relAI Fellows Awards

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🎉 Congratulations!

The month of July has brought excellent news for our relAI Fellows. Prof. Fabian Theis and Prof. Pramod Bhatotia have each received a European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept Grant, which supports scientists who want to develop marketable innovations based on their research results.

Pramod Bhatotia's ERC-funded project is set to optimize cloud computing by enhancing the security and reliability of online systems. Meanwhile, Fabian Theis´s initiative aims to integrate single-cell genomics, advanced computational models, and generative AI to tackle one of the biggest challenges in drug therapy: precise targeting. For more information on the funded projects, please visit this site.

The innovative research of Fabian Theis has also been recognized with the 2025 International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) Innovator Award. This recognition is presented annually to a leading scientist who not only makes progressive contributions to computational biology but also consistently pursues unexplored directions in the field.

Finally, Prof. Nassir Navab has been awarded the renowned 2025 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) Technical Achievement Award for his pioneering role in establishing medical augmented reality, surgical data science, and robotic imaging as research fields.

👏 Congratulations!

relAI Fellow Jochen Kuhn has been elected Vice President for Innovation in Education and Teacher Training of LMU. Alongside the other nine new Vice Presidents appointed last week by the LMU University Council, Jochen Kuhn will play an active role in shaping the discourse on addressing the social challenges of our time. To succeed in this endeavour, interdisciplinarity, combined with specialist expertise in key areas such as digitalization and artificial intelligence, is essential.

Jochen Kuhn has served as the Chair of Physics Education at LMU’s Faculty of Physics since 2022, and he is working in AI in Education within relAI. This election will accelerate the advancement of this area.

For more Information, click this link.

🎉 Congratulations!

We are proud to share that relAI PhD student Yusuf Sale has been honored with one of the IJAR Young Researcher Awards. The prestigious prize, funded by the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning (IJAR), recognizes students who demonstrate excellence in research at an early stage of their scientific careers.  

Yusuf received the award at ISIPTA 25, the 14th International Symposium on Imprecise Probabilities: Theories and Applications, organized by ISIPTA, the leading international forum for theories and applications of imprecise probabilities.   

🎉 Congratulations!

We are thrilled to announce that the paper The Value of Prediction in Identifying the Worst-Off co-authored by relAI PhD student Unai Fischer Abaigar, relAI Fellow Christoph Kern, and Juan Carlos Perdomo, from Harvard University, has been selected for an Outstanding Paper Award at ICML 2025, one of the top-tier conferences in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence.     

This is an exceptional outcome, considering that only six papers have received this recognition out of more than 12000 submitted this year.

relAI has been instrumental in fostering the collaboration that led to this significant outcome by funding Unai Fisher Abaigar's research stay at Harvard University. Visits to international centres are one of the components of the relAI PhD curriculum, designed to support collaborations with international researchers and gain international research experience on the topic of the reliability of artificial intelligence (AI).  

The paper tackles aspects of the Algorithmic Decision-Making relAI research area and the relAI central theme Responsibility, exploring how predictive models, particularly those using machine learning, can be used in government programs to identify and support the most vulnerable individuals.

We are excited to announce the next Munich AI Lecture featuring Prof. Guido Montúfar, Professor of Mathematics and of Statistics & Data Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and leader of the Mathematical Machine Learning research group at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, MPI MiS. He serves as a core Principal Investigator in the SECAI Zuse School of Excellence in AI (Leipzig–Dresden).

 Event Details:

🎤 Title: Deep Learning Theory: What we know, what we are learning, and what remains unclear

📅 Date and Time: July 17, 2025 at 5 pm CET

📍 Location: Room B006, Main LMU Building, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 01, 80539 Munich

Abstract

Deep learning has revolutionized artificial intelligence and a wide range of applied domains, driving transformative progress in computer vision, language processing, and scientific discovery. This talk surveys the vibrant and rapidly evolving landscape of deep learning theory—an effort to uncover the mathematical foundations of learning with neural networks. We will review key theoretical insights into optimization dynamics, implicit biases of learning algorithms, and the generalization behavior of deep models—highlighting connections to classical learning theory, high dimensional statistics, and approximation theory. Along the way, we will discuss some of the major successes in analyzing overparameterized regimes, as well as open challenges in understanding feature learning and generalization under moderate overparameterization. The talk will also spotlight emerging phenomena such as benign overfitting, grokking, and delayed generalization, illustrating the depth and complexity of ongoing research questions that challenge traditional notions.

