News & Awards

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 16-03-2016 Featured Nature Materials article Our article on soft microrobots is discussed in Nature News & Views. Stefano Palagi Andrew Mark Kai Melde Tian Qiu Alberto Sanchez Peer Fischer

Physical Intelligence News 13-03-2016 Gentle strength for robots A soft actuator using electrically controllable membranes could pave the way for machines that are no danger to humans In interacting with humans, robots must first and foremost be safe. If a household robot, for example, encounters a human, it should not continue its movements regardless, but rather give way in case of doubt. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are now presenting a motion system - a so-called elastic actuator - that is compliant and can be integrated in robots thanks to its space-saving design. The actuator works with hyperelastic membranes that surround air-filled chambers. The volume of the chambers can be controlled by means of an electric field at the membrane. To date, elastic actuators that exert a force by stretching air-filled chambers have always required connection to pumps and compressors to work. A soft actuator such as the one developed by the Stuttgart-based team means that such bulky payloads or tethers may now be superfluous. Metin Sitti Lindsey Hines Kirstin Petersen

Smart Nanoplasmonics News 23-02-2016 Nano-hinge – lubricated by light A nanoplasmonic system of DNA bundles can be opened and closed by optical means Nanomachines could take over a variety of tasks in future. Some day they may be able to perform medical precision work in the human body or help analyze pathogens and pollutants in mobile laboratories. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have now presented a possible component which could be used to specifically move and control such a machine. They have developed a nanoplasmonic system in the form of a pair of scissors that they can open using UV light. As soon as they irradiate the nanostructure with visible instead of UV light, it closes again. The researchers can observe the structural changes with the aid of gold particles which they excite with the light. Laura Na Liu

Perceiving Systems News 19-02-2016 Cordelia Schmid receives the Humboldt Research Award Cordelia Schmid, an Inria research director, has received the Humboldt Research Award for her work on computer vision spanning more than 20 years. She was nominated for this scientific award by Michael Black, the director of the Perceiving Systems department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany. As the director of the LEAR team and then the Thoth team since 1 January 2016, Cordelia Schmid is particularly interested in visual recognition linking invariant image descriptors with learning methods. Her research enables a computer to learn not only to interpret all types of real images and videos, but also to recognize objects, actions and places by learning large image and video bases containing more than 100 million images. Cordelia Schmid figures among the world’s precursors and leaders in the field of modern visual recognition methods; she is also named in the “Highly Cited Researchers 2015” list (source: Thomson Reuters). Michael Black

News 17-02-2016 Micromotors use surface variations for docking and guiding Researchers reveal that micromotors can be guided using tiny topographical patterns on the surfaces over which they swim. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the University of Stuttgart have revealed in an article in Nature Communications that micromotors can be guided using tiny topographical patterns on the surfaces over which they swim. Sámuel Sánchez

Autonomous Motion Movement Generation and Control News 05-02-2016 2016 RAS Early Career Award (Academic) for Ludovic Righetti, Group Leader AM Department recognizing "his contributions to the theory of, and experiments in, robot locomotion and manipulation". Ludovic Righetti

Autonomous Motion Movement Generation and Control Award 05-02-2016 Ludovic Righetti receives the IEEE-RAS Early Career Award (Academic) for "his contributions to the theory of, and experiments in, robot locomotion and manipulation". It is awarded by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society to “individuals in the early stage of their career who have made an identifiable contribution or contributions which have had a major impact on the robotics and/or automation fields”.

Autonomous Motion News 14-01-2016 Roboter machen Schule - Robots set standards Autonomous Robots made in Tübingen Als Haushaltshilfe, Pflegeassistent oder Katastrophenschützer taugen Roboter nur, wenn sie lernfähig sind und zumindest ansatzweise selbstständig handeln können. Stefan Schaal und die Mitarbeiter seiner Abteilung am Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme in Tübingen bringen den Maschinen diese Flexibilität und Autonomie bei. Sebastian Trimpe Ludovic Righetti Jeannette Bohg Stefan Schaal

Perceiving Systems Autonomous Vision News 07-01-2016 Autos gehen die Augen auf - Cars open their Eyes Perception is essential for Intelligence Einen Wagen mit Chauffeur könnte es irgendwann für jeden geben, wenn nämlich ein Roboter das Steuer übernimmt. Damit Autos auch ohne großen technischen Aufwand autonom fahren können, müssen Computer unübersichtliche Verkehrssituation jedoch mindestens genauso gut beurteilen wie der Mensch. Andreas Geiger Michael Black Joel Janai Osman Ulusoy

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2016 Alex Sprowitz joined Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems as an independent group leader in Stuttgart, Germany.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2016 Kirstin Petersen joined Cornell University as an assistant professor in USA.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2016 Wenqi Hu and Hunter Gilbert received the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship.

