Upcoming Events & Talks

23-02-2026 Talk Organizational Leadership and Diversity

Gender and the Future of Work in the Age of AI

Elisabeth Kelan, Ph.D., Kings College London

The MPI-IS community is invited to a talk by Professor Elisabeth Kelan, at the institute's Stuttgart site on February 23 at 11:00. The talk will be followed by a discussion moderated by the Athena Group representatives at 12:30. Ksenia Keplinger Andrew 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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26-02-2026 PhD Thesis Defense Haptische Intelligenz

Modeling, Fabricating, and Evaluating Synergistic Soft‑Rigid Actuators

Soft actuators offer lightweight, compliant, and safe alternatives to traditional mechanisms, but they often incur complicated actuation schemes, bulky support systems, and limited functionality when made solely from soft materials. Soft‑rigid designs that integrate rigid elements into primarily soft bodies are common, yet the potential of those rigid parts to shape actuation behavior without compromising the overall softness remains underexplored, and fabrication practices often lack reproducibility. In this talk, I will present two case studies of synergistic hybrid actuation systems that utilize the complementary roles of soft and rigid components to dictate temporal and spectral behavior in response to simple input commands. The first case study implements a soft-active/rigid-pa... Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Ifat Gertler

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05-03-2026 Max Planck Lecture

Toward Intelligent Metamaterial Machines

The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems is delighted to invite you to its 2026 Max Planck Lecture. Christoph Keplinger Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Barbara Kettemann 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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