What our future will bring seems more uncertain today than it was 25 years ago. Euphoria, but also pessimism, have given way to a diffuse feeling of over-information and both-All-All-All. In a world of highly dynamic, global and unfiltered communication, digital technology and technology are turning into a socio-economic dynamic that only visionaries could have predicted a quarter of a century ago and perhaps fanatics half a century ago.

Together with our partners, but also with our competitors, we are in the midst of a digital transformation. We are called upon to play an active role in shaping digital developments in the field of lightweight system construction to conserve resources. We must exploit the potential of digitization as quickly as possible and address its challenges in our own interest. Actors from science and industry are jointly challenged to align development and business processes accordingly, sometimes to completely rethink and redesign them.

The modern functional integrative lightweight system construction in multi-material design with the aim of achieving the highest resource efficiency in all stages of the product development process and the product life cycle is important here as an interdisciplinary bridge not only between the engineering sciences, but also to mathematics and the natural sciences as well as to computer science. Digital methods, both on the basis of physical and chemical models and with the aid of artificial intelligence, are indispensable tools for quickly deciphering the complex relationships between material and process parameters and the resulting component and system properties. Smart extensions allow components and processes to be networked and, to the benefit of all of us, accompanied by digital twins across the entire life cycle.

The aim of this Dresden lightweight construction symposium is both to briefly review what has been achieved on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Institute for Lightweight Construction and Plastics Technology and to shed light on the ongoing digital change from a historical perspective into the future. Digitalization brings people closer together through technology. This year we want to discuss how we can bring our technology closer to the people. Join us on a journey to new digital horizons!