Maximilian Jun Zhang is a PhD student and Researcher at the Institute of Media Studies, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, working on the interdisciplinary project "The Answering Machine" , funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. His research explores voice-based human-AI interaction in psychotherapy, AI ethics, and immersive media. He holds an M.A. in Film Studies from Freie Universität Berlin and a B.A. in Journalism and Communication Studies. Education: Bachelor’s in Media Studies & German (Universität Tübingen) Bachelor’s in Journalism & Film Studies (Freie Universität Berlin) Master’s in Film Studies (Freie Universität Berlin) Research Interests: Focuses on AI ethics, artificial voices in media, VR, neurofilmology, and gender studies. His work combines empirical research with artistic collaboration, such as improvisational theater performances with AI chatbots to study human-machine relationships. Key Contributions: Awarded the 2023 AI in Film prize; presented at media conferences (e.g., GfM Jahrestagung 2023); active in public outreach via podcasts and science slams. Leads workshops on AI creativity and media analysis.
Johannes Paßmann is Junior Professor of History and Theory of Social Media and Platforms at Ruhr University Bochum and Principal Investigator in the CRC/SFB 1472 'Transformations of the Popular' at the University of Siegen. He has held research and teaching positions at Utrecht University, the University of Basel, and the Nordic Centre for Internet & Society. His work bridges media theory, digital culture, and historical praxeology. Research Interests: Media Theory and Platform Studies History and Sociology of Social Media Praxeology and Digital Methods Web Archiving and Historical Reconstruction Paratextuality and Online Commenting Aesthetic Valuation and Recognition His recent publications analyze the social logics of likes, retweets, and comments, tracing their evolution through web archives and software histories. He emphasizes methodological innovation, particularly through the development of Technograph for analyzing archived web data. His work reveals how platform features shape social interaction, public discourse, and cultural recognition. Scientific Awards: Dirlmeyer-Preis for his dissertation Shortlisted for the Volkswagen Foundation’s Opus Primum Prize Grants and Projects: He leads the DFG-funded project 'Historical Technography of Online Commenting' and co-leads 'Medienpraxiswissen' funded by the Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre. He has supervised numerous student research projects and contributes to academic service through peer review and conference organization. Labs and Teams: He is part of the CRC/SFB 1472 at the University of Siegen and collaborates closely with researchers such as Lisa Gerzen, Cornelius Schubert, Anne Helmond, and Martina Schories. Together, they develop tools and methods for qualitative digital research, particularly using web archives to reconstruct past digital practices.
Sara Grundel is a leading researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg, Germany. Her work focuses on computational methods in systems and control theory, particularly in model order reduction, gas network simulation, and optimization of energy systems. Education: Diplom in Mathematics, ETH Zurich (2005) PhD in Mathematics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University (2011) Research Interests: Sara’s research encompasses mathematical control theory, stability analysis, and numerical methods for differential-algebraic equations. She applies these techniques to gas and energy networks, epidemic modeling, and multi-agent systems. Her interdisciplinary work bridges computational mathematics with real-world engineering and public health challenges. Recent Publications: Her 15 most recent articles (2024–2012) demonstrate expertise in parametrized PDEs, model reduction for coupled systems, and control strategies for SARS-CoV-2 containment. Key subtopics include adaptive meshing, stability-preserving algorithms, and optimization of nonlinear network dynamics. Scientific Contributions: Developed clustering-based model reduction techniques for networked systems Investigated hyperbolic discretization methods using Riemann invariants Advanced polynomial root radius optimization with affine constraints Collaborations: Sara frequently collaborates with researchers like Peter Benner and Martin Gersen on energy grid simulations and control theory. She participates in international conferences (GAMM, IEEE CDC, MTNS) and contributes to edited volumes in applied mathematics.
Gerhard Wellein is a Professor for High Performance Computing at the Department of Computer Science of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). He is the head of NHR@FAU (Erlangen National Center for High Performance Computing) and a member of the board of directors of the German NHR-Alliance. Since 2024, he has also served as a Visiting Professor for HPC at the Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics, Delft University of Technology. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Bayreuth and has over two decades of experience in HPC education and research. Research Interests: His research focuses on performance modeling and engineering, architecture-specific code optimization, novel parallelization techniques, and the development of hardware-efficient building blocks for sparse linear algebra and stencil solvers. His work bridges computer science, applied mathematics, and computational physics, aiming to maximize efficiency on current and future HPC architectures, including exascale systems. Publication Trends: His recent publications emphasize analytical performance modeling (e.g., Roofline, oscillator models), energy efficiency, GPU optimization, and scalable linear algebra. They reflect a strong focus on both theoretical modeling and practical implementation, with applications in CFD, quantum physics, and molecular dynamics. Scientific Awards: 2011 Informatics Europe Curriculum Best Practices Award (shared with Jan Treibig and Georg Hager) for outstanding teaching contributions in HPC. Grants and Advising: He has led numerous third-party funded projects from the EU, BMBF, and DFG, including EoCoE-III, ESSEX, EXASTEEL, and ProPE. These projects focus on exascale software, performance engineering, fault tolerance, and multiscale simulation. He has mentored multiple researchers and students, contributing to the development of tools such as LIKWID, ClusterCockpit, and GEOPM. Labs and Teams: He leads the HPC research group at FAU and is deeply involved in national and international HPC initiatives. His team collaborates extensively on open-source HPC software and performance tools, fostering a strong community-driven approach to performance engineering.
