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Autonomous Motion Award 02-01-2014 Stefan Schaal : IEEE Fellow 2014
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2014 Bernhard Schölkopf: Royal Society Milner Award 2014
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2014 Moritz Grosse-Wentrup and Daniel Braun: Teaching Award Winter & Summer Term 2013/14 at Graduate School of Neural Information Processing, University of Tübingen 
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2014 A. Abdolmaleki  (Universidade de Aveiro), N. Lau (Universidade de Aveiro), G. Neumann(TU Darmstadt), J. Peters, 1st Place at the 3D Free Challenge of the RoboCup 2014.
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2014 M. Deisenroth (TU Darmstadt), P. Englert (Uni Stuttgart), J. Peters, D. Fox (U. Washington), IROS Best Cognitive Robotics Paper Award
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2014 O. Kroemer (TU Darmstadt), H. van Hoof (TU Darmstadt), G. Neumann(TU Darmstadt), J. Peters, IROS Best Cognitive Robotics Paper Award Finalist
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2014 Sebastian Weichwald and Timm Meyer best student paper award at the 4th International Workshop on Cognitive Information Processing (CIP 2014) for the paper: Decoding Index Finger Position From EEG Using Random Forests published with Bernhard Schölkopf, Tonio Ball, and Moritz Grosse-Wentrup.
Perceiving Systems Award 06-12-2013 Michael J. Black: ICCV Helmholtz Prize 2013
News 05-12-2013 The geometry of cancer cells Malignant and healthy cells display characteristic fractal patterns, which can be used to tell them apart new approach has given rise to the hope for a faster and more reliable method for determining cancer cell types. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and the University of Heidelberg found that cells can be very accurately characterised using fractal geometry. This theory describes objects whose minute structural details resemble their larger contours. Cancer cells are not able to regulate their growth and, as a consequence their shape, as effectively as healthy cells. The particular fractal geometry of a cell therefore becomes a marker of the cell type. Using this mathematical method in combination with sophisticated image recognition, it is possible to establish the progression of cancer in a cell. The researchers studied the statistical distribution of the occurrence of structural details on the surface of different tumour cells, and were thus able to identify cancer cells with more accuracy than when using the conventional immunohistological method. Moreover, they were able to distinguish between different tumours.
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Perceiving Systems News 01-12-2013 Michael Black awarded 2013 Helmholtz Prize 2013 Helmholtz Prize honors Michael J. Black's work on robust optical flow estimation described in the ICCV 1993 paper with P. Anandan on "A framework for the robust estimation of optical flow." Michael Black
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Empirical Inference News 01-12-2013 NIPS 2013 outstanding paper award Manuel Gomez-Rodriguez, Department Empirical Inference (Prof. Schölkopf), received an outstanding paper award at NIPS 2013. Manuel Gomez Rodriguez
Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 18-11-2013 Cover Article Our paper on “Plasmonic nanohelix metamaterials with tailorable giant circular dichroism” is the featured cover article for the Applied Physics Letters Issue 21, vol. 103, 18 November 2013. John Gibbs Andrew Mark Sahand Eslami Peer Fischer
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Physical Intelligence News 02-11-2013 National Science Foundation Our lab alumnus Prof. Seok Kim at UIUC will receive the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his research and educational activities on microassembly using transfer printing. Metin Sitti
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Autonomous Motion News 01-11-2013 Stefan Schaal elected IEEE Fellow 2014 For his contributions to robot learning and modular motion planning. Stefan Schaal
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Empirical Inference News 29-10-2013 2013 Young Investigator Award der International Neural Networks Society für Prof. Jan Peters Preis für entscheidende Beiträge im Bereich der Neuronalen Netzwerke Tübingen. Prof. Ph.D. Jan Peters, Leiter des „Robot-Learning-Labs“ am MPI für Intelligente Systeme, ist mit dem 2013 Young Investigator Award der International Neural Network Society ausgezeichnet worden. Peters hat den Preis erhalten für seine entscheidenden Beiträge im Bereich der Neuronalen Netzwerke, insbesondere zur Entwicklung neuer Lernmethoden, die es Robotern erlauben, neue Fähigkeiten zur Bewegung zu lernen. Jan Peters
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News 23-09-2013 Summer School "Maschinelles Lernen für Personalisierte Medizin" An der Schnittstelle zwischen Maschinellem Lernen und Statistischer Genetik Tübingen. Vom 23. Bis 27. September 2013 besuchen rund 70 Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer die „Machine Learning for Personalized Medicine“ (MLPM) Summer School am Max-Planck-Campus Tübingen. Maschinelles Lernen entwickelt sich zur Schlüsseldisziplin zur Bewältigung riesiger Datenmengen – unter anderem in der Biologie und Medizin. Bisher mangelt es aber an Fachkräften in diesem Bereich. Das EU-geförderte und von Prof. Dr. Karsten Borgwardt koordinierte MLPM-Projekt bildet in den kommenden drei Jahren international 14 Nachwuchswissenschaftler an der Schnittstelle von Maschinellem Lernen und Statistischer Genetik aus. Sie sollen künftig dazu beitragen, entscheidende Hindernisse für die personalisierte Medizin zu bewältigen. Karsten Borgwardt Matthias Tröndle
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Perceiving Systems Award 10-09-2013 Gerard Pons-Moll: BMVC 2013 Best Science Paper for Metric Regression Forests for Human Pose Estimation with Jonathan Taylor, Jamie Shotton, Aaron Hertzmann and Andrew Fitzgibbon.  
