CLS2025 Retreat held in Bad Zurzach

The 2025 edition of the annual CLS retreat was held in Switzerland in Bad Zurzach, close to the banks of the River Rhein and the border to Germany. The Dorint Parkhotel provided the venue for the event, with accommodation, meals and meeting rooms.

For the scientific program, lightning talks and posters from CLS doctoral researchers were complemented by faculty research talks from Menna El-Assady, Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of ETH Zurich where she leads the Interactive Visualization and Intelligence Augmentation Lab (IVIA); Moritz Hardt, Director at the MPI for Intelligent Systems, where he leads the Social Foundations of Computation Department; and Konstantin Rusch, Principal Investigator at the ELLIS Institute in Tübingen, co-affiliated with the MPI for Intelligent Systems and the Tübingen AI Center, leading the Computational Applied Mathematics & AI Lab (CAMAIL) research group.

For the first time this year, participants were able to join one of three faculty-led discussion sessions. This proved very popular, with the 90 minute sessions passing quickly. The choice of topics offered were:
Florian Tramèr (ETH Zurich) - What are essential elements of a good job talk?
Jonas Geiping (MPI-IS and ELLIS Institute Tübingen) - Will research look different in 10 years?
Michael Black (MPI-IS) - Career after the PhD - What makes a good scientific career and how does this differ from just writing papers?

The program further featured a fascinating panel discussion with faculty members Konrad Schindler, Florian Tramèr and Daniel Razansky (all ETH), plus Michael Black (MPI-IS) and moderated by doctoral fellow Taiki Nakano. The discussion topic was suggested by the doctoral students: "What is the societal and political impact of AI research, and what responsibilities do we have as researchers to future generations?".

The student representatives (Vivian Nastl, Taiki Nakano and Anna Kerekes) led a session sharing student-to-student information, then leading into a series of fun networking team challenges. A highlight: engineering skills were challenged with spaghetti and marshmallow tower building.

The event was hosted this year by the ETH side of the partnership, with support from the ETH AI Center. Ulrika Pettersson (Fellowship Programs Coordinator at the ETH AI Center) was responsible for the program, and Trinh Ngo (Community Manager at the ETH AI Center) for the logistical organization. Additional input came from CLS Coordinator Sarah Danes (MPI for Intelligent Systems), with further valuable contributions from the student representative team of Vivian Nastl, Malte Prinzler, Taiki Nakano and Anna Kerekes.

Participants travelled from Zurich, Stuttgart, Tübingen, Saarbrücken and beyond to join the event. Outside of the main program, there was time to connect informally over a walk or a visit to the neighbouring spa. With the Center spread over multiple locations, the retreat provides a valuable opportunity to connect, exchange on research activities, make new contacts and strengthen the CLS community. Many thanks to the organisers!

Image credit: ETH AI Center