Physical Intelligence Award 01-01-2016 Zeinab Hosseini joined McMaster University as an assistant professor in Canada.

Perceiving Systems News 16-12-2015 Middlebury Dataset awarded 2015 IEEE Mark Everingham Prize The 2015 PAMI Mark Everingham Prize was awarded to the Middlebury Dataset (Daniel Scharstein, Richard Szeliski, and team) for a series of datasets and on-line evaluations, starting with the Stereo datasets in 2001, and extending to Optical Flow, MRF and others, which have inspired many other datasets. Michael Black was part of the team behind the Optical Flow dataset and evaluation. Michael Black

Perceiving Systems Award 16-12-2015 The Middlebury Dataset was awarded the 2015 IEEE Mark Everingham Prize for service and contributions to the computer vision community. Michael Black was part of the team behind the optical flow benchmark.

Empirical Inference Award 12-12-2015 Ruth Urner: Best Paper Award at NIPS 2015 Workshop on "Transfer and Multitask Learning: Trends and New Perspectives" for Ruth Urner (and co-author Shai Ben-David).

Empirical Inference News 12-12-2015 Best Paper Award @ NIPS Workshop 2015 for Ruth Urner at the NIPS 2015 Workshop on "Transfer and Multitask Learning: Trends and New Perspectives". Ruth Urner

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 11-12-2015 Per Mikroschwimmer zur Magenwand Ein mit Enzymen beschichteter Mikropropeller verflüssigt lokal die Magenschleimhaut, um sie zu durchdringen Helicobacter pylori macht es vor. Das im menschlichen Magen häufig vorkommende Bakterium versteht es, sich auch durch die zähe Magenschleimhaut hindurchzubewegen. Zu diesem Zweck scheidet es Substanzen aus, die den pH-Wert ihrer Umgebung verändern und damit den gelartigen Schleim verflüssigen. Forscher des Max-Planck-Instituts für Intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart haben dieses Prinzip aufgegriffen und nach ihm ein künstliches Mikrovehikel geschaffen, das ebenfalls viskose Schleimhäute durchdringen kann. Die Forscher verbinden damit eine konkrete Hoffnung: Eines Tages könnten solche Schwimmer vielleicht pharmazeutische Wirkstoffe direkt an die Magenwand transportieren – und dort für eine effektive Aufnahme in die Blutbahn sorgen. Debora Schamel Peer Fischer Jeong Hyeon-Ho

Empirical Inference Award 09-12-2015 Jakob Zscheischler: Köppen Award 2015, awarded by the Cluster of Excellence CliSAP, for his doctoral dissertation submitted at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) in 2014.

Empirical Inference News 09-12-2015 Köppen Award 2015 for Machine Learning in Climate Research Excellent doctoral dissertation Dr. Jakob Zscheischler is to receive this year’s Wladimir Peter Köppen Award. The Cluster of Excellence CliSAP selected the mathematician for his excellent doctoral dissertation submitted at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) in 2014. His work was rated trendsetting by the jurors who found its thematic and methodical approach particularly original. Jakob Zscheischler completed his dissertation in Germany at the German Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen. Jakob Zscheischler

Probabilistic Numerics News 01-12-2015 NIPS Oral for Maren Mahsereci PhD student will present her work on optimization for deep learning Maren Mahsereci's paper on probabilistic line searches for stochastic optimization has been selected for a full oral presentation at the flagship conference of machine learning. Maren Mahsereci Philipp Hennig

News 30-11-2015 Inauguration of the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems Inauguration Ceremony in Tübingen (From left to right): Prof. Dr. Bradley Nelson (ETH Zürich), Dr. Stefan Schaal (MPI for Intelligent Systems), Christine Schraner Burgener (Swiss Ambassador to Germany), Prof. Dr. Lino Guzella (President ETH Zürich), Prof. Dr. Martin Stratmann (President Max Planck Society), Theresia Bauer (Science Minister of Baden-Württemberg), Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schölkopf MPI for Intelligent Systems and Co-Director of the CLS), Prof. Dr. Thomas Hofmann (ETH Zürich, Co-Director of the CLS).

