Where technology can make a difference

Around 204,000 people in Saxony-Anhalt are in need of care - almost ten per cent of the population. This number is expected to rise further in the coming years. At the same time, there is a shortage of skilled professionals, particularly in nursing care.

The SCIDEA Lab Robotics and Digitalisation takes these challenges as a starting point. This could include assistive systems that take over routine tasks and ease the workload for care professionals, applications for prevention, diagnostics and therapy at home, or technologies that enable older people to live more independently.

Students and researchers can test technologies, explore their own questions and turn ideas into prototypes. There is no need to start with a fully developed business idea or research project. The lab is also open to anyone who simply wants to get to know the robotic systems and try them out.

Setting up the lab

The SCIDEA Lab is currently being set up and gradually equipped with robotic systems and other technologies. These will be available for experiments and for working on your own projects. Alongside this, we are developing events and workshops where participants can get to know the technology, exchange ideas across disciplines, use co-creative methods to develop new ideas or take their own approaches further.

The first workshops already took place during the summer semester. In a two-part series, participants worked directly with the humanoid service robot TIAGo. They learned the basics of the Robot Operating System (ROS), read sensor data and controlled the robot’s first movements. They then wrote their first Python programs, processed sensor data and tested their code directly on the robot.

Meet the SCIDEA Lab team 

Robert and Lauritz are the main contacts for the SCIDEA Lab at the Transfer and Entrepreneurship Office. Together, their work goes beyond the technical side of the lab: they guide participants as they experiment and develop their ideas, look at possible applications and needs, and connect them with relevant expertise or other contacts when needed.

Robert is responsible for the technical coordination of the lab. He studied Applied Computer Science at Merseburg University of Applied Sciences and began working with robotic systems in healthcare research while still a student. Among other things, he programmed the TIAGo and Spot robotic systems and was involved in testing TIAGo in a dialysis unit.

Lauritz brings his experience in psychology, public health and digital health applications to the SCIDEA Lab. He develops formats for students and researchers and helps them sharpen their questions and turn their ideas into more concrete concepts.

A joint project at MLU

The SCIDEA Lab brings together different perspectives. It is being developed in collaboration with the AG Versorgungsforschung | Pflege im Krankenhaus at the Faculty of Medicine, TPG – Innovationsregion für digitale Transformation der Pflege und Gesundheitsversorgung, and MLU’s Institutes of Computer Science and Information Systems. This brings together expertise in healthcare and nursing care with technological know-how – while remaining open to ideas and expertise from other disciplines.

The lab is based at two locations: the Maker and Education Lab of TPG | SCIDEA Lab in Halle city centre and the premises of the Transfer and Entrepreneurship Office at Hoher Weg. The development of the SCIDEA Lab is funded by the State of Saxony-Anhalt with almost €800,000 from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The SCIDEA Lab will officially open during MLU Startup Week in November 2026. Until then, the technical equipment and accompanying activities will continue to be expanded.

Want to get to know the SCIDEA Lab or work on a specific idea of your own? Find out more about the SCIDEA Lab Robotics