PhD Students

Alexander Immer

My research focuses on probabilistic machine learning and data science. Currently, I am particularly interested in approximate inference for neural networks and biomedical applications. I want to design algorithms that can incorporate prior knowledge, quantify uncertainty, and automatically select the most likely model given data. Especially in the context of neural networks, these problems remain challenging. I have previously worked on methods for time series, e.g., mobility and political data.

Primary Host(s):	Gunnar Rätsch (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Amir-Hossein Karimi

I am generally interested in human behavior, how intelligence is formed in humans, and how it can be replicated in machines. As a first year PhD student, I am exploring AI methods that are interpretable and explainable, with a focus on probabilistic inference on the organization of entities, or learning compositional and causal generative processes. My research has a broad impact, potentially in three areas: (1) more adoption of machine learning methods in critical social, economic, and public health domains due to the added trust gained from explainable methods; (2) better model selection strategies that point out hazardous practices with the abundance of data, including data leakage of irrelevant factors; (3) state-of-the-art models with improved fidelity/accuracy as we are able to conduct stage-wise learning of abstract objects and concepts and then complex relationships.

Primary Host(s):	Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems) Isabel Valera (Saarland University & Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Thomas Hofmann (ETH Zürich)

Andreas Opedal

My research focuses on natural language processing. I am particularly interested in designing systems that have a deep semantic and syntactic understanding of natural language, which proves useful for improving robustness to distribution shifts, interpretability and performing more complex reasoning-based tasks. To that end, I am a strong believer in neuro-symbolic methods, formal language theory and causal inference.

Primary Host(s):	Mrinmaya Sachan (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Andrii Zadaianchuk

My research interests lie in the intersection of unsupervised structured representations learning, dynamics learning and using both for model-based reinforcement learning. I find autonomous learning of environment representations that are modular, independently predictable and controllable as an important step towards efficient and accurate control for many real-life applications.

Primary Host(s):	Georg Martius (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Fanny Yang (ETH Zürich)

Artur Grigorev

My area of research is modelling the human body, in terms of both shape and appearance, in 3D space. I am particularly interested in generative models for the human body as well as in reconstruction and modelling of clothing. Currently I am working on reconstruction and modelling of loose garments, such as skirts and dresses, as I think that is the area most lacking in current approaches for creating human avatars.

Primary Host(s):	Otmar Hilliges (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Michael J. Black (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Cathrin Elich

My research interests lie in the broad field of computer vision and, more specifically, are currently focused on learning structured scene representations. I'm interested to learn about ways in which humans perceive their environment and how to use these ideas in combination with deep learning methods. Moreover, I want to explore options of combining this work with other tasks like segmentation or 3D reconstruction.

Primary Host(s):	Jörg Stückler (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Marc Pollefeys (ETH Zürich & Microsoft)

Cristina Pinneri

In order to create intelligent machines, we should endow them with features connecting areas like machine learning and optimal control. Reinforcement learning lies at the intersection between these two areas and it will be the focus of my PhD, with a particular interest on model-based approaches and trajectory optimization.

Primary Host(s):	Georg Martius (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Andreas Krause (ETH Zürich)

Daniela Macari

I am interested in exploring forms of physical intelligence inspired by materials and mechanisms found in nature and in applying these to the design and fabrication of soft robotic systems. Particularly, my research focus lies on bioinspired actuation systems replicating the versatile performance of natural muscles - so-called HASEL (hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic) actuators. This new class of electrohydraulic transducers enables the creation of novel soft robotic systems with yet unmet high degrees of dexterity, agility and adaptability to their environments, making them well-suited for unstructured and dynamic tasks.

Primary Host(s):	Christoph M. Keplinger (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Stelian Coros (ETH Zürich)

Florian Dorner

With the more and more widespread deployment of Al systems in the real world, they are likely going to have larger and larger impacts on society, including accidents, political destabilization and other negative externalities. To increase developers' accountability for negative societal impacts of their Al systems, my research focuses on a) a better theoretical understanding of these impacts, b) approaches to monitor and empirically demonstrate them, c) building tools developers can use to mitigate potential risks their Al systems might pose, and d) strategies for policymakers to align Al developers' incentives with society.

