News

The next lecture in our lecture series will be given by Prof. Dr. Fabian Offert on the topic of “Has (AI) Critique Run Out of Steam?”. When & where: Thursday, January 9, 2025, 4 pm at Bielefeld University (Room X B2-103) or online. Join us via Zoom https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/62228687309?pwd=z0wonDfT8yD4yuCiWlZpDa8E34NY3E.1 Abstract: What is the method of Critical AI Studies? So far, this emerging discipline has almost exclusively resorted to porting methodological gambits from established disciplinary configurations and apply ing them onto the new…

On 18 and 19 November 2024, the members of the SAIL network met in Bad Sassendorf for the annual SAIL Retreat. The aim of the meeting was to deepen the exchange on the PhD projects, to evaluate the project status and to further develop the strategic direction of SAIL. Two days of intensive scientific exchange, exciting presentations and a joint social programme strengthened interdisciplinary collaboration and team spirit. This year, the PhD student presentations were spread over two days, allowing…

The next lecture in our lecture series will be given by Prof. Dr. Helge Rhodin on the topic of “What is left to do in visual computing?”. When & where: Thursday, November 14, 2024, 4 pm at Bielefeld University (Room CITEC-1.204) or online. Join us via Zoom https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/64775735478?pwd=TFpEUVFPME5EQXFKMHZHY1ZsM2Y4Zz09 Abstract: I will share my view on the open problems in computer vision and computer graphics. Generative AI disrupted research and industry, to a point where it remains unclear what current models are…

Julian Knaup, SAIL PhD, was awarded the Best Track Paper Award in the field of AI applications in industry at the IEEE RTSI conference in Lecco, Italy, for his outstanding research work. Together with Christoph-Alexander Holst and Prof. Dr. Volker Lohweg, he wrote the award-winning paper on the topic of banknote authentication and adversarial attacks. ABOUT THE IEEE RTSI CONFERENCE The IEEE RTSI (International Forum on Research and Technologies for Society and Industry) brings together leading experts from science and…

The next lecture in our lecture series will be given by Dr. Kacper Sokol on the topic of “Naturalistic Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Clinical Reasoning Support Systems”. When & where: Wednesday, August 28 2024, 4:15pm at Bielefeld University (Room CITEC-1.204) or online. Join us via Zoom https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/64775735478?pwd=TFpEUVFPME5EQXFKMHZHY1ZsM2Y4Zz09 Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the state of explainable artificial intelligence and interpretable machine learning in the context of medical applications. Among others, I will highlight the technical and socio-technical barriers to adoption…

SAIL Hackathon - Intelligent Industrial Work Spaces 2024 at inIT: Focus on creativity and innovation From 7 to 9 June 2024, the Innovation Campus Lemgo was transformed into a centre for creative minds and technical innovation. The SAIL Hackathon - Intelligent Industrial Work Spaces, organised by the Institute for Industrial Information Technology (inIT) at the Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe (TH OWL), attracted participants from all over Europe.  WORKING TOGETHER ON CHALLENGING TASKS The hackathon offered participants the opportunity to optimise industrial…

The next lecture in our lecture series will be given by Dr. Nicole Ludwig on the topic of “Assessing Climate Change Impacts: An ML Approach to Multi-Decadal Energy Forecasting”. When & where: Thursday, June 20 2024, 4:15pm at Bielefeld University (Room CITEC-1.204) or online. Join us via Zoom https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/64775735478?pwd=TFpEUVFPME5EQXFKMHZHY1ZsM2Y4Zz09 Abstract: Renewable energy is crucial for a more sustainable future. However, as renewable energy sources depend on the weather, they not only help mitigate climate change but are also directly impacted…

Under the title “AI Research Meets Practice: Perspectives for Companies and Society,” the consortium project SAIL invited participants to the Applied AI Day at HSBI. In addition to contributions from research and industry on the subject of artificial intelligence and its use in practice, an exhibition showed possible applications of AI. Everybody has been talking about artificial intelligence (AI) since language models like ChatGPT have become available to the public. But what does the use of AI actually mean for…

We are delighted to have another contribution in our “Robust AI” series: On June 13, we welcome Prof. Dr. Ricardo Vinuesa from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm with a talk titled “The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals". When & where: Thursday, June 13 2024, 5pm online. Join us via Zoom https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/64775735478?pwd=TFpEUVFPME5EQXFKMHZHY1ZsM2Y4Zz09 Abstract:The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its progressively wider impact on many sectors requires an assessment of its effect on the…

