CV Tag: ELLIS Institute Tübingen

  • Principal Investigator Positions as Hector Endowed Fellows

    The ELLIS Institute in Tübingen, Germany, invites applications for Principal Investigator positions as Hector Endowed Fellows of the ELLIS Institute Tübingen.

    ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems) is a pan-European AI network of excellence. It builds upon machine learning as the driver for modern AI and aims to secure lasting international leadership of AI made in Europe by connecting top researchers in this field and by creating a multi-centric AI research laboratory.

    As the first institute of the ELLIS network, the ELLIS Institute Tübingen is a hub for AI research, attracting top machine learning talent and providing excellent facilities on Tübingen’s vibrant, fast-growing campus. Founded in 2023 as a non-profit and supported by the Hector Foundation and the state of Baden-Württemberg, the Institute’s mission is to advance pioneering AI research that combines fundamental scientific excellence with societal relevance.

    The ELLIS Institute Tübingen maintains close ties to ELLIS and works alongside the Tübingen AI Center and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in the heart of Cyber Valley, where researchers, startups, and industry meet.

    The ELLIS Institute Tübingen is seeking new independent Principal Investigators to join its team of world-class researchers, with full academic freedom, no teaching, and minimal service obligations. As a privately funded institute, the ELLIS Institute offers globally competitive packages alongside substantial research budgets covering personnel, equipment, and operating costs. The Institute welcomes applications from all areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

    Positions are initially for six years and generally include an appointment as a Fellow or Scholar of the ELLIS Society.

    There is also the possibility of co-appointment as an Independent Research Group Leader with MPI-IS, one of Europe’s leading AI research institutes, including an additional research budget. A tenure-track option at MPI-IS exists for outstanding senior candidates. The positions allow co-appointment as a professor at the University of Tübingen (this requires a separate application to the full professor call, deadline 15 November).

    Both co-appointment options are part of the Tübingen AI Center, a joint research center of the University of Tübingen and the MPI-IS, supported by permanent government funding. Co-appointed Principal Investigators benefit from the extensive resources and vibrant intellectual environment of the Tübingen AI Center, which currently hosts seventeen full professors and is actively expanding.

    Diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental values at the Institute and integral to its recruitment process. The Institute strives to foster an intellectually diverse environment where all qualified applicants receive equal consideration, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or age. It especially encourages applications from groups and research areas that are underrepresented in the Institute’s community.

    Candidates should hold a PhD or an equivalent international degree. Applications must include a research statement (up to three pages) detailing past accomplishments and future scientific plans, as well as an academic CV including a publication list. All materials should be submitted in English as a single PDF file via the online application system.

    In addition, the ELLIS Institute requires reference letters to be submitted directly by the referees. After registering in the online application system, you will receive detailed instructions on how these letters should be sent.

    To receive full consideration, applications must be submitted by December 13, 2026.

    Important Dates

    • December 13, 2026—Application deadline
    • March 8–9 2027—On-site talks in Tübingen, Germany
    • April 2027—Final decisions

    If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email applications-pi@tue.ellis.eu.

  • Three start-ups join the Cyber Valley Start-up Network

    Three start-ups join the Cyber Valley Start-up Network

    The Cyber Valley Start-up Network is expanding, admitting three new members: Feyer, Ontic Labs, and oneAI. These start-ups are using bold ideas and groundbreaking technologies to shape the future of AI and robotics in Baden-Württemberg.

    Feyer

    Feyer is building a European frontier AI lab for automated physical invention. The team develops AI systems designed to explore complex physical design spaces and create new technological solutions, with potential applications across areas such as photonics, precision instrumentation, and quantum technologies.

    The company emerged from the research group of Mario Krenn, Professor at the Cluster of Excellence “Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science” at the University of Tübingen. The founding team consists of Jonathan Klimesch, Sören Arlt, and Mario Krenn and has already reached an exciting milestone: Feyer was selected as one of ten teams for the first stage of SPRIND’s Next Frontier AI Challenge, together with Ontic Labs.