Primary Host(s):	Moritz Hardt (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Fanny Yang (ETH Zürich)

Hamza Keurti

Generally, I am interested in creating vision systems which understand visual scenes like humans do and which learn to perceive the same way children learn: through embodiment and free interaction (playing) with objects. In particular, my aim is to learn robust and predictive representations from visual scenes with the integration of efferent motor signals, in the absence of tasks. An embodied agent should learn to perceive prior to learning tasks.

Primary Host(s):	Benjamin Grewe (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Hao Ma

My research interests lie in the intersection of machine learning and control theory. I try to build a new framework to explain stability, convergence, robustness, etc. in some machine learning algorithms. Moreover, I want to bridge the gap between theory and practice in machine learning.

Primary Host(s):	Michael Muehlebach (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Melanie Zeilinger (ETH Zürich)

Jasan Zughaibi

Magnetically actuated continuum robots show promise for a variety of medical applications. Their high flexibility allows them to perform minimum invasive surgeries inside the human body. However, their modeling and control are particularly challenging due to nonlinear material behavior and their high degrees of freedom. During my PhD, I aim to develop intelligent learning control algorithms which allow the reliable deployment of these systems for high-precision medical interventions.

Primary Host(s):	Bradley Nelson (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Michael Muehlebach (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Jonas Frey

The goal of my research is to allow legged robots to navigate within unstructured and complex environments fully autonomously. To achieve this a semantic understanding of the environment is key and therefore the focus of my research. To tackle this challenge I want to leverage self-supervised machine learning methods to make use of image and depth sensor data.

Primary Host(s):	Marco Hutter (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Georg Martius (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Julian Nubert

I am interested in robots that are not only moving in but actively impacting their surroundings. My main field of research lies in the intersection of control, perception, and machine learning, intending to enable mobile robots to perform complex tasks. I am mainly working in the field of construction robotics, specifically on autonomous excavation and manipulation with a walking excavator.

Primary Host(s):	Marco Hutter (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Katherine J. Kuchenbecker (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Kamil Adamczewski

Current neural networks remain large and not fully understood. My research links network compression with model interpretability. This natural connection aims at extracting relevant information from the network while discarding the redundant parameters. This goal of reducing neural networks not only makes models faster, more practical and energy-efficient but also aims to analyze and interpret the relevant features that make up a smaller model. We look at this problem from various perspectives, ranging from probabilistic to game-theoretical approaches. My further interests lie in data generation and differential privacy.

Primary Host(s):	Mijung Park (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems) Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Luc Van Gool (ETH Zürich & KU Leuven)

Liang Zhang

My research focuses on the intersection between optimization and machine learning. In particular, I try to establish the theoretical guarantees of machine learning algorithms, including their convergence properties and generalization behaviors. For example, I previously worked on the convergence analyses of variance reduction methods for structured nonconvex stochastic optimization that are common in many machine learning applications such as GANs, meta-learning, and reinforcement learning. Currently, I am working on differentially private stochastic optimization due to the increasing demand for data privacy in the industry. In addition to that, I am also interested in understanding the generalization of nonconvex optimization problems.

Primary Host(s):	Niao He (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Michael Muehlebach (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Malte Prinzler

Hi I’m Malte. My research interest lies on reconstructing photorealistic 3D models of human heads with affordable capturing hardware. Recent research has made remarkable progress in creating high-quality reconstructions based on extensive camera setups. Democratizing such technology through lowering the capture costs would enable everybody to create their own counterpart in the virtual world and could spark a true revolution of how humans communicate with each other.

Primary Host(s):	Justus Thies (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Otmar Hilliges (ETH Zürich)

Marco Bagatella

I am broadly interested in reinforcement learning, and in the intersection between classical planning and learning-based methods. Other topics I like exploring span from model-based approaches to representation learning in high-dimensional environments. My research is largely motivated by the distant goal of enabling safe and efficient learning of complex behaviors in the real world, possibly from scratch.

Primary Host(s):	Georg Martius (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Andreas Krause (ETH Zürich)

Markos Diomataris

Considering what humans are able to understand about other humans it becomes apparent that our perception goes far beyond (while surely leveraging) our geometric aspect and is able to infer semantic information such as goals, (inter)actions, intentions etc. My goal is to bridge the gap between geometry and semantics so that machines can truly understand humans and therefore more intelligently learn from, interact with and assist them.