More information is available at the website of Munich AI Lectures

On the latest TV episode of “Neuland” by BR - Bayerischer Rundfunk, relAI PhD student Sarah Ball shares her insights about fundamental issues surrounding a central theme of relAI: “responsibility in AI systems.” She addresses topics such as when AI might reinforce discrimination and how to ensure that AI systems align with human values.

Here is a short clip from the conversation and the link to the full video: https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/Y3JpZDovL2JyLmRlL2Jyb2FkY2FzdC9GMjAyNVdPMDA5MzQ2QTA

👏 Congratulations!

On 1 July 2025, relAI fellow Claudia Eckert will assume the office of Scientific President of acatech - National Academy of Science and Engineering. She was unanimously elected by the acatech Executive Board.

acatech, founded in 2002 and established as the German Academy of Science and Engineering in 2008, represents the interests of German technical sciences independently, in self-determination and guided by the common good, at home and abroad. acatech is organized as a working academy that advises politicians and the public on forward-looking issues concerning the technical sciences and technology politics.

This is a significant recognition of Professor Eckert's leadership and expertise in the field.

For more information, please see the following links:

Last week, our industry partner QuantCo generously hosted over 30 relAI students at its offices in Munich. The visit provided a valuable platform for our students and QuantCo colleagues to connect, fostering a friendly environment for discussions on potential future collaborations.

We extend our sincere gratitude to QuantCo for their warm welcome and for facilitating such a beneficial exchange!

We are proud to announce that the European Research Council (ERC) has awarded an Advanced Grant to relAI Fellow Albrecht Schmidt for the project titled “AI Twins of Human Experience: Towards Personal Generative AI Systems for Amplifying Human Cognition.”

ERC Advanced Grants are highly prestigious, providing support to established and leading principal investigators who are pursuing groundbreaking and high-risk projects. This newly funded project aims to establish a scientific foundation for creating AI twins of human experiences. The goal is to store and process these experiences in a way that seamlessly enhances human cognitive and creative abilities. This initiative has the potential to transform the use of personal data, fostering cognitive augmentation and social connectivity through AI.

Find more information about this exciting project via the links below:

https://www.lmu.de/en/newsroom/news-overview/news/two-erc-advanced-grants-for-lmu-researchers-2.html

https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/advanced-grants-2024-examples-projects#AItwin

This year, the relAI Retreat took place in Bad Kohlgrub from June 4th to 6th, bringing together over 80 members of the relAI family. It was a fantastic opportunity to reflect on our work in reliable AI and on the activities of our community to drive this field forward.

Keynote presentations by relAI Fellows showcased the impressive breadth of work across our four research areas:

Keynote by Vincent Fortuin
Keynote by Christian Wachinger
Keynote by Hinrich Schütze
Keynote by Göran Kauermann

Our relAI students presented their research topics during concise one-minute Lightning Talks, showing the diversity of work within the community. Additionally, we had exciting and inspirational Group Discussions on topics such as uncertainty in causal machine learning, counterexamples in machine learning, and explainable AI.

A significant outcome of the retreat was the strengthening of community ties, particularly among students. A speedgeeking session on the first day effectively broke the ice, fostering informal connections. Group discussions on organizational topics generated ideas for shaping the relAI program. This year, students proposed innovative ideas to enhance community spirit, engage with industry and alumni, contribute to the relAI blog, and expand the relAI wiki. We also allocated time for social activities, which facilitated further discussions on research collaborations and joint initiatives.

Speedgeeking session
Lightning Talks
Group discussions
Group discussions

Other notable events at the retreat included the annual assembly of relAI Fellows, one-to-one discussions between relAI students and Fellows on the students’ individual development plans (IDP), and the presentation of relAI certificates to MSc students who successfully completed the relAI MSc program.

IDP Discussions
Award of relAI Certificates

A big thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to making this event a success!