News & Awards

News 08-07-2019 Professor Ayusman Sen receives Humboldt Research Award During his stay in Germany, the Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Pennsylvania State University intends to continue his research on emergent phenomena, collective effects, and enzymatically-powered chemical motors. Siegfried Dietrich

Rationality Enhancement News 08-07-2019 REG visits Montréal This summer Montréal will be the stage for three important conferences concerning research in the fields of psychology, cognitive science, machine learning, cognitive modelling and decision making: the 4th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM), the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Sociey for Mathematical Psychology and the 17th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Cognitive Modelling (MathPsych/ICCM), and the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci). As a matter of course, the Rationality Enhancement Group will be represented there as well. Maria Wirzberger Falk Lieder Yash Raj Jain Lin Xu Florian Mohnert Gabriela Iwama

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Award 05-07-2019 Kai Melde wins the 2019 Günter Petzow Prize.

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 05-07-2019 Kai Melde wins the 2019 Günter Petzow Prize The doctoral student in the Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Group received this prize during the 2019 Intelligent Systems Summer Colloquium Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Kai Melde Peer Fischer

News 03-07-2019 Katherine J. Kuchenbecker appointed Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems The Director of the Haptic Intelligence Department is the first female Managing Director in the institute’s history. Dr. Kuchenbecker's term is set to last 18 months, effective July 1, 2019. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Bernhard Schölkopf Valerie Callaghan

Empirical Inference News 03-07-2019 NeurIPS2019 Disentanglement Challenge kicks off - Bringing Disentanglement to the Real World Registration opened on June 28 and the Challenge runs until September 24. The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, GoogleAI, and MILA Montreal have launched the Disentanglement Challenge. Registration is now open: sign up now and bring disentangled representations to the REAL world - with 20,000 euros in prize money and best paper awards! Joel Bessekon Akpo Stefan Bauer Karin Bierig Muhammad Waleed Gondal Arash Mehrjou Bernhard Schölkopf Valentin Volchkov Francesco Locatello Manuel Wüthrich Djordje Miladinovic

Physical Intelligence News 02-07-2019 Jellyfish-inspired robot wins Best Paper Award in prestigious Robotics Science & Systems Conference The scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart who invented Jellyfishbot win the Best Paper Award at a prestigious robotics conference and have their work published in Nature Communications. Their research holds great potential when investigating the impact of environmental changes in the ocean’s ecosystem. Another aim is for Jellyfishbot to be applied in the treatment of cancer. Metin Sitti Xiaoguang Dong Wenqi Hu Ziyu Ren Tianlu Wang Valerie Callaghan

Rationality Enhancement News 01-07-2019 Bastian Nowozimski joined our lab Welcome, Bastian! After getting his Bachelor's degree in Cognitive Science at the University of Tübingen, he is now proceeding to get his Master's degree. As a student assistant, he is supporting the Rationality Enhancement Group through his role as Lab and Study Coordinator. Bastian Nowozimski

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 01-07-2019 Jan-Philipp Günther receives travel grant from Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Jan will visit Columbia University (Hess lab) in the US for four months as part of his PhD project on enzyme powered nano systems. Jan-Philipp Günther

News 01-07-2019 Scope of Cyber Valley research expanded to include intelligent biomedical microsystems The University of Stuttgart appoints Dr. Tian Qiu, a leading scientist in the field of minimally invasive biomedical microsystems, as Cyber Valley Research Group Leader Tian Qiu Valerie Callaghan

Empirical Inference Award 26-06-2019 Bernhard Schölkopf receives the Körber European Science Preis 2019.

Empirical Inference News 26-06-2019 Körber Prize 2019 goes to Bernhard Schölkopf The Körber Foundation honors the MPI-IS Director and Cyber Valley Scientist for his ground-breaking research in mathematical methods that have made a significant contribution to helping artificial intelligence reach its most recent heights. Bernhard Schölkopf Valerie Callaghan

Physical Intelligence News 25-06-2019 Novel approach to self-assembling mobile micromachines How the components come together depends on their design and shape and the resulting dielectrophoretic forces when exposed to an electric field. Metin Sitti Yunus Alapan Mehmet Berk Yigit

Haptic Intelligence Award 25-06-2019 Ph.D. students Alexis E. Block and Maria-Paola Forte win ROSCon 2019 diversity scholarships Alexis Block

Rationality Enhancement News 20-06-2019 Lab's first JDM submissions The Society of Judgement and Decision Making proudly hosts an Annual Meeting as interdisciplinary forum for decision analysts and researchers from various fields such as psychology, economics, or organizational studies. This year, it will take place in Montréal and we are very excited about our submitted abstracts on the Goal Characteristics (GC) questionnaire and the Decision Advisor. Both turned out really well! Gabriela Iwama Maria Wirzberger Falk Lieder

News 18-06-2019 Canada comes to Cyber Valley Canadian AI experts gain insights into Europe’s biggest research cooperation in the field of AI As part of the German Federal Foreign Office's Visitors' program, a group of Canadian AI experts visited the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems on Monday in Tübingen. Matthias Tröndle Valerie Callaghan

Empirical Inference Award 18-06-2019 Francesco Locatello, Stefan Bauer, Bernhard Schölkopf et. al.: ICML best paper award 2019 for the paper "Challenging Common Assumptions in the Unsupervised Learning of Disentangled Representations"

Smart Nanoplasmonics Award 12-06-2019 Laura Na Liu wins the European Materials Research Society's 2019 EU-40 Materials Prize.

