Prof. Dr. Nikolaus A. Adams is a full professor and Chair of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), affiliated with the TUM School of Engineering and Design. Born in 1963, he holds a doctorate from TUM (1993) and habilitation from ETH Zurich (1999). His research focuses on numerical methods, turbulent flows, microfluidics, and multiphase systems. He has held leadership roles, including Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering since 2023 and Vice Dean (2015–2016). Education: PhD from TUM (1993), habilitation from ETH Zurich (1999) Research interests include aerodynamics, fluid-structure interaction, and numerical techniques for compressible flows. His work spans high-speed aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Awards include ERC Advanced Grants (GENUFASD 2023, NANOSHOCK 2015), the Gordon Bell Prize (2013), and Fellow of the American Physical Society (2011). Grants and leadership: Spokesperson of DFG SFB/TRR 40 (2008–2020), co-author of 'Large-Eddy Simulation for Compressible Flows' (2009), and editorial roles in J. Comput. Phys.
Nate Foster is a Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and currently serves as the Associate Dean for Research in the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. He is also a Visiting Researcher at Jane Street and served as a Visiting Professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne during the 2023-24 academic year. His research uses ideas from programming languages to solve problems in networking, databases, and security. BA in Computer Science, Williams College (2001) MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge (2008, all work completed in 2003) PhD in Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania (2009) Foster's research focuses on developing languages and tools that make it easy for programmers to build secure and reliable systems. His current work centers on the design and implementation of languages and tools for programmable networks, particularly using the P4 language. His past work includes bidirectional languages (also known as 'lenses'), database query languages, data provenance, type systems, mechanized proof, and formal semantics. His research group at Cornell has made significant contributions to network verification, software-defined networking, and formal foundations for programmable data planes. Analysis of Foster's recent publications reveals a strong focus on network verification and programming language foundations for networking. His work consistently applies formal methods to practical networking problems, with a particular emphasis on the NetKAT and P4 languages. Over the past five years, his research has evolved toward more complex network verification techniques, including infinite state verification, active learning of network models, and dependently-typed approaches to network programming. His work bridges theoretical computer science with practical networking systems, making formal methods accessible to network engineers. ACM Fellow (2025) ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Award (2023) ACM SIGCOMM Rising Star Award (2018) NSF CAREER Award (2013) Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2012) Multiple distinguished paper awards across top conferences including POPL, PLDI, and SIGCOMM Foster has advised numerous PhD and Master's students who have gone on to prominent positions in both industry and academia, with many continuing work in programming languages and networking. He has led multiple significant research grants including an NSF CAREER Award and has been involved in the P4 Language Consortium, serving as Chair of the P4 Language Governing Board. His work has been supported by various organizations including NSF, DARPA, and industry partners like Intel and Jane Street. Foster is also active in the programming languages research community, serving on numerous program committees and as Vice Chair of DARPA's Information Science and Technology (ISAT) study group. Foster leads a vibrant research group at Cornell focused on programming languages for networks, with collaborators from academia and industry. His group has developed several influential tools and frameworks including NetKAT, Petr4, and KATch. They maintain strong connections with the P4 community and work closely with industry partners to ensure their research has practical impact on real-world networking systems.
Xiaowei Jia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (supervised by Prof. Vipin Kumar) and B.S./M.S. degrees from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and SUNY Buffalo. His research focuses on integrating scientific theory with machine learning to address societal and environmental challenges, such as climate modeling, hydrology, and fairness in AI. Education: Ph.D., University of Minnesota (2020) M.S., State University of New York at Buffalo B.S., University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) Research Interests: Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning Spatiotemporal Data Mining Fairness in AI for Social Good Applications in Environmental Science and Healthcare Publications showcase his work on physics-integrated neural networks, spatiotemporal modeling (e.g., water temperature prediction), and fairness-aware algorithms. His work has been recognized with Best Paper awards at SIAM SDM (2022, 2023). Awards include the Best Applied Data Science Paper Award at SIAM SDM in 2022 and 2023. He teaches advanced machine learning courses, emphasizing theory integration with real-world applications.