Perceiving Systems Award 20-11-2015 Jonas Wulff. Outstanding Reviewer Award. ICCV 2015.

News 11-11-2015 Learning Control Workshop Researchers from ETH Zürich and MPI for Intelligent Systems come together to exchange ideas and discuss challenges for Learning Control Albeit Learning Control is not uniquely defined, we understand Learning Control as the rather broad research area that lies at the intersection of Machine Learning and Automatic Control. This includes, but is not limited to data-driven approaches for control design, adaptive control, dual control, machine learning for control, online learning, active learning for control, reinforcement learning, and applications of learning control. Ludovic Righetti Sebastian Trimpe Melanie Zeilinger

Empirical Inference News 03-11-2015 One of the best science videos of the year! 2nd prize at the "Fast Forward Science 2015" Competition The movie "Light gets on your nerves" was financed and coordinated by the Max Planck Society and pictures the research of the Brain-Computer-Interfaces group at our institute. Moritz Grosse-Wentrup Bernhard Schölkopf Tatiana Fomina Sebastian Weichwald Timm Meyer

Award 28-10-2015 Barbara Haller: 1st Prize at the "Thesis in Three" Competition in the PhD category

Physical Intelligence Award 28-10-2015 Chantal Göttler: 1st Prize at the "Thesis in Three" Competition in the M.Sc. category.

Empirical Inference Award 28-10-2015 Leonardo Casarsa: Second prize, "T3 Award - Thesis in 3" - category Master students. Title of the presentation: "Can computers treat sick brains?"

Award 28-10-2015 Paolo Malgaretti: 1st Prize at the "Thesis in Three" Competition in the Postdoc category

Empirical Inference Award 28-10-2015 Vinay Jayaram: Second prize, "T3 Award - Thesis in 3" - category PhD students. Title of the presentation: "Why can't we control computers with our minds yet?"

News 28-10-2015 Surprise at the nanoscale: Silicon atoms jump after contact with metal Max Planck researchers from Stuttgart reveal unknown behaviour of semi-conductors at the nanoscale

News 28-10-2015 T3 Award at MPI.IS "Thesis in 3" Presenting research in a clear, concise and coherent way is an important skill for a successful academic career. Young researchers at MPI.IS were invited to show that they are able to summarise their Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD thesis or Postdoc project in three minutes and a maximum of three slides and win this year’s MPI IS “Thesis in Three” Award. The goal is to present their project, its context and significance in a general and understandable way, so any person regardless of their academic background can understand it. Vinay Jayaram Leonardo Casarsa Azevedo

News 27-10-2015 Roof topping ceremony New building in Tübingen The celebration of the roof topping ceremony ("Richtfest") on October 27, 2015 marked an important milestone for our institute. We were blessed with great weather, smiling robots and lot´s of interested people.

News 23-10-2015 Max Planck researchers present intelligent material systems at the 1st Kármán Conference Identifying the frontiers of science for the development of complex, adaptive material systems was the key focus of the five-day Kármán Conference ‘From molecular materials to complex adaptive systems’, which took place in Kasteel Vaalsbroek (Vaals /NL) last week. Being jointly organized by DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, RWTH Aachen University and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Stuttgart), the conference comprised a series of lectures given by international pioneers in this highly active field of research. Representing the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Stuttgart), Metin Sitti, Laura Na Liu, Peer Fischer and Heike Böhm have been involved as speakers. Peer Fischer Laura Na Liu Metin Sitti

Perceiving Systems Autonomous Vision Award 22-10-2015 Ali Osman Ulusoy, Andreas Geiger, and Michael J. Black. Best Paper Award, International Conference on 3D Vision (3DV), 2015, for the paper "Towards Probabilistic Volumetric Reconstruction using Ray Potentials."