Empirical Inference News 11-06-2019 MPI for Intelligent Systems Scientists among the winning team at world’s leading AI conference Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, and Google Research Zurich receive the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). Francesco Locatello Stefan Bauer Bernhard Schölkopf Valerie Callaghan

Rationality Enhancement News 07-06-2019 Lab's first CCN submissions The Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (CCN) will be held in Berlin in September this year and provide an interdisciplinary forum for understanding the computations that underlie complex behavior. We have submitted two abstracts that introduce our work on meta-cognitive reinforcement learning and computational models of goal pursuit. We look forward to present our work at this exciting occasion! Falk Lieder Yash Raj Jain Florian Mohnert Sanit Gupta Vasundhara Rakesh

Rationality Enhancement News 05-06-2019 Article in Scientific Reports published Our postdoc Maria Wirzberger recently published an article in the renowned Nature journal Scientific Reports. Congratulations, Maria! Maria Wirzberger

Haptic Intelligence News 04-06-2019 Alexis Block is teaching robots to give good hugs Scientist working in the Haptic Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems receives great media feedback on her research Alexis Block Katherine J. Kuchenbecker

Rationality Enhancement News 01-06-2019 Lab's first Psychonomics submission Founded in 1959, the Psychonomic Society celebrates its 60th birthday this year. The Annual Meeting will be hosted in Montréal this year and we submitted an abstract on our Goal Characteristics (GC) questionnaire. We would be happy to join the celebration and proudly introduce our work! Gabriela Iwama Maria Wirzberger Falk Lieder

Empirical Inference Award 31-05-2019 Bernhard Schölkopf: honoured as one of the leading minds in German AI research.

Empirical Inference News 28-05-2019 Bernhard Schölkopf honoured as one of the leading minds in German AI research The Director of the Empirical Inference Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, one of the world's leading researchers in the field of machine learning, has been named among the top ten influential minds in the history of German AI. Bernhard Schölkopf

News 22-05-2019 Cyber Valley’s machine learning research makes a strong showing on the global stage Twenty-seven papers accepted at world’s most competitive AI conferences Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the Universities of Tübingen and Stuttgart, and the Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence demonstrate the strength of the Cyber Valley initiative at two of the world's most competitive AI conferences. Valerie Callaghan Bernhard Schölkopf Michael Black Andreas Geiger Georg Martius Sebastian Trimpe

Autonomous Vision News 13-05-2019 Autonomous Vision Blog We have started a new research blog. Happy reading! Andreas Geiger

Rationality Enhancement News 10-05-2019 Anastasia Lado joined our lab Welcome, Anastasia! Anastasia has joined our group as a Student Assistent and is supporting the research on Executive functions Training. Anastasia Lado

Locomotion in Biorobotic and Somatic Systems News 05-05-2019 TV show in Bayrischer Rundfunk "Gut Zu Wissen" (See Clip starting from 17:00 min onward). Ardian Jusufi

Smart Nanoplasmonics Award 05-05-2019 Xiaoyang Duan received the 2018 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad due to his excellent Ph.D. thesis. The award ceremony took place at the Chinese Embassy in Berlin on 5th May 2019.

Smart Nanoplasmonics Award 02-05-2019 Laura Na Liu wins the 2019 Nano Letters Young Investigator Lectureship Award.

Intelligent Control Systems News 28-04-2019 Two awards at premier conference for cyber-physical systems Team of researchers from the MPI-IS, TU Dresden and ETH Zurich win Best Paper and Best Demo Awards at CPS-IoT Week. Dominik Baumann Sebastian Trimpe

Empirical Inference Award 24-04-2019 Francesco Locatello: 2019 Google PhD Fellowship for Machine Learning Award.

News 20-04-2019 Ein neuer Dreh für Spinwellen Einem Forscherteam der Abteilung „Moderne Magnetische Systeme“ und des HZDR in Dresden gelingt gezielte Steuerung extrem kurzwelliger Spinwellen Seit vielen Jahren werden neue Prinzipien gesucht, die den Informationstransport in kompakteren Mikrochips ermöglichen soll. Einen Ansatz hierzu könnte sich durch Spinwellen ergeben. Nun ist es einem Forscherteam gelungen, diese sogenannten Magnonen mit extrem kurzen Wellenlängen nicht nur zu erzeugen, sondern sie gezielt zu lenken, wie die Physiker in der Zeitschrift Nature Nanotechnology schreiben. Gisela Schütz

News 15-04-2019 Minister of Economy Hoffmeister-Kraut visits Cyber Valley Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing, once again emphasised the state's support for Europe's largest research cooperation. Valerie Callaghan

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 06-04-2019 Poster Prize Winner: Poster Prize at Medical Conference Zhiguang Wu Tian Qiu Peer Fischer

