Computers Events in Graz

Graz Systems & Vision Forum: Beyond Mobility and Into Intelligent Systems

The Graz Systems & Vision Forum (GSVF) is entering a new chapter by expanding its traditional mobility focus into a much broader discussion about intelligent, interconnected, and resilient technologies. Starting in 2026, the event evolves from the Graz Smart Vehicle Forum into the Graz Systems & Vision Forum under the theme “Beyond Mobility.” The updated format extends established expertise in smart vehicles, system integration, and virtual validation toward fields including defense, health technology, and AI-driven ecosystems. 

This change reflects an important development in modern engineering. Technologies originally created for vehicles increasingly have applications far beyond transportation. Software, artificial intelligence, data-driven systems, digital models, and advanced validation methods can support many types of complex infrastructure. The new GSVF format creates a space to examine these connections and ask how knowledge developed in one sector can contribute to progress in another.

The forum is particularly relevant because today's intelligent systems rarely operate in isolation. Vehicles, medical technologies, industrial platforms, communication networks, and security systems increasingly depend on combinations of hardware, software, sensors, data, and AI. Making these systems useful is only part of the challenge; they must also be reliable, secure, sustainable, and capable of operating in environments where failure can have serious consequences.

From smart vehicles to software-defined mobility

One of the key themes of the expanded forum is software-defined mobility. The concept represents a significant change in how transportation systems are developed and operated. Instead of treating a vehicle primarily as a fixed physical product, software-defined approaches emphasize software, data, connectivity, and continuous improvement. Vehicles and other complex mobility systems can increasingly be updated, adapted, and enhanced throughout their operational lives.

This transition creates new engineering requirements. Development teams need to manage increasingly complex software architectures while ensuring that systems continue to meet demanding standards for safety, security, performance, and reliability. Testing and validation become essential because changes made in one part of a highly interconnected system can have unexpected consequences elsewhere.

The GSVF's history provides a strong foundation for these discussions. Earlier editions focused on system integration and virtual vehicle validation, reflecting the industry's movement toward increasingly complex vehicle functions and development processes. Topics such as model-based systems engineering, engineering automation, cloud and edge architectures, machine learning, data analytics, and virtual validation were already part of the forum's technical scope. 

The new format builds on that foundation rather than abandoning it. Instead, it asks a broader question: where else can these capabilities be applied, and what can other industries learn from the experience of mobility engineering?

Cross-sector technology transfer becomes a central theme

The move “Beyond Mobility” recognizes that many technological challenges are shared across sectors. A system designed to manage complex interactions in transportation may offer useful concepts for medical technology or defense applications. Similarly, methods developed for secure and reliable software systems can potentially contribute to other mission-critical environments.

The forum therefore encourages participants to consider both the opportunities and the limits of technology transfer. Moving a solution from one sector to another is rarely a matter of copying it directly. Different industries have different regulations, safety requirements, operating conditions, ethical considerations, and expectations. Successful transfer requires adaptation and a careful understanding of the environment in which a technology will be used.

Among the questions highlighted by the new forum format are how technologies and insights from mobility can be transferred effectively into health and defense, where genuine dual-use potential exists, and where clear boundaries may be necessary. These questions place technical innovation alongside responsibility and governance. 

Several principles are particularly important in this cross-sector approach:

Transfer knowledge, not assumptions: Technologies should be adapted to the requirements of their new application.
Consider safety from the beginning: Mission-critical systems need rigorous approaches to reliability, validation, and risk management.
Identify genuine dual-use opportunities: Civilian technologies may offer valuable capabilities in other sectors, but their potential consequences must also be assessed.
Protect security and trust: Connected intelligent systems need appropriate cybersecurity and data protection measures.
Build interdisciplinary partnerships: Progress often depends on cooperation between researchers, engineers, companies, and public institutions.

This broader perspective gives the forum a role beyond conventional mobility research. It becomes a meeting point for professionals interested in how intelligent systems can support society across multiple domains.

