Johannes received this recognition for his paper, “Robust Sensing of Low-Rank Matrices with Non-Orthogonal Sparse Decomposition,” published in November 2023 (Vol. 67, ACHA). His research focuses on understanding how to leverage intrinsic models or data structures and how the loss of information caused by digital processing (quantization) affects theoretical results. This is highly relevant for resource-aware and reliable AI
Daniel Rückert holds the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for AI in Medicine and Healthcare at TUM. His research focuses on developing advanced algorithms for biomedical image analysis, including segmentation, registration, and deep learning methods to support reliable AI in healthcare applications.
The MICCAI Society (Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention) recognized Daniel Rückert for his outstanding, lasting contributions to the field. His work has significantly advanced the application of AI in biomedical imaging, helping create reliable, clinically impactful solutions.
This recognition honors his pioneering work on Stable Diffusion, a generative AI model that has democratized image generation. Stable Diffusion enables users to create high-quality images from text descriptions, making advanced image generation accessible through open-source software without the need for expensive hardware. This innovation exemplifies our mission at relAI, which focuses on advancing reliable AI systems.
The German AI Award, presented by WELT, recognizes innovations that drive the future of AI both in theory and application. Björn Ommer’s recognition reflects his significant role in shaping the evolution of reliable and transparent AI systems.
We are happy to partner with AI Developers! The network, founded this summer, fosters a collaborative AI ecosystem across Germany. We are proud to be among its earliest supporters, working together to advance reliable AI technologies. The mission of AI developers is to bridge the gap between academia, industry, and government, driving ethical AI innovation and entrepreneurial growth, and they will hold monthly events, some of which will be in Munich.
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relAI is proud to announce the addition of five exceptional fellows to the school. Enkelejda Kasneci (TUM), Gjergji Kasneci (TUM), Björn Ommer (LMU), Tom Sterkenburg (LMU), and Abdalla Swikir (TUM) have each made significant contributions to their respective fields and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to our family.
The research topics of the new fellows tackle essential aspects of the field of reliable AI. Their work ranges from the study of human-computer interaction and semantic scene understanding to the study of fairness and inductive bias in machine learning as well as safe learning in robotics. Their engagement in the school's research and educational activities will contribute to the reliable application of AI in real-life scenarios, such as improving user experience in digital interfaces and enhancing the safety of autonomous systems.
Enkelejda Kasneci is a Distinguished Professor (“Liesel Beckmann Distinguished Professorship”) for Human-Centered Technologies for Learning at the TUM School of Social Sciences & Technology. Her research focuses on Human-Computer Interaction and developing AI systems that sense and infer the user’s cognitive state, expertise, actions, and intentions based on multimodal data.
Gjergji Kasneci holds the Chair for Responsible Data Science at TUM School of Computation, Information & Technology. His research focuses on transparency, robustness, bias, and fairness in machine learning algorithms, incorporating ethical, legal, and societal considerations.
Abdalla Swikir is a Senior Scientist and Teaching Coordinator at the TUM Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI). His research in safe learning for robotic control and autonomous systems targets the enhancement of reliability and safety, ensuring these technologies can effectively function in dynamic and critical environments.
Björn Ommer is Head of the LMU Computer Vision & Learning Group. His research interests include semantic scene understanding and retrieval, generative AI and visual synthesis, explainable AI, and self-supervised metric and representation learning. Moreover, he is applying this basic research in interdisciplinary projects within neuroscience and the digital humanities.
Tom Sterkenburg is an Emmy Noether junior research group leader at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at LMU Munich. His Emmy Noether project, “From Bias to Knowledge: The Epistemology of Machine Learning", is concerned with clarifying the fundamental concept of inductive bias in machine learning.
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We are excited to announce the release of the relAI Blog. The blog is the relAI students' platform for sharing cutting-edge research and developments from our school, highlighting the significant strides relAI is making toward making AI systems safer, more trustworthy, and privacy-preserving.
The blog posts, authored by the students, will cover a diverse range of topics. From introductory discussions on relAI research to the latest project outputs, and even reports on interesting aspects of relAI life. The Blog Editorial Team, composed of relAI students, plays a crucial role in the editorial revision and publication.
The blog starts out with two posts, a welcome from the Editorial Team and an interesting introduction to uncertainty quantification from relAI PhD student and member of the Editorial Team, Lisa Wimmer.
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Mark your calendars for these interesting talks coming up in the next weeks!
The next talk, by Daniela Rus, is on July 15th, at 5pm at Lichtenbergstraße 2a, 85748 Garching, Auditorium (Ground floor) of Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), TUM and via zoom. She is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT.
On Wednesday July 17th, Alexei A. Efros of University of California, Berkeley will discuss whether “We are (still?) not giving data enough credit”. The lecture takes place in cooperation with the ELLIS-Workshop on "Open Problems in Computer Vision & Generative Modelling" on the same day.
Sebastian Scherer, an Associate Research Professor at the Robotics Institute (RI) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will present his approaches, progress, and results on multi-modal sensing on Monday, July 22nd, at TUM Garching Campus, FMI Building, Boltzmannstr. 3, Hörsaal 2 (00.04.011).
relAI is a co-organiser of the Munich AI lectures. Find more info on these other upcoming events on the Munich AI lectures home page.
“For his impressive track-record and contributions in the field of dependable systems, including multiple publications in highly regarded venues, and influence on practical dependable systems.”
The award aims to recognize a junior researcher, “who demonstrates outstanding potential for creative ideas and innovative research in the field of dependable and resilient computer systems and networks”.
We are happy to announce that on October 29th, the three DAAD Zuse Schools of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, ELIZA (Darmstadt), SECAI (Dresden) und relAI (Munich), will celebrate the second joint Meeting in Munich.
The event, co-organized by DAAD and relAI, will be honoured with the presence of representatives from the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and the Arts (StMWK), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), TUM and LMU presidents, and DAAD, who will introduce the meeting with opening speeches. The program will be followed by talks from research fellows, students, and industry partners of the Zuse Schools and rounded by a podium discussion.
Preliminary Agenda
10:00
Welcome Adresses
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Kramer – Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation, TUM Prof. Dr. Hans van Ess – Vice President for Research, LMU Dr. Kai Sicks – DAAD Secretary General MinR’in Dr. Lisette Andreae – Head of Unit European Higher Education Area, Internationalization, BMBF MinDir Dr. Rolf-Dieter Jungk – Bavarian State Ministry for Science and the Arts (StMWK)
KeynoteTalk Prof. Björn Ommer - Head of Computer Vision & Learning Group, LMU
Coffee break and poster exhibition
Presentations by Students from the Zuse Schools
Lunch
14:00
Panel Discussion Reliability in times of generative AI Prof. Dr. Björn Ommer, LMU Dr. Ahmed Sayed – Head of EMEA Emerging Technologies, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Prof. Dr. Stefanie Speidel – NCT Department of Translational Surgical Oncology, TU Dresden
Presentations by Students from the Zuse Schools
Coffee break and poster exhibition
17:00
Industry Keynote Dr. Ahmed Sayed - Head of EMEA Emerging Technologies, AWS
Closing Remarks
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The next Munich AI Lecture will take place on Tuesday, June 25th at 5pm at Arcisstr. 21, Room 0790 and via zoom.
Ivan Laptev, visiting professor at MBZUAI and a senior researcher on leave from Inria Paris, will talk about "From Video Understanding to Embodied Agents". Mark your calendars and join us there!