News 04-04-2019 Baden Württemberg’s Minister President Winfried Kretschmann receives Europe's leading AI researchers Scientists convene to advance European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ELLIS “We believe the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems is a game changer. On a European level, we are pooling our resources and creating synergies so that we can be internationally competitive in the field of AI research. And as we shape ELLIS, we will build on the excellence we already have in several European countries. In Germany, we are very grateful for the strong support from the government of the state of Baden-Württemberg." Bernhard Schölkopf Valerie Callaghan

Autonomous Motion Award 01-04-2019 Jeannette Bohg: IEEE/RAS early career award

Autonomous Motion Award 01-04-2019 Ludovic Righetti: 2018 Google Faculty Research Award

Modern Magnetic Systems News 29-03-2019 Let’s not make big waves A team of researchers generates ultra-short spin waves in an astoundingly simple material Due to its potential to make computers faster and smartphones more efficient, spintronics is considered a promising concept for the future of electronics. In a collaboration including the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, a team of researchers has now successfully generated so-called spin waves much more easily and efficiently than was previously deemed possible. The researchers are presenting their results in the journal Physical Review Letters. Gisela Schütz Joachim Gräfe

Physical Intelligence News 28-03-2019 Leading researcher in small-scale robotics receives ERC Advanced Grant One of the world's most prestigious research funding programs supports Intelligent Systems research in Stuttgart The European Research Council is awarding a 2.5 million Euros research grant to Dr. Metin Sitti, who is a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Sitti is the head of the Physical Intelligence Department and one of the world's leading researchers in the field of small-scale and soft robotics and its use in medical applications. The funding will go toward ground-breaking basic research in soft-bodied miniature mobile robots. These tiny machines could one day have a radical impact on non-invasive medical interventions and diagnostics. Metin Sitti Richard Segar

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Award 26-03-2019 Xiaolong Lu receives a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Physical Intelligence News 22-03-2019 Metin Sitti publishes a News & Views article in Nature Robotic collectives inspired by biological cells A robotic system has been demonstrated in which the random motion of individual components leads to deterministic behaviour, much as occurs in living systems. Environmental and medical applications could follow. Metin Sitti

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 20-03-2019 Xiaolong Lu receives Humboldt Research Fellowship He joins the Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher Peer Fischer

News 19-03-2019 New height in popularity: IMPRS-IS on track to double size in 2019 "Young, talented people are the ones who will shape our future in the digital world, in science, in business, and in society." The doctoral program of the Cyber Valley initiative far exceeds expectations. Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Science, Theresia Bauer, is pleased with the high number of applications from all over the world because it shows how attractive the multidisciplinary research landscape in the Stuttgart/Tübingen region is for highly talented young scientists. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Leila Masri Valerie Callaghan

Autonomous Vision Perceiving Systems News 12-03-2019 3rd Computational Vision Summer School - Apply now! From 30.6. to 7.7.2019 Application deadline: April 15, 2019 We are organizing the 3rd Computational Vision Summer School from 30.6. to 7.7.2019 in the beautiful black forest, Germany. It is aimed at PhD students and Postdocs with an interest in vision science research. Previous editions were fun, intellectually rewarding events for students and faculty alike. The summer school spans the entire spectrum of vision research from neuroscience and psychophysics to computer vision and fosters discussions at the intersection of biological and artificial vision systems. The school is unique in bringing together people from diverse disciplines in a very familiar atmosphere (only 60 people in total). CVSS is tuition free and accomodation is sponsored by the CRC/1233 Robust Vision. Andreas Geiger Michael Black Siyu Tang

Autonomous Learning News 12-03-2019 CVPR 2019 Paper Accepted Our paper 'Variational Autoencoders Recover PCA Directions (by Accident)' got accepted at CVPR 2019! We are looking forward to present it as a poster in June at Long Beach! The paper elaborates on the close connection between Variational Autoencoders and the well known PCA algorithm in terms of their alignment of the latent space. Michal Rolinek Dominik Zietlow Georg Martius

Smart Nanoplasmonics Award 11-03-2019 The Optical Society Names Laura Na Liu the 2019 Adolph Lomb Medal Winner

Intelligent Control Systems News 11-03-2019 Neues Kooperationsprojekt zw. IAV und MPI-IS Der Automotive Engineering-Dienstleister IAV und das Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme kooperieren bei der Entwicklung von Algorithmen, um selbstlernende Verfahren in der Automobiltechnik weiter voran zu bringen. Die Forschungskooperation ist eine von mehreren im Rahmen des Cyber Valleys, das den Austausch zwischen anwendungsorientierter Industrieforschung und Neugier getriebener Grundlagenforschung zum Ziel hat. Alexander von Rohr Sebastian Trimpe

Rationality Enhancement News 02-03-2019 Lab's first RLDM submissions The lab has submitted three wonderful abstracts to this year's 4th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making at the McGill University in Montréal. They introduce research around our intelligent cognitive tutor and cover aspects of overcoming present bias, inspecting cognitive decline, and a process-related approach to trace the evolution of planning skills. We keep our fingers crossed! Falk Lieder Yash Raj Jain

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