User Group: Researcher

  • Color patch could throw self-driving vehicles off track

    Color patch could throw self-driving vehicles off track

    Tübingen – A color patch printed on a t-shirt, or as a bumper sticker, or displayed on a grocery bag could be a problem for autonomous cars; a small pattern that creates so much noise it could become safety critical. “It took us three, maybe four hours to create the pattern – that’s all,” says Anurag Ranjan, a Ph.D. student in the Perceiving Systems department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Tübingen. He is the lead author of the publication “Attacking Optical Flow”, a research collaboration of the Perceiving Systems department and the Autonomous Vision group at the MPI-IS and the University of Tübingen. The paper is accessible on arXiv and due to be presented at the leading international computer vision conference, the International Conference on Computer Vision ICCV, which kicks off on October 27 in Seoul.

    The risk of affecting any cars on the road is extremely low but, in the interest of caution, the researchers informed the major car manufacturers that are deploying self-driving technology about the risk several months ago to give them time to react if needed.

    In their research work, Anurag Ranjan and his colleagues Joel Janai, Andreas Geiger and Michael J. Black challenge the robustness of several different optical flow systems. Such systems are used in self-driving cars, in robotics, medicine, video gaming, or navigation to name a few. Optical flow describes the motion in a scene captured by the onboard cameras. Recent advances in machine learning have produced faster and better methods for computing this motion, but this new research shows that such methods are vulnerable to “attack”, simply by placing a printed pattern in the scene. Even if the pattern is not moving, it causes the algorithm to think that large parts of the scene are moving in the wrong direction.

    Previously, researchers showed that such patches could confuse neural networks trained to classify objects such as stop signs. This new work is the first to show that “regression” problems are also vulnerable to simple attacks. In such problems the computer estimates a continuous value such as depth or speed. The vulnerability of optical flow methods to attack suggests that other problems like stereo are similarly vulnerable. However, when used in safety-critical applications like autonomous cars, such systems need to be “robust” to such attacks.

    Even a small patch generates a large effect

    Ranjan and his team took on the task in March last year. On their journey, it took them by surprise how small the patch can be to wreak havoc. Even at a size tinier than 1% of the overall image, the system could be attacked, making severe errors in its estimates affecting half the image region. It gets worse the bigger the patch. “This is a concerning threat, as in many cases, the flow system completely erased the movement of objects in the entire scene”, Ranjan says and points to a video showing the attacked system. It is up to everyone's imagination what damage a paralyzed flow system of a self-driving car can cause on a road at high speed.

    How each self-driving car operates is a well-kept secret among manufacturers, hence the computer vision research community can only guess. “Optical flow gives information about the world and how objects are moving so it may be a component of existing systems” says co-author Michael J. Black, Director of the Perceiving Systems department. “This work shows the makers of self-driving technology that there is a new possible threat and enable them to train their systems to be robust to such attacks.”

    The first column shows the optical flow results using an encoder-decoder architecture FlowNetC, a spatial pyramid architecture SpyNet and classical method LDOF. In the second column, a small circular patch is added to both frames at the same location and orientation (highlighted by the red box for illustration purpose). SpyNet and LDOF are barely affected by the patch. In contrast, FlowNetC is strongly affected, even in regions far away from the patch.

    Maybe as important as the attack is that it teaches the researchers how to make better optical flow algorithms using a “zero flow” test. “If we show the system two input images that are identical with no motion between them, the optical flow and the neural network should produce zero flow. But this is often not the case, even without any attack. We can use this to “debug” what the network is doing wrong,” says Ranjan. He and his team hope their research will help raise awareness, that car companies take such attacks seriously, and create their systems in such a way that they are less vulnerable.

    Press Contact:
    Linda Behringer
    Max Planck Institut for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, germany
    T: +49 711 689 3552
    M: +49 151 2300 1111
    linda.behringer@is.mpg.de

    About us

    At the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems we aim to understand the principles of Perception, Action and Learning in Intelligent Systems.

