News

Eight new CLS doctoral fellows

Welcome to the CLS class of 2021!

Markus Gross receives 2021 Steven Anson Coons Award

Professor Markus Gross, head of the Computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH Zurich and Vice President of Research for The Walt Disney Studios, has received the prestigious Steven Anson Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics.

The Rössler Prize 2021 goes to Andreas Krause

For his groundbreaking achievements, Andreas Krause was awarded this year’s Rössler Prize, ETH Zurich’s most highly endowed research prize. The tribute took place at the ETH Foundation’s Thanks Giving event. “Andreas Krause is an excellent researcher, a committed lecturer and as a young scientist has already earned several merits in one of the most formative technologies of the 21st century,” said ETH President Joël Mesot in his laudatory speech.

ETH Zurich: Top 10 in the world for 8 years

QS ranks ETH Zurich the 8th best university in the world for 2022. Even with a slight drop, it remains continental Europe’s best university for a fourteenth consecutive year. (Image: Gian Marco Castelberg / ETH Zurich).

The Next Best Thing to a Real Hug During a Pandemic

CLS doctoral fellow Alexis E. Block writes for the "Stories from around the Globe" blog of the ETH Ambassadors.

Michael J. Black is elected member of Leopoldina

Germany’s National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina announced on Friday that it has elected Michael J Black, founding director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Honorarprofessor at the University of Tübingen, and Cyber Valley speaker, as a member.

40 Years D-INFK

It was exactly 40 years ago, in 1981, when ETH Zurich introduced its own computer science curriculum and laid the foundation for the Department of Computer Science. Like the science it is dedicated to, the department has grown and developed in the last forty years.

A deep dive into the brain

Researchers led by Daniel Razansky, Professor of Biomedical Imaging at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, have developed a fluorescence microscopy technique that facilitates high-​resolution images of microcirculation without the need to open the skull or scalp. The technique has been named “diffuse optical localization imaging”, or DOLI in short. (Image: ETH Zurich, University of Zurich / Daniel Razansky).

New Centre for Augmented Computational Design

Stelian Coros, Marc Pollefeys, and Siyu Tang will contribute to the opening event.

ETH Zurich is launching a new Centre for Augmented Computational Design in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, known as Design++. 22 professorships from multiple departments are joining forces to develop digitally augmented design tools with a view to improving the efficiency and sustainability of construction. Three professors from the Department of Computer Science, Stelian Coros, Marc Pollefeys, and Siyu Tang, are among the leading forces of the research network of Design++ and contributed to the inauguration with their inputs and perspectives. (Image: ETH Zurich).

Samira Samadi: “People want to be able to trust the machine”

Samira Samadi leads the “Human Aspects of ML” research group

In September 2020, Samadi joined the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) and the Tübingen AI Center as leader of the “Human Aspects of ML” research group. The group focuses primarily on two topics. The first relates to ethics and fairness in machine learning, with a particular emphasis on exploring ways to prevent bias and discrimination in decision-making. The second explores ways of building teams between machine learning and humans in order to make better joint decisions. Samira Samadi joined CLS as an associate member in October 2020. Photo credit: Samira Samadi © private.

Extension of Branco Weiss Fellowship for Michael Mühlebach

Fellowship is extended until the end of 2023.

The Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science is a community of exceptional young scientists who share a passion for taking research beyond the mainstream.

Justus Thies joins CLS

Making the virtual world even more realistic.

Capturing the real world, synthesizing, and realistically modeling people, objects, and rooms so that a viewer no longer notices the difference – Justus Thies has set himself ambitious goals for the coming five years. His research has already made a significant contribution to making video content more photorealistic. This comes with a huge responsibility. As facial reenactment is continuously improved, it is increasingly difficult to detect deep fakes, for instance. By gaining knowledge about the creation process, Thies aims to put a strong emphasis on designing more advanced forgery detection algorithms that can recognize and flag fake video content automatically and reliably.

Michael Mühlebach joins CLS

“We’d like to make complex dynamical systems better able to adapt to changing conditions”.

Michael Mühlebach developed an interest in machine learning early on in his career. Over the course of his PhD, he designed learning and control algorithms for a balancing robot and a flying machine. While such research projects were based on hand-crafted solutions for the reliable operation of small-scale systems in a confined environment, Mühlebach is now looking to expand his research to the next frontier: as leader of the independent Learning and Dynamical Systems research group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Tübingen, Mühlebach plans to focus his attention on large-scale dynamical systems that interact with complex environments. He joined MPI-IS on February 1, 2021. Mühlebach’s research is supported by the prestigious Branco Weiss and Emmy Noether Fellowships.

Metin Sitti and his team finalists for the 2020 Cozzarelli Prize

The highly prestigious annual Cozzarelli Prize recognizes outstanding contributions to the scientific disciplines represented by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Winners and finalists are chosen among articles that appeared in the journal last year in the six broadly defined classes under which the NAS is organized. Additionally, the Editorial Board has recognized six papers – one in each class – as finalists for the 2020 Cozzarelli Prize. Stuttgart – Metin Sitti, the Director of the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, and his colleagues Hamed Shahsavan, Amirreza Aghakhani, Hao Zeng, Yubing Guo, Zoey S. Davidson, and Arri Priimagi were finalists for the prestigious 2020 Cozzarelli Prize. Their Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) article “Bioinspired underwater locomotion of light-driven liquid crystal gels”, presented in this press article dubbed “Underwater Snail-o-Bot gets kick from light” came in second in the Class III Engineering and Applied Sciences category.

ETH Zurich: Top rankings in 15 disciplines

In the latest QS rankings by subject, ETH Zurich was among the top ten in 15 different disciplines. These include Computer Science & Information Systems; Electrical & Electronic Engineering; Mathematics; and Physics & Astronomy. Photo credit: ETH Zürich / Gian Marco Castelberg.