Harald Köstler is an Associate Professor and Head of Research at the Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU) within the Department of Computer Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). He leads the research group on HPC Software Design at the Chair of Computer Science 10 (System Simulation), focusing on software engineering for high-performance computing and data analytics. His research interests include: Software Engineering for HPC Code Generation for Numerical Solvers Performance Engineering on Hybrid Architectures Discontinuous Galerkin and Lattice Boltzmann Methods Multigrid Solvers and Parallel Algorithms Performance Portability across CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs The recent publications highlight a strong trend in developing efficient, scalable, and portable simulation frameworks for complex physical systems. His work emphasizes code generation, performance optimization, and the integration of classical model-driven and data-driven approaches. Key application areas include computational fluid dynamics, geotechnical engineering, and climate modeling, often leveraging the waLBerla and ExaStencils frameworks. Harald Köstler has no listed scientific awards in the provided text. He advises students in the areas of high-performance computing, numerical methods, and software engineering for scientific applications. His research is supported by collaborations within the FAU HPC ecosystem and likely involves grants related to national high-performance computing initiatives. He is a key contributor to the waLBerla framework, a block-structured, high-performance software for multiphysics simulations, and is involved with the ExaStencils project, which focuses on advanced multigrid solver generation. These frameworks form the core of his research team's efforts in scalable scientific computing.
Jatinder Singh is a Professor at the RC Trust and Principal Research Associate (equivalent to Research Professor) at the Department of Computer Science & Technology, University of Cambridge. He is primarily affiliated with the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, where he leads the Compliant and Accountable Systems research group within the Law department. His work operates at the critical intersection of computer science, legal frameworks, and societal impact, focusing on practical implementations that align technology with regulatory requirements while addressing user and community concerns. Research interests center on accountability mechanisms for AI systems, responsible development practices, data governance, and privacy/security in emerging technologies. He examines governance, agency, trustworthiness, and transparency gaps in algorithmic systems through interdisciplinary socio-technical lenses. Current work addresses bias in LLMs, stakeholder participation frameworks, and human rights implications in domains like healthcare, maritime enforcement, and consumer IoT, emphasizing contextual awareness and real-world applicability. His 15 most recent publications (2025-2024) reveal dominant trends in AI transparency, fairness proxy development, and legal-compliance engineering. Key focus areas include stakeholder involvement in AI governance, bias mitigation in language models, data justice applications for vulnerable populations, and operationalizing human-centered AI in clinical settings. The work consistently bridges technical implementation with regulatory frameworks like the EU Cyber Resilience Act and GDPR. Scientific Awards: No awards or fellowships were mentioned in the provided text. Advising and Grants: The text does not specify PhD/Master's students or grant details. As leader of an active research group publishing high-impact work on EU regulations and human rights, he likely directs funded projects and mentors early-career researchers, though concrete evidence is absent in the source material. His position suggests involvement in interdisciplinary grant consortia addressing socio-technical challenges. Labs and Teams: Singh leads the Compliant and Accountable Systems research group at University of Duisburg-Essen, which collaborates across university-wide clusters including Artificial Intelligence and Society, Human-AI Interaction, Trustworthy Human Language Technologies, and Verification of Machine Learning. The group develops frameworks for legal compliance in AI, focusing on demonstrable accountability through tools for transparency, bias auditing, and stakeholder engagement in real-world deployments.