    The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems is located in two cities: Stuttgart and Tübingen. Research at the Stuttgart site covers small-scale robotics, self-organization, haptic perception, bio-inspired systems, medical robotics, and physical intelligence. The Tübingen site focuses on machine learning, computer vision, robotics, control, and the theory of intelligence.

    www.is.mpg.de

    The Perceiving Systems department combines computer vision, machine learning, and computer graphics to train computers to understand humans and their behavior in images and video. The team’s unique approach begins with learning compact parametric models of 3D human shape and motion. We use these to extract and analyze human behavior in the context of 3D scenes. The department has approximately 45 staff and students and additional affiliated researchers. It operates unique 4D scanning facilities that produce highly accurate and detailed 3D meshes of the body, face, hands, and feet at 60 frames per second. The department also employs wearable motion capture suits, flying robots, and camera-based systems to record human movement.

    https://ps.is.mpg.de/

    The Autonomous Vision research group, which is based at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen and the University of Tübingen, addresses questions related to robustness as well as methods that enable high-capacity models (such as deep neuronal networks) to learn with a small amount of data. More specifically, the group’s research focuses on robust perception for autonomous agents, especially autonomous vehicles. Research activities range from sensor-based perception (3D reconstruction, motion estimation, object recognition) and holistic scene interpretation (3D lane and intersection estimation), to sensor engine control approaches.

    https://avg.is.tuebingen.mpg.de/

  • Forscher*innen aus dem Cyber Valley bei den französischen Filmtagen

    Forscher*innen aus dem Cyber Valley bei den französischen Filmtagen

    Am 04. November lädt das Deutsch-Französische Kulturinstitut Tübingen e.V. zu einer Vorführung des ARTE Dokumentarfilms "KI: Schlauer als wir?" ein. Nach dem Film werden Wissenschaftler*innen der Universität Tübingen ihre Forschung im Bereich KI vorstellen. Im Anschluss diskutieren sie über wissenschaftliche und ethische Themen und beantworten die Fragen des Publikums.

     

    Referenten: 

    Wieland Brendel, Experte für Maschinelles Lernen am Center for Integrative Neuroscience der Universität Tübingen

     

    Thilo Hagendorff, Medien- und Technikethiker im Exzellenz-Cluster "Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science" der Universität Tübingen

     

    Moderatorin: 

    Caroline Schmidt, Koordinatorin, Bundeswettbewerb künstliche Intelligenz und IT4Kids an der Universität Tübingen 

     

    Sprache: Deutsch

     

    Eintritt: frei 

     

    Ort: ICFA, Doblerstr. 25 in Tübingen

     

     

     

     

     

  • AI Research in Cyber Valley: Talks on Science and Society

    AI Research in Cyber Valley: Talks on Science and Society

    Tübingen/Stuttgart: On November 6, 2019, Cyber Valley will be hosting an afternoon of public lectures at Berlin Science Week, where scientists from the research consortium’s partner institutions will present their research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). At the "AI Research in Cyber Valley: Talks on Science and Society" event, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the University of Tübingen, and the University of Stuttgart will discuss topics ranging from nanorobots for surgery and brain-computer interfaces, to fairness in machine learning and the ethics of AI. The researchers aim to illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of the field, while at the same time addressing how AI will change society.

    Event: "AI research in Cyber Valley: Talks on Science and Society"

    Date: November 6, 2019

    Time: 4:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

    Location: Berlin Museum of Natural History, New Lecture Hall, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin

    Language: English

    Admission: Free

    Speakers:

    Tian Qiu

    Tian Qiu was recently appointed leader of the new Cyber Valley Biomedical Systems Research Group at the University of Stuttgart. Prior to this, he completed his post-doctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart. His research focuses on creating new devices and microsystems for biomedical applications. The aim is to integrate actuation, sensing, and computation to advance minimally invasive medical procedures.

    Talk: Nanorobots Inside Us – How Nanotechnology could Change Surgery

    Fabian Sinz

    Fabian Sinz is an award-winning scientist whose research interests lie in the combination of machine learning, computational neuroscience, and neural data. In 2018, he was appointed leader of the newly established independent Cyber Valley Neuronal Intelligence Research Group at the University of Tübingen. He is also currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence in Houston, Texas.

    Talk: Real inception – Gaining Insights into the Brain by Controlling Real Neurons with AI

    Matthias Hohmann

    Matthias Hohmann is a PhD student in the Empirical Inference Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen. His research focuses on making participation in neuroscience more accessible, especially for people with rare diseases. The goal is to improve quality of life, support caregivers, and break down barriers in basic research. For his current project, he developed an app that makes participation in large-scale neuroscientific studies from home possible, without expert supervision.

