The University of Freiburg has been accepted into the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS). This is how Freiburg researchers in the field of machine learning, a discipline of artificial intelligence, are recognized for their outstanding work. The team - the "ELLIS unit" - includes Prof. Dr. Wolfram Burgard, Head of the Research Laboratory for Autonomous Intelligent Systems and Speaker of BrainLinks-BrainTools, Prof. Dr. Thomas Brox, Head of the Computer Vision Group, Prof. Dr. Frank Hutter, Head of the Machine Learning Laboratory, Junior Professor Dr. Joschka Bödecker, Head of the Neurorobotics Lab, and Junior Professor Dr. Abhinav Valada, head of the Robot Learning Lab.
On December 10, ELLIS announced the establishment of the first 17 units in ten European countries and Israel: In addition to the University of Freiburg, Germany also includes the universities of Tübingen, Saarbrücken and Darmstadt. The network was founded in 2018 by leading European scientists with the aim of strengthening European research in the field of machine learning and promoting young researchers. "Admission to the network underlines the international top position that scientists at the University of Freiburg hold in this discipline," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Gunter Neuhaus, Vice Rector and Vice Rector for Research and Innovation at the University of Freiburg. "Cooperation in the ELLIS network will provide valuable impulses for our profile field 'data analysis and artificial intelligence' and further strengthen Freiburg as a designated location for artificial intelligence."
Together, the first approved ELLIS units are committing well above 200 Mio € of their own budget for the first 5 years. A number of European companies have already supported the initiative. The University of Freiburg also supports the Freiburg ELLIS unit with ten AI Fellowships at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), which will give the members of the ELLIS unit even more freedom for research in the future.
Machine learning uses neural networks and enables computers to learn independently from data. The researchers at ELLIS investigate, among other things, the processing of images, robotics and applications in the design of autonomous systems in biology or healthcare. The aim of the network is to improve the basics of machine learning in order to make it more data-efficient, understandable and reliable.
More about ELLIS and the newly established units are available at: ellis.eu/en/news/17-ellis-units-across-10-european-countries-and-israel-established