Primary Host(s):	Otmar Hilliges (Max Planck Fellow) (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Michael J. Black (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems) Bernt Schiele (Max Planck Institute for Informatics & Saarland University) Otmar Hilliges (ETH Zürich)

Mattia Segù

Current state-of-the-art machine learning models often unpredictably fail when dealing with previously unseen settings, proving to be not general and robust enough for a safe deployment in life-critical applications. In the spirit of delivering safe and reliable intelligent systems, my research interests focus on solving the challenges presented by the real world by making artificial intelligence models capable of continuously learning and adapting to previously unknown scenarios.

Primary Host(s):	Fisher Yu (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Bernt Schiele (Max Planck Institute for Informatics & Saarland University)

Max Paulus

I have a broad interest in machine learning, including variational methods, causal inference and probabilistic programming. In the future, I hope to design adaptive machines that leverage prior knowledge to effectively learn in domains where traditional approaches still fail today.

Primary Host(s):	Andreas Krause (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Maximilian Mordig

After a Bachelor's in Physics and Master's in "Computational Science & Engineering" at EPFL, I worked for Hoffmann-La Roche for roughly two years. My PhD, supervised by Bernhard Schölkopf and Gunnar Rätsch, will focus on causal inference, representation learning and applications to biological datasets. I previously worked on Bayesian optimization, variational inference and Gaussian processes. The beauty of probabilistic modelling thrills me.

Primary Host(s):	Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Gunnar Rätsch (ETH Zürich)

Muhammed Kocabas

I am interested in computer vision and machine learning with a focus on human motion understanding.

Primary Host(s):	Michael J. Black (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Otmar Hilliges (ETH Zürich)

Nadine Rüegg

My research focuses on interaction between humans and their environment, 3D pose and tracking. I hope by combining computer vision and machine learning methods, a holistic understanding of video scenes can be obtained.

Primary Host(s):	Konrad Schindler (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Michael J. Black (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Nicolò Ruggeri

My research interests include, but are not limited to, Probabilistic Learning and Network Science, as well as connected fields. In particular, I aim at understanding how current probabilistic models can be improved upon, both on a representation and training level. I am also fascinated by how different ideas and concepts from within and outside ML interpolate in interesting and novel developments. Therefore, I strive to keep a broader view on theoretical and practical insights originating from different fields.

Primary Host(s):	Caterina De Bacco (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Fanny Yang (ETH Zürich)

Nima Mahkam

My research interests lie in developing flexible and intelligent microrobots as a promising potential approach in medical applications. I am mainly interested in fabricating small-scale mechanisms and characterizing their properties to understand the microscale dynamics better. Analyzing these tiny robots' behavior and identifying their mechanical and biocompatible characteristics are crucial for precisely controlling these micro-mechanisms in tight environments such as the human body. Consequently, my studies aim to explore new design approaches, fabrication techniques, and control principles for intelligent soft small-scale robots, which would have a high impact in healthcare.

Primary Host(s):	Metin Sitti (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Robert Katzschmann (ETH Zürich)

Núria Armengol Urpí

Despite recent advances in robotics, the gap between human and robot skills remains vast. During my PhD I aim to combine the tools from machine learning and control theory in order to advance in the field of autonomous learning for robotics. I try to develop algorithms that provide robots with the ability to efficiently explore new environments and autonomously learn from diverse prior data, so that they can intelligently, reliably and robustly handle the complexities of the real world.

Primary Host(s):	Stelian Coros (ETH Zürich) Otmar Hilliges (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Georg Martius (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Olga Mineeva

I am interested in developing robust and interpretable Machine Learning methods for real-world problems, in particular, that arise in Healthcare and Genomics.

Primary Host(s):	Gunnar Rätsch (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Isabel Valera (Saarland University & Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems) Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Paul Wrede

My aim is to design microscale robots to revolutionize the treatment and diagnosis of diseases. Besides designing the next generation of smart microrobots I am especially interested in visualizing these tiny man-made machines in-vivo. Consequently, my research interests include microrobotics, bioimaging, and micro/nanotechnologies as well as personalized medicine.

Primary Host(s):	Metin Sitti (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Daniel Razansky (ETH Zürich)

Sidak Pal Singh

My research focuses on the broad areas of deep learning theory, optimization, and causal representation learning. In particular, I am interested in understanding and answering: (a) why over-parameterized neural networks generalize so well (b) how to incorporate (causal) mechanisms to encourage generalization in the non-iid setting. I also like to utilize tools and perspectives from mathematical areas, such as optimal transport, for approaching problems in machine learning.