Defense and security in an era of intelligent technologies

Defense and security form one of the newly emphasized areas of the Graz Systems & Vision Forum. The increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, sensing technologies, communications, and data processing has created new possibilities for security applications. At the same time, these technologies introduce complex questions about reliability, cybersecurity, responsible use, and the boundaries between civilian and defense applications.

The forum provides an opportunity to examine these subjects from a technological and systems perspective. Civilian research can sometimes produce capabilities that have applications in defense, while technologies developed for demanding security environments may eventually find useful applications elsewhere. Understanding these relationships requires dialogue between specialists who may traditionally work in separate communities.

This is particularly relevant to Europe, where resilience and technological capability are increasingly viewed as interconnected priorities. A secure technological ecosystem requires not only advanced tools but also the ability to develop, validate, maintain, and protect them. Research institutions and industrial partners therefore have an important role in building capabilities that are both innovative and dependable.

Health-Tech brings intelligent systems into medicine

Health-Tech is another important part of the expanded GSVF. Medical technology is becoming increasingly dependent on sophisticated digital systems, artificial intelligence, advanced sensing, data analysis, and reliable software. These developments can support diagnosis, monitoring, medical devices, and other areas in which technology interacts directly with human health.

However, health applications also demonstrate why system reliability matters. A software error or incorrect interpretation of data can have consequences that are very different from those associated with an ordinary consumer application. Technologies used in medical environments therefore require careful validation, appropriate risk assessment, and a strong understanding of the conditions in which they operate.

The connection with mobility research is especially interesting here. Techniques for modeling complex systems, testing software virtually, analyzing data, and validating interconnected components can potentially provide useful foundations for medical applications. The challenge is to adapt these approaches to healthcare requirements while respecting clinical, regulatory, and ethical considerations.

AI-driven ecosystems for a resilient future

Artificial intelligence provides a thread connecting many of the forum's themes. AI is increasingly becoming part of complex systems rather than functioning as a standalone technology. It can influence how vehicles operate, how infrastructure is managed, how medical information is analyzed, and how security systems respond to changing conditions.

The GSVF places this development within the broader idea of AI-driven ecosystems. The objective is not simply to create systems that are intelligent, but to develop ecosystems that are sustainable, secure, and capable of responding to future challenges. That requires attention to the relationships between technology, people, infrastructure, data, energy use, and environmental impact.

An intelligent system that performs well but cannot be trusted, secured, maintained, or operated sustainably is unlikely to provide lasting value. The future therefore depends on balancing several objectives at once. The forum's “Beyond Mobility” approach encourages participants to explore precisely these connections.

Looking beyond mobility toward intelligent, secure systems

The Graz Systems & Vision Forum's transformation is ultimately about recognizing that mobility is only one part of a much larger technological landscape. The engineering challenges first encountered in increasingly complex vehicles software integration, virtual validation, data management, AI, system reliability, and cybersecurity are now relevant to many other fields.

By expanding into defense and security, health technology, and AI-driven ecosystems, the forum creates a broader platform for examining these shared challenges. Its “Beyond Mobility” theme encourages participants to consider not only what technologies can do, but also where they should be applied, how they should be validated, and what conditions are necessary for them to remain trustworthy.

The event is therefore well positioned to become a meeting place for professionals working at the intersection of software, artificial intelligence, systems engineering, and mission-critical applications. Its new direction reflects a world in which technological boundaries are becoming less rigid and interdisciplinary cooperation is increasingly necessary.

The future of intelligent systems will not be defined by one industry alone. Advances in mobility can influence healthcare and defense, while developments in those fields can contribute ideas to transportation and other civilian applications. The important task is to create responsible pathways for this exchange.

That is the opportunity presented by the Graz Systems & Vision Forum. By moving “Beyond Mobility,” the event opens the door to a wider conversation about how software-defined technologies, artificial intelligence, advanced systems engineering, and cross-sector innovation can contribute to a future that is smarter, more sustainable, and more secure.