Cyber Valley: “The place to be”

According to the state of Baden-Württemberg’s recent statistics, there are already more than 180 professorships for artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics at the state’s universities. This puts Baden-Württemberg ahead of all other German states, according to a government press release. Photo credit: © Jens Hilberger/Adobe Stock Images.

TechXplore: HuggieBot 2.0

HuggieBot 2.0: A soft and human-size robot that hugs users on request. Photo credit: Block et al.

CLS2021 Selection Symposium

The CLS2021 Selection Symposium took place on Monday, 25 January and Tuesday, 26 January, 2021. Thirty candidates for the doctoral training program of the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems (CLS) presented scientific talks and met with members of the CLS community in a completely online event.

Spin-off receives USD 2.8 million for trustworthy AI

The ETH researchers behind LatticeFlow are aiming to facilitate a new generation of trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI). Professor Andreas Krause is part of the team.

Professor Olga Sorkine-Hornung named ACM Fellow

D-INFK Professor Olga Sorkine-Hornung has been named an ACM Fellow for her contributions to digital geometry processing, computer animation, computer graphics and visual computing.

Research team receives 1.5 million euros to develop algorithms that learn with child-like curiosity

The grant is part of a Volkswagen Foundation funding program that aims at establishing an interdisciplinary network of experts in the field of self-learning AI. Georg Martius, leader of the independent Autonomous Learning research group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, is part of the team.

Marloes Maathuis: Breiman Lecture at NeurIPS 2020

A real “gamechanger” for AI in the next decade

The German Federal government and the State of Baden-Württemberg have announced plans to significantly increase their support for Tübingen as a location for excellence in AI research and innovation. In the years to come, several hundred million euros will be earmarked for research and development in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) – including 100 million euros from the Hector Stiftung, a foundation founded and run by SAP co-founder Hans-Werner Hector. Among other things, the money will support “Hector Endowed ELLIS Fellowships” for outstanding researchers in machine learning and related fields. “The German government will continue to support AI research as well as the transfer to application intensively,” said Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday at a virtual event that marked the launch of the AI Breakthrough Hub.

ERC Consolidator Grant for Olga Sorkine-Hornung

One might think that fashion and computer science have nothing in common. Olga Sorkine-Hornung and her team at the Interactive Geometry Lab (Institute of Visual Computing) prove the opposite. One of their research missions is to find out how tailor-made, fashionable garments can be designed on a computer in a way that they precisely fit individual body measurements. Sorkine-Hornung's ERC project is aimed at the development of novel mathematical models for garments and next-gen computer-aided design tools for professionals in the textile and garment industry.

Grand Hamdan Award for Brad Nelson

Brad Nelson, ETH Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT), receives the Grand Hamdan International Award for his research on nanorobots for healthcare.

Welcome, Professor Niao He

Niao He joined the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Data Science. Get to know her in a short interview.

Representatives of the Swiss border cantons visit Cyber Valley

As part of a virtual government meeting with the state of Baden-Württemberg on November 20, the seven Swiss border cantons of Aargau, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen, Thurgau and Zurich visited Cyber Valley.

Metin Sitti receives the «Breakthrough of the Year» Award

Alexis E. Block and HuggieBot in the News

Alexis's PhD research work developing HuggieBot is featured in an article in The New York Times: "When We Can Hug Again, Will We Remember How It Works? How to navigate when you should and shouldn’t hug someone — and how not to hold on too long". It will be in print in the science section of the paper today.

Inauguration of the ETH AI Center

The newly founded ETH AI Center virtually opens its doors on October 20. You are invited to join the official inauguration from 16:00 - 18:00 to celebrate the ETH AI Center (registration required). Image: ETH Zurich.

Data Science and Machine Learning at D-BAUG

Three weeks to go: PhD application to join in 2021

The online application phase to join the CLS doctoral training program in 2021 is running. Applications must be complete by November 2, 2020.

Bernhard Schölkopf gewinnt den Deutschen KI-Innovationspreis

WELT zeichnet Top-Leistungen bei Künstlicher Intelligenz aus

Der Spitzenforscher fördert und betreibt seit Jahren anwendungsnahe Spitzenforschung im Bereich der Künstlichen Intelligenz. Er ist einer der international angesehensten KI-Forscher und eine der prägendsten Persönlichkeiten der globalen Machine Learning Szene.

Axel Springer Welt KI-Preis Innovation Bernhard Schölkopf Berlin Machine Learning KI AI Maschinelles Lernen

Machine Learning in Medicine: ETH-Podcast with Julia Vogt and Fanny Yang

In the ETH-Podcast the two computer scientists Julia Vogt and Fanny Yang talk about what drew them to their field and why machines will never replace human beings in the medical field.

CLS Alumnus Felix Berkenkamp receives ELLIS Ph.D. Award 2020

The annual ELLIS Ph.D. Awards are sponsored by the Kühborth Stiftung GmbH and have been established to recognize and encourage outstanding research achievements during the dissertation phase of outstanding students working in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning including related fields such as computer vision and robotics. From a set of very strong nominations, an international committee of renowned experts chose the following scholars as ELLIS Ph.D. Award winners: Felix Berkenkamp (Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence, Germany) and Gül Varol (INRIA & Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris, France). Felix Berkenkamp carried out his PhD at the Learning & Adaptive Systems Group at ETH Zurich, advised by CLS member Andreas Krause, and is a former CLS associate doctoral fellow.

Gary Bécigneul from Hofmann group defends

First Full CLS Doctoral Fellow completes program

New associate member Daniel Razansky

Daniel Razansky is a Full Professor for Biomedical Imaging in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at ETH Zurich. He leads the Functional and Molecular Imaging research group at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBT). Welcome!

