JKU scholars from across all disciplines are conducting research focused on new innovations to make our lives better. Over the past years, the JKU has increasingly focused on Digital Transformation and Sustainable Development as two university-wide priorities. Research in these areas demands close and effective teamwork across multiple disciplines in an effort to create solutions that can address the complex challenges of our time.
 

A few successful JKU research accomplishments from the past few years:

• AI pioneer Sepp Hochreiter and his team won the 2024 Austrian Science Fund “Cluster of Excellence” for their research on “bilateral AI”. In 2023, two clusters of excellence involving the JKU were approved (“QuantA” to support quantum research with the JKU Institute of Semiconductor Physics, and a cluster to support research on microbiomes with the JKU Institute of Biophysics and the Department of Internal Medicine with a focus on Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the JKU’s Faculty of Medicine).
• In 2023, JKU researcher Richard Küng was presented with an ERC Starting Grant for his work in quantum research.
• Also, in 2023, JKU researcher Stephan Pühringer received an Austrian Science Fund START Prize in recognition of his project, “SETER”, focusing on sustainable socio-economic transitions.
• In 2021, under the leadership of Martina Seidl and Günter Klambauer, a team of JKU scholars and researchers used artificial intelligence to devise a method for flood prediction.
• Under the leadership of Martina Mara, researchers at the JKU LIT Robopsychology Lab have been studying human-robot the interaction for years. In 2023, they partnered with musician “Blonder Engel” to write a song about AI, aimed at raising more awareness on the subject.
• The LIT Open Innovation Center's test factory is exploring sustainable plastics that are intended to one day be fully recyclable.

Can a butterfly's fluttering wings trigger a tornado? Will your first car be an autonomous vehicle? Will you live in a society of new values and where everyone is equal? Will you earn a lot of money selling air conditioners on account of climate change? Will you build even more powerful machines that use less energy?

If you WANT TO LEARN MORE, the Johannes Kepler University Linz is Upper Austria's largest educational playground, offering around 100 academic degree programs and post-graduate courses. Choose your major now!

The JKU has a long tradition of conducting cutting-edge research and striving to learn more. A number of renowned trailblazers have left their mark at the university, driving advancements in Linz forward:
 

• 1969: The JKU launches Austria's first degree program in computer science
• 1990: The JKU introduces the world's first - and today's most comprehensive - degree program in Mechatronics
• 1992: The JKU welcomes the first Chair for Business Informatics in Austria - the birthplace of digital transformation
• 2019: The JKU creates of one Europe's first academic degree programs in Artificial Intelligence
• 2019: The JKU celebrates the Grand Opening of the LIT Open Innovation Center (OIC) & LIT Factory - a co-working space designed to support science, academia, business, industry, innovation, and entrepreneurship at the JKU

Digitalization and Digital Transformation at the JKU

Business Informatics, ArtificiaI Intelligence, Computer Science, Engineering and much more: Upper Austria's largest institution for education and research, the Johannes Kepler University Linz, is an exciting environment to explore future technologies! The university as a whole focuses on digitalization and digital transformation - almost all of our academic programs and subject areas include technology in an educational and professional capacity.