Donation to AEROSPACE LAB Herrenberg-Gäu
Another winner of the German Future Prize 2026, Kai Weeber, to hand over his prize money.
- 80,000 euros from the winnings of the German Future Prize 2025 will go to the AEROSPACE LAB e.V. youth research center in Herrenberg-Gäu.
- Prize winner Kai Weeber from Bosch Research is funding the “KODEX” project, which is addressing the importance of agent-based artificial intelligence (AI) for digital design and engineering processes.
Bosch researcher Kai Weeber, winner of the German Future Prize 2025, is now the second Bosch employee to donate his share of the prize money, amounting to 80,000 euros. His share will go to the AEROSPACE LAB e.V., the youth research center in Herrenberg-Gäu. At the end of 2025, the “German Future Prize — Prize of the Federal President for Technology and Innovation”, endowed with 250,000 euros, went to a three-person development team from Bosch for the development of a fuel cell drive system for commercial vehicles.
With his donation, Kai Weeber is supporting the future project “KODEX — AI-based Cooperative Digital Design and Engineering Experiments”, a project of the AEROSPACE LAB in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center Stuttgart. Here, pupils and students can explore new forms of cooperative, AI agent-based digital design and autonomous engineering processes. They will jointly investigate how AI tools can support the path from a text-based idea to the finished component. “It is particularly important to me that young people come into contact with technologies and methods that will be crucial for the tasks of future engineers,” says Kai Weeber. “Because students of today may be the researchers of tomorrow.”
During the handover ceremony on May 8, 2026, at the AEROSPACE LAB in Herrenberg, Weeber visited several laboratories and presented the donation in the presence of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heinz Voggenreiter, Director of the Institute of Structures and Design at the German Aerospace Center Stuttgart, and Sieglinde Berger, Head of the AEROSPACE LAB e.V. Youth Research Center Herrenberg-Gäu. “The AEROSPACE LAB Youth Research Center wants to get students excited about technology and science in the long term," said Sieglinde Berger. “Donations like the one from Kai Weeber help us set up new important topics for the future, such as AI, and further expand the necessary technical infrastructure, as well as procure software licenses and material.”
Since 2009, the AEROSPACE LAB Youth Research Center has been getting pupils and students excited about technology and science. Today, it offers around 180 young people and 50 supervisors the opportunity to get involved in engineering and science projects that focus on topics such as aerospace, mobility, robotics, and resource efficiency. Under professional guidance, they can participate in collaborations with universities, research institutions, and industry. They then present their results at trade fairs, conferences, competitions, or sponsoring companies.
Kai Weeber received the German Future Prize 2025 for Technology and Innovation in November 2025 together with his Bosch colleagues Christoffer Uhr and Pierre Andrieu for the development of the Fuel Cell Power Module (FCPM). Together with a large team, the engineers developed this fuel cell drive system for commercial vehicles at Robert Bosch GmbH and brought it into series production. The FCPM converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. This allows trucks worldwide to be powered electrically, even over long distances, and — if regeneratively produced hydrogen is used — completely CO₂-free.