DB mindbox newsletter February

Six new and promising startups were selected at our startup selection day in Frankfurt am Main on the 29^th of January. Out of 16 international competitors DataMonkey, Vertama, M-CADOR, Traversals, emost & Solar Drone convinced our jury and were selected for our new program Future of Operations & Maintenance 2024. The startups already had a warm welcome at the onboarding week mid-February which was packed with team-building sessions, insights into the world of Deutsche Bahn including a guided tour inside Berlin Main Station and an excursion to the ICE plant in Rummelsburg. Another important part of the onboarding week were the kick-off workshops in which startups, DB experts and startup manager discuss and define their use cases and how to get started. The first step towards a successful proof of concept (poc) has been taken and we are looking forward to a great collaboration and exciting startup projects. Stay tuned!

February was a busy month full of startup presentations: On the one hand the new cohort of six startups were selected and just began their 100 days poc-program with us and on the other hand 13 startups presented their achievements from three programs. The startups gave exciting insights into the various use cases that were developed together with our DB colleagues, but also with external partners such as Die Autobahn GmbH des Bundes. The range of use cases was diverse: from the use of carbon-free olivine as a substitute for climate-damaging cement, the support of bridge inspections using drones & artificial intelligence (AI), to the AI-supported information retrieval for customer needs, the navigation for visually impaired travelers via QR codes, circular economy approach & urban mining potential, to the simplification of objection management in large construction projects using AI.

What was achieved within 100 days? Here is a selection:
✅ Enormous time savings & reduction of processing effort to a minimum through the use of an AI agent in objection management
✅ Minimization of manual inspection efforts and increase in quality compared to previous bridge inspections through precise localization of damage using drones & AI
✅ Implementation of an accurate train model (incl. route, energy consumption & resistance model) as part of the development of an energy-efficient driving strategy through reinforcement learning
✅ Evident, image-based condition detection and high-precision reconstructed component dimensions using X-rays in the area of bridge inspection

Together with our partner DB Regio, we are looking for innovative solutions as part of our challenge to improve passenger information in the event of disruptions. The aim is to calculate alternative routes.

What are the specific requirements of the challenge?
We are looking for expertise in the areas of route planning and data analysis so that passengers can find the best possible alternative routes in the event of disruptions to regular train services. These routes must include all modes of public transportation - buses, streetcars, subways and trains - and may also include cabs, bicycles or other shared mobility services. Selected applicants will receive exclusive insights into international passenger information as well as access to DB's traffic data. The required solution must efficiently identify and prioritize alternative routes and communicate them in a text format (later required as JSON). Furthermore, in addition to DB data, the solution should also use openly accessible information such as weather data, local events or points of interest to improve the results. A particular focus is on providing alternative routes for mobility-impaired travelers.

We are looking forward to innovative solutions which can help us to improve our services. Startups as well as small and medium-sized companies can apply for the challenge until the 10^th of March via our website here.

Regional Traffic 2024 – New startup program online

Calling all mobility innovators: Apply now and shape the future of integrated everyday mobility within our Regional Traffic 2024 program! Our strong partner DB Regio transports more than 4.5 million passengers per day and the numbers are continuously increasing. Therefore, we are looking together with DB Regio for new and innovative solutions to:

💡 Bring the usage of bus and replacement services to the next level
💡 Ensure consistent and real time traveller information
💡 Generate capacity information
💡 Develop Mobility Hubs in rural areas
💡 Speed up customer service communication

More information about the program as well as the application form can be found on our website here. We are looking for exciting applications which can be submitted until the 31^st of March.

GovTech summit in Berlin – Interesting panel talk about productive collaboration within the govtech sector

Make, buy or co-create? What should productive collaboration in the GovTech ecosystem look like? Our colleague and team lead operations & construction Nils Hillebrandt spoke about this with Federal CIO Markus Richter and Christine Serrette, Vice President of the Federal Information Technology Centre (ITZBund) at the GovTech Summit organized by Handelsblatt and Possible in Berlin. For two days, the community conference provided exciting insights and discussions on the topics of digitalization and ecosystems. How can we succeed in advancing the digitalization of government and administration? The answer is clear: together! And this depends on cooperation between a wide range of innovative players from politics, administration and the tech scene. That's why we were happy to accept the invitation and share our experience of how we have been successfully driving digitalization and innovation as Deutsche Bahn's startup hub for eight years now.

Startup topics from the mobility sector at the GovTech summit? How does that fit together?
It fits together very well because, on the one hand, we often have similar administrative and technological challenges and, on the other hand, we are firmly convinced that digitalization and innovation can only work together. Examples of this are our alumni startups SUMM AI and Respeak, both were there in person with Flora Geske and Dr. Tim Rietz to present and talk about their projects.

Thinking outside the box is essential in order to gain new ideas and approaches. We have built up this expertise over the years and would like to share it with other players in the ecosystem. Our past innovation projects with external partners such as Die Autobahn GmbH des Bundes, INROS LACKNER SE and the MANITOU Group confirm this.

Thanks for the invitation and the fruitful connections at the GovTech summit.

Rail Innovators Meetup – Exchange and networking at our office

End of January we hold the first Rail Innovators Meetup at our office in Berlin. A format which brought together established rail companies from the associations Rail S and Verband der Bahnindustrie in Deutschland (VDB) with DB mindbox (alumni) startups. It’s a great feeling when ideas really take off because this format was discussed and brainstormed with Tobias Ruch and Christin Lorenz-Knoll two years ago during an industry event.

Under the theme Industry experience meets startup spirit 50+ participants from all across Germany came to Berlin to exchange, network, and discuss current development and experiences. Pitches, best practices of successful cooperations and workshop-sessions of SIUT, INROS LACKNER SE, Building Information Innovator (BII), svt, Hyconnect, Respeak, Fraunhofer IKTS, STRABAG, Best Sensor, PECS-WORK, NaKorid, DATAbility, FBT Feinblechtechnik und Seven Bel gave inspiring insights for the participants. This was a good start on which we can build on, so this won't be the last time!

Spitzke & Tough Training – VR based training program for lateral entrants and trainees

Deep dive into a realistic and Virtual Reality (VR) experience! This is possible through the cooperation between our alumni startup Tough Training and Spitzke which have developed a special learning program. Within the program the participants use tablets and VR glasses which provide a realistic virtual experience of various scenarios in the field of railway construction. The learning objective for their lateral entrants and trainees is to develop an awareness of hazardous situations during the training program. The VR glasses are currently being used at Spitzke Azubi-Tage event series. Visitors immerse themselves in a digital world and move virtually around a construction project or, for example, in the depot. "The new VR technology is interesting for training fairs to give our potential trainees an impression of the work and to show how modern training at SPITZKE is," says Jörg Prohaszka (Head of Spitzke Akademie). The starting point of the cooperation between Tough Training and Spitzke was our DB mindbox program back in 2022. So, it is great to see that the follow up cooperation is doing well and connects an immersive training experience with a fun factor.