User Group: PhD Student

  • IMPRS-IS Call for Applications is Now Open

    IMPRS-IS Call for Applications is Now Open

    This school is a key element of Baden-Württemberg’s Cyber Valley initiative to accelerate basic research and commercial development in artificial intelligence and robotics. The program seeks students who want to earn a doctorate while contributing to world-leading research in areas such as:

     

    •  Artificial Intelligence

    •  Biomedical Technology

    •  Computational Cognitive Science

    •  Computer Vision and Graphics

    •  Control Systems and Optimization

    •  Data Science & Visualization

    •  Haptics and Human-Computer Interaction

    •  Machine Learning

    •  Micro- and Nano-Robotics

    •  Natural Language Processing

    •  Neuroscience

    •  Perceptual Inference

    •  Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction

    •  Soft Robotics and Materials

     

    Intelligent systems that can successfully perceive, act, and learn in complex environments hold great potential for aiding society. The IMPRS-IS program seeks doctoral students who are curious, creative, and passionate about research to join the school and help advance human knowledge about intelligent systems.

    • Admitted students can join the program starting in spring of 2025.

    • You will be mentored by internationally renowned faculty.

    • You will register as a university doctoral student and conduct research.

    • IMPRS-IS offers a wide variety of scientific seminars, workshops, and social activities.

    • All aspects of the program are in English.

    • Your doctoral degree will be conferred when you successfully complete your doctoral project.

    • Dedicated staff members will assist you throughout your time as a doctoral student.

     

    Who can apply?

    People with a strong academic background and a master’s degree (conferred or expected soon) in Engineering, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Mathematics, Control Theory, Neuroscience, Materials Science, Physics, or related fields should apply.

    IMPRS-IS is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to excellence through diversity and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, gender identity, or any other non-job-related criteria. They believe in the importance of a multicultural community of students, faculty, and staff who seek to advance our commitment to diversity and inclusion. IMPRS-IS strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable, and welcoming.

    Admission is competitive. If selected, applicants will receive funding via an employment contract, subject to the rules of the Max Planck Society and the two participating universities.  

    You can apply at https://imprs.is.mpg.de/application before 11:59 p.m. (23:59) CET on November 15, 2024. Finalists will be invited to selection interviews that will take place from February 13 to 21, 2025.

    For further information, please visit https://imprs.is.mpg.de.

  • Cyber Valley Research Fund drives advancements in soft robotics

    Cyber Valley Research Fund drives advancements in soft robotics

    Dr. Ardian Jusufi and his team researched innovative materials that improve proprioception (the body’s ability to sense movement and position) in unpredictable and irregular environments. Insights from the project have deepened understanding of how the body moves and interacts with its environment. These advancements in soft active materials and sensors will revolutionize the fields of biomedical devices and soft robotics.  

    Some of the project’s key achievements include:  

    • Enhanced pumping system performance: The project team improved a hydrogel-encapsulated soft actuator pumping system. The system demonstrated improved competitive pressure and fluid velocity performance, offering potential insights for cardiovascular and renal applications. 

    • Addressing sensor challenges: The project addressed the inherent trade-offs of soft sensors. While offering greater flexibility and sensitivity, these sensors often lack robustness, repeatability, linearity, and durability. Various use cases were evaluated to balance these trade-offs effectively. 

    • Innovative manufacturing and materials: The team developed advanced manufacturing techniques and synthesized new materials responsive to environmental stimuli, such as hydrodynamic pressure. This was relevant for studying locomotion, like the undulatory swimming of fish, using fluidic actuators. 

    • System integration with mobile soft actuators: Soft sensors were integrated with mobile soft fluidic actuators in robots. This integration provided valuable insights into the neuromechanics of movement, particularly in aquatic environments. 

    • Electroactive polymer-driven pumping systems: The team aimed to reduce the tissue stress associated with traditional implanted pumps. Although current limitations related to in-body electricity use means that these systems are not yet feasible for in vivo applications, the research marks significant progress in understanding the biomechanics of movement. 

    This project yielded the following publications:  

