program
	08.07.-12.07.24: Summer School with General Assembly Five days packed with scientific discussion, guest lectures, team building and workshops Linkedin-Link
	20.06.24: CRC Hackathon Hackathon with students, financially supported by the CRC Linkedin-Link
	07.06.24: Visit of University of Strathclyde (Prof. Ijomah and Prof. Maier) Keynote by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza Linkedin-Link
	June 2024: Visit of Supply Chain AI Lab (Cambridge University) Keynote by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza with the title "Maximizing the Resource Efficiency for a Value-Adding Sustainability" Linkedin-Link
	14.05.24: Visit of Deutz in the circular factory Visit of representatives of the management of Deutz plant in Ulm in the circular factory Linkedin-Link
	29.04.24-30.04.24: Retreat and CRC Workshops First team event with workshops for research in the CRC
	25.04.24: Girls Day Tour through the Circular Factory with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frederik Zanger for girls with interest in a technical degree.
	*22.04.-26.04.24: The CRC Circular Factory* at the Hannover Fair** Presentation of the prototype hardware stations Linkedin-Link
	11.04.24: Filming of ZDF TV report Visit of a film crew for filming a TV report in the circular factory Link to report
	03.04.24: Hager Group visit in the circular factory Visit of Sabine Busse (CEO) Linkedin-Link
	12.03-13.03.24: World Remanufacturing Summit Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza Linkedin-Link