Prof. Dr. Stefan Wrobel

Prof. Dr. Stefan Wrobel is Professor of Computer Science at University of Bonn and Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS.

»The aim is to strengthen the economy in North Rhine-Westphalia in the field of AI. To this end, we promote the development of skills in companies, in training and further education and at the social level.«

He studied computer science and artificial intelligence in Bonn and Atlanta, Georgia/USA (M.S., Georgia Institute of Technology) and obtained his PhD at the University of Dortmund. After holding positions in Berlin and Sankt Augustin he was appointed Professor of Practical Computer Science at Magdeburg University, before taking up his current position in 2002. In addition, he is the managing director of the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (b-it) and co-director of the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. The top international AI research institute is permanently funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Professor Wrobel’s work is focused on questions of the digital revolution, in particular intelligent algorithms and systems for the large-scale analysis of data and the influence of Big Data/Smart Data on the use of information in companies and society. He is the author of a large number of publications on data mining and machine learning, is on the Editorial Board of several leading academic journals in his field, and is an elected founding member of the “International Machine Learning Society”. He was honored by the Gesellschaft für Informatik as one of the formative minds in German AI history.

As Speaker of the “Fraunhofer Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Alliance”, director of the “Fraunhofer Technology Hub for Machine Learning”, vice-speaker of the “Fraunhofer Information and Communication Technology Group“ as well as speaker of the “Fachgruppe Knowledge Discovery, Data Mining und Maschinelles Lernen”, a Special Interest Group of the German Computer Science Society, he is engaged nationally and internationally in pushing forward the benefits of digitization, big data and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Dirk Hecker

Dr. Dirk Hecker is Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS and Managing Director of the »Fraunhofer Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Alliance« which is made up of more than 30 Fraunhofer institutes working in cross-sector Big Data research and technology development. The Fraunhofer Big Data AI Alliance is currently the largest association of institutes in a topic area within the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and accompanies companies on their way to becoming a data-driven company. The services offered range from market-driven Big Data solutions for individual problems to the qualification of junior staff as Data Scientists. In addition, Dr. Hecker is a member of the board of directors of the Fraunhofer Academy.

»We want to establish KI.NRW as a central point of contact for artificial intelligence in NRW, establish the state as a leading region for professional qualification in AI and set impulses in social dialogue.«

Dr. Hecker has many years experience in managing Data Mining and Machine Learning research and industry projects in the field of data mining and machine learning. His current focus of activity is in Big Data Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Deep Learning and Mobility Mining. Dr. Hecker studied geoinformatics at the universities of Cologne and Bonn; he obtained his doctorate at the University of Cologne.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Frauke Rostalski

Prof. Dr. Dr. Frauke Rostalski holds the Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Philosophy of Law and Comparative Law at the University of Cologne and has been a member of the German Ethics Council since April 2020. In addition to her research interests in the foundations of criminal law, criminal procedural law, and economic criminal law, she deals in particular with the boundary issues between medicine, law, and ethics, as well as the challenges posed by artificial intelligence for law and morality. In 2019, she initiated the Research Unit Law and Ethics of Digital Transformation in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Cologne. The research unit addresses the societal changes associated with digitalization, taking a reflective, legal-philosophical perspective that focuses on all areas in which digitalization is leaving or will leave its mark. In addition, Prof. Dr. Dr. Frauke Rostalski is a member of the interdisciplinary research group that is developing a test catalog for the expert and neutral evaluation of AI as part of the KI.NRW competence platform.

»Certification of AI is important because it tells me as a consumer, as an entrepreneur, or as a public authority that an AI application is trustworthy.”«

Prof. Dr. Armin B. Cremers

Prof. Dr. Armin Cremers is Founding Director Emeritus of the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology b-it of the University of Bonn, RWTH Aachen University, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer Institute Center Schloss Birlinghoven with the research areas Life Science Informatics, Media Informatics and Autonomous Systems. As co-director of Bonn Computer Science since 1990, he was founder and head of the research group KI/Robotics, in which fundamental work on probabilistic robotics took place, the cornerstone for later applications such as autonomous driving.

»In order to bring artificial intelligence into the required balance of all practical and socially relevant concerns, the interdisciplinary topic of security with requirements such as robustness, reliability and transparency plays a decisive role. This requires decisive political will and resources as well as interdisciplinary competence.«

Since 2014, Prof. Cremers has headed a research group AI Foundations at b-it with international doctoral students. He has many years of international experience as a research professor in the USA, Japan and China. His current work focuses on the theoretical foundations of AI as well as engineering methods and applications for AI systems and their safety. He is active in numerous research committees and as a consultant to industry.

Prof. Dr. Christian Bauckhage

Prof. Dr. Christian Bauckhage is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bonn, Scientific Director of the Fraunhofer Center for Machine Learning and Lead Scientist for Machine Learning at the Fraunhofer Institute IAIS.

»KI.NRW promotes excellence in science and business. This strengthens the region and makes us attractive in North Rhine-Westphalia so that we can also attract outstanding young KI researchers to the federal state in the long term.«

After successfully completing his doctorate in computer science at Bielefeld University, he first worked as a PostDoc at the Centre for Vision Research in Toronto and then as a Senior Research Scientist at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories in Berlin before being appointed to Bonn in 2008. His research is dedicated to the development of efficient algorithms for data mining, pattern recognition and machine learning.

More information
www.researchgate.net/profile/Christian_Bauckhage
www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJQCWXlrhar3i7rc-HFUfQ