    Talk: From the Lab into the Wild: A Platform for At-Home Participation in Neuroscientific Studies

    Caterina De Bacco

    Caterina De Bacco leads the Cyber Valley Physics for Inference and Optimization Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen. In her research, she develops models and algorithms based on the principles of statistical physics. The aim is to understand, optimize, and predict relations between the properties of complex large-scale interacting systems. Before joining MPI-IS, she was a postdoc at Columbia University’s Data Science Institute in New York.

    Talk: Physics for Inference and Optimization

    Isabel Valera

    Isabel Valera leads the Probabilistic Learning Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen. Her research focuses on the development of machine learning methods that are flexible, robust, and fair. She obtained her PhD in 2014 in Multimedia and Communications from the University Carlos III in Madrid, and then worked at the MPI for Software Systems as a postdoctoral fellow, and at the University of Cambridge as an associated researcher.

    Talk: Fairness in Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Recent Advances

    Thilo Hagendorff

    Thilo Hagendorff is a media and technology ethicist. He received his doctorate in sociology in 2013 and has since been a research associate at the University of Tübingen’s International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW). In 2019, he began working for the "Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science" Excellence Cluster. He is also a lecturer at the University of Tübingen and at the University of Potsdam’s Hasso Plattner Institute.

    Talk: A Comprehensive Overview of AI Ethics

  • Isabel Valera appointed Group Leader of the new independent Probabilistic Learning Group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

    Isabel Valera appointed Group Leader of the new independent Probabilistic Learning Group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

    Tübingen – Isabel Valera, who joined the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) as a Research Group Leader in Professor Bernhard Schölkopf’s Empirical Inference Department in late 2017, took over the new independent Probabilistic Learning Research Group at MPI-IS on July 1, 2019. 

    “I am very pleased about this opportunity to continue my career at MPI-IS,” says Valera. “Since I first came to the institute almost two years ago, I have worked with some of the world’s best minds in the field of machine learning. I’m very excited to be building my new group and driving research in the field forward.”

    The Probabilistic Learning Group’s research focuses on developing machine learning methods that are flexible, robust, and fair. Flexible means they are capable of modeling complex real-world data, which are often heterogeneous in nature and collected over time. Secondly, Valera’s research aims to improve the robustness of algorithms. An algorithm is considered robust when it is able to point out “what it does not know”. This means that, in addition to making predictions, it also expresses its confidence about the decision. Finally, the group is researching ways to make algorithms fairer – if they are part of important decision-making processes, the outcomes should be fair. To this end, she has worked on translating legal definitions of fairness into metrics that can be quantified using observed data, as well as on designing new algorithms that are not only accurate, but also fair according to a given definition of fairness.

    “In my research, I work on a broad range of applications, from medicine and psychiatry to social and communication systems. Recently, we began putting a special focus on consequential decision making in several domains, including hiring processes, pre-trial bail, or loan approval”, Valera explains. 

    Valera is an accomplished, award-winning scientist. She recently received a DFG Cluster of Excellence grant from the “Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science” cluster at the University of Tübingen, which provides her with research funding over a period of seven years. She also held a Max Planck Society Minerva Fast-Track Fellowship, which aims to promote career advancement for women in science. Prior to this, Valera received a Humboldt Post-Doctoral Fellowship and completed her Ph.D. in Multimedia and Communications at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain). 

    Over the course of her academic career to date, Isabel Valera has been nominated for and won several awards, among them the 2017 Best Paper Award Honorable Mention at theInternational World Wide Web Conference (WWW), one of the world’s leading data science conferences, for her paper “Fairness Beyond Disparate Treatment & Disparate Impact: Learning Classification without Disparate Mistreatment.” 

    Next year, Valera will act as Program Chair of the European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML-PKDD 2020) in Ghent, Belgium. 