    Ontic Labs

    Ontic Labs is building a foundation model for physical intelligence, giving machines a working understanding of how the physical world behaves.

    The Tübingen-based startup develops physics-aware world models that enable machines and robots to perceive, predict, and act in complex real-world environments. Its approach brings states, actions, and sensor data into a shared representation, allowing physical properties such as contact, forces, and object coherence to emerge from training rather than being manually programmed. The goal: a single world model that can transfer across robots, embodiments, tasks, and environments.

    Founded by Omid Taheri, Mikel Zhobro, Georg Martius, Wieland Brendel, and Gerard Pons-Moll, Ontic Labs brings together expertise from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the University of Tübingen, the Tübingen AI Center, and the ELLIS Institute Tübingen. The team was also selected as one of ten teams in SPRIND’s Next Frontier AI Challenge.

    SPRIND’s Next Frontier AI Challenge

    The two start-ups from Tübingen are among just ten teams across Europe that have been selected and will receive €3 million to develop technologies beyond today’s AI models. Of the three selected teams from Germany, two originate from the Cyber Valley ecosystem in Baden-Württemberg as spin-outs from several of Cyber Valley’s academic partners, including the ELLIS Institute Tübingen, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen AI Center, and the University of Tübingen. Their success highlights the growing momentum with which AI research is being translated into innovative companies and how excellent AI research from Baden-Württemberg is playing a key role in the European race for frontier AI models.

    Read more about the success story here:
    https://cyber-valley.de/en/news/two-cyber-valley-start-ups-selected-to-shape-europe-s-frontier-ai-future

    oneAI

    As AI adoption accelerates across organizations, questions around governance, security, compliance, and control are becoming increasingly important. oneAI is addressing exactly this challenge: enabling companies and public organizations to use AI securely, transparently, and in compliance with regulatory requirements.

    The start-up is a spin-out from relyon AG, already part of the Cyber Valley Corporate Network, demonstrating Baden-Württemberg’s powerful research-to-innovation pipeline. Mirko Tochtermann, Founder & CTO of oneAI, shared his perspective on secure AI adoption and governance at one of our latest Cyber Valley IMPULSE events.

    The research-to-market journeys of these start-ups highlight how transferring academic expertise into application leads to tangible impact, powering industry and driving Europe’s sustainable future. Cyber Valley is delighted to welcome these three start-ups to its community!

    The Cyber Valley Start-up Network

    The Cyber Valley Start-up Network brings together more than 100 innovative AI and robotics start-ups across Baden-Württemberg, forming a strong and growing entrepreneurial community within one of Europe’s leading AI and robotics ecosystems. The network spans a broad range of applications and industries, from foundational AI technologies to applied and industry-specific solutions. Connected through their close ties to Cyber Valley, members benefit from access to world-class research, industry partners, investors, and public stakeholders, jointly strengthening the region’s AI and robotics ecosystem.

  • Tübingen AI Summer Poster Event 2025

    Tübingen AI Summer Poster Event 2025

     

    This event at the Tübingen AI Center will spotlight recent machine learning papers published in top-tier venues. You are invited to present your poster if your paper has been accepted at one of the following conferences since December 2024:

    NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, JMLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, IJCV, PAMI, RSS, CoRL, TRO, IJRR, Science Robotics, ACL, EMNLP, KDD, AAAI, IJCAI, COLT, UAI, AAMAS, AISTATS, TACL, SIGIR, WSDM, ACM Multimedia, SIGGRAPH, KDD, ACM FAccT

    Otherwise, join to mingle, exchange, and wrap up the day with drinks and snacks! 

     

    When?

    Friday, July 11
    14:00–18:00

     

    Where?

    Tübingen AI Research Building, ground floor coffee lounge
    Maria-von-Linden-Straße 6, 72076 Tübingen

     

    Register

    Register here if you'd like to attend or present a poster.

