News & Awards

Physical Intelligence News 28-02-2022 International Pharmaceutical Technology Symposium Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have won the “Best Oral Presentation Award” at the 20th International Pharmaceutical Technology Symposium with the research topic “Developing Theragnostic Microrobots for Active Drug Targeting and Hyperthermia Applications”. The theme of the symposium was “Shaping the Future of Pharmaceutics”. Gulsen Aybar Tural Metin Sitti

Autonomous Learning Haptic Intelligence News 24-02-2022 Fingertip sensitivity for robots Striving to improve touch sensing in robotics, scientists developed a thumb-shaped sensor with a camera hidden inside and trained a deep neural network to infer its haptic contact information. When something touches the finger, the system constructs a three-dimensional force map from the visible deformations of its flexible outer shell. This research invention significantly improves a robot finger’s haptic perception, coming ever closer to the sense of touch of human skin. Huanbo Sun Georg Martius Katherine J. Kuchenbecker

Organizational Leadership and Diversity 24-02-2022 Wokshop Bosch DEI exchange with Bosch senior leadership

News 18-02-2022 One step closer to lifelike avatars Soon, internet users will be able to meet each other in cyberspace as animated 3D avatars. A team of scientists who are all part of the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems, a research partnership between MPI-IS and ETH Zurich, has developed new algorithms for creating virtual humans much more easily. Xu Chen Michael Black Andreas Geiger Sarah Danes

Perceiving Systems Award 03-02-2022 Yufeng Zheng receives the Meta PhD Research Fellowship Award 2022.

Physical Intelligence News 03-02-2022 Physical Intelligence Department to cooperate with the Max Planck Queensland Center Scientists participating in the research cooperation will explore extracellular matrices and their importance for medicine, ecology, and technology Extracellular matrices are found in almost all living things and carry out various functions that could also become medically, ecologically, and technically relevant. However, relatively little research has been done on them. The scientists who joined forces in the Max Planck Queensland Center (MPQC) for the Materials Science of Extracellular Matrices at the beginning of 2022 want to change that. Extracellular matrices are not animate but can nevertheless provide cells with support, respond to changing environmental conditions, and store information that stimulates or inhibits cell growth. In various projects, different teams of the MPQC will investigate how the composition and order of these pillars of life enable their diverse functions. Metin Sitti

Award 02-02-2022 Yufeng Zheng was recipient of the meta PhD research fellowship, 2022.

Bioinspired Autonomous Miniature Robots Award 01-02-2022 Research has been funded by the DFG SPP 2100 "Soft Material Robotic Systems"

Empirical Inference Appointment 01-02-2022 Georgios Arvanitidis changes as Assistant Professor to TU of Denmark

Physical Intelligence 01-02-2022 Gulsen Aybar Tural and Metin Sitti received the Best Oral Presentation Award in the 20th International Pharmaceutical Technology Symposium Gulsen Aybar Tural Metin Sitti

Haptic Intelligence Appointment 01-02-2022 Hojin Lee appointed Senior Researcher at ETRI in South Korea Hojin Lee

Rationality Enhancement News 01-02-2022 Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Improve People's Planning Strategies Our article on improving human decision-making with intelligent cognitive tutors has been accepted for publication in PNAS. Many bad decisions and their devastating consequences could be avoided if people used optimal decision strategies. Here, we introduce a new approach to improving human decision-making. The basic idea is to give people feedback on \textit{how} they reach their decisions. We develop a method that leverages artificial intelligence to generate this feedback in such a way that people quickly discover the best possible decision strategies. Our empirical findings suggest that this new approach leads to improvements in decision-making competence that transfer to more difficult decisions in more complex environments. In the long run, this line of work might lead to apps that teach people clever strategies for decision making, reasoning, goal-setting, planning, and goal achievement. Falk Lieder Yash Raj Jain Gabriela Iwama Frederic Becker

Physical Intelligence News 01-02-2022 On the spot drug delivery with light-controlled organic microswimmers Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research develop organic microparticles that can steer through biological fluids and dissolved blood in unprecedented ways. Even in very salty liquids, the microswimmers can be propelled forward at high speed by visible light, either individually or as a swarm. Additionally, they are partially biocompatible and can take up and release cargo on demand. The material properties are so ideal they could pave the way toward designing semi-autonomous microrobots applied in biomedicine. Varun Sridhar Filip Podjaski Metin Sitti Bettina Lotsch

Rationality Enhancement Award 28-01-2022 PNAS Article PNAS article on Intelligent Cognitive Tutors Falk Lieder Yash Raj Jain Frederic Becker