  • Universität Tübingen bei Exzellenzstrategie erfolgreich

    Universität Tübingen bei Exzellenzstrategie erfolgreich

    Dies ist eine Pressemitteilung der Universität Tübingen:

    Die Universität Tübingen bleibt exzellent. Eine Kommission aus Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern sowie Vertreterinnen und Vertretern von Bund und Ländern hat am Freitag entschieden, dass Tübingen für weitere sieben Jahre den Status einer Exzellenzuniversität erhält und entsprechend finanziell gefördert wird. „Mit diesem hart erkämpften Erfolg ist die Grundlage gelegt, um Tübingen dauerhaft in der kleinen Gruppe der weltweit besten Universitäten zu etablieren“, sagte Rektor Professor Bernd Engler. Die finanzielle Förderung durch Bund und Länder eröffne die Möglichkeit, die Universität nicht nur in einzelnen Forschungsgebieten, sondern strukturell und in einer großen thematischen Breite weiterzuentwickeln.

    „Die Welt wandelt sich derzeit rasch und die Wissenschaft macht da keine Ausnahme“, sagte Engler. „Genome Editing, Personalisierte Medizin, Digitalisierung und Künstliche Intelligenz sind hier nur einige Beispiele für Entwicklungen, deren Auswirkungen langfristig die Gesellschaft insgesamt verändern werden. Angesichts dieser Situation muss die Universität in der Lage sein, rascher als bisher auf die damit verbundenen Herausforderungen zu reagieren.“ Die Mittel aus der Exzellenzstrategie werde die Universität daher nutzen, um neue, vielversprechende Forschungsfelder an der Universität zu implementieren und flexibel auf Herausforderungen zu reagieren. Dazu würden unabhängige Nachwuchsforschungsgruppen und Tenure-Track-Professuren eingerichtet sowie das bewährte Instrument der „Exploration Funds“ eingesetzt. So könne die Universität junge Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler mit hohem Potenzial nach Tübingen holen beziehungsweise hier halten.

    Engler sagte, zahlreiche der in der ersten Förderphase gestarteten Projekte und Initiativen hätten sich bewährt und würden daher fortgesetzt. Dazu zählten etwa das Athene-Programm für Wissenschaftlerinnen, die „Innovation Grants“ für junge Postdocs zur Förderung des Wissenstransfers oder auch die „Exploration Funds“ für Forscherinnen und Forscher in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. Auch die Forschungsplattformen und die sogenannten Core Facilities wie QBiC, LISA+ und das eScience Center hätten sich bestens etabliert und blieben erhalten.

    Die Universität werde mit den Mitteln aus der künftigen Exzellenzförderung aber auch eine Reihe neuer Projekte starten. Darunter seien zum Beispiel: 

    • „Tübingen Structural Microscopy“ (TSM) wird als Core Facility in Zukunft die Kapazitäten der Universität Tübingen auf dem Gebiet der Elektronen- und Ionen-Mikroskopie bündeln. Einen Schwerpunkt der Arbeit wird der Einsatz modernster Untersuchungsverfahren auf der Mikro- und Nanoebene bilden.
       
    • Als neue Core Facility in den Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften wird das Methodenzentrum für empirische Forschung in erster Linie die Grundlagenforschung auf dem Gebiet quantitativer und qualitativer Methoden voranbringen. Das Zentrum wird zu interdisziplinären Methoden und neuen Techniken der Datenanalyse forschen und Lösungsansätze für unterschiedliche Modelle in den Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften sowie der Psychologie entwickeln, nicht zuletzt unter Einsatz von Techniken des Maschinellen Lernens.
       
    • Die Universität Tübingen wird ein College of Fellows für internationale Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler gründen und damit die Internationalisierung der Universität in Forschung und Lehre vorantreiben. Das College richtet sich insbesondere an internationale Postdoktoranden, die eine Chance erhalten, bis zu zwei Jahre lang in Tübingen an einem Projekt zu forschen und sich über Fachgrenzen hinweg auszutauschen. Während dieser Zeit werden die Fellows in das akademische Leben ihres gastgebenden Fachbereichs integriert und leisten auch Aufgaben in der Lehre.
       
    • Die Universität hat in den vergangenen Jahren ihre Aktivitäten in den Bereichen Innovation und Wissenstransfer erheblich ausgebaut. Beispielgebend dafür ist die Cyber Valley-Initiative, eine Kooperation von Universitäten, Forschungseinrichtungen und Unternehmen auf dem Gebiet der Künstlichen Intelligenz. Aufbauend auf diesen Erfahrungen werden wir in der nächsten Förderphase ein universitäres Innovationszentrum gründen, in dem alle Start-up-Aktivitäten gebündelt werden. Forscherinnen und Forschern, die ihre wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse zu neuen Dienstleistungen und Produkten weiterentwickeln wollen, wird hier eine Infrastruktur geboten. 
       
