Wilo Global WATER AI Academy Connects Water and AI Expertise Worldwide

The first partnership of the new institution is aimed at students and experts: Together with the internationally recognised Heriot-Watt University, the Global WATER AI Academy is designing an educational offer that is accredited in the international higher education system.

“The establishment of the Global WATER AI Academy consistently follows our overarching sustainability strategy,” says Oliver Hermes, President & Global CEO of the Wilo Group. “We are improving the quality of people’s lives around the world by systematically merging water technology and AI.” This approach is expressed in the guiding principle WATER AI – Wilo's answer to the AI age. “We're talking about the three Es: Embed, Enable, Embrace. We embed AI into our solutions, which in turn creates a lasting impact in the market. This also includes enabling the entire AI value chain. And of course, we at Wilo embrace AI in our daily work.”

Specifically, Wilo's sustainable and AI-integrated solutions support the development of smart and water-efficient urban regions, according to the Wilo CEO. In addition, access to clean water will be controlled more intelligently – and thus improved. Food security is also increasing, for example, through digital solutions in agricultural irrigation. “Healthcare will also be improved by the use of AI in water technology. And finally, the digital and AI age itself depends on smart water technologies: We enable the infrastructures of the AI economy to be water-efficient,” says Oliver Hermes. “Our strategic guiding principle, WATER AI, follows exactly this insight: A sustainable future is only possible if we think of water and AI together.”

Heriot-Watt University (HWU) is a public university headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, with international campuses in Dubai and Malaysia. More than 20 years ago, it was the first foreign university to establish a campus in Dubai. HWU Dubai and the Wilo Group, whose regional headquarters for the AMEA region and a recently expanded Green Fab are located in Dubai, can already look back on several years of successful partnership. The first jointly designed online module course is certificate-eligible and credit-point-based.

“We are delighted to have established this partnership with Wilo. Water and AI are two pillars of global progress, with both representing areas of internationally recognised expertise at Heriot-Watt University. Our online learning modules deliver a level of quality and engagement that sets a new benchmark for digital education. Each module is carefully crafted to combine academic rigour with an intuitive, user-friendly experience, ensuring that learners benefit from meaningful and impactful content in an engaging and exciting way,” says Professor Lynne Jack, Deputy Vice Principal at Heriot-Watt University Dubai.

“With the new Global WATER AI Academy, we embrace human-centred AI and AI partnerships. We are combining the most important resource of our planet with this future technology,” adds Wilo CEO Oliver Hermes. With its offer, the Academy looks to engage a broad group of pupils, trainees, students, career starters and experienced professionals – inside and outside Wilo. Although the Academy is managed from the Wilo Group's Dortmund headquarters, “it clearly seeks to establish a globally connected knowledge and innovation community. The same applies to the partner network, which is continuously being expanded and of course also benefits from the offers.”