  • AutoML School 2025

    AutoML School 2025

     

    Scope

    AutoML has become a cornerstone in the toolkit of many developers and researchers. With the rise of foundation models, AutoML's potential has expanded even further, enabling smarter, more powerful, and scalable solutions. Although there is exponentially growing interest in the intersection of AutoML and foundation models, they are rarely taught at universities, leaving a significant gap between cutting-edge research and disseminated knowledge. This school consists of introductory, state-of-the-art, and application lectures for AutoML and Foundation Models covering core topics such as:

    • Hyperparameter optimization and model selection

    • Applying and scaling foundation models

    • Automated model compression, and pruning

    • LLMs for efficient experimentation

    • Explainability methods

    • … and many more (stay tuned while we assemble our schedule)

     

    Target Group

    The AutoML School is a yearly research training event tailored for graduate and postgraduate students, research engineers, and industry practitioners who want to learn about AutoML. However, there are no formal prerequisites, and everyone is welcome.

     

    Date

    June 10–13, 2025

     

    Venue

    Tübingen, Germany

    Registration Link

    Registration Infos | Schedule

  • Antonio Orvieto

    Dr. Antonio Orvieto

  • ELLIS PhD Program 2025: Call for Applications

    ELLIS PhD Program 2025: Call for Applications

    About the program

    The ELLIS PhD program is designed for outstanding students interested in conducting high-impact research in AI, machine learning, and related areas, including computer vision, robotics, and computational neuroscience.

    The program offers students the chance to work with leading researchers at top European academic institutions and industrial partners, while benefiting from the collaborative environment fostered by ELLIS. The program emphasizes both scientific excellence and ethical AI, encouraging students to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in AI development.

    How to apply? 

    Applications for the ELLIS PhD program opens in October and will be accepted until November 15, 2024, 23:59 CET. The application should be submitted via the ELLIS application portal. 

    Applicants are encouraged to carefully read the instructions and eligibility criteria available on the ELLIS website before submitting their application.

    Interested?

    For more detailed information, please visit the ELLIS PhD Program website. 

  • Excellence meets capital: Deep Tech & Investor Day brings AI start-ups and investors together

    Excellence meets capital: Deep Tech & Investor Day brings AI start-ups and investors together

    Stuttgart, June 20, 2024 – On the second day of the Cyber Valley Days, the Deep Tech & Investor Day is dedicated to the financing of AI companies. By fostering connections between start-ups and investors, Cyber Valley supports the development of Baden-Württemberg as a hub for technology transfer. It aims to bring decisive innovations in AI into application. One of the day’s highlights is the scientific symposium of the first ELLIS Institute in Tübingen. 


    Cyber Valley builds bridges between investors and entrepreneurs  

    “We don't just want to conduct outstanding research – we also want to put it into practice and thus help shape our future as a business location. With the Investor Day, we are connecting visionary ideas with the necessary capital to bring innovation into application,” says Rebecca C. Reisch, Managing Director of Cyber Valley GmbH.

    For investors, the day offers the opportunity to network with the most innovative AI start-ups with roots predominantly in the excellent research of the Cyber Valley Community and are looking for strategic partnerships for further development and market implementation.  

    “We started working with selected investors around five years ago. These included Atlantic Labs from Berlin, Grazia from Stuttgart and IT Farm from Tokyo. This has now resulted in a community of early-stage companies all the way through to companies that are becoming SMEs and hidden champions. They benefit from the close connection to our Cyber Valley Investor Network – and vice versa, more and more investors are also looking at our start-ups,” says Alex Diehl, Investor and Cyber Valley Senior Advisor. “We think that the number of start-ups will continue to grow in the future thanks to our AI Incubator. The quality is also increasing as a result of our growing international network.”