    1. Souri H, Banerjee H, Jusufi A, Radacsi N, Stokes A, Park I, Sitti M, Amjadi M. Advanced Int. Sys. 2 (8) 2000039. Wearable and Stretchable Strain Sensors: Materials, Sensing Mechanisms, and Applications. 2020. Advanced Intelligent Systems, Volume: 2, Issue: 8, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202000039 
    2. Banerjee H, Kalairaj MS, Ren H, and Jusufi A*. Advanced Engineering Materials. Strong, Ultrastretchable Hydrogel-Based Multilayered Soft Actuator Composites Enhancing Biologically Inspired Pumping Systems. [Cover inside] Adv. Eng. Mater 2021, 23, 2100121. 
    3. Wright B, Vogt D, Wood R, Jusufi A*. IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft). Soft Sensors for Curvature Estimation under Water in a Soft Robotic Fish. COEX, Seoul, Korea, 2019.
    4. Siddall R, Fukushima T, Bardhi D, Perteshoni B, Morina A, Hasimja E, Dujaka Y, Haziri G, Martin L, Banerjee H, Jusufi A*. Advanced Robotics 35 (7). Compliance, Mass Distribution and Contact Forces in Cursorial and Scansorial Locomotion with Biorobotic Physical Models. 2021. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01691864.2021.1887760.
    5. Fukushima Toshihiko, Robert Siddall,Fabian Schwab, Severine Toussaint, Greg Byrnes, John Nyakatura, and Ardian Jusufi. Inertial tail effects during righting of squirrels in unexpected falls: From behavior to robotics. Integrative and Comparative Biology, icab 023, 2021.
    6. Lin Yu-Hsiang, Siddall R, Schwab F, Fukushima T, Banerjee H, Youngjoon Baek, Daniel Vogt, Yong-Lae Park, and Jusufi A. Modeling and control of a soft robotic fish with integrated soft sensing. Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2000244, 2021.
    7. Fabian Schwab, Elias T Lunsford, Taehwa Hong, Fabian Wiesemüller, Kovac M, Park YL, Akanyeti O, Liao J C, and Jusufi A. Body caudal undulation measured by soft sensors and emulated by soft artificial muscles. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 2021.
    8. Fabian Schwab, Fabian Wiesemüller, Claudio Mucignat, Yong-Lae Park, Ivan Lunati,Mirko Kovac, and Ardian Jusufi. Undulatory swimming performance explored with a biorobotic fish and measured by soft sensors and particle image velocimetry. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, page 387, 2021.
    9. Robert Siddall, Greg Byrnes, Rob J. Full and Ardian Jusufi, Tails stabilize landing of gliding geckos crashing head-first into tree trunks', Communications Biology, 2021. 

    This research project primarily aimed to expand knowledge of biomechanics through robophysical models, rather than immediate practical applications. It started in April 2020 and concluded in February 2023. Dr. Ardian Jusufi was formerly a Max Planck Research Group Leader at the MPI for Intelligent Systems (March 2018–January 2024). He is now Head of Soft Kinetic group in the Engineering Sciences Department of the Empa Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Science and Technology. 

  • Cyber Valley Research Fund improves human decision-making with AI

    Cyber Valley Research Fund improves human decision-making with AI

    From February 2020 to February 2024, Dr. Falk Lieder led a major project supported by the Research Fund, titled “A Scalable Machine Learning Approach to Improve Human Decision Making,”. The project aimed to prepare for a future where effective decision-making is crucial. 

    Good decision-making involves planning, gathering relevant information, and handling uncertainty. As automation transforms the workforce by taking over routine tasks, the demand for jobs requiring decision-making in complex and novel situations will rise. Future roles will emphasize critical thinking and adaptability. To prepare, society must focus on retraining workers and equipping the next generation with advanced decision-making skills. 

    Lieder’s project leveraged artificial intelligence to uncover optimal decision strategies that help individuals navigate complex challenges. The team also designed and tested interactive tutorials, allowing participants to learn and apply these strategies effectively. 

    They evaluated their approach on a series of more realistic decision problems, ranging from an abstract planning task without uncertainty, to planning under uncertainty, to a company choosing between alternative projects. In each case, the new AI methods found decision strategies that outperformed both human decision-making and strategies identified by previous techniques. 

    Their interactive tutorials improved decision-making by explaining the strategy in clear language, demonstrating it through examples, and offering hands-on practice with feedback. In all three applications, individuals who completed the AI-driven strategy tutorials made better decisions than those who practiced decision-making independently. 

    This project yielded the following peer-reviewed publications: 

    1.  Consul, S., Heindrich, L., Stojchewski, J., & Lieder, F. (2022), Improving Human Decision-Making by Discovering Efficient Strategies for Hierarchical Planning, Computational Brain & Behavior, 5(2), 185-216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42113-022-00128-3 

    2. Callaway, F., Jain, Y. R., van Opheusden, B., Das, P., Iwama, G., Gul, S., Krueger, P.M., Becker, F., Griffiths, T. L., & Lieder, F. (2022). Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Improve People's Planning Strategies. PNAS, 119 (12) e2117432119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2117432119 

    3.  Mehta, A., Jain, Y. R., Kemtur, A., Stojcheski, J., Consul, S., Tosic, M., & Lieder, F. (2022). Leveraging machine learning to automatically derive robust decision strategies from imperfect knowledge of the real world. Computational Brain & Behavior, 5(3), 343-377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42113-022-00141-6 