    • Mit der Forschungsplattform „Global Encounters“ wird sich die Universität auch in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften verstärkt auf globale Handlungsräume ausrichten. Aufbauend auf bereits bestehenden Forschungskooperationen wird die Plattform Forscherinnen und Forscher zusammenbringen, um die sozialen und kulturellen Auswirkungen von Globalisierung, Mobilität und Systemveränderungen im Bereich der Politik und Ökonomie zu untersuchen.
       
    • Die Universität will ihre Studierenden durch ein „Global Awareness Education Program“ ermutigen, sich stärker für die globalen Horizonte ihrer Studien und auch ihrer künftigen Arbeitswelt zu öffnen und interkulturelle Kompetenzen stärker zu entwickeln. Dazu wird die Universität die Zahl der fremdsprachigen Lehrveranstaltungen deutlich erhöhen und verstärkt auf globale Themen setzen. Das Kursangebot zu interkultureller Kompetenz und ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit werden wir ausweiten und das Angebot auch den Beschäftigten zugänglich machen.

    Der Rektor betonte, die Exzellenzentscheidung werde positive Auswirkungen auf die gesamte Region haben: „Universitäten sind im 21. Jahrhundert die Motoren der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.“ Mit dem Erfolg Tübingens im Exzellenzwettbewerb sei die Region in einer hervorragenden Position, um die demographischen und wirtschaftlichen Herausforderungen der kommenden Jahrzehnte meistern zu können. 

    Engler dankte allen, die in den vergangenen drei Jahren an der erfolgreichen Exzellenzbewerbung mitgewirkt haben. „Unsere Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler, nicht zuletzt aber auch die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter im Forschungsdezernat haben eine enorme Leistung vollbracht und sich weit über das Selbstverständliche hinaus für das große Ziel engagiert“, sagte der Rektor. „Darüber hinaus gilt unser Dank unserem International Advisory Board und unserem weltweiten Netzwerk aus Hochschulexpertinnen und -experten, die uns auf diesem langen Weg zur Exzellenz mit ihrem Rat zur Seite gestanden haben.“ Sie alle hätten sich um die Universität Tübingen verdient gemacht.

    Kontakt:

    Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
    Hochschulkommunikation
    Dr. Karl Guido Rijkhoek
    Leitung

    Antje Karbe
    Pressereferentin
     +49 7071 29-76789
    Telefax +49 7071 29-5566
    antje.karbe@uni-tuebingen.de 

  • Bosch is expanding its involvement in Cyber Valley

    Bosch is expanding its involvement in Cyber Valley

    Stuttgart/Tübingen − Bosch plans to ramp up its activities in the emerging technology of artificial intelligence (AI): in Tübingen in Germany’s Cyber Valley, the supplier of technology and services intends to invest some 35 million euros in a new “Bosch AI Campus.” Bosch is currently in talks with the city of Tübingen to negotiate the purchase of a rough 12,000 square-meter plot on which to build the campus. The move into the new research complex is planned for the end of 2022. Roughly 700 experts will work on applied AI there. “Bosch aims to be among the global leaders in industrial AI research,” said Bosch CDO/CTO Dr. Michael Bolle. “The new Bosch AI Campus will bring us a step closer to achieving this goal.”

    Space for startups and in-depth exchange

    The Bosch AI Campus in Tübingen will be situated close to the research facilities of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Tübingen’s AI research building. Besides laboratories and offices, the campus will offer spaces in which startups and external AI research groups can take up temporary residence. Freely accessible areas on the first floor of the campus will serve to foster exchange among Cyber Valley experts. Other parts of the facility will also be open to the public. “In the new building, experts from the Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence (BCAI) will work on projects together with experts from other Bosch divisions and from startups. The campus structure will do a lot to foster an exchange of ideas,” Bolle said.

    Bosch is a founding member of Cyber Valley, which was established in 2016. This joint research venture brings together partners from industry, academia, and politics to drive forward AI research in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The idea is to quickly transfer research findings into real-world industrial applications. “Excellence clusters like Cyber Valley are important, as they make Germany even more attractive to top AI experts and strengthen our position in international competition,” Bolle continued. “The Bosch AI Campus also enhances Baden-Württemberg’s international appeal as an AI hub.”