    Yann LeCun and other world-leading AI researchers visit Tübingen  

    One of the day’s highlights is the scientific symposium organized by the first ELLIS Institute in Tübingen, the new center for basic AI research. ELLIS stands for “European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems”, and the institute is the lighthouse project of the Europe-wide network for artificial intelligence. Internationally renowned AI experts such as Yann LeCun and Max Welling will provide an insight into the AI research of the future. “The ELLIS Institute will continue to advance modern AI in Tübingen, while being embedded in European values. We want to attract the best talent and build a special place together,” says Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schölkopf, Scientific Director of the ELLIS Institute.

    Cyber Valley Days are a three-day event in Stuttgart and Tübingen from June 19 to 21, 2024 to celebrate the Cyber Valley Community. The program focuses on entrepreneurship and scientific innovation in artificial intelligence and modern robotics from Baden-Württemberg. 

    Information about Cyber Valley Days

    cyber-valley.de/cyber-valley-days 

    About Cyber Valley 

    Cyber Valley is Europe’s largest and leading center for excellence in artificial intelligence and modern robotics. Its mission and public mandate are to advocate for the research, development, application, and acceptance of technologies and methods in the field of intelligent systems. Cyber Valley encourages entrepreneurship by uniting scientific excellence with innovation and technology transfer. In addition, Cyber Valley facilitates critical reflection on the ethical and social implications of AI through public engagement. Cyber Valley envisions a future in which the full potential of intelligent systems is leveraged for the greater good of the world.    

    About the ELLIS Institute Tübingen 

    The ELLIS Institute is set to become a world-renowned center for pioneering basic research in the field of artificial intelligence. The Institute aims to attract the world's best machine learning talent, providing them with outstanding conditions to conduct research in a state-of-the-art facility located in Tübingen, Germany. The vision is part of a broader initiative, the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), which aims to build a pan-European institution for machine learning research.

    Media Contact 

    Rebecca Beiter  
    Rebecca.beiter@cyber-valley.de  
    +49 (0) 160 9448 1797

  • Almost 70 AI spin-offs: Cyber Valley’s Start-up Network continues to grow 

    Almost 70 AI spin-offs: Cyber Valley’s Start-up Network continues to grow 

    Stuttgart, 14. Juni 2024 – A unique community for start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged around the Cyber Valley. The Cyber Valley Start-up Network supports founders in the state to transfer AI research into applications. The model is extremely successful: many of its 67 start-ups to date have raised millions from international investors. At Cyber Valley Days, which is taking placefrom June 19 to 21, start-ups from the network will introduce themselves and present current AI trends. June 21 marks the beginning of a new phase of the Cyber Valley. During a ceremonial event, the first ELLIS Institute in Europe will be opened by Minister President Winfried Kretschmann and Science Minister Petra Olschowski. 

    “Start-ups are generators and drivers of innovation. They bring AI applications into society – from healthcare to mobility and agriculture,” said Science Minister Petra Olschowski on June 14 in Stuttgart. “Our Cyber Valley innovation campus offers founders optimal conditions: every month, three to five new start-ups join the network – including start-ups by AI researchers, but also existing new companies. With their innovative strength, these entrepreneurs are further strengthening Baden-Württemberg as a center of research and business. As the Ministry of Science, we helped to initiate the founding of Cyber Valley; and we will continue to support our AI innovation campus to the best of our ability in the future.” 

    Baden-Württemberg as the location for AI start-ups 

    “Artificial intelligence is complex and extremely fast-paced in its application. Those who want to start a business can develop their ideas wherever they find the best conditions – including an international and thematically diverse environment, access to computing power, and start-up capital. In other words, where the future is already being created, such as at the excellent science locations in Baden-Württemberg,” said Rebecca C. Reisch, Managing Director of Cyber Valley GmbH.  
     
    As a supplement to the Cyber Valley Start-up Network, the AI Incubator supports those interested in setting up a business in the Cyber Valley innovation campus environment. Over the course of eight weeks, participants learn how to expand their business models and successfully launch them on the market supported by experienced entrepreneurs and start-up coaches. The fourth cohort of 25 founders is currently going through the program. The AI Incubator is funded by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung.  
     