We have the pleasure to welcome Francesco Leofante as a visiting researcher at the HammerLab, Bielefeld University. On June 10, he will give a talk with the title'Robustness issues in algorithmic recourse.' including the topic of counterfactual explanations. When & where: Monday June 10, 2:15pm at Bielefeld University (Room 1.204) or Zoom (https://uni-bielefeld.zoom.us/j/97495440628?pwd=eWpvTkUwQWtYVjBwbnM0OWFFbE1Tdz09) Abstract: Counterfactual explanations (CEs) are advocated as being ideally suited to providing algorithmic recourse for subjects affected by the predictions of machine learning models. While CEs can…

🤩 Together with journalist Svea Eckert, Barbara Hammer talked about voice assistants of the future at the re:publica24 festival in Berlin on May 27.🗣 The Republica Programme has the following to say about this exciting talk: "We ask Alexa for tomorrow's weather, ChatGPT for a simple explanation of the Big Bang - and always receive an answer that we rarely question. However, how voice assistants manage to provide a suitable answer to questions usually remains a mystery to us users.…

The International Workshop on Actionable Knowledge Representation and Reasoning for Robots (AKR³) and the Tutorial on Contextualizing and Executing Robot Manipulation Plans Using Web Knowledge was held on May 27 as part of the ESWC conference with the participation of SAIL. Organized by Philip Cimiano, the workshop focused on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KRR) in the area of cognitive robotics, with the focus on acquiring knowledge from the Web and making it actionable for robotic applications. With the workshop, we aim to bring together…

The annual Girls' Day took place on 25.04.2024. On this career orientation day, schoolgirls are introduced to those courses of study and professions in which women are usually underrepresented. The SAIL project participated in this year's Girls' Day together with Hochschule Bielefeld - University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Applied Mathematics program. The decentralized Equal Opportunities Officer Dr. Elke Koppenrade presented mathematics in a playful way, supplemented by keynote speeches from members of the faculty.An excursion led by…

Artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability are key topics that require global collaboration. A delegation from the SAIL network therefore recently travelled to the USA to exchange ideas with researchers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and present the "Sustainable Life-Cycle of Intelligent Socio-Technical Systems" (SAIL) research network. SAIL investigates the interaction between humans, AI and technology over the entire life cycle of a system. The focus is on the sustainable and long-term development of socio-technical systems in real life. The SAIL consortium…

On April 22nd, Barbara Hammer took part in a panel discussion titled "Industry. AI - How Will AI Change Production and Employment Structures?" at the 2024 Summit for Research and Innovation, held at Hannover Messe. The panel explored the potential of AI in Germany and Europe, its impact on production and the job market, and strategies for fostering necessary competencies and collaborations, including those between startups, SMEs, and industry. The discussion, moderated by Prof. Dr. Uwe Cantner, Chairman of EFI,…

On Thursday, April 25, we will continue our lecture series “Robust AI”. Dr. Sascha Saralajew will give a lecture on “Prototype-based Classification Learning: From traditional versions to modern approaches”. When & where 25 April 2024, 4pm, online: https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/64775735478?pwd=TFpEUVFPME5EQXFKMHZHY1ZsM2Y4Zz09 Abstract Prototype-based Classification Learning is a powerful machine learning method with the great properties of being interpretable and provably robust at the same time. These properties make the method an interesting approach for several domains (e.g., biomedical) and, particularly, for domains that…

On Thursday, April 11, we will continue our lecture series “Robust AI”. Prof. Dr. Elena Esposito will give a lecture on “Communicating with Generative AI". When & whereApril 11 2024 , 4pm online (Zoom): https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/64775735478?pwd=TFpEUVFPME5EQXFKMHZHY1ZsM2Y4Zz09Abstract Is Generative Artificial Intelligence a threat or an opportunity for our civilization? The most recent algorithms, which seem to be getting smarter and smarter, are affecting every aspect of our lives and becoming increasingly difficult to understand. To what extent do we need to worry…

 23. Mai, Konferenzbereich der Hochschule Bielefeld Eine Veranstaltung des Netzwerks SAIL – Sustainable Life-Cycle of Intelligent Socio-Technical Systems Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) ist spätestens seit der Verbreitung von Sprachmodellen wie ChatGPT in aller Munde. Doch was bedeutet der Einsatz von KI für die Gesellschaft tatsächlich? Das Hochschulnetzwerk SAIL lädt ein zu einem Nachmittag mit spannenden Vorträgen und Vorführungen, wie KI in der Praxis sinnvoll genutzt werden kann. Die Referent*innen geben dabei Einblicke in die Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen, vor denen Anwender*innen in…

From 7 to 9 June 2024, an exciting hackathon will take place at the Innovation Campus Lemgo, focusing on the optimization of industrial workspaces! Collaborate with like-minded individuals on the challenging task, unleash your creativity, and showcase your programming skills. Whether you are an experienced professional or an interested beginner, this hackathon is the perfect opportunity to learn, network and have fun! An interesting supporting program is also provided: there will be exciting lectures and a guided tour through the Smart…