News 27-01-2022 First ELLIS Institute in Tübingen gets go-ahead Minister-President Kretschmann and Hans-Werner Hector sign funding agreement Bernhard Schölkopf Matthias Bethge

Rationality Enhancement News 25-01-2022 "Improving Human Decision-Making by Discovering Efficient Strategies for Hierarchical Planning" is going to be published! The article "Improving Human Decision-Making by Discovering Efficient Strategies for Hierarchical Planning" has been accepted in Computational Brain & Behavior. Saksham Consul Lovis Heindrich Jugoslav Stojcheski Falk Lieder

Haptic Intelligence News 17-01-2022 HI-Department featured in MaxPlanckForschung In its upcoming edition, the science magazine of the Max Planck Society features several of the research projects of the Haptic Intelligence Department. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Rachael Burns Alexis Block

Locomotion in Biorobotic and Somatic Systems News 14-01-2022 Science - Watch this gecko smash headfirst into a tree—and still stick the landing High-speed video reveals why crash landings are no problem for geckos and other jumpers Ardian Jusufi Robert Siddall

Human Aspects of Machine Learning Award 11-01-2022 The HAML group received grassroots funding for the project "diverse faces dataset"

Rationality Enhancement News 03-01-2022 New Methods Paper Our methods paper "A Computational Process-Tracing Method for Measuring People’s Planning Strategies and How They Change Over Time" has just been accepted for publication in Behavior Research Methods. Yash Raj Jain Ruiqi He Falk Lieder

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2022 Metin Sitti was elected as the Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate. Metin Sitti

Rationality Enhancement News 23-12-2021 Article on Resouce-Rational Models of Planning Accepted by Nature Human Behaviour The article "Rational Use of Cognitive Resources in Human Planning" has been accepted for publication in Nature Human Behaviour. Falk Lieder

News 16-12-2021 Five years of Cyber Valley AI research consortium celebrates anniversary On the occasion of its fifth anniversary, Cyber Valley invited the Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann, Minister of Science Theresia Bauer, and other founding members and supporters to a special edition of its online event series "Entrepreneurship Series". Michael Black Bernhard Schölkopf Philipp Hennig

Physical Intelligence News 14-12-2021 Machine learning deployed to fast-track industrial optimization process Joint research project between science and industry An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, the Technical University of Munich, and Robert Bosch GmbH deploy Bayesian Machine Learning methods to fast-track the optimization process of coating copper used in microchips. By doing so, the optimization process can be speeded up fifteenfold compared to taking a conventional optimization approach. Gül Dogan Sinan Ozgun Demir Cem Balda Dayan Umut Sanli Utku Culha Metin Sitti Gisela Schütz Kahraman Keskinbora

Learning and Dynamical Systems News 12-12-2021 Invited talk at the CDC-workshop "Towards a Systems Theory for Optimization Algorithms" Workshop organized by Prof. C. Ebenbauer and Prof. C. Scherer on the use of systems and control theory for the design of optimization algorithms.

Locomotion in Biorobotic and Somatic Systems News 11-12-2021 Der Spiegel - on Robots informed by nature and made of soft active materials Die springenden Softies Moderne Roboter sind oft leistungsfähige Abbilder des Menschen. Doch zuletzt interessierten sich Forscher eher für ferngesteuerte Fische, Spinnen oder Geckos. Sie entstehen aus weichen Materialien, die Muskeln und Gelenke nachahmen. Ardian Jusufi

News 11-12-2021 Die springenden Softies Bioinspirierte Roboter Moderne Roboter sind oft leistungsfähige Abbilder des Menschen. Doch zuletzt interessierten sich Forscher eher für ferngesteuerte Fische, Spinnen oder Geckos. Sie entstehen aus weichen Materialien, die Muskeln und Gelenke nachahmen. Ardian Jusufi Robert Siddall

Empirical Inference News 08-12-2021 Machine Learning decodes Tremors of the Universe Neural network analyzes gravitational waves in real-time Researchers train a neural network to estimate – in just a few seconds – the precise characteristics of merging black holes based on their gravitational-wave emissions. The network determines the masses and spins of the black holes, where in the sky, at what angle, and how far away from Earth the merger took place. Bernhard Schölkopf Maximilian Dax Jakob Macke

Robotic Materials News 06-12-2021 Soft Functional Materials for the Next Generation of Robots In a Comment for Nature Materials entitled “Shaping the future of robotics through materials innovation” Philipp Rothemund, Postdoc in the Robotic Materials Department, and Christoph Keplinger, Director of the Robotic Materials Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, discuss together with collaborators from Cornell University and MIT issues that currently stand in the way of a wide-spread use of functional soft materials in real-world robotic systems. Christoph Keplinger Philipp Rothemund Linda Behringer