    “AI will rapidly change the way we work, communicate, learn, or play – and Germany must be at the forefront of this change to maintain our quality of life. This change will be driven by innovative start-ups. Cyber Valley's mission is to create the basis for scientific breakthroughs and to support start-ups that will lead the AI future,” says Michael Black, spokesperson for Cyber Valley and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen. 

     

    Millions invested in AI start-ups: three examples 

    Cyber Valley's AI start-ups are successful with investors:

    • In 2023, NEURA Robotics, a supplier of innovative cognitive robots, raised €65 million in two financing rounds.
    • The Esslingen-based start-up MARKT-PILOT developed a solution for dynamic and market-oriented spare parts pricing. To mark its fourth anniversary, the company announced one of the largest Series A financing rounds with 40 million euros.
    • Octomind, an AI-based end-to-end testing platform for development teams, recently received €4.8 million in seed capital. 

     

    Cyber Valley Days 2024: June 19 to 21 

    The network's almost 70 start-ups are active in a wide range of industries – including the healthcare sector, construction industry, in the field of mobility, and agriculture. This diversity will be highlighted at the Cyber Valley Days, a three-day event from June 19 to 21. The program focuses on entrepreneurship and scientific innovation in artificial intelligence and modern robotics. On Wednesday, June 19, start-ups and other members of the Cyber Valley Community will present in Stuttgart. Afterwards, the teams of the AI Incubator will pitch their AI business ideas to potential investors.   
     
    At the final on June 21, the new ELLIS Institute Tübingen of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) will be opened in the presence of Minister President Winfried Kretschmann and Science Minister Petra Olschowski. This first ELLIS institute in Europe will further strengthen the Cyber Valley innovation campus as an internationally visible beacon for research into artificial intelligence. The world's most talented AI researchers will be able to advance their ideas and developments in an optimal environment. The opening of the ELLIS Institute also marks the beginning of the next phase of the Cyber Valley Innovation Campus. 
     
    Cyber Valley is the country's first innovation campus, located in the Stuttgart/Tübingen region. Cyber Valley was launched in 2016 as a joint initiative of the state, science, and industry. Its aim is to put Baden-Württemberg at the forefront of AI. The innovation campus combines excellent basic research and practical application. The scientific backbone is formed by three academic founding partners: the Universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. There are also other established partners from business and research. 
      
     

    Information about Cyber Valley Days:  

    cyber-valley.de/cyber-valley-days 

    Registration

    for the Start-up Expo on Wednesday, June 19, at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart: shorturl.at/euuwd 
     
    Registration for media representatives for the ceremony and opening of ELLIS on Friday, June 21, via
    Rebecca Beiter, Director Communications & Society Cyber Valley GmbH
    0160/9448 1797
    Rebecca.beiter@cyber-valley.de 
     

    Further information 
     

    About Cyber Valley    

    Cyber Valley is Europe’s largest and leading center for excellence in artificial intelligence and modern robotics. Its mission and public mandate are to advocate for research, development, application, and acceptance of technologies and methods in the field of intelligent systems. Cyber Valley encourages entrepreneurship by uniting scientific excellence with innovation and technology transfer. In addition, Cyber Valley facilitates critical reflection on the ethical and social implications of AI through public engagement. Cyber Valley envisions a future in which the full potential of intelligent systems is leveraged for the greater good of the world.  

     

    About the Cyber Valley Start-up Network   

    The Cyber Valley Start-up Network builds and promotes a vibrant community of AI entrepreneurs. Members get access to exclusive events and a diverse network of AI researchers, investors, and other start-up founders. The prerequisite for membership is a connection to Cyber Valley, such as being members or alumni of the Cyber Valley Community, or a location in Baden-Württemberg. The business models must have intelligent systems at their core.
    Further information: cyber-valley.de/start-up-network.