How can digital innovation be combined with social responsibility? With this guiding question, more than 280 students from 30 universities launched into the sixth Digital Future Challenge of Initiative D21 and the Deloitte Foundation. This year's competition focused on concrete use cases involving robotics and AI agents. The TUM team "RollsRoICE" made it to the final and convinced the jury, ultimately achieving third place.
Phil Dera Photography "We are seeing a generation that does not simply adopt technologies from abroad, but develops its own solutions - based on our values and ideas," summarized Karsten Wildberger, Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation and patron of the Digital Future Challenge. This was precisely the aim of the competition: to design technologically sophisticated yet responsible applications that balance ethical standards with technical feasibility.
More safety in rail operations
A total of 89 teams from 30 universities took on this challenge. Of the four TUM teams in the semifinals, two reached the group of the top five:
"Lioness & the Three Lions," the team of Berkay Cetingül, Matteo Cominardi, Wladimir Kirjanovs, and Sofiia Yevseyeva, worked on a use case from ING Germany and developed a financial literacy agent that playfully conveys financial knowledge to young people and adults.
"RollsRoICE" even was able to secure a place on the podium. The team of Rufus Funkert, Pasha Rizali, and Carol Stefan tackled a use case from Deutsche Bahn and developed a mini‑robot that independently connects and disconnects the water and wastewater systems along the entire length of an ICE train. The robot thus takes over a previously time‑consuming and potentially hazardous task and supports employees in maintaining high safety standards. A detailed training concept and the continued payment of risk allowances are intended to strengthen employee acceptance of the new maintenance process. The jury recognized this combination of technological and social innovation with third place and a prize of 2,500 euros.
First place went to the team "Ankommen" from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Regensburg, followed by the KIT team "Sprout" in second place.
Project-based learning
Both TUM finalist teams developed their ideas within the seminar "CDR: Digital Future Challenge - Responsible AI" at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, led by Katharina Göttler. In interdisciplinary teams, the students addressed questions related to the digitalization of the working world and society - always with the goal of "designing solutions that combine technological innovation with social responsibility," as Marc Reinhardt, President of Initiative D21, described the objective of the Digital Future Challenge 2026. The renewed success of TUM students illustrates how well this works.