Perceiving Systems Autonomous Vision News 22-10-2015 Ali Osman Ulusoy, Andreas Geiger and Michael Black receive 3DV 2015 Best Paper Award Ali Osman Ulusoy, Andreas Geiger and Michael Black receive the Best Paper Award at this years 3D Vision Conference for their paper "Towards Probabilistic Volumetric Reconstruction using Ray Potentials". Osman Ulusoy Andreas Geiger Michael Black

Perceiving Systems Autonomous Vision News 09-10-2015 Andreas Geiger and Chaohui Wang receive GCPR 2015 Best Paper Award Andreas Geiger receiving the GCPR 2015 Best Paper Award from Reinhard Koch (president of DAGM) and Bastian Leibe (general chair of GCPR 2015) for their paper "Joint 3D Object and Layout Inference from a single RGB-D Image". Andreas Geiger Chaohui Wang

Perceiving Systems Autonomous Vision Award 07-10-2015 Andreas Geiger and Chaohui Wang: GCPR 2015 Best Paper Award

Smart Nanoplasmonics News 24-09-2015 Nanotechnology: Tracking nanowalkers with light A tiny gold rod walks across a surface guided by DNA and can be tracked step by step Nanotechnology is taking its first steps. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a gold nanocylinder equipped with discrete DNA strands as ‘feet’ that can walk across a DNA origami platform. They are able to trace the movements of the nanowalker, which is smaller than the optical resolution limit, by exciting plasmons in the gold nanocylinder. Plasmons are collective oscillations of numerous electrons. The excitation changes the ray of light, thus allowing the researchers to actually observe the nanowalker. Their main objective is to use such mobile plasmonic nanoobjects to study how miniscule particles interact with light. Laura Na Liu

Physical Intelligence News 04-09-2015 New adhesive mimics gecko biology thetartan.org It’s a typical afternoon at the zoo, and you find yourself looking at the exhibits of reptiles and amphibians in miniature imitations of wild and exotic habitats. At one of the displays you notice a gecko crawling on a window with superhero ease. Metin Sitti

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 02-09-2015 Fellow of the RSC Peer Fischer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Peer Fischer

Perceiving Systems News 11-08-2015 4D Movies Capture Every Jiggle, Creating Realistic Digital Avatars Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems unveil the world’s first high-resolution 4D body scanner and software to model detailed soft-tissue motion. Everybody jiggles” according Dr. Michael Black, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Tübingen, Germany. We may not like it, but how we jiggle says a lot about who we are. Our soft tissue (otherwise known as fat and muscle) deforms, wobbles, waves, and bounces as we move. These motions may provide clues about our risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. They also make us look real. Digital characters either lack natural soft-tissue motion or require time-consuming animation to make them believable. Now researchers at MPI-IS have captured people and how they jiggle in exacting detail and have created realistic 3D avatars that bring natural body motions to digital characters. Michael Black Gerard Pons-Moll Javier Romero Naureen Mahmood

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 22-07-2015 Cover Article Our paper "Selectable nanopattern arrays for nanolithographic imprint and etch-mask applications" is the cover article for Advanced Science, May 6, 2015, DOI: 10.1002/advs.201500016 Jeong Hyeon-Ho Andrew Mark Mariana Alarcon-Correa Insook Kim Tung Chun Lee Peer Fischer

Empirical Inference News 13-07-2015 Tübingen is for two weeks the linchpin of the Machine Learning World MLSS 2015 Tübingen The 4th MLSS at Tübingen welcomes more than 110 participants, bringing together 35 nationalities from 19 different countries. Michael Hirsch Philipp Hennig Bernhard Schölkopf

Perceiving Systems News 10-07-2015 Third prize in the "Science2Start" Competition The Science2Start programme is geared towards scientists interested in founding start-ups and helps putting their business ideas in the field of life sciences into practice. Detection of new or rapidly evolving melanocytic lesions is crucial for early diagnosis and treatment of melanoma. Federica Bogo

Empirical Inference Award 06-07-2015 Matej Balog: Winner of Code Hunt programming contest at Microsoft Research PhD Summer School 2015.

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems News 03-07-2015 Featured highlight "Nanoswimmers: Designed for speed" Nature Nanotechnology 10, 568 (July 2015). Debora Schamel Peer Fischer

Perceiving Systems Award 01-07-2015 Federica Bogo: Third prize at the Science2Start competition.

Smart Nanoplasmonics Award 25-06-2015 Laura Na Liu: LIGHT2015 Young Women in Photonics Award: Fundamental Category

Physical Intelligence News 25-06-2015 Bacteria navigate microparticle swarms to target Latest publication in Scientific Reports In the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage, a submarine complete with crew is shrunk in size so that it can navigate through the human body, enabling the crew to perform surgery in the brain. This scenario remains in the realm of science fiction, and transporting a surgical team to a disease site will certainly remain fiction. Nevertheless, tiny submarines that could navigate through the body could be of great benefit: they could deliver drugs precisely to a target location, without causing side effects and stressing the whole organism. Metin Sitti Jiang Zhuang

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