Prof. Dr. Asja Fischer from Ruhr University Bochum and Prof. Dr. Milica Gašić from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf have been named Lamarr Fellows in the third selection round of the “Lamarr Fellow Network Ramp Up”. Together with Prof. Dr. Barbara Hammer (Bielefeld University), Prof. Dr. Axel-Cyrille Ngonga Ngomo (Paderborn University), Prof. Dr. Michael Möller (University of Siegen) and Prof. Dr. Arnulf Jentzen (University of Münster), the two experts in generative AI models for image and natural language processing form the excellent Fellow Network.
North Rhine-Westphalian (NRW) Science Minister Ina Brandes says: “Artificial intelligence has the potential to make people’s lives better. At the same time, AI also brings with it ethical challenges that we must master responsibly. By supporting the Lamarr Network, we are creating a counterbalance to the large American corporations and deliberately focusing on ethical issues. I am delighted that with Prof. Asja Fischer and Prof. Milica Gašić, we are adding two more excellent researchers to the Lamarr Network who are working on precisely this: outstanding and safe AI ‘made in NRW’!”
Prof. Dr. Christian Bauckhage, Co-Director at the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, adds: “The Lamarr Institute stands for cutting-edge scientific innovation and excellence. The research of the two new fellows Asja Fischer and Milica Gašić, who will now enrich the NRW-wide Lamarr network, embodies precisely this claim and will further strengthen the AI location NRW in cooperation with the researchers of the Lamarr Institute.”
The Lamarr Fellowship is aimed at internationally outstanding AI researchers from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. As part of the Lamarr network, they receive funding of 600,000 euros for four years as well as access to the structures of the Lamarr Institute in Bonn, Dortmund and Sankt Augustin. The two Fellows appointed in the third selection round at a glance:
Asja Fischer investigates the safety of generative AI models
Asja Fischer, Professor of Machine Learning at Ruhr University Bochum, is an expert in Deep Learning and generative models. As a Lamarr Fellow, she and her team will conduct research to increase the security of such models and enable fair and responsible use. To this end, they are developing methods that can be used to better recognize artificially generated images. Professor Fischer also wants to optimize techniques that can protect data from illegal use by generative models.
Milica Gašić contributes expertise in natural language processing
As Professor of Dialog Systems and Machine Learning at the University of Düsseldorf, Milica Gašić conducts research in the field of natural language processing. As part of the Lamarr Fellowship, she is investigating methods for dealing with probabilities and uncertainties and their application in large language models in order to enable the safe and more effective use of AI in human-computer dialog systems. Milica Gašić and her team are also developing algorithms for reinforcement learning methods for the seamless integration of large language models into dialog systems.
About the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
The Lamarr Institute is shaping a new generation of Artificial Intelligence that contributes to solving fundamental challenges in business and society in a high-performing, sustainable, trustworthy and secure way. As one of Germany’s central AI competence centers, the Lamarr Institute stands for value-based, internationally competitive and application-oriented cutting-edge research and is involved in science, education and technology transfer at the regional, national and international level.
The research institute is constituted by TU Dortmund University, the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn and the Fraunhofer Institutes for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS in Sankt Augustin and for Material Flow and Logistics IML in Dortmund. The Lamarr Institute is permanently funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the federal government’s AI strategy.