Ashley Montanaro is Professor of Quantum Computation in the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol, and co-founder of the quantum software startup Phasecraft. He is a member of the Quantum Information Theory research group at Bristol. His research focuses on the theory of quantum computing, with particular interest in quantum algorithms, computational complexity, quantum query and communication complexity, and classical algorithms. His work spans both theoretical foundations and practical applications of quantum computing. Montanaro's research output shows significant trends toward quantum algorithms for optimization problems, quantum computational supremacy, and bridging theoretical advances with practical implementation challenges. His publications span foundational quantum information theory to applied quantum algorithms, demonstrating a versatile research program that connects computer science with quantum physics. Among his professional activities, Montanaro served on the QIP steering committee (2016-2018) and was an editor for the Quantum journal until 2019. He has been active in conference organization, serving on program committees for ITCS 2018, AQIS 2017 and 2015, QIP 2015, and TQC 2014 and 2013, reflecting his standing in the quantum computing research community. He has supervised numerous PhD students including Josh Blake, Jorja Kirk, Sheila Perez Garcia, Sami Boulebnane, Jan Lukas Bosse, Lana Mineh, Joao F. Doriguello, Chris Cade, Sam Pallister, and Stephen Piddock. His teaching includes Quantum Computation (MATHM0023) which he has taught since 2014 and Advanced Quantum Information Theory which he taught in 2015 and 2016. As co-founder of Phasecraft, Montanaro is actively translating theoretical quantum computing advances into practical software solutions, positioning him at the intersection of academic research and quantum technology commercialization.
Jan von Delft is a Professor (chair) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich, working in the Faculty of Physics within the Chair of Theoretical Solid State Physics. His research group consists of postdocs, PhD students, and master's students working on various aspects of strongly correlated electron systems, with physical space located at Theresienstr. 37 (Room A420) in Munich. von Delft's research focuses on correlated electron and spin systems, with particular interest in dynamical and transport properties, quantum impurity models, Hund metals, unconventional superconductors, quantum magnets, and quantum criticality. His methodological expertise includes many-body field theory, parquet formalism (FRG), DMFT, and tensor networks (NRG, DMRG, PEPS, XTRG, etc.). His work bridges theoretical concepts with computational approaches to understand complex quantum phenomena in condensed matter systems. He has developed a distinctive emphasis on real-frequency calculations and numerical methods for studying quantum critical phenomena. Analysis of von Delft's recent publications reveals a strong focus on developing and applying advanced computational methods to study strongly correlated electron systems. His group has made significant contributions to numerical renormalization group techniques, tensor network methods, and the parquet formalism for calculating real-frequency correlation functions. His research shows increasing sophistication in handling quantum criticality, particularly in heavy-fermion systems, and exploring unconventional superconductivity mechanisms. Notably, his group has developed specialized computational libraries like KeldyshQFT to make these advanced methods more accessible to the broader physics community. von Delft actively mentors a substantial research group consisting of one postdoc (Markus Scheb), eleven PhD students (Anxiang Ge, Sasha Kovalska, Mathias Pelz, Marc Ritter, Nepomuk Ritz, Changkai Zhang, Markus Frankenbacher, Felipe Picoli, Simone Fodera, Ming Huang), and two master's students (Ester Pages, Gianluca Grosso). His detailed Style Guide for scientific communication demonstrates his commitment to high-quality research presentation. The group appears well-funded with ongoing research activities spanning theoretical development, computational implementation, and physical interpretation of complex quantum phenomena.
Cyrill Stachniss is a Full Professor at the University of Bonn , where he heads the Lab for Photogrammetry and Robotics and is affiliated with the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence . He was previously a Visiting Professor in Engineering at the University of Oxford until 2025. His academic journey includes positions at the University of Freiburg, University of Zaragoza, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. University: University of Bonn School: Faculty of Engineering Department: Department of Photogrammetry Academic Rank: Professor His research spans robotics, photogrammetry, SLAM, autonomous navigation, perception systems, agricultural robotics, and unmanned aerial vehicles . He emphasizes probabilistic techniques for mobile robots and has made significant contributions to visual and LiDAR-based localization, scene understanding, and 3D reconstruction. The recent publications highlight a strong trend toward neural implicit representations, agricultural phenotyping, radar-based perception, and active learning . His team develops robust systems for real-world deployment in dynamic and unstructured environments, particularly in precision farming and autonomous vehicles. Scientific Awards: IEEE RAS Early Career Award (2013) Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow (2010) 7th EURON Georges Giralt Award (2008) Multiple Best Paper Awards at ICRA, IROS, RSS, and RAL Faculty Teaching Award, University of Freiburg He has advised numerous students and leads the DFG Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob and Research Unit FOR 1505 Mapping on Demand . His lab has co-founded three startups, reflecting strong industry and societal impact. He also runs the educational video series 5 Minutes with Cyrill , explaining key robotics concepts.
Andreas Geiger is a Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He leads the Autonomous Vision Group (AVG) within CyberValley and is a core faculty member of the Tübingen AI Center. His roles also include PI in the ML in Science Excellence Cluster and the CRC Robust Vision, as well as ELLIS Fellow and coordinator of the ELLIS PhD program. He specializes in machine learning models for computer vision, robotics, and autonomous systems, with applications in self-driving cars, VR/AR, and scientific document analysis. Educational background: While not explicitly detailed, his positions imply a Ph.D. in Computer Science or related field. His work spans interdisciplinary collaborations with institutions like ETH Zürich, Microsoft, and the University of Bonn. Research focuses on 3D scene understanding, Gaussian splatting, generative models, and reliable autonomous systems. Notable contributions include the KITTI dataset and foundational work in neural radiance fields. Awards include the Sage 10-Year Impact Award (2024), ERC Starting Grant (2019), and IEEE PAMI Young Researcher Award (2018). Key projects include the Scholar Inbox paper recommender platform, ReSim (reliable world simulation), and advancements in 3D scene generation (e.g., UrbanCAD, PrITTI). His lab maintains a strong focus on open-source tools and datasets, such as the CARLA Route Generator. Grants and funding include support from Vector Stiftung (MINT innovation program) and EU initiatives like the ML in Science Cluster. His team collaborates internationally, with recent work presented at CVPR, SIGGRAPH, and NeurIPS.
Professor Christian Bizer is a leading figure in web-based systems and data integration at the University of Mannheim , where he chairs Information Systems V: Web-based Systems . His research focuses on integrating data from multiple sources using large language models and LLM-based agents, with applications in product data extraction and DBpedia knowledge graph construction. He co-founded the DBpedia project and initiated the WebDataCommons initiative. Current research areas: Entity matching, schema matching, table annotation, information extraction, data discovery Key projects: WebMall benchmark, WInte.r integration framework, Schema.org analysis His work applies to e-commerce data integration and knowledge graph construction, with empirical studies on schema.org adoption. He supervises PhD students including Alexander Brinkmann and Ralph Peeters. Scientific Awards: Best Paper at iiWAS 2024 SWSA Ten-Year Award at ISWC 2019 Yahoo FREP Award 2015 Semantic Web Challenge winners Teaching includes courses on web data integration, web mining, large language models, and data mining for master's programs. He leads the DWS PhD colloquium and team projects on LLM agents for data integration.
Bernhard J. Berger is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Engineering at the Institute of Embedded Systems, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). His research focuses on software security, static code analysis, machine learning, optimization, and research data management. He has held significant roles such as Program Committee member for ICPC 2025 and MSR 2025, and has received awards including the Best Reviewer Award (ICPC 2023) and Best Engineering Paper Award (SCAM 2019). His work spans interdisciplinary applications including maritime systems security, GPU-accelerated AI, and evolutionary algorithms. Recent studies emphasize AI-driven security tools (e.g., ML-SAST) and domain-specific language approaches to optimization (EvoAl). He has contributed to over 30 peer-reviewed publications, with notable work in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering and Science of Computer Programming. Berger collaborates closely with industry through DAAD review committees and serves on artifact evaluation boards for ISSTA and ARES conferences. Education: Doctoral Thesis (2022), Diploma in Computer Science (2007) Key Projects: ArchSec tool suite, Threat Modeling Frameworks, Bauhaus static analysis methodology Lab Affiliation: Embedded Systems Design Group His advisory roles include Deputy of TUHH's Election Verification Committee and Session Chair at IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2023. Current research trends integrate machine learning with static analysis for automated vulnerability detection, while also exploring explainable AI techniques for neural network optimization.
Ekaterina Shutova is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) within the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. She concurrently holds a Visiting Associate Professor position in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. She leads the Amsterdam Natural Language Understanding Lab and heads the NLP & Digital Humanities research unit at ILLC. An ELLIS Scholar, she earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Pembroke College. Her research has been funded by ERC, Innovate UK, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, Google, Meta, and Deloitte. Her research spans natural language processing and machine learning, with core interests in: Few-shot learning for NLP Multilingual and cross-lingual systems Joint modeling of language and vision Cognitive processing and semantic representation Figurative language interpretation Computational social science applications Her recent publications (2024-2025) predominantly focus on multimodal learning, cultural alignment in AI, metaphor processing, and evaluation methodologies for language models. These works reflect a trend toward integrating cognitive science with multilingual systems and ethical considerations. Awards & Fellowships: ERC Consolidator Grant (2025) ELLIS Scholar Outstanding Paper Award at ACL 2023 Finalist for Outstanding Certification by TMLR Runner-up Best Paper Award at NAACL-HLT 2016 Research Leadership: She directs the Amsterdam Natural Language Understanding Lab, supervising 8 PhD students, 1 MSc student, and 34 alumni. Her projects include an ERC-funded initiative on globally accessible language technology and an AI Democratization grant for hate speech detection.
Prof. Alessandro Golkar is a Professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), leading the Chair of Picosatellites, Nanosatellites, and Satellite Constellations. He joined TUM in September 2022 and previously served as one of the founding faculty members at Skoltech, a Moscow-based graduate research university. His research focuses on advanced space mission concepts, systems engineering for picosatellites, and federated satellite systems. Prior to academia, he held roles at Airbus CTO, contributing to technology roadmapping and planning. His academic background includes expertise in aerospace engineering, systems design, and agile development methodologies for space hardware. Key research areas include CubeSat constellations, distributed satellite systems, and the integration of AI tools like Large Language Models (LLMs) into spacecraft design processes. He has pioneered projects such as the FSSCat mission, winner of the ESA Sentinel Small Satellite Challenge, and has explored applications of additive manufacturing for lunar missions. Prof. Golkar’s awards include the 2021 Karman Fellowship and IEEE Senior Membership (2018). His recent work emphasizes optimizing satellite networks, digital twin implementation, and orbital maneuvering for collision avoidance. He actively contributes to technology roadmapping, focusing on future human landing systems and lunar infrastructure development. Education: Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering (details not explicitly stated). Grants & Funding: Extensive grants for CubeSat projects, federated systems research, and space technology innovation. Labs/Teams: Leads the Chair’s research group at TUM and collaborates with industry partners like Airbus on advanced mission concepts. His publications span over two decades, addressing topics like constellation design, machine learning in space, and agile processes for hardware development. He advocates for hybrid agile methodologies to bridge traditional systems engineering and modern product development.
Stefanie Mueller is the TIBCO Career Development Associate Professor at MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, with joint affiliation in Mechanical Engineering. She leads the HCI Engineering Group at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), focusing on advancing fabrication techniques through hardware/software innovations that enable novel object interactions. Develops computational fabrication methods combining photochromic dyes, lenticular lenses, birefringent materials, and optical illusions Co-chaired ACM CHI 2023 and ACM UIST 2020 program committees Recipients of 9 MIT EECS Best Undergraduate Researcher Awards among mentees Her research spans four key directions: Appearance-changing Objects: Photo-Chromeleon (ACM UIST 2019), Lenticular Objects (ACM UIST 2021), and Polagons (ACM CHI 2023) demonstrate reprogrammable surfaces through advanced materials and optical engineering. Tracking Systems: InfraredTags (ACM CHI 2022) and G-ID (ACM CHI 2020) enable passive object tracking via infrared markers and slicing artifacts. Embedded Sensing: MechSense (ACM CHI 2023) and Sprayable User Interfaces (ACM CHI 2020) integrate sensing capabilities into complex geometries. Curved Surface Prototyping: FlexBoard (ACM CHI 2023) and CurveBoard (ACM CHI 2020) develop specialized tools for non-planar electronics. Her recent publications focus on functionality segmentation (UIST 2023), fluorescent markers (UIST 2023), and machine-knitted haptics (UIST 2023). These works combine machine learning, material science, and interactive design principles to push fabrication boundaries. Scientific recognition includes: 2022 MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 2020 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship 2020 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship 2019 ACM UIST Best Paper Award 2019 NSF CAREER Award 2018 MIT EECS Outstanding Educator Award 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science Mentoring 9 PhD students and over 20 master's students, her lab has produced 20+ publications at top HCI conferences. She redesigned MIT's 6.810 Engineering Interactive Technologies course during the pandemic, maintaining hands-on learning through home electronics kits and Slack-based collaboration.
Prof. Senthold Asseng is a Professor of Digital Agriculture at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), leading the Hans Eisenmann Forum for Agricultural Sciences since 2021. His research focuses on climate-plant-soil systems modeling, addressing global food security, sustainable agriculture, and digital technologies like vertical farming and autonomous robotics. He holds a PhD from Humboldt University Berlin and habilitation from TUM, with prior roles at CSIRO Australia and the University of Florida (as Full Professor and Director of the Florida Climate Institute). His honors include AAAS Fellow, Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher, and multiple teaching/mentorship awards. Education: BSc/MSc in Agronomy & Horticulture, Humboldt University Berlin (1989-1990) PhD in Agronomy, Humboldt University Berlin (1994) Habilitation in Agronomy, TUM (2004) Research Interests: Climate change impacts on crops, digital agriculture technologies, systems analysis for autonomous farming, and vertical farming sustainability. His work integrates modeling, robotics, and environmental control to enhance agricultural resilience and productivity. Awards: AAAS Fellow (2019) Highly Cited Researcher (2019) UF Research Foundation Professor (2016-2019) Grants & Leadership: Led interdisciplinary projects like AgMIP-Wheat, SECC, and FAO advisory roles. Active in editorial roles for journals like Global Change Biology and Environmental Research Letters . Labs/Teams: Chair of Digital Agriculture at TUM, collaborating on projects like Smartfield and Proteins4Singapore , focusing on automation, controlled environment agriculture, and climate-smart solutions.
Nadia Polikarpova is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego . She earned her PhD from ETH Zurich in 2014 under Bertrand Meyer , followed by postdoctoral research at MIT CSAIL with Armando Solar-Lezama . Her academic contributions have been recognized with prestigious awards including the 2020 Sloan Fellowship , 2020 Intel Rising Stars Award , and 2020 NSF CAREER Award . Polikarpova's research focuses on program synthesis , program verification , and type systems . She leads the Programming Systems group at UCSD and contributes to the IFIP Working Group 2.8 on Functional Programming since 2022. Her work spans foundational research and practical tools, including projects like Synquid , SuSLik , and Laurel that combine formal methods with machine learning for code generation. Her recent publications in venues like OOPSLA , NeurIPS , and ICFP reveal trends in AI-assisted programming , live programming environments , and formal verification . She has advised numerous PhD and Master’s students including Shraddha Barke , Zheng Guo , and Tristan Knoth , many of whom have moved to prominent academic and industry positions. Notable artifacts from her lab include tools like ColDeco for spreadsheet inspection and Superfusion for eliminating intermediate data structures. 2020 : Sloan Fellow 2020 : Intel Rising Stars Award 2020 : NSF CAREER Award 2021 : Distinguished Paper at POPL 2023 : Distinguished Artifact at PLDI 2023 : Distinguished Paper at OOPSLA Polikarpova actively contributes to academic service, serving on program committees for PLDI , POPL , and OOPSLA , and co-chairing the OOPSLA Review Committee in 2023. She has delivered keynotes at APLAS'20 and PLDI'24 , emphasizing the integration of large language models with formal methods.
Yin Tat Lee is an Associate Professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering , University of Washington, and a Senior Principal Researcher in Microsoft AI. His research spans convex optimization , convex geometry , graph algorithms , online algorithms , and differential privacy , with applications in machine learning and theoretical computer science.