News 28-08-2013 MLSS 2013 - Machine Learning Summer School in Tübingen Über 100 Nachwuchswissenschaftler aus aller Welt treffen auf 26 Experten ihres Fachs Tübingen. Seit 11 Jahren tourt die Machine Learning Summer School (MLSS) um die Welt, vom 26. August bis 6. September 2013 gastiert diese begehrte wissenschaftliche Veranstaltung in Tübingen. Gastgeber für die 100 Teilnehmer ist der Tübinger Standort des Max-Planck-Instituts für Intelligente Systeme. Die MLSS präsentiert die wichtigsten Themen des maschinellen Lernens, von fundamentalen Dingen bis zu den neuesten Anwendungen. 26 Experten ihres Fachs halten Vorlesungen und vermitteln Wissen in praktischen Übungen. Dazu zählen Vertreter von namhaften Firmen wie Google, Amazon, Microsoft Research, Sony und Zeiss sowie von renommierten Universitäten wie Oxford und Cambridge.
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News 26-08-2013 Joint exploration of learning systems Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and ETH Zurich found research network The Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich have launched a research network in the research field of learning systems. The network will enable scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems, with sites in Stuttgart and Tübingen, to collaborate with their Swiss colleagues, and vice versa. Within the scope of this network, the scientists are conducting joint research projects and will hold joint conferences and workshops. They will also have easier access to each other’s research facilities. The cooperation, which started in August, is slated for the next three years. Bernhard Schölkopf Michael Black Stefan Schaal
Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 13-08-2013 Designing and building nanocomponents to spec Hybrid, multifunctional nanostructures with diverse 3D shapes and complex material composition can now be manufactured with a precise and efficient fabrication technique The realisation of nanomachines is inching ever closer to reality. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are helping make one of the grand challenges of nanoscience become reality. They have developed a method that makes it possible to manufacture an assortment of unusually shaped and functionalisable nanostructures. It lets them combine materials with widely varying chemical and physical properties at the smallest of scales. The team of scientists headed by Peer Fischer have even grown helical light antennas that are less than 100nm in length from materials which can typically not be shaped at the nanoscale. This is achieved by vapour depositing the material onto a super-cooled rotating disk. Not only does the process allow for the fabrication of nanostructures more exactly than previous methods, several billion of such nanoparticles can be produced in parallel in a rapid manner. Peer Fischer Andrew Mark
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News 22-07-2013 It’s the fineness of the grind In nanomaterials, the structure of the individual crystals changes with grain size The properties of nanomaterials could be easier to predict in future. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have ground metal into continuously finer powders in steps and prepared a detailed catalogue of how the structure of the metal grains changes depending on grain size. They discovered that the crystal lattices initially shrink, but expand again below a certain threshold grain size. The arrangement and spacing of the atoms determine numerous properties of a material. If it is possible to accurately characterise crystal lattices as a function of the particle size, it may also be possible thereby to more accurately calculate how nanoparticles of a particular size behave.
