Machine learning: Stuttgart at the forefront of European research

ETH Zurich, Oxford, Cambridge, Stuttgart: Scientists at the University of Stuttgart researching artificial intelligence (AI) are now part of a selected circle in Europe. They form one of 34 units in the ELLIS network. The corresponding application from the University of Stuttgart, with support from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, has been approved.

ELLIS promotes leading European research sites in the field of machine learning with the aim of retaining researchers in Europe and training young European researchers. The initiative focuses on advancing modern AI that positively impacts the economy and society.

“Being accepted into the ELLIS network is a great success for our location in these important AI future areas, which will significantly increase our visibility within Cyber Valley, nationally and internationally,” said Prof. Dr. Andreas Bulling, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Cognitive Systems from the Institute of Visualization and Interactive Systems at the University of Stuttgart, as a founding director of the ELLIS Stuttgart unit. “The chances of success for future research proposals as well as for attracting young researchers at all levels of the scientific career ladder increase.”

The second founding director and head of the Institute for Stochastics and Applications at the University of Stuttgart, Prof. Dr. Ingo Steinwart, adds, “The ELLIS selection process is led by top scientists from different countries and is highly competitive and highly selective. The fact that there is now the ELLIS unit in Stuttgart not only underlines the excellence of the location with its research priorities, but also, in particular, that of the researchers involved.”

“I am very pleased and warmly congratulate the professors on the establishment of the ELLIS Unit Stuttgart,” said Prof. Wolfram Ressel, Rector of the University of Stuttgart. “This success is also the result of targeted, successful recruitment in mathematics and computer science, which has been able to attract outstanding individuals to its professorships in recent years.”

The Stuttgart ELLIS unit will focus its research on four main areas:

• interactive intelligent systems,
• natural and programming language processing,
• learning theory, and
• robot learning.

Financially, the unit has more than 1.5 million euros available annually for five years, i.e. a total of more than 7.5 million euros. Of this, the rectorate of the University of Stuttgart has provided 150,000 euros per year.

Part of the ELLIS unit Stuttgart currently are
as founding directors:

• Prof. Andreas Bulling (Institute for Visualization and Interactive Systems VIS, University of Stuttgart).
• Prof. Ingo Steinwart (Institute for Stochastics and Applications ISA, University of Stuttgart)

as members:

• Dr. Paul Bürkner (Cluster of Excellence Data-Integrated Simulation Science SimTech, University of Stuttgart).
• Dr. Katherine Kuchenbecker (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Stuttgart)
• Prof. Michael Pradel (Institute for Software Engineering ISTE, University of Stuttgart)
• Apl. Prof. Sabine Schulte im Walde (Institute for Machine Language Processing IMS, University of Stuttgart)
• Prof. Steffen Staab (Institute for Parallel and Distributed Systems IPVS, University of Stuttgart)
• Prof. Thang Vu (Institute for Machine Language Processing IMS, University of Stuttgart)

Additional professorships are to be involved.

The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) was founded in December 2018 at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS).

The mission of ELLIS is to create a diverse European network that promotes research excellence and drives breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), as well as a pan-European PhD program to train the next generation of AI researchers. ELLIS also aims to boost economic growth in Europe through the use of AI technologies.