Óscar Oballe-Peinado is a professor at the Department of Electronics, School of Engineering, University of Málaga. His work focuses on tactile sensors, FPGA-based embedded systems, and robotics, particularly addressing crosstalk elimination, sensor calibration, and smart preprocessing techniques. He contributes to both academic research and educational innovations, including remote digital electronics laboratories. PhD in Electronics (University of Málaga, 2016) Active researcher in tactile sensor technology and FPGA implementations Supervisor of Raúl Lora Rivera's research on texture detection and compliance recognition His research explores advanced methods for tactile sensor optimization, including hysteresis correction, quantization error reduction, and compliance recognition algorithms. Recent publications (2023-2024) focus on smart tactile preprocessing and embedded FPGA implementations for robotics. The 2023-2024 articles emphasize his contributions to tactile sensor applications in robotic manipulation, texture detection, and compliance recognition using FPGA-based embedded systems. These works align with trends in smart sensor interfaces and real-time processing for robotics. Collaborated on improving remote digital electronics laboratories using Raspberry Pi 4 (2022) Developed FPGA-based tactile sensor suite electronics (2017)
Emanuel Vahid Towfigh is a Professor of Public Law, Empirical Legal Research and Law & Economics at EBS University of Business and Law in Germany. He holds the Chair in Public Law at EBS Law School and is Professor of Law & Economics at EBS Business School. Since October 2024, he serves as a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, where he heads the Center for Diversity in Law funded by Stiftung Mercator. He is also Director of the BRYTER Center for Digitalization & Law and supports the EBS Diversity & Refugee Law Clinic. Additionally, he is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Peking University's School of Transnational Law and a Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods. Having earned his doctorate from the University of Münster in 2005 with a thesis on religious communities (focusing on the Bahá'í faith), Towfigh completed his habilitation at the same university in 2014 with his work 'The Party Paradox.' His academic journey includes research positions at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods (2007-2016), a Global Fellowship at NYU School of Law (2011/12), and a Visiting Professorship at the University of Virginia School of Law (2012/13). He served as Dean of EBS Law School from 2018 to 2020 and has been Vice Dean for Research since 2023. Towfigh's research spans interdisciplinary governance, combining interests in public and constitutional law, democracy theory, religious constitutional law, party law, municipal law, European law, and corporate law. His work employs doctrinal, comparative, economic, and empirical methodologies. His recent publications reflect a strong focus on diversity in law, algorithmic decision-making systems, digitalization's impact on legal frameworks, and the intersection of constitutional principles with contemporary social challenges. The trend in his scholarship shows increasing attention to how legal systems can accommodate diversity while maintaining constitutional principles, with growing emphasis on digital governance and algorithmic fairness. 2005 Dissertation Prize by the University of Münster 2015 Prize for the Promotion of Young Academics by the University Society of Münster Member of Young Academy at Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Leopoldina (2011-2016) As Co-Editor in Chief of the German Law Journal since 2016 (previously Editor since 2011), Towfigh has significantly shaped scholarly discourse in comparative constitutional law. His leadership extends to directing the BRYTER Center for Digitalization & Law, which focuses on legal education in the digital age and the intersection of law and technology. He also heads the Center for Diversity in Law, examining how legal systems can better address diversity perspectives. Towfigh serves on the supervisory board of Freudenberg SE and as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'í Community in Germany. His professional memberships include the Vereinigung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer, International Society of Public Law (ICON•S), and Society for Empirical Legal Studies. Through the BRYTER Center, Towfigh has pioneered innovative teaching approaches including 'Legal Engineering' courses and workshops on legal tech automation. His 'Smartbook Fundamental Rights' integrates 67 learning videos with traditional legal education. The Center for Diversity in Law under his direction examines diversity perspectives in legal research, law as an instrument for managing human diversity, and legal pluralism.
Dr. Rebekka Burkholz is a tenured faculty member at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security in Saarbrücken, Germany, leading the Relational Machine Learning Group . Her research bridges machine learning and complex network science to develop robust, data-efficient models with applications in molecular biology. Previously, she held positions at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and ETH Zurich. PhD in Systems Design (2016) from ETH Risk Center Mathematics and Physics BSc/MSc from TU Darmstadt Her work focuses on sparse training methods and theoretical deep learning , addressing challenges like computational efficiency and adversarial robustness. Recent publications explore: Sparse training via implicit sparsification GNN optimization through rescaling and rewiring Integration of domain knowledge in biomedical modeling Theoretical guarantees for batch normalization and lottery tickets Scientific awards include: Zurich Dissertation Prize (2016) CSF Best Contribution Award (2016) She actively advises PhD students and collaborates with interdisciplinary teams in biostatistics and systems biology.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Althoff is an Associate Professor of Cyber-Physical Systems at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), leading the Chair of Cyber-Physical Systems within the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology. His research focuses on formal safety verification, model-based design, and reachability analysis for systems such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, and power grids. Education: He earned his diploma in Mechatronics and Information Technology (2005) and PhD (2010, summa cum laude) from TUM. He held postdoctoral positions at Carnegie Mellon University (2010–2012) and served as a junior professor at TU Ilmenau (2012–2013) before joining TUM as a full professor in 2013, becoming an associate professor in 2019. Research Interests: His work spans cyber-physical systems, formal methods for safety assurance, autonomous vehicles, modular robotics, and smart grid control. He develops tools like CommonRoad and CORA for scenario-based testing and reachability analysis. Awards: He has received the IEEE/ACM William J. McCalla ICCAD Best Paper Award (2012) and the Best Poster Award at the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (2009). Labs/Projects: Leads the Cyber-Physical Systems group, collaborating on projects such as the Scenario Factory for automated vehicle testing and CommonPower for safe smart grid control. He also co-founded startups RobCo and aiina .
