Partner Institutions

Bielefeld University / CITEC

Developing technical systems that are intuitive and easy to operate for human users: this is the goal of the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University. Approximately 250 researchers work at the Cluster, which is part of the Excellence Initiative funded by the Federal and State Governments.

Interdisciplinary research activities at CITEC are organized into four main areas: (1) motor intelligence, (2) attentive systems, (3) situated communication, and (4) memory and learning

. Our 250+ members hail from 31 research groups and five faculties: Biology, Linguistics and Literary Studies, Mathematics, Psychology and Sports Science, and Technology .

Within the Thematic Network’s framework on Interactive Intelligent Systems, CITEC is working towards achieving the following objectives:

  • Creating a strong Thematic Network to coordinate leading research on this highly interdisciplinary topic of societal and technological importance.

  • Complementing Bielefeld University’s strengths in research with world-leading expertise from experts at selected partner institutions.

  • Implementing a coordinated exchange program as a central element of a high-caliber qualification program in cognitive interaction technology for early-career researchers (Ph.D. students).
Indiana University Bloomington

Founded in 1820, Indiana University Bloomington (IU) is the flagship campus of IU’s eight campuses throughout the U.S. state of Indiania. The IU system has 36,862 undergraduates and 9,955 graduate students educated by 3,012 faculty members and supported by a staff of 5,180. IU typically ranks in the top 50 for “Best College Towns” and “Beautiful Campus” ratings and in 2013 placed 85th in the academic ranking of world universities (ARWU).

The department of Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS) is home to the oldest continuously operating psychology laboratory in America. Its distinguished researchers have included many groundbreakers in the field, including B.F. Skinner, J.R. Kantor, Esther Thelen, and William K. Estes. Today, the department occupies an important position in the field of psychological and brain sciences and enjoys worldwide prominence.

IU’s Cognitive Science program is another top-ranked program that brings together researchers in psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, education, and other fields to conduct research on cognition and information.

These researchers work closely with colleagues from the School of Informatics and Computing (SOIC). The SOIC is internationally recognized as leading research institution in the areas of bioinformatics, complex networks and systems, cyberinfrastructure, high performance computing, health informatics, human computer interaction, programming languages (ranked 20th by the U.S. News Report), security and privacy, information and library science (ranked 8th by the U.S. News Report), and social informatics.

For general information, the follwoing information might be of interest when planning your stay at Indiana University:

Italian Institute of Technology

The Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) is a scientific research centre based in Genoa (Italy) and established by Ministry of Education, University and Research and Ministry of Economy and Finance. Its aim is to promote excellence in both basic and applied research and to facilitate the economic development at national level. The Institute has a staff of about 1440 people with about 85% of personnel dedicated to research. 45% of the researchers come from abroad, 29% are scientists from more than 50 countries and 16% are Italian researchers who have come back to Italy after a professional experience abroad. The average age of the IIT staff is less than 34 years, with a gender distribution of 41% women and 59% men.
IIT has produced about 5500 publications and 160 inventions resulting in 306 patent applications. Its research activity led to the creation of 10 start-ups, with additional 13 start-ups currently being launched and more than 200 external funded research projects.
Participating labs include the Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department (Prof. Sandini), Advanced Robotics (Prof. Caldwell, Dr. Tsagarakis), and the iCub Facility (Prof. Metta), which all work on several aspects of intelligent systems, ranging from hardware development for novel humanoid and other advanced robots to fundamental investigation of cognitive principles for behavioral organization.

Osaka University

Founded in 1724, Osaka University is the sixth oldest university in Japan. It has a total undergraduate enrolment of more than 25,000 students and was ranked 55th in the THE-QS worldwide university ranking in 2014. While the Faculty of Technology at Bielefeld University has had strong ties with Osaka University’s Graduate School of Engineering since 2006, the official cooperation agreement between the partner universities was signed in April 2010.

 

Researchers from Osaka University are international leaders in developing technologies for brain imaging and brain-machine interfaces. These technologies facilitate research in robotics and cognitive psychology. Moreover, Osaka University has established the largest national program in cognitive psychology.

 

Bilateral workshops held at both CITEC and Osaka University between 2010 and 2012 were organized to foster collaboration between researchers hailing from disciplines ranging from neuroscience and technical sciences to the social sciences. Osaka University was also chosen as a network partner due to the fact that neuroscience is a highly relevant area of research for the Thematic Network on Interactive Intelligent Systems.

 

 

Queensland University of Technology

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a major Australian university based in Brisbane, Australia. Ambitious initiatives have propelled the university forward, making it the fastest-growing Australian University in obtaining research funding. It also now ranks among the top 10 Australian universities in terms of research publications. The university's motto is “A university for the real world” and its main areas of research and teaching include Sciences, Engineering, Health & Biomedicine, Business, the Creative Industries, Education, and Law & Justice.

QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty is a Network partner, with research expertise in embedded computational intelligence, signal processing (speech, vision), human computer interaction, and robotics. John Gough and Wayne Kelly conduct research on the implementation of programming languages, tools, compilers and code generation techniques, and programming models for parallel systems. Shlomo Geva heads the Computational Intelligence and Signal Processing Discipline within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is an expert in intelligent information retrieval. Frederic Maire is a senior researcher in the Robotics and Aerospace Systems Discipline and researches computer vision, machine learning and robotics. Joaquin Sitte is known for his research contributions to robotics and autonomous systems engineering.

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Founded in 1912, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) is the oldest university in Israel. The university offers degree programs in science and engineering, and in related fields such as architecture, medicine, industrial management, and education. Three Nobel Laureates serve on the university staff.

Partners of the Thematic Network Interactive Intelligent Systems include the Ollendorff Minerva Center for Vision and Image Science (OMC), headed by Professor Yehoshua Zeevi, and the Parallel Systems Laboratory, led by Yitzhak Birk, who was until recently head of the Electrical Engineering Department's Center for Communication and Information Technologies.
The Parallel Systems Laboratory (PSL) at Technion was established in 1993 in recognition of the importance of parallelism for computation, communication and I/O alike. The research carried out at this lab has been characterized by extensive cross-fertilization between knowledge, experience, and intuition gleaned from different systems and contexts. The lab has close ties with industry and the academe both in Israel and abroad.

The OMC is committed to conducting research in a broad range of topics related to vision and image sciences. The Center’s overall aim is to create a stimulating multidisciplinary environment for research related to human and machine vision, computer graphics, computational neurobiology, and machine learning. Participating members bring a unique combination of complementary expertise to the Center’s strong research profile in theory, technology, and application, including Yonina Eldar, Guy Gilboa, ShieMannor, Shimon Marom, Ron Meir, Yoav Schechner, Ayellet Tal, Lihi Zelnik-Manor.

The OMC has become an internationally esteemed research center on the cutting edge of vision and image science. The “Ollendorff Minerva Workshop for Vision and Image Sciences” is a well-established workshop that attracts vision experts from all over the world. Cooperation with Technion includes educational programs for post-doctoral researchers, PhDs, and undergraduate students. The Center is known for setting high standards for student projects in the field of vision research. Some of these projects have been awarded national and international prizes.