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Award 19-07-2013 Zumin Wang: Günter Petzow Prize 2013
Award 05-07-2013 Manfred Fähnle: Lecturer Award of the Department of Physics at the University of Stuttgart
Award 02-07-2013 Karsten Borgwardt: Alfried-Krupp-Award for young professors
News 02-07-2013 Alfried Krupp-Förderpreis für Prof. Dr. Karsten Borgwardt Tübinger Forscher für Analyse großer Mengen biologischer Daten geehrt Der mit 1 Mio. Euro dotierte Alfried Krupp-Förderpreis zeichnet in diesem Jahr die herausragenden Leistungen des Tübinger Wissenschaftlers Prof. Dr. Karsten Borgwardt aus. Der 32-Jährige leitet seit fünf Jahren eine Forschungsgruppe an den Max-Planck-Instituten für Entwicklungsbiologie und für Intelligente Systeme. Vor zwei Jahren wurde Borgwardt zusätzlich zum Professor für „Data Mining in den Lebenswissenschaften“ an der Universität Tübingen ernannt.
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Smart Nanoplasmonics Award 27-06-2013 Laura Na Liu: Membership in the Elisabeth Schiemann-Kolleg of the Max-Planck-Society
Perceiving Systems Autonomous Vision Award 23-06-2013 Andreas Geiger: CVPR 2013 Best Paper Runner-Up Award
Award 12-06-2013 David Flötotto: European Materials Research Society Young Scientist Award
Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Award 12-06-2013 Andrew Mark, John Gibbs, John Lee, and Peer Fischer win the Ground breaking contribution award for their paper “Growth of chiral nanoparticles” at the International Conference on Chiroptical Spectroscopy in Nashville, TN, USA, 12 June 2013.
News 17-04-2013 StEM Gewinner 2012 EMS Outstanding Paper Award StEM gewinnt Preis der European Microscopy Society in der Kategorie Materials Science Autor: Dr.Wilfried Sigle, StEM, Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme “Toroidal Plasmonic Eigenmodes in Oligomer Nanocavities for the Visible” B. Ögüt, N. Talebi, R. Vogelgesang, W. Sigle, and PA van Aken Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart Center for Electron Microscopy, Heisenbergstr. 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
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News 27-03-2013 A folding ceramic A sophisticated nanostructure renders a wafer-thin paper made of electrically conductive vanadium pentoxide fibres both tough and pliable Scientists in Stuttgart are currently doing things to a ceramic, which would normally result in a pile of shards. They were the first to produce a paper-like material from a vanadium pentoxide ceramic which is as hard as copper, yet flexible enough to be rolled up or folded. The material is also different from other ceramics, as it is electrically conductive. In a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the scientists from Stuttgart University, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research produced the ceramic paper consisting of conductive nanofibres of vanadium pentoxide in a straightforward and simple way. The ceramic paper’s special mechanical properties are derived from its structure, which resembles that of mother-of-pearl. The material looks promising for applications in batteries, flat and flexible gas sensors and actuators in artificial muscles.
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News 27-03-2013 Ein Roboterarm lernt Dart werfen und jonglieren Preis für die beste europäische Doktorarbeit 2012 in der Robotik für ehemaligen Doktorand am MPI für Intelligente Systeme Dr. Jens Kober´s Doktorarbeit mit dem Titel: "Learning Motor Skills: From Algorithms to Robot Experiments" (Prüfung im April 2012 an der TU Darmstadt), wurde zur besten europäischen Doktorarbeit im Forschungsgebiet der Robotik gekürt. Dafür wurde Jens Kober am 20. März 2013 während des European Robotic Network-Forums EURON mit dem Georges Giralt Award ausgezeichnet. Er ist erst der vierte deutsche Robotiker, der diesen Preis entgegen nehmen durfte.
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News 05-03-2013 Training Immune Cells To Combat Disease Immunology: Researchers trap immune cells in droplets of water in oil in hopes of reprogramming them
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Empirical Inference News 22-01-2013 IEEE RAS Early Career Award for Prof. Jan Peters Prestigious Award in Robotics Research for Scientist of the MPI for Intelligent Systems Jan Peters, head of the Robotics Learning Laboratory at the Tübingen site of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and since 2011 Professor of Intelligent Autonomous Systems at the Technical University of Darmstadt, receives the IEEE RAS Early Career Award for his contributions to robot learning. Jan Peters
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Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2013 Jan Peters: Early Career Award of the IEEE Roboticsand Automation Society in 2013.