    From research to practical application

    Bosch is researching artificial intelligence that is safe, robust, and explainable. Its investment in the new AI campus is yet another step by the company to strengthen AI research in Cyber Valley. Last year, Professor Matthias Hein was appointed to a Bosch-endowed chair at the University of Tübingen. The company sponsors two Industry on Campus professorships, which allow the university to integrate practical industrial expertise into its research and teaching.

    These professorships focus on the issues that arise when preparing for industrial applications. One example is predictive diagnostics, which makes it possible to predict machine breakdowns long before a fault actually occurs. Well-timed maintenance can avoid protracted machine downtimes. Predictive diagnostics is an example of machine learning, which is the focus of the research conducted at the BCAI. Currently, the BCAI has some 200 associates at a total of six locations in Germany, the United States, India, and Israel.

    Contact person for press inquiries:

  • Target Partners Tech Brunch on July 10, 2019

    Target Partners Tech Brunch on July 10, 2019

    Cyber Valley and Max Planck Innovation are hosting an informal "TechBrunch" in Tübingen with Target Partners, one of the most renowned German venture capital funds. Find our more about the event and how to register at: https://www.targetpartners.de/news/techbrunch-tuebingen-2019

  • Scope of Cyber Valley research expanded to include intelligent biomedical microsystems

    Scope of Cyber Valley research expanded to include intelligent biomedical microsystems

    Stuttgart – Dr. Tian Qiu will be appointed Cyber Valley Research Group Leader at the University of Stuttgart effective July 1, 2019. The "Biomedical Microsystems" group will be affiliated to the University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Physical Chemistry IPC. Following the appointment of assistant professor Michael Sedlmair (Visualization Research Center), Qiu is now the second scientist at the University of Stuttgart to be researching under the umbrella of this unique European research cooperation. The new Cyber Valley research group is supported by the Stuttgart-based Vector Foundation, which is funding the group with 500,000 euros for a period of four years.

    "I am very pleased to be joining Cyber Valley," says Qiu. "I believe artificial intelligence and robotics will be the key technologies shaping our society in the future. Cyber Valley is the right environment for me to advance my research. As a former scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, and now with the University of Stuttgart, I also hope to further strengthen the cooperation between these partners."

    Prof. Dr. Wolfram Ressel, Rector of the University of Stuttgart, has extended a warm welcome to Dr. Tian Qiu: "Intelligent systems for a sustainable society are the overarching vision of the University of Stuttgart. We are pleased that Dr. Qiu and his Cyber Valley research group will help to make this vision reality. At the same time, they will strengthen the emerging field of biomedical systems at the University of Stuttgart.

    "Cyber Valley deals with all physical and informatic intelligent systems, whether microscopic or macroscopic. Tian Qiu's work is a great example of how intelligence is not always about data processing. We are pleased that Cyber Valley can expand its biomedical competencies with him," says Prof. Dr. Philipp Hennig, deputy spokesperson for Cyber Valley.

    Tian Qiu was previously head of the "Biomedical Microsystems" research team in the "Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems" laboratory of Professor Peer Fischer, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Physical Chemistry IPC. Among other things, Tian Qiu and his team succeeded in steering nanorobots through the dense tissue of an eyeball for minimally invasive drug delivery, which had never been achieved before. 

    His new Cyber Valley research group will also focus on creating new devices and microsystems for biomedical applications. The aim is to integrate actuation, sensing, and computation to advance medical procedures. He is interested in developing tools that collect large amounts of data and to learn from the data to understand the underlying principles – hence the term intelligent systems. One research focus involves learning how soft tissue deforms, which is useful for the development of augmented reality systems and future soft robots. The group has ongoing collaborations with medical teams to integrate the technologies with augmented reality systems for minimally-invasive surgery and training. 

    “I hope the data collected from our new hardware will allow the development of digital models of the surgery, which will in turn help optimize tools and surgical procedures for future medicine,” Qiu explains. He plans to build up a multidisciplinary team at the University of Stuttgart, including engineers, scientists, and physicians, to tackle the technology challenge jointly.

    Dr. Tian Qiu received his Ph.D. in Biotechnology and Bioengineering from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. He serves as an associated fellow at the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems, and as an instructor for the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems(IMPRS-IS). He won the National Award for Outstanding Self-financed Chinese Students Abroad and the Best Microrobot Design Award at Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics.

