The Chairs

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Baltes

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING GROUP

Our research is centered around empirical software engineering, and in particular software analytics. We process, analyze, and visualize software engineering data to monitor, govern, and improve software development processes and tools. We are further interested in interdisciplinary research and methodological aspects of empirical software engineering.
 

For us, thoroughly analyzing and understanding the state-of-practice is an essential first step towards improving how software is being developed. Our vision is that software engineering becomes more evidence-based, which is only possible if academic researchers provide actionable insights on topics that are relevant to practitioners.

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Prof. Dr. Thomas Rauber

PARALLELE AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

The research of the Chair of Parallel and Distributed Systems (Applied Computer Science II)

The research of the Chair of Parallel and Distributed Systems (Applied Computer Science II) is concerned with the design and realization of parallel and distributed systems. In addition to the technical implementation of the systems, the analysis of the underlying communication hardware, the development of efficient communication libraries for scientific-technical programmes, and the exploitation of hardware-supported synchronization mechanisms for the realization of these libraries are in the foreground.

The projects include the development of simulators for the analysis of cache memories of modern microprocessors, the development of hardware-synchronized task libraries for dynamic load balancing in irregular applications, and the realization of network protocols for software systems from different application areas.

The chair's courses cover the following topics:

• Computer architecture and computer networks
• Programming of innovative computer architectures
• Distributed and parallel systems
• Practical programming courses

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Prod. Dr. Dominik Henrich

ROBOTICS AND EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

The Chair of Robotics and Embedded Systems (Applied Computer Science III) deals in research and teaching with robots as information-processing systems that can sense, change, and interact with their environment.

One focus is the coexistence and cooperation of humans and robots. The goal is to eliminate the strict spatial separation and to synergistically combine the strengths of humans and robots. To this end, camera-based spatial monitoring, collision detection, motion planning, and intention recognition are considered.

Another focus is on the intuitive programming of robots. The goals here are to reduce the high programming effort, to make the robots accessible to non-experts and thus to increase application possibilities. For this purpose, simple sensor integration, programming by demonstration as well as imperative and declarative programming paradigms are considered.

The chair's courses cover the following topics:

• Robotics
• Computer vision
• Pattern recognition
• Embedded systems
• Operating systems

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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Jablonski

DATABASES AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The Chair of Databases and Information Systems focuses on the topics of database and process-based information systems in both research and teaching. In each case, the main focus is on providing logical, conceptual foundations and transferring these foundations into practical solutions.

In addition to procedural process management (e.g. BPMN), in particular concepts of declarative process management are examined. The latter especially take into account the aspect of flexibility in process flows, which becomes apparent in a large number of flow variants. Declarative process mining is another focus of this field of research.

In the area of database-based information systems, the focus is on data analytics. The construction of large databases (Big Data) and their realization, especially with non-standard approaches (NoSQL), as well as data mining are central topics.

The conceptual foundations of database- and process-oriented information systems are addressed in all of the chair's courses:

• Databases and Information Systems (DBIS I and DBIS II)
• Management and Analysis of Large Data Sets (DBIS III: Data Analytics)
• Process Management (DBIS III: Process Management)

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Prof. Dr. Michael Guthe

GRAPHICAL DATA PROCESSING

The Chair of Computer Graphics (Applied Computer Science V) deals with all aspects of systems that produce or process visual content.
Topics include, on the one hand, the efficient generation of photorealistic images, as used in recent animation and action films, and the modelling of complex virtual worlds, without which today's computer games would be inconceivable.

Computer Science V also deals with algorithms for image and video processing, especially in the medical field, and image-based 3D reconstruction, which is playing an increasingly important role in the generation of 3D models. Other topics are human-computer interaction, which should be as natural as possible, as well as computer-generated special effects and computer games.

The chair's courses cover the following topics:
 
• Artificial intelligence
• Computer graphics
• Multimedia systems
• Animation and simulation

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Prod. Dr. Christian Knauer

ALGORITHMS AND DATA STRUCTURES

The Chair of Algorithms and Data Structures (Applied Computer Science VI) researches the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures, especially in the field of algorithmic geometry and its applications in geometric pattern recognition and the design of geometric networks.

In addition to the theoretical investigation of algorithmic problems, the practical implementation of the developed methods in various fields of application, such as pattern recognition and computer-assisted medicine, is also addressed. This includes, in particular, algorithm engineering, i.e. design, analysis, and the implementation and experimental evaluation of "practicable" algorithms, especially taking into account realistic geometric input models. Another focus of the chair's work is the investigation of problems in algorithmic geometry using methods of parameterized complexity theory.

The courses offered by the chair cover the following topics:

• Algorithmic geometry
• Algorithms and data structures
• Compiler construction

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Prof. Dr. Wim Martens

DATA-INTENSIVE ALGORITHMS

The Chair of Data-Intensive Algorithms (Applied Computer Science VII) deals with basic research on the processing of large amounts of data, e.g. on the Internet.

The immense development that the Internet has undergone in the past ten years alone poses new challenges for the classical areas of computer science, such as formal languages, logic, and database theory. The chair researches these foundations and their application perspectives.

The research group aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice. On the one hand, questions are addressed that have a direct relation to practice. On the other hand, recently developed methods are also realized as prototypes, and the team evaluates whether they can compete with already existing, established software.

The chair's courses cover the following topics:

• Theoretical computer science
• Logic
• Complexity
• Foundations of web information systems
• Advanced formal languages

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Prof. Dr. Jörg Müller

SERIOUS GAMES

The Chair of Serious Games is mainly concerned with the interaction between
humans and computers using computer games and serious games.

Our primary research areas are modelling, simulation, and optimization of human-computer interaction.
The team uses dynamic system models, biomechanical simulations of human-computer interaction, ultrasonic levitation interfaces, and augmented and virtual reality.

The chair's courses cover the following topics:

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Dr. Daniel Buschek

MOBILE INTELLIGENT USER INTERFACES

The research group "HCI + AI" combines research on human-computer interaction with data-driven machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) methods.

The group pursues two research goals:

First, these methods help to systematically design and improve user interfaces, e.g. by modelling user behaviour and dynamically adapting to this behaviour.

Secondly, through this interdisciplinary research, the group aims to enable better interaction possibilities for AI systems. In particular, this enables AI to be used as a tool to support humans in their tasks, rather than replacing them.

The group covers these topics with practical courses in teaching and other activities.

The group's course covers the following topic:

• Creating intelligent interactive systems with Android

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Prof. Dr. Ruben Mayer

DATA SYSTEMS

The Chair of Data Systems deals with highly scalable, distributed systems for processing large amounts of data.

In many application areas, the analysis of large amounts of data plays an increasing role. Through new methods, such as in machine learning, data can be analyzed more and more effectively and flow into complex models that enable precise predictions. However, data processing requires more and more resources as the amount of data increases, which is a growing problem both in terms of economic and ecological aspects. Our research investigates such new applications and the frameworks used to realize them (e.g., ML frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch). We are working on making data processing more efficient to achieve similar or even better results using fewer resources.

Courses taught at the chair include the following topics:

• Lectures in Data Systems (e.g., Event Processing, Graph Data Systems, etc.).
• Practical courses and seminars in Data Systems (e.g. seminar "Big Data Systems)
  

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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heike Leutheuser

The Chair of Ambient Assisted Living & Medical Assistance Systems (Applied Computer Science XI) performs research on the intersection of machine learning and medicine, in particular in developing new machine learning methods for medical data.

The research areas of the chair focus on developing and improving methods for the analysis of multimodal and longitudinal data, as an extensive amount of heterogenous and distributed data over time is available in many clinical and biomedical applications. The specific challenges of this real-world, real-time data are considered.

 

The chair's courses cover the following topics:
 

• Machine learning (for healthcare)
• Time series analysis
• Introduction to programming
• Digital Medicine
  

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