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2013 Jan Peters: Young Investigator Award of the International Neural Networks Society (INNS) in 2013. 
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2013 Jens Kober: Georges Giralt Award as the Best European Robotics PhD Thesis for his PhD Thesis "Learning Motor Skills: From Algorithms to Robot Experiments", supervised by Jan Peters.  
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2013 Jonas Peters: ETH Silver Medal for his PhD thesis "Restricted Structural Equation Models for Causal Inference".
Perceiving Systems Award 01-01-2013 Juergen Gall: Emmy-Noether-Program
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2013 Manuel Gomez-Rodriguez: outstanding paper award at NIPS 2013 for the paper: "Scalable Influence Estimation in Continuous-Time Diffusion Networks" in December 2013 
Empirical Inference Award 01-01-2013 Thomas Schultz: MRM Distinguished Reviewer Award.
News 05-12-2012 Deuterium from a quantum sieve A metal-organic framework separates hydrogen isotopes more efficiently than previous methods In future it may be easier for chemists, biologists and physicists to obtain the ideal substance with which to clarify numerous research issues. For the first time, a team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Jacobs University Bremen and the University of Augsburg have been able to apply a new method to separate hydrogen and its heavier isotope deuterium more efficiently than before. To this effect, they use a metal-organic framework as a quantum sieve to separate the isotopes. Deuterium serves to determine the structure of unknown substances, for example. Chemists also use it to investigate how reactions involving hydrogen proceed and thus create the basis on which to optimise the conversion. Biologists use deuterium to analyse metabolic processes, among other things.
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Modern Magnetic Systems News 05-12-2012 Deuterium from a quantum sieve A metal-organic framework separates hydrogen isotopes more efficiently than previous methods. In future it may be easier for chemists, biologists and physicists to obtain the ideal substance with which to clarify numerous research issues. For the first time, a team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Jacobs University Bremen and the University of Augsburg have been able to apply a new method to separate hydrogen and its heavier isotope deuterium more efficiently than before. To this effect, they use a metal-organic framework as a quantum sieve to separate the isotopes. Deuterium serves to determine the structure of unknown substances, for example. Chemists also use it to investigate how reactions involving hydrogen proceed and thus create the basis on which to optimise the conversion. Biologists use deuterium to analyse metabolic processes, among other things. Michael Hirscher
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News 12-09-2012 Quantum stress in nanofilms Electrons confined in an aluminium film of a few atomic layers thick create mechanical stress equivalent to up to one thousand times the standard atmospheric pressures Read heads in hard drives, lasers in DVD players, transistors on computer chips, and many other components all contain ultrathin films of metal or semiconductor materials. Stresses arise in thin films during their manufacture. These influence the optical and magnetic properties of the components, but also cause defects in crystal lattices, and in the end, lead to component failure. As researchers in the department of Eric Mittemeijer at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have now established, enormous stresses in the films are created by a quantum-mechanical mechanism that has been unknown until now, based on an effect by the name of quantum confinement. This effect can cause stresses equivalent to one thousand times standard atmospheric pressure, dependent of thickness. Knowledge of this could be helpful in controlling the optical and mechanical properties of thin-film systems and increase their mechanical stability. Additionally, very sensitive sensors might also be developed on the basis of this knowledge.
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Award 10-09-2012 Sebastian Kruss: Dr. Alexander and Dr. Rosemarie Bauer prize for the promotion of young academics (2012)
Award 30-08-2012 Ana García-Sáez: ERC Starting Grant (2012)
Award 30-08-2012 Ralf Richter: ERC Starting Grant (2012)
Smart Nanoplasmonics Award 05-07-2012 Laura Na Liu: Sofja Kovalevskaja Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2012)
Empirical Inference News 27-06-2012 Tübingen scientist honored for excellent research Bernhard Schölkopf receives the Academy Award 2012 of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy. Detailed information in the German press release. Bernhard Schölkopf
Award 15-06-2012 Burcu Ögüt, Nahid Talebi, Ralf Vogelgesang, Wilfried Sigle and Peter A. van Aken: 2012 European Microscopy Society (EMS) Outstanding Paper Award for their article in Nano Letters, 2012, 12 (10), pp 5239–5244