Prof. Barbara Hammer Joins Ministry Delegation on Trip to Washington D.C. & Pittsburgh as AI Expert

From March 8–14, 2026, Prof. Barbara Hammer, head of the SAIL Research Network, joined Minister Ina Brandes and a high-level delegation from the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW) as AI expert on a trip to Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh under the theme: “AI in Education and AI for a Successful Transformation”.

In Washington D.C., the program featured exchanges with leading institutions working at the intersection of AI, policy, and society, such as the National Science Foundation or the Trustworthy AI Initiative at George Washington University. In Pittsburgh, the delegation visited Carnegie Mellon University, one of the world’s leading institutions in AI research and education. The delegation also met with members of industry, such as Microsoft or Bosch’s Center for AI, to learn more about industrial applications in the U.S.

For OWL, the take-away is that research in Washington and Pittsburgh is very much aligned with what we do in the east of NRW: focusing on a socio-technical eco system and diverse AI methods rather than large foundation models only, understanding the key role of human-centered design for a sustainable transition of society, appreciating the relevance of edge computing for industrial applications and its potential for crucial application areas including education. Despite the geographic distance across the Atlantic, one could almost feel at home in Washington and Pittsburgh.