News & Awards

Robotic Composites and Compositions Press Release 16-10-2025 From Stiff to Soft in a Snap Magnetic Jamming Opens New Frontiers for Microrobotics Could tiny magnetic objects, that rapidly clump together and instantly fall apart again, one day perform delicate procedures inside the human body? A new study from researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and at ETH Zurich introduces a wireless method to stiffen and relax small structures using magnetic fields, without wires, pumps, or physical contact. Buse Aktaş
News 15-10-2025 Antonia Georgopoulou starts as Cyber Valley Max Planck Independent Research Group Leader Group named "Cyborg Robotics and Intelligent Sensing" or CyRIS Antonia Georgopoulou
Empirical Inference News 09-10-2025 Siyuan Guo receives the MIT EECS Rising Star award Her research focuses on understanding learning and intelligence from first principles. Siyuan Guo
News 08-10-2025 Jonas Geiping awarded the German Pattern Recognition Award 2025 Geiping was awarded the German Pattern Recognition Award 2025 for his outstanding scientific contributions in the area of Understanding of Safety, Security, and Efficiency in Modern Pattern Recognition.
Cooperative Machine Intelligence for People-Aligned Safe Systems News 01-10-2025 Sahar Abdelnabi starts her position as new Group Leader She joins the ELLIS Institute Tübingen as PI and Hector Endowed Fellow and has a co-affiliation with the MPI-IS and the Tübingen AI Center as Independent Research Group Leader. Sahar Abdelnabi
News 24-09-2025 New Max Planck Artificial Intelligence Network Starts Call for Applications for its Ph.D. Program Join our new Max Planck Artificial Intelligence Network Ph.D. program The Max Planck Artificial Intelligence Network is a Ph.D. Program that provides doctoral researchers with fully funded Ph.D. fellowships and a pool of outstanding faculty comprising directors and independent research group leaders from across the Max Planck Society. Bernhard Schölkopf Matthias Tröndle Emna Eitel
Robotic Composites and Compositions News 23-09-2025 How We Touch Study captures how humans touch unfamiliar objects, offers potential lessons for human-robot interaction Buse Aktaş
News 15-09-2025 Apply until November 5, 2025 for a PhD in CLS Apply to do your Ph.D. in our research center between ETH Zurich, Switzerland and the Max Planck Society, primarily the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany.
Physical Intelligence Press Release 15-09-2025 Matryoshka doll-like robot changes its shape in real time and in situ In a paper published in Nature, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, introduce a method by which they can reprogram a stack of magnetic tubes in real time and in situ. Rearranging and recombining each tube’s magnetic unit enables the nesting doll-like robot to achieve unprecedented shape-shifting capabilities, unlocking new possibilities for soft robots. Such robots could be used for a variety of applications, including medical devices. Metin Sitti Xianqiang Bao Fan Wang Jianhua Zhang
Medical Systems Award 10-09-2025 Jelena Zinnanti (born Lazovic) receives Best Oral Presentation Award at the Advanced Ceramics and Application Conference, No. XIII, Belgrade, Serbia Jelena Zinnanti
Empirical Inference News 19-08-2025 Six new members elected to the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz Bernhard Schölkopf was elected as a corresponding member.
Neuromechanics of Movement Award 31-07-2025 Janneke Schwaner receives the Dr Jacquelin Perry Emerging Female Scientist Award Every two years the International Society of Biomechanics awards the Jacquelin Perry Emerging Scientist Award. This price is awarded in honor of Professor Jacquelin Perry and her pioneering contribution to the science and application of biomechanics, in particular in the area of gait analysis and rehabilitation. The award is designed to acknowledge female researchers who have performed superior biomechanics research early in their career. Janneke Schwaner
Physical Intelligence News 29-07-2025 EndoSurge wins 3rd place in Science2Start competition Max Planck Start-up develops MRI-compatible catheter system to treat cardiovascular disease Martin Phelan Siddhant Prakash
News 24-07-2025 MPG Diversity Excellence Fund Award supports RIGI Internship The MPI-IS has secured funding from the Max Planck Society's Diversity Excellence Fund for their Robotics Institute Germany Internship program. Buse Aktaş Birgül Akolpoglu Leila Masri Katherine J. Kuchenbecker
Robotic Materials News 21-07-2025 Humboldt Fellow from the US conducts research in robotics to one day harvest energy from ocean waves The Humboldt Research Fellowship Program for Postdocs fosters partnerships between international researchers and leading German research institutions. Linda Behringer Lawrence Smith Christoph Keplinger
Empirical Inference News 15-07-2025 Zhijing Jin receives honorable mention for the Wilhelm Schickard Dissertation Award The Wilhelm Schickard Dissertation Award recognizes the most outstanding dissertation in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Tübingen, celebrating innovative and impactful research embodying Schickard’s spirit of intellectual curiosity and technological advancement. Zhijing Jin Bernhard Schölkopf
