She will not only give a keynote, but also join a deep-dive session on the Tuesday of Automotive Week. Programme manager Responsible Mobility at TU/e, Margriet van Schijndel, is looking forward to it. ‘This event is the showcase of our region, here we can show what we are capable of and on which themes we excel.’

TU/e and innovation are inextricably linked. What exactly is your role?

‘I work for the Eindhoven AI Systems Institute, EASI for short. Our goal? To develop intelligent systems with a high degree of autonomy, but which are at the same time connected to humans. Education and research come together within EASI. This is because we want our students to become thought leaders. We link knowledge and expertise to various application domains, of which mobility is one. The key to our success is our intensive collaboration with industry.’

Can you talk a bit more about your keynote and the deep-dive session?

‘Artificial Intelligence can be the solution for (more) sustainable and (more) safe transport. It is a huge connector between different areas of expertise and objectives. Whereby a contribution to an objective such as safety no longer has to come at the expense of another objective such as sustainability and inclusiveness. Take, for example, the goal of zero casualties and zero emissions in traffic. This is only possible with smart technologies and by intensive cooperation of experts in different fields. Such as control systems, AI, vision systems, human machine integration, energy use and efficiency, traffic systems, logistics and business models. We just see that the transition to sustainability and safety is not yet as fast as we would like, so there is work to be done. I propose how AI can contribute and what we need to consider on our way to that goal.’

What challenges should we think of then?

‘The role of key enabling technologies, of which AI is one, is increasing. Our challenge: how do we ensure that recent graduates, but also professionals who have been in the industry for some time, have the necessary skills to contribute to the digital transformation in mobility? They are ultimately the ones who need to implement the development of safe, clean and smart transport.’

What are you looking forward to during Automotive Week?

‘I am really looking forward to the substantive discussions, learning from each other and inspiring each other. During Automotive Week, professionals from the automotive industry come together. The interesting thing is that they all have different backgrounds and interests. There are companies present, but also governments and research and knowledge institutions. So you make new contacts and arrive at new insights for future developments together. Who knows, maybe joint goals will emerge. I look forward to being challenged!’

Margriet van Schijndel’s keynote is on Tuesday 18 April between 10am and 11am. The deepdive session she is moderating is on the same day, from 2.30pm to 3.30pm.