  • Cyber Valley präsentiert KI-Spitzenforschung in Berlin

    Cyber Valley präsentiert KI-Spitzenforschung in Berlin

    Berlin, 27.06.2019 – Die Cyber Valley Initiative wird heute auf der traditionellen Stallwächterparty der Landesvertretung Baden-Württemberg in Berlin vertreten sein. Schon seit 1964 gehört die Stallwächterparty zu den Höhepunkten des Berliner Sommers, mit hochrangigen Gästen aus Politik und Wirtschaft. Unter dem Motto „im Herzen Europas“ zeigt die diesjährige Veranstaltung die Stärken des Standorts Baden-Württembergs. Mit einem Infostand und Mitmachaktionen gibt die Cyber Valley Initiative, Europas größte Forschungskooperation in Bereich künstliche Intelligenz, Einblicke in die Forschungsexzellenz der Region Stuttgart-Tübingen. 

    „Cyber Valley zieht Spitzenwissenschaftler von den Top-Universitäten der ganzen Welt an. Es ist ein Forschungsstandort, der das Zusammenspiel von exzellenter Grundlagenforschung und leistungsstarken Unternehmen fördert und damit wissenschaftliche Durchbrüche und eine hohe Gründungsdynamik ermöglicht. Damit bringen wir die europäische Zusammenarbeit in der KI-Spitzenforschung weiter voran“, sagt Theresia Bauer, Ministerin für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst. 

    Das Ende 2016 gegründete Cyber Valley stärkt Forschung und Lehre in den Bereichen Machine Learning, Computer Vision und Robotik und fördert Technologietransfer und Ausgründungen in diesen Bereichen.Bereits heute ist das Cyber Valley der führende Forschungsstandort in Deutschland für künstliche Intelligenz und unter den zehn führenden KI-Forschungsstandorten weltweit. Knapp die Hälfte der Spitzenpublikationen von deutschen Forschungseinrichtungen im Bereich Machine Learning stammen derzeit aus der Region Stuttgart-Tübingen. Die Cyber Valley Initiative zielt unter anderem darauf ab, diese Position im globalen Wettbewerb um die besten Köpfe zu sichern und weiter auszubauen, um die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit europäischen KI-Forschung zu sichern.  

    „Die Zukunft wird maßgeblich durch neue Technologien gestaltet, die nicht an Ländergrenzen halt machen. Eine besonders schlagkräftige Rolle spielt dabei das Maschinelle Lernen, das gerade dabei ist, Industrie und Gesellschaft global im rasanten Tempo zu verändern,“ sagt Matthias Bethge, Professor für Computational Neuroscience und Machine Learning an der Universität Tübingen,und Mitgründer der European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS). DieELLIS-Initiative, die im Cyber Valley entstanden ist, fördert die Entwicklung eines starken europäischen KI-Forschungsnetzwerks. „Damit Europa die Zukunft gestalten kann, brauchen wir eine europäische Exzellenz-Institution, die in der Lage ist, Spitzenforscher aus aller Welt anzuziehen und in Europa tätig werden zu lassen. Das ist das Ziel der ELLIS-Initiative," so Bethge.

    „Ich freue mich, dass ELLIS bei der Stallwächterparty des Landes zum Thema Europa vertreten ist. Das Thema KI gehört neben der Landes- und Bundesebene unbedingt auf die europäische Ebene. ELLIS ist dabei ein zentrales Projekt, das die Landesregierung unterstützt“, sagt Ministerin Bauer.

    Das Landeskabinett hatte am 26. März 2019 ein Maßnahmenpaket von 20 Mio. € zur weiteren Stärkung der Künstliche Intelligenz bewilligt, ergänzend zu den 100 Millionen Euro, die bereits 2018 für die Ko-Finanzierung von Projekten des Bundes zu Künstlicher Intelligenz und für Batterieforschung vorgesehen wurden. Ziel ist es, Baden-Württemberg zum Vorreiter der europäischen Künstlichen Intelligenz zu machen. Das Cyber Valley soll dabei eine maßgebliche Rolle spielen.

