Building Blocks towards a virtual Time Machine

Call for Short Papers (Round Table)

Andreas MAIER (1)| Sander MÜNSTER (2)
((1) Pattern Recognition Lab, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg | (2) Digital Humanities, Universität Jena, Germany)

Keywords: Time Machine, Cultural Heritage, Digitisation, Big Data of the Past

Call:
The challenge: What would the world look like if we could access documents from the past as easily as present day‘s data? Could we use it to derive better forecasts for the future? Can historical 4D simulations improve our knowledge about history? Which innovative business models will promote tourism, transport and planning? The Time Machine Organisation (https://timemachine.eu) consists of 650+ research facilities, GLAM institutions and private enterprises is currently aiming at nothing less than building a Time Machine as a spatiotemporal scaled Digital Twin. To succeed, a series of fundamental breakthroughs are targeted in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and ICT. Massive digitisation infrastructures and High-Performance Computing will be coupled with Machine Learning techniques to produce a multiscale simulation of more than 5000 years of history. Miles of archives and museum collections will be transformed into a digital information system. During an EU funded one-year preparation phase a 10-year research programme for the next stage of the Time Machine as a large scale research initiative has been compiled with contributions of 1000+ scholars.

The panel: The aim of the Round Table is (1) to present and discuss the planned research program of Time Machine. (2) In addition, we would like to invite colleagues to present their research and projects in the field of big data & cultural heritage (?), thus giving the audience of the Round Table the opportunity to get an idea of technologies, innovative methods and use cases. Finally, (3) we would like to invite audience to provide feedback to prioritize actions and research priorities for the next stage of the Time Machine as a 10-year large scale research initiative.

Your contribution: We would like to invite researchers and innovators to present about their research concerning big data & cultural heritage. Possible contributions may address e.g.:

  • Technologies: How to create & combine digital data on a large scale by using Big Data & AI technologies?
  • Methodology: How to do humanities research by using big data technologies?
  • Outreach: What are heritage driven research perspectives and business models?

Submission (open April 15, 2020)
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