Primary Host(s):	Thomas Hofmann (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Siyeon Jang

I am interested in tiny medical robots that can generate localized electric field stimulation. Since electric fields can affect various biological interactions, such wireless nano/micro-scale robots are expected to be one of the most promising strategies to achieve effective medical applications.

Primary Host(s):	Metin Sitti (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Mehmet Fatih Yanik (ETH Zürich)

Songyou Peng

My general research interest lies in computer vision and machine learning. More specifically, I am interested in how to apply deep learning to 3D vision problems.

Primary Host(s):	Marc Pollefeys (ETH Zürich & Microsoft)
Exchange Host(s):	Andreas Geiger (University of Tübingen & Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Timothy Gebhard

Generally, in my research, I am interested in problems at the intersection of machine learning and domain sciences (in particular, astrophysics). More specifically, I want to investigate how we can incorporate and make use of existing scientific domain knowledge about a given problem to build better machine learning models. One specific project that I am currently working on aims to develop new ML-based post-processing algorithms for high-contrast imaging of extrasolar planets.

Primary Host(s):	Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Sascha Quanz (ETH Zürich) Thomas Hofmann (ETH Zürich)

Vasileios Choutas

I am interested in modelling the human body, its motion and interaction with objects and scenes, which could then be used to generate new human-like actions and behavior for virtual agents.

Primary Host(s):	Michael J. Black (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Luc Van Gool (ETH Zürich & KU Leuven)

Vivian Nastl

My research interests lie in the area of machine learning. In particular, I am interested to enhance the understanding of algorithmic decisions in social context. In the last few years, more and more social and economic authorities have started to base their decisions on machine learning methods. Hence, it is fundamental to understand and quantify the influence such algorithmic decisions have on individuals and society as a whole. To that point, I am dealing with different concepts for causal relationships in social settings and developing suitable methods to properly infer these causal relationships from experimental and observational data.

Primary Host(s):	Moritz Hardt (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Nicolai Meinshausen (ETH Zürich)

Xu Chen

My research interest lies in computer vision and graphics. Specifically I am interested in 3D deep generative models, with a goal to build learning-based approaches capable of generating photo-realistic simulations of human activity. The resulting data could be useful in the context of training methods for human-centric perception tasks.

Primary Host(s):	Otmar Hilliges (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Michael J. Black (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems) Andreas Geiger (University of Tübingen & Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Yao Feng

My primary research is at the intersection between Computer Vision, Computer Graphics and Machine Learning, with a focus on understanding 3-dimensional objects using deep learning technique. Currently, I am especially interested in the modeling and analysis of human faces and bodies.

Primary Host(s):	Michael J. Black (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)
Exchange Host(s):	Marc Pollefeys (ETH Zürich & Microsoft)

Yasunori Toshimitsu

I like making, controlling, and playing with robots. Through my research, I hope to create robotic systems that can act in the chaotic and beautiful everyday environments that we live in, to hopefully make our lives a little bit easier. Currently, I believe that the introduction and exploitation of compliant structures are an important key to approach that problem. I hope to interact with a wide range of technologies, from the material to control level in my research.

Primary Host(s):	Robert Katzschmann (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Christoph M. Keplinger (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Yufeng Zheng

My general research interest lies in the intersection of computer vision and graphics. More specifically, I’m interested in learning-based 3D modelling and analysis for human-centric applications.

Primary Host(s):	Otmar Hilliges (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Michael J. Black (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Yuntao Ma

Controlling mobile manipulators in difficult environments is challenging and exciting. During my Ph.D., I aim to expand the capability of mobile manipulators with reinforcement learning and demonstrate the results on real machines. Currently, I work on combining control policies for complex tasks.

Primary Host(s):	Marco Hutter (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Georg Martius (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

Zhiyu He

My research interests lie in optimization, learning, and control of dynamical systems. Specifically, I am curious about the fundamental limits of and the interplay between model-based/physics-guided and model-free/data-driven control approaches. I aim to use these approaches to achieve optimal, autonomous, online, and distributed decision-making for engineering systems, particularly power systems and robotics.

Primary Host(s):	Florian Dörfler (ETH Zürich)
Exchange Host(s):	Michael Muehlebach (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems)

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