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger von Eisenhart-Rothe is a full Professor and Chair of Orthopedics at the Technische Universität München (TUM), leading the Department of Orthopedics and Sports Orthopedics at the Klinikum rechts der Isar. His research focuses on regenerative medicine, osteo-oncology, endoprosthetics, and the application of machine learning in surgical planning. He completed his medical studies at LMU Munich and business administration at the University of Hagen, followed by a habilitation in orthopedics at Frankfurt’s Friedrichsheim Hospital. Notably, he received the Perthes Prize twice (2003, 2010) for contributions to shoulder and elbow surgery. His work integrates advanced imaging techniques, virtual planning, and biomaterial research to address challenges in joint replacement, infection control, and sarcoma management. Recent projects emphasize AI-driven diagnostic tools and personalized surgical approaches. Prof. von Eisenhart-Rothe collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to advance clinical outcomes in orthopedic surgery, particularly in knee and hip arthroplasty. Awarded the Perthes Prize twice, his contributions span academic leadership, clinical innovation, and translational research at TUM’s School of Medicine and Health. Current initiatives include optimizing prosthetic alignment via 3D modeling and evaluating synovial biomarkers for infection diagnosis.
Nicolai Kröger is a researcher at the Chair of Communication Networks (Prof. Kellerer) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). He holds an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from TUM, where his thesis focused on P4 switch performance modeling using queuing theory. His current research centers on 6G networks for critical telemedicine applications, particularly within the 6G-Life project, emphasizing end-to-end communication for medical robotics and surgical systems. He contributes to projects like the 6G Future Lab Bavaria and collaborates with the MITI group at Rechts der Isar Hospital to develop medical testbeds requiring high availability and low latency. Kröger also supervises student theses on 5G/6G security, network optimization, and in-network computing. His technical expertise spans programmable networks (P4), SDN, and performance analysis of network devices. He serves as a supervisor for student projects and internships, including implementations of medical testbeds and security analyses of cellular broadcast messages. His work bridges academic research with practical applications, aiming to advance communication networks for healthcare and future 6G systems.
Piotr Pacyna is a researcher at the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology. He is actively engaged in academic research, with a focus on cybersecurity, identity management, and network protocols. His research interests include: Cybersecurity Identity Management Systems Network Protocols Virtualization in Future Internet Wireless Networks Group Key Distribution Piotr's recent publications highlight his work in blockchain-based identity discovery, self-healing cryptographic protocols, and network security frameworks. His contributions span both theoretical and practical implementations in cybersecurity and network systems.
Jürgen Schönwälder is a Professor at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, with affiliations at the University of Osnabrück and TU Braunschweig's Department of Computer Science. His research focuses on network management, protocol design, and internet infrastructure. Key research areas include network management protocols (NETCONF, RESTCONF, YANG), IPv6 performance analysis, cybersecurity, and network configuration. He has contributed extensively to standardization efforts through RFCs and collaborations with institutions like the IETF and Dagstuhl Seminars. Recent publications highlight trends in RESTCONF implementation for constrained devices, active malware analysis using Bayesian models, and metamorphic testing for cryptographic protocols. His work intersects network management, internet infrastructure, and security evaluation. Co-authors like Vaibhav Bajpai, Anuj Sehgal, and Abhilash Hota appear frequently in his research, indicating long-term collaborations. He has participated in editorial roles for journals like IEEE Communications Magazine.
Dr. Sven Burger is a leading Researcher at the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) within the Modeling and Simulation of Complex Processes department. His work focuses on Nanophotonics , Quantum Technologies , and Optical Resonance Computation , particularly in photonic crystals, plasmonic systems, and quantum light sources. Key projects: NanoLab GRIPS 2024 , MATH+ TES QT , MATH+ PaA-1 (perovskite solar cells), Colour Impression of Solar Cells Collaborations: MATH+ , BIFOLD , Research Campus MODAL His research spans Bayesian optimization for quantum systems, quasinormal mode expansions , chiral plasmonics , and terawatt-scale photovoltaics . Recent work emphasizes RPExpand software for resonance analysis and AAA algorithm applications in photonic design. He contributes to quantum key distribution via plug&play single-photon sources, hot carrier dynamics in plasmonic nanocrystals, and high-efficiency light extraction for deep-UV LEDs. His computational methods address non-Hermitian systems , exceptional points , and self-interference nanoparticle tracking .