Social Foundations of Computation Award 14-07-2025 Moritz Hardt co-authored a paper which receives the 10-Year Test of Time Award at ACM STOC 2025 "Preserving Statistical Validity in Adaptive Data Analysis" published in 2015 is co-authored by Cynthia Dwork, Vitaly Feldman, Moritz Hardt, Toniann Pitassi, Omer Reingold, Aaron Roth. Moritz Hardt
Social Foundations of Computation News 14-07-2025 Paper co-authored by Moritz Hardt receives 10-Year Test of Time Award at ACM STOC 2025 "Preserving Statistical Validity in Adaptive Data Analysis" published in 2015 is co-authored by Cynthia Dwork, Vitaly Feldman, Moritz Hardt, Toniann Pitassi, Omer Reingold, Aaron Roth. Moritz Hardt
News 14-07-2025 Shiwei Liu starts his position as new Group Leader He joins the ELLIS Institute Tübingen as PI and Hector Endowed Fellow and has a co-affiliation with the MPI-IS and the Tübingen AI Center as Independent Research Group Leader. Shiwei Liu
Empirical Inference Award 11-07-2025 Zhijing Jin receives Honorable Mention for the Wilhelm Schickard Dissertation Award, University of Tübingen Zhijing Jin wrote her dissertation “Causality for Natural Language Processing” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schölkopf. Zhijing Jin
News 10-07-2025 MPI-IS researchers with 11 papers at upcoming ICML The International Conference on Machine Learning is one of the world's leading conferences in the field of machine learning. Linda Behringer
Social Foundations of Computation Award 27-06-2025 Vivian Nastl receives 2025 Outstanding Female Doctoral Student Prize of MPI-IS The following scientists received honorable mentions for this award: Melis Ilayda Bal (LDS Research Group) Maria-Paola Forte (HI- and PS Dept.) Natalia Sanchez-Tamayo (HI- and RM Dept.) Vivian Nastl Melis Ilayda Bal Maria-Paola Forte Natalia Sanchez-Tamayo
Organizational Leadership and Diversity Award 24-06-2025 Ksenia Keplinger receives EURAM/ERC Award for advancing to the interview round of the ERC Starting Grant Ksenia Keplinger
News 28-05-2025 T. Konstantin Rusch starts his position as new Group Leader He will join the ELLIS Institute Tübingen as PI and Hector Endowed Fellow and have a co-affiliation with the MPI-IS and the Tübingen AI Center as Independent Research Group Leader.
News 22-05-2025 Double excellence Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems involved in two further funded Clusters of Excellence at the University of Stuttgart and the University of Tübingen MPI-IS was involved in three applications, of which two were selected for further funding as Clusters of Excellence. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker Michael J. Black Moritz Hardt Bernhard Schölkopf
Press Release 15-05-2025 Groundbreaking ceremony marks start of construction work for new Cyber Valley building in Stuttgart Building will become part of the Max Planck Campus in Büsnau 7,400 m² of research space for robotics and artificial intelligence Christoph Keplinger
Robotic Composites and Compositions News 08-05-2025 First team members join the new Robotic Composites and Compositions Group Group leader Buse Aktaş joins the Elisabeth Schiemann Kolleg as a fellow Buse Aktaş
Social Foundations of Computation Blog Post Moritz Hardt 8 minute read 07-05-2025 The emerging science of machine learning benchmarks Why machine learning benchmarks have worked, the crisis they now face, and how to preserve the old engine of progress.
Computational Applied Mathematics & AI Lab News 02-05-2025 Novel AI model inspired by neural dynamics from the brain Research co-authored by our new group leader Konstantin Rusch Text by
Neuromechanics of Movement News 28-04-2025 Janneke Schwaner starts Neuromechanics of Movement research group From May 1, 2025, Janneke Schwaner will lead the Neuromechanics of Movement research group at the Stuttgart site of the Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems. Janneke presented her research at the 2024 Scientific Symposium and thereafter received the call to join the Institute. Janneke Schwaner
Empirical Inference News 23-04-2025 Zhijing Jin Selected Young Researcher for the Heidelberg Laureate Forum 2025 Tübingen – Zhijing Jin, who is an incoming Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto starting in Fall 2025, and currently a postdoc in the Empirical Inference Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, has been selected to attend the prestigious Heidelberg Laureate Forum 2025. The invitation comes a year after Zhijing attended the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in June 2024. Zhijing Jin
Physical Intelligence News 13-04-2025 Ren Hao Soon named 2025 Schmidt Science Fellow Pioneering researcher in magnetic millirobotics to pivot into biomedical sciences with prestigious fellowship
Perceiving Systems Blog Post Michael J. Black 3 minute read 09-04-2025 The AI tariff? The societies that will "win" the AI race will not be those that develop the technology first. It will be those that are best able to manage the long-term social disruption AI will cause. Michael J. Black