Physical Intelligence Appointment 01-12-2021 Hakan Ceylan was appointed Assistant Professor at Mayo Clinic Hakan Ceylan

Haptic Intelligence Award 23-11-2021 Katherine J. Kuchenbecker has been named an IEEE Fellow effective January 1, 2022, for contributions to interactive haptic systems and robotic touch perception Katherine J. Kuchenbecker

Empirical Inference Award 19-11-2021 Francesco Locatello, ETH Medal for his PhD Thesis (2021)

News 16-11-2021 CaCTüS Internship initiative launched The program aims to boost the careers of talented students in Artificial Intelligence & brain research who experience significant difficulties in their pursuit of higher education. Leila Masri

Perceiving Systems Award 10-11-2021 Vassilis Choutas and Victoria Fernandez Abrevaya, outstanding reviewers at 3DV 2021.

Haptic Intelligence News 09-11-2021 Hyosang Lee appointed new Cyber Valley Research Group Leader The former PostDoc in the Haptic Intelligence Department started his new position at the Institute for Smart Sensors at the University of Stuttgart on October 1, 2021. Hyosang Lee Katherine J. Kuchenbecker

Physical Intelligence News 09-11-2021 Junghwan Byun receives Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship The scientist working in the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart will be supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for two years to continue his soft robotic research in Germany. Junghwan Byun

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Award 30-10-2021 Jael George Mathew won the Best ePoster Prize at nanoGe from ACS Energy & Fuels with co-author Hannah-Noa Barad.

Physical Intelligence Award 17-10-2021 15 journal articles of our group were selected as the Highly Cited Papers in Web of Science.

News 11-10-2021 Moritz Hardt appointed a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Social perspective on computer science at the center of research The Max Planck Society has appointed the professor from the University of California, Berkeley as a director at the Tübingen site of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. He founds the Social Foundations of Computation department, which extends the institute's deep expertise in machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and physical systems towards a social perspective on computer science. Bernhard Schölkopf Moritz Hardt Celestine Mendler-Dünner

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 10-10-2021 Dr. Zhichao Ma appointed Associate Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Congrats and good luck to Dr. Zhichao Ma Congrats and good luck to Zhichao Ma, Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow in the Group, who will join the School of Biomedical Engineering, and the Institute of Medical Robotics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as an Associate Professor. Best of luck and lots of success!

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Appointment 10-10-2021 Zhichao Ma appointed Associate Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Empirical Inference News 04-10-2021 Youtuber Doktor Whatson und MPI-IS erklären gemeinsam KI Video-Serie über Künstliche Intelligenz gestartet Folge 1 beschäftigt sich mit Generativen Modellen, Folge 2 mit Kausalität, Folge 3 mit Fairness und Folge 4, die wir vor Ort in Tübingen gedreht haben, mit Reinforcement Learning. Annika Buchholz Bernhard Schölkopf

Haptic Intelligence Appointment 01-10-2021 Hyosang Lee is a Cyber Valley Research Group Leader at the University of Stuttgart

News 01-10-2021 Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems celebrates double anniversary Prominent guests look back on 10 and 100 years of scientific excellence in Stuttgart's Neues Schloss Bernhard Schölkopf

News 28-09-2021 Leading ETH Zurich Scientists appointed Max Planck Fellows at MPI-IS Affiliation of four professors from the renowned university boosts Swiss-German partnership in learning systems research Under the umbrella of their successful research partnership, the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems, two world class research institutions in the field of intelligent systems have further intensified their strategic connection with the appointment of four outstanding researchers from ETH Zurich as Max Planck Fellows. The new Fellows share research goals strongly aligned with those of MPI-IS, and will contribute expertise complementary to that found already at the German institute. Sarah Danes Bernhard Schölkopf

News 27-09-2021 Carl Schneider Stiftung supports acquisition of state-of-the art equipment for novel robotics research At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the foundation, another 135,000 euros were granted to MPI-IS to support the acquisition of a novel mechanical analysis device. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Gunther Richter Jonathan Fiene

Empirical Inference Award 27-09-2021 Karimi, Amir-Hossein: received the Google PhD Fellowship in Machine Learning 2021

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 25-09-2021 Johannes Sachs wins Springer Dissertation Award Johannes' Ph.D. thesis "Motion, Symmetry & Spectroscopy of Chiral Nanostructures" has been awarded a Springer Dissertation Award. Congratulations!

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Award 23-09-2021 Peer Fischer has been named a Distinguished Lecturer by the Sigma Xi scientific research honor society.

Empirical Inference Award 21-09-2021 Bernhard Schölkopf received the 2020 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award. Due to the pandemic, the award ceremony was postponed to September 2021.

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