The North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts has welcomed ten new members as part of its annual ceremony, including Prof. Dr. Stefan Wrobel, Director of the Lamarr Institute, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bonn and Director of Fraunhofer IAIS. With this admission, the Academy recognizes outstanding achievements and expertise in science and art.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Wrobel is one of the top researchers in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, for which he has already received several awards, including one from the German Informatics Society as one of the formative minds in German AI history. In addition to his position as Director of the Lamarr Institute, he is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bonn, Managing Director of the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (b-it) and Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS.
Now he has received another honor: The North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts has accepted Prof. Wrobel as a full member due to his extraordinary expertise and achievements in the field of computer science as well as his research on Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining.
Founded in 1970, the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts currently has around 280 full members and almost 130 corresponding members who foster scientific dialog and exchange with research and cultural institutions in Germany and abroad. This year, a total of ten new members, who have distinguished themselves through outstanding scientific or artistic achievements in their respective fields, were admitted to the academy during the annual ceremony.
Prof. Wrobel brings his mission of transferring excellent research directly into practical application to the Academy: “What I particularly appreciate about my work is that we are able to conduct excellent research and do things that may only become relevant later. At the same time, we also put many of our findings directly into practice,” says the Director of the Lamarr Institute, “so we can give something back to society.”
Researchers at the Lamarr Institute are working on a third generation of AI that combines data, knowledge and context. Prof. Wrobel sees a possible parallel between the way humans and machines learn: “One of the most exciting questions in the coming years will be how machines can learn more effectively. We humans don’t just learn from data, we have courses, books and teaching materials. These are structured ways of imparting knowledge which are essential for humans. Now we have to find out whether this also applies to machines.”
Prof. Wrobel and researchers at the Lamarr Institute will now use the network of excellent scientists, which has been expanded to include the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, to exchange ideas on open research questions and continue to work together on the development of intelligent systems for the benefit of people and organizations.
To the announcement of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (in German)