    4.  Becker, F., Skirzynski, J., van Opheusden, B., & Lieder, F. (2022). Boosting human farsightedness with automatically discovered planning instructions. Computational Brain & Behavior, 5(4), 467–490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42113-022-00149-y 

    5. Skirzynski, J., Jain, Y. R., & Lieder, F. (2024). Automatic discovery and description of human planning strategies. Behavior Research Methods, 56(3), 1065-1103. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02062-z 

    6. Skirzyński, J., Becker, F., Lieder, F. (2021). Automatic Discovery of Interpretable Planning Strategies. Machine Learning, 110, pp. 2641–2683. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10994-021-05963-2

    7. Kemtur, A., Jain, Y. R., Mehta, A., Callaway, F., Consul, S., Stojcheski, J., & Lieder, F. (2020). Leveraging machine learning to automatically derive robust planning strategies from biased models of the environment. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. 

    Preprints of articles yet to be published: 

    1. Heindrich, L., Consul, C. & Lieder, F. (2024). Leveraging AI to improve human planning in large partially observable environments. arXiv Preprint. https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.02785 

    2.  Heindrich, L., & Lieder, F. (2024). Leveraging automatic strategy discovery to teach people how to select better projects. https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04082 

    Dr. Falk Lieder is now an Assistant Professor of Psychology at UCLA and the Director of the Rational Altruism Lab. 

  • 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. 

  • Maschinelles Lernen in der Wissenschaft

    Maschinelles Lernen in der Wissenschaft

     

    AI has been a hot topic, especially since the release of Chat GPT-3 in November 2022. But what role do AI and machine learning play in the natural sciences? Could they transform scientific research or are the current expectations set too high? Join the discussion as these questions are explored.

     

    What?

    A podium discussion will take place, moderated by TT-Prof. Pascal Friederich (Institute of Theoretical Informatics)

    Participants
    TT-Prof. Peer Nowack (Institute of Theoretical Informatics)
    TT-Prof. Benjamin Schäfer (Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics)
    Dr. Charlotte Debus (Scientific Computing Center)
     

    When?

    Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2024

    Time: 19:00–21:00

     

    Where?

    Triangel Karlsruhe 
    Kaiserstraße 93, 76133 Karlsruhe


    Find out more information about this event here.

  • Science Hub Research Symposium 2024

    Science Hub Research Symposium 2024

     

    This two-day event will bring research communities together to highlight the latest innovations and breakthroughs. Attendees can look forward to keynote speeches, lightning talks, breakout sessions, and networking opportunities.

     

    What?

    The event will cover a range of topics, including:

    • Haptic intelligence and the simulation of clothing pressure fields
    • Physically plausible object pose refinement in cluttered scenes and insights into what foundation models know about 3D humans
    • Advances in machine learning, such as root cause analysis at Amazon, thermodynamics-guided techniques to improve aluminum recycling, and making time series classification more understandable using multiple instance learning
    • Cutting-edge research in document-level relation extraction and entity linking, deep selective state-space models, and improving decision-making with machine learning

    Further program information can be found here.

     

    When and where?

    On September 16th, the event will take place at MPI-IS Tübingen.

    On September 17th, the event will take place at Amazon Entwicklungszentrum in Tübingen.

     

    Registration

    Please RSVP through the event website.

  • Postdoc Days 2024

    Postdoc Days 2024

     

    Über die Veranstaltung:

    Die Universität Tübingen freut sich, Postdoktoranden, Nachwuchsgruppenleiter und Juniorprofessoren bei den Postdoc Days 2024 begrüßen zu dürfen. Im Rahmen der Veranstaltung können die Teilnehmenden die verschiedenen Beratungsmöglichkeiten der Universität Tübingen kennenlernen, gezielte Informationen zu Themen der Postdoc-Phase erhalten und sich mit anderen Postdocs vernetzen.

    Das abwechslungsreiche Programm, das sowohl online als auch vor Ort stattfindet, bietet verschiedene Workshops, Networking-Gelegenheiten und eine Podiumsdiskussion am ersten Tag. Eine perfekte Gelegenheit, um sich Unterstützung zu holen, Kontakte zu knüpfen und die eigene Karriere voranzutreiben. Dies ist die perfekte Gelegenheit, um Orientierung zu bekommen, Kontakte zu knüpfen und die eigene Karriere voranzubringen.

     

    Wann?

    18.–19. September 2024

     

    Wo?

    18. September: online via Zoom + Abendveranstaltung in Präsenz

    (Alte Aula, Münzgasse 30, 72070 Tübingen)

    19. September: online via Zoom

     

    Interesse?

    Weitere Informationen zum Programm und die Anmeldelinks für die Workshops finden Sie auf der Postdoc Days-Website.