New associate member Robert Katzschmann

Robert Katzschmann is an Assistant Professor of Robotics in the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, where he leads the Soft Robotics Lab. Welcome!

Everything AI? CLS is part of ETH Zurich's efforts to expand its status in this field.

Christoph Keplinger, new Director for Robotic Materials at MPI-IS, joins CLS

The Max Planck Society has appointed Christoph Keplinger as a director at the Stuttgart location of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS). He will lead the newly established “Robotic Materials” department to pursue research on soft robotics, functional polymers and energy capture – three interrelated areas that are critical to robotic materials, a new class of material systems that tightly integrate actuation, sensing and even computation to provide physical building blocks for the intelligent systems of the future. We are pleased to welcome Christoph Keplinger as a member of CLS faculty.

New associate member Stelian Coros

Stelian Coros is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, where he leads the Computational Robotics Lab (CRL). Welcome!

Virtual visit of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann

Stefan Bauer elected CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar

The research group leader at the MPI-IS is one of thirteen early-career researchers that have been elected. He will join the “Learning in Machines & Brains“ CIFAR research program.

CLS Senior Fellow Peter Dayan

Prof. Dr. Peter Dayan, Director of the Department for Computational Neuroscience at the MPI for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, has joined our Center as a CLS Senior Fellow. Peter Dayan has long worked at the interface between natural and engineered systems for learning and choice, and is also regarded as a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

Open now: PhD application to join in 2021

Our recruitment round for CLS doctoral fellows wishing to join in 2021 has opened. Apply online by November 2, 2020.

Bernt Schiele joins as CLS Senior Fellow

We welcome Prof. Dr. Bernt Schiele, Director of the Computer Vision and Machine Learning Department at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, who joins our Center as a CLS Senior Fellow. His research currently focuses on two main areas: computer vision and multimodal sensor processing.

New CLS faculty members at ETH Zurich

Five researchers from four different departments at ETH Zurich join our body of CLS faculty members: Afonso Bandeira (D-MATH), Caroline Uhler (D-BSSE), Klaas Prüssmann and Fisher Yu (both D-ITET), and David Steurer (D-INFK). Welcome!

Prof. Florian Dörfler receives prestigious awards

Florian Dörfler, Professor at the Automatic Control Laboratory (IFA), has received the IFAC Manfred Thoma Medal and the EUCA European Control Award. Both prizes are awarded to scientists under 40.

Sebastian Trimpe appointed full professor at RWTH Aachen University

The Cyber Valley research group leader has taken on the “Data Science in Mechanical Engineering” chair

Prof. Andreas Krause receives ICML Test of Time Award

The International Conference on Machine Learning award committee has recognized Prof. Andreas Krause and his collaborators with a Test of Time Award for the paper "Gaussian Process Optimization in the Bandit Setting: No Regret and Experimental Design".

Hollywood honours Markus Gross

Markus Gross, Professor of Computer Graphics at ETH Zurich, has accepted to join the Academy as a “Member-at-Large”. The invitation recognizes Markus Gross’s leadership of DisneyResearch|Studios, the most impactful research organization in the film business. It is also based on his scientific and technical contributions that led to leading creative tools for the crafts involved in the creation of the theatrical motion picture experience. Photo credit: DisneyResearch|Studios Zurich.

Julian Nubert receives Willi Studer Prize

Julian Nubert will receive two honours for his outstanding performance in the Master’s degree programme in Robotics, Systems and Control at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT), ETH Zurich.

Machine learning summer school (MLSS) 2020 in Tuebingen opens

Machine learning summer schools present topics which are at the core of modern Machine Learning, from fundamentals to state-of-the-art practice. MLSS 2020 will be a virtual event between 28 June to 10 July 2020. Most lectures will be live-streamed on YouTube, depending on the speaker's agreement.

New Ph.D. representives

The CLS doctoral training program has new student representatives. Taking on this role as of July 1st, 2020 are Olga Mineeva, Kamil Adamczewski and Cathrin Elich.

Nucleus of artificial intelligence in Europe

The Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems has established itself as an address for AI research and the promotion of young scientists. "We answer pressing questions that arise today," says its co-director Thomas Hofmann.

Michael J. Black awarded “test of time” prize at CVPR 2020

Michael J. Black has been awarded the 2020 Longuet-Higgins Prize at the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). The prize is awarded annually by the IEEE Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) Technical Committee for “Contributions in Computer Vision that Have Withstood the Test of Time.” It recognizes CVPR papers from ten years ago that have made a significant impact on computer vision research.

ETH Zurich remains the top-ranked university in continental Europe

ETH Zurich held its sixth place in the new QS World University Ranking. According to QS, it remains the top-ranked university in continental Europe, confirming its position among the leading universities worldwide.

Prof. Joachim Buhmann shares SACMAT Test of Time Award

Professors David Basin and Joachim Buhmann as well as former doctoral student Mario Frank have received the Symposium on Access Control Models and Technologies (SACMAT) Test of Time Award.

Metin Sitti appointed Affiliated Professor of Physical Intelligence at ETH Zurich

Metin Sitti, Director at the MPI-IS and deputy Co-Director in CLS, has been newly appointed as Affiliated Professor of Physical Intelligence in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, starting on June 1st, 2020. According to ETH “the appointment of Metin Sitti is of strategic significance because of ETH Zurich’s commitment to medical and health technology and its investment in the most up-to-date imaging procedures”.

Research beacons MPI-IS and ETH Zurich strengthen cooperation

Extended funding for joint AI and robotics research center

Both world class research institutions in the field of intelligent systems have agreed to continue their research partnership, the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems, for a further five years. Meanwhile, senior scientists from the MPI-IS have been appointed as Affiliated Professors at ETH, intensifying the academic exchange.

Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems CLS Bernhard Schölkopf Metin sitti

ELLIS against Covid-19

The world is facing a public health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. We all need to take this on, and science can make a major contribution. This online workshop hosted by the ELLIS Society presents projects on how to tackle Covid-19 using methods of machine learning and AI, carried out by leading international researchers. Research topics include outbreak prediction, epidemiological modelling, drug development, viral and host genome sequencing, and health care management.

Seeing each other in times of Covid

Markus Gross is convinced that there are better technologies available than today's video conference systems. The key technology is developing at a rapid pace – but not fast enough.

How robots can help fight pandemics

Robots allow people to interact with each other without physical contact. This means they can protect us from infectious diseases, which has been given too little consideration in robotics, says Brad Nelson.

Marloes Maathuis: Van Dantzig Award

We are very pleased to announce that Professor Marloes Maathuis has been awarded the 2020 Van Dantzig Award. This prize is considered the highest Dutch award in statistics and operations research and is awarded once every five years.

International Women's Day - interview with Prof. Julia Vogt

In light of International Women's Day 2020, ETH Zurich puts successful women centre stage. Read about Prof. Julia Vogt, tenure track assistant professor of medical data science, in this article.

Bernhard Schölkopf receives Frontiers of Knowledge Award

The BBVA Foundation recognizes Schölkopf for his work that has advanced the field of artificial intelligence by teaching machines the human skill of classifying data

BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards Machine Learning Causality Bernhard Schölkopf

Prof. Benjamin Grewe selected as Leshner Fellow

Prof. Benjaman Grewe of the Institute of Neuroinformatics has been selected as Leshner Fellow in the area of artificial intelligence by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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 honored in Berlin as one of the top ten influential minds in the history of German AI.

Bernhard Schölkopf Inferenz Kausalität Deep Learning Machine Learning

Peer Fischer appointed Visiting Professor

Peer Fischer has been appointed visiting Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), South Korea.

Professor Siyu Tang joins the Department of Computer Science of ETH Zurich

Siyu Tang officially joined the Department of Computer Science of ETH Zurich in January 2020 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Vision. Get to know her in this short interview.

Welcome, Professor Fanny Yang

Fanny Yang officially joined the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich in January 2020 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science. Get to know her in this short interview.

"Our goal is to develop safe autonomous cars"

In our interview, Prof. Luc Van Gool, head of the Computer Vision Lab (CVL), explains how it has become much easier for a machine to recognize the content of an image in the last decade and how autonomous driving might be pushed forward over the next years.

17 ELLIS units across 10 European countries and Israel established

Grassroots initiative assembling top European talent in machine learning mobilizes more than 200 Mio in funding across Europe for the next 5 years

ELLIS AI cyber valley KI Baden-Württemberg Tübingen

Peer Fischer delivers Distinguished Lecture at CeNSE

Peer delivers the CMTI lecture as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series of the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), at the Indian Institute of Science.

Andreas Geiger selected as Top 40 under 40

Andreas Geiger has been selected as top 40 under 40 by the capital magazine. The prices are given to the most important talents from economy, politics, science und society that influence the country and have been awarded at the Google headquarters in Berlin.

CLS now recruiting 2020 Ph.D. Fellows

Prof. Markus Gross inducted into the IEEE Visualization Academy

Prof. Markus Gross is among the thirty-two computer visualisation leaders who have been inducted into the IEEE Visualization Academy. The Academy recognises individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of visualisation.

New Microsoft research laboratory collaborates with ETH Zurich

These days, Microsoft officially opens a lab in Zurich dedicated to researching mixed reality technologies and artificial intelligence. The software company is working closely with ETH Zurich. ETH News spoke with the director of the new research and development lab, ETH Professor Marc Pollefeys (Photograph: ETH Zurich / Giulia Marthaler).

Prof. Andreas Krause amongst the Digital Shapers 2019

How can machines learn within complex settings? This is one of the key question of Prof. Andreas Krause's research. The computer science professor leads the Learning & Adaptive Systems Group at ETH. He also serves as Academic Co-Director of the Swiss Data Science Center. Together with his colleagues, he tries to shape algorithms in a way that self-learning systems function reliably in an unstructured environment.

Andreas Geiger receives a Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC)

The MPI-IS group leader and professor at the University of Tübingen will receive a grant of some 1.47 million euros for his "LEGO 3D" project. Photo credit: Annette Cardinale

Klaas Enno Stephan: "The human being is always at the centre of our research"

Portrait interview with Klaas Enno Stephan, Deputy Head of Department at D-ITET and Professor at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBT) of ETH and the University of Zurich. He talks about his cooperative working environment, explains how mathematical models might help to find the right therapies for psychiatric diseases and how his research contributes to building bridges between medicine and engineering.

Cathrin Elich receives DAGM Best Master Thesis Award

Cathrin Elich received this year's DAGM Best Master thesis award at the GCPR 2019 conference for her thesis "3D Birds-Eye-View Instance Segmentation" which she wrote at RWTH Aachen University. Cathrin joined CLS as a PhD Fellow in April 2019 under the supervision of Dr. Joerg Stueckler (Embodied Vision Group, MPI-IS) and co-supervised by Marc Pollefeys (Computer Vision and Geometry lab - ETH Zurich).

ERC Starting Grant for Marco Hutter

Marco Hutter, Professor at the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems specialises in developing quadrupedal robots, some of which can operate autonomously. In his ERC project, he aims to apply new machine learning methods to enhance the robots’ mobility and prepare them for autonomous locomotion in extremely difficult terrain. In the future, these robots could take over dirty and dangerous tasks for humans, for example in disaster areas, sewers and mines, or on offshore platforms.

Quiz: Artificial intelligence at ETH

Artificial intelligence will continue to have an ever greater impact on our lives in the years to come. We show in our quiz what AI can already do right now on the occasion of the national Digital Day.

