How was the practice of arithmetic developed and spread during the transition between the Middle Ages and the Modern Period? We know a lot about the evolution of mathematical theory and its diffusion in Latin, but little about the way in which arithmetic knowledge spread in the vernaculars in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Translation and adaptation of arithmetic treatises and manuals provided access to mathematical knowledge for new groups of people, shaped the practices of reckoning, and opened new ways of teaching arithmetic skills to persons without higher education. These efforts also endowed European vernaculars with new linguistic forms of abstraction and thus enhanced their potential to serve as a tool in the modern scientific revolution. ARITHMETIC will study handwritten German arithmetic treatises from their first appearance around 1400 until the time when printed reckoning-books became easily available at the beginning of the 16th century. These texts have not been studied before, although they are important witnesses of the vernacularization of mathematical knowledge, of the interdependence of vernacular and Latin pragmatic literacy and of the links between mathematics, sciences, and commerce. The treatises will be transcribed, digitally edited, and analyzed from a historic, literary, and linguistic perspective. An ?Assertive Edition? relying on Semantic Enrichment will be one product of ARITHMETIC. A detailed linguistic analysis focusing on semantics, syntax, the vocabulary, and the transmission context will lead to the reconstruction of an arithmetic discourse, give information on the orality underlying didactic texts and allow tracing writers/compilers and users and their educational and social background. This research aims at a new understanding of how arithmetical knowledge and practices of calculation were transformed in Late Medieval Europe, and how an abstract and scientific language emerged in the German vernacular.

The digitization of higher education (HE) has become a vital necessity since the COVID-19 pandemic began and with it the HE sector has faced various challenges. As recent studies have shown, the majority of HETs were largely unprepared to make the shift to online teaching and had difficulties adapting to new teaching methodologies, modifying their course structure, arranging attractive digital learning environments, assessing student progress, keeping students motivated and engaging them online in a meaningful and pedagogical way. Higher education students (HESs) faced challenges as well. Due to teacher time constraints and lack of face-to-face engagement, students have received less personalized feedback and fewer assessments of their individual work thereby providing them with a low level of understanding of their learning progress. They also face multiple learning formats designed by teachers who haven’t been trained in online course design, making the materials ineffective in the digital space. With these challenges however, the HE sector also has great opportunity for growth. When implemented correctly, the advancements digital technology can be applied to HE so that the real requirements of HETs and HESs are met and common mistakes are avoided, mainly that digitization is not a solution in itself and it must be applied to competence-oriented and teaching and learning-centric needs. VISION has been designed with this consideration at the forefront.VISION will provide innovative online teaching and learning tools to HETs and HESs to meet individual learning requirements, accompany ongoing learning processes and make personalized learning the primary consideration in digital instruction in a pedagogically meaningful and competence-oriented way. This will be accomplished through three tools:1. A unique AI-based Smart Authoring Tool (The Vision) will be developed through which HETs can create interactive, visually and didactically valuable courses that promote personalized learning and can be integrated into any learning management system. 2. A course-specific Chatbot Tutor (The Visionary) will be produced to serve as a communication interface between students and teachers. It will supplement courses with automated academic-support addressing HESs’ distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, individual backgrounds and requirements. It will also link to the Smart-Authoring Tool to provide dynamic and personalized updates for each student. 3. An E-Course (The Visionar) will be developed so that teachers can easily understand and utilize the above-mentioned tools to develop professionally and facilitate quality online learning that meets their pedagogical needs. The digital skills strengthened through the VISION project will enhance the online teaching and learning experience for both HE students and teachers long-term, which is indispensable, especially in today’s uncertain times. HETs will learn to apply their digital competences in real life scenarios through a virtual environment, thereby significantly impacting the learning paths of their students, and they will gain a greater understanding of their students’ individual e-learning progress. HESs will benefit from personalized learning arrangements, accompanied learning processes, adaptive and student-oriented feedback and tutoring support as well as a dynamic digital learning environment. VISION is being executed by partners from Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, but its impact will extend beyond national boundaries and influence institutions of higher education transnationally. Identifying, assessing and sharing best practices, transferring knowledge, forging connections across countries and uniting the education sector will improve VISION’s ability to share what works in a truly global way - particularly in the post COVID-19 digital space, which is affected by constant innovation, changes and challenges worldwide.

<< Objectives >>Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the key technologies of digital transformation offering huge potential for all kinds of organizations. However, in contrast to large enterprises, SMEs lag behind as highly skilled experts are very scarce and AI use cases in SMEs are largely unknown. CoDeAI tackles this challenge by facilitating the collaboration between research institutions having the AI skills and transferring them to their students and SMEs having the need to build AI capabilities.<< Implementation >>CoDeAI aims at leveraging SMEs' AI-based innovation capability by investigating the AI deployment using recent productivity tools like AutoML and supporting the co-creation of AI-based data-driven business models. CoDeAI will implement technology feasibility studies with the goal of developing AI use cases and success stories for SMEs, investigating the knowledge demand of SMEs regarding the AI deployment using productivity tools and incorporating AI capabilities in universities’ curricula.<< Results >>CoDeAI extends the successful finished project VOIL: (1) The digital transformation toolkit is extended by the AI capability perspective and in particular the maturity assessment is extended by a benchlearning methodology for digitalization strategy. (2) The joint innovation space is extended to facilitate AI-based co-creation of innovations. The result will be an extended co-creation platform focusing on higher education and entrepreneurial learning and increasing AI capabilities for students.