We are excited to make the serious game for female founders generally available through our KITE project! In the game, you can practice typical situations in the startup process: conversations with banks, investors, landlords, or during fee negotiations. Integrated artificial intelligence analyzes the dialogues, identifies discriminatory patterns, and provides personalized feedback. This creates a space for reflection, self-confidence, and confidence in taking action that goes beyond traditional training formats!

In late June 2025, the team from the Lab for Social Informatics presented numerous papers at the international conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Gothenburg, Sweden. The presentations and publications demonstrate the wide range of methods used in both academia and practice to implement, research, and embed fairness, equality, and social responsibility in the development and design of technological solutions.

As an expert at the German Commission for UNESCO, Nicola Marsden contributed to the action plan on artificial intelligence as an opportunity for greater gender equality. The German Commission for UNESCO has now published an interview with Nicola Marsden in its yearbook (pages 77–78). The focus is on the importance of access, participation, and fairness: the opportunities for shaping the world of tomorrow, but also the risks if we do not control the data or the authority to interpret it. 

AI Campus Stage: AI & Technology Interview with Nicola Marsden (Heilbronn University) as part of the University:Future Festival (U:FF), which took place from April 26 to 28, 2023, under the theme “Heads Up!”

Karen Holtzblatt and Nicola Marsden wrote "Retaining Women in Tech, Shifting the Paradigm" to help teams and organizations create an environment where #WomenInTech can thrive. So this isn't about "fixing" women, but rather about improving teams and organizations by optimizing practices and processes.

AI and Sexism: Artificial intelligence can put women at a disadvantage. But there has never been a better time for women to enter the AI field, says Nicola Marsden in an interview on the Baden-Württemberg state portal “Women and Careers.”

Over the course of five years, MAKEitREAL—a mobile makerspace for girls from immigrant backgrounds—conducted mobile STEM workshops in various community settings and provided scientific support for these initiatives. The experiences and insights gained from this work have now been compiled into recommendations for designing technology-related educational programs in community settings.

SWR featured the MAKEitREAL project in a report. The report focuses on how girls aged 10 to 16 are being inspired by creative hands-on activities in technology, computer science, and the natural sciences. The report has been broadcast several times and is now also available online.

Nicola Marsden heads the Heilbronn real-world lab for the EU project GILL. The project aims to increase women’s participation in a wide range of fields. Why focus on women, and how does that even work?

The majority of the audience at the ZEF research colloquium on "Acceptance of Autonomous Shuttles and Vehicles" believed that people have a greater influence on our behavior. Nevertheless, existing acceptance models do not sufficiently account for social factors—that is, other people and groups. At the Lab for Social Informatics, we are working on an approach to change this and have introduced the Stereotype Content Model into acceptance research on autonomous vehicles.

At the University:Future Festival (U:FF 2023), Nicola Marsden participated in a panel discussion on how to develop AI competencies and the necessary dialogue and collaboration frameworks for designing appropriate AI learning programs.

In June 2024, the Lab for Social Informatics participated in the symposium “Girls in Action! – Strengthening Girls’ Programs Through STEM & Making in Educational Work” in Bonn. Nicole Dierolf delivered a keynote speech on gender-sensitive STEM promotion and presented the MAKEitREAL project. In a subsequent workshop, practical approaches for professionals to design sustainable STEM programs for girls were discussed.

Following the course on the basic framework model and team practices for socially responsible AI design, our third AI-Campus course on specific methods for reducing bias—part of the fair.impact project—is now available. Five knowledge nuggets provide insight into ways to identify and avoid stereotypical biases at various levels. These range from prompting techniques to iterative processes within organizational culture.

On the Bechtle podcast New Horizons, Prof. Dr. Nicola Marsden, head of the Laboratory for Social Informatics at Heilbronn University, discusses the potential of artificial intelligence to promote gender equality. She explains the conditions companies need to create, why diversity is essential in technology development—and how role models and leaders can help shape this change.

New Horizons is Bechtle’s podcast on the future—featuring exciting guests such as Franzi Kühne, Sascha Lobo, and now Nicola Marsden.

AI can be discriminatory, but it can also make the world a fairer place. At the Lab for Social Informatics, we’re working to ensure that AI promotes gender equality. For example, at the AI Campus Hub BW through the fair.impact project, where we support the development of fair AI systems. Or with the game KITE II, in which AI helps identify and combat discrimination against female founders.

Photo: 42 Heilbronn gGmbH Nico Kurth

Dr. Nicola Marsden is a professor of social informatics at Heilbronn University and has been conducting research on gender and IT for many years. Bechtle spoke with her about women in the IT industry and what companies can do to promote greater gender equality.

Opening of the Urban Innovation Hub Heilbronn—where research in Heilbronn is brought to life, right in the heart of the pedestrian zone. The Lab for Social Informatics is there, making participatory research an interactive experience.

In an interview with the Usability Competence Center, Nicola Marsden explains how careful use of methodology can help promote greater gender equality in companies.