WORK INFORMATION

I am head of the digital media group at Bremen University and project manager for a research project that is related to human computer interaction, mobile systems and learning. Besides managing projects, I am busy in organizing workshops, do some teaching and supervise students.
 


BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

I have started working as a University Professor for informatics at Bremen University in April 2006. Before that, I worked at the European Media Laboratory where I initiated and lead a research group that works on projects dealing with mobile assistance systems, language understanding, geographical information systems, and computer vision. I managed research projects that are conducted in co-operation with various national and international institutes and companies. Before joining the EML, I took a diploma at the University of Karlsruhe which I finished in 1992. Then I worked there as a research scientist on neural networks and did research on modelling the learning mechanisms in biological brains. My interest in understanding natural information processing in brains also led to my Ph.D. thesis in 1996. During this time, I also had some research periods at the University of California at Berkeley.


CURRENT PROJECTS

I am currently the responsible project manager for the Bremen division of the following project:

 


RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • human-computer interaction
  • language understanding
  • image understanding
  • mobile information systems
  • location-, user-, context-, situation-adaptive systems
  • neural networks and learning
  • AI in general, the brain in particular and all sorts of intelligent machinery


PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Chair/Organizer
    • Interdisciplinary College – IK2003, Günne
    • Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Systems – AIMS2000, Workshop in conjunction with ECAI 2000, Berlin, Germany, 2000
    • Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Systems – AIMS2001, Workshop in conjunction with IJCAI 2001, Seattle, USA, 2001
    • Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Systems – AIMS2002, Workshop in conjunction with ECAI 2002, Lyon, France, July 22, 2002
    • Chair Special Session “Virtueller Städtetourismus“, Deutscher Geographentag 2001, Leipzig
    • Intelligent Situation-Aware Media and Presentations – ISAMP2002, Workshop in conjunction with National Conference on AI (AAAI 2002), Edmonton, Canada, July 28, 2002
    • Scalable Natural Language Understanding – SCANALU 2002, Workshop at EML, May 22-24, 2002
    • 21st Century Tools for City Tourism – Workshop at the European Cities’ Tourism Annual Conference and General Assembly, Heidelberg, Germany, June 21-22, 2001
  • Program Committee
    • Planning Committee of the Interdisciplinary College - IK 2002, Günne
    • Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Systems – AIMS 2000, AIMS 2001, AIMS 2002
    • ANNIMAB: International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks in Medicine and Biology, May 13-16, 2000, Göteborg, Sweden
    • Fourth International Symposium on Intelligent Data Analysis, New University of Lisbon, Portugal, September 2001 
    • Intelligent Situation-Aware Media and Presentations – ISAMP2002
    • Workshop on Ubiquitous Computing: interacting in the future computational environment, Trento, Saturday 25 May, 2002, held in conjunction with AVI 2002
  • Editorial Responsibilities
    • Several workshop notes and proceedings
    • Special Issue for "Applied Artificial Intelligence" on AI in Mobile Systems (to be published)
  • Jury:
    • Jury Klaus Tschira Award for juvenile software 2001
    • Jury Klaus Tschira Award for juvenile software 2002
  • Supervising Board of QUADOX AG, Nußloch
  • Member of ACM and GI


AWARDS

  • 1984, Scheffel-Award
  • 1994, DAAD-grant for a research stay at UC Berkeley
  • 1997, Klaus Tschira Award for Comprehensible Science
  • 2002, IUI 2002 Distinguished Paper Award


PERSONAL INTERESTS

Besides the activities mentioned above I try to have some private life which includes:

  • my family
  • running (currently planning the third Marathon)
  • rock climbing (Yosemite, Toulon, Pfalz and Schriesheim)
  • scuba diving (as long as there is warm water with plenty of inhabitants)
  • juggling (passing with six clubs is my favourite)
  • nature, science, reading, good red wine, and cooking!