Joint Berlin Data & AI Center planned
© Adobe stock
Data-driven research is crucial for tackling societal challenges- whether in health, materials, or climate research. In a collaboration that is so far unique, Berlin University Alliance (BUA), the Max Delbrück Center, and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, together with the Zuse Institute Berlin, aim to establish a powerful Data and AI Center in the German capital.
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB), the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin University Alliance (BUA), and the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) recently signed a joint declaration of intent for this purpose. The goal is a flagship project of outstanding importance for the future of Berlin as a research hub.
The partners aim to create a regionally anchored and internationally competitive infrastructure that enables high-performance, cross-institutional, data-driven cutting-edge research. It will effectively complement the national high-performance infrastructure at the ZIB. The partners agree that complex scientific simulations and the use of artificial intelligence in particular require new, high-performance data infrastructures. Joint planning and use of resources represents a particularly sustainable approach.
As a first step, a new high-performance research Data Center is to be built at the HZB site in Berlin-Adlershof in cooperation with the ZIB. The HZB and ZIB have been engaged in intensive planning for the past year and aim to implement the first phase of the data center as quickly as possible. In the long term, computing capacity is to be expanded to up to 5 megawatts through new construction.
In the next phase, the partners will jointly explore potential funding models, administrative structures, and usage scenarios. These will be incorporated into a detailed cooperation agreement to ensure long-term, cross-institutional access to and operation of the Data Center.
- New contact material boosts the efficiency of perovskite solar cellsA newly developed material for the electron contact improves the efficiency of single perovskite solar cells and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The new material is based on a carborane molecule. It offers several advantages over the standard material C60, as shown by the study led by Steve Albrecht’s team. The new material has since been patented and is already commercially available.
- BESSY II: New sample environment allows glimpse into thermocatalytic processesA novel measurement cell allows, for the first time, soft and hard X-ray investigations under high pressures of up to 20 bar and temperatures of up to 400°C. This provides new insights into thermocatalytic processes, such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for producing synthetic fuels. The development of the measurement cell is considered a significant achievement within the Care-O-Sene project.
- Precision interface chemistry pushes perovskite solar cells beyond 26% efficiencyAn international research collaboration has developed a new molecular strategy for controlling one of the most critical interfaces in perovskite solar cells. The resulting solar cells reached a power conversion efficiency of 26.19% in the n i p architecture, together with strong operational stability under prolonged illumination and elevated temperature. The results have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.