Upcoming Events & Talks

11-02-2026 Talk Learning and Dynamical Systems

Keynote by Michael Muehlebach at 2026 IMPRS-IS Interview Symposium

The MPI-IS community is invited to the February 11 keynote by Dr. Michael Muehlebach, the scientific highlight of the 2026 IMPRS-IS Interview Symposium, examining learning through the lens of dynamical systems and interaction. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Leila Masri Sara Sorce Pannapa Huayhongtong

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12-02-2026 Talk Perzeptive Systeme

Beyond the Scan: High-fidelity Human Digitalization at Scale

Zijian Dong, ETH Zurich, Department of Computer Science

As the digital world evolves into an immersive extension of our daily lives, the digital avatar has emerged as the critical interface between human reality and digital intelligence. However, current creation methods suffer from a persistent bottleneck: the "trade-off" between the realism of expensive industrial scanning rigs and the scalability of parametric models that often lack the texture and clothing detail necessary for true visual presence. This talk presents a principled 3D avatar framework designed to bridge this gap by enabling the automated creation of realistic, animatable digital humans. We explore a technical pipeline that moves beyond traditional parametric models to capture detailed geometry and appearance from consumer-level sensors, even in complex scenarios involvi... Michael J. Black Shrisha Bharadwaj

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23-02-2026 Talk

Gender and the Future of Work in the Age of AI

Ksenia Keplinger Andrew K. Schulz Naomi Tashiro Alona Shagan

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24-02-2026 Symposium

2026 Scientific Symposium

All current and former employees and partners of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems are welcome to attend this event. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Christoph Keplinger Eva Lämmerhirt

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06-03-2026 PhD Thesis Defense Haptische Intelligenz

Haptify: A Measurement-Based System for Quantifying the Quality of Haptic Interfaces

Grounded force-feedback (GFF) devices, exoskeletons, and other haptic robots modulate human movement through carefully engineered mechanical, electrical, and computational designs. Given their significant societal potential and often high cost, it is essential to fairly and efficiently assess the quality of these intimate cyber-physical interfaces. However, existing device specifications and low-level performance metrics often fail to capture the nuanced qualities that expert users perceive during hands-on experimentation. To address this gap, this thesis introduces Haptify, a comprehensive benchmarking system that can thoroughly, fairly, and noninvasively evaluate GFF haptic devices. Haptify integrates multiple sensing modalities - a seven-camera optical motion-capture system, a cus... Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Farimah Fazlollahi

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06-03-2026 PhD Thesis Defense Haptische Intelligenz Dynamic Locomotion

The Human Leg Catapult: Biological Mechanisms for Walking Gait Replicated in the EcoWalker Robot

Humanoid robots and assistive devices have yet to match the efficiency and adaptability of able-bodied human walking in challenging environments. To bridge this performance gap, my projects explored the underlying mechanisms of human locomotion, focusing on the ankle push-off. Ankle push-off has a prominent role in walking due to its high-power output at the end of the stance phase, and due to the impact of its timing on the adaptability to diverse environments. The human leg catapult analogy provides a framework for the projects to understand and replicate the complex biological mechanisms that govern human walking gait. As a platform for the replication, the human-like bipedal EcoWalker robot was developed from version 1 to 3 in three consecutive projects, with iterative design and co... Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Alexander Badri-Spröwitz Bernadett Kiss

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23-03-2026 - 26-03-2026 Conference

CPAL - Conference for Parsimony and Learning

The Conference on Parsimony and Learning (CPAL) is an annual research conference focused on addressing the parsimonious, low dimensional structures that prevail in machine learning, signal processing, optimization, and beyond. We are interested in theories, algorithms, applications, hardware and systems, as well as scientific foundations for learning with parsimony.

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23-04-2026 Event

Girls' Day 2026

Erlebt einen spannende Tag voller Entdeckungen am Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung und am Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart beim Girls' Day am 23. April 2026! Barbara Kettemann Linda Behringer

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