Prof. Andreas Krause wins ACM SIGKDD Test of Time award

Prof. Andreas Krause and five further authors were honoured with lifetime achievement in their approach to outbreak detection, featured in their research paper "Cost-Effective Outbreak Detection in Networks".

Isabel Valera appointed Group Leader of the new independent Probabilistic Learning Group

The award-winning scientist specializes in research aiming to make machine learning methods more flexible, robust, and fair. Photo credit: Alejandro Posada

Prof. Markus Gross selected as member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy

The ACM SIGGRAPH Academy honours Prof. Markus Gross with a membership for his contributions in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Siyu Tang appointed Tenure-track Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich

Siyu Tang will join ETH Zurich as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor for Computer Vision as of January 2020. “This appointment is very important to me,” says Tang, “ETH Zurich is an amazing place to be and the professors in the Computer Science department are widely recognized as leaders in their fields. I’m very excited to join the faculty and I’m very much looking forward to working closely with them.” Tang currently leads the Holistic Vision Group in the Perceiving Systems Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Tübingen, where she researches at the interface between numerical optimization and machine learning. She develops computer-aided processes for the perception and digitization of people and their activities in complex and natural environments.

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.

Welcome, Professor Valentina Boeva!

Professor Valentina Boeva officially joined the Department of Computer Science of ETH Zurich in early June 2019 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics. Get to know her in this short interview.

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.

Welcome, Professor Julia Vogt!

Professor Julia Vogt officially joined the Department of Computer Science of ETH Zurich at the beginning of May 2019 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Medical Data Science. Get to know her in this short interview.

CLS researchers among the winning team at world's leading AI conference

Researchers from the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems and Google Research Zurich received the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML).

Francesco Locatello recieves Google PhD Fellowship

Google presents these awards to exemplary PhD students in computer science and related disciplines. With these unique fellowships Google acknowledges contributions of the receiving students to their areas of specialty and provides funding for their education and research.

2019 RAS Award Recipients Announced!

The IEEE Robotics & Automation Society recognizes and congratulates the following individuals for their outstanding accomplishments and service to RAS and the robotics and automation community. They will be honored during an award luncheon to be held during the IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA 2019) on 22 May 2019 at the Montreal Convention Centre, Montreal, Canada. Please join us in congratulating these outstanding recipients!

Leading researcher in small-scale robotics receives ERC Advanced Grant

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.

Awards for robotics experts

Roland Siegwart, Bradley Nelson and Marco Hutter, professors at the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, are honored by the Robotics and Automation Society.

ETH Zurich promotes data science research

Intelligent data science approaches are changing science, the economy and society. In a new interdisciplinary initiative, ETH researchers from the fields of mathematics, computer science and information technology are therefore increasingly dedicating themselves to the foundations of data science. Peter Bühlmann (in the middle between Alessio Figalli and Cédric Villani) heads the initiative “Foundations of Data Science”. (Photo: PPR / Christian Merz)

Peter Bühlmann: Challis Lectures

We are delighted to announce that Professor Peter Bühlmann will deliver the 2019 Challis Lectures organized by the Statistics division of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at University of Florida.

Wissenschaftspreis der Hector Stiftung geht an Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schölkopf

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schölkopf erhält in diesem Jahr den mit 150.000 Euro dotierten Wissenschaftspreis der Hector Stiftung. Die Jury würdigt damit seine herausragenden Leistungen in der Grundlagenforschung zum maschinellen Lernen und der Künstlichen Intelligenz, die als Schlüsseltechnologien der digitalen Revolution gelten.

“We have succeeded in sharing genetic data across national borders”

ETH Professor Gunnar Rätsch played a major part in creating the biggest public database for anonymised information on two important breast cancer genes. The database helps to improve the treatment of patients. ETH News spoke with him about the background, his motivation and the challenges such a project presents. (Photograph: MSKCC)

Bernhard Schölkopf appointed Affiliated Professor of Empirical Inference at ETH Zurich

Bernhard Schölkopf, Director at the MPI-IS and Co-Director of the Center for Learning Systems, has been appointed as Affiliated Professor of Empirical Inference in the Department of Computer Science, starting on January 1st, 2019. Image credit: Herlinde Koelbl

Bernhard Schölkopf erhält Landesforschungspreis 2018

Der Direktor der Abteilung für Empirische Inferenz am Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme in Tübingen erhält den diesjährigen Landesforschungspreis Baden-Württemberg. Die Auszeichnung ist mit 100.000 Euro dotiert. Theresia Bauer, Ministerin für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, hat den Experten für Maschinelles Lernen im Rahmen eines Festakts in der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart geehrt. Bild: Bernhard Schölkopf und Baden-Württembergs Wissenschaftsministerin Theresia Bauer. Copyright: MWK BW / Jan Potente.

European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) Launches

Top European Machine Learning Scientists Join Forces to Establish European Excellence Network for Public Artificial Intelligence Research

University of Basel awards honorary doctorate to Prof. Robert Riener

At its Dies Academicus on 30 November 2018, the University of Basel awarded Prof. Robert Riener with the title Honorary Doctorate in the faculty of medicine.

Michael Black receives UBC Computer Science Department Alumni Research Award 2018

Michael Black was awarded the University of British Columbia, Computer Science Department, Alumni Research Award 2018.

Metin Sitti receives Rahmi Koç Medal of Science

Award recognizes most promising researchers of Turkish origin

ERC Consolidator Grants for Andreas Krause and Mehmet Fatih Yanik

ERC Consolidator Grants awarded to CLS faculty members Andreas Krause (Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zurich) and Mehmet Fatih Yanik (Professor for Neurotechnology at the The Institute of Neuroinformatics, UZH / ETH Zurich).