  • Körber Prize 2019 goes to Bernhard Schölkopf

    Körber Prize 2019 goes to Bernhard Schölkopf

    Hamburg, 26 June 2019. The 2019 Körber European Science Prize, endowed with one million euros, is to be awarded to the German physicist, mathematician and computer scientist Bernhard Schölkopf. He has developed mathematical methods that have made a significant contribution to helping artificial intelligence (AI) reach its most recent heights. Schölkopf achieved worldwide renown with support-vector machines (SVMs). These are not machines in the classical sense, but sophisticated algorithms (program instructions) with which computers can perform highly complicated AI calculations quickly and precisely. 

    Bernhard Schölkopf, 51, is a pioneer of this new industrial revolution based on information. After studying physics, mathematics and philosophy in Tübingen and London, the Stuttgart native went on a scholarship to the American Bell Labs, where his subsequent PhD supervisor Vladimir Vapnik was just beginning to conduct research into SVMs. In 1997, Schölkopf received his doctorate in computer science from the TU Berlin. He already contributed decisively to the development of SVM technology to application maturity in the Vapnik team. After working in Cambridge, England, and at a New York biotech start-up, Schölkopf became Director of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen in 2001. In 2011, he was one of the founding directors of the MPI for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen.

    Although almost everyone comes into contact with it on a daily basis, around half of Germans do not know what exactly is meant by the term "artificial intelligence". "AI is in play when a smart phone automatically groups stored photos according to faces and topics such as holidays," explains Schölkopf, "or translates texts from one language into another."

    AI is currently experiencing a global boom, not least because of its growing economic importance. The USA and China are investing billions in this technology, which is likely to fundamentally change working life throughout the world. Even before the turn of the millennium, intelligent robots were moving into factories on a large scale, for example in the automotive industry. In the future, intelligent systems will increasingly take over routine tasks in offices.

    The support-vector machines co-developed by Bernhard Schölkopf are similar to neural networks modelled on the brain, but provide more precise results for some tasks. In addition, they are based on solid mathematical principles, which makes their mode of operation more transparent. SVMs initially need to be trained, just as the human brain does when learning. Their special attribute is that their algorithms make clean-cut classifications in mathematical spaces of higher dimensions, but the computer can do this with comparatively simple and fast calculations.

    The first SVM systems from the 1990s were able to recognise handwritten numbers on letters almost as well as humans and were better than any competing systems. They also gave a significant boost to computer science because of their systematic mathematical approach. Schölkopf is today's most frequently cited German computer scientist and, according to the research magazine "Science", ranks among the ten most influential computer scientists in the world.

    The Schölkopf team at the MPI Tübingen is currently investigating algorithms that can also identify causal relationships from data. This promising new field of research is referred to as causal inference. One of its goals is to make AI systems more robust against interference. "If, in a built-up area, a 30 km/h speed limit sign has been pasted over in such a way that it looks like a 120 km/h sign, then the AI system of a driverless car must be able to infer from the context that this sign is to be ignored," says Bernhard Schölkopf.

    Another of Schölkopf's concern is to help Germany achieve a leading position in the tough international competition for AI. He is co-founder of the world-renowned "Cyber Valley" in the Stuttgart-Tübingen region – a centre of excellence funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg that has also been able to integrate leading American companies. As part of the planned ELLIS programme (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems), Schölkopf hopes to "better network leading European locations, set up joint programmes and train doctoral students. Young top researchers should not have to go to the USA to work at the highest level". In addition, it is important to have even more extensive state AI funding. Schölkopf intends to use the funds of the Körber Prize in his Causal Inference area of expertise and for workshops to promote the ELLIS project.

    The Körber European Science Prize 2019 will be presented to Bernhard Schölkopf on 13 September in the Great Festival Hall of Hamburg City Hall. To mark its 60th anniversary, the Körber Foundation is increasing the prize endowment to one million euros as of this year. This makes the Körber Prize one of the world's most highly endowed research prizes. "We want to set an example for the recognition of top-class research in Europe," says Dr. Lothar Dittmer, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Körber Foundation, "and with our new stipulation that five percent of the prize money is to be used for science communication, we want to contribute to this recognition also growing in the public sphere." Every year since 1985, the Körber Foundation has honoured a major breakthrough in the physical or life sciences in Europe. The prize is awarded to excellent and innovative research approaches with high application potential. To date, six prize winners have also been awarded the Nobel Prize after receiving the Körber Prize.

    More information and photos to download here:

    www.koerber-prize.org