On Friday, March 15, we will continue our lecture series "Robust AI". Petra Bevandić will give a lecture on "Leveraging class relations for multi-dataset semantic segmentation". When & where15.03.2024 14:15h in CITEC 1.204 and zoomhttps://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/61439312549?pwd=OGxLMmVFeG93VGc1VnV3U3RoR0l6dz09AbstractRecent attention in the field has been directed towards training semantic segmentation models on multiple datasets. This trend stems from the increasing demand for models that exhibit robust performance across diverse visual domains. However, a significant obstacle to principled training arises from incompatible labeling policies among…

👋 A wonderful AI Winter School comes to an end. Last week, we hosted around 100 research from all over Europe at Paderborn University. The Winter School was organised in collaboration with MSCA Doctoral Networks KnowGraphs and LEMUR. 👩‍💻 The participants enjoyed three exciting days with a programme including various lectures from the field of machine learning as well as training sessions for the doctoral students on topics relating to scientific work and career planning. A special highlight was a…

We are delighted to announce a great event: “How Sustainable is Artificial Intelligence?” at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, Washington, DC on March 20, 2024 Join us for an engaging exploration of sustainable AI practices. The event will feature current research, interactive discussions, and networking opportunities. The event is hosted by the Johns Hopkins Science Diplomacy Hub and the Campus OWL New York Office together with the SAIL Project (www.sail.nrw), the German Center for Research and Innovation New York (DWIH),…

We are looking for postdocs and advanced researchers who want to continue and expand their research in line with the SAIL research agenda at Bielefeld University or Paderborn University for a 3-month fellowship The SAIL fellowship program is suitable for excellent international researchers from all disciplinary backgrounds on postdoc level. The aim of the program is to enrich the research carried out in SAIL while supporting the research ties with relevant communities and establishing long-term collaboration with institutes across the globe.…

On Thursday, Feb 15, Prof. Daniel Neider from Technische Universität Dortmund gave a talk titled "A Gentle Introduction to Neural Network Verification" as part of the SAIL Lecture Series on Robust AI. Nearly 100 people attended the lecture online and at the CITEC, Bielefeld University, and we were especially happy about participants that are not part of our network. 💡 What was the lecture about? Neural networks have become a crucial component in image and speech recognition, natural language processing, and autonomous…

After the opening event "How to attack Neural Networks" last year by Prof. Dr. Barbara Hammer, the members of the SAIL project welcomed their first external guest for the lecture series "Robust AI" on January 11, 2024. Dr. Christoph Zimmer, Lead Research Scientist at the Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence, gave a one-hour lecture that could be followed both on site at the Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe (TH OWL) and online. The title of the presentation was "Smart Test Bench Automation with Safe Active Learning". Model-based…

On December 13, 2023, the interdisciplinary research project SAIL (Sustainable Life-Cycle of Intelligent Socio-Technical Systems) was honored to present its innovative research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability at the Parliamentary Breakfast in the NRW State Parliament. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfram Schenck from Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Carsten Röcker from the Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe (TH OWL) represented the SAIL project at this event and presented the project to an interested audience. In their five-minute presentation, they emphasized the need…

Our SAIL lecture series on "Robust AI" goes into the next round: On Thursday, January 11 at 4 pm, Dr. Christoph Zimmer, Lead Research Scientist at Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence, will give a lecture on the topic "Smart test bench automation with Safe Active Learning" at the TH OWL (Room 1.410). Participation is also possible online under this link. What is the lecture about? Computational modeling is central in many scientific domains. Data based modeling has gained relevance over…

Last week was an important milestone for the SAIL research network as we came together for our first annual retreat. Away from our usually digital interactions, the retreat provided us with a unique opportunity for face-to-face discussions and sharing. On the first day, PhD students presented their research projects, which sparked insightful discussions that continued during the coffee breaks. In addition to the academic discussions, we planned the year ahead together on the second day of the retreat, reflecting on…

How exactly do Alexa and ChatGPT work? And what happens when I ask the voice assistant a question? This was the topic of an event in the Körber-Stiftung's "Lets Talk Tech!" series on Thursday, November 30. Prof. Barbara Hammer was invited to Hamburg as an AI expert on this topic. In conversation with science journalist Svea Eckert, she explained how the intelligent applications work. With the help of vivid examples of everyday situations, the interested audience was given an understanding…

Organizers: Özge Alacam, Benjamin Paaßen, Michiel Straat On November 23, 2023, the SAIL network invited international experts to the workshop “Fundamental Limits of Large Language Models” (LLMs). In a time of anecdotal reports on both impressive capabilities and failures of LLMs, rigorous and systematic research into the underlying laws governing LLMs is sorely needed. The workshop brought interdisciplinary expertise from linguistics, computer science, and cognitive science together and presented the state-of-the-art in theoretical and empirical research. Leonie Weissweiler (Photo by Adia Khalid)…

The next SAIL event is coming up: On November 23, a hybrid workshop on "Fundamental Limits of Large Language Models" will take place. The program will contain a series of invited talks by esteemed researchers around the world. For further information and registration see https://sites.google.com/view/sail-ws-llms/home…

This winter semester, a SAIL lecture series will be held on the topic of "Robust AI". It will kick off on 2nd November at 4 pm with Prof. Barbara Hammer giving a talk on "How to Attack Neural Networks." The lecture will take place online at: https://uni-bielefeld.zoom-x.de/j/64775735478?pwd=TFpEUVFPME5EQXFKMHZHY1ZsM2Y4Zz09 There is no registration necessary. We welcome all interested parties to participate in our lecture series!

On October 11, 2023, an internal event of Bosch's pre-development department took place at the Bosch Research Campus in Renningen. The well-attended event provided ample opportunity to exchange ideas and insights - both through exciting presentations and inspiring conversations in a pleasant atmosphere. Prof. Dr. Markus Lange-Hegermann, board member from the Institute for Industrial Information Technology (inIT), professor at the Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe (TH OWL) and team member of the SAIL-Project, made an important contribution to the event with his…

The SAIL research network was represented at the Research Day of Paderborn Universtiy. This year's event took place on 26th September 2023 under the motto "Smart Sustainability: Future-proof Concepts". In the context of a workshop with the topic "Intelligent Technical Systems and AI - Opportunities and Challenges" our members Clarissa Sabrina Arlinghaus, Christoph Berganski, Keno Pape and Jörn Tebbe were able to present their PhD projects and the research of the SAIL research network. The Research Day of Paderborn University…

We look forward to a virtual talk that is hosted by the JAII. Our presenter, Prof. Hinrich Schütze (LMU Munich, Schütze lab) is a renowned expert in computational linguistics who will talk about "Glot500: Scaling Multilingual Corpora and Language Models to 500 Languages". The talk will be held on on July 6, 16:00-17.30 CET and this is the Zoom link to participate. Abstract:Large language models (LLMs) are currently the most active area of research in NLP. Most work has focused…

The IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics INDIN'23 will take place from July 17 to 20 in Lemgo. INDIN 2023 is hosted by Institute Industrial IT of TH OWL and Fraunhofer IOSB-INA. The international conference will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of the state-of-art and future perspectives of industrial information technologies. Industry experts, researchers and academics are gathering together to share ideas and experiences surrounding frontier technologies, breakthroughs, innovative solutions, research results, as well as initiatives related to…

We look forward to the SAIL Lecture and Networking Event! For this we welcome Prof. Tanja Schultz from the University of Bremen on May 9, who will give a lecture on "Biosignal-Adaptive Cognitive Systems". We cordially invite all interested parties to this event which will be held in cooperation with the DataNinja Spring School 2023. In this context there will be further interesting lectures, in which you are of course welcome to participate. Please note: the in-person attendance slots for…

The external Kick-Off Meeting of the SAIL Research Network took place on March 20, 2023, at the Zukunftsmeile in Paderborn. Moderated by Prof. Dr. Axel Ngonga, the event commenced with welcome addresses from Prof. Dr. Johannes Blömer of the University of Paderborn and Prof. Dr. Angelika Epple of the University of Bielefeld. Subsequently, Prof. Dr. Barbara Hammer provided an overview presentation introducing the participants to the SAIL Research Network. In a series of six concise spotlight presentations, the six SAIL…

Under the Twitter handle @SAIL_network our research network can now also be found in social media. There we regularly report on the work of our SAIL members, share events and draw attention to interesting research activities. Stop by and follow us: https://twitter.com/SAIL_network

On Tuesday, March 14, we welcomed all PhD students and PostDocs to the project once again virtually in our SAIL Online Onboarding Event and exchanged some organizational information. After a round of introductions, we were able to get a good impression of the research diversity - this promises an exciting collaboration in the coming years! We are very much looking forward to what is to come and wish all new members of SAIL a good start!

A first major team meeting of the research network was held on January 30. In the beautiful premises of the CITEC building of the University of Bielefeld, the members of the four participating universities were able to get to know each other personally and to present their research foci. Interesting discussions and ideas on how to jointly shape research already emerged here. A special highlight, which has nothing to do with the actual research, was the SAIL cake, which Prof.…

The SAIL research network addresses the next stage of AI development by looking at the entire life cycle of AI systems and their technological and societal implications. Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North-Rhine Westphalia the four participating universities Bielefeld University, Paderborn University, FH Bielefeld and TH OWL are looking forward to a successful collaboration.