Student Representatives

The CLS community has elected our new student representatives for the period October 17th - January 17th, 2019. Our student representatives are the point of contact for the collection of matters that are of daily concern to the PhD students. All student representatives meet each other and the coordinator regularly.

Symposium Artificial Intelligence and Society

In honour of the 70th anniversary of the Max Planck Society, the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize award to Max Planck and Max Planck’s 160th birthday, the Max Planck Society will hold a Germany-wide Max Planck Day on September 14, 2018.

Andreas Geiger receives the Young Researcher Award of the IEEE Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) Technical Committee

For the first time, the prestigious IEEE PAMI Young Researcher Award was given to a German researcher.

Research Headlines: 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

John Lygeros receives European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant

Professor John Lygeros within the Center for Learning Systems has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant to fund his research on computation and control.

Peer Fischer receives European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant

Professor Peer Fischer, the head of the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems was awarded 2.5 Mio Euro from the ERC.

Peter Bühlmann receives European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant

Professor Peter Bühlmann within the Center for Learning Systems has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant to fund his research on statistics, machine learning and bioinformatics.

Nature-inspired soft millirobot makes its way through enclosed spaces

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems invented a magnetically controlled soft robot only four millimeters in size, that can walk, crawl or roll through uneven terrain, carry cargo, climb onto the water surface, and even swim in it. The inspiration comes from soft-bodied beetle larvae and caterpillars, and even jellyfishes posed as biological models. One day, this small-scale robot may enable targeted drug delivery or minimally invasive surgery, the researchers hope. Its multiple locomotion capability in complex environments is so unique that science journal Nature will publish the researchers´ findings in its February edition.

Bernhard Schölkopf receives Leibniz Prize 2018

Germany's most prestigious research funding prize - €2.5 million each for outstanding research work

Margarita Chli received the Prix Zonta

Margarita Chli, one of the world's most powerful women in robotics research, was awarded the Prix Zonta.

Die Zahlenkünstlerin

Informatikerin Olga Sorkine-Hornung wurde mit 30 Professorin an der ETH Zürich. Ihre Algorithmen in 3-D-Modellierung gelten als die besten.

Oft entscheiden Menschen sehr schlecht

Für Thomas Hofmann hat die künstliche Intelligenz ein gewaltiges Potenzial. Der ETH-Professor und Ex-Google-Manager erläutert im Interview, wie die neuen Technologien eingesetzt werden können und was dabei die Gefahren sind.

Interdisciplinary insights and a marvellous mountain view

High above Lake Lucerne, the three-day CLS retreat took place at Stoos, a magnificent place in the heart of Central Switzerland.

Der Schatzsucher

Die personalisierte Medizin ist ein boomendes Forschungsfeld. Einer, der ganz vorne mitmischt, ist der junge Informatikprofessor Karsten Borgwardt.

Impressions from the CLS Retreat in Stoos

Have a look at the photo gallery of the CLS Retreat in Stoos!

“Our Master’s programme is in great demand”

Mathematics is the basis for all the new opportunities opened up by digitalisation. Statistics professor Nicolai Meinshausen discusses the increasing importance of his field and the challenges it faces.

Data – the key to success

Data permeates every aspect of our lives and forms an integral part of any research work. Data scientists collect, analyse and process enormous volumes of data. ETH Zurich is focusing on three areas. One is learning systems. (see page 10)

Das Gefühl, mir schmelze das Hirn weg

Die 36-jährige Olga Sorkine-Hornung über ihren Weg zur ETH-Professorin, zu wenig Frauen in der IT und den Wodka aus eigener Küche.

Jeannette Bogh is one of 25 women in robotics you need to know about – 2017

On the occasion of Ada Lovelace Day on 10 October 2017, robohub presented their annual list of “25 women in robotics you need to know about”. Jeannette Bohg, alumni fellow of the CLS, is one of them. Congratulations!

In der Schweiz kommt es auf Sekunden an

Sein Kosmos ist die ETH. Seine Heimat ist München. Dennoch schätzt Roboterforscher Robert Riener typische Schweizer Eigenschaften: Pünktlichkeit, Ordnung und nicht zuletzt die Schweizer Apéro-Kultur.

Maschinen mit Gewissen

Viel wird erfunden, aber sollte alles davon erlaubt sein? Vor allem geht es um die Frage: Können und dürfen Roboter Entscheidungen fällen?

Die Medizin wird modellgetrieben

ETH-Professor Joachim Buhmann beschäftigt sich als Informatiker intensiv mit Fragen des Gesundheitswesens. Im Gespräch mit ETH-News erklärt er, wie Computermodelle Einzug halten werden in die Medizin. Dabei spricht er von Modellen, die so kompliziert sind, dass wir Menschen sie uns nicht mehr selbst überlegen können.

4D Movies Capture People in Clothing, Creating Realistic Virtual Try-on

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) have developed technology to digitally capture clothing on moving people, turn it into a 3D digital form, and dress virtual avatars with it. This new technology makes virtual clothing try-on practical.

Can you feel me now? The Science of Digitizing Touch

Scientists are developing tools that allow you to digitally feel textures like wood and cotton. Listen to this twelve-minute radio show to learn about Katherine J. Kuchenbecker's research - incorporating the sense of touch into robotic and computer systems.

Mobile Microrobotics

Progress in micro- and nano-scale science and technology has created a demand for new microsystems for high-impact applications in healthcare, biotechnology, manufacturing, and mobile sensor networks. The new robotics field of microrobotics has emerged to extend our interactions and explorations to sub-millimeter scales. Metin Sitti wrote the first textbook on micron-scale mobile robotics, introducing the fundamentals of design, analysis, fabrication, and control, and drawing on case studies of existing approaches.

Vision algorithms teaching drones to 'see'

Prof. Margarita Chli and her team are developing computer vision algorithms to help drones 'see' and understand their environment.

Olga Sorkine-Hornung wins Rössler Prize

Computer scientist Olga Sorkine has won this year’s Rössler Prize for her work in the field of computer graphics. The prize comes with a research award of CHF 200,000.

The eyes have it

Patients with age-related retinal disease need regular injections in the eye. At the moment, these must be given by specially trained medical doctors, but a robot may well handle this task in the near future.

Medicine is awash in data

Genomics, digital patient files and real-time health surveillance – never before have we had access to so much health data. Three ETH researchers explain how they extract relevant information from this sea of data and the potential benefits for personalised medicine.

ETH medals for two excellent ETH-MPI Master theses

Cédric de Crousaz and Julian Viereck have recently received ETH medals for their excellent Master theses. Their theses are a result of very successful collaborations between the Autonomous Motion Department at MPI-IS and the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering and the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, respectively.

ICRA 2017 Awards

Several CLS fellows and members received awards at the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

Programmable self-assembly

Scientists under the lead of Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have recently constructed a material system that provides dynamic self-assembly.

City model created from images alone

ETH scientists have combined millions of images and videos into a three-dimensional, living model of the city of Zurich. The new technology has many possible applications – for example, it can analyse where and when pedestrians are on the move and parking spaces become free.

Autonome Maschinen sind dem Menschen überlegen

Der ETH-Forscher Roland Siegwart ­entwickelt intelligente Drohnen und autonome Roboter. Wie weit ihre Macht gehen darf, muss die Gesellschaft ausdiskutieren.

Student projects on the website via SiROP

The Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems offers its members and associated members to use the database SiROP to publish their student projects directly to the center’s website. Read this quick guide: http://bit.ly/sirop-cls

New drive for tiny vessels

Nanorobots and other mini-vehicles might be able to perform important services in medicine one day – for example, by conducting remotely-controlled operations or transporting pharmaceutical agents to a desired location in the body. However, to date it has been hard to steer such micro- and nanoswimmers accurately through biological fluids such as blood, synovial fluid or the inside of the eyeball. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are now presenting two new approaches for constructing propulsion systems for tiny floating bodies.

„Ich fühle mich von Künstlicher Intelligenz überhaupt nicht bedroht“

Joachim Buhmann ist Leiter des Instituts für Maschinelles Lernen an der ETH Zürich. Im Gespräch erklärt er uns, warum ihn die Angstvorstellungen von Stephen Hawking kaltlassen, was der „Heilige Gral“ des maschinellen Lernens ist und warum Depressionen unausweichlich sind, wenn der Mensch lediglich als Denkmaschine gesehen wird.

How Can We Use Machine Learning in the Search for Exoplanets?

Exoplanets are planets beyond our own solar system. Since they do not emit much light and moreover are very close to their parent stars they are difficult to detect directly. Using machine learning, observations of the brightness of the parent star can be used to train a system to predict the errors and correct the light curves.

Peer Fischer wins World Technology Award 2016

Peer Fischer, head of the Micro- Nano- and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Stuttgart, has received the World Technology Award 2016. Together with his group, he has developed new 3D nanofabrication methods and nanorobots, made the first reciprocal microswimmer, and realized the first swimming soft microrobot that moves using only body shape changes.

The Rise of Machine Learning (ft. Martin Jaggi)

This video presents the rise of machine learning as the leading approach to artificial intelligence. It features Martin Jaggi, assistant professor of the IC School at EPFL and alumnus of the CLS.

Prof. Rätsch, welcome to ETH

Gunnar Rätsch develops machine learning algorithms for the analysis of biological and medical data. His research will be central in ETH’s initiative for personalized medicine.

Vom Geheimnis guter Lehre

Der ETH-Professor John Lygeros hat den CS Award for Best Teaching erhalten. Der Preisträger arbeitet stetig an innovativen Formen der Lehre. Das gefällt den Studierenden.

Neue Technologien sollen helfen, unser Leben einfacher zu gestalten

Prof. Dr. Margarita Chli, 33, forscht als Assistenzprofessorin auf dem Gebiet «Computervision für Robotik» an der ETH Zürich. Was sie an ihrem Beruf so fasziniert und wie sie die technologische Zukunft sieht, verrät sie im Interview.

Der Crack

Bradley Nelsons Roboter sind so winzig, dass sie uns einmal in den Körper injiziert werden können. Dort sollen sie Krankheitserreger an Ort und Stelle bekämpfen.

Raffaello D'Andrea: Der König der Drohnen

Der Kanadier ist Professor für dynamische Systeme und Regelungstechnik an der ETH – und verkörpert in vielerlei Hinsicht, wofür der Forschungsplatz Schweiz steht.

Mini-Roboter heilen von innen

Sie transportieren im Inneren des Körpers Medikamente oder nehmen kleine Operationen vor: Mikro-Roboter könnten bald die Medizin revolutionieren.

Shape-programmable miniscule robots

One day, microrobots may be able to swim through the human body like sperm or paramecia to carry out medical functions in specific locations. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed functional elastomers, which can be activated by magnetic fields to imitate the swimming gaits of natural flagella, cilia and jellyfish.

ERC Starting Grant for Otmar Hilliges

The main objective of his ERC funded project is to develop computational tools to allow non-experts to create complex interactive technologies such as wearables, augmented and virtual reality, and personalised assistive technologies.

Margarita Chli - die Drohnen-Dirigentin

CYBATHLON: Wettkampf für Athleten mit Behinderungen

Menschen mit körperlichen Behinderungen messen sich dank neuester technischer Assistenzsysteme in sechs anspruchsvollen Disziplinen.

Die ETH forscht an einem Roboter für die Drecksarbeit

Der neue Roboter der ETH Zürich kann klettern und springen wie ein Tier und soll künftig in unwegsamem Gelände eingesetzt werden. Er könnte zum Beispiel nach einem Erdbeben helfen, verschüttete Menschen zu finden.

"Skypen" wie bei Star Wars

In manchen Science-Fiction-Filmen "telefoniert" man schon lange per Hologramm. Forschende der ETH Zürich haben einen Prototyp gebaut, der Videochats dieser Vision ein Stück weit näher bringt.

ETH bringt Computern das Sehen bei

Smartphones lernen, die Welt zu erkennen und dreidimensional zu vermessen. Google will damit die nächste digitale Revolution auslösen. Schweizer Hochschulen und Startups sind ganz vorne mit dabei.

Jonas Peters new member of the German "Young Academy"

Young, excellent and motivated - Jonas Peters has been elected as one of new members in natural sciene / mathematics to the "Junge Akademie" and will contribute to the interdisciplinary work of this organization.

When machines learn

Big data, artificial intelligence, industry 4.0- the new opportunities information technologies offer will change the world. Take a glimpse inside the world of researchers who teach machines how to think.

Bildung ist Arbeit an mir selber

Thomas Hoffmann wollte schon als Kind Professor werden. Heute arbeitet er am Institut für Maschinelles Lernen der ETH Zürich. Der 25-jährige Patrick Frei studiert Informatik im vierten Studienjahr. Hier sprechen sie über ihre beruflichen Träume – und über die Realität.

Call for applications: CLS Exchange Fellowships

The Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems (CLS) invites all associated PhD fellows of the center to apply for the new CLS Exchange Fellowships. This program will allow highly motivated PhD students with excellent track records to spend 3-12 months at the other institution, ETH Zurich and MPI Tübingen/Stuttgart, respectively. The aim is to foster cross-institutional collaborations within the center and to create an added value for the PhD students.

Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Prize and RAS Early Career Award (Academic) for Ludovic Righetti

Medal-Marathon for Robotics Researcher: Tübingen – Stockholm – Berlin – Stockholm – Tübingen. Ludovic Righetti receives within 24 hours two renowned prizes for young researchers for his outstanding science on movements of robots.

Switch and stick

Some adhesives may soon have a metallic sheen and be particularly easy to unstick. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are suggesting gallium as just such a reversible adhesive.

Michael J. Black inducted as foreign member of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Body Labs (bodylabs.com), the provider of the world's most advanced technology for analyzing the human body's shape, pose and motion, announced that Michael J. Black, Body Labs co-founder and founding director leading the Perceiving Systems Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, will be inducted as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The man who builds robotic animals

He develops walking robots that move like living creatures: Marco Hutter is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems and a fellow of the Society in Science. One day his machines might be able to carry out the menial and dangerous work human beings would rather avoid.

Bernhard Schölkopf has been elected member of the "Leopoldina"

Founded in 1652, the Leopoldina is one of the oldest academies of science in the world. It is dedicated to the advancement of science for the benefit of humankind and to the goal of shaping a better future. With some 1,500 members, the Leopoldina brings together outstanding scientists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and many other countries.

Sanfte Kraft für Roboter

Ein weicher Aktuator aus elektrisch steuerbaren Membranen könnte Menschen die gefahrlose Interaktion mit Maschinen ermöglichen. Forscher des Max-Planck-Instituts für Intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart stellen nun ein Bewegungssystem vor, das für Menschen ungefährlich ist und sich platzsparend in Roboter integrieren lässt.

Two Master’s students won the prestigious SemEval-2016 competition

Huge amounts of posts in social media are generated every day. People share their opinions and sentiments about what is going on in the world. To evaluate these opinions automatically computers can interpret and “understand” the content and also in particular the attitude of a writer. At one of the most important international competitions in text sentiment analysis two ETH Master’s students designed the most accurate algorithm worldwide. Jan Deriu and Maurice Gonzenbach won the 2016 SemEval text sentiment classification competition, placing first out of 34 teams from all over the world.

Ludovic Righetti receives the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2016

The most important German prize for junior scientists is awarded annually by the German Research Foundation (DFG). One of the awardees is Ludovic Righetti from Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems. He is investigating how robots can be taught to walk. He models his ideas on movement patterns from nature such as the climbing skills of animals.

Microrobots learn from ciliates

Ciliates can do amazing things: Being so tiny, the water in which they live is like thick honey to these microorganisms. In spite of this, however, they are able to self-propel through water by the synchronized movement of thousands of extremely thin filaments on their outer skin, called cilia. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are now moving robots that are barely perceptible to the human eye in a similar manner through liquids.

Cars open their eyes

A time may yet come when everyone has their own chauffeur-driven car – if robots take the wheel, that is. In order for autonomous vehicles to become a reality without huge technical outlay, however, computers will have to be able to assess complex traffic situations at least as well as drivers do. Andreas Geiger and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen are working to develop the necessary software.

Diagnostics with a stomach pill

Gastroscopy usually requires patients to swallow an endoscope tube. Although camera-carrying capsules are also suitable for the task, it is still not possible to control them. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart plan to change all that. And their tiny capsule-shaped robots can do a lot more than merely take snapshots of the stomach’s interior.

Robots go to school

As domestic help, healthcare assistants or emergency response units: robots are suitable for these jobs only if they are capable of learning and acting independently, at least to a certain extent. Stefan Schaal and the members of his Autonomous Motion Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen are teaching machines to become flexible and autonomous.

Machines learn how to learn

For humans, and for animals in general, it is normal; but machines have first to learn it: how to learn. To assist them in this process, the Max Planck Society and the ETH Zurich have set up the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems. The researchers at the Center want to understand what the principles of learning are - in theory as well as in real machines.

Teaching machines how to learn

Machines will become not just more intelligent in the future, but also more capable of learning. To promote research in this field, ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Society officially open the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems today. The scientists want to understand the theoretical principles of learning and how these can be applied to real machines.