LIST Tech Day 2023: Exploring the entwined futures of humans and technology

With a focus on the interactions between humans and technology, the 5^th edition of Tech Day by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) took place on Thursday 15 June 2023 in Belval. More than 350 participants, including 160 companies and institutions, had the opportunity to test out seven flagship technologies and attend the signing of a new partnership agreement with Goodyear, among other major guest keynotes.

In his opening speech, Claude Meisch, Minister for Higher Education and Research, emphasised that LIST is a prime example of the impact that a research and technology organization can have, through its cutting-edge research activities, on innovative developments in business and on sustainability in society. “LIST is undoubtedly a major player in Luxembourg in promoting diversity through research on versatile and technology-oriented programmes, and Tech Day exemplifies this commitment,” he stated.

Seven flagship technologies in the Tech Village

This 2023 edition showcased seven flagship technologies in the Tech Village, all of them exploring in different ways the interactions between humans and machines.

The technologies in the field of environment, digital, materials and space included:

• The Climobil app, providing users with a comprehensive understanding of when, why, and how electric vehicles can be considered environmentally friendly.
• A satellite and IoT technology in the service of smart agriculture, ensuring reliable data transmission between IoT long-range devices and satellite gateways.
• A solution for environmental monitoring, called SmartSense.
• Two complementary approaches on how to control a remotely located shuttle, or a robot, using low-latency connectivity; and how to anticipate the usage of these new connected and automated vehicles through mixing physical and digital assets.
• Healthtech AR/VR glasses with multiple connected sensors, designed to give carers an interactive platform where they can monitor their patients' progress in 3D.
• A TouchLess project, aiming to design and develop new materials and technological demonstrators for human to machine interaction based on gesture recognition by edge machine learning.
• A space resources knowledge platform which provides users a unique access point to up-to-date information and knowledge, full coverage of scientific, technology and market information.

LIST and Goodyear signed the second phase of their partnership

Over the last seven years, LIST and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company have collaborated to achieve pioneering results in the areas of material research, understanding of structure-property relationships and data science. The results of their collaborative work have the potential to make Luxembourg a centre for disruptive innovation for mobility with a focus on tires and tire-related technology.

On the 2023 edition of Tech Day, LIST and Goodyear signed the second phase of their partnership, not only building on the fruitful outcomes of their previous collaborations, but entering new technological areas as well, making the most of LIST knowledge, infrastructure, and competencies.

The agreement includes six strategic research programmes covering the 2024-2029 period:

• Data Science for Tire Applications - At the forefront of the digital transition, this programme aims to fit in with Goodyear’s “first time right” development objective, which ultimately targets to replace test tire production with an entirely digital approach and only physically produce the correct physical tires.
• Tire as a Sensor - This programme will develop the necessary materials-based sensing technology to use a whole tyre as a sensor.
• End-of-Life Tire Recycling - Addressing Green Transition and Sustainability, this programme targets the development of new materials and processing technology to improve the recycling of end-of-life tires.
• Sustainable Materials for Non-Pneumatic Tires - This programme seeks to develop new materials from sustainable and/or recycled feedstock.
• Sustainable Materials for Next Generation of Pneumatic Tires - This programme is designed to create new materials to be used in more traditional pneumatic tires but targets the goal of demonstrating by 2030 a 100% sustainable tire.
• Structure-Process-Property Relationships - This programme is expected to deliver new tools to understand complex correlations of characterization results to explain the performance of a compound.

Further to this, LIST and Goodyear have also identified several topics as potential fields of interest that may be added at a later stage of the collaboration.

“This second phase of strategic partnership is meant to broaden the scope of our successful collaboration with Goodyear,” Dirk Fransaer, CEO ad interim of LIST stated. “It embraces Luxembourg's national priorities, such as sustainability, digital transformation and circular economy. Two pillars, i.e. digitalization and materials sustainability, will support this vision for a duration of six years.”

“Goodyear is focused on advancing mobility and sustainability efforts on a global scale,” said Chris Helsel, Senior Vice President Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer at Goodyear. “We have set several ambitions to address future mobility needs, but we know we can’t do this alone. Key partnerships, like that with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, are vital to making significant progress towards these bold ambitions.”

Tech Day is also an opportunity for LIST to inspire its audience by presenting a number of current partnerships such as those with the start-ups FourPoint and Wide (Women in Digital Empowerment), or upcoming partnerships with Green Power Storage Solutions and Webasto.

Jean-Claude Schmitz, Chairman of the Board at ROTAREX, received the LIST Lifetime AWARD, which honours exceptional and passionate work in the Luxembourgish sector of innovation.

Eva Kremer, Chairwoman of LIST Board, ended her closing remarks by celebrating the 5th edition of the Tech Day. Since 2018, LIST has presented more than 40 demonstrators, have welcomed 99 speakers - keynotes and partners- and has welcomed more than 1,500 participants.