Team
Credit: Andreas Friedle
Prof. Justus Piater, PhD
Head of DiSC & Professor of Computer Science
Intelligent and Interactive Systems Group at the Department of Computer Science
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I seek to enable autonomous robots to perceive and act flexibly and robustly in unstructured environments, leveraging machine learning methods to build perceptual, motor and reasoning skills. Of particular interest is the ability of robots to conceptualize their environment such that they can learn on the basis of already-learned skills, transfer skills to novel tasks, and communicate with humans.
Credit: Grazyna Jatowt
Prof. Adam Jatowt, PhD
Deputy Head of DiSC & Professor of Data Science
Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My research is related to knowledge extraction and information retrieval from unstructured text collections such as news article collections, financial/legal documents or social media posts. In particular, I am interested in novel approaches towards retrieving useful knowledge from long-term news archives and other types of temporal document collections, as well as in applications of text mining techniques for digital history.
Research Area
Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval Methods
Credit: Miroslaw Opoka
Dr. Joanna Chimiak-Opoka
Associate Dean of Studies
(Minor Digital Science) & Senior Lecturer
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My goal is to develop an intriguing bundle of courses creating new career opportunities for our students. In line with the DiSC’s mission, I seek to promote the transfer of digitalization-related skills. To do so, I support our interdisciplinary students and instructors in all teaching and learning matters. In particular, I am engaged in finding optimal and innovative solutions and in the continuous development of our teaching portfolio. Moreover, as a senior lecturer and computer scientist, I am involved in teaching our IT-related modules. In my courses, I adapt and experiment with new methods and tools seeking to increase my effectiveness as a lecturer.
Credit: Fotostudio Thomas
Carina König, M.A.
Coordinator
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
As coordinator of the Digital Science Center, I serve as the primary contact for its members in all administrative matters so they can be fully dedicated to their research. I ensure effective communication between all parties involved to allow for a lively exchange of information and knowledge. That way, I seek to contribute to the DiSC’s overarching goal: the creation of synergies across disciplines.
Credit: Eva Fessler
Dr. Sébastien Court
Assistant Professor
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My background are numerical simulations of fluid-structure interactions, elasticity theory, scientific computing, and optimal control theory. At the Digital Science Center, I will work on the mathematical foundations of Deep Learning.
Research Area
Artificial Neural Networks, Mathematical Optimization, and Dynamical Systems
Credit: Franz Oss
Mag. Reto Stauffer, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Statistics & Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I am working on the development and refinement of statistical machine-learning methods and their application in the field of natural and atmospheric sciences: spatio-temporal regression methods to enhance climatological estimates or probabilistic decision trees to improve weather forecasts. The development of these new methods is accompanied by implementing open-source software which is able to handle vast and continuously growing amounts of data in today’s digital world.
Research Area
Data Science in Atmosphere Climate Research
Credit: Birgit Pichler
Mag. Mag. Dr. Clara Rauchegger, LLM
Assistant Professor
Department of Legal Theory and Future of Law
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I examine the opportunities and risks of digital technology from a legal perspective. In particular, my research explores the regulation and governance of digital platforms and artificial intelligence by the European Union. My recent work focuses on EU legislation and policy that is aimed at preventing the spread of illegal or harmful online content such as hate speech, terrorist propaganda, or disinformation. I am particularly interested in the legal implications of AI-assisted filtering of online content. My other research interests include EU and comparative constitutional law, with a particular focus on the protection of fundamental rights in the digital environment.
Research Area
Law and Digital Technology
Credit: Tobias Haller
Alexander Kupfer, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Information Systems, Production and Logistics Management
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My work focuses on information in digital business and digital markets. Online reviews, for instance, help to considerably reduce information asymmetries for consumers (e.g., hotel reviews or amazon reviews). In particular, my research investigates the effects of rewards and design aspects on online review systems. More generally, I am keenly interested in a wide variety of digital business and digital markets phenomena that employ the reduction of (information) asymmetries including crowdfunding and sharing platforms.
Research Area
Digital Business - Information System Design and Economic Behavior
Credit: private photo
Mag. Dr. Dr. Joseph Wang-Kathrein
Assistant Professor
Research Institute Brenner-Archiv
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My work field covers the philosophy of Wittgenstein’s and digital editing including related fields in the Digital Humanities. My research focus lies on the interface between philosophy and computer science: How can the insights gathered in philosophy help us in our daily work using computers?
Research Area
Text Modeling, Digital Editing, and Archival Science
Credit: private photo
Dr. Gerald Hiebel
Senior Scientist
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My work focuses on research on methodologies that can be used to represent the complex knowledge arising from a (pre-)historic reality and the scientific research about this reality. They are from the fields of ontology engineering (in particular CIDOC CRM), knowledge graph creation, geoinformation systems, and computational linguistics (Named Entity Recognition, Named Entity Linking). While my main work field is archaeology, I also apply these methodologies in several projects from various fields of the Digital Humanities. My goal is to create e-infrastructures that can be used for research and the dissemination of knowledge about our past and how it was gained.
Research Area
Semantic and Space-Oriented Information Technology in Archaeology
Credit: Copyleft
Dr. Luis Miguel Rodríguez-Rojas
Assistant Professor
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My main research interest is the understanding of eco-evolutionary principles governing microbial communities: primary evolutionary and ecological forces shaping populations and their metabolic potential, their interactions with other microbial species, their hosts and the environment, and the role of stochasticity. I develop computational and statistical techniques aimed at answering these questions as well as advancing standards and data quality evaluation methods in the field of environmental genomics.
Research Area
Microbial Ecology, Environmental Genomics, and Bioinformatics
Credit: private photo
Mag. Dr. Matthias Schurz
Assistant Professor
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
Humans are a highly social species, and complex societies rely on mutual understanding, cooperation, and trust. In my work, I am studying how central social abilities are implemented in the human brain. In particular, I would like to understand how we can represent another's perspective while at the same time keeping track of reality. Comparative work from other species as well as patient studies show us that this high-level skill is not easy for the brain. Presumably, it requires the interplay of several large-scale networks. To deepen our understanding of these mechanisms, I study functional brain activity and connectivity with statistical and machine learning methods.
Research Area
Computational Neuroscience, Brain Networks, and Human Cognition
Mag. Dr. Gabriel Rojas-Kopeinig
Assistant Professor
Unit of Energy Efficient Building at the Department of Structural Engineering and Material Sciences
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My academic work centers on energy-efficient construction. Specifically, I explore how we can design buildings in such a way that they provide a comfortable and healthy indoor climate while conserving energy and resources. To answer this question, I use both experimental and computational simulation methods, such as building performance and air flow simulations. My research focuses on indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and energy efficiency. In addition, I also seek to improve the aforementioned simulation methods by combining and enhancing them with data-driven methods, for example data-driven modeling or model calibration.
Research Area
Digital Methods in Indoor Environment and Building Energy Research
Francesca Finotello, PhD
Assistant Professor
francesca.finotello@uibk.ac.at
Computational Biomedicine Group at the Department of Molecular Biology
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My research focuses on the bioinformatic analysis of bulk and single-cell multiomics data and on the development of new computational methods to inform precision and personalized medicine. I have a special focus on cancer immunology: I integrate bioinformatics, systems biology, and machine learning techniques to shed light on the rules governing tumor-immune cell interactions. By characterizing the landscape of cancer neoantigens, the composition of the tumor immune contexture, and the intricate crosstalk governing cell-cell interactions in the tumor microenvironment, I aim at extracting mechanistic rationale to improve cancer immunotherapy.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Dr.-Ing. Samuele Tosatto
Postdoctoral researcher
Intelligent and Interactive Systems Group at the Department of Computer Science
Universität Innsbruck, Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
How can we enable embodied agents, like robots, with the ability to understand, learn, and interact with their physical surroundings?
My research is a crossover between machine learning and robotics. In particular, I focus on enhancing reinforcement learning efficiency and developing state and action abstractions that naturally cope with physical quantities like velocities and forces